March 2006 Archives

Velvets, Beefheart DVDs...

This time, DAVID HOUSEMAN plays a law-enforcement psychiatrist whose sleazier than a British MP... And if its spread-eagle teaser is anywhere near as original as its title (BASIC INSTINCT 2) then [snarky riposte]...

HAD WE BUT WORLD ENOUGH

I'd like to see David Thomson weigh on the season 5 finale of The Shield, which flirted with the tragic (and won its time slot). Best ensemble on television, best extension of Andy Sipowicz's flawed moral hero; best guest-stars (Glenn Close, Forest Whitaker); Best. Cop. Show. Ever.

Official site
Sony Pictures site
Shield Forum

MAUL PcCARTNEY'S GREAT PERFORMANCE

Despite serenading those astronauts, this guy needs a little more self-esteem, wouldn't you say? Doesn't everybody know by now sugar is BAD for you?

QUOTE OF THE MONTH, BELLS ON

From Frank Kogan's new collection REAL PUNKS DON'T WEAR BLACK (Georgia): "Rock criticism is built on unintelligible cross-references..."

NIGHT EDITOR

"No peg, no larger social issue (except random murder?), no point, really, we'll pose it as a whopping tale but it's really more shaggy dog... Page One good for you?

"Okay, but BELOW THE FOLD, we are the GREY LADY OF RECORD YOU KNOW!!!!"

IT'S COME TO THIS

Donald Fagen's new CD is out, and it may be the only time I ever find my name alongside his on the same disc, so suffer.

FREAK ON

Found this on Flickr.

She's everywhere, the European laptop blond whose magazine ad smirk sells zillions of language tapes. Why hasn't she turned up plugging milk? Aren't copy writers knocking down her agent's door? Who does she think she is... the ad world's Eva Cassidy? Doesn't she look like she's about to stand up and start yelling "RI-CO-LAAAAH!!!"?

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! Camille Paglia, she's so... plucky. A real NYTimes kinda feminist, isn't she? They're sitting on the deluge of mail they got on her defense of Harvard's Lawrence Summers. Does anybody really think she'd hold the same opinion if he were HER dean?

Tune into WNYC.org's SOUNDCHECK today (3/13) at 2pm for a Rock Hall of Fame chat with Warren Zanes...

CLICK THE FALSIE:

Congress passes Patriot Act, nation yawns.

Harper's: At least 65 dogs in the President's security detail were put up at a five-star hotel in New Delhi; hotel staff were told to address the dogs as "sergeant" or "major."

Torture continues, nation yawns.

Barron's calls for impeachment [reprint], nation yawns.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Is the law a law or a piece of toast?

GLOBS FOR INDUSTRY!

One of my favorite critics, Gerald Early, has a NYTimes blog:

My daughters do respect [Ali's] stance against the draft, but only in the light that Ali was a more honest and sincere draft dodger than Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and others. He couldn’t duck into the National Guard and have a good chance of avoiding altogether going over to Vietnam (many state National Guards weren’t even integrated in the 1960’s); couldn’t hide out in college and get student deferments (he was too poorly educated and boxing was not a college scholarship sport); and couldn’t run off to Canada (he loved living in America too much to do that). As a noted military historian once told me, the Vietnam War draft was designed to protect from combat the people society most valued. One way of looking at this, as my daughters analyzed it, was that our country thought that Joe Namath, who was classified 4-F because of a bum knee but could still play football every Sunday, was more important than Muhammad Ali. Actor George Hamilton, then dating President Lyndon Johnson’s daughter, was given a hardship deferment to support his socialite mother.

BEST-SELLERS WORTH TRACKING

Malcolm Gladwell

FOG: IT'S WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

If you missed Bleak House , watch for repeats or rent, you'll believe Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock, but you'll get totally lost in Anna Maxwell Smith's Esther.

LIKEWISE

Huffman deserves a lot of raves, but the script is inconsistent. Go to see Kevin Zegers, who sleeps with the real. (Pink Panther was an unexpected delight, but mostly because our 5-year-old giggled mercilessly throughout. Have zero idea whether that movie was funny at all.)

CLICKS CLICKS CLICKS

Linkology
Dickens

Digg has David Thomson on this year's nominees, and the real stumper is HISTORY OF VIOLENCE...