Lots of people loved president Obama's speech calling for civility Wednesday night. It was a great speech. (Except the line about "jumping in rain puddles in heaven.") And in that spirit, and because I think it's good to note when people you often disagree with say something you do agree with, I very much like what David Brooks writes today: "The truth is fragmentary and it’s impossible to capture all of it. There are competing goods that can never be fully reconciled. The world is more complicated than any human intelligence can comprehend."

But not everyone is in that kind of mood.

Well. The thought of a Run-DMC Broadway musical makes me want to puke in my shell-toes. (Just kidding, I don't really have shell-toes.) True rap greats, going the way of Billy Joel? This cannot be good. (It certainly was not good for true rock greats, The Who.) But wait, maybe I shouldn't be so quick to diss and dismiss. After all, Awl pal Sacha Jenkins' recent foray into rap musical theater, met with rave reviews. And if Big Boi can pull off a ballet and still kill the mic (and talk to penguins) anything's possible. And Jordan Galloway of the New [...]