DISQUS

Hey Cam, yeah that Jose James has good pipes. He reminds me a bit of Johnny Hartman.

The future will likely be a hybrid of both the live and the virtual with the best elements of each holding sway. - I just hope it's not a hybrid with the worst elements of each holding sway.

communications professionals

Just dropping by to say this is one of my favorite movies of all time. Having spent 20 years as a journalist facing off against PR people (aka press agents) I find this the most dead-on portrayal of an industry built on desperation and lies. The genius of the movie is to make it so entertaining....I think that's the "noir" part. You know these characters are doomed, yet it's fun to watch them dig their graves.

Excellent clips!
Sticky Fingers is my desert-island pick.

Hey, that's not my picture. I guess my wife, the fair Kathleen, is keeping an eye on me today.

Excellent post for St. Patrick's Day, M.A.!
I think though, the reason for the drinking is that the Irish are a nation of poets, and alcohol is an occupational hazard.

I'm going to have to get some headphones, cause Kathleen won't let me play this stuff on the stereo. I love the Small Faces. Steve Marriot was a force of nature! Does Little Steven ever play old Humble Pie with that pretty kid Peter Frampton?

This is great Dan, thanks for turning us on!
My daughter is into old vinyl and she has a theory that you can't go wrong with anything released in 1972. And you know, she's just about right. But there's an awful lot of great stuff before then too.

Please know that Dennis and his family are in our prayers. What a terrible tragedy.

Nice review, Kathleen (not that I am biased or anything). However, I must quibble with that silly list at the end. How could he choose "Roll Over Beethoven" as the Beatles song, when it is essentially a Little Richard cover? I would substitute "Can't Buy Me Love" or possibly "Helter Skelter".
And "Wonderful Tonight"?? That's not rock and roll. How about "Layla"? (the electric version of course).
"Little Red Corvette"? Great song, but I would suggest "Kiss".
And the Sex Pistols? Come on. Kick those no-talents off the list altogether, and add the Rolling Stones: "Bitch".
That would be a much stronger list, though Lord knows why he didn't make it seven songs (a more symbolically potent number). Then you could add "Come as You Are" by Nirvana.

Somehow, I had never heard of this guy.
Just now, I heard the clips you posted from another room, where Kathleen was listening--I thought it was a young Steve Martin. When he got to the turkey joke ("Someone has to tell the turkeys, 'hey man, be yourselves'") I laughed out loud, so I went to join her. By the time we got through the Letterman clip, I was laughing so hard I was crying.
thanks, Viscount

Wow,
I am getting chills reading your post, MA.
I will be buying the DVD even though my wife K plugs her ears when I crank up "Live at Leeds"--the one that never, ever makes me feel old.
Is that concert (Leeds) in the documentary?

Okay Dan,
I slept on it, and I suddenly remembered Sean Penn.

"Dead Man Walking"? Pretty damn serious, and an excellent movie. "Mystic River"--same thing. I haven't seen "Into the Wild" yet but it sounds good.

Maybe "Reign Over Me" would have been better if they had casted Sean Penn instead of the ridiculous Adam Sandler. Penn seems like someone with balls, and talent, enough to force changes in a silly script.

I see your point, though when I walked out of "Syriana" I felt it was the best movie I had seen in years. Looking back, maybe it did veer into didactic-land.

I had thought of "Good Night and Good Luck" too, but had the same reaction as you--the story was drowned in its serious intentions.

I have now spent ten minutes trying to think of one, so maybe you're right. But speaking of "Here to Eternity", Kathleen and I have it on our Netflix queue--I'll move it up.

I'm tempted to ask "are you okay, Dan?"

But on a more serious note, what did you think of Syriana? Or Traffic? I think those were great "serious" movies without contrived endings.

Exceptions that prove the rule, perhaps.

Thanks for the comments, Kathleen and Pete.
Newcritics readers: check out Pete's website for a link to an article on "Great Chicago Novels". The Jungle, Native Son...good choices there, though I have to wonder if anyone still reads Sister Carrie as anything other than a history lesson.

Hey Tom,
complete change of subject: the first two "Below the fold" links are messed up.

Do colds spread through the internet? Kathleen had it, and now I've got it.
I can't say "On the Road" ever disappointed me. When I first read it, at age 17 or so, it revved me up so much that I literally walked out to the expressway that cuts through Chicago, put out my thumb, and spent the next few years bumming around North America, reading the entire Kerouac canon. I haven't gone back to it since, but I obviously remember it fondly.
I am wary of reading "On the Road" again, for fear it would drive home the fact of how much I've aged. I suspect it is a book best read in adolescence, when all you can see is yourself. As Kerouac's later work showed (painfully), he was utterly trapped in his head and desperately lonely. Again, a good book for adolescence.
You want a reputedly great book that disappoints? "The Sportswriter" by Richard Ford. Yuk.

Thank you, blue girl, for the comment. Yeah, the cast is what makes it. And there's more too: Elaine Stritch appears in just one scene (as Nick Murder's mother) and is terrific. Mary-Louise Parker plays a bratty daughter. Eddie Izzard, the British comedian, is great as a church choirmaster.
And Kit, that sure is Kate Winslet. Having much more fun than in that Titanic snoozer.

Of course you're right, Dan (Encyclopaedia) Leo. But now they're both in my head!
God help us all.

No Dan, no...Not. Tommy. James.
oh,sweet pea, won't you dance with me...won't ya won't ya won't ya dance with me-e-e-e
Now you've done it.

Based on the one time I saw Led Zep (Chicago, 1972?), I would have to agree with Viscount. Even though they played for hours, it was a bit of a letdown. At one point, during a long Bonham drum solo, my friend started nudging me and pointing at his watch. I was in kind of a daze (you know) and didn't know what he meant. So he shouted in my ear: "He's been soloing for half an hour!" It was that kind of night.

Ouch, blue girl, I didn't know you were listening!
I didn't mean to be chauvinistic. I must have prancing around last night like a drunken fool.

Grasshopper wonders how old Mama Cass was when she died.
But I told her rock lists are a guy thing, and not to get involved...