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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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June 19, 2004
Ray Bradbury makes me mad
Ray Bradbury is making me mad. He's pissy with Michael Moore for calling his movie Fahrenheit 9/11 -- meaning to compare the Bush administration to the authoritarians of Bradbury's class novel Fahrenheit 451.
"He didn't ask my permission," Bradbury, 83, told The Associated Press on Friday. "That's not his novel, that's not his title, so he shouldn't have done it."
Does this cranky old dude think that he has the special right that no one should be able to invoke even a sideways reference to his special precious contribution?
What, does Bradbury think he owns the word "fahrenheit"? Are we supposed to pay Bradbury a fee every time we buy a frickin' frozen pizza with cooking instructions printed on the back? "Set oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit." Ding! Another penny for Bradbury.
Whatever the merits of this particular argument that Moore is making, the basic comparison offered in the title is utterly legitimate, mainstream literary technique. The premise takes off from saying that the Bush administration is destroying our freedom like the firemen burning the books in the Bradbury novel.
Anyway, this really cheeses ME off with Bradbury, for it puts me in the position of having to defend Michael Moore, whom I loathe. How wrong do you have to be for Al Barger to be taking MICHAEL MOORE'S side against you? Yet, in this case, Michael Moore is 100% in the right.
Ouch! Stop it. I'm hurting me. For some reason, I have an uncontrollable urge to kick my own ass for uttering the phrase, "Michael Moore is 100% in the right."
Ouch! I said it again.
File this under "More reasons to be skeptical of copyright law."
posted by Al at 6/19/2004 06:17:00 PM
June 18, 2004
Erase me
CLICK HERE for an essay by Ms. Tek called "Erase Me," which tells about the experience of being called in by a colleague to work on the computer of his dead daughter.
I don't have any special insights to add to this piece, but it's really well written and provocative. It has literary merit.
posted by Al at 6/18/2004 06:55:00 AM
June 17, 2004
Generations in Song by Hank Locklin
Hank Locklin was one of the big early popular countrypolitan artists in the 50s and 60s, adding the string sections and smooth sounds to commercialize country music. Floyd Cramer and his piano sound came to prominence notably in Locklin hits such as the tv album staple "Please Help Me I'm Falling."
Locklin put out a new album last year, Generations in Song. It's not particularly the album of the year, but it's actually surprisingly good. I say "surprisingly" good partly because I've never paid much attention to Hank Locklin. I've never paid much attention to Locklin partly perhaps because I tend to have a low opinion of the idea of countrypolitan.
I also say "surprisingly" good because the guy's 82 years old. Even Sinatra wasn't sounding like much at 60. Apparently, however, Mr. Locklin has been living right, cause his singing is surprisingly strong. He's still a totally credible professional singer. He even looks good on the album cover. In fact, he looks like he could still get a date -- and might even be able to do her some good.
Some of the songs are covers of country standards, about half sung as duets -- notably a remake of his own "Send Me the Pillow You Dream On" with Dolly Parton.
I don't know how many are new songs, but I recognized four, which makes two thirds of them new to me at least.
The best recording, the one with the most emotional impact is "Grow Old Beside Me," performed as a duet with Jeanne Pruett. As it happens, this is a Locklin original. It makes sense that this growing old together kind of commitment seems to mean more to him at this point in life than some barroom cheating song.
Just on this one song, he sounded old. In context, it sounds like a purposeful effect, rather than just being old. I take it for skill.
This would be a good record for an old country music loving Dad or Grandpa for Father's Day. It's pretty good, a smooth, classic style Locklin record. It's the kind of thing to provide encouragement to the old geezers. Hey, he's still going and still credible. I could see it being kind of re-assuring.
If you like this kind of stuff, you'll probably be pleased with this.Labels: country_music
posted by Al at 6/17/2004 04:34:00 AM
June 15, 2004
Meryl Streep as Hillary, the Manchurian candidate?
Jonathan Demme has some kind of re-make of The Manchurian Candidate coming out in a couple of weeks, with Denzel Washington in Sinatra's original Marcos role. Obviously anyone would be pretty skeptical. This is already one of the greatest movies ever made. I'd sooner watch a re-make of Citizen Kane.
Now, however, comes an interesting controversy. Word is that Meryl Streep, cast in the classic Angela Lansbury role, has some kind of hardcore Hillary Clinton thing going that's making the studio nervous. Eleanor Iselin in this version is even, in fact, a senator, and the studio has supposedly as much as asked Demme to cut some bits where the Hillary likeness is too close for comfort.
The studio's fear of controversy here is just exactly wrongheaded. Here is a real interesting new, modern angle for this film. Meryl as Hillary as Eleanor Iselin definitely constitutes a strong hook. Indeed, if one were really cynical, they might imagine the studio conjuring this up on purpose to generate publicity. It's certainly peaked my interest.
In politics, you don't want to offend any voters, for fear they'll go to the other guy. You need 51%. In business and entertainment, though, it's not so much who you cheese off as who you please. On top of which, cheesing off the right people can help you get the favor of others. It's not how many people you cheese off, it's how many customers show up with their wallets.
Most Americans who are aware of him HATE Michael Moore, but he's a hero to the pinko fringe. Most people hate him or haven't heard of him, but maybe a couple of percent are really dedicatedly interested in seeing his 9/11 film. Therefore, it's going to be a pretty significant hit. If it cheeses off the right wing THIS bad, it must be worth seeing.
Conversely, a fair number of people were deeply, bitterly offended by Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. This was a weird foreign language folly whereby Gibson managed to waste a big hunk of his fortune -- until these huge waves of controversy rolled in, followed by hundreds of millions of dollars.
If this Meryl Streep business causes all the Hillary haters to come out, they'll have a BIG hit movie on their hands.
Dang, I guess I'm going to HAVE to see this damned thing now.
posted by Al at 6/15/2004 05:34:00 AM
New album releases, week of 6-15-2004
One obvious important new album release this week that will, as the ubiquitous ads say "stimulate blood flow to that special area": The Beastie Boys have their first new album in about six years, To the 5 Boroughs.
Springsteen's Missus has an album this week, Patti Scialfa's 23rd Street Lullaby.
Phish has a final album, boo hoo. It's called Undermind. Has this band ever written even ONE memorable song?
Blue Note has what sounds like an interesting series of "Blue Note plays" albums this week, including volumes for Burt Bacharach, Stevie Wonder and the Beatles. Unfortunately there's no information at Amazon for exactly WHO at Blue Note is playing what.
Capitol's new album Ultra-Lounge: Cocktails With Cole Porter includes contributions from Sarah Vaughn, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington among others. That does sound intoxicating.
Shifting downmarket for our closing, note this week a 2 disc ZZ Top best of on Rhino, Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top. That should be enough ZZ to satisfy any but the most depraved.
CLICK HERE for the complete list of this week's major releases. Labels: new_album_releases
posted by Al at 6/15/2004 02:21:00 AM
Ray Charles and Reagan
Watching an A&E Biography of Ray Charles this evening, they noted that Ray Charles played at the 1984 Republican National Convention that nominated Reagan for re-election. This naturally displeased some of the professional civil rights establishment.
This tickles me just because the idea of it surely rankles the more strident pinkos. Just associating Ray Charles and Ron Reagan in the same sentence hurts the more righteous. Yet, the most exalted brother in the world gladly played for Reagan's big re-nomination coronation. Not even at the Kennedy Center where you could claim it was the office not the man, Ray played at the absolute most political function. Ha, eat that, liberals!
Even better, it was no act of sucking up to the Republicans or even any endorsement of the president. As he explained, the Democrats had wanted him to play, but they wouldn't come up with the money. Ray Charles, businessman. God love him.
Most of all, this represents a certain willful, fierce independent spirit about Ray that I particularly appreciate. Record country music? Ray's folly, ha! He'll shoot heroin if he wants, or play for Republicans knowing how bad it's going to cheese a bunch of people off.
Rock on with your bad rebel self, Brother Ray.
posted by Al at 6/15/2004 01:27:00 AM
June 14, 2004
Nobody likes a snitch
The following text appeared as a display ad in the June 9, 2004 edition of The Brookville Democrat:
Franklin County Prosecutor's Office
DRUG TIP HOTLINE
765-647-0755
Help us fight the war on drugs by providing your anonymous information on illegal drug activity in Franklin County. All calls recorded on an answering machine, untraced, and forwarded to law enforcement for investigation.
Melvin F. Wilhelm
Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney
********************
In the first place, nobody likes a goddam snitch.
Melvin must be on drugs himself if he thinks that this is the best way to use taxpayer money. Franklin County is mostly pretty peaceable, but it ain't Mayberry. There is SOME looting and raping and pillaging to keep cops and prosecutors legitimately employed. Even just cracking down on bad checks would be a more useful public service than enticing spiteful neighbors to rat someone out for smoking a joint.
Then again, I thought Mr. Wilhelm must have been smoking crack last election cycle when he sent his minions out to threaten plain citizens and even newspaper staff with jail for taking out a simple newspaper ad criticizing his campaign, on nominal grounds of not filling out paperwork to register as a PAC before taking out a $20 ad.
Indeed, I thought about calling the tip line to suggest that law enforcement might check out the prosecutor's office to see what exactly Melvin is on. Mind you, I have no actual evidence of drug use. (Any reader who considers these nutty behaviors legitimate cause for investigation must, I suppose, follow their own conscience.)
However, if we're going to have law enforcement start screwing with people on the basis of anonymous snitches, seems fair to start with the guy who started it.
posted by Al at 6/14/2004 06:22:00 PM
Groovy DVD: Classic Albums - The Band: The Band (1997)
Now here is a music documentary for actual music fans. This comes from a series of video documentaries about specific classic pop albums. This was produced by some concerted effort involving among others the BBC and VH1.
But this is no Behind the Music soap opera crap. You wouldn't know from watching this video just what kind of drugs which band members were doing, other than some seemingly run of the mill drinking, and you wouldn't know anything about what who was humping.
Instead, they're all about taking apart the Band's eponymous second album. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this album rates equal to any in the history of recorded popular music. They could have probably gotten several fascinating hours.
They actually start with the tail end of recording the preceding debut album Music From Big Pink. One sort of bled into the other somewhat.
One thing that jumped out at me was the deep sadness that came out of Richard Manuel's high vocal parts. Hearing his vocal part from "I Shall Be Released" pulled out by itself from a studio mixing board, it seems a wonder that he made it as long as he did before killing himself.
Ah, but the survivors are sure proud of their achievements. Robbie Robertson comes out as the professor. He's totally enthusiastic and informative about how different arrangements came about, but academic. I about half expected him to pull out a chalkboard.
Old Levon Helm was probably the most fun. Out by the lake, enjoying his Arkansas twang, Levon looks to be a cracker's cracker. I'm telling you, ol' Skip McQueen out of our Rabbit Holler would talk to this guy for a minute and say, "Damn, but that's one cracker ass country boy."
He exhibited the most purely visceral enjoyment of any band member, which I found very gratifying. Besides the good information and analysis from his studio segments, it was rewarding to see the sense of continuing pleasure these recordings have obviously given him.
This 60ish year old man was like a giddy teenager again in the studio, playing air drums, reliving the parts as he was playing them those decades ago. He was just as enthusiastic playing air keyboards along with the separated playback of Garth Hudson.
Garth really comes from out there somewhere. He was involved in the production and all cheery and enthused, but he really said very little. It doesn't seem like more than a few dozen words.
Yet he was fully involved and entertaining, speaking through his keyboards. He was real happy showing the sounds and textures, and how they came together.
Couple of Garth notes, new to my knowledge: One is that in the early days of the band, he actually insisted on charging the other members for "music lessons"- $10 each per week. As explained by Robbie, it turns out to have been not greed or ego, but weird family psychology. Apparently, it would have been really bad if he had thrown his future away on joining some rock band. As it was, he could justify to his family that he was a music teacher, which would be much more respectable.
Also, Garth apparently spent some time in his youth playing organ in his uncle's funeral parlor. That idea stuck with me. Some of the Band's best work involves consciously making carnival music, country county fair or harvest festival celebration stuff. It makes a certain poetic sense to think about this guy seeking out to play this happy music, but still hearing hints of the funeral home lingering in the back of his mind.
Rick Danko didn't add much interview wise, but he actually played a full song, live solo acoustic. That also helps distinguish the unique voices in their choir.
All in all, if you're any kind of fan of the Band or especially if you're any kind of musician, you really should see this. It would likely significantly improve your appreciation of a great classic.
posted by Al at 6/14/2004 12:22:00 AM
June 13, 2004
Olsen twins turn 18
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen graduated from Campbell High School in Hollywood yesterday, June 12. They were inducted into the Walk of Fame a few weeks back. Born June 13, 1986, they turned 18 today.
My, how our little Full House girls have grown... The girls have so far in life been well behaved young women. They have particularly avoided acting like prostitutes a la Britney, so it seems only fair to use some self-restraint in talking about them. I'll just shut up about now.
Happy birthday, ladies.
Ashley Olsen images, page 1 2 3 4 Mary-Kate Olsen images, page 1 2 3 4 Olsen twins images, page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
posted by Al at 6/13/2004 06:18:00 PM
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