I think Bush is very lucky Sec. Powell is still around – this mission to the tsunami-devastated areas is exactly where his weight and prestige on the world stage is most effective: Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday the outpouring of American aid and humanitarian help in the region …

Our 5 year-old daughter is now totally into monster and superhero movies, and so we were watching The Return of the Mummy the other night. The scene where the reconstituted mummy, who has powers and shit, raises up the waters of the Nile into a monstrous wave with his open-mouthed …

I have neither the ability nor the words to appropriately comprehend, assess or pay tribute to the human loss in southern Asia and around the Indian Ocean brought about by the underwater earthquake and subsequent tsunami on December 26. We were at the wedding of a good friend on New …

According to a new report issued today by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2004 was the year blogs took off, with readership up 58%: By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key part of online culture. Two surveys by the Pew Internet & American …

MAXJAZZ is a little label out of St. Louis with an extraordinary roster of traditional jazz vocalists like Carla Cook, Rene Marie, LaVerne Butler, and Mary Stallings, who all emphasize taste, precision, swing and melody over showmanship and histrionics, lending themselves ideally to a collection of holiday standards. Cyrus Chestnut’s …

Martha Stewart is about halfway through her federal five-month sentence for, I forget what exactly, but something to do with bad stock juju and lying about something she was never charged with in the first place. Regardless, she wanders the grounds of the women’s federal prison camp in Alderson, W.Va, …

Yesterday was the winter solstice, the Druid’s Christmas, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere with the sun tracing its lowest arc across the bleak winter sky, its life-giving energy at lowest ebb. But rather than being a time of despair, the solstice is a time of …

Holiday season music, books, movies, thoughts, experiences, news, etc., from your Ho Ho Ho pals at Blogcritics. Happiest Holidays to you! National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation DVD Review They’ve been to Wally World. They’ve been to Europe. This season, things are a bit different. It’s time once again to visit the …

This sad news just in from Alligator Records: W.C. Handy Award-winning and Grammy-nominated master Chicago bluesman Son Seals, 62, died Monday, December 20 in Chicago, IL, of complications from diabetes. The critically acclaimed, younger generation guitarist, vocalist and songwriter –- credited with redefining Chicago blues for a new audience in …

Though I love Harry I am somewhat leery of J.K. Rowling (there’s something unseemly about her tarting up on the way to becoming a billionaire) and certainly don’t have the time or interest in solving some damn riddles on her website in order to get the fresh poop on the …