PRESS CONF #12: Smell the Stupidity

Lotta traveling, lotta sleep disruption, good to be back. Britain was grand, especially the Elgar and the "adorable" little Fawlty Towers hotel I stayed at in Liverpool. Spencer Leigh invited me to appear on his Merseyside Radio show Saturday night with CP Lee, a very funny Dylan author from Manchester; alas, not available online. Erstwhile, headed WEST for a Spokane gig, return late tonight, and back in the saddle Thursday and Friday. Next week Moses is on spring vacation... Is it just me or do kids get loads more vacation than I did as a child? I don't wanna sound like Terry Teachout, but hey, events are in the saddle.

UK was overboard with news of Beckham's crumbling marriage, with exclusives from former concubines and dashing photos of his supermodel wife in her wraparound shades skiing Switzerland. There's a lot more newspapers over there, but if this is where competition pushes them, they can have it.

My beloved Pioneer DVD player, 563A, is now at the center of a firestorm of chat on various discussion here and here. High Fidelity ran a story. New format has emerged that won't play properly on it. So having researched the best possible player to play all available competing formats, newer formats still emerging; don't buy an audio SACD/DVD player just yet I guess. Pioneer offers to ship the unit to Long Beach and make a free upgrade, but it takes two weeks. Apparently no software fix, at least as yet. (But Rhino has offered to replace any of its discs with replacements.)

So I felt like such a maven: rented a couple DVDs to watch on the plane on the way out here, which takes at least as long as it takes to get to London. PREY FOR ROCK'N'ROLL, with Gina Gershon, is serious baaaaad, not even campy fun throw-insults-at-the-screen-bad. The kind of flick that makes long trips seem even longer. Next up: Rolling Stones 2-disc, 4-flick blowout on 2003 tour. Also will comment soon on that 1966 DYLAN HOME MOVIE thing from that drummer (not eye candy for sure).

The press is patting itself on the back for playing off each others' questions and building momentum towards the big "mistakes were made" lead item in this morning's news, but I stand firm: Bush needs to answer directly why he doesn't attend soldiers' funerals, and why there's no camera at the Air Force base where coffins arrive from Iraq. Is this too loaded a subject to confront head-on? What is up with these people? Imus had Frank Rich on and they were having great sport on it all. How does all that sport play with these grieving families?