Oscar Prediction: Kathryn Bigelow / The Hurt Locker

Let's just give it to her now, okay? Hollywood is long, long overdue to give the best director award to a woman, and what's more impressive - and acceptable - in that male-centric city than a woman who can make a war movie? It's like the girlfriend who makes awesome chili for your tailgating party.

#bonofacts

As predicted, the online reaction to Bono's NYT column regarding intellectual property rights and downloading is vehement. It even has its own Twitter channel.

Good '80s Pop, According To ...

A few people on my Twitter list answered the following:

Hey Nashville, can we assemble a GOOD '80s pop list? I'll start: Prince "Raspberry Beret." Next?

micchiato

@MaryBrace I'm going to have to put Rapture by Blondie on that list. Punk/New Wave & Rap collided.

wjb13

@MaryBrace my pick for good 80's pop: Tears For Fears' Songs From The Big Chair. Then again, I love 80's pop--the good & the bad.

KellyJennette

@MaryBrace Don't worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin(1988). My 5 yr old niece LOVES that song!!

Beck & Wilco Are Oarsmen

Every now and then you hear about a great rock & roll casualty; someone who was just too brilliant and perhaps naive to keep it together amid all the insanity of the record business. Syd Barrett was the most famous case. Daniel Johnston gets his due on a fairly regular basis. Less known is Skip Spence, one of the founding members of Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape; the latter's music might have gone entirely unnoticed by anyone outside the West Coast under the age of 50, if Michael Stipe hadn't been in the Golden Palominos' 1985 crew to cover "Omaha."

Jim Ridley wrote a great article explaining the genesis of Skip's only solo album (that was recorded during his lifetime - 1968), Oar. It was recorded in Nashville, by the way, and it's one of those works music critics talk about as legendary, for good reason. You don't have to know a thing about Skip Spence or his difficulties to be startled by the fragile hope in the records first song, "Little Hands." I first came across Oar in the late 1980s when it had one of it's many reissues. With each reissue, Oar gains a little more well-deserved popularity. There was a tribute album a few years ago, even.

Beck, meanwhile, started a project called "Record Club" where he pulls his friends and acquaintances into the studio to interpret great records of the era, and now he's taking on Oar. Listen to this very faithful version he did with Wilco..

Record Club: Skip Spence "Little Hands" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Wish I Could Tell You What I Thought of V Last Night ...

... but I'm afraid it's not possible. Nashville's ABC affiliate, WKRN, elected to air Titans on 2 with Jeff Fisher, a weekly, locally-produced series promoting the local 0-6 pro-football team. It wasn't the first time I turned to channel 2 looking for one prime-time network program and getting football-talk instead, but it was the first time it almost kinda sorta mattered to me and definitely matters to others, as evidenced by the station's website feedback and Twitter backlash.

I have no small amount of sympathy for my peers who work at the channel, on the staff end. I've been stuck playing plenty of songs, over my career, that were mediocre at best and with no say in the matter. This was simply a horrendous call - the kind that drives people away from the corps traditional broadcast media and to the internet, where there's almost always someone who will satisfy a genuine jones.

Just ask Uncle Ray:

Time With the Big Man

Earlier this morning I recorded a phone interview with Clarence Clemons (E-Street Band) and Don Rio, and his longtime friend & co-author of the memoir, Big Man, Real Life & Tall Tales. It just came out yesterday and it's a fantastic read. What's great is that instead of being anything like a regular bio or auto-biography, this is a book of stories. When you hang out with a traveling band for any length of time, you'll start hearing the tales of all the crazy shit they do and some that just happens without much effort on any of the members' parts. Being around when the stories start coming out is one of the most interesting and fascinating things a fan can ever get to do - Clemons and Rio are giving fans of Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street band a huge treat by sharing these episodes. Another bonus is that the prose reads as though you're sitting at their feet.

Each chapter is a vignette; about 1/2 of them are true; the rest may as well be. I consider this book a must for rock fans. In the meantime, I think I'm going to run the phoner when they get a little closer to Nashville's Sommet Center show.

Relix Mag's Top 50 Concerts

Relix magazine released this list, compiled by journalists, musicians, and other industry vets. Of course, some of us will disagree.

#1 was the warm-up to MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech at the US capitol, with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Odetta and Peter, Paul and Mary. The rest, descending:

50. Arcade Fire - Coachella 5/1/05
49. Pantera - Santa Monica Civic Center 5/2/94
48. Phil Ochs - Carnegie Hall 3/27/70
47. B.B. King - Regal Theater, Chicago 11/21/64
46. H.O.R.D.E. Festival - Cumberland, ME 7/9/92
45. Janis Joplin - Monterey Pop Festival 6/17/67
44. Radiohead - Santa Barbara Bowl 6/30/01
43. RATM - DNC Staples Center LA 8/14/00
42. MMJ - Bonnaroo 6/12/04
41. The Clash - Bonds Int'l Casino NYC 6/1/81
40. Muddy Waters - Checkerboard Lounge, Chicago 11/22/81
39. Metallica - Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas 1/4/92
38. Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable w/The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Trip, LA 5/3/66
37. Dylan - Boston Music Hall 11/21/75 (late show)
36. Pearl Jam - Soldier Field, Chicago 7/11/95
35. Nirvana - Unplugged Sony Music Studios NYC 11/18/93
34. Concert for Bangladesh - MSG 8/1/71
33. Miles Davis - Plugged Nickel, Chicago 12/22/65 (set 2)
32. MC5 - Grande Ballroom, Detroit 12/30/68
31. Roosevelt Sykes, B.B. King, Bukka White, Zigaboo Modeliste, George Porter & Professor Longhair - New Orleans Jazzfest 4/14/73
30. James Brown - Boston Garden 4/5/68
29. Cream - MSG 11/2/68
28. Michael Jackson - MoTown 25, Pasadena Civic Auditorium 3/25/83
27. Minor Threat - 9:30 Club, W'ton DC 9/23/83
26. Allman Brothers Band - Fillmore East NYC 6/26/71
25. Bruce Springsteen - The Bottom Line NYC 8/14/75
24. U2 - Red Rocks 6/5/83
23. The Ramones - CBGB 8/16/74
22. Grateful Dead - Fillmore West 3/1/69
21. Lollapalooza '91 - Shoreline 7/26/9120. Aretha Franklin - Fillmore West SF 3/7/71
19. The Rolling Stones - MSG 7/26/72
18. Coltrane - Village Vanguard NYC 11/3/61
17. Otis Redding w/Booker T. & The M.G.s - Monterey Pop Festival 6/17/67
16. The Who - Grande Ballroom, Detroit 5/9/69
15. Bob Marley & The Wailers - The Roxy, H'Wood 5/26/76
14. Led Zeppelin - The Forum LA 6/25/72
13. Talking Heads - Pantages Theatre LA 12/18/83
12. Pink Floyd - Nassau Coliseum 2/28/80
11. David Bowie - Santa Monica Civic Auditorium 10/20/72
10. Phish - Big Cypress 12/31/99
9. Elvis - NBC Studios, Burbank, CA 12/3/68
8. Sex Pistols - Winterland 1/14/78
7. The Band - The Last Waltz, Winterland 11/25/76
6. The Beatles - Shea Stadium 4/15/65
5. James Brown - The Apollo 10/24/62
4. Jimi Hendrix - Woodstock 8/18/69
3. Dylan - Newport Folk Festival 7/25/65
2. The Beatles - Ed Sullivan Theatre 2/9/64

et tu?