Paul Mitchinson is a part-time writer and a full-time father of two. He writes when he can. » more about me
There are a few principles that should be emphasized while considering the ongoing "Muslim cartoons" furor. The Western media has an absolute legal right to publish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed, providing they do not incite hatred. The Western media is now awash with these images. Those who publish these images now are fully aware [...]
Wayne Gretzky is getting a hard lesson in how the media operates when it smells blood. Or rather, to be more precise, when the media experiences a collective olfactory hallucination that leads it to believe it smells blood. Because so far, there’s nothing — nothing — to be reported on what has repeatedly been described [...]
Germaine Greer’s nasty little piece in the Guardian on the recently-passed Betty Friedan suggests that a new genre of essay has arrived. Call it the “obitchuary.” The most entertaining recent example I came across was Terry Castle’s hilarious memoir of Susan Sontag. Nothing, of course, excites the male libido more profoundly than a cat fight. [...]
Canada’s new Conservative government is set to bring in their new child-care program — as early as July 1st. Hallelujah! I know I speak for many stay-at-home parents who just can’t wait to blow it all on beer and popcorn. For me, it’ll be Steamwhistle and Orville Redenbacher — unfortunately, the inferior microwavable kind. (Neither [...]
Over a year has now passed since the publication of Richard Taruskin’s Oxford History of Western Music. Not surprisingly, given its heft (6 volumes, over 4,000 pages), there hasn’t yet been a serious review of it — who would willingly take on such a job? Some, I’m sure, have simply thrown up their hands. True, [...]
Rumour has it that Allan Ho and Dmitri Feofanov have written a 200-page rebuttal of Laurel Fay’s decisive debunking of Solomon Volkov’s Testimony. Some might suggest this is further evidence of their graphomaniac tendencies. The facts show otherwise. Ho and Feofanov’s first riposte to Fay’s 10-page article took up some 270 pages. Their forthcoming salvo [...]
I just heard word from Matthew Westphal, former editor of the webzine, Andante.com, that the classical music website is to about to be shut down later today. Matthew was a great editor to work with, and I wish him well in his future plans. His famous remark to all of Andante’s writers was: “Newsprint may [...]