I’ve been thinking lately about the stylistic tendencies in songwriting partners. Not the words/music split of Gilbert/Sullivan or Hammerstein/Rodgers, but the Lennon/McCartney model: two long-running partners who share credit on everything even though they often write songs individually. The differences between the two Beatles are well-known: in broad strokes, Paul McCartney favored sentimental ballads and […]
posted 12 November 2008 in Tasty Bits. 5 comments
I was lucky enough to attend Van Morrison’s show at the Hollywood Bowl Saturday night where he performed the entirety of Astral Weeks. Single-word reaction: Wow. I should have a full-length review in the next issue of Rolling Stone, but I also filed a short dispatch (with a set list, which isn’t as pointless as […]
The clock dates to 1410; I took this picture in 2005, when I was visiting Prague to write about the TV miniseries Revelations, which was filming there.
posted 7 November 2008 in Photos. no comments yet
Okay, now that we’re one-quarter of the way through the countdown, let’s break down some of the numbers for those top 25 videos (not counting the bonus clips from Def Leppard and U2): United States: 14 England: 6 US/UK joint ventures: 2 Australia: 2 New Zealand: 1 White: 21 Black: 4 Male: 17 Female: 8 […]
Back in 1988, I videotaped the MTV year-end top-100 countdown. Earlier this year, I unearthed the tapes and started watching them for the first time in two decades. I’ve been gradually working my way through the countdown, dissecting every single clip (and the commercial breaks too). Half a year later, we’re now two and a […]
posted 5 November 2008 in 1988. no comments yet
That is, songs specifically about elections and/or voting, not just miscellaneous political or societal change. 1. X, “The New World” 2. Radiohead, “Electioneering” 3. Arcadia, “Election Day” 4. Little Steven, “Vote That Mutha Out” 5. Talking Heads, “The Democratic Circus” There are fewer of these than I would have guessed (although Lyle Lovett and the […]
posted 4 November 2008 in Tasty Bits. 2 comments
The sets of some TV shows are Potemkin villages, just realistic enough to pass muster with the cameras on one side. Others are incredibly detailed simulacra: the most impressive ever, for my money, was the sprawling installation at Cinnecitta Studios for the HBO show Rome (more on which some other time soon). When I visited […]
posted 3 November 2008 in Articles, Outside. no comments yet
Another installment in my continuing series of flipwalks. (If you haven’t seen them before: while living in New York City, I took walks of exactly one hour in duration, my route determined along the way by flipping a coin. Then I would take a picture of whatever block I was on when the hour was […]
posted 31 October 2008 in Photos. no comments yet
Kevin Seal’s back, standing in front of his ladder. “Well, 1988 was a big and exciting year for bands from England,” he says. One of those bands, apparently, was Johnny Hates Jazz, who released their debut album Turn Back the Clock. (Wasn’t that an oddly retro title? Aren’t synth-pop acts supposed to be futuristic? Were […]
posted 29 October 2008 in 1988. 2 comments
Howdy, all readers and friends: This week marks the six-month anniversary of the redesign of this website and the launch of this blog. Having recently been informed that there are not, in fact, infinite hours in the week, I’m adjusting the Rule Forty-Two publication schedule. I’ve been posting just about every weekday, but I’ll be […]
posted 28 October 2008 in Self-reflexive. no comments yet
