Seen from the parking lot of my apartment building this evening while walking down to the laundry room: Three people across the street, one playing what appeared to be a conga drum, the other two practicing some sort of routine with flaming batons and torches on chains.
Now there’s something you don’t see every day.
It’s, it’s…a hotel in Kagoshima. It’s meant to be a “love hotel,” for when you and mister or miss right (or right now) just need a few hours of uninterrupted privacy.
But as you can see, the decor is a little, well, special. Check it out (and scroll down).
From Eric Alterman reader Donald Kraus:
“Jesus, as quoted in the Gospel of Matthew (25:35, 40): “I was hungry, and you gave me food … just as you did it to one of the least of these … you did it to me.”
The Bush administration, as quoted in the NY Times (12/22/04, p. A3): “With the budget deficit growing and President Bush promising to reduce spending, the administration has told representatives of several charities that it was unable to honor some earlier promises and would have money to pay for food only in emergency situations.”
…merry Christmas for my “stepbrother-in-common-law.” Who decided it was the polite thing to do to turn his back to us and play loud, talentless (allowing for the fact that we have very different tastes) electric guitar. While hosting me, my mother, his mother, and his friend, to say nothing of my “stepbrother’s” son and wife.
But, I got to spend some time with my almost-three-year-old nephew, which I always enjoy.
…the late Nick Venet. A few years ago when a Bobby Darin box set came out I heard an interview with Venet, its co-producer and a longtime Darin friend, on NPR’s Fresh Air.
I misremembered part of this interview when I wrote about it in my review of the Aces Back to Back CD/DVD earlier this this year. They played a demo tape of one of Darin’s songs recorded with him just singing and playing guitar into a portable tape recorder. Venet also told a story about listening to Darin whistle another of his songs while at the beach. And in my memory I mistakenly combined the two, thinking Darin recorded the demo at the beach.
But I always remembered the evident love with which the producer spoke of his friend. And something stayed with me since then about Darin as a kind of fluid performer, whose audience didn’t always have time for the A to Z of his interests. This led to my requesting the Aces set for review this year, which led in turn to my becoming a Darin fan.
They rebroadcast the interview this past Friday, and you can listen to it, for the next couple days at least, here. It’s recommended (there are also excerpts from the box set and Aces collection).
Merry Christmas for Peter Bogdanovich, who wants to know, Who The Hell’s In It?
…all you dorks out there fragging Ewoks left and right. (Thanks for the link, Stefon)
…the marketing firm that figured out a way to push Robert Zemeckis’s slow-moving Polar Express: By exploiting the evangelical audience.
…Rush Limbaugh, Bill Cunningham, and the rest of the winners in the Top 10 Most Outrageous Statements Of 2004 list complied by Media Matters for America.
Rush Limbaugh on the Abu Ghraib photos: “I’m talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of need to blow some steam off?”
Bill Cunningham (Clear Channel radio host who appeared as a guest on The Sean Hannity Show): The election is over because “Elizabeth Edwards has now sung.”
…the Washington State Republicans, who are gearing up for yet another legal challenge. You know, one of the many things to hate about the 2000 election debacle is that it seems to have established a precedent: If you can’t win at the ballot box, win in the courts. More here.
John Mayer, who found himself barred from a school ceremony.
Is it just me, or does Michael Jackson’s Thriller seem to have, in retrospect, a hidden meaning? Especially if you conceive, as I do, of the roots of his insanity being in an absolute terror of adult sexuality. Jackson grew up seeing his father and older brothers be abusive (mostly emotionally but sometimes physically) to the women in their lives, including his own mother. So the video’s story of a man who turns into a monster the minute a woman (played by a former Playboy Playmate, no less) tells him she loves him might seem to say more about the man he sees in the mirror than we might first have expected. Of course, just what he sees in the mirror is another thing–I also believe the drive behind his disasterous addiction to plastic surgery was a desire to erase his father’s features from his own face.
But anyway, enough about all that. What brought this on was a little cartoon my friend Corey sent me. You say you’ve wondered what the Thriller video would look like completely re-enacted with Legos?
Well, wonder no more.
So I wanted to talk a little bit about some of my favorite Christmas songs.
First of all, of course, there’s the aforementioned “Fairytale Of New York” by the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl, who is the the first reason why I love this song. Then there’s the short-story like sodden character of the whole thing–what other Christmas song has lines like:
You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
It’s our last
“The Christmas Waltz,” Frank Sinatra. Maybe not the most inspired song ever written, but the second time Sinatra recorded it as a single for Capitol records, arranger/conductor Gordon Jenkins added a choral group that is truly haunting.
“Eye Of A Needle,” The Art Of Noise. All Bing Crosby samples and cash-register sounds, it’s a rather obviously “satiric” look at the commercialization of Christmas, but so well arranged that I like it both because and in spite of that.
“Christmas Time Is here,” Vince Guaraldi trio with children’s chorus. The whole album is a must, of course. But this song particuarly brings memories of the record I used to have of the entire Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, dialogue, sound effects and all. They used to do that in the days before readily availble home video, and in retrospect I think it’s one of the things that helped form my imagination, as well as my love of radio.
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” by U2 (remake) or Darlene Love (original) deserves at least an honorable mention. And then there’s “She Won’t Be Home” by Erasure. Among the the things I love about this underrated minor classic is the way that the lines–
I wanted to say to you
How much I need to be with you
–repeated in the chorus into the fade, start to sound, unintentionally, like:
I wanted to say to you
How much I need to scream with you
Only continue reading if you can stand my occasional psychological breakdowns.
(more…)
In the Washington Monthly blog, Kevin Drum looks at the question of the public’s support for the war. Then over on Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall says he agrees with Kevin and builds on what he said.
Me, I think they’re both right, and there’s a cold hand of fear around my heart. As I realize there were enough people so commited to seeing their man elected they simply would not see the situation in Iraq for what it is. Enough to get the president re-elected.