CCC (300)

Ok, those are Roman numerals. Considering that it is Greek Orthodox Easter today, it seems fitting that I am doing a movie review of the film 300 about the Spartans battle with the Persian armies of Xerxes.


Sure, I'm late coming to the dance here, 300 made headlines a month or so ago, having one of the biggest March openings in cinema history. But hey, dear readers, it is monumental when I see a first-run film in the theater, and one that the kids can't/won't see, as well, so I figured I would blog it.

I have thought about this a bit, so I will just come out and say it. This is not your typical movie review, because I like being atypical.

I enjoyed this film. Thumbs up, all that good stuff. I went in sort of knowing what to expect, based on reviews, chatter, blogfodder, what have you. I had minimal expectations. I anticipated a film with actors I was unfamiliar with, with computer-generated scenery, gore, action, more gore, testosterone, with a shot of homerotic chest-thumping.


And it delivered just that experience.

And I know why this movie did so well. Three words:


Conan the Barbarian.

As I was coming down off of my testosterone buzz, and I had cleansed myself of all the invisible splatter that drizzled off of the movie screen, the guts and blood and sweat that exploded and saturated the audience's uptilted faces, I was reminded of my movie-going experience in Honolulu, twenty-five years ago, almost to the day.

I was 14 in May 1982, when Conan was released and some friends and I managed to get in to see the R-rated film in the Waikiki 1 Theater, onn Kalakaua Boulevard. After the movie was over, we drove up to the University of Hawai'i's Physcial Science Auditorium, where we cut our teeth on Rocky Horror, The Song Remains the Same, and Decline of Western Civilization. But showing that night in May was Russ Meyers' Up!


In one night, I saw my first R-rated film in the theaters, along with my first X-rated film. Of course, that "X" rating was pale compared to what passes as "adult" nowadays.

But I digress. Conan had a budget of $20 million, grossed just under $40 million, and made $68 million worldwide. In comparison, 300 had a budget of $60 million, and made $78 million on its opening weekend. As of April 1, it had grossed $179 million.

Conan had everything 300 has, but by 2007 standards. Both films have a significant amount of nudity. Enough to titillate a 14-year old in 1982, and I'm guessing the same for 2007. There are beasts, religious undertones, and rippling muscled swordplay. I could not help but compare the two movies after the closing credits rolled. Both films had seen previous incarnations in the comics, which was quite evident in the comic-book action of the films.




The CGI effects and the computerized landscapes are becoming less novel in today's cinema, but they are still very new to me, so I found the look of the film fascinating.


If I were going to put on the hat of cinematic snobbery, I could most likely pick apart 300, but I would be disingenuous to do so. There were some moments of dialogue that provoked chuckling among some audience members, and a smirk to my face. But, in the end, I found the film entertaining, and left the theater happy that I had seen it.

Poetry in Motion, Day 8 (Yusef Komunyakaa)

This excerpt, by Yusef Komunyakaa, was inscribed for me at a New School poetry reading on March 17, 2002. Many of you may be wondering how I managed to come by so many Poetry in Motion posters. I mentioned that someone at the Poetry Society of America gave me a bunch, then I pruchased many at the New York City Transit Museum stores, in Brooklyn and at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. This one, however, came from an employee, who was friends with a city bus driver. They were switching out the posters and they were going to throw this one away, but he saved it and it got passed on to a nicer home.

from Little Man Around the House

Mama Elsie's ninety now.
She calls you whippersnapper.
When you two laugh, her rheumatism
Slips out the window like the burglar
She hears nightly. Three husbands
& an oly son dead, she says
I'll always be a daddy's girl.
Sometimes I can't get Papa's face
Outta my head. But this boy, my great-
Great-grandson, he's sugar in my coffee.

Previous BillyBlog Poetry in Motion posts:

from "My Grandmother's New York Apartment" by Elizabeth Alexander (Day 1)
from "A Bouquet" by Bei Dao (Day 2)
"Separation" by W.S. Merwin (Day 3)
"The Groundfall Pear" by Jane Hirshfield (Day 4)
"For Friendship" by Robert Creeley (Day 5)
from "Crazy Horse Speaks" by Sherman Alexie (Day 6)
"Hunger" by Billy Collins (Day 7)

Heaven's on Fire

Former Kiss guitarist Mark St. John died Thursday morning (April 5) from
an apparent brain hemorrhage. He was 51.

Born Mark Norton in Hollywood, Calif., St. John was Kiss` third official
guitarist, having replaced Vinnie Vincent in 1984. By this point, Kiss
had done away with its trademark makeup and costumes, but the group was
enjoying a career renaissance. The lone Kiss album on which St. John
appeared, 'Animalize,' re-established the group as one of the world`s
top arena metal bands. The album spawned the popular MTV video,
"Heaven`s on Fire" (the only Kiss video to feature St. John).

St. John`s flashy playing reflected the era`s Van Halen-influenced rock
guitarists, but it certainly helped spark the material on 'Animalize,'
which many fans consider one of Kiss` strongest non-makeup releases.
However, right around the time Kiss was to launch a worldwide tour in
support of the album, St. John was diagnosed with a form of arthritis
called Reiter`s Syndrome, which caused his hands and arms to swell, and
prevented him from playing guitar.

Guitarist Bruce Kulick filled in (St. John did manage to play one full
show with the group, and portions of a few others) and eventually
replaced St. John as Kiss` permanent guitarist.

His medical condition improved after leaving Kiss, and St. John launched
a pop/metal outfit, White Tiger, with ex-Black Sabbath singer David
Donato. Since then, St. John briefly teamed up with original Kiss
drummer Peter Criss in a group that didn`t release any recordings, and
appeared as a guest speaker at Kiss conventions. In 2001, he released an
all-instrumental album, 'Magic Bullet Theory.'

Here's "Heaven's on Fire":

Poetry in Motion, Day 7 (Billy Collins)

I don't recall when this was signed, but it was most recent of the posters autographed. I took this to the 2004 Dodge Poetry Festival, but Billy Collins was sick and didn't show that day. I love this one, although the framing shop cut it down, so it's smaller than the others in the office.

Hunger


The fox you lug over your shoulder
in a dark sack
has cut a hole with a knife
and escaped.

The sudden lightness makes you think
you are stronger
as you walk back to your small cottage
through a forest that covers the world.

I found this interpretation, with Billy Collins reading the poem, on YouTube:



Previous BillyBlog Poetry in Motion posts:

from "My Grandmother's New York Apartment" by Elizabeth Alexander (Day 1)
from "A Bouquet" by Bei Dao (Day 2)
"Separation" by W.S. Merwin (Day 3)
"The Groundfall Pear" by Jane Hirshfield (Day 4)
"For Friendship" by Robert Creeley (Day 5)
from "Crazy Horse Speaks" by Sherman Alexie (Day 6)

Poetry in Motion, Day 6 (Sherman Alexie)

This poem, inscribed by Sherman Alexie to me at a Barnes & Noble appearance, I believe for his collection Ten Little Indians, is excerpted from "Crazy Horse Sleeps":

from Crazy Horse Speaks


I wear the color of my skin
like a brown paper bag
wrapped around a bottle.
Sleeping between
the pages of dictionaries
your language cuts
tears holes in my tongue
until I do not have strength
to use the word "love."
What could it mean
in this city where everyone is
Afraid-of-Horses?

Previous BillyBlog Poetry in Motion posts:

from "My Grandmother's New York Apartment" by Elizabeth Alexander (Day 1)
from "A Bouquet" by Bei Dao (Day 2)
"Separation" by W.S. Merwin (Day 3)
"The Groundfall Pear" by Jane Hirshfield (Day 4)
"For Friendship" by Robert Creeley (Day 5)

Poetry in Motion, Day 5 (Robert Creeley)

This is one of my most special Poetry in Motion posters. It was actually from Poetry in Motion in Philadelphia. Many years ago, I called the Poetry Society of America and asked if I could buy some extra posters. A poet named Matthew Rohrer told me to come down to their offices and he would see what he could get me. I showed up and he handed me a bundle of posters, over a dozen, and wouldn't take any money. The posters from other cities are very cool, with slkightly different designs from the NYC posters.

At a big Poetry in Motion anniversary gala, assuming it was the tenth anniversary a few years back, Robert Creeley and others read in a hall at Grand Central Terminal. It was a great reading and afterwards, Creeley inscribed my poster. It's a great poem and a beautiful work of art.

For Friendship


For friendship
make a chain that holds,
to be bound to
others, two by two,

a walk, a garland,
handed by hands
that cannot move
unless they hold.

Previous BillyBlog Poetry in Motion posts:

from My Grandmother's New York Apartment by Elizabeth Alexander (Day 1)
from A Bouquet by Bei Dao (Day 2)
Separation by W.S. Merwin (Day 3)
The Groundfall Pear by Jane Hirshfield (Day 4)

Thursday Links

I'm off from work for the next six days, so let's see how BillyBlog fares in the down time:

A favorite poem of mine is Charles Simic, there's a new interview with him here.

Comedian Eric O'Shea's take on some suggested good music for commercials:



Three funny signs from Canada:




See if you can guess a band by its hair. Take the Entertainment Weekly "Name That Hair Metal Band Photo Quiz" here. I didn't do so hot, 8 out of 11, but that's not necessarily embarrassing, depending on your perspective.

What may be one of the most diverse and interesting poetry blog's, Silliman's Blog (also one of the first blogs to link BillyBlog) had this boast about last month:

For what it’s worth, this blog received 36,845 visits in March as readers accessed 63,788 page views, both records for the site. That translates into one visit every 72 seconds, one page view every 42. This is the third straight year that March has set record figures for this site. The current numbers are more than double those of two years ago.

Humbling numbers when, in contrast, BillyBlog had 2200 visits in March as readers accessed approx. 3600 page views. Great numbers for BillyBlog, but little league compared to the big boys. In all fairness, those are decent numbers for me, considering how I don't really put much effort into BillyBlog, at least compared to someone like Ron Silliman. My numbers are great, and I am growing in readership, or at least viewership. It helps when I blog about "hot" topics, like the Naked Brothers Band and Pearl Jam.

Speaking of Pearl Jam, the website pearljamlive.com is back up and running. You can stream countless concerts and see video as well, including the Letterman aftershow from May 4, 2006. Still gives me chills.

Poetry in Motion, Day 4 (Jane Hirshfield)

Today's Poetry in Motion poster was inscribed by Jane Hirshfield to me at the 1998 Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival.

The poem is:

The Groundfall Pear


It is the one he chooses,
Yellow, plump, a little bruised
On one side from falling.
That place he takes first.

Previous BillyBlog Poetry in Motion posts:

from My Grandmother's New York Apartment by Elizabeth Alexander (Day 1)
from A Bouquet by Bei Dao (Day 2)
Separation by W.S. Merwin (Day 3)

More on the Newcomb Used Car Lot, or, It's My Blog and I'll Dwell if I Want To

If you haven't read about the Newcomb Used Car Lot, read this post first.

Kevin Hattori, owner of the B210, chimes in:

Hi Bill,

Thanks so much for your e-mail; it definitely made me laugh OUT LOUD. It's hard to believe that was 20 years ago ... we all look like kids in those pictures (I guess we *were* kids back then, huh?)!

......

I was there [Occidental College] last Thanksgiving with my fiancee, and one of the things we did was take a walk around the Oxy campus. Of course, among the tales I told was a vivid recount of the Newcomb Used Car Lot. I'm not sure she totally believed me, but now that you've posted it to your blog, I have some semblance of proof. LOL.

By the way, the guy in the picture with Paul Batmanis is indeed Bill Holmes. Two other things I remember about the morning of that April Fools' Day:

1. When he first saw what we did, John Zacker was trying his hardest to suppress a smile -- until Brig shhowed up. When that happened, Mr. Zacker's demeanor changed to stern and businesslike.

2. The housekeepers were calling their friends, and excitedly telling them about the prank...

Hope things are well with you.

Best,

Kevin Hattori

If it seems I am belaboring this, milking it, well I am. But, dear readers, I am sparing you literally dozens of other emails bouncing back and forth across the continent, reuniting old hall-dwellers, erasing the decades.

Poetry in Motion, Day 3 (W.S. Merwin)

The poet is W.S. Merwin. He signed this after a reading at the 92nd Street Y. The poem is "Separation":

Separation

Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.

Previous BillyBlog Poetry in Motion posts:

from My Grandmother's New York Apartment by Elizabeth Alexander (Day 1)
from A Bouquet by Bei Dao (Day 2)

Poetry in Motion, Day 2 (Bei Dao)

I alluded to my office, pictured above, which has eight framed PiM posters hanging proudly. I also discovered a cache of posters behind the door to my office, and I'm missing one signed by the poet Hayden Carruth. Nonetheless, I am confident I'll be able to give you one for each day of April 2007.

For April 2, I'm choosing not one from the wall, but another, that most closely resembles a love poem, in honor of Melanie and I celebrating our 12th anniversary today:


The poet is Chinese writer Bei Dao, and the piece is excerpted from "A Bouquet":

Between me and the world
You are a calendar, a compass
A ray of light that slips through the gloom
You are a biographical sketch, a bookmark
A preface that comes at the end
Between me and the world
You are a gauze curtain, a mist
A lamp shining into my dreams
You are a bamboo flute, a song without words
A closed eyelid carved in stone

Previous BillyBlog Poetry in Motion posts:

from My Grandmother's New York Apartment by Elizabeth Alexander (Day 1)

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today....

This arrived in my mailbox this morning from my old friend Rob:

Bill,

20 years ago today, Gary McMillan's truck was the special of the day. We were offering a "no money down sale with 3.9% APR financing". Lance Mendelow was the executive salesmen and Nathan Schmoll was very much alive. Brig was having an aneurysm and John Zacker was trying to tell you to "use your dorm influence" to get all of the cars out of the Newcomb lobby.

It's too bad John Zacker never attended one of our Bacon Burger Dog nights I think he might have at least enjoyed our company, if not our horrible cooking!

For those of you who were copied on this email I hope life finds you well. Erich thanks for taking so much heat for us.

Great times, time just goes by too fast,

Best Regards,

Rob

Yes, on the morning of April 1, 1987, Occidental College was abuzz with what appeared to be the greatest April Fool's prank in recent memory. Administrators were alerted that something was amiss by Gary's 4x4 pick-up on the landing in front of the front entrance to Newcomb Hall.

It's a little hard to tell, but there's at least a half dozen steps leading up to the entrance, so maneuvering the vehicle there was no easy feat for Gary.

The truck was actually an exclamation point on what transpired as a collaborative effort by several dozen people, it seemed.

For inside the dorm, in the common room that housed the television in a large wooden box bolted to the wall, four cars were parked, with makeshift price tags. The windows of the dorm residence hall proclaimed that there was a sale on cars and that there was affordable financing available.

I know that one of the vehicles was Tino Ramirez' orange Volkswagen bug, and another was a shiny red pick-up belonging to Tim McLean:


I don't recall the other two vehicles' owners. [Update: But Rob does: "It will be forever etched in our memory! The other two cars where Carey Marks' Toyota MR2 and Kevin Hattori's Datsun B210."]

Many photos, I imagine, were taken, but I haven't seen any in years and I have included the few that Lance Friedman, Resident Adviser extraordinaire sent me just today. Until today, the only photos I had was this collage Lance had sent me:

Click to enlarge, if you dare. The top row features Paul Batmanis and Bill [ I thought his last name was Holmes, but now I'm not sure], next to which is a shot of me carrying a box of something past the Head Residents' apartment. Incidentally, Erich Marx, said H.R., did take a heat from the shenanigans of the dorm's residence hall's 100+ residents. He was copied on the above-referenced e-mail and subsequently responded:

Wow. I just broke out into hives and a cold, cold sweat. I feel sick to my stomach and my nose has begun to bleed. All of sudden, I can't stop crying and I have the shakes. All of this because of you, Rob.

Wouldn't trade the memories for all the world.

Happy April Fool's. Hope you're all well. I live in Nashville now where another Newcomb-ite, Jennifer Krauss, also lives. She's the weekend news anchor on the local CBS station! Pretty cool stuff.

The middle row of pictures features a shot of Ann Blank and Rob (of the above-referenced e-mail) on the left and JohnMcGee and Lance Mendelow on the right.

The bottom row shows someone making an obscene gesture, I believe on Halloween, and another picture of Lance at the barbecue.

John Zacker, Director of Residence Life, meant well. He did the best he could concerning the challenges he faced with the students of Newcomb. This was a dorm residence hall that created a dorm residence hall t-shirt that read "We're Newcomb, You suck!" But that's another story.

If memory serves me correctly, Mr. Zacker demanded that Erich turn over the perpetrators of this heinous prank. Dorms Residence halls are not zoned for vehicle storage, apparently. Erich came to his residents requesting the names of the persons responsible. Over twenty people put their names down, and we had to tell many others that they couldn't add their names to the list because they hadn't been there.

Were Rob, Tino, and I the ring-leaders? I don't recall it being that way. However, some evidence may cause one to believe otherwise.

It really was a collaborative effort. It was my idea to put newspaper under the vehicles in the TV room to protect against any oil leakage, and we composed a heartfelt note to Housekeeping on the chalkboard apologizing for the mess, but assuring them it would be cleared up by the end of the day. Mr. Zacker cited these two examples as evidence that we had been involved. In the end, after meetings and the patronage of another resident Owen Clayburgh, who took his share of the blame, and used his position as a student well-connected to the Board of Directors of the college, to what effect we may never know, the punishment was meted out.

[Update: Another photo from that night. Sure, I'm in it, as is Tino, but look at all the other guilty parties!]

Top row: Tino "Red Bug" Ramirez, Kevin "That's my B210" Hattori, Ann Blank, Yours Truly, and Tim "Red Pick-Up" McLean.

Bottom row: Owen Clayburgh, Carey "MR2" Marks, and Gary "4x4 on the Front Patio" McMillan.

I, along with Rob, Tino, Owen, and perhaps some others, stood up at a residence hall meeting "dorm spread" and apologized to everyone present for endangering their lives. Mr. Zacker pointed out that a vagrant could have entered the locked dorm hall in the middle of the night, opened a gas cap on one of the illegally-parked vehicles in the TV room, and dropped a match in, potentially ending the lives of countless Newcombites. A thought we scoffed at way back then, and with age and maturity I have come to recognize as a longshot, but the man was doing his job. Had anything tragic happened, he would have been on the hot seat, for sure. Sorry, Me of the Past, but that's the Human Resources in me coming through.

I still think it was brilliant. I still think the "Newcomb Used Car Lot" is the stuff of legends, and I wouldn't have done anything differently. Sorry Mr. Zacker, if you're reading this, but that was the reality back then.

By the way, after we sincerely apologized to all our fellow residents at that dorm spread, we received a standing ovation.

Happy April Fools' Day.


UPDATE FROM APRIL 2:
"
So, can I get a witness? You betcha...

Marie Barber aka Mikey aka Micus sent the following reply, along with the best photographic evidence yet. This is the first I've seen of these in 20 years.
Mikey writes:

You losers. I have 8 lbs of investigational anti-psychotics in my office (don't ask), the kids are all in bed, and THIS is what I'm doing..... Damn you, Rob.

Bill, attached is my contribution to your memoir. Personally, I'm particularly fond of #2, Tino's "Cheap Piece o' Sh*t for 29.99" (the death machine that left me in need of the 8 lbs of investigational anti-psychotics in my office.....but that's another story for another time). Also, please note in #7, the sign on the desk behind the 3.9% reads "Lance Mendelow Executive Salesman". Yep, aim high. That's my motto.

Now stop tempting me, or I may just pull out the photos I'm saving to blackmail you all when you think of running for public office.

;-) Kisses,

~Mikus

So, let's caption these suckers....

First, a better shot of the McMillan ride, perched up a set of steps in front of the Newcomb Hall entrance:

Ok, so there are at least four steps visible. I'm sure someone with a physics degree can extrapolate the number of steps by the angle of the camera vis-a-vis the position of the truck. Or someone can just run on over to Newcomb and count the steps for me. Needless to say, Tino's bug wouldn't have made it.

Now, the entrance to the showroom:


With some detail:



Here's Kevin Hattori's B-210. I've e-mailed Kevin, but haven't heard back. According to the alumni directory, he works about a mile away from me in Manhattan.


And here's the sophisticated price tag we improvised in the heat of the moment. And yes, it does say "Cheap Piece O' Sh*t $29.99". We were bold enough to roll four cars into a dorm, but not brave enough to spell the word "shit". Go figure.


And this last one, again, implies that Tino, Rob and I were behind this thing, but we were just whoring for the camera. Let me add that the wig I'm wearing got a lot of mileage. I am also wearing my famous Hawaii Fire Department fireman's coat. And I am wearing an Iron Maiden tour shirt from the March 31, 1985 show they did during their "Powerslave" tour. It was customized for the Hawai'i show only and is extremely rare. About six years ago, as I had expanded to a size far beyond the shirt in question, I sold it on eBay to someone in Italy for $91.00, American. It's likely worth much more now.

Needless to say, the shot Rob launched on Sunday morning had generated quite a fit of nostalgia. I've passed the link on to several former Newcomb residents and heard back from John McGee, also a New Yorker now, Yvonne (Grgas) Beck, who heard about the car lot and came to visit, as well as a few other residents of the old Newcomb Hall.

Let's see how this post grows!


"Hmmmm...is that a scratch in the paint?"

Poetry in Motion, Day 1 (Elizabeth Alexander)

For National Poetry Month, I am unoffically partnering with the Poetry Society of America in showing off my collection of Poetry in Motion posters. I don't know if I have 30 to get me through the month, but there's one on my wall at home, eight on my wall at work, and perhaps, perhaps, 21 unframed under the bed. Perhaps more.

So we'll start with the first, actually technically belonging to Melanie, it is an excerpt from Elizabeth Alexander's "My Grandmother's New York Apartment." It's a little sun-faded, but it is inscribed to Melanie by the poet. Click photo to enlarge and read, or read below.

from My Grandmother's New York Apartment

Everything pulled out or folded away:
sofa into a bed, tray tables that dis-
appear behind a door, everything
transmutable, alchemy in small
spaces, even my grandmother tiny
and changeable: a housecoat and rollers
which vanish and become an Irish
tweed suit, a tilted chapeau, a Hello
in the elevator just like, as she
would say, the Queen of Denmark.

Ms. Alexander signed this for Melanie several years ago at a poetry reading celebrating the Poetry in Motion series, at the Transit Museum in downtown Brooklyn.

Best Hard Rock Yom Kippur Song?

Why, Led Zeppelin's classic "When the Levy Breaks Fast".

Friday Links

As March goes out like a lamb, my weekend has started nicely...

For the first time this year, I rode my bike into work. It was a brisk 40 degrees. I crossed the Brooklyn Bridge just before the sun cracked the horizon. Will post a photo later on.



A.O. Scott, in the New York Times, says Meet the Robinsons "is surely one of the worst theatrically released animated features issued under the Disney label in quite some time." Meaning, of course, it should open spectacularly. Come back Monday for weekend box office figures.


On the KROQ website:

Chris Cornell stopped by Thursday to talk about the past and future and perform songs from Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog and his upcoming solo album. Check back today to listen to the performance.

Someone on the Pearl Jam message board had a radio rip that I downloaded and listened to already. He performed "Like a Stone," "No Such Thing," "Black Hole Sun," "Seasons," and "Hunger Strike." Not bad, although "Hunger Strike" is so perfect in the studio, I have yet to hear a live performance that comes close to matching the original Vedder/Cornell one-two punch, even when they performed it together on october 28, 2003 in Santa Barbara.

The whole idea behind links is to share what I may come across during the course of the day. Someone sent me the following article, but I'll be coy about it:

Read why Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity members at the University of Michigan said they will throw out two couches in the living room.

Saw this on the wire, Girl, 16, Kicked Off Plane for Coughing. I linked the Honolulu Star-Bulletin article when I saw that she was a Hawai'i teen, from Kalani High School.

Check This Out and Wonder Why Its Special

Scroll down for the answer...









I was astonished today to come across this poem, manifested in a YouTube clip set up by a user identified as Pacoevangelista from the Philippines. Astonished because, this is my poem, "I Am a Cigarette, Burning Between Your Lips," which was published in a Canadian online journal called paperplates in the late 1990s.

Would love to hear what people think.

29 Songs for the 29th Day

Five? Nah! Here's 29!

1. "Mother" by Danzig

Listen: "Mother" (mp3) via Brooklyn Ski Club


2. "Easy" by Faith No More

3. "The Metro" by Berlin

Listen: "The Metro," as covered by System of a Down (mp3) via Recidivism

4. "Maggie's Farm" by The Specials

5. "The Men Who Live in the White House" by Ornette Coleman

Read about Ornette on this blog here.

6. "Farewell to John Denver," on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album ("And now the sound of John Denver being strangled....").

7. "Simple Kind of Life" by No Doubt.

8. "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart. Wow, 2 Maggies in close proximity.

9. "Goodbye," Eddie Vedder on uke, from the Brokedown Melody soundtrack.

Listen: "Goodbye" (mp3). Not the one I was listening to, but one from a few years back, thanks to Heather at I am Fuel, You Are Friends.

10. "Sunday Girl" by Blondie.

11. "Bright Mississippi" from Thelonious' Monk in Paris: Live at the Olympia.

12. "Rock Rock (Til You Drop)" by Def Leppard (off of Pyromania)

13. "Match Box Blues" from In Session: Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan.

14. "Break on Through" by The Doors.

15. "Panic in Detroit" by David Bowie.

Listen: "Panic in Detroit" (mp3), courtesy of Best Foot Forward

16. "Drive In" by The Donnas, off their eponymous debut.

17. Otis Redding performing the Stones' "Satisfaction" at Monterey Pop in June 1967, less than a month before I was born, in the Summer of Love.


18. "Encore Break" by Pearl Jam. Sorry, guys. This is just applause, Eddie talking to the crowd, the chant "Ed-die, Ed-die,: etc. 3+ minutes of a break from the band's famous July 11, 2003, in Mansfield, Mass, when they played a marathon show of all the songs they had played on the leg of their tour. This is track #40 on the multi-disc set.

19. "Cold Irons Bound" by Bob Dylan from Time Out of Mind.

20. "Root Down" by the Beastie Boys.

21. "Special One" by Cheap Trick.

22. "Michelle" by The Beatles, off of Rubber Soul.

23. Weirdly, the next track is from This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary to The Beatles' Rubber Soul.

"Nowhere Man" by Low.

24. "Men's Room, L.A." by Kinky Friedman from Old Testaments & New Revelations.

25. "A Little Bit of What You Fancy" by Saxon.

Listen: A Little Bit of What You Fancy.mp3, courtesy of one of my fave blogs, Licorice Pizza.

26. "Hotel Arizona" by Wilco.

27. "Problem Child" by AC/DC from the soundtrack for Let There Be Rock.

28. One of the first hard rock songs I ever liked:

"And the Cradle Will Rock" from Van Halen's Women and Children First.

and finally.........

29. "Pyramid Song" by Radiohead, off of Amnesiac.

Listen: "Amnesiac" (mp3), courtesy of Instrumental Analysis

That was fun.

If you are an artist or blogger who doesn't want your song or link here, please e-mail me and I will remove it.

Poem a Day for National Poetry Month

If you're interested in getting a poem e-mailed to you each day during National Poetry Month, click here and enter your e-mail address in the appropriate field.

Random Tuesday Link

from the New York Times:

“Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle” has now taken on a new meaning. Scientists studying marmosets have discovered that over half the males carry their brother’s sperm.

Read the whole article here.

Recently Borrowed from the Library

Queen - A Day at The Races


Black Crowes - Greatest Hits 1990-1999: Tribute Work in Progress


Fishbone - Give A Monkey A Brain And He'll Swear He's The Center Of The Universe


The Essential Cheap Trick

I HURL HOSTESS CUPCAKES JUST TO HEAR THE SPLAT!

I HURL HOSTESS CUPCAKES JUST TO HEAR THE SPLAT!

and to revel in the visual display, of course:
dark chocolate explosion decorating white walls,
the symbol of preservatives unhinged and smeared
with whatever force I choose to use,

the white eye at the center, broken like an egg yolk,
oozing its creamy pupil pus that ants dream of devouring-
BULLSEYE! my inner voice screams with childlike joy
as I dedicate my actions to the man in the news story,
the Hostess employee who had been
with the company so long, doing the same job,
day in, day out, making nineteen bucks an hour,
artfully dripping the white frosting curlicues
down the dark face of cupcake
before machines took away his livelihood

and I imagine how he would feel to hear
the swoosh of cake through air
and soft thud, say it, SPLAT!
of snack and drywall
mess, mess, mess
and his delicate squiggle
dangling like a tiny lash
on the lid of the eye.

There is often indescribable beauty
in acts of madness,
day in, day out,
painting curves on chocolate canvas
year in, year out,
the same pattern mocking,
begging to be hurled
at the nearest flat surface.
Preferably,
white.

©1998 William Dickenson Cohen

National Poetry Month Just Around the Corner - How About a Little Bukowski?

The good folks at HarperCollins sent me an email alerting me to yet another posthumous collection of poetry from Charles Bukowski, dead 13 years now, and still churning 'em out. Behold: The People Look Like Flowers At Last: New Poems



This is, by my estimate, the 25th book published since Hank left us. And there's another volume coming in November.

Whet your appetite from this latest edition:

for they had things to say

the canaries were there, and the lemon tree
and the old woman with warts;
and I was there, a child
and I touched the piano keys
as they talked—
but not too loudly
for they had things to say,
the three of them;
and I watched them cover the canaries at night
with flour sacks:
"so they can sleep, my dear."

I played the piano quietly
one note at a time,
the canaries under their sacks,
and there were pepper trees,
pepper trees brushing the roof like rain
and hanging outside the windows
like green rain,
and they talked, the three of them
sitting in a warm night's semicircle,
and the keys were black and white
and responded to my fingers
like the locked-in magic
of a waiting, grown-up world;
and now they're gone, the three of them
and I am old:
pirate feet have trod
the clean-thatched floors
of my soul,
and the canaries sing no more.

For more Bukowski, visit this website.

Monday Links

As National Poetry Month approaches, PBS' Online Newshour has a great feature on Israeli and Palestinian poetry here.



Pearl Jam fans who have enjoyed the cover of Victoria Williams' "Crazy Mary". May find the original version, as heard in this video, interesting. "Crazy Mary" opened the first Pearl Jam concert I attended on July 9, 2003. It's often interesting to hear a favorite cover in its earliest form, even if personal tastes lend themselves to favoring the newer version.

Here's Pearl Jam's version, in concert, on July 8, 2003, at Madison Square Garden. Look for the great solo at the end by "Boom" Gaspar on the Hammond B3 organ:



Happy Prince Kuhio Day!



An interesting article on high-end book dealer/collector Glenn Horowitz here.
(New York Times registration may be required)

Holy Sheep! Check out this trailer for Black Sheep, a New Zealand film:



If you think it's a joke, visit this site.

I discovered that The Complete New Yorker is on sale at the magazine's website for only $29.95 (compared to $63.00 at Amazon). I was fishing my credit card out of my wallet when I realized, I'm behind on my 2006 issues, why add another 80 volumes of pressure?

Heartless Bastards/Lucinda Williams, Live at Radio City Music Hall, March 23, 2007

What can I say? It was a great show. Lucinda Williams has a phenomenal voice and the venue was incredible. Acoustically, it was one of the most aurally stunning concerts I have ever had the pleasure to attend.

BlogPal Jill and I were sitting in the low rent district:


So, the performers looked like this:



But, hey, I knew when I bought the tickets that I wasn't going to be close. It was all about the music, and the cheap seats made me appreciate the sound in the venue that much better. Below you'll get a taste of the sound if you are brave enough to sit through some YouTube clips, where I butchered the photography (read: focused on the ceiling rather than the stage, duh), yet my camera was able to get some nice audio from the show. The fact that it is even audible is a testament to the greatness of the sound.

The opening act was the Heartless Bastards. They played a nice, compact, 10-song set. I liked them generally, and alluded in a live post that they reminded me of a kind of countryish bluesy White Stripes, but with a female singer. Much has been written about them recently, so I'll skip the details. They were a little rough, which was abundantly clear when Lucinda took the stage and the level of songmanship was so abundantly disparate. But then again, that's why they were an opening act.

Here's their set:

"The Will Song" from the album Stairs and Elevators (2005)

"Done Got Old" (Junior Kimbrough cover) from Stairs and Elevators

"New Resolution" from Stairs and Elevators

"Blue Day" from the album All This Time (2006)

"Came a Long Way" from All This Time

"Into the Open" from All This Time

"Valley of Debris" from All This Time

"Searchin' for the Ghost" from All This Time

(Penultimate song) - Couldn't identify this one. Lead singer Erika Wennerstrom did not introduce any of the songs, so I've had to research based on snippets of lyrics I typed into my blackberry. I got all but this one.

"Runnin" from Stairs and Elevators


Lucinda and her band took the stage at around 9:30 and played until 11:00 PM. The Radio City curfew was strictly enforced.

I'll get the negative out of the way first. The drunk woman sitting three rows behind us was an idiot. And probably still is. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that the band can't hear the stupid things you're yelling from ten rows up in the third mezzanine. This blubbering imbecile kept bellowing "See you Wednesday in Harrisburg!" and "Play from your heart!" Maybe her depth perception was off and she felt she was in the third row and just needed glasses. Ok, we get it lady, you're a fan, you're seeing her again Wednesday, it's not like you're yelling "Play Leash!" at a Pearl Jam concert.

That aside, I had sort of psyched myself up for a lot of her old hits, based on a review I read from a show she did earlier in the month in Orlando. Granted, that show ran an hour longer, and the reviewer remarked on how little of West, her new album, was played. We got the opposite treatment here. Take a look at the setlist:

"Rescue," from West (2007)
"Ventura," from World Without Tears (2003)
"Fruits of My Labor," from World Without Tears
"Drunken Angel," from Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998)
"Lake Charles," from Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
"Fancy Funeral," from West
"Pineola," from Sweet Old World (1992)
"Righteously," from World Without Tears
"Essence," from Essence (2001)
"Come On," from West
"Unsuffer Me," from West
"Joy," from Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
----
"Everything Has Changed," from West
"West," from West
"Where Is My Love," from West
"Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" (Skip James cover)

Some of my notes from the show.




After finishing the opening song "Rescue," Lucinda stood staring at the house and remarked
"The sound is just stunning in here." The crowd roared its agreement.

Here's two and a half minutes of "Lake Charles". Just a reminder, don't click to watch, click to listen:



After "Pineola," she introduced the band:

Doug Pettibone, on guitar, harmonica and backing vocals, David Sutton on bass, and Don Heffington on drums.

"Essence" is one of my favorite songs, so I caught the last 2 and a half minutes for posterity. Again, you can't see much, but the music is clear:



After "Essence," she introduced Jenny Scheinman on violin. Ms. Scheinman provided strings on the new album, and remained on stage for the rest of the show. She added another dimension to the band. One of the reviews I read of West, one of the negative ones, faulted the effort for not taking advantage of Ms. Scheinman's talents on the record. The reviewer claimed that her strings were lost in the production. That's one opinion, but they were definitely not lost on the stage at Radio City.

During the first song on which she played, the amazing "Unsuffer Me," Jenny's violin and Pettibone's guitar just wailed and really rocked the house.




The main set ended with "Joy," and Lucinda had Erica from the Heartless Bastards come back out to play with her. The added guitar made the band sound fuller and bluesier. It was quite good.

During the brief break, there was some hollering for one of Lucinda's more popular songs "Changed the Locks". I guessed we would get that or perhaps "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" during the encore. Alas, that was not in the plans.

She threw us three more West songs. They were very good, but I was surprised at this point that the new album was so strongly represented. And the last song was not a big hit. I was going to be unhappy, but then she explained. They ended with a Skip James song, an old blues cover that I had never heard before. Lucinda explained that this was a tune she had performed in Brooklyn at St. Anne's church many years ago for the director Wim Wenders' chapter in the Martin Scorcese-produced PBS documentary on the Blues. The song appeared in the documentary, but not in its entirety, and did not make it to the soundtrack that was released on disc. That's a shame because, I'll tell you, "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" was the coup de grace, a slow-rolling rocker that was just phenomenal, punctuated by some band solos, and a throbbing humming that the audience joined in on. Here's 50 seconds of it:




So, there you have it. Great show. Not perfect, but still seminal. The venue made it more special. Check out Lucinda Williams, if you can, tour dates here.

Lucinda's website here.




New York Newsday's review of the show here.

The New York Sun's discussion of the show here.

Variety has a review, as well, here.

Intermission

I don't see a lot of posting during the show. Heartless Bastards played ten
songs, for about 40 minutes. I'll try and post a set list tomorrow.

I enjoyed them. Jill bored quickly. They were a bit repetitive in a White
Stripes meet Sass Jordan sort of way. The lead singer/guitarist had a
strong voice and the drummer played nicely.

Just waiting for Lucinda.

Live Blogging at the Heartless Bastards/Lucinda Williams concert

Well here we are at Radio City up in the nasal hemmorhage section.
Heartless Bastards are taking the stage.