Head Butler -- Books: The Spies of Warsaw
The "spy" is "an ordinary-looking man, who led a rather ordinary life" -- he's a mid-level engineer at a German ironworks, married, with three children. But as he takes the train to Warsaw in the autumn of 1937, his leather satchel contains some engineering diagrams. Once in Warsaw, he'll give them to his contact.
posted: Friday July 18th - 8:15am
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Head Butler -- Books: Lamentations of the Father
How does a man become a murderer?
posted: Friday July 11th - 8:15am
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Head Butler -- Products: Gustiamo
Here's a paradox: Sometimes you pay more -- and get so much more that you actually save money. I'll explain. It started with coffee.
posted: Thursday July 3rd - 8:15am
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Head Butler -- Music: All I Intended to Be
Emmylou Harris is an Old School musician in many ways, but especially in this --- she's plowed the same field for almost all her career. There have been modest detours, but nothing requiring her to change her hair or buy a drum machine. She just sings American Roots music, straight ahead and unadorned.
posted: Friday June 27th - 8:15am
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Head Butler -- Books -- One Writer's Beginnings
Eudora Welty won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, and she is generally considered among the three or four female American writers of the last century whose fiction is likely to endure.
posted: Friday June 20th - 12:21pm
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Head Butler -- Books -- The War of Art
Self-help books are like diet books -- the people who mostly get helped are their authors and publishers.
posted: Friday June 13th - 11:58am
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Head Butler -- Books -- The Art of Racing in the Rain
At a publishing party, I was chatting with a literary agent who's one of the titans of this troubled business. "In the last year, can you name a new novel you couldn't put down?" I asked. Long pause. He couldn't. Nor could I.
posted: Friday June 6th - 11:14am
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Head Butler - Books - The Book of General Ignorance, by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
Life ain't fair. We have the diving dollar. Brits have the powerful pound...
posted: Friday May 30th - 12:11pm
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Head Butler - Music - Otis Spann
At 8, Otis Spann was playing piano. At 14, he was performing with groups in Jackson, Mississippi. At 17, when his mother died, he was sent to Chicago, where his apprenticeship began in earnest. At 22, he was backing Muddy Waters.
posted: Friday May 23rd - 11:56am
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Head Butler - Books - Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam
John R. Brinkley snipped the testicles from a goat. He made neat incisions on the comparable zone of a male patient. He tossed the goat testicles in and sewed the patient up...
posted: Friday May 16th - 11:50am
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Head Butler: Hungry for Paris: The Ultimate Guide to the City's 102 Best Restaurants
Dollar skidding, plane fare soaring --- it's not likely I'll be having dinner in Paris any time soon.
posted: Friday May 9th - 10:20am
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Head Butler: Products - Cambodian Market Bags
There will come a time when that question is as archaic as “Shall we take the flivver or the carriage?”
posted: Friday May 2nd - 10:18am
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Head Butler - Books: Second Sight
You're a young doctor, just six months into your psychiatric practice. And here, out of the blue, comes a dream about a patient: wandering down streets, alone, lost, searching.
posted: Friday April 25th - 4:52pm
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Head Butler - Books: Epictetus
I took a nap after lunch. My sleep was deep, my awakening sudden --- I looked around as if I were seeing the bedroom for the first time on a fresh day, as if it were morning. The bed was made. Where was my wife?
posted: Friday April 18th - 4:42pm
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Head Butler - Books: Artistotle
In 1928, a heckler shouted at presidential candidate Al Smith, "Tell 'em all you know. It won't take long." Smith shouted back, "If I tell them all we both know, it won't take any longer."
posted: Friday April 11th - 4:36pm
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Head Butler - Books: Eating To Live
Food prices rose about 4% in 2007, and just as money starts getting tight for many Americans, food prices are expected to rise another 4% this year.
posted: Friday April 4th - 3:45pm
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Head Butler - Books: The Book of General Ignorance
Life ain't fair. We have the diving dollar. Brits have the powerful pound.
posted: Friday March 28th - 10:36am
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Head Butler - Green Tea Extract
Does green tea prevent cancer, lower cholesterol, lessen the chance of a heart attack and much more? Some say yes, some say no.
posted: Friday March 21st - 2:32pm
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Head Butler - Movies - Manufactured Landscapes
You want to see this movie --- you need to see this movie --- for many reasons, and scale is the first. We talk about global warming and environmental degradation and maybe we see a picture of an ice cap and a polar bear or a giant landfill, but we rarely see how big these things can be.
posted: Friday March 14th - 2:30pm
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Head Butler - Music - Alexander Nevsky
The greatest score in all of film --- so good that it inspired John Williams' shark theme in “Jaws” and James Horner's music for “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”
posted: Friday March 7th - 2:27pm
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Head Butler - Books - Park Avenue Potluck: Recipes from New York's Savviest Hostesses
In the silver serving bowl on the cover of “Park Avenue Potluck”, there's a....could that really be a casserole?
posted: Friday February 29th - 2:21pm
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Head Butler - Books - Her Last Death by Susanna Sonnenberg
What kind of daughter gets the most dreaded of all phone calls --- “Your mother's been in an accident, she's probably going to die” --- and doesn't drop everything to rush to mom's bedside? In this case, a smart one.
posted: Friday February 22nd - 2:19pm
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Head Butler - Music - This Is Ryan Shaw by Ryan Shaw
I miss Otis Redding. I miss Wilson Pickett. I miss Sam Cooke. I miss Jackie Wilson and Bobby Womack and Marvin Gaye and the music Stevie Wonder made in the '70s. And it's not because I'm old, dammit. It's because these guys were gods.
posted: Friday February 15th - 5:52pm
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Head Butler - Books - The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho
“The Alchemist” has sold more than 30 million copies, been translated into more than 50 languages and published in more than 150 countries --- in short, I have no trouble believing that this is one of the world's most popular books.
posted: Friday February 8th - 11:49am
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Head Butler - Books - John O'Donohue (1954 -2008): Our Friend Among the Dead
At 100 words a minute, I had, over weeks, absorbed enough of this deceptively simple exploration of “soul friendship” to grasp that here was an original thinker, a gifted poet and, most astonishing of all, a philosopher who had forged a way of looking at the world that was painfully aware of human frailty but insistent on the triumphal power of divine love.
posted: Friday February 1st - 11:47am
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Head Butler - Books - In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
In just 200 pages (and 22 pages of notes and sources), “In Defense of Food” gives you a guided tour of 20th century food science, a history of “nutritionism” in America and a snapshot of the marriage of government and the food industry.
posted: Friday January 25th - 11:46am
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Head Butler - Books - The Unknown Terrorist By Richard Flanagan
The most exciting thrillers I've read in the last few years --- Peter Temple's Identity Theory, Charles McCarry's The Tears of Autumn and now this nail-biter from Richard Flanagan --- all have politics at their center
posted: Friday January 18th - 11:44am
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Head Butler - Music - Chris Gillespie Live At The Carlyle
If you are of a certain age, odds are good that you saw Bobby Short sing at the Carlyle Hotel. I did.
posted: Friday January 11th - 12:03pm
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Head Butler - Books - "Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic" by Tom Holland
Is America Rome?
posted: Friday January 4th - 12:02pm
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Head Butler - Books - "Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin
The “wild and crazy” guy. The goofball in the white suit, banjo optional. The comic with an arrow through his head. “King Tut.”
posted: Friday December 28th - 11:56am
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Bunker Spreckels: Surfing's Divine Prince of Decadence
When it comes to books as gifts, I vote for anything about surfing.
posted: Friday December 21st - 11:06am
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Two Meatballs in the Italian Kitchen
My wife worked for Pino Luongo for years and years. Mark Strausman cooked our wedding dinner.
posted: Friday December 14th - 11:03am
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Discovery Editions
Want to buy a painting by an artist with any reputation? No longer possible. Once the rich had bought enough real estate to hold them for a few years, they turned to art. And, predictably, prices zoomed.
posted: Friday December 7th - 11:07am
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2007 Holiday Gift Guide
There are holidays to visit the Bentley dealer, but this doesn't feel like one of them. For all but the top half-percent, the dominant vibe this season is caution and frugality. The hot gift, I read, is large, flat-screen TVs. Runner-ups: iPods, cell phones and jewelry. And then, I guess, the gift cliche: sweaters.
posted: Friday November 30th - 11:09am
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"Revival" by John Fogerty
What I got: 50 people had been invited to hear John Fogerty give a mini-concert to promote the launch of "Revival". And I was one of them. In the front row, no less.
posted: Friday November 16th - 12:00am
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Secret Hotels: Extraordinary Values in the World's Most Stunning Destinations Erik Torkells
The editors of ~Budget Travel~ challenged themselves to find resort hotels "that don't show up on big online booking engines or get written about in fussy travel magazines." They discovered an interesting, unreported truth: Not everyone who goes to live in a beautiful place is filthy rich.
posted: Friday November 9th - 12:00am
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Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein
"Philosophy" is very broad for these guys. They include all the traditional Great Thinkers. They ask the Big Questions, from "Does life have a purpose?" to "Is the glass half-full?" They also deal with Feminism and Intelligent Design. In other words, they'll go anywhere to make a point --- and tell a joke.
posted: Friday November 2nd - 12:00am
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"Four Last Songs" by Richard Strauss; Sung by Renee Fleming
These songs are serene, and yet they thrill. They give a soprano a chance to display the full range of her gifts, but they are beyond ego.
posted: Friday October 26th - 12:01am
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Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen
“Food joyously occupies a large portion of my waking thoughts --- it even makes appearances in my dreams,” she reports. And so, in 2003, she started a blog: Chocolate & Zucchini. It took off. And now her book has as well.
posted: Friday October 5th - 10:19am
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Dorothy Parker
She was a Rothschild --- just not the right kind. Her mother died a month before her fifth birthday, her stepmother died when she was nine, her father died when she was 20.
posted: Monday October 1st - 6:41pm
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Altec Lansing iM9 inMotion Portable Speaker System for iPods
I'm not looking to gain weight, but these four pounds I'll take....anywhere.
posted: Friday June 29th - 12:16pm
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"Five Minds for the Future"
These are not new ideas. What's new is the notion that your personal survival depends on multi-disciplinary learning.
posted: Friday June 22nd - 12:14pm
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"To My Dearest Friends"
The new definition of rich: "someone who could afford their apartment now."
posted: Friday June 15th - 12:17pm
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The Waiting Game
In your early 30s and thinking you have loads of time? No. You don't. This true story of infertility is as chilling as it is familiar.
posted: Friday February 23rd - 12:15pm
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The Way to a Woman's Heart
When diamonds just won't do... recipes from this savory, authentic Italian cookbook will most certainly get her in the mood. A Valentine's sample dinner.
posted: Monday February 12th - 12:58pm
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Pile-Driver Percussion
This Valentine's Day, trade Barry White for Les Negresses Vertes and wake up still feeling naughty.
posted: Friday February 2nd - 8:24am
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Recipes from the Real Little Italy
Authentic Southern Italian cooking straight from Arthur Avenue in the Bronx
posted: Friday January 26th - 7:00am
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A Round-Heeled Woman
The sexy and witty chronicle of a woman looking for a man who knows what to do with her
posted: Friday January 19th - 6:00am
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House Porn
Derry Moore's collection of photographs "Rooms" offers up a dazzling peek into the homes of the very rich and well mannered
posted: Friday January 12th - 7:00am
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The Timeless Robert Altman
"McCabe & Mrs. Miller" is about a gambler, a whore and a business deal -- perfect!
posted: Thursday January 4th - 12:45pm
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A Softer Irish Soul
Musician Noirin Ni Riain creates music that speaks directly to your soul.
posted: Friday November 17th - 11:00am
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Food is Life
Cultivate a lifelong interst in food with a book that celebrates the "essential act of life"
posted: Friday November 10th - 11:02am
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The Best of the Worst
The Smoking Gun has assembled a collection of their greatest hits for those who like their scandals described in full detail
posted: Friday November 3rd - 10:00am
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Happiness In a CD
Rough week? This music will pick you up and make you shake your booty with estatic joy.
posted: Friday October 27th - 10:17am
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How Annoying
New York Times Reporter Ian Urbiana's new book is a 185-page collection of revenge stories that provide respite from the petty annoyances we encounter daily
posted: Thursday October 12th - 10:18am
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Mildred Pierce
Novelist James M. Cain has found a formula that, in a repressed culture, never fails -- serving up hot, illicit sex and then punishing the lovers.
posted: Friday October 6th - 9:28am
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Entourage
"Television is not to watch. It is to appear on."
posted: Thursday September 28th - 11:32am
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Without Limits
Feeling sluggish? Here's your Saturday night movie.
posted: Thursday September 21st - 8:31am
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The Criminally Warped Mind
"The Killer Inside Me" proves that no writer creates psychopaths more compelling than Jim Thompson.
posted: Thursday July 6th - 1:52pm
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The Sultan and the Angel
Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler roll up their sleeves and build songs like brick walls. Solid.
posted: Wednesday June 21st - 3:04pm
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All Apologies?
People screw up. That's life. But what's really interesting is the way they apologize -- or don't.
posted: Tuesday June 6th - 10:17am
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Sex In Print
The appeal of Annie Ernaux's "Simple Passion" is, if you will, how manly it is. How matter-of-fact.
posted: Thursday May 18th - 1:02pm
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Animal Instincts
Josh Ritter's musical instincts are fierce. And his message is downright dangerous.
posted: Wednesday May 10th - 9:54am
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The Dude Abides
Some say "The Big Lebowski" is a retelling of the Buddha's story... with a lot of cursing.
posted: Monday May 1st - 8:59am
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Funny Girl?
Eddie Izzard is the most irreverant British transvestite comedian alive.
posted: Monday April 24th - 9:17am
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The Messiah of Morris Avenue
This thought-provoking satire from "Spinal Tap" icon Tony Hendra pokes a stick at the evangelical Christian movement in America.
posted: Friday April 14th - 9:30am
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The Bully of Washington
This enlightened primer on Joe McCarthy reveals the motivations behind "the most destructive demagogue in American history."
posted: Wednesday April 5th - 9:18am
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"Sing More Sad"
Why is Leonard Cohen such a talisman for me? Because of the remarkable consistency of his vision: love.
posted: Monday March 20th - 11:25am
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Big Brother, Where Art Thou?
A quick history of the government's dark involvement with domestic surveillance.
posted: Monday March 13th - 12:49pm
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Gulp Fiction: "V for Vendetta"
Who should read this book? Anyone who's interested in large ideas, dramatically expressed.
posted: Wednesday March 8th - 12:00am
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Sweet Suffering
Rosanne Cash's "Black Cadillac" is a poignant, rollicking album that her father would have loved.
posted: Tuesday February 28th - 7:30pm
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The Number
How much do you need to live on after retirement? Do the math in this book.
posted: Tuesday February 21st - 3:13pm
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Tongue and Groove
This book of clever comebacks and witty retorts will help hone your personal arsenal.
posted: Tuesday February 14th - 3:07pm
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School of (Classic) Rock
Essential reading for anyone who thinks Bach is boring
posted: Friday February 3rd - 9:13am
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Dynamic Duo
The White Stripes producing thrilling music -- just the stuff for cardio workouts or warding off satan.
posted: Thursday January 26th - 8:27am
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Shades of (David) Gray
Life In Slow Motion is "brilliant pop, artfully crafted and wonderfully emotional. There's not a dead song on it."
posted: Friday January 20th - 6:40am
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Obscenely, Grossly Wealthy
"740 Park" peaks inside the keyholes of New York's elite upper crust and dishes delicious history.
posted: Monday January 16th - 4:32am
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Are You Man Enough...
...to appreciate the tragic beauty of a gay cowboy movie?
posted: Wednesday January 11th - 7:18pm
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Rebel With a Board
Mickey Dora was the original Malibu surfer -- before he became a Hollywood felon, sociopath and wannabe poet.
posted: Thursday January 5th - 6:48am
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