Music: XBXRX: Un Usurper
Casey McKinney07.06.09
Like all non-idiots (and please hold the personal heckling till the end here), I love free albums, and like those lucky enough to have experienced…
Talk Show 27 with Daphne Beal, Charles Bock, Emily Chenoweth, John McNally, Irina Reyn and Peter Trachtenberg
Jaime Clarke07.02.09
Jaime Clarke talks to authors Daphne Beal, Charles Bock, Emily Chenoweth, John McNally, Irina Reyn and Peter Trachtenberg about things from the past they might like to see return to the present (in some form or fashion) and why – from manual typewriters, to wooly mammoths, to classic Woody Allen dinner parties, to something akin to the workers movement known as The Wobblies…the answers in this episode are as varied as anyone might be expected to produce. Art By Danny Jock.
Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
Grant Weber06.27.09
While Beyond may have thrown everyone for a loop that one of the nastiest divorces in rock history was suddenly caput (it was like Burton had returned to Taylor again, and the chemistry was off the charts) – Farm, Dinosaur Jr.’s latest shows maybe there’s no surprises anymore, except that Mascis and crew keep proving louder, stronger and lovelier that they are one of rock’s greatest bands…ever. Take out them earplugs son, let the damage wash beautifully over you. Grant Weber reviews.
Stay Busy Line
Dallas Hudgens06.27.09
Okay true it’s summer, and the Stanley Cup is firmly in Penguin hands till next year, but we got one more hockey story for you, some new fiction from Dallas Hudgens – the tale of a down on his luck semi-pro from Ontario who never quite learned his half and whole steps on the piano is battling to keep it together, at turns giving piano lessons to a young lady, stocking shelves in a Rite AID, while hallucinating the horrors of his father and body checking everyone who might breathe at him funny. Meet Serge in ‘Stay Busy Line.’ Art by Danny Jock.
Draft-Brewed Goodness: A Look Back, and A Look Ahead
Adam Underhill06.26.09
Woke up to two emails this morning. First, Danny Jock, responding to the news of Michael Jackson’s death. “I heard. I was in a diner. Where were you when the king of pop died? I immediately said, they should reshoot the video THRILLER now with him. An old lady said, you shouldn’t make fun of the dead. I said yeah? They could put you in the video?” Which I have to say after all the hullabaloo yesterday, which was a big deal (and ABC’s going on and on about Farrah Fawcett’s hair, which wasn’t, her hair that is) was a refreshing let’s move on kind of moment. Then in kind, Adam Underhill’s NBA draft piece came in, which reminds us that something else happened yesterday besides two icons dying – some were being born, or at least just suddenly becoming rich. Art of course by Danny Jock.
Strawberry Jamming: Darryl’s Dodger Days, Memories of a Young Fan
Richard Parks06.22.09
Richard Parks grew up across the highway from one of the rougher hoods in Los Angeles, Crenshaw (as this editor knows, I used to teach there), and Crenshaw High is where Darryl Strawberry honed his talent on the baseball diamond before jaunting back and forth to New York as both a Met, a Yankee, and an interim return stint as a Los Angeles Dodger, a period that would also introduce him to his arch nemesis, crack cocaine. It was during Straw’s Dodger days that Parks, aged 9, first fell in love with the old American pastime (too young for Nirvana yet), and Strawberry was his first hero. A couple of newish books chart Strawberry’s checkered, storied career involving drug use, redemption, fall and redemption again. Loosely referencing those texts, Parks here mostly recalls his memories as a young fan and the changing city he knew at the time.
This One Will Last a Lifetime
Pete Hausler06.21.09
Pete Hausler reminices over the last Stanley Cup victory for the New York Rangers, which came in 1994, after he caught a recent television replay of the final game. Part tribute to his father—who, like Pete, is a lifelong Rangers fan, but who languished in Stanley Cup-less futility for 54 years until the fateful night—and part memoir of the weird and fortunate circumstances in which he watched the final series, Hausler brings the victorious times up to speed with the modern day reality of another decade-plus of fan frustration. This year’s hockey season is over, with the Pittsburgh Penguins taking the Cup from the Detroit Red Wings in seven games. The Rangers were bounced out in the opening round, but for the true fan there’s always hope for next year over and over again.
