September 2005 Archives

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

From Rob Sheffield's Pop Life column in Rolling Stone (not worth visiting since you can't search by byline) on Tara Reid's E! series, her "reality" show: "Somewhere in the sky, Ernest hemingway is trying to piece his face back together so he can shoot it off again..."

From WNYC's Soundcheck here. Honk if you're oriental.

SCORSESE'S DYLAN

This is from Monday; if you missed this, pick it up. I coulda been harder on it, the Tom Paine Award speech is pretty much fudged over, as are all the drugs. But this is inspired filmmaking, great use of source material, every frame a treat.

My No Direction Home review will go live from this page at app. 12:50 pm today, watch this space for the link later this week. Don't miss Scorsese's Dylan tonight and tomorrow.

TOMORROW

Beatle roundup on WNYC's Soundcheck 2-3 pm.

TOMORROW NIGHT

TUESDAY, SEPT 27, 7:00pm (NOT 7:30!)
with Rolling Stone's Jenny Eliscu
Housing Works Bookstore Café
126 Crosby Street
New York, NY 10012
http://www.housingworks.org:8080/usedbookcafe/UsedBookCafe_Events.jsp
Contact: Mollie Michel 212.212.966.0466 Ext. 1104

Yglesias on Roberts:

Say what you will about Roberts, but he clearly wasn't very forthcoming in his testimony before the committee. Judiciary Democrats repeatedly objected to that, but they -- and especially their ranking member -- turn around and vote for him anyway, then those objections lose all force...

DADA DADA

Roger Miller just back from Text of Light show at Webster University in St. Louis, MO; he goes back into the studio with Burma this week...

"An antiwar speech by Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, was cut short yesterday after the organizer of the event was arrested and police officers confiscated his audio equipment. The claps and cheers that had greeted Ms. Sheehan's arrival at the rally in Union Square quickly turned to furious chants of "Let her speak!" as officers ushered away the organizer, Paul Zulkowitz, who the police said lacked audio permits for the event..." (New York Times)

Judge Roberts, Meet Our Expansive Senators

Honestly if the Dems can't do any better than this... what a sham. I liked the word the Slate commentator used: Roberts was running a "clinic" on how to avoid questions. Read Garry Wills in the NYRB on Fringe Government, and don't say he didn't tell us. Media goes back to its pre-Katrina loafing as well. Aren't there any hungry reporters in DC who have figured out what a name they might make for themselves if the did a little digging? The idea that judges are just "umpires" in a day and age when they SELECTED THIS PRESIDENT is radically outrageous, and pitiful. How come nobody asked him what he thought of that ruling?

Too bad NPR has thrown Shearer into its slagheap of tired satirists, his Crescent City show learned me more about the town than anything else in the past couple of weeks... That one SONG taught me more... It's the Bush limbo dance: how LOW can you GO, creating unlikely heroes along the way... This was my take on "the" apology, that well-lit speech last night was appalling, restaging New Orleans as Bush uplift. Shearer pointed out that Rove was literally laid up during the admin's delay, once he got back they kicked into gear. And steadied those freefalling poll numbers.... UNWRITTEN STORY: how the looters made good visuals, whereas white-collar looting in Iraq, and coming soon to Louisiana, doesn't make good TV... If you're a psychopath CEO, just don't take videos of your Enron orgies... I don't care what anyone says about FEMA, the rank and file was thinking about the kids, they're the future, right?... Is it just me or are these guys getting better and better?

TAGLINES TO LIVE BY:

"Heckuva job, Brownie." Rivals "If the glove don't fit you must acquit." We're waiting for the reprise of "Have you no shame?!"

BONE UP FOR SCORSESE



My World Literature Today Dylan essay is just out (pdf), including a couple lists.

Tuesday, 7 September 2005, 9:30 AM Pacific

A Lexus SC 430 convertible speeds down a sunny street in Cupertino. The top is down. Brushed Metal is behind the wheel, stabbing at the buttons on his mobile phone.

We hear the connection ringing. Brushed Metal’s agent, Mike, answers...

A hand-me-down from that whole Marie Antionette fracas, a notorious joke called The Aristocrats entered comedy culture like a virus, and mutated into an obscene way to unwind after shows in the wee hours, when pissing on the audience tasted like sweet revenge. The tired blue-collar gag itself works only because it's NOT funny; it's the ur-shaggy dog tale. Anyone telling the story does battle with its banality; it forces the teller to make funny with obvious transgression and hollow finish. That's how it became a secret handshake among comics: to get another comic to laugh is the cocaine high of the comedy set. This vivid documentary celebrates this shadow comic culture while flipping a ginormous crooked finger to the Bush administration.

MIA: Garry Shandling, Jay Leno, Adam Sandler, Chevy Chase, Christopher Guest, Jim Carey, Dan Ackroyd, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, Tony Hendra, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Martin Short (as Katherine Hepburn, please), Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Steve Martin, Larry David

TOO MUCH (ratio of screen time to substance): George Carlin, Paul Reiser, Andy Dick

REASONS TO WATCH: Bob Saget, Mario Cantone (as Liza), Lisa Lampanelli (a sharpie who trades sex for race), Wendy Liebman (who turns it inside out) all win out over the bigger names who yap around the joke rather than participate in the contest. Some get away with it: Phyllis Diller, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Chris Rock, Larry Miller, Fred Willard, Eddie Izzard and Jon Stewart take honorable passes, although you admire Martin Mull more for doing the joke's goth stepchild, a variation on "Ooga-Booga."

STOCK GOES UP: Gilbert Gottfried, Whoopi Goldberg, Penn & Teller, that card shark, Kevin Pollock (as Christopher Walken), Billy the Mime (Steven Banks)

BEST CHEATS: Martin Mull, Sarah Silverman, Carrie Fisher

MOST ORIGINAL TWISTS: Stephen Wright, Kevin Pollock

FOR THE DVD:

Who was invited and refused? Or filmed a session and didn't make the final cut? Did Pollock do another take as Shatner? There's a shadow movie in my mind of all the dead comics who must have told this joke on film: Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Hicks, Chevy Chase, John Belushi

UNANSWERED QUESTION: What makes this joke uniquely American as Eric Idle suggests?

HONORARY UNMENTIONED GHOST: Lenny Bruce

IT'S OFFICIAL

Flickr is addictive.

...We'd hope that the states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana will not undertake to rebuild them they way they were. The era of easy motoring is over now, and to rebuild suburban sprawl would be a double tragedy.