Neko Case's artful, carefully crafted folk-country has usually been easier to admire than really enjoy. Her albums tend toward the polite and poetic despite her having some of the most powerful pipes around. Listening to Case is a bit like watching a muscle car stuck in a school zone. ...more

March 19, 2009

It's all gone a bit topsy-turvy when a Portishead track is a dead ringer for Silver Apples. ...more

May 22, 2008

When a person loses $7.2 billion of other people's money, other people naturally want to know more about him. They badly want to believe that he is in some way unusual. To blow up $7 billion - to buy more than $75 billion in equities in private - must require some kind of genius. ...more

January 31, 2008

The Just Sing, Florida contest has picked three finalists in its quest for a new state song. You can go to www.justsingflorida.org to hear for yourself, then pick your favorite. Voting ends Jan. 11. Can't decide? The Tampa Tribune's Curtis Ross offers his quick take on each of the contenders here. ...more

December 12, 2007