JamesMarcus

James Marcus is a writer, translator, critic, and editor. He is the author of Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot-Com Juggernaut and five translations from the Italian (the most recent being Dino: The Life and Films of Dino De Laurentiis and Collusion: International Espionage and the War on Terror). He has contributed to the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Newsday, the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Book Review, Lingua Franca, the Nation, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and many other publications. He also written about jazz, pop, and classical music for Salon, The Oregonian, and WBUR Online Arts, and is currently editor-at-large at The Columbia Journalism Review. He blogs at www.housemirth.blogspot.com.

my website

http://www.housemirth.blogspot.com/

Submitted Comments (132)

Cher Believe Almighty Remix »

• Very sorry to hear about your health problems, STONERS. Please take care and get well soon. We'll miss you here in the meantime.

  10 months, 1 week ago 0 replies View »

• 25 comments from 19 members total

YouTube - John Cafferty - Tender Years - (Original) »

• Wow, I forgot how precisely this song copied the Springsteen formula, right down to the glockenspiel and tenor sax. Still fun, though. For full effect, ...

  10 months, 1 week ago 2 replies View »

• 18 comments from 10 members total

Propeller Week In Review: February 13, 2009 »

• See, I knew there was a silver lining in there somewhere :).

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• Hi EE! I'm glad you enjoyed the WIR and that the new-and-improved site is to your liking. The input from members like yourself has been ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• Hi snowman, and sorry for the confusion re: sign in. Let me pass this along to our tech staff and get back to you.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• Only way to survive anywhere, if you ask me :). I'll keep an eye out for the socks.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• This is no dream, gamahuche! We are finally getting it right after the last few months of experimentation. Yes, we went down some blind alleys, ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• 22 comments from 12 members total

Obama Misreads His Mandate - Reagan didn't assume his landslide was a license for whatever he wanted. »

• Michael Barone is a smart man. But that doesn't mean he's always right when he gazes into his crystal ball. Boys and girls, let's turn ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 3 replies View »

• If Obama ignores the advice of this academic from the American Enterprise Institute, he is surely doomed.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 2 replies View »

• 197 comments from 44 members total

Dead in the Water with a Broken Propeller Again? »

• Actually, social security will be bankrupt before that comment pops up.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• I second that emotion, Tim. Obviously these performance outages are screwing up the Propeller experience in a major way. I'm impressed (and touched) by how ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• All nostalgic references to the "old Propeller" are automatically deleted by our sophisticated software. :)

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 1 reply View »

• Hello SP. You want your story neg button back? You've got it! Drop away, my friend.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• Just remember, Mr. Spinhead has the keys to the galley and the liquor cabinet.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• Welcome to Propeller, CyberCucina. As it happens, you've come aboard during a brief interval of, er, technical stress. But as I've noted earlier in the ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• These are elephant bells, in bright red corduroy.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• Wait, can I use the F9 button to toggle sarcasm on and off? In any case, I've decided to extend free shipping to your neighborhood ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• So that's what the F5 key is for.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• By the time this comment appears, my clothes will be out of style. No problem, though--I'll add a second comment, and by then bell bottoms ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 2 replies View »

• Did I say patience? I meant capacity for suffering. :)

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 1 reply View »

• My last comment just showed up on a billboard in Times Square.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 4 replies View »

• Sure, let me run that through the Backwards Filter and all will be well. Dlot m'I os ro.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 1 reply View »

• Of course you're welcome.
  
  And on the bright side, it's not quite this bad. Not yet, anyway:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v27hCOOyaI8=1

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 1 reply View »

• Nice to hear from you, too. All is well, except that I go slightly bonkers when we get into one of these technical ruts at ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 3 replies View »

• Funny you should say that, I've got some excellent 386 machines in stock, with a soothing monochrome display and blazing fast 4800-bps modem. Rock bottom ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• I would call it constructive criticism, STONERS :).

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 5 replies View »

• Those are ugly, ugly words. We will try to ensure that you never see them again. And I guess we'll hold off on the Mister ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 2 replies View »

• Wow, I guess I better avoid the hills of Bohemia for the next couple of hours (actually I'd love to drop by for a visit). ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• I take them plenty seriously, Spade.

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 1 reply View »

• Many apologies for the recent technical problems. Our development team has ordered new DB hosts and we're hoping to straighten out these glitches within a ...

  10 months, 2 weeks ago 16 replies View »

• 192 comments from 50 members total

The Beatles: "I Saw Her Standing There" (1964) »

• Sounds like they're playing underwater in this clip, and my guess is that they couldn't hear a single note--yet it's still irresistible. Is this in ...

  10 months, 3 weeks ago 3 replies View »

• 11 comments from 7 members total

Propeller Week In Review: February 5, 2009 »

• Thanks, wtagg. I too am glad to see the feature picking up momentum again. And yes, that car in the roof was doozy. Perhaps you ...

  10 months, 3 weeks ago 1 reply View »

• Thanks for the heads up. I had seen some of the buggy behavior with comments, which I believe the developers are fixing, but not the ...

  10 months, 3 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• Glad you enjoyed it, fiftynine.

  10 months, 3 weeks ago 1 reply View »

• 19 comments from 11 members total

The Beatles: "You Can't Do That" (Live in Melbourne) »

• It actually was on the UK release of the "Hard Day's Night" album. I can't recall whether they play a snippet of it in the ...

  10 months, 3 weeks ago 4 replies View »

• They were the greatest, hands down. And this version (of a song that seems just so-so to me) easily beats the studio version: the band ...

  10 months, 3 weeks ago 0 replies View »

• 13 comments from 9 members total

Propeller Week In Review: January 29, 2009 »

• Pretty good, CRYMTY, but my own doppelganger would be (or is?) way more cantankerous than that. :)

  11 months ago 0 replies View »

• And how do you know I haven't? :) Just think of the rudest, most flammable personality on Propeller--it could be me, you know.

  11 months ago 0 replies View »

• I'm very sorry to hear this news. I hope he makes a quick recovery--he's brought a lot of joy and no small quantity of mirth ...

  11 months ago 0 replies View »

• Me too :).

  11 months ago 6 replies View »

• 26 comments from 11 members total

John Updike dies at 76 »

• Marriage, sex, theology, American life--those seem like deep subjects to me. I agree that some of the books were more flyweight than others, but when ...

  11 months ago 1 reply View »

• 3 comments from 2 members total

OBAMA'S FOLLY »

• We have laws to prevent a man from marrying a 10-year-old girl because we want to protect the child--and that goes double if the 10-year-old ...

  11 months ago 1 reply View »

• Your refusal to hate Obama, despite your deep distaste for him, is admirable. We could all use more of that. But pretending that hatred is ...

  11 months ago 1 reply View »

• If you're a gay man, marrying another gay man is the natural order of things. I'm sure you're aware that there are cultures where some ...

  11 months ago 3 replies View »

• Again, I think Lowery's comments were humorous, not racist. The comments of Warren's that you cite do suggest an equation of gay marriage with various ...

  11 months ago 5 replies View »

• No, I find it the humorous response of a man who's been on the receiving end of racist nonsense for much of his life, starting ...

  11 months ago 7 replies View »

• I sincerely doubt that the Democrats will attempt to silence talk radio. As for Limbaugh--come on, the guy has been launching vicious, shrilly partisan attacks ...

  11 months ago 15 replies View »

• 262 comments from 68 members total

Propeller Week In Review: January 23, 2009 »

• Wow, it sounds like somebody tripped over the Propeller power strip while I was away. It's now 11:42 PM EST and I'm not seeing any ...

  11 months, 1 week ago 2 replies View »

• Good point. But at least all the towels would get hung up.

  11 months, 1 week ago 1 reply View »

• You bet, STONERS. Glad you enjoyed it.

  11 months, 1 week ago 1 reply View »

• I thought you summed up the world-without-women scenario very concisely, N2N :).

  11 months, 1 week ago 11 replies View »

• Of course the trees thank you in return :).

  11 months, 1 week ago 0 replies View »

• 52 comments from 20 members total

Professor Estimates Inauguration Crowd at 800,000 »

• I have no idea if this guy's number is accurate, I just found the methodology (using images from a military satellite) kind of interesting. I ...

  11 months, 1 week ago 0 replies View »

• 2 comments from 2 members total

Sticks and Stones: David Denby on the Spread of Snark »

• Many thanks for the prop and comment, Spade. Yes, I'm afraid that even Propeller is not, ahem, entirely immune from the snarking impulse.

  11 months, 1 week ago 1 reply View »

• 4 comments from 3 members total

View from Europe: Obama's Inauguration - A Day for Hope (The Independent) »

• I think there was a hint of a smile there, which I interpreted as, "Okay, I know that you all know that I'm finally having ...

  11 months, 1 week ago 4 replies View »

• I found it incredibly touching that Obama, who seemed almost impossible to rattle during the campaign, kept fumbling his lines during the oath. I think ...

  11 months, 1 week ago 50 replies View »

• 532 comments from 80 members total