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" … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

CANTON CHRONICLE Raspberries Reunite Eric Carmen, the Regis Philbin of rock. … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]