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 … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2005
WHAT LINE, EXACTLY?
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 … [Read more...]
SHORT-HAIRED WOMAN
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 … [Read more...]
BOLDFACE HEAD
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 … [Read more...]
IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
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 … [Read more...]
HISTORY ACCELERATES
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 … [Read more...]
BLUES FOR THE MOON
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 … [Read more...]
TIE A YELLOW RIBBON
CANTON CHRONICLE Raspberries Reunite Eric Carmen, the Regis Philbin of rock. … [Read more...]
AMONG THIEVES
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: … [Read more...]