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Ken Tucker

@kentucker.bsky.social
4.7K followers 773 following 141 posts

Music critic NPR's Fresh Air. Book, TV, movie critic: EW, New York Times, Village Voice, Rolling Stone, New York Mag, etc

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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This effin’ Trea Turner. He throws his bat away, he pops up, he’s so useless and I never read any suggestion that anyone giving orders in the Phillies will insist he be moved. He’s infuriating.
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MidCenturyCinema @midcenturycinema.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
BOTD Peter Falk!!! MCCT5: 5)Husbands 4)Woman Under/Influence 3)In-Laws 2)Wings of Desire 1)Mikey & Nicky More: From Us, re Columbo (incl our T10!): midcenturycinema.org/2018/02/18/5... @kentucker.bsky.social: ew.com/article/2011... Wayne Lawson/ @vanityfair.com: www.vanityfair.com/style/story/...
vanityfair.com
When Peter Falk Was My Roommate, and Theater Ruled NYC
Before they conquered Hollywood, Peter Falk, George Segal, Roy Scheider, and Wayne Rogers helped define a golden age of the American stage—though the greatest talents may be the ones you’ve never hear...
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Clearly I have to get that Substack up and running before Baywatch premieres. #emmys
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
I clearly have no idea who’s using Bluesky: one day it’s all idiots screaming at Ken Jennings; the next, Svengoolie is trending.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I liked Margot’s Got Money Troubles all the way up til… that last episode, at which point David E Kelley went all Ally McBeal/Boston Practice/wacky courtroom.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
You're kidding w that headline, right, @nytimes.com? Up until abt a year ago, the Times wdn't have even green-lit this piece. Also, the "hit" framing shows just how debased literary discussion has become. Maclean would laff. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/b...
nytimes.com
Could ‘A River Runs Through It’ Have Been a Hit Today?
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
My god Kemp is useless #phillies
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
I reviewed Robert Polito's exhilarating new book about latterday Bob Dylan music on today's @nprfreshair.bsky.social . You can listen to the piece here: www.npr.org/2026/04/09/n...
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Watched Crime 101 last night: Heat with a maundering meathead as Neil McCauley and Fozzie Bear as Vincent Hanna. Was Halle Berry’s I-quit speech supposed to rouse a cheer? The way the movie treats her, her character seems unaware that in Our Current Era, no boss ever feels shame.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
I could barely get a word in edgewise.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Wonderful @mikebarnes4.bsky.social @thr.com obit of Matt Clark, who'll maybe get a second of air time at next year's Oscar In Memorium www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
hollywoodreporter.com
Matt Clark, Character Actor in a Barnful of Movie Westerns, Dies at 89
He appeared in ‘The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean,’ ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,’ ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales,’ ‘Hearts of the West’ and so many other films in the genre.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
RIP Tom Noonan. In 2009 I convinced the @nytimes.com to let me interview him about his tiny role in Damages because he was so great. He was really smart, funny, & severe: www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/a...
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
RIP James Van Der Beek. In my 1998 @EW Dawson review I wrote "[He] has handsome features attached to a face shaped like a cereal box." Years later, he told me he was "haunted" by that, & had a good laugh. ew.com/article/1998...
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
It's the idiocy combined with arrogant condescension... imagine having to put up with this kind of crap.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
RIP Raul Malo. What a voice. Just call up “What a Crying Shame” in your phone right now and listen.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Copyediting, a lost art. "He often wrote under the pen name 'William Boot,' a self-deprecating homage to Evelyn Waugh’s supercilious journalist in her 1938 novel, Scoop." That Waugh, whatta dame... www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/ar...
hollywoodreporter.com
Tom Stoppard, Cerebral Storyteller for Stage and Screen, Dies at 88
The British playwright won acclaim for 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,' 'The Real Thing' and 'Leopoldstadt' and received an Oscar for 'Shakespeare in Love.'
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Today on @nprfreshair.bsky.social I’m reviewing the new 50th anniversary release of Patti Smith’s debut Horses followed by excerpts from Terry’s interviews w Smith over the years. Give a listen www.npr.org/2025/11/07/n...
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
So we’ve now reached the point where we dread having Harper come up to bat at a critical moment. #phillies
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Someone said it's Bryan Ferry's birthday www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBrj...
youtube.com
Bryan Ferry - This Is Tomorrow
YouTube video by BryanFerryVEVO
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Finally got around to The Lowdown, a show that's pret-ty pleased w itself. Gotta say it was odd to make Joe Brainard a plot point but use his least-typical piece of art (if it even was?), but then have a C Comics cover in a later background. I guess I'm not cool enuf to "dig" it.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Well, what a pure pleasure this is.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
I think I can hit the hay. It’s not going to get better than Katherine LaNasa and Jeff Hiller. #emmys
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
I love Vince Gill but I’d much rather have seen a 3 minute clip of Teri Garr on Letterman #emmys
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
I cannot imagine how funny Bruce and Jon Landau must find the fact that they’re being played by the 2 most pretentious actors in America in that sad looking movie.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
I never want to hear Seth Rogan talk again #emmys
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
youtube.com/watch?v=c5v4... oh good: still no reason to subscribe to Peacock
youtube.com
The Paper | Official Trailer | Peacock Original
YouTube video by Peacock
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Lotta stupid Emmy noms announced this morning (so many for the mildly amusing The Studio?) but at least Katherine LaNasa, central to the pleasures of The Pitt, got nominated.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Illiterate lit musing ("much of the architecture of book discovery is informally targeted at women"). Gee, maybe men (& women!) wd read good books if they were taught literature in school instead of "getting recommendations online from celebrities and influencers." www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/s...
nytimes.com
Why Did the Novel-Reading Man Disappear?
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/b... Hilarious: the closure “came as a shock.” Because we all know what a venerable publishing house TikTok is.
nytimes.com
TikTok’s Owner Wanted to Publish Books. Not Anymore.
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James Wolcott @jwolcott.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Fellow Mouseketeers: Allow me to mention that my review of Sam Tanenhaus's mammoth biography of Wm F. Buckley Jr. will appear in this weekend's edition of Air Mail, the newsletter magazine that deftly massages the mind.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Oh yeah www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvDG...
youtube.com
Bob Dylan Debut of “Garden Party” 05/15/25 San Diego, CA (Rick Nelson cover) @BobDylan
YouTube video by Todd Norris
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
RIP Joe Don Baker
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Wonderful John Cameron Mitchell & @nytopinion.nytimes.com repudiating everything the Times has promoted for the past decade. Free article. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Today’s Young People Need to Learn How to Be Punk
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Today on @npr.org @nprfreshair.bsky.social I did a piece about the death of David Thomas and his importance, got to play some of my favorite Pere Ubu music. Link here to listen now www.npr.org/2025/05/05/n...
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Because of course "strong ticket sales" is the reason we award shows www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/ar...
hollywoodreporter.com
Tony Awards Nominations: Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal’s ‘Othello’ Shut Out Despite Strong Ticket Sales
While George Clooney received an acting nod for 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' the play, which he co-wrote wasn't nominated for best play.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Thank goodness youtu.be/_5MYYOVJDa0?...
youtu.be
Chubby Checker - Pony Time (1961)
YouTube video by vintage video clips
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/a... When it came to sibling harmony I was always more of a McGarrigles fan, but as always this Garner piece is vastly entertaining.
nytimes.com
Maggie & Terre Roche’s 1975 LP Is a Revelation. Why Is It Forgotten?
“Seductive Reasoning,” a flop that preceded the Roches’ debut, has a fluctuating sonic palette, contributions from Paul Simon and the sisters’ most brilliant songwriting.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Francis was a wonderful critic and this terrific appreciation captures his tart sense of humor as well.
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Fresh Air with Terry Gross & Tonya Mosley @nprfreshair.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
It is with great sadness we share the news that Terry's husband Francis died on Monday. Francis was an esteemed jazz critic and writer. They were together for nearly 50 years.
npr.org
Francis Davis, a figurehead of jazz criticism, has died
His wife, Fresh Air host Terry Gross, said the longtime contributor to The Village Voice and NPR had been living with emphysema and Parkinson's disease.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Today in Everything Is Overrated: “Unforgettable”? Why does the @nytimes.com have to play into the hype game all the time?
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
youtube.com/watch?v=o_1G... What a great idea. What terrible execution.
youtube.com
The White Potus - SNL
YouTube video by Saturday Night Live
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/a... At a time when the arts cd use a complete moratorium on “trauma” as anything other than dead cliche, the Times wants MORE of it.
nytimes.com
Why Wasn’t Anyone Traumatized in the ‘White Lotus’ Finale?
After a violent climax to the third season of the hit HBO show, everyone seems A-OK. Was it a Hollywood ending, or a natural trauma response?
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/b... Ha. The “fun” that keeps popping up here includes needling the right people occasionally and poking at solemn current dogma, neither of which VF will ever do again, alas.
nytimes.com
Who Wants to Run Vanity Fair? Everyone? Anyone?
Radhika Jones is stepping down as editor in chief, and the search for her replacement has begun. But as the magazine industry has contracted, many of the more decadent parts of the job are long gone.
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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
This was EW's eighth issue. I was a staff writer in the TV dept. and as I recall I was thrilled because I got to work on a sidebar. It felt like one of the first defining identity moments for the magazine--"we love this and we want you to love this too."
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus... I suppose it’s too much to hope the mag can get back to Carter-era-level criticism/reviews/reporting
hollywoodreporter.com
Radhika Jones to Step Down as Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief
Jones, who joined the Condé Nast publication in 2017, will leave in the spring.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
On today’s @nprfreshair.bsky.social I’m talking confessional songwriting as heard on new LPs by Lucy Dacus and Jeffrey Lewis: www.npr.org/2025/04/01/n...
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Today in Everything Is Overrated I’m amazed at the raves for The Studio. Minimal laughs, a cartoonish sense of accuracy, Seth Rogan’s character is shrewd one minute, a moron the next. I wish Gary Shandling was still alive, wd love to hear his withering assessment.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
"preempted the album"? Anybody copyediting at @thr.com ?
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Once you’re New York Times-approved you’re always New York Times-approved www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/t...
nytimes.com
Scott Rudin, Producer Exiled for Bad Behavior, Plans Return to Broadway
Rudin stepped away from show business four years ago amid reports that he had bullied assistants. He says he has “a lot more self-control” now.
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Ken Tucker @kentucker.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
I’m noticing I get a lot more followers here if I don’t post, so
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