curiouser and curiouser

jim bruer

2005-06-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

the more i'm exposed to him lately, the cooler he seems.

here are some quotes from an article that can be found here
http://www.glidemagazine.com/articles176.html

"It’s like camping day two, you’re sick of beans, you gotta be doin’ something else right? There’s bands, you’re hanging out...what are you gonna do? You can only walk around so long.” - Comedian Jim Bruer on drugs and alcohol at festivals

“Fear of customs!” - Comedian Jim Breure on why jambands infrequently play Europe

“Six hours? After two hours I need a nap! That’s rockin’!” - comedian Jim Breur on Gov’t Mule’s famous 2003 Jazzfest performance

“Let me answer that after I finish my show, ‘cause if it sucks, then I’m excited to see nobody!” - comedian Jim Breure on who he looked forward to seeing at Bonnaroo

current listening: Grateful Dead 3-24-93, Crazy Fingers

some people just don't get it.

2005-06-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

"At these types of things, you meet so many different people, and from that, you might collaborate on a record - you may not collaborate with them right then and there.” - Joss Stone on collaborations at Bonnaroo

warren haynes and mike gordon should've shown up onstage unannounced and schooled her in the beauty of the "then and there."

i can't believe she was exposed to the scene at bonnaroo and had that reaction. her handlers must have had her trained pretty well. god forbid she, or any other of the pop tarts floating around the music industry right now, leave from their well rehearsed stage routine and pre-planned "chats" with the audience and actually do something spontaneous. i'm surprised the board of directors at joss stone inc. even let her play the roo in the first place. on the other hand, they probably just heard 80,000 people would be there and assumed it would be a big, sanitary concert with the usual top 40 suspects performing.

with any luck, someone dosed her and made her watch the umphrey's mcgee set. that would've changed her outlook on things pretty quickly.

current listening: Grateful Dead 3-24-93, Here Comes Sunshine

Vince Welnick Revisited...

2005-06-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

i can't believe i'm about to say this, cause i've been a hardcore vince-basher for a while now.

BUT...

in going back and listening to al the dead shows i went to (in order, thanks for the idea david) i'm reminded of something that i had obviously forgotten. vince is actually a really good keyboardist. i'm not saying he was as good as brent or keith, but damn, he ain't bad at all. his voice isn't the best, but it's still better than donna's (at least when donna sang live anyway). his original songs, likewise, aren't that good (ok, they fucking suck), but his cover song choices were good. i thought he did a great job on baba 0'reilly>TNK especially.

i hate realizing that i had become a dead snob. since in the recent past i hadn't been listening to much post-90 dead, i forgot how impressed i was with the dead when they were touring. never during a show did i ever think "they need a new keyboardist." at worst, i thought "they should drop this song" whenever they would do a vince original.

it's a shame what happened to the poor guy too. after jerry's death, he tried to kill himself (on bob weir's tour bus if i'm not mistaken). this made him persona non grata in the dead organization.

i won't be bashing him anymore. i can't believe that i forgot that this man was a part of some of the most magic, life changing moments in my life. and for that mr. welnick, i thank you.

current listening: Grateful Dead 3-24-93, Wang Dang Doodle

dracula keeps better hours

2005-06-16T02:59:00.000-07:00

my natural schedule isn't even sleeping during the day and being up all night. i don't think 24 hour days were meant for me. it feels more natural for me to stay up between 20-30 hours at a time and sleep about 12.

when i'm king, this whole notion of what a day is is gonna be one of the first things i fix.

current listening: Grateful Dead 3-22-93, Uncle John's Band

stoned trey

2005-06-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

so the rumor is that trey is opening for the stones in charlotte.

http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP%2FMGArticle%2FCDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031783323136&path=!news

i don't know what to make of this. i'm currently in an anti-trey mood so i'm tempted to make the usual "is there enough coke in the world for a show with trey and keef on the same bill?" jokes, but i guess i'm glad for him.

it must be an honor to be asked to open for them. but on the other hand, the black eyed peas are also opening for them on this tour.

i just don't know what to make of trey anymore at all.

current listening: Railroad Earth 2-13-05, Luxury Liner

want some cheese to go with that whine?

2005-06-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

i wonder if this guy was pissed because no media relations people told him how to wipe his ass either.

my favorite part is that no one told him he couldn't use flash photgraphy. i don't think i've ever been to a show that DID allow fucking flash photography. you'd think with all six or seven of the shows he's seen, he'd klnow this by now.

>>>Notes on Bonnaroo Wednesday, June 15, 2005 By BRIAN MOSELY "So, what was being backstage at Bonnaroo like?" This is a question I've fielded several times since last weekend, when a Times-Gazette colleague and myself joined 400 other members of the press to cover the largest music festival in America. A good number of local journalists, plus representatives from various national outlets like the New York Times and USA Today and even reporters from Italy, Belgium and Japan descended onto our area to document the massive music festival. I'm no stranger to big rock shows, having attended more than my share of concerts over the years: Pink Floyd, Yes, Talking Heads, Joe Cocker, multiple viewings of Stevie Ray Vaughn, B.B. King, Rush, the Allman Brothers, plus rare chances to see Return to Forever and the world's greatest bass player, Jaco Pastorius. I'm hitting the Rolling Stones' show in Atlanta later in the fall as well. Hanging out backstage is nothing new either, although it has been quite a while since I've done it and not in a journalistic capacity. And let's not forget my brief stint as a audio engineer before the loss of a good deal of my hearing, too. So I'm pretty familiar with what goes on at these sorts of things, the do's and don'ts of the trade as it were. Having said that, I noted a lot of "don'ts" that I hope the organizers of Bonnaroo will take to heart when they return next year to put on another weekend of music, mud, hedonism, and heavy substance abuse in the Tennessee countryside, plus some other observations. Get Your Press Instructions Straight: There's nothing worse than receiving instructions from media relations people at a large event and then learning that you are supposed to be entirely somewhere else. It was a total Chester Foxtrot for a good deal of the day. I left early because I knew that it would take a while to get into the event and I was glad that I had e-mailed directions of where to obtain my free ticket and press voucher. Dealing with the will call office was no problem, but it all went downhill from there. My instructions said to proceed to the main entrance and nothing else. So as soon as I did, I began to ask where the press was suppose to park ... and got a different answer every time I did. "I don't know." "Go up the road that way and ask them..." "I think you make a left here." "Go to the Access Tent. They can help you." Upon reaching the Access Tent: "You can get your press passes at the press tent behind the second stage." "But where do I park?" I inquired. That was the answer I was searching for and no one had a clue. After an hour and a half of this, I finally was given a phone number with someone in media relations. And guess what they said... "What are you doing there? You're suppose to park at the Holiday Inn Express, get your backstage access there and take the shuttle bus in ..." A whole 2 1/2 hours wasted. Missed the Herbie Hancock and John Mayer press conference, missed the Joss Stone performance... Grrrrr. Get Your Press Instructions Straight -- Part 2: If you are going to let 50 other media professionals and myself take pictures of a Dave Matthews Band performance, please let us know about the "no flash rule" beforehand. Don't get in our face at the last minute because you forget about it. Don't give conflicting instructions to the media on what the rules are. I heard major gripes from other members of the press about this all day long. Do let the VIP security know that you must head through the artist's area to get to the press pit, even though you've been doing it all day. Don't let stoned, impatient Dave Matthews fans into the press pit where they can threaten you with bodily harm because you are "in their way." And tell the so-called safety/security people to do something about it when it happens right in front of them. Make sure next time that the aforementioned press pit isn't so deep that you can barely see the artists at all. Don't place the press tent where news conferences are suppose to take place directly behind the stage where Jurassic 5 is playing. I'm already deaf as it is, and the thundering subsonics didn't help while trying to hear the interviews. Other Various Observations: British soul singer Joss Stone is far more attractive in person than her music videos depict. There is currently no digital technology that can convey that wondrous sparkle in her eyes. While we're on the subject of lovely young ladies, near full-body tattoos are a major turn off. Why mark up perfection? It's like taking a paint ball gun to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Media reports beforehand said that drug dogs would be out in force and every vehicle would be searched. That was a joke. I observed only one in six cars being checked on the way in and only bottled beer was confiscated. Even though there were 76 arrests and hundreds of citations for drug possession and other misdemeanor offenses, the atmosphere at the Allman Brothers performance was 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and 1 percent killer weed, which was about typical. Food and beer was way overpriced. I don't suck down the suds while on the clock, but even if I could, I would not be able to afford it. The price of the small basket of "food" I bought could have also purchased a good steak dinner outside the festival. Over 1,200 porta-pottys may not be enough. There were a lot of interesting odors at the festival and unfortunately human waste was one of them. I know hippies don't like to bathe, but when you get 80,000 of them together, you might want to rethink that behavior. Naming the performance locations "that stage," "which stage," "this tent," "that tent," and "the other tent" is sure to cause major confusion and turn into some kind of hippie Abbott and Costello routine. "Which stage is Herbie Hancock playing at?" "Yes." "That stage?" "No, the Allman Brothers are playing there. Herbie is on Which Stage." "That's what I'm asking!" Some members of the media were younger folks and a bit star struck during interviews. It's a hard to get out those important questions when you're babbling like a nervous fan waiting for an autograph. Nearly soiling yourself when John Mayer appears on stage is a big no-no as well. They may have been pushing environmental awareness at Bonnaroo, but many of the festival goers were total slobs when it came to trash disposal. I noted that the radical activist group Earth First did a presentation on Friday, with an emphasis on "Direct Action," which is another way to describe arson, vandalism and harassing corporate executives and their families. Given the condition of the 700 acres after the festival, we can only hope that the snake doesn't start to eat its own tail. But, aside from all these gripes, the concerts were fantastic. My music may be of another generation and many of my experiences took place before these stoned, smelly freaks were crawling, but despite the vast age difference, it was only rock and roll. And I liked it. <<<

current listening: Grateful Dead 3-21-93, He's Gone

buckethead

2005-06-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

even though i don't think he is, i'd LOVE to find out he's someone well known to me.

at times, when i listen to him i think he has to be trey. he can do the machine gun/tension and release trey style to a T. then he can also do the pyrotechnic stuff that i've ever only really heard tom morello from rage against the machine do (tom is nowhere near as technically proficient as buckethead though).

whoever he is though...the freak can play.

current listening: Col. Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains 9-28-04, Elephant Ghost

warren haynes

2005-06-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

i'm listening to a live interview of him on a chicago radio station via webcast. he's just so damn humble and yet doesn't dilute his opinions. he's always polite but definitely has his own views on things and opinons, esp. opinions on the world of music in general.

i've had the honor of meeting him, and he comes off in person exactly as you'd expect him to. the one time i did meet him, my wife was unable to make the show and he was kind enough to actually call and leave her a message saying he was sorry she couldn't make the show.

current listening: Warren Haynes Interview Webcast @ www.wxrt.com

yet another reason to love air america radio

2005-06-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

i've noticed since air america went on the air that they play a ton of jam stuff on the randi rhodes show on there (this is not to mention al franken's daily us of the dead).

here's what she's played recently...

06/10/05
Spacehog - In The Meantime
Bjork - Human Behavior
Beta Band - B + A
Medeski Martin and Wood - Think
Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong
Wounded Buffalo Theory - Piledriver
Built to Spill - Broken Chairs
Ben Folds - Get Your Hands Off My Woman
Alice in Chains - Over Now
PJ Harvey - Down By The Water
Neil Young - I'm The Ocean
Ween - It's Gonna Be A Long Night

06/09/05
Tom Petty - Runnin' Down a Dream
Dire Straits - Calling Elvis
Adrian Belew - Writing on the Wall
Widespread Panic - Disco
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
The Samples - Giants
The Disco Biscuits - Spaga
Umphrey's McGee - Jajunk
Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond pt. 2
Liz Phair - 6'1''
Guns and Roses - Sweet Child of Mine
Brittany Spears - Oops...I Did it Again

06/08/05
Medeski Martin and Wood - Uninvisable
Primus - Wynona's Big Brown Beaver
Tool - 46 and 2
Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Squeeze
Led Zeppelin - The Ocean
Phish - Seven Below
Pearl Jam - Red Mosquito
Pink Floyd - Sheep
Helmet - Milk Toast
The Disco Biscuits - Rock Candy
Beastie Boys - Fight for your Right
Living Color - Cult of Personality

current music: Hydra 4-12-05, I know You Rider

X3

2005-06-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

so i just read an incredibly negative review of the script for the new w-men movie.

it sounds pretty bad. and this comes after x-men 2, which imo, is the best comic book movie ever made. while the back stories of the characters in the movie had been changed, it accurately captured the spirit and personas of the comic book.

this new script though, apparently has NO respect for the x-universe that's been created in the comics.

when i read comics, the uncanny x-men was, bar none, my favorite series and the characters in it felt like family to me. if this script gets made though, it gonna seem like the moviemakers only know the character's names and what they look like. i'm not excited to see how all this turns out. here's the review btw (it has spoilers, so you've been warned)...

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=20443

current music: Yonder Mountain String Band 2-19-05, Too Late Now

bonnaroo

2005-06-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

sounds like another great one this year. while i don't have much desire to go to another one, the first one was so perfect, the whole fest will always have a special place in my hear.

hell, i met the love of my life there.

current listening: Yonder Mountain String Band w/Keller Williams 2-19-05, Fly Like An Eagle

flying cats and stuff

2005-06-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

the roomie's cat literally jumpped down twleve stairs without touching one. he just got a running start and BAM!!! he flew down the stairs.
he had also gotten into the roomie's litter box liners and one of the liners was stuck on his head, so as he flew down the stairs it flowed behing him like a cape. super-kittie indeed.

i'm bored. i can't wait til the wife wakes up. she always entertains me just by her presence.

current listening: Grateful Dead 3-20-93, One More Saturday Night

the dead album that wasn't

2005-06-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

before jerry died they had almost enough good songs to make a pretty damned good last album.
there were a couple of phil songs that i wasn't crazy about and likewise with the vince songs (UGH!), but the bobby and jerry songs were pretty good imo.

so many roads
lazy river road
days between
corrina
eternity
easy answers
liberty
childhood's end
long way to go home
wave to the wind
samba in the rain

that's not bad...esp. if you take out samba, way to go and wave to the wind.

current listening: Grateful Dead 3-20-93, Bird Song

wacko

2005-06-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

so michael jackson's innocent?

more proof that if you're rich in this country, you can fuck little boys w/ impunity.

current listening: B.B. King, The Thrill Is Gone

live aid

2005-06-12T23:10:00.000-07:00

while live aid has become something of a cliche to throw around, here's a good article that speaks highly of it.

this year's version will, of course, be better if only because of the reunion of pink floyd.

current listening: moe. 2-28-01, Kyle's Song

more proof that the country is going to hell

2005-06-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

mr and mrs. smith earned over 50 million this weekend. who has any interest in seeing a movie that has become nothing more than gawking at a couple of pretty people who may or may not be hitting it?

god, i hate people.

current listening: moe. 2-28-01, Timmy Tucker

the return of the pink

2005-06-12T21:36:00.000-07:00

so pink floyd (w/ roger waters) is gonna be at this live 8 sequel to live aid thingie.

if this leads to a tour i think i may have to whore myself out to get the money to see as many shows as possible.

anyway interested in sex, organ sales or anything of the like, feel free to contact me.

current listening: moe. 2-28-01, Timmy Tucker

jamband poster collectors

2005-06-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

i swear they are the most anal people i've ever met. god forbid actual human hand should ever come into contact with their precious rock memorabilia.

current listening: Grateful Dead 3-18-93, Terrapin Station

comic books

2005-06-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

i was so into comic books when i was younger, it was sick. i only seriously collected for a few years, but by the time i quite collecting i had over two thousand.

i don't buy them anymore (not counted collections in one book, which i still read from time to time. anyway, i've found a ton of cool websites that take a very scholarly approach to writing about comics and i can't stop reading them. the two best i've found are...

www.newsarama.com

and

http://comics.ign.com/

current listening: Grateful Dead 3-18-93, The Music Never Stopped

boxing

2005-06-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

it's been a good boxing weekend. first shannon briggS (one of my all time favorite boxers) DESTROYED some guy on friday night. the guy shannon was fighting was acting like he was gonna attack shannon while the ref was giving the instructions. his managaers had to hold him back and the whole nine.

shannon then proceded to knock the guy down twice in the 1st round and knock his sorry ass completely out in the third.

then there was the latest episode in the sad soap opera that is the life of mike tyson. tyson who, when i was a teenager, was, without a doubt the baddest man in the world, of course didn't answer the bell for the 7th round in his fight against some unknown irish boxer. he was even winning the fight even AFTER getting a two point deduction for intentional head butting resulting in a cut above the irish dude's eye. he just decided he couldn't knock the guy out, so he quit.

i love public meltdowns and tyson's has been one of the most impressive of all time.

current listening: Grateful Dead 3-17-93, Good Lovin'

crossroads festival

2005-06-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

PBS played about two hours of the four hour crossroads guitar festival that clapton did in texas last year. it was great. clapton got tons of great guitarists from all over and they showed up in texas to play this fest that was a fund raiser for his crossroads foundation which helps down on their luck musicians.

after seeing it last night, now i gotta buy the dvd. the highlight for me were zz top doing la grange>tush, vince gill doing oklahoma borderline, joe walsh doing funk #49 and santana and clapton doing jingo from santana's first album.

here's a link to the dvd...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002Y4T92/qid=1118615001/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-1221690-2323932?v=glance&s=dvd

current listening: 3-17-93 Grateful Dead, Shakedown St.

moe. rumor

2005-06-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

so at their portlan, ME show tonight, the runor is that during the beginning of the show their was a fire alram and they had to evacuate the building.

my friend matt's there, so i'll be interested to hear what's going on there.

current listening: Led Zeppelin, Fool in the Rain

rules

2005-06-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

i'm not allowed to drink.

i don't do enough around the house.

and things that need to be done i put off, but you can't say anything to me about them or else i get mad.

i'm also never in a good mood.

current listening: Audioslave, Like a Stone

goat boy

2005-06-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

jim bruer (better know to most as goat boy from SNL) is performing stand up at bonnaroo this weekend.

i've been a fan of his for a while, and like me, he's a huge metal head.

i love it that he's at the roo. maybe i'll start seeing him at some moe. shows.

he was on howard stern recently and he fucking killed on there.

here's an interview with him from relix...
http://relix.com/cgi-bin/content_details.php?id=1501&PHPSESSID=30837d07b7dbe5e60c2fd5e18a9c2b80

current music: beethoven's 5th symphony

classical

2005-06-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

i saw a cool piece on how the bagdad orchestra is back to performing. one of the musican's (a cellist) got a degree in music in the US and turned down a ton of money to play in america because he thought iraq needed the symphony. they showed a small video piece of him playing dvorak's cell o concerto. really, really powerful stuff.

here's the article...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8172598/

current music: a piece by bach, i have no idea what the name of it is though.

best song/album

2005-06-10T02:13:00.000-07:00

my favorite song from my favorite album of last year...

...if you see california
by chris robinson and new earth mud

current listening: Chris Robinson and New Earth Mud, ...If you see California

kitties

2005-06-10T01:35:00.000-07:00

i love it that our new roomie got a kitten. i think it's good for our old man kittie. it forces him to be more active tha he usually is. when a kitten pounces on him, he sort of has to react. good times.

current listening: Chris Robinson and New Earth Mud, Girl On The Mountain

american gothic

2005-06-10T00:46:00.000-07:00

god that painting always made me feel uncomfortable. i think it's the combo of my hatred of the farm belt (i'm sure they're good people, but god-DAMN it's boring to drive through).

here's an article i ran across about the painting's 75th anniversary...

http://slate.com/id/2120494/

current listening: moe. L Timmy Tucker

that couple always did make me feel uncomfortable

2005-06-10T00:40:00.000-07:00

this is an article i ran across about the 75th anniversary of the painting "american gothic." that painting always made me feel uncomfortable for some reason. i think it's it's the combo of my my general hatred of the the farmbelt (it's just so damn boring when you drive through it) and the dour expressions on the couple's faces.

...The Most Famous Farm Couple in the WorldWhy American Gothic still fascinates.By Mia FinemanPosted Wednesday, June 8, 2005, at 12:00 PM PT
Of all the famous images in the history of art, only a handful have risen (or some might say sunk) to the status of cultural icons. At the top of this list are Leonardo's Mona Lisa, Edvard Munch's The Scream, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. These images have been relentlessly copied, parodied, and reproduced in every conceivable form—from posters to neckties to life-sized inflatable dolls. The variations are endless: In a museum shop not long ago I came across a little flip-book in which American Gothic gradually morphs into The Scream—two for the price of one!
But how and why does an image become an icon? In his new book, published to coincide with the painting's 75th anniversary, Harvard historian Steven Biel traces the cultural history of Wood's famous portrait of a dour Iowa farmer and his stiff-necked wife (or daughter). Nearly everyone knows the image through copies and parodies, though few know much about the original painting. When Biel showed the picture to 59 Harvard sophomores, they all recognized it, but only 31 knew the title and only five could name the artist.
The story of American Gothic begins with a trim white cottage in Eldon, Iowa, that Wood, an Iowa-born artist with European training, spotted from a car window in August 1930.* He decided to paint the house—built in the "carpenter Gothic" style, which applied the lofty architecture of European cathedrals to flimsy American frame houses—along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house." He recruited his sister Nan as a model for the woman, dressing her in a prim, colonial-print apron trimmed with rickrack (already out of date in 1930). He based the man on his stern-looking Cedar Rapids dentist, Byron McKeeby, whom he posed in a black jacket, collarless shirt, and clean denim overalls. In one hand, McKeeby holds a three-pronged pitchfork, which is visually echoed in the stitching of his overalls and in the Gothic window in the gable. In fact, Wood modeled each element separately—Graham and McKeeby never actually stood together in front of the house.

In the fall of 1930, Wood entered the painting in a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago. The judges dismissed it as a trifling "comic valentine," but a powerful museum patron urged them to reconsider, and they awarded Wood a third-place bronze medal and $300. The patron also convinced the Art Institute to acquire the painting for its collection, where it remains today. The image quickly became famous through newspaper reproductions, first appearing in the Chicago Evening Post, and then in the rotogravure sections of newspapers in New York, Boston, Kansas City, and Indianapolis, often with the caption, An Iowa Farmer and His Wife.
When the picture finally appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, real Iowa farmers and their wives were not amused. To them, the painting looked like a nasty caricature, portraying Midwestern farmers as pinched, grim-faced, puritanical Bible-thumpers. One Iowa farmwife told Wood he should have his "head bashed in." Another threatened to bite off his ear. Stung by the criticism, Wood declared himself a "loyal Iowan" and insisted that the figures were not intended to be farmers but small-town folk, not Iowans but generic Americans. His sister Nan, perhaps embarrassed about being depicted as the wife of a man twice her age, started telling people that Wood had envisioned the couple as father and daughter, not husband and wife. (Wood himself remained vague on this point.)
The critics who admired the painting in the early '30s—including Gertrude Stein and Christopher Morley—also assumed it was a satire about the rigidity of American rural or small-town life, lampooning the people H. L. Mencken called the "booboisie" of the "Bible Belt." As Biel explains, "American Gothic appeared to its first viewers as the visual equivalent of the revolt-against-the-provinces genre in 1910s and 1920s American literature"—a critique of provincialism akin to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Sinclair Lewis' Main Street, and Carl Van Vechten's The Tattooed Countess.
But a few years later, as the nation sank into the Great Depression, people started to see Wood's painting in a different light. American Gothic was no longer understood as satirical, but as a celebratory expression of populist nationalism. Critics extolled the farmer and his wife as steadfast embodiments of American virtue and the pioneer spirit. "American democracy was built upon the labors of men and women of stout hearts and firm jaws, such people as those above," read one caption in 1935.
Wood helped along this revisionist reading by repudiating the Paris-influenced bohemianism of his youth, refashioning himself as America's "artist-in-overalls." He allied himself with other regionalist painters like John Steuart Curry and the virulently jingoistic Thomas Hart Benton, who railed against the "control" of the East Coast art world by "precious fairies." Wood echoed Benton's anti-intellectual sentiments, announcing: "All the good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow."
The Depression-era understanding of American Gothic as an image of authentic American identity gave rise to its first known parody: In 1942, the photographer Gordon Parks posed a black cleaning woman with an upright broom in front of a large American flag and called it American Gothic. Since then, variants of Wood's image have appeared in Broadway shows (The Music Man), movies (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), marketing campaigns (Saks Fifth Avenue, Country Corn Flakes, and Newman's Own Organics, to name a few), television shows (Green Acres, The Simple Life), pornography (Playboy and Hustler), and in millions of jokey snapshots of two people facing front, one of them holding a vaguely pitchforklike object.
So, what is it about American Gothic that it makes such an indelible impression? Biel stops short of drawing any real conclusions, explaining how American Gothic became an icon, but not why. Of course, part of the answer lies in the built-in ambiguity of the image. Is the painting a satire or a celebration of the American heartland? Even Grant Wood seemed uncertain about this. ("There is satire in it," he said, "but only as there is satire in any realistic statement. These are types of people I have known all my life. I tried to characterize them truthfully—to make them more like themselves than they were in actual life.")
But the key to this painting's enduring appeal is not its subject or its inherent ambiguity, but its form—specifically, the stark frontality of the figures. Think about the other iconic images from art history: the Mona Lisa, Munch's Scream, Warhol's Marilyn, Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother. All of them depict human figures directly facing the viewer—just like the flatly frontal images of saints in medieval Christian icons. Rendering figures in this way imprints them on our memories and endows them with both authority and immediacy. Early Christians believed icons were like portals that allowed the viewer to communicate directly with the sacred figure represented. Modern secular icons like American Gothic still retain some vestige of sacredness, in the sense that they connect with something larger—not with the divine, but with the collective memory of our image-loving culture.
Correction, June 9, 2005: The article originally and incorrectly explained that the original American Gothic house was in Elton, Iowa when in fact the name of the town is Eldon, Iowa.

current listening: moe. L Timmy Tucker

johnny cash, rick rubin and trent reznor...

2005-06-10T00:08:00.000-07:00

the former two are two of the people i admire most in the history of the world and latter is someone i'm not just a fan of, but for whom i have the utmost respect for. this interview snippet ties all three together in, what i think is, a very profound way.

>>>
In Other Words: Trent Reznor
Industrial heavyweight delivers a eulogy for a country legend When Johnny Cash first told me he was recording the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt," I was immediately struck by how brilliant that was. "When I heard that song, I thought, 'That sounds like something I could've written in the Sixties,'" Cash said about the original version. "There's more heart and soul and pain in that song than any that's come along in a long time. I love it." Cash then took Trent Reznor's tortured rendering of the agony of addiction and transformed it into a stunning meditation on mortality itself.
Then came Mark Romanek's video. Cash, withered by his illness, bravely allowed himself to be shown exactly as he looked, juxtaposed with images of him as a young man that bristle with virility and life. It is a stunning statement of his artistic integrity and his commitment to the truth.
When I wrote Cash's obituary for Rolling Stone, I wanted to speak with Reznor about Cash's interpretation of the song and Romanek's video. Even though the video had attracted a huge amount of attention -- earning seven nominations at MTV's Video Music Awards and winning one -- Reznor had not publicly spoken about it. I knew that he would have something powerful to say, and he did.
In In Other Words, a longer version of this interview appears in a section called "Cash Family Values," that also includes interviews with Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Rosanne Cash, Bono and Tom Petty.

How did you first find out that Johnny Cash wanted to record "Hurt"?

I've been friends with Rick Rubin for quite a while, and he asked me how I would feel about Johnny Cash doing one of my songs. I thought, "Wow," because my songs have been my therapy, a vehicle for me to keep sane. I've never really thought about writing songs for other people, and I've never tried to pitch my songs to people. And that song in particular came from a pretty private, personal place. So it seemed, well, like that's my song.
Johnny Cash had always been this mysterious figure to me. My grandfather had listened to him. I'd never paid that much attention to him. But he was one of the few greats left, a real individual persona.
Rick sent me a CD of it. I listened to it, and it seemed incredibly strange and wrong to me to hear that voice with my song. I thought, "Here's this thing that I wrote in my bedroom in a moment of frailty, and now Johnny Cash is singing it." It kind of freaked me out.

Did you say any of that to Rick?

Rick asked what I thought, and I said, "You did a very tasteful job with it" -- which I did think and do think. It was a big juxtaposition for me to hear it as someone else's song now. It instantly became his song after that.
Then I heard that Mark was campaigning to do a video for it. If I had to list the people that I had the most respect for in the music business, Mark and Rick would be on that list. I saw the video and it took my breath away. Immediately my throat had a lump in it, and at that point, it really struck home. It was heartbreaking. I had goosebumps, which I have right now even thinking about it. It became really inspiring to me.

What did you find inspiring about it?

It reminded me of the power of music. Something that I made in my room, that came out of my little private backyard -- to have an icon like Johnny Cash juxtapose it into something that now, especially with the aid of that video, gives it a whole different set of scenery and a backdrop and a context to listen to it in. It works. And it probably works better than my version.
I was sad about the context with Johnny, but I felt honored to be a part of it. I spoke with Mark about this the other day, when I heard that he died. This artist deserves and demands respect from a new generation that wasn't that aware of him. It's nice that we were able to present him to a new world of fans, even though, unfortunately, it's the end of his life. The MTV exposure, even though they were cowards to not give him the awards he deserved, might open a lot of people up who weren't that aware of Johnny Cash, or of his importance. I felt honored to have been involved in that in any way, but I'm sad that it's a eulogy almost.

When you say it felt "wrong," what felt wrong about it to you?

It felt invasive. It was my child. It was like I was building a home, and someone else moved into it. When I write a song, I'm only considering myself as the one narrating it. It's my voice. So it did seem very odd at first. Also, as soon as you hear his voice, you go, "That's Johnny Cash." How fucking weird is that? Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would write a song that Johnny Cash wanted to sing. I never thought that our paths would intersect.

How has all this affected your own relationship to "Hurt"?

I haven't listened to my version since then. I've been so proud of what they've done with it that I haven't thought that much about it. I'm over my initial shock, and I realize that's what music's all about. I've thrown some things in the pot, and now it's turned into something else. It's a pretty powerful thing.

From Anthony DeCurtis' collection of interviews, In Other Words

current listening: moe. L Plane Crash

reason why i don't dig eminem #436

2005-06-09T23:54:00.000-07:00

i was enamored of the eminem show album when it cam eout, but i see now that i was just caught up in the novelty of it.

eminem really is an asshole. this is aquote from an interview he did with anthony decurtis of rolling stone...

>>>But there is a lot of violence against gay kids.

Let me ask you this: Has anybody went out yet and bashed a gay person when they listened to my record? So what's the point? And the term "faggot" to me doesn't necessarily mean a gay person. I used that word coming up as a battle MC and that was a way to battle another dude and to take away his dignity, take away his manhood -- "You faggot!"
Everybody uses that fucking word. Everybody's sitting around in their living room, "Oh, dude, you're a fag." And I don't think they're talking about a gay person. They're talking about "fag" as an asshole -- "Quit being an asshole. You're being a fag. You're being a dick. You're being a jerk."<<<

and why do you think people use that term, asswipe? it's because being a "fag", in your world, is the lowest thing you can be. what worse insult than to use "fag" right in there with being a dick or a jerk? who want to be around a dick? or a jerk? or even...ewwwww...a "fag."

it's offensive because it belittles them you fucking retarded little wigger.

current music: moe. L Yodelittle

george harrison looked like my dad

2005-06-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

he's also cooler than you'll ever even aspire to be.

In Other Words: George Harrison
The Quiet Beatle talks God, LSD and all those years ago This excerpt is from my interview that took place in 1987 for an issue of Rolling Stone commemorating the magazine's twentieth anniversary. I had interviewed Paul McCartney for the same issue the day before. Both those interviews appear at full length in a section of In Other Words titled "Meet the Beatles," which also includes a second interview with McCartney from 2001 and an interview with Phil Spector about producing Let It Be and solo albums by Harrison and John Lennon.
I arrived at Henley-on-Thames, where Harrison lived, by train on a Saturday afternoon in June. His wife Olivia had told me that someone would be picking me up, so I stood on the platform looking for my ride. When everyone else had left, I heard a voice behind me say, "You look like the only person here who might be from New York." I turned around and there, smiling, stood George Harrison.
Moments later, I was lying in the low passenger seat of his black Ferrari 275 GTB as he drove me to his Friar Park estate. As he drove, he glanced over at me. "So, I understand you spoke to Paul yesterday. How is he doing?" So this is what's become of the Beatles, I thought, George Harrison has to ask me how Paul McCartney is doing.
As we drove through the gates at Friar Park, Harrison's spectacular mansion came into view through the trees, looking like something out of a fairytale. As I gaped, Harrison pulled up at one of the guesthouses, which is where we would do our interview. He and I then sat down at a wooden table in the dining room, smoked cigarettes, and talked for two hours, as the late afternoon sky clouded over.
Was there a specific moment when it became clear to you that people were looking at the Beatles as a way of making sense of their lives?
As we began having hits in England, the press were catching on to how we looked, which was changing the image of youth, I suppose. It just gathered momentum. For me, 1966 was the time when the whole world opened up and had a greater meaning. But that was a direct result of LSD.
How did taking LSD affect you?
It was like opening the door, really, and before, you didn't even know there was a door there. It just opened up this whole other consciousness, even if it was down to, like Aldous Huxley said, the wonderful folds in his gray flannel trousers. From that smaller concept to the fact that every blade of grass and every grain of sand is just throbbing and pulsating.
Did it make you feel that your life could be very different from what it was?
Yeah, but that too presented a problem as well, because then the feeling began in me of it's all well and good being popular and being in demand, but, you know, it's ridiculous, really. From then on, I didn't enjoy fame. That's when the novelty disappeared -- around 1966 -- and then it became hard work.
It seems as if that time was incredibly compressed. Did you feel that sense of compression?
That year -- you could say any year from, say, 1965 up to the Seventies -- it was, like, I can't believe we did so much, you know? But those years did seem to be a thousand years long. Time just got elongated. Sometimes I felt like I was a thousand years old.
Was it at that point that your identity as one of the Beatles began to get oppressive for you?
Yeah, absolutely. Again, with the realization that came about after the lysergic. It has a humbling power, that stuff. And the ego -- to be able to deal with these people thinking you were some wonderful thing -- it was difficult to come to terms with. I was feeling like nothing.
Was the decision to stop touring in 1966 part of your re-examining your lives as Beatles?
Well, I wanted to stop touring after about '65, actually, because I was getting very nervous. They kept planning these ticker-tape parades through San Francisco, and I was saying, "I absolutely don't want to do that." There was that movie The Manchurian Candidate [about a war hero who returns home programmed for political assassination]. I think in history you can see that when people get too big, something like that can very easily happen. Although at the time, it was prior to all this terrorism. We used to fly in and out of Beirut and all them places. You would never dream of going on tour now in some of the places we went. Especially with only two road managers: one guy to look after the equipment, which was three little amplifiers, three guitars and a set of drums; and one guy who looked after us and our suits.
Did your interest in transcendental meditation and other spiritual disciplines help you?
All the panic and the pressure? Yeah! Absolutely, I think. Although up until LSD, I never realized that there was anything beyond this state of consciousness. But all the pressure was such that, like the man said, "There must be some way out of here."
For me, it was definitely LSD. The first time I took it, it just blew everything away. I had such an overwhelming feeling of well-being, that there was a God, and I could see him in every blade of grass. It was like gaining hundreds of years of experience within twelve hours. It changed me, and there was no way back to what I was before.
From Anthony DeCurtis' collection of interviews, In Other Words.

current music: moe. L spine of a dog>buster

i knew it was a ruse

2005-06-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

it's just funny, i don't really think she's being held hostage, but GODDAMN them being together is creepy. i didn't see the oprah where cruise was apparently hopping around on the furniture like a monkey with ADD, but i did recently see a clip of his hopping escapades and it was fucking creepy.
what bothers me (and this is probably pretty obvious) is that cruise is (i think) pushing 60 now and katie just turned 16. she's a cute, young, innocent thang (or least her PR people have led us to believe this), and now she's hooking up wth aliens are my gods boy?

i think tom cruise is an amazing actor. he's been just astounding in a ton of movies. some of my favorite things he's done have been rain man (even though hoffman got the oscar, tom deserved it), interview w/ the vampire (in the scenes he has with brad pitt, he comes off like an acting coach to brad's retarded acting student) and most recently collateral (while i don't like jamie fox as a person, he too was really good in this, so no slam of the co-star in this parenthetical digression).

that being said, cruise has creeped me out for years. when he does interviews he has a crazy glint in his eye that he's apparently able to subdue when being someone else. when he's being tom though, he strikes me as being just a tad less bonkers than michael jackson.

run katie...RUN!!!

Website Seeks to "Free Katie" by Sarah Hall Jun 9, 2005, 12:30 PM PT Though Katie Holmes may claim that her love for Tom Cruise is the real deal, skeptics continue to insist that the relationship is nothing but a made-for-Hollywood sham. Case in point: FreeKatie.net, a Website that proclaims itself dedicated to "the movement to liberate Katie, a young, gifted actress held captive by forces we may never understand. Even one summer of captivity is too long for one so bright!" In an effort to perpetuate the tongue-in-cheek movement, the site is selling T-shirts, trucker hats, stickers and coffee mugs bearing the message "Free Katie." Sheila Cameron, creator of FreeKatie.net, said she originally put up the site after watching Cruise's now infamous appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show last month. She said she was surprised by the amount of attention it has since attracted. "We just thought it would be funny to make a few shirts and send the link around to friends. I never thought it would get the response it has," Cameron told E! Online via email. "I just wanted to make a funny comment on a poorly handled media storm. No one can deny that there is a feeling of unease about many of the couple's public appearances, and I'm happy to create a place where people can vent on the issue from whatever side they like." However, according to Holmes, freedom from Cruise is the last thing she wants. "I feel like he's made my life. He's amazing. He's kind, he's generous, he's smart, he's Tom Cruise," Holmes gushed to the Boston Herald. "He's the most artistic man I've ever met, he's a joy, he makes me laugh like I've never laughed. He's the most wonderful being." Holmes has claimed that she begins to miss the Top Gun star after "like one hour" away from him. "I'm more and more in love every day. It's like, wow," Holmes told Access Hollywood. One thing's for sure--the erstwhile Joey Potter seems to be falling more and more into Cruise control--even taking a newfound interest in the Church of Scientology. "I have looked into it myself, and I really like it, and I think it's really wonderful," Holmes told Access Hollywood, when asked if she was becoming a Scientologist. Cruise has been increasingly vocal about his own devotion to the religion of late and reportedly even took Holmes' parents on a tour of the Scientology Celebrity Center last weekend, according to the New York Post. Holmes has also been making some changes in her professional life. Last week, Holmes axed her CAA agent, Brandt Joel, replacing him with Cruise's people at the same agency, Rick Nicita and Kevin Huvane, per the New York Post. This week, she parted ways with her longtime manager, John Carrabino, her rep, Leslie Sloane, confirmed to E! While Cruise has not been shy about professing his love for Holmes, he proved to be capable of laughing at himself during an appearance on The Tonight Show Wednesday night. Mocking his Oprah appearance, Cruise leaped onto Jay Leno's couch and began pumping his arms in the air to the delight of the crowd. "When I start to think about her, things happen," he told Leno. "So, cease talking." Cruise also said he was looking forward to "spending the rest of my life" with Holmes. "I'm just really happy. She's a terrific lady, she's a great lady," the high-octane thesp said. Holmes has her chance to return the compliments Thursday night, when she appears on Late Night with David Letterman. Both stars are in the midst of promoting their summer releases. Holmes' Batman Begins opens Friday, while Cruise's War of the Worlds hits theaters July 29.

current music: moe. L vol. 3.1 Brent Black

so...yeah...anyway

2005-06-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

wow. reading an interview with bill ward (the drummer for black sabbath).

the man never toured sober until 1988. and he was a vicious drummer. maybe not the most technically skilled guy in the world, but he was massive in that john bonham way. bonham could of course play a variety of styles, but ward pretty much stuck to bonham's school of when the levee break BOOM-THUD drumming. that's not a criticism of him at all. his sound was just huge. sort of a like ringo starr beefed up on steroids and whacked out on coke. again, that's a good thing.

current music: moe. L vol. 3.1 Moth

german sex follies

2005-06-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

I picked up the scoop on this next bit off Robert Anton Wilson's website. While I've discussed the German tendency to act in bed as though they're playing on a water park jungle gym, I've never thought something like this could happen in the real world.
The University Clinic of Lubek reported a couple who continued to be childless even after eight years of marriage and a battery of tests confirmed that both would-be parents are perfectly healthy and fertile. Perplexed, doctors searched for less obvious clues to their barren baby oven. The answer was accidentally stumbled upon during an interview with the couple.
Said a clinic spokesman: "When we asked them how often they had had sex, they looked blank, and said: "What do you mean?"
Apparently, both the husband and the wife were raised in religious households and were simply unaware of the sexual process necessary to get pregnant. Personally, I wish somebody would come up and tell me something like that. Discovering something that good in my advanced age would make me feel like a kid in a candy store.
According to the Associated Press, the 30-year-old wife and her 36-year-old husband are now being given sex therapy lessons while the university clinic undertakes a study to try to find out if there are more couples with a similar lack of sex education.
Only in Germany.

current music: Umphrey's McGee 5/13/05 2nd Self

beer...sweet, sweet beer

2005-06-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

it's something of a bummer that my wife is uncomfortable around alcohol. i really just enjoy the beer buzz. i'm not trying to escape from anything, i just think it's gun.

i'm listening to the 5/13 UM show i went to here in portland and am amazed all over again. i'd seen them several times before this show and thought they were pretty good. before this show i'd been downloading a bunch of newer stuff that had really impressed me though. this show was what made me realize that all the hype about them lately really was more than hype. they're as tight as anyone i've heard since mid 90s phish and get heavier than any other band out there in the "scene" with the exception of moe. (who still is probably, imo, the heaviest jamband out there).
anyway, i'm now a huge fan of UM. and the new drummer is fucking sick.

current music: Umphrey's McGee 5/13/05 Ringo

beer...sweet, sweet beer

2005-06-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

it's something of a bummer that my wife is uncomfortable with alcohol. i just honestly like the beer buzz. i'm not trying to escape anything, i mean it's fun.

i'm listening to a copy of the UM show i went to hear in portland on 5/13. that was the show was the one that officially sold me on those guys. i'd seen several shows before that one and had always like them. before the show i'd been downloading a bunch of stuff i was really impressed with them, but this is the show that made me realize that all the hype about them lately really was more than just hype. the new drummer is just amazing.

current music: Umphrey's McGee 5/13/05 Ocean Billy

the realization of stupidity=intelligence

2005-06-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

one way in which i'm smarter now than when i was younger is that i actually realize how dumb i am now. i used to think i was terribly bright. in realizing how dumb i am, i think that actually makes me smarter than i was then.

current music: grateful dead 3-16-93 scarlet>fire

magic and loss

2005-06-09T16:18:00.000-07:00

this lou reed album kills me. i just saw lou do a live performance of the entire album, but not in front of an audience.

always reminds me of dad and my bout with cancer. sword of damocles had me crying like a little girl.

i've also begun my listening project. i'm gonna listen to all the grateful dead shows i went to in order. so far, my first show lives up to memory in that it's fucking amazing.

current music: grateful dead 3-16-93 tennessee jed