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¶ My kids totally loved CAT IN THE HAT, and there are two gags that tip it into the plus column for me: the infomercial (“Anything…?”), and the petition dude who says “Okay, I have trouble with the term ‘dog’…”

¶ So here’s the Beatles story WBUR’s HERE AND NOW ran yesterday, I’m already getting mail on how I refer to the “Spector” “Get Back” incorrectly, when what I tried to say was the “radio” version of “Get Back,” the SINGLE, the version with the fake ending we’ve been hearing on the radio for 30 years. Do check out Magic Circles, wonderful read.

¶ Christgau posted his new Consumer Guide yesterday, and it really made me wonder: is he still writing for STONE? How can that be possible after stuff like this, on Lisa Marie: "The first surprise is that the Glen Ballard AOR isn't worse. The second surprise is that she wrote the intense if clumsy lyrics herself. The final surprise is that seven months after its No. 5 debut nobody remembers it ever existed except Elvis fan clubs, the Church of Scientology, the president of Capitol Records, and maybe, just maybe, Jann Wenner.”? Or does he just assume that Wenner doesn’t read his VOICE column?

¶ There’s a movie that’s been on my mind lately, we rented it a couple months back: Vince Vaughn with Julia Ormond and Ed Harris in THE PRIME GIG. A real sleeper. The ending is weak, but those performances have stayed with me.

¶ And one last thing: due to divided critical opinion, and the fact that we figured it would make a good “big screen” choice, we caught MASTER AND COMMANDER, and I liked it more than Sara. She decried the length, the pace, the number of clichés in relation to the amount of pretense, and the complete lack of subtext. I took my usual musician’s exception: as long as they’re chasing down all the historical particulars of detail in costume, shipping, ponytails and surgical procedures, can’t they at least get the violin and cello outfitted with gut strings? The “big screen” stuff was grand. But the more I think about it, the less it holds up. And Peter Weir is still going to have to do major time in a very dark place for DEAD POETS SOCIETY.

Now go: EAT.