The Return of the Vague Blur, and others

Here's what I've been reading lately:
* Anthony Peake: THE MAN WHO REMEMBERED THE FUTURE: A LIFE OF PHILIP K. DICK (2013) -- I had trouble with this book from the point where Peake moved the site of JFK's assassination from Dallas to Houston. If Peake can't get the well-known facts right, how's he gonna do justice to science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick's life?
So: Science-fiction writer K.W. Jeter gets his name spelled wrong more than once. Timescape Books becomes Timewell Books (the book-line's editor was David G. Hartwell). Dick moves from one California town to another -- and ends up living on a street with the same name. Possible, but unlikely. Maybe only in a PKD novel. There were other minor errors. The proofreading could have been better. Still, Peake got his book published in hardcover, which is more than I can say.
Peake depicts PKD as a talented but potentially dangerous paranoid with multiple personalities and delusions of grandeur -- a guy who had several emotional breakdowns and went through a succession of marriages and relationships -- a guy whose handle on Reality was so shaky he couldn't walk out of his own yard without passing out from stress. Absolutely the last person you'd ever want to live with -- but the definition of a brilliantly creative writer!
The synopses of PKD's novels make them sound better and more involving than they really are. PKD had an amazing ability to depict the gritty realities of everyday life for most people. But have you ever tried to READ his books? Some of them are kind of dull. But I'll admit that PKD's THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH and A MAZE OF DEATH are both mind-altering experiences.
There are probably better PKD biographies out there.
* Jann S. Wenner and Corey Seymour: GONZO: THE LIFE OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON (2007) -- Add this to E. Jean Carroll's HUNTER (reviewed below) and you have a helluva oral biography. Like Carroll's book, GONZO gathers a ton of HST's closest friends to tell the story of the crazed gonzo journalist's life. Unlike Carroll's book, this includes the famous final scene -- when Hunter suicided out by gun when his health started failing him. It's a moving portrait, even if Jann Wenner is quoted too often, and even if Wenner makes it sound like his relationship with Hunter was all smooth and all-forgiving. Read HST's letters.
* Peter Biskind: DOWN AND DIRTY MOVIES (2004) -- There is some appalling behavior recounted here -- but not as appalling as that in Biskind's earlier, excellent EASY RIDERS RAGING BULLS, which was about '70s filmmakers. This book's about '90s filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, etc., the rise of independent films, and the rise of Miramax Pictures. Most of the screaming here is done by Harvey Weinstein, co-head of Miramax -- and the people who have to work for him. Worth a look if you like 90's films (PULP FICTION, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, SEX LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, GOOD WILL HUNTING, CLERKS, any number of smaller films), but maybe not as compelling as EASY RIDERS.
* Clinton Heylin: THE ACT YOU'VE KNOWN FOR ALL THESE YEARS (2007) -- A fairly detailed look at the events surrounding The Beatles' recording of SGT. PEPPER in 1967, and what some of the other musical acts around them were doing at the same time -- Stones, Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, The Who, Hendrix, The Move, etc. As Heylin admits, this is all pretty well-covered stuff, but his writing is smooth and his book is enjoyable enough, even if you might not learn much that's new.
* George Martin: ALL YOU NEED IS EARS (1979) -- This modest autobio recounts George's long career as a producer with EMI and independently, and his long relationship with The Beatles. Martin is modest in his measure of how important he was to their success, and though his stories are amusing and fairly well detailed, they're not very revealing and you won't learn much new. His writing's so low-key I didn't feel compelled to read the two-thirds of the book that DOESN'T include The Fabs. The most arrogant statement is made by whoever designed the cover -- who claims that Martin "created" The Beatles.
* Jim Bouton: I'M GLAD YOU DIDN'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY (1971) -- This shorter, lighter follow-up to Bouton's classic tell-all baseball memoir BALL FOUR (reviewed below) is basically just a lotta laffs. Most of the book is about reactions to BALL FOUR -- who loved it, who hated it, how much, quotes from critics, quotes from Major League ballplayers, etc. There's a whole chapter on Bouton's hilarious meeting with then-MLB-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Then Bouton tries sportscasting, goes on book tours, tries for a comeback as a pitcher, etc. It'll kill a couple hours.
* Peter Bebergal: SEASON OF THE WITCH: HOW THE OCCULT SAVED ROCK AND ROLL (2014) -- I don't think Bebergal ever explains how the occult "saved" rock and roll, other than by being thematic material rock acts could draw upon. But some of Bebergal's explanations of the occult go on for pages. All the usual suspects are here -- Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, etc., but not much that's new, and if there was a conclusion or summation, I missed it.

Grab bag

Here's some quick reviews of what I've been reading over the last week or so....

Peter Greenberg: DON'T GO THERE! (2009) -- Greenberg is the Travel Editor for NBC's TODAY SHOW. His book was filed in the Humor section of my favorite local used book store, so I thought it might be funny. It wasn't. Basically, Greenberg spends 250 pages warning you about lots of places NOT to visit in your travels, all of which illustrate Karl Malden's First Rule Of Travel: Don't Leave Home. I can see where Greenberg might be funny on TV, but after the first couple chapters warning you away from Chernobyl, Bhopal and Love Canal, it all gets kind of dull.
I was also shocked that none of the places I've lived made any of Greenberg's "Must Avoid" lists. Ankara, Turkey didn't make it into the Top 10 for Worst Air. Worland, Wyoming didn't come anywhere near Most Boring. And Washington didn't break into the Top 10 Suicide States -- though Wyoming did....

Richard Burton: DIARIES (2012) -- A former big-time actor, Rich had all the same problems as the rest of us lower-earners: Hating his job, being bored, not wanting to be around most people, and whether he should buy ANOTHER million-dollar diamond ring for his wife. His diaries are surprisingly readable, very good waking-up reading. I was reminded in places of another actor's diaries published a decade or two back, Charlton Heston's AN ACTOR'S LIFE. But Burton goes into more depth -- when he's in the mood, and not drinking heavily. And it's interesting how much stuff he pours out onto the page when he's happy with his wife Liz. When she's not around, he pretty much clams up. Parts of the book are laugh-out-loud funny, but there's 650 pages of it.

Alice Sebold: LUCKY (1999) -- It takes me awhile to Get things, sometimes: The Cars, Madonna, Prince. Sebold was quite a publishing sensation a decade or so back when she published the Number 1 bestselling novel THE LOVELY BONES. This memoir came first: It tells how Sebold was beaten and raped while a student at Syracuse University. It is brutal, shocking, and absolutely riveting to read. You THINK the toughest, hardest-to-read part of the story is right up front. And it IS tough. But more shocking stuff follows. There are signs that Sebold maybe didn't know where to END her memoir, but it was worth the trip. She was lucky that she was a strong and quirky person, and she's doubly lucky that her family was a bunch of fruit loops who stood behind her and helped her hold her life together.

Pat O'Day and Jim Ojala: IT WAS ALL JUST ROCK AND ROLL (second edition, 2003) -- O'Day was a disc jockey and station manager for Seattle's KJR AM in the '60s, back in the days when that station was one of the premiere AM stations in the country. His descriptions of what it was like to work in radio back in those days are unique, solid and enjoyable, and when he talks theory about what he -- as a manager -- thought made for an enjoyable AM station and talented AM DJ's, he's on solid ground. I still think there's a great book waiting to be written about working in AM radio in the '50s and '60s, and O'Day has a good start on it here.
But this isn't the book. Much of O'Day's rock-'n'-roll history-writing is from the first-the-earth-cooled-then-the-dinosaurs-came school, and his stories about hanging out with rock stars (Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, Three Dog Night, more) aren't funny or revealing (even the story about Hendrix returning to his alma mater, Seattle's Garfield High School), they're just kind of sad.
O'Day writes ONE PAGE about his alcohol problem -- the cure for which he's been doing radio and TV commercials about in the Seattle area for a decade. There was maybe the basis for another book there -- but O'Day says he was a happy drunk, and that all his friends and co-workers agreed with him....
There are other problems. Glen Campbell and Ahmet Ertegun are among the well-known names who get their names misspelled more than once. Pat sometimes writes women (plural) when he means woman (singular) -- this also happens more than once.
This is the updated second edition of Pat's book. It looks great, and there are some nice black-and-white photos of Hendrix, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Mamas and Papas, The Lovin' Spoonful, and other stars who played in Seattle. But did anyone proofread the book?

Grumpy old men

I first heard about Manny Farber while reading David Thomson's excellent NEW BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF FILM (see review under "Movie-ing 2," below). Thomson described Farber as a longtime movie critic who never liked anything much, and was well known for his crankiness.
Hey, a grumpy old guy who spent years finding faults in lots of classic old movies? Sounded like this was right up my street. I wondered why I'd never heard of Farber before.
Now I know why. Because I grabbed FARBER ON FILM (2009/2016), a complete collection of Farber's movie reviews from the early '40s through the late '70s.
Man, was he grumpy.
Farber started writing movie reviews for magazines like THE NATION and THE NEW REPUBLIC, then moved to CAVALIER in the mid-'60s, and later wrote for FILM COMMENT and ARTFORUM. And though he occasionally admits to liking or admiring some aspect of a movie, most of the time he picks stuff apart, or gives one paragraph of attention to movies you've actually heard of.
I didn't realize there was going to be 800 pages of this. But I got through a huge book of Graham Greene's writing on movies awhile back, so I figured I could handle this, too. And I thought seeing lots of old movies through the eyes of an old grump might be amusing.
And I was wrong. I got about 150 pages in before I started skimming, then skipping around. There may be some hidden gems in there somewhere, but I doubt it. Farber hits a real low point in the late '60s -- hey, it was a bad time for movies -- but he comes back to life briefly in the mid-'70s, just in time for a whole new generation of filmmakers. Most of whom he doesn't like. Also just in time to retire to become a teacher (on film studies) and a painter. He died in 2008.
Farber wrote like a college professor. He knew a lot, but it's often really technical, or it's really dry.
He seemed to get very little joy out of his work. Even when Pauline Kael was reviewing a really bad movie, at least she got something out of it so you could sympathize with her suffering. Manny just grinds it out, like he started out tired.
He didn't like CASABLANCA, for instance. He called it hokum. It was -- a big dish of wartime feel-good hokum. But how sour would you have to be not to enjoy it? Not to enjoy Bogart saying almost everything you ever wanted to hear him say in a movie? Or Claude Rains when he says "I'm shocked -- SHOCKED, I tell you -- that there's GAMBLING going on in this establishment!" What kind of clod couldn't enjoy that?
Farber hardly ever cracks a joke, unless it's to make fun of someone's name -- pretty much the lowest of the low when it comes to humor. He doesn't ever seem to be enjoying himself much -- though he DID seem to like putting together lists of REALLY BAD movies. Maybe he just SAW too many REALLY BAD movies.
Even in the late '60s and early '70s, he was still complaining. He grudgingly admits to admiring some parts of EASY RIDER and THE WILD BUNCH. He enjoys Marty Scorsese's work, first MEAN STREETS, then he goes on for pages about TAXI DRIVER. (Is this why there's a laudatory quote from Scorsese on the back of the book?) But by late 1975 he's already got a grudge against Steven Spielberg.
For years I've wanted to see a book called something like THE COMMON MAN'S GUIDE TO MOVIES -- what an educated non-film-expert thinks of a batch of movies, without getting into all the critical theories and biases that even Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert got sucked into.
This is not that book. And unless you like hearing someone complain for hours on end, it ain't worth $30.

Sell, sell, sell!

Money got tight, so on Monday I took four boxes of books and music to Half-Price Books in Tacoma. They took half the stuff I'd packed up and gave me $100, which I thought was pretty fair. I've got a little breathing room in my checking account now.
It's hard to predict what they will and won't take. I swore before I made the trip that I wouldn't sell anything I had an emotional attachment to -- no music that I'd miss later because it wouldn't be around to remind me of old friends, old times, good times.
After all that soul-searching, Half Price only took a little bit of the vinyl. I'm stumped on why they took ELO but left ELP, took a Can best-of (which you'd think would have fairly limited appeal, nothing personal) but left English-import albums by Caravan, Camel and Gentle Giant. They took The Headboys, but left Squeeze and The Jam. They took Heart, but left CCR and John Fogerty. They took the Dixie Dregs, but left a King Crimson best-of. They took almost all the travel-writing I couldn't get into last fall, but left short-story collections by Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg
They took almost all the CD's. They took ALL the rockstar memoirs I've given bad reviews to over the last month.
Not that I'm complaining. A year ago they paid me $160 for a pile of what I thought was mostly pretty dire stuff. So it all balances out.
Naturally, I didn't come home empty-handed. I grabbed a new edition of THE PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ, which I first fell in love with when I grabbed a previous edition at Half-Price back in 2008. This new version is -- good God! -- TWICE as big as the old edition. And I'm sure there's more great criticism and more hilarious jokes.
I grabbed science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick's EXEGESIS and have already started it. It's a monster. On Page 21, he takes a pretty good shot at describing what happened to him back in early 1974, when he started seeing funny colored lights and started dreaming in Greek. At first he thinks it's some ancient Greek trying to communicate with him. Then he thinks it's his late friend Episcopal Bishop Jim Pike trying to communicate from The Other Side. Then Dick thinks he might have been contacted by some Vast Autonomous Living Intelligence System transmitting from space. And all through it, he's cracking jokes.
God knows if I'll finish it. I've already started skimming and skipping things. But what a story.
I hit the Clearance section and brought home Joe Queenan's CONFESSIONS OF A CINEPLEX HECKLER (2000), a couple dozen articles about movies, only $2. Queenan writes for MOVIELINE magazine.
These aren't really movie reviews -- well, a couple are, and one's a brief book review of a Hollywood producer's memoir. The rest are silly articles about films and some of the BS around them -- how Hollywood presents views of life that have nothing to do with reality; how many ears have been severed in a decade of Hollywood films; how many Merchant-Ivory movies can Queenan watch before his brain turns to Swiss cheese, etc.
In two pieces entitled "Don't Try This at Home," Queenan proves some things done in movies simply can't be done in reality. He dunks himself in cold Atlantic waters to prove Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't have done a five-minute monologue near the end of TITANIC -- he would've been dead in two minutes. (Queenan lasts less than 30 seconds.)
But Queenan IS able to walk through busy Manhattan traffic while wearing dark glasses and pretending to be blind, like Al Pacino did in SCENT OF A WOMAN. Taxis don't run over Queenan -- possibly a first for NYC.
I don't recommend reading this book in one sitting, like I basically did. Though it's funny, the humor tends to wear out. Queenan tends to pick on the same movies over and over, and his stories tend to repeat themselves in structure and punch lines. So read one essay a day for the next few weeks and you'll be happier than I was. I wish the book had been funnier.
But for $2, I'm not complaining.

Movie-ing 2

That Bowie bio and that Ray Davies memoir are gonna have to wait, because I've found something better....
David Thomson's NEW BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF FILM (Sixth Edition, 2015) is 1,150 pages of film biographies, accomplishments, opinions and trivia, and it is the best reference book I've read since Richard Cook and Brian Morton's great PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ (1992).
Back in the day, English film critic Leslie Halliwell used to come out every year or two with an updated HALLIWELL'S FILMGOERS' COMPANION, a huge book full of lists of movies alphabetized by actor, director, writer, etc. -- a constantly updated look at what was happening in movies and who did it. Halliwell died in the 80's or 90's, and it looks like Thomson took over for him.
But Halliwell used to just list movies a person helped with, then add a brief description of their career, maybe a quote or a funny story or great lines from their films. Thomson does all that and more, including an ongoing narrative complete with completed films and dates of release, plus opinions about the person's work, details about their background, and a critical overview.
And Thomson ain't shy about expressing his opinions.
And it's clearly Thomson's book and no one else's -- he includes entries on overlooked figures, people who helped him gain a growing appreciation of films, folks I guarantee you've never heard of, people probably nobody but their FAMILY has ever heard of.
And he makes it all informative, funny, charming, sometimes moving.
Thomson has little use for most of the films released in the last decade or so. And I'm OK with that.
He may be a little too convinced of the greatness in films of the past. I'm OK with that, too.
He adores actors and actresses -- the longest entry I've found so far is on Cary Grant. The entry on James Stewart's pretty lengthy, too. And Thomson goes on for a couple pages on novelist, screenwriter and critic Graham Green. Critic Pauline Kael gets a nice write-up.
Thomson can be brutal on directors. Nobody's more to blame if a movie goes bad than the director, right? So Thomson can go on for pages about Howard Hawks, John Ford, Frank Capra, Sam Peckinpah (both positive and negative). But when he comes to a current director like Richard Donner (SUPERMAN, the LETHAL WEAPON movies), it only takes him three sentences to sum-up Donner's work.
If you're a movie fan, this is great stuff. You're sure to learn a lot, and look at some actors and films in a new way. And Thomson isn't afraid of the dark stuff -- like, for instance, how Jean Harlow died. Or Joan Crawford's later years. Or Orson Welles's career. And there are others that are just as tragic, that seem just as large a waste of talent.
Not everybody in current films is bio'd in here, not every actor or director mentioned gets a write-up. That would need a book twice as big. But it'll keep you busy for awhile if you're a movie fan.
And the unique, personal way Thomson's written it is a good model for me as I work on my strange-music review book (up past 32,000 words now).
If you're a movie fan, check this one out. You'll hardly ever hear me say this: This book is WORTH $30.
And by the way, apparently Thomson has been doing these dictionaries and updates since 1976....
Rock and roll could use an encyclopedia as detailed, well-written, and open as this one is.

Movie-ing

I read a lot during the six months I was away from the blog, and when I couldn't find any promising books on rock&roll, I read a lot about movies.
I started with movie reviews written by Pauline Kael, who covered movies for THE NEW YORKER from the mid-'60s to the early '90s. I'd recommend all of her books, each of which features hundreds of in-depth reviews. Which one you should start with depends on what period you're interested in.
DEEPER INTO MOVIES, REELING, WHEN THE LIGHTS GO DOWN and TAKING IT ALL IN cover movies from the early '70s to the early '80s. HOOKED and STATE OF THE ART cover the mid-'80s, when there wasn't much exciting going on. MOVIE LOVE covers the early '90s as Kael's career wound down. 5,001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES has thousands of capsule-reviews of older films. And Kael wrote half a dozen more books I haven't gotten to yet.
If you've ever wondered how a particular effect worked on the screen, or how some movies worked and others definitely didn't, or if you're just a big movie fan, Pauline Kael's your critic. She'll tell you How and Why, as well as How Good -- and she even has a great time writing-up some truly awful turkeys.
Nobody ever wrote in as much depth and detail about movies as Kael. Only Roger Ebert came close.
It's too bad she's not around today. I bet she'd be stunned at how much MORE money is wasted on movies now -- and how sometimes even big-budget movies only play in theaters for a week or two before they vanish in the blink of an eye and then they're out two or three months later on Cable and Dish and DVD and Blu-ray.
She probably wouldn't be surprised at the amount of weak, lame trash that's out there. Or at how most movies these days seem to be sci-fi action-hero fantasies and zombie invasions and stupid comedies. There were plenty of bad movies back in her day, too.

Rock&roll could use a history like Peter Biskind's EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS: HOW THE SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK AND ROLL GENERATION SAVED HOLLYWOOD (1998). This long, densely detailed book follows the movie careers of the wave of young writer-directors who hit Hollywood in the late '60s and did their best work into the early '80s -- guys like Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin, Robert Altman, Hal Ashby, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Towne and Paul Schrader.
These are the guys who put together movies like THE GODFATHER, JAWS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, STAR WARS, THE EXORCIST, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, TAXI DRIVER, NASHVILLE, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, APOCALYPSE NOW, E.T. -- films that made it interesting to go to the movies for about a decade.  
Brian DePalma appears several times in this book, but I think he gets kind of short-changed. He was a big mover and shaker in this period, and he's not followed in as much detail as the others. There's rather too much about Schrader, I thought -- and I could have lived without all the detail on the careers of Dennis Hopper and Bob Rafelson, but they helped get the ball rolling. There is also a lot of material on Warren Beatty, who was a big deal at the time.
But here's the thing all of them had in common: Nearly every single one of them had a personal-life that was a train wreck. There's some truly appalling behavior outlined in this book, and I'm not even talking about the heavy drinking and drug abuse and infidelity. Friedkin, Bogdanovich, Hopper and Coppola especially treated their Significant Others like shit. Friedkin apparently treated everyone badly. Much of the book reads like a relationship nightmare. Was it worth it, just to get a few good movies made?
Some of these guys are still at it. Scorsese is still crankin' out good stuff, after a few tough years here and there in the '80s and '90s. Spielberg is still doing Academy-Award-nominated films, but even he had his flops and setbacks along the way.
But some of them sank -- Friedkin and Bogdanovich were basically done by the early '80s. Hal Ashby (SHAMPOO, COMING HOME) lost his grip, dropped out, got cancer and died. Lucas's marriage fell apart. Spielberg got divorced then re-married.
I wish this book had followed these guys on through the '80s, because it ends at a real down point for most of them. Some of them survived to do more solid work, like Scorsese's GOOD FELLAS, Spielberg's THE COLOR PURPLE and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, Lucas with the Star Wars sequels and the Indiana Jones movies (with Spielberg). Maybe they were never quite as great again, but they're hangin' in there, most of 'em.
God knows I'm no expert on movies, especially CURRENT movies -- I think the last movie I saw in a theater was TITANIC -- but you could learn a lot about how movies and movie people work from this book and any of Pauline Kael's.
Reporting as solid, detailed and open as Biskind's could do "rock journalism" a lot of good. Not to mention rock and roll memoirs....

#752: Are we wasting the Internet?

So, how did this amazing technological marvel the Internet become an overloaded storehouse of "Check out this too-cute pic of my kid/my grandkid/my dog/my cat/my hairdresser"? When did it turn from this fabulous, formless outpouring of the power of the Freedom Of Speech into just another chance to Sell You Something 24/7?
My God, some people even use it to post music and book reviews....
When did it all get so stupid and pointless? When did it get all filled up with YouTube videos of people doing Really Stupid Stuff, meaningless celebrity tweets, and of course porn? (Oh, THAT's been there from the beginning....)
Why aren't we using it to complain about all the things that bug us? I mean really BITCH about how rotten so much of life seems to be today?
Maybe because we know no one would ever comment or respond? Because the Net's supposed to be an escape from all that boring, meaningless, bad shit? Because the last thing we want in the privacy of our own homes is someone getting in our face about how bad everything is?
The Net's been used to complain and protest elsewhere. During the Arab Spring, apparently the demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square used Twitter to stay up-to-date on what was happening during all-night protests -- maybe so they wouldn't be shot or hauled away by the Egyptian Army.
I'm sure there must be other examples. My understanding is that Twitter's relied on more now as a source for breaking news than for anything else.
Maybe if we weren't mostly so fat and comfortable here in America, we could find something more useful to do with the Internet. Like take out our frustrations with the way things are -- get them out there, talk 'em over, kick 'em around. Sure beats picking up a gun and shooting people until someone finally LISTENS, right?
Maybe something good could happen. There are a LOT of things that strike me as wrong, these days. Not that I have much to complain about -- I've got a job, and I'm typing on a laptop some people could never afford, so why should I complain?
But look around.
*NO JOBS -- How many million Americans are STILL out of work? Why? When Obama introduces a Jobs Bill in Congress, and even HIS OWN PARTY tells him "Mr. President, this ain't gonna fly," well WTF? The Feds did work programs during the Great Depression and World War II that put millions of people back to work building roads and bridges and dams -- why not repair all the infrastructure nationwide that's falling apart? Why is this so hard to get going? Is it just because the president can only do so much without the support of Congress?
*TAXES -- Good Lord. Be grateful you're not in Washington state, where the gas tax is at least 52 cents a gallon, the alcohol tax is something like 28 percent (I don't drink), and the tax on each pack of cigarettes is THREE BUCKS. And they're talking about raising it another dollar. (I don't smoke, either.) And all the money's supposed to go to roads and schools. There's no evidence the tax money's going there at all.
*HEALTH CARE -- Despite the "Affordable Care Act," health care in this country is still only for those who can afford it. Don't kid yourself. And the health-care-insurance providers are probably still thanking Obama for sending them millions of new customers.
*OBAMA -- Speaking of which, does anyone believe a word he says anymore?
*SURVEILLANCE -- Of course some of your taxes are being used so your government can keep track of everything you say on your cellphone or do on the Internet 24/7. Not to mention those surveillance cameras and drones everywhere. Which means this blog will probably be shut down tomorrow. Nice talkin' to 'ya. If George Orwell (1984, look it up) could have seen 2014, he would have shit his pants.
*THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE -- It's already happened. Two-thirds of the people who walk into my store every day are zombies, folks you can't get a word out of, who stare straight ahead and hardly ever say anything. Give 'em their gas and their smokes and their beer, and they're on their way. Wonder what they're so scared of? And what are they like at home?
*MOVIES -- Have you noticed practically every "big" movie that comes out these days is some over-the-top science-fiction/fantasy/war movie or action flick that has absolutely no connection to the real world? It's as if moviemakers don't WANT you to think about reality, ever. It's just too horrible. Movies always were about escaping reality for a couple hours, but.... Most movies set in the real world these days die a quick death. And you'll be able to get 'em all on Blu-Ray and DVD in a couple months anyway, so....
*MUSIC -- Jesus Christ I'm BORED. I've heard a couple interesting new bands since the turn of the year, thanks to SOUND OPINIONS, but most music on the radio these days bores me shitless. How did it ever GET this bad? Or am I just too freakin' old?
*RUDENESS -- Why is everyone in such a goddamned HURRY? And what the hell are they so ANGRY about?
*IDIOTS SHOOTING PEOPLE -- Why don't they just shoot THEMSELVES FIRST and save everybody some grief?
*GLOBAL WARMING -- Is it or isn't it? Step outside....
*MONEY -- Supposedly Seattle's on the cutting-edge of the push for a $15 per hour minimum wage. Yeah, Seattle's expensive, but there are lots of other places you could live. I don't think Economics is based on the idea that all you have to do to get the wage you want is keep demanding it until Management caves in.
I'm looking forward to my pay raise to $15 an hour -- that means an increase of about $1,200 per month for me, before taxes. I could use it. But I ain't holding my breath for it.
And you? What's pissing you off lately? Would love to hear some informed responses to this....

#606: A post a day for Dec.?

I usually hibernate around here in the Winter -- it's cold & dark & the rain POUNDS down 4 months on end. I've already felt myself withdrawing, battening down the hatches Bcos Winter's back & I hate not seeing the sun.
After a not-very-productive November, I could use a challenge -- so I'm gonna see if I can do a post each day in December. I don't think there's a chance in Hell that I can DO it, but I need something 2 jolt me out of my lethargy, & maybe this'll help. I love 2 write, I'm just tired of searching 4 a topic 2 hang a post on. I'm also bored with most music lately. I don't know what I wanna hear, but I sure as hell can't FIND it....
Besides, I've got some Sure Things coming up: I'll be marking 4 years of blogging around mid-month; I've got the 3rd Annual TAD Awards 4 the best stuff of the year coming at the end of the month (I don't think it was a very good year, but I may have forgotten something); I'm slowly working my way thru 2 pretty good books: Hunter S. Thompson's FEAR AND LOATHING IN AMERICA, a collection of his letters from the mid-'60s thru the mid-'70s; & John Einarson's FOREVER CHANGES: ARTHUR LEE AND THE BOOK OF LOVE, which includes lotsa stuff from Lee's unpublished autobiography....
+ maybe this'll force me 2 write some of those Big Projects I've wanted 2 work on 4 ages -- newspaper experiences, Air Force experiences, more Nostalgia, etc. Ghod, could I really have that much I wanna write about? We'll find out.... Summa these posts might end-up as lists of whatever I'm listening 2 or reading, or rants about whatever's on my mind -- there may not B much of a framework -- automatic writing? Should B fun....
Maybe the higher production will also bump up the readership numbers, which took a real slide in Nov after 3 really strong months & a killer Oct. Course I only wrote 5 real posts in Nov, so....
Enuf of the hype, onward 2 THE LATEST AT-WORK PLAYLIST....

Cat Power -- He War.
Kinks -- Victoria, Apeman, Sunny Afternoon, Dead End Street, Shangri-La, Well-Respected Man, Dedicated Follower of Fashion.
Outkast -- Hey Ya.
Aretha Franklin -- Daydreaming.
Steely Dan -- Dirty Work, My Old School.
Pogues -- Lorelei, Fairytale of New York.
Darlene Love -- Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).
Squeeze -- Pulling Mussels from the Shell, Another Nail in My Heart, Separate Beds, Misadventure.
Florence + the Machine -- Shake it Out.
Fairport Convention -- Chelsea Morning, Mr. Lacey, Book Song, I'll Keep it With Mine, Tale in Hard Time, Meet on the Ledge, Genesis Hall, Come All Ye, Stranger to Himself.
Wigwam -- Losing Hold, Grass for Blades, Eddie and the Boys, Tramdriver, Autograph, Just My Situation.
BONUS TRACK: Ray Conniff Singers -- The Twelve Days of Christmas.

OK, most of these I probly don't have 2 describe. Whatever keeps me motivated, ya know?
Cat Power's "He War" is a masterwork of rhythm & little bitty repeating guitar & keyboard parts -- mesmerizing. & she has a great voice. Lots of nice suppressed drama here.
The Kinks' stuff I've been a sucker 4 for years. Love that gtr sound on "Victoria," & the way Dave Davies screams in the background. "Shangri-La"'s a dramatic masterpiece 2. "Sunny Afternoon," "Dead End Street" & the others R fun singalongs. SHIT, I shoulda played "Days"! Maybe tomorrow....
"Hey Ya"'s just a scream. Who could resist it?
Now that I've adjusted after not hearing it 4 30 years, "Daydreaming" is Xactly the floaty masterwork I remember. Aretha's back-up singers R all OVER the choruses. & she sounds so relaxed....
"Dirty Work" I assume features early Dan vocalist David Palmer...? It's too smooth 2 B Donald Fagen. "My Old School"'s still great, whatever it means....
I think "Lorelei" was the Pogues' highpoint, absolutely gorgeous Irish folk, but "Fairytale of New York" is both hilarious & heartbreaking & should become a Christmas classic. It was featured in the romantic comedy movie P.S. I LOVE YOU. Haven't heard it played on the radio yet, somehow. Probly summa the lyrics R a problem, I'd imagine. But most people don't listen 2 lyrics, so....
After "Fairytale," I was bitten by the Christmas bug, so put on Darlene Love & Phil Spector's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," which has all the crashing melodrama of any classic Phil Spector hit, & shoulda bn included on his best-of. You've heard it even if you don't think you have -- it ran under the opening credits of the movie GREMLINS back in '82 or whenever....
Squeeze's ARGYBARGY was their highpoint -- but a little of them goes a long way, I got 4 trax in. "Separate Beds" has some cute choruses, & "Misadventure" describes some stress-inducing Middle Eastern trips, if you can follow the lyrics....
Florence's "Shake it Out" is still the best thing I've heard in years, but tho the lyrics R great, it really relies on the booming loudness of the drums. Turn it down a little & it just doesn't hit. It demands 2 B played LOUD.
Fairport's version of Joni Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning" is busy-busy, & Judy Dyble's voice is a nice contrast 2 their later stuff. "Mr. Lacey" is a funny blues. "Book Song" sounds like it could B any mid-'60s folk group -- with some nice atmosphere. Mixed among the rest is some of the greatest British folk music ever -- tho they sure liked their grim subject-matter. "Tale in Hard Time" is a little grim despite Ian Matthews' sunny singing, "Meet on the Ledge" is dark, "Genesis Hall" is brutal -- good thing I didn't play their version of Bob Dylan's "Percy's Song"!
By contrast, "Come All Ye" is a rockin' rouser -- my favorite of all their work. Their version of Dylan's "I'll Keep it With Mine" is just gorgeous. "Stranger to Himself" is the only track I've heard from their later stuff that could stand with their classic work -- an intense, hushed funeral march. & why isn't their hilarious version of Dylan's "Million Dollar Bash" included on their 2-CD best-of?
Wigwam's HIGHLIGHTS best-of doesn't include THEIR best track ever, the rumbling & ominous "Bless Your Lucky Stars." But "Losing Hold" is a nice long workout 4 organ, "Grass for Blades" is an intense piano-based blues that gets interrupted, "Eddie and the Boys" & "Tramdriver" R lite silliness -- & "Tramdriver" is really catchy. "Just My Situation" is another long bluesy number with downcast vocals & piano from leader Jim Pembroke. These guys R worth checking out, but track down their NUCLEAR NIGHTCLUB 1st -- there isn't a really weak track on it.

1 local radio station -- WARM 106.9 -- is already playing nothing but Christmas favorites 24/7. While dialing thru stations Thursday nite I heard Ray Conniff's epic "Twelve Days of Christmas," which I hadn't heard in years. I'd forgotten what a hoot it was. 4 1, it goes on FOREVER -- in the old vinyl days they coulda filled a SIDE with this song. 4 another, it's so '50s/'60s whitebread it's hard 2 believe. Check out the way the guys sing "FIVE GO-OLD RINGS!" & "THREE FRENCH HENS!" You'll be seeing clones of Pat Boone in matching crewcuts.... & at the very end, where the chorus ...like ... IMPROVISES a bit, it's just freaking hysterical. Check it out, if you dare. The best comedy Christmas song since Barbra Streisand's "Jingle Bells?" (And does anybody know who did the '70s satire of "Twelve Days" with the verses that ended "...and a Sony transistor radio"? Drop me a line if you remember -- I haven't heard it since about 1971.
More VERY soon....