March 20, 2006

Jon Pareles Critic's Notebook on scene at 20th annual South by Southwest Music convention; event is largest music-business convention in United States and emphasizes live showcases; photos (M)

All day and all night, the main street of this city was packed over the weekend with shoppers jockeying to buy last-minute gifts and sweets as they hurried to get ready for the celebration of the Iranian New Year, called Nowruz. Behind his cluttered desk inside an antique shop, Sayed Ali Zargabashi watched with great satisfaction as the crowds spilled off the sidewalks. ''People are not listening to the regime,'' said Mr. Zargabashi, 63. ''They are emphasizing and embracing the traditional celebrations. People want the best they can get. Their eyes are open now.''

Jon Pareles reviews new CD by Prince; photo (M)

When Dan Gillmor first arrived at The San Jose Mercury News in 1994, he recalled, he felt like he was in the ''belly of the beast.'' In his previous job, as a technology reporter for The Detroit Free Press -- then one of the country's leading newspapers -- he had trouble getting editors to understand how important the tech story was. Now he was at the center of the most vibrant part of the American economy, where fortunes and history were being made almost every day.

Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups. Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.

Bradley University defeats Pittsburgh University, 72-66, in second round of men's NCAA tournament; photos (M)

The cry went up the moment the polio vaccination team was spotted -- ''Hide your children!'' Some families slammed doors on the two volunteers going house to house with polio drops in this teeming city's decrepit maze of lanes, saying that they feared the vaccine would sicken or sterilize their children, or simply that they were fed up with the long drive to eradicate polio.

George Mason University defeats North Carolina University, 65-60, in second round of men's NCAA tournament; photo (M)

CULLEN MURPHY and William Langewiesche have been the Tracy and Hepburn of The Atlantic Monthly for the last 15 years. Mr. Langewiesche has been nominated for National Magazine Awards eight times in the last eight years, including this year, and won the reporting category in 2002 for his article about the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990. Mr. Murphy, the former managing editor, who left his position after the magazine was recently moved to Washington, went out in spectacular fashion. His version of The Atlantic received eight nominations for work just this past year, more than any other magazine in the country, including a nomination for general excellence.

Joyce Purnick Metro Matters column on experience of actress Barbara Barrie, who set off radiation detector on New York City police officer's belt in subway station; medical scan Barrie had undergone earlier that day, for which she had ingested radioactive isotopes, set off detector; Police Department confirmed that about 1,000 radiation detectors small enough for officer to carry are in use; photo (M)

Although the German painter Max Liebermann (1847-1935) was born into a rich family and enjoyed great success in his chosen field, he had a German problem that dogged him all his life. He was Jewish. True, he was a secular Jew who, while far from disguising his origins, regarded himself through assimilationist eyes. And in his work he steered away from religious subject matter. One cautionary exception was an early painting, from 1879, ''The 12-Year-Old Jesus in the Temple With the Scholars.'' Only a sketch for the original painting remains; it shows Jesus not as a divinity, but as a dark-haired boy with Semitic features, conspicuously using his hands to argue doctrine with his elders. At the International Art Show in Munich it stirred up a storm as blasphemous, with one critic describing Jesus as ''the ugliest, most impertinent Jewish boy imaginable.''

Profile of and interview with actress Adrienne Barbeau, who is starring as Judy Garland in Actors' Playhouse production of play The Property Known as Garland, written by her husband Billy Van Zandt; photos (M)