by Rodney Eric Griffith | Armour of Rod | |
bp: 134/85
Spotted on Cartoon Brew: Classic Media is producing a new series of 26 episodes of George of the Jungle. I miss Jay Ward but I’m skeptical than anyone can really bring any of the Jay Ward Productions back properly. But you can, at least, have Bullwinkle J. Moose on DVD (even if, as a prerelease, this set is ineligible for the DEEPDISCOUNT 20% sale).
bp: 122/93
Not talkative. Here’s a fab wulffmorgenthaler strip. Apart from the name of the agency, it rings uncomfortably true. As a public service I will mention that Deep Discount DVD is having one of their very rare 20% off sales (you need a coupon code, however, which I will disclose tomorrow).
Jessica Simpson is not attractive, physically or otherwise. There, I said it. Did America really need another Dagmar that badly? I know the real reason she and Britney Spears are popular in the Americas, and it has nothing to do with standards (that much is self-evident) or beauty. Like Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears is average-looking. But they look like someone “everyone” went to high school with, and, in a culture unable to grow the fuck up, that relates more easily (and comfortably) than admiration of someone actually gifted or beautiful, because the mob of the average bitterly resent the talented, because the idea that anyone is better than they are threatens their fragile view of existence.
It would be impossible to improve on the observation of Tom Shales when he compared Jessica to “A braying mule when she goes for those really loud notes and opens her mouth as wide as it will go,” but it’s not just her, and being a large fish in a small pond doesn’t make you a catch.
bp: 108/78
I had not expected such an abrupt outcome of the Maverick/Warner Music Group lawsuit: Madonna cashed her stake in. I would have to expect that Maverick Records will be quietly put out to pasture. I’m rather fond of vanity labels, although it’s obvious that Maverick was no SuperEgo or Philles or the late, lamented Grand Royal.
Rodney | 8:14:00 PM [permalink]bp: 112/87
A $25 million payoff is what kept the monster out.
bp: 131/81
I had mixed feelings about the DVD release of SCTV before perusing this episode guide removed my ambivalence. Its brilliance from 1976 through 1982 is beyond question, but I wonder how much of SCTV will be lost in translation, not only because of topicality, but its deliberately obscure cultural references. (This was my favourite program as a teenager, but even as a longtime fan I had to read up for some of the Canadian references.) Caroline suggested I was at a similar impasse with a lot of Spitting Image, which I think is a good comparison.
Shout! Factory, who disentangled the clearance problems that prevented SCTV from having a previous video release, have kindly provided a preview of the original Network/90 opening credit sequence that NBC quickly supressed.
bp: 114/77
Torrential rainfall (since given way to brilliant sunshine) made me regret not having Glenn Tilbrook tickets less. I did want to see him—the last time I did was when Squeeze was touring for Babylon & On, which doesn’t seem like all that long ago, let alone more than 15 years past. Notably, they played somewhere that didn’t require driving.
For a very long time, I’ve blamed the dependency of concert tours as one of the main reasons why pop music took such a dive that it’s taken 30 years to even begin dragging itself out (though the aforementioned Mr Tilbrook and Elvis Costello are among the minority exceptions to the rule). I enjoy the intimacy of small-venue concerts but even those have come to incur a substantial ticket charge, and the eternal crisis of driving and parking tempers my excitement whenever anyone good comes through town (I missed Aimee Mann for the selfsame reasons, and passed up an opportunity to see Paul McCartney).
I’d want to see Brian Wilson again, but a part of me hopes the SMiLE tour skips Cleveland.
Saturday: 112/82.
Sunday: 125/75.
Read this: The Real Reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned from the CIA on June 3rd and 4th. Gloomy, but useful.
