Honky Tonk Woman

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Last night the Rolling Stones did a live HBO concert from Madison Square Garden. About half way through the two hour show they launched into Honky Tonk Women and out struts Sheryl Crow looking like ten million bucks. (Watch on YouTube)

It’s always difficult to tell if Jagger and Richards are leering but they both seemed delighted to have Crow join them and Mick couldn’t keep his hands off her. Crow –the only “special guest” to appear– was just a baby (one or two) when the Stones hit the charts in the U.S. but there she was, on stage in Madison Square Garden, before a world-wide TV audience. I kept asking myself, “What’s bigger than this? What’s ‘up’ from here?” The concert will be rebroadcast at 8 p.m., Monday on HBO2 and 9 p.m., Thursday on HBO.

From William Gibson’s blog

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William Gibson has a blog. I’d like to know if having a website (and blog) was something his publisher pushed or if he was enthusiastic about the idea. One interesting (and discouraging) item from his bio:

“I suspect I have spent just about exactly as much time actually writing as the average person my age has spent watching television, and that, as much as anything, may be the real secret here.”

Dan Landrum

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I heard from a couple of Kennett expatriates this week. Dan Landrum worked with me at KBOA back in the 70’s. He stayed in radio for a while but gave it up to pursue a career in music. On his website he describes himself as “a hammer dulcimer enthusiast and musician, based in Signal Mountain, Tennessee.” He must be pretty good because he’s rehearsing “for an upcoming world tour with Yanni.” That’s pretty cool. Or bizarre. Or both.

Scary Google Trick.

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In the December 20, 2002 edition of JOHO (Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization) David Weinberger shares a “Scary Google Trick”: 1) Go to google.com 2) Type in your phone number, in quotation marks 3) When it finds your name and address, click on
“Maps” 4) You are here. I’m not sure why that’s scary but it is. A little.

Disposable Mobile Phone.

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I’m a two-time loser with mobile phones. I’m not safe when driving and talking and never seem to use the minutes. But it would be nice have one if I needed it. The Hop-on cell phone might be what I’m after.

“This unique cell phone comes with 60 minutes of prepaid calling time, with no contracts, long-distance charges or other fees. It’s easy to use, and when the minutes are used up, you can add more minutes, return the phone to Hop-on for a $5 rebate certificate, or simply discard it.” I’m there.

Stop stacking coins on the bills

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If my change consist of bills and coins, please hand them to me separately. Don’t stack the coins on the flattened bills and pass them over the counter to me. You know they’re going to fall off and I’ll have to grub around on the floor or just leave them… Oh. Is that what’s going on here? You’re not simply stupid or rude. Well, hell… I feel better. And if my stupid reference offends you, show me you’re not by counting back my change just one time. If you don’t know what that means, you don’t know how to do it.

Cursor-cursed funeral parlors.

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“Today’s sorry newsrooms–silent, smokeless, boozeless, cursor-cursed funeral parlors–bear no resemblance to the divine hell-holes that persisted at newspapers and wire services until the mid-1970s. They were seas of grunge and debris…a universe of controlled chaos, suspended in a perpetual stinking fog of cigarette smoke and worse.”

— Diana McLellan, journalist, former gossip columnist, and longtime Washington editor of Washingtonian magazine

BMW Films: Hostage

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And I thought you had to watch them in a theater or TV. But I was wrong. A few weeks ago I kept seeing a movie trailer for a film called Hostage. “We gotta see this movie,” I told Barb. Then I noticed it was showing at BMWfilms.com. Oh, shit. It’s a commercial. Never mind. No…mind. Go to BMWfilms.com and watch this eight minute… (movie? film? cinema? commercial?). I don’t what you call it but I watched three of these (about 8 minutes each) and I don’t remember when I’ve seen anything more entertaining. I won’t try to review these. Or categorize them. Just watch them. If these are commercials, they’re not like any commercial I ever saw. They did make me think about owning a BMW and that’s probably what it’s all about. My, my, but these were good. Directors like John Woo and Tony Scott (Spy Game, Crimson Tide, True Romance, Top Gun)…actors like Gary Oldman and James Brown. And I’m sitting here in front of my little Thinkpad watching these stream on a DSL connection thinking, “I could watch 90 minutes of this, easy.” So. Is this the advertising of the future? I don’t know now. But I’m thinking I would have paid to watch this BMW commercial and I’m already paying to not watch lots of other commercials. The winds of change are blowing.

My lips move when I read

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I find that’s true when I’m reading almost anything by Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block or Robert B. Parker. I just love these guys and find myselt reading their dialogue aloud (but quietly). Just finished Elmore Leonard’s When the Women Come Out to Dance and working my way through Block’s Enough Rope. While I’ve never been all that found of short stories, I loved these collections. Alex Cross fans will have to read James Patterson’s Four Blind Mice but I thought it was disappointing. Robert B. Parker’s Spencer series suffers from the same formula-rot but Parker has given us Sunny Randall and she’s a nice change but just barely.