Author Archives: Felix

Bush on Iraq

Posted on January 29, 2003 by Felix

After the build-up, the speech. And, against all my expectations, Bush played a blinder: he actually lived up to the hype. The awkward Bush of the Presidential campaign, with his bizarre pauses in the middle of sentences and omnipresent smirk, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

Zakaria on Iraq

Posted on January 28, 2003 by Felix

Fareed Zakaria, one of the best commentators on international affairs, has now written a very peculiar column in favour of a war in Iraq. He runs through all the reasons why it could be a disaster (Saddam torching oilfields, provocation … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

Powell on Iraq

Posted on January 27, 2003 by Felix

It’s obviously the season for major speeches from the Bush administration. Last Thursday, Paul Wolfowitz gave a very hawkish address to the Council on Foreign Relations, and tomorrow George W Bush himself will give his State of the Union address, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Comments Off

AOL Time Warner and publishing

Posted on January 25, 2003 by Felix

Once upon a time, business visionaries could look at companies as diverse as AOL and Time Warner and see synergies there. One provided content; the other the means to drive that content to consumers. But those days are long gone … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 8 Comments

Wolfowitz on Iraq

Posted on January 23, 2003 by Felix

I went to the Council on Foreign Relations today, for a "policy address" (I guess that’s one notch up from a common-or-garden speech) by deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz. It was obviously part of a concerted effort by the White … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

The IHT is dead! Long live the NYT!

Posted on January 20, 2003 by Felix

Last November, the New York Times played hardball with the Washington Post and forced the Post to sell its 50% share in the International Herald Tribune. The conventional wisdom at the time was that the Times wanted to create what … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 10 Comments

Felix’s guide to using MetroCards

Posted on January 18, 2003 by Felix

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, better known to New Yorkers as the MTA, is proposing to abolish subway tokens as part of its drive to help close a budget gap of $2.8 billion (or $951 million, depending on whom you believe) … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 12 Comments

Charlie Kaufman films and digital video

Posted on January 16, 2003 by Felix

I’ve been to a lot of films recently, and I don’t have the time, I’m afraid, to write about them all. But I would like to try to correct what seems to be a general misconception that the cool new … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 15 Comments

Why Bush should ignore the stock market

Posted on January 13, 2003 by Felix

To keep my mind sharp, I like to spend a certain amount of time reading bloggers with whom I disagree, such as the estimable 2 Blowhards and the slightly less estimable Andrew Sullivan. Sullivan’s not so hot on rhetoric, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Finance, Politics | 1 Comment

Apple’s new objects of desire

Posted on January 8, 2003 by Felix

Steve Jobs, Apple’s $1-a-year CEO (not including the 10 million shares and $90 million corporate jet that the grateful board gave him for turning the company around) excelled himself in showmanship yesterday. He was giving his annual keynote address, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 2 Comments

Catch Me If You Can

Posted on January 3, 2003 by Felix

I saw Steven Spielberg’s new movie, Catch Me If You Can, last night. Today, I went back and watched it again. I never do that. It’s a fantastic film, I urge you to see it, and I urge you to … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Comments Off

Feyerabend and philosophy

Posted on December 20, 2002 by Felix

A long back-and-forth I was having at 2Blowhards the other day prompted Brian Micklethwait at Samizdata to nominate one of my postings as "the silliest and most potentially disastrous blog comment of the year 2002". His problem was that I … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 9 Comments

The New York Times hikes its price

Posted on December 19, 2002 by Felix

The New York Times announced today that it’s raising its newsstand price in its home city by 33%, to $1. (Sundays will stay at $3.) The price jump comes on top of a 15-cent price hike in September 1999, bringing … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 11 Comments

The new WTC designs

Posted on December 18, 2002 by Felix

I went to the unveiling of the new plans for the World Trade Center site this morning, and they’re miles ahead from the vague and unimaginitive plans we saw five months ago. There are nine plans in total, from seven … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 15 Comments

Broadband’s killer app arrives

Posted on December 17, 2002 by Felix

A standard lament in the communications industry is that American consumers have been slow to adopt broadband internet connections. DSL and cable modems have been around for years now, but the vast majority of internet users continue to stick with … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 2 Comments

The soft racism of high expectations

Posted on December 15, 2002 by Felix

Community standards exist in even the largest of cities. Discussions about them tend to concentrate on whether they’re good or not – whether they’re epitomised more by friendly neighbours looking out for each other, or by redneck homophobes beating up … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Politics | 1 Comment

Heaven

Posted on December 8, 2002 by Felix

Did you know that Krzysztof Kieslowski has a posthumous movie out? It’s called Heaven, and it was slated to be the first in a new trilogy, called Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. It has the allegorical strength that we have come … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Comments Off

The point of tipping

Posted on December 4, 2002 by Felix

I went upstate on the weekend after Thanksgiving, and stayed at the Hudson House in Cold Spring, "the second oldest continually operating inn in the state of New York". It’s a pleasant enough hotel, a nice place to spend the … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 16 Comments

All or Nothing

Posted on December 2, 2002 by Felix

The great British film director Mike Leigh has come out with a new film – not that you’d be likely to have noticed if you live in the US. Despite critical and commercial success with his last three releases, Secrets … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 3 Comments

Die Another Day

Posted on November 28, 2002 by Felix

As ever in a Bond film, the Americans get it wrong, and it’s left to the Queen’s loyal subjects to make things right. And in Die Another Day, the latest installment in the greatest moviemaking franchise of all time, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 2 Comments

Gay Talese in the New Yorker

Posted on November 27, 2002 by Felix

This week’s issue of the New Yorker is an excellent reminder of why it is the best magazine in the world. Who else would commission the great Michael Sowa to do a Thanksgiving cover illustration? (Talking of the cover, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Media | 1 Comment

Eliot Spitzer vs Sandy Weill

Posted on November 21, 2002 by Felix

New York’s attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, stood up in front of a Wall Street crowd last week to give a 20-minute speech. He started with a joke: he was glad he’d been invited, because he really wanted to put faces … Continue reading →

Posted in Finance | 4 Comments

Femme Fatale

Posted on November 16, 2002 by Felix

Femme Fatale, the new film from Brian De Palma, opens with the heist of a bra. This bra is not particularly good at doing the sort of things bras are normally expected to do – support the breasts, shield one’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 1 Comment

The Fourth Sister

Posted on November 13, 2002 by Felix

Over the weekend, I went to see a fantastic new play, which is running at the Vineyard Theatre on 15th Street: The Fourth Sister, by Janusz Glowacki. Full disclosure: I’m a friend of the translator, Eva Nagorski, and I went … Continue reading →