Christmas in Achewood

Notes from Insomnia: December 19, 2009--2:33 AM (EST)

Notes from Insomnia: December 16, 2009--3:50 AM (EST)

I'm really digging this song, this video, and am having a serious love hangover on Dave 1 (the dude who's rocking the hot-hot moves).

If there's a cure for him, I don't want it! The music is pretty durned hot, too. Chromeo, oh Chromeo--wherefore art thou? And why isn't it anywhere near Savannah?

'Tis the Season to Be Salty

I'm a yuletide hater--I admit it. Something about the throngs of manic shoppers and related traffic that kills the "merry" in my Christmas. The music, however, is something else altogether. The folks at iTunes are offering up a holiday sampler--for free (my favorite part). No crowd- or long-line-tolerance required.

Speaking of tolerance, the good people of Houston, Texas elected City Comptroller Annise Parker as its mayor. Of course, when a gay/lesbian is elected to serve in one of the largest U.S. cities--a reputedly conservative one at that, it becomes news. Personally, I appreciated that her campaign was based more on the issues and her experience--despite the antigay venom spewed during her campaign--than her sexuality.

Frankly, it's just refreshing to see a Houston other than Whitney in the news.

Which leads me to the whole Reverend Al Sharpton satire debacle. It's a joke, people--a joke! Friends of mine--people with common sense---have been Facebooking and tweeting their credibility away all (last) week. Why people would really think Rev. Sharpton would decry Tiger Woods' lack of black mistresses is beyond me. But what do I know? I once owned a two-finger ring. Interestingly enough, it was a Christmas gift.

Featured Song: "Baby, It's Cold Outside (featuring Velma Middleton)," Louis Armstrong (from Historic Collection, Volume Three)

I Guess That's Why They Call It the News

Nielsen had something of a fire sale, selling off Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Backstage and Film Journal International--and shutting Kirkus Reviews as well as Editor & Publisher.

As a fairly still-unknown writer, the shuttering of the last two publications hits me straight in the big A (Aspiration). It doesn't come as a shock, though; we live in a culture where Sarah Palin's memoir was the biggest deal in books and literature this year. Nothing says near-final rites like her 432-page chunk of nothing does.

Speaking of nothing, methinks the much-drawn out news of George Stephonopoulos' GMA (Good Morning America--which, for me, means Give Me Aspirin) anchorship seemed much ado about the obvious. The hubbub seemed more designed to garner viewers for the show than anything else.

With that news hangover cured, we can focus on the more important things--like the Jackson family's scripted reality show (a yawn fest if ever there was one) or the coming Sex and the City sequel (which I initially mistook for a sci-fi film about she-male cyborgs; glad to know I was right)--also known as Carrie: Yawn.

Featured Song: "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues," Elton John Chorus (from Too Low for Zero)

Choral: Songs in the Key of Kvetch

The New York Times piece about the Complaints Choir was intriguing; I wonder whether the concept's execution lives up to the grandeur of the concept. It reminded me of the chorus in Young @ Heart, which I saw only two nights ago. It also makes me wonder how far behind a fusion of the two are--something along the lines of the Moth with musical accompaniment. Sounds fun, no?


Featured Song: "I Wanna Be Sedated," Young@Heart Chorus (from Young@Heart: The Soundtrack)

Room to Breathe: Yorn & Johansson's Break Up

A good friend of mine turned me on to Break Up (iTunes/Amazon), the Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson collaboration, so I was really psyched to get it for my birthday. It's surprisingly good; Scarlett's voice has much more room to breathe in Yorn's electro-electric-acoustic web. She, like Cassandra Wilson, has the type of husky contralto that lends itself better to more airy arrangements.

I think part of the problem with Anywhere I Lay My Head (iTunes/Amazon) was that her voice was too far down in the mix--beneath the music. It has to sit on top of the mix--something Wilson learned with Craig Street when she recorded Blue Light Til Dawn (iTunes/Amazon)--placed like a body on a metaphorical bed of roses--which Yorn does to great effect. I think Anywhere would have been successful had it been more acoustic. You don't mask a voice like that--you feature it.


Featured Song: "I Don't Know What to Do," Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson (from Break Up)

Private Life

My cousin Paul sent me a link about the current Tiger Woods debacle. I pretty much agree with sportswriter Dan Wretzel: It's not the infidelity or consequences that followed--it's that he perpetuated a clean-cut image and placed himself in the role-model position. And I can empathize with the whole pressures-of-fame dilemma--when I went to China in '95, attention via the curious eyes of the locals followed me everywhere, all the time--it's ugly stuff. But for him to cry media harassment when his courting of said media helped create the firestorm he sparked, is a cop out.

We live in a world where the microscope of celebrity secrets/confessions (hello, Meredith Baxter!) help distract from a six-year war that shows no signs of slowing, an economy where the job losses are still flowing, a dysfunctional education system, a rising cost of living, and tons of economic uncertainty, tabloids--which have surpassed movies and television as entertainment.

Of course, I watch the circus like everyone else, knowing I'd hate to live under that kind of scrutiny. (An essay here and there is fine, but paparazzi? "Hells to the no," as the young people say.) That's why I left the bright lights (and flashbulbs) of New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles for the less-harried pace of Savannah, Georgia.

Featured Song: "Private Life," Grace Jones (from Warm Leatherette)