Posted on November 16 at 9:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)

is this driven by retail? which makes 80% of its profits during the holiday season?

I think it is - I think it is an act of desperation

and like all acts of desperation - it is pretty ugly

On Hold the Ho Hos

Posted on November 13 at 10:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)

-de gustibus non est disputandem-

-concerning tastes it must not be disputed-

I love Jack Johnson - and I find the Replacements unlistenable (I can't even get through one song)

On Slow music

Posted on November 11 at 9:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Swallow My Cockaccino? Lawrence of A'Labia?

I think I actually might have to go see this film after I read DAvid Denby's review in the New Yorker

he gives Seth Rogen a glowing review - he seems to have carved out a persona as a slob loser who gets the girl because under all the bluster he has a tender heart.

which I think is a good estimation of Seth Rogen - he always plays the same character - but the character is beginning to be compelling

On Watching “Zack and Miri”

Posted on August 14 at 8:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I love the distorted over-amped cello and Southern Gothic of Rasputina

after I saw that show at WAMC I did go out and buy a couple albums which proved to be as strangely compelling as the live act.

they spin twisted tales of dread and arch-cleverness over their unusual sound.

On Weird concert alert

Posted on August 13 at 1:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)

what was most amusing about The Pineapple Express was watching the flummoxed haphazard expressions of stoned violence which were exquisitely portrayed by Seth Rogen and James Franco.

which underscored the unpleasant reality that blissed out pot smokers are floating on what is an unusually violent black market of profiteers

needless to say this little piece of reality upon which the whole movie hangs is exploited to the hilt for laughs and exploding cars

The Pineapple Express is pretty standard Hollywood fare which makes me think that the Apatow formula has been subsumed into the mainstream

On Taking “The Pineapple Express”

Posted on August 1 at 6:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I read War & Peace the summer before I went off to college - I was enthralled. recently I have read reviews of a new more vigorous translation that came out about a year ago that underscored the fact that Tolstoy establishes a sort of philosophy of history throughout the text - something to look for

I have been reading D.H. Lawrence. I just finished Sons & Lovers and now I'm working my way through Lady Chatterly's Lover.

the sensuality of the physical world - how Lawrence reveals hidden things through his characters

I love Lawrence

On Summer Reading

Posted on July 1 at 4:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)

a scintillating collection of flicks

I was briefly on Netflix but dropped it when my credit card bounced about three months in. I wasn't thrilled with my own selection of movies. I think to really get the most out of Netflix you have to have resources that direct you to movies that suit your taste ... which I failed to do.

so I catch movies on the Independent Film Channel on my parent's cable when they are out of town.

the most interesting thing I have seen on IFC recently turned out to be what my brother Bill informed me was Mumblecore. a style of film-making recently developed at NYU of young people capturing the vicissitudes and developments of their own lives. a sort of self documentary.

so far I have come across two examples both at IFC: FourEyed Monsters & Young American Bodies

these kids (they are all young) are turning their social, psychological and sexual lives into a sort of artform.

it is a little self-involved and in the case of Young American Bodies frankly sexual

it's not really a movie as there is no plot - nor does it have the gravity of a documentary. neither is it the false drama of reality television. but it has elements of all.

On Film capsules

Posted on June 29 at 8:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I spent a summer at camp - Skinner Brothers camp in Wyoming. I went with my cousin Dave. it was an experience that was all about being male - it amounted to a kind of rite of passage.

we lived in TeePees, we were each assigned a horse to take care of. we fashioned carrying pouches out of dried cowhide and rawhide strips. there was rock climbing, and obviously horse riding.

no singing - though one of our camp counselors loved Bob Marley, so there was some Bob Marley about

the culmination of the experience amounted to two harrowing tests of manhood (for a 13 yr old boy). a 5 day sojourn into the wilderness with no food. we were given pellet guns and turned loose. I remember eating snake, and squirrel - and feeling like a tough dude.

the last was a trip down the freezing cold Green River in old time rafts - literally lashed together logs and a steering paddle.

a little bit of Huck Finn, a little bit of cowboy grit - and no girls

it was paradise

I came back sunburned and chapped - the deep burned in chapping where dirt is rubbed into the skin. basically I came back looking like I had been exposed on a mountain for 5 weeks and left to survive.

I loved it

On Summer songs part II

Posted on June 25 at 3:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I had friends at the University of Chicago who were devotees of Sonic Youth. while I appreciated the raw energy and wry lyricism, I could never really find the sound.

but I know genius when I hear it - the electric current of original thought and creativity is all over Sonic Youth.

which is why I'm sad that I will miss the show.

On Cool musical happenings

Posted on June 24 at 10:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)

my sister Virginia moonlights in catering ... she is a storehouse of exquisite napkin folding techniques.

catering is hard work for what amounts to a series of annoying lawyers, politicians and other self-important nabobs and the occasional wedding

food is fun - but words are better

I think food is only fun when it is about love. but some may think otherwise.

On Maybe I’ll become a caterer