Vanity Fair articles from November 2004

Vanity Fair archives from November 2004

Global Warmth.
November 1, 2004... Byline: Lisa Robinson When editor Graydon Carter said he wanted to devote the entire photo portfolio for this year's Music Issue to world music, trepidation set in. Well, to be honest, it was something more akin to panic. Senior articles...

Arms and the President; What becomes a patriot most.(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... Before reading David Halberstam's article ["Of War and Presidents," September], I expected another one-sided diatribe from Vanity Fair. Instead I was treated to a wonderful, literate, evenhanded essay. Mr. Halberstam offered readers a careful...

Hot Type.(New books)(Bibliography)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Elissa Schappell Head-over-heels hopeful and deliciously satirical, The Future Dictionary of America (McSweeney's) congregates more than 150 of America's most visionary writers, including Paul Auster, Kurt Vonnegut, and Diane...

Hot Tracks.
November 1, 2004... Byline: Lisa Robinson This month: see free CD, page 343. Ryan Adams's "This House Is Not for Sale" is one of the best songs from his celebrated body of work. Joseph Arthur's "Can't Exist" displays the melody, mood, and mastery that is...

Hot Tracks.
November 1, 2004... Byline: Lisa Robinson This month: an admittedly opinionated, in-no-particular-order, all-time-favorites, classic Hot Tracks. If you're in love (or remember when you were), you can't go wrong with Roxy Music's Avalon, one of the most...

Ray of Light.(Ray)(Movie Review)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Lisa Robinson Music biopics have ranged from the award-worthy (What's Love Got to Do with It, The Rose, Coal Miner's Daughter) to the truly square (The Doors). Now we have Ray, starring Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, which took...

Sex Factors.(Kinsey)(Movie Review)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Bruce Handy Kinsey, a witty and often moving new film from writer-director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters), reminds us that there once was an America where people didn't necessarily know what oral sex was, at least not by name....

Guilty Pleasure.(Team America: World Police)(Movie Review)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Adam Laukhuf Voice-overs by: Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park creators). Directed by: Trey Parker for Paramount Pictures. In theaters: Now. Fade in: A Broadway actor is recruited to help an international police unit save the...

Girl Crazy.(Harold Lloyd)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Richard Merkin In his large and splendid book, The Silent Clowns, Walter Kerr chooses three men as the great silent comedians: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. Chaplin remains an eternal icon, the Little Prince of...

Pet Project.(Commentary on "The Pet Goat" - the children's story George W. Bush was reading on September 11th)
November 1, 2004... Byline: James Wolcott "The Pet Goat" is a major literary letdown. From the fascination this bucolic tale has exerted over the last three years, an innocent reader would expect to find an enchanting yarn to rank with such childhood classics...

Design Darling.(Profile on Tara Subkoff)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Christine Muhlke She's been called an actress, a fashion designer, an interior decorator, an artist, and a provocateur. But 31-year-old Tara Subkoff rejects all labels. "Can't I just not have a title? We're in America, not...

Alpha Male.(Alpha caters to the lifestyles of men)
November 1, 2004... Byline: John Brodie Pity the Los Angeles male with delusions of chic. He finds himself caught between the Rodeo Drive labelholics and that T-shirt-and-jeans posse known as the haute gas-station attendants. Thankfully, now there's Alpha-an...

All That Glitters.(Deborah Harrison hand decorates glassware)(Brief Article)(Interview)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Dany Levy It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that bling-and what better proof of that than the obsessions of celebrities? The latest incarnation of the bedazzling craze takes a small imaginative leap. It's no cell phone, iPod,...

MoMA Unveiled.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Aaron Gell For two decades, Picasso's landmark 1907 painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, hung, rather pleasantly, at the end of a series of small rooms on the second floor of New York's Museum of Modern Art. It's a measure of...

Take Note:.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... What's New, Pussycat? Hello Kitty celebrates 30 years of meow by unleashing new ultra-hip accessory and apparel collections. With a fan base that includes Cameron Diaz, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Drew Barrymore, don't be surprised to...

Pampered Passengers.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Molton Brown, London's much-lauded bath, body, skin-care, and cosmetics brand, is now applying its bliss-inducing talents to a new range of luxury-lifestyle home and travel accessories. Meticulously handcrafted by artisans around the globe, the...

Fired Guns; It's musical chairs for the lawyers of Robert Blake, Phil Spector, and Michael Jackson.(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Dominick Dunne The new thing in California celebrity trials is to keep postponing the court date by changing lawyers. Robert Blake, for instance, charged with killing his wife in 2001, is now on his fourth lawyer. In February,...

The Plot to Sell the News; Fox News, The New York Times, 60 Minutes, The Washington Post-they all got the story of the run-up to war with Iraq wrong.
November 1, 2004... Byline: Michael Wolff My friend Randy Rothenberg, who worked for many years at The New York Times before he left classical journalism for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, has a business-head view of journalism skills: the skills...

The Trashing of John McCain; Simultaneously stumping for Bush and defending Kerry against attacks by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, John McCain must be haunted by the vicious South Carolina smear campaign (he was crazy, a traitor, he fathered a black child) that helped Bush win the 2000 Republican nomination.
November 1, 2004... Byline: Richard Gooding One day he was being courted as John Kerry's running mate; another day he was rumored to be replacing Dick Cheney on the Bush ticket. On many days he was defending his Democratic friend against the attacks of the...

U2's Unforgettable Fire; U2 have stayed great-and stayed together-for more than a quarter-century.(Interview)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Lisa Robinson July 27, 2004, Boston: Symphony Hall is all dressed up in red, white, and blue balloons for the party honoring Senator Edward Kennedy's 42 years of public service. (The senator will show up right after his speech...

Afghanistan's Dangerous Bet; Despite violent clashes among warlords, coalition troops, and lurking Taliban fighters, much of Afghanistan has been bravely preparing to vote in this month's election.
November 1, 2004... Byline: Christopher Hitchens I spent my entire time in Afghanistan, from dawn until dusk and then beyond, utterly and completely obsessed with women. You may ask why I am telling you this. What about the land mines, the lurking Taliban,...

Vanity Fair Nominates Ashley Judd.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Jennifer Massoni BECAUSE she neither resented nor receded into the long shadows cast by her mother (Naomi) and older sister (Wynonna), who achieved fame as country music's the Judds. BECAUSE she drove from Kentucky to Hollywood at...

titlehere.(Rosario Dawson)(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Krista Smith Rosario Dawson was just 15 when she was discovered, while sitting on her stoop on Manhattan's Lower East Side, by director Larry Clark, who cast her in Kids, his controversial 1995 film about the sexual exploits of...

Sienna Miller.(Brief Article)(Interview)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Krista Smith AGE AND OCCUPATION: 22, actor. PROVENANCE: London via New York. COR BLIMEY: Miller stars in this month's remake of the cockney classic Alfie, with Jude Law taking over the Michael Caine role. EXPLAINING...

The Last Slander, by Neal Pollack.
November 1, 2004... Byline: Neal Pollack I believe it was George Orwell who wrote, upon reading T. S. Eliot's exegesis of Erasmus's defense of Torquemada on humanitarian grounds, "If you can't shit in the pot, get out of the kitchen before the stove blows."...

The Maverick King; A Hollywood golden boy after his Oscar nomination for Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp is still keeping critics and fans guessing.(Interview)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Steven Daly As he saunters into the grand lobby of London's Dorchester Hotel at 10:20 on a Saturday morning, Johnny Depp is not wearing a curly blond wig. Although he's currently taking on Gene Wilder's titular role in a remake of...

The Path to 9/11 Lost Warnings and Fatal Errors; By the time the hijackers made their way into the U.S., memos, photographs, and intercepts had sounded alarms inside the C.I.A., White House, F.B.I., and European intelligence services.
November 1, 2004... Byline: Ned Zeman, David Wise, David Rose, Bryan Burrough With his salt- and-pepper hair, white shirt, and sensible shoes, Mike Scheuer, 44, looked like a rumpled academician, or maybe a consultant for one of the many defense contractors...

Cheney in Charge; On the morning of September 11, 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney, who has no such constitutional power, authorized the shootdown of a civilian airliner.
November 1, 2004... Byline: David Wise At 10:10 on the morning of September 11-or within the next four minutes-from a bunker deep below the East Wing of the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney gave the chilling order to shoot down a civilian airliner...

Caetano Veloso; Singer, songwriter, eternal bohemian.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... For nearly 40 years, Caetano Veloso has been devouring cultural influences-from bossa nova and samba to rock, pop, and reggae; from avant-garde poetry to cinema novo and radical politics-with astonishing results. In the late 60s he...

Nana Mouskouri; Singer, UNICEF goodwill ambassador.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Greek songstress Nana Mouskouri grew up in Athens in the shadow of an open-air cinema's movie screen, and hearing Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz inspired her to sing (and taught her how to sing in English). One six-decade career...

Sean Paul; Singer, dancehall sensation.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Reggae and rap have been mixing it up for decades, but dancehall-more about "slackness" (girls and guns) than either bling-bling or Jah-is the most explosive thing in clubs right now, and its crowned king is Sean Paul. No one seems...

Talvin Singh; Tabla player, remixer, groove master, producer, arranger, composer.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... In his very own musical genre, "tablatronics," Talvin Singh blends classical Indian tabla playing and the British subspecies of European electronica known as drum 'n' bass. Born in 1970 to Indian parents who had fled Idi Amin's Uganda...

Asha Bhosle; Film singer.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Remember Marni Nixon, who dubbed Audrey Hepburn's songs in My Fair Lady, Natalie Wood's in West Side Story, and Deborah Kerr's in The King and I? Asha Bhosle is the Indian equivalent, and then some. Having cut somewhere between...

Orchestra Baobab; Pioneers of contemporary African music.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Like the long-lived tree it's named after, this band's got deep roots, tapping into powerful African traditions along with undulating Cuban rhythms. Orchestra Baobab, formed in Dakar in 1970 to entertain businessmen and government...

Peter Gabriel; Singer, songwriter, activist.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... As the front man of Genesis in the early 70s, the prep-school-educated English lad Peter Gabriel wore gobs of makeup and outlandish costumes onstage. After Genesis's 1974 magnum opus, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Gabriel...

Jane Birkin; Singer, actress, handbag namesake.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Former sex kitten turned respected musician and actress-there's no real equivalent to Jane Birkin on the American scene. The English bird who first gained notoriety doing the female Full Monty in Blow-Up, Birkin moved to France...

Youssou N'Dour; Singer, bandleader, producer, Philanthropist.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Yes, he's best known for his soaring chant-singing on Peter Gabriel's 1986 hit "In Your Eyes." But Youssou N'Dour's climb from a 12-year-old performer at male-circumcision rituals to sold-out concerts in soccer stadiums in his native...

Joel Virgel; Singer, percussionist, songwriter.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... It's hard not to feel swoony at the smooth, slightly breathy sound of Joel Virgel. He often sings in English, but you always know he's French-Guadeloupean-born, Paris-raised. Still, it would be a mistake to think that Virgel's...

Gilberto Gil; Singer, songwriter, government minister.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Long before the likes of Paul Simon and David Byrne began looking southward for their muses, Gilberto Gil was plundering the North. Back in the 60s, as a founder of Brazil's Tropicalia movement, he fused bossa nova and samba...

Salif Keita; Singer, guitarist, composer.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... From the irresistible rock- and funk-infused electronic grooves of 1995's Folon to the acoustic strains of his latest album, Moffou (2002), Salif Keita, of Mali, has always earned his reputation as "the golden voice of Africa."...

Ryuichi Sakamoto; Composer, pianist, sometime actor and model, futurist.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Ryuichi Sakamoto has made a career for himself by playing everything from techno to light classical to bossa nova to opera. "I know I confuse the people who work at Tower Records," he has said. In 1977 he formed the techno-pop ...

Les Nubians; Singers.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Voila Les Nubians, a sister act straight outta Bordeaux representing the new, multicultural France. Celia and Helene Faussart, the daughters of a French father and a Cameroonian mother, combine soul, reggae, and West African...

Ladysmith Black Mambazo; South African a cappella troupe.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Ladysmith Black Mambazo Formed in the 1960s, Joseph Shabalala's 10-man, foot-stomping choir, from the town of Ladysmith, 200 miles outside Durban, has somehow managed to survive, thrive, and even outlive the dark days of South African...

Angelique Kidjo; Singer, songwriter, UNICEF goodwill ambassador.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... The most famous female African singer to emerge since her idol, Miriam Makeba, Angelique Kidjo began singing as a child in her mother's theater troupe, studied jazz as a young adult in Paris (where she met her husband, ...

King Sunny Ade; Singer, bandleader, drummer, King of Juju.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Born to Yoruba royalty in Oshogbo, Nigeria, Prince Sunday Anthony Ishola Adeniyi loved music from a young age but was forbidden by his parents to play professionally. So in 1963 the music-crazed 17-year-old prince left his hometown...

Ali Farka Toure; Guitarist, Njarka player, singer, songwriter, farmer.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Born in the Timbuktu region of Mali, Ali Farka Toure got serious about the guitar at age 17. More than a decade later, he saw Detroit bluesman John Lee Hooker playing a show in Bamako. On first listen he thought Hooker was playing...

Marisa Monte; Singer, composer, producer, pop diva.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... In Brazil, legions have been under Marisa Monte's sway for well over a decade (in September 2001 she played a concert at Ipanema Beach for more than 140,000 rapturous fans). But even if you don't understand Portuguese, her seductive,...

Ali Akbar Khan; Sarode master, composer, educator.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Credited with introducing Indian classical music to the West in 1955, Ali Akbar Khan has had a career thus far that is nothing short of amazing. He has won respect the world over for his mastery of the sarode-a 25-stringed...

Noa; Singer, Songwriter.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Tel Aviv-born, Bronx-bred Noa (real name: Achinoam Nini; her first name means "sister of peace" in Hebrew) made a head-turning English-language debut with her 1994 CD, Noa, which synthesized folk and mysticism into highly personal,...

Cesaria Evora; Chanteuse.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... By now the story has been oft told: how Cesaria Evora made it from barefoot crooner in dusty Mindelo, on the West African island of So Vicente, to reigning queen of world music, celebrated and adored on stages around the globe...

Hugh Masekela; Trumpeter, activist.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Take a look at Hugh Masekela's recent autobiography, Still Grazing, and you'll be in awe of the many lives packed into one: the precocious youth growing up outside Johannesburg (he was given one of Louis Armstrong's trumpets when he...

Carla Bruni; Singer.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Though Carla Bruni is still best known in the U.S. as the supermodel who dated Mick Jagger, this wellborn Italian from Turin has taken France by storm with her debut album, Quelqu'un M'A Dit, and sent it back to the tradition ...

Chris Blackwell; Founder-visionary, Island Records.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... As someone who spent his boyhood days in Jamaica before many years at Britain's poshest boarding schools, Chris Blackwell has always been split between two cultures. Starting in 1959, with the formation of Island Records in...

Bebel Gilberto; Singer.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Her papa is Joo Gilberto, one of the founding fathers of bossa nova. Her mother is the Brazilian singer Miucha (Joo's second wife, after Astrud Gilberto). She herself, a resident of Manhattan for the past decade, can be ...

Ibrahim Ferrer; Singer.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... With a trace of Asia in his face and a Kangol hat on his head, Ibrahim Ferrer brought his honey-coated tones to the Buena Vista Social Club, the Cuban band that became the surprise sensation of the late 90s. Such local legends...

Ravi and Anoushka Shankar; Sitar legend and legend in the making.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... What joy, what tenderness, are contained in this musical collaboration-for master and student are also father and daughter. Ravi Shankar, at 84, has seen and done it all: he played at Woodstock and the Monterey Pop Festival, wrote film...

Baaba Maal; Singer, storyteller.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... Onstage, on CDs, even in interviews, Baaba Maal-perhaps Senegal's most internationally renowned musician next to Youssou N'Dour-comes across as a man doing precisely what he was meant to do. His albums have wandered over the years,...

The Marleys; Reggae's first family.(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... The children of Bob Marley have continued his legacy of Rastafarianism and preaching peace and justice through song. In 1979, two years before Bob would die from cancer, he invited his 10-year- old son, Ziggy, into the studio to sing...

Tom Waits; For more than 30 years, singer-songwriter (not to mention actor and playwright) Tom Waits has been the godfather of the gravelly-voiced barroom ballad.(Brief Article)(Interview)(Biography)
November 1, 2004... What is your idea of perfect happiness? Happiness is never perfect. What is your greatest fear? Being buried alive. Which historical figure do you most identify with? Cantinflas. What is your favorite journey? ...

The Black and White of It.(Editorial)
November 1, 2004... Byline: Graydon Carter There comes a time in the course of a book tour when you think the people interviewing you are beginning to find you incredibly boring. In my case, I was one step ahead of them-I found myself incredibly boring. In...