By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Tue May 31, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
Beyonce went on American Idol last week and sang her new song. It’s called 1+1, and I think it’s the best thing she’s done in years. [American Idol]
Lady Gaga’s album dropped last week. This is its latest single. You’ve likely already heard it a billion times on the radio already. [Judas]
My Morning Jacket’s new CD comes out today, its called Circuital. This song is also called that. [Circuital]
I don’t listen to a lot of country music, but Brad Paisley’s new album, This Is Country Music, is quite good. Here is a song from that album, featuring the song’s namesake. [Eastwood]
Speaking of Clint Eastwood, Daniele Lupi–who made his name writing music for spaghetti westerns–recorded an album with Danger Mouse entitled Rome, which features vocal talent by Norah Jones and Jack White. It’s my favorite album of the month. [Two Against One]
The music world lost a great one last week with the passing of Gil Scott-Heron. Here is my favorite recording he ever did. [The Revolution Will Not Be Televised]
While a great man passed, another great man celebrated his 70th year of life last week. Here are a bunch of people covering a great song by that man–Bob Dylan. [Pearl Jam] [Don McLean] [The Roots] [Staple Singers]
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri May 27, 2011 at 12:30 PM ET Continuing my newly-established tradition of plagiarizing from Nick Hornby and sharing my pop culture Top Five lists (See my Favorite Breakup Songs , my Favorite Hoops Books, and the Most Jew-ish Gentiles), and in honor of my oldest RPette’s recent acquisition of an adorable bunny (named “Louie” not “Bugs”), I ask the question that has confused, even haunted my generation:
What’s up with all of the guys named “Doc” who’ve never practiced medicine or even earned a graduate degree?
Without further agonized perplexion, I hereby list My Five Favorite “Doc”s Who Weren’t Really Doctors:
5. (tie) Doctor J and Doctor K
Julius Erving (who supposedly got his nickname from a high school buddy) and Dwight Gooden (an homage to Erving — K stands for strikeout — that was later shortened to “Doc”) were two of the greatest athletes of the last three decades of the 20th Century. J was the fifth highest scorer in pro basketball history, the first great populizer of the slam dunk, and one of the most graceful and elegant atheletes to ever play the game (And how ’bout that ‘fro!). K was one of the most feared and dominant baseball pitchers, whose brilliant career could only be stopped by drug use and injury. And yet, despite their greatness, there is no sensible reason to award them with the title of doctor. (At least J gathered a few honorary degrees after his career ended.)
4. Doc, the Dwarf
Doc wasn’t necessarily the brightest of the dwarfs — he seemed to stammer and lose his train of thought quite often — but he held sway over the rest of the crew, with the possible exception of Grumpy, of course. (Here is a great summary of his life and career.) Doc’s authority emenated from being the gray eminence of the group, the centered, moral authority. Yet there was no evidence whatsoever of a medical license or doctoral dissertation at an accredited university. Indeed, it took the efforts of a fully-heighted fellow (The Prince) to relieve Snow White of her food poisoning ailment.
Read the rest of…
The RP: What’s Up Doc? — My Five Favorite “Doc”s Who Weren’t Really Doctors
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue May 10, 2011 at 11:15 AM ET Regular RP readers know that I’m quite taken with aping Nick Hornby and serving up my own pop culture Top Five lists (See, e.g., my Five Favorite Breakup Songs and my Five Favorite Hoops Books).
But today, I venture off on a mission implausible that risks alienation, if not excommunication, by my co-religionists at the Anti-Defamation League and the Global Zionist Conspiracy.
So, please allow me a brief expository digression…
Five years ago, when I launched my national tour for The Compassionate Community — the book in which I discuss my political career as a devout Jew living in an inner notch of the Bible Belt — I ventured often into the rural hills and hollers of my home state, speaking to audiences in which I was the only one present who lights the Sabbath candles. I’d speak passionately about my Jewish faith, quote the Talmud and the Rabbis; but, inevitably, there would be someone who’d come up to me afterwards to proclaim: “You are such a good Christian!”
I’m confident that each time this occured, the well-intentioned speaker was using a secular definition of “Christian” (along the lines of “someone who tries to emulate Christ”) as opposed to making a religious statement. (And I’m certain that they were NOT comparing me to the unholy hoopster “Christian“.) So I took it as a hopeful complement.
 Flashback to my college dorm room two decades earlier. My then-roommate (and current Friend of RP) Ron Granieri, came to campus with an encyclopedic knowledge of my faith, customs and moral code, quite impressive for a Roman Catholic from upstate New York. And because he was a compassionate soul with a wicked sense of humor, our other roommate — a future rabbi, natch — annointed him as Jew-ish, since he was still technically not a Jew. (Ron was unwilling to go through the formal conversion process, which not only would have required him to renounce his own devout beliefs; but much worse, to endure a ritual circumcision.)
So in honor of our un-cut and non-kosher, but still quite Jew-ish Ron, I hereby consecrate the following list of the Five Most Jew-ish Gentiles in Pop Culture:
– – – – – – – –
  5. (tie) Tina Fey and Liz Lemon
Her dark eyes, Semitic features, the bookish specs, her ascerbic wit, the close association with the media elite in New York City…How could it be possible that Tina Fey isn’t actually Jewish? And her alter ego, Liz Lemon, takes it a step further –Liz’s inexhaustible self-deprecating neuroses identify her as the modern-day Woody Allen. But alas, Fey is Greek Orthodox; and Lemon, when asked about her faith, replied: “I pretty much just do whatever Oprah tells me to.” Jewish boys and girls are just going to have to wait even longer to finally find a Jewish role model in the world of comedy.
 4. Bruce Springsteen
If his New Jersey roots, passion for social justice and 70’s-era matching Jew-fro and Hassidic beard weren’t enough, his surname is Springsteen, for Chri…uh… Moses’ sake! But sorry… the Boss was raised in a very devout Catholic household. (The fact that “Mary” is the name of the woman in every other Springsteen song should have given it away.) It is no coincidence that I learned that the Boss was not one of us precisely at the same time as when my Christian friends were apprised that Santa Claus wasn’t really coming to town.
 3. Batman
Batman (Secret identity: Bruce Wayne) was the ultimate Jew-ish superhero. He lived in Gotham, an unsubtle proxy for the city with the world’s largest Jewish population. He was a wealthy industrialist, yet felt apart from the rest of society, much like many successful Jews in the mid-20th century. Most significantly, unlike his fellow comrades in the Superfriends Justice League of America, Batman did not slay his foes using any extra-human, Christ-like powers — Instead, he used his bookish cunning and wile. Yet, there is never any mention of Wayne’s Semitic affiliation in any DC comic book. Unfortunately as well, the experts deem him either a lapsed Catholic or a lapsed Episcopalian. There is good news, however, Hebraic Bat Fans: The new Batwoman is Jewish. And a lesbian. Holy Sephardic Sapphism, Batman!
Read the rest of…
The RP: The Five Most Jew-ish Gentiles in Pop Culture
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Tue Apr 12, 2011 at 3:30 PM ET
Eric Clapton’s greatest album of all time–Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos–recently received a remaster. It’s fantastic. [Layla]
The RP himself confessed his love for Adele a few days ago. Her disc, 21, has been burning up the charts. It’s also really good. [Rumor Has It]
Radiohead dropped an album a few weeks ago. It’s always worth it to check it out when that happens–they did write Kid A and OK Computer once upon a time. Radiohead is one of the most political bands still releasing music. You won’t find their albums on popular services–they self release everything. [Morning Mr. Magpie]
The Foo Fighters are one of my favorite bands of all time. While I really enjoyed Dave Grohl’s side project Them Crooked Vultures, it is good to see him back in action with his greatest band (yeah, I said that). [Rope]
Wiz Khalifa, who you may know from the song Black and Yellow released an album last week. I’m not sold on it, but its super popular. [Roll Up]
Britney Spears’ new album, Femme Fatale, debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts. She’s back! The album is more dance-y than she has ever been before. I like it pretty well. [Hold It Against Me]
OK Go, the band that makes incredible music videos and pretty good alt rock music, recently released an album called The Greatest Song I Ever Heard to go with Morgan Spurlock’s documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. [The Greatest Song I Ever Heard]
Steve Martin released a bluegrass album with the Steep Canyon Rangers called Rare Bird Alert. There is a hilarious song on there about being an atheist and not having any songs to sing. As a Baptist, this is not a problem I have ever faced. I still find the song really funny. [Atheists Ain’t Got No Songs – Live at Bonnaroo]
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Apr 7, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET As Charlie Sheen might have said, “music is the gin and tonic of the soul.”
Of course, there’s no denying the redemptive impact of song. Whether to soothe, pacify, or even offer catharsis, we’ve all turned to music during times of recovery — from an illness, a professional setback, or, quite often, a breakup.
Last week, I ended an 11 1/2 year relationship…with state government. Neil Sedaka was accurate when he crooned that “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” but the dissolution of any relationship is much too complex to be captured by 60s-era bubblegum pop.
For my own personal recovery process, I have loaded my trusty iPad with some of my favorite healing music. And in the spirit of Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity” (read the book; it’s much better than the movie), I share below My Top Five Breakup Songs: (Click on the album covers to sample and/or download to your MP3 player)
#5: "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele
5. Adele, “Rolling in the Deep” My daughters introduced me to the sulky smooth, blues-laden stylings of the unbelievably young (she just turned 22?!?) Adele. Her newest masterpiece drew my attention to an early stage of my recovery from politics: denial, tinged with exasperated anger: “We could have had it all/Rolling in the deep/You had my heart inside of your hands/And you played it to the beat.” Dreams of higher office squelched by the vagaries of politics — it certainly bears some resemblance to the unexpected implosion of a relationship with that “perfect” soulmate. “We could have had it all,” voters! But alas…
#4: "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt
4. Bonnie Raitt, “I Can’t Make You Love Me”
While Raitt had already secured her place in rock history by helping to discover Bruce Springsteen, this classic resolutely establishes her as the bard of melancholy self-pity. With a haunting melody and a voice that aches with trenchant agony, Raitt sets the perfect mood for an evening of painful introspection: “Turn down the lights/Turn down the bed/Turn down these voices inside my head.” Instead of those blaring, patriotic anthems that accompany a losing candidate’s walk to the concession podium, this ballad should be required listening for Election Night audiences: I worked my heart out to win your support, then you broke it into pieces. Dear voters, why can’t I make you love me?
 #3: "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette
3. Alanis Morissette, “You Oughta Know”
Of course, self-pity soon can metastasize into vengeful anger, and there’s no better theme song for the dumped than Morissette’s breakout hit, the song that established a whole new genre of “tough chick rock” (See Pink, Avil Lavigne, etc.) Alanis’ scorned lover caustically captures the false promises of lust disguised as love–or in the case of a recovering politician, the fickleness of the body politic: “And every time you speak her name/Does she know how you told me you’d hold me/Until you died, till you died?/But you’re still alive.” (And isn’t it ironic that in each primary that I’ve lost, the voters chose “an older version of me”? Hmmmmm…)
 #2: "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits 2. “Romeo and Juliet” by Dire Straits: A truly transcendent song, on one of rock’s most underappreciated albums. With a nod to both Shakespeare and Leonard Bernstein’s stage and screen adaptation, Mark Knopfler sets the romantic legend in the late 70s and reveals the core of its message; one that can reassure a jilted lover (or politician) that the failure wasn’t your fault — as fate or the Good Lord would have it, it just wasn’t your time: “There’s a place for us/You know the movie song/When you gonna realize, it was just that the time was wrong?” Hey, there’s more fish in the sea/elections to win! (Oh, and Taylor Swift: I love your music, but when you were on the road with your English tutor, did y’all skip the last act of Shakespeare’s play? Romeo and Juliet didn’t exactly have a happy ending.)
 #1: "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor 1. Gloria Gaynor, “I Will Survive” OK, disco haters; go ahead and scoff. But Gaynor’s anthem for the final stage of breakup recovery — acceptance and transcendence — is the ideal background music for a recovering politician who’s realized that there’s more to life than temporal adulation and ephemeral power. And when that political fever threatens to re-infect you, Miss Gloria reminds you to reject the sweet succor of narcissism, empowering you with her personal mantra: “And you see me/somebody new/I’m not that chained up little person still in love with you/And so you felt like dropping in and just expect me to be free/Now I’m saving all my loving for someone who’se loving me…”
OK, that’s five for fighting about.
What am I missing? What have I misunderstood? How will my life go on?
(Speaking of…For goodness’ sake, NO CELINE DION!!)
Please leave below your comments, critiques, and most importantly, lists of your top five breakup songs:
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