March 2007 Archives

At first hearing I felt like I was eavesdropping on Shrub's unconscious, the kind of fearful bullying that renounces both Baker's bi-partisan Iraq "Study" Group recommendations and Gates's pleading to close Gitmo -- why get rid of Rumsfeld when his hotel managers keep raping the Geneva conventions? Then I read the lyric sheet. And that, my friends, is why mishearing certain songs amounts to poetry. Maybe now Thompson won't have to resort to "Ding-A-Ling" for his hit.

TWO NEW PODCASTS POSTED

The first is old already (12/01/06), holiday box set recommentations including Fats Waller, Bob Wills, Buddy Guy and Gram Parsons.

The second is from yesterday, Guilty Pleasures, alongside Renee Graham. Prescott gave it up privately that hers includes Madonna's "Borderline," which is weird since it's irrefutably solid.


The ABBEY ROAD report is coming along, will post by end of week...

OR WHY WE LOVE THE TIMES


Houdini's grave to be opened - but what will they find there?

Which begs the response:



"Geraldo Rivera" -- Harry Shearer

A Story That Could Be True

If you were exchanged in the cradle and

your real mother died

without ever telling the story

then no one knows your name,

and somewhere in the world

your father is lost and needs you

but you are far away.

He can never find

how true you are, how ready.

When the great wind comes

and the robberies of the rain

you stand on the corner shivering.

The people who go by--

you wonder at their calm.

They miss the whisper that runs

any day in your mind,

"Who are you really, wanderer?"--

and the answer you have to give

no matter how dark and cold

the world around you is:

"Maybe I'm a king."

William Stafford
Going Over to Your Place: Poems for Each Other
(Selected by Paul B. Janeczko, Bradbury Press, New York)

You could feel TV's ground shift the other night as Eddie Izzard launched The Riches on FX, his coolly ambitious satire. The humor was jagged, lit by violence, the characters hungry and gulping down plot, the tone steely-eyed anarchic. There was Minnie Driver, a con on parole, sobbing, throwing her syringe out the window of her new McMansion, unable to tap a vein. There was the younger son, Sam, who draws wall murals and liked to dress like a girl. It tapped the waried intrigue of Blue Velvet or Something Wild or Sam and the Pharoahs "Wooly Bully." Very few comedians ever take the stage with such daring or certitude. And it was all brought you by:

QUENTIN TARANTINO AND ROBERT RODIRGUEZ


Shilling their new double-feature drive-in supervixen extra-glucose Russ Meyer tits-in-face Grindhouse, or the kind of scum Izzard's golfers gated out. An over-fetishized triple-cheese-burger-for-the-soul of a trailer, the movie promises to make KILL BILL look quaint.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

Fresh from his Oscar, Forest Whitaker returns as Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on a sixth season of The Shield, starting April 3, with another season to follow. Run to the video store and rent the first five on DVD to catch up. Tell all your friends that Nip/Tuck is for ninnies. CCH Pounder finally makes Lieutenant. Michael Chicklis's Vince Mackay grows on you, and then suddenly he's a monster you could pal around with. We're waiting for the big think piece on this, the best-cop-show-ever.

MEANWHILE

The scene is surreal and unforgettable. Passers-by stop by the flag-draped coffin Carlos has rolled out of the back of his pickup truck. There are Army boots of loved ones lost, and large photos of grieving Iraqi women and one of Alex in an open casket. This is all set against the massive video display atop the recruiting station. Among its slogans: "There is nothing on this green earth stronger than the US Army." Above that, an even larger display promotes Fox News and Bill O'Reilly and flashes phrases like "Gitmo justice." The famous Dow Jones news zipper runs its endless recitation of stock quotes and the daily count of dead and injured. A video ad for sunglasses flashes the words "Never Hide."

Brooks keeps showing up: on the latest NYRB subscription dropout card, and you have to wonder: what demo does this caricature appeal to? The 75-and-over crowd? Those lecherous old poets? Does this ancient ingenue actually sell magazines? Does anybody write in saying "OMIGawd, I never realized this august book review actually covered my teenage hand-job fantasy Louise! Sign me up for life!" Does anybody remember the major story this publication ran on Ms. Brooks? Or the byline? Can anybody name a single film Brooks acted in?

THE REVOLUTION WILL BE BLOGGED



We be thumping now anyway:
Riley Rock Index now features a weekly rss feed, which works on your mobile. And next week: Abbey Road podcast.