Musings on the Most Ridiculous Band I Can't Stop Listening To

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Stuffing Your Stocking

Christmas is coming, Enthusiasts, coming all over us. Christmas is coming soon, too: can’t you hear Christmas’ breath becoming labored? Can’t you see Christmas’ toes curling? Don’t mention Christmas’ mother right now, Enthusiasts! Christmas will never come if you do that.

Excuse me.

Christmas is gonna come in our eyes and laugh when we cry.

Stop it.

Who among us is not dreaming of a milky, white Christmas?

SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Why?

Because you’re both trite and disgusting.

Like if someone wrote “Live, Laugh, Love” on the wall in feces?

Just like that, yes. You started this post with a point.

I did, and I was going to get to it after I exhausted myself being a filthmonster.

Why don’t we skip right to it?

Sure: Christmas, Enthusiasts, is the time to say “I love you.” And share the joy and laughter and good cheer. On the corners, the carolers are singing. There’s a touch of magic in the air. From grownup to minor, no one could be finer; times are hard, but–

STOP SINGING BILLY SQUIER SONGS.

Billy Squier’s fucking awesome.

Please just get to the point. 

My point is that the greatest gift that anyone could even hope to give this year for Christmas is Chris Jenning’s triumph of a book Paradise Now: The Story of American UtopianismThis book–remarkable scholarship matched with flowing prose–can be beaten by no object on the planet in terms of presentability. (I choose my words carefully, as always: as superb as Chris’ book is, it is not as good as world peace or true love or supreme physical beauty. If we’re honest, many concepts are a better Christmas present than Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism–lactose tolerance, gravity negation, the weather always matching your mood–but stuff? Stuff? No, there is no stuff that compares.

Nothing?

Nope. Nothing.

Luxury car with the giant bow on it like in the commercials.

A car is not a gift. A car is a financial obligation. Giving someone an automobile for Christmas is like giving someone a dog for Christmas. You’re essentially demanding that the recipient keep something alive.

Suitcase full of cash.

Have you ever seen a movie before?

I have seen several movies.

Do the movies that feature suitcases full of cash have happy endings for the protagonists?

Rarely. Wait: heist films.

Heist films most certainly do not feature suitcases full of cash. Heist films are about vaults full of cash. You can totally get away with stealing a vault full of cash, but being in possession of a suitcase full of cash leads to a bullet in the face in the third act. Terrible Christmas present.

Hope Diamond.

Bad mojo, man.

Complete set of Barney Miller DVDs.

Bad Wojo, man.

A sweater.

Can a sweater teach you about the Perfectionists of the Oneida Commune, and their inevitable schism? Or the Icarians of Nauvoo, and their inevitable schism? Or the Fourierist Phalanxes, and–

Their inevitable schism?

–their inevitable…yeah.

Utopianists were a bunch of schismatic motherfuckers.

You have no idea. It was just squabbling and either having no sex or having too much. And these are things no sweater could ever tell you, even a cardigan, which is the most intelligent of all the sweaters.

Are we including fictional objects in our discussion?

Obviously not. Don’t bring the Time Sheath into this. Also: Time Sheath technology is a horrible present: you put it under the tree and by the next morning the whole living room’s in the ninth century.

Well, you’ve stumped me and won the argument.

You’re just saying that.

I am. Not that everyone shouldn’t buy the book, but where did this come from?

The strenuous plug?

Yes.

He knows what he did.

I want to listen to Billy Squier now.

Me, too.

Dishdashing Through The Snow

What is this? Olompali?

“You’re funny, man. It’s Egpyt.”

I know. Just messing with you. How you like the place?

“It’s a trip. You know Canada?”

Sure.

“Nothing like that. Like, the total opposite in every way. We just talking you and me here?”

Yes.

“I can’t fucking wait to go home, man. Food’s all weird here. Just try getting a steak sandwich in Cairo. I dare ya.”

What kind of food do they have there?

“Egyptian food, man. Keep up with the conversation.”

Sorry.

“And then once you’re done with the food…”

The bathrooms?

“I don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m not particularly limber.”

Squat toilets aren’t your thing?

“You shouldn’t have to stretch before you take a shit, man.”

That’s true.

2017’s Albums Of The Year

The Rabbis – Nuclear (Pronounced “Nuke-yuh-ler”)

The second full-length album from these Pahrump, NV, art-punk triplets sees the music taking a new direction and dealing with the loss of the most talented triplet, Lamprey. Themes such as loss, grief, and being the second-or-third-most-talented triplet imbue the album with a poignancy that is only slightly tempered by the zither solos. (Every song features a zither solo, except for Zither Solo, which is entirely a zither solo.)

Ivan Denisovich – A Day In The Life

Gender-fluid, never seen without several shoe boxes duct-taped to zir head, and unwilling to tell anyone where ze is from, Ivan Denisovich’s soulful pop sounds like chamber music played by sentient pumpkins the week after Halloween. From epic ballads such as Hallway Party to bouncy numbers like Face Like A Gas Station, A Day In The Life never fails to surprise.

Rimmington Steale – Go Wash Up

Atlanta-based trap-hop producer Mike Starling’s third mixtape under the Rimmington Steale name explores the mysteries and whorling fractacality that is eating ass. Songs like Tastes Like Buttered Popcorn, ‘Til My Neck Breaks, Don’t Forget The Balls, and Back In The Shower, Stanky Bitch are like puzzle boxes made out of anuses.

Gladio Gorman – Estonia

In 2011, Gladio Gorman set himself a remarkable goal: record an album about each of the world’s 203 countries. Estonia, the 94th of the series, features Gorman’s trademark sound of a poorly-mic’ed acoustic guitar and whispered, intimate lyrics that captivate and educate, as 90% of them were sampled directly from Wikipedia’s entry on Estonia.

Lil Corpse – Dead By 19

South Florida Soundcloud rapper Lil Corpse achieved almost instant fame with his debut, and posthumous, release Dead By 19. Thick, distorted beats that remind you of music made by someone who didn’t know what they were doing and lyrics such as “Drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs, yes. Drugs, yes. Bish.” brought teenagers and New York Times critic Jon Caramanca running to his shows, all of which have been cancelled since his death. He will live on through such songs as Taking Pills Without Asking What They Are, Face Tattoo, and Why Aren’t Any Of The Adults In My Life Helping Me? Rest in Power, Lil Corpse.

Six The Hard Way

Mickey: actively masturbating.

OR

“Hi, there.”

“Yeah, uh, hi.”

Who is speaking right now?

“Bobby’s thighs.”

“Howdy.”

Noooooooope. Not happening.

OR

Everyone looks like they’re sucking up to Garcia to get a promotion.

OR

Billy’s shirt by Wyatt Koch. (Click at your own risk, but I’ll tell you upfront: you’re gonna want to murder the next rich fucker you see.)

OR

Amir Bar-Lev is directing a documentary about Phil entitled Tucker: A Man And His Shirts.

OR

Seriously, how was Bobby in a band with these mutants? He’s like an Eloi among Morlocks.

Thoughts On The Last Jedi, Episode II

I don’t get it. Why would you post a picture of–

Ohhhh.

Spoiler.

Sure. Technically, though, that is a wing.

I’m just gonna go into the bullet points and ignore you.

Where everyone will ignore you.

  • The Force.
  • It binds us.
  • Penetrates us.
  • Nibbles on our ear just the way we like.
  • Maybe some prostate milking.
  • We’re getting ahead of ourselves.
  • Zip!
  • Zop!
  • Pew pew pew.
  • And hope.
  • Gotta be honest: I’m a bit fucking hoped out with these Star Wars movies.
  • There’s too much hope.
  • How about bitter disappointment, Star Wars?
  • Inappropriate sexual arousal?
  • Ennui?
  • Any other emotion than hope, and I need blank-faced British women with pointy chins to stop blathering about it.
  • (Here’s the closest I’ll come to an actual review: The Last Jedi is better than Rogue One in every way, but especially in that I did not want to shoot the lead character out of an airlock 20 minutes in. The first flick in this current trilogy (let’s call it A Nu-Hope) was more fun than this, partially because the second act wasn’t spent watching Lucy and Ethel wander around Space Caesar’s Palace interacting with mostly-finished CGI.)
  • None of this bullshit matters, or at least it shouldn’t to adults: there are no ideas here.
  • Quite a few long articles have been written about how The Last Jedi sits in the #METOO thing, or that Poe Dameron is toxic masculinity, or how the porgs represent the Baltic States during the Cold War, but you should remember that all the people who wrote all that bullshit got paid to do so, and if they had any useful skills, then they wouldn’t write for a living.
  • Anyway: the plot, as it was.
  • Did it start with pew pew pew?
  • I think it started with some pew pew pew.
  • Oh, right, the thing with the bomber ships that weren’t B-Wings and everyone died heroically or whatever except for Oscar Isaac.
  • Oscar Isaac was, once again, doing his Al Pacino in 1973 impression.
  • Carrie Fisher shows up and says “hope” a lot.
  • Listen, I loved Carrie Fisher just as much as the rest of you, but the woman couldn’t act.
  • Also: they should have killed her off onscreen because I’m already dreading the opening funeral scene of Episode IX.
  • Then there is a low-speed chase across the galaxy, much like O.J.’s Bronco ride, and we learn that spaceships in Star Wars now require fuel.
  • And if you run out of fuel, you immediately start drifting towards the shoulder as though your Mon Calamari capital ship were a 2002 Toyota Camry.
  • Then there’s an old guy and British girl on an island with turtlemonsters and penguin-things and Tobacco the Space Monkey, and it rains there quite a bit–which you would think would make it a terrible place to store antique books–and we see the third variation on “Jedi training” in eight movies.
  • This version is just as shoddy as the other two.
  • A refresher:
    • Gymnastics in a swamp with a frog-person on your back.
    • Raised from childhood to be a creepy, sexless, incompetent space-Franciscan.
  • And now Iteration #3: waving a lightsaber at some rocks while psychic-Skyping with a dude who keeps sexy-whispering at you.
  • Is there a gymnasium on the First Order ships where Kylo Ren does his chest exercises?
  • And is their Force-link always open?
  • “Rey, let me tell you about the Dark Side.”
  • “I’M IN THE GODDAMNED BATHROOM, BENJY!”
  • “Don’t call me that.”
  • “GET OUT!”
  • “Let me watch.”
  • “OUT!”
  • Then the Finn and Whatshername go to a place to get a thing and Justin Theroux is there for some reason.
  • If we’re grading Therouxes: Paul>Louis>Justin.
  • And just when you’re not expecting it: BOOM Benicio Del Toro out of nowhere.
  • Every time I see Benicio Del Toro onscreen, I think to myself, “Why wasn’t that guy a huge star?” and then he says his first line and I think, “Oh, right.”
  • Just say the fucking lines, Benicio Del Toro.
  • (An aside: Benicio Del Toro’s character’s stutter = General Grievous’ cough. A completely pointless and distracting tic that substitutes for character development and will undoubtedly be given a stupid origin in some upcoming SW novel.)
  • Some bullshit about a necklace?
  • A double-cross, maybe?
  • Stampeding the dog-horses?
  • Whatever: they get the thing or maybe they don’t or maybe it never mattered in the first place and I am cranky at this point because there has been no pew pew pew for at least an hour.
  • More hope.
  • Laura Dern is far too tall.
  • Get to the transports.
  • The Rebellion/Resistance/Revanchists/Redoutables spend a good quarter of every single day of their lives getting to the transports.
  • It’s like their first move.
  • Second move, of course, being Direct Frontal Assault.
  • “Okay, half of you get to the transports. The other half, fly right at them. May the Force be with you.”
  • Then there’s a planet made of production values.
  • Very photogenic planet.
  • And the Reboobulizers have an excellent plan: a big door.
  • A large door will surely hold off the enemy.
  • Hey, it’s Luke!
  • And he’s got a plan, too!
  • “I have a plan.”
  • “Get to the transports?”
  • “No.”
  • “Direct frontal assault?”
  • “Kinda.”
  • “Kinda?”
  • “You ever see Superman II?”
  • And then Luke Skywalker Superman II‘ed his nephew.
  • Random thoughts:
  • I spent a good 80% of this film waiting for Billy Dee Williams to show up; I don’t know how the idea got in my head that he would appear, but I kept looking for him.
  • So glad Max Katana or whatever the fuck Mrs. Magoo is called came back.
  • Supreme Monster Snoopy’s guards looked like they were wearing the protective suits that the “attackers” in self-defense courses wear.
  • At one point during the pew pew pew, Oscar Isaac’s X-Wing performs a handbrake turn, and I congratulate the filmmakers for having the restraint to not include the sound of screeching tires.
  • Although, speaking of sound: John fucking Williams, man.
  • “Why are we all standing here like this?”
  • “It’s the end of the movie.”

Thoughts On The Last Jedi

And there you have it.

Excuse me.

Yes?

Your thoughts on The Last Jedi are Emmylou Harris’ cover of a Bruce Springsteen tune?

Yes. This just about covers it.

How so?

Are you familiar with Interpretationalism?

You’re not allowed to just make up philosophies.

Why? That’s what philosophers do.

And that’s why no one likes them. Be better than this.

I don’t wanna.

Do it anyway.

Maybe.

The Damon-Haunted World

Ah, fuck.

“Hi, I’m Hollywood’s Matt Damon from Boston.”

Everyone knows who you are.

“And, you know, not to be rude but: why haven’t you thanked me for not raping you?”

We’re just getting right into it, huh?

“I mean, I haven’t raped you even a tiny little bit.”

You’re not supposed to!

“There are hundreds, if not two hundreds, of men in Hollywood who haven’t raped anyone today. There’s probably two dozen guys who haven’t raped anyone ever. That’s like pitching a no-hitter! Where’s their hashtags? Why are we not concentrating on the good guys?”

You’re never gonna stop talking no matter how many people tell you to shut up, are you?

“My voice is important. I feel like the views of rich, straight, white men aren’t being heard.”

They are.

“Here’s my problem with this whole #METOO movement: it’s that women are conflating sexual assault with minor sexual assault, and that’s not right. It’s like you’re taking everyone who stole a little money and putting them in the same room as murderers.”

We do that already. The room is called jail.

“You’re not understanding me. It’s like placing shoplifting and arson in the same category.”

They are in the same category. Crime. Immorality. Hurtful behavior. That which a cadet will not tolerate. However you want to say it.

“Ugh. You’re not getting it. I’m talking about the way people I know treat women. I’ve never see any of my friends hold a strange woman down and rape them. That would be bad, and they’re good people, so therefore the things they do and say to women must be good.”

You are awful at syllogisms.

“My Oscar says different.”

You’re also terrible at arguments.

“Look, I don’t know what to say here–”

You’ve never let that stop you from talking before.

“–but I think we’re setting a dangerous precedent.”

How so?

“Well, we’re just not gonna listen to rich, straight, white men at all?”

You need to leave and never come back.

“I also have some thoughts about race.”

Get out!

Weathered And Lace

You look happy.

“Well, you know, it’s been 63 straight years of being polite to randos. Loses its luster after a while.”

Sure. That lady looks like she drives a Mercedes SUV.

“Throw a rock in Marin and you hit, like, a dozen of her.”

Not a lot of diversity?

“No, there’s Diversitea.”

Tea shop?

“Yup. But, uh, only white people go there. And work there. I will say that Te-Nahisi Coates’ new book is the talk of the town.”

Oh, people are reading it?

“I didn’t say that. They’re talking about it.”

Makes sense.

The Name Of This Show Is Lindley

9/28/75 is one of those shows I can always listen to always. Most Dead shows, I can always listen to, but sometimes I don’t want to hear this show or that right now. I can always listen to Lindley Meadows always. It’s good morning music, driving music, humping music; 9/28/75 is an excellent choice for corpse disposal or babysitting. (Corpse disposal and babysitting are more related activities than the media will tell you.) 9/28/75 slices, dices, chops, hops, skips, jumps, and knows where you left your keys. 9/28/75 has a corkscrew, scissors, bottle-opener, and even the little toothpick in the slot. Many Dead shows have lost the little toothpick in the slot, but not Lindley Meadows.

Is it the baby that’s born during the first half of the set?
Is it the first Help>Slip>Frank that’s not really a Help>Slip>Frank?
Is it Bobby calling his pooch on Truckin’?
Is it The Eleven jam that’s only kinda a The Eleven jam?
Is it the fact that it’s September, yet all of the Grateful Deads are dressed like it’s July in Antarctica?
(Remember: Southern Hemisphere; shit’s reversed down there.)

It’s something. 9/28/75 isn’t my favorite show; it’s the one I can always listen to. It’s the Fig Newtons of Dead shows: I might not ask for it by name, but if you put one in front of me, I will eat it every single time.

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