New podcast: Complete Motown Singles, broadcast yesterday here in Boston. … [Read more...]

AIN'T NO ONE FOR TO GIVE YOU NO PAIN From the iTunes Celebrity Playlists, this acute remark from the perennially underrated Jeff Daniels: "A great example of why Bonnie Raitt is one of the premiere blues guitarists. By the time she's done playing this song, every guy in the audience is wishing … [Read more...]

NOBODY TOLD ME Steve Knopper on John Lennon, telling my story that a cellist from the Eastman School once told me: "One guy told me this story: He was on the streets in New York City, a truck pulls off and a band is playing on the back of this flatbed truck. And it's John Lennon and his band." … [Read more...]

... to the tune of "Uncertain Times," by the Raveonettes. … [Read more...]

X FOR EYES Bradley's Alamanac has a Chris Brokaw live set from last month... Brokaw was also featured on Here and Now... it's almost like there's a BUZZ... HAWKEYE'S A REPUBLICAN???? Previews for West Wing, the Smits subtext: "Okay, I'll play your Democratic presidential candidate and go live … [Read more...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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: … [Read more...]

"I was waiting for his bit where he actually says, "I love all the signs but then it's harder to remember the words and chords..." Finally he got to that and I held up my sign loud and proud. Suddenly a video camera and a still camera were in front of me. I must have gotten up on the big screen. … [Read more...]