Paul Simon is 75 today.

His most recent album, Stranger to Stranger, his thirteenth solo album, was released in June to excellent reviews and he has spent 2016 touring on its behalf (he is in Europe at present). It is excellent and has moments of rhythmic experimentation: he uses instruments built by the music theorist and general eccentric Harry Partch on several tracks.

He remains a figure of some controversy in the music business, usually the controversies are over matters concerning the business part of the phrase music business. As a music fan though he is on my personal Mount Rushmore of songwriters.
Read More

For King John, the last two years of his reign (and life) must have felt like a long losing streak: he failed in his attempt to retake Normandy by force, in part because his own barons refused to serve in his military; later, he was made to sign the Magna Carta with many of those same barons, and even though the pope took John’s side and declared the Magna Carta null and void, the barons and he still fell into war against each other.

And then came October 12, 1216. John spent much of his reign traveling; even when he was home in England he traveled from friendly manor house to the next friendly house, allowing his allies to play host to the king, and he did not travel light: his entourage carried everything that he owned personally and in the name of the crown everywhere it went. John collected jewels and gold and silver, and he inherited the Crown Jewels of Germany from his grandmother. His traveling court included several horse-drawn carts full of jewels and precious metals.
Read More

30 Rock, a television series created by Tina Fey and starring Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, and my friend and fellow “Pelican” Sean Marrinan, debuted on NBC ten years ago tonight.
Read More