the sticking point

Pope Muzik

Quote of the day: "The Pope is never sick until he's dead." 

-John Allen, National Catholic Reporter, on CNN

Friday 10: Lift mp3 player. Select "shuffle all songs." Report what you hear. Repeat 9x.

1. Death on Two Legs - Queen. On the live version, I always dug the way Freddie Mercury introduced it as "deathontwo lehhhhhhhhhhgs!" Today, I heard the studio version.

2. Reno Dakota - Magnetic Fields. This was the first time I ever heard this song. I made a mental note to give it 3 stars on iTunes.

3. Where Does It Lead? - Miriam Makeba. This past weekend, I discovered a stash of Makeba disks at my mother-in-law's house. I ripped three of them to the laptop, and today's iPod F10 yields the harvest. This is from the spotty Magic of Makeba album; it's a re-recorded version of a song she did on her first album.

4. Imagine The Game - Go Home Productions. This is one o' them "mash-ups" that the kids are gaga over these days. I'm not a fan of such things, but GHP's work is always great, always interesting, and they include reams of hidden riffs and punk/pop kernels among the classic rock tracks. This one is fairly simple: Lennon's "Imagine" meets "Play The Game" by Queen. Sample and download some of the GHP stuff yourself here.

5. Pure Joy - Minutemen. Pure coincidence, I swear.

6. World of Good - Saw Doctors. In 1999, S and I asked guitarist Leo if his Saw Doctors would play our Cape Cod wedding the following June. He said, "If the schedule allows it; you should call the manager." I'm not sure if we ever followed up on this, but Sea Breeze ended up playing (and pissing me off) that day.

7. Suzy & Jeffrey - Blondie. Autoamerican is an underrated album. This song is a bonus track on the remastered 2001 reissue. It was originally the non-LP b-side of "Tide Is High."

8. Shakin' - Dandy Warhols. Yet another song that pinches the riff off Wire's "Three Girl Rhumba." (see also "Connection" by Elastica.)

9. Here She Comes Now - Galaxie 500. A Velvets cover, from G500's This Is Our Music disk. Now that Luna has effectively pissed me way off, I'm loving Galaxie 500 even more.

10. Meaningless - Magnetic Fields. Another great song from 69 Love Songs.

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photo from meathook.net.

Tonight in Pedro

We Jam Econo premieres at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro at 8PM. It can't hit New York fast enough for me. In the meantime, I can watch the trailer over and over.

[posted with ecto]

Rank Call

Ultimate Charts is compiling your votes for top albums.

(Thanks to Jake for the link.)

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Listening: "Does He Love You" by Rilo Kiley from Live at the Black Cat 10.10.04

And it smells like bleach.

It's where puns and bad jokes are born: Alan's "Cumming" out.

It'll be at least another week before you can try Cumming on your wrists and neck, or even behind your ears, but you can smell like a Friday Ten today.

Here's how:

Put your mp3 player on shuffle all. What are the first ten songs out of the gate? Your results may vary, so post them in the comments section below. (I don't even care if you do it on Saturday.)

1. Ambulance - TV on the Radio. Live version.

2. I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts - X.

3. Eighties (Coming Mix) - Killing Joke.

4. Black and White - Henry Rollins.

5. Monday - Wilco.

6. I Need To Know - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

7. Real Cool Time - Stooges.

8. Dead Girls Don't Say No - Squirm. From the great Big Apple: Rotten to the Core comp.

9. Hang On, St. Christopher - Tom Waits.

10. Hey Cowboy - Kostars.

The idea for Friday Ten (as far as I know) came from The Republic of T. You can view previous Sticking Point F10s here.

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iPod photo from iPodLounge.

Something else on his mind?

The words "drone" and "UAVs" are often used tsunonymously.

               - Major General James Marks, live on CNN (2:17pm ET)

Half-Hour Comedy Hour

Don't quite know if it's in danger of being cancelled, but it probably needs help anyway. Sign the petition to support Arrested Development.

Thanks to Brian at Last Stop: This Town.

The action-thriller with the heroine in a white shirt. (Wet.)

“Mind blowing! Keanu Reeves is amazing!”

                          - Some overpaid douchebag

I had to see Constantine yesterday. Here's a three-word summation: Satan cures cancer.

My pal S.O'C emailed me this morning to ask if there were any cool weapons in the movie. No. No good weapons really. (Though Keanu Reeves's acting was stiff enough to beat demons away.) There was a sort of God-gun that was pretty lame. It was shaped like a cross and had tiny little crucifixes adorning it.

I saw the movie while trapped in a room full of arts & entertainment critics. Literally. Before the lights went out, I could hear them all talking to each other about their “pieces” and bellowing loudly their opinions of various actors and musicians. “His first love is song, and he finally has a vehicle for that love. It's the most fun I've ever seen him have onstage. Glorious! (My piece on it comes out Tuesday.)” It was all so fucking self-indulgent and bogus. Like dogs lapping up each other's vomit. Most of the people in the room were morbidly obese, and half of the attendees wore sweatpants. They rested their notepads on their knees as they bragged to one another. (Note to self: demote film reviewers to one notch below morning zoo DJs on asshole rankings.)

The guy sitting two seats down the row from me turned and said, apropos of nothing, “Southern California?! What makes them think they could relocate this to southern California?! I mean, would they move Sherlock Holmes to Brooklyn?”

I said, “They will.” But I came THISCLOSE to saying, “Listen, you blubbery sock-sniffer, do you think I give a fuck?! And, for fuck's sake, wear some proper pants when you're in public! Dress like a grown up.”

Instead, I just said, “They will,” like I was all-knowing or some shit. And he bought it: “You know, it scares me that you're probably right!”

(You know, it scares me that dumbshits like you can figure out how to breathe.)

Peter Stormare as Lucifer, plays the dark lord unmistakably -- and inexplicably -- gay. Why?

And Keanu. Fucking Keanu. He cannot act and he is a complete BORE to watch. He has been good (and just good) in exactly one movie: The Matrix. That's the only acting role he's ever been right for. Yeah, I know. You'll say: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and River's Edge. But that wasn't acting anyway. The only thing stiffer than Keanu Reeves in Constantine is Joel Siegel watching him.

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On iTunes right now: Let The Bad Times Roll from the album “Stereo” by Westerberg, Paul

[posted with ecto]

It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry

Just as I finally got a seat on the subway this morning, I could feel something burning the left side of my head. It was the wicked stare of the young lady sitting next to me. Didn’t know what her problem was, until I noticed a woman standing in front of me, holding a book in one hand and the metal bar with the other. Maybe my seat neighbor thought I should relinquish my seat to Miss Stander.

Whatever.

I leaned forward and asked, “Would you like to sit down?” I had my headphones on and the iPod blaring some Sabbath, so I couldn’t hear her reply, but the body language spoke clearly: Nah, that’s alright.

A few seconds later, the man across from me stood up and gave up his seat to Miss Stander, who accepted, and warmed her ass next to a lady I’ll call Emily. (Because she looked like a more-attractive version of an Emily I know.)

Emily was all giggly as she pointed to the now-sitting Miss Stander’s book and said something clever. I assume it was clever because both women got quite a laugh out of it. The book was The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy. Oh. I get what was going on.

“Maybe all these guys are offering you their seats because you’re reading that!! Oh ha ha ha! Isn’t that fun-ny?! Let’s bond, lady girlfriend!”

Was I being laughed at?

I was already uncomfortable, squeezed in between the shoulders of Miss Guilt Burning Eyes and Old Lady Extra Cream Cheese On Her Bagel.  I needed more room, because I kept reaching into my coat for a piece of paper and pen with which to jot down this morning’s Friday Ten. Spotting a spacious area down the end of the train car, I got up and headed there, only to walk through the most hellacious over-easy-egg-fart on the way.

I sat down in my roomy new spot and rode the rest of the way to work actually sitting next to the culprit frying up the egg farts.

At least the music was great. Here’s this week’s Friday Ten.

1. I Got a Right – Iggy Pop & James Williamson. This is from the mono 45. There is hardly another song in the rock canon with a sound as anarchic as this.

2. Satisfaction – Rolling Stones. I’m never in the mood to hear this. Until it comes on.

3. London Calling – The Clash.

4. Supernaut – Black Sabbath.

5. Only One God (Maaboud Allah) – Hassan Hakmoun.

6. A Boy Named Sue – Johnny Cash. From San Quentin. Love this, but the last few seconds, when JC’s yelling out the other names he’d choose for his own son, still make me cringe. He kinda loses his cool, his badness, there.

7. Bend Down Low – Charlie Hunter. From Hunter’s track-for-track jazz remake of Bob Marley’s Natty Dread album. My pal Micken put this song on a comp disk he made me a few years ago. The title of the disk: Songs I Wish I Wrote.

8. Spectacular Views – Rilo Kiley. The one which does NOT contain the line “We want spectacular views / If we’re to stay for the weekend.”

9. From A Buick 6 – Bob Dylan. Coincidence: Last night, my son woke me up at 3:40. My stomach kept me up until 4:30. I passed some of the time reading the Highway 61 Revisited chapter of VH1’s 100 Greatest Albums. When I woke up this morning, I had the line “The sun is not yellow / It’s chicken” in my head. (From “Tombstone Blues.” And  I often wake up with a lyric in mind.) “Buick 6” is a great song – Dylan all electric and rocking a bad boy swagger.
10. Chaos of the Galaxy/Happy Man – Sparklehorse. Almost 4000 songs on the iPod, and today’s Friday Ten has two tracks from that disk Micken burned for me. I don’t know much about Sparklehorse, I just like what I’ve heard. And I dig how the “reception” of this song seems to come in and out.

Play along. Post yours in the comments section.

Soon, everyone will have one.

Laugh, or sit there with your jaw dropped when you see this, but when I'm wearing the blonde one behind you at the ATM, you will most certainly make an “oops poop.”

Thanks to Rolyn (who plans to wear his on the subway) for the link.

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On iTunes right now: Reason Is Treason from the album “Kasabian” by Kasabian

[posted with ecto]

A Book About Swimmers

Figlet found a sick, sick book.

It's a modern variation on the Where Did I Come From story. Bet you didn't think there'd be much to modernize or vary about the facts of reproduction, but this one implies that babies grow up to look like the sperm from which they were spawned.

And that spermatazoa have smiles.