My Back Hurts

That's what happens when you have to pack up a house and unpack a house. Lots of lifting heavy boxes over and over and over again. The hiatus wasn't the most restful, with the chaos of moving and all, but it wasn't work, which is always saying something. Can't find a good meme to kick things off post-hiatus, as is my tradition, so you'll have to settle for this hodgepodge of pop-culturey reflections from the last two weeks-plus:

Losing the Ti-Faux, even the crappy, prone to crashing, temperamental one I have, for a week is stressful. I missed two new Studio 60s, How I Met Your Mothers, Gilmore Girlses, Veronica Marses- and in this day and age of instant gratification, I can't even just go and buy any of them (save the Studio 60s). Now I have to try and avoid finding out who the Veronica Mars rapist was until (if) they repeat the episodes. Stupid moving.

Managed to not miss any Offices somehow, and am very much liking the integrated Scranton office. (I also love that they are trimming what at first looked like a just goofily huge cast by having Michael drive off the newcomers one by one).

Finally finished watching the second season of Veronica Mars and have to admit to not fully understanding the resolution. Even more embarrassingly, I knew who did it going in (it was spoiled for me somewhere) and it still didn't make sense. I love the show, but it really makes me feel, well, stupid.

Almost through the sixth season of The West Wing. I'll tell you, I dimly remember hearing much mockery of the "Toby and Josh fight" episode, but Schiff was just stunning in it, especially in his breakdown scene near the end with Alison Janney. All in all, I like this season a lot, and have to admit to respecting John Wells much for keeping the style, tone, and spirit of Sorkin's show alive so well.

The Nets lost six in a row. Why do thy have so much trouble starting a season strongly??

The twin rugrats have fallen deeply in love with a horrid budget kids DVD entitled The Wheels on the Bus. The acting, production values, camerawork, and writing are so bad that the whole enterprise reminds me of nothing so much as porn. Which is strange.

Am reading and very much enjoying the mammoth new Walt Disney biography. The dilemma is that I don't really want to take it on the train, given its heft. Luckily, I just got back a lost (paperback) copy of The Handmaid's Tale, which I was about a third of the way through before losing. I was absolutely loving it and am very eager to dive back in.

Also finally was able to get my self to a comic book store, and will on the PATH train later be reading the new Civil War, Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, New Avengers, Astonishing X-Men, and Ultimate Power issues. Wee!!

Got my traditional Christmas CD - this year it was Aimee Mann's new One More Drifter in the Snow a somewhat subdued and yet lovely collection of mostly classics with a few new tunes. Not sure how or when it happened, but I think I am in love with Aimee Mann.

That's all I got for now. Good to be back amongst the blog-o-world.

Until Whenever

What the Flagston Kids and Mater Would Say If the Pater Turned Cannibal (And if They Were Able to Communicate from Beyond the Grave)

Yes. A hiatus. (I hereby nominate the laborious set-up of the title above and its resolution as the lamest joke ever).

Sorry for our absence from the elctro-magnetic waves, but work and a move have slammed poor Tosy and Cosh hard. We will be gone for two weeks or so while a move-in-two-parts is made and Internet access is rare and precious, but will return for the glory that is December renewed and re-invigorated (or so is the hope). An early happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Until Whenever

All-TIME - (Hah!)

Time magazine has followed up its previous lists of the 100 best novels and 100 best movies of all time with its hot-off-the-presses 100 best albums of all time list (which does not rank the 100 but simply lists them by decade). Overall the list doesn't make me particularly angry or overjoyed - for the artists where I know enough of their albums to have an opinion I was non-plussed a few times (Love & Theft is a better album than Time Out of Mind). I am somewhat amused by the token efforts to be inclusive - the odd country album, rap album, jazz album - without really trying (I'd love for one of these lists to someday recognize the genius that is the original score album of West Side Story, or that classical music is put on albums), but that's par for the course.

For posterity's sake, let's see which of the 100 best albums ever I own:

Albums I Have:

Kid A - Radiohead
OK Computer - Radiohead
Time Out of Mind - Bob Dylan
Achtung Baby - U2
Nevermind - Nirvana
Out of Time - REM
Document - REM
The Joshua Tree - U2
Graceland - Paul Simon
London Calling - The Clash
Who's Next - The Who
After the Gold Rush - Neil Young
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Abbey Road - The Beatles
At Folsom Prison - Johnny Cash
Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan
Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
A Love Supreme - John Coltrane
Kind of Blue - Miles Davis

Albums I Want to Have
Most of these are albums I want to get, either because of stuff I've read about them or because of what I have heard off of them:

Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea - PJ Harvey
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
Songs in the Key of Life - Stevie Wonder
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
Horses - Patti Smith
Red Headed Stranger - Willie Nelson
Blue - Joni Mitchell
Moondance - Van Morrison
Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music - Ray Charles
King of the Delta Blues Singers - Robert Johnson
In the Wee Small Hours - Frank Sinatra

Until Whenever

Random Top Ten

Random Top Ten!

Random Top Ten Elvis Costello Songs

10. "Toledo" - The opener to Costello and Bacharach's collaborative effort, and an insinuatingly subtle bit of songwriting featuring one damn twisty melody line.

9. "Pump It Up" - As on many a Costello track, it's keyboard player Steve Nieve's contribution that makes the song--without that insistent, angry organ this song wouldn't be nearly as good as it is.

8. "Alison" - Damn impressive for a first album cut.

7. "Veronica" - Who else writes about the elderly? Such a bittersweet song.

6. "Alibi"- I love the audacity and sheer inventiveness of this laundry list of lame excuses for bad behavior.

5. "Accidents Will Happen" - A classically constructed pop song.

4. "All This Useless Beauty" - One of Costello's most beautiful pieces of songwriting.

3. "Tokyo Storm Warning" - I love the Sesame Street-theme guitar figure, and the very Dylan-esque litany of evocative, yet not concrete, lyrics. ("The sky fell over cheap Korean monster-movie scenery/And spilled into the mezzanine of the crushed capsule hotel/Between the Disney abattoir and the chemical refinery/And I knew I was in trouble but I thought I was in hell.")

2. "God Give Me Strength" - This is already getting covered like crazy - in 50 years this just might be the one song Costello is most remembered for--an instant classic.

1. "What's So Funny? (About Peace, Love, and Understanding)" - I hate so much that my favorite Costello song is one this remarkable, prolific, gifted songwriter didn't actually write. But it is.

Until Whenever

Calendar: Marked

Sorry for the absence--work, life, family - all have their own ways of smothering the blogging.

The second trailer for The Simpsons Movie has me mightily encouraged. I won't spoil it; just click away and laugh, and laugh. (And marvel at the animation. The real animation. You'll see. It really is sharper-looking than the TV stuff without being ostentatiously "different.")

Until Whenever

Until Whenever

Random Top Ten

Random Top Ten!

Top Ten Plays (non-musicals)

10. M. Butterfly (David Henry Hwang) - How I wish I had had the chance to see John Lithgow in this. A tragic, sparsely beautiful play about the boundaries of love. The Crying Game before The Crying Game.

9. Deathtrap (Ira Levin) - The most ingeniously constructed play I've ever come across. Wonderfully twisty.

8. The Piano Lesson (August Wilson) - I love Wilson, and this is my favorite of his. Beautifully musical and more self-contained and tighter than much of is other work.

7. True West (Sam Shepard) - Shepard's best, a kind of duel for two intense actors. The original production starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise is legendary.

6. Equus (Peter Schaffer) - Intense drama about a horse-obsessed teenager. Wonderfully meaty monologues abound, and the two leads (the boy and his psychiatrist) are two of the best parts in the canon.

5. Love! Valour! Compassion (Terrence McNally) - McNally's play about a group of gay friends and lovers spending three summer holiday weekends together is achingly sad and poignant, joyous and wistful.

4. Angels in America (Tony Kushner) - An epic two-parter about homosexuality, the end of the millennium politics, love, faith, and about a dozen other things.

3. Our Town (Thornton Wilder) - The quintessential school play. So simply constructed, so plain-spoken, and yet in the end such a deep well of profundity.

2. Waiting for Godot (Samuel Becket) - Has a more devastating stage direction ever been written than the famous final one here?

Vladimir: Well, shall we go?
Estragon: Yes, let's go.
They do not move.

1. Death of a Salesman - This play gets under my skin and won't get out. Worth seeking out the filmed stage version with Dustin Hoffman in the lead (and John Malkovich as Biff.

Until Whenever

Hollywood Strikes Again

Last night's How I Met Your Mother was a classic, with the "Barney's new name is Swarley" stuff just great. But what had me looking forward to the episode more than anything was the guest appearance by Firefly's resident escort, the luminous Morena Baccarin. So how disappointed was I to see that Baccarin--who was hardly heavy on Firefly (see above)--now looks like every other too-thin, too-gaunt-in-the-face Hollywood starlet? Her full, round (again, hardly heavy, and still miles and miles from "fat") face had immense character, and specificity of personality. She was beautiful. On Mother, she was no more than pretty--and easily too skinny (a lesson--arms should resemble, well, arms, not twigs. Bones were meant to encase meat, yes?). Tragic, in its way.

Until Whenever

U218

The track listing for U2's new Best Of album, U218, has been released (see below). I noted here what I thought the sixteen songs included would be. I did pretty well, missing only three of sixteen - I thought for sure their first hit off of their first album ("I Will Follow" would make the cut, but wasn't to be. (It'll be a bonus track on the UK album, it seems). I also thought that the boys would want both Pop and Zooropa represented, but I was wrong, and neither "Discotheque" or "Stay (Faraway So Close) made the cut. The three songs I didn't predict were the b-side "The Sweetest Thing" (which must have been much bigger in the UK than here), "the Rattle & Hum Bo Diddley pastiche "Desire," and All That You Can't Leave Behind"s "Elevation."

1. Beautiful Day

2. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

3. Pride (in The Name Of Love)

4. With Or Without You

5. Vertigo

6. New Year’s Day

7. Mysterious Ways

8. Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of

9. Where The Streets Have No Name

10. Sweetest Thing

11. Sunday Bloody Sunday

12. One

13. Desire

14. Walk On

15. Elevation

16. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own

17. The Saints Are Coming

18. Window In The Skies

Until Whenever

Doin' the Friday Shuffle

1. "Loveland" - Sondheim - Follies (1987 London Revival Cast)
A gaudy bit of sparkly, lush, light pastiche.

2. "Thirteen" - Johnny Cash - American Recordings
One of my favorite tracks off of this album - it has a propulsive energy that keeps the album from getting too bogged down by the laconic feel of most of the tracks.

3. "Settling up the Score" - Rupert Holmes - The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Original Broadway Cast)
The very definition of rousing, a big 'ol oom-pah Broadway number.

4. "You Still Believe in Me" - Anne Sofie Von Otter - For the Stars
A delightful cover of the Beach Boys song, impeccably sung by the opera star.

5. "An English Music Hall" - Rupert Holmes - Lost in Boston
The original opening to the aforementioned Drood, replaced before its premiere by the superior "There You Are."

6. "We're Not Gonna Take It" - The Who - Tommy
Damn them defiant hippies.

7. "Pug" - Smashing Pumpkins - Adore
One of the harder tracks off of this mostly mellower Pumpkins album, with a nicely expansive, slower chorus.

8. "The Happy Medley/Alexander's Ragtime Band" - Mandy Patinkin - Mandy Patinkin
A bit from Mandy's big-time-fun happy medley.

9. "Still Hurting" - Jason Robert Brown - Last Five Years (Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording)
A tender, bruised breakup ballad, marked by some sprightly violin and cello interplay, that crescendos by the end into an expression of more anger than sadness.

10. "Berliner Messe 4. Zweiter Alleluiavers" - Arvo Part - Te Deum
Quiet and reverent.

Until Whenever

Thank God

From eonline:

Leno Turns Down Oscars

"What comedian in his right mind would turn down the chance to host the Oscars? Jay Leno, that's who. "

Until Whenever

30 Rock

It looks like NBC is going to give new shows Studio 60, 30 Rock, and Friday Night Lights the sweeps shot to succeed - each will run (as of now, at least) throughout sweeps. I haven't seen FNL, and have already opined on S60, but haven't said boo about 30 Rock.

I've actually only seen the pilot and one more episode, although last night's fourth episode is Ti-fauxed and awaiting. So far I'm liking, if not in love with, the show. Alec Baldwin's slightly off, pompous readings are as good as advertised - in the little I saw of last night's episodes he killed merely by reciting a few ready-made catchphrases he thought should be reverse-engineered into sketches. Tracy Morgan works, I think, in small doses, but that seems to be how they're employing him here. His delivery last night of the line "make every week Shark Week" was inspired. As for the third leg in this three-legged-stool of comedy? Tina Fey is likable and natural playing herself, but falls apart when actual acting is called for. (She reminds me greatly of Jerry Seinfeld in this way). Last week's episode had a recurring bit with her single and alone Liz Lemon character choking and having to self-administer the Heimlich maneuver. The bit called for some deft physical comedy, and it was almost embarrassing how badly she executed it. It brought to mind nothing more than first-year acting classes having to improvise a silent, natural moment in front of the class. Contrast that moment with a moment from last night's ep in which Lemon's colleague kicks a chair on wheels in anger and falls. Expertly executed slapstick.

Still - it's not as if they are pushing the physical comedy, and, like I said, when she's simply plying herself (which is most of the time) Fey is fine. And overall the show has a nicely honed mildly surrealist vibe going - the jokes tend to be smaller and more "sketch-comedy" like than sitcom-like, and that works well. I, for one, am hoping that the show finds an audience.

Until Whenever

Sound the Hunting Horn

The NBA season begun last night, although my beloved New Jersey Nets don't kick-off until tonight. As I did last year, I'll be predicting the finishes for the conferences, and, I'm sure, as I did last year, I'll be woefully inaccurate.

East

1. New Jersey Nets - A cock-eyed optimist am I. Seriously though, while this may be a bit over-optimistic, the Nets do figure to have a good year - rookie Marcus Williams, in particular, is promising to (finally) be the trusted backup to Jason Kidd they've never really had. Add a maturing Richard Jefferson, a Vince Carter in a contract year (read: with something to prove), a primed-for-breakout Nenad Kristic, and a proven runner and shooter in Eddie House and a Nets final appearance is hardly pie-in-the-sky.

2. Miami Heat - As much as I don't like the team, and loathe Alonzo Mourning, what they did last year can't be overlooked. But O'Neal just gets older and Wade won't be able to carry the team all by his lonesome. I'm predicting that last year will be a fluke, an experiment that paid off but that won't again. (Then again, I predicted that they would barely make the playoffs last year - so what do I know).

3. Cleveland Cavaliers - The coronation of LeBron James is coming, but not imminent. He still has no Scottie Pippen to join forces with.

4. Chicago Bulls - A lot of seers are predicting a conference finals berth for the Wallace-fied Bulls. They'll be good, but that good?

5. Detroit Pistons - Like most, I think the loss of Wallace will deal a real blow.

6. Washington Wizards - Gilbert Arenas is the real deal, but what's that old saw about defense again?

7. Orlando Magic - Because I'd like to see Grant Hill get one last swing at the playoffs.

8. Indiana Pacers - A shell of what they were just two years ago, but hardly horrible.

9. Milwaukee Bucks - The team I always forget about.

10. Toronto Raptors - A growth year that leaves them out of the playoffs, but barely.

11. Philadelphia Sixers - A team that needs to rest, badly.

12. - Boston Celtics - Youth that will still be too young.

13. - New York Knicks - I am hoping fervently for the arrogant Isaiah Thomas to fall flat.

14. - Charlotte Bobcats - Still floundering.

15. - Atlanta Hawks - Still hopeless.

West

1. Dallas Mavericks - Nothing has changed, has it? And they should be just as hungry after a tough fight against Miami in last year's Finals.

2. San Antonio Spurs - Again, the core is still all there - the core that won it all a year ago.

3. Phoenix Suns - I'm guessing that Stoudamire won't be the same post-surgery, and that without him the Suns are very good but not champion-level.

4. LA Clippers - The revenge of the downtrodden!

5. Houston Rockets - Is this the year the lauded McGrady-Ming combo finally gets it all together?

6. Utah Jazz - The Bulls of the West.

7. LA Lakers - Kobe'll get them into the playoffs, but won't have enough to work with for much more.

8. - Denver Nuggets - Dysfunctional. And Carmello Anthony just isn't at the same level as Wade and James, no matter how much the powers-that-be wish he were.

9. - New Orleans Hornets - Chris Paul will need another year or two to make this team playoff-level.

10. - Sacramento Kings - When will Artest implode this year?

11. - Memphis Grizzlies - When your star breaks his foot in the summer . . .

12 - Golden State Warriors - You know, I'm not sure I have any idea who is on this team. Baron Davis?

13 - Seattle Supersonics - Stuck in the mud.

14 - Portland Trailblazers - Will compete mightily with Atlants for the league's worst record.

East Finals

Nets over Heat

West Finals

Dallas over Suns

NBA Finals

Nets over Dallas

What? A man can dream.

Until Whenever

The Short and the Long of It

What are the shortest and longest tracks in my music collection?

Shortest

The shortest track, at 2 seconds, is the "Bad Robot" sign-off, taken from an early bootlegged version of the Lost soundtrack. The shortest song or piece of music proper, as opposed to transition pieces, dialogue snippets, and brief film score snippets, (and yes, this is very subjective) is the "Itchy and Scratchy" end credits bit ("they fought, they bit, they fought and fought and bit . . .") at 17 seconds.

Longest

The longest track, technically, is a raw file of a U2 concert, unedited - 1:24:47. The longest actual piece of music is the Scherzo from Mahler's Second Symphony - at 32 minutes and 35 seconds the longest movement in my classical collection. The longest song (i.e., one sung piece) is Bob Dylan's epic "Highlands," a sixteen minute and 31 second pastoral, ambling ballad.

Until Whenever

Random Top Ten

Random Top Ten!!

Top Ten Queen Songs

10. "The Prophet's Song" - A deep cut off of A Night at the Opera that indulges in a delightfully excessive multi-tracked a capella round in the middle of the song.

9. "Another One Bites the Dust" - In the top five bass lines ever, no?

8. "Who Wants to Live Forever?" - It's Queen, Broadway style!

7. "Ogre Battle" - A deep cut off of Queen II that rocks as hard as anything they've ever done, with a great speed-riff from May.

6. "Under Pressure" - Come to think of it, Queen has two songs in the top five bass lines ever.

5. "Innuendo" - A late-addition to the list of epic, somewhat schizophrenic Queen songs. A great driving synth-and-guitar riff defines the main section, while the delicate acoustic middle is highlighted by some blistering flamenco-style fretwork.

4. "Somebody to Love" - Queen-as-gospel band. Love that run at the end.

3. "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" - I'm actually somewhat bored by this combo by know, given how remarkably overplayed it is, but that's hardly the song's fault.

2. "Show Must Go On" - Freddie Mercury's dying wail of anger and defiance. A man who knows death is near, and singing like it.

1. "Bohemian Rhapsody" - Well, duh.

Until Whenever

On the Nightstand

A quick buzz through some recent readin':

Saturday, Ian McEwan - This didn't have the intricacies or scope of his excellent Atonement, but the forced limitations (the action all takes place within one day) have their own pleasures, and I liked how he was able to craft such an obviously post-9/11 novel that didn't feel gimmicky or unnatural. And I'm not sure that anyone else writing today can craft a sentence like McEwan.

Bono: In Conversation, Michka Assayas - This series of interviews with my favorite rock singer didn't hit me as hard as it did Lefty, but I did fin it an engaging, illuminating read. You get the sense that Bono has a very well-honed realization of just how ridiculous he can come across, and more importantly that he just doesn't care. His impassioned likening of the crisis in Africa to a modern-day Holocaust, to a moral tragedy that easily surpasses it, and one that we are just as morally implicit in ignoring as those who looked the other way then is stark, discomfiting, and damn hard to argue with.

House of M - Brian Michael Bendis - The library finally coughed this one up. Not great, but an entertaining enough "alternate future." The stuff with Steve Rogers as a lonely old man was quite effective, I thought, and I like how the seeds of Planet Hulk and Civil War are clearly visible.

All Aunt Hagar's Children, Edward P. Jones - Jones' recently released collection of short stories is an exquisite, beautiful thing (and I'm only halfway through). The more of Jones I read, the more I become convinced that he's going to be read, studied, and lionized, not just in the years and decades, but centuries to come. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but I can't help it - I honestly believe that readers in the 2100s will be reading him like we do Shakespeare today.

Until Whenever

Buried Beauties* - Debra Messing

In her many years on Will & Grace Messing never got the salivating attention from menfolk that many other hit TV actresses seemed to. And yet I'd say she's much more beautiful - in a classic way, too, and not in the quirky way that I'm usually drawn to - than, say Jennifer Aniston or Eva Langoria.

Until Whenever

*Correction--As Roger Green has quite reasonably pointed out, Debra Messing, lack of Maxim covers notwithstanding, is hardly a "buried" beauty. Consider this a "Not-Particularly-Buried-Beauty" post, instead.

Ranting about iTunes

OK, so the first one isn't really iTunes' fault, but rather the labels. But, damn, the greed is just disheartening. A few months ago I read something about an album of sea shanties that was being put out, with all sorts of contemporary rock/pop artists doing renditions of classic sea shanties. One of the songs was to be sung by Bono. Great! While I really didn't feel the need to buy the entire album's worth, 99 cents for a Bono track was a no-brainer. When the album finally popped up on iTunes, though, a small handful of the tracks were "album only" - not for separate resale. Including Bono's. Argh.

A month ago I heard about the new album of duets Tony Bennett was doing, including one with, you guessed it, Bono. Great! 99 cents for Bono sailing through a standard with Bennett. No brainer. "Album only." Much louder argh.

Then today I went to the site to get Fiona Apple's rendition of "Sally's Song" from the just-reissued Nightmare before Christmas soundtrack, which includes a bonus CD of artists covering some of the songs. I already own the album, and have no desire to hear any of the other covers. But Fiona as Sally for 99 cents? No - of course - "album only."

The greed amazes me. But so does the shortsightedness. They could have made 99 cents off of me. Instead they made nothing. Maybe I'm daft, but it seems unlikely to me that there are that many people willing to buy the whole album for that one track or two. It seems like they're cutting off their noses to spite their faces. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they have the market research to show that this is the financially smarter move - that enough customers will fork over the $9.99 to overcome the 99 cents they lose from people like me. But either way it's a crappy way to do business. Isn't it really just a form of bait and switch to offer 99 cents a track - except for the racks they suspect will be most enticing? Isn't that, you know, unethical?

The second issue I have is iTunes fault, though. Two weeks ago I paid my $1.99 to get the second ep of Heroes. I had sen the first, missed the second, and had the third taped. But the download didn't work. So late last week, I contacted customer service, and they tried to fix it. Still didn't work. This past weekend, NBC re-aired episodes two, three, and four. So now I had on tape the ep I had missed. But when I told customer service that I wanted a refund, since they had failed to deliver the product and now I had it through other means, they refused, saying "all sales are final."

?!?!?! What "sale?" I never received the product I paid for! But they insist on taking a third try at actually delivering it rather than giving me a refund. So much for Apple's vaunted "we make your life easier" ethos.

Until Whenever

Update: Customer service responded to my complaint abou the "all sales final" thing and gave me a free credit for a video, in addition to getting the Heroes ep to finally download. So yay iTunes!

Random Top Ten

Random Top Ten!

Top Ten Novels

My favorite novels, the stack that would remain if I had to winnow my library down to just ten novels, no more, no less:

10. Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson – Hard, epic science fiction that made me believe, not just that we might colonize Mars someday, but that we already had.

9. Never Let Me Go, Kashiro Iguro – A chilling, remarkably subtle portrayal of a not-to-distant future.

8. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver – A virtuoso display of research and narrative control, with four sisters alternately telling the story of their families missionary move to Africa.

7. The Stand, Stephen King – Still the high-water mark of apocalyptic fiction.

6. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon – A sweet, wildly entertaining, funny, sad tale of brother comic book artists making their mark in the golden age of the industry.

5. The Green Mile, Stephen King – King’s Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is easily his finest novella, and this close to his finest novel – how long before he goes back to the prison well?

4. Watership DownA>, Richard Adams – It’s a cliché at this point to insist that this novel about a community of bunny rabbits is brilliant and insanely gripping. But it is.

3. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving – Irving’s best, a hilarious and off-kilter tale of a fated disabled young boy. Maybe top on my list of books I’ve only read once but need to read again.

2. The Known World, Edward P. Jones – I’ve read the number one book below six times, and it’s long been my go-to favorite-ever novel. And yet I seriously considered putting this first. It’s only a few years old and I’ve already read it twice – and I certainly will read it again.

1. It, Stephen King – King’s statement novel, the one that puts in one place all of his main themes and preoccupations. At nearly 1,200 pages, it should feel bloated, but the logical and sturdy structure keeps it from feeling so.

Until Whenever

Doin' the Friday Shuffle

1. "Next to You" - Stephen Sondheim - Bounce (World Premiere Recording)
I've had this score- Sondheim's last (although hopefully not last-ever) for several years now and I still can't quite get a handle on it. Very old-fashioned in some ways, with some fine melodies, but it doesn't quite hang together.

2. "The Gloaming (Softly Open Our Mouths in the Cold)" - Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
I love Radiohead, but, much like Bounce, I haven't been able to really get a sense for this one. May just be a bit too esoteric in the end for me.

3. "Darling Pretty" - Mark Knopfler - Golden Heart
I love the sweetly old-fashioned, Irish-sounding fiddle and guitar opening, leading directly into some good-ole, laid-back Knopfler rock.

4. "Making Love Alone" - Bernadette Peters - Sondheim, Etc.
A joyful, bold-and-brassy ode to masturbation.

5. "Love Is Blindness (Live)" - U2 - Stay (Faraway So Close ) (Single)
Simply a great live performance of this most moody of U2 songs.

6. "The Wedding" - Elvis Costello - My Flame Burns Blue (Live with the Metropole Orkest)
This great live album of Costello and big jazz orchestra features as a bonus disc a suite from Costello's ballet score Il Sogno. This is one of those cuts, and it's a fine, romantic, pulsating bit of music.

7. "Quartet: Acknowledgement (Part I)" - John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Raptorous. One of the great recordings of the 20th century.

8. "Poor Thing" - Stephen Sondheim (sung by Patti LuPone) - Sweeney Todd (Original 2005 Broadway Revival Cast)
The famous (or infamous) reduced orchestrations (played on stage by the cast) for last year's revival really do a fine job of allowing someone like me 0 ho knows this core backwards and forward - to hear the music differently.

9. "Broadway Baby" - Stephen Sondheim (sung by Mandy Patinkin) - Sings Sondheim
In this live concert recording, Patinkin does a long, drawn-out slow burn before letting t rip at the very end with some traditional Mandy crazy belting. Love it.

10. "Stavisky Suite Two" - Stephen Sondheim - Stavisky (Score)
A vaguely decadent-sounding cut from one of Sondheim's few film scores.

Until Whenever

Studio 60 Warming Up





This week's episode was the first that made me really like this show, the first to encourage me about the potential for these characters and this universe. Why? Many things, but most of all it was Sarah Paulson.



Like many I've been kind of nonplussed by her performance so far, but in last night's episode I really started to develop a strong affinity for the character - she finally gelled. Part of it was the admittedly kind of bald device of having her interviewed, and the personal details and backstory Sorkin gave us through that interview. But most of it was Paulson. The way she curled up on the couch; the weary, good-natured smile; the subtle opening up as the conversation progressed. But what really sealed the deal was that final scene with Matthew Perry's Matt.



I've read other bloggers who found the scene flat and stale, but I have to admit to being blown away by it - I totally bought the sexual, but more than sexual, romantic, tension between the two in that scene, and while, again, Sorkin gets some of the credit, I think most of it goes to the actors. They got me. Especially Paulson, who, in very small ways, managed to convey the storm of conflicting emotions running through Harriet's head in those moments - look at the way she put her hands on Matt's chest. Sure, there was the game of whether she was going to embrace him or not, but more impressive was how in the very gesture itself she managed to convey to us that Harriet herself didn't know what she was going to do either. A great piece of acting.

The other thing that finally worked for me was this whole notion of quality TV. The pitch by the British reality TV producer was impeccably written and delivered, and wholly believable. I believed that the vile show he was describing would be pitched and that it would be a hit. This one scene made the show's raison d'etre, that opening Judd Hirsch rant, make sense. The embarrassment of riches on TV these days made the rant seem ill-timed at first. "No, actually, Hirsch character (Sorkin), TV isn't a wasteland, it's a font of treasures." But this scene with Jordan and the reality TV pitcher made the whole rant coalesce - this is what Sorkin, and his characters, are trying to rise above. Bad reality TV that plays to our basest emotions - stuff like Flava Flav auditioning whores, or that Fox show where people were forced to screw each other over and make up tragedies to win a pot of cash. And bashing that kind of stuff I can get behind.



The focus on Harriet's religion also made the other bugaboo Sorkin is taking aim at more clear, too. Because as free as TV is, as adult and sophisticated as the content has gotten, honestly dealing with religion - either in the guise of an honest portrayal or an honest critique - is still a great big no-no (although baby steps were made this year--by Battlestar Galactica and Big Love in particular). If these are going to his two big themes, the two big evils of the current TV environment that he's going to attack, then this show could (could) end up being well worth the time.



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