Blog Archives

Via Kottke here’s a cheap laff: Drunk Jeff Goldblum.

Dig this 1945 Atlantic article on Hollywood by Raymond Chandler:

Hollywood is easy to hate, easy to sneer at, easy to lampoon. Some of the best lampooning has been done by people who have never been through a studio gate, some of the best sneering by egocentric geniuses who departed huffily – not forgetting to collect their last pay check – leaving behind them nothing but the exquisite aroma of their personalities and a botched job for the tired hacks to clean up.

Even as far away as New York, where Hollywood assumes all really intelligent people live (since they obviously do not live in Hollywood), the disease of exaggeration can be caught. The motion picture critic of one of the less dazzled intellectual weeklies, commenting recently on a certain screenplay, remarked that it showed “how dull a couple of run-of-the-mill $3000-a-week writers can be.” I hope this critic will not be startled to learn that 50 per cent of the screenwriters of Hollywood made less than $10,000 last year, and that he could count on his fingers the number that made a steady income anywhere near the figure he so contemptuously mentioned. I don’t know whether they could be called run-of-the-mill writers or not. To me the phrase suggests something a little easier to get hold of.

I hold no brief for Hollywood. I have worked there a little over two years, which is far from enough to make me an authority, but more than enough to make me feel pretty thoroughly bored. That should not be so. An industry with such vast resources and such magic techniques should not become dull so soon. An art which is capable of making all but the very best plays look trivial and contrived, all but the very best novels verbose and imitative, should not so quickly become wearisome to those who attempt to practice it with something else in mind than the cash drawer. The making of a picture ought surely to be a rather fascinating adventure. It is not; it is an endless contention of tawdry egos, some of them powerful, almost all of them vociferous, and almost none of them capable of anything much more creative than credit-stealing and self-promotion.

Vinyl Fun via My Modern Met.

…That’s What I Am.

[Commissioned sketch by Gabriel Hardman, NYCC 2012 via Agreeable Comics]

What’s worse? The Yanks getting swept by the Tigers or the Cardinals blowing a 3-1 lead to the Giants?

Discuss.

[Photo Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images via It’s a Long Season]

“Witches in the Air,” By Francisco Goya (1797-98)

I haven’t had a bagel in a minute but every once in a while I really get a craving for one. Know what I mean?

I like mine with butter, plain or a sesame, though I could get nuts and do onion or one of them crazy “everything” bagels. Sometimes with a few slices of tomato.

How do you like ’em?

[Photo Credit: Russ and Daughters]

NLCS Game Seven. The home team has the momentum but I have a feeling that the Cards will break their hearts tonight.

Have at it, you guys.

Let’s Go Base-ball!

[Photo Via: Bonus Baseball]

Nice story on Phil Coke’s less than glamorous rise to the top by Jonah Keri over at Grantland.

[Photo Via: A Continuous Lean]

“Whiskey Drinkin’ Woman,” By Lou Donaldson and Lonnie Smith.

[Photo Credit: Nishe]

So if you’ve never read Joe Flaherty’s Managing Mailer, well, it’s worth picking up.

Apropos of nothing, here’s a 1981 Rolling Stone interview with Keith:

Did you find anything worthwhile in punk rock?

Yeah, there was a certain spirit there. But I don’t think there was anything new musically, or even from the PR point of view, image-wise. There was too much image, and none of the bands were given enough chance to put their music together, if they had any. It seemed to be the least important thing. It was more important if you puked over somebody, you know? But that’s a legacy from us also. After all, we’re still the only rock & roll band arrested for peeing on a wall.

Apparently, the punks weren’t impressed. They really seemed to hate bands like the Stones.

That’s what we used to say about everything that went before us. But you need a bit more than just putting down people to keep things together. There’s always somebody better at puttin’ you down. So don’t put me down, just do what I did, you know? Do me something better. Turn me on.

…Obviously, some of the Stones’ greatest music was made on dope.

Yeah, Exile on Main St. was heavily into it. So was Sticky Fingers….

Was it difficult for you to record those albums?

No, I mean, especially with the Stones, just because they’ve been at this sort of point for so long, where they’re considered, you know, “the greatest rock & roll band in the world….” [Laughs] God, my God — you gotta be joking. Maybe one or two nights, yeah, you could stick them with that. My opinion is that on any given night, it’s a different band that’s the greatest rock & roll band in the world, you know? Because consistency is fatal for a rock & roll band. It’s gotta go up and down. Otherwise, you wouldn’t know the difference. It would be just a bland, straight line, like lookin’ at a heart machine. And when that straight line happens, baby, you’re dead, you know?

[Photo Credit: Lynn Goldsmith]

Via Open Culture here is a link to a 1985 production of Waiting for Godot directed by Samuel Beckett.

[Featured Image: Laura Learns About Art]

Here’s a cute book of quotes from Ichiro–Baseball is Just Baseball: The Understated Ichiro. An ideal holiday stocking stuffer.

The best apple? Food 52 has the skinny.

Over at the always impressive site Sunset Gun, check out this top ten.

Speaking of the Bay Area. Check out this painting of Billy the Kid via Productive Outs.

Game Six. Have at it.

[Photo Via: It’s a Long Season]

Man, first Sunday without Yankee baseball. What to do? Well, there’s the chores of course, and it’s a beautiful day so taking a walk is in order at some pernt, too. Already did the shopping and so what’s left but cooking and Sunday football? That’s good enough for me.

Something like this would hit the spot.

Course there is a baseball game tonight and that’s cool, too.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox have a new manager. Enjoy the day, y’all.

[Photo Credit: Will Christiansen]

“A Well Respected Man” The Kinks

[Photo Credit: Nishe]