MEDIA MONDAY
What have you been reading, listening to and watching?

A sequel, a second chance and a return
The Times recommends 3 new CDs that have my interest. At Doug's recommendation on this very blog, I bought and thoroughly enjoy, Franz Ferdinand's self-titeld debut. The sequel, "You Could Have it So Much Better" is high on my list of must-buys. And creeping up that ladder is the new release, finally, from Fiona Apple. I'm no big fan of her earlier material, but this new album has gotten so much attention, I'd like to hear both versions just to find out for myself. I am a Jon Brion fan (he helped keep the new Kanye West album bubbling with great unexpected sounds) and suspect I'll like his original, discarded production better than this new second chance offering. Last, and a complete surprise to me, Sinead O'Connor has released a new album of, well, Rastafarian music, creating I suppose the world's first Irish-reggae?

Improbably - especially because she announced her retirement from music two years ago - it's a great album. It is terse and elegant, with a minimal amount of horns and extraneous elements; Ms. O'Connor's undisguised Irish accent and obvious conviction make it an imposing act of pop interpretation.

August Wilson, RIP
from the NYT obit on the "Theater's Poet of Black America":

In his work, Mr. Wilson depicted the struggles of black Americans with uncommon lyrical richness, theatrical density and emotional heft, in plays that gave vivid voices to people on the frayed margins of life: cabdrivers and maids, garbagemen and side men and petty criminals. In bringing to the popular American stage the gritty specifics of the lives of his poor, trouble-plagued and sometimes powerfully embittered black characters, Mr. Wilson also described universal truths about the struggle for dignity, love, security and happiness in the face of often overwhelming obstacles.

You can't live in Pittsburgh for 3 years, like I did, without seeing, or at least knowing something about August Wilson's plays. Even though he hadn't lived there since the 1970s, most of his plays were set in the Hill District, where he was born and grew up. The Times piece goes on to describe Wilson's refusal to have his play "Fences" directed by a white person in the Hollywood version, after a studio had purchased the script. He believed no white person could be culturally qualified to treat it appropriately. With that restriction, the film remains unmade.

Miers?
One reason for Media Monday is to have a respite from politics, since most of us here care about alot of other things, especially in the arts. But the news of the day seems especially big, so in case "what you have been watching" or "listening to" is the news this morning, you know that Bush nominated a devoted friend and White House cousel, Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. And if you're wondering what folks are saying in the first few hours, check out the American Constitution Society's blog--they're good people. They have posted quotes from a skeptical (mostly conservative) Instapundit, a piercing critique from the very conservative David Frum, and other reactions.