Author: Kiff Gallagher

Something about music… “Camp” debuted to 8.9 million total viewers Friday night, with fans holding viewing parties nationwide. A second airing Saturday night on ABC pulled in 3.6 million viewers, while a third airing Sunday on ABC Family averaged a solid 3.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Meanwhile, the movie’s premiere in Canada became Family … [Read more…]

“The despair gripped me, like a nightmare had become my life,” said Ms. Ahmad, 26, a shy law student from Malaysia who claims she is innocent of charges of trying to smuggle cocaine on a flight from Caracas to Paris. “But when the music begins, I am lifted away from this place.” Ms. Ahmad plays … [Read more…]

Music’s a uniter, not a divider! It certainly transcends political parties, religious affiliations, ethnicities and most everything else that can come between us. Senator Obama (Michelle above w/ Stevie) wants to create an “Artist Corps.” Governor Huckabee (above, smiling w/ his bass) wants to make universal music and arts education the law of the land…Hmmm, … [Read more…]

From David Brooks, today, NYT: “Then they get spiritual. In Slate, Robert Wright only semi-facetiously compared Woods to Gandhi, for his ability to live in the present and achieve transcendent awareness. Analysts inevitably bring up his mother’s Buddhism, his experiments in meditation. They describe his match-mentality in the phrases one might use to describe a … [Read more…]

Luke Russert, son of the late ‘Meet the Press’ moderator Tim Russert, touches his father’s empty chair on the darkened set at NBC studios in Washington. Democratic strategist James Carville and wife, Republican strategist Mary Matalin, regular ‘Meet the Press’ guests, burst into tears during taping of Sundays tribute show.—–

Tim Russert dies at 58. For me, Sundays will never be the same…but the loss of Tim Russert is bigger than the sadness we all feel in his absence. In my opinion, through his weekly show “Meet the Press,” Tim played a key role in making our democracy work. I’m not exaggerating. Tim was unique … [Read more…]

23 artists have been selected in an unusual program Rolex started in 2002 that pairs developing artists with masters over the course of a year. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/arts/10ment.html?ref=arts At about $100K/pop, looks like there’s money out there for artist cultivation. Interesting to consider the different thresholds required (“cost per artist” for instance) for federal verses corporate funding … [Read more…]

When a Syrian djembe player teaches a UConn economics professor to play, “the key is not to think.” A little bit like “Lost in Translation” but Scarlett J. is a djembe.—–