Author Archives: Felix

Bill Viola’s Going Forth By Day

Posted on November 8, 2002 by Felix

You wait years for a major piece of contemporary non-secular art to blow you away, and then two come along at once… Back in New York after my trip to San Francisco to see Saint François d’Assise, I accompanied a … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 7 Comments

Why the Republicans won the election

Posted on November 6, 2002 by Felix

I’ve avoided blogging these midterm elections because (a) I’m not nearly as much of a US political junkie as thousands of other webloggers out there; and (b) I was just too depressed at the result. But this is my website, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

Roger Dodger

Posted on November 4, 2002 by Felix

We open on a conversation taking place between fellow workers in a restaurant, all seated around a table. One of them is on a riff, going into impressive amounts of detail with regard to a thesis he has regarding sex. … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 2 Comments

Krugman, Lewis and greed: an exchange

Posted on November 2, 2002 by Felix

Although the entries on this website don’t get nearly as many comments as those of other bloggers, I do occasionally get an intelligent note in response to something I write. Such was the case yesterday evening, when Matthew Rose responded … Continue reading →

Posted in Finance | 3 Comments

Punch-Drunk Love

Posted on October 31, 2002 by Felix

If there’s one thing that Paul Thomas Anderson loves, it’s virtuouso camerawork. In his first film, Boogie Nights, it was generally considered to be a nod of the head to Martin Scorcese. But the impossibly long tracking shots have remained … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 5 Comments

50-50 nations

Posted on October 30, 2002 by Felix

Mickey Kaus says that "a 50-50 tie may be the new equilibrium state of American politics", and helpfully provides links to other people who have said the same thing in the past. It stands to reason that in a two-party … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

Krugman, Lewis and greed

Posted on October 29, 2002 by Felix

The New York Times Magazine has given the cover of its last two issues to what it calls The Class Wars. The first story, by Paul Krugman, glossed the growing inequality in the US, and bemoans the fact that "income … Continue reading →

Posted in Finance | 1 Comment

Frida

Posted on October 28, 2002 by Felix

At the end of Frida, the new film by Julie Taymor, the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina) says of his wife, the painter Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek), that "never before has a woman committed such agonised poetry to … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 5 Comments

the girl and the fig

Posted on October 25, 2002 by Felix

Sonoma county, just north of San Francisco, has to be one of the most expensive places in the world. Basic B&Bs cost about $200 a night, with a 2-night minimum at weekends, while small vineyards go for millions. When I … Continue reading →

Posted in Restaurants | 10 Comments

St Francis in San Francisco

Posted on October 21, 2002 by Felix

I’m sure that I wasn’t the only New Yorker to book a flight to the west coast when I heard that the new general director of the San Francisco opera, Pamela Rosenberg, had decided to put on a production of … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 7 Comments

The Trials of Henry Kissinger and Bowling for Columbine

Posted on October 15, 2002 by Felix

Left-wing documentaries are popular in New York City these days. I’ve been to two this week: The Trials of Henry Kissinger on Thursday afternoon, and Bowling for Columbine on Sunday night. Both showings were almost sold out, and the latter … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 15 Comments

felixsalmon.com redesigned

Posted on October 12, 2002 by Felix

Welcome to the new-look felixsalmon.com! The incomparable Stefan Geens has installed the excellent Movable Type onto my server, and what you see now is the result. It’s going to take me a little while to move all my old postings … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements | 6 Comments

Rosenbaum, Hitchens and the Left

Posted on October 11, 2002 by Felix

Christopher Hitchens has a new book out, on George Orwell. Orwell is one of those figures who tends to mean whatever you want him to mean: he’s been adopted by political partisans (and, indeed, non-partisans) from across the spectrum, each … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 4 Comments

Secretary

Posted on October 6, 2002 by Felix

Secretary is, at heart, a by-the-numbers love story. Troubled girl meets troubled boy, they fall in love, but their troubles drive them apart before they are eventually overcome and our loving couple lives happily ever after. If the problem with … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 1 Comment

Barbershop

Posted on October 5, 2002 by Felix

A bit later than I originally intended, I finally got around to seeing Barbershop tonight. If you haven’t done so as well, I highly recommend you follow suit: it’s an excellent film, which pulls off the almost-impossible feat of being … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Comments Off

Men in uniform

Posted on October 2, 2002 by Felix

Three stories for you: • Two air marshals panic on a flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia, brandishing guns at terrified passengers and arresting a blameless former Army major (of Indian descent, natch) for "observing too closely" what was going on, … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | Comments Off

Reading and travelling

Posted on September 29, 2002 by Felix

I’m in Washington this week, for the IMF annual meetings. I took the train down here, and, as is often the way with trains, there were lots of cancellations and delays, and I had quite a bit of time on … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Media | Comments Off

Dick Armey, intellectuals, and the Jews

Posted on September 25, 2002 by Felix

I doubt that House majority leader Dick Armey is going to go down in history as a great intellectual heavyweight. His weapon of choice is more the sledgehammer than the scalpel, and his less-than-subtle pronouncements on the Palestinian question have … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Politics | 2 Comments

8 Women and True Lies

Posted on September 24, 2002 by Felix

No review of Barbershop here, I’m afraid, despite the fact that it remained at the top of the box-office chart for the second week running last weekend. It was my girlfriend’s birthday, so she got to choose, and she chose … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Comments Off

Good news at the Box Office

Posted on September 17, 2002 by Felix

The numbers are in for the weekend, and the news is good! At the top of the list is Barbershop, a $12 million-budgeted film which took in $20.6 million over the three days. Next is the unstoppable My Big Fat … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 2 Comments

Koba the Dread

Posted on September 8, 2002 by Felix

When Tina Brown signed her ex-boyfriend Martin Amis to the nascent Talk Miramax Books, she certainly knew there was a memoir in the pipeline; a collection of reviews and essays was part of the deal as well. But after that, … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 3 Comments

Holier-than-thou journalism

Posted on September 6, 2002 by Felix

Jim Romenesko’s superlative Media News blog has long been one of the first sites I visit every morning. It’s interesting not only for the stories it links to but also as a measure of what’s considered important in the US … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 4 Comments

Michael Bloomberg

Posted on September 5, 2002 by Felix

I was no great supporter of Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral bid. His cookie-cutter style of management (all news stories have the same structure, all bureaus have the same fishtank) might work with people who are self-selected for the organisation, but couldn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Comments Off

Kagan’s Power and Weakness

Posted on September 2, 2002 by Felix

If you have a little time to spare, I would highly recommend reading Power and Weakness, Robert Kagan’s essay about "why, on major strategic and international questions today, Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus". My friend Matthew … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments

What are stock analysts for?

Posted on August 23, 2002 by Felix

Stock analysts, the CNBC superstars of the go-go 90s, have been back in the news of late. Henry Blodget, Merrill Lynch’s star internet analyst, said one thing in internal emails and another in public reports, bringing down a $100 million … Continue reading →

Posted in Finance | Comments Off