Who's Going To Hell This Week
Helen A. Handbasket
Reader Review
The Flash Girls
By Dave Romm
Preface and Disclaimer: Lojo, Steve, Adam and Emma were in a band called Cat's Laughing. Steve and Emma are in the same writing group and both write sf/fantasy as does Jane and Neil. Emma, Steve, Jane and I are Shockwave Riders and you can hear them on some of the Shockwave Distribution CDs and tapes or listen to the streaming Real Audio of PBS Liavek. We've known each other for a long time. It's always tricky reviewing work by your friends; most of the time I just invite them on Shockwave and let them talk. If anything, I'm harder on friends' music than others, since I know what they're capable of outside the studio. But the main reason for this recommendation now is that Will Shetterly and Emma Bull are going to be Guests of Honor at Minicon 37 this weekend (March 29-31), and Emma and The Fabulous Lorraine, aka The Flash Girls have recently put out their third CD and are likely to play at the con. Whee!
The two Flash Girls albums available are Maurice and I and Play Each Morning Wild Queen. Here in Minnapolis, you can get them at Dreamhaven or Uncle Hugo's, but you can also order them directly from their Online Catalog or through Amazon.com. Both feature Lorraine's fiddle and Emma's guitar and vocals, with several duets of the two of them. Indeed, what is currently my favorite song from the pair is an a cappella duet of a Neil Gaiman tune, All Purpose Folk Song (Child's Ballad #1). I suppose spending the last couple of weeks going over Steeleye Span made me all too susceptible to deconstructing Celtic folksongs. Their web site says they "play contemporary, traditional, and gothic folk music", which is an odd mix that works well for them. While much of their material is dark, especially on Maurice and I, there's an air of playfulness throughout, from Me and Dorothy Parker (based on Parker's writings, both dark and playful!) to another Gaiman-penned tune Yeti (which they apologize for, but sing anyway, thank heaven) to Buckingham Palace/ Dunsford's Fancy (words by A. A. Milne, full of literary references). They sing of love as a Personal Thing while warning A Girl Needs A Knife. The instrumentals tend to be lush Celtic reels, with good fiddle playing and drums.
The strong musicianship and song selection of The Flash Girls would be enough to recommend them, but they have the added advantage of talented friends. Of course, I would pick up, without knowing anything else about it, an album that has a back cover recommendation by Jane Yolen (a wonderful writer and a superb storyteller). Her son Adam Stemple produced and plays on Wild Queen. Adam is joined by drummer extraordinaire Robin Adnan, also of Boiled in Lead.
Boiled In Lead is another one of those great mostly local groups that deserves far greater exposure. They are ostensibly a Celtic band, but do thrash and world beat and almost anything else that suits their fancy. Their first incarnation's first two albums (1985-1987) are collected on one CD Old Lead. Go! Move! Shift! got some airplay here in the Twin Cities, and is about as angry as a celtic folk/rock song can be without slipping over into punk. Their odd, minor version of Twa Corbies and thrash version of Gypsy Rover draws the boundaries of their wide-ranging musical style, though what works best (for me) are their instrumentals, anchored by Robin's drumming. From the Ladel To The Grave won Album of the Year in the 1990 MInnesota Music Awards and still stands up. An eclectic range of musical styles from several countries and several sources. After playing The Microorganism, "A plague song" re AIDS, a listener called in to tell me "We love you!". Thanks. Sher was included on a Klezmer compilation while they scream out Pig Dog Daddy. They have several more recent CDs with newer band members.
Also on the Flash Girls CDs are Lojo Russo and Steven K. Zoltan Brust. I confess I don't have either of Lojo's CDs available, but she's a good musician and there is lots of crossover with the bands listed here. I can't find Steve's CD A Rose For Iconoclastes on the net, but you could try Dreamhaven or Hugo's. Steve has a wicked sense of humor and a sharp ear for lyrics, and Dr. Demento has played several cuts from this CD. Backward Message is credited with being "engineered by Satan". Latex Man is the flip side of The Microorganism and I usually play them together. Stream of Consciousness Blues is. It might seem obvious that War Is Bad but that's the point.
Dave Romm is a conceptual artist with a radio show and a web site and a very weird CD collection. He reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E here.
Thanks, Dave!
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
26 March, 2002
Representatives of 58 rich and poor countries gathered in Monterrey,
Mexico, to determine how best to spread the wealth and improve the lot of
the 1.2 billion people who live on less than $1 a day. Although Treasury
Secretary Paul O'Neill worried that the money of American "plumbers and
carpenters" would be squandered on aid to poor nations, President Bush
pledged to increase such spending by 50 percent. One participant, Fidel
Castro, opined that "the world economy today is a huge casino" run by
self-appointed "masters of the world."
The Senate overhauled
campaign-finance laws, passing a bill that prohibits national political
parties from accepting or spending soft money. Opponents of the bill
declared that it violated donors' free-speech rights; the next day,
Senator Mitch McConnell announced that Kenneth Starr, the former
independent counsel, will lead a legal team taking the issue to court, in
an attempt to preserve the "freedom of all Americans to fully participate
in our democracy."
When asked whether he would sign the bill reluctantly
or wholeheartedly, the President responded, "I have a kind of firm,
semifirm signature as it moves across the page. It will probably take
about . . . you know, about three seconds to get to the W, I may hesitate
on the period, and then rip through the Bush."
NASA researchers highly
recommended afternoon power naps.
Senators were considering issuing a
subpoena to Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, who was still refusing
to introduce himself to Congress and explain the President's request for
$38 billion for domestic security.
Attorney General John Ashcroft
announced plans to interview 3,000 Middle Eastern men who have entered the
country since September 11, pointing to the success of a controversial
first round of talks last fall with Middle Eastern men residing in the
United States. Of the 4,793 men on the original list, 2,261 were located
and interviewed, three were arrested on criminal charges, and none was
charged with terrorism.
More than 250 ethnic Pashtun prisoners, accused of
collaborating with the Taliban and detained in northern Afghanistan by the
Northern Alliance four months ago, were released in celebration of the
Persian New Year.
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
--Margaret Cordi
[Roger D. Hodge is on vacation.]
Gonna Get In Trouble (part 1)?
Happy Birthday, Erin
From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The freaking festival of phlegm continues, and the kid was home sick again today. Today's matinee was 'The Iron Giant' and
'A Bug's Life'. Just like yesterday.
Watched 'Watching Ellie' mostly & surfed 'Andy Richter'. 'Ellie' does not seem long for this world, but 'Andy Richter'
isn't 'sponge-worthy', either.
Ended up watching the last hour of 'Shackleton's Voyage Of Endurance' on PBS. History provides much better stories than fiction.
Also caught some of Janet Reno on Leno...looking at those names it seems that they should rhyme.
Did anyone else see Tom Green on 'Conan' bragging on his Razzies? Poor Drew.
Tonight, Wednesday, CBS is all fresh with '60 Minutes II', 'The Amazing Race 2', and '48 Hours'. Dave is fresh.
NBCis also fresh with 'Ed', 'The West Wing', and 'Law & Order'. Leno is fresh.
ABC is fresh tonight, too, with 'My Wife & Kids', the series premiere of 'George Lopez', 'Drew Carey', the series premiere of 'Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central)', and 'Downtown'. 'Bill Maher' is a rerun.
The WB has a rerun 'Dawson's Creek' and a fresh 'Felicity'.
Faux is fresh, too, with 'That 80's Show', 'Grounded For Life', 'Bernie Mac', and the series premiere of 'Greg The Bunny'.
UPN has a fresh episode of 'Enterprise' and a special, 'The March To Madness' with Greg Gumbel (Bryant's brother, and it has to do with 'The Final 4' & 'The Big Dance' on CBS, and since they now own UPN, get used
to it).
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Downtown LA Buzzed As Practice
Tax Dollar$ At Work
The roar of two Navy fighter jets practicing a fly-by for opening day at Dodger Stadium shook up downtown workers Tuesday.
The low-flying jets shattered a quiet midafternoon, echoing among office buildings. People ran outside and stared up into the sky.
"They were practicing flybys over Dodger Stadium in preparation for opening day," said Jerry Snyder, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Navy jets that practiced Tuesday, an F-4 Phantom and an F-14 Tomcat, will be joined by three others as part of the team's tribute to U.S. troops in
Afghanistan on April 2, opening day against the San Francisco Giants.
"I can understand why people working downtown would have been caught off-guard, and there should have been thought given to that," Hall said from
Vero Beach, Fla., where the team holds spring training. "With the permit for the flyover, we figured that would cover us for the rehearsal," he said.
Downtown LA Buzzed
Oh, it's for Rupert Murdoch's baseball teams opening day? So glad those tax dollars are at work to promote an overpriced, over-rated, and over-subsidized commercial enterprise of
a baseball team. Never mind.
'Night Of 100 Stars'
Bo & John
Bo Derek and "Sex and the City" star John Corbett were all over each other at "The Night of 100 Stars" benefit for Martin Scorsese's film foundation
at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Ladies' man Corbett, 39, was overheard telling a friend that he could scarcely believe he'd landed the "10" star, who's 45.
"She was my fantasy when I was young," said Corbett. Bo encountered a bit of boyfriend gridlock when one-time beau Ted Turner arrived at the VF party,
though he was with his steady, Frederique D'Arragon.
Bo & John
Fun Link
Adolf Bush
Adolf Bush
Big Dog Watch Continues
Bill Clinton
Former President Bill Clinton, right, stands with gun control activist, Sarah Brady, during the release party for Brady's personal memoir, "A
Good Fight," in New York Tuesday, March 26, 2002. Brady's husband, former White House press secretary James Brady, was shot and severely injured
during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Photo by Matt Moyer
Thinks Bob Costas Needs A Spanking
John Tesh
John Tesh seems like a mild-mannered musician — until you ask him what he thinks about NBC Sports commentator Bob Costas.
"I think Bob Costas needs a spanking," the former newsman told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "I have nothing nasty to say about most people, but
just the unbridled drubbing that he drummed up for me, it was just unnecessary. ... I'm not a big fan."
Tesh, 49, is still bitter about comments he said Costas made about his much-panned stint as a gymnastics commentator during the 1996 Summer Olympics on NBC.
"On 'The Tonight Show,' he said, 'As an Olympic commentator, John Tesh is a great piano player," Tesh recalled.
"He was a teammate. It would be like the catcher on the baseball team talking about what a jerk the pitcher was. It's just an unwritten rule that you don't do that."
John Tesh
So, Bob is the catcher and John is the pitcher? Nah, no ego here...
Visiting In Ireland
Hillary Clinton
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton got the presidential treatment Tuesday at the start of a two-day trip to Ireland, where her husband's unprecedented interest
as president helped propel an economic boom here and peace in neighboring Northern Ireland.
The senator's visit was promoted principally as a mission to build business links between Ireland's so-called "Celtic Tiger" economy and New York,
particularly its economically sluggish upstate area.
But her itinerary — featuring a motorcycle escort and separate meetings with the Irish president, prime minister and foreign minister — demonstrated
that the Clinton name remains highly respected in Ireland, particularly for the former president's help in achieving the 1998 accord on the British province.
Clinton, whose Irish visit had originally been scheduled just weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, brought along several New York
City firefighters and Port Authority officers who lost colleagues in the World Trade Center collapse.
"The losses that the Irish-American community suffered on Sept. 11th were so profound, and the response from Ireland was unique," she said,
referring to Ireland's decision to close businesses and government offices in a day of mourning three days after the attacks.
"Part of my coming is to say thank you," Clinton said.
For the rest, Hillary Clinton
Law Suit Thrown Out
Paula Zahn
A Manhattan judge has thrown out a lawsuit that Fox News filed against the agent for Paula Zahn, a news anchor who left Fox News to join CNN last September.
State Supreme Court Justice Ira Gammerman dismissed the lawsuit that claimed N.S. Bienstock, the company that represents Zahn, had interfered with Fox News'
contract with the newswoman by negotiating prematurely with CNN.
Gammerman said Zahn was "free to negotiate with rival networks at any time, so long as she gave Fox the opportunity to decide whether or not to match any offers obtained."
Gammerman, in a 31/2-page decision issued Monday, said he found Zahn "was in compliance with the first refusal clause of the Fox contract. Thus, Bienstock
cannot be said to have induced Zahn to breach the contract."
Paula Zahn
Last Night On Leno
Janet & Jodie
Actress Jodie Foster appears as a guest on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" March 26, 2002 at the NBC studios in Burbank, California. Foster promoted
her new film "Panic Room" which opens in the United States, March 29.
Photo by Fred Prouser
Useful Link
Chickenhawk Data Base
Chickenhawk Data Base
'The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour' Returns
Glen Campbell
Starting 10 p.m. EST Tuesday (April 2), "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" will be rerun weekly on CMT, with new introductions by country singer keith urban.
Campbell was ideally suited to host a wide-ranging music program. Before scoring his own hits, he was a respected recording session guitarist in California,
playing on records by Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley and many others. He was also a genuine country boy from Delight, Ark., who grew up revering
country music legends like Hank Williams.
As a result, he was comfortable sitting in with a stodgy pop vocal quartet like the Vogues, singing and picking a bluegrass number like "Rocky Top," or
performing songs by the Beatles. He did all of that on the "Goodtime Hour."
Campbell got his own show after successfully hosting a summer replacement show for the Smothers Brothers during the summer of 1968. He purposely
avoided the political humor that had gotten the brothers' show canceled.
There was also a hint of the surreal, from garish sets to bizarre comedy pieces. In one episode, Campbell sings "Rocky Raccoon" while a troupe acts out
the song's plot and Flip Wilson, in a ludicrous pink and white cowboy getup, mugs through the sketch as the title character.
"This show is such a milestone in pop culture and country music history," said urban, who grew up in Australia as a Campbell fan. "The diversity
is just amazing. Liberace, Neil Diamond and Linda Ronstadt are on one show. Then there's another with Stevie Wonder and Roger Miller. It's so cool."
Glen Campbell
CMT
Man With An Opinion
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis has no use for the Academy Awards and didn't watch Sunday's Oscar broadcast.
"Why would I want to watch it? I think it's a fraud," the 76-year-old movie legend told us yesterday, giving a taste of today's National Press Club lunch,
at which he'll help announce Wolf Trap's 2002 summer season. "I think it has nothing to do with good performances or bad performances. After the number of
movies I made where I thought there should be some acknowledgment" -- more than 100 films, including "Sweet Smell of Success" (1957), "The Defiant Ones" (1958),
"Some Like It Hot" (1959) and "Spartacus" (1960) -- "there was nothing from the Academy."
Still, Curtis is a voting member, and he agrees with the Academy's choice for Best Picture. His brother, Robert Schwartz, suffered from schizophrenia,
and Curtis voted for "A Beautiful Mind," in which Russell Crowe portrays schizophrenic and Nobel laureate mathematician John Nash.
"I was very moved by that picture," Curtis said. But at the same time, "one of the things they did not bring out in the film was that he was an
anti-Semite and a homosexual. We don't get a true picture there." Avocational painter Curtis is using a very broad brush here: Nash's anti-Semitic
rantings came at the height of his schizophrenic delusions, while his biographer, Sylvia Nasar, reports on the possibility of homosexual tendencies.
Curtis, who was born Bernard Schwartz, also made the surprising claim that Hollywood itself has always been anti-Semitic. "Why didn't they at any
time recognize me? I don't remember any true Jewish actor getting an award. We all had to change our names."
Curtis said he voted to give Crowe the Best Actor nod, never mind news accounts of Crowe's sometimes boorish and even violent behavior in public.
"Listen, he's a human," Curtis said. "I rather enjoy his obstreperousness."
For the rest, Tony Curtis
Change In Ozzfest Line Up
Chris Cornell
Billboard and MTV report that Chris Cornell of Rage Against the Machine has left the band.
Cornell joined after singer Zach de la Rocha left. The band did not intend to keep the Rage name but hasn't announced a new name yet.
The new group was set to debut at Ozzfest this summer. Ozzfest organizers refuse to comment. No reason was given for Cornell's departure.
Chris Cornell
New Musical On The Horizon
De Niro & Queen
Hollywood superstar Robert De Niro and British rock legends Queen on Tuesday pledged "We Will Rock You" with a futuristic new musical packed with
the supergroup's greatest hits.
"I think it is going to be terrific," De Niro said after flying in from New York for a run-through of the show that opens in London in May.
And the survivors of Queen were convinced that the ghost of Freddie Mercury would be smiling benevolently down on the production. Queen's
flamboyant lead singer died of AIDS in 1991.
The $10.7 million musical "We Will Rock You" has taken six years to bring to the stage.
The star, who is backing the musical with his Tribeca Productions company, said: "I knew it would be a great idea once it was gotten right for a musical."
De Niro & Queen
Thanks, Alex!
Useful Link
Rackjite's Chickenhawk List
Rackjite's Chickenhawk List
Put Your Boots On
Rosie & O'Really
Rosie O'Donnell says she's found a surefire way to lose weight: book yourself as a guest on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News Channel talk show.
O'Donnell said she went on the show against the advice of everyone close to her, and her stomach suffered for it for two days.
She voiced qualified support for O'Reilly's crusade against celebrities for not making sure that donations to Sept. 11 relief funds that they
pitched for quickly found their way to the intended hands.
O'Donnell said she didn't participate in a post-Sept. 11 telethon because celebrities weren't required to make big donations themselves. The day
after the terrorist attacks, she said she called six celebrities and asked them to join her in making a $1 million donation. All refused, she said.
"In America, you should expect your millionaires to give millions — especially if they're going to stand on TV and ask the peasants for pennies," she said.
Rosie & O'Really
Wedding News
John Wayne Bobbitt
John Wayne Bobbitt, who made national headlines after his then-wife Lorena Bobbitt was charged with cutting off his penis in 1993, remarried on his 35th birthday.
Bobbitt married Joanna Ferrell, 31, during a 30-minute ceremony at the Little Church of the West on the Las Vegas Strip, said chapel owner
Greg Smith. Fewer than 10 guests attended the noon ceremony Saturday.
The Rev. Robb Hickey, of the Church of Christ in Las Vegas, officiated. Hickey said it was routine service and added that he intended to file
the marriage certificate Monday with the Clark County Recorder.
Bobbitt was thrust into the national spotlight in 1993 when his wife was charged with cutting off his penis while he slept. Lorena Bobbitt
argued she had been the victim of an abusive husband. She was found innocent by reason of insanity.
John Wayne Bobbitt
Number One Book On the NY Times Nonfiction Best Seller List
'Stupid White Men'
Bernard Goldberg and Michael Moore have very little and very much in common.
Both claim to have opinions the public wants to hear, but not the media elite. Goldberg, an ex-CBS News Correspondent and author of "Bias," says the TV networks favor
the left; Moore, a longtime agitator and author of "Stupid White Men," thinks they favor the rich.
Neither is likely to appear on the evening news, but both have reached the masses in a big way. This Sunday, "Stupid White Men" will be No. 1 on The New York Times
nonfiction best seller list. "Bias," which has topped the list before, will be No. 2.
"Stupid White Men" almost never made it to print. Publication was postponed last fall because of Sept. 11. With the president's approval
ratings at 80 percent, publisher HarperCollins considered canceling the book or editing its criticisms.
After extended discussions, "Stupid White Men" came out uncensored and almost immediately sold out a first printing of 50,000.
"We've had to listen to this mantra that the whole country was unquestionably behind George W. Bush. So it's pretty incredible for a book
like this to be selling so well," Moore says.
'Stupid White Men'
Coming Back To Life?
Roy Rogers & Dale Evans
Western legends Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are coming back to life in a series of family-oriented films and TV programs that will depict the beloved duo's pioneering spirit.
Producers Lawrence Bender and Kevin Brown have made a deal with Roy "Dusty" Rogers Jr. and producer Jeffrey Kramer, who represent Roy Rogers Family Entertainment, for film, TV
and merchandising rights to the late couple's estate and likeness.
Rather than shop the rights piecemeal, the producers aim to make an overall deal with a media firm to produce films and TV programs starring actors playing Rogers and
Evans. The couple appeared in 88 features and 100 episodes of a TV series that ran from 1952-57.
Though Bender is best known for producing Quentin Tarantino shoot-'em-ups like "Pulp Fiction" and the Uma Thurman-Warren Beatty starrer "Kill Bill," currently in
pre-production, the Rogers film will be strictly for the family.
Roy Rogers & Dale Evans
Leaving ABC
James Bond
Secret agent James Bond has finally encountered one predicament even he can't escape: cancellation.
After weeks of progressively lower ratings, ABC has lived and let its Saturday night "Bond Picture Show" franchise die.
ABC had been airing the Bond movies in chronological order (except for the George Lazenby starrer "On Her Majesty's Secret Service") starting with "Dr. No" Jan. 26.
But viewers were neither shaken nor stirred by the programming strategy: in eight airings, the "Bond Picture Show" averaged only 6 million viewers.
The second Bond flick, "From Russia With Love," pulled the most viewers (7.1 million).
James Bond
Thanks, Alex!
Trying To Get In Trouble (part 2)
Happy Birthday, Beelly
The Real Robinson Crusoe
Alexander Selkirk
The real Robinson Crusoe loved rum more than truth, took to bestiality with the goats on the island where he was stranded, and died at sea, his untamed search for
easy money halted finally by tropical fever.
This is not Daniel Defoe's mythic man from the novel of 1719, but Diana Souhami's story of Alexander Selkirk, a Scots seaman who inspired it.
In the end, Defoe's character may be far more civilized.
"He was kind of a football hooligan, a bit of a thug really," Souhami says of Selkirk. "He was the sort of guy who sorts out a problem with his fists."
Her finitely researched book, "Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe" (Harcourt, $24 hardcover) won this year's Whitbread
Award for biography. The award's judges called her work "a great adventure, a great read and a real advance for the art of biography."
For the rest (and learn a bit about why he notched the goats ears...ewww), Alexander Selkirk
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BartCop TV!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
