Tuesday, May 13, 2008

We need pens

So I was in the barber shop yesterday waiting to get my hair chopped off and I picked up the most recent issue of Maxim--for the articles, I swear--and there was a nice little piece about Death Cab for Cutie, who have an album coming out any second now. Ben Gibbard makes the point in the article that people have been generally surprised by the difference between their albums (which are sort of twee, in a good way) and their live shows (which rock). This point was confirmed for me over the weekend. We saw Death Cab on Saturday night at the Bank of America Pavilion (the BAP, to its friends). Aside from the frostbite incurred, it was a generally awesome experience. I can now attest that Death Cab does indeed rock. I am also reminded that--in lieu of giving Andy some shit about this semi-backhanded compliment--I ought to recommend that he go see them when they get to Berkeley on June 21. (Alas, no San Fran dates.) Sadly, I missed Bob Mould, who played before we arrived--though perhaps I will watch his DVD (of a live show at the 9:30 Club in DC, from 2007), which Jenn gave me for Christmas.

So what do you think is going to happen tonight on Idol? My guess would be that Syesha goes home, though, if by some miracle David Archuleta somehow goes, I'll pledge to give up golf for the rest of the war. (If President Bush can sacrifice, so can I.) An hour and a half after the show ended, Jenn tried calling in for David Cook and still could not get through.

I don't have much to say about Top Chef. The episode itself was pretty exciting. It was no surprise that Nikki went. She was just a disaster. Like Susan, I suspect that Lisa will go soon, though, of course, she was the least damaged by being on the losing team. (Her cake looked like Fort Knox, but apparently it was delicious.) Dale, on the other hand, is more hated than ever.

Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm--alas, out of print--is one of the more brilliant books of political history I've read in quite a while. It's a story about the origins of movement conservatism told from the vantage point of the 1964 election--whence Barry Goldwater got his clock cleaned by Lyndon Johnson. (If the previous sentence has made Perlstein's book sound boring, I assure you that it is the opposite of boring.) If you can find a copy in a used book store, I highly recommend it. Anyway, Perlstein's follow-up, Nixonland, is now out and I've been hearing the term "masterpiece" in reference to it a lot. So who does the allegedly liberal New York Times assign it to? George Fucking Will. Of course, Will didn't really like it because Perlstein says some things about movement conservatism that are true but that make Will uncomfortable. If you want to make Will even more uncomfortable, go buy a copy of Nixonland.

Finally, Barack Obama is not a Muslim. Glad I could clear that up. Move along now.

Posted by jwb at 9:00 AM   

1 Comments:

Blogger Marty said:

Hey John,

Haven't seen any Bond references in a while, so I thought I'd post this recent re-working of the top 10 Bond girls of all time. Eva Green is steadily climbing the ranks, at number 4, and is still my definite favourite, particularly going from her picture:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1557446,00.html

Hey also, congratulations on your anticipated adventures in parenthood. Care to provide any updates?
at 5:28 AM     

Post a Comment
« home