I suppose that I could go ahead and give my Oscar® picks for the weekend in the big five categories. Problem is, I haven't seen most of the nominated films, so mine is an uninformed opinion if there ever was one. Also, I wanted to post another picture of Renee Zellweger, and this was a good as any excuse to do so.

BEST PICTURE: Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Pianist. Of these, I've only seen Chicago and The Two Towers. I really wanted to see Gangs, but it played the worst shithole theatre in Bowling Green so I decided to wait for the DVD (July 1, by the way). Between the two I did see (and after Tequila Mockingbird's review, I wouldn't see the Hours on a dare) I enjoyed The Two Towers the most, so Two Towers it is. Of course I know damn well that Chicago will win.

In fact, the Two Towers is really getting the shaft this time out. Did all the actors, like Ian McKellen (who should just have his name retired-he's always the best actor regardless of who the other nominees are), suddenly forget their craft? Only two nominees for best makeup, one for slapping a unibrow on Salma Hayek in Frida, and no nomination for a movie that was full of great makeup effects? feh.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:Adrien Brody, Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson. I haven't seen any of the movies these fellows are nominated for, so I'll root for Day-Lewis because he has that cool moustache and top hat in Gangs. I understand Nicholson was good, too, but the very thought of seeing Kathy Bates naked will cause me to avoid that movie for a LONG time.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Chris Cooper, Ed Harris, Paul Newman, John C. Reilly, Christopher Walken. What we have here are five actors that I always usually like in films, and two which are heroes of mine, Harris and Walken. It'll probably go to Cooper, but I could never vote against Harris.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE: Salma Hayek, Nicole Kidman, Diane Lane, Julianne Moore, Renée Zellweger. I think you know by now who gets my vote. Sigh. Again, the only movie I saw out of this group was Chicago. Kidman's usually pretty good, and I hear she's great in the Hours, fake nose and all. I'm surprised the same person that nominated Frida for that makeup award didn't nominate this flick as well.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Kathy Bates, Julianne Moore, Queen Latifah, Meryl Streep, Catherine Zeta-Jones. Gotta give Bates credit for being a gamer, and Latifah was a hell of a lot better than I thought she would be...but Zeta-Jones-Douglas was smokin, in more ways than one.

"ACHEIVEMENT IN DIRECTING": Rob Marshall for CHICAGO, Martin Scorsese for GANGS OF NEW YORK, Stephen Daldry for THE HOURS, Roman Polanski for THE PIANIST, Pedro Almodóvar for TALK TO HER. Seems like it will come down to Marshall and Scorcese, and Scorcese may have shot himself in the foot with that bogus campaign thing a few weeks ago, so I say Marshall. But you never know.

What the hell, I'll pick another one:
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: Ice Age, Lilo & Stitch, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Spirited Away, Treasure Planet. My 3 year old nephew Josh adores Spirit, but I haven't seen it. Neither have I seen Spirited Away or Treasure Planet. Ice Age bored me, and Lilo & Stitch was pretty darn good but not great...so I'll choose Spirited Away, which didn't make it to a theatre near me or you can bet your ass I would have been there to see it. From the previews I saw it looked amazing. I'll pick Spirited Away in advance.

You know, I haven't done a music today post in a while. It's been so slow at work that my "sitting and working while listening to music" time has been limited. Anyway, I've listened to the following at various times during the week:

Nick Drake-Bryter Layter (I love "Fly", "Hazey Jane I" and "Northern Sky"), Rolling Stones-Sticky Fingers, (all good, but I especially love "Sway", "Bitch", and "Moonlight Mile", featuring strings by the great Paul Buckmaster) James Brown-20 All-time Greatest Hits! (make it funky!), Van Morrison-Saint Dominic's Preview (I'm really jonesing to hear Astral Weeks right now- it being Spring and all), Coldplay-A Rush of Blood to the Head, Family Stand-Moon in Scorpio (One mighty ass-kicking disc for five songs, then it peters out. But those five songs are fantastic...), Paul Westerberg-Mono/Stereo, and the Mothers of Invention-We're Only In It For the Money.

Friday Five in the hizzouse!

1. If you had the chance to meet someone you've never met, from the past or present, who would it be?

There are at least a dozen people I could name. Right now, I think it would be William Blake. Ask me tomorrow and it will probably be someone else. Definitely someone who has made a big impression on me, for sure.

2. If you had to live in a different century, past or future, which would it be?

It might be interesting to live in the 18th century, when things were so different, a simpler, more agrarian lifestyle was prevalent and some significant things were happening in the world. But then again, health care was nonexistent, and that's a tremendous downside.

3. If you had to move anywhere else on Earth, where would it be?

For several years I wanted to move to Alaska, because it had less people per capita than any state in the US...but this winter has cured me of that, plus I'm not as antisocial as I used to be so now I'm inclined to say Hawaii. I'd open a print shop there. How many can there be in Hawaii? I wouldn't mind giving Japan a chance, too.

4. If you had to be a fictional character, who would it be?

Fafhrd the Barbarian, of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. Those fellows lived large.

5. If you had to live with having someone else's face as your own for the rest of your life, whose would it be?

Well, it would look funny on my body, but I'd say Tom Cruise. Whether or not you think he's much of an actor, you gotta admit he's a handsome sumbitch.

I told you I'd find some more info about Venus on the web...click on the panels above to go to an issue-by-issue review of, believe it or not, Marvel's 70's reprint comic Weird Wonder Tales where they reprinted three classic Venus stories. I gotta see if I can find those books. On page three of the article the splash page of a story entitled "The Cartoonist's Calamity" is displayed; it's the Venus story I'm most familiar with. There was also another one about the haunted 13th floor of a skyscraper, but I forget where I read that one, damn it.

Click on the image to find YOUR Cyborg name.

My little feature on the Sub-Mariner (and by proxy, Bill Everett) below prompted me to think "Boy, wouldn't it be neat to have a nice pinup picture of Everett's Venus character in the picture area at the right side of my page?"...so I went to my usual sources: Google and Altavista's search engines- and came up with jack. Most of the covers I found with her image just didn't lend themselves to pinups. Here's a cover gallery at the Great Comics Database. Also, here's a pretty cool site with many scans of Marvel/Atlas/Timely comics covers from the 50's-70s. Venus is one of the titles which feature scans, but you'll have to click around a bit.

Anyway, I've always been a bit fascinated with the character, due to reading reprints of her adventures in the 70s Marvel reprint book Weird Wonder Tales. These featured the work of the more refined Everett style, whereas the picture above and the cover to #1 shown in another one of the links I'll provide you shortly are done in his earlier, less accomplished style. And of course, there was her great appearance (bondage cover and all) in the comic I wrote about yesterday. She's made infrequent appearances in Marvel Comics since, most recently (and notably) in the Avengers Forever multi issue time-hopping free-for-all.

Until I can come up with something better (and I intend to keep looking), here's two links to pages that profile the Goddess of Love, from a "Females of the Golden Age" site, from whence I stoled the early Everett illo above, and another by one J.J. Nevins.

She's got it, baby, she's got it.

Just so you won't think I'm blathering about trivial and inconsequential things while grave events which affect us all are going on, here's an interesting Newsday column by one Leonard Levy.

Here's one from the Washington Post which asks "By Whose Authority?".

And courtesy of Yahoo!, Here's a summary of key developments in Bush's Jihad so far.

You know what worries me about all this? Now that Bushy has had his war, and to hell with what anyone else thinks- either go with me or get the hell out of the way and I'll be back to deal with you later- what's he gonna do for an encore? And who's gonna finally stand up to this pipsqueak bully and his cronies? Just wondering.

I also see where they've taken a poll which finds that 76% of the people surveyed support the war. Well, as they say, duh! What good does it do to protest now? It's a fait accompli! Might as well "support" it. Like someone in Washington's gonna say "Oh, my God, wait- Billy Bob Cooterman in Bugfuck, Tennessee doesn't approve of our war! We've got to shut this thing down STAT!". Personally, the best way to protest now, it seems to me, is at the polls in '04...assuming Bush and his cabal doesn't find a way around that little formality (again)...

It's occurred to me that I haven't posted a favorte comic book cover in quite some time...so here's one: Sub-Mariner 57, 1973, by the great Bill Everett. This was from his short-lived comeback to the character he had created in the 40s. He did a couple more issues before his death, but I think this was the best one. Everett had such a graceful style, and he could draw some of the most beautiful women ever. Dig that extremely cool signature under the shark! For a synopsis of this book, go here to a pretty thorough New Warriors site.

80s mix CD 3 is now complete. The tracklist:

Peter Wolf-Lights Out
Toni Basil-Mickey
Hall & Oates-You Make My Dreams Come True
Swing Out Sister-Breakout
Billy Joel-Allentown
George Harrison-When We Was Fab
The B-52’s-Roam
Culture Club- Miss Me Blind
Tears For Fears-Sowing The Seeds of Love
Blondie-Rapture
Janet Jackson-Nasty
Joe Jackson-Breaking Us In Two
Wall of Voodoo-Mexican Radio
George Clinton-Atomic Dog
Biz Markie-Just a Friend
Cyndi Lauper-True Colors
Madness-One Step Beyond

My first 80s Beatlesong makes its debut on this disc...I've got tracks in mind for John and Paul, but I haven't ripped the mp3s yet. Again, remember I tried to go for songs I liked, and not necessarily the most well-known or obvious choice. My only criteria is that whatever I put on should be a hit (well, top 100 anyway) single or video played in fairly high rotation on MTV in the 80s. Hence my selection of True Colors instead of Girls Just Want To Have Fun or She Bop for Cyndi Lauper, Sowing the Seeds for Tears For Fears instead of their multitude of hits from that decade ("Head Over Heels" almost made the cut, thanks to its brilliant use in Donnie Darko) or Rapture instead of Heart of Glass for Blondie. As always, comments are encouraged and appreciated. Even those that might say "Who gives a damn, anyway?".

A little something to think about, courtesy of Warren Ellis:

Imagine being in one of those houses. With your family. You never got to dissent. This war's got nothing to do with you. You can hear the sound of the world's big dog scratching and booming outside your door, and you never did anything wrong but to be born there.

The rest can be found here.

BEST OF THE WEEK

Time now for
COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of March 19

1. LUCIFER 36: As always, a wonderful blend of mythology, religion, character study, and high adventure. Along with the usual interiors by Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly, we get several pages of usual fill-in guy Dean Ormston, and they're both in fine form. Page 2 by Ormston is one of the creepiest single pages I've seen in a mainstream comic book. A

2. SLEEPER 3: After a tentative beginning, Ed Brubaker is getting up to speed and this is the best issue yet. Some of the back-and-forth between Holden and Miss Misery is priceless, and Ed's little conspiracy theory he introduces has more than a little resonance in these troubled times. Sean Phillips's excellent art is not done any favors by murky, ugly coloring. A-

3. THE TRUTH: RED, WHITE and BLACK 5: Not limiting himself to racial prejudice and bigotry in the American armed forces, Robert Morales introduces the Holocaust into the mix and succeeds admirably (and horribly). Didn't see the last page coming. Kyle Baker's art is no less sloppy than at the beginning, but I think I've grown accustomed to it so it didn't bother me as much as it has before. A-

Haven't heard from the Bacardi Show Political Correspondent for a day or so, but auxiliary contributor Mike Cary has stepped up and provided me with this, from Newsweek, which I found interesting and wished to share with all of youse.

This, on the other hand, I found all by myself.

Despite my notorious attraction to female violinists (or girl fiddlers, if you prefer), I've never really been a Dixie Chicks fan. While they're certainly more interesting than the average mainstream country artist, they're still mainstream country artists, all anti-intellectual and slickly produced. I hear an occasional song that sounds nice, but I just don't really get much of a charge out of that sort of music. I really liked their duet show a month or two ago with James Taylor, especially on "Wide Open Spaces"..but that was mostly due to Taylor, I'm afraid.

Anywho, they've caused a stir lately due to a typically broad, tactless statement made by singer Natalie Maines (who has always struck me as being a mile wide and an inch deep, as the saying goes), criticizing Dubya and causing typically blockheaded country fans and stations (not the one I work for, thank goodness) to boycott them. Kinda like Lennon '65 all over again, except on a smaller scale. For what it's worth, there's a petition you can sign to show support for the Chicks and their free speech rights, and if you care to do so go here. I did, and here's the comment I wrote to accompany it:

Apparently it can't be said often enough: This is America, and Americans still have the right to disagree with and even express dislike for their President. While I think Natalie's statement sounded thickheaded and too broad (kinda like her public persona, actually), she still has the right to say it without fear of reprisal or backlash. Shame on the people who are striking back at the Chicks for exercising their rights as Americans.

Well, it's on.

At least Dubya didn't start his war on my birthday, like his Dad did in 1991.

Time once again for a belated This or That Tuesday Q & A session!

1. Cold frosty ski slopes or warm sandy beach? Warm sandy beach. The winter we've just had has cured me of any cold-weather living ambitions.
2. Chevy or Ford? My dad was a Chevy guy, so I say Chevy. Me, I drive an Isuzu.
3. Mac or PC? Say it loud, I'm Mac and I'm proud!
4. Dial-up or high speed internet access? High-speed, thank God. I did the dial-up thing for a while and it drove me crazy.
5. Small *family-only* wedding or large 200+ guest wedding? Small, family only I suppose. I don't like crowds and they don't like me.
6. Would you rather be the bridesmaid or the bride? (if you are a guy, substitute best man or groom) Best man, I suppose, since I'm already married and bigamy is frowned upon in our culture. Actually, if given the choice I'd decline.
7. AC/DC or ABBA? This is heresy, I know, and I'm straight– but I get more pleasure from "Dancing Queen" than I have from the entire AC/DC catalogue. Actually, I'm not a fan of either.
8. Roses or daisies? Roses. Just a romantic at heart, I suppose.
9. Trashy romance novels or classic literature? Classic literature. I'm just not the trashy romance novel type.
10. NEW! Thought-provoking question of the week...If you had to choose one...would you rather be blind or deaf? Why? That's a hell of a choice. I suppose if I had to choose one, I'd choose blindness so I could at least listen to music. I could possibly stay sane that way. It would make it pretty damn hard to read comics or watch films, though...

I've recently watched a couple of oddly similar, yet vastly different films about movies and their makers.

Last night, I stayed up way past my bedtime because I got interested in Gods and Monsters, the 1998 embellished account of the last days of Bride of Frankenstein director James Whale, portrayed by Ian McKellen in what has to be one of the finest performances my untrained eyes have ever seen. Other cast members, like Brendan Fraser and Lynn Redgrave, also acquit themselves well. Part of the appeal for me was the excellent re-creations of scenes from Bride, long a favorite film of mine, as well as well-done impersonations of Elsa Lanchester and Boris Karloff as you can see from the picture above. I found this film completely engrossing and often touching, even after having already seen it once before. You can go here to read reviews that synopsise the film a lot better than I can.

One of Whale's regular players was none other than Dwight Frye, whom you probably know best as Renfield in Lugosi's Dracula. He's got a website devoted to him, and if you want to check it out go here. It's very informative.

Also, a couple of nights ago, I watched Shadow of the Vampire, which is another film at least tangentally about a filmmaker– in this case the German auteur F.W. Murnau. It's based on the supposition that the actor that portrayed Count Orlock in Murnau's great Nosferatu was no actor at all but an actual vampire. I remember being hugely disappointed with this when I saw it after its release on home video; it just seemed to go in all sorts of directions at once and never seemed to settle on what it wanted to be: a biopic, a comedy, a horror film, or a indictment of how filmmaking devours the filmmaker. Adding to the disappointment was a great-on-paper cast including John Malkovich as Murnau, Willem Dafoe (creepy enough sans makeup) as "actor" Max Schreck, Eddie Izzard and Cary Elwes (I'm beginning to really appreciate how good this guy is) which, with the exception of Dafoe (who eerily recreated Schreck's ratlike Count), were not really done justice by the all-over-the-place script. This time, though, I just kicked back and watched, and I think it made a better impression on me. I laughed in a few places and was pretty caught up in the delirious ending, when everything falls apart in grisly fashion but Murnau keeps on filming no matter what. I still think Shadow was a failure, but it's an entertaining failure.

For a laugh, go look at Max Schreck's bio page on IMDb. Not only does it list a link to an agent and publicity but it also lists, as his sole TV credit, an episode of Spongebob Squarepants!

Happy Bacardi Show Birthday greetings go out to Mr. Patrick McGoohan. McGoohan starred and was very memorable in a number of TV programs and films over the last forty years, running the gamut from Disney movies like the Three Lives of Thomasina (not a bad flick, actually) to Mel Gibson's Oscar winning Braveheart to television series like the Prisoner, Secret Agent AKA Danger Man and my personal favorite, the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. That's a picture of McGoohan as Dr. Syn, alias the Scarecrow at right. It was stolen shamelessly from a wonderfully complete Scarecrow website by one Tom Hering. Click on the preceding link to go there.

Just finished my second 80s CD. Here's the tracklist:

Marshall Crenshaw-Someday, Someway
Madonna-Like A Virgin (featuring the amazing drums of Tony Thompson)
Adam Ant-Strip
Godley + Creme-Cry
Prince-Alphabet St.
Duran Duran-A View To A Kill
The Art of Noise-Close To the Edit
Crowded House-Don't Dream, It's Over (one of the best pop songs ever written, in my humble opinion)
Fleetwood Mac-Big Love
Human League-Human
Herbie Hancock-Rockit
Debbie Gibson-Foolish Beat (yeah, that's right, Debbie Gibson. This has a great melody and I've always liked it in spite of myself.)
Dream Academy-Life in a Northern Town
Kate Bush-Running Up That Hill
Tom Tom Club-Genius of Love
Frank Zappa-Valley Girl
RUN-D.M.C.-It's Tricky

I don't know, but I might wind up listening to this one more than the first...

Clicking around on the ol' web this morning (while I should be working, I know, but there's nothing to do right now), I noticed an article on Ain't It Cool News about the upcoming 2004 film Van Helsing, which stars Hugh Jackman as the famed vampire fighter in his youth. Apparently he will encounter and battle all sorts of classic monsters, including Frankenstein's. It's by the fellow who made the recent Mummy films, which I liked OK, the first more so than the sillier, broader sequel.

This has the potential, methinks, to be either a colossal cluster fuck or one of the greatest action/adventure/horror/fantasy films ever. I flat out love the basic premise. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they're able to remain on track and it doesn't become a debacle like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film seems to have become.

Well, I suppose I should do my Blogging duty and comment on Dubya's "Yew got forty-aight airs tew git outta Dodge" speech. Problem is, I didn't watch it. I was doing some stuff on the computer and didn't feel like stopping. Besides, I pretty much knew what he was going to say. It was inevitable– he's bound and determined to joust with that windmill and will brook no interference.

Maybe it's just the bleak mood I've been in lately, but I just don't see how we as a country are going to come out of this one without being as shaken up as we were by 9/11. Perhaps this was the long range goal of Bin Laden after all, who knows. Between the cost to our economy, and the cost of young lives on foreign soil, the cost of personal freedoms here at home, and the cost of our stature in the international community...I just hope it's worth it, that's all I can say.

Like the Stupid Evil Bastard says, "If you didn't have a good reason to get drunk before you sure as hell do now!"

Checked out Bill (Fables) Willingham's rebuilt site earlier this evening, see link at right, and was led to a seperate Fables site...which in turn led me to the web site of cover artist James Jean. That be some good shit, mon, check it out.

According to the good ol' Diamond Shipping List, I'm getting the following tomorrow:

LUCIFER #36
SLEEPER #3
THE TRUTH: RED WHITE and BLACK #5

That's (as the pig says) all, folks! I might take advantage of the light haul to pick up the two issues of Captian America: What Price Glory that I don't have, but I doubt it. If I had an extra 50 simoleons, I'd snag that Golden Age Spectre Archive, but I don't so I won't. C'est la vie. Rest assured this paltry haul will be reviewed, whether anybody wants me to or not.

The winter of 1974-1975 was a significant period in developing my musical tastes for many years. Back then, in my town, there was a Ben Franklin five & dime store and a drug store, and both carried LPs and eight-track tapes. It was at about this time that I started getting a significant allowance, and of course much of it went for records...God forbid I should actually save it or something like that. Anyway, over that winter I received as Christmas gifts or bought with my own money such albums as Van Morrison's Veedon Fleece, George Harrison's Dark Horse, Ringo Starr's Goodnight Vienna, Mott The Hoople Live, Jefferson Starship's Dragon Fly, Yes' Relayer, Rod Stewart's Smiler, Lou Reed's Sally Can't Dance, John Lennon's Walls And Bridges, Leo Sayer's Just A Boy, and the album you see above: Traffic's When the Eagle Flies.

I remember picking this up at Caverna Drugs on a cloudy, bitterly cold January day. Back then, whenever I needed to go to town I walked (it wasn't that far) and took in the scenery, walking through and by open fields and streets lined with trees and old houses between my house and town. The album cover caught my eye– an atmospheric two-part spread (I don't have a scan of the back cover, sorry) done in pen-and-ink with the band members standing on a rustic hillside, eagle flying overhead, factories and a cityscape off in the distance on the back. It's a wonderful illustration, complete with a seperate descriptive illo for each song next to the lyrics on the inner sleeve, and this has long been one of my favorite covers. I distinctly remember walking home that grey January afternoon (couldn't have been much over 20 above) observing the skeletal trees and grey skies (looking a lot like the album cover). I placed this on the turntable while my Mom (probably fussing at me for not wearing a hat) fixed some soup when I got home, and I was entranced by the music I heard...I honestly hadn't been exposed to much jazz-rock, let alone jazz before, the early Chicago being the sole exception. I risk boring you with all this because rarely have I ever heard music that captured the mood around me like that. It's these sort of memories that tend to color my perception of certain albums, I'm afraid.

When the Eagle Flies was the last album by Traffic's original lineup. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Steve Winwood had originally intended it to be a solo album, similar to the way he had written 1970's John Barleycorn Must Die as a solo effort. I also seem to recall that he was ill before and during the sessions, which may explain a few things about why WtEF turned out the way it did. For more background on the convoluted history of Traffic, please go here. While they had been touring previously with as many as eight members just a year before, WtEF was recorded with a nucleus of four members: Winwood, drummer Jim Capaldi, flautist Chris Wood, and bassist Rosko Gee, and the songs (with one exception) turned out more succinct and less drawn out than in the past. The general sound of the album is jazz-rock, with a definite prog flavor to some of the tracks thanks to the judicious use of the Mellotron on several cuts. And I'll admit straight up that the album often has a listless, wan feel, perhaps due to Winwood's illness and perhaps to copious amounts of drugtaking. I wasn't there, can't say for sure. Still, this listlessness adds, in my opinion, invaluably to the mood of this music and is a big reason why I have responded so strongly.

Track-by-track: the opener, Something New, features a horn section which makes it sound a lot like Blood, Sweat, & Tears or early Chicago, and is probably the most uptempo cut on the entire album. Essentially a relationship song, it almost feels like a warm-up number. The next cut, Dream Gerrard, sported lyrics by the Bonzo Dog Band's Vivian Stanshall and is a surreal, clever and lengthy statement about imagination vs. realism. It's the one cut in which this incarnation of Traffic actually cuts loose and improvises over a jazzy, mellotron-enhanced landscape. While it may have tested the patience of some, I have always found it mesmerizing and it never fails to conjure up memories of winter in my mind. Cut 3, Graveyard People, is similar in its feel but nowhere near as long. Essentially an observation about types of personalities, it also features a bit of jazzy improvisation and liberal synth licks. Track 4, Walking in the Wind is another rumination on people and living and features a great jazzy bassline underpinning as well as a swelling chorus that brings the song to some nice peaks. Memories of a Rock 'n' Rolla is next, and is written from the point of view of an aged musician who's had it all, lost it, and is looking back on his life and what music means to him. Perhaps Capaldi's feeling sorry for himself, don't know, but taken on its own terms it's actually quite touching and features a nice up-tempo horn part at the end, in contrast to the meandering first three quarters of the track. Next to Gerrard, this is to me the best song on the album. Love is next, and it's, well, a love song with nicely played flute accompaniment by Wood. Not a particularly outstanding track, but not bad and it totally fits into the mood. The album's title track and finale is driven by a rolling piano riff and is essentially a plea to help the ecology, livened by Winwood's impassioned cry "Do you hear me...Mother Nature" which abruptly comes after an apocalyptic-sounding montage of radio effects and noise about three-quarters of the way through the song.

This album has had an unusual history. I seem to recall that it came out on Asylum Records in the US at first; it was part of a multi-label transaction between Columbia, Island (Traffic's usual label), and Asylum that also resulted in Bob Dylan's Planet Waves album being released on Asylum as well. Possibly as a result of its complicated label situation, it has never been officially released on compact disc over here, available only as an import. I don't want to tell you what I paid for my copy, which I really wanted despite the fact that I already had the vinyl. When all the Traffic albums were released on CD in the late 80s WtEF was conspicuous by its absence. These days it seems to be mostly unknown to all but the most ardent Traffic fans, despite the fact that it was a gold album and hit the top 10 in the USA!

When the Eagle Flies got under my skin back in 1975, and has never left, despite the fact that everything Winwood's done since has been mediocre at best and horrible at worst. That's the way it always seems to work for me. I usually always cite it as one of my absolute favorite albums, and this is my way of trying to explain and justify it. If you haven't heard it, I hope you can get the chance to someday. I doubt that it will affect anyone the same way it has me, but hey, you never know.

From all of me to all of you, happy St. Patrick's Day.

Bacardi Show Birthday greetings all around to, from l-r:

Ry Cooder, slide guitarist, music historian, and soundtrack composer extraordinaire. While I must admit that I've always enjoyed Ry more as a session man than as a solo artist, he's still an overlooked great.

Sly Stone, who helped expand my young mind when at the age of 12 I prevailed upon my parents to buy me a copy of Sly and the Family Stone's Greatest Hits. Personal excesses dulled his edge and his talents, and he lives as a sorely missed recluse these days. Happy birthday to ya anyway, Sylvester.

Sananda Maitreya, AKA Terence Trent D'Arby. Speaking of gifted recluses, it's been many a moon since a TTD CD has graced American stores. While I liked a track or two off his debut, it was his second album, "Neither Fish Nor Flesh" that grabbed me and made me a fan. He changed his name in 2001.

Well, here it is, 9:30. And I apolgize. I got nothin. To use a Steve Winwood lyric, "sometimes I feel so uninspired" and tonight's one of those nights. So I hope you'll all give me a mulligan and tune back in tomorrow. Hopefully my drunken crack whore muse will return and hit me over the head with her bottle of Thunderbird, enabling me to write something interesting. I'm mulling over a piece about an obscure Traffic album I love (isn't it neat how I worked that Stevie WInwood ref in above?) and an overlooked Marvel/Epic comics series I'm hoping to re-read tomorrow, as soon as I can get over to me Ma's where my collection is.

In the meantime, here's a link I found at Brendan aka the Leptard's site: The Van Morrison Website. It's quite thorough. Also, here's the Michael Lark (Gotham Central, Scene of the Crime) page at Splashpageart.com. You can spend an evening clicking on and enjoying (and even buying if you've got the chedda. I don't.) page after page of his original art from several of the comics he's worked on for the last few years, including Gotham Central and Terminal City. It's interesting to compare the clean art of Terminal City with the way his stuff looks now on Gotham. Curiously, no Scene of the Crime pages. Guess he doesn't want to let them go.

Oyasumi Nasai.

Friday Five time.

1. Do you like talking on the phone? Why or why not? Depends on who I'm talking to. But mostly, no. I see it as a necessary evil. I suppose that speaks to my immense insecurities.

2. Who is the last person you talked to on the phone? a fellow named Bobby Madison, here at work. He needed an object scanned.

3. About how many telephones do you have at home? At last count, three, not counting cell phones.

4. Have you encountered anyone who has really bad phone manners? What happened? Not that I recall. But I do hate it when people call you and just say "HEY" or whatever, just assuming that you know who it is from their voice. I'm terrible at identifying people by their voice alone.

5. Would you rather pick up the phone and call someone or write them an e-mail or a letter? Why or why not? Again, it depends. If it's a long distance call, and emailing is a possiblity, then I would prefer to go that route. But if it's someone nearby I'd rather call (Unless it's somebody else's wife or girlfriend. Those situations can be so uncomfortable). It's quicker, and life is short.

Friday Five COMPLETE! Woo hoo!

NPR will be airing the Lost Beatle Tapes tomorrow at 2 PM EST. Think I'll try to tune in if I can.

You'll also notice that the annoying white space at right has retreated back into its normal allocated area. Many thanks to the tireless efforts of the Johnny Bacardi Tech Support crew. Stalwart lads all.

Well, OK, actually it's only me. Saw right through that one, dinja.

This would be as good a place as any to acknowledge the help and assistance of Ted Eysenbach, one of the Internet guys where I work. Since I don't know how to write code, I've had a lot of questions and run into a lot of problems maintaining this blog since day one and he's the guy I pick on. He's always been helpful and knowledgeable, and he's a cool dude as well. So if there is a JB Tech Support technician, he am it. Thanks, Ted!

Like many Buffy fans, I've watched the last two weeks' worth of its spinoff series Angel, mostly due to its connections to BTVS via the return of the Faith character. After two episodes, all I can say is that I don't know what to think. When the Angel series premiered, my cable company did not provide us with a WB affiliated network so I missed the first season (as well as most of two seasons of BTVS). By the second season, we had a WB channel but I decided not to watch the show, mostly because I didn't want to have to figure out what I had missed previously. So before last Wednesday, I had never watched a single episode. However, the allure of Eliza Dushku was too much for me to resist, so I tuned in.

It seems like the underlying plotlines of the two shows are similar; a malevolent force is able to assume the shape of one of the trusted inner circle and cause problems. The apparent difference being that Buffy's First Evil only impersonates dead people, and Angel's villain seems to possess living people, specifically Cordy. I don't think she's dead, anyway...I wouldn't know. It would be cool if the two shows would be interrelated like that; I find it far fetched that there would be two Ultimate Evils, one in LA and one in Sunnydale, both independent of each other. I like the basic cast OK, although I still don't understand the interrelationships, like the apparent triangle between Wesley, the girl with the glasses and the young bald guy. The kid who's supposed to be the offspring of two vampires (although I'm a bit at a loss as to how he has demon blood, too) is an interesting character. I miss Faith the way she used to be, a impulsive badass instead of the weepy punching bag she is at present. The scene where she punches out the shower wall was...diverting, I guess, but I kept thinking what a bitch it would be to be stepping on broken tile and concrete while showering. I remember Angel from BTVS as whiny, brooding lunkhead except, of course, when he lost his soul for a while there and became an annoying, obnoxious, overbearing loudmouth asshole. Pleased to report that characterization hasn't changed. These last two episodes have had me gritting my teeth, he's so annoying. An intriguing possibility, though, is the one that Bill Sherman brings up: He's faking, since he hasn't really killed anybody yet. He's only beat them to a pulp while running his mouth constantly. Could be. Hope so, actually, but I also hope that one of the LA Scoobies kicks him in the nuts for being such a jerk when it's all over.

Next week looks promising due to the guest appearance of Willow. Maybe if more of the Buffy cast ends up on the show, then I'll watch after this crossover event is done!

BEST OF THE WEEK
Time now for
COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of March 12

1. BATGIRL YEAR 1 4 In which young Barbara is given an audition of sorts by the head Bat himself, with somewhat unexpected and charming results. I've been buying a lot of Bat-books over the last few years, and I think this is one of the best I've ever read...and that includes many of the fine Rucka/Martinbrough Detective Comics stories. Special kudos to the artists, Marcos Martín and Alvaro Lopez, for their superlative renditions of Batman and Batgirl. A

2. H-E-R-O 2 Sockamagee! By smartly approaching this from a character-driven, rather than plot or gimmick-driven angle, Will Pfiefer gives us a interesting new take on this hoary old DC staple. I'm really liking the art of this Kano fellow, which looks something like Duncan Fregredo mixed with John Paul Leon, with a dash of Will Eisner to add spice. I don't know why I didn't pick up #1– just overlooked it I suppose, and now it's probably too late unless I'm willing to pay out the ass, but I do know this-I'm on board now until the inevitable cancellation, which I figure to be around issue 9. A

3. GOTHAM CENTRAL 5 Hugely satisfying finale to Ed Brubaker's run, with all the plot threads tied up nicely and many things which didn't read right to me at the beginning getting clarified. Again, well drawn by Michael Lark, who seems to be growing into this sloppy style he's adopted. Rucka's got a hard act to follow! A

4. ULTIMATES 9 I don't read the Ultimate-bashing message board threads anymore, but I can imagine that the haters are still out in force and they won't be placated by this issue. On the one hand, you've got Cap acting like a sanctimonious prig at the outset, only to get shot down and embarrassed by the Wasp at the end. I liked the latter and hated the former– But you know, that's OK. These aren't your father's Marvel Super Heroes (or the ones from my youth, for that matter!), and these events are perfectly logical and consistent with what's been laid down before in this title. It's all about context. I suppose Giant-Man had it coming, and it pains me as a longtime fan of the character of my childhood to see this. But as it was from day one, the characters are diverse, multi-dimensional, and come across as real like 'em or no and I will always appreciate that approach. What I don't like is feeling that I have to justify my support of this book every time I review an issue! The art? The art is, as usual, great. A

5. FABLES 11 In which Bill Willingham cobbles a story out of old Civil War, hillbilly, and plantation legends, and pretty much gets away with it, although he needs to work on writing out southern dialect, fake or not. I've never been a fan of Bryan Talbot's stiff and mannered art, and nothing I see here changes that. B+

6. THE FILTH 9 I think next time Grant Morrison decides to do a "getting the reader up to speed" issue, he would be better served by having much of the exposition voiced by a character that doesn't speak in such a deep Scottish brogue. 'Twas damn near unreadable, it was. Weston and Erskine did a nice job, especially on the more hallucinatory aspects of the script. That's got to be a hell of a task, illustrating Morrison's wacked out ideas... B+

7. HELLBLAZER SPECIAL: LADY CONSTANTINE 4 Take a character with zero charisma, put her in a story that's not terrible in itself but seems stitched together from all sorts of sources, illustrate it in a pedestrian manner, and this is what you end up with. I had a feeling I wouldn't like this very much when it first came out, and I wasn't wrong. I've got to learn to pay attention to my instincts more. C+

8. JSA 46 This series seemed to be on the upswing a month or two ago, but that momentum is gone and I will be soon as well. Dumb, dull, cliche-ridden script that features way too much expository dialogue and has characters constantly referring to themselves by their names (a pet peeve of mine) along with busier than usual and sloppily inked art. The only reason I'm hanging around is to see the return of a longtime favorite character, Eclipso (although I don't think I'm gonna be too happy at the way he's written-call it a hunch)...then I'm outta here like Vladimir, but not before they soak me for a double-size #50, I'll bet! C

9. KILLRAVEN 6 That I ranked this below JSA should give you an idea about what I thought of it. On its own terms, this was a well drawn, poorly scripted Mad Max knockoff that existed merely as a bargaining chip for Alan Davis to get more scripting work as well as art assignments. Problem is for me, this isn't like some obscure Marvel character I never cared about, this is a concept, character and series that meant a lot to me growing up and so I'm inclined to judge it unfairly. I probably shouldn't have bought it in the first place...but like I said in one of the first reviews I wrote of this series, KR was a friend of mine, and I felt like I needed to be there for him through good times and bad. C-

I'm still a ways away from having comics reviews ready, but one of the best that I read was the new DC series H-E-R-O, and here's a link to a short interview with its writer, Will Pfeifer, who also wrote another quirky series I liked, Finals with Jill Thompson.

Sunset at Mammoth Cave National Park, not far from where I live, last Saturday. Photo taken by my son. Ain't it purty?

Socialist - You believe the free market can be
beneficial, but that a large and powerful state
is necessary to redistribute the wealth of the
top classes to those of the bottom. You also
think that basic utilities and trasportation
should be publicly owned. Your historical role
model is Eugene Debs.


Which political sterotype are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


I was an art major in college, not political science, so I have no clue about who this fellow is. Subject for further research, to be sure.

I gots some mad links to drop on yoass. Mondo Linko.

First, wonder of wonders, the Stones are bad boys again, thanks to the Chinese government! Go here.

Next, Pete Bagge is at it again with another amusing strip at Reason Online. Found at Egon.

While clicking around for online images of that amusing l'il fellow from the underground comics of the 60s, the Checkered Demon, I ran across this interview with his creator, S. Clay Wilson, which originally appeared in Goblin magazine. Another interesting piece was this interview with former Fug Ed Sanders, as well as this piece on the Fugs themselves. I really wish I had those old Fugs albums...my sole listening experience with them is through those Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders albums of so long ago.

At the same site from whence the Virginia Lee Burton profile came is this profile of Wanda Hazel Gag, whose work interests me a lot. That name is so familiar to me, I know I read one of those books cited in the profile as a child, but none of them ring bells. Oh well, maybe they'll ring yours.

From the Political Desk comes this and this, which I think most of you have seen, but if not...

Finally, when reading about the passing of Pete Millar over at Flat Earth, I was directed via Journalista! to a couple of sites that referenced the magazine that Millar co-founded and did a lot of work for during my formative years: CARtoons. Here's another site of a CARtoons contributor, George Trosley. There was some great stuff in that magazine, and I wish that A. I had been able to buy more of them and B. that I had kept what I had in better shape!

That's it for now!

Today's birthday of note is that of the pride of Massachusetts, singer slash songwriter James Taylor. Never really listened to his music growing up, although it was all over the radio...you know, Fire and Rain, You've Got A Friend, Handy Man, Shower The People, etcetera, etcetera. It wasn't until 1979 when, at the prompting of none other than Bill Lloyd, I checked out his then current Flag album, and it blew me away. It's much better than AMG would have you think. As is my wont, I then proceeded to fill in the gaps in my collection acquiring such excellent records as Gorilla, In The Pocket, JT, and of course Sweet Baby James, all in that fine (to me) early to mid 70s L.A. singer-songwriter style. I even scored a copy of his hard-to-find first album on Apple (Apple record collector me), and found myself a fan ever after. One teensy problem– after that, Taylor lost the plot and didn't make another record half as interesting as Flag and its predecessors... and while there was an occasional nice tune (Copperline) by the 90s I had pretty much lost interest in the creative endeavors of Mr. Taylor. Too many slickly produced and bland albums. That happens to me a lot, it seems...I finally discover an artist based on his or her current release, then nothing he or she does thereafter that comes close to being as good in my mind. Sigh.

Anywho, happy BSBD to ya, James.

Oh- I was very impressed and enjoyed very much a recent special on CMT, of all places, in which Taylor performed live with the Dixie Chicks. They did a version of "Wide Open Spaces", with Taylor singing lead, that was outstanding and quite moving. Again, the older I get, the more of an old softie I become I guess.

After reading this latest bit of silliness from the Leaders of the Free World, I'm wondering whether the next time I throw the ol' flying lip lock on Mrs. Bacardi I should call it "Freedom Kissing". Or maybe a "miraculous event". Whatever.

Looking into that crystal ball that is the Diamond Shipping List, it looks like tomorrow I'll be getting

BATGIRL YEAR ONE #4 (Of 9)
FABLES #11
FILTH #9
GOTHAM CENTRAL #5
HELLBLAZER SPECIAL LADY CONSTANTINE #4 (Of 4)
HERO #2
JSA #46
KILLRAVEN #6
ULTIMATES #9

A couple of series that I've been underwhelmed by, and in fact am delighted to see end, are Killraven and Lady Constantine. Fables is a fill-in and doesn't look promising. Looking forward to the new Ultimates (I'll believe it when I see it), Batgirl Year 1, and H.E.R.O. 2. I wish I had been on the ball when #1 came out, I didn't pick it up and now it's sold out, as is #2 already. Looks like another "hot" book, which means at least that maybe it will get collected. Fortunately, I read an online preview so I at least have a small clue about what looks like an excellent comic. We shall see. Gotta go– Futurama's on!

About the only movie of note that I've watched lately is Peter Bogdanovich's 2001 film The Cat's Meow, an interesting little speculative fiction about the events on communications mogul William Randolph Hearst's yacht back in the Twenties. Nobody, or at least nobody alive today, really knows what exactly transpired, and all that is known is that producer Thomas Ince died shortly after he sailed with Hearst and Company. While foul play was suspected, nobody important was even questioned, let alone arrested for anything! As the narrator says at the beginning, "There were many whispers about what happened, and this is the whisper heard most often".

But Bogdanovich doesn't seem to be all that interested in doing a JFK-style film and getting to the bottom of the seven-decades-old mystery; he seems to be more inclined to use the events and characters as props to get in some digs at Hollywood and the society it represents. Still, there is an interesting story here, and it's told very well. The ship almost becomes like one of those "old dark houses" of yore, and there are several characters, all with their own agendas, all maneuvering to acheive this goal or that. I saw a review which called this film "Gosford Yacht", and I think it's a very apt description.

He's helped a lot by a great ensemble cast: Ed Herrmann as Hearst-goofy one scene, malevolent the next; Eddie Izzard as Charlie Chaplin, and especially Kirsten Dunst as Marion Davies. She brings a lot of depth to the role of Hearst's mistress; in fact, she's as good if not better than Dorothy Comingore was in essentially the same role in Citizen Kane. Other cast standouts include Cary Elwes (who's becoming quite the character actor) as Ince, Jennifer (sigh) Tilly as the young and ambitious gossip columnist Louella Parsons, squealing like Betty Boop...and Joanna Lumley as Brit wit Elinor Glyn, all dry humor and sarcasm.

It was my interest in Citizen Kane, perhaps my favorite film, that steered me towards this one. I'm also a fan of Izzard, so I wanted to see it for him– and Jennifer Tilly– ah, Jennifer Tilly. Where was I? Oh. Never mind all that, you say, should I see it or not? I say you should– but don't expect a thrilling whodunit. It's deliberately paced and low-key. If this doesn't bother you, then by all means drop a fiver to rent it, or try to catch it on cable like I did.

What the hell, it's This-or That Tuesday again!

1. Married or single? Sorry, girls, he's married!
2. Knit or crochet? Neither
3. Homebody or world traveller? Homebody, sad to say
4. "Star Search" or "American Idol"? Jesus, what kind of questions are these? Is "poke in the eye with a sharp stick" an alternative option?
5. Dancing or karaoke? Again, I prefer to decline...but hold a gun to my head or get me very drunk and I'll do some kick-ass karaoke.
6. Elvis Presley or Elvis Costello? These are hard this time! Gotta go with the King, although I like Mr. McManus too.
7. Bus or train? Depends on where I'm going. I've never taken a train anywhere, and I hate buses, so TRAIN!
8. Batman or Superman? Finally, an easy one. BATMAN. No doubt about it.
9. Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate. But vanilla's OK too.
10. Which came first...the chicken or the egg? I hate trick questions. Offhand, I'd say the rooster came first.

Our Bacardi Show Political Correspondent, the right honorable Dr. Chris Tabor, should (I think) start his own weblog. He keeps sending me thought-provoking links and I keep feeling obligated to pass them on. Here's the latest.

The Bacardi Show Political Correspondent wishes me to relay to all of you out there that it is also the birthday today of German chanteuse Nina Hagen, whose name is not unfamiliar to me but whose music is. Glücklicher Geburtstag, Nina.

JBS birthday greetings go out to the lovely Miss Thora Birch, who was so great in Ghost World. She turns the big old 21 today. Now she can buy beer when she's in Kentucky! And yes, I know I'm old enough to be her father. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Here's a page from one of my favorite children's books: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. You may be quite familiar with it already, but if not here's a nutshell synopsis with spoilers: It's a quite touching story about a little house, duh, located in a idyllic countryside who is home to several generations of a family until the city, far off in the distance at first but gradually getting closer, builds itself all around it until its occupants move away and it becomes run-down, deserted, neglected and lonely...but fortunately one of the descendants of the original family sees it, remembers it, and has it moved to another far-off spot, where it is repaired and lived in once again.

I'm tellin' ya, when I was a kid that story really choked me up. Still does today, as a matter of fact. I would feel so sorry for the old house, all alone and sad in the gray, dingy city, and then feel so happy that it turned out OK for it/her. Guess I was just an old softie, even when I was a shortie. Anyway, besides being effectively written it is also drawn and designed beautifully. Burton's style seemed to be based on circular or ovoid shapes, with all the action being arranged along those lines, giving it a wonderful continuity. Reminds me a little of those medieval-era calendar pages. She was also a deft hand with colored pencils (or perhaps chalks, I'm not sure).

It occurred to me to write about this when I ran across a catalog entry for a biography of Burton entitled Virginia Lee Burton-A Life In Art by Barbara Elliman.

I hope this doesn't ruin my manly man image, but I wanted to share this with you all. Now, I gotta go get me some whiskey and snuff, go huntin', then go watch some NASCAR.

From Bacardi Show Political Correspondent Chris Tabor comes the following links:

PropagandaMatrix.com, and Counterpunch.org.

As always, the opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Show management.

Here's something interesting, as profiled at Newsarama: Footnote Comics.com. It discusses events in selected comics stories and dissects them in a "could it happen or couldn't it" fashion. Some of the books profiled thusly include Bendis and Maleev's Daredevil, The Truth, and The Ultimates.

Just as inevitable as death and taxes are bubble-headed 100 best of whatever lists, and here's the latest to come to my attention: NME's 100 greatest albums of all time. With their #1 choice, I think they are (as they say over there) taking the piss.

What's Welsh for happy birthday? Belated Bacardi Show Birthday greetings go out, one day late, to Mr. John Cale, formerly of the Velvet Underground and prolific solo artist, author and great session musician as well...his aching viola has added new dimensions to songs by artists as diverse as Nick Drake and Paul Westerberg. I'm especially fond of the run of albums he did in the early-to-mid 70's with Eno and Phil Manzanera such as Paris 1919, Fear, and Slow Dazzle. I've not been so crazy about his recent output– the Lou Reed collaboration Songs For Drella had some good stuff, and his album with Eno, Wrong Way Up, remains a favorite, but that's about all that I've heard that I've liked–but I'm glad he's still hanging around, doing what he does.

I guess if you stop by here out of curiosity or boredom or whetever that you've noticed the lack of relevant political commentary, like you can find at oh, I'd say, 3/4 of the blogs out there in the blogiverse, it's because, frankly, I've never been much of a political debator and have a tendency to focus on Planet Dave rather than the rest of the world, taking each thing as it comes. I also know more about music, comics, etc. than I do politics and world affairs, so that way I minimize how much of an idiot I sound like. Also, it looks like Dubya's bound and determined to root out Saddam and get payback for his daddy, regardless of the cost both at home and abroad. so I've resigned myself to the inevitable. Maybe it will be best that George gets this out of his system. Then he (or his advisors) perhaps concentrate on something else. I don't know. Anyway, I was over at the Stupid Evil Bastard's place this morning and read his excellent piece on his reason for not writing more about current politics, and it echoes a lot of my feelings as well. Y'all should go check it out.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when greeted with the news that the Atlanta Falcons had traded their first round draft pick this year for Buffalo Bills wide receiver Peerless Price. The Falcons lacked an explosive, playmaking wideout last year and Price, while far from a veteran (I think the upcoming season will be his fourth in the NFL), gives them just that. I'm liking what I'm seeing from the Arthur Blank regime so far...there's no way that deal would have been done by the previous braintrust. Hopefully there will be more additions to come!

Just wanted to note that today would have been my father, Hulen Jones', 76th birthday. He died in 1990 from pnuemonia caused by complications from chemotherapy. Happy birthday, Dad, wherever you may be.

Found: The official Orgazmo website!

That movie cracks me up.

Not content with doing This-And-That Tuesday, I now bring you the Friday Five!

1. What was the last song you heard? Alex Chilton, by the Replacements

2. What were the last two movies you saw? Minority Report and XXX

3. What were the last three things you purchased? three comics: Harley Quinn: Our Worlds At War 1 (several pages of Paul Grist art, found it in the 50 cent box, and Batman: Gotham Adventures 24 & 29 for my grandson Nevan. Gonna get him started early.)

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend? Balance my checkbook. Go through my comics collection and pull some for selling. Attend the fantasy baseball draft on Sunday. Go to the grocery. I'll probably acheive two of these things.

5. Who are the last five people you talked to? My wife Theresa, daughter Abby, her college roommate Jessica, Mike Cary, and Ruth Loiacano.

That's it!

Over the last few weeks my co-workers Mike, Ruth and I have been collaborating on a best of the 80s set of CDs. I didn't think I would be much help, since (as longtime readers know) I'm not really all that enamored of the music of that decade...or so I thought! As we tossed song suggestions back and forth, we came up with enough tracks to fill NINE CDs! The main criteria were that these should be songs that defined the artist in that decade, be it a hit single or a video that received a fair amount of airplay. Problem is, I tend to be a contrary sort and there were frankly a lot of songs I really didn't want in the final tracklist...so I just went rogue and made my own, leaner, meaner four disk set. I tried to stay with the single/video thing, but I got away from the "artist-defining" thing. I thought I'd share it with you. And yes, some of these have been downloaded on the 'Net, but the majority of them I/we paid for years ago so don't think too harshly of me (and us). Here's the track list for disc 1, the only one I've burned so far:

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers-Jammin' Me
U2-Angel of Harlem
Eurythmics-Missionary Man*
Smithereens-Behind The Wall of Sleep*
Los Lobos-Shakin Shakin Shakes
Dead Milkmen-Punk Rock Girl*
Steve Wynn-Carolyn
Waterboys-The Whole of the Moon
Bruce Springsteen-Brilliant Disguise
World Party-Ship of Fools
the Clash-Rock The Casbah*
John Cougar Mellencamp-Check It Out
Camper Van Beethoven-Take the Skinheads Bowling*
Dave Edmunds-Information
R.E.M.-Fall On Me
Tanita Tikaram-Twist in My Sobriety*
Bourgeois Tagg-I Don't Mind At All*
Lindsey Buckingham-Trouble
the Replacements-Alex Chilton
Lenny Kravitz-Let Love Rule

*-indicates songs on the "official" box set

So, what do you think? I'm pretty happy with it, and I've got several more to go. Got to get some disks, though.

BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of March 5!

1. PROMETHEA 25 For those of us who have been keeping the faith while Alan Moore delved into the mystic, this issue is our reward, as Moore explores the ramifications of what happened back on "our" plane of existence while the "true" Promethea was away in smashing fashion. Besides the excellent dramatics and unpredictable events, this is also an amazing tour de force for the J.H. Williams III/Mick Gray art team, surely one of the best in comics these days. A+

2. POWERS 29 Brian Michael Bendis veers from familiar territory this time out and creates, with a lot of help from Mike Avon Oeming, a feeling of shock and dread. While this arc is still superficially reminiscent of other storylines in this series (and a few others), and in particular is beginning to remind me of Kingdom Come, one has to give BMB total credit for upping the ante so successfully. A

3. 100 BULLETS 42 It's kinda difficult sometimes to keep coming up with ways to praise Brian Azzurello and Eduardo Rizzo. This is just the latest strand in a huge tapestry, and it's just as excellent as the last one. I hope they don't take too long to resolve the backstory of Wiley Tymes. A

4. HELLBOY: WEIRD TALES 1 I broke down and bought this, even though I'm still kinda expecting to get this in the mail one of these days, when someone gets through bitchslapping Ted Rall...anyway, I couldn't wait. Nice start for this anthology series, with John Cassiday's wonderfully drawn and moody lead story taking a reluctant back seat to Andi Watson's great follow-up, about HB's birthday and a rare look at him during down time. It's lots of fun and Watson's idiosyncratic style works very well. Story three, essentially a teaser for an upcoming non-Hellboy related Dark Horse comic, was confusingly written and poorly drawn, often resembling those grubby old Tony DeZuniga-inked four-pagers that used to appear in DC's supernatural books of the 70s. Cassaday's serialized Lobster Johnson strip, drawn in a deliberately 40's style with imitation yellowed pages to match, is agreeable but brings none of the nutball fun that Mignola would have. So 2 yea, 2 nay, and a big "not bad" for an anthology series. B+

5. SPIDER-MAN: BLUE 6 I'm glad this disappointing nostalgia exercise is over. Hard to put a finger on why this left me so cold, especially since I enjoyed the previous Loeb/Sale effort Daredevil:Yellow a lot...guess I can chalk it up to over-familiarity with the source material. Someone who's new to comics might feel differently, I don't know, but the Peter/Mary Jane/Gwen Stacy triangle was old hat back in 1974. Here's hoping the previously golden pair mine a fresher vein next time out. B

6. CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHAT PRICE GLORY 1 Since I only had 4 books to buy this week, I decided to take a shot on something I hadn't planned on picking up...and I chose this because I just love Steve Rude's art. Rude does his best Kirby imitation here (but still looks, to my eyes, like Russ Manning inked by Dick Ayers), aided by longtime Kirby inker and letterer Mike Royer (which really brings back those memories of 1972) but it's wasted on a convoluted, senseless script which never establishes a clear tone and often reads like a page or two has been edited out, which I suppose is entirely possible. I know Bruce Jones is a fine writer, but he really isn't on his game. Still, he has two issues left to get himself out of the corner he's apparently painted himself into. B-

Just remembered a site I used to read a year or two ago, but isn't updated anymore for some reason: That Cavortin' Bastard. Like the Bastard himself would say, "This be some funny shit, yo." Warning: not for those easily offended by racal humor or profanity. I don't think I've got too many of you among my readers, but ya never know. Peace out.

Well, here it is, 10:46 PM CST and I got nothin. I've found a few things here and there, but nothing I'm moved to write about without resorting to political commentary, which is pretty much first and foremost in most people's minds right now...so I'll call it a night and try again tomorrow.

I haven't done this for a while, so here's what I've listened to the last couple of days:
Chris Robinson-New Earth Mud (a couple of songs are beginning to sink in, but this is still a disappointment), The Dukes of Stratosphear-Chips From The Chocolate Fireball (An Anthology) (I absolutely love "Vanishing Girl") , The Beatles Anthology 1 (not my favorite of the three, but still occasionally interesting, especially the Sullivan Show excerpts. I liked "Free As A Bird", personally, despite the wan Lennon vocal track), Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians-Perspex Island (this was a bit of a compromised, overproduced flop for Robyn, but it has two excellent songs-"So You Think You're In Love" and "She Doesn't Exist"), Lenny Kravitz-Let Love Rule (love the Beatles '69 title track and "Mr. Cab Driver", everything else is cringe-inducing...pretty much the story of Lenny's often imitating, rarely duplicating career–at least to me), and John Cougar Mellencamp-Lonesome Jubilee (the first album I ever really liked by ol' John. "Check It Out" is a great song, and "Cherry Bomb" is almost as good).

Back tomorrow with comics reviews (had some real good ones this week), and hopefully more stuff, as Chuckie Barris used to say. Interesting stuff. Hopefully.

Paging Penn and Teller!

I found this at JillMatrix. It's creeping me out, because it works and I don't know how!

No new comics today. Apparently UPS's truck broke down. What can Brown do for me? Deliver my gosh darned comics, that's what!

It has occurred to me that it's been forever and a day since I wrote anything about sports. Since the NFL season ended, I just haven't had as much enthusiasm, I guess, for the sports that are going on now.

I do follow college basketball, just not as avidly as I do the NFL...the University of Kentucky's men's team is doing great– much better than anybody dreamed they'd do just a few months ago. My alma mater Western Kentucky is also doing well, even though they lost, yet again, star center and one-time potential NBA lottery pick Chris Marcus. His constant foot injuries have sidelined him yet again, and this time his college career is over. His NBA future is very much in doubt as well. The rest of the team, though, has rallied and eventually won the Sun Belt conference, and is favored in the tournament, which takes place here in Bowling Green.

The NBA? Nah. I follow a couple of teams in the standings and through ESPN, but watching an NBA game on TV is, to me, like watching dust settle. I'm sure there's more strategy and effort than meets the eye, but I can't see it; they just appear to be going through the motions. I'm in a freebie fantasy league at Yahoo (I'm in first place!), but that's about the extent of my interest in the Association.

NHL? Well, I like it more than I do pro basketball but I just can't watch games on TV. Give me a beer and put me in the arena, and I'm good for the next four hours...but I just can't sit through an entire televised contest. Again, I follow certain teams in the paper and on ESPN, but I don't consider myself a hardcore hockey fan. I also participate in another Yahoo fantasy hockey league-fourth place, but making a late run.

I like Major League Baseball a lot, but it's just getting started...and I don't like it as much now as I did several years ago, especially when growing up. The last strike really dampened my enthusiasm. It's not that I'm pro-player or pro-owner; my curse is that I usually always see both sides of an argument and wind up being non-commital. Both sides had grievances. It just irritated me that these men, with all the money they already have, couldn't have compromised more and prevented that strike from dragging out like it did. In the succeeding years, though, I've warmed back up to it a bit, and this year looks like it could be a good one for my White Sox, who seem to have made some good player moves. We'll see– I've been optimistic about them before. I'm in fantasy leagues here, too...another freebie Yahoo league and a more expensive one with some friends. I've got a good keeper nucleus (we keep seven players from year to year) including Pat Burrell, Albert Pujols, Mike Mussina, and Torii Hunter. I'm cautiously optimistic, and much of my fortunes depend on how my draft goes this Sunday.

OK, what else...Pete Rose. They should make him eligible for the Hall of Fame, where he most certainly belongs...but I'm not so sure that they should let him back into MLB because he just hasn't shown any signs of being sorry for what he (allegedly) did, and has given no reassurance that it wouldn't happen again.

Toni Smith. While I think she could have chosen her battles a bit more judiciously, I see nothing wrong with what she is doing, which is a non-violent protest against Dubya's little anti-Saddam jihad. She's not disrespecting the US, she's actually living up to one of its many ideals. Anybody who's not blinded by Dubya's smoke and mirrors should know that she is not intending to disrespect anybody's friends or family members in the service, she doesn't want anybody, including those friends and family members, to go over there and die so George can save his father's face. I've read a lot about how she's being perceived as divisive on her team; what about her teammates' responsibility to back her up?

I'm glad to see that Emmitt Smith isn't hanging them up; while it will be strange to see him in another uniform besides the Cowboys, I have a feeling, and he does too, that he has a few more carries left. I've never been a Cowboys fan, but I've always had the utmost respect for Smith.

After watching Georgia coach Jim Harrick's tete-a-tete with Dick Vitale on ESPN News on my lunch break, I have come to the conclusion that the man is an audacious lying sack of shit.

And that's about all I have sports-wise. Maybe now Gambling Gringo will visit again!

I hope Franklin doesn't get mad at me for posting this right after he did, I swear I meant to post this last night after I read about it but I got distracted and forgot! I remembered after seeing the link on his site.

Anyway, here's the Science Fiction Book Club's list of the Top 50 Science Fiction and Fantasy books, of which, I am ashamed to say, I have read a grand total of seven. I lose more geek credibility every day. How many have you read?

Just to impress you all with my many talents, here's a quickie pencil sketch of most of the main characters from DC's 1980's Thriller comic. If you don't know what that is, please click on the link at right. One of the Seconds is a master of disguise named Proxy, here impersonating Jack Black. And no, I never had much success at drawing cars.

Guess you can see that it's slowed down a bit here at the old job...

I see where there's going to be an odd Batman TV show reunion movie on CBS Sunday night. I've always had kinda mixed feelings about the show. On the one hand, it's done immeasurable damage to the perception of comics among the great unwashed out in the world. When the show premiered, I was six, and although I watched it regularly it always pissed me off that the Batman on TV was nothing like the Batman in the comics I was reading, even though (in all fairness) the Batman comics at the time changed a bit to reflect the campy feel of the show. But on the other hand, when I got older and less inclined to take comics so seriously, I was able to loosen up and appreciate it for what it was, and it was often wickedly funny...and better still it was never mean-spirited towards the conventions it sent up. Adam West has a website, and while it's really heavy with Batman-themed graphics if you click around a bit you'll find some interesting stuff.

Brendan, that most excellent of Leptards, has pointed me to what has got to be the most thorough Frank Zappa site I've ever seen! Just wanted to share. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back there.

I did, and among many interesting little tidbits of information I found a link to the website of legendary rock star companion, actress and author Pamela Des Barres...as well as more information that I've been able to find anywhere (including AMG) about former Mothers guitarist Jeff Simmons' first solo album Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up, which is an Excellent Album Not Available on CD if I ever saw one. I have an mp3 of the title track, and heard the album entire once many years ago, and would jump up and down and giggle like a lunatic if I could ever run across another copy.

Think I'll do this week's This-or-That-Tuesday! Why the heck not?!

A few weeks ago, the theme was breakfast...now it is time for LUNCH!

1. Soup or salad? Soup. Sorry, don't do salads. I know I should, but...
2. Hot or cold sandwiches? Usually cold, once in a while hot, like a steak and cheese.
3. White or whole wheat bread (or rye, etc)? About 50-50 white and wheat. Depends on the sandwich.
4. Pack a lunch for work/school, or buy it? Buy it 99% of the time.
5. If you eat out...fast-food chain, or mom & pop type place? Fast food chain. There aren't too many mom & pop places near where I work.
6. Tuna or chicken salad? Neither. I find both repulsive.
7. Cheese: Swiss or cheddar (or American, etc)? Depends. Usually Swiss.
8. Mustard or mayo? Mustard. I can't stand Mayonnaise.
9. Sandwiches: wrap/pita pocket, or regular bread/roll? Regular bread/roll.
10. Sweet stuff: cookie/cake or fresh fruit? Sad to say, cookie/cake. I'm the first to admit that my diet is not the most healthful one.

100 BULLETS #42
PROMETHEA #25
POWERS #29
SPIDER-MAN BLUE #6

Well, that's all I can expect tomorrow according to the Diamond shipping list. That's OK, I've been buying too many comics anyway. I need to figure out a way to get on some mailing lists and score some freebies.

I haven't written too much about RStevens' clever little strip about pixelated robots, porn stars and other assorted types named Diesel Sweeties, but the link button has been over there on the right for quite some time now for your clicking pleasure. If you were one of the smart ones who have been there all along, you're aware that for the last few weeks he's had fill-in strips by a multitude of different artists with different styles, and he saved the best for last Friday. You should go check it out, which is why I'm writing this...and you can click here to do so. They're by people named Lark Pien and Jason Alderman, both of which I'm totally unfamiliar with.

Happy B-Show B-day to sweet l'il 'ol Patsy Kensit, who's gone on to do many other things (including Liam Gallagher, smirk smirk) since 1986 but will always be Crepe Suzette to me. Absolute Beginners, the film in which she played that role, comes on the Flix channel this Sunday night at 10 central. I can't believe that I couldn't find a single image of her from that movie, though I Google searched for 30 minutes...

Speaking of movies, and I was, if you like 50s & 60s beach party flicks (and be honest– who doesn't, really?) then you should go and check out Brian's Drive-In Theatre's section on beach party movies. It's the ginchiest! Found at GoodShit.

I was a movie-watchin' fool over the weekend. Somehow finding myself in front of the old TV for long stretches at a time (and believe it or not, I ran lots of errands and actually did some work on the house as well), I saw some films I hadn't seen before (and some I had seen once or twice), and here they be.

Minority Report This one was the best of the bunch. And it was directed by Steven Spielberg, of all people! Normally, I don't get excited about Spielberg flicks.This time, however, he seemed to make a real effort to minimize the saccharine sentimentality that he habitually saturates his product with, a recent example-his Kubrick collaboration A.I. -Artificial Intellingence, which had some great moments but just drowned in Pinocchio-styled bathos towards the end. Minority Report, however, turns out to be a fascinating concept, well thought out by the scripters, in which Tom Cruise gives a great performance as a fellow on the run from the very police force he was once in charge of. Great special effects, too, many which, again, echo AI- especially the "spiders" which scuttle around in an apartment building to ID people via retinal scan. This is, IMO, a great film, one of the best I've seen from last year without a doubt, should have received some Oscar consideration and might have if the public was in more of a Sci-Fi movie mood and it hadn't been released so early last year. Definitely worth a rental.

XXX Well, what you see is what you get with this one: James Bond for the Extreme Sports and Playstation crowd. How much you like this one will depend on your opinion of Vin Diesel, who plays (as usual) a badass, but loveable, lug who gets drafted into the spy game by Samuel L. Jackson. All the stunts and chases were well done, all the explosions were big and loud, all the music was too and was usually added in the right places...and for my money this was better than at least the last 5 proper James Bond films.

Vanilla Sky I saw a lot of Tom Cruise over the weekend. Vanilla Sky's a mostly incoherent, though beautifully filmed science fictiony morality play which curiously enough uses altered perceptions of reality to deliver the message that love and truth are the most important things in life. I've enjoyed Cameron Crowe's films in the past, and I'm glad he was willing to stretch a bit, but I think he overreached with this one. It never really affected me like I think it was supposed to until the very end, when I was moved a bit. Cruise gives a good performance as an arrogant, conceited character that he manages to convince you isn't really that bad, and you wind up feeling sympathetic for him. Unfortunately, after the pivotal car crash that befalls him, the movie becomes progressively chaotic and blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, and it's hard to follow at times. In all fairness, I think I'll watch this again before I make a final decision. I keep reading that it makes more sense with repeated viewings. As always in Crowe films, the music he uses is outstanding, and he gets a nice song from Paul McCartney over the end credits.

The Sweetest Thing I watched this one because Mrs. Bacardi wanted to, and figured I'd hate it because I don't generally like romantic farces. But this one's pretty loose, cleverly directed, and stars Christina Applegate (more so) and Cameron Diaz (less so-she gets on my nerves with her klutziness in films) meshed well together and kept it fun. So surprise, surprise, I laughed out loud a few times and came away liking it a lot more than I thought I would. Thanks, Mrs. B.

About Last Night They were showing this quintessential Brat Pack flick on one of the pay cable channels, with all its great Demi Moore nude scenes intact, so I got interested and watched it all the way through for the first time in several years. In case you haven't seen it, and I'd be surprised if you hadn't, Its pretty much a typical 80s romantic comedy with lots of 80s music and young pretty people falling in love and getting in fights. Elizabeth Perkins and Jim Belushi were good, Rob Lowe wasn't bad, Demi was great as always, and, like when I saw this back in the 80s, I wound up enjoying it.

Scream Blacula Scream This hastily filmed, super-cheap follow up to the hastily fimed super cheap Blaxploitation film Blacula is still a lot of fun, this time working Voodoo and Pam Grier into the mix. Not as good as the first one, of course, but the scenes leading up to the end, with an attack on Blacula's house full of zombies and vampires by police and one soul brother vampire hunter are set to an insistent voodoo drum rhythm and work up a nice head of steam towards the climax. But the abrupt, ambiguous ending itself kills it. Oh well.

Dead End The first film featuring the Dead End Kids of the 30s and 40s, this one features Humphrey Bogart as a lean, rat-faced gangster who's had plastic surgery and is wanted by the cops who returns home to the slums of New York, only to find out that the old saying "You can't go home again" is quite true-at least in his case. This one's got a great script, acting, and direction, especially for when it was made (script by Lillian Hellman!) and is well worth a look. You can't beat old Bogart movies, I'm tellin' ya.

And that's pretty much my movie weekend!

Another day, another Bacardi Show Birthday greeting, this time to noted fish enthusiast, Egyptologist, and Soft Boy Robyn Hitchcock. The mind of this man has been touched by God, or touched by something, anyway. Imagine a amalgam of Edward Gorey, John Lennon, Syd Barrett and the Byrds, and you get a clue about what Hitchcock's music sounds like. See Storefront Hitchcock if you get a chance. Click on the image above to go to his official website.

While checking out Susan's Easy Bake Coven site, I was a bit dismayed to see where she recognized the birthdays of not only old Uncle Lou Reed, but the late great Irish blues rock guitarist Rory Gallagher, and I hadn't! There's no way I can't not mention them too! Thanks, Susan!

I keep calling Reed "Uncle Lou" because Lester Bangs used to do it all the time in Creem magazine back in the day. They always had this love/hate thing going on, and it has definitely colored my perception of his work over the years. I'm not going to say that I love everything Reed's done; many of his albums, including several done in the late 70s, late 80s and early 90s, I have found dull and ininspired. But when the man's on, there are few songwriters that can match him for smarts and verisimilitude.That's my five dollar word for the day. My favorite Reed solo albums include (of course) Transformer, Berlin, Sally Can't Dance (my first), Street Hassle, and New Sensations. And of course, his seminal work with the Velvet Underground cannot be ignored. He's one of the greats. The picture above came from the site of one Jim Van Dyck.

Rory Gallagher, who left us too soon, was a quiet, unassuming type who could play guitar like few others on this earth. All his albums (that I've heard, anyway) follow the same blueprint, pretty much-bluesy rock and rockish blues- but they're all tuneful and honest, and there's no filler and no nonsense, just like he seemed to be. If you've never heard Gallagher's stuff before, then let me recommend a couple of albums: Calling Card and Against The Grain, my first and still my favorite. Blueprint, Tattoo, and Top Priority also have their adherents and they're damn fine records in my opinion too.

And yes, I watched Minority Report and XXX, but it's late and I'm tired and if you guys will give me a rain check I'll write about all my weekend movies later. Thanks, you're too kind. Really.

Movies, movies, movies...I've watched a few over the weekend, including Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky, the Cameron Diaz/Christina Applegate farce The Sweetest Thing, the Bogart vehicle Dead End, and (on as I type) the great Pam Grier in Scream Blacula Scream. I'm getting ready to do something I've never done before, buy a couple of films via pay-per-view (Minority Report, XXX). There's just no Blockbuster in Horse Cave, and frankly I don't feel like getting out to go to the next town and take a chance that something I want to see will be there. So...I'll write a few lines on all of them after I've finished!

I saw where Bill Sherman has written about this week's new Bill Maher show; I didn't finish reading because I wanted to write about it too and didn't want his opinions to color mine. The first thing I thought was that this Larry Miller fellow, who I'm totally unfamiliar with, must not have anything better to do, because he has appeared on both shows so far. Is it that hard to get different guests? Anyway, he's not really all that bad...although he keeps trying to slip little pro-Bushy comments in and defuse them a second later with some quip. Sometimes he's funny, but I can't get a real fix on where he stands–which is not the problem that the second straight conservative blonde panelist, author and Fox News contributor Monica Crowley, has. Often she came across as naive and narrow-minded as one would expect from one who accepts the Party line, hook and sinker. And then there was Ted. With all due respect to Michele and Jim T, I will not join any bitch-slapping crusades. I like Rall's cartooning and while sometimes he aims at targets that might be best left unfired upon, he does so with wit and is not dull, which is the whole point of political cartooning, if you ask me. He's supposed to provoke controversy. Whether or not you may like it or even agree with it is beside the point. Anyway, I wish I could say Ted was impressive, but for every intelligent comment he came up with, there were two that were less so, and often he just came across as creepy. Oh well. I was disappointed in Maher verbally chiding him for the "Al Gore's Presidency" remark; just because it's a fait accompli doesn't make what happened in our last presidential election right or any less outrageous. Move on? Get over it? Why? But that's Maher for you. He's never consistent in what he seems to think or say. Maybe he was just being pissy because Rall said it first, who knows.

The rest of the show was better than last week's, for sure. I could do without the variety show-type format; and he should probably forget about the audience question and phone-in section sa well, judging from the responses he's gotten so far. One fellow in particular last night stood there and took what seemed like 30 minutes to ask what should have been a 2 minute question. The news update fellow is hit and miss. Thankfully, there was no lame standup, unless I missed it when I left the room. I liked Eric Idle's skit, always great to see Pythons anywhere, but I thought the song went on and on and on a bit too long. I guess my problem is that I was pretty satisfied with Maher's previous show and its format, and the new one has just too much peripheral BS and not enough of what I want to see, which is debate and interesting panelists. If I want a variety show, I'll go watch SNL.

Be that as it may, I'll keep watching. Dennis Miller's show started out slowly too but got much better, IMO, before too long. We shall see, as I tend to say so often...

Got outbid this morning on an eBay auction for the above album, Mary Travers' 1974 release Circles. Now, I have never heard a Travers solo album, and am only vaguely familiar with Peter, Paul & Mary's catalogue in its entirety. The songs I know are probably the ones you know. Still, I think this is a wonderful illustration by Drew Struzan, somewhat dated, perhaps, and 70's-ish but it's still a great Mucha swipe and I think it's imaginatively laid out. Most people wouldn't dream of it, but there are times when I will buy an album because I like the cover. Van Morrison's Veedon Fleece, quite possibly my favorite album, I bought because I loved the cover. I'm just funny like that. Anyway, the bidding started at 99¢, and was $1.04 when I bid, but it got up to 10 bucks plus 4 dollars shipping, and there is a limit to the amount I'm willing and able to spend on this sort of thing, so I let it go. Perhaps there will be another, who knows...I hate eBay anyway. I'm never willing to bid very high on things, and I'm always getting shot down at the last minute. I got sniped one time with twenty frigging seconds to go. Feh.

Well, I was going to bed, really I was, but I ran across this great Daredevil illo by none other than Gerald Scarfe, in service of David Denby's review in the New Yorker of that movie which I still haven't seen. Ain't it kewl? Click on the image to go to the review, which is paired with comments on "The Life of David Gale". Neither is favorable.

I have the feeling I should put a © the New Yorker somewhere around here.

Wasn't going to post anything today (actually yesterday, this is being written at 1:21 AM Sunday the 2nd) but while I was clicking around here and there I ran across a thread on the DC message boards wishing a happy 79th birthday to writer Arnold Drake, who worked for DC and Marvel in the 50's, 60s and 70s, and wrote (and in some cases created) many, many characters and books including the Doom Patrol, Deadman, the Phantom Stranger (he had the unenviable task of following the outstanding Wein/Aparo run), Stanley and His Monster and (as you may have guessed from the image above) Super-Hip, in the pages of the Adventures of Bob Hope!

I felt I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge it, so a happy Belated Bacardi Show Birthday to ya, Mr. Drake. Thanks for all the cool stories.

Hi there. I've been off work all day! Since we had worked so much OT and such over the last month, we were given today off. So oddly enough, I haven't blogged a thing. Until now.

First, I bought a CD today. Who Do We Think We Are by Deep Purple, a remastered version with bonus tracks. This 1973 release, the last worthwhile album with the original Purp lineup, was the first DP album I ever bought (in 1975). While it's no classic, there are some good songs on it, especially if you're predisposed to like white-boy blooz with sexist lyrics by aging Englishmen. Fortunately, I suppose that I tend to be predisposed that way, despite the fact that I should know better. Deep Purple and all the ancillary people that orbited around them from that period from 1970 till 1976 is actually a fascinating story, to me anyway. I think I might write more one of these days on the subject...

I also stumbled upon this Indie Alt.Country music-for-sale site, called Miles of Music, while clicking on the website (see link at left) of my friend Ned Hill aka NedVanGo. I call him such, even though we haven't seen each other in three years and despite my repeated requests he refuses to even consider letting me design for him...Anyway, they've got some interesting stuffage there on Miles of Music, including a CD by the Minus 5, comprised of R.E.M.'s Pete Buck, former Posie Ken Stringfellow, and some Wilco members, including main Wilcodude Jeff Tweedy. It's called "Down With Wilco". Hm. Anyway, you can download song samples, and I can see me spending some minutes checking some otherwise unknown music out there.

While fiddling about on the Net this afternoon, I happened upon an article at Sequential Tart about "Girly Porn", that is, porn comics written and drawn by women. Of course, there were links, and I soon found myself at the web sites of two creators: Molly Kiely and Colleen Coover. I flat out love Kiely's work. Her stuff tends to lean towards desert scenarios and nude cowgirls, worthy subjects without a doubt, and she has a loose, attractive style. She's very good with color as well. Coover's site didn't offer much but a bio and a mail order page, but I was attracted to her Jaime Hernandez-ish art and appealing characters. Reminds me a lot of Jason Little, too. Click on the above pictures to go to their sites. I think I might be placing an order from Eros comics soon.

Music today: Eno-Here Come The Warm Jets (subject of a very good piece by Brendan recently), Miles Davis-Kind of Blue, Harry Nilsson-Pussy Cats, KC and the Sunshine Band-20th Anniversary Collection, John Hiatt-Walk On, Led Zeppelin-Physical Graffiti, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers-Echo.

Well, by now the entire Blogosphere has taken the opportunity to eulogize Fred "Mister" Rogers, who died early today, and I shall be no exception. That being said, I gotta tell you straight up: I was not a fan as a kid. Never ever watched Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Thought it was boring. I was more of a Captain Kangaroo man myself. Still, when I grew up to be a man (can you hear that song now?) and had kids, my son Britt watched Mister Rogers regularly when he was very small, and liked it very much if I recall correctly. Anyone that gave my son happiness in his not-always-happy life is all right with me, so rest in peace, Fred Rogers. A multitude of kids big and small will mourn your passing.

BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of February 26

1. NEVERMEN: STREETS OF BLOOD 2 A very close call this week, but I just got a bigger charge out of the surreal weirdness of Amara and Davis' story than I did from the (somewhat) more grounded drama of Bendis and Carey. Amara's dialogue is odd, but somehow fits in just right with all the strange characters and situations, and Davis' work is sensational. He has completely reversed my opinion of his art based on his Sandman Mystery Theatre stint. If you're not buying the seperate books, you should at least consider the trade collection. A

2. DAREDEVIL 44 Bendis is superb as usual, especially in the opening scenes, and Alex Maleev steps up this time and delivers such outstanding stuff in the first half of the story that for once I don't mind his Owlverine. I find myself wondering what people who have only seen the movie think upon picking these comics up out of curiosity. A

3. JOHN CONSTANTINE: HELLBLAZER 181 Essentially John vs. demons in a game of cat-and-mouse, a scenario we've seen a few times, but Mike Carey's gift is such that he can fill it with enough twists and excellent dialogue/characterization that it seems fresh again. The art, by someone named Jock, is hit and miss– mostly hit, fortunately. A

4. CATWOMAN 16 Frankly, I've been bored to tears by Brubaker's latest Big Life Changing Episode in Selina's Life...so imagine my surprise when I found myself totally engrossed in this, the big grand finale issue! That being said, I found it a tad far-fetched that she posessed the kind of physical strength that enabled her to escape the clutches of the Black Mask, but I can overlook it this time. I'll chalk it up to andrenaline, not writer contrivance. And a book that was on the verge of being dropped from my list survives! A-

5. LEGION 17 In which we catch up on R'as Al Ghul, and Abnett/Lanning begin to address a grievous mistake made by previous writers...one which essentially spit on an older Legion character and has enraged, divided and alienated (no pun intended) Legion fans for several years. About damn time. Overall, great characterization, wonky science, and hit-or-miss (mostly hit) art by a newcomer who is a complete unknown to me. Another strong issue. A-

6. JLA 78 I had originally panned this issue, but I have since found out I was mistaken. In my copy, page 17 was bound in between 6 & 7, and since I tend to be feeble-minded and easily confused, it threw me for a loop and I thought Joe Kelly was back to his old, haphazardly scripted tricks. When I allow for this mistake, this issue becomes a pretty well-written prelude to another story arc, with sharp dialogue and characterization, always Kelly strengths. As always, Mahnke and Nguyen shine. Hey, when I make a mistake, I admit it! A-


7. VERTIGO X PREVIEW A grab bag of stuff from creators past and present, with previews of upcoming titles...some of which (Zatanna, the Wintermen, Cliff Chiang's Beware the Creeper) look interesting and some (the aptly titled Losers, Blood and Water, and Barnum) that don't. Well worth the price, especially for those of us who were there at the beginning (MIlligan & Allred's Shade story is a nice look back) and like to reminisce. A-

8. GLOBAL FREQUENCY 5 Pretty much status quo again this time out...great idea, developed pretty well by Warren Ellis with his typically terse and clever dialogue. The artist this time is Jon J. Muth, doing a rare pen-and-ink job. Well done all around, but strangely uninvolving. B+

9. STRANGERS IN PARADISE V2 56 More of that ongoing will-they-or-won't-they soap opera. Most of the usual annoying Terry Moore pretensions are here; poetry, faux journal pages, etc., all of which stop the narrative dead in its tracks...but I guess he's wearing me down because I made it through without losing my temper. The things I put up with because I like his characters. B+

10. X-STATIX 8 Probably shouldn't have ranked this dead last, but I can't help it- I was bored by this issue. In fact, I've been bored by the last couple of issues, and at this rate I won't be buying much longer. Its not badly drawn or written per se; it's just that Allred's not the type of artist that can consistently breathe life into Milligan's bone-dry scripts. B-

Thought I'd write a few lines whilst letting today's comics settle in my brain and foment opinionation.

On a personal note, we finally got that g-darned April (formerly "Master") catalog out the fricking door. That little publication, owing to everything from the "Everybody in the company gets to look at it and suggest changes" policy apparently in place, to procedural glitches, to mindless, constant re-pagination to acts of God in the form of inclimate weather, shutting down FedEx and preventing the initial shipment from going out on time to the printers, has become a soul killing burden that all of us have had a more or less equal share in. Tonight was the first night in over a week that I got to leave when I was supposed to, at five o'clock. And this is not a good thing, I'm on salary. Anyway, it's gone...but our little publications are like the zombies in Return of the Living Dead; they want to eat your brain and are damn near impossible to kill! Maybe now my life can get back to some semblance of normalcy. Until the next catalog. But you know what? In spite of all that, I do like my job and consider myself fortunate to have it. Really. I shit you not.

I found a neat Marx Brothers site the other day while clicking around; here it is. I am proud to say I've seen every Marx film at least once...Duck Soup is still my favorite.

I suppose now it's been officially stated for the record– this is the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Oh well, that's OK. All things must pass, as the saying goes. It's been a great run, a lot longer than some shows get (Firefly? American Gothic?), and while there have been some clunker episodes here and there it's been, for the most part, some of the most fun and imaginative TV ever. Last night's episode was enjoyable, not the greatest but still engrossing...Whedon seems to be really setting us up to like Andrew for some reason. Care to guess why? There's just so much going on that I can't even begin to speculate on how it's going to all be resolved. This is the last sweeps episode for a while, unfortunately, so I'll just have to keep on guessing. Also, the question remains about who or what will be the central character in the proposed spinoff series. Conventional wisdom for a while said Eliza Dushku's Faith, but apparently she's signed on to do another TV show so your guess is as good as mine. Hope it's not Kennedy, though– I don't completely trust her and she's really annoying most of the time.

Music the last two days: Zappa/Mothers-Uncle Meat (again, I know-I've been in a mood), The Essential Johnny Cash (big surprise there), George Harrison-All Things Must Pass, Elvis Costello-Mighty Like A Rose, Steve Earle-Jerusalem, Electric Light Orchestra-Out of the Blue.

Today's Bacardi Show Birthday greeting goes out to the Man in Black himself. No, not the Shadow, Johnny Cash.

I have written previously about the effect hearing his "Ring of Fire" had on me at an early age. Who knows, if not for that song, I might not have gone on to be the music fan I am today...or at least a different kind of music fan. It's hard to believe now, but there was a time in the late 60s-early 70s that Cash was as big a star as there was, with his own groundbreaking TV show and more. I can't believe someone doesn't show reruns- I'd love to see the shows with Bob Dylan and Mike Nesmith again. Hell, he still has the goods- I caught the video the other night for his cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" and it's powerful stuff.

Happy Birthday to ya, Johnny C, from Johnny B.

Mike Cary sent this link to me and I just had to pass it on. Elvis. Marilyn Monroe. All in one. Can you stand it?

What with all the Daredevil this and Daredevil that, thanks to the movie I still haven't seen, I thought it would be worthwhile to point you all to the website of the man that did more to shape DD in the comics than all the Quesadas and Smiths one can shake a stick at, Gene Colan. Click on the sweet commissioned Daredevil piece above to go there.

He did tons of exciting, adventurous work for Marvel in the 60s and 70s, including wonderful stints on Dr. Strange, the Sub-Mariner, the Avengers, Howard the Duck, and 70 plus amazing issues of the landmark Tomb of Dracula, which gave us the Blade character among other things.

I understand he didn't even get a mention in the movie. If not, what a shame.

Looking at the Diamond Shipping List for tomorrow, I spy with my little eye the following that I'll be picking up:

NEVERMEN STREETS OF BLOOD #2 (Of 3)
CATWOMAN #16
GLOBAL FREQUENCY #5 (Of 12)
HELLBLAZER #181
JLA #78
LEGION #17
VERTIGO X PREVIEW
DAREDEVIL #44
X-STATIX #8
STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL III #56

And a couple of special cases:
MOONSTONE NOIR MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER (MR) $5.50
HELLBOY WEIRD TALES #1 $2.99

I'll most likely be having them put the Hellboy book in my folder just in case, but that comic is supposed to be my winnings in the football bet Michele and I made a month or two ago. If she remembers, then I'll be getting it from her and I won't buy it from my comics shop. Trevor Von Eeden, in our phone conversation yesterday, mentioned that he would be sending me an advance copy of the Mysterious Traveller book that he did art chores on, so I'll have to wait and see on that one too.

Otherwise, looks like another painful week for my wallet. I'm especially looking forward to the JLA book, which features the regular team of Kelly, Mahnke and Nguyen for the first time in what seems like ages. Obsidian ages, as a matter of fact, yuk yuk. I kill me. Also, the Legion looks good from previews and the Vertigo sampler might be worth a look, since it's supposed to feature advance looks at most of the new titles coming out from that imprint. Since Mike Carey took over, I always look forward to reading his Hellblazer as well. I might have to bust out the ol' $5 coupon I've been holding on to for a few weeks now.

Even though it's difficult at best to convey birthday greetings to someone who has passed on, I still can't let today go by without extending a Bacardi Show Birthday rememberance to that master gardener George Harrison, who would have been the big 6-0 today. While he may have been a tad deficient in the charisma department, especially compared to his mates, he more than made up for it in musical skills. He was the glue which held those magnificent songs together, and here's hoping that he's found the peace and enlightenment that he spent most of his life looking for.

Aw, heck- sleep is overrated anyway.

Just wanted to mention a couple of things. I went to Barnes & Noble on my lunch break (or at least the last 30 minutes of it, anyway) and checked out some stuff, most notably the latest issue of Mojo magazine (or the latest one to come out in the US) and a brand new (to me) Neil Young book. I used to buy Mojo faithfully for a while, then it occurred to me to subscribe, figuring it was cheaper to sign up for a one-time gouge of 70 or so bucks that pay my eight dollars 12 times a year...I did that for a couple more years but when I was laid off in 2000 my sub ran out and I couldn't afford to re-up. I missed several issues before I found employment again, and let me tell you its easier to do almost anything than it is to find affordable back issues of Mojo...so I just pop in once in a while at B&N and sit and read 'em. If they mind, they don't act like it. Anyway, the issue I perused today had a cover feature about Carlos Santana and his namesake band, and covered the time leading up to when he recorded what is most certainly my favorite of his albums, Caravanserai. I found it very interesting, anyway. Also within were articles on Kate Bush, a fave of mine from back in the 80s, and my favorite period of the Kinks, 1968-1971.

The Neil Young book, which I've added to my Amazon wish list (hint hint), is named Journey Through The Past: The Stories Behind The Classic Songs of Neil Young. It's essentially a song-by-song, album-by -album commentary on Neil's music through the years. Each song gets a capsule review, at least a paragraph...some more than that. He likes On The Beach as much as I, although we disagree strongly on Landing On Water. But then again, I don't think anybody liked that one but me, not even Neil. I've got a couple of books (Beatles songs, John Lennon solo) like this already, and I find them irresistable. I wish somebody would do similar books on McCartney and Harrison. I won't hold my breath.

Music today: Tom Waits-Beautiful Maladies (I hate the song selection on this one. I need to get Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs.), Beatles-Abbey Road, Coldplay-A Rush of Blood to the Head (I thought they were quite good last night backed by that orchestra- a little ragged but that's OK), and Prince-The Gold Experience.

Morning update:

You may recall how I was bitching about all the rain, rain, rain we've had around here lately. Well, God in His or Her or Its infinite wisdom sure showed me. Now we have a 1-inch covering of snow all over everything. Joy.

Derek Kirk Kim has completed his magnum opus "Same Difference", and it's well worth your time to read. Just the thing for a Sunday afternoon when it's raining or snowing or whatever outside.