Re-Twitter

Now that I've recovered from my initial horror ("it saves my posts forever?!? whaaaaaaaat was I thinking?"), I'm back on Twitter. For what it's worth. Although I'm really kind of, sort of, over it all ... I mean, where does it stop? First, I had to be on ICQ, then I had to be on MySpace, then I had to be on Facebook, then I had to be on LinkedIn and now I'm getting requests to join something called Naymz. At some point you get to where you're creating content for all of these Social Networking sites and their advertisers, instead of creative content for my own employer and our advertisers.

Video for "Put on Your Boots"

From U2's website. Shot by French film maker / artist Alex Courtes.

Grammys - The Morning After

It was the most entertaining Grammy Awards show I can remember in a long time, in spite of horrible sound problems for the musical performances. They really could have used a Shane Hurlbut-style knob tweaker. I felt awful for Estelle; everytime she went up at bat for the duet with Kanye the music dropped out of the mix. She had the pipes to pull it off.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

How can anyone say anything bad about Michael Phelps' bong hit, when Whitney Houston was that trashed on the job?

I've been working on and will eventually get around to posting a wee essay on the anti-Coldplay movement; in the meantime, it was delicious to see Chris Martin's wife, Gwynneth Paltrow, nab the honor of introducing Radiohead.

Is Katy Perry the new Madonna, or the new Marlene Dietrich? Inquiring minds are dying to know.



I'm pretty sure I went to bed not long after that, but thanks to the glory of YouTube, many Grammy moments are still available - at least until NARAS demands they all come down. No idea how long this McCartney/Grohl and company stomp will last:



One of the more disappointing - and bizarre - moments I missed was a hugely pregnant M.I.A. coming out on stage, practically on her due date, to perform with Kanye, Lil Wayne, et all, for "Swagger Like Us." As said elsewhere, it would have been nice to see M.I.A., a woman in a state where things don't get any more feminine, and her nominated song get their own spotlight without getting buried underneath a stage full of "Swagger." The outfit was cute, though.



With the guest list they had - all the above, plus others that happened after I went to sleep - last night should turn out to bring in the high ratings they were hoping for. I would have liked to see "Paper Planes" take Record of the Year, but can't complain that "Please Read the Letter" did. Except that it was written a few years ago from Page/Plant, it was the only of the five that stands out as something that lives entirely in its own time, instead of heavily borrowing from past musical movements.

And T-Bone just brought on so much cool.

In Defense of Christian Bale

What? That's not enough?

Feh. If you listen to the tape you hear Bale say the DP had been asked multiple times to stop messing with the lights and stay out of his line of sight while cameras were rolling.

So why didn't he?

Ain't It Cool News has a report on the story, confirming that most crew members on film sets would never behave in the way the Director of Photography on Terminator was:

The DP on TERMINATOR SALVATION, Shane Hurlbut, is a apparently a light tweaker. He's a fairly young DP and likes to fiddle with his lights on set during action, which is a big "NO NO" on most productions unless worked out in advance with performers. But apparently Shane was a pretty unrepentant light tweaker. ...

Bale had indeed warned the DP on multiple occasions about messing with lights while the cameras were rolling, and Bale was in the midst of a painful scene with Bryce, what was described to me as being the emotional center of the film and his character for the film.

Someone should have taken the DP aside and told him to cut the crap before it caused a fit. Instead, they released this audio and tried to damage Christian Bale's career by making him look like a prima donna.

Congratulations Paste!

The magazine that still cares about music - among other things - just put out it's 50th issue.

Bonnaroo Thoughts

First, it looks like a great lineup. I'd be thrilled to see Nine Inch Nails in an atmosphere where it's a safe bet 70% of the crowd won't have some kind of chip on their shoulder. Bruce? Wow. What are they going to do with them? "Sorry, Bruce, but you guys can only do a two-hour set. Yeah, I know, but Robyn Hitchcock comes on at midnight."

Second, Gomez returns! Give me your best Howard Dean scream! Last time they played Bonnaroo, they played Nashville Sunday Night that weekend and it was one of the bestest shows (if not the drunkest), ever. (I heard a little bit of their forthcoming album the other day. Not a lot. Just enough to say to David Hall, "ooh, what's this? Me likey. Me want to play.")

Last year I skipped, but I think I'm going to have to brave the heat this time. And all the area hotels are booked. Argh.

Bonnaroo Lineup Announced

And it goes like this:

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Phish (2 Shows)
Beastie Boys
Nine Inch Nails
David Byrne
Wilco
Al Green
Snoop Dogg
Elvis Costello Solo
Erykah Badu
Paul Oakenfold
Ben Harper and Relentless7
The Mars Volta
TV on the Radio
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Gov't Mule
Andrew Bird







Merle Haggard
MGMT
moe.
The Decemberists
Girl Talk
Bon Iver
Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Galactic
The Del McCoury Band
of Montreal
Allen Toussaint
Coheed and Cambria
Booker T & the DBTs
David Grisman Quintet
Lucinda Williams
Animal Collective
Gomez












Neko Case
Down
Jenny Lewis
Santogold
Robert Earl Keen
Citizen Cope
Femi Kuti and the Positive Force
The Ting Tings
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Kaki King
Grizzly Bear
King Sunny Adé
Okkervil River
St. Vincent
Zac Brown Band
Raphael Saadiq
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Crystal Castles
Tift Merritt
Brett Dennen
Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue
Toubab Krewe
People Under the Stairs
Alejandro Escovedo
Vieux Farka Touré
Elvis Perkins In Dearland
Cherryholmes
Yeasayer
Todd Snider
Chairlift
Portugal. The Man.
The SteelDrivers
Midnite
The Knux
The Low Anthem
Delta Spirit
A.A. Bondy
The Lovell Sisters
Alberta Cross

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