Decided to try a different template. I assume there are no strong objections.

The Unified Theory of Everything

This is all true.

Today, I attempted to purchase Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious on DVD.

First I went to Borders, where the soundsystem was playing "Notorious" by Duran Duran. But they didn't have the DVD.

Next, I tried the going-out-of-business Tower Records across the street. They didn't have it either. While I was looking, they began playing The Beatles' Abbey Road.

Finally, I went to the TLA Video on Locust St. As I entered, they were playing the last few songs of Abbey Road. And they also did not have the DVD.

What does it all mean?

(BTW: The Criterion Collection DVD of Notorious is out of print. I thought maybe I'd get lucky.)

Save Me a Place

I'm something of a fair-weather Lindsey Buckingham admirer (although Crystal and I did dress up as Stevie Nicks and LB for Halloween last year) but I really enjoyed this live performance of a Tusk favorite.



Found this initially on Stereogum. Check out the link for some Buckingham insights from friend/rock-crit/drummer Patrick Berkery.

Pick here.

From here:

"Kids, they'll find some other club," Ms. Smith insisted during her set. "You just got a place, just some crappy place, that nobody wants, and you got one guy who believes in you, and you just do your thing. And anybody can do that, anywhere in the world, any time."

After her set was over and the club had partly cleared out, Ms. Smith returned to the stage for a silent postcript. As fans held up outstretched hands, Ms. Smith reached into a bag and handed out little black pins. They read, "What remains is future."

Sometimes, idealism is still awesome.

For the first time in a long, long while, it's actually exciting to be a Pulp obsessive. Oh, I grant you, it's always exciting, otherwise why would I bother? But between JarvSpace, the recent reissues, the upcoming Peel Sessions anthology, and Jarvis Cocker's also-upcoming solo debut, you actually feel like the outside world has responded to the fact that, yes, there are Pulp obsessives still on this planet and, yes, we will buy things.

At some point, all I have to say about all this will show up in some venue. For now, here is the latest development: Jarvis' stint as guest editor for The Observer Music Monthly.

Lately

Now with some elaboration!

Hearing: Lupe Fiasco, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor; Cheap Trick, Rockford; Eletrelane, Singles, B-Sides & Live. (Three newish albums that are all excellent.)

Watching: Lost (I should've put this "on notice." That's all I'm saying for now.)

Studio 60 on Sunset Strip (I mostly like it so far for the witty, fast-pacedness, and for Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford playing "darkly neurotic." Anytime it tries to be wistful or romantic I kinda hate it. There are also some jazz-hands tendencies lurking that I don't approve of.)

The Wire (Like Arrested Development did for comedy, this show makes every other drama on TV just not good enough in comparison.)

Reading: Clockers by Richard Price (More of The Wire's influence on my life. Awesome stuff.)

Remembering: My first purchases at Tower Records. In 1988, at the New York location, my Aunt Mary bought Past Masters, Vols. 1 & 2 by The Fab Four, dubbed them for me, and held onto them 'till I got my first CD player -- which would happen about 3 years later. Then, in '95, on South St., I scored The Kinks' UK version of To The Bone (which I didn't even know existed before then) and The Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me.

As reported elsewhere (here and here), Tower's going-out-of-business sale has been bullshit so far. While it's not fun to see people lose their jobs en masse, the chain's been obsolete for years, and recent events serve only as a reminder why.

Scroll down here for a review, my first for a new venture that I'm pretty excited about.

Here is the latest column. Don't ask me how the word "the" got in front of "ELO."