Thursday, August 23, 2007

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Radio Nowhere - click here for song




I was trying to find my way home,
But all I heard was a drum
Bouncin' off a satellite
Crushing the last lone American night.

This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?

I was sitting around a dead dial
Just another lost number in a file.
Been in some kinda dark cove
Just searching for a world with some soul.

This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
Is there anybody alive out there?

I just want to hear some rhythm.
I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm.
I just want to hear some rhythm.

I want a thousand guitars.
I want pounding drums.
I want a million different voices speaking in tongues.

This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
Is there anybody alive out there?

(Sax solo)

I was driving thru the misty rain
Yeah, searching for a mystery train.
Bopping thru the wild blue
Trying to make a connection with you.

This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
Is there anybody alive out there?

I just want to hear some rhythm (you swoon.)
I just want to hear some rhythm (you swoon.)
I just want to hear you swoon.
I just want to hear you swoon.
I just want to hear you swoon.
I just want to hear you swoon.
I just want to hear you swoon.
I just want to hear you swoon.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Death at a Funeral

You probably need to have experienced Phoenix in August to appreciate this story, but if you haven't, just imagine the hottest you've ever been, and then double it.

Yesterday I went to see Death at a Funeral (again, yes, it's that funny) with Jamaal, Will, and Chris D, and we were all arriving at different times. It was playing at the indie release theater, which was built in the 70s, when apparently, it didn't get hot in Phoenix in the summer.

There is no room inside for waiting for tickets, because once they have your money, they need the space to extort more for drinks and food, so there is room for that line. Outside there are 2 or 3 spaceship-like shelters spouting misters that hit about 6 feet above your head. (For the uninitiated, misters cool the surrounding air by about 15-20 degrees if they work properly and are not hung 2000 feet in the air.) There are only 2 ticket windows - remember, indie theater. It was at least 110 degrees if not hotter, humid, and there was a line around the side of the building (building made of brick, path made of concrete, surrounded by another brick wall) of about 150 people. I called the crew immediately and said, no way we're getting in, and no way I'm waiting in that line for a movie I've already seen... then I remembered the ATM ticket machine.

There is ONE ATM ticket machine under the shelters, it looks like a little robot, and because we were in Scottsdale, older crowd, not many people had figured out this option, or they would not be standing in the sun on concrete for a British movie. I'm assuming. So I get in the very short line to buy tickets from the machine. The ticket machine printed a BANNER of tickets for each one, about 15 feet of paper for 4 tickets and a receipt. Cardboard, resistant to folding. The theater helper person was pulling them out to make it go faster AND RIPPING them.

She says to me, just hand them the whole pile, they will know these are your tickets. !!! The ticket taker will know that tickets are tickets! That is comforting, but not helpful when you are going with 3 other people who have not yet arrived. The woman in front of me finished her cell phone call before she decided to move away from the machine, even though she had her tickets, courtesy of the ripping agent. So you get the general dysfunctional picture.

So I mention that staggering the movie times might help, considering the weather and their ancient technology and 2-ticket-agent window situation. The theater agent told me the movies were staggered 20 minutes - did I mention she was wearing pants and a long sleeved jacket? Yup. Not a lot of thinking going on in general here. 20 minutes is not enough, obviously. Theater been open since the 70s. Must take a while to get these kind of stats.

So I get my 70 feet of unfoldable cardboard tickets and rip them into 4 separate smaller strands, just in time for said crew to appear and get fairly decent seats inside, probably because at least 1/3 of the crowd was still in line getting tickets and/or drinks. So really, all's well that ends fairly well.

By now you're saying, just buy tickets online. Which I do 90% of the time, but they charge an extra dollar (they should charge an extra dollar for the people having to work in person at the window, but that is for another blog), and you still have to wait for one of the ticket window people to turn around and acknowledge your existence to get your ticket.

I'm not going to name the theater, b/c if you've been, you know it, but I am sending them this blog.

By the way, the movie is hysterical and is worth about 1/2 of this pain, but not all. It is only playing at the indie theater, so go at night or wait a couple of weeks.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Rebel

"The next real literary 'rebels' in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of anti-rebels, born oglers who dare somehow to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles. Who treat of plain old untrendy human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction. Who eschew self-consciousness and hip fatigue. These anti-rebels would be outdated, of course, before they even started. Dead on the page. Too sincere. Clearly repressed. Backward, quaint, naive, anachronistic. Maybe that'll be the point. Maybe that's why they'll be the next real rebels. Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk disapproval. The old postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal:shock disgust, outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism. Today's risks are different. The new rebels might be artists willing to riskthe yawn, rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the 'Oh how banal.' To risk accusations of sentimentality, melodrama. Of overcredulity. Of softness. Of willingness to be suckered by a world of lurkers and starers who fear gaze and ridicule above imprisonment without law. "
David Foster Wallace

Friday, August 17, 2007

Something Magic on Oct 2


BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN'S 'MAGIC'
SET FOR OCTOBER 2 RELEASE ON COLUMBIA RECORDS

'Magic,' Bruce Springsteen's new studio recording and his first with the E Street Band in five years, is set for release by Columbia Records on October 2, 2007. Produced and mixed by Brendan O'Brien, the album features eleven new Springsteen songs and was recorded at Southern Tracks Recording Studio in Atlanta, GA.

'Magic' Song Titles:

1. Radio Nowhere
2. You'll Be Comin' Down
3. Livin' in the Future
4. Your Own Worst Enemy
5. Gypsy Biker
6. Girls in Their Summer Clothes
7. I'll Work for Your Love
8. Magic
9. Last to Die
10. Long Walk Home
11. Devil's Arcade

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

New Tour, Album Details

Springsteen album, tour details expected Thursday
By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 16, 2007

Details of a new Bruce Springsteen album will be announced Thursday morning, and presumably there will be some information about a fall tour as well.

Word from the Springsteen world is that fans can expect an album that reunites him with the E Street Band following his most recent projects with the Sessions Band exploring vintage American folk and blues songs and his more introspective "Devils & Dust" solo album in 2005. If the participation of the E Streeters turns out to be true, it will be their first album together since 2002's "The Rising."

Yay!

Friday, August 10, 2007

Monday, August 06, 2007