Author Archives: jsl915@aol.com

William Boardman at Reader Supported News reminds us that Roberts has been opposed to the Voting Rights Act for at least thirty years.

Given what’s going on in Texas–discriminatory redistricting and voter I.D. here we come–there is no other way to view today’s right-wing Supreme Court majority except as a cell concerned primarily with advancing the interests of the Republican party in this … Continue reading →

As Senator Leahy tweeted:  the Court “has effectively struck down the core” of the Voting Rights Act. Btw, wasn’t that the exact provision that was used to head off Republican attempts to disenfranchise voters in the last presidential election? That … Continue reading →

Looking at notes from a conversation I had with the late William Dufty,  author of Sugar Blues and decades before that co-author of Billie Holiday’s autobiography.   I interviewed him for my Bankhead book at least twice, and have some tapes … Continue reading →

George Packer in The Guardian tells us what went wrong. (I’m honored to say that he and I have shared the same agent, Kathleen Anderson.)

That’s what Elizabeth Kendall calls Dancing on Water in the current, June issue of Dance Magazine.  I don’t think it’s available on line, however, so buy the issue!!

Two years ago, when Charles Dutoit  led the Philadealphia Orchestra in Strainvksy’s “Apollo,” it was played differently than I’d ever heard it when seeing Balanchine’s ballet performed.  It was fascinating to compare interpretative decisions, the way that any musical reading … Continue reading →

Well, not quite.  But it’s really one of the most gratifying things you can easily do to make yourself believe that you’re part of the solution, not the problem, when it comes to the global environmental tailspin. And it’s always … Continue reading →

McClatchy (Knight-Ridder at the time) was one of the very few news organizations in this country to challenge the Bush administration’s fabricated, and even cockamamie accusations about Iraq’s potentially apocalyptic but non existent WMD. Now, as the latest war is … Continue reading →

Anna Spelman, about whom Elena Tchernichova writes admiringly in our book, (and deservedly so), called me from Houston.  She’s visiting there from Chicago, a guest teacher at the school owned by Robert Underwood, another talented ABT alum, (he went on … Continue reading →