Monthly Archives: July 2008

JAMES: Somebody on the radio recently, I forget who, was talking about James Thurber, to the effect that “nobody reads this great man anymore.” I had this book in my lap, open to page 171:   “The woan, so-called because … Continue reading →

MARTHA: “I hope he likes me,” says Martha Argerich of Robert Schumann, and it makes you think more intensely about both of them: this  elusive musician who moves through our world as though in a world of her own; this … Continue reading →

They’re still making discs, and probably always will. Here is EMI’s disc of the threee Stravinsky Symphonies done by Simon Rattle and his Berlin Philharmonic people – keen, incisive, aloof music-making, something of the perfect machine. I’m even happier that … Continue reading →

Survivors: Every account I’ve read of Clay Felker’s passing has one date wrong. New York Magazine began as a Sunday supplement to the Herald Tribune in September, 1963, not 1964. I had an article in the first issue; it was … Continue reading →