Caught Thom Anderson's sprawling LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF with a full house last night at the restored Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, and while I admired its slew of ideas, and the wicked dry narration (Encke King), it's too long by at least half and the organization is a mess. The clips are choice … [Read more...]

"Just think, you could be governor someday..." Gold's Gym, Pasadena … [Read more...]

S F/J says it better than I'm inspired to. Ghost of Tom Joad Part DEUX (with a bullet). NEBRASKA works better as metaphorical Bush critique than the title song. Although, word from California is that star-studded shows are stunning, including solo piano "Incident on 57th Street"… 2005 LIST (IN … [Read more...]

Hedy Lamarr (Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler), b. Vienna, 1913 "… And so she came west, perhaps as beautiful as any woman ever filmed, but nearly stunned by all the things being said about her, and by her extensive limits as an actress." — from David Thomson's BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF FILM (third … [Read more...]

Three lists for Rock Snob's Dictionary's "real" and "snob" formats, which makes more and more sense as you work on it: REAL FAVS (changes daily, no particular order) 1. BLONDE ON BLONDE + BASEMENT TAPES + BEFORE THE FLOOD + LOVE AND THEFT, Bob Dylan (w/Band etc) 2. LET IT BLEED, Rolling … [Read more...]

Bruce Springsteen on VH1's Storytellers … [Read more...]

Here & Now broadcast my Petra Haden piece today, everybody should run out and buy it. … [Read more...]

Sure, Bernard Kerik and Judith Regan are easy targets. But last week's LAW AND ORDER had a spicy ex-police commissioner plot with Kevin Dunn doing a deliciously narcissistic Kerik, who was two-timing on publishing magnate Regan with a porn star. (In real life, the married Kerik was cheating on his … [Read more...]

"Imagine Something Awful," -- Phil Gallo in Variety (try bugmetnot). THEY LIKE ME... James Levine appeared on Charlie Rose a couple weeks back, and nobody seemed to notice his scathing subtext. The overall theme was how great his career is going, how beloved he is at the MET, how the BSO has rushed … [Read more...]

What's the Matter With Liberals, the new afterword to WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS, details the subtextual class warfare that Rove perfected in 2004: The only centrism to be seen on the Republican side was the parade of GOP moderates across the stage of Madison Square Garden, an exercise clearly … [Read more...]

Elitism for Dummies: Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts on DVD got picked up for the WBUR Arts Online pages. … [Read more...]

CLICKTRACK SNOBSITE … [Read more...]

"John Lennon's ex-lover May Pang has slammed his widow Yoko Ono for erasing her relationship with the late Beatle from the Broadway, New York musical about his life." Starring Joan Collins as Yoko Ono, Linda Blair as May Pang, Tab Hunter as Peter Fonda, and Brian Dennehy as Leon Wildes (Lifetime, … [Read more...]

First saw this LONG EMERGENCY excerpt linked off Wolcott, then found Kunstler's own page of rants. (Is Rolling Stone trying to earn back our respect? If so, how come we still can't search by byline?) After we lock Karl Rove in a room with a laxative-dosed greased pig, this is our questioner... I … [Read more...]

I LOVE HUCKABEES (DVD) Reminds us how much we hate West Wing's TOTAL WASTE of Lily Tomlin…not to mention Kristin Chenowith… (John Spencer for VP? Can they Cheney-ize his broken ticker…?) UPSIDE OF ANGER Plenty of yucks, worth seeing for Pat Nixon, you'll forget it's Costner, daughters are thinly … [Read more...]