Anne Bancroft: One Smart Cookie
My cousin tells a great story about Anne Bancroft & Mel Brooks. He was seeing some friends off on a cruise, and noticed from the dock where he was waving goodbye that Anne & Mel were also on the cruise, and were waving goodbye to some friends of theirs. Other well-wishers in the crowd noticed them, too, and started cheering for them. Anne & Mel began to cheer & wave back at their fans, blowing huge kisses to them all. That's what I like: a celebrity with a sense of humour about herself. Rock on, Anne!
Thursday, September 20, 2001 12:54 p.m.

Freaky Deaky
Do what anndroid tells you to do. Be seriously freaked out.
Thursday, September 20, 2001 12:52 p.m.

Marky Mark Fame Audit
C'mon, people, give the man his due. Fametracker does, and so should you!
Thursday, September 20, 2001 12:48 p.m.

Strange Little Girls
is the name of Tori Amos' new album. You may have heard about this already -- about how the bassist from Beck's touring band told her she should cover Slayer's "Blood Rain" (I think that's the title) and she got an image of (these are her words, now, people, and they're not for the squeamish among you) a great big juicy vagina floating over Kabul and raining blood down on the misogynist fuckers. Or something very much like that. Point is: she decided to re-envision a bunch of songs with male protagonists and sing them from a radically female perspective. She didn't just do that, though. She invented entire characters, back histories, subtexts, looks for these women. And in a Cindy Sherman-style move, had photographs of herself taken in character as her new protagonists. Like every Tori album, I'm sure this one has its terrible, unlistenable moments, but I'm very curious to see & hear how it's turned out.
Wednesday, September 19, 2001 01:23 p.m.

TMBG Strike Again
In this review, Flak asks, "why do we still care about They Might Be Giants?" They don't mean it in a nasty, accusatory way -- they're just real curious. It's true, the two Johns have been a bit scattershot since Apollo 18, but TMBG is one of the few bands I've liked since high school, and kept on liking well into my mid-to-late twenties. Their work up to and including Apollo 18 is so good that I'm willing to give them a pass more recent, weaker albums. How can you not love "Shoehorn With Teeth"? Or resist pondering what little pills lurk at the bottom of "Lie Still, Little Bottle"? What other band can you credit with your knowledge of obscure mammals like elutheria and monotremes? None. I don't see Twenty Matchbox Temple Goo-Goo Pilots writing songs about particles, or sampling Johnny Cash, do you? No. You don't. So get on out there and show your accordion love!
Wednesday, September 19, 2001 01:14 p.m.