JFK Files, Joni Mitchell, and Anxiety
Past Present Episode 105
In this episode, Neil, Natalia, and Niki debate the declassification of the JFK files, Joni Mitchell, and our age of anxiety.
Fyre Festival, the 1992 LA Uprisings, and North Korea
Past Present: Episode 82
In this week’s episode, Niki, Natalia, and Neil discuss the causes of the Fyre Festival fiasco, the anniversary of the LA uprisings, and the history of US-North Korea relations.
Category Anxiety: Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize
It’s been a weird year (the weirdest I can remember at least), and Thursday morning’s announcement that Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature made it weirder still. But, overall, it is weird in a welcome way.
Pre-announcement speculation centered on the possibility that the prize might be awarded to an American. Given that Toni …
I Can’t Give Everything Away: on David Bowie’s Final Song
I had heard snippets of “Lazarus”, the third song on David Bowie’s new release “Blackstar”, on the radio last week. The announcer described it as part of Bowie’s newest “jazz album”, although the strongest connection I could detect with jazz was the omnipresence of the saxophone as a lead instrument. Whether the album was “jazz” or not did not concern me all that much. I thought the song was excellent …