The Underground Railroad

Have I ever mentioned that I used to think the underground railroad was a series a tunnels leading from the South to the North, dug by abolitionists and runaway slaves. I didn't think there was an actual railroad down there like in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom- I wasn't stupid.

Singled Out

Even though a lot of it was fake and scripted, I like the old MTV show Singled Out. The host, Chris Hardwick, was cool and Jenny McCarthy seemed like a lot of fun.

Jenny McCarthy ended up marrying Jim Carrey. She has an autistic child (I'm not sure if it's his or not) and she's become an activist; I saw her on Oprah a couple years ago.

A month ago I was watching Tosh.0 and he mentioned that McCarthy and Carrey were getting a divorce and he said something like "Jim Carrey got sick of hearing her talk about autism too".

It's funny, because that's exactly what I thought when I heard they were breaking up. She won't shut up about vaccinations and she calls herself a "Warrior Mommy" or something equally sexy. I don't know how he stood it so long.

Belly, Rolling Stone magazine

In April 1995, Belly made the cover of Rolling Stone. Earlier that year the first single "Now They'll Sleep" came out and their second album King was released. It's not my favorite record but it has some good songs and it should've done better than it did.

One thing that I've always thought led to the failure of King was the Rolling Stone cover. While it's attractive and a nice photo, it makes the band seem kind of dopey. Plus, on the cover they're called "The Shiny Happy People of Post-Punk Power Pop". Remember that REM song and how much everyone hated it? I think the entire cover was a gigantic turn-off for people.



Note: I wonder if it was intentional to have Donelly's thumb look like a penis.

Levi Johnston

Regular readers of RJ Battles know that this isn't a political blog. Sometimes I have opinions but most of the time I don't care, and one thing I especially don't care about is changing other people's minds.

I don't have a strong opinion about Sarah Palin. I don't like her, can't remember why.

When Levi Johnston started hanging out with Kathy Griffin he seemed like an OK guy. I don't care about him posing for Playgirl- what Sarah Palin calls his "aspiring porn career". I do findf it odd that a 18, 19 year-old straight guy would want to pose for Playgirl. What do his friends say about that? How did he get his family to go along with let?

In the past he's worked in the Alaskan oil fields so I can understand that he wants to make some big Hollywood money. Still, he's starting to come across as stupid and shameless. I'm sure people were already saying that when he announced his Playgirl plans, but now he's submitted a letter of intent to run for office in Alaska- it's going to be the basis for an upcoming reality show.

For some reason that rubs me the wrong way. I view almost all politicians, or at least from the last 100 years, as sleazy liars. Still, the idea of running for office for a TV show seems very wrong. It's a serious business. Were he to win, people's lives would be affected. What if he decided to have a stop sign removed as a favor for one of his buddies and then there's an accident and somebody dies. That probably won't happen, but nothing like that would ever ocour to Johnston.

Cheers

Onr thing leads to another and last week I was watching that crazy Scientologist video that Tom Cruise made were he talks about the importance of knowing and doing and helping people and how he does everything 110%. I never cared much about him one way or the other, but watching the video I got really uncomfortable. Something about it is very disturbing and upsetting. Most people think it's funny and I guess it is, but mainly, it's a video of a crazy person made by shady people.

Anyway, I wanted to look up one of his fellow Scientologists, Kirstie Alley. I'd read that she was the only surviving Cheers cast member to never make a guest appearance on Frasier and that's because her church is against psychiatry and anything that portrays psychiatry in a positive light.

This led me to look up Cheers, which I always liked. I remember my dad watched it and it would be on when I was going off to bed and some nights he'd let me stay up and watch. As I got older I could watch on my own and I thought it was pretty funny.

My favorite period was "the Diane years". As the show got older it got more goofy and less believable, which is typical for a TV show in its later years. I still watched till the end but I'd lost interest.

While I was reading about Cheers I came across the story of Eddie LeBec, Carl's husband and goalie for the Boston Bruins. He ended up getting killed by a Zamboni machine.

It turns out there's a whole story behind why the actor, Jay Thomas, who had previously starred on Mork and Mindy and went on the play a Morton Downey Jr.-type on Murphy Brown, left Cheers. Jay Thomas hosted his own radio show in LA before and during his time on Cheers and one day a caller asked what it was like working on Cheers. He complained about having to kiss Rhea Pearlman and she happened to be listening.

I read all this on the blog of one of the co-writers of Cheers, Ken Levine. He co-wrote the episode where Eddie dies, "Death Takes a Holiday on Ice" (I love that), and explains that they were worried that they wouldn't get permission to use the brand name but that the Zamboni people were more than pleased (I'm trying not to write "the Zamboni people loved it" because that's basically what Levine writes on his blog. I hope I haven't plagerized anything).

Every since last week I've been reading Ken Levine's blog; it's got a lot of behind the scenes stories about shows that he's worked on. One thing he said really jumped out at me. He said that one of the things that made him want to be a writer was The Dick Van Dyke Show- a writer's life seemed fun and Van Dyke had the beautiful Laura Petrie for a wife. It's funny because I once read Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing) say the exact same thing.

If I ever learn how to create a Blogroll on my page I'm going to add a link to his page. In the meantime, here's the Eddie LeBec story.




Note: everytime I try to add a link it doesn't work, so if you wanna find the story the name of the blog is By Ken Levine or look up Eddie Lebec on Wiki and there's a link to Levine's page there.

Lego Day 2010

Lego Day 2010 was a huge success. My two guests and I had a wonderful time. Lego brought his lovely girlfriend Carolyn over around 5:30pm and we popped open some Smirnoff Ices while the two of them visited with my roommate's cats Tigre (I call him Fatty), Lucky (Clownface), and the other one (The Other One).

I put the pizza in the oven and we went up to my bedroom where I do all my entertaining. Lego and Cal took up their usual spot side by side on the loveseat.

I know that it's not a good idea to have the TV during a social gathering of this kind but we set that aside. There was a good episode of Modern Marvels on the History Channel and Lego loves THC.

Here's the bottom line:

The pizza was slightly undercooked- "Could've been in for two more minutes".

I bought a Pepperidge Farm Key Lime cake and when I served it it was "still a little frozen" (I actually like it like that).

My real low point was screwing up instant coffee. Too weak; I didn't take cup size into consideration.

All these things are fine and I can live with them. The most important thing about the evening is that I was not annoying. I know the last time the three of us got together I was too "up". This time I dialed it down.

Can't wait till the next Lego Day.

More record labels

I love when people on Ebay put up pitures of more than just the album cover. It's too bad more sellers don't do that- it's more enticing than just a plain picture that half the time they didn't even take themselves.


Note: I know I just used the word "more" three times in two sentences. I'm tired. Sorry.

Promo posters

I just came across these tow promo posters the other day and IO think they're both pretty nice (actually, the Kristin Hersh one might not even be a poster at all- that's what they were calling it on Ebay though) lookas more like a printout for a CD booklet).

LEGO DAY 2010

I'm having a party for my best friend tonight and the image above is the flyer. It only took me ten minutes.

Both 1994

Almost. The KH photo was included in the sleeve for 1994's Hips and Makers. The EC photo is in the booklet for the Rhino re-issue of 1994's Brutal Youth that came out a few years ago.

Falltime books

There are a lot of good (I'm hoping) books coming out between now and November.

Rat Girl (Aug. 31) Kristin Hersh (336 pages)
Kristin Hersh did a quick US tour recently where she mixed accoustic songs with readings from this book (named Paradoxical Undressing overseas). It covers one year in the mid-80s when Throwing Muses was about to be signed to Sire Records, KH was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, and she found out she was pregnant.
I'm looking forward to this book but I was disappointed when I found out it only covers one year; I wish that it told the entire Muses story. Hopefully it'll do well and there'll be a follow-up.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk- A Modest Bestiary (September 28) David Sedaris (176 pages)
I've been reading about this book of "animal fables" for a while; I think it's been pushed back a few times and I have a feeling the publishers are worried that Sedaris will have his first flop. I don't think they want to put out anything other than his usual collection of essays.

Simple Times- Crafts for Poor People (November 2) Amy Sedaris (304 pages)
This is the follow-up to Sedaris's 2006 cookbook/entertaining guide I Like You- Hospitality Under the Influence. I've seen some preview pages and it's done in the same style as I Like You.
Sedaris also co-wrote one of my favorite books, Wigfield, with Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello.

Full Dark, No Stars (November 9) Stephen King (384 pages)
Full Dark is a collection of four novellas; titles and descriptions are up at StephenKing.com.

Like A Prayer promos

Like A Prayer (1989) Madonna

I love that fold-out poster of Madonna praying.

Back when the Like A Prayer single came out I got it on cassette but I remember being at Strawberries (a local record store chain; I don't think there are any still open) and seeing that 3" single. It looked so cool but I couldn't bring myself to spend $4.99 on it when I didn't even understand compact discs back then.

3" CDs weren't common back then and now you never see them. A few times I bought burnable 3" CDs with little clear cases and I used them to make mix CDs that were EP size- the 3" CDs hold 21 minutes of music.

Express Yourself

Express Yourself (1989) Madonna

I prefer Madonna with dark hair. I think she makes her best music as a brunette. I consider the Like A Prayer album to be the high point of her career.

Also, the Herb Ritts photos of her during this era are beautiful, especially ones like this.

A request

I've never seen the Belly Now They'll Sleep 12" EP in a record store. I've seen the cover online but only the front. I'm dying to see the back cover.

If you've got it please send me a scan. I'll be grateful forever.

Mountain Battles promo

Mountain Battles (2008) The Breeders

Like all of the Breeders albums, MB is very uneven. There's good songs like "Night of Joy" and "Walk it Off" and then there's the rest of the record. I'd like to listen to the EP they put out last year- Fate To Fatal. Hopefully it's got some better songs.

Throwing Muses 86

Throwing Muses (1986)

I didn't realize that Chris Bigg did the design for TM's debut album. I really like the colors.

random EC

Here are some random Elvis Costello sleeves. I like the one for Veronica- notice how it says "Limited edition picture disc" and it's a CD. I didn't buy my first Cd till 1994 so I don't know: was it a big deal for a CD to have a picture instead of just text back in 1989?

Can I Be Mean For A Minute?

First, some background: In the town where I live there are some art galleries downtown and the biggest one is doing a show of Leonard Nimoy's artwork right now. The town also has a free weekly called The Valley Advocate- a left wing paper with stories about government, local issues, the environment, the arts, ect. and it also does listings for the clubs and resturants plus there's a personals section in the back.

I was reading the letters page at lunchtime today and I found this letter which I think is hilarious.

I don't like laughing at high school students but I can't help myself. Read on...

"I traveled up from New Jersey to take part in Leonard Nimoy's Secret Selves project ["Nimoy's Lens" August 5, 2010], taking a day off from my work at Tenafly High School where I head the school's library media center. I had my video camera with me. Mr. Nimoy asked that I turn this camera upon myself and lift it up in the air; he then took the shot and said it was a good one. His instruction seemed quick and spontaneous.
"I said to Mr. Nimoy that I learned through the philosophy of Aesthetic Realism that art can answer questions; he responded by saying that art can ask questions. Later I asked if he would be so kind to record a message to our students and he generously agreed.
"I hope for his next project Mr. Nimoy will involve himself in education by perhaps taking a small group of students on a journey through a philosophical concept and photographic project similar to this one- accompanied with rich discussion, questions, answers, and wonder!

David di Gregorio
via Online Comments

Oh my God. This guy isn't a student, he's an adult. I just looked him up and found a news story about his library. Holy shit. I figured he was just a high school kid who volunteered at the library to get out of gym class (if you know what I mean) and was trying to sound smart. This makes it even worse.

Number 1: The thing with the video camera. I'm trying to visualize that situation and I can't. Why is it in the lead paragraph in his email?

Number 2: The conversation about art-

DAVID "I learned through the philosophy of Aesthetic Realism that art can answer questions, Mr. Nimoy"

LEONARD "Art can ask questions as well"

Who the fuck talks like that? The same kind of person who feels compelled to give the details of his big intellectual conversations to the readers of a free paper in a town 300 miles from his home. By the way, I have a feeling this conversation took place in Mr. Nimoy's hotel room (if you know what I mean).

Number 3: The entire last paragraph...I wanna say it's unbelievably gay but none of the gay people I know talk like that. We need a new word. Someone will say "That's so gay" and everyone knows exactly what they mean, but the word gay really doesn't fit. So we need a new word to describe someone who says "rich discussion, questions, answers, and wonder!"

Kojak Variety

Kojak Variety (1995) Elvis Costello

One of my favorite EC records, plus it led me to buy Bonnie Raitt's album Takin My Time to hear her version of "Everybody's Crying Mercy"- she's got a lot of good songs on that record.

I want the Rhino re-issue of KV- look at all the excellent covers listed up there- I've heard some: "Ship of Fools" from a Grateful Dead tribute album, the Beatles's "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", and the Springsteen song "Brilliant Disguise", and what I really wanna hear "The Dark End of the Street" after hearing Frank Black do it on his Honeycomb LP.

Brutal Youth

Brutal Youth (1994) Elvis Costello

This album has some really good songs that would be awesome if they didn't have keyboards. I've heard some songs from the bonus disc- Ok, but nothing great. Plus, they leave out three good B-sides from the 13 Steps Lead Down EP: "Puppet Girl", "Basement Kiss", and "We Despise You". I don't understand.

Hey- I've got the TV on and I just saw an ad for a movie that's coming out next month- it looks really good. The name is Devil and it's directed by the same guy that did Signs and The Sixth Sense, you know, M. Night S-whatever. I wanna see that.



Note: I wish I had a jacket like the one he's wearing in the second picture down. Really, it's cool. And the whole outfit in the third picture down. I love corduroy. I used to have an awesome pair of brown corduroy pants but I loaned them to a friend and he ripped them and threw them out. I'm still not over it.

Elvis

Though I liked "Veronica" at the time, I didn't get into Elvis Costello until 1999. I saw the early-90s record Mighty Like A Rose on tape, used, for $2 and decided to try it. I liked it and started getting, used, the Rycodisc re-issues which had just come out.

Each had B-sides, live tracks, and demos tacked on at the end but my favorite thing was the liner notes which described the songs and the time period. They were well-written and always fun to read.

Around 2003 Rhino re-issued the albums again plus newer records all the way up to All This Useless Beauty and they all came with a bonus disc of extra songs. All This is one of the Rhino versions that I bought; the other is Goodbye Cruel World. I really want to get the Rhino re-releases of Brutal Youth, Get Happy, and especially Kojak Variety.

I hate the keyboards- they sound faggy, and I don't get most of the references in the songs, but I do like a lot of EC's music.