News

As is the case every year, I start reading year-end lists posted by trusted peers/journalists and discover I've missed plenty of deserving culture. With the glut of films, music, theater, TV shows, books, et al. on numerous websites, TV screens, bookshelves, and periodicals, it's fairly easy. Truth be told, in addition to P.J. Harvey's much-deserved kudos, other women singers/songwriters/bands really stepped up their game this year, making many top ten year-end lists, and I missed out on discovering some of them. With that in mind, here's some additions to my 2011 year's end list.

St. Vincent: Strange Mercy (4Ad) - Quirky alt pop with flourishes of art rock and off-kilter guitar hooks. This Dallas-bred artist and former Polyphonic Spree guitarist/singer released her third and most favorably received album in 2011. Annie Clark has the look of an existential art girl who has known plenty of emotional scorn for her empowerment,...

This month, the Happiest Place on Earth hits middle age.

Forty years ago, Walt Disney World opened in a tiny Florida town called Bay Lake, about 20 minutes outside Orlando, a place that was just a smattering of orange groves in the middle of nowhere.

Walt Disney had already revolutionized in-person, multimedia entertainment in 1955 with Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., but the space limitations of the park had hobbled his original vision. Not to mention that it still relied upon some old-fashioned assumptions about amusement parks: the park should be open only five days a week; it should be primarily oriented towards...

Praise and blame, Tom JonesUniversalTom Jones is 70 years old and still quite the ladies’ man. One of the biggest singing sensations of the 1970s, he never seems to lose his edge. In this album – his 39th – his music takes on a spiritual bent. The album is a collection of his versions of gospel songs by artistes as diverse as Bob Dylan and Billie Joe Shaver. There are even versions of traditional gospel songs like Nobody’s fault but mine (also covered by Led Zeppelin) and Run on (also covered by Moby). This is Tom Jones at his experienced ...