John Lingan

If it clarifies what was lost this week:

Philip Kennicott and Monica Hesse remain as arts critics at The Washington Post

Eliminated:
art critic
arts editor
arts/film editor
classical critic
pop critic
television critic
theater critic
all editors/reporters in Book World including two book critics

This is how I learned J Dilla was born on the day Blazing Saddles came out.

You don’t know me and Dan didn’t either but your specific remembrance was the one that broke the dam. I cried, and I’m so sorry for your loss. Love to both of your little dudes.

Any paper that throws away this arts section is a disgrace. Scroll down to see Chris’s new newsletter, then subscribe like I just did. One of the best doing it.

George Goddamn Will still, at age 428, gets to write weekly columns complaining that democrats are too committed to social equality. Marc Thiessen remains employed. Megan McArdle as well. These are the essential voices we need in 2026.

Awful. I’m so sorry.

I have benefited my whole life from the Post book section. My first appearance in print was a letter to Michael Dirda that he published when I was 8. I’ve reviewed for them, and they listed my most recent book in a 2025 roundup. This is a huge loss to US literary culture. Fuck all billionaires.

This rules and you rule.

Nothing in the world cuter than a dimpled baby hand

Went back to Lot 49 to compare. It too is full of silly names and puns and an endless quest, but the language is often disorientingly poetic, rapturous. I still remember the feeling of this paragraph when I first read it in high school, and still barely know what he means. But this is music.

💔💔💔

I’m honestly too sad about Catherine O’Hara to go through clips and find one to post so, since I’m a music writer anyway, here’s her sister’s perfect album from 1988 in case you don’t know about it. marymargaretohara.bandcamp.com/album/miss-a...

Take this month and shove it.

Silliest musician I've ever spent time around (derogatory)

Didn't know that was Drayton on the Idler Wheel, he's a beast. Will have to relisten today.

Grateful to Nick for reading, and for this excellent prompt. Five off-the-cuff choices:

Rod Stewart, "Every Picture..." (Micky Waller)
Bill Withers, "Still Bill" (James Gadson)
Rainbow, "Rising" (Cozy Powell)
New Order, "Brotherhood" (Stephen Morris)
Deerhoof, "The Runners Four" (Greg Saunier)

Backbeats: A History of Rock and Roll in Fifteen Drummers by John Lingan

As I’m reading the chapter in here about Charlie Watts, what are some albums that aren’t immediately thought of as “drum albums” but you listen to and hear it that way? An album that in an under the radar way is carried by the drummer? My go-to answer is Twin Cinema.

My nominee: Rod Stewart’s “Every Picture Tells a Story” with huuuuge galloping drums throughout by Micky Waller.

The cover of Thomas Pynchon’s “Shadow Ticket”

Lord knows he’s earned it, and I hope I’m this imaginative when I’m 88, but this is even more pointless than his two previous hepcat-jive P.I. riffs. As in, I genuinely don’t know what the point is, and it lacks both the sf/surrealist and romantic strains in his best stuff. Hope he lives forever.

I thought “Balmorhea” is what happened the day after having a cream of crab soup and three Bohs at Dizzy Issie’s.

Column | The abhorrent power of the photograph of a 5-year-old held by ICE An image like this could once change history. Can one still?

Philip Kennicott using the tools of visual arts criticism to dissect ICE’s immorality. Incredible piece.

That’s also the only way I can comprehend it with the others. Has to be the most arch Album of the Year slate ever.

Awards are baloney but if you're snowbound this weekend I recommend DA 5 BLOODS.

Ralph Towner, Eclectic Guitarist With the Ensemble Oregon, Dies at 85

Condolences to my fellow ECM perverts, this man was a visionary. Between Towner and DeJohnette, two of the label's defining artists have died in the last few months.

You can tell how much love and knowledge went into it. Great work man.

This is a model of what the Sunday Review can be. What fun! What thoughtful writing!

What a book

Nothing sounds like Source Tags… magically heavy. Not improved by seeing the drummer’s hat and facial hair.

Are they the greatest American band? Close enough that I love anyone who says they are.

My essay on their 50th anniversary: