Just listened to the dvd commentary for Walk Hard. Those guys actually thought they made a funny movie.
(Why was I listening? I was doing my qi gong and pilates, and the radio is boring.)
Author Archives: Tom Crippen
Harvey Pekar
I like the stuff he did with Crumb, especially “Walking and Talking,” but everything else I’ve seen has left me cold. That includes Our Cancer Year and a trade collection of greatest hits. Do people really enjoy his stuff, or is it more that he’s respected as a pioneer?
There’s Hype About “Revolution No. 9” ?
I had no idea, but listen to this:
To novice Beatles fans, I warn you not to believe the hype about “Revolution 9.” I’ve listened to it many times over the years, waiting for the light in my head to switch on so I could unlock its mysteries. All I’ve ever gotten out of it is the vague feeling that immediately after listening to it, something is going to rise out from under my bed and butcher me in my sleep.
That’s, uh, JBev at JamsBio Magazine. The magazine did a big list of 185 Beatles songs, starting with the ones the magazine disapproves of and working up toward its very favorite (“A Day in the Life”). Good idea, it’ll give people something to link to.
I like “Revolution No. 9,” though it’s not the first song I’d listen to. I go for tunes, especially bouncy tunes. Anyway, I pretty much played the Beatles to death when I was a kid. Back then received opinion held that “Revolution No. 9” was gibberish. But it isn’t. It’s a sound collage, of all things, and it holds together.
Decades later I check in again and find that “Revolution No. 9” has become a sacred cow. When did that happen? I’m guessing 1995.
Depression
Back in the ’80s, when I was young, I would listen to WCBS fm. It’s the big Oldies station in New York. I no longer live in New York, but every now and then I listen to the station again. Still the same music, which I guess is the point of an Oldies station: Buddy Holly, “Hey, Paula,” Herman’s Hermits, Motown, “The Logical Song,” Mr. Mister, Madonna, just about every piece of crap (or otherwise) that moved a lot of units sometime during the past 50 years. Except the ads used to be mainly for cars and household goods and now a lot of them are for cemeteries and funeral homes. That’s the depressing part.
UPDATE: An ad for Honda, another for Coors, even Insider.com and DirecTV. Hopeful signs.
Marie-Eve to Have Child
My buddy Marie-Eve, the lovely star of the northern skies, told me today that she is expecting. She and the proud father, the gregarious and engaging Joris, believe the child may be delivered on July 4.
UPDATE: Marie-Eve and Joris were quite tickled about telling me the July 4 due date. In response I suggested naming the child Obama, though I would never actually expect anyone to name their kid after a person in the news. It’s just that I get a kick, at least every now and then, about being an American among the Quebecois. It gives me a touch of the exotic and distinctive, which my personality needs.
A generalization that I came up with: English Canadians tend to dislike Americans more and the United States less; French Canadians tend to dislike the United States more and Americans less. The idea is that the Quebecois tend to be more left wing than English Canadians but not to get worked up about Americans’ alleged arrogance, insularity and stupidity.
The generalization is based on the usual, meaning lint. It was useful in sorting out my impressions of my first year or so up here. But whether it’s true is beyond me. At any rate it has felt a good deal less true for quite a while. During the stretch from 9-11 to the Iraq invasion, I stopped running into the old cattiness and griping. Maybe Bush served as our lightning rod, in which case I have to thank him.
All Right, I’m Using Photobucket
How do you get this thing bigger? Photobucket’s small, medium, and 15-inch settings all produce the same results here.
