"Bigmouth Strikes Again"

Uncut magazine recently did a cover story on the 20th anniversary of the Smith's "The Queen is Dead". Shortly before I heard about this issue I had been getting back into the Smiths.

I had forgotten what a fucking great band they were. Easy to do when you followed Morrissey's output over the last 18 years. While he's still putting out some great music, one can't help but miss Johnny Marr's presence.

I was always one of those kids who would seek out import records from England. I would seek out news from the British music press... New musical Express and Melody Maker. This was long before the internet and mp3s. If you wanted to discover new music, you had to take a chance and buy it. I was way into Duran Duran before they broke in the States.

I remember the first Smith's album I bought: "Meat is Murder" on vinyl (am I dating myself here?). I remember looking at the cover image and thinking that I'd taken quite a step up from Simon LeBon.

And Morrissey's lyrics! The way he crammed so many words into places where that many words did not belong. Marr's Bo Diddley guitar riff on "How Soon is Now"... this was all new territory. I still have the 45 with two songs on the b-side, "Shakespeare's Sister" and "The Headmaster Ritual".

Then came "The Queen is Dead". That inner sleeve photo... was that that guy's boner hanging out!?! The shock... like seeing the topless pre-pubescent girl on the cover of the Blind Faith album or those two semi-nude women on the cover of Roxy Music's "Country Life" or the naked John and Yoko... well, you get the idea.

Then there was the music that captured that teen angst so well. Your parents didn't understand you, but Morrissey and Marr sure did.

Who speaks for today's alienated, misunderstood teens? Fall Out Boy?

So iconic the image, the photograph of the Smiths that tops this post was recently added to the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The photographer, Stephen Wright, is selling numbered prints from the original negatives at his site. Naturally, I could not resist.

Other Smiths links:
The Salford Lads Club
The Smyths (Smiths cover band; including mp3's)
Classic Tracks: The Queen is Dead (interview with engineer Stephen Street)
The Smiths Wikipedia listing
Passions Just Like Mine
Ask Me, Ask Me, Ask Me
Shoplifter's Union

"60 percent of what you say is crap."

Bill O'Reilly was on Letterman Tuesday night, still bullshitting about the alledged War on Christmas (a theme he will undoubtedly return to every November).

I finally watched the O'Reilly segment on Letterman today (I had it TIVO'd). Dave took O'Reilly to task for his made-up war and for his treatment of Cindy Sheehan and pretty much dismissed him as an ignorant bully.

Dave: "I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap."

Here's a transcript.

What is missing from the transcripts is the audience applauding everytime Dave rips Bill. Call it Dave's Liberal audience, but it was pretty obvious that O'Reilly had few fans in the audience. I doubt he'd return any time soon.

Funny thing is that the next day, Bill had two Fox analysts, Juan Williams and entertainment reporter Jean Wolfe, grade his Letterman appearance on the Factor and they praised him to high heaven, implying that he outshone Dave.


I'm Bill O'Reilly... the sun shines out of my ass!

What kind of fragile ego must he have to book guests simply to lavish praise onto him? But then I guess that's the Faux News standard: incestuous "journalists" appearing on each other's shows to congratulate themselves on their ignorance.

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Today Bill Gates introduced Microsoft's answer to the iTunes Music Store, Urge. Naturally, it's not compatible with the iPod. I found it highly appropriate that he trooted out Justin Timberlake to tout the new service. Steve Jobs and Apple have U2... Bill Gates has Justin.

And doesn't the Urge logo remind you of Apple's Quicktime logo?

See It Now

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men - not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular... We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home." - Edward R. Murrow

Fuckin' George Clooney.

Not only does he kick much ass in Stephen Gaghan's amazing "Syriana", he goes and makes the Edward R. Murrow/Joe McCarthy movie "Good Night, and Good Luck." He directed, wrote and co-stars in one of the year's best movies.

He makes a powerful statement, not only about McCarthyism, but also the current political climate.

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As I do my annual movie catch-up, here are a couple of brief movie reviews...

"King Kong"... too long, a bit slow and boring in some places. Peter Jackson could have cut 40 minutes from it without losing a thing.

"Brokeback Mountain"... while Heath Ledger gives a great performance, I found the story unremarkable. Perhaps it's from growing up in a progressive city. Other than the fact that the main characters were gay, this a fairly standard movie about romantic longing.

Next week I try to see "Capote" and "Munich".