Opinion

by Jason Boyte

This past Wednesday, we, relatively quietly, put a man to death. By the time of his death, his name was John Allen Muhammad. Previously, he was John Allen Williams, an American military man who grew up in New Orleans.

If you don’t remember the time the way that I do, this man was responsible for perhaps the greatest amount of fear in the greater Washington DC area since the attack on the Pentagon September 11. He and his “partner”, a child he’d indoctrinated, are responsible for the murders of at least 10 people, all of whom … Continue Reading

I’ve been thinking a lot about patience — largely because it has been a huge challenge of mine to actually have it lately. Times have been tough, time and money short, and dreams have had to be pushed off, remeasured, and truncated too much lately. Seems that’s the case for most people I talk to these days as well. Bosses are more surly, and more and more people seem more reactionary in their daily interactions. Things get “nuclear” at the drop of a hat.

I’m vowing to chill out. It’s a good thing. Perhaps you … Continue Reading

By James Kerns
It is nice to think intellectual parity will prevail over the trouser-sniping of underdeveloped dot-com tiddly-winkers looking to capitalize on their own arrested pubescence. But to the chagrin of feminists everywhere, Barbie-culture is alive and kicking
What happens when over indulged fratboys put down their joysticks and enter the magazine business? Men’s magazines—glossy tributes to bubble-gum machismo armed with enough cheesecake and gee-wizardry to keep the average sports fan’s eyes disengaged from the play-station during halftime. Provided he is male and marginally longer on disposable income than attention span, of course. There is a whole new genre of self-styled men’s magazines spawned from the nexus of modern male achievement: the pursuit of booze, baubles and babes. Each ad-heavy vehicle is loaded with tabloid-sensationalism, schoolboy antics and nubile T&A. Machismo dogma is resurrected as chic du jour throughout the layered pages, encouraging hypothalamic under-achievers to shift their backwards-hat-wearing, chicken-wing-craving hormones into a perpetual juvenile tailspin. Even some of the names, Maxim, Gear and Stuff, suggest the editors are targeting a sawed-off mentality of twenty-whatevers who still have model airplanes hanging in their rooms and keep their best literature stuffed under the mattress. And while the editors seem to believe they can sell anything as long as a couple of erect nipples are nearby, their comic-book journalism reads like a couple of grammar school boys’ big night with an underwear catalogue. It’s like licking a candybar through the wrapper. The message of the magazines, sex, booze, gizmos and atrocities, is spectacularly unoriginal, but is it dangerous? Can male mischief be lead further astray by promoting fratboy hooliganism out of the bathroom and beyond? Continue Reading

By Jason Ward Boyte

Due in large part of Richard Gere’s urging on behalf of all the American people who were not able to make it down there in the post-holiday shuffle (oh, how it is a bear this time of year), Palestinians came out in droves and voted in Abbas for president, and as Yassar Arafat’s replacement.

What does this mean? Well, not too sure. He vowed today to get back on the roadmap to peace, saying specifically that it meant reigning in Palestinian violence. Hamas is less enthused, but said they … Continue Reading

By Jason Ward Boyte

Ukraine is in a bitter fight that makes the US’s 2000 presidential election look like a love fest. Outgoing president’s pick and current PM Yanukovych – openly endorsed by Russia’s Putin – is accused of stealing the election from opposition party candidate Viktor Yushenko, not to mention poisoning him in the process.

In a battle widely viewed as an East vs. West, Capitalism vs. Socialism (or at least more and more socialist-leaning), Ukraine is seen as a barometer of what may come in the region. With Russia pinching civil … Continue Reading

By Jason Ward Boyte

Tired of your Jobim/Astrud Gilberto album? Never fear: even part-time jazz fans can look cool at cocktail parties, impress dates, and give cred to their music collection with this very hip, very accessible classic.

When I thought of writing this piece, my motivations were, and remain, simple. Since I’d “reviewed” the Grammys—an event as related to music as an NRA convention—I felt it important to discuss something else, preferably something relating to music as opposed to inane music politics, or pop fads.

Deciding the album was fairly simple, too. Miles Davis’ Miles Ahead had been turning in my CD player for some time, and it was a fine place to start. Very big and brassy, yet far from frantic, it just seems to be the album to introduce spring. I suppose also, that I will discuss albums/musicians past and present indiscriminately. I mean, if I am going to do a column gratis, then folks shouldn’t give a rat’s patootie what I ramble about. Besides, if someone hates it, they should send me a CD and I’ll review it. (I won’t return it).

Recorded in 1957, Miles Ahead is the first of several album-length collaborations of Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans. The latter having previously done arrangements for the ground-breaking effort Birth of the Cool, which effectively slowed the frantic pulse of East Coast hardbop and helped usher in the “Cool School.” Other album-length collaborations include Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain, and Quiet Nights. By far their most famous collaboration is Sketches of Spain—so comparing this album to Miles Ahead is inevitable. Continue Reading

By Jason Ward Boyte

Yes, it’s been about a month since his passing, incidentally the same week as Ray Brown, famous and remarkable jazz bassist. What a terrible week for the bass. Their loss made me wonder if there was some cosmic statement being made. Are we to be left now with only the one-dimensional bass playing typified by U2’s Adam Clayton? Perhaps we are destined to hear only quarter-notes thudding inarticulately on the root of every chord, mixed purposely low so we aren’t reminded that the bass player was the guy who simply wasn’t good enough to play guitar.

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By Jason Ward Boyte

What the hell?

Pretty much my reaction upon hearing these names – one for the 10-15 member band hailing from Toronto made of alt-rock alums and also their album, respectively. My reaction: who wants to hear anything from someone with the name “Broken Social Scene?” It sounds Smashing Pumpkins 10 years and 15 million copycat albums too late.

Still, it was strongly recommended by someone I trust, so I dutifully bit. And I must say, I have not been this pleasantly surprised with an album since Spoon’s “Kill the Moonlight”, which blew my socks off last year.
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by Jason Boyte

Farewell to George Harrison. As someone who grew up on the Beatles, it was a shock to hear that he’d passed away. I can’t pretend to be special in my attachment to the Beatles, but that is part of their enduring success as musicians and a collective band – just about anyone who talks of the Beatles immediately gets a look of protective defensive ‘fandom.’ “Oh, I LOVE the Beatles. I grew up on them.” Just about any serious fan feels as though they “get” the songs in a … Continue Reading