I’m schlepping around Madrid, riding the underground in pursuit of the Reina Sofia, and when we finally arrive we find out we’ve gotten bad information, the museum is closed.<\/p>\n
That’s the frustration of travel where you don’t know the language.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t drill down and get accurate information.\u00c2\u00a0 You make mistakes. Kind of like the U.S. in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Confronting our choices, we decided to venture up to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, where we sat down at the outdoor cafe and ordered a late lunch.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s where I read Frank Rich’s article.<\/p>\n
Mobile phones in Europe are a conundrum.\u00c2\u00a0 You can buy a SIM card and make cheap calls, but then you don’t get your e-mail.\u00c2\u00a0 So, you change your plan to use your BlackBerry, swearing you’ll keep the dollar a minute calls to a minimum, and then find out you’ve got no Internet access because in this one area, the U.S. is superior.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, you can get 3G on Verizon almost anywhere in the country, but in Europe, I was stymied, a phone call to tech support told me I had to downgrade to 2G for access, thank god this proffered solution worked.<\/p>\n
So I’m functioning on GPRS, on EDGE to those familiar with the first iteration of the iPhone, and as my connection struggles like a dialup modem in the days of yore, I eventually download all of Frank Rich’s column.<\/p>\n
Yes, that Frank Rich.\u00c2\u00a0 The reviled theatre critic who has reinvented himself as political seer by being different from the rest of the talking heads.\u00c2\u00a0 The household names get on TV and shout at other, amplifying their positions, but offering no insight.\u00c2\u00a0 Mr. Rich is all about the analysis, like an umpire at a tennis match giving his take a week after the contest, having had time to think about it.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s required reading, not only for me, but so many others, despite the lack of a marketing campaign.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, excellence surfaces.<\/p>\n
And I’m reading Mr. Rich’s column on the tiny screen and I find out "Rolling Stone" has brought down McChrystal.<\/p>\n
Huh?\u00c2\u00a0 What is it, 1972?<\/p>\n
Mr. Rich goes on to say that everybody in the mainstream media is busy making friends, playing for access, and won’t ask the hard questions, or won’t publish the answers, they want to go to dinner with the household names.\u00c2\u00a0 Reading the column gets one excited, like there’s hope for the rest of us, not only the left wingers but even the Tea Party, that somehow the man on the street can have meaning, can influence the outcome.<\/p>\n
"Rolling Stone".\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t that the magazine that survived the excision of its fold but not its transition to glossy?\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to know about music, don’t bother, "Rolling Stone" is lost, not sure whether to be "Mojo" or "Q", focus on the ancient or the new and evanescent, and therefore resides in a no-man’s land that is ignored by so many.<\/p>\n
So what does RS do?<\/p>\n
Go where the action is, and do a bang-up job.<\/p>\n
Matt Taibbi.\u00c2\u00a0 He was the turning point.\u00c2\u00a0 Labeling Goldman Sachs "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity".<\/p>\n
The mainstream was giving Wall Street a pass.\u00c2\u00a0 Saying it wasn’t the bankers’ fault.\u00c2\u00a0 Mr. Taibbi was having none of that.\u00c2\u00a0 Financial reform? Send a check to Matt Taibbi and "Rolling Stone", not your local Congressman.<\/p>\n
And now comes Michael Hastings’ depiction of General McChrystal.<\/p>\n
Don’t stop with Frank Rich, don’t focus on the backlash, go straight to the source, read the "Rolling Stone" article.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like hearing a great record.<\/p>\n