Saturday, June 30, 2012

Book Club Discussion Guide

With the return of Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, a friend suggested it might behoove me to develop questions about my book in case it gets selected, so here we go:
  • If someone offered you one million dollars to read this book again, would you do it?
  • What’s your favorite kind of weed?
  • In 1967, Ravi Shankar played at the Monterey Pop Festival, which was the first time many Americans were exposed to the music of the Indian subcontinent which, uh, I forgot where I was going with this… Did you know that Norah Jones was Ravi Shankar’s daughter? Apparently he kind of disowned her. It’s weird to think of Ravi Shankar as being such a dick, right? I always thought he would be so zen and cool…
  • What is language?
  • Why didn’t I go to law school?
  • I did a little bit of acid before the book group, and I don’t mean to be weird, but your eyebrows are really freaking me out.
  • If someone offered you two million dollars to read this book again, would you do it?
  • It’s too bad (insert name of cute guy/girl) stopped coming to book club, right? Meeting somebody is kind of the reason I joined this book group.
  • Look, I’m sorry. My cousin said it was a good book. Can we just go back to choosing stuff off the bestsellers list?

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Peace in L.A.

I've seen/read a lot of retrospectives on the L.A. Riots in the last couple of months (first sparked by the twentieth anniversary, and now following Rodney King’s untimely demise). What they all seem to be missing is a mention of Tom Petty’s truly awful single, “Peace in L.A.”, rush-released as the events unfolded:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xidnn4_tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-peace-in-l-a_music 

The song was reportedly written in one day, released the next, and is evidence that residents of South Central were not the only victims of looting during that time period. Mr. Petty appears to have purloined the melody line from John Lennon’s Cold Turkey, a guitar part from his own Running Down a Dream, and the drums and bass from a Roland drum machine. As to whether the song was an opportunistic attempt by Petty to capitalize on the riots, or a genuine attempt to quell the violence, here’s my take: If Tom Petty really thought he had just written a tune so powerful that upon mere listening it was going to calm the inflamed sense of injustice of the rioters, then he's batshit crazy. On the other hand, if he thought the song was good enough to become some sort of money-making hit, then he's also batshit crazy. So either way, Tom Petty is totally batshit crazy.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

The Most Insane Comment on a Dead Show Ever

Courtesy of setlists.net, on the page for the Englishtown, NJ '77 gig, nestled among various comments about the greatness of this particular show/year/band/etc., the most insane user comment ever:
I like to beat off during shows, usually at set-break. I busted 3 nuts during this show - the last as Donna let out here scream during NFA. For anyone that thinks this is the best half-step, give 05/07 a listen. I beat off to that one -Art Glass
Mr. Art Glass, you are a true lunatic: everyone knows that the Englishtown Half-Step is better.