Tuesday, March 11, 2003

'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom': After the Advent of the Bitchun Society. In Cory Doctorow's science fiction novel set in Disney World, death is a thing of the past. By Taylor Antrim. [New York Times: Books] Hey, good for Cory Doctrow (of bOing bOing, of course)! Gettin' reviewed in the NYT...not bad at all.
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Damn - even with the last couple months of slacking on the posting, I've still used 43% of my 40mb of Radio space. Damn! How did I do *that*?
10:37:01 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

See her picture in a thousand places 'cause she's this year's girl You think you all own little pieces of this year's girl Forget your fancy manners Forget your English grammar 'Cause you don't really give a damn about this year's girl Congrats to the Clash for the Rock Hall of Fame induction, but the publicity they've gotten (sadly, most of it due to Joe Strummer's death) has overshadowed the other inductee to come out of the punk movement of late '70s England - Elvis Costello. I first really listened to Costello only a few years ago, back when I was working in the music department at my college bookstore. I was introduced to a LOT of good music during that time - no real shock there. But only a few albums really stuck with me - Whiskeytown's Faithless Street, Primal Scream's Vanishing Point, a few others...and Elvis Costello and the Attractions' This Year's Model. I'm listening to it right now, as you could probably guess - just got to the ultra-catchy "Pump It Up", which still makes me want to bounce around the room after hundreds of listenings. Costello wasn't really a punk...I'd say he's more a musical descendant of Paul McCartney than anything else - combining pre-rock pop influences with straightforward Buddy Holly influenced rock and roll, and a certain snarl that McCartney never had. My first thought, when I heard about Costello's collaboration with Burt Bacharach, was to laugh - it just sounded silly. It also sounds like selling out, the once-punkish rocker teaming up with a lounge act...but it WORKED. Costello can rock with the best of them, but at the core, he's got a pop sensibility like nearly no one else ever has. If ever anyone has deserved to be in the Rock Hall, it's him. Oh, and then there's maybe my favorite Elvis Costello moment - the Saturday Night Live 25th anniversary show. Not a bad show in general - mainly because it had a healthy dose of Bill Murray. But anyway - various musical acts played - including The Beastie Boys. They started playing "Sabotage" when Elvis charged out from off-stage, grabbed the mike and said "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very sorry...there's no reason to play that song tonight." And then the Beasties and Elvis slammed into "Radio, Radio"...doing a repeat of a bit Elvis did with the Attractions 20 years earlier on SNL. I just thought it was cool. =)

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