Comic for Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

Posted: 9:00 am, Wednesday, January 24th

Alright, big day. Well, no, not really. I mean, maybe it is for you, I don't know. Moving on.

Anyone watch Shitwit last night? I caught Webb's rebuttal on the Washington Post site, and read a bunch of the Times' coverage of it last night, but it was stuff they banged out pretty immediately after the speech (which, according to Wonkette's live blog, was evidently interminably long). Oh, and I posted this Vanity Fair article yesterday that Grafe sent me, but it was kind of late in the afternoon, if you missed it. Turns out even the neocons who pushed so hard for the invasion think Bush is a moran.

Speaking of live blogging, Pajiba did a blow-by-blow of the latest American Pie direct-to-DVD movie. It sounds pretty painful.

We’ll go ahead and file this under “CDs that, had you given me an infinite amount of time and an army of a thousand monkeys at my command, I never would have guessed existed.” And I realize that the monkeys are generally given typewriters, but I’m using them for more nefarious purposes.

Good ol' ND basketball, winning one, losing one, just the way we remember!

The AV Club did some prognosticating on future Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame inductees. I think the entire idea of a Hall of Fame for rock is really ridiculous, since there's not a lot of things more subjective than musical taste, but I hear they did a good job on that thing (as anti-rock as a huge, elaborate multimillion dollar structure can be - the whole thing should've been some dude's basement, with a lot of graffiti and posters on the bare brick walls). Anyway, my take on their list: Madonna, in; Johnny Cougar Mellencamp Ford, out; Beastie Boys, in; Pearl Jam, in; Public Enemy, in; Coldplay, not even discussed; the Replacements, probably out but should be in; Tupac, in; the Smiths, I have no idea; Dave Matthews Band, not really rock, out; New Order, out; Pavement, out; Oasis, so bloody out (and I really dig Oasis); the Flaming Lips, too early to tell; Husker Du, I have no idea; XTC, again, I was kept in a box for most of the 80s, so I have no idea; Yo La Tengo, out; De La Soul; probably out, probably should be in, although a good chunk of 3 Feet High and Rising didn't age gracefully. Take all that for what it's worth, which is nothing. Then again, neither is the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame's validation.

Fire Joe Morgan absolutely eviscerates some shitty sportswriting, which is more or less their MO, but this is especially shitty sportswriting they hit this time. They touch on how DiMaggio, prick that he was, wouldn't make a public appearance unless they introduced him as the greatest living ballplayer - as you can probably imagine, reading my blog the way you do, that Greatest Living Ballplayer shit drove me up the wall.

And because I was discussing martini glasses with E yesterday, here's yet another picture of my favorite thing in the Brooklyn Museum.

And because I noticed this discussion just now: Marky Mark. Host of Antique Roadshow. Same name, different spelling, different guy.

bullfrog

Thanks for clarifying the Marky Mark thing for me. I haven't watched AR lately (although I'm a dork and very much enjoy it), so I was going to be quite upset to find out I was missing one of my heartthrobs hosting (yes, I just used the word "heartthrob", too! I'm pathetic.)

I didn't know Gin Blossoms made enough songs that sound exactly like "Hey, Jealousy" to fill a "Best of" album.

It's a registration-only article and I'm too busy right now to find analysis of it anywhere online, but the front page of the Financial Times has an article on Rupert Murdoch looking to get himself a stake of the Tribune Company. God in Heaven, I hope somebody stops that. Dude controls too much news media already (all of it bloody shite), we don't need to hand him Newsday, the LA Times, and the Chicago Trib. And the Cubs.

And WGN, too. Kind of makes you wonder, more annoying media mogul: Rupert Murdoch or Ted Turner? Atlanta or Chicago? Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, last I heard the Cubs were going to be sold to someone else completely different anyway.

My parents (the ultra conservative ones whom Bush has lost) love to go antique stores and are just amazed at how a lot of old junk can be worth so much to some crazed Sotheby's guy. My dad is refurnishing his 3rd lamp he's bought in the last day already. (I swear, they have more candles and lamps than you'd find in a Benedictine monestary.)

What do you think about Guns and Roses's chances for Hall of Fame status? Truth be told, I understand the dubiousness you have with the Rock and Roll HoF. It pretty much started for me when they chose Cleveland as the place to have the Hall of Fame. Not LA, Detroit, Nashville, Las Vegas or even New York City, but Cleveland? Cleveland? It just seems so out of place.

I think the logic was that a Cleveland disc jockey whose name I forget is credited with coining the phrase "rock n' roll," and also with being one of the first major DJs to push the genre.

Still, I would've gone with LA, Detroit or NY. And since LA and NY already have enough reasons to want to visit them, Motown it is.

Alan Freed is who you're thinking of.

as for not being "rock and roll" enough, look at some of the non-rock people in the RNR HOF. don't have a list in front of me, but country guys like Johnny Cash, maybe Miles Davis if I remember correctly.

and finally, i somehow weirdly knew you were going to link to the Gin Blossoms GH ...it came out a couple yrs ago and my reaction was pretty similar. ("why...?")

The R'n'R HOF is one of the biggest ripoffs I've ever attended.

The entrance fee is something ridiculous like $25. Once you've paid this, it's pretty much exactly like Jeremiah described: lots of posters and shit like Bootsy Collins' Parliament costume that you would say "Ah, that would be cool to have," but then that's pretty much it. In fact, there's oddly little audio display in the whole thing; it's more like the Rock 'n Roll Stuff museum. I was also a little disappointed by the lack of attention paid to the punk movement; the whole thing was clearly designed by baby boomer wealthy ex-hippies with their own concept of what's rock and what's sort-of-worthy-of-mention. Likewise, very little about anything post-1985. They do make sure to route you through the gift shop on your way out!

Be sure not to miss Jerry Cantrell's ripped jean shorts though. That's a pretty funny early 1990s throwback.

And G'n'R should be in the HOF, even though to me the whole thing is bullshit. I don't know why they didn't just stick to being a museum; you can hardly create the Painting Hall of Fame.

So I should use that $25 to get a burger at Hard Rock and call it a day?

You should just walk through a Hard Rock, look at the stuff, and leave to spend $5 on a better burger somewhere down the road. That's what I've done.

Isn't there like a top floor of the Rock Hall that's for, like, the rock gods or something? I tried finding the info on their site and wikipedia both, but was stymied.

I'm skeptical of G n' R's chances, but I'm approaching it like one would the Baseball Hall, where prolonged excellence is necessary unless you're a nice guy with a sad story like Kirby Puckett. Two rockin' albums and then a fifteen-year running joke doesn't do it, I don't think. But I have no idea what the actual qualifications you need are. Can we just induct Appetite for Destruction, instead?

By the way, one of the downsides of my laptop being down is that the computer I'm drawing these things on right now isn't on the interweb. Therefore, the guy in panel one looks nothing like Craig Finn.

http://www.pulsetc.com/hottickets/The-Hold-Steady-Press-Photo.jpg

I did find that the Hard Rock cafe in Los Angeles did make a delicious Grilled Cheese and Tomato sandwich for about $10. (At the time, it blew my mind you could grill something other than ham into a grilled cheese sandwich. Still does, which says something about my sophisticated palate, or lack thereof.) Still, yeah, as a concept restaurant, I've found better ones for $25.

The outside of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame looks just as ridiculous. It's suppose to look like a vinyl record being played from the vantage point of an airplane, as silly as it sounds.

Heard the new coach of the Oakland Raiders at his first press conference. I swear, he sounds just like George W. Bush, or the guy at a drive through counter. (And he's like 31.) If that isn't a bad sign for the Raiders, I don't know what is.

On the subject of grilled cheese additives. My wife's family puts creamy peanut butter into it. I balked for a while, but then tried it, and it's actually not that bad.

I pray to God Brady doesn't get drafted by the Raiders. There were rumors that Al Davis was trying to package Moss, Porter and the number one pick to the Falcons for Vick and the number 10 pick. I'd pull the trigger on that immediately if I were the Falcons, and draft Brady. You'd get a more accurate passer immediately, you'd still have your running game, which is pretty tops even without Vick scrambling everywhere, and your receiver situation couldn't possibly be worse than it already is.

But Brady with the Raiders? Coached by an ex-USC o-coordinator? Bleh.

The problem with that rumor was that supposedly, Vick's contract would involve a $21,000,000 hit on Atlanta's salary cap, thus making it nigh impossible to get any decent free agents or even pay Brady for the price he'd command as the number one pick. So, unless the Raiders tried to package people down for other teams, Brady might be drafted to the Raiders.

And if I were Brady, he'd be justified to go all Elway on them.