Monday, June 06, 2005

"Pizza With A Conscience"

I dunno what James Lileks is so worked up about - I think Galactic Pizza sounds pretty cool. It looks like Rev. Norb had to return to the pizza delivery game, though; tough break, dude. And I do have to say that I was really hoping that the "Message For Vegans" would be "YOU SUCK!"

Karen Finley, Tom Cruise and Proofreading

I haven't read, The Huffington Post, too often, and I, frankly, don't see, what the big deal is. But if this post, by Karen Finley, is any indication, they are in serious need, of a copyeditor:

"For God’s Sake, or should I say, for Ron Hubbard’s sake? I don’t see what all the fuss is, with Tom Cruise and Scientology. Tom Cruise, is no different than our President, or many of our world citizens, in expressing church rhetoric, finding religion and expressing their faith on company time. Tom, whose own Father, abandoned his family, as a child, displays symptoms of extreme Father Hunger. In interviews, Mr. Cruise is passionate in expressing a distant void with his Father. God, religion becomes the replacement for Daddy Love. Ron Hubbard, becomes the perfect, Science-Fiction, Pagan Idol to transfer the need of devoted son."

The actual content of this is pretty funny as well. Check out her thoughts on the Tom Cruise/Brooke Shields flap (Flap? Apparently Maverick publicly criticized La Shields for turning to psychotherapy and Prozac during a recent bout with post-partum depression. I'd never heard of this until I read about it in Finley's post, so I dunno if that counts as a 'flap' or not. Anyway...):

"Brooke Shields, is a fascinating choice for his public criticism. It is revealing, that the most powerful actor in Hollywood needs to criticize a woman, a mother suffering from depression to rationalize his vulnerable, belief system. Or, that he feels his character disorder is threatened by Ms. Shields public admission.
Sounds like misogyny to me.

"We will never know if Tom would get post- partum depression if he could have a baby. Tom adopted his children with ex-wife, Nicole Kidman. I am sure under Cruise Control Nicole didn’t get depressed. And in real life, men can’t have babies."


Finley is a performance artist; maybe this is her latest piece...?

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Pop AND sense?

We here at AlcO-bEAt aren't very sensible ourselves, but I've got to second Harry's recommendation to check out Popsensible, which bills itself as the home of one or more "sensible pop-culturalists." Right on, man. I'd put 'em on the blogroll for the Ramones wallpaper alone, but this description of the first ginger blows of the Hitchens-Mickelthwaite-Leonard-Hattersley tag match from the much-written-about Hay Festival is the best I've read:

"Micklethwaite – in the contrarian spirit occasionally found in the pages of The Economist – begins by painting the Bush administration as the default visionary radicals of foreign affairs who should be commended in their stated commitment to freedom and democracy, if not for their many flaws (from Guantanamo Bay to Uzbekistan). In spite of this intentionally challenging introduction, Micklethwaite has to compete for audience attention with the grimacing Hattersley who, in attempting indignation, looks like he’s shat himself."

One More

Which is not to say I wouldn't wear a 'Back to Mono' button if I could find it.

I like this one best.

Another Weird Phil Spector Pic


Phil Spector with gun
Originally uploaded by alco-beat.
Despite what the bottom of the post says, this is Dan wasting all your time with this nonsense about Phil Spector. For the record, I always liked him better as a songwriter than a producer; I thought the 'Wall of Sound' was vastly over-rated both in concept and execution.

Phil Spector: Bizarre Lunatic


Loony Phil
Originally uploaded by alco-beat.
Certainly you saw this photo last week when it was making the rounds. If not, here ya go: definitive proof that Phil Spector is nuttier than a fruitcake or a shithouse rat or whatever it is that the kids use to measure craziness by these days (For my money, the Phil Spector trial smokes the Michael Jackson trial for sheer weirdness. Speaking of which, Drudge provided a singularly unpleasant detail - as he so often does - from the final moments of the latter. 'Ew' doesn't quite begin to cover it...)

Not that that any big suprise for anyone who'd taking even a passing interest in the man's life and work up till now. Sure, you've probably heard all those stories about Phil pointing pistols at everyone from John Lennon to the Ramones. But the true Spectorainia fiend is advised to head straight to the book store and pick up a cheap used copy of Ronnie Spector's autobiography, called - what else? - Be My Baby. Flip over to the part where, long since forced into early retirement and virtual house arrest by her jealous maniac of a husband, Ronnie is about to go ape with cabin fever. She pesters Phil to let her have a car so that she might, y'know, leave the house every now and again. After several weeks of being nagged, Phil gives in and presents his long-suffering spouse with a new ride in the driveway; Ronnie is delighted. But hold on, says Phil, I haven't even shown you the best part yet...

"I was amazed as when he reached into the trunk of my brand-new car and pulled out that life-sized inflatable plastic mannequin.

'What do you think?' he asked, holding it in the air like a giant trophy. I didn't know what to say. The thing was as big as he was, and it was dressed in a pair of his best pants and a freshly ironed shirt. In fact, the thing looked exactly like Phil in every way, except that its knees were bent in a permanent sitting position. 'Well,' I said. 'It's you, right?' He nodded his head.

'C'mon,' he said. 'Is it perfect or what?'

'Yeah. Its...really...' I paused, wracking my brain for the right word. 'Perfect. But, Phil. What is it supposed to do?'

'I'll show you,' he said. I watched in utter amazement as he walked to the passenger door, opened it, and carefully placed the inflatable Phil in the bucket seat. Then he fastened a seat belt across the guy's lap, straightened its shirt collar, and adjusted the cloth hat that sat on top of the thing's pink plastic head. 'There,' he said, stepping back. 'Oh, wait,' he added. 'Almost forgot the finishing touch.'

Then he ran back over to the inflatable man, pulled out a cigarette, and fitted it into the thing's mouth. Finally, he slammed the door and stood back. 'Tah-daah!' he said, turning to me with a crooked little smile. 'What do you think?'

'It's great, Phil,' I said, and I wasn't lying. Sitting there like that this plastic guy really did look almost real. 'But I still don't get it,' I said. 'Why do I want it to look like there's somebody in the car with me when there isn't?'

'Don't you get it?' he asked in a tone of voice that made me feel like I must've missed something. 'It's for when you're driving alone.' I still looked completely confused, so he spelled it out for me. 'Now nobody will fuck with you when you're driving alone.'

So that was it. Phil had actually gone to the trouble of making a dummy of himself to watch over me when he wasn't around. I was wondering if he'd gone insane as I watched him make a few last-minute adjustments in the tilt of the guy's hat. He really was proud of his little masterpiece.


I wonder if, after Phil takes a ride in the gas chamber, they'll put the inflatable Phil in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame?

Oh, note to Suge Knight: this may be your future.

Cultural Imperialism?

Here's Andrew Anthony writing in the Guardian about Shaima Rezayee.

"Take the case of Shaima Rezayee, the video jockey on an MTV-like programme in Afghanistan. She was one of the first women to drop the veil on Afghan TV after the fall of the Taliban. She was sacked from her job a few months back. A couple of weeks ago she was shot dead in Kabul.

"Before an arrest has been made, an article in this week's New Statesman attacks the press reaction: 'British newspapers loved the story, portraying Rezayee as a photogenic, Madonna-loving martyr to the anti-Islamist, pro-western cause.' Actually, hardly any newspapers covered the story, but I can't see what is wrong in portraying someone as a photogenic, Madonna-loving martyr to the anti-Islamist, pro-western cause, if that's what she was.

"...

"In the New Statesman piece, the writer goes on to reassure readers that female broadcasters across the Arab world are not running similar risks. Apparently, women on television can wear what they want in Muslim countries, or at least they can on Al-Jazeera, the TV channel the writer visited. The writer ended with a warning about Rezayee's legacy: '... to turn her into some sort of MTV martyr does a disservice to other Muslim women'.

"To which one can only ask, why? Is it culturally imperialist to suggest that Rezayee might have been killed for what she wore and said? And how can that be a disservice to other Muslim women? The truth is that women are severely limited in their lifestyle choices off and on television through most of the Muslim world. If you want, you could argue that such a situation is good for society at large, but you can't say it doesn't exist, or that women like Rezayee aren't taking a dangerous stand."



(thanx to Hak Mao)

Collared!

I actually do read people who don't write for Reason, really I do. But this is bigger than the lack of diversity in my reading habits; Julian Sanchez says what needs to be said.

Now if only we can get men to stop wearing fucking flip-flops...

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