November 2005 Archives

COSMIC DANCER

Every so often a song oozes up through shared cultural memories to suggest subcurrents of fate. Last year, Zep's "Goin' to California" bubbled up as though its time had come, even though the ZEP IV (ZOSO) track had never been a single, or even an FM fav. This year it's T Rex's "Children of the Revolution," which crept up through the collective unconscious through soundtracks like Dogtown and Z-Boys. Last summer it got picked up for the football skirmish in MEET THE FOCKERS, at which point Bolan's death-cult "relevance" officially jumped its shark. But here's a fun fact: Syd Barrett's girlfriend, June Bolan, took up with Bolan after Barrett hit the mental skids (see DAYS IN THE LIFE: VOICES FROM THE ENGLISH UNDERGROUND 1961-1971, by Jonathon Green, p. 165).

Naturally, a music biopic with vivid and inspired concert sequences gets waylaid by its overwrought script: "Tortured pill freak redeemed by true love." There is so much more to Johnny cash than this, but Phoenix can only suggest. In yet another revelatory turn, Witherspoon is a marvel -- but is that any reason to turn his first wife into a shrew? Go rent Coal Miner's Daughter. Then pick up Legacy's Cash set, hooch posing as digital sound.

HARRIET MEIRS

The Lost Episodes

ONE MORE RIDE

As he was handed a copy of this book, Miller told Kerry "You was robbed." Kerry agreed, then issued a public statement denying his agreement. Miller has a blog, there's new here for any news organization with a scintilla of self-respect.

WISH I COULD TAKE CREDIT

Chris Brokaw on NPR...

ADDENDUM

to last week's list, the reason I launched it in the first place, the best-when-he's-funny Morgan Freeman.

PROPS TO THE EXEC. PRODUCER

The "word" on Capote was that Hoffman's invisible virtuosity was so compelling that he sucked the oxygen out of the rest of the film. I'm betting the word among actors is that vet Clifton Collins Jr. as Perry Smith nearly steals the show.

After dubbing the podcasting boom a non-starter, I now give you THE EXPLOSION: Academic Division

Academic podcasts lists some cool stuff, and there's obviously more to come. UC Berkeley already has a listing on iTunes , its archive page has even more. The University Channel looks to be a hub for a lot of this, but not on iTunes yet. Then there's the Learn Out Loud, which has a huge free download listing. Clicked around a bit and got to UCLA. (Somebody needs to hack together a RM realtime RM converter that will download the file from a page and render it into iTunes as an mp3 or mp4...)

2005 DEPT. OF OVEREXPOSED
Samuel Jackson
Christopher Hitchens
Jane Austen
Jeffrey Toobin
Chuck Klostermule
Tom Hanks
Tom Cruise
Jennifer Aniston


ON THE EDGE
Douglas Wolk
Jeffrey Tambor

HALL OF FAME
John Goodman
JT Walsh
Pope John Paul II
Billy Graham
Paris Hilton
Lorne Michaels
Whoopi Goldberg
Pat Roberston
Ed McMahon
Sting
The Eagles

ALL-TIME OVEREXPOSED
Richard Wagner
Abraham Lincoln
Stephen King
The Kennedys
Hugh Downs
Joyce Carol Oates
Charlie Rose
Baba Wawa
Pat Robertson
Amy Fisher
Jane Fonda
Paul McCartney

PREVIOUSLY OVEREXPOSED
Regis Philbin (Nixonian)
Eddie Murphy
Kenneth Starr
Metallica

EXEMPTIONS (OVEREXPOSURE AS ART)
The Beatles
Andy Warhol
Madonna
Marilyn Monroe


PARENTHETICALS

File Under: Definitions

Boston: "(Eagles meet Yes and say maybe ...") (1977)

INCIDENTALS

Ad-Supported But Hey: mp3 links

JOE FRANKLIN SHOULD KISS HER FEET

Sam Anderson on Sarah Silverman in THE ARISTOCRATS: "Silverman was the only comic in the film who met the challenge of the joke: She pushed it too far..."

LENNON LIFE

free preview link

SAFE AS MILK

Alex Beam's piece on samizdat includes one of my favorite George Meyer jokes, "They can kill the Kennedys. Why can't they make a cup of coffee that tastes good?" A joke that could only have been written in Boulder. Somehow it's a relief to learn that while Tina Brown commissioned that Meyer profile from David Owen, she killed it by dubbing the Simpsons "passé".... As far as I know, nobody has reprinted or even posted Tom Carson's crowning achievement in this vein, which Kit Rachlis actually published at the LA WEEKLY: the George Bush (41) as dog-fucker profile during the Republican convention of 1992. Track that down, make sure you tell me about it...

LET'S GET LOST

Behind on this, but hey.

AT THE SPEED OF CHIPS

Andy Hertzfeld has launched Folklore.org, an oral history of Apple by the people who built it.

IF ONLY OIL WERE MUSIC the self-pricing Canadian way...

Jane Siberry's sliding scale.

SKL THINKS I'M NUTS but this kind of thing irritates me:

"Caitlin Flanagan is a staff writer at The New Yorker." Isn't that like ROLLING STONE running a byline that reads "Chuck Klostersnog is a staff writer at our loftier counterpart SPIN..."? Or "Subbing for Anderson Cooper tonight is Fox News's John Gibson..." What's more embarrassing: that Flanagan got poached, that the Atlantic runs her old stories, or that the New Yorker rarely runs her stuff...?

WEEKLY PLAYLIST:

Chris Brokaw INCREDIBLE LOVE (12XU) -- This mostly acoustic yet quietly fierce batch should earn this friend comparisons to any "alt" elite you care to mention. Sui generis, oddly tuneful, confidently sung, with understated yet intricate guitar. The ghost of NIck Drake hovers in the background -- if Drake had come up through Come, Consonant, etc. (Free download: "Move.")

WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME:

Nip and Tuck, Lost, The OC -- or are previews such an art form they have long since upstaged their product?

MIDDLE-AGE MAN

Do I miss Friends the way some folks used to miss Cheers? (Ouch.)

CANTON CHRONICLE

Raspberries Reunite

Eric Carmen, the Regis Philbin of rock.

FAKE REVERSE

With Alito, Rove stole back the lead story for the week, although his palpable RELIEF has caused even loyalists to cry out for "apology." And Fitzgerald is [hopefully] playing with a full deck for the long haul. Rove still has a TON of outrage fatigue to play on with progressives: most of us feel resigned that Scooter will just go the way of Cap [Weinberger]. That's one move 43 will DEFINITELY cop from 41. Still, you gotta hand it to this Reid guy, stealing a page out of &*#$^^%*(#$ [Prince]'s book: interception! There is chatter about "unraveling," but these guys don't loosen their grip on power... they SQUEEZE. So at the Republican convention in 2008, gridlocked between Schwarzenegger and Romney, Rove will broker the backroom deal to install Jeb, and the body bags won't stop.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

How did outing Plame smear Wilson exactly? Simple nepotism? From Bush? Sexism, because she got him the Niger gig? How does any of this effect his mission, what he learned, what his editorial said, anything substantive about his charges? Hoi polloi lost in forest of detail, stumped by inter-agency rivalry angle.

CLICK THE FALSIE:

Greenspan Sees Solid Growth Ahead," Black Enterprise

Greenspan, Ali to get Presidential Freedom Medal Reuters.uk, UK

Greenspan Hires Billy Graham's Publicist (AP)