Insert Foot Vs. Donald Trump. It’s just another Scrambled Sunday, when ideas for making an omelet frequently become trying to salvage messy eggs from a burned skillet. Another of my go-to phrases over the years has been “Irony can be so ironic.” I don’t remember where it came from;…

Three years after his death, Leonard Cohen remains a touchstone in popular music. Referenced with knowing glances among musicians, his singular style inhabits a gray world rife with disappointment, longing and resignation. A tenured and substantial fixture in folk music and poetry, Cohen speaks from beyond the grave with Thanks For The…

Tedeschi Trucks Band performs at the Fox Theater in Oakland on May 11, 2019. Photos: Karen Goldman. OAKLAND — Tedeschi Trucks Band‘s Susan Tedeschi stood in front of fans Saturday night—the second of two shows at the Fox Theater—and asked if anyone had been there the night before. “It’s going…

L to R: Buckwheat Zydeco, Prince Buster, Phife Dawg, Jean Shepard, Don Buchla. Art: Roman Gokhman It’s safe to say that 2016 has been something of an all-around dumpster fire, especially when it comes to the sheer volume of iconic artists we’ve lost. The list of familiar and life-changing…

Leonard Cohen performs at Paramount Theatre in Oakland on March 3, 2013. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. At the beginning of his show at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre on March 3, the second of two sold-out nights, legendary septuagenarian crooner Leonard Cohen offered no promises of the distant future. Leonard Cohen performs at…