| Christian Music: the copy-cat brother of secular music |
 | When I was young, I had a favorite poem: ``I've never seen a purple cow/ I never hope to see one/ But I can tell you anyhow/ They'd rather see than be one.'' Just recently, I came up with a new version: ``I've never heard a Christian version of Ozzy Ozborne/ I never hope to hear one/ But I can tell you anyhow/ too many Christian artists are just a bunch of wannabes.''... |
| The Dead take on Dylan in 'Postcards' |
| For the last year or so I've been playing around with this half-baked theory of mine that every Bob Dylan song will eventually be recorded, and perfected, by somebody else. I don't mean to disrespect the man, but Dylan has always been more concerned with the song itself than its presentation, and something always got left out. Time and again somebody else will record a Bob Dylan song, and, hearing it for the first time, I suddenly realize that the song had been left incomplete until that moment. ... |
| Kaye Gibbons: From Ramshackle to Renown |
| It's tempting to think that American writers no longer have a sense of place. After reading countless novels about failed relationships in urban settings, one might conclude that all of the authors in the country are watching the same shows, visiting the same sites, and drinking the same brand of coffee. Diversity seems like an unusual trait for the country to lack, since its literature was built on what was once called ``local color,'' but sometimes it seems that all that has disappeared.... |
| The Academy Awards: a monster of a ball |
| As I loafed in front of the TV this past Sunday night, watching Halle Berry win an award for what was easily one of the most pretentious pieces of crap I've seen this year, the thought occurred to me: What do you do with a bad movie? Do you celebrate it for its wretchedness, or can specific parts be celebrated, independent of the view of the whole thing?... |
