In a New York Minute, Everything Can Change

Sometimes, when things seem to be at their worst, the fates smile upon you -- and do they ever.

I just got some very good news.

More to come.

Untitled

I need to take a moment to apologize.

I'm well aware that lately this site has featured a series of little more than quickie posts and music videos. I admit that with everything that's been going on in my personal life, I really haven't been much in the mood to write. (It's not as if simply because some final decision seems to have been made that I've managed to put it all behind me and bury the hurt in a hole somewhere.)

I'm trying to change the situation though -- trying to get my sense of humor to come back and stay.

Please bear with me.

I'll have something more substantial to publish soon.

Listening Post

Since I seem to be reaching into the archives quite a bit lately -- time to loudly proclaim my love for an album that's one of the great unrecognized gems of the 80s.

Most people who grew up when I did remember Wendy and Lisa as the guitarist and keyboard player (respectively) for Prince's band at the time, The Revolution.

In the latter part of that decade though, they ventured out on their own and recorded several spectacular records; the first was a self-titled effort which to this day stands as one of my all-time favorite albums.

This was Wendy and Lisa's first solo single: Waterfall.

Listening Post: Halloween Edition

Because it's Halloween, why not bring you the most disturbing music video ever made -- the only one that can genuinely be described as a five-and-a-half-minute nightmare.

It's director Chris Cunningham and electronic maestro Richard James's menacing masterpiece -- Come to Daddy, from Aphex Twin.



And as an added bonus, an impressive little montage of the kind of horror movie scenes that would make Dario Argento and Jose Mojica Marins wet between the legs -- set to Ministry's early-techno classic, Everyday is Halloween.

Trial by Fire

(Update, from the "Six Degrees of Immolation" Department: I know this guy. A friend of mine called to remind me that she and I went to college with Paul Addis; I had several classes with him in fact. I remember him being a bit odd but otherwise he seemed relatively sane -- or as sane as someone who's willing to put himself into debt to the tune of $685-per-credit-hour (U.M. tuition at the time) can be. I wish I had some kind of great story regarding his early outlandish behavior, but unfortunately that might be reserved for my friend, who in fact slept with Addis and would like me to let everyone know that he has a small penis. I'll do my friend the favor of withholding her name.)

Awhile back, I wrote a column dealing with a man who'd set fire to the titular "burning man" from the most recent installment of that yearly tribute to latter-day hippie nonsense, the Burning Man Festival, a few days before its scheduled torch date (It was a Pleasure to Burn/8.31.07).

At that time, I gave the suspected arsonist -- a San Francisco performance artist named Paul Addis -- a very minor amount of credit for returning a spark of radicalism (if you'll forgive the pun) to an event which has become the furthest thing from what its creators had originally intended it to be.

Well, it now appears that Addis's affinity for arson extends beyond the desire to make a point to a bunch of stoned kids playing hackey-sack.

Sunday night, Addis was arrested -- still wearing his Burning Man makeup I might add -- for allegedly trying to blow up San Francisco's Grace Cathedral.

This is the ultimate case of mixed emotions for someone like myself, given my palpable loathe for both silly religious iconography and anyone who actually has the bad sense to publicly proclaim him or herself to be a "performance artist" (a designation which essentially means that that person has no real job to speak of).

Put another way: I couldn't care less if someone blew up a cathedral; I also couldn't care less if Paul Addis had set himself on fire in the process. In fact, if both had indeed occurred, I would've considered it a win-win situation.

No, I mention this again really for one reason only: it's an excuse to publish Addis's hilariously stupid mugshot (see above).

Listening Post

A lot of good musicians and even better side projects have been spawned by Jane's Addiction over the years, but none better than Deconstruction.

Featuring Dave Navarro on guitar and the unsung hero of Jane's, Eric Avery, on bass and vocals, the band's one and only self-titled record was released in 1994 and went largely unnoticed.

That's a shame, because the thing was spectacular from start to finish.

This was the first track on that album and the best song ever written about Los Angeles -- the appropriately titled L.A. Song.

In Praise Of...

Ellen Page

There are plenty of young actresses in the world; they generally range from the merely irritating (Dakota Fanning, Amanda Bynes) to the beautiful-but-worthless (Hillary Duff) to those permanently relegated to the bathroom floor and, consequently, the virtual pages of TMZ.com (Lindsay Lohan).

It's gotten so that someone who's young and talented, who's in it for the long haul rather than the quick flame-out, tends to go relatively unnoticed.

This is why I love Ellen Page.

For the uninitiated, the 20-year-old Canadian was the screen-chewing presence behind one of the most complex and unnerving characters in recent film history. In 2005's Hard Candy, she played Hayley Stark, a seemingly innocent teenager who turns the tables on an older man whom she believes to be a sexual predator -- a man who may or may not be responsible for the kidnapping death of another young girl. Ellen's performance is nothing short of astonishing: she goes from quietly demure and submissive to fiercely, explosively violent within seconds. Given that the movie is essentially a two-person play, it's a laudable feat that a relative newcomer can carry most of the it so handily. Hard Candy is one of the most intense and disturbing movies you're likely to ever see, and Ellen Page is a large part of the reason why.


If you paid close attention, you also saw her turn up in X-Men: The Last Stand, playing Kitty Pryde.

And next month, she'll likely up the ante in her career when Juno hits theaters. Ellen plays the title character -- a razor-sharp and worldly teenage girl who winds up pregnant and makes a level-headed decision not only to have the baby but to give it to a couple who can't have children of their own. The movie's already earning raves from critics for its humor and heart, and many are convinced that it will make Ellen Page a household name.

I'm really hoping that's true.

Anything to bring a little dignity and a lot of talent back to the young actress mantle.

(Watch the trailer for Juno)