Bootleg Country: John Prine – New York, NY (09/12/99)

It’s been a long time since the last installment of Bootleg Country, and I’m sorry about that. The truth of the matter is that I do most of my primary musical listening in the car. Sure tunes are often playing in the homestead, but it is usually regulated to the background as when I’m at home I’m either cleaning, or reading, or playing on this here computer and definitely not paying that much attention to the music that fills the aural cavities.

The thing that makes sense in that above paragraph is that I was laid off from my job back in August. Without a daily trip to and from the workplace, my automobile driving is rather limited. Well, I should say my automobile driving of my own car, for when I do go out these days it is usually with the misses and since she owns the better car, we take it.

Thus I’ve had little opportunity to do any listening to bootlegs, and without the listening, there isn’t much to write about.

Thanks to a long drive to visit my folks out in Oklahoma I’m happy to present the newest edition of Bootleg Country. I’d like to promise regular upcoming editions, but there still isn’t a decent job in sight.

Back in the days of college, I had a friend, well I had lots of friends, but there was one in particular that stood out. Musically that is. He had this big giant tape collection filled with all sorts of musicians I had never heard of.

You see when I was in the age of growing up I only knew music through the pop radio station, MTV, and my mom. MTV and the radio both played basically the same songs, that is to say whatever was a hit at the moment, while my mom had a nice collection of classic rock vinyl. It was there I first heard Dylan, the Beatles, Sonny and Cher, Simon and Garfunkel, the Beach Boys and many others. But even all this was not cutting very deep into the pantheon of rock music.

It was in the latter days of high school that I began to search out music out of the mainstream. With magazines like Spin and Alternative Press I began to learn of bands like Fugazi, Dinosaur Jr., All, and Operation Ivy. Periodically I actually had the cash to buy the albums I was reading about and my musical knowledge grew.

Then there was this fella in college who had such a lovely collection of tunes. We became friendly enough, and I dropped by enough that he gave me a key to his dorm room and I would often slip in while he was at class or on a date or whatever. I would sit all alone in that room playing tape after tape, filled with new music.

It was within those walls that I first heard a Grateful Dead bootleg. It was there I first fell in love with a man named Willie Nelson. And it was there I discovered Lyle Lovett, John McCutcheon, and John Prine.

John Prine
09/12/99
West 54th Street
New York, NY

In the liner notes to the first John Prine album, Kris Kristopherson tells the story of hearing an unsigned and unheard of John Prine play a few songs in a little club, after hours. He relates that moment to what it must have been like to hear Bob Dylan at the Gaslight in the early sixties. Kristopherson, no stranger to great songwriting, knows of what he speaks.

Prine laughs off the Dylan comparison in an interview on this bootleg with a breezy, “Yeah there were four or five of us,” and while Dylan comparisons aren’t really necessary, Prine has written some of the best-danged folk songs this country has ever seen.

This bootleg is from a taping of the television program, Sessions at West 54th and as such you get a few things that differ from the normal bootleg. The sound quality is great, though having been compressed for television signals, the extreme audiophile may beg to differ. The set is relatively short, fitting nicely onto one blank CD. And there are a few interview sections with John Hiatt.

I should also note that my bootleg is missing a few songs from the official set list, which makes me assume that it was recorded straight off of the television show, and not the later DVD release, or soundboard feed.

As an added bonus there are a few duets with the always lovely Iris Dement. The taping comes off of Prine’s release of the album, In Spite of Ourselves, which heavily featured Ms. Dement.

The show starts with a rollicking, rambling “Spanish Pipedream” with a full band, and they sound like they are having lots of fun, even if the music is a bit of a mess. It still remains one of my favorite songs and contains an oft-quoted (at least by me) chorus:

Blow up your TV, throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on your own

The band settles down to a gentle “so sad it’s pretty” version of “Six O’Clock News” followed by the relatively new, but still utterly sad “All the Best.”

Iris Dement sings on four songs (“(We’re Not) The Jet Set,” “Let’s Invite Them Over Again,” “When Two Worlds Collide,” and “In Spite of Ourselves”) and while she is always a welcome voice to my ears, on this set she only accentuates the raggedness of Prine’s natural voice.

There is an amusing anecdote given before “In Spite of Ourselves” where Prine discusses how he had to cajole DeMent a little to sing the song with him due to its “questionable lyrics” (which include sniffing undies and convict movie fetishes.) Ultimately she was won over and we have a song that’s pure Prine – raunchy, sweet, and hilarious – and the world is better for it.

During one of the interview sections, Prine mentions how he got started in the business by playing at an amateur hour for a local club. After hearing the first three songs he’d ever written Prine was hired permanent.

Those three songs? “Souvenirs,” “Paradise,” and “Sam Stone.”

As Hiatt says in the interview, “Good God, I would have hired you after that too.”

For those of you unfamiliar with Prine or those songs, that would be like Dylan saying his first three songs were, “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Blowing in the Wind,” and “The Times They Are A-Changin.”

This is the best-sounding Prine bootleg I have, and despite a somewhat ragged performance, it is still a great disk.

The entire session has been released on DVD and is available through Amazon.

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip: Season 1, Episode 10 – “B-12”

studio 60 b12

This week’s episode was another jumble of time frames. Unlike the Nevada Day episode, it didn’t start with a large culmination of events and then backtracked to give us an understanding of what happened. Rather it was more like Pulp Fiction in that it moved backwards and forwards within one week.

Honestly, I spent the first 2/3rds of the episode cursing that it was yet again using an odd time sequence, and yet in the last third the payoff was so good that I am now praising the technique.

The episode begins with the opening monologue of the show within the show. Howie Mandell is the guest host and he declares that he’s looking forward to leaving behind Deal or No Deal for the night and getting back to his improvisational comedy roots. Danny Tripp then comes on the stage, critiquing his monologue and bringing with him two ladies carrying numbered briefcases. The gag is Howie has to choose one case like on his game show. Tripp even pretends to get a call from the banker.

It reminded me a lot of most Saturday Night Live opening monologues in that it was really silly and not very funny at all.

During this bit, the camera moves backstage and we see that most of the cast has contracted a nasty little virus. They are all being injected with a B-12 booster shot to allow them to make it through the night.

Once Tripp is off stage he is handed a note from Matt stating “5 dead in Grosse Point.”

The reporter, Martha O’Dell is back, and Tripp tries to have it out with her over the story she wrote. It seems she wrote that Tom’s latest movie was a failure and cites the anonymous Aint It News commenter, Dilbert27 as her source. This infuriates Tripp as it doesn’t seem professional to him. Despite Tripp’s protest, Martha has complete access to the show and remains unphased by his harassment.

Matt gives Lucy and Darius the chance to write a single sketch for the show involving a bumbled robbery/hostage attempt. The two are completely unprepared and nervous so Matt brings in an old show writer, one described by Tripp as “very serious.” He is, in fact, very serious and stoic, but he turns into a great mentor for the two freshman writers.

He abuses them and scolds them and ultimately talks Matt into letting them see if performed during the Friday rehearsal. It bombs, as he knew it would but figures this in the only way to instill the fear of god into them and make them write a good sketch. It does and it is slated to run on Saturday.

Through various flashbacks we see everyone engrossed in an ongoing news story about a man holding his family hostage.

Harriett has been inducted into the Falstaff society and at her ceremony she is required to tell a joke. Turns out she can’t tell a joke worth crap. In several hilarious scenes, we see Matt giving her a joke only to have her butcher it completely with her faulty memory and terrible timing.

Jack and Jordan have it out over her personal life getting in the way and she finally agrees to do a Time interview to try to smooth things out. It goes extremely poorly as she first tries to make jokes for answers and ultimately rails against him for making assumptions about how the industry is working against her.

Matt tries to rile Tripp up over a bad joke concerning the B-12 and how it cannot be taken by someone pregnant.

Dylan collapses just after the completely unfunny Bachelor in Rome skit in which he is dressed as a woman.

Unfortunately, the freshman skit about the bumbling criminal cannot be performed due to the sad news about the 5 dead in Grosse Pointe.

Jordan breaks down in Tripp’s office but refuses to take the B-12 and the night’s bombshell comes out that she is pregnant. This was a little sleight of hand by the marketing department as all the previews made this look like she was indeed fired.

Both instances completed the off-kilter time use and created a very moving couple of moments.

Review: ****

The queer timelines ultimately paid off. In retrospect, I like this episode more and more as it really demonstrated Sorkin’s ability to write a good story and interweave all the various lines. The show moved back into serious drama territory but managed to score some very nice comedy with Harriett bumbling her joke.

The Amityville Horror (1979)

amityville horror

Haunted House stories have to be some of the oldest examples of scary tales of horror. What’s scarier than the fear that resides right in your own home? Where can you find safety if not your own house? Where do we find much of our own horror but our own homes late at night with the creepy shadows and wind-blown creaky noises?

The Amityville Horror (1979) does a nice job of ratcheting up the spooks for about the first half but falters off towards the end.

Based on the book of the same name, which is supposedly based on true events, the story focuses on the Lutz family who just moved into a lovely old home that takes on some devious supernatural qualities. You see as the story begins we see that the family living in the home before the Lutz family were all brutally murdered in their sleep by one of their own. Even knowing this, the Lutz family buy the house for a bargain and move in because “houses don’t have memories.”

Houses it seems, not only have memories but have rotten dispositions too.

Strange things start to happen pretty immediately when the Lutz’s move in. The boathouse lights turn on and doors open in the middle of the night, the toilets get clogged with blood-looking ooze, and the priest who comes to bless the house (Rod Steiger) gets trapped in a room with a million flies and is told by a creepy voice to get out.

The film moves slowly towards its frights. This isn’t a film with a real live knife-wielding boogeyman ready to jump out and scare the family (and audience) at a moment’s notice. No, this film builds its horror with slow tension. Creepy things happen amongst the more mundane events of the family’s life. Between the scares we see the family unpacking boxes, attending weddings, taking boat rides, and chopping wood. Lots and lots of wood chopping.

Although amongst all of this in-between action, we hardly get to know the family at all. It is late in the film that it is revealed what George Lutz (a very hairy James Brolin) does. There is lots of talk about him needing to go back to work and all of these odd shots of the business van that only reveal that George owns his own business but strangely cut off the occupation. Eventually, it is revealed that he is a surveyor. And that’s how the whole movie is. We see a lot of the family doing things, but get no connection as to who they are as people.

Ultimately the slow build of tension fizzles out before it can really burst. This is the problem with making a haunted house picture. If there isn’t a ghost or phantom coming out of the walls, there is only so much horror a house itself can bring. Droves of flies, windows opening on their own, and chairs moving by themselves can build some tension, but without something bigger causing it all that’s left is a disappointment. In the end, all the filmmakers can muster is lots of heavy thunder and rain followed by a stairwell collapsing into a basement of blood. It’s just a house after all and that can be run away from.

Apparently, they followed the book pretty closely, and I’m not one to often ask for the creature behind the horror, but here it seems like they should have given us a little more. I can’t imagine the devil appearing for a final attack would have made the picture a great one, but it could have at least given a more adventurous ending.

Random Shuffle (11/27/06) – Motley Crue, The Mamas and the Papas, Lyle Lovett, The Clash & Natalie Merchant

Originally written on November 28, 2006.

“Girls, Girls, Girls” – Mötley Crüe
From Girls, Girls, Girls

I have previously mentioned my undying love for all things hair metal, and Mötley Crüe were the unquestioned kings of the hair. They rocked, they rolled, they barely survived their own hedonism. Even their power ballads are pretty good. Who doesn’t get all teary-eyed when “Home Sweet Home” plays over the loudspeakers?

I am particularly fond of this song, or rather its accompanying video. As the title implies, it was all about the ladies, and more specifically the scantily clad ladies. For a young teenage boy, there isn’t anything better than scantily clad ladies.

I can remember sitting with my cousin at my grandma’s house watching MTV in the back bedroom. “Girls, Girls Girls” was in heavy rotation. Every time the video would come on, my cousin would turn the volume way down – I guess because he was afraid someone would hear and chastise our viewing tastes – and we would sit watching the gyrations in silence.

It was a good time.

This gives me an odd remembrance of the song, though. I remember the girls, but it is one of the few Crüe hits where I don’t really know the music all that well. Too much mute I guess.

“Dream a Little Dream of Me” – The Mamas and the Papas
From the Papas and the Mamas

This song will forever remind me of the film that bears its name. An odd, dreamy movie starring the Coreys. It was probably the first non-mainstream, weird, art film I had ever seen. It showed me how the film could be different and interesting and not follow the same standard plot lines. I’ve been a fan of weird films ever since.

The song is nothing but loveliness. Mama Cass’ big beautiful voice singing nothing but beauty. It is a song I used to listen to and dream little dreams of my own. It’s the sort of song I used to play and wonder when someone would dream of me. It’s a song I played at my wedding reception. A song I now enjoy with my wife.

Fat Babies” – Lyle Lovett
From I Love Everybody

Lyle Lovett is the sort of artist who can write nonsense, humor, and poetry. Sometimes all within the same song. Though I Love Everybody is far from his best album (The Road To Ensenada gets that award) it is the first album of his I ever heard.

In college a good friend of mine had this giant tape collection filled with all sorts of artists I had never heard of. I’d often sit in his dorm room and pick out tapes at random just to find something interesting. I heard my first Grateful Dead bootlegs in that room as well as John Prine, John Mccutcheon, and Willie Nelson. Well, ok I had heard Willie before, but it was in that room that we began our love affair.

Lyle was first heard by my ears between those walls as well, and it was this album that made me a fan. It’s not exactly country as it is filled with big jazzy horns and a few blues riffs. But it’s not jazz or blues or rock and roll either. These days you’d probably call it Americana, but I didn’t know what the crap that was back then. What I did know was that it was different, and exactly the kind of acoustic sound I had been looking for.

“Fat Babies” is a silly little nonsensical song on an album full of them. Lyles singing about things he hates which include hippies, cornbread, and fat babies. But then he turns around and likes a girl simply because she likes him and she don’t like much. None of it makes much sense, but it doesn’t have to. It’s just fun and silly and a nice piece of music. Sometimes that’s all a song needs to be.

“Train in Vain” – The Clash
From London Calling

I spent a long time declaring I didn’t like the Clash even though I’d never really heard many of their songs. I knew “Rock the Casbah” of course and liked it too. But the few other songs I had heard all had this annoying reggae jive going for it and did nothing to make me want more. A local radio guy is a big fan and periodically plays Joe Strummer solo stuff, but it too seemed to have this faux reggae feel and I just don’t like faux reggae.

I kept hearing how great London Calling was and eventually decided to have myself a listen. I got the disk and expected to hate it and was already writing a scathing review in my head. It never got out of my head because, as it turned out, I loved the disk. There’s a few reggae beats in there, but it really encompasses so many genres that I hardly noticed.

Turns out there were also a few songs I already knew and enjoyed but didn’t know it was by the Clash. “Trains in Vain” is one of those songs, and it s a good one.

“San Andreas Fault” – Natalie Merchant
From Tigerlily

I’ve always been a very casual 10,000 Maniacs fan. I have a few of their albums, and whenever I play them, I enjoy them. But they never made what I’d call a stand-out album and for the most part, their music sits in the back of my collection, only surfacing periodically.

However, Natalie Merchant’s first solo album, Tigerlily, has always been one of my favorites. I can’t really pinpoint exactly why I like it so much. There are only a couple of songs that I know well or would say are great songs. The rest of them kind of blend together and I couldn’t tell you their names even though I’ve listened to the disk numerous times.

It’s all very low-key, and you wouldn’t be too far off to say it’s mostly kind of dull. Natalie has this exotic, lulling voice that washes over me and sends me to a nice kind of place. It’s really nice background music – the kind of thing to play while reading a book or relaxing with some hot chocolate and a warm fire.

This is my favorite song on the album and it starts off with this marvelous, cooing “ooohs” from Natalie that lay me down and fluff my pillow. It sets a perfect mood for a relaxing evening, morning, or anytime in between.

The Simpsons: Season 18, Episode 7 – “Ice Cream of Margie (With the Light Blue Hair)”

the simpsons ice cream of margie

The Couch Gag: The entire Simpsons family turns into a bunch of giant cockroaches and scurry away.

Number of out loud laughs: 2

The Plot: Bart is seen opening cereal boxes in order to get the toy prize and then feeding the rest of the cereal to the dog. When questioned on why he is so wasteful Bart’s only response is that he doesn’t know, but that he also only eats the eyes of the lobsters. Marge chastises the boy by saying “Your father works very hard to put lobsters on the table.” We then cut to Homer playing a game of chair hockey with the rest of the gang at the nuclear plant.

Mr. Burns after walking in on the game chastises Homer for goofing off, but Homer is unable to pay attention as an ice cream truck is driving by. When Mr. Burns yells some more, Homer looks back at him only to find Mr. Burns looks just like a giant ice cream cone and is commanding that Homer lick him. He does and this gets him fired.

Running after the ice cream truck, the owner gladly stops, knowing Homer by name. Homer buys a popsicle but only has a hundred dollar bill to pay for it. The man dies of exhaustion making change out of actual coin change.

Out of a job Homer takes up driving the truck and finds his new dream job. Meanwhile Marge has watched an episode of Opal (an obvious spoof of Oprah) where her guest demeans women who stay at home making Marge feel terrible.

Trying to better herself Marge begins making sculptures out of the leftover popsicle sticks and becomes quite good at it. Kent Brockman takes notice after reporting on Snake being chased by the cops. Marge sets up a big presentation of her sculptures and makes Homer promise he will be there for it.

Homer makes the promise, but says he must make his route first or his kids will think he neglected them. Finding a divorced dad picnic he takes advantage of the fathers by saying that ice cream will make up for their neglect. He makes big money, but forgets about the time. With only moments to spare he races back home through the back woods. Unfortunately he hits an owl, a boy scout and a bear which causes him to skid out of control and wipe out all of the sculptures.

Marge is furious, but Homer wins back her heart by pleading with her and taking multiple Polaroid’s of himself with a sad face. To show her forgiveness she creates a giant Homer sculpture which, in a jump to the future 200 years is shown as the last piece of art that survived after the iPods banded together and took over the world.

Review: **

Worst episode this season. The writers are still following their season trend of trying to maintain an actual plot versus throwing a bunch of nonsensical gags around, but this one just fell flat.

The thing about previous seasons was not only were they basically throwing plot out the window, but it always felt like they were overproducing themselves and acting like they were the hippest kids in school while failing to produce a show similar to what made them great in the first place. It’s like Seinfeld in the last couple of seasons where they kept coming up with all these crazy scenarios and forgot it was the conversations that made it great.

I’m ecstatic that they’ve finally gone back to the basics, but an actual plot isn’t always actually funny. The jokes were mostly lame and the story never really took off.

Here’s looking at next week.

Trivia

A possible revelation about the location of Springfield, Snake Jailbird reports a traffic jam at the 101-405 interchange, both of which run up the Pacific Coast of the United States. Their interchange is in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, CA
Greta Wolfcastle can be seen (for the first time since “The Bart Wants What it Wants”) with her father Rainier Wolfcastle buying ice cream.
Ned Flanders’ late wife, Maude Flanders, is seen as one of Marge’s popsicle sculptures.
Comic Book Guy comments on the absence of a good Star Wars movie since the first one, bemoaning as well, the extensive use of CGI in the later re-releases.

Cultural References

The title of this episode cites Stephen Foster’s song “I Dream of Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair”.
The scene when Homer dresses spoofs the opening of Da Ali G Show.
The revelation of the customized iced-cream truck is a parody of Pimp My Ride, set to the Missy Elliott song “Get Ur Freak On”.
The Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” plays as Homer comes down the street to sell ice cream.
The music played during the montage of Marge creating popsicle-stick sculptures is “Feels So Good” by Chuck Mangione.

And yes, I stole the references and trivia from Wikipedia.

The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)

fearless vampire killers

Originally written and posted on November 25, 2006.

I’ve knocked off the “mini” in my mini movie review titles. I figure you guys can figure out it is “mini” by the length. The original description was really to designate a difference between my full-on, very well-written pieces and the smaller, quickly put-together reviews. The small reviews are designed to give a quick opinion of the films I see, whereas the longer reviews are meant to be better written and give more insight. A small distinction I know. But you guys are smart, you’ll figure out the difference.

Roman Polanski is one of those directors that I know of, but don’t really know all that well. In fact, I’ve only seen three of his films (Chinatown, The Ninth Gate, and this one) so it is difficult to compare The Fearless Vampire Killers to his other works. I’ve also heard various things about this film ranging from absolutely brilliant to rather dull.

And that’s pretty much how I’d describe it. It is beautifully and carefully shot. The mountainous landscape is gorgeous (even if half of it is painted) and the village/castle scenes are marvelous. The juxtaposition of the whiteness in the snow and baths with the dark red blood is a wonder to behold. The camera moves like a dancer.

Yet I never really found it all that funny. Perhaps it is that the film was made in 1962 and I’m too young to ever really get it. Or perhaps it is too British for this dumb American to understand. Whatever the reasons, while much of it was rather silly and a bit of a goof I never found myself really laughing at the events onscreen.

All of this tended to make it a rather beautiful bore.

The plot is your basic gothic vampire tale. A Van Helsing-like vampire hunter enters a small eastern European village with his assistant. The lovely ladies begin winding up dead with two small holes in their necks. Being a comedy the two vampire hunters aren’t very good at vampire hunting and supposed hilarity ensues.

It is a film I won’t be watching again I suspect, but one I wouldn’t mind recommending as it is beautifully shot and the humor could befall someone with different sensibilities.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: Season 1, Episode 9 – “The Option Period”

studio 60 the option period

The Plot: The episode begins with the closing of last week’s Studio 60 show. Well, actually, since last week I was down and out, let’s talk about that episode too. My recap of that will be short since I didn’t take notes and my memory is faulty.

Though he suffers a few more small-town shenanigans, Tom is released from jail when the judge finds out that Tom’s brother is serving multiple tours in Iraq. The Chinese girl discovers a tabloid that gossips about what Jordan’s ex-husband has been blathering about. She shows her dad and then misinterprets him as saying that Jordan has brought shame unto herself and NBS. Jack then goes into a furious rant about how Jordan and the entire crew have a great deal of character for going through the mess they just went through and that the Chinese man can basically shove it. It was a great feel-good, stand-up, and cheer moment.

There is then a realization that the interpretation was wrong and that what was actually said was that the ex-husband was disgraceful and brought shame upon himself.

This week is another continuation of the plot, beginning as last week’s Studio 60 show ends.

The show actually ended 36 seconds short causing guest host Jessica Simpson to ask for prayers for the “mid-west” as opposed to the Middle East where the war is happening. Many jokes about the poor people from Indiana were made.

The show ended early due to Ron and Ricky printing the script on the wrong paper, or font. That’s some pretty deep insider stuff there but apparently longer shows are printed differently than shorter half-hour shows. The number of pages a script comes in indicates precisely how long the show will run. Ron and Ricky are writing a half-hour show, entitled “Peripheral View Man” for another network in an attempt to leave Studio 60.

The only problem is that NBS holds the rights to “Peripheral View Man” until the day ends. As Matt discovers all of this he threatens to option the show again just to screw with Ron and Ricky. Some pretty bitter stuff comes out of this as Ron lays all of his frustrations of being essentially made a lame duck out to Matt and then leaves. Matt eventually agrees to let them have it and to let the two men go. As they leave they indicate they’ll be taking all of the writing staff save the new guy and the Australian chick (I know I should know their names, but darned if I can find them.)

Harriett is thinking of doing a magazine spread in nothing but her skivvies. She’s doing this because she was turned down for a starring movie role due to people not thinking she is sexy enough. Simon and Tom try to talk her out of it because they feel it will hurt her image as a good Christian woman. Matt also tries to talk her out of it, but he claims that she would only be doing it out of revenge, and that’s not the type of person she is. In doing so he seems to talk himself out of optioning “Peripheral View Man,” too.

Jordan tells Danny that he either has to fire 15 people or start using product placement. This all stems from the fact that the Chinese man is doing his deal with NBS. Here it again gets pretty insider, but the basics of the financial mumbo jumbo is that the investment takes a great deal of money which makes them have to cut back elsewhere.

Much wrangling ensues, but Cal finally finds a solution in changing the main set to look like Sunset Strip. Since Sunset is full of its own giant billboards, it can mimic them and sell its own advertising.

Review: ****

This was the funniest episode I have seen to date. Generally, there are a few good jokes scattered throughout, but the concentration remains on the drama. Tonight, while still staying within character and the drama, they were throwing down some beautiful jokes.

I especially enjoyed Simon and Tom trying to talk Harriet out of the photo shoot, while still insisting they are pro-naked girls.

The drama played itself out nicely. It was a little less melodramatic than previous episodes sticking mostly to the lingerie shoot and having product placements. To me, this is where the show should stay. Good drama doesn’t have to be so serious. More humor balances it out and makes a better show.

It doesn’t look like they will be following my advice though, since the episode ended with Danny telling Jordan that she will probably be fired. The preview for next week indicates that’s exactly what will happen.

Random Shuffle (11/20/06) – Liz Phair, Martha Wainwright, Depeche Mode, Van Morrison, & Echo & the Bunnymen

“Never Said” – Liz Phair
From Exile in Guyville

In the mid-1990s I was on a plane flying from Birmingham Alabama to Tulsa Oklahoma. This was a trip I normally made by automobile, but I had recently fallen inexplicably ill. Being a freshman in college I was not accustomed to being inexplicably ill while all alone, hence the trip home via airplane.

On the plane, I was actually feeling pretty healthy and virile thanks to the lovely lady who took her seat next to mine. Perhaps seeing my Walkman or my copy of Spin magazine (in the days when having a copy of Spin magazine exuded a cool hipness) she struck up a conversation about music. The topics ranged from Fugazi and Dinosaur Jr to inevitably Nirvana. She asked me if I liked Liz Phair, and I had to admit that though I had heard good things, I had not actually listened to her. She raved about how amazing and beautiful Phair was and highly recommended I listen to her soon.

As these things do, the conversation waned and we went about reading our magazines and carried through the annoyance that is flying. A few bits of conversation were had here and there and then the plane landed and we departed. I made a mental checklist to listen to Liz Phair as soon as I could and went along my sickly way.

As it turns out I didn’t promptly listen to Ms. Phair and it was in fact this last year that I ever managed to get a copy of Exile in Guyville for a listen. What I was waiting for, I don’t know, but I wish I had paid more attention to that vixen. It is a beautiful and beautiful album full of angst, poetry, and raw emotion.

“Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole” – Martha Wainwright
From Martha Wainwright

Speaking of angst, poetry, and raw emotion, Martha Wainwright has plenty of each flowing from her mouth like blood from a lanced tongue. This song just slays. Her voice is tortured and strangled and pulls it all out of me until I lie flat and still gasping for life.

I can’t say I’m much of a fan of any of the Wainwrights, either Loudon or Rufus. I’m not overly familiar with their music, but what I have heard hasn’t made me seek them out either. They get praised well enough that I continue to think I should dig into their well farther, but well, so it goes. When the Duke lauded Martha with praise and sent a few tunes to the mp3 project I anxiously checked them out.

Sweet chimichanga that girl has got something. Her voice isn’t what you would exactly call beautiful, but there is a certain poetry to her words and such effectiveness in the way she sings that it doesn’t matter.

I honestly don’t really know what she’s singing about here, but whatever it is it breaks your heart. She projects such gut-wrenching emotion

“Just Can’t Get Enough” – Depeche Mode
From Speak and Spell

In my junior high to be hip you had to love U2 and you had to adore Depeche Mode. This was pre-Joshua Tree and Violator so neither of those bands had reached worldwide superstardom yet, though they weren’t exactly unknown indie bands either (this was Oologah Oklahoma, we didn’t know what the heck an indie band was, so just not being on the national charts was obscure enough.) Frankly, I never was all that hip in high school, but my brother was and he used to play the heck out of both bands.

This is the only Depeche Mode song that stuck and has lasted in my head all these years later.

It’s some darn fine synth pop too.

I still have vague memories of the cool kids mimicking the synch beats while goofing in drama class.

“Bucket’s Got a Hole in It” – Van Morrison
From Pay the Devil

From the moment I heard “Tupelo Honey” I knew I’d be a Van Morrison fan forever. I was actually a casual fan before that moment, but that song sealed the deal. I know how people hate to hear about me discovering an artist through their greatest hits packages, but I went through a short period where all I was doing was picking up Best Ofs. I didn’t have the cash to shell out for entire record collections, and this was before I had an internet connection, or even knew of such a place where you could go and get suggestions of which album to start with, so a greatest hits deal seemed like the best way to get a good foundation on who an artist was. I’ll still stand by that idea, for that time at least. I now can download a few songs, listen to snippets at Amazon, or search out my knowledge basis for the best places to start with, but then it made your purchase and pray it comes out all right. And for my money, a hits package was the best bet.

So anyway, I had the first volume of Van’s greatest hits and loved it. It’s filled with such classics as “Domino,” “Wild Nights,” and “Brown Eyed Girl.” It’s great music and worth every penny. I decided I could be a fan, but instead of searching out a single album, perhaps something with a few songs I now knew I loved, I went for the volume two greatest hits. I should have known better. Few artists have that many greatest hits, and Van’s was filled with maudlin, sappy religious numbers. Gone were the two-stepping beats and killer horn section. Instead, it was slow melodies and sad strings. (Editor’s Note: I obviously love the songs on Volume 2 now.)

Van laid low in my collection for a long time after that. Eventually, I was trolling Napster for some good love songs to put on a mix tape for a girl. “Tupelo Honey” was found and I was back on the track to Vandom once again. I’ve since nabbed many a Van Morrison album and my love has never stopped.

This is Van’s recent take on classic country songs. Honestly, I haven’t given it my full attention yet, just let it play in the background a few times, but from what I can hear he’s still got it.

“The Killing Moon” – Echo and the Bunnymen
From Ocean Rain

Man, what’s up with this list? It is random, but still nabs two alternative 80’s tracks and two raw, powerful women, and Van Morrison.

Back again to junior high (or maybe it was high school, the memory fades these days) the church we went to had just hired a new youth guy and he was chatting me up trying to get a lay of the kids and make us believe he was a cool guy. Anyways he asks me about music and I say I’m into alternative stuff like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and all that stuff when he asks me about Echo and the Bunnymen. Knowing the name and maybe a couple of songs I say ‘yeah’ and act like they are the coolest. He brings up the soundtrack to the movie Lost Boys and the song “Cry Little Sister” thinking that was Echo and the Bunnymen (though they did cover a version of “People Are Strange” on the soundtrack it was Gerard McMann who did the song in question). Not knowing any better I agreed that it was killer and we basked in our coolness.

We did become great friends, though I learned he wasn’t an Echo fan either, and not really very cool at that.

This particular song I got on a compilation disk from Spin magazine (see there are themes to this post) along with a bunch of other indie/alternative bands they were promoting at the time. It’s still a great song, and I still dig “Cry Little Sister” too.

The Simpsons: Season 18, Episode 6 – “Moe ‘N’ a Lisa”

the simpsons moe n a lisa

Coming off of the lackluster Treehouse of Horror, the Simpsons created what may be the best episode of the season thus far. It was filled with good gags, good guest appearances, and a good story. I’m also feeling a bit better from a week of the flu and nothing but lousy. This means the blog should get some more regular updating, and hopefully reviews of all the stuff I missed last week.

Best Line: “That’s it Franzen, I think your nose needs some ‘Corrections.’”

Guest Stars: Tom Wolfe, Gore Vidal, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, and JK Simmons.

Plot: Homer wakes up to find the words “Don’t Forget” inscribed all over the house (including his belly, the dog and cat, and from alphabet cereal coughed up by Maggie,) yet he cannot remember what he is not supposed to forget. Marge reminds him that they are supposed to go to the senior Olympics to watch Grandpa participate. As they leave, Moe calls dressed in a fishing outfit and leaves a message for Homer to pick him up for their birthday outing.

Grandpa wants desperately to win the gold as he fears this will be his last Olympics (his first being at Berlin in 1936 where he nearly javelined Hitler to death but missed, killing an actual assassin instead.) But Grandpa can’t catch a break, losing every event, until he drops his dentures. Groundskeeper Willie picks them up, but a wardrobe malfunction makes him look like the Grim Reaper and a scared Grandpa picks up steam to win the race.

Later as the Simpsons return home, Homer sees Moe on their doorstep and remembers what he forgot. Ducking down in the car to hide they drive to the back of the house where they then eat their dinner hiding under the table. Though Marge says “We can’t scuttle around like craps for the rest of our lives,” Homer continues to crawl around the floor reaching upwards for food, and eventually gets into a crab-like fight with Bart.

Moe throws a brick through the window and Lisa is intrigued by his desperate, sadly poetic words. Looking for a hero to write an essay about she follows Moe home and finds that he scribbles his poetry onto sticky notes. With Moe’s permission, she combines the notes into a larger poem and submits it to a poetry magazine where it is turned into a book. Moe quickly becomes a poetry sensation.

At the WordLoaf conference, he is met by such luminaries as Gore Vidal and Tom Wolfe. Fearing he’ll be kicked out for getting help from Lisa, Moe acts as if he came up with the title for his book (when in fact Lisa did) and needed no help whatsoever with his writing.

When asked to write a new poem for his acceptance as “Best New Poet” Moe asks Lisa to help him, but she refuses. So, Moe steals an elevator warning sign and the motel television guide and reads those. He is booed and jeered until Lisa walks in at which point Moe makes up a heartfelt poem asking for forgiveness.

Rating: ****

Had this been season five this episode would have probably received a lesser rating, but this was one of the best episodes I’ve seen in many a year. The gags were very clever and the story flowed quite well. The wife and I both laughed heartily throughout. So much so that I didn’t even think to actually count the number of times. A very good sign indeed.

Best Moments:

Grandpa after he nearly killed Hitler with a javelin: “The next time I saw Hitler we had dinner and laughed about it.”
Grandpa to what he thinks is the Grim Reaper, while holding Bart hostage: “Take the boy, his soul is fresher.”
The poetry magazine editor acts exactly like the newspaper boss in Spiderman.
Homer to a man whose house he has just driven through (because he thought it was a covered bridge): “We should exchange insurance information. I have none.”
Moe to the geese who are eating his poetic sticky notes: “Stupid geese, you’re eating my brilliance.”
The whole Franzen, Chabon exchange was just brilliant.

Lost: Season 3, Episode 6 – “I Do”

lost i do

The Revelations:

Jack decides to operate on Ben
Kate learns about the two islands
Locke sees “Lift up your eyes and look north” written on Eko’s stick.

The Plot: The episode focused mainly on Jack, Sawyer, and Kate, but we did catch a quick flashback of Eko’s funeral. Just prior to the funeral Sayid and Locke have a discussion about the Big Black Smoke thing.

While Kate and Sawyer are working, Alex comes running out with a slingshot and makes the most of it before she is captured.

Jack tells Ben he will not operate on him and that he’ll enjoy watching him die, and that will be right soon. Pickett begins eyeing Sawyer again, and Juliet tells Kate that unless Jack operates, Sawyer will die. She then leads Kate to Jack, and there is a nice reunion before Kate begs for Sawyer’s life. Jack again refuses.

Emotional Kate climbs over to Sawyer’s cage and admits she loves him and they sex it up.

Jack hears a voice on his intercom and finds his door open. Down the hall, another door is opened leading to the video chamber, which happens to have a monitor on the naked Sawyer and Kate. Ben comes in and Jack says that he’ll operate for his freedom.

During the operation, Jack slices into Ben’s liver giving him a hospital hostage of sorts. He uses this leverage to free Kate and Sawyer.

The Flashback: Kate marries a Miami police officer and tries to have a normal life. She even calls the US Marshall to beg for her life. The Marshall says she can have it, but only if she stays put. She can’t stay put and winds up admitting everything to her husband before drugging him and running.

The Review: **1/2

The flashback was totally pointless. It was boring and didn’t add much to Kate’s character. The only thing to really gain from it was that she can’t stay still and truly trust anyone, well until she gives herself to Sawyer.

Most of the episode was pretty dull. It only got interesting when Jack sliced into Ben, and that was the last quarter. I did dig the note on Eko’s stick and am anxious to see where it leads.

Admittedly I was thoroughly distracted during this episode. My parents came home in the middle of it and asked me a ton of questions. They don’t watch it but decided to start quizzing me on it while it was airing. Then my cousin came by and kept asking about my notebook (on which I write my show notes.)

From the Alex show, there were some cryptic conversations that make it sound as if she made it to the second island on her own. Seemingly there is another way across other than by boat or the submarine. Perhaps Kate and Sawyer will find the way.

I suspect Locke will indeed look North and find the island. If they realize what they are up against, perhaps they will revolt and get somewhere.

This was the last episode until next year. The interim show, Daybreak looks interesting. If it is I’ll keep up with it here.