The Daily Digression, by Paul Iorio.

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34892817408183363022012-01-26T19:52:43.835-08:00The Daily Digression, by Paul Iorio.Paul Ioriohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08705568747562061407noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3489281740818336302.post-81315760101704152802012-01-26T07:02:00.000-08:002012-01-26T19:52:44.105-08:00Exclusive, undiluted reportage, analysis -- and satire.Paul Iorio's blog, The Daily Digression, covers pop culture and beyond...<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lWFUb5JyDA4/TbRi5LYrTUI/AAAAAAAACzU/SPan1zJj3Oo/s1600/scapaulin2000s.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 183px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lWFUb5JyDA4/TbRi5LYrTUI/AAAAAAAACzU/SPan1zJj3Oo/s200/scapaulin2000s.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599208971176725826" /></a> PAUL IORIO'S OTHER WEBSITES: - Homepage: <a href="http://paulliorio.blogspot.com/">paulliorio.blogspot.com</a> - Paul's main music site (w/lyrics) <a href="http://pauliorio.blogspot.com/">pauliorio.blogspot.com</a> - MP3s of Paul's songs: <a href="http://myspace.com/paulioriosongs">myspace.com/paulioriosongs</a> - Audio excerpts of Paul's interviews with pop culture icons <a href="http://myspace.com/pauliorioo">myspace.com/pauliorioo</sp an></a> & <a href="http://myspace.com/paulioriooo">myspace.com/paulioriooo</a> All posted text on this website written solely by Paul Iorio. <div align="left">ABOUT<a href="http://aboutthedigression.blogspot.com/">aboutthedigression.blogspot.com/</a> CONTACT<a href="http://contactthedigression.blogspot.com/">contactthedigression.blogspot.com/</a></div> Where people are reading this site this week (10/19/11, in descending order): United States, Germany, the U.K., Poland, Malaysia, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, France, Taiwan, Canada, Italy, Brazil, Israel, Egypt. ____________________________________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for January 26, 2012 Newt is actually worried about the Chinese taking over the moon. He mentioned it twice in tonight's debate. Clearly, he's phobic and delusional, or at least appears that way. Meanwhile Romney increasingly resembles the genteel and fearful suburban neighbor of Tony Soprano... THE DAILY DIGRESSION for January 25, 2012 I saw Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" last night and liked it a lot. And there's one scene that's an instant classic: when German and British soldiers take a break from battle to cut a horse free from barbed wire. Touching, brilliant. It's also Spielberg's most painterly film; the hilly landscapes look like a Cezanne, the sky like a Veronese. We see blue on lighter blue, clouds the way they looked in childhood and the visual difference between smoke and fog when the two are mixed. I recommend this movie, though I do feel funny about a war film in which your strongest feelings are evoked by a horse, not a person. But (somehow) Spielberg makes it work. But I digress. Paul _____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for January 22, 2012 Well, Mitt Romney has done the impossible. In a single week, he has managed to lose two separate electoral contests, even though there was only one election! A hat trick has suddenly turned into 1 and 2. Dynamite was strapped to Gingrich -- but it blew up Romney instead. Go figure! OK, I'm willing to be bold here: Gingrich will win Florida. Why? Because I can't imagine even one panhandle Republican voting for Mitt and his pork rinds. I mean, this is a state that recently elected the nation's most right-wing governor, Rick Scott. And it has a longstanding tradition of occasionally veering ultraconservative (remember '72, when George Wallace actually won the Democratic presidential primary?). Further, Jeb Bush's possible endorsement and a dollar will get Mitt a cup of coffee at Starbucks. It will mean as much as Nikki Haley's did in S.C, which is to say, nada. On the GOP side, it's beginning to look a bit like Hillary versus Barack, the anointed favorite of the party establishment versus the longshot with grassroots appeal. Also, I bet there may be a panicky third-party bid by a moderate Republican trying to stave off a Goldwater/McGovern-level defeat in November. There may be -- who knows? -- a moderate Republican with the stature of, say, Christie who enters the race late as an independent. That would create a 3-way similar to some of the Senate races of 2010 (e.g. Murkowski versus Miller versus McAdams; Crist versus Rubio versus Meek). In the pres race, that might mean: Obama versus Gingrich versus a moderate independent, which would equal an Obama win! Electorally, Gingrich may play out like Goldwater, but stylistically he's increasingly like a white-collar George Wallace. (He also seems to have adopted a bit of the brashness of Michael Moore.) All that will play well in the primaries, but not the general. But I digress. Paul ___________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for January 14, 2012 When it comes to political candidates, nice is nice, but honesty is far more preferable. Like many politicians, Mitt Romney has the nice part down, but he really has problems telling the truth. His most notable lies date back to the previous campaign, when he claimed to have seen his dad march with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a claim later exposed as bullshit. As a journalist, I always get suspicious when someone's story has a lack of specificity in terms of date, place and details that can be independently corroborated. Read about Mitt's fib here: <a href="http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/53200-was-it-all-a-dream/">http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/53200-was-it-all-a-dream/</a> * * * * As the great Meryl Streep's new movie is released, here's a song that sums up what I think about Thatcher, the character she plays, and Thatcher's disrespectful policies toward the working poor: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4-zDem1Sk">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4-zDem1Sk</a> * * * * With Ed Sanders' new book being released, what a better time to revisit the classic episode of "Firing Line" in which Sanders appears with a very drunk Jack Kerouac. What impresses me is Sanders' discipline in dealing with Kerouac's hostility by not firing back. Sanders' behavior here has been sort of been a role model since my teens. (I thought of this clip when I ignored a screaming reporter at an O.J. Simpson courtroom appearance. And I thought of it a few years ago, when I was sitting next to someone at an event who asked me the same question 3 times in 2 minutes (and I answered her 3 times in 2 minutes); the 4th time, thinking of this, I ignored her. ) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaBnIzY3R00">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaBnIzY3R00</a> * * * * I was down in Mexico for The Washington Post some years ago -- on presidential election day, no less! -- and shot this photo. Those flyers on the wires are campaign signs, btw. (I must admit my Italian didn't get me very far there!) Anyway, there's a new election there this summer and a real possibility that a woman -- Josefina Vázquez Mota -- might actually become the next president of Mexico (though Nieto is the frontrunner). Global power is really gonna shift this year, as almost every major country has a presidential election (China, Russia, France, you name it). <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UNGzW1R6ooA/TxGZCOFwQaI/AAAAAAAADLc/KQZrukvU9XA/s1600/tijuana1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 289px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UNGzW1R6ooA/TxGZCOFwQaI/AAAAAAAADLc/KQZrukvU9XA/s400/tijuana1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697503267021406626" /></a> But I digress. Paul __________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for January 4, 2012 Time for some Rick Santorum jokes. Here're a few I came up with this morning: Santorum has become rather extreme on the abortion issue. He just called masturbation "the murder of an unborn child." * * * * Santorum believes home schooling can effectively educate students. Of course, he also thinks Jonah once lived inside a whale. * * * * Santorum actually questioned his own fundamentalist views the other day. Watching Gingrich fall like a rock in the polls has made him think Galileo might have been right all along. * * * * OK, here's my list of the best feature films of 2011: 1. Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" 2. Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" 3. Larysa Kondracki's "The Whistleblower" 4. Duncan Jones's "Source Code" 5. George Clooney's "The Ides of March" 6. Neil Burger's "Limitless" 7. Paolo Sorrentino's "This Must Be The Place" 8. Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" 9. Paul Feig's "Bridesmaids" 10. tie: Bennett Miller's "Moneyball" and Greg Mottola's "Paul" Worst movie of the year: Joel Schumacher's "Trespass" * * * * * Rick Santorum, Mullah Omar and other advocates of theocracy are always talking about respect for religion, but they don't show any respect for those who don't believe in theism. Have theocrats ever considered what a vast insult to non-theists it is to have "under god" in the Pledge of Allegiance? But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for January 2, 2012 Here's my prediction of tomorrow's Iowa vote results. I risk being wrong, of course!) Ron Paul -- 23% Mitt Romney -- 22% Rick Santorum --20% Newt Gingrich -- 10% Why do I think this? Because the zeitgeist is against Santorum. Voters are very angry in 2012. They want the hard stuff (Ron Paul), not a nice little boy (Santorum). Santorum is peaking, but he has too far to go. And evangelicals are split. P.S. -- Remember, the final 25% will be divided not just between Bachmann and Perry, but also between Buddy Roemer, who has a small but enthusiastic following; non-competing candidates Huntsman and Cain; "No Preference" (for protest voters!) and "Other." * * * * I just saw a very good film called "This Must Be the Place," starring Sean Penn, slated for release in the States in March. Think of a goth/glam version of Michael Jackson. That's Penn's character. Plot is this: After the death of his dad, who spent time in Auschwitz, Penn's character gets caught up in tracking down the Nazi who abused his father back in the day. (Let's just say the ending is very, very, uh, cold.) But the film would work even without the compelling plot. I mean, even the minor characters are well-drawn, intriguing, atypical. And the dialogue has plenty of memorable lines ("In order to survive, you really have to know the person who is trying to kill you"). Penn has a great way of avoiding his own personal reflexes so that he can create a portrait of someone very much unlike himself. Also, terrific performances by David Byrne, Frances McDormand and Judd Hirsch. I can't help but wonder why this wasn't given an Oscar qualifying release in '11. * * * * I saw "The Descendants" the other day -- and so I have to disagree with people with whom I usually agree. I expected to like it, but did not. The reason it's so bad is because the characters are either one-dimensional, typical or caricatures. Like many other plot-driven (as opposed to character-driven) films, it succeeds at the level of craft, fails at the level of art. But even its plot has serious lapses (e.g., it's not even remotely believable that Brian, confronted with no evidence whatsoever, would readily confess to having had an affair with Elizabeth). So it fails as entertainment, too. Also, it's difficult to have feelings for the comatose wife when we know absolutely nothing about her (except that she's in a coma in a hospital bed). And during the last half, with the brain-dead patient still there, still not unplugged, I felt like the great Elaine Benes while watching "The English Patient," wanting to scream, "Just die already!!" Unfortunately, the movie dies (but continues on) long before the patient does. But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for December 29, 2011 Best lede of the day: "What sort of doofus shoots a gun in the air?" That, from Mike Sugerman of the CBS affiliate in San Francisco. Kudos to Mike! (When I was writing for Spy magazine, I remember someone did an excellent article about how Iraqi soldiers used to fire guns in the air in celebration -- and the consequences were invariably lethal. It really does take a doofus to celebrate that way!) _________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for December 28, 2011 Forty years ago this week, Stanley Kubrick unleashed a monstrous masterpiece, a movie with real yarbles! <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VaL0XOcPcpc/Tvue5LYfnXI/AAAAAAAADLI/f3EjnqYfQSE/s1600/newclockwork.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5691317259258010994" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VaL0XOcPcpc/Tvue5LYfnXI/AAAAAAAADLI/f3EjnqYfQSE/s400/newclockwork.jpg" /></a> "Billy Goat Billy Boy...How are thou, thou globby bottle of cheap stinking chip-oil. Come and get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you unic jelly thou." THE DAILY DIGRESSION for December 27, 2011 Unless Ron Paul is caught with Bruno in a hotel room again, he'll likely be the winner in Iowa on Tuesday. After that, Romney'll probably take New Hampshire, but the headline will be: Ron Paul comes in a surprisingly strong second. After that, in the southeast and interior west, Gingrich will likely rack up most of the delegates. (Failing to get on the ballot in a state or two won't hurt Gingrich, because he's running for king, not president.) Meanwhile, ominously, Donald Trump has quietly changed his affiliation from Republican to independent. Hasn't changed his name to Perot yet. (Btw, all these predictions may soon be proved wrong by, uh, the future.) ^ ^ ^ Are Republicans actively trying to sow division among Democrats during this election season? I don't know. But certainly, they'd like nothing more than to have Dems bickering among themselves just as the voting begins. I got a robo-call the other day from someone pretending to be from some committee to nominate Hillary Clinton for president. Couldn't track the source. But frankly, it sounded like some sort of dirty trick from a Republican organization that wants to create the impression that the Dems aren't united. And then today, on a local level -- and this may have nothing to do with someone trying to divide Dems, or it might -- people seem to be resurrecting a divisive incident that happened in Berkeley almost two years ago (and has long since faded). For no apparent reason, the issue has somewhat re-emerged, causing natural allies to become a bit adversarial. Smart adults should know: don't bite bait. But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for Christmas Eve 2011 Merry Christmas Eve to all who celebrate it! _____________________________________ BTW, here's a funny piece I recently wrote that you might enjoy. It's called "The Madrassas High School Yearbook Parody," based, of course, on the great "National Lampoon High School Yearbook Parody." Enjoy it here: <a href="http://yearbookparody.blogspot.com/">http://yearbookparody.blogspot.com/</a> ______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for December 16, 2011 Sorry to hear about the death of Christopher Hitchens. On religious issues, he was a few hundred years ahead of his time. The mainstream will sound like him on that subject around 2275. ________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for December 15, 2011 In the How Low Can You Go Department: I've heard of a lot of unscrupulous tactics by medical professionals over the years, but here's a new one. A dentist or doctor overcharges a patient out of the blue -- and when the patient disputes the charge, the dentist/doctor uses the In Case of Emergency contact information to harass the patient's loved one. Hey, I'm not certainly not referring to Henry Yang, DDS, of Berkeley, California, my former dentist! (Why would I be referring to him?) But I digress. Paul _________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for December 12, 2011 I just saw the movie "J. Edgar" and here's what I think. First, let me say I generally love the work of Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio, but this time they missed. DiCaprio sounds too much like JFK with a speech impediment, though his portrayal of the older Hoover is masterful and thoroughly credible, even if it sometimes seems like an imitation of Fredric March. Further, around 100 minutes into the film, we're still only up to 1964. And Eastwood has period details wrong, too (e.g., in the film, MLK's "I Had a Dream Speech" happens after the JFK assassination; Nixon's inauguration occurs before MLK is shot; etc.). Which is jarring, if you actually lived through the era. And it doesn't even touch on the Watergate scandal, which (in real-life) brought Hoover and Nixon into confrontations full of high drama. Eastwood inexplicably ignores Hoover's transgressions of the Sixties and Seventies that almost made the U.S. look like a tyranny for a time. To many in my age group, if not in Eastwood's, Hoover's violations of the civil liberties of citizens who opposed government policy eclipsed whatever he accomplished in establishing an organization that, for all intents and purposes, had already been established and was already evolving toward what it would become. All told, the flick is disorganized, flabby, poorly paced, badly edited. In movie history, it ranks just beneath Oliver Stone's "Nixon." * * * * OK, here're a few (dreadful!) jokes I came up with the other morning: Rick Perry was asked about his IQ the other day. And he said, it's "20/20, with a little stigmatism." * * * * I'm not saying the Chinese government is still persecuting dissident Ai Weiwei. But the police did catch him littering the other day -- in his own apartment! * * * Iran recently executed a woman with an IQ of 73 and the mental capacity of a 13-year-old -- or as Ahmadinejad put it, "an intellectual." But I digress. Paul _______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for December 7, 2011 This morning I heard the great news that the Mats, the Monkees, Squeeze, Beefheart, Steppenwolf and Warren Zevon had been inducted into the RnRHOF. Then I woke up. ___________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for December 3, 2011 <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J99080xz-zo/TtqeelxQbzI/AAAAAAAADJU/TxcxKguEd9E/s1600/warholnixon.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J99080xz-zo/TtqeelxQbzI/AAAAAAAADJU/TxcxKguEd9E/s400/warholnixon.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5682028128253275954" /></a> I worked for George McGovern's campaign in August 1972, when I was 15. At his headquarters, I met friends who I still know, and they'd give me a ride there and back. I even heard him speak at a university; I loved his anti-Vietnam war stance, but thought him a bit boring (I remember he kept using the phrase "lock, stock and barrel"). Come November, McGovern was, of course, buried in what was essentially a crooked election. (Opposition candidates were illegally undermined by Nixon, as we all know.) Now comes news that McGovern is recovering from a fall. All I can say is: Get well soon! [my photo of Andy Warhol's "Vote McGovern," '72.] But I digress. Paul _____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for December 2, 2011 Trending on FB, Twitter: people naming themselves "Occupy" (e.g., John Occupy Doe). Will parents start naming kids born in '11 Occupy? * * * * My new song "Current Events" now on the Soundclick alt chart, following airplay on KALX the other day. Hear here: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11235809">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11235809</a> * * * * Rolled out of bed with a terrific original melody in my head the other morning. (That sentence would sound so pretentious if it weren't merely descriptive.) Preserved it on tape immediately. Played it back this morning. Love it. No lyrics yet. It'll be one of my 2012 songs, no doubt... * * * * Bachmann wants school libraries to include more wholesome books -- like that heartwarming tale about the father who put a knife to his son's throat in the story of Abraham and Isaac! (Hey, call me old-fashioned, but if I ever saw anybody's dad holding a blade to his kid's neck for any reason, I'd call 911 and Child Protective Services in a flash.) BTW, it goes without saying that some of the greatest novels and films of all time are full of extreme violence and marvelously twisted imagery (see: "King Lear" and "Crime and Punishment," for starters). I'm just saying the religious right shouldn't pretend the Bible is more wholesome and morally correct than it actually is. But I digress. Paul ___________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for November 30, 2011 Look what I found in my closet: an audiotape of an unpublished one-on-one interview I conducted with Kate Bush in a Manhattan hotel room in December 1985. Here's a rough edited transcription of the Q&A. (Not a word of this has ever been published, though I did use around a hundred words of the conversation in a magazine piece I wrote in January 1986; but none of those words are included here.) <a href="http://katebushbyiorio.blogspot.com/">http://katebushbyiorio.blogspot.com/</a> ___________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for November 28, 2011 Wow! KALX just now played two of my brand new songs, "Incitin' a Riot" and "Current Events." Many thanks to Marshall Stax and KALX! And "Incitin' A Riot" has already gone to #11 on Soundclick's alternative chart, my 2nd best showing ever!Have fun and hear it here (w/another new Paulsong, "Botswana"): 1. INCITIN' A RIOT. <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11201832">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11201832</a> 2. BOTSWANA. <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11226805">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11226805</a> and here's "CURRENT EVENTS": <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11235809">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11235809</a> OR <a href="http://alonetone.com/pauliorio1/tracks/current-events.mp3">http://alonetone.com/pauliorio1/tracks/current-events.mp3</a> _______________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for November 28, 2011 I've just gotten word from the great Marshall Stax that he'll be playing something from my new "Incitin' a Riot" e.p. tonight on KALX between 6 and 7pm! Check out the stream at <a href="http://kalx.berkeley.edu/">http://kalx.berkeley.edu/</a> ________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for Thanksgiving 2011 Ah, Thanksgiving, celebrating the day Jesus was born! And if you're a little nervous about driving home from the turkey dinner, just swig some vodka to calm down before getting behind the wheel! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for November 21, 2011 OK, folks, here's the online edition of my new e.p. "Incitin' a Riot," which I'm releasing today! <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r8ANliP9bJc/TsnGmPbQntI/AAAAAAAADIw/AgHI702EBUw/s1600/incitinariot.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 338px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5677287165555416786" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r8ANliP9bJc/TsnGmPbQntI/AAAAAAAADIw/AgHI702EBUw/s400/incitinariot.jpg" /></a> First, the MP3s and then the lyrics: 1. INCITIN' A RIOT. <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11201832">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11201832</a> 2. BOTSWANA. <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11226805">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11226805</a> 3. CURRENT EVENTS. <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11235809">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11235809</a> OR <a href="http://alonetone.com/pauliorio1/tracks/current-events.mp3">http://alonetone.com/pauliorio1/tracks/current-events.mp3</a> 4. AMERICAN NIGHT (LASTS ALL DAY). <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11211666">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11211666</a> --------------------------------- L Y R I C S INCITIN' A RIOT Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 I'm incitin' (Incitin' a riot) I'm incitin' (Incitin' a riot) Incitin' (Incitin' a riot) Heyyyy! Can't afford food Heyyy! My future's screwed Heyyyy! Don't I count too? I did my best, I finished school Tried to live by the golden rule Got a job, worked till I drooled The system treated me like a fool Incitin' a riot Incitin' a riot Incitin' a riot They wanna give me insurance and pills Unless I become seriously ill They say my house is under water Just lost my job to the boss' daughter Heyyy! Got nothin' to lose Heyyyy! I'm turnin' to booze Heyyy! I lose if I choose So I'm incitin' (Incitin' a riot) Incitin' (Incitin' a riot) Incitin' (Incitin' a riot) Incitin' a riot Incitin' a riot Incitin' a riot NOTES ON "INCITIN' A RIOT": Inspired by the Occupy movement, I wrote this on November 1st and recorded it on November 7th of this year -- it came very quickly. Already has been #11 on the Soundclick alternative chart. Influences here: Clash, Sex Pistols, Stones, Dylan, Nick Lowe. * * * * * BOTSWANA Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 Botswana Diddley diddley dum Botswana Diddley diddley dum Wah wah weeeee! Wah wah weeeee! Wah wah weeeee! Botswana Diddley diddley dum Botswana Diddley diddley dum Wah wah weeeee! Wah wah weeeee! Wah wah weeeee! Whatcha gotta do to make the sky fall down? Whatcha gotta do to stop the world goin' 'round? 'Cause how things are ain't the way they should be I guess you can call me revolutionary Whatcha gotta do to make the sky fall down? Whatcha gotta do to stop the world goin' 'round? 'Cause how things are ain't the way they should be I guess you can call me revolutionary Botswana Botswana Botswana Flashpoint Flashpoint Flashpoint NOTES ON "BOTSWANA": Sort of folk funk. Sort of me doing a Larry Grahamish-riff and then segueing into rap. By the way, it has nothing to do with Botswana; I just liked the sound of the word! * * * * * CURRENT EVENTS Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 Well, these current events got me wondering Just what I'm doin' without you Well, these current events got me wondering Just what I'm doin' without you If you wanna fly away I won't try to dissuade I ain't lookin' to stop you If you wanna run away You can walk out today The door's open just for you And you can walk right through Well, these current events got me wondering Just what I'm doin' without you Well, these current events got me wondering Just what I'm doin' without you I'd better make you mine 'cause we're runnin' out of time The clock's ticking down the years One day we'll be old so we'd better be bold Don't waste your time on tears Time is best spent here Well, these current events got me wondering Just what I'm doin' without you Well, these current events got me wondering Just what I'm doin' without you What am I doin' without you? What am I doin' without you? What am I doin' without you? NOTES ON "CURRENT EVENTS": McCartneyesque folk, inadvertently inspired by a Facebook friend who recently used the phrase "current events." * * * * * AMERICAN NIGHT (LASTS ALL DAY) Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 Welcome to the American nightmare Dreams written in invisible ink Gonna see my friends out in New York City Hopin' that their boats don't sink Well, I was riding through the mountains of Spain one time Trying to bait a hook for a sink and a line I wasted so much time Just to find the American night lasts all day American night lasts all day American night lasts all day Welcome to the American nightmare Take your seat in the very last row When they finish eating the banquet You can have the scraps that rich people throw Well, I was riding through the mountains of Spain one time Trying to bait a hook for a sink and line I wasted so much time Just to find the American night lasts all day American night lasts all day American night lasts all day Night falls, day's done Night falls, day's done Well, I was riding through the mountains of Spain one time Trying to bait a hook for a sink and a line I wasted so much time Just to find the American night lasts all day American night lasts all day American night lasts all day I wasted so much time Just to find the American night lasts all day American night lasts all day American night lasts all day American night NOTES ON "AMERICAN NIGHT (LASTS ALL DAY)": I came up with the melody for this many years ago, but wrote the lyrics last month. _______________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for November 16, 2011 My new song "Incitin' a Riot" has just hit #11 on Soundclick's alternative chart! Listen hear: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11201832">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11201832</a> And many, many thanks to those -- including the folks at Occupy Liverpool, Occupy London and Occupy Dublin -- who have written to me about it or "liked" it on Facebook! But I digress. Paul ____________________________________- THE DAILY DIGRESSION for November 15, 2011 Somewhat interesting commentary by the usually brilliant Victor Navasky in last Sunday's NYT about the reprehensible attack against Charlie Hebdo by right-wingers. But I have to take issue on two points: 1) Dukakis-like, Navasky doesn't show appropriate outrage about the crime. Nowhere in his piece does he say it is wrong to bomb a newspaper building because of a difference of opinion. He also doesn't note that the people who did it are scumbags. 2) He and many others fail to see that secularists and non-theists are minorities as persecuted as the ones he cites in his piece. * * * * My brand new song "Incitin' a Riot" hit #55 on the Soundclick alternative chart yesterday (out of around 20,000 posted songs!). I was going to keep it online for just a few days, but people seem to be enjoying it, so I'll leave it online for now. Hear it here: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11201832">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11201832</a> * * * * A few jokes I came up with last night: Newt Gingrich is trying a more populist tack lately. He now says he stands in solidarity with the 19%. At his press conference on sexual harassment claims, Herman Cain asserted his right to peaceably dissemble. Herman Cain actually has a very decisive policy toward Libya; he says no Libyan should ever be charged if his or her pizza is not delivered within a half hour. * * * Loose thoughts: Just saw the DVD "Prince & The Revolution, Live in Atlanta, Purple Rain Tour, 1985." Amazing. Prince was as lithe as a cartoon character back then. He'd be the successor to James Brown, if he weren't already the successor to Sly Stone....Last night, I saw the first holiday lights of the season in my neighborhood: deep purple, dark blue, ultra-red....While shaving this morning, it occurred to me that nobody really invented the wheel. There've always been round things (like boulders) that have existed in nature. The innovation came when someone repurposed the wheel for a practical use... * * * I know, everyone's thinking about Iran right now. And a nuclear Iran would be unthinkable. But then again, everyone said the same thing before Pakistan got nukes. And before Pyongyang got 'em. Truth is, a nation is only as dangerous and crazy as its leader. If Mousavi ran Iran, it wouldn't be so belligerent. If a right-wing extremist assumed power in Moscow, Russia would be more of a threat than Iran. As we all know, Germany was the most dangerous nation on Earth -- when Hitler ran it. Under Merkel, it's a friend. We're probably not going to be able to stop Iran from getting nukes any more than we were able to stop Pakistan and North Korea. What we can do is help support the rise of Mousavi and other moderates. Even then, we'd still have to hope a psychopath doesn't rise to power in another nuclear nation. * * * * The other night, had a fun time watching a DVD called "James Brown: 1956 - 1976," a '76 collection of his live performances. Awesome versions of "Out of Sight," "Please Please Please," rearranged "Sex Machine." Looks like he, not Jackson, invented the Moonwalk! If Brown were just dancing, without a note of music being played, I'd still watch him. Every movement and twitch, so rhythmically sure. But I digress. Paul _____________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for November 12, 2011 Just recorded a rough version of my brand new song "American Night (Lasts All Day." Listen here: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11211666">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11211666</a> ______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for November 8, 2011 For a few days only, I'm giving readers of my blog a preview of my brand new song "Incitin' a Riot," which I wrote a week ago and recorded today. I'll release the final version later this year (after physical CDs go out to selected DJs and others). Hear it here now: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11201832">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=11201832</a> UPDATE, 11/9: Just fixed the link, so listen away! "Incitin'..." has just entered the Soundclick alternative chart at #119, even though I'd posted it only an hour before the daily chart was compiled. But I digress. Paul ______________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for November 2, 2011 I once interviewed the late great Richard Pryor and got the sense that almost nothing was out of bounds for him, that he might say almost...anything. Of course, that's the only way great humor and satire flourish. Freedom is humor's main ingredient! But now I'm reading the awful and infuriating news about a refreshingly irreverent newspaper in France that just got firebombed by right-wingers, Charlie Hebdo. The paper has survived Charles De Gaulle, who once banned the paper back in the day. It has outlasted the authorities who tried to quash the Days of Rage in Paris. But today, sadly, the paper has been virtually destroyed, at least temporarily, by intolerant conservative militants. My sincere sympathies to my colleagues at Charlie Hebdo. Let's hope the Paris PD finds the scumbags who did it and puts them in prison. But I digress. Paul _____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for October 26, 2011 Dystopian is the first word that came to mind when I saw the Occupy Oakland encampment, which cops and tear gas cleared out last night. While the Occupy Berkeley events have been inventive, and the Occupy San Francisco ones full of diversity, the Oakland encampment...well, you would have had to see it to believe it. 150 tents in a small square. The place was being overrun by rats. Looked like a movie set for "Escape From Oakland." And the adversely affected tenants and shopkeepers in the neighborhood, who undoubtedly supported the Occupy cause wholeheartedly, now probably support it less wholeheartedly. The great energy of the Occupy movement needs to be applied in a way that's going to work. Pitch your tents in John Boehner's neighborhood. Blockade Mitch McConnell's neck of the woods. Shut down the gated communities where the 1% live. Occupy the trees of the mansions of Big Pharma execs. But don't alienate the 99%, the folks who might be your biggest supporters. But I digress. Paul ____________________________________- THE DAILY DIGRESSION for October 19, 2011 I bet the animal scare in Ohio spurs someone to come up with a cheesy action movie along these lines: a terrorist of some sort parks a truck full of lions, tigers and bears in midtown Manhattan during rush hour. And then he opens the door and lets them loose. * * * * Very flattered that the conductor of the Ureuk Symphony Orchestra expressed interest in one of my songs, "Kim Jong-il," some months ago. (Don't know if anything has come of it.) For the record, KALX was the first radio station to play the song. Tone is ironic, obviously, a satirical take on propaganda songs. (In fact, my original title was "I Love the Dear Leader Kim Jong-il.") I was trying... for a faux-people's chorus effect by overdubbing six tracks of me singing along to it. Not my best song, but I guess I can see how it might be effective with an actual choral group singing it. As usual, composed, performed, produced solely by yours truly. (I even pressed the start button on the tape recorder!) Juche, baby, juche!! BTW, by contrast, my more recent song "I'm an Unabashed Communist" is not in ironic tone; rather, I wrote it in the voice of someone who makes a case for a sort of Swedish socialism. POV thing. * * * * FB friend asks a good question: "Where have all the protest songs gone?" There hasn't been a great one in years, I think. I'm surprised the Occupy movment hasn't embraced REM's "Welcome to the Occupation." Occupy Berkeley has been posting the irresistible "Power to the People" on its website. "A million workers working for nothing/you better give 'em what they really own..." sums up the zeitgeist. * * * * I wish...Oakley Hall would start recording albums again...Florence Welch would continue singing (shrieking!) the way she sang "Drumming Song" last June in concert...Paul Simon would cover Vampire Weekend's "A-Punk"...Fleet Foxes would cover "Wind on the Water"... * * * * Just heard the GOP presidential debate. Bachmann said she wants a double-walled fence along the Mexican border -- and Cain wants one with extra cheese! (Either way, even a dog could burrow beneath it.) And Cain says not to worry, the only people who would be affected by his 9% sales tax are those who spend money. Also, someone should gently tell Bachmann that "heinous" rhymes with anus. (For the record, Bachmann pronounced it "hi - nee - us," inventively adding an extra syllable.) But I digress. Paul _______________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION at October 1, 2011 DiCaprio Plays "J. Edgar" On Screen, But Remember: the Real Hoover Spied on Rockers and Others What Hoover's FBI Files Say About Rock Stars Leonardo DiCaprio plays FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover in the upcoming biopic "J. Edgar," so now might be the right time to make sure the facts of his life aren't distorted by the film. One reality about Hoover that should be remembered is that he used the FBI to conduct arguably unwarranted surveillance of artists, activists and, yes, plenty of rock stars. Under Hoover, the FBI collected intelligence on lots of mainstream and other rockers in files that have only recently been made available to the public online. Here's a sampling of what Hoover's spies found out about ten stars. 1. The Monkees. Hard to believe, but the FBI spied on the so-called Pre-Fab Four in the spring of 1967, when they began doing live shows. Their FBI file consists of two documents. The first is about concerts in which the FBI believed the band supposedly showed "subliminal [video] messages...on the screen which in the opinion of [redacted] constituted left wing innovations." The FBI further noted that "The Monkees" TV series "has been quite successful [and] features four young men who dress as "beatnik types." The second document is completely redacted, all blacked out, which is somewhat rare, suggesting material that is very sensitive. 2. The Doors. An FBI source who worked for a TV station in North Carolina wrote a letter in '69 to his Senator, Sam Ervin (who he knew well enough to call "Sam"), that ended up in an FBI file. And the TV exec was hopping mad about the Doors. "I hope the package which houses this letter and enclosures did reach you unopened. It wouldn't do for anyone, especially a lady, to be exposed to the record you have before you," he writes (though he doesn't think to label it Eyes Only). "I believe you will agree with me [that]...the enclosed disc...is the filthiest and most vulgar thing the human mind could possibly conceive." The "filth" he's referring to is an unidentified album by The Doors. And then he suggests a three-way listening session. "The thought occurred to me that you might want to expose this to your friend Senator Dirksen and that the two of you then may want to bring it to the president's attention, perhaps sitting down with him privately and playing it for them." (Imagine that!) 3. The Fugs. In FBI files about rockers, it's rare when Hoover himself denounces in writing a particular recording artist; usually the criticism comes from an underling or an FBI source. But in the case of the Fugs, Hoover himself lets loose: "This group is described as New York's most fantastic protest rock and roll peace - sex - grass - psychedelic - singing group who write all their own material utilizing the artistic literary heritage of the low east side of New York combined with the Civil Rights and peace movements," writes Hoover. "The record contains 11 numbers by the group, which are vulgar and repulsive and are most suggestive." Which sounds like the sort of quote the band might have used in their publicity kits back in the day! Hoover also condemns the band's "filthy, repulsive language," mentions the album "Virgin Fugs" and says "it is repulsive to right-thinking people and can have serious effects on our young people." A source for the FBI whose name is redacted says in a letter to Hoover: "The group derived their name of course from the four letter word for intercourse....You might want to listen to a few cuts, without any ladies within earshot." A source whose named was redacted writes to Hoover: "If it wasn't the Fugs, it was a similar group that recently appeared on a Florida college campus. And when the curtain opened for the concert, one of the entertainers was masturbating openly and he screamed at the audience, 'You kids have got to groove.'" 4. The Beatles. The first FBI reports on the Fab Four date back to August 1964 when the Bureau was concerned that the teenage mania surrounding the Beatles might be used by civil rights activists to cause riots. Their concerns were apparently very thinly sourced. For example, one FBI memo, about a concert in Kansas City, Missouri, in September 1964, noted the following: "The ballpark, Municipal Stadium, is located in a Negro residential neighborhood, [so] the possibility of Negro involvement in any spontaneous action is recognized. and police department plans cover this possibility." And in August 1964, California police were alerted by the FBI that "the thousands of teenagers gathered for the appearances of the Beatles in Los Angeles and San Francisco could be the perfect vehicle for riots if racial elements or organizations, subversive or otherwise, would decide to capitalize on this vehicle." There was also (apparently unfounded) concern that the Kansas City gig of '64 might be disrupted by "Muslim" activists. Later FBI files on the Beatles concern John Lennon's deportation issues with the Board of Immigration in 1973. "Would you please supply us with electronic surveillance information pertaining to" Lennon, the FBI asks a source. There are also documents about the cover art of Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Two Virgins" album, which pictures the two naked, and whether the photos violated obscenity laws. 5. Jimi Hendrix. "A well-known Negro entertainer" is what the FBI calls Hendrix. And their main concern about him concerned a '69 pot bust in Toronto and whether Hendrix had had any prior convictions in the States. His files note that he had had prior arrests -- twice in Seattle in '61 for "using a car without owner's permission" -- but they couldn't determine how the cases were resolved. The Bureau noted that he was currently out on $10,000 bail on the marijuana case (he had hidden the pot in his shaving kit). It also notes that Hendrix planned to play a benefit concert for the Chicago 7 protesters. 6. Tiny Tim The file on Tiny Tim, a novelty act who gained fame on the TV show "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in," was mostly about determining whether he had links to Frank Sinatra and organized crime. In response to FBI suspicions about Tiny Tim's high income from concerts, a source said he "did not believe it unusual for a relatively new star to appear for one week at the Caesar's Palace at Las Vegas, Nevada, for a salary of fifty thousand a week with a return engagement promised." In the end, no link was ever established between Tiny Tim and the mafia. Meanwhile, a separate file on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in" included letters from sources who were livid about the show's jokes about J. Edgar Hoover. (A "Laugh-In" knock-knock joke was cited in the file: "Knock Knock." "Who's there?" "Hoover." "Hoover who?" "Hoover heard of a 76 year old policeman?") 7. The Jefferson Airplane The Jefferson Airplane file begins near the end of Nixon's tenure and is mostly about the band's activism in support of the movement to impeach Nixon. The FBI was particularly focused on an April 1974 rally sponsored by the National Campaign to Impeach Nixon and linked to the Yippies. And the Bureau noted there was an upcoming Washington, D.C., rally, "possibly utilizing rock concert group known as Jefferson Airplane." 8. Jerry Garcia In a partially-redacted document from October 19, 1964, Jerome (Jerry) Garcia is quoted as vouching for the sincerity of a bandmate who has applied for conscientious objector draft status. Garcia says "he has employed [redacted] off and on for the past year" in his band and he "is a pacifist in spirit." 9. Janis Joplin. Two months before her death in October 1970, there is an urgent FBI memo about the possibility of violence at her upcoming show in Highland Park, Illinois. "Source...advises unconfirmed reports have been received of possible attempts to disrupt concert and cause violence in area by unknown persons," says the document. There is also a memo from the previous year that notes her participation in the Woodstock festival (and it erroneously lists The Jeff Beck Group and "The Iron Butterfly" as other fest performers). Of Woodstock, the FBI document says: "The main entertainment, if that is the correct word, was provided by the bizarre people present...." But I digress. Paul _________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for September 30, 2011 Yes, the editor of Inspire magazine has been replaced! The manner in which they got rid of him was, admittedly, a bit extreme, but he really hadn't been doing a very good job lately. Circulation numbers and ad pages for the jihadist magazine have been down in recent months, so the killing of its editor-in-chief, Anwar al-Awlaki, is understandable, particularly since he was also responsible for a lot of mass murders. In all seriousness, I applaud President Obama for eliminating Awlaki; by doing so, he has saved many innocent lives and made the world a much safer place. (And, yes, he really was a lousy editor!) But I digress. Paul P.S. -- On another subject: at mid-morning today, a new song came into my head: "Every Love Song Is About Her." I grabbed my tape recorder and the verses came tumbling out. I really like this one. ________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for September 18, 2011 Interesting article in Salon on corporations that are ripping off employee pension funds. Me, I've found that a company that reneges on pension benefits is on trak to renege on paying paychecks, too. (I worked for a company like that in the late 1980s.) <a href="http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/09/17/retirement_heist_interview/">http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/09/17/retirement_heist_interview/</a> But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for September 16 - 20, 2011 Watching Peter Bart on Charlie Rose last night, I was inspired to come up with my own best American films of all-time list. 1. Francis Coppola's "The Godfather" and "The Godfather, Part 2" (the combined chronological version). Simply put, the first two "Godfather" films have redefined the way we now see people in everyday life. Just as some say "he's a real Iago" or "she's a Goneril," so today we also say "W.'s like Sonny," or "Obama's like Michael," or so and so is a Clemenza or (heaven forfend) a Fabrizio. And there's an aphoristic quality that's almost Nietzschean, a wisdom that's neo-Shakespearean. And it's not the story of the despicable mafia so much as the story of entrepreneurs rising in America. (To which you say: "Big business doesn't go around killing people." To which someone might retort, quoting Michael: "Now who's being naive, Kay?" Which feels true, even if it's not quite.) * * * * 2. tie: Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove"/"2001: A Space Odyssey" and "A Clockwork Orange." Peak Kubrick films of equal value. "Strangelove," the funniest movie ever made, is a marvel of tone. (And to think they were going to play it straight, initially!) "2001" is still avant garde and massively influential (see: "Tree of Life"). And in "A Clockwork Orange," Kubrick, such a master by this time, seems almost giddy about his ability to make the most outrageous film in the history of mainstream cinema. Forty years on, its futurism still feels...futuristic. * * * * 3. tie: Roman Polanski's "Chinatown," Michelangelo Antonioni's "The Passenger," Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull" and "Goodfellas." "Chinatown"'s truths are unspeakable, its wisdom hard-won. And when it comes to the great line "Most people never have to face the fact that in the right place, at the right time, they're capable of...anything," you realize this could only be the work of someone who has seen no bottom to the well of human evil. When I interviewed Polanski in-depth about the film, one thing that stood out was how much affection he had for even the most marginal characters. And if you look at the minor players, each is given his or her full humanity. (In our conversation, Polanski made a point of singling out the barber in the scene in which Nicholson blows up; "I liked him very much," Polanski told me.) The greatest films of all-time are almost always those in which the main character grows or evolves in some way, and "Raging Bull" is all about the transformation of a very, very imperfect man into someone nearly as imperfect. It has become a cliche to praise an actor by saying that he or she disappears into his character, but in this case it's really true: Robert De Niro doesn't just become Jake LaMotta, he becomes the many LaMottas that evolved over the decades. Meanwhile, "Goodfellas" blazes with life -- and with death, violence, vendettas, betrayals -- and plenty of great food! And it leaves you with the sense that the seasons and generations have just changed. Antonioni's "The Passenger" has a painterly brilliance, enigmatic plot and a POV discipline that is pure genius. (By "POV discipline," I'm talking about the ending, in which we see the final events from a fixed perspective that creates alluring mystery about what has just occurred. (BTW, a major art museum should put together a photographic exhibition of selected stills from "The Passenger" and other Antonioni films.) I would include "Blow Up" and "Zabriskie Point" here, but they're not technically "American" movies. * * * * 4. tie: Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and "Annie Hall." Peak Woody Allen films of equal value. "Crimes" has Allen's most gripping plot and most organically intertwined characters. And "Annie Hall," funny no matter how many times you see it, has come to define America's bi-coastal identity. (Allen himself told me in '99 that his own favorite Allen film was "The Purple Rose of Cairo," but to me that's only his best-crafted movie.) * * * * 5. Robert Altman's "Nashville." "Nashville" presents a truly singular creation of American cinema, Barbara Jean, played brilliantly by Ronee Blakley, who not only wrote the movie's greatest songs but also scripted the very best part of the picture, the sequence in which madness takes over her mind during a concert. (Altman himself said she wrote that part herself; see director's commentary on DVD.) "Nashville"'s abundant humanity sprawls in every direction, from Lily Tomlin's character signing with her children so touchingly to the scene in which the son of Haven Hamilton claps out of rhythm to his dad's music. I've seen the film well over a hundred times -- I was an usher at a theater when I was 17 in '75 -- and still love it and notice new things about it today. And when it gets to "It's that careless disrespect...," I invariably get choked up like a wuss unless I fast forward it. (To me, Blakley is superior to every female singer-songwriter except Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Patti Smith. (Even the great Lucinda Williams. Even Baez. Even Dar, who I love.) But I digress.) * * * * 6. Oliver Stone's "Platoon." I once asked David Rabe what his favorite war movie was and he said, "Platoon." And I have to agree with him -- partly because the film so memorably shows that internecine rivals can be more deadly than outside enemies. And the rift between Elias and Barnes mirrors the rift in America in the Vietnam era. * * * * BTW, "Gone With the Wind," often in the top spot on such lists, doesn't make mine because it becomes unfocused mid-way through, when it turns into a 19th century British costume drama. And though I appreciate the resourcefulness and innovation of "Citizen Kane," the fact that Orson Welles was the first to make use of a certain kind of overhead shot from a certain kind of an angle is academic and doesn't motivate me to take it from the shelf that much. And #7 on my list would be a three-way tie between "Casablanca," "The Maltese Falcon" and "North by Northwest," all three of 'em too plot-centric to be in the A+ category. And #8 is a tie between "Reservoir Dogs," still Tarantino's best, and Steven Spielberg's underrated "Jaws" and "Schindler's List." (To be honest, I think critics tend to overrate the latter Spielberg film and underrate the former, which is better than "The Birds" and every other Hitchcock film except "NxNW." Yes, I can imagine some people are shaking their heads right now, saying the two Spielberg pictures aren't even the same weight. But let's be real: apart from "Schindler"'s absolutely mesmerizing and nightmarish evocation of Plaszow, the rest of the picture -- which is to say, most of the picture -- is a bit of a bore in a way that "The Pianist" and the first 20-minutes of "Inglourious Basterds" are not.) I know, my list implicitly says that Woody Allen's comedies are better than Chaplin's -- and, yes, that is what I'm saying. Definitely. In fact, I'd even put "Duck Soup," the Marx Brothers's best, above "Modern Times," Chaplin's best. Look, I love the best of Chaplin, but in a lot of ways, the Marx Bros. were more progressive, as they were doing talkies well before Chaplin did. Chaplin's not overrated; it's just that the greatest pictures of Allen and the Marx Bros. are better. But I digress. Paul ____________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for September 14, 2011 Many thanks to the great Marshall Stax and KALX for playing my new song "The Food Song" the other night on The Next Big Thing. (And sorry for the audio glitch elsewhere on the e.p. -- will correct the problem in the future!) You can hear "The Food Song" here: (to come) But I digress. Paul ___________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for August 31, 2011 People who disagree with stuff I've written over the years (on religion and other subjects) are free to write to me with their own point-of-view at pliorio@aol.com. And I will (and I have) published such emails here on my main blog. But locals (and others) who try imtimidating tactics should know that ain't gonna work with me.... But I digress. Paul _________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Adele's Show Last Night in Berkeley, Calif. "I'm going to sing this next song for the beloved Amy Winehouse," said Adele last night from the stage in Berkeley, California. But first, she asked everybody to turn on their cameras and cellphones and hold them in the air, in a modern version of the concert ritual of holding up lighters and matches. "If you've got a camera or a phone," said Adele, "All of you, get them out, there's more of you, get them out! Now look behind you and look how fuckin' amazing it looks!" And sure enough, it did look amazing, with visual magic everywhere as thousands of cameras lighted up the night at the open-air Greek Theater (and even in the hills above the theater, where I heard the sold-out gig). [By the way, from my vantage point I could hear the concert well enough to make a recording of it, which I did, though I couldn't see much (those damn redwoods!).] And then she launched into an austere version -- just piano and vocals -- of Bob Dylan's beautiful "Make You Feel My Love." She topped that with one of her own compositions, the touching "Someone Like You," which has the feel, at least live, of a standard or classic. The crowd sure acted like it was, twice singing six or seven lines from the song when cued by Adele ("Never mind, I'll find someone like you/I wish nothing but the best for you," sang thousands of fans, not missing a word). And then, after ninety minutes of wowing fans with her blend of charismatic soul and balladry, she finished with "Rolling in the Deep," sounding a bit like a combination of Bonnie Raitt and KT Tunstall on that one. Throughout, Adele was in a great mood, laughing spontaneously while singing "Hometown Glory," shifting octaves while chatting with the crowd, talking about everything from "Sex and the City" to someone who looks like "Tina Fey on steroids," recalling a concert by The Cure that her mother took her to when she was a child, and reminiscing about her previous shows in the Bay Area. "I remember the first show I ever did in San Francisco was at Bimbo's 365," said Adele -- and audience members applauded as if they'd been there. "You weren't there; it seats about 200 people," she said, laughing. "The second show I played [in San Francisco] was at the Warfield...But now there are too many of you, so now we're doing it here." Other highlights included the catchy "Right as Rain," "Chasing Pavements" and "Don't You Remember," which was interrupted mid-way by applause. Opening the show was rock 'n' roll pioneer Wanda Jackson, the one-time girlfriend of Elvis Presley, who she mentioned frequently in her set. "Elvis changed the direction of my career," said Jackson from the stage. "He held my heart for awhile; we became good friends." And then she launched into his "Heartbreak Hotel," performing it with more melancholy than Presley did. And her guitarist -- her backing band was terrific -- did a blazing rendition of Scotty Moore's lead. Jackson also treated everyone to a generous helping of her own biggest songs, particularly the hits she had from '56 ("I Gotta Know") to '61 ("Riot in Cell Block #9" and "Right or Wrong"). Like Adele, Jackson also had Amy Winehouse on her mind, performing a marvelous version of Winehouse's "I'm No Good." But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Hey, I'm grateful for whatever readers I have, where ever I have them. But why the sudden spike in readership in Malaysia, which I've never written about and where I've never been? (So say my trackimg stats.) If there's anybody from Malaysia who can tell me why the good folks over there are reading my stuff, I'd love to know! ________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for August 13, 2011 The Huffington Post has just published around a dozen photos that I recently shot of San Francisco (as part of my story on S.F.). Check it out here: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-iorio/san-fran-visit_b_925429.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-iorio/san-fran-visit_b_925429.html</a> (Many thanks to the Huffington Post for publishing it!) But I digress. Paul _____________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION August 12, 2011 Notes on last night's GOP presidential debate: -- Gingrich sounded like a professor arguing at a faculty party at which everyone has had just a couple drinks and has tenure. -- Bachmann sounded scripted (her handlers probably told her, "Now, Michele, keep your cool -- no matter what they throw at you"). -- Romney, a little shaky after his raucous encounter with hecklers hours earlier, sounded, as always, like the guy you meet for only 15 seconds at a political smoker before he says, "OK, gotta move on here." (He'll call you "fella" even when he supposedly knows your name.) -- Ron Paul, increasingly Howard Beale-ish, generated the most enthusiasm from the crowd. -- Santorum actually claimed he was "ahead of the curb [sic]." (He should curve his enthusiasm!) But the debate was mostly irrelevant to the campaign. The main event happens tomorrow when Rick Perry gets in the race; he'll be the frontrunner soonafter. And, of course, this time next year, nobody will be talking about the debt ceiling or Afghanistan, in all likelihood. Everything will probably be about the new war in Pakistan and the nukes about to explode. * * * * * * * * Though I've not been promoting or even linking my 2010 album "TABOO," it continues to generate web traffic, driven by my song "THEY'RE BUILDING A MOSQUE IN MY MIND." They're even listening to it in the following countries: Slovenia, Iran, Israel, Russia, Germany, Poland, The Netherlands, U.S., France, the U.K. Here's the MP3: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=9810626">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1111859&songID=9810626</a> Lyrics are below. I wrote "They're Building a Mosque in My Mind" in the wake of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque controversy of 2010. A rush of imagery came to me around Labor Day weekend of 2010. On September 8, 2010, I came up with around seven pages of imagery that I subsequently put in an email and sent to myself (see below). The song was originally released on my "Taboo" album but was copyrighted in early 2011 as part of my "Zip Code of the Moon (and 28 Others)" album. It was first aired by KALX Radio on October 26, 2010 (thanks, Marshall!), and topped out at #69 on the Soundclick alternative chart. [UPDATE: The song has just now re-enetered the Soundlick alternative chart at #39.) For those interested in how I came up with this song, here's the 7-page evolution of the lyrics (with coffee stains, typos and all!: <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MZO4SpWwqnE/TkV0vczoSmI/AAAAAAAAC9k/-L0464zsI20/s1600/scanMOSQUE1.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 212px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640042466886830690" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MZO4SpWwqnE/TkV0vczoSmI/AAAAAAAAC9k/-L0464zsI20/s400/scanMOSQUE1.jpg" /></a> page one of my writings that turned into "They're Building a Mosque in My Mind." [click to enlarge] <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tbv5oR6VE3I/TkV2LSCZd-I/AAAAAAAAC9s/iswi0y6mnLA/s1600/scanMOSQUE2.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 272px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640044044543948770" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tbv5oR6VE3I/TkV2LSCZd-I/AAAAAAAAC9s/iswi0y6mnLA/s400/scanMOSQUE2.jpg" /></a> page two of my writings that evolved into "Mosque in My Mind." [click to enlarge] <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y8Z11exBdmw/TkV3o1p4DAI/AAAAAAAAC90/E6Wc6HkJyEU/s1600/scanMOSQUE3.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 277px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640045651832605698" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y8Z11exBdmw/TkV3o1p4DAI/AAAAAAAAC90/E6Wc6HkJyEU/s400/scanMOSQUE3.jpg" /></a> page three of my writings that turned into "Mosque in My Mind." [click to enlarge] <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PCe4yVbxgf8/TkV5QStdUfI/AAAAAAAAC98/ngsbMunoZvY/s1600/scanMOSQUE4.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 276px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640047429158785522" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PCe4yVbxgf8/TkV5QStdUfI/AAAAAAAAC98/ngsbMunoZvY/s400/scanMOSQUE4.jpg" /></a> page four of my writings that evolved into "Mosque in My Mind." [click to enlarge] <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pDSmJ2NSPNA/TkV7S9NRUAI/AAAAAAAAC-E/cNc1GSI4iIU/s1600/scanMOSQUE5.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 273px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640049673949499394" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pDSmJ2NSPNA/TkV7S9NRUAI/AAAAAAAAC-E/cNc1GSI4iIU/s400/scanMOSQUE5.jpg" /></a> page five of my writings that gave birth to "Mosque in My Mind." [click to enlarge] <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_K4YzlDrCVA/TkV9Q2LZdgI/AAAAAAAAC-M/Pz1cAVq8tAA/s1600/scanmosque6.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 273px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640051836726113794" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_K4YzlDrCVA/TkV9Q2LZdgI/AAAAAAAAC-M/Pz1cAVq8tAA/s400/scanmosque6.jpg" /></a> page six of my writings that evolved into "Mosque in my Mind." [click to enlarge] <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jxz_FCO87-8/TkV-PcdOYlI/AAAAAAAAC-U/hb7dcEihxUo/s1600/scanMOSQUE7.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 270px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640052912153322066" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jxz_FCO87-8/TkV-PcdOYlI/AAAAAAAAC-U/hb7dcEihxUo/s400/scanMOSQUE7.jpg" /></a> page seven of my writings that turned into "Mosque in My Mind." [click to enlarge] And here're the final lyrics: THEY'RE BUILDING A MOSQUE IN MY MIND Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2010 They're building a mosque in my mind (my mind) They're building a mosque in my mind They're taking over all the grey matter They're building a mosque in my mind The preachers and imams and rabbis and priests Who populate the part of my mind Where Hindus are praying near my left hippocampus Where the Shintos are building a shrine They're building a mosque in my mind (my mind) They're building a shrine in my mind They're taking over my entire cerebellum They're building a mosque in my mind The Hares spray graffiti on my left ventricle wall They've got a real Jones for the Tao They're confusing Confucians as to their actual intent They're saying, "Hey, man, don't have a sacred cow!" Anglicans and Brahmins fight for my synaptic cleft In the pre-frontal lobe of my mind Orthodox Jews are building a temple Using words like thee and thou and thine They're building a mosque in my mind (my mind) They're building a shrine in my mind They're taking over my entire cerebellum They're building a mosque in my mind Mental health professionals visit me at work I tell them there're bombs in my brain The Sunnis are fighting the Sufis for turf I say this as they take me away Take me away! They're building a mosque in my mind (my mind) They're building a shrine in my mind They're taking over all the gray matter They're building a mosque in my mind But I digress. Paul _____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for August 11, 2011 Perry/Bachmann Ticket in the Works? Maybe. Hard to predict these things, but here's how I see the Republican race for president going: Bachmann wins the first round, the Iowa caucus, because she has a home state advantage. But Romney will take the primary in New Hampshire, where he's virtually a favorite son. Then things get complicated. States in the southeast and the interior west come into play. And I can't imagine the good ol' boys of South Carolina lining up to vote for Romney and his silver spoon. No, in S.C. and elsewhere in the region, Rick Perry, currently skillfully playing the religious right like an Appalachian fiddle, will strike a winning chord. Bachmann will probably turn out to be the Muskie of '12, the candidate too thin-skinned for the tough stuff. I bet some slight will cause her to have a public meltdown that'll end her campaign. Meanwhile, Romney will prove as ineffectual on the national stage as he was in '08. (Just this morning, in Iowa, Romney let loose a gaffe that should follow him for awhile; confronted by hecklers, Romney declared "Corporations are people!") And my instinct tells me Rick Perry doesn't really believe all that bullshit he's been preaching to the Christian Taliban side of the GOP. After all, he once backed Al Gore for president (in '88) before he had his sex change operation. And Perry's pastor in Austin is a really moderate (almost liberal) Methodist. Listen to what he preached at Perry's church right after the 9/11 attacks: "The militant Muslims supporting terrorism are similar to militant right wing Christians who populate militias and see violence as the way God wants us to solve problems." The pastor's name, by the way, is James L. Mayfield (and he apparently is still senior pastor at Perry's church). So when Perry panders to the extremists by supporting the illegalization of sodomy, or when he holds prayer sessions on the public's dime, you get the sense he doesn't really mean it. He just needs to do that to get nominated. And then he'll turn purple for the general while using a running mate like Bachmann to satisfy the Tea Partyers. But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for August 8, 2011 The Rick Perry/Mohamed Atta crowd of fundamentalists does not believe in the separation of church and state. Call me old-fashioned, but I can't see how anyone could ever support the Rick Perry/Mohamed Atta crowd. The Rick Perry/Mohamed Atta faction thinks there should be a state religion. They think state functions and events should include prayer, which is an impllcit endorsement of theism. Haven't we learned that fundamentalism is the main scourge these days? Haven't we seen that religious extremists -- from Anders Breivik to Nidal Hasan -- are dangerous? * * * * The Deleterious Effects of Too Much Tea <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CbdGe6DpmVI/TkGBNDSytEI/AAAAAAAAC9c/hLHp8di9Hh0/s1600/bachmanntea2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CbdGe6DpmVI/TkGBNDSytEI/AAAAAAAAC9c/hLHp8di9Hh0/s400/bachmanntea2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638930269666980930" /></a> Have you heard about The New Yorker article on Michele Bachmann in which she virtually blames the Renaissance and artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo for the decline of civilization? Bachmann's lack of education is so astonishing that her speeches could pass for stand-up comedy. And the dolts she admires -- Francis Schaeffer and Nancy Pearcey -- resemble victims of dementia. Thankfully, Bachmann doesn't have any real power. But I digress. Paul _______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for August 5, 2011 Just saw "The Tree of Life" and here's my review: Terrence Malick's "THE TREE OF LIFE" Easily the best film of 2011 so far. Visually it recalls prime Kubrick and Antonioni. In terms of narrative structure, it's hard to find a precedent. Perhaps Bergman, Altman. It almost makes the whole concept of "plot" seem contrived. Life, after all, is 95% plotless, isn't it? And Malick presents life as it's experienced. The joy of pine cones. Kids playing in a DDT cloud. Drapes billowing in the breeze. A field of yellow sunflowers. A flock of birds shifting course in the sky like clouds of black pepper caught in a current. Malick has made his masterpiece. And then there's the half-hour segment of abstract imagery and pure visual cinema, taking off from the "Beyond Jupiter Space" part of "2001: A Space Odyssey." But where the visuals near the end of "2001" were tied to a very specific plot line, Malick's visuals are only intuitively linked to the narrative and veer into scenes that look like abstract expressionism, impressionism. In that sense, maybe "Zabriske Point" is its closest relation. But even more radical and original than its visuals is its narrative structure. As I said, in that regard it seems to recall Bergman ("Wild Strawberries" somewhat similarly evoked youthful memory) and Altman, who also made films that were more about relationships and characters than plots. This is the sort of film that, when they do a documentary on the making of it decades later, they always ask the director: "Could this film have been made today?" And the director invariably replies, "No, not in today's commercial climate." Well, "The Tree of Life" is one of those pictures that couldn't be made today. But it got through anyway. Malick, Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain all deserve Oscar nominations for this in January. And Fox Searchlight deserves praise for its courage in releasing such a risky, innovative film. * * * * * Fascinating exhibition at the Berkeley (Calif.) Art Museum of works by Kurt Schwitters, the German avant-garde artist. It almost seems as if Schwitters comes to neo-Cubism throgh collage and assemblage. (The exhibition also reveals that his work of the 1920s was far, far better than his work of the 1940s.) * * * * I heard an outrageous all-female punk band from Tokyo perform last Saturday night: Red Bacteria Vacuum (or, レッドバクテリアバキューム). Sounded sort of like a combination of a Japanese horror film soundtrack, the Ramones and Metallica. They opened at the Greek Theater (Berkeley) for A Perfect Circle, who I couldn't stay to hear. (Also in the Worthy New Punkrock category: an exciting unsigned (or indie) band named Found Dead in Trunk, who I heard on Marshall Stax's show on KALX the other week. Worth a listen!) But I digress. Paul __________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for August 4, 2011 exclusive Anders Breivik Wants You to Know He Is Not THAT Anders Breivik. A sidenote to the tragic massacre in Norway There are nearly five million people in Norway. Of those five million, a mere 13 (by one count) are named Anders Breivik, also the name of Anders Behring Breivik, the confessed mass murderer. And of those 13, at least two fit a specific description that matches the murderer: 6' tall, twentysomething in the Oughties, Oslo resident, into e-commerce. So the odds of coming upon postings on a discussion forum by another Anders Breivik who matches the above description are something like a million to one. Literally. Well, guess what? After finding Internet postings by an Anders Breivik on a knife discussion forum -- BladeForums.com -- I wrote about them in this space, saying they were postings by an "Anders Breivik" who fit the description of the Norwegian gunman. Yesterday, Breivik saw my website and sent me an email with the subject line: "My name and unfortunate similarities." "I am one of the 13 unfortunate Norwegians to share a name with the mass murderer," began Breivik. "I see that you have dug up an old account of min on bladeforums.com, with the nick[name] AB," Breivik continued. "I have not used it for many years, but posted today to show that it does not belong to the monster now in jail....Good Google-work, but unfortunately you've got the wrong guy. I have always collected knives as tools and handicraft, but that is neither a crime nor unethical." "Peace," he said, after noting: "Any misuse of my personal information will be prosecuted though US law." Well, that solved one mystery. (And my Blogspot blog did indeed show that Norwegians visited my website yesterday.) But it didn't solve another mystery. Turns out that BladeForums.com publishes the comings and goings of visitors to the profile page of each registered member. So, for example, if Mr. Someone visits Mr. Forumite at noon on Christmas, the forum will publish a note that says Mr. Someone visited Mr. Forumite at noon on Christmas. And Breivik's forum page, which had had no traffic for years, suddenly had a surge of traffic in the hours immediately after the Norway massacre but BEFORE his name had been made public by the press. To be precise, three people went to Breivik's page before his name was made public -- and another three went to the page when his name had been reported by only a few news organizations. And then there were virtually no visitors. For the record, the earliest news report mentioning Breivik's name was published at 6:20 p.m. PDT (that's 3:20 a.m. Norway time). And those reports were using info that had just been reported in the wee hours of July 23rd by Norwegian TV network NRK, which made his name public before even the police did. So it was rather alarming to see that someone named Milesdm visited Breivik's forum site at 4:19 p.m. (PDT) on July 22nd, exactly two hours BEFORE Breivik was publicly named as the murderer. And a person with the tagger-esque name Dentonati0n was also on Breivik's site at exactly the same time as Milesdm, signing off at 4:35 p.m. (PDT), around two hours before Breivik's name was made public by anyone. And someone named Pencil_ was on Breivik's forum page around that time, too, logging off at 5:30 p.m. (PDT), an hour before Breivik's name went public. By the way, the time and date stamping on the BladeForum site, which uses only Pacific Time, is completely accurate; I know that because the site precisely noted when I (using the name PLI) first logged in and last logged off. So I sent an email to the (innocent) Anders Breivik, asking him if he had any explanation for the sudden surge of traffic to his site at that time and whether he knew any of those visitors. Breivik wrote back to me, saying he was not aware that BladeForums publishes a record of visitors to each site. "I don't know any of the visitor's names," he wrote. "Here in Norway the name was discussed on Twitter pretty early in the evening of the shooting. It was leaked there before it reached the media as far as I know," he says, though that contradicts the facts a bit. After all, in the hours after the shooting, worldwide media was reporting (up until at least 7pm EDT) that a jihadist group was responsible for the bloodbath. "That might explain it or not. I have no idea how to see when they accessed my profile, doesn't show here," he added (though here is a box on BladeForums that shows when people accessed his profile). Breivik ended his email with this plea to the media and the public: "My life has been crazy since this all happened, and I would be grateful if you didn't fuel the fire. I work with Norwegian law enforcement to help them remove false positives in their investigations. I am sure they (and their contacts in US federal law enforcement) will be able to dig up the actual facts." "We are 13 'Anders Breivik's with and without middle names here in Norway, only one of them is the killer. Both 'Anders' and 'Breivik' are common names. I wish the international media also would use his full name, 'Anders Behring Breivik.'" But I digress. Paul _________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for August 3, 2011 DVD REVIEW: Bruce Springsteen's "The Promise: The Making of Darkness On The Edge of Town" Ah, Springsteen's divorce album, "Darkness on the Edge of Town," which really should have been called "Darkness at the Edge of Town." (Can you imagine Dylan singing "Darkness on the break of noon/shadows even the silver spoon"? Hate to say it, but the distance between Dylan and Springsteen sometimes seems like the distance between genius and talent. But I digress.) Anyway, this divorce album was written in the thick of his split from manager Mike Appel, who signed him to bad (but virtually standard, for the era) contracts that Bruce spent years extricating himself from. And so the album is packed with lots of anger and guilt. Anger, because Appel had sorta screwed him. And guilt, because Appel had -- tell the truth -- believed in Bruce back when few others did. A divorce album, but no "Blood on the Tracks." When Bruce talks about the album on this DVD, and when he tries to be poetic and insightful in his comments, it seems forced. Unlike Dylan, who is effortlessly poetic, always saying memorable things spontaneously, Bruce has to work at it. Yet he still never gets to the Dylan level and too often sounds like attemptedrockcritic. (Frankly, I think Bruce wanted to be Jon Landau and Jon wanted to be Bruce.) And this docu shows he has to really work at the music, too. His songs, in their first drafts, are surprisingly unremarkable in ways that the first drafts of songs by Elton John or Paul McCartney are not. I think one thing critics miss is that some of Bruce's best early material was inspired by Manhattan, not Jersey. You see, he used to perform afternoon all-ages shows at the Gaslight in the Village on a regular basis when he was a teenager. And that brought him into town to experience the city, which clearly inspired such tunes as "Jungleland" and "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City," etc. "Darkness...," on the other hand, was a bit of a retrenchment, inspired by much smaller towns across the Hudson. And it sounds more downbeat than it did at the time, when tracks like "Badlands" and "Adam Raised a Cain" were electrifying everyone within earshot. ("Adam Raised a Cain" still sounds like a great porcupine!) Today, on closer scrutiny, I can see that "Racing in the Street" is a bore, "Prove It All Night" is tinny, "Streets of Fire" and "Something in the Night" are B material -- and the overpraised outtake "The Promise" sounds wayyy too much like "The Promised Land," which is too preachy. The docu is fascinating when it shows how mixer Chuck Plotkin put some of the sound in high relief, giving us such moments of sonic clarity as the "tonight!!!" in "Candy's Room." And I loved seeing Little Steven and Bruce having fun with an early version of "Sherry Darling," one of his very best tracks. Also impressive is the underrated Patti Scialfa, who always says interesting things. All told, Bruce's best album is still "Born in the USA," which deserves its own docu. But I digress. Paul _____________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for August 3, 2011 My story (below) on Anders Breivik has just taken a rather bizarre turn. Stay tuned here for a new posting about it, which I'll post as soon as I've gotten to the bottom of the situation! Paul _______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 29, 2011 exclusive Why did five people suddenly go to the web forum page of an "Anders Breivik" a few hours after the massacre in Norway? Breivik's name, after all, had not yet been publicly released. (In fact, at the time, the bloodbath was being attributed to a jihadist.) So why did a guy named Detonati0n visit "Breivik"'s forum on *****Forums.com within hours of the massacre? [I'm leaving out the exact name of the forum for now so that other journalists don't steal my story idea before I can publish it.] I mean, even if Detonati0n and the others had heard about the massacre, how would they have known Breivik was involved? And how would the others who went to his site in the hours after the massacre have known to go there? Milkmoney11 visited Breivik's forum a couple hours after the Norway attack. So did forumites with names like pencil and milesdn and almani. And then, after that burst of traffic to Breivik's forum site, there were virtually no visitors at all, just like before the massacre. So let's be real: the only people who would have gone to Breivik's site at that time of day on July 22 would have been insiders who knew Breivik was responsible for the attacks. And there were only two groups of insiders: 1) law enforcement investigators and 2) any collaborators or friends of Brievik's. I think with names like Detonati0n, we can reasonably rule out law enforcement. (Would a cop have logged on to that site with a name like that? Not likely. The visitors to Breivik's site all have quasi-tagger names like Detonati0n's (with its pseudo-hip hop capitalization). Analogously, if the SEC were to see that sort of unexplained surge of activity in a stock trade just prior to the public release of serious inside information, those traders would be investigated for insider trading. Is this an indication that Breivik had collaborators? By the way, the time and date stamping on Brevik's forum site is completely accurate; I know that because the site precisely noted when I (using the name PLI) first logged in and last logged off. (The messages are posted in GMT -7; Oslo, of course, is GMT +1.) [MORE TO COME] [updated August 3] * * * * * * * * * * Just saw the new movie "Bad Teacher" and here's my review: Jake Kasdan's "BAD TEACHER" This got me laughing from the git-go -- very irreverently entertaining stuff. Cameron Diaz is punkishly hilarious as an outrageous teacher at a middle school who grades papers by marking tests with comments like, "Are you fuckin' kidding me!" Using her position to finance her boob job, Diaz is, as usual, sexy enough to seduce a goal post at a ballgame; she looks and acts like nothing so much as a perfect pop song and still has all her fizz and carbonation. Meanwhile, Justin Timberlake once again shows he has a natural, effortless acting talent that is probably gonna earn him an Oscar and eclipse his music career in the near future. And the script is consistently amusing ("You're sensitive...that's not a compliment," Diaz's character tells a student) and the soundtrack great (the flick opens with Nick Lowe's obscure gem "Teacher Teacher"). And some of the minor characters are exquisitely drawn, particularly the bearded science teacher played by Dave Allen. And it's good to see Molly Shannon back on screen. Well worth seeing. But I digress. Paul ___________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 25, 2011 Interesting obit of the despicable Nguyen Kao Ky in the New York Times, except it leaves out one of the best-known and most notorious episodes in his life story: Ky's public praise of Adolf Hitler. <a href="http://www.roddriver.com/Mirror.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://www.roddriver.com/Mirror.jpg" /></a> The Daily Mirror article in which Ky praises Hitler. <a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_XMXWvqNY2Kc/SEoS4RIOIaI/AAAAAAAABBQ/fg2Dew8ormk/s1600-h/scannguyencaoky.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; DISPLAY: block; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208996676887257506" border="0" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_XMXWvqNY2Kc/SEoS4RIOIaI/AAAAAAAABBQ/fg2Dew8ormk/s400/scannguyencaoky.jpg" /></a>Vietnamese Nazi Ky. Here's today's obit: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/world/asia/24ky.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/world/asia/24ky.html</a> A right-winger like Ky will not be missed by many, that's for sure. * * * * * * * * * * Regarding the DSK case: the reporter from Newsweek, playing tag team with Robin Roberts, goes on GMA this morning and proceeds to ignore major facts about the maid Diallo that don't fit his sympathetic portrait. I haven't yet heard the Newsweek reporter (whatever his name is) mention in one of his TV appearances the fact that Diallo has six-fgure bank accounts in multiple cities. And most of that money evidently came from drug dealers and money launderers. Those facts completely contradict Newsweek's portrait of Diallo as a poor illiterate maid who has nothing to cling to but her job at the Sofitel. Other facts that contradict Diallo aren't brought out either. Like the fact that she initially claimed DSK spoke not a word in their encounter at the Sofitel; since then, she has had time to invent pages of dialogue to go with her account. By the way, the salient and telling question is not, "When did Diallo find out that DSK was the head of the IMF?" The salient question is: "When did Diallo know that the man staying in room 2806 was rich enough to afford a three-thousand dollar a night suite at the Sofitel?" And the answer to that question is: long before she opened the door to his room. That display on GMA this morning (in which Roberts accidentally muffed the reading of a defense statement from DSK's attorneys) was propaganda, not news. * * * * * * * * * * More Inside Baseball: Regarding my previous posting on my tenure at The San Francisco Chronicle (see below; scroll down to the word "Wiegand"). Allow me to anticipate how editor David Wiegand is defending himself against the facts that I've brought out. Obviously, he can't get around the fact that he signed my time sheets at the Chronicle, and the timesheets showed I came in every day and on time. But, sneaky guy that he is, Wiegand can show timesheets from days in which he sent me down to San Jose or to Pasadena to cover an event. On those days, obviously, I couldn't have been in the office because I was covering an event in a distant city, at his behest. And when I asked Wiegand how I was to fill out my timesheets for days in which I was covering a press conference in another city, he replied, "Put in the words 'in lieu.'" "'In lieu'?," I asked. "Yes, just write 'in lieu,'" he said. So I did. Another thing he may be bringing up is the fact that the San Jose Mercury News scooped us on a piece about Landmark Theaters back in '00. And they were able to do that because Wiegand delayed my story for reasons known only to himself. Obviously, the same publicist for Landmark that pitched us the story proceeded to pitch the same story idea to the Mercury News. And they ran with it. Also, as I mentioned before, my interview with Lawrence Ferlinghetti on "Howl" was easily the best feature to run in the San Francisco Chronicle while I was a staff writer there. And Wiegand, ever rivalrous, could never find a flaw in the piece. Though he tried hard to do so, apparently. And one editor finally was able to find some obscure video documentary on the Beats that I had never seen (and that was not available commercially) in which some talking head voiced one idea that was slightly similar to one of my ideas. As I recall, I wrote that the birth of the Beat Generation could arguably be traced to the public reading of "Howl" at 6 Gallery. A natural observation. But evidently, somebody in some video had said something along the lines of: the poetry renaissance in San Francisco began at 6 Gallery. Well, la de dah! What a surprise that somebody else somewhere came to a somewhat similar conclusion (using very different words)! Hey, that happens all the time. For example, countless journalists have described the JFK assassination as "the end of an era" or "the end of an epoch" or "the end of innocence in America." It's simply a natural way of thinking about that event. That is very, very different, of course, from plagiarism, which is stealing the unique wording of another writer. And plagiarism is what Wiegand did (or tried to do, until I stopped him) when he took the unique wording of a New York Times reporter and tried (and failed) to insert it in my article on the rock musical "Rent." By the way, everything in my Ferlinghetti article came from my one-on-one exclusive interview with Ferlinghetti. That was the point of the article. And the piece worked better than any feature story the Chronicle published that year. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Looks like my scoop (below) on Anders Breivik was correct after all. I'm still the only reporter to have reported the info about Breivik doing a specific online commercial trade, but it is now essentially corroborated by a story in The New York Times. The Times, citing a piece in Norwegian daily Finansavisen, reported that Breivik formed a "one-man e-commerce company in 2002." Which is consistent with the e-commerce transaction I uncovered (below). _____________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 24, 2011 EXCLUSIVE Was Anders Breivik an Ex-employee of Survivalist Company? <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qvwwjyc7OLg/Tiyo8BZjuWI/AAAAAAAAC9A/fRz8OuCSH7s/s1600/scannitro.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 335px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qvwwjyc7OLg/Tiyo8BZjuWI/AAAAAAAAC9A/fRz8OuCSH7s/s400/scannitro.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633062983054899554" /></a> Breivik's former boss? Nitro-pak, helping the religulous prepare for end-of-days. My own investigation into the past of the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik shows that he -- or a Norwegian with the same name -- once did work for a quasi-survivalist company that provides products for emergencies and disasters. The company, Nitro-Pak, bills itself as a "Preparedness Center" and provides MREs and other items for survivalist-minded people. And the company appears to be popular among some religious groups and others who preach that "end times are near." (Apparently, Nitro-Pak supplies religious fanatics who think their MREs will get them through the coming apocalypse.) I found the cache for a vanished website forum on which Anders Breivik (or another Norwegian with his name) did business. The discussion forum, from January 2003, was about knives; Anders Breivik appears to have traded products from Nitra-Pak to someone in the U.S. for a knife of some sort, leading to the following exchange: "If you get a chance to trade with Anders Breivik of Oslo, Norway, do so with complete confidence. His name may not be a regular on the forums but, he is certainly one of the Good Guys!" To which Breivik replies: "Thanks, Sid! You went out on a limb trading with an unknown overseas forumite, and I truly appreciate that. This was my first US trade, and so far it's been a good experience. When my new knife arrives, I'll be happy as a clam. Tracking it as we speak. As a plug for other Norwegian traders, Norway is certainly not a third world country, and communications with the US are usually first rate. We are not part of the EU, and are therefore spared some of the worst bureaucratic custom nonsense. (Not that we don't manage to come up with our own red tape . )" The exchange took place on January 26, 2003. (And I'm the first reporter anywhere to report this.) Cannot yet confirm whether it's the same Anders Breivik. (More to come.) But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 22 - 24, 2011 I've just seen a few new movies and DVDs, and here're my reviews: David Yates's "HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2" Impeccably crafted and magnificently acted horseshit. Admittedly, I'm just a Muggle. But, still, how could anyone over the age of eight possibly care about a story involving goblins and magic wands and dragons (ohhh, my heart's beating too fast -- I can hardly stand the tension!). Are the critics who gave this good reviews just making sure they'll be invited to the next screening of a Warner Bros. picture? To be sure, there was at least one scene of visual magic (when Potter causes objects to multiply by touching them). And ninety minutes in, during the confrontation between Potter and Lord Voldemort (who could really use a nose job, by the way), the film gains some traction. But not much traction. Because what exactly is the Harry Potter cause? Potter is basically a vigilante killer, out to avenge the murder of his parents. If he's trying to kill Voldemort, as he is, then why doesn't he simply shoot him with a pistol? Or, better yet, call a police officer. And at the end, there's the absurd and grandiose spectacle of people willing to fight and die for the Potter cause. But what does Potter stand for? Potter's not exactly Emiliano Zapata or a member of the Navy SEAL Team 6, for crissakes. He's a self-interested vigilante who would not care a whit about Voldemort if he hadn't killed his loved ones. I mean, Voldemort ain't bin Laden or Gadaffi. Aesthetically, most of this has the claustrophobic feel of being stuck in a garment factory full of lapidary craftspeople doing tedious tasks in tight drab quarters. And a lot of these characters look like they're wearing the sorts of Halloween masks you can buy at a five-and-dime (though I bet they went to great expense to get that look). Also, too many sage British characters whisper for no reason. In any event, a mere one week later, audiences have already moved beyond Potter to "Captain America," the new number one flick in the USA. * * * * Tom Hanks's "LARRY CROWNE" As a director, Hanks has become the new Alan Alda and this is sort of his "Four Seasons." Like Alda's film, "Larry..." is watchable and pleasant but too sweet, with hostile tension released and resolved all too easily with a smile and a joke. And the idea of pairing Hanks with Nia Vardalos to write the script is sort of like having Herman's Hermits collaborate with The 1910 Fruitgum Company. Check your insulin level after leaving the theater. I think the idea was to do a Vardalos movie without Vardalos -- and with a superstar like Julia Roberts singing Nia's words. To that end, Roberts plays an odd kind of steely academic, an identity that seems to match her current real-life sorta-sour persona ( I guess having all the men in the world at her feet has made her a bit bitter). Hanks would have been better off focusing on the chemistry between his own character and Cedric the Entertainer's -- a much more compelling relationship than the Hanks-Roberts one. And Bryan Cranston, a truly funny actor, is miscast and underused here. * * * * * J.J. Abrams's "SUPER 8" This flick works best as an evocation of 1979 and the New Wave era -- aka the Dawn of the Walkman -- but most of this is astonishingly boring. * * * * THE BOOMTOWN RATS LIVE AT THE HAMMERSMITH ODEON, 1978. We tend to forget that in the era Before Bono, the dominant rocker in global politics was Bob Geldof. And before Geldof organized epoch-defining charity concerts, he was a highly underrated New Wave rocker. And prior to his breakthrough hit, 1979's "I Don't Like Mondays," for which he's best known, he made music with the Boomtown Rats that was even better than that tune, mining the Bowie and Davies sides of the New Wave. This concert film captures the Rats at their peak, in '78, on tour behind "A Tonic for the Troops," which, today, sounds like the model for albums by the Kaiser Chiefs and Fastball. At this show, the band plays some exciting pop that gains velocity near the end with the irresistible "She's So Modern" and "Don't Believe What You Read." And they finally get the mix right, just in time for "Living in an Island," a bonus track here (and their catchiest song). Truly a band worth rediscovering. * * * * ELVIS PRESLEY: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW (DVD Disc 1) (my reviews of Discs 2 and 3 ran on 6/21 and 6/6, respectively) Here's Presley, young and virile, at the launch of his career -- and he has only around 20-years to live! And, if you look closely, he's frequently out of breath, even when he's not exerting himself too much, which speaks ill of his heart health in his prime. (Was he doing speed back then?) Oh, and after these Sullivan shows -- spanning from around Labor Day '56 to around New Year's Day '57 -- Presley was more or less finished with making TV appearances (until his "comeback" many years later). This episode, guest hosted by Captain Bligh (aka actor Charles Laughton, an irreverently amusing but condescending bloke), doesn't even look or feel like "The Ed Sullivan Show." And that's because Sullivan wasn't there, as he had been in a dead-serious head-on car accident that kept him off the air for five episodes. So Sullivan's biggest show to date -- 74 million people watched, an all-time record then -- happened without Ed. Which leads one to wonder whether Sullivan was sort of irrelevant to the success of his own program. Clearly, people didn't tune in for him. Anyway, Presley appeared by remote from Los Angeles; Laughton tosses to the Hollywood feed like the headmaster of a stuffy private school who wants to show us the progress made by a talented but troubled reform school chap. This, of course, happens in between the jokes about Calvin Coolidge and the ads for the long-forgotten (and astonishingly ugly) Mercury Phaeton. Presley, not as confident as he would be in later appearances, recycles some of the songs he performed better on the two other episodes ("Love Me Tender" was on all three). And guitarist Scotty Moore almost upstages Elvis, sounding surprisingly modern. DVD extras include an interview with a Sullivan producer who reveals that the tight shots of Presley happened because Sullivan had heard a rumor that Elvis was performing with a dildo in his pants. (Extras also include a hilarious clip of Sullivan interviewing Bob Hope, who joked: "I'm from Kent...The house is still there. It wasn't bombed during the war; it was bombed before the war.") But I digress. Paul [UPDATE, 8/22: see above; it's a different Breivik/] P.S. -- On another subject: Initial reports that the Norwegian mass murderer was a jihadist were completely correct. Breivik is a Christian jihadist -- which is not substantially different from being a Muslim jihadist. Both have absolute faith in an irrational, supernatural set of beliefs, which they try to enforce with violence. But this crime was so monumentally senseless and tragic that I bet the real culprit will probably turn out to be...schizophrenia. __________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 21, 2011 OK, my new song "SNEEZE (THE TEA PARTY ANTHEM)" debuted at #45 last night on Soundclick's Alternative chart. Listen here: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10869201&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10869201&q=lo&newref=1</a> * * * * * * * * I was in Chinatown in San Francisco the other day and shot this photo: <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MWW0AGA0H0Y/Tihztalru2I/AAAAAAAAC64/PVeCUrMOwQg/s1600/sanfranchinatwonmagnet.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 225px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631878558095489890" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MWW0AGA0H0Y/Tihztalru2I/AAAAAAAAC64/PVeCUrMOwQg/s400/sanfranchinatwonmagnet.jpg" /></a> [photo by Paul Iorio] But I digress. Paul ______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 19, 2011 Many, many thanks to Marshall Stax and KALX Radio for playing my new songs "Watching the Charismatic Girls" and "Sneeze (The Tea Party Anthem)" last night! I'll be posting those two and a few other brand new Paulsongs in coming days. * * * * OK, here are some brand new Paulsongs! The first is "Watching the Charismatic Girls." I posted it all of ten minutes ago and it's already #150 on Soundclick's alternative chart! Just click here to listen: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10869128&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10869128&q=lo&newref=1</a> OK, and here's "Sneeze (The Tea Party Anthem)." <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10869201&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10869201&q=lo&newref=1</a> As I mentioned, it was played last night on KALX -- and this morning, as I walked through Berkeley, a few people actually did a mock sneeze as I passed and sort of smiled. Cool. And here's another song I wrote and recorded in recent weeks, "YOU ONLY KNEW THE CATERPILLAR": <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10870188&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10870188&q=lo&newref=1</a> Amd here's another tune I wrote just last month, "Aiken Waterfield": <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10871154&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10871154&q=lo&newref=1</a> And here's yet another new Paulsong, "EASIN'": <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10871361&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10871361&q=lo&newref=1</a> And here're the lyrics of "Sneeze" and "...Charismatic..." and "...Caterpillar" and "Aiken..." and "Easin'." Enjoy! WATCHING THE CHARISMATIC GIRLS Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 Well, they all come out to our club Try to impress the ones that they love Watching the charismatic girls And there's one sure thing you can plan This day's gonna end different than it began Watching the charismatic girls Watching the charismatic girls And they love to dance in bright light 'Cause really there's only just light out there Watching the charismatic girls Watching the charismtaic girls And they try to prettify their pain Like snails on the sidewalk after a light rain Watching the charismatic girls Watching the charismtaic girls NOTES ON "CHARISMATIC GIRLS": I came up with the melody years ago but never had lyrics to go with it. And then last month, as I walked down Ashby in Berkeley, the phrase "charismatic girls" came to me and I began humming it to the tune of my melody. * * * * SNEEZE (THE TEA PARTY ANTHEM) Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 Well, I don't want the government telling me how to sneeze, oh yeah And I don't want the government saying I can't pray on my knees, oh yeah Well, I can't help but clench my fist When I see my country go Socialist I don't want the government telling me how to sneeze, oh yeah I don't want the government running the used car lots, oh yeah And I don't want the government taxin' everything I've got, oh yeah Well, I ain't antisocial, miss But I sure am anti-Socialist I don't want the government telling me how to sneeze Well, I don't want the government running like north of Niagra, oh yeah I don't want the government rationing my Viagra, oh yeah I see the president on ten TV channels Telling me I gotta stand before some death panel I don't want the government telling me how to sneeze Well, I don't want the government legalizing sin, oh yeah Telling my son he can't pray when the schoolbell rings, oh yeah Well, I pledge allegiance to the Bible Teachin' Darwin is some kind of libel Well, I don't want the government tellin' me how to sneeze You know, it's my damned right if I wanna catch H1N1, spread it around to all my loved ones It's my damn right if I wanna pay for my healthcare instead of gettin it free like I'm on welfare It's my damn right, says the second amendment, if I wanna enforce the Ten Commandments It's my damn right if I wanna pray to the Lord, instead of prayin' to Darwin who the liberals adore I don't want the government tellin' me how I don't want the government tellin' me how I don't want the government tellin' me how NOTES ON "SNEEZE": A sort of Johnny Cashish tune with ironic lyrics about Tea Partyers. I wrote this in '09 but didn't release it then because I thought right-wingers might take it as an unironic endorsement of their ideas. I now think it's meaning is clear. * * * YOU ONLY KNEW THE CATERPILLAR Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 This day You only knew the caterpillar You never knew the flier You only knew the caterpillar So you think that I'm a liar Well, you're the one who's lying This day You've never seen me fly around So you don't think that I can't fly A spider on a yellow tile Thinks the whole world's yellow tile The whole world's yellow tile 'Cause my wings don't need air My wings don't need air My wings don't need air She makes me fly This day Why don't you fly along with me Why don't you spread your wings? Unless you're still a caterpillar Why don't you fly along Why don't you come along? 'Cause my wings don't need air My wings don't need air My wings don't need air She makes me fly 'Cause my wings don't need air My wings don't need air My wings don't need air She makes me fly NOTES ON "YOU ONLY KNEW THE CATERPILLAR": This one started in April with the "This Day" part. Then I came up with the the "wings don't need air" melody and joined both parts with an instrumental bit I came up with months ago. * * * AIKEN WATERFIELD Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 Car broke down Way outta town Bears all around Lock the doors And the Grizzlies roam In the Brown bears's home I'm in two time zones Aiken Waterfield Aiken Waterfield Aiken Waterfield Can't find my car We hiked too far Where the hell we are, The trees all look the same And the Grizzlies roam In the Brown bears's home I'm in two time zones Aiken Waterfield Aiken Waterfield Aiken Waterfield . NOTES ON "AIKEN WATERFIELD": Stylistically, somewhere between late Cobain, early REM. I came up with the title "Aiken Waterfield" years ago, but never had use for it till I came up with the melody for it last month. * * * EASIN' Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 Easin' Mid-autumn afternoon Easin' Drapes like a parachute Sunlight Streams through the willow trees Sunlight At a late-day angle Easin' Mid-autumn afternoon Easin' Drapes like a parachute Bracin' That breeze smells like snow on the way Bracin' A jaundiced sky way up high It's that time of somethin' Cats chewin' leftover pumpkin Easin' Mid-autumn afternoon Easin' Drapes like a parachute NOTES ON "EASIN'": Initially I was trying for a George Jones sort of thing, with part of the chorus sung by many voices. But then it evolved into something more melodic. * * * * * * I was out and about in San Francisco yesterday; here's a photo I shot of the marketplace at the Ferry Building: <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MJVD_7Uk7Lk/Tics8XTvB3I/AAAAAAAAC6Q/lDnVoKkg6x0/s1600/embarcadero2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MJVD_7Uk7Lk/Tics8XTvB3I/AAAAAAAAC6Q/lDnVoKkg6x0/s400/embarcadero2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631519274610657138" /></a> [photo by Paul Iorio] But I digress. Paul P.S. -- A few random observations about the Murdoch scandal: 1. Reporters should be looking at similar instances of bending-of-the-rules and unethical viciousness at other Murdoch companies, maybe even Fox Searchlight (check out how they go after people in litigation) or HarperCollins (ditto). What most of the media is failing to see is that Rupert has set a tone that permeates every company he owns. 2. Rebekah Brooks would not look nearly as good without her long hair. If she were to shave her head, she'd look ordinary. 3. Dear Rebekah, I sure hope Rupe is payin' ya lots of hush money, because he's implicitly trashing your ass on TV, saying, "I didn't do it, it was Rebekah, who I trusted, and she betrayed me." If I were her, I'd be steamin' right about now. 4. Murdoch, on the hot seat today, said that his poor, poor daddy was so poor that he only owned one newspaper. How deprived. 5. Murdoch has been so vicious over the years that I am having enormous satisfaction seeing this Mubarak of the media getting his just desserts. And his son's main talent seems to be inheriting his daddy's money. 6. Unlike Rupe, I'm not a fan of tidiness. Tidiness, to paraphrase Dashiell Hammett, implies a level of dishonest calculation (similar to Rupe's testimony today). What's next, Rupe? Public tears at a press conference, endlessly rehearsed in front of PR consultants the day before? [updated 7/20/11] _______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 17 - 18, 2011 OK, I've just seen several new films and here're my reviews: Woody Allen's "MIDNIGHT IN PARIS" It's Allen's best film since "Match Point," but no way is it as great as "Bullets Over Broadway" or any Woody masterwork before it. The appeal here is the concept: a guy visits Paris and is magically transported back to the 1920s, where he hangs out with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Scott and Zelda, Picasso, etc. Problem is that Allen's portraits of the greats of the '20s are too idealized. We get no real sense of these geniuses as workaday writers and painters, many of them unappreciated in their time, some having a hard time making a living and paying bills. That may well be Allen's intention -- to show the protagonist's wishful POV -- but, if so, that doesn't seem to play into the meaning of the film. (I mean, Owen Wilson's character doesn't stop at any point and wonder whether he's romanticizing these people. And Rachel McAdams's character doesn't chide him for idealizing his artistic heroesof the Twenties.) I kept wanting to see some realism: an artist harassed by debt collectors, or unjustly accused of plagiarism by a mediocre rival, or unable to pay medical bills resulting from a Hemingwayesque barroom brawl. Or Hemingway himself, hugging the toilet and vomiting from too much booze. (Or imagine dropping in on another era, on Van Gogh on a typical day, when the artist, smelly and rude, was being put down as a wannabe by lesser, more successful contemporaries.) Face it, that was the true quotidian reality of some of these "great" artists. Celebrated now (from a safe distance by high-end museum curators and academics), too many brilliant artists of the past were actually shunned in their day and wouldn't even have been invited to present-day galas honoring their work (if they were still around today). (The real Van Gogh would have been kicked out of any museum's opening night party celebrating a Van Gogh exhibition. And the real Caravaggio would have made the fictional Cheech (of "Bullets...") look like a Boy Scout.) Instead, the film just gives us Champagne and chandeliers. (Even Zelda is all dressed up and perfectly groomed as she attempts suicide.) It's a vision from an artist -- Allen -- whose world view has been skewed and distorted by a freakish level of fame and success over a protracted period. Allen has never really experienced the phenomenon of being an unknown or underappreciated talent. His memory of being an obscure film maker can only be dim and distant, at best. And this picture reflects that. And the film's premise should've been taken in a different direction. I kept wanting Owen Wilson's character to return to the Twenties with a later work by some of the artists he was partying with. Imagine if Owen's character had brought Hemingway one of his 1950s works -- say, "The Old Man and the Sea" -- and passed it off as his own in order to get Hemingway's reaction. Or if he had brought a print of "Guernica" to Picasso and said, "What do you think of this?" That would have been fascinating. (And it would have allowed Owen's character to become the toast of 1920s Paris for a time!) And that would have put it in league with the much wiser and far more knowing "Bullets Over Broadway." * * * * Michael Bay's "TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON" Some of the visuals here are nothing short of astonishing, the best special effects since "Inception," particularly the sequence in which people slide down the slanted surface of a glass skyscraper. But the moon-landing conspiracy theory plot leaves me cold (I've covered that aspect in a previous Digression, below). * * * * Seth Gordon's "HORRIBLE BOSSES" This may well be the funniest comedy of 2011, a recession-era piece that should be paired with "Lost in America" for a double bill at a revival house. From those two flicks, you can learn all the truth you need to know about American capitalism. Three main characters ride this giddy concept -- let's murder our abusive bosses! -- to the hilt, as they feloniously plot against their truly despicable employers. And Kevin Spacey, as the main tyrannical boss, hasn't been this dazzling since "American Beauty." Highly recommended. * * * * * Paul Feig's "BRIDESMAIDS" The headline here is that Kristen Wiig is not just very, very funny; she's also a terrific actress, almost Chaplinesque in her pathos and her ability to convey loneliness, desolation. This flick starts as an ensemble feature but soon turns into something like a Wiig vehicle, if only because she's the best thing about it. Wiig highlights abound, but check out the hilarious scene in which she walks the line for a sobriety test. (Amazing no one had thought of doing that on screen before.) Fresh, funny, original. And Wiig's growth curve has been straight up lately. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- I just read the usually brilliant Virginia Heffernan's piece (at nytimes.com) about typos and editors. And I just roared with laughter when I read this bit about the supposed impact of the absence of copyeditors in publishing: Curious readers now get regular glimpses of raw and frank and interesting mistakes that give us access to unedited minds. In other words, she believes, the writer writes imperfectly and and the copyeditor corrects it. If ever there was a case of reality being over here and her perceptions being many thousands of miles from that reality, that is it. When I was a writer at the San Francisco Chronicle, copyeditors almost always created errors every time they took out their pens. In fact, I plan to devote an entire website to the juxtaposition of my original unedited manuscripts with the copyedited versions, always inferior. Top ten howlers by copyeditors at the Chronicle include: I wrote "[they] arrived at the party"; the "polished" copyedited version: "[they] arrived to the party." In another instance: my version was "he died of a busted aorta"; the "polished" copyedited version: "he died of a burst aorta." And on and on. Granted, Heffernan is talking mostly about book publishing, but the principle is the same. [updated July 19, 2011] ________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 14, 2011 Is Buzz Aldrin Irresponsibly Stoking Lunar Landing Conspiracy Theories in "Transformers 3"? <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GwJY2T-C_YE/Th4p2LZC-YI/AAAAAAAAC5g/3ft9HbvnpCI/s1600/scanBUZZ.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 296px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GwJY2T-C_YE/Th4p2LZC-YI/AAAAAAAAC5g/3ft9HbvnpCI/s400/scanBUZZ.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628982595007216002" /></a> Lunar or loony? Buzz in "Transformers 3." What's Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, doing in a film on conspiracy theories about the NASA moon landing program? Yeah, Buzz has a cameo in a little indie art-house gem called "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (aka, "Transformers 3'), actually the top blockbuster of 2011 so far -- and likely to stay that way, despite stiff competition from the new Potter flick. Anyway, there's Aldrin, fifteen minutes in, implicitly lending legitimacy to the flick's fantasy premise: that NASA's voyages to the moon were about investigating the crash of an extraterrestrial spacecraft on the lunar surface. The fictional premise is hard to believe even for the two-and-a-half hour span of the picture, but I'm sure some are coming out of theaters thinking that's what the moon landings were really all about. In the world according to "Transformers 3," the cover-up of the E.T. crash on the moon is also sort of folded into Nixon's package of Watergate crimes. "We were sworn to secrecy by our commander-in-chief," says Aldrin. OK, you could say it's all done in good fun and Aldrin is being a good sport by making such a cameo. But this flick, playing to crowds who probably think the moon landings were staged, doesn't have a campy or an ironic bone in its body. And Aldrin's appearance in the movie makes it seem as if he's sort of gone over the proverbial deep end, or something. (The fact that he has had mental health problems over the decades feeds this perception.) After all, in popular mythology, Aldrin is sort of seen as the moonwalker who was driven nuts by the fact that he was tantalizingly close to becoming the first human being to have walked on the moon. The fact that he's the second person to have walked on the moon has been a bit of a sore point for him over the years, it seems. And in the film, Frances McDormand's character sort of re-writes history a bit so that Buzz gets his first-on-the-moon trophy after all. "Allow me to please introduce to you...astronaut doctor Buzz Aldrin, one of the first two men to set foot on the moon," says McDormand in the film. Which is like introducing John Adams by saying, "Welcome President John Adams, one of the first two presidents of the United States." Wow! People with wounded egos all over the world can start using that verbal trickl! (My uncle was one of the first two people to find a cure for polio! Sweetwater was one of the first two acts to play Woodstock!) Aldrin should explain himself on this one. Appearing in a straight pic about lunar landing conspiracy theories is sort of like Jacqueline Onassis making a cameo in Oliver Stone's "J.F.K." <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G5lFt8ZZC_0/Th4r3lvwKnI/AAAAAAAAC5o/0vpQBrJLBHg/s1600/scanbuzztwo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G5lFt8ZZC_0/Th4r3lvwKnI/AAAAAAAAC5o/0vpQBrJLBHg/s400/scanbuzztwo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628984818284898930" /></a> An alien spacecraft crashes on the moon! (And Michael Bay had a video camera there to capture the moment!) * * * * * * * * Harry Potter and the Curse of Puberty All signs say the new Potter movie will probably be the biggest of the series, grossing somewhere near $325 million domestically. But that still won't make it number one for the year (I bet that honor goes to "Transformers 3"). And remember, no Potter film has ever cracked the top twenty all-time box office list. Only the inaugural "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" has come close (at #25). Me, I've never been a Potter fan. In fact, I've never been able to get through a single Potter flick without dozing off, truth be told. It's not that it's kid's stuff; it's goody-goody kid's stuff. Boring. And all the big budget production values (with every dollar on the screen!) and only-the-best craft doesn't impress me at all. Give me a shaky hand-held Cassavetes flick with imagination and heart any day over the expensive techniques and impeccable craft of something like, say, "How Do You Know" or the Potter flicks. )The ideal, of course, is to mix impeccable craft with great artistry a la Kubrick or Polanski.) "Only the best" is a phrase too often (though not always) used by people who have more money than ideas or imagination. * * * * By the way, Woody Allen has just had his highest-grossing film ever with "Midnight in Paris" (though, adjusted for inflation, "Hannah," "Manhattan" and "Annie Hall" had higher grosses). But I digress. Paul ___________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 7 - 13, 2011 The Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute. <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2UEDt10QEaU/ThZdyuFJ35I/AAAAAAAAC5Y/w4yMOD-7IpQ/s1600/ryan.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 199px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 133px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626787910390505362" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2UEDt10QEaU/ThZdyuFJ35I/AAAAAAAAC5Y/w4yMOD-7IpQ/s400/ryan.jpg" /></a> Please enter through the Illinois Governor's Mansion. [by Paul Iorio/photo from FCI website] * * * * Chris Wragge of CBS's "The Early Show" cracked a funny one the other morning. After a segment on Al Capone, Wragge drily quipped: "They talk about the mob element in Chicago. But we don't have any of that in New York and New Jersey." * * * * * * * * original joke of the day! Unconfirmed rumors say Mitt Romney is writing a memoir about his affluent upbringing, "It Takes a Villa." * * * * * * * * Regarding my post (below) on my tenure at the San Francisco Chronicle and related matters (scroll down to the word "Wiegand"): the fact that David Wiegand of the Chronicle is a plagiarist is only one reason why he should have been fired from the paper a long time ago. Other reasons include the fact that he was prone to writing fraudulent employee evaluation reports. Now, lookee here, I don't mind if someone writes a negative evaluation of me based on an honest assessment. But I do mind what Wiegand did; he deliberately misrepresented the factual record. I mean, when I was staff writer at the Chronicle, I always came in early (sometimes hours early), worked six and seven day weeks (when I was required to work only five days) and NEVER missed a deadline. Never. In fact, I never even had to get a deadline extension (and many other staffers did). And it's no coincidence, by the way, that I wrote the best feature story published in the Chronicle during the year when I was staff writer there (the Ferlinghetti article, which Wiegand would have killed had he not been distracted by upper management with extra vacation time). Yet after I exposed Wiegand as a plagiarist, Wiegand retaliated against me by saying I came in late (when I came in early every day), that I missed days (when I never missed a day, and that's for sure!). He signed my time sheets, so he knew full well what the facts were and that he was not telling the truth in the evaluation. I mean, how Hearst avoids firing Wiegand is beyond my comprehension. But they pay the price in journalistic credibility. If you guys at Hearst/Chronicle were truly professional, you would ask David Wiegand the following question: Did you lie when you signed Paul Iorio's timesheets, or did you lie when you wrote the evaluation of Iorio? Because the timesheets said Paul came in every day and on time; your evaluation said Paul didn't. So which one is the lie? But I digress. Paul P.S. -- By the way, I was on the beat or ahead of the beat with every story I did for the Chronicle. If I was doing a story about a movie opening on Friday, I had it done and finished well in advance and ahead of deadline. But Wiegand would frequently undermine my work by holding back a finished piece that required no editing, delaying it just slightly so that it had less freshness and less timeliness. (My Cavett piece was a prime example, but not the only one.) Let it be known, also, that the San Francisco Chronicle could have been the first newspaper anywhere to have published a feature on the brand new series "C.S.I." I was on to "C.S.I." in 2000 when nobody else was and had an interview with Bruckheimer all lined up, but Wiegand nixed the idea. In the end, The Chronicle spent all that money to relocate and hire a writer (me) with a reputation for being ahead of pop culture trends before anybody else, and they stuck me with an editor who tried to bury my major scoops! No wonder the San Francisco Chronicle loses a million dollars a week. With editors like Wiegand, I'm surprised the paper hasn't been shuttered altogether. ______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 6, 2011 Here's some more information that might help you understand my claims against Dan Rosenheim, the guy who runs the newsroom of the CBS television affiliate in San Francisco. As I said, Rosenheim wrote a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle's main editor (and my boss) Matt Wilson in 2000 (around the time of the presidential election) saying that he had had a conversation with me about an article of mine. But at the time he wrote that letter to Wilson, Rosenheim and I had never ever talked or communicated in any way. I know that not only from memory, but from notes, calendars and from the fact that I used to audiotape almost every person I interviewed. We had not talked when he wrote that letter. Dan Rosenheim is a flat-out liar. Now, what was his motivation? That's a question for him, not for me, but I can offer some background that might help you understand the situation. First, Rosenheim had been the top editor at the San Francisco Chronicle in previous years and knew the then-current editor, Wilson, quite well. Second, though I had my supporters at the paper, I also had my detractors, chief among them David Wiegand in features. Wiegand, a silly rural sort of guy who wanted to push coverage toward puppet shows and circuses, is the person who physically held up the Rosenheim letter in front of my face for me to see -- and Wiegand was smiling large as he did so, in the manner of someone who knew a dirty track was afoot. And Wiegand did this a few minutes or so before I was supposed to call Rosenheim about another story (it would be the first time I had ever spoken with Rosenheim). As Wiegand held up the letter, I could see it was bait. After all, Wiegand was showing me a flagrantly false claim by Rosenheim mere minutes before I was to speak with Rosenheim. (He fraudulently claimed in the letter that I had admitted to errors in a piece that was completely error-free. BTW, don't let him falsely shift which story it was; it was the Election Day '00 story in which I wrote a guide to upcoming television coverage of the election returns; it was NOT a ratings piece. Not finding any errors in the story, he was reduced to objecting to the phrase "various anchors.") So Wiegand lit the fuse and expected me to blow my top at Rosenheim and/or call Rosenheim a liar. And seeing that the letter was bait, I did neither. As unethical as it sounds, the Chronicle had a de facto policy: going against the friend of a major editor at the Chronicle was virtually a firable offense. And Rosenheim was a pal of Matt Wilson's. So the choreography was this, in all likelihood: show Paul the Rosenheim letter full of blatant lies just before Paul interviews Rosenheim; watch Paul call Rosenheim a liar; watch Paul, who was in his probationary period at the Chronicle, be called into Wilson's office; watch Wilson say something like "Shut the door. I hear you called my friend Dan Rosenheim a liar...." Watch Paul be escorted to the Human Resources department for his exit from the company. But none of that choreography happened, because I didn't take the bait (to mix a metaphor!). It should be noted that David Wiegand is a thoroughly biased source about my time at the Chronicle. Wiegand started undermining my work on February 9, 1999, when he tried to add a plagiarized line to one of my stories (on the rock musical "Rent"). And I stopped him from adding the line and reported him to his superior. What it looked like Wiegand was trying to do was this: he was trying to insert a plagiarized line into a story of mine so that he could later (falsely) point to it as proof that I had plagiarized. Thankfully, I recognized the line from The Times immediately and stopped him from putting it the piece. I even had a spirited email exchange (from February 9th to 12th, 1999) with Wiegand about his attempted plagiarism. (I still have those messages, too.) Here's the line from the New York Times that Wiegand tried to plagiarize (below): <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7B7SN2oKUSU/ThS1Yo34M7I/AAAAAAAAC4g/Q3kX4_T4m8A/s1600/rentNYT.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 399px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7B7SN2oKUSU/ThS1Yo34M7I/AAAAAAAAC4g/Q3kX4_T4m8A/s400/rentNYT.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626321269385868210" /></a> And here's my article on "Rent" that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle on February 28, 1999: <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yg0chMA2Nto/ThS3Nnzoh5I/AAAAAAAAC4o/f91zFTCnXQA/s1600/rentchronicle.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 253px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yg0chMA2Nto/ThS3Nnzoh5I/AAAAAAAAC4o/f91zFTCnXQA/s400/rentchronicle.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626323279144322962" /></a> * * * * After three years of working for the San Francisco Chronicle as a freelance writer, I was finally hired as a staff writer/reporter in 2000. Unfortunately, I had to report to -- you guessed it! -- David Wiegand. I had previously written mostly for Ruthe Stein, a far better editor. And here is her evaluation of me, after having been my editor for three years, in a letter of recommendation: <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xto_uitRuyo/ThS4nMEvvlI/AAAAAAAAC4w/W2EH-pRHNYQ/s1600/ruthesteinletter.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 257px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xto_uitRuyo/ThS4nMEvvlI/AAAAAAAAC4w/W2EH-pRHNYQ/s400/ruthesteinletter.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626324817888132690" /></a> Letter of recommendation from my main editor at the San Francisco Chronicle (above). <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RFiNn47BYTw/ThS9rQdJIzI/AAAAAAAAC5I/SfmtuNHCRq0/s1600/RUTHnote.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 260px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RFiNn47BYTw/ThS9rQdJIzI/AAAAAAAAC5I/SfmtuNHCRq0/s400/RUTHnote.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626330385341817650" /></a> An accompanying note. <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gj41kBIXo9o/ThTA0QCLyWI/AAAAAAAAC5Q/ElS1dQs5Qnk/s1600/rutheENV.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 180px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gj41kBIXo9o/ThTA0QCLyWI/AAAAAAAAC5Q/ElS1dQs5Qnk/s400/rutheENV.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626333838382451042" /></a> And (for skeptics) here's the envelope it came in! But I digress. Paul P.S. -- By the way, my record as a journalist is completely clean; my error rate during my four years at the Chronicle was zero percent! But who knows what trivial crap Wiegand & Co. will bring up now that I've blown the whistle on liars? (Already I'm hearing echoes of one rumor: that I erased content from the hard drive of my computer at the San Francisco Chronicle. My response: you bet I did! Multiple times, too! The hard drive of my El Cheapo Computer at the Chronicle was completely full and out of memory at several points in the Fall of '00, so I couldn't write any new content on my computer without first deleting old files. So guess what I did? I deleted old files (mostly previous drafts of stories I'd written) to free up space on the hard drive! Whatta scandal! The real scandal is that dishonest jerks like Wiegand, who should have been fired a long time ago, are spreading that sort of distorted slander. (Meanwhile, he lets staffers who have committed real journalistic felonies -- like Edward Guthmann -- get away with their transgressions.) P.S. -- As a sidenote: after I left the San Francisco Chronicle, I soon discovered that the well-connected editors there had polluted the air for me in the newspaper business. Though I went back to freelancing for The Washington Post and other papers, I ran into a newly hostile environment at publications where I had previously done successful work and had successful relationships. I must say that some of the very best editors I've ever worked with have been at The Washington Post; but in the wake of my whistleblowing at the Chronicle, I experienced a first (for me): a botched edit of one of my stories for The Post. (BTW, note to that particular editor; if you're going to unfairly characterize that edit at my expense, then I'll have to further clarify what happened (and the back-and-forth emails on that particular story tell the tale quite clearly).) [updated 7/7/2011] _______________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 2, 2011 Channeling Maureen Dowd: Here's What She's Thinking as She Tries to Write Her Next Column (in the Wake of Being Wrong About the Diallo Case). Uh, let's see. My next column. How 'bout this lede: He is on trial for assault; she is not on trial for checking the wrong box on her immigration application. No, too strident. Have to dial back after wrongly praising her before all the facts were in last May. Hmmm. I'll try this: There is finally a verdict in the DSK case: the maid is guilty of having a boyfriend who smokes pot. I don't know. People will start saying I won't admit it when I'm wrong. (I hope that Daily Digression guy doesn't dig up my column defending Jayson Blair.) Lemme try this: Willie Dixon, whose work was plundered, uncredited, by later generations of white rock poseurs, said it best: "You Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover." The Guinean housekeeper versus the Euro homewrecker. The African immigrant making a life for herself versus the Frenchman making anyone but his own wife. Dunno. Sounds too much like other stuff I've written. This oped gig's getting stale. Dammit, just when Jill fully unleashes me, my Diallo blunder screws things up! By the way, that doorman on 8th Avenue keeps looking at my gams every time I walk by. Men are such pigs!!!! I have half a mind to stop shaving altogether and walk into the newsroom with hairy legs. Hah! I bet you're not salivating now, boys! Just like the brave feminists of '70! Steinem. Do I have a current number for her? Maybe I can do a column: "Steinem at '77, Sunset." Something like that. My mind's wandering. Focus. Next column. How about this lede: Fourteen years ago, when the president's peachy time in the Oval Office was leading to impeachment.... No, not timely enough. How about this: Rummy's memoir is proving to be about as popular as a sexually abusive priest in America: it's rocketed to number 3,000 or so on Amazon. That's it! Change the subject! But I digress. Paul [posted at 10 a.m., 7/2/2011] ____________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 30, 2011 Nafissatou Diallo, the Maid in DSK Case, Had a Knack for Doing Both Laundry and Laundering <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WYMcy0aXteI/Tg52ps2uI1I/AAAAAAAAC4Y/gz8cxrML36Y/s1600/scandiallo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WYMcy0aXteI/Tg52ps2uI1I/AAAAAAAAC4Y/gz8cxrML36Y/s400/scandiallo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624563443419718482" /></a> Nafissatou Diallo, the extortionist-ish maid in the DSK case: "Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money," she said in an obscure Guinean dialect to a jailhouse pal, according to nytimes.com. "I know what I’m doing." (You can write to her at 120 West 116th Street in NYC (I still have to doublecheck that address) and tell her what you think!) I have two words for Maureen Dowd: Crystal Mangum. If Dowd hasn't learned from that case (and from the Tawana Brawley fraud before it) that female opportunists, playing the gender card, sometimes make false accusations against men they wanna shake down or bring low, then she hasn't been reading her own newspaper over the last few years. Don't get me wrong, Dowd's portrait of Nafissatou Diallo, the maid in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, is beautifully written and moving, bathing the Sofitel housekeeper in the glow of righteousness and the light of true north. (I think it was titled "Portrait of the Con Artist as a Young Woman" (May 17, 2011, the New York Times).) And the part about Diallo escaping oppression in Guinea included everything but alligators snapping at her ass as she made her daring exit (to paraphrase Joseph L. Mankiewicz). A very "proper dignified woman," "a devout Muslim," "a simple woman." That's what Dowd quoted sources as saying about Diallo in her May 17th column. OK, now for some reality. A few details about this "simple dignified" woman have since come to light (via The New York Times) and are therefore missing from Dowd's airbrushed portrait. Like...her best bud is in prison, charged with selling 400-pounds of pot (slightly more than a joint, I think) and depositing huge sums of money into her multiple bank accounts in multiple cities. And other dudes have put money in her accounts to the tune of six figures. (Wow! That happens to me all the time!) Looks like -- looks like -- this "simple dignified woman" has a bit of a second career in...money laundering! Diallo also recently had an audiotaped conversation with the fella with the 400-lbs of joints about how she could have a lucrative third career -- what a hardworking maid she is! -- making money from the DSK case. Which looks like -- looks like -- extortion. Oh, but Dowd has a defense of this "simple dignified" woman. The maid "'did not even know who [DSK] was' until she saw the news accounts,'" Dowd wrote, quoting a source. 'Cept for one thing, Maureen. The "simple dignified" maid did know that the guy staying in the suite had enough money to afford three thousand dollars a night for it. So she knew she was walking in on a very wealthy guy -- and probably knew he was taking a shower, too (one can tell from the sound of the bathroom pipes in the hallway). Hate to digress, but you'd think that paying three thousand dollars a night for a suite at the Sofitel would get you a room in which extortionate maids don't walk in on you while you're naked and dripping. I mean, shouldn't that be one of the perks? (By the way the Sofitel really did a super background check on the housekeeper, no?) Also this simple woman -- with a knack for doing both laundry and laundering (a multi-talent) -- lies. A lot. And that comes from the prosecutors. (Jeff Shapiro, the defense attorney who believed Diallo, will be eating lotza crow in coming days. Maybe he can change the subject to Imus.) But I digress. Paul P.S. -- My decision to release the maid's name, which many other news organizations are keeping confidential, is based on the fact that it now appears that she -- not DSK -- is the criminal in this case. If she is the crook in this situation, then why are we naming DSK, who, after all, has the presumption of innocence? This is looking more like the Diallo Extortion Case rather than the DSK Assault Case, hence it's now appropriate to name the de facto perp. * * * * P.S. -- When in New York, Stay at the Sofitel and enjoy plush luxury. Our $3,000-a-night suites include extortionate maids who walk in on you while you're in the shower! [updated July 1, 2011] ________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 29, 2011 Almost everybody applauds the legalization of gay marriage in New York. But isn't it funny that same-sex couples are finally getting the right to marry at the exact time in history when a new generation is abandoning the institution? Recent studies show an increasing number of young people are avoiding marriage completely, choosing to live together instead. I mean, when you think about it, marriage does seem sort of old-fashioned, an awkward combination of lovey-dovey and sign-right-here. So gays now have the right to practice an outdated ritual. It's almost -- almost -- like saying you now have the right to worship Zeus. Or like: "You were onced barred from the Edsel dealership, but you finally have the right to buy a 1959 Edsel station wagon!" Hey, knock yourself out! Those who are saying "wow, even some devout Catholics are backing gay marriage -- how progressive!" are ignoring the fact that it's not progressive to be a devout Catholic, or a devout Muslim, or a devout Jew. The human race is and has been moving in the opposite direction, away from fundamentalism, away from supernatural beliefs and explanations that everybody knows couldn't possibly be true. So I find it quaint when someone says that this archbishop or that religulous pol is really at the edge of culture for supporting same sex unions. Because his very religiosity marks him as -- hate to say it -- backward. You wanna be truly progressive, 300 years ahead of your time? Dump your religious beliefs. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- I absolutely love something Salman Rushdie once said: before the ancient Greek myths were myths, they were the the Greek religion. And people back then believed that stuff about Zeus and Icarus and Daedalus just as much as people believe in God and the myth of Christ today. (Hey, I've actually been to the cave in Crete where Zeus was supposedly born; that was once a sacred site.) In several hundred years, we will view the myths of the Bible, the Koran and the Torah the way we now view Greek mythology. He who goes in that direction now is a progressive. * * * * * * * * Don't you hate it when people try to equate the producer of a music album with the director of a feature film? Those in the know know the two are not similar or analogous. There is no equivalent in pop music to a "director." There is no "director" of a pop album, unless you're talking about the recording artist. As someone noted in the New York Times the other month, the director of a movie is the artist in most cases. However, the producer of an album (except in rare cases) works for the artist and is not the artist himself. _________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 29, 2011 exclusive Fun Obscure Facts About Michele Bachmann! Michele's One-time Long-time Church! <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9zzT94PzIdo/TgrAdgptSYI/AAAAAAAAC4I/1iP5s9sbxiQ/s1600/scanBACHMANCHURCH.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 386px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 297px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623518697939093890" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9zzT94PzIdo/TgrAdgptSYI/AAAAAAAAC4I/1iP5s9sbxiQ/s400/scanBACHMANCHURCH.jpg" /></a> It used to be called the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church and School, but they recently dropped the Evangelical part. Located in Stillwater, Minn. I was able to unearth the vanished past websites of the church, which are far flakier than the current website. The old church sites were full of folksy kooky wisdom like: "Trust in God but lock your car so as not to tempt others." The older editions of the church website also had "Emergency Phone Numbers" listed: "EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS When in sorrow.....................................call John 14 When men fail you...............................call Psalm 27 When you have sinned.........................call Psalm 51 When you worry..............................call Matthew 6:19-34 When you are in danger................................call Psalm 91" You get the idea. And the emergency listings go on and on and on, finally ending with the punchline: "All lines to Heaven are open 24 hours a day!" And who is the guiding light of this church of the flakes? The Rev. Marcus Birkholz, who, according to the old website, likes to hunt for sport (after a hard day of preaching "thou shall not kill," no doubt). Meet Bachmann's pastor (he likes to kill mammals for fun!)<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jH-M3kTMCAk/TgrA2gHbLPI/AAAAAAAAC4Q/UDek5_8mZhA/s1600/scanBACHMANNPASTOR.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 246px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 323px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623519127292030194" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jH-M3kTMCAk/TgrA2gHbLPI/AAAAAAAAC4Q/UDek5_8mZhA/s400/scanBACHMANNPASTOR.jpg" /></a> The Rev. Marcus Birkholz, home-schooled hunter! Now Meet Michele's Financial Backers! According to my own search of FEC data, Michele takes money from Big Tobacco (Altria, which sells Marlboro), Big Pharma (GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer), and from extremist groups with names like Government Is Not God and The Home School Legal Defense Association (plus, of course, the NRA and Eagle Forum). Stay tuned to the Digression for more fun factoids about everybody's favorite Minnesota Tea Party Gal! But I digress. Paul _______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 28, 2011 Athens, Greece, This Morning <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GBMsPGGMk90/TgoFXsVyZcI/AAAAAAAAC4A/24dT0KDnQIE/s1600/athens3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 376px; height: 249px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GBMsPGGMk90/TgoFXsVyZcI/AAAAAAAAC4A/24dT0KDnQIE/s400/athens3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623312989323158978" /></a> [photo credit: Mike Blake of Reuters] Thousands of years ago, the seat of power shifted northward from Cairo to Athens (and then to Rome). Will the revolutions now sweeping the globe start making the same northward journey? But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Oh, I can hear the pundits now, offering overly-detailed explanations about why the situations in Cairo and Athens are different, very very different. These, of course, would be the same pundits who -- before the Arab Spring was in full bloom -- said that Libya and Egypt and Tunisia are very very different countries and what has happened in Tunisia would never and could never spread to other parts of the region. Some pundits out there have the track record of Moody's Investors Service, the corrupt and/or incompetent firm that gave triple A ratings to companies on the verge of collapse in '08. The fact that experts who are consistently proven wrong can still be booked on mainstream news programs as talking heads is a scandal. * * * * P.S. -- Regarding my item (below), in which I call KPIX's Dan Rosenheim a liar: yes, you heard me quite right. Rosenheim, who runs the newsroom at the CBS affiliate in San Francisco, is a liar who creates fiction and tries to pass it off as fact. When KPIX says Rosenheim meets their ethical standards, they're saying that this paragraph (below) should be allowed in journalism: Today I spoke with President Obama and we had a long talk about his health care reform plan. Obama admitted to me that there were many flaws in his health care plan and he detailed some of them in our conversation. The above bit about Obama, obviously, didn't happen, of course. But that's an exact equivalent to what Rosenheim wrote in the case I mentioned in a previous Digression: he made up a conversation out of whole cloth and wrote about it. Same thing. By keeping Rosenheim in his job, the CBS affiliate in San Francisco is effectively saying: it's OK to fabricate conversations and pass them off as non-fiction. Keeping Rosenheim in his job makes it hard for KPIX to have much credibility in its news reporting. It's funny how many journalists and professors of journalism who pretend to be high-minded suddenly aren't when it comes to one of their own in a top position at a major media company. P.S. - By the way, I distinctly remember that Rosenheim and I did NOT talk in the imaginary conversation he cited in his letter. In fact, I have a vivid memory of NOT having had the conversation he cited in his letter. Wanna figure this out using common sense? OK, why would I have admitted to making factual errors in an article that had no factual errors? So, KPIX, if you're brave enough, go find find out if you have a liar running your newsroom. Check out the paper version of the Chronicle story (just before the 2000 election) about upcoming television coverage of the presidential election. Fact check it. It checks out, right? Then why the hell would I have admitted in a conversation that there were errors in an accurate piece? Rosenheim is a flat out liar. [updated 7/6/11] _____________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 26, 2011 Last Night's Alison Krauss & Union Station Concert Krauss and Co. opened last night's show in Berkeley (Calif.) with the first two tracks of their new album: the Dar Williams-ish "Paper Airplane" (which has the great line "Love conquers few") and the marvelous "Dust Bowl Children." And then the band charged into a riveting banjo-driven instrumental that turned out to be the best thing they played all night. Other highlights included The Foundations's "Baby, Now That I've Found You"; a solo turn by Jerry Douglas, the Ravi Shankar of the dobro; and "Daylight," with its interesting time-signature changes. But the second half of the show was not nearly as good. I'm not as impressed as others are with "Man of Constant Sorrow," which is terrific at first but then becomes a formulaic exercise in mechanically shifting from first person to third person; the joke wears thin ("my joke wears thin/his joke wears thin"). And stuff like "Away Down the River" is, frankly, sorta boring. (Even the crowd in the hills above the Greek Theater, where I heard the gig, began to thin out near the end.) So here's advice to anyone planning to see the band: get there early, because if you miss the first ten minutes, you'll miss a fantastic blast of energy, the best part of the show. But leave mid-way through, after Jerry Douglas's star turn. * * * * * * * * * * Best question asked on the Sunday morning talk shows today belongs to Bob Schieffer of CBS News's "Face the Nation." He asked Michelle Bachmann: "Did God ask you to run for the Minnesota State Senate?" The embarrassed look on her face said it all; even she doesn't really -- I mean, really -- believe that fundamentalist crap when it comes down to it. * * * * * * * * * * In Afghanistan, opium is the opiate of the people! But I digress. Paul _________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 25, 2011 Husker Du, and The Difference Between Sound Auteur and Song Auteur The main thing about Robert Christgau is that his reviews are sometimes more memorable and substantial than the stuff he's reviewing. (In more than a few instances, when I think of a particular album, I recall his review more vividly than the work itself.) Such is probably also the case with his review (in this Sunday's New York Times Book Review section) of two new books about Husker Du (though I wouldn't know for sure because I haven't read the books yet). As someone who interviewed all three members of Husker Du in person several times in the 1980s and reviewed a few of their live shows -- my first was a raucous gig at Columbia University at which someone in the crowd threw a bottle at Bob Mould -- lemme blog an observation or two. The idea among some fans and critics that the Mould/Hart split in Husker Du was sort of Lennon/McCartneyish turns out to be mistaken. (What I mean by "Lennon/McCartneyish" is: a band in which there are two competing songwriters with distinctly different aesthetics.) In retrospect, Mould now seems more like the Johnny Ramone of the band, the auteur of his group's sound, not the songwriting. In terms of songwriting, Grant Hart was superior to Mould by a mile (in a game of inches). To coin a phrase, the proof is in the pudding! Every single time I go back to those Husker Du albums, I cut right to the Hart compositions, specifically: "Turn on the News," "Don't Want to Know If You are Lonely," "Never Talking to You Again," "Sorry Somehow," etc. The only Mould song I go back to is "It's Not Peculiar," his best. As I said, Husker partisans don't split as neatly as those saying, I prefer McCartney, you prefer Lennon. Because the guitarist on every one of those Hart songs -- in a band where the guitar ruled (unlike the Beatles, where songs ruled) -- is Mould, the sound sculptor and a writer whose default mode was, alas, self-pity. How Hart's tracks would have sounded if left solely to Hart's own devices is unknown. And in terms of the fabled Twin Cities rivalry, I definitely preferred (and prefer) the Replacements (albeit the Mats with Bob Stinson) -- and I think time has vindicated that view. A quarter century later, the mainstream legacy and influence of all those players is clear. Hart was the forerunner of the Foo Fighters, Mould was the forerunner of Death Cab (a very different band, to be sure, but think about it), and Paul Westerberg, the biggest of the three talents, spawned Nirvana, the best of the four. But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 22 - 23, 2011 <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lvF66Q1nUL4/TgK9nZlqAMI/AAAAAAAAC3w/otv36b6k6kA/s1600/scanschaden.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 107px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lvF66Q1nUL4/TgK9nZlqAMI/AAAAAAAAC3w/otv36b6k6kA/s400/scanschaden.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621263769493176514" /></a> [by Paul Iorio] * * * * Regarding the end of the Afghanistan war: it's about time, though I think the drone campaign in the FATAs should continue. The killing of bin Laden provided the war's narrative climax, making this the aftermath. If we hadn't eliminated bin laden, the situation in Afghanistan would've seemed like unfinished business. What is not being discussed is that ten years have passed in Afghanistan, too, and there is a new generation of 15-year olds there who have no first-hand memory of the 9/11 attacks. And they've not been indoctrinated into jihadism and fundamentalism through the madrassas system like previous generations in their country. Which means a far more moderate wave of adults is going to take charge there in a few years. (Sure, there'll be a minority radicalized because theAmericansbombedmyvillage, but that's probably a small group.) By the way, I came across this photo in the New York Times from years ago of the twin towers being built in the 1970s. And it really brought me back to my first memory of the towers -- seeing them in '76 on my way to an airport -- and my second memory of them, in '79, when I moved to Manhattan. I remember my roommate saying, "Have you been to that new building downtown, the World Trade Center yet?" And I said, I'm going down there this weekend. And I did (and eventually even worked in the towers). <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DTLR2uZ9LX8/TfvB-WZ5_rI/AAAAAAAAC3o/ZaRxtA7fClg/s1600/scanearlyWTC.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 295px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619298236985114290" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DTLR2uZ9LX8/TfvB-WZ5_rI/AAAAAAAAC3o/ZaRxtA7fClg/s400/scanearlyWTC.jpg" /></a> * * * * Ah, New York in the late Seventies, early Eighties: this is what the newsstands (remember newsstands?) looked like then: <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yTpQsqd7S6c/Tfu6zAlGaGI/AAAAAAAAC3Q/GpINGaBcoNY/s1600/scansohoweeklynews.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619290345566529634" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yTpQsqd7S6c/Tfu6zAlGaGI/AAAAAAAAC3Q/GpINGaBcoNY/s400/scansohoweeklynews.jpg" /></a> Now defunct, but much beloved at the time: The Soho Weekly News. And, of course, in those years, everyone loved The Ramones, the first great New York band of the World Trade Center era. (You know, everybody says punk grew from the squalor of bankruptcy-era New York, but I don't think that's the whole story; New York was also expressing a very brash spirit with the twin towers, and punk was -- sorta -- of-a-piece with that brashness.) But, alas, even they have already checked out: <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LODy3NXB8lk/Tfu8sYwtfDI/AAAAAAAAC3Y/yIu4fVorfpQ/s1600/scanRAMONES.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 327px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619292430821850162" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LODy3NXB8lk/Tfu8sYwtfDI/AAAAAAAAC3Y/yIu4fVorfpQ/s400/scanRAMONES.jpg" /></a> But I digress. Paul __________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 21, 2011 I've just seen a few new flicks, and here're my reviews: Matthew Vaughn's "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS" The main reason to watch this is -- believe it or not -- Kevin Bacon, terrific as a suave, cruel villain. Bacon has rarely been this confident and fun on screen in recent years. If this were the work of a first-time actor, Bacon would be discovered all over again -- and would be up for lots of blockbuster roles in a Bond/Bourne vein. There's also some nice visual magic here (e.g., the explosion of diverted airborne bombs near the end). It's a period piece, too, taking place mostly in '62, so some of it resembles "Mad Men" meets "X-Men." (There's interesting newsreel footage of JFK looking surprisingly downbeat after his Cuban Missile Crisis triumph). As comic book movies go, this one's good, though the arbitrariness of the superpowers of the X-Men make it less than fully satisfying. * * * * Jon Knautz's "THE SHRINE" This has not yet had a theatrical release in the States, despite the fact that horror aficionados might enjoy it. For the first fifty minutes, I was thinking: Whoa, have I stumbled on a "Blair Witch Project" that nobody has noticed yet? Because the tension is such that even a twig in the forest poking a character in the back of the head creates a bit of fright early on. But then it quickly veers from "Blair Witch" to "Deliverance" to "The Hills Have Eyes' to...exploitative splattercore and incoherence. Too bad. Because the first hour showed real promise (for those with a willing suspension of disbelief in some of the acting, which is notably underrehearsed). * * * * ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW (DVD Disc 2) (my review of Disc 3 ran on 6/6, below) This appearance by Presley on Sullivan, a few days before the '56 presidential election, included performances of entire songs (instead of the medley he would do a couple months later). The highlight, by a mile, is a truly rockin' "Hound Dog," w/sizzlin' guitar playin' by Scotty Moore, sounding around a quarter century ahead of his time. But the "Love Me Tender" here is far inferior to the "Love Me Tender" of January '57. For his part, Sullivan seems almost pissed to have to have this juvenile delinquent on his program; he spends much of the show sulking in a used car lot, hawking Mercury Lincoln cars ("Dynamite from Detroit, with a six-way power seat"). (Incidentally, I must say that the '57 Lincoln, even brand new and gleaming, looks like a heap of chrome garbage today.) What occurred to me while watching this was that there was no Presley-esque component to the British invasion (and U.S. counter-invasion) of '64/'65. And there were no Sixties imitators of the concept of a singer backed by a Jordanaire-like vocal group. (At least not in rock 'n' roll or in pop-rock of that era.) Moore arguably had more impact than Presley! What's really amazing is that an icon that gigantic had so little influence on subsequent rockers. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Regarding Jon Huntsman's entry into the presidential race: Too many purple candidates on the GOP dance floor, which creates an opening for a Tea Partyer to get the nom. Romney and Huntsman will probably cancel each other out. _______________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for July 20, 2011 The first time I ever saw Clarence Clemons in person was on July 29, 1978, on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tour. After being bottled up in litigation for years, Bruce had finally settled and was back on vinyl -- and how! -- and on stage, popping like a Champagne cork. This show was a stunner even for fans who had seen the band many times, according to people who had seen the band many times! I caught a really good night. (It was at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, just before I moved to New York City.) Bruce electrified the place, rocking and dancing and cooly strolling into the audience like Presley in his prime. And when they came to "Jungleland," I got to hear the highest note of Clarence Clemons's career: that solo. (Does Clarence get composition co-credit on "Jungleland"? How about Reginald Dwight?) Equally as important as his sax playing was his personality, the chemistry he had with Bruce and the iconic visual presence of the two together onstage. The next time I saw him was ten years later, on the "Tunnel of Love" tour, at the Nassau Coliseum. By then, I was earning paychecks writing for newspapers and magazines -- and my review of the show (in the East Coast Rocker newspaper) was the very first to note the diminished role of Clemons in the band. "The Big Man -- he's lost a little weight!," Springsteen said from the stage. And he had, in more ways than one. Not only had he slimmed down physically, but he had also lost his stature in the band; his sax playing had been watered down by a new horn section and he was far less prominently featured onstage. Within a year, Bruce would break up the band. Major mistake. Springsteen soon discovered he could easily find more imaginative and virtuosic sax players, but he could never find one with whom he had better chemistry. No matter how he searched and auditioned among the studio hacks and pros, every other sax player was missing what Clarence had: personality. And so, in the end, the change was made uptown and the Big Man re-joined the band! Because he was simply irreplaceable. The death of Clemons is also the death of a great American sound. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- BTW, if I were a producer at the PBS NewsHour, I'd air a remembrance at the end of the program consisting only of footage showing Clemons playing his famous sax solo in "Jungleland." That would be fitting. ________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 17, 2011 Could the Arab Spring Happen Here, Too? The short answer is, yes. If unemployment were to further veer out of control, rising to, say, 20%. (Look at the footage from Athens, Greece. Looks just like the early days of the Tahrir Square uprising, no?) If layoffs become even more widespread, all those waitresses and factory workers who have busted their asses for decades and played by the rules would realize, upon being laid off, that they had been played for fools by the bosses of the so-called freemarket system. (Rigged system is a better name for it.) What all this global discontent really amounts to, at least partly, is this: the world's money must be split up more equitably. The days when 500 people in America have half the wealth and the rest of us get scraps from the table is fading. We put up with the inequality for now because most of us get enough money for the basics. But if that were to change, if the unemployment rate were to double, you'd get people with nothing to lose -- like in Tunisia, like in Tahrir Square, like in Athens -- taking to the streets and demanding that the billions of the plutocrats be shared with everyone else. I can hear the William F. Buckleys now. It's my billion dollars, I can do what I want with it. To which I say: it's your billion dollars because you were able to unfairly apply leverage to get that money. In my life, I've worked harder than most billionaires, worked smarter than most billionaires, and yet I don't have billions. (And that's probably because I didn't start with, say, the half billion dollars that Donald Trump started with through inheritance.) You amassed billions because you were able to game the system. We the people can game the system, too. We the people can cut deals, too. And our first deal will be, oh, to pass a law that splits up the assets of billionaires so that we can have some, too. There. That's a business deal. Tax 90% of a billionaire's wealth so that the rest of us don't have to starve. What right do I have to that money? I ask the same question: what right do the the billionaires have to that money? The billionaire retorts: I earned it. To which I say: most billionaires didn't earn it; you used unfair influence, you gamed the system. Which is exactly what the people can do, too; they can cut a lucrative deal that taxes the income of the rich at 90% and redistributes the wealth to the rest of us. What did I do to earn it? As much as you did to earn it. After all, I invented...Senate Bill 1010101: the Redistribution of Wealth Act. There. That's my innovation. Most billionaires stole most of their ideas from poorer people with weaker lawyers; at least my innovation was honestly created. In terms of job creation: let the talented poor become rich so they can create jobs! The way it is now, untalented rich people with inherited wealth steal the ideas of poorer people to expand their businesses. So here's my idea: 95% of all income over one billion dollars earned by a private citizen in the U.S. should be redistributed to those who earn $50,000 or less a year. That'll provide a safety net for those who keep sinking to the bottom of the ocean every time we have a recession (which is frequently). Just look at that footage of Athens. That Arab Spring may not be an Arab Spring at all; it may be a Global Spring a-comin'. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Everyone's talking about the economy being in a recession, but when has it NOT been in a recession for a protracted time? I mean, a few years after I first hit the job market, I ran into the '82 recession, which dissipated just in time for the '91 recession, which was followed by the recession related to the 9/11 attacks and was followed by another recession five years later, which we're still in. Our economy is a recession! * * * * P.S. -- With regard to my item below about Dan Rosenheim of KPIX: I'm 100% certain we never spoke about the story he said we talked about. We didn't speak about it on the record, off the record, or in any other way. We didn't discuss that story on the phone, in person, in an email, in an IM, in a text message or in any other way. If Rosenheim is saying that, as he did in that letter of '00, then Dan Rosenheim is saying something that is completely untrue. (Challenge me on that. Definitely do not take the word of some well-connected broadcast exec (the way you would have taken the word of Jayson Blair had Blair risen to the top of the Times).) Some background here. I'm referring to a highly detailed piece that I wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000 that (much to the chagrin of internecine rivals at the Chronicle and their pals outside the company) was 100% factually accurate. There wasn't a single error in the whole story. But in Rosenheim's imaginary conversation with me, made up out of whole cloth, he says I admitted there were factual errors in the piece! What nerve. Wanna see independently whether Rosenheim's a liar or not? I'll post the piece to which I'm referring and you can fact-check it yourself. And then you'll see there are no errors at all. Not even one. And then you can ask Rosenheim why he's imagining malicious lies about reporters. [updated on June 19, 2011] _____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 15, 2011 The item (below) in which I praise a reporter for the CBS affiliate in San Francisco should not be read as an endorsement of that news organization over others in the area. In fact, I much prefer the journalists at the ABC affiliate KGO, particularly Carolyn Johnson (who I've written about in this space before and who is probably the smartest broadcast news person in the Bay Area), Dan Ashley, Amy Hollyfield, David Louie, Michael Finney, etc. I'd have more respect for the CBS affiliate's news organization if the guy who runs it, Dan Rosenheim, hadn't lied to my editor at the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000. Rosenheim wrote a letter to my then-editor, Matt Wilson, saying he had talked to me in depth about a news story I'd written; at the time that Rosenheim wrote that letter, I had never spoken to him or otherwise communicated with him in my life. And we never ever spoke about the story in question. (Then he calls me three days AFTER he wrote and sent that letter, probably so he could credibly claim, "Yeah, sure I talked with the guy....") Unless he's got a good excuse for what he did back in 2000, Rosenheim, in my estimation, is almost Jayson Blair-esque. * * * * OK, here're my short takes on the Republican presidential candidates: Mitt Romney: Those who really know politics deeply know that Mitt's millionaire dad is known for just one thing in politics: his infamous pronouncment that he had been "brainwashed" about Vietnam. And now Romney Jr., with a manner sort of like Haven Hamilton's diffident son in "Nashville," says he, too, has been brainwashed -- about health care reform. Still, try as he might to claim to be born-again on that issue, he's too purple for Tea Partyers. Though he may win the nomination by default in a field of midgets. Tim Pawlenty: Can you feel the Pawlenty-mania sweeping the nation? Newt Gingrich: This isn't '94, Newt. Where's the grassroots support for this retiree? He's already done his presidency in fast mo, having completed his Saturday Night Massacre and impeachment before the start of primary season. Michele Bachmann: The Dan Quayle of '12. She'll soon be lecturing us about how George Washington led "all 50 colonies to victory against the British." Herman Cain: It takes more than dough, Herman. Rick Santorum: Can you feel the Santorum-mania sweeping the nation? Ron Paul: Comic relief. Rick Perry: He could conceivably win -- in a landslide -- the presidency of the greater Dallas/Ft. Worth Rotary Club. John Huntsman: I think he wants to be appointed president. Sarah Palin: Her new incarnation as Biker Chick ain't gonna fly. (The future is mass transit, anyway.) Her stock is wayyy down. On the Democratic side, those who say Barack Obama will win in 2012 are (in essence) actually saying Barack Obama will win Ohio and Florida in 2012. Do you think he can? * * * * <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sCdgwbX9f58/Tfkx00XQ8nI/AAAAAAAAC3A/OHudAkaJL14/s1600/DOGBLANK.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 318px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618576793600586354" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sCdgwbX9f58/Tfkx00XQ8nI/AAAAAAAAC3A/OHudAkaJL14/s400/DOGBLANK.jpg" /></a> "Picasso cheated; he's more talented at painting than I am!" But I digress. Paul __________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 14, 2010 Michelle Obama Came to My Neighborhood This Morning, so I grabbed my camera and recorder and tried to cover it. Fat chance! Didn't catch a glimpse. Though I did catch a glimpse of the incredibly gorgeous (and brainy) TV journalist Elizabeth Wenger, covering the event for the CBS affiliate in San Francisco. Anyway, here're some photos of people waiting outside the Claremont Hotel and Spa in Berkeley (Calif.) for the Obama event: <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w3TjFwum4EQ/Tfesb-5FQyI/AAAAAAAAC2o/K1qDeefkMNQ/s1600/scanfirstlady1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 255px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w3TjFwum4EQ/Tfesb-5FQyI/AAAAAAAAC2o/K1qDeefkMNQ/s400/scanfirstlady1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618148656906847010" /></a> Michelle-mania! [photo by Paul Iorio] * * * * <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LmKnVxbzrzo/Tfes6kixl0I/AAAAAAAAC2w/03js88cZoQw/s1600/scanfirst2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 348px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LmKnVxbzrzo/Tfes6kixl0I/AAAAAAAAC2w/03js88cZoQw/s400/scanfirst2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618149182409905986" /></a> Security said I couldn't film inside the Claremont, so (naturally) I did. Here's the crowd inside. [photo by Paul Iorio] * * * * * * * * * * <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bINqIViwa9M/Tfet5gaJjZI/AAAAAAAAC24/EbkowMiKP8M/s1600/scancarberk.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bINqIViwa9M/Tfet5gaJjZI/AAAAAAAAC24/EbkowMiKP8M/s400/scancarberk.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618150263631744402" /></a> Also in Berkeley, but not part of the Michelle Obama event, was this vintage 1950 jalopy, parked on College Ave. [photo by Paul Iorio] But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Somebody alerted me to this story. A malpracticing doctor was friends with the local sheriff and had the sheriff retaliate against people who complained about him. How low can you go? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/us/15brfs-SHERIFFGUILT_BRF.html?src=twr _______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 13, 2011 live review Florence + the Machine Kicks Off U.S. Tour in Berkeley, Cal. <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-etZcbZ0MBo0/TfYueJhrh2I/AAAAAAAAC2g/VIhbkFM4cXc/s1600/scanflorence.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 249px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-etZcbZ0MBo0/TfYueJhrh2I/AAAAAAAAC2g/VIhbkFM4cXc/s400/scanflorence.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617728680679409506" /></a> Florence Welch, redefining singing, seducing America. [photo credit: The Daily Mail] Fresh off an appearance at Bonnaroo, Florence + the Machine started its new American tour with a gig in Berkeley, Calif., at the Greek Theater last night. The Greek is an open-air venue, so the band wasn't able to blow the roof off the place. Instead, it just about blew the sky off the place. Or so it seemed. Vocalist Florence Welch took less than five minutes to prove she's one of the most powerful vocalists of her generation. Her singing on "Drumming Song" was nothing short of startling; Welch gradually escalated from wailing to howling to an audacious shriek -- as brilliant a vocal as I've heard in a long time. And then came "Heavy in Your Arms," in which she sounded raw, livid, inconsolable, unstoppable. At times, it felt as if she were re-inventing the art of singing itself. Welch is sort of like Christina Aguilera with a higher IQ, an Alanis in more pain, a feminized Radiohead. At mid-set, she talked to her fans, who were screaming and otherwise showing wild enthusiasm for her (even in the hills above the theater, where I heard the sold-out gig). "This is the biggest crowd we've ever played to," she said. Though, clearly, she's well on her way to much bigger (if not necessarily better) venues in future years. But I digress. Paul _______________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 11, 2011 live review The U.S. Premiere of Peter Gabriel's Orchestral Mini-Tour This works a lot better than you might think from the description. The description is this: Peter Gabriel performs rearranged versions of his songs and covers without a rock band and with only symphony orchestra backing. To my surprise, at his first show of the mini-tour, in Berkeley (Calif.) last night, Gabriel actually made the orchestra swing at times, though most of the three-hour concert fell in a range between the very beautiful and the somewhat boring. The show was structured this way: Gabriel came onstage promptly at 8 p.m., talked a bit and then intro-ed his opening act, a Norwegian folk singer named Ane Brun, who sounded a bit like a Scandinavian Jesca Hoop and played only a couple songs. Then Gabriel and the New Blood Orchestra (and Brun) did around an hour's worth of mostly covers, the highlight of the first half being a stirring "Biko." (Most of the covers were included on last year's "Scratch My Back" album.) After an intermission, Gabriel & Co. returned with symphonic versions of many of his own classics, starting with "Digging in the Dirt" and climaxing with a marvelous triple blast: "Red Rain"; an extraordinary "Solsbury Hill" (which became a group clap-along before the New Blood morphed it awkwardly into Beethoven's 9th symphony); and encore "In Your Eyes," which had enormous dramatic austerity (even in the hills above the theater, where I heard the gig). Missing was "Games Without Frontiers," which would have worked well in this context. The tour continues this month to ten more cities and is worth catching if you're already a Gabriel fan. But I digress. Paul ______________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 9, 2011 Will the Thai Government Come Down on The Hangover 2? Anyone who has seen Todd Phillips's "The Hangover, Part 2" knows that it's mercilessly irreverent about a culture that isn't usually lampooned on the big screen: Buddhist monks, specifically Thai Buddhists. And all I could think while watching certain scenes was, I wonder whether the Thai government is going to denounce, ban or censor the flick. Well, to his credit, the good king of Thailand allowed the movie to open on May 26, though the Minister of Culture did propose a ban on foreigners getting religious tattoos in Thailand. That may or may not have something to do with "The Hangover," which makes prominent use of tattoos throughout the picture. Still, no talk of banning the film. Though maybe the king and his Culture Minister haven't seen it yet. If not, viddy well, all ye in the Thai government and religious establishment! I'll describe a scene that may be particularly offensive to Thai Buddhists: The sequence begins around 45 minutes into the picture, when the main characters, all Americans, return an elderly Buddhist monk to a monastery near Bangkok. Inside the monastery, another monk, without warning, starts to beat them with a stick just for talking. "So much for holy people, a bunch of bald assholes," says Bradley Cooper's character a few minutes later. "And you know what?," he says to a monk. "FYI. You may want to put some signs up that say 'No Talking' before you unleash your dragon." The monk remains calm and says cryptically: "Every memory lives somewhere deep within. Perhaps you should [present] your question to the Garden of Meditation." "Did you understand a word he just said?," Cooper's character asks his friends. "Yeah, I got about two-thirds," says Ed Helms's character. "He said something about the Garden of Meditation." "No," says Galifianakis's character. "He's farting because of his medication." There are other moments in the film that also poke fun at Thai culture, but that's the most notable. I emailed the King and his Culture Minister about the flick but haven't heard back from 'em. I'll post their response here if they have one. But I digress. Paul __________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 6, 2011 I just saw a couple new flicks and here're my reviews: Todd Phillips's "The Hangover, Part 2." This is more like a re-make than a sequel, following the contours and plot twists of the first film to an astonishing degree, though using different details. You can almost sense the caution of the scriptwriters, who seemed to be thinking, Let's just make the first one again but with new particulars. And it worked -- at least at the box office, where it can now claim the biggest opening weekend ever for a comedy, grossing around 200 mil to date. And negative-word-of-mouth has not caused a precipitous drop among moviegoers. And, frankly, few will feel gypped coming out of the theater, though almost nobody will think this is as good as the original. The appeal remains the thrilling unpredictability of the plot (less unpredictable this time around) and the vivid characters. And the acting does not disappoint, even as the script does: Zach Galifianakis is likably charismatic, like a blend of Seth Rogen and Richard Dreyfuss; and Bradley Cooper is turning into a major star. On a sidenote: At first I thought it was odd that Mike Tyson's tattoo artist was suing the film makers (for using his copyrighted tattoo design). After all, Tyson does appear in the new film and even spars with the guy with the copycat face tattoo (Ed Helms). In fact, Tyson says to the guy, "By the way, you really need to remove that fucking tattoo from your face." And Helms' character responds: "Yeah, on it." But now I see what the probable hidden reason for the lawsuit is: when Helms wakes up with a Tyson-like facial tattoo, he reacts as if it were a disfigurement, which of course might well be considered insulting by Tyson and his designer. * * * * Elvis: The Ed Sullivan Show (Disc 3) Elvis Presley's three performances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" happened in the deep middle of the Eisenhower era. His first two gigs were just before the '56 election, and his third and final appearance was just after Ike's victory -- and following the Soviet invasion of Hungary. (Ed even makes a pitch for Hungarian relief at the end of the program.) So what we see on this DVD is a very puritanical and repressive period of American history colliding with the babyboomer revolution. Yes, the G.I.s came home in '45, knocked up their wives and girlfriends and gave birth to a generation of kids who -- by the time of this show, in January '57 -- were old enough to scream their heads off at Presley and the Beatles (while reinventing the world). And the contrast between Sullivan, with his almost pre-WW2 vaudeville style, and Presley, the future of rock 'n' roll, was as stark as the contrast between Kennedy and Nixon in televised debates four years later. Presley's performances are seductive, groundbreaking -- all the praise you've heard is true. But doing his songs in a medley stops the musical momentum, even if he and his magnificent Jordanaires were in fine voice. "Love Me Tender" simply floats in from the ether. But somebody messed with the mix on "When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again" (did Sullivan's people turn down Presley's mike to retaliate for his gyrations?). This is the episode in which Prelsey is shown in a tight shot throughout the show, which inadvertently gives the viewer the uncomfortable feeling of being too close to the screen in a movie theater. It's no secret Ed didn't want Elvis to corrupt the youth of America with unauthorized leg and hip movements! (Amazing that only nine years separated the performances of Presley and Jim Morrison, who would eventually make Presley seem downright quaint and old-fashioned to people of my age group, who were not born when Presley did Sullivan.) One of the great things about these DVDs is they feature the entire show, including commercials (just like the Beatles on Sullivan discs). So we see Presley (in his puffy shirt) followed by a forever-unfamous ventriloquist and a very early performance by an unrecognizable Carol Burnett, not as funny as she usually is and earning only polite applause. And Ed also brings a charismatic Sugar Ray Robinson onstage but has the nerve to call the world class athlete "my boy" (after using physical moves to demonstrate to white America that Mr. Ed does indeed have the black man under control!). At moments like that, there's little wonder why the world of people like Sullivan and Nixon was replaced by the revolution of Elvis and the Beatles. Watching this DVD, I really realized (anew) that those who would later describe the Beatles as "four Presleys" were so off the mark. In fact, Elvis doesn't seem to have been much of an influence on the band at all. The four were much more influenced by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins. * * * * * He's making a comeback! <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vg2AANf0feU/Tez6TwKTxuI/AAAAAAAAC2I/ADgupRNPJ_I/s1600/scangoldwater.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vg2AANf0feU/Tez6TwKTxuI/AAAAAAAAC2I/ADgupRNPJ_I/s400/scangoldwater.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615138052676765410" /></a> I saw this (suitably worn) bumper sticker this morning in Berkeley, Calif. (Hey, I wanted Johnson!) [photo by Paul Iorio] * * * & <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TCgcYBVKvC8/Tez7GNmSbUI/AAAAAAAAC2Q/2pfmSWyLy-A/s1600/scanrepublicansessions.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 208px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TCgcYBVKvC8/Tez7GNmSbUI/AAAAAAAAC2Q/2pfmSWyLy-A/s400/scanrepublicansessions.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615138919572204866" /></a> Early sessions for my album "Republican Women," April 2011. [photo by Paul Iorio] * * * <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A_tr_TcDqYM/Tez7g0tXkMI/AAAAAAAAC2Y/humfy1Giy4o/s1600/scangoats.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 191px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A_tr_TcDqYM/Tez7g0tXkMI/AAAAAAAAC2Y/humfy1Giy4o/s400/scangoats.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615139376747483330" /></a> Admittedly, not a good photo, but here're goats grazing in the Berkeley hills. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Did you see the stunning backdrop of Miguel Almaguer's stand-up report on the Mississippi River flooding tonight on the NBC Nightly News? Amazing! He did his report against a vast rainbow as two sets of river waves coursed in opposite directions. Great visual. ________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 4, 2011 <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uSNpfk4dbL4/S2XbyX4wtyI/AAAAAAAABDs/5M4-JvzleSo/s400/Sarah-Palin+with+microphone+concerned.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 250px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uSNpfk4dbL4/S2XbyX4wtyI/AAAAAAAABDs/5M4-JvzleSo/s400/Sarah-Palin+with+microphone+concerned.jpg" /></a> "Listen my children and you shall hear/ Of the great anti-Communist Paul Revere..." * * * * * La La is Dead. Very Good Riddance. And so comes welcome word that bin Laden associate Ilyas Kashmiri, aka La La, has been killed by an American drone strike. All I can say is bravo. You remember La La. He was the guy behind Chicago cabbie Raja Khan's plot to bomb a packed American stadium last summer. Lala has quite a bloody resume. Tried to kill Musharraf in '03. Recently plotted to attack the offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Led a group of Sunni militants that is always threatening to commit mass homicide. The world now has one less malignant tumor to deal with. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Who should the Nobel Peace Prize be awarded to this year? That's easy. President Obama (perhaps with Leon Panetta). By eliminating bin Laden and al Qaeda operatives like Kashmiri, Obama has done more than anyone else to bring about peace on planet Earth. He has finally and fully earned the prize given to him prematurely in '09. ___________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 3, 2011 With the first half of 2011 ending in a matter of weeks, we now know the most popular movie of 2011 so far is..."Fast Five," though by the end of the month it might well be "Pirates of the Caribbean," which has just passed "Thor" (not a bad comic book action film, by the way -- and Natalie Portman nicely feminizes the genre). Of course, all those flicks will surely be eclipsed by what follows in the second half: "Cars 2," which has lots of buzz around it; the first "Harry Potter" film in 3-D; the new "Transformers" film; "The Green Lantern"; and "Captain America," which began its advertising campaign during the Super Bowl. But the most encouraging sign in the charts is that Woody Allen's new picture "Midnight In Paris" currently has the highest per-screen average in the top ten (it's at #7 right now). Can't wait to see that one. * * * * My new song "Republican Women" still remains in the top ten on Soundclick's alternative chart (it was number one just days ago). I'm glad people are enjoying this one. Someone was wondering who my lead guitarist is on that song and whether I could provide a complete list of those involved with the track. Well, the lead guitarist is me. And I also did everything else. Here's a complete account of the credits for "Republican Women": Vocals: Paul Iorio Background vocals: Paul Iorio Lead Guitar: Paul Iorio Rhythm Guitar: Paul Iorio Bass: Paul Iorio Percussion: Paul Iorio Handclaps, finger snaps, etc.: Paul Iorio Composed by: Paul Iorio Lyrics by: Paul Iorio Music by: Paul Iorio Song idea and concept by: Paul Iorio Produced by: Paul Iorio Arranged by: Paul Iorio Mastered by: Paul Iorio Mixed by: Paul Iorio Cover graphics: Paul Iorio The guy who hits the start button on the tape recorder: Paul Iorio Copyright: Paul Iorio, 2011, all rights reserved. But I digress. Paul ______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for June 1, 2011 More and more I'm hearing the cliche that those who suffer great tragedy in their lives become suddenly able to create great art. What bull. If that were true, every wounded combat vet or patient in an ICU would be a McCartney or a Picasso or a Dostoyevsky. Which ain't the case. I have a friend in Californioa who lost a loved one some years ago in tragic circumstances, and my heart truly goes out to him, but (truth be told) his songs, never very good to begin with, got only sillier and more boring. (And he also became dishonest, a bit of a crook, which he'd never been before.) And almost no combat vet has ever written a war novel as great as "The Red Badge of Courage," which was written by a guy who never fought in a war, Stephen Crane. Trauma scars and creates disfunction. But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 28, 2011 <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r_DYA7DHTdI/TeFVGoeKmVI/AAAAAAAAC18/SAPgdmN0H7Q/s1600/DOGBLANK.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 318px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611860183111866706" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r_DYA7DHTdI/TeFVGoeKmVI/AAAAAAAAC18/SAPgdmN0H7Q/s400/DOGBLANK.jpg" /></a> "I was born this way -- but not with that damn choke chain!" But I digress. Paul _____________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 26, 2011 My new song "Republican Women" has just hit the #1 spot on Soundclick's (other) Alternative chart, #12 on the main Alternative chart. (I guess I'm no good at this music thing!) But I digress. Paul __________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 26, 2011 I'm sorry, I don't get Oprah at all and am glad her show is gone. To me, she seemed merely bossy and calculating and not particularly scrupulous about the truth. And she was always telling lots of seemingly apocryphal stories along the lines of: "And every day for twenty years, without exception, I passed that church and threw a coin in the fountain" -- stuff that couldn't possibly be true if you put it under real scrutiny. Much like the tall-tales of fraudulent authors like James Frey and Herman Rosenblat, who she featured on her program. And all the intellectuals and academics and authors who have praised her endlessly and teach courses on "The Semiotics of Oprah" really don't believe their own bullshit. What they're actually saying is: "If I kiss Oprah's ass, she might feature my book on the air, thereby turning a marginal seller into a best seller and allowing me to quit this teaching job to write full-time." That is the true sum total of all the praise about her from the intelligentsia. Jonathan Franzen spoke the truth about her until he realized it wasn't in his financial interest to do so. In the end, Oprah stands as a fitting symbol of an era in which too many have almost no respect for the factual record and in which mythology has overtaken the truth. But I digress. Paul __________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 26, 2011 My new song "Republican Women" has just gone to #8 on Soundclick's (other) Alternative chart and is #19 on Soundclick's main Alternative chart (ahead of 170,000+ other tracks). Pretty good considering I wrote it in my bedroom and recorded it in my hallway on no budget! But I digress. Paul _______________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 25, 2011 Must admit I have never seen one of my songs get the sort of reaction that my brand new track "REPUBLICAN WOMEN" has gotten. Last night the tune jumped from #343 to #38 on the main Soundclick Alternative Chart (and it's #8 on the "Other Alternative" chart). And it was aired on Monday night on Marshall Stax's Next Big Thing on KALX! I must say people really seem to like this one. I'm grateful to those who are connecting with it! Hear it for yourself here: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10677764&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10677764&q=lo&newref=1</a> But I digress. Paul P.S. -- A recent visit to a dentist points up the need for greater regulation of medical malpractioners. I mean, I have never had a problem with a dentist before (except for one financial bad actor in 2000) but this new guy couldn't even manage to fill a simple filling without screwing up. I mean -- get this -- the sink actually clogged during his drilling and he had to get plumbing tools to fix it while I was drowning in gunk! Unbelievable. Plus, he injects me with some sort of anesthetic without telling me he's going to do so and without telling me what it is (and I had a bad reaction to whatever it was, consistent with the symptoms of someone who had lidocaine injected in a vein instead of in a nerve -- very dangerous to do that). And I could go on. (Maybe I'll post an MP3 of the whole malpractice session!) There really has to be less leeway for medical professionals to make avoidable mistakes. ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 23, 2011 I posted my new song "REPUBLICAN WOMEN" on Soundclick an hour ago. It's already #65 on the alternative chart there. Wow! Check it out at the link below! * * * Many thanks to Marshall Stax and KALX Radio for playing my brand new songs "REPUBLICAN WOMEN" and "I'M AN UNABASHED COMMUNIST" on The Next Big Thing several minutes ago! So now's the time for me to premiere the online edition of those songs and the rest of my brand new album "REPUBLICAN WOMEN (& 4 others)." Presenting Paul Iorio's brand new album... <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fhNc0cOCV6Y/Tdr7wOQlMMI/AAAAAAAAC1s/elvmXKgB768/s1600/republicanwomenart.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 366px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610073091723309250" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fhNc0cOCV6Y/Tdr7wOQlMMI/AAAAAAAAC1s/elvmXKgB768/s400/republicanwomenart.jpg" /></a> Just click here to hear the title track: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10677764&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10677764&q=lo&newref=1</a> And hear "I'M AN UNABASHED COMMUNIST" here: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10677950&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10677950&q=lo&newref=1</a> And check out the MP3 edition of "I AM THE SHARK THAT ATE BIN LADEN": <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10679151&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10679151&q=lo&newref=1</a> And here's "GONE TOO LONG": <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10681032&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10681032&q=lo&newref=1</a> More MP3s to come! * * * * * L Y R I C S REPUBLICAN WOMEN Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 Republican women She's got all her shots Republican women Give this Democratic boy a sh-sh-shot Republican women So well groomed Republican women Let's get a room Republican women Let's play supply and demand Republican women Tonight I'll be your trickle-down man Republican women So suburban Republican women Let's drink some Bourbon Republican women Go ahead and ask her Republican women She's on the iPhone with her pastor Republican women Stiletto pumps Republican women I've got a non-cancerous lump You know, she was sent by either heaven or the vice squad, I bet I disagree with every word and everything she says But for one night, I'll agree if I can just, if I can just, if I can just... Maybe a threesome with Erin Burnett and that editor at the Weekly Standard Republican women I went back to her hall Republican women She started smelling like Lysol Republican women I cut myself on her Escalade Republican women She charged me for a Band-Aid Republican women Started getting really cold Republican women I'm goin' back to the Democratic fold NOTES ON "REPUBLICAN WOMEN": Inspired by the fact that some liberal guys are starting to admit that GOP women like Nikki Haley are physically attractive even when spouting utter political nonsense! Influences here: "Pictures of Lily," "Wild Thing." * * * * * I'M AN UNABASHED COMMUNIST Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 In my youth I spent my time At the Gaslight drinking wine Late at night, at the old cafe We'd talk revolution till the break of day I'm an unabashed communist I'm a godless socialist I don't care if you put me on your blacklist Go ahead put me on your blacklist 'Cause I'm an Unabashed communist I'm a godless socialist I don't care if you put me on your blacklist Go ahead put me on your blacklist Cause I'm in an unabashed communist Unabashed communist Grandpa fought for the Russian side In Nineteen Hundred and Forty-five Moscow spilled lots of Soviet blood Trying to stop the Nazi flood Six years on, McCarthy called him in He asked, "Why you siding with the Russians again?" Gramps said, "Russian friends, they saved my hide/ Back in Nineteen Hundred and Forty-five" I'm an unabashed communist I'm a godless socialist I don't care if you put me on your blacklist Go ahead put me on your blacklist 'Cause I'm an Unabashed communist Unabashed communist Well, laissez-faire collapsed in '29 Fell again last year for the umpteenth time How much more proof do you need To understand the evil of corporate greed? Hey, I'm no friend of dictatorship But economic justice shouldn't include it It doesn't take any Sherlock Holmes To see it almost worked back in ol' Stockholm I'm an unabashed communist I'm a godless socialist I don't care if you put me on your blacklist Go ahead put me on your blacklist 'Cause I'm an Unabashed communist I'm a godless socialist I don't care if you put me on your black list Go ahead put me on your blacklist Cause I'm in an unabashed communist Unabashed communist Unabashed communist NOTES ON "I'M AN UNABASHED COMMUNIST": This came to me last month (April 2011) while I was watching a PBS special on The Weavers and suddenly started singing "I'm an unabashed Communist" in the manner of Pete Seeger (but in the vocal style of David Byrne!). (I confess I don't wholly agree with the 1st-person voice here!) * * * * * GONE TOO LONG Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 dee dah dee In this canyon of stars One day the authorities took you away, girl dee dah dee But you can't drown a fish in the water I know you gave up your freedom for freedom But when you came back, girl Oooh, how you thought you would fit in ohhh, but you were gone too long oooh, how you thought you would fit in ohhh, but you were gone too long, girl ohhh, but you were gone too long dee dah dee It was falsely alarming, Like the shadow of steam on the drywall dee dah dee Girl, I remember you well Before you turned into somebody brand new But I remember you well, girl Oooh, how you thought you would fit in ohhh, but you were gone too long oooh, how you thought you would fit in ohhh, but you were gone too long, girl ohhh, but you were gone too long NOTES ON "GONE TOO LONG": Melancholy folk-pop that I wrote after becoming convinced that an adorable cat that lives next door had died. A few weeks later, I came up with the verse melody. (The cat, it turns out, was alive and well! I'd been sad for no reason.) * * * * APP FOR MY LOVE Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 App for my love Download my heart App for my love Double-click here App for my love Ain't got no virus App for my love Look into my iris App for my love App for my love App for my love Let's do it by remote App for my love No need to emote App for my love You can shake my hand App for my love 'Cept that's not my hand App for my love App for my love App for my love Come to my touch pad App for my love My dumb phone's too trad Don't need to show my love no more My love's in an app that I bought at the store App for my love App for my love I've got an app for that Self-pity! I've got an app for that Extravagant love! I've got an app for that Beautiful sorrow! I've got an app for that Plain indignation! I've got an app for that I've got an app for that I've got an app for that Nostalgia, joy and loathing! I've got an app for that Tenderness and grieving I've got an app for that Ecstatic approbation I've got an app for that Extravagant love I've got an app for that I've got an app for that NOTES ON "APP FOR MY LOVE": The phrase "app for my love" came to me and I built a song around it. Days later, I came up with a ska-ish thing I used for the ending. * * * * * I AM THE SHARK THAT ATE BIN LADEN Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio Copyright 2011 They killed bin Laden today They finally blew him away They killed bin Laden They finally got him They killed bin Laden today I am the shark that ate bin Laden In the Arabian Sea But I eat chairs and license plate bumpers I'm not particularly Refined about my taste in deep seafood He tasted like chicken to me I am the shark that ate bin Laden In the Arabian Sea I am the shark that ate bin Laden I'm the shark that ate bin Laden NOTES ON "I AM THE SHARK THAT ATE BIN LADEN": An A-cappella track recorded on five tracks. It erupted spontaneously the day bin Laden died. But I digress. Paul ________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 20, 2011 I just saw a few new movies and here're my capsule reviews: Justin Lin's "FAST FIVE": This is Tarantino without the irony. What QT uses as kitschy pop reference, Lin uses as straight style -- with Vin Diesel as a sub for Bruce Willis. But you can see why this is the top-grossing movie of the first half of 2011. For starters, the rooftops of Rio de Janeiro come alive and crackle with danger and electricity here, as characters are chased and dive into brilliant slumscapes. The best character is arguably...Rio itself. And anyone who loves well-crafted actioners will get their money's worth. From the moment two guys jettison from a car in tandem as they drive off a cliff into a river, this thing is a testosterone highball, jam-packed with explosions, drag racing and other macho doings. But not to my taste. Could have been better if Danica Patrick had been cast as the female lead. (Now that's an idea waiting to happen in a Tarantino film!) * * * * Alejandro González Iñárritu's "BIUTIFUL": More like "Pitiful." Not just overrated. Dreadful. This is two-and-a-half hours of successive waves of shrill overemotionalism involving either extreme crying or yelling. And it's something far less than a tour de force for the usually amazing Javier Bardem, who doesn't even closely resemble someone dying of cancer and undergoing chemo. Bloated, repetitive, unconvincing and in urgent need of an editor. (I'm surprised I haven't seen t-shirts with "I Survived 'Biutiful.'") By the end, I felt like Elaine Benes watching "The English Patient," shouting "just die already!" at the screen. A lousy well-made film. * * * * Brad Furman's "THE LINCOLN LAWYER" An attempted "Rashomon," sort of. With Matthew McConaughey acting a bit like a sunbelt Gavin Newsom, playing an attorney defending a client who is setting up another client. Byzantine, yes -- but not dull. The title, however, is terrible, making it sound like it's an historical dramatization of Honest Abe's career as an attorney. A far better title would have been "Privilege." * * * * The Farrelly Brothers's "HALL PASS." Time was, everybody in Hollywood seemed to be imitating the Farrellys. But then came..."The Hangover." Today, directors making funny features -- including the Farrellys, evidently -- are getting very "Hangover"-esque. Exhibit A: "Hall Pass." Starts out very Farrelly but then becomes disorganized -- using lots of title cards -- before looking, well, "Hangover"-y. Still, not a bad film, not a bad premise -- and a bit of a departure for Owen Wilson, playing a less slacker-y sort of character this time. (And nice use of "Monkberry Moon Delight.") Ultimately, there're laughs enuff to justify renting it on DVD. But I digress. Paul __________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 19, 2011 Before you prepare the noose for Dominique Strauss-Kahn -- and if he's guilty, hang 'im -- I have three words for you: Crystal Gale Mangum. And here're two more: Tawana Brawley. And how 'bout some more words? That masseuse who accused Al Gore of a similar crime. (And Maureen Dowd's column that week made no mention of it.) Or what about Juanita Broaddrick, who accused Bill Clinton of forcible rape -- and that case just sorta went bye bye. So let's figure the way these things work: if you already like the accused, then he deserves his day in court and is almost certainly innocent. If you don't like the accused, he's guilty on the face of it and deserves the maximum. (That's my reflex, too. I greatly admire Gore and Clinton and always want to believe they're innocent of anything they're accused of.) Let's let the evidence emerge. Let's look at what the electronic hotel key card tells us (as Jim Dwyer in the New York Times noted). And let's look at some circumstantial facts, too. (I mean, the maid walks in right during the five-minute part of the 24-hour day when Dominque is naked in the shower. I'm sure that's just a coincidence. Unless the card key says she shut the door. In which case, maybe she wanted to liven up her very boring job with a peep show. Remember, she didn't walk in on him when he was doing what he does most of the day -- say, composing a speech for the IMF at a table or speaking on the phone with a world leader. She waited till the pipes started makin' noise.) Let's face it: some women do make up false accusations -- that's a stone cold fact. Happens all the time. I could name names. But I digress. Paul ________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 16 - 18, 2011 Sign of the Coming Times <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JfWOLL35Yu8/TdHmnR8_LlI/AAAAAAAAC1I/bJHgL8PclU4/s1600/obama2012.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 246px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JfWOLL35Yu8/TdHmnR8_LlI/AAAAAAAAC1I/bJHgL8PclU4/s400/obama2012.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607516573561466450" /></a> Today I saw the first campaign sign of the 2012 presidential campaign (above). More to follow, I'm sure. This one was in the window of a suburban house in Berkeley, Calif. Incredibly, Obama has already scared off half the GOP contendas. Huckabee and Trump, now completely unable to play the soft-on-jihad card against Obama, are out. (By the way, regarding the miracle in Abbottabad, everybody brings up the fact that Obama was able to do what several U.S. presidents could not. But what gets missed is that Obama was also able to do what several Russian and Soviet presidents couldn't do, even in open warfare.) * * * * Signs of the Times (Part 2) <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LkCGmqeiPTM/TdHljQ5elpI/AAAAAAAAC1A/99e3_kPDc3w/s1600/bridesmaids.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 209px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LkCGmqeiPTM/TdHljQ5elpI/AAAAAAAAC1A/99e3_kPDc3w/s400/bridesmaids.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607515405047207570" /></a> And here's what the spring of 2011 looks like in terms of billboards. I'm looking forward to seeing "Bridesmaids." These days, I'll watch anytning Kirsten Wiig does. Everybody talks about her in terms of "MacGruber" and "Knocked Up" (and, now, "Bridesmaids") but her best non-SNL work prior to 2011 was in an '09 episode of "Flight of the Conchords." Check it out. And "Paul" is underrated. [photo by Paul Iorio] * * * * Sign of the (Recessionary) Times, Pt. 3<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0sYqFklgWPE/TdQTH7ru3mI/AAAAAAAAC1g/A_Ia2uEWotU/s1600/scanphonebooth.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 209px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0sYqFklgWPE/TdQTH7ru3mI/AAAAAAAAC1g/A_Ia2uEWotU/s400/scanphonebooth.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608128462984240738" /></a> A phone booth in Berkeley, dressed for the recession. [photo by Paul Iorio] * * * * The adult guy at far right should've been the one wearing diapers.<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-16mJ9BmcKA0/TdHk-xEsW_I/AAAAAAAAC04/X7M7yeqP2SQ/s1600/procterandgamble.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 241px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-16mJ9BmcKA0/TdHk-xEsW_I/AAAAAAAAC04/X7M7yeqP2SQ/s400/procterandgamble.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607514778029022194" /></a> At far right is leaker-for-profit Rajat Gupta, a former McKinsey honcho, posing here with other members of Procter & Gamble's board of directors last February. Gupta has since been charged by the SEC with leaking insider info about his company to Raj Rajaratnam, convicted of insider trading this week. What a wholesome bunch! If we pose with kids, they must have thought, nobody will notice the stench of corruption and unfair enrichment! Read more about this at nytimes.com: <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/the-photo-pg-probably-wanted-to-retouch/?src=twr">http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/the-photo-pg-probably-wanted-to-retouch/?src=twr</a> [photo from P&G via newyorktimes.com] * * * * Mark Twain and Me<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xWEoKIKpV1g/TdLM1K-ZngI/AAAAAAAAC1Y/hrj2nxFOJLM/s1600/paulandmarktwain1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 314px; height: 172px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xWEoKIKpV1g/TdLM1K-ZngI/AAAAAAAAC1Y/hrj2nxFOJLM/s400/paulandmarktwain1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607769699880902146" /></a> Yep, that's me with with a statue of Mark Twain, yesterday at the University of California, Berkeley. But I digress. Paul _______________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 13, 2011 <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jr0VyVVlKoM/Tc2G2O9NfgI/AAAAAAAAC0s/iK7r1gg8xp8/s1600/DOGBLANK.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 159px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jr0VyVVlKoM/Tc2G2O9NfgI/AAAAAAAAC0s/iK7r1gg8xp8/s200/DOGBLANK.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606285377432026626" /></a> "I never knew Osama -- I swear! I only knew his son Chaz bin Laden, but he was too kinky for me!" But I digress. Paul __________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 10, 2011 I just love the fact that rapper Common is going to appear at the White House -- and that the Fox News crowd is spittin' out their tea in disgust. Conservatives condemn lyrics Common wrote about burning W. at the stake, or something. Evidently, Palin & Co. are unfamiliar with first-person narrative in poetry, lyrics and other lit. If this were the 19th century, they'd probably object to Obama inviting Dostoyevsky to the White House because Fyodor, a gangsta novelist in his day, wrote vividly about murderin' a lady with an ax. Bringing Common to the WH is sorta like the New Yorker magazine publishing Bob Dylan's lyrics as poetry in '65. Oh, the magazine publishes Dylan now -- no risk there. But imagine if TNY had published "It's Alright, Ma" or "Gates of Eden" in its poetry section in '65. That would have been prescient, progressive. (But the mag didn't even publish "The Catcher in the Rye" when it was offered to them.) To be sure, Common is not Dylan, but Obama is truly on the right track in elevating artists at the edge of culture. * * * * I've had my differences with Maureen Dowd in the past, but her last two columns have been pure gold. Lately, she's been speaking real sense and wisdom about the Abbottabad raid. And from tomorrow's column: "I don’t think we need to worry about inflaming Al Qaeda. They come pre-inflamed." She hasn't been this good in a while. * * * * Funniest joke I've heard this week comes from Albert Brooks on Letterman last night. Q: "What words don't you want to hear after having given head to Willie Nelson? A: "'I'm not Willie Nelson.'" But I digress. Paul ____________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 9, 2011 I just saw a couple new movies, and here're my reviews (more to come later): Francis Lawrence's "Water for Elephants" Animal circuses have always been low gamy places, on screen and off, but not in "Water for Elephants." The circus here is run by a blue blood (Christoph Waltz), who would seem more at home running a European art gallery or a high-brow British theater company. And he gets resumes from (among others) a former student of a lower Ivy university. Plus, there's the star human attraction, an elephant rider who is refined, poised, smart and gorgeous (Reese Witherspoon), working in a milieu where most real-life female performers resemble tomboyish variants of Melissa Leo. I must admit I've never heard of an animal circus this elite! When Waltz, Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson are all onscreen, you'd think this was a picture about members of the Algonquin roundtable. But, alas, this is cheap circus turf, circa the Great Depression, though that's not always evident on screen. Mind you, there's nothing wrong with the acting, superb throughout; it's just that the characters are badly conceived and the main actors miscast. That said, it's very well-crafted, with scenes flying by like fleeting memories or dreams. Witherspoon, sometimes vaguely recalling Marilyn in "The Misfits," has the presence of a vintage Hollywood star. And Waltz furthers his reputation as the go-to actor for cruel aristocratic roles (his main competition these days is Guy Pearce). Worth a look when it comes out on video. But I digress. Paul _________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 8, 2011 I've been seeing a lot of good movies lately -- "Source Code," "Limitless," "Battle: Los Angeles." So I found myself in the mood for a really lousy one, a picture everyone agrees is a misfire and failure. Naturally, I rented James L. Brooks' latest, "How Do You Know," which nobody seems to likes. And sure enough, it fully lived up to its reputation. It's so terrible it's somewhat pleasurable in a schadenfreude sort of way, as it allows you to witness colossal misjudgments by several cinematic geniuses. Problem with the film is obvious. It feels like someone filmed a rough draft of a script that should have gone through around seven major revisions. And this draft was gussied up to the hilt by everyone involved. It's not under-rehearsed, or under-directed. More like putting a clean tuxedo on a guy who hasn't showered for a week. And it looks like Brooks began this as a story about an athlete -- the deleted scenes are better than anything in the picture -- but tacked on an insider-tradingish subplot when the real life economy collapsed in the middle of making the flick. In any event, after the first five minutes of the film, there's almost no clue that Reese Witherspoon's character is an athlete (and around 90-minutes in, she seems to be doing an imitation of Kristen Wiig; she's infinitely better in the new "Water for Elephants" -- more on that later). Brooks reportedly spent around a year researching the world of female athletes, interviewing lots of 'em (tough work!), but none of that is evident onscreen. (And, frankly, it now seems like it was the 70-year old director's sly way of meeting some buff chicks!) "How Do You Know" starts a bit like the far superior "Broadcast News," showing obvious scenes from the childhood of adult characters, from which we're supposed to extrapolate why they turned out as they did. And we see all the other hallmarks of Brooks films: adult female characters crying alone for no reason, extravagant walk-in closets, etc. And then there are the warm fuzzy Brooksisms that have peppered his previous, better films, the sorts of vacuous aphorisms that seem to have been scripted for Katie Couric's refrigerator magnets (e.g., "I"ve lost my ability to smile at bastards"; "Figure out what you want and learn how to ask for it"; "You fight low self esteem, you don't give it the wheel"). Even the very worst "Seinfeld" episode is funnier than every bit of this. The only thing intriguing about it is that numerous movie moguls and A-list actors didn't tell Brooks that his script was not funny. It probably should have been called "How Could You Have?," as in: "James Brooks, how could you have made a movie this bad?" A massive career-ending misfire by one of the great directors of American romantic comedies. But I digress. Paul _____________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 5, 2011 Osama's million-dollar mansion in Abbottabad was, effectively, his military pension. Or so it seems. His buds in the Pakistani military, some of whom probably served with Osama in the 1980s to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan, surely assured him and his handlers that he would be completely safe in Abbottabad. The way Osama's backers probably had it figured, the Americans would never dare attack Abbottabad, a military town deep inside the nation, home to their West Point -- even if they knew Osama was hiding there. And in the unlikely event that Americans did decide to attack unilaterally, the Pakistani army would be right there to shoot down any U.S. invaders, giving Osama enough time to escape. And if Obama decided to attack after first alerting Zardari, the local brass in Abbottabad would have to be told, too, and they would certainly tip off Osama's allies and Osama himself. So Abbottabad was his safehouse. He was effectively under the protection of the Pakistani military, or a faction of it, a mere half mile up the road. So it was sorta like house arrest, sort of like being protected against his many enemies. At the very least, it's safe to say Osama had no fear of the Pakistani military and was not warned to get as far away from Zardari's soldiers as possible. All this means there are likely some exquisitely pissed-off people in the Pakistani army right about now. Private conversations amongst bin Laden's supporters probably sound like this: "I thought you said Sheikh Osama was 100% safe in Abbottabad! I thought you said the Americans would never dare to venture into our lion's den! I thought you said our soldiers would instantly shoot down anyone attacking Osama's mansion!" Anyway, this was arguably the highest rolling, successful American military gamble since the Cuban missile crisis. Obama bet on the incompetence of his enemy, on the fact that that even one's adversaries are often inattentive and snoozing on the job. And he sized up Zardari's army as a sleeping paper tiger (to mix a metaphor). And he was as right as a modern U.S. president has ever been about a military decision. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Depsite the capture of bin Laden, and Donald Trump's recent praise of Obama, Trump still plans to run for president. The tell-tale clue? This news item, just posted at nytimes.com, reporting that Trump has bowed out of a NASCAR event because it wouldn't look presidential. Here's the story: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/sports/autoracing/06sportsbriefs-1-TRUMPWONTDRI_BRF.html?src=twr">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/sports/autoracing/06sportsbriefs-1-TRUMPWONTDRI_BRF.html?src=twr</a> Is Trump at all aware that his entire manner and temperament are completely unpresidential? ________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 3, 2011 exclusive Did Local Officials in Abbottabad Try to Embezzle Food Stockpiles for bin Laden? My own deep research of the archives of such Pakistani newspapers/websites as The Dawn and All Pakistani News brings up an interesting red flag. It's a story that made minor regional headlines last month but seems to take on potential new meaning following the capture of bin Laden in Abbottabad. I found an obscure news story from April 12, 2011, in The Dawn that reported on the case of local Pakistani officials caught up in the embezzlement of a huge amount of wheat and other food. The case involved the food inspector of bin Laden's little hometown -- his name is Muhammad Ishtiaq -- and a former food inspector in the area, Jamil Tariq, as well as a former regional food controller named Qamar Zia Turabi and an assistant food controller, Nazakat Hussain Shah. (The only defendant ultimately acquitted was Ishtaq.) The case stemmed from warehouse raids in 2007, shortly after bin Laden took up residence in his fortress in Abottabad -- a haven that almost certainly relied heavily on its own stockpiles of essentials. The very fact of such a cloistered fortress raises the issue of how the people living there were able to get large quantities of food without bringing attention to their residence and to their comings and goings. In all likelihood, the place was stocked with large reserves of the basics. Did someone in the local government of Abbottabad provide (or try to provide) them with such a stockpile? Is this particular case an example of local officials trying to help out bin Laden? It should be noted that food embezzelment is a relatively rare and exotic phenomenon; a Google search of the words "food embezzlement" and "Pakistan" brought up only two results (aside from a few oil-for-food-emebezzlment hits). But I digress. Paul P.S. -- I've always had some admiration for Caroline Kennedy, but did not like her remarks on David Letterman Tuesday night. On the show, she casually, laughingly sort of denigrated her late brother John, implying he needed some "character building" in his life. A sort of ugly display of sibling rivalry -- with a dead sibling, no less. Not cool. I mean, I remember that infamous footage of John being physically pushed around by Carolyn Bessette in Central Park. And he didn't push back or even yell back. He handled her temper tantrum with a cool head. So where did he need "character building"? Are you referring to the fact that when he was younger he liked to sleep with women? Well, that's the state of nature of guys in their twenties -- I hate to inform you. (And it goes without saying that John took few liberties that were not also taken by other prominent members of the family.) John was a decent guy who deserves to be remembered better than she's remembering him now. (By the way, the inconsistency of forgiveness these days will take your breath away.) * * * P.S. -- No, bin Laden is not entering hell, or heaven. He's entering a shark's stomach right about now. Period. ______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for May 1, 2011 Oh, happy day! Osama bin Laden is dead! This is cause for real celebration. Barack Obama has just done in two years what W. wasn't able do in seven! He's now, arguably, a bona fide national hero. I'm sure there are lots of people (including me) who wanna say congratulations (and thanks) to the president. And tonight Obama might have won his second term. By the way, while everyone else was saying bin Laden was hiding way up in Chitral, I was saying, No way he could be in Chitral. Too remote. And I was right. My own investigative research and reporting told me that bin Laden was in the Bajaur Agency -- not a bad guess, as it turned out, considering that he was ultimately found and killed around sixty miles due east of the Bajaur Agency. Here's what I reported last year about Osama's whereabouts: <a href="http://iorioinvestigation.blogspot.com/">http://iorioinvestigation.blogspot.com/</a> But I digress. Paul ___________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 28, 2011 I've read some of the new cables released by Wikileaks and here're are some observations: -- Dirty bomb threats from militants trying to get radioactive materials from the former Soviet republics are mentioned repeatedly and appear to be the main danger from jihadists. If such an attack were to occur, one can bet with virtual certainty the ingredients will have come from one of the former Soviet republics. As everyone knows, those republics were once tightly controlled (decades ago) by Moscow but are now managed, often weakly, by a variety of governments with unpredictable alliances. Truly, the weak link in the nuclear chain. -- As I've noted in my own original research and reporting, and as confirmed here by the new cables, London has become a central breeding ground for jihadists. And not just at Finsbury Park, either, or in the Tower Hamlets and Newham areas of the city. My own info says that some of the university Islamic societies of the U.K. are havens for violent jihadists (the ISOCs at Essex and (of course) University College London, alma mater of the Christmas day bomber, appear to be the worst). -- Info about the brain-damaged Zubaydah and the completely amoral Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh make someone like Sayf al-Adl seem moderate by contrast. -- We now have positive confirmation that United flight 93 was headed for the U.S. Capitol building on 9/11. (They should rename it (or part of it) the Todd Beamer building. A capital idea, if I should say so myself! Hey, more than anyone else, he saved that building.) -- Most of the new cables are outdated. (Wow! Gordon Brown's re-election chances are dimming! Stop the presses!) And the old info on Libya and Egypt seems almost quaint, from another epoch. Though they do tell us that if Gaddafi is to be captured, he'll surely be found on the first floor of whatever building he's in (Muammar has an extreme fear of being on the upper floors of any structure). But I digress. Paul _______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 27, 2011 Doesn't this Obama birth certificate thing sound sort of like some obscure Miles Davis recording from the early sixties? And fans want the whole extended jam released? ''Live Birth, Vol. 2 (long-form)" But I digress. Paul P.S. -- A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine was reading my home page, which compiles some of my journalism of the past few decades. (It's at www.paulliorio.blogspot.com.) Anyway, she noticed there was a lot of diversity in my work and wondered what I thought were the main phases of my career. I thought about it and saw that there have been three main phases. For anyone interested, here they are... The Three Main Phases of Paul Iorio's Journalism FIRST PHASE: 1985 to 1990 (New York City). <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BmveWoJVI_Q/TbiOe5-ZXnI/AAAAAAAAC0E/8j9XxYctyKM/s1600/paul3.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 131px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BmveWoJVI_Q/TbiOe5-ZXnI/AAAAAAAAC0E/8j9XxYctyKM/s200/paul3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5600382798244961906" /></a> During these years, in my twenties and very early thirties, I was a music journalist. The majority of my music writing was published by Cash Box magazine, where I was a staff writer/reporter. I also did freelance writing during this time for numerous publications, including Spy, the Village Voice, Hits, the East Coast Rocker, etc. Among my pop culture scoops of this period: -I was the first journalist anywhere to have conducted a taped interview with Phish's Trey Anastasio (and I even introduced him to Widespread Panic) -I was the first to have written about Phish outside of the band's hometown (i.e., outside the Burlington, Vermont, area). -I wrote the first magazine article on They Might Be Giants, which is how the record label that signed TMBG heard about the duo. -I was the only reporter to have written about the Smithereens's "Especially for You" album before it was even recorded (it would go on to become a gold record). Despite all the scoops, it was still a few years before I was published by major papers like the New York Times. [above: photo of me in my office at Cash Box magazine, New York, 1987.] [For the record, I lived in and around Manhattan from June 1979 to June 1996; I never lived anywhere else during that period.] * * * SECOND PHASE: Late 1993 TO '97 (New York and Los Angeles) <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-geP6ZqxqGqg/TbijB5d14iI/AAAAAAAAC0g/lJx8b8aiRA8/s1600/paul94.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 132px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-geP6ZqxqGqg/TbijB5d14iI/AAAAAAAAC0g/lJx8b8aiRA8/s200/paul94.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5600405389636395554" /></a> This was my magazine journalism period. A bad recession shut down a lot of magazines in 1991 and 1992, so I didn't publish as many stories as I should have in those two years. (Can you believe it: the guy who found Phish and other bands couldn't find work in music journalism in '91/'92? I think the meritocracy was being run mostly by the rich back then!) But I did reemerge in very late 1993 to write full-time again -- and some of my best material is from that period, in my opinion. Among the articles I wrote, reported and initiated were a satiric piece for Details in which I pretended to convert to all the world's great (and not-so-great) religions. I wrote/reported several pieces for Spy, including the popular "Dylan-o-Matic," by which readers could create their own Bob Dylan lyrics; and an expose of universities selling honorary degrees. Also penned a few stories on movies for The New York Times and The Washington Post. And I wrote a landmark feature about Richard Pryor, which included my own first-hand account of Pryor's very last stand-up comedy performance anywhere. (I was the only reporter to have covered it.) [above: photo of me in the Village in Manhattn, '94.] * * * PHASE THREE: 1997 to today (Los Angeles and San Francisco) <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sYH97TzcJhA/TbiPKEud_aI/AAAAAAAAC0M/rD-wxE24JT0/s1600/paulin2000s.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 183px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sYH97TzcJhA/TbiPKEud_aI/AAAAAAAAC0M/rD-wxE24JT0/s200/paulin2000s.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5600383539865320866" /></a> The early part of this period was dominated by stories I wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, though some of my best work of this time was published by the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. (I also did reporting for Reuters in these years; and I may well be the only reporter to have asked O.J. Simpson straight to his face: "Have you had any luck finding your wife's murderer?") Notable pieces include my interview with poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti on Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," a story that has since become required reading at some Ivy League and other universities. I also wrote the very first piece linking Ellen Degeneres and Anne Heche, in 1997, preceding the avalanche of Anne and Ellen stories that followed. And I conducted a revealing one-on-one interview with Woody Allen. But the biggest story I did during this period was a scoop for the Los Angeles Times that generated more reader response than any other story that had appeared in one of its sections. That article was a two-part feature on Roman Polanski's "Chinatown," which included my exclusive interview with Polanski himself (a rarity at the time). Months after writing that scoop, I was hired out of L.A. to become a staff writer/reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, for which I had written as a freelancer for three years (most of my freelance stuff for the paper was published without any editing at all, or (at most) with very minor edits). Today there is sort of a fourth phase -- and has been since around 2005. I continue to do freelance writing (and have even done some reporting on terrorism issues that has been used by major publications). But part of my time since '05 has been spent on recording and releasing the many original songs I've written over the decades and continue to write. (And I'm happy to report that my songs have been played on such leading alternative radio stations as KALX, KCRW and WFMU!) [above: photo of Paul in the 21st century!] But I digress. Paul ________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 24, 2011 Everybody's talking about the coming royal wedding in terms of Champagne and designerwear, but the real question is: is Kate Labour or Tory? It does matter. A lot. She could become the Queen one day, with the power to decide who becomes prime minister in a tight race. (Look at how Queen Elizabeth installed Cameron last year.) The U.K. is being disingenuous in saying this isn't a state wedding; the crown makes binding decisions. Get ready for saturation TV coverage of the marriage of Quite Lovable to Likably Balding. In any event, everyone knows that the real queen of England, the only woman truly worthy of the crown is...Kate Winslet! But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Not seen on a bumper sticker: "How many sins has Jesus died for lately?" __________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 23, 2011 Last Night's Robert Plant Show in Berkeley, Calif. Without a doubt, the highlight of Plant's concert with the Band of Joy was an ingeniously re-worked "Houses of the Holy" followed by a pastoral, fresh "Ramble On" that included some raga bordering on dervish. Plant not only brought that Zep classic back to its U.S. roots; he also showed Americana as just another piece of a world music mosaic, something LZ proved decades ago with "Kashmir." That said, some of the other re-arranged Zep tracks were not quite as successful. "Tangerine," that great ball of A-minor melancholy, had the greatest potential to work in this rootsy context, but some of its beautiful sadness was lost here. "Black Dog" had none of its novel angularity. And "Gallows Pole" was far more rootsy on the third album recording. And "Please Read the Letter" made me miss Alison Krauss, who gave the song a buoyancy, wonder and innocence missing here. Elsewhere, Buddy Miller was a pleasant surprise on his turn in the spotlight, sounding like some sort of combination of Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, like a forgotten Fifties rocker from the Sun stable. Even in the hills above the Greek Theater, where I heard the gig, Miller got the crowd going. After hearing Miller, I couldn't help but think that Plant should do an acoustic blues tour, performing the original blues classics that Zep either covered or re-wrote back in the day. All told, of all the new songs from either Band of Joy or "Raising Sand," the best of the bunch (by far) is the one Plant co-wrote with Jimmy Page, "Please Read the Letter." Any way to get those two together for a whole album? But I digress. Paul __________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 22, 2011 In the past 24 hours, there's been a mini-epidemic of news stories along the lines of the-iPhone-records-my-every-movement, so-now-everybody-will-know-how-boring-my-life-is! A casual look at the newyorktimes.com shows at least three such stories in the past day (and I bet I'd find more if I did a major search). First came David Poque, the Times's technology writer, writing this yesterday: 'Yes, Big Brother is watching you...And you know what? I’ll bet he’s bored to tears." Then this morning, the always original Paul Krugman wrote: "The horrible secret someone would learn from my tracking is that I don’t have any interesting secrets." And then there's this from today's SatireWire, which Krugman links to: "iPhone secretly tracking how dull your life is." And the truth is that that's mostly true. I mean, as I prepare to brew some Yuban and eat some Honey Bunches of Oats before heading to the UC Berkeley campus, I can't help but think...anyone tracking my movements would soon be dozing off. * * * * * * * * Wanna see a good new flick? Try Duncan Jones's "Source Code." I've seen it twice -- and you really do have to in order to figure it out, as it's a complex, intricate work that's also intensely satisfying to those who get it. It's sort of a time-travel thriller in which a computer program is created that enables someone to be repeatedly sent back in time to the period minutes before a terror attack. Hence, the protagonist (Jake Gyllenhaal) gets to wander around the scene of a crime (a train) before the crime is committed (i.e., the train is blown up). What his enablers didn't anticipate is that he would fall in love with someone he meets during his time travels -- a woman who he's with in the final minutes of her life (he knows it's her final minutes; she doesn't). Which leads to the magical scene near the end of the film, when he's fully aware a bomb is about to go off and kill everybody on the train he's on, so he sees to it that everybody onboard is laughing and hugging and kissing and having fun before the explosion. The freeze frame of all the joy onboard is one of the most brilliant, touching images on screen in a long time -- pure cinematic magic. Taut, suspenseful in an innovative way, brainy, dreamy, poignant, "Source Code" recalls "Groundhog Day," "Sliding Doors," "North by Northwest," and "Ghost" without being much like any of those films. The movie has too many implausbilities to be perfect, but if you go with the flow, it's a terrific ride. If it weren't so convoluted, it might have caught on like "The Sixth Sense." * * * * Also saw Jonathan Liebesman's "Battle: Los Angeles" the other night. It starts off promising, like a cross between "The Hurt Locker" and a quality Bruckheimer film, with some chilling images that show CNN covering what it thinks is a meteor shower off the coast of Santa Monica. (Like "Unstoppable" and "Source Code," it skillfully interweaves breaking news footage into the action.) But it soon begins to look like a combination of "Transformers," "G.I. Joe," "District 9," video games, generic military bossiness and Kathryn Bigelow-isms, an uneasy mixture at best. Still, give Liebesman points for resisting 3-D. The movie doesn't end so much as set up a scenario for a sequel. And with the gross it's grossing, there'll surely be one. But I digress. Paul __________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 19 - 21, 2011 My song "THEY'RE BUILDING A MOSQUE IN MY MIND" has sort of gone viral in the last few days, with hits for the track tripling on various websites. (Though it's still not viral by YouTube's metric, as I've not yet created a video for it.) Hear it here while it's still free: <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/8150103831cf98f9/">http://www.zshare.net/audio/8150103831cf98f9/</a> * * * * There's continued interest in several of my songs, most particularly, lately, "HEY THERE, WATCHER," which appears on disc five of "130 Songs." I really enjoy that one, too, and I like its originality. (It's hard to think of anything it's similar to, except maybe "I'm A Girl Watcher.") I wrote it at the end of a four or five hour solo jam session on a weekend afternoon in August 2009; the main chord progression of "Watcher" just flowed out. I then began singing whatever came into my head, which was initially "Hey There, Roger," about a long-time pal of mine named Roger, but then I started thinking of that 1960s hit "I'm a Girl Watcher" and changed it to "Hey There, Watcher," with lyrics about an urban street tableau. It's posted on various sites online, so hear it there. (I'll try to post it here, too.) But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Don't be fooled. B pays L to lie for him. _________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 19, 2011 Two Very Scary Words: Trump/Rubio '12 The answer has been in front of us all along. What's going to happen in 2012 at the polls is what happened in 2010 at the polls. What happened in 2010, in race after race, is this: the Tea Party contender, initially written off, surges in the GOP primary campaign and then, unbelievably, defeats the more moderate Republican contender who had been considered the prohibitive favorite. The more moderate Republican contender, aghast at his party being hijacked by a long-shot extremist, then launches an independent candidacy in November, setting up a three-way race between the Democratic candidate, the Tea Partyer who won the GOP nod and the moderate independent. We saw that play out in numerous races last year, most notably in Florida, where the overwhelming favorite (Charlie Crist) lost the GOP nom for the U.S. Senate to a Tea Partyer, Marco Rubio, who proceeded to win in a three-way with the weak Kendrick Meek. And we saw that play out in Alaska, albeit with different final results. Lisa Murkowski was expected to win the GOP nomination for the Senate by a mile but was upset by Tea Partyer Joe Smith, causing Murkowski to launch a successful indie bid against Smith and a Democrat. And that's exactly what's shaping up in the presidential race of '12. Romney and Huckabee are the supposed front-runners (and the faves of the GOP ruling elite). But a long-shot Tea Partyer -- dismissed as "unelectable" (sound familiar?) -- is suddenly proving to be electable. His name is Donald Trump and polls suggests he could terrify the GOP mainstream with primary wins in major states (the same way George Wallace freaked-out moderate Democrats in '72). If the pattern of '10 holds, Trump could easily become the GOP nominee. And if he chose Rubio for the veep slot, which would counter charges he's anti-immigrant, he'd be formidable in the general. Sensible Republicans would then brace themselves for the very real possibility of losing an election against President Obama that should have been a slam dunk for the GOP. The top defeated moderate contender -- either Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee -- would probably inevitably launch an independent candidacy (a la Murkowski and Crist) -- causing a three-way: Obama versus Trump versus Romney. With the Republican vote split in half, Obama might actually be able to eek out a bare win in the popular count, though it's hard to see how he'd get 270 electoral votes in such a scenario. And with Trump winning the George Wallace states, Romney taking the purple ones and Obama winning the blues, the election might well be thrown into the U.S. House, which is, of course, Republican. Which means: for the second time in little more than a decade, the White House might be occupied by someone who didn't win the popular vote count. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Hey, I'm no computer genius, but I sure do feel like one these days. Because nobody has yet figured out how I'm able to get around the New York Times's new digital paywall. Everybody's being wayy too complicated about how to do it. They say, change the url. They say, change your browser. They say, disable and then enable javascript, or something. Or whatever. I say, no, no, no. There's a much simpler way that works every single time and gives you unlimited free access. And I'm not saying a word. Because if I did, the Times would surely find a way to subvert my subversion. BTW, I bet the first financial results about the Times's paywall are in and the bosses at the paper are hearing the bad news: the website is probably losing readers, which means the paper's circulation base will have to be adjusted downward, which means they can't charge as much for ads. Which means, ironically, the paper has just lost money by trying to charge its readers for content. (Not a great idea, in the middle of a recession, to charge people for what they'd been getting for free.) Anybody remember Times Select? I think we'll soon be calling the paywall Times Select 2. __________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 18, 2011 Finally was able to send out advance copies of the long-form edition of my brand new album "ZIP CODE OF THE MOON" last week and am glad a lot of people are enjoying it! Just yesterday a Huffington Post blogger called one of the album's tracks, "They're Building a Mosque in My Mind," "an awesomely hilarious song!" (Everybody seems to like my line: "They have a jones for the Tao....") Thanks, Doug. Glad you like it! Meanwhile, around a dozen of the album's songs have reached as high as number 20 on the Soundclick alternative charts (out of hundreds of thousands of tracks in that category). And at least seven of the songs have already had radio airplay! My apologies to the East Bay Express newspaper; I should have sent you a copy of the 22-song version of "Zip Code of the Moon," which is being received far far more enthusiastically than the 5-song e.p. I sent to you. All critics who might be considering reviewing "Zip Code of the Moon" and who received only the 5-songer should request the 22-track version (at pliorio@aol.com). But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Yes, the album is copyrighted as "ZIP CODE OF THE MOON (AND 28 OTHERS)." And that's because the copyrighted version has 7 bonus tracks. (Rest assured, I'll be releasing those extra tracks soon!) P.S. -- Anyone who has listened to my music knows it's mostly folk-pop, though I've also tried numerous other genres (e.g., rap, reggae, ska, country, you name it.). But one critic actually saw "(Stop the) Beer Hall Putsch" as "black metal," which, admittedly, I've never heard a note of. I think most saw that track as grunge-ish. Closer to grunge, isn't it? * * * * * * * * * * After listening to the shrimper on NBC's newscast tonight, I couldn't help but think it won't be long before I'm in a restaurant and the waiter says: "Would you like your garlic shrimp with radiation or with light sweet crude?" ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 17, 2011 <div align="center">Look at what Jihadists have done to The Koran. <a href="http://www.ala.org/img/oif/451.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 219px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 175px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://www.ala.org/img/oif/451.jpg" /></a>At least that's what they've done to the spirit of the holy book. ( And they've also burned people, which is worse.)</div> * * * * * "The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Koran's mute If you burned them all together you'd get close to the truth" -- Conor Oberst, "Four Winds" * * * * Advice to all 2012 presidential candidates: the easy way to a 90% favorable rating in the polls is...never take a brave public stand on abortion, gun control, religious fascism or any other hot button issue! But I digresseth. Paul ________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 14, 2011 Donald Trump defends his "literary reputation" these days by saying he "wrote" best-selling books. I had a good chuckle over that one. Donald Trump, writer! He's right up there with Suzanne Somers and all those other authors in the "written with" genre. A lot of his stuff was penned (de facto) by Tony Schwartz, and he knows it! In fact, the "authorship on application" at the Library of Congress for one of his "How I Do My Deals" copyrights is Tony Schwartz. Doesn't even mention Trump in that authorship slot. And it sounds strange to me that Bankers Trust shares the copyright with Trump for "The Art of the Deal." I think that might have been a product of that period when he was humiliated by the early Nineties recession, was limited to an allowance every week by bankers and came thisclose to failing as a businessman. (So let's get this straight: even starting with a half billion dollar advantage in life, Trump almost failed anyway.) * * * * Now that everything Trump from the Eighties and Nineties is being revived, perhaps Prince will think about re-releasing his song "Donald Trump (black version)," which he wrote for The Time in 1990. Remember that one? From "Pandemonium"? Sung by Morris Day? Here're some of the lyrics (Prince Rogers Nelson holds the copyright -- not his best work!): "When a money man walks in the room, girl, you look more than twice... Donald Trump (black version), maybe that's what you need. A man that fulfills your every wish, your every dream. Donald Trump (black version), come on take a chance. A 1990's love affair, the real romance. Honey baby, you are the finest I have seen. ...I heard you. You said your favorite color was green. Donald Trump (black version), maybe that's what you need. Come on, come on take a chance. A man that fulfills your every wish, your every dream." But I digress. Paul P.S. -- BTW, all those books Trump "wrote" are pure bullshit. Trump's own life story, not his books, reveals the real secret to becoming rich in America, which is: inherit half a billion dollars from your daddy. ____________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 13, 2011 Didya see Katie Couric with her bestest friend Matt Lauer on the "Today" show this morning? LOL! Katie's losing her temp job at end-of-month, so she seemed a little bit...losin' it, you know what I mean? Is Katie having a mental breakdown? Here's a brief audio clip from her appearance on "Today" this morning that suggests...maybe so. (It's funny -- give it a listen!) <a href="http://www.zshare.net/audio/889585224cfe6b41/">http://www.zshare.net/audio/889585224cfe6b41/</a> [the audio clip plays automatically; just let it buffer; no need to press "download" or "play now."] But I digress. Paul ___________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 13, 2011 <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7z3cR-0xUTg/TaW1Y6jtvHI/AAAAAAAACyI/1lUzyRxzQaI/s1600/DOGBLANK.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 318px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595077551718251634" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7z3cR-0xUTg/TaW1Y6jtvHI/AAAAAAAACyI/1lUzyRxzQaI/s400/DOGBLANK.jpg" /></a> "After studying numerous drawings, I've come to the conclusion that the Prophet Muhammad looks a bit like Tony Shalhoub." But I digress. Paul __________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 10, 2011 Is "Just Go With It" Racist?<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-po7zWDzK7B8/TaIl2OQHBjI/AAAAAAAACx8/75cRKZl2Qyw/s1600/scanjustgowithit.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-po7zWDzK7B8/TaIl2OQHBjI/AAAAAAAACx8/75cRKZl2Qyw/s400/scanjustgowithit.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594075300616406578" /></a>The return of blackface humor in "Just Go With It." [still from "Just Go With It" photographed by Paul Iorio] Dennis Dugan's "Just Go With It" is currently the biggest grossing non-animated film of 2011 so far. But is it also a bit racist? There's a scene in the flick, which stars Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler, at around the 57-minute mark, in which blackface is played for laughs. Here's what happens. Sandler's character and his pals are hiking through a rain forest in Hawaii when a little white girl he's carrying falls in the mud face first. The girl then lifts up her mud-covered face, shows an exaggerated minstrel sort of smile and says in a fake British accent: "Oh....I just love spending time with you!" (See photo, above.) Afterwards, (if you watch really carefully) she appears to do a Buckwheat sort of imitation before jumping into the water. The scene so resembles comedy from a bygone era of blackface humor that even the scriptwriters apparently felt they had to soften the impact of that scene. A minute later, the director had Sandler say to the girl: "Hey, Al Jolson, you mind jumping in the water?" -- an implicit acknowledgment that the scene does look like blackface humor. I'm not even African-American and I thought it was reactionary and unfunny. I wonder what some black activists think. But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 10, 2011 And so in her column today, Maureen Dowd chides Bob Dylan for not performing "Hurricane" at his recent shows in China. Evidently, to her, that's proof that President Hu personally censored Bob's set. Well, hate to intrude with the facts, but Dylan hasn't performed "Hurricane" in over thirty years. A cursory look at his setlists shows that. Why would he trot out that tale of Jersey injustice for a Beijing audience in 2011? She also sees his omission of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" in China as an ominous sign that Zimmy has been muzzled. Again, the facts. Dylan didn't include "The Times They Are a-Changin'" in any of his sets in 2010 and played it only a few times in '09. And she says that the absence of "Blowin' in the Wind" is surely proof that Bob bowed to PRC pressure. Not quite. During his 2010 tour, Dylan played "Blowin' in the Wind" only 12 times. By contrast, he performed "Ballad of a Thin Man" 100 times in that same span. Further, she failed to mention contrary facts. For example, Dylan did do "Tangled Up in Blue," "Desolation Row" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" in Beijing and Shanghai -- material that was arguably more subversive than the stuff he did in Taiwan days before. Anyway, I covered all this in greater detail in a previous Digression (below). I think Maureen is better on Rummy. And now that she seems to be on a belated free speech jag, I'm looking forward to her columns that will courageously take on the Muslim right-wingers who have been trying to tell us what to draw and what to publish in the West. And I'm still looking for that column of hers in which she chastises Yale University Press for deleting the Muhammad cartoons in a book about the Muhammad cartoons. Can't find that one anywhere. But I digress. P.S. -- Hey, I despise Hu's oppression as much as any democrat, but Dylan's show ain't an example of it. P.S. -- Of course we have great freedom in the U.S. -- except in the private sector, where everybody resides. If you want to play your songs on "Saturday Night Live" or on any other TV show, you have to submit your setlist in advance for approval. (And the government, via the FCC, has the power to veto lyrics.) And -- to cite only the most recent example of such "censorship" -- Cee Lo Green was forbidden from singing his hit song "Fuck You" on the air and had to change it to "Forget You." Further, Dowd herself has to -- de facto -- submit her column for approval from her bosses at the Times. And if she were to use words like fuck or shit, or were to advocate violent jihad, her column would surely be censored. And during Dowd's visit to Saudi Arabia, I'm certain she objected loudly and vociferously to the King about every instance of gender segregation and oppression that she experienced. P.S. -- Dylan's best line about freedom comes from his 4th album, and it applies here: "Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?" ____________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 9, 2011 OK, I saw a couple new flicks the other night -- here're my reviews: Dennis Dugan's "Just Go With It" Easily, the worst movie released so far in 2011. Obvious, corny, broad, dull, contrived, cutesy, tiresome, calculated, simultaneously soft-minded and mean. Squarely in the Jay Leno school of comedy, but not nearly as funny. All that's missing is Jennifer Aniston going "Ta ta!" And Adam Sandler seems to think that the way out of his juvenile persona, his default mode, is to act like Springsteen. As of this writing, it's also the second biggest grossing movie of the year, which is sort of depressing. Because if this is what mainstream moviegoers like, then we have nothing in common. * * * * Emilio Estevez's "The Way" While Carlos Estevez (aka, Charlie Sheen) has been hogging the tabloid spotlight lately, his big brother Emilio has been quietly busy on this film, set to drop in the States in late September. I got to see it the other night and can report it's...not bad at all. Though it's not likely to make my top ten list for 2011, it does sport a solid performance by Martin Sheen, full of steely reserve and discipline, and an interesting plot. The plot is: Sheen's character, learning about his son's death in an accident in the Pyrenees, decides to hike the same treacherous path that his son hiked -- a mythic mountainous trail called the Way of St. James deep in Basque country. Walking it is a sort of rite of passage for some Catholics. And Sheen is engaging enough to keep you watching every step of his journey, though the movie would have been much better if his trek had been tied to, say, the solving of a mystery surrounding the circumstances of his son's death. Doubtless, critics will see indirect references to Charlie Sheen in the flick. (Martin's character has extremely ambivalent feelings about his late son, who he says pissed him off; another character says: "Our children: they are the very best of us and the very worst of us.") And it also has some great Spanish scenery -- and there's nice use of music by the Shins and James Taylor. But the film is, alas, likely to be seen largely in the shadow of Charlie. * * * * Neil Burger's "Limitless" The best movie of the year so far. From scene one, this flick is built to kill. Its premise is fantastic, outlandish -- and completely plausible. The protagonist (Bradley Cooper, in a part that seems to have been written for Ben Stiller) takes smart pills that allow him to use all of his brain. Suddenly, he's a genius in multiple fields and starts sounding like Paul Krugman. Burger pulls off the high concept flawlessly, taking the premise in all the right directions. Though parts vaguely resemble "The Player" and "Good Will Hunting," it's mostly completely original. And it's one of the very few recent mainstream movies that does not devolve into excessive gunplay, incoherence and explosions in the last half-hour. Highly recommended. But I digress. Paul [this day's Digression updated 4/11.] _____________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 9, 2011 Dylan plays Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, tomorrow night, and -- I'm not making this up -- here's the poster for the gig (below). He looks a bit like Ho Chi Bob! <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9A9-ewFpC-s/TZ_k5DLa3MI/AAAAAAAACx0/IsjIClbHFTg/s1600/dylanvietnam.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 307px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9A9-ewFpC-s/TZ_k5DLa3MI/AAAAAAAACx0/IsjIClbHFTg/s400/dylanvietnam.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5593440930974325954" /></a> BTW, the other night in Shanghai, he did do "Desolation Row," which some critics thought was verboten in the PRC. But I digress. Paul _____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 8, 2011 The Resurgence of that "Short-Fingered Vulgarian" <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ThFuYC6pKFU/TZ82VT6b0DI/AAAAAAAACxg/GLENfNkmRpk/s1600/scantrump.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 321px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5593249001967964210" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ThFuYC6pKFU/TZ82VT6b0DI/AAAAAAAACxg/GLENfNkmRpk/s400/scantrump.jpg" /></a> If you were a twentysomething journalist in New York City in the 1980s, Donald Trump was little more than an easy punchline. At least among the people I hung around with. His crass style, greediness, ugly divorce from Ivanka and nickname ('The Donald") earned him an immortal characterization from the late great Spy magazine: "short-fingered vulgarian." And it's safe to say that nothing has happened in the past two decades to change that impression. In fact, he's become even more of a short-fingered vulgarian over the years. And now -- dare I say it? -- he's probably the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. Oh, yes he is. And Ashleigh Banfield is already seemingly positioning herself to be his press secretary! (Maybe it'll be Trump/Meat Loaf '12.) A few observations about Trump. 1. Trump proves that you can be one of the richest people on the planet and still be incurably lower class. 2. He has billions of dollars but can't even afford a decent haircut. 3. Many immigrants in America know the English language better than Trump does. 4. His fingers really are unusually short. I wonder what that means about the length of his, uh,...political career! (And I wonder how many times Trump has said to girlfriends, "If you measure from up here, it's three inches!") 5. He should be ashamed of himself for exploiting that birther crap. (Me, I don't care if Obama was born in Mecca and grew up in Medina; he's bombing the bejesus out of the Haqqanis the way W. never did, and that's what matters.) Bravo to the (very hot) Ashley Biden for calling for a boycott of "The Apprentice." I would even take it a step further: boycott the products of any company that advertises on "The Apprentice." (I'll try to provide a list in a future blog.) <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cJQdVG-cXLw/TZ888dBfScI/AAAAAAAACxo/uL-AftpvxYk/s1600/biden.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 280px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cJQdVG-cXLw/TZ888dBfScI/AAAAAAAACxo/uL-AftpvxYk/s400/biden.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5593256271498136002" /></a> Ashley for president? But I digress. Paul _________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 7, 2011 Gonna Change His Way of Singing? Not Quite. Lots of talk in the media about whether Bob Dylan, under pressure from the Chinese government, performed less controversial songs at his first-ever concert in Beijing last night. But the facts seem to tell another tale. True, Dylan did do a slightly different setlist in Beijing than he had done days before in Taiwan. But Dylan's sets always vary from night to night. An examination of the setlists for the Taiwan and the Beijing concerts shows Dylan seems to have done a more subversive set at the Beijing Workers' Gymnasium than he did at the Taipei Arena. For example, in Beijing he played "Tangled Up in Blue" -- with that classic line from the era of dissent, "There was music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air" -- and his protest song "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall." Both were absent from the Taipei set. Much has been made of the omission of "Blowin' in the Wind" from the Beijing concert. That song, of course, includes the line: "How many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free?," which might have been a point of objection for the Chinese government, given their problems in Tiananmen Square in '89 and in Tibet. (Dylan did have to submit his setlist to the PRC government for approval before the Beijing show, though it's not known if they actually vetoed any song choices.) But Dylan had already done a classic from "Freewheelin'" at the Workers' Gymnasium, so he did not need to do "Blowin' in the Wind," also from "Freewheelin'." And a look at his recent setlist history shows Dylan doesn't usually do "Blowin' in the Wind"; his last shows of 2010 didn't include the tune. Arguably, if you were to show someone the two setlists in a blind test, and have the person try to guess which setlist might have been censored, the guesser would probably say that the set in Tapei was more tamped down and tamer than the one in Beijing. Judge for yourself. Here are the two setlists: Dylan set at the Beijing Workers' Gymnasium, April 6 Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking It's All Over Now, Baby Blue Beyond Here Lies Nothin' Tangled Up In Blue Honest With Me Simple Twist Of Fate Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum Love Sick Rollin' And Tumblin' A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Highway 61 Revisited Spirit On The Water Thunder On The Mountain Ballad Of A Thin Man Like A Rolling Stone All Along The Watchtower Forever Young And here's the show he gave on April 3 at the Taipei Arena in Taiwan. Gotta Serve Somebody It Ain't Me, Babe Things Have Changed Sugar Baby Cold Irons Bound Simple Twist Of Fate Honest With Me Desolation Row Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum Forgetful Heart Highway 61 Revisited Tryin' To Get To Heaven Jolene Ballad Of A Thin Man Like A Rolling Stone Blowin' In The Wind But I digress. Paul P.S. -- When Dylan plays Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow night, he ought to slip in "Tweeter and the Monkey Man." And in Shanghai, he ought to end his show with, "Free Weiwei." ______________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 5, 2011 <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6_W72an4XtA/TZsrAXIN5II/AAAAAAAACwA/Ej5Mkc9hvvQ/s1600/DOGBLANK.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 318px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592110647519077506" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6_W72an4XtA/TZsrAXIN5II/AAAAAAAACwA/Ej5Mkc9hvvQ/s400/DOGBLANK.jpg" /></a> "Egrets, I've had a few." ________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for April 4 - 6, 2011 Lately, I'm finding that the same sorts of questions about my music keep coming up time and again, so I've decided to post a sort of FAQ in which I answer the most frequent questions. Here goes: YOU'VE BEEN WRITING SONGS SINCE YOU WERE AROUND 10-YEARS OLD BUT YOU DIDN'T START RELEASING THEM UNTIL YOU WERE IN YOUR LATE-THIRTIES. WHY THE DELAY? PAUL IORIO: I didn't always have the money to book time at a recording studio in my youth. Plus, I had no idea how to work the tech equipment in a studio. And I was working full-time as a journalist back then, so I didn't always have the time to cut albums. When I had the money, I didn't have the time. When I had the time, I didn't have the money. WHAT CHANGED? IORIO: Digital technology was invented that enabled everybody to record music without having to know much tech stuff. And an old friend from my high school years emerged in '05; he had more money than I had and was willing to invest in my music, giving me the hardware and financing for studio time. He showed me how to work volume knobs on the mixing board and all that. Bill Epps was his name. (Not that he had as much money as Charlie Sheen!) PRETTY GENEROUS. IORIO: For a couple years, I did nothing but thank him for the investment. But then it started getting back to me that someone was, behind my back, trying to make it seem like he was partially responsible for some of my songs. And William knows very well that he had nothing to do with writing any of my songs and would certainly tell you as much! All my lyrics, all my music, all my musical ideas came solely from me. Epps wrote exactly zero percent of my stuff, as I'm sure he'd tell you. He set that album in motion financially, but not creatively. Compositionally, I had already written the album before he came onboard. My tunes are very personal to me. I know where I was and what I was privately referring to when I wrote every stitch of every track. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE IN CONTACT WITH EPPS? Around four years ago. [Though we've subsequently contacted each other through Facebook (and I'm trying to get to the bottom of how bad info about my music was getting around [updated 7/20/2011]. I sort of wish my friend Epps would explicitly correct the record out there. Have him release his video of the '05 sessions that show he didn't compose anything.After all, there isn't anything confidential about this situation, there are no secret sources. There's nothing more to it than the fact that I've written a whole bunch of songs -- and my long-ago friend from high school threw some money at recording sessions and equipment so I could record them! WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND THE 2005 "ABOUT MYSELF" SESSIONS? IORIO: That's ancient history! I've written and released so much stuff since then. But...for the record: In 2003 and early 2004, I collected 52 songs I had written over the years and released them on cassette tape. Epps heard the album in '05 for the very first time and said he wanted to finance a session so that I could re-record the album on CD. Those sessions took place in September '05, but the recordings had to be scrapped. WHY DID YOU SCRAP THE '05 RECORDINGS? IORIO: Because Epps -- playing producer, and he had never produced anything but his own recordings before -- tried valiantly but didn't do the basic things he promised. I hate to put it so bluntly, but it's true. A missed chord in "Eastern Western": he said he'd patch it, and he never did. A glaring error in "Ten Years Ago": he said he'd fix it, and he never did. He said he'd fade out "Do What You Wanna Can Do," and he never did. On and on. And then he overdubs a bass on the tracks two months after the recordings -- and the bass isn't even synched with the main tracks! And by his own admission, he doesn't even know how to play bass. And I've been writing songs far longer than he has. (I started calling him "In-Eppt" in those days! He truly did not improve that album; he made it worse. In short, Epps wanted the title of producer but didn't want to do any of the work! So I scrapped the recordings and re-recorded the songs, all written by me, for my "130 Songs" collection. And Bill was being straight from the git go or not? I have my doubts. For example, he financed sessions saying "We're going to record fifty two songs written by Paul Iorio!" Then I arrive at the studio and he immediately sets up his own camera, aims his camera at himself and says, "Paul's going to record two of his own songs." At the time, I was puzzled. He knew damn well I was there to record 52 of my songs. So I corrected him immediately, saying "52 songs, not 2 songs." But if he cut that part out of the video, the video would deceptively show another meaning. THERE'S VIDEO FOOTAGE OF YOU IN THE STUDIO WITH A LYRIC SHEET IN FRONT OF YOU. DO YOU ALWAYS USE A LYRIC SHEET IN THE STUDIO? IORIO: Always. I've recorded my songs at hundreds of recording sessions over the years and have never done one without a lyric sheet. I don't necessarily need one, but it's sort of a safety net in case I forget the words. And it frees me up to worry about things other than the memorization part. Even lyrics I've written long ago require me to use a sheet. There are a few exceptions (like "You Know It Shows," "If One Rainy Night," etc.). Even Bob Dylan forgets his own lyrics and often needs a lyric sheet. I recently saw a video of Springsteen performing "Lost in the Flood" in the 1990s, and he had the lyrics scotch taped to his mike stand. And check out the DVD extras of the recent film "Howl." You'll see Allen Ginsberg reading "Howl" at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan in 1995, and he reads it from a printed copy every step of the way. He had written it four decades earlier and had read it publicly countless times; but he still needed to read it from the page. And even then, he stumbled over some of it. A half-hour poem, when read aloud. YOU HAVE AROUND 160 COPYRIGHTED SONGS -- IORIO: And that's just a fraction of the number I've written -- BUT OF THOSE 160 SONGS, DID YOU SOLELY WRITE ALL OF THEM? IORIO: Yes. All of them. ANY EXCEPTIONS? IORIO: Well, I used ten words from a Grace Paley short story in "Must Call Love." And "You Won't Be Burying Me Now" is based on a public domain Italian folk melody. And I came up with the five-second bit in "(Stop the) Beer Hall Putsch" that goes "beer hall -- putsch" during a jam with my brother, who is also a musician. HAVE YOU EVER COLLABORATED WITH ANYONE? IORIO: No, my work is as solo as it gets. Unless you're talking about jokey things in high school where you put funny words to the tune of something. But that doesn't count. WHEN YOU WRITE, WHAT COMES FIRST: THE MUSIC OR THE LYRICS? IORIO: Usually, I start with some sort of chord progression or melody that suggests words, which then evolve into lyrics. Or, sometimes I'll have a great idea for a lyric or a title and will write a melody around it. Often, music and lyrics come simultaneously. And in several cases, a melody was running around in my head when I woke up. WHAT SONGS CAME TO YOU DURING SLEEP? IORIO: Several. The melody of "Endgame," the chorus of "Dontcha Sleep," the music and lyrics of the chorus of "Something in the Sky," and the verse/chorus melody of "Trees Try to Rise Above Their Roots." The best example is "Something in the Sky," whose chorus came out whole when I woke one morning. I always let songs come to me. I don't come to the song. There's never been a case when I've sat down with pen and paper and said, "I'm gonna write a tune!" Never. It's usually a case where I'm walking through the woods and a melody occurs to me. ARE YOU THE ONLY PERFORMER ON YOUR ALBUMS? IORIO: Yes. I perform every bit of every song. If there's an ooo or an ahh, a drum roll or harmonica bit, a botched chord or inspired figure -- that's all me! EVEN THE BASS BACKGROUND VOCAL ON "TREES TRY TO RISE ABOVE THEIR ROOTS"? IORIO: That's me doing an overdub. I recorded "Trees" a few hours before seeing Michael McDonald and Donald Fagan give a concert in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in 2010. And McDonald was on my mind as I recorded the song, so I was doing a sort of soulful growl there. That's on my brand new album, "Zip Code of the Moon (and 21 others). I just realized this morning that not a single song on the "Zip Code" album existed before April of 2010! (Except that 5-second "beer hall -- putsch" bit on "(Stop the) Beer Hall Putsch.") DO YOU USE A DRUM MACHINE OR REAL DRUMS? I use a cardboard box that I beat on with a stick. Seriously. And I've never used a drum machine in my life. Wouldn't know how to use one. Everything you hear on every one of my 160+ songs that I've released was played by me on a real instrument, created from the ground up by me. No samples, no pre-existing tracks. The only exception is "Hey, Mr. DJ," where I use snippets of radio sounds and music throughout the song. This is truly hand-made music. I don't even have a count-off guy; I press the start button on the Roland myself. ARE YOU SELF-TAUGHT ON GUITAR? IORIO: Mostly. I briefly took guitar lessons at a rec center when I was nine. And they'd have me learn stuff like "Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley," which always confused me -- and still does. A poorly-written song, if you think about it. (It starts off in third person with the chorus and then shifts awkwardly into Dooley's own first-person perspective for the verses.) Initially, I really didn't have much talent on the guitar. Of all my musical friends from elementary school through high school, I was probably considered one of the least talented guitarists in that group. (I should note that not one of them went on to become a professional musician.) Yet, I'd always privately be writing songs in those days. But I had no confidence to play them in front of people. In those years, as a teenager, I'd write up two or three songs in my bedroom and then go to see a friend play at a high school talent show; and I'd secretly think about how much better my songs were than the ones my friends were performing. But I never had the nerve to get onstage myself. WHY DIDN'T YOU HAVE YOUR FRIENDS PERFORM YOUR SONGS? IORIO: Because I had no confidence in my guitar playing and singing abilities. Hence, I'd never play my tunes for my friends. I had plenty of confidence in my ability to write good songs, but not to perform them. It took me many years to develop my current style of guitar playing. WHO ARE YOUR MAIN INFLUENCES? IORIO; Too many influences to count. But my aesthetic starts with Paul McCartney and Ray Davies. To me, McCartney is the world's greatest living composer, our era's George Gershwin. Also, Bob Dylan, an incalculable influence. Sly and the Family Stone: their "Greatest Hits" is one of the greatest albums ever made. Holland/Dozier/Holland. Johnny Cash, most definitely. And Jeff Tweedy with and without Wilco. And early Patti Smith. Otis Redding. early Hendrix. Very late Janis. The hits of Abba, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. John Phillips. John Sebastian. And I love the great pop singles released in '66 and in '70 (from the Tee Set to Edison Lighthouse). And Elvis Costello was huge for me, particularly those first seven albums. And the Ramones' first six albums. Marshall Crenshaw's Warner period. The first Talking Heads albums (particularly the underrated "Songs About Buildings and Food"). Nick Lowe, especially from "Pure Pop" to "Rose of England." And I love early Traffic. Love all of Robert Johnson. And Warren Zevon's three or four best albums. And great bridges and middle-eights. The greatest bridges -- besides Lennon/Mccartney's and Davies's -- are the ones in "Jennifer Juniper" and "Accidents Will Happen" and "Night Rally" and "Ramblin' Rose" and "Dear Eloise' and Dusty Springfield's "Only Want To Be With You" and the three (!) in "Lola." "Fixing a Hole," of course, has the greatest bridge ever written. (Of all the bridges I've written, my favorite is the one in "If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Susannah.") But my real main influences were people throughout my life who were artistically smart and said things that stuck with me. A concert pianist in Florida who was very knowing about all sorts of music. A choreographer in New York City who was so artistically smart that she'd change my mind about things every time we talked. A former Beefheart guitarist who used to play guitar for me alone in his apartment in the Village. And Frank Zappa, with whom I had numerous conversations in the 1980s (he used to call me every now and then to talk). Some of the wisest things about music that have been said to me were said by A&R people at record companies. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE ALBUMS AND ARTISTS, BESIDES THE USUAL SUSPECTS, BESIDES THE STONES, THE BEATLES, DYLAN, THE WHO, CCR, ELTON JOHN, PAUL SIMON, THE GRATEFUL DEAD, NEIL YOUNG, BEACH BOYS, CLAPTON, JAMES TAYLOR, LED ZEP, BOWIE, DOORS, ETC.? IORIO: Contra, Funeral, OK Computer, "Street Spirit," Evil Urges, Skylarking, Grievous Angel, Unsophisticated Time, The Honesty Room, Nevermind, Cool for Cats/Argybargy/East Side Story, Let It Be/Tim, Murmur/Document, Scarecrow, Born in the USA, Alive on Arrival, Tull's Benefit to Living in the Past, Buffett's Key West oeuvre ("The Wino and I Know," etc), some Keith Sykes, Feist's voice, Wheels of Fire, Mountain's "Flowers of Evil,""The Message" e.p., Catholic Boy, Zen Arcade, Rage to Live, Alison Krauss, Ronee Blakley (particularly that album with "Gabriel" and "Fred Hampton" on it), Lost and Found, Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, Guitar Town, pre-"Gaucho" Steely Dan, "The Cars," "The Good Earth," Straight Up (and "No Matter What"), primo Roxy Music, Parallel Lines, London Calling, Francesco Guccini's "Via Paolo Fabbri 43," Cem Karaca's "Nem kaldi," Los Lobos's "La Pistola y Corazon." Gourmet Grateful Dead means "Europe '72," "American Beauty," "Mars Hotel" and spin-off "Old and In The Way." And "bankers' nieces seek perfection" may well be Dylan's greatest line! Among real obscurities: albums by Fat, Grapefruit, Fat Mattress, The Cuts, Nicky Hopkins's "The Tin Man Was a Dreamer," Oakley Hall, Darker My Love. But I digress. Paul [this day's Digression updated through July 20, 2011.] ______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 31, 2011 Fascinating article in the New York Times today. Here's a link: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/us/01code.html?src=twr">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/us/01code.html?src=twr</a> Goes like this. In 1999, a guy was murdered in Missouri and in his pocket were seemingly encrypted notes. It's a cold case. And the notes have never been translated into something that makes sense. So the FBI has now posted the enigmatic scribblings and is asking for the public's help in cracking the mystery. OK, here's my analysis. When I first saw the notes, I thought, That looks like something out of the movie "Pi," the flick directed by Darren Aronofsky and released in 1998, several months before the murder. And then I saw the initials "PI" at the top, as well as (at least) three or four places in the text where the letters "pi" appear -- which is similar to scenes in the movie in which the letters "pi" appear in densely cryptic text. (And the letters "SE" appear at least 20 times in the second note.) My guess? The murder victim saw the movie "Pi" and was inspired to write pseudo-encrypted notes that had the letters "pi" in it. And they happened to be in his pocket when he was murdered for unrelated reasons -- perhaps petty or random reasons. My intuition tells me the notes are probably a red herring. Imitative of a movie he'd seen. Hope that helps! But I digress. Paul ________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 30 - 31, 2011 As a journalist, I must admit I've broken stories in novel (albeit completely legitimate) ways over the years. So maybe I'm actually good at getting through to blocked and erased websites. Still, I'm rather amazed that nobody has yet figured out the easiest and most effective way to jump the New York Times's new digital paywall. Everybody keeps repeating the same two or three methods for subverting the paywall: fiddle with the "numbers" part of the url; change web browsers (which would only give you 20 more articles -- big deal!); etc. But nobody has figured out my own method, a very easy way to get unlimited free access to the paper. Of course, I'm not spilling the cannellinis, lest The Times finds a way to subvert my subversion. Still, it's curious that nobody has discovered this route. Hint: you techies are trying too hard, being too clever. The solution is much simpler. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- I must say that the psychological effect of the paywall is fascinating. Because they're charging for it, and because I'm not supposed to be getting it for free, I'm now reading all sorts of articles I'd have never touched before. Suddenly, I'm well-informed on food-coloring, Alaska wild salmon and Paul Krugman's latest chart showing that Brazil's experiment with de-regulation failed miserably decades ago. I've even become disappointed the very few times when the Times hasn't stopped me with a pop-up, because that sort of devalues my subversion when that happens. The thrill of the forbidden is addictive. Could that have been the Times' diabolical plan all along? * * * * ____________________________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 30, 2011 I'm reading all these articles about how people are subverting the New York Times new digital paywall, but not one person has yet brought up the easiest and most efficient way to do it. Lasr night, I discovered the best way to climb the paywall, which nobody else seems to have figured out. And I ain't revalin' it, either! Because I know that as soon as The Times finds out about it, they'll plug the leak. My cybersecret, for now. Can't believe others haven't figured it out yet! But I digress. Paul ____________________________________-- THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 29, 2011 Paul Krugman's analysis (in today's nytimes.com) of why the winners won both the Second World War and the American Civil War is intriguing but leaves out one essential element: luck. What I mean is: if the Allied choice of Normandy for its invasion had been found out in advance by the Axis commanders -- and it almost was -- there would have been no American march through the Ardennes and on to Berlin -- and no defeat of the Nazis. Anyone who has been in combat will tell you that the randomness of luck on the battlefield will take your breath away. And the interception of a single cable, or the deflection of a bullet or shell that goes a centimeter this way instead of that: those are the elements that determine the outcome of competitive battles and wars. Of course, after the fact, the victors always ascribe the outcome to an explanation most flattering to themselves. * * * * I just saw a few new movies, and here're my reviews: Jaume Collet-Serra's 's "Unknown" For the first 45-minutes or so, I was thinking there could be no plausible explanation for what Liam Neeson's character was going through. But then there's a plot twist midway that makes it make sense. Not exactly perfect sense, but it does become somewhat believable. And then you wish the film makers had made more of the premise (i.e., covert guy with a brain injury mistakenly forgets that his undercover cover story is just a cover story). Imagine this concept applied to a CIA or al Qaeda protagonist. Imagine if a Mohamed Atta were to suffer head trauma and forget about a plot he set in motion to topple the Sears tower. Instead Neeson plays an unremarkable assassin in a role that seems to have been written for Harrison Ford. And there are more plot holes than Swiss cheese (e.g., there must have been others back in the States who could've easily verified his identity; the taxi driver could have been compelled by police to talk about what happened, etc.). Plus, Neeson's character didn't seem the least bit out-of-shape after four days in a coma! Still, some sequences pack an adrenaline rush worthy of "The Fugitive," though most thrill about as much as "The Game." Worth a look when it's on DVD. * * * * D.J. Caruso's 's "I Am Number Four" A They-Walk-Among-Us type film that soon devolves into an empowerment fantasy for teens. By the end, it's neck deep in generic paranormal and supernatural b.s. Despite some striking imagery every now and then, I found it hard to keep my mind on it for long. * * * * <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bL_xSDvnTgY/TZJZF7tEvjI/AAAAAAAACv4/bR9sZ6cFNyA/s1600/DOGBLANK.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 318px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5589628045981171250" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bL_xSDvnTgY/TZJZF7tEvjI/AAAAAAAACv4/bR9sZ6cFNyA/s400/DOGBLANK.jpg" /></a> "The bitch came highly recommended by Bill Wyman. How was I to know you'd get the clap?" But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 29, 2011 OK, yesterday was the first day of the nytimes.com's new paywall, which allows each non-subscriber only 20 free articles a month. Only problem with that is I read 20 NYT articles per day -- at least. And I really don't have a budget to pay for what I've been getting for free for years. Last night I deliberately used up my 20 story limit in order to try to find a workaround. And I'm pleased to report that it took me around 50 minutes to discover a novel way around the paywall. Works every single time. I'm not going to reveal what my workaround is, because The Times would then surely find a way to put a stop to all my fun! How about this deal? I'll let you folks at the Times in on my surefire method of climbing your paywall in exchange for a free digital subscription! * * * * * * * * On another subject... Happy birthday to Marshall at KALX! Great show last night. Gotta love a band with a name like the Electric Chair Repair Company! And glad you were able to use my b-day greeting! But I digress. Paul __________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 27, 2011 The Untold Story About Coverage of O.J. Simpson <a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_XMXWvqNY2Kc/RrnqLgiGoII/AAAAAAAAANQ/p11PlB1OrwI/s1600-h/scansimpson.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; DISPLAY: block; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5096361936778862722" border="0" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_XMXWvqNY2Kc/RrnqLgiGoII/AAAAAAAAANQ/p11PlB1OrwI/s400/scansimpson.jpg" /></a> O.J. Simpson signs autographs for fans in August 1997 outside the Santa Monica Courthouse (photo by Paul Iorio). Someone was recently wondering, "Is it true that you once asked O.J. Simpson whether he had made any progress finding his wife's killer yet?" The answer is, yes. And I took my lumps from members of the press who were being very protective of Simpson. I wrote about my encounter with O.J. years ago online, but it has since disappeared. So I thought I'd republish the piece here and now in order to give everyone a more complete sense of how a lot of the press was anything but aggressive in their approach to Simpson. My encounter with O.J. happened in August 1997 at the Santa Monica courthouse, where Simpson was ordered to give up his Heisman trophy as part of the civil settlement in his double murder case. I covered it for Reuters. The interesting thing about the story was that much of the press played extreme softball with Simpson. I was shocked, frankly, that there was almost no aggressive questioning of the guy, even though everyone had access to him in the courthouse. In fact, some reporters and cops were actually playing air football with Simpson in a courthouse hallway! And after I asked him a tough question -- "Hey, OJ, have you had any luck finding the real killers?" -- Simpson, who didn't like my question much, became openly mocking: "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me," Simpson said in a sing-song voice in the corridor, after I was persistent with my questions. Within minutes, a cop said that reporters couldn't talk to Simpson. But the judge overruled the officer around an hour later and said we could talk to him. So I asked him again, "Hey OJ, have you had any luck finding the killers of your wife?" And I must say that except for a couple first-class reporters from Court TV and a couple others, I was the only one asking hard questions of Simpson. And that seemed to irritate both cops and a few reporters at the scene (some of whom were asking "tough" questions like: "OJ, do you feel you're being harassed?"). I came up with my own question spontaneously, sort of as a reaction to the timidity of particular reporters toward Simpson. And it's a fair question, if you think about it. Then, out of the blue, as I sat quietly in the courtroom, one cop (who had been playing air football with Simpson) started giving me a rough time. And then -- equally out of the blue -- a so-called reporter (she identified herself as Michelle Caruso of the New York Daily News) started to play tag team with the cop, yelling and screaming in the courtroom at me (about my shirt, oddly, a really nice $75 conservatively styled shirt) a pro pos of nothing. I just ignored Caruso, who was acting like someone off her meds. I had had absolutely no prior contact with this so-called reporter Caruso, and didn't even know her name until she told me it (and I didn't even answer her, despite her efforts to turn the event into an episode of "Jerry Springer"). To me, it looked this way: a cop friendly to O.J. was pissed that I was questioning OJ harshly. The reporter Caruso, who seemed to know that cop, appeared to be playing tag team in trying to provoke a fight with me in the courtroom. Unfortunately for her, I didn't take the bait. Because I didn't take the bait, Caruso ended up making a spectacle of herself, screaming for no reason whatsoever as I sat quietly. (To this day, I know of at least one reporter who still chuckles about how Caruso managed to make a compete fool of herself that day.) I should note that Caruso showed no such aggressiveness in trying to interview OJ Simpson, mind you. She was very meek when it came to him, who she was paid to cover. But she had the rude over-familiarity of a hick when it came to dealing with others in the courthouse, as if she was straight out of Mayberry, RFD. Caruso, who came to work that day with big-hair that looked like it had been butchered by Simpson himself, shut up only when I showed her that my cassette tape recorder was running -- which shows that she knew her rant couldn't stand up to scrutiny. Note to Caruso's editor at the Daily News: you should fire Michelle Caruso right now, even after all these years, because behavior like that is likely to be repeated by her (if it hasn't been already). I can't help but wonder whether Simpson would have been serving time earlier if certain reporters and cops had been a bit more aggressive toward the right people. Fire Michelle Caruso of the New York Daily News But I digress. Paul ________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 25, 2011 In Bloom <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UvQ83Szn0io/TYzZQavaCPI/AAAAAAAACvo/Oy-c56G8C5A/s1600/scanreplacements.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 306px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UvQ83Szn0io/TYzZQavaCPI/AAAAAAAACvo/Oy-c56G8C5A/s400/scanreplacements.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588080113739237618" /></a> The Mats's sound triumphed spectacularly -- without them, four years after they abandoned it. A documentary about The Replacements is coming to theaters in coming days and weeks, but I hear it doesn't include any members of the band or the band's music. Uh oh. As a journalist who witnessed and wrote about the group's rise in its prime, a few notes: -- The Mats should have been inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame years ago. -- Back in the day, the band was labeled post-punk, but today they're really pre-grunge. When I first heard Nirvana's "Nevermind," the first thing I thought was: this is the triumph of the Replacements's sound! If only the Mats had stuck around another year or two, and stayed with their harder aesthetic, they might have broken through. -- As much as I hate to admit it, the band's music was not nearly as great after Bob Stinson's firing. Sure, Bob had problems with booze and drugs that were making him impossible to work with. But Keith Richards didn't? -- In the mid-Eighties, I saw Paul Westerberg in a Brill Building sort of way. I mean, really listen to "Swinging Party" -- that is a magnificent piece of songwriting. So you can see how somebody could have been misled into thinking Westerberg should should have gone that route instead of more toward "Favorite Thing." But today I tend to go back to the rockers ("Little Mascara" (perhaps their best song), but also "Bastards of Young," "Never Mind," "I Don't Know," "Alex Chilton," etc.). I would rate "Here Comes a Regular' higher, but its verse melody is too close to "Trapped." And I don't think I've relistened to "Don't Tell A Soul" or "All Shook Down" in decades. The post-Bob stuff just doesn't cut it. -- My use of the phrase "Brill Building" refers to "Swingin' Party" and "Androgynous" (has Bacharach heard that one?), not to "Skyway," which is more like "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," the odd acoustic song a hard rock band slips in. Anyway, I haven't seen the docu -- Gorman Bechard's "Color Me Obsessed." But I did report about the band in their prime and even have lotza material -- including an unpublished interview with Bob Stinson from 1989 -- that have never seen the light of day. As I remember that '84 to '87 period, The Village Voice covered them first (among major publications). Musician magazine covered them best. And Rolling Stone did some terrific work on the band, too. But I think it's fair to say that I wrote the definitive story about the making of "Pleased to Meet Me." It appeared in Cash Box magazine in 1987 and here it is: <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XMXWvqNY2Kc/So9S1DMI2II/AAAAAAAAB_g/yRlou49a-k0/s1600-h/SCANDIC3.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 290px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372603951819053186" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XMXWvqNY2Kc/So9S1DMI2II/AAAAAAAAB_g/yRlou49a-k0/s400/SCANDIC3.JPG" /></a> [page one of article; click to enlarge] -- <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XMXWvqNY2Kc/So9efTvVWRI/AAAAAAAAB_o/pbqHNGLIq-o/s1600-h/SCANDIC2.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 276px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372616772444051730" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XMXWvqNY2Kc/So9efTvVWRI/AAAAAAAAB_o/pbqHNGLIq-o/s400/SCANDIC2.JPG" /></a> [page two of article; click to enlarge] --- <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XMXWvqNY2Kc/So9fP3fTTQI/AAAAAAAAB_w/BQIN4jZMNZY/s1600-h/SCANDICK.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 362px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372617606674205954" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XMXWvqNY2Kc/So9fP3fTTQI/AAAAAAAAB_w/BQIN4jZMNZY/s400/SCANDICK.JPG" /></a> [page three of article; click to enlarge] * * * * * * * * OK, folks, here's my unpublished interview with Replacements guitarist Bob Stinson, conducted in January 1989 by phone. IORIO: You're on now, you're actually on tape right now. STINSON: I am? IORIO: Yeah. As of this second. STINSON: Just to get a point or two across here: all the problems Paul [Westerberg] has and talks about were nonexistent when I was in the band. And the elements that got the band signed are also now nonexistent. I put that band [The Replacements] together, and that one was kind of easy. And this one [Static Taxi] is a little bit harder. This band has no relatives or union members. This one's called Static Taxi. A lot of people say it has a more Sixties influence because it's just one guitar, bass, drums and a lead singer, but all of us sing back up with the lead singer. And it's a lot stronger. You can't point to anybody and say you fucked up, because if we fuck up, you can tell who fucked up. IORIO: How about the myth of Bob Stinson. The mythical legendary figure of old. How much of that is true, and how much of that is just a put on? You've read all the stuff -- STINSON: Right. Well, I haven't been with the band in three years. [laughs] I'm what you'd call a classic scapegoat. It's like I said, all the problems that they have were nonexistent when I left. All the problems that you're reading about now are just now coming up. And my name just goes underneath them. IORIO: Well, what was the moment of truth? When did you leave? I mean, why? STINSON: When or why? IORIO: What was the actual moment of truth, when you said, well -- STINSON: Money. IORIO: Money was the problem? STINSON: Yeah!! I was the only one that would stand up to Paul and say, "You can't have 80% of everything, you know -- if you want to be a band." He'd rather be just Paul Westerberg. He has no intentions of being a band. He's a German Nazi. Complete true to form. IORIO: He wrote songs that were kind of like -- STINSON: No, no, no. We decided we'd let him have the name on condition that he'd give us our part of the royalties and all this and that shit. But when it came down to the bottom line, we were without a rug underneath us. I can't get my royalties from him either. IORIO: So all that stuff basically is -- STINSON: Malarkey. IORIO: Malarkey. And just monetary. STINSON: Um, and ecological. IORIO: And the fact that he was writing songs that were -- STINSON: No, he wasn't writing them. He'd come to practice with an idea and that was it. IORIO: How about the theory that's been put out in the press that he was writing songs that... weren't so much punkish anymore, and you were pretty much a punk guitarist. STINSON: Me? [laughs] Do you have a Static Taxi tape? IORIO: No, as a matter of fact. I'd like to get one. STINSON: Well, you should. Because there's not one thing in there that's heavy punkish. [Stinson hangs up the phone and there is a dial tone.] But I digress. Paul ______________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 24, 2011 It was supposed to have been a mere b-side, but it's now charting on social networking sites anyway. The song is called "Blame It on the Reggae," and I wrote and recorded it last month and posted it online a couple weeks ago. Not my best song, admittedly, but some people seem to like it. Sort of a send-up of both reggae fanaticism and of the "Blame It On..." subgenre. After numerous tries, I finally caught it at a studio session on Feb. 15, 2011. And here it is, for your listening pleasure: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10384307&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10384307&q=lo&newref=1</a> But I digress. Paul ______________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 23, 2011 The Main Tribe of the New Generation of Arab Revolutionaries is...the Facebook Tribe. Interesting analysis by Tom Friedman in today's New York Times about whether the Arab revolutions are being fueled mainly by democrats or by tribal opportunists. Let me note a couple things. First, a "tribe" is merely another word for a faction. And factions can always be assimilated into a national coalition if they share the same basic framework. Second, the problem in, say, Pakistan, to a large degree, is not with its tribes; it's with its borders. The Pakistan-Afghanistan border, as drawn by the Brits all those years ago, made a fatal error: it created the FATAs, a no-man's land not directly answerable to Islamabad. Had the Waziristans been brought into the national structure, the Haqqanis and other tribes would probably have been absorbed more fully into the Majlis-e-Shoora. To the British of the 1770s, the American colonies included tribal areas. (Factions abounded, and not just between the north and south.) If King George III had offered the colonies meaningful representation in Parliament, and therefore a say about policies on things like taxation and quartering, there may never have been a revolution here. The appetite for revolt would have been blunted by compromise. The main tribe of the new generation of Arab revolutionaries is is...the Facebook tribe. They are the first generation in Islam to have been brought up wholly in the Internet age; the earliest childhood memories of Arabs under 25 include Internet memories. And that's the first time in history that can be said. It's obvious the twentysomethings of the Arab world want the sorts of freedoms they've witnessed online. Tribal opportunists who pigggyback on the Facebook revolutionaries (and luck into power in Yemen or Libya) will themselves be taken down by the rebels if they try to re-install the same tired Islamic oppression of the deposed old guard. [posted at 10 a.m., 3/23/11.] But I digress. Paul _________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 22, 1011 Will the Fall of Saleh Create FATAs in Yemen? And will al Awlaki become the de facto leader (a la the Haqqanis) of a south Yemen factional territory beyond Sana'a's control (a la the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan)? [posted at 11:30 a.m. on March 22] * * * * * * * * And now, on a humorous note.... A state Senator in North Dakota, Carol Nelson of Fargo, has been on a negative campaign against negative campaiging lately, calling negative campaigners "scumbags, haters and the lowest form of life." Meanwhile, Bernie Madoff agreed, denouncing negative attacks that paint him as a "swindler." (People always talk about "negative campaiging" versus "positive campaiging." What about doing some accurate campaigning?) But I digress. Paul ____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 22, 2011 Using the Colonel's Secret Murderous Devices Kadafi Fried Chicken <a href="http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/kfc-logo_421211.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 626px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 303px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/kfc-logo_421211.jpg" /></a> And Try Kadafi Grilled Rebels "We Grill 'em Under Hot Lights!" Made from 100% no-fly chickens. * * * * * * * * * * __________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 21, 2011 I hadn't seen "The Sorrow and the Pity" since its release around 40 years ago (the events it documents happened only 25 years earlier, a reminder of how close the 1960s was to the horrors of Hitler). I was too young to fully appreciate the flick then, but I sure do get it now. The other day I re-watched it -- all four-plus hours -- and here's my review. Marcel Ophul's "The Sorrow and the Pity" Extracting eyeballs and then putting live bugs in the vacant eyesockets before sewing up the cavities was one way the Nazis kept the French resistance down in the early 1940s, according to this riveting four-hour documentary. The Germans also opened up several concentration camps throughout France (the German camps had been in operation since '33), which further put the kibosh on dissenters. It clearly gave Hitler enormous satisfaction to take France -- he's seen here in rare footage laughing wildly just after conquering the nation that had defeated Germany so soundly a couple decades earlier. Hitler had sized-up the French military and made a bet that they could never pull off the victory they'd won in the First World War. And he won that bet. Hitler had the French sussed the way he did not have the Russians and the British figured. And sure enough, the great nation that would fight for months over an anthill in the first war gave it all up because of a threat this time. And we also get to hear from the collaborators, who have the, uh, gall to moan about the resistance fighters -- "guerrillas," as they called them -- who would toss explosives or shoot bullets at the SS, killing a dozen or so here, a dozen or so there. By the time this docu was done, I was wishing the resistance had found a way to kill (at least) hundreds of the SS. Which is what happens, by the way, in the fictional "Inglourious Basterds." I would bet money that this flick set Tarantino's imagination on fire, inspiring him to create "...Basterds." The second half of "Sorrow" -- which shows French farm houses where resisters organized and small-town movie theaters in Nazi-controlled areas -- seems to have been the starting point for Tarantino's film. Though I love the way "The Sorrow and the Pity" creates the sense that you're actually sitting down for wine and chat with the brave anti-Nazis of that era, some of the footage is superfluous and redundant. It may be one of the greatest documentaries ever made, but it could have been easily pared down to two-and-a-half hours. For some reason, it left me thinking about (among other things) the French citizens born in 1935 and 1934 and 1933, people who would have been 5, 6 and 7 when the Occupation occurred and whose first memories of life and at school were controlled by the Nazis. And their most deep-seated education would have been Nazi propaganda, force-fed to them until they were 9, 10 and 11. Those people are now 76, 77 and 78 years old, and I can't help but wonder how they now regard their earliest elementary school memories in France. Have they truly been able to shake their early Nazi indoctrination? (That would make for an interesting documentary in itself.) Also heard in the film is the music of Maurice Chevalier, truly one of the worst singers of all time, lacking any flow. (He should have been tried for crimes against the humanities.) Ultimately, the film leaves the central question of our age unanswered: when new Nazis show up in the present-day (whether wearing Ku Klux Klan sheets or burqas), what is the most effective way to defeat them? But I digress. Paul [updated 3/22/11] ___________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 20, 2011 Pleasantly surprised to see that my new song "(Stop the) Beer Hall Putsch" enters the Soundclick alternative chart today at #52! Hear here: <a href="http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10358784&q=lo&newref=1">http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10358784&q=lo&newref=1</a> A friend of mine writes in an email: "Did you plug your acoustic into a cassette recorder/player to achieve that Keith Richards guitar sound [on] ("(Stop the) Beer Hall Putsch")?" Very perceptive question, though I didn't do that to get that effect. What I did do was try to make my acoustic guitar sound like an electric (three-string style). And I was inspired to do so by a passage in Keith Richards's "Life" in which he describes how he used only acoustic guitars to create "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (really hard to believe, but true). It took awhile but I experimented with tunings and with proximity to the mike at my studio to achieve that blasty "Beer Hall" riff. I finally nailed it (after many tries) at a very solo session on Feb. 8, 2011. (By "solo session" I mean I was the only one there, which is how I record all my material.) And I'm glad she picked up on it and that people are enjoying it! * * * * Here're a couple jokes I came up with this morning: I'm not saying the 112th Congress is right-wing, but I hear that speaker Boehner just introduced a bill that would move the U.S. capital to Vichy. * * * * With all the budget-cutting going around, the dream of a bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles is starting to sound like one of those "Get Smart" routines: Would you believe...a local train from San Francisco to Paso Robles? How 'bout a free shuttle bus from the Delta Airlines terminal to the Qantas baggage carousel at SFO? But I digress. Paul _________________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESION for March 20, 2011 For the record, I posted my previous Digression item ("Stopping a Rwanda in Libya") on 8:55 a.m. on March 19th (below). So does that make me the first media person to discuss Libya in relation to the Rwanda mass murders of '94? It looks that way. Now everybody is making that connection (the Sunday morning talk shows, 24 hours later, were echoing the idea). But I digress. _____________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 19, 2011 Stopping a Rwanda in Libya It's an unfortunate truth: a patient traumatized by botched surgery might fear and avoid all future surgery, even necessary and urgent operations. And a lot of Americans are just like that when it comes to war. Traumatized and disgusted by the unnecessary and costly conflict in Iraq, some Americans now reflexively oppose any new war, no matter how justified or vital. And this reinforces a tendency in the international diplomatic community (i.e., NATO, the UN) to intervene in a crisis only after mass slaughter or genocide has already been committed. The U.N., in particular, has had a history of showing up just in time to mop up the blood. (Who can forget (or forgive) the timidity of the U.N. in '94, when it did nothing to stop the genocide in Rwanda until it was too late?) In this light, the Security Council decision to order a no-flight zone over Libya is refreshingly bold, wise -- and fast, too. This is that rare instance when a coalition is actually dealing with mass murder before it happens. But now there's a new breed of domestic "dove" emerging. The new anti-warriors include (no surprise) a lot of Republicans opportunistically and disingenuously opposing intervention in Libya just because it gives them a political cudgel to use against Obama. And their rallying cry is, "This is our third current war in an Islamic country!" That's a catchy line (and I've used it, too), but the truth lies elsewhere. First, we may have to prepare ourselves for the possibility of intervening in one or two other nations where rebels are being slaughtered by oppressive despots (see: Bahrain, Yemen, Iran). Second, our involvement in Iraq is essentially finished, our war in Afghanistan winding down. Third, there's a moral imperative here. For humanitarian reasons, we simply can't stand by passively while a mad tyrant guns down and bombs his own people. If we didn't learn that from Rwanda, we sure did in Kosovo. But let the Arab League, the French and the British take the lead in this case. Americans did almost all the heavy lifting in Afghanistan and Iraq. If a fighter pilot has to make a risky raid over Tripoli, let's make sure he or she is from Lyon or Leeds, not from L.A. This time, the U.S. should supply arms, money and training, not soldiers. But I digress. Paul ___________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 18, 2011 The movie "Paul" opens today and I recommend it wholeheartedly. Just seeing Kristen Wiig's t-shirt "Evolve This!" is worth the price of admission! (See my write-up, below.) * * * Great report from NBC's Michelle Kosinski from the Chernobyl nuclear plant on this morning's "Today." And love the line: "If something can be full of emptiness, this is it." * * * I've been finishing Keith Richards's "Life," which I'm thoroughly enjoying. I've already weighed in on the first part (below); here're some more observations. -- When they became tax exiles, the Stones should have moved to L.A. instead of to the south of France, where they knew no one and didn't speak French. People say, Oh, but they created their masterpiece there. Yeah, but they also created the mediocre work that followed. Moving to France didn't cause them to create a string of brilliant albums. "Exile" was it -- until "Some Girls," way up the road. And a lot of "Exile" was written in Britain, recorded in France and overdubbed in Los Angeles, where they eventually ended up anyway. And it was marinated in heroin, which probably added nothing to the flavor (in fact, it might have been a better three-record set if Keith hadn't been shooting up, which essentially made him medically disabled during some of the sessions). Hey, Keith wrote "Satisfaction" when beer was probably his strongest drug. -- I have fleeting contrarian moments when I think The Stones is Charlie's band. You can think of it that way to amuse yourself. Because Watts is so damned brilliant, almost supernatural. Yet it'll surprise fans to find he didn't play the drums on several key Stones songs ("Happy," "You Can't Always Get What You Want," for starters). -- "Happy" is a Keith solo demo cut quickly w/out the Stones at Nellcôte. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a Jagger folk song gussied up (over-gussied up, if you ask me) by the band. "Sticky Fingers" is a Mickish album; "Exile" is a Keithish one. -- Brian Jones actually plays on "Midnight Rambler" and "You Got the Silver" -- very, very late in the game for him. Which means Jones was on the last Sixties recordings of the Stones -- except for "Brown Sugar," recorded in the last month of the 1960s, but not released till '71. (Can you imagine sitting on something that hot for over a year?) -- Keith really does resemble his Aunt Jo Anna * * * * I was also reading Shakespeare's "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" last night. Not his best work. Richards's book is better! (Though at one point I almost confused the two, thinking Richards was about to answer the riddle of the King of Antiochus!) Having read all the Bard's great works several times, I thought I'd start on some of the lesser stuff I'd never touched (e.g., "Pericles," "King John," etc.). It got me to thinking: the French get to read Shakespeare translated into modern-day French. I mean, King Lear is not translated into the French spoken 400 years ago. And the Russians don't read a version of "Hamlet" translated into Russian colloquialisms of 400 years ago; they read "Hamlet" translated into 21st century Russian (or something quite like it). Don't get me wrong, "King Lear" is great as it is. And I even wrote a song ("This Skull") that uses lines from "Hamlet." But has anybody published a version of "King Lear" that has been sensitively translated into the English language that we speak today in America? Let's be real: there is no pure Shakespeare. The Shakespeare we read is not the exact material the Bard actually penned. At a California library, I recently examined one of the first folio editions of Shakespeare's collected works, compiled seven years after his death by friends and colleagues. The page was turned to the intro to "Henry V" (if memory serves) and it wasn't decipherable without a guide or translation. It might as well have been in a dead language. (Have you seen the first edition of 1623? I have. Check it out.) So Shakespeare's language has already been adjusted and modified over the centuries to make it understandable to today's readers. Imagine what David Rabe could do with the oeuvre (though I bet he'd recoil at the idea). Or -- blasphemy! -- David Mamet. * * * * Heard a great song the other day on KALX. Don't know its name but the chorus is "Some day I'll forget." Female vocalist, country song...Also heard a great new Japanese band, The Fabulous Heartshakes, on Marshall Stax's show on KALX. Blondie-esue. (I think the group is San Diego-based now.) * * * * <div align="center"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_e9beiWDfkw/TYOk6nZXSSI/AAAAAAAACvg/5QROXZ8si3I/s1600/DOGBLANK.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 318px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5585489289784281378" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_e9beiWDfkw/TYOk6nZXSSI/AAAAAAAACvg/5QROXZ8si3I/s400/DOGBLANK.jpg" /></a> "I was planning to convert to Islam, but then I thought: Hey, what has Muhammad prophesized for me lately?"</div> [cartoon by Paul Iorio] But I digress. Paul _________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 17, 2011 For those of you outside California, here's the news that was not much reported nationwide: people in California lost their homes when the Japanese tsunami hit the West Coast a few days ago. Yes, houseboats were lost in the Monterey and Santa Cruz area and elsewhere. And dozens of other boats -- some folks had everything invested in them -- were also destroyed or damaged by the waves that hit the coast from around 6,000 miles away. (Though this loss pales in contrast to the deep (and deepening) tragedy in Japan, it ain't nothing. Just ask the guys in Monterey who now have nowhere to live.) Yet not one high-profile expert or government official, prior to the west coast tsunami that everyone knew was on its way, warned Californians to park their boats in a protected waterway, to sail their boats to San Pablo Bay or to the Carquinez Strait and anchor them off Martinez until the tsunami subsided. Had boat-owners been alerted along the coast, they would surely have sailed away from the tsunami in the hours before it hit. A couple days after the waves hit, we started hearing from a new set of experts. This time, they were saying, "No, radiation from Fukushima couldn't possibly travel across the Pacific to the U.S., no way; it would dissipate before it ever got here." Now we're hearing a revision of that: the authorities are currently saying, "Measurable levels of radiation from Fukushima will start falling on California tomorrow [Friday] afternoon, but -- not to worry -- the radiation won't harm anyone." Well, there are a whole lot of intelligent people out here -- and not the "black helicopter" crowd, either -- who are very skeptical of what they're hearing from "experts" and "government authorities" these days. There is a sense among smart well-informed people in the Golden State that the experts in many fields have, plainly, been wrong too many times to have much credibility. It's not that they're lying; it's that they can't possibly know the full effects of unprecedented calamities -- and they won't admit they may be wrong. Let's see. Experts grossly underestimated the extent of the BP oil spill. Experts couldn't see what Katrina was going to do before it did it. Many foreign policy experts didn't see the Egyptian revolution coming, even after Tunis fell. Economic experts didn't see the fall of the U.S. economy in '08 until it was well underway. And -- add to that -- experts didn't anticipate the damage from the California tsunami of '11. I mean, when have experts been right about a major event lately? There seems to be an expert-ocracy out there by which one authority backs his colleague's view so they can both keep their highly-paid jobs. (Then again, who are you going to rely on: non-experts? I guess the answer is to be guided by the expertise of people who are right more often than most.) Still, it's getting more difficult to believe the experts who say we have nothing to fear from the radiation that is about to fall in California. But I digress. Paul [updated at 5:30 p.m.] _______________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for the Ides of March 2011 I decided to watch all the late-night network TV shows last night to see them with fresh eyes, and here are my impressions: David Letterman, who I usually watch, is clearly the funniest of them all, the most imaginative. Leno is a crowd pleaser who promises laughs and never fails to deliver. Craig Ferguson is innovative, daring, resourceful -- and quite funny. Jimmy Fallon makes me appreciate Letterman and Leno and Ferguson. And Jimmy Kimmel always makes me wonder...how on earth did such a guy manage to attract a gorgeous brilliant woman like Sarah Silverman? (It's like that "Seinfeld" episode: "You dated Newman!?") But I digress. Paul _______________________________________ THE DAILY DIGRESSION for March 14, 2011 Will Diablo Canyon Be Our Fukushima? In the wake of the Japanese meltdowns -- and I bet full meltdowns in around three plants will happen later this week -- there will inevitably be renewed cries for nuclear facility shutdowns in the U.S. And the activists seem to have an undeniable point when it comes to at least one U.S. facility: the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, near San Luis Obispo, Calif. That one's located a few dozen miles from the mighty San Andreas fault and is only built to withstand an M7.5 quake. Which means an 8.0 could conceivably turn it into a Fukushima, while an 8.5 almost certainly would. Nearby San Luis Obispo has a quarter of a million people. A rarely-spoken truth: no structure anywhere can be reliably protected against a 9.0. But I digress. Paul P.S. -- Bravo to NBC's Al Roker for talking this morning about the possible spread of radiation via the jet stream, a real possibility if conditions deteriorate at Fukushima. The conventional wisdom right now is that the current amount of cesium in the air would dissipate thousands of miles before reaching the U.S. west coast, if it ever took a ride on the jet stream. But the uranium released by one complete meltdown would be equivalent to an atomic bomb blast of significant megatonnage. And that sort of radioactivity would not easily disperse and would travel far. (And that one total meltdown would probably lead to full meltdowns at around two other plants -- the plants at Fukushima so close to the first one that they would be impossible to manage or cool after the first China syndrome.) * * * * P.S. -- Don't you just hate it when PTAish types say stuff like, "Junior should be reading more books and doing less surfing on the Internet." Rea