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"Crazy: The Demo Sessions" includes several short takes that appear to be fragments of songs, but also tracks that Nelson would revisit later in his career, such as "Opportunity to Cry" and "Half a Man." Throughout, Willie's youthful voice makes you reach for the adjectives. It's sweet, haunting and tender but always informed by a nuanced delivery reminiscent of Frank Sinatra's. Often he accompanies himself with just an acoustic guitar, making his songs shimmer with the honesty and simplicity of the early-'60s country music ethos.

"Crazy: The Demo Sessions" is out now on Sugar Hill Records.

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Karrin Allyson's new album comes on the heels of her 2001 Grammy-nominated "Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane." On "In Blue" she again slides effortlessly through a pantheon of classic songs, this time with a focus on the blues. The album includes remakes of works by Ira Gershwin, Blossom Dearie and Bobby Troup ("The Meaning of the Blues") as well as by more contemporary artists such as Bonnie Raitt ("Love Me Like a Man") and Joni Mitchell ("Blue Motel Room").

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Caroline Herve, aka Miss Kittin, and Michael Amato (the Hacker) first made a name for themselves in the dance music underground with the 1998 EP "Champagne." It contained the single "Frank Sinatra," on which Herve, backed by cheesy 1980s synths, conjured one of the more succinct images of fame and power, deadpanning, "To be famous is so nice, suck my dick, kiss my ass, so nice."

It's no surprise then that on "First Album," which includes "Frank Sinatra," Miss Kittin and the Hacker are mainly concerned with the world of dance music, the sex industry and indulging in nostalgia for the '80s. On "Life on MTV" and "1982" (listen to this track below) the two revel in recycled sounds from the glory days of new wave. Then, on "Stripper," Miss Kittin intones "my girlfriend is a stripper, in a Swiss peep show, dancing on a carousel, looking like a hologram." It's a business she knows from working as an exotic dancer before leaping into Europe's dance scene. She also delivers an unabashed valentine to that scene with the song "You and Us."

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Amber Valentine and Edgar Livergood, aka Jucifer, hail from the vaunted indie-rock breeding ground of Athens, Ga. Much like current industry darlings the White Stripes, Jucifer is a two-person outfit trying to reinvigorate the stale world of rock music with lots of noise while staying as far away from technological gimmicks as possible. The liner notes to "I Name You Destroyer" specify that the album was "recorded without pro tools, loops, samples, studio musicians, big shots or lackeys" and the music bears out their claim: "I Name You Destroyer" is vivid, rough and ready rock 'n' roll.

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The Gantz brothers spent a year filming the lives of three swinging couples. James and Theresa are middle-aged veterans of what they call "the Lifestyle" who see every weekend as a new opportunity to find women. Shannon and Girard are a married couple with a child, just entering the scene, who find their sexual encounters fraught with jealousy. Calvin is the center of a complicated threesome with Sarah and Julie.

It's like "Temptation Island" with deeper complications, or "Survivor" without the wildlife. It can get ugly.

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Do you think terminating bin Laden is essential for a U.S. victory in Afghanistan, or is his organization, al-Qaida, more important?

Jessica Stern

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All the great modernist painters of the 20th century -- Picasso, Dali, Matisse -- drew frequently from the female nude and erotic themes for their art. Balthazar Klossowski, aka Balthus, presented a new vision that blended explicitly erotic and high art. His paintings are full of women and girls with their bodies on display, but they meander between the erotic and a direct confrontation of his audience. One of his hallmarks is a testy, teasing, relationship with his audience as he pulls them between considerations of the sexual and exquisite compositions in the same moment.

A new book is out from Rizzoli to accompany the largest exhibit of his work (now at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice through Jan. 6, 2002) and to commemorate his death in February, 2001.

Balthus' most notorious and compelling painting, "The Guitar Lesson," is a perfect example of his vision. It presents a woman with a girl draped over her lap. The girl's skirt has ridden up to her belly as the woman pulls her hair and has her hand poised over the girl's vagina. The girl's hand is raised to pinch the woman's erect nipple.

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Several experts on the region spoke with Salon about what the future holds for Afghanistan and the region and what the United States should do next.

Joel Charny, Asia expert from Refugees International

The Northern Alliance progress means that 70 to 80 percent of the Afghans in need of assistance are now in Northern Alliance territory. This is critical. We need the Northern Alliance to provide enough stability and security so we can provide humanitarian aid.

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To date, human rights groups have confirmed that American bombs dropped on Afghanistan have resulted in at least 48 civilian deaths. America's enemy, the Taliban, has claimed hundreds if not thousands have been killed -- figures the United States asserts are vastly exaggerated for propaganda purposes. But for much of the Islamic world, already deeply suspicious of America's motives and rectitude, any civilian casualties are evidence that the U.S. campaign is not against terrorism but against Islam itself. Key Islamic supporters of the campaign, like Pakistan, are nervous about how news of civilian casualties will resonate with their citizens and are calling for the air war to be quick and decisive.

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In this way, the film is similar to Lynch's "Lost Highway," his cinematic scud missile of 1997. In that film, the 40-something Bill Pullman languishes in a locked prison cell. He then, without explanation, turns into the 20-something Balthazar Getty and is released from prison, and the movie goes off on a new story tangent. That was just one puzzling development in a film whose plot was regularly described as a Möbius strip by reviewers.

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Where's the line in the Islamic world between fundamentalists and extreme actions like terrorism?

In many Muslim countries there's a strong dislike of American foreign policy and that makes it difficult for them to dissociate many fundamentalist leaders. Many of the middle and professional classes have a degree of sympathy for fundamentalist actions while they deplore things like Sept. 11. That atmosphere can encourage radicalism.

How did Islamic fundamentalism develop?

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In an act reflecting a convergence of U.S.-Iranian interests -- not the first such overlap in recent years -- the Iranian government gave tacit support to the United States' efforts to target Osama bin Laden, whom the Bush administration has described as the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. President Mohammad Khatami has reportedly signaled to the U.S. that his government would not oppose military strikes against specific targets in Afghanistan.

Iran's support for U.S. action is highly qualified. But the fact that it signed on at all to Bush's campaign against terrorism opens the possibility of a thaw between the two nations.

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How do the potential special forces missions in Afghanistan compare with what they've done before in places like Somalia and Colombia?

Of course none of us know what they're going to do, but if Somalia and Colombia were any indication they are going to painstakingly identify the members of Osama bin Laden's organization and the other organizations and systematically take them apart. By painstakingly finding and then either arresting or killing them.

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"The Taliban have gained more from bin Laden's assistance than they have lost by remaining an international pariah," says Michael Rubin in the London Daily Telegraph.

In essence, the relationship between bin Laden and the Taliban has always been symbiotic. Bin Laden agreed to bankroll the Taliban and help them fight their internal enemies and, in return, bin Laden had a place to train his armies of Islamic radicals and seek refuge while remaining the target of a worldwide manhunt. During the course of his many legendary all-night sessions discussing theology, bin Laden was able to leverage his financial support to radicalize the Taliban's form of Islamic fundamentalism and, in exchange, bin Laden assisted the Taliban in its struggle against the last remaining rebel group, the Northern Alliance.

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Short of instituting a totalitarian regime, it's impossible to secure ourselves from all threats, says Ivan Eland, Director of Defense Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. "Someone on TV last night was saying cut off curb-side check-in, and I'm thinking, 'Why not shut down airports all together?' Because terrorists can shift their tactics at a moment's notice."

Eland says terrorists have effectively exploited temporary weaknesses in American security. "Terrorists used to hijack planes, then they went to truck bombings like in Beruit [in 1983]. Then you saw all these pilings and concrete pots appear in front of buildings and embassies are being moved further back from the road so terrorists are moving away from truck bombs, now they're going back to hijacking ... Terrorism is like a river in that it flows around rocks, logs and the like. This was a very creative plan brilliantly executed. It's absolutely horrendous. There's nothing worse than a person competent at doing a bad thing, but who knows what other things they're applying their creativity to?"

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Pakistan is the linchpin of the current diplomatic push because of its influence with the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan. According to many experts, the Pakistani intelligence service, ISI, played a key role in the training of Taliban rebels during the early 1990s, and has maintained continuous intelligence contacts with the Taliban since the Islamic fundamentalist group took control of the country in 1996.

Thursday, Powell sent a strong message to Pakistani leaders in public as well as through private diplomatic channels. "We thought as we gathered information and as we look at possible sources of the attack it would be useful to point out to the Pakistani leadership at every level that we are looking for (and) expecting their fullest cooperation," Powell said. Pakistan should be considered a U.S. ally, the secretary of state said, but he noted that the relationship between the two nations had been through "its ups and downs."

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What can you tell us about bin Laden's organization and how he operates?

Generally bin Laden operates not only on his own but also as a foundation for the terrorist community. Other terrorists will come to him with proposals and he'll decide whether to fund them or not. It's really a large group of small organizations loosely arrayed around him from the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

They're like old Communist organizations with small autonomous cells all fighting for a common cause who seldom talk to one another. It's not a new or innovative structure, nor is it aimed exclusively at the United States. Every major power is picked on by disillusioned or angry people for their own problems.

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Actors are important, really. So's the script. That's what Ridley Scott tells us in his commentary track on "Thelma and Louise" when he's not waxing on and on about the technical details of the film. Much of Scott's commentary makes you wonder whether this guy has anything interesting to say about his movie. Then there are moments that make you uncomfortable for all the wrong reasons.

"Thelma and Louise" tells the story of two women just trying to get out of town for the weekend. Spurred on by a vigilante reaction to a terrible crime, the duo ends up screaming across the country in a convertible, running into or away from good guys like Detective Hal Slocumb (Harvey Keitel) who's the only man in the movie who really understands Thelma and Louise's plight or the chorus of bad ones like J.D. (Brad Pitt) who steals all their money. When the film was released in 1991 it caused a minor sensation, particularly with a female audience that finally found an outlaw story that gave them a feminist script to cheer for. (The script won the Oscar that year.)

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Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" skewers race in the West, Hollywood westerns, manifest destiny and everything else under John Ford's sun. The antic picture is a leaner and meaner version of Brooks' "History of the World -- Part 1." Here, he pulls out every trick in his bag: Jewish humor, racial satires, furious verbal gaffes and wicked visual gags. The DVD release doesn't offer more than a few additional yuks, but it does include a delightful interview where Brooks recounts how he made the film.

All is not well in the Old West at the start of the picture. The railroad, laying track across the country, has hit a patch of quicksand. The only way around it is through the small hamlet of Rock Ridge, populated by a group of inbreds all seemingly with the surname Johnson. The state attorney general (Harvey Korman) figures that the railroad's dilemma makes Rock Ridge ripe for a land grab. He dispatches his deputy Taggart (Slim Pickens) to scare the townspeople away. When that doesn't work, he figures that a black sheriff would terrify the local racists. He summarily dispatches an unwitting Black Bart (Cleavon Little) to do his dirty work.

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