Portside

Dave Van Ronk's ex-wife, Terri Thal, reviews the film, Inside Llewyn Davis. Llewyn Davis differs from David. - there are so few similarities. The Coens say the movie isn't about Dave, and they are correct. Most of the acting is very good. Oscar Isaac is excellent -- he's real, and he brings pathos and anger to Llewyn Davis. His performances of David's songs are good. The music? It's done well, but the movie never shows how it comes about.

The Egyptian Revolution Behind the Headlines. Hustlers' Convention: The Roots of Rap. Searching for Sugarman. The NSA Is Coming to Town. Rhymes With Smokey Joe.

Jon Stewart -- Affordable Horror Story. Liquid Art. Canned Heat -- Woodstock Boogie. Burn: Detroit Firefighter Documentary. Professor Louie -- What Does it Mean to be Working Class?

Nations Be Spying, Yo. Crash Course: History of Life on Earth. Wendy Davis, in Her Own Words. Stop Watching Us. Fortunate Son. Movie: 12 Years a Slave.

Back in Brown with Aasif Mandvi. Why Are American Health Care Costs So High? The Black NRA. After Tiller: Documentary. Copenhagen Metro Peer Gynt Flash Mob. NFL: League of Denial.

Hey Conservatives: Don’t Bash ‘The Butler’ (From a Conservative)

Fixing Old Markets With New Markets; America's Descent Into Madness; Rotting Entrails of the Intellectual Right; Elysium - Just Flip the Switch; Hardhats and Hippies

We live in a country that embodies three different dystopian archetypes at once: America is partly a panopticon surveillance-and-security state, as in Orwell, partly an anesthetic and amoral consumer wonderland, as in Huxley, and partly a grand rhetorical delusion or “spectacle,” as in Dick or “The Matrix” or certain currents of French philosophy.