Chuck Eddy on why there isn't a modern soundtrack to our economic woes.
When American Graffiti, revolving around a 1962 radio station’s “oldies weekend,” hit theaters in 1973, the pop hits of the 1950s—all newer then than the first Beastie Boys album is now—seemed ancient, as if dropped from some... 
“May you live in interesting times,” that sly curse, reputed to come from ancient China, is actually apocryphal, no more Chinese than the fortune cookies it shows up in; than Robert Kennedy, who quoted it in a 1966 speech at Cape Town University; or than Chris Marker, the elusive French filmmaker who sometimes claims to have... 
A recent recruiting commercial for the Army says, “There is a type of strength that doesn’t require words.” Now, I’m in no position to question any aspect of soldier strength (my biggest daily challenges are dictionary-flipping, sentence-making, editor-harassing, and coffee-slurping), but as a confirmed wordmonger, I think this... 
To trace the story of pop music’s use of nostalgia is, in some ways, to trace the story of pop music. Of course all musicians recycle what came before by remaking it, reimagining it, or sampling it. Take Amy Winehouse: no major contemporary artist relies more heavily on retro style, both visually and musically. Which brings us... 
Why is The Catcher in the Rye still a rite of high school English? Sure, J.D. Salinger’s novel was edgy and controversial when teachers first put it on their syllabi. But that was 50 years ago. Today, Salinger’s novel lacks the currency or shock value it once had, and has lost some of its critical cachet. But it is still ... 
Bob Dylan once made his way from Minnesota to New York in search of himself and, so the myth goes, to find his musical hero on his deathbed. In his poem “Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie,” Dylan concludes, “You’ll find God in the church of your choice / You’ll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital… You’ll find them... 
Renzo Piano’s New York Times building in midtown Manhattan is a glass-skinned tribute to one of the oldest and most prestigious newspapers in the world. It’s also a thousand-foot-tall middle finger to the environmentally-friendly-design establishment. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design—you probably know it as LEED—sets the... 
If you saw Blades of Glory last year, you may have chuckled when Will Ferrell used the word “mind-bottling,” which he defined as “when your thoughts get so twisted up it’s like they’re trapped in a bottle.” Or maybe you have a friend who likes to email about “jar-dropping” events in “lame man’s terms.”
“Mind-bottling,” “jar-dropping,”... 
There are a lot of people getting screwed out there in this great nation of ours. Ten years ago, I would never have known how many. But now I know, for instance, that it took one guy nearly three months to get Verizon to install his DSL service. I know that another took his iPhone to Europe and came back to find a $3,000... 
Wine is flowing as attractive, well-dressed 20-somethings mingle in a swanky Manhattan loft, toasting "We love you, man," on the eve of a friend's departure. Considering such an extravagant farewell, it's hard to imagine why young Rob Hawkins would want to be anywhere else. But the fun quickly turns to fear, as an... 
