HOW CAN ONE POSSIBLY OMIT "SMOKE ON THE WATER"? I don't think we've discussed Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time."
I can understand why the magazine omitted many non-rock songs from the list (no Django Rheinhardt? No Hank Williams?), but how in the world could the editors have overlooked "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple?
Two other omissions that I happen to love: Steely Dan's "Reeling in the Years" and Jeff Beck's "'Cause We've Ended as Lovers."
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED. The legendary coach of the Boston Celtics Red Auerbach was a civil rights pioneer who drafted the NBA's first African-American (Chuck Cooper in 1950), became the first NBA coach to start five black players in a game (in the 1963-64 season), and appointed the league's first black coach (Bill Russell in 1966).
His accomplishments angered a raving and racist extortionist, culminating in the man making an elaborate death threat in 1982 targeting Auerbach. Under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, Bob Hohler of The Boston Globe obtained from the FBI a copy of a letter outlining the threat. His chilling article about it and threats against other sports figures is here.
His accomplishments angered a raving and racist extortionist, culminating in the man making an elaborate death threat in 1982 targeting Auerbach. Under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, Bob Hohler of The Boston Globe obtained from the FBI a copy of a letter outlining the threat. His chilling article about it and threats against other sports figures is here.
IT'S LIKE YOU'RE ALWAYS STUCK IN SECOND GEAR: Here's and idea for a new reality show, have a bunch of contestants live together with the winner being the one who makes the most friends.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Patrick joins NBC, reunites with Olbermann - NFL- nbcsports.msnbc.com
IF YOU'RE SCORING AT HOME: While the dynamic duo of Mike and the Mad Dog may be parting after twenty years, NBC announced today that Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann will reunite for the Sunday Night Football halftime highlights this year, though the NBC announcement curiously steers clear of any mention of anything else Olbermann's doing now.
OMIGOD YOU GUYS: Due to a lack of anything resembling real-time TV viewing, I have been deficient in my blogging on Legally Blonde: The Search That Is Actually a Quest to Locate Via GPS or Similar Navigational Device the Second in a Series of Twelve Elle Woods on Broadway f/k/a The Great White Way, but I am now all caught up and ready to discuss.
Structurally, this show is more or less what I'd thought last summer's "Grease: The One that We Want" was going to be -- the quest for a bona fide acting/singing/dancing triple threat. And as such, the amount that's being required from the contestants is pretty significant. Haylie Duff and the judges are pretty much a total waste of airtime, but watching these girls, whose blondeness quotient is inching ever closer to 100%, sing and act and dance and have rapport with the actor portraying Bruiser Woods (!) and Be Blonde shows the degree to which being a Broadway star is not easy. Not so much with the suspense, though, as I have accurately predicted the order in which each girl would appear on The List correctly every single week. Whether this (a) underscores the fact that editing is the most important aspect of any reality show, (b) indicates that there are obvious talent distinctions between the girls, or (c) displays my infallible casting astuteness, I could not say.
I was, however, a bit surprised to see Emma get cut rather than Autumn this week. Not because I found Emma to be so fabulous -- on the contrary, I have consistently found her to be way too sour and dour to play the effervescent Elle Woods -- but because everyone else on the show seemed to consider her the frontrunner. Was it because of her Broadway lineage as the daughter of Jerry Zaks and Jill Rose? Perhaps her Reese Witherspoon-minus-some-Zoloft demeanor? The fact that she's one of the only contestants old enough to be a Harvard Law School student? In any event, her bronchitic junk shaking was deemed insufficiently boppy, and off she went in suitably snarly fashion.
Which leaves us with five potential Elles going into tonight's episode: Lauren (Baby Elle); Autumn (Desperately Seeking a Blonde Wig Elle) Natalie (Squiggy Elle); Bailey (Catty Elle); and Rhiannon (Goldie Hawn Elle). Who ya got?
Structurally, this show is more or less what I'd thought last summer's "Grease: The One that We Want" was going to be -- the quest for a bona fide acting/singing/dancing triple threat. And as such, the amount that's being required from the contestants is pretty significant. Haylie Duff and the judges are pretty much a total waste of airtime, but watching these girls, whose blondeness quotient is inching ever closer to 100%, sing and act and dance and have rapport with the actor portraying Bruiser Woods (!) and Be Blonde shows the degree to which being a Broadway star is not easy. Not so much with the suspense, though, as I have accurately predicted the order in which each girl would appear on The List correctly every single week. Whether this (a) underscores the fact that editing is the most important aspect of any reality show, (b) indicates that there are obvious talent distinctions between the girls, or (c) displays my infallible casting astuteness, I could not say.
I was, however, a bit surprised to see Emma get cut rather than Autumn this week. Not because I found Emma to be so fabulous -- on the contrary, I have consistently found her to be way too sour and dour to play the effervescent Elle Woods -- but because everyone else on the show seemed to consider her the frontrunner. Was it because of her Broadway lineage as the daughter of Jerry Zaks and Jill Rose? Perhaps her Reese Witherspoon-minus-some-Zoloft demeanor? The fact that she's one of the only contestants old enough to be a Harvard Law School student? In any event, her bronchitic junk shaking was deemed insufficiently boppy, and off she went in suitably snarly fashion.
Which leaves us with five potential Elles going into tonight's episode: Lauren (Baby Elle); Autumn (Desperately Seeking a Blonde Wig Elle) Natalie (Squiggy Elle); Bailey (Catty Elle); and Rhiannon (Goldie Hawn Elle). Who ya got?
SUNDAY MONDAY HAPPY DAYS: Sunday Rose Kidman Urban. Say that one a few times fast. Maybe it sounds better with an Australian accent?
Arriving next Thursday, perhaps: Aujourd'hui and Shabbat Jolie Pitt.
Arriving next Thursday, perhaps: Aujourd'hui and Shabbat Jolie Pitt.
VOTE FOR CASTRONOMY: The San Francisco Chronicle is auditioning eight cartoons this week for a spot next to Garfield and Blondie. ALOTT5MAers, please vote early and vote often for FOTB (or at least this blogger) Eric Orner's Castronomy. I think what mainly sets it apart from its competition for the spot riding shotgun to that adorable scamp Dennis the Menace is Eric's cartoon is actually funny, a quality all too often lacking from today's funny pages, save The Lockhorns (he hates her cooking!).
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