[ Saturday, June 26, 2004 ]
Unbelievable, Part II
Saw
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 today. Fantastic. This is the kind of film that every American should see, deeply soulful, riotously funny, and damning in its portrayals of the scoundrels currently running this country. Luckily, it looks like it'll be the #1 movie in the country this weekend, which is a wonderful success for Michael Moore and artistic integrity in general, given the long and winding road this film took to its release. Anyway, find someplace to see it (
look here) and go see it. And take five friends, preferably people on the political fence.
On the box right now: Beach Boys, FRIENDS. Maybe their lost masterpiece.
Peace...
Dove With Claws [8:24 PM]
[ Friday, June 25, 2004 ]
Unbelievable
Saw Prince last night. He's God. It was easily one of the 3 best live shows I've ever seen, and maybe the best I've ever seen.
Highlights are almost literally too many to mention, but suffice to say that you can get a decent idea of how incredible it was by imagining every great thing from every concert you've ever seen, put together in one 2-and-a-half-hour block. Simply incredible.
On the box right now: Teena Marie, LA DONA.
Peace...
Dove With Claws [1:48 PM]
[ Wednesday, June 23, 2004 ]
Hype
The new Wilco album, A GHOST IS BORN, is good. The new Dave Alvin album, ASHGROVE, is a million times better. I love Wilco, and am quickly warming to the new album, which up until recently only had three songs on it that I really liked ("Theologians," "I'm A Wheel" and - most of all - "The Late Greats"). Still, Dave Alvin - who has proven through his work with The Blasters and his solo work that he is one of the best American roots musicians working today - has an album that, on first listen, has not one but SIX classics: "Ashgrove," "Rio Grande," "Nine Volt Heart," and "Somewhere In Time" are all great, and "Everett Ruess" and "The Man In The Bed" are two of the best songs I've heard in a long time. "The Man In The Bed," especially, is an absolute classic, heartbreakingly beautiful and powerfully simple in its poetry.
Rock and roll music is built on the musings of young turks, I know, and there are few bands more consistently exciting than Wilco, but music like this classic latest Dave Alvin album hits me in a place that no glossy magazines or "SAVIOR OF ROCK AND ROLL" headlines have been able to reach in quite some time. (If I have to hear about The Strokes one more time, I really am gonna hit somebody.) Alvin's album is a fierce, beautiful masterpiece, and is seriously contending right now with Kanye West for the title of my favorite album of the year. Go get it...
On the box right now: Dave Alvin, ASHGROVE. But of course...
Peace...
Dove With Claws [6:37 PM]
[ Monday, June 21, 2004 ]
Toast, bagel and pancakes
Wanna have fun? Take my grandmother to brunch when she's not wearing her hearing aid. Now, she's 87 years old, and I can only pray that I'm in that good of shape (or still alive, for that matter) when I'm her age, but the fact is that medical technology - in all its wonderment - has created a device that should make the following exchanges (between me, her, two of my aunts, and the lucky waitress) irrelevant.
GRANDMA: I'd like the Western omelette.
WAITRESS: That comes with a choice of toast, bagel or pancakes.
GRANDMA: What?
WAITRESS: Toast, bagel or pancakes.
GRANDMA: What?
AUNT #1: (slightly louder and slower) You get TOAST...BAGEL...or
PANCAKES.
GRANDMA: Toast?
ME:...or bagel or pancakes.
GRANDMA: What?
AUNT #2: Do you want toast?
GRANDMA: Toast?
AUNT #1: Why don't you get toast, Ma?
GRANDMA: Alright...toast.
WAITRESS: Toast?
AUNT #2: Toast.
GRANDMA: Whatever they tell me...toast.
WAITRESS: Do you want white, wheat or sourdough?
GRANDMA: (with perfect comic timing) What?
ME: Uhhhh.......
This has been a transcript from the Hughes Subcommittee on Breakfast, 6/20/2004.
On the box right now: Charles Hughes, DEMOS VOLUME 6. Uh....me. That's right, me. I've been demoing my many original songs, and I'm listening to one of the discs right now. (By the way, I'm AWESOME.)
Peace...
Dove With Claws [6:09 PM]
