June 2005 Archives

Time magazine chokes, Iranian President-elect possible hostage-taker, and Brooke Shields goes all FEMINIST on Tom Cruise. Kelly Macdonald saves humanity, a concept the nimble Nighy somehow manages to keep aloft for an hour and forty minutes. In the real world, let's hope Pink Floyd takes the stage by ripping into the lopsided, "Money" riff (in 7/4), let those 8 power-drunk white men sort that one out...

FAVORITE PIANISTS (living)

1. Andras Schiff (Bach, Schubert, Schumann)
2. Stephen Bishop Kovacevich (Beethoven)
3. Leif Ove Andsnes (Schubert)
4. Maria Tipo (Mozart)
5. Mikhail Pletnev
6. Leon Fleisher (Beethoven, Brahms Concerti with Szell)
7. Richard Goode (Beethoven, Brahms)
8. John O'Connor (Beethoven)
9. Mitsuko Uchida (Schubert)
10. Helen Grimaud (Rachmaninoff)

FAVORITE PIANISTS (recordings)

1. Sergei Rachmaninoff (Chopin)
2. Arthur Rubinstein (Chopin, Brahms)
3. Dinu Lipatti (Chopin)
4. Friedrich Gulda
5. Walter Geiseking (Schubert, Schumann)
6. Geza Anda (Bartok)
7. Wilhelm Kempff (Schubert)
8. Rudolph Serkin (Marlboro, early Beethoven, chamber music, Brahms Second Piano Concerto in B-flat with Szell) 9. Solomon (Beethoven)
10. Artur Schnabel (Beethoven, Schubert)

Funny, Craig Ferguson said this ("An armed society is a polite society...") on his show last week and I mistook it for a Scot's blandishment on American gun culture. Turns out to be Heinlein?

GUILTY PLEASURES

1. Paul McCartney MCCARTNEY (1970)
2. Graham Nash SONGS FOR BEGINNERS (1971)
3. Alice Cooper SCHOOL'S OUT (1972)
4. James Gang LIVE IN CONCERT (1973)
5. Harry Nilsson A TOUCH OF SCHMILSSON IN THE NIGHT (1973)
6. Elton John CAPTAIN FANTASTIC (1975)
7. Amy Grant HEART IN MOTION (1991)
8. Frank Sinatra FRANCIS A. & EDWARD K. (1967)
9. Badfinger GREATEST HITS
10. Todd Rundgren FAITHFUL (1976)

DEATH CIRCUS

Is Six Feet Under all about unsympathetic characters? Is Claire out of her mind? How unbearable is Ruth--more unbearable than last season? Will Rachel going to jump on her new boss? Will she jump on her new boss's family? Do Keith and David have the healthiest relationship on the show? Doesn't partying with a Vegas stripper seem like a stupid reason to deny gays the right to parent? Could somebody point Rico in the general direction of a clue? Are we supposed to sympathize with George for marrying Ruth under false pretenses? Will homely Ruth beat out seductive-corrosive Joanna Cassidy for world's worst mother?

BEAT IT : Michael Moonwalks

Boston Herald (previously a winner for HELLFIRE!, after Waco. Why was there so little competition for this?)

MUST BE A GOOD SIGN

When the season-closer of a series makes you feel a sense of loss. THE SHIELD did this, despite the fact that Glenn Close's last scene, fired and sipping wine alone in her apartment, didn't send shudders down the spine. But it was just a gentle landing to a show that's all about subtext, which is lacking in most forms of dramatic storytelling these days. In fact, it's a theme: Seans Ryan's premise is that cops specialize in deceit in all realms. This guy is the heir to David Milch.

So it was doubly weird to watch HBO return to comedic triumph with its new season of ENTOURAGE, with Jeremy Piven splattering his agent ego all over the Laker's court, and follow it up with the weirdly off-tone COMEBACK, with a knowning lead performance by FRIENDS's Lisa Kudrow trapped inside a script that delivered more squirms than laughs.

Why did "they" let Harry Shearer's Nixon into heaven? So he could "let off steam?" No, just hoping he and his toady Erlichman would "lose their edge [RA]. Sorta thing.

LET US NOW PRAISE

Chip Kidd

Lisa Napoli at Marketplace talked to me for a short industry story this morning (RA). Thanks Vince!

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible, and they are stupid."

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, l952, from the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association

TAKES A SATIRIST

Harry Shearer on Richard Ben Veniste sitting next to G. Gordon Liddy (who Shearer portrayed in DICK) last Sunday (Huffington Post):

"...But did no one ask Chris or his booker, "Are we, by this pair of bookings, declaring a moral equivalency between the prosecutor and the ones he prosecuted?" What other crime story would get such weirdly even-handed treatment? Can we look forward to Vincent Bugliosi and Susan Atkins side-by-side on Court TV for a leisurely look back at the Charles Manson case? Were there no Watergate-era Nixon supporters (aside from the ubiquitous Pat Buchanan) available who hadn't had their tickets punched by a Federal warden? Where's Jean Kirkpatrick when we need her?..."

Oprah picks three Faulkner novels for her summer reading club, complete with free online commentaries by scholars... The Vintage box includes AS I LAY DYING, SOUND AND THE FURY, and LIGHT IN AUGUST, which is more like the novelist's broiling core than a 8th-grade educated audience's introduction. Probably don't have time to reread these, but I'll be checking on this... DYING is often used as a primer, but FURY is stone-cold difficult no matter who you are, and AUGUST is a Christ allegory that should get some tooters hooting.

TOP 90s ACTS (randomly)

1. Ride
2. Beck
3. Pavement
4. Portishead
5. Ivy
6. Cardigans
7. Gorillaz
8. DJ Shadow
9. Los Lobos/Latin Playboys
10. Mekons/Langford
11. Pretenders
12. Old 97s
13. Bottle Rockets
14. Dwight Yoakam
15. Bonnie Raitt
16. PJ Harvey
17. Luna
18. Yo La Tengo
19. Iris Dement
20. Nirvana

Don't let the opening number put you off: Mario Cantone captures Norma Desmond as well as Jim Morrison (the lost Christmas special), and his Laugh Whore Showtime special makes the direct and necessary connection between gay-bashing and lynching. Nobody's caught Liza quite this well, and for Cantone, "Cher has an Oscar... and that's the punch line." (Mario Cantone.com)

WHEN NEWS WAS NEWS

While VF basks in beating the Washington Post out of its own defining story, nobody's asking where the Woodward and Bernstein of the Bush administration is... Watergate may have inspired a generation of kids to attend journalism school with glory in their heads, but they sure haven't toppled the most constitutionally corrupt administration since. And somebody should be making the case that G.W. Bush's crimes are far more profound and costly. (Incidentlly, VF has one of the better links pages.)