1. "Bo Diddley, Who Gave Rock His Beat, Dies at 79": Share your thoughts and remembrances below. More from GreenCine Daily.
["Bo Diddley, a singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat and, with a handful of other musical pioneers, rock ’n’ roll itself, died Monday at his home in Archer, Fla. He was 79. The cause was heart failure, a spokeswoman, Susan Clary, said. Mr. Diddley had a heart attack last August, only months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa."]
2. "1 dead as car plows into Mexican bike race": That photo. Yikes!
["A car plowed into a bike race along a highway near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing one and injuring 10 others. The 28-year-old driver was apparently drunk and fell asleep when he crashed into the race Sunday, police investigator Jose Alfredo Rodriguez said Monday. A photograph taken by a city official showed bicyclists and equipment being hurled high into the air by the collision."]
3. "Sydney Pollack: One of Cinema’s Finest Actors": David Edelstein appreciates.
["Sydney Pollack’s death at 73 has robbed our cinema of one of its finest … actors. Yes, of course, he directed some terrific movies — Tootsie above all, but also (in descending order) The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and Absence of Malice. But he had a weakness for prestige middlebrow beanbags like Out of Africa (which won him his cherished Oscar), along with A-list money pits like Havana and The Firm and The Interpreter (and The Electric Horseman, and Sabrina, and …) In later years, Pollack had more life in front of the camera than behind it."]
4. "Scat and Sex": Jim Emerson + girls x SJP = poop.
["So, again, you tell me. Are these "grown-up women"? I don't know any women (grown-up or otherwise) who liked the show or plan to see the movie. At least they're not telling me about it. Were the scatological and masturbation jokes thrown in as sops to fart-loving male heterosexual boyfriends who got dragged along, or are they feminist taboo-breakers? What, if anything, does the film's opening-weekend success signify?"]
5. "Tatum O'Neal Released, Future Looks Ominous": From eFluxMedia.
["She was arrested Sunday night on the Lower East Side, after police officers found two bags of cocaine in her possession, according to a court complaint. It was initially reported she had bought crack cocaine from a homeless ex-con, before the eyes of an undercover cop. Police later said she had bought powder cocaine, the Associated Press reported Monday. Both she and the drug dealer, a 33-year-old man named Alan Garcia, were arrested. Garcia was arraigned Monday on charges of criminal sale of a controlled substance. He was held in lieu of $10,000 bail, per the New York Post. O’Neal, who was convicted in 2003 of criminal possession of crack, was released without bail the same day. She was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court. She is due back in court on July 28. Prosecutors recommend drug treatment for the actress."]
Quote of the Day: Robert Benchley
Image of the Day (click to enlarge): Warning! This item may be hazardous to your head. 
Clip of the Day: What do you want today drama prairie dog?
_____________________________________________________
"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Links for the Day (June 3rd, 2008)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Does anyone get Ebert's reference to Smith Bros in his SATC review? Her pubic mound resembles a cough drop? Or was he really expecting people to make the connection to half a 19th century logo's beard, because that's all I could come up with after checking wpedia.
#1: Teeth and tan, 500% more man. My favorite rocker, bar none. Not just for the rhythmic infectiousness--or, let it be remembered, variety; as Robert Christgau has noted, there are "as many diddleybeats as there are Diddley songs." It could arrogantly strut (I'm a Man; even better it's wicked, slashing follow-up I'm Bad) or menacingly shuffle (Mona), lope along casually (Cops & Robbers), race so fast it constantly threatens to trip itself up (Mumbling Guitar), jump down your throat and force itself upon you (Hush Your Mouth) or sneak up sideways and catch you unawares (Bo's Bounce). When it wasn't sounding like something beamed in from Mars.
And after the beats have hooked you, the humor digs deep. It's capacious and full-throated, delighted at the innumerable ways humans can fool themselves (particularly when it comes to love or macho signifying), but decisively dark-tinged. The comparison in my mind has always been to Shakespeare's fools; Diddley knew how absurdist clowning (and guitars covered with fur, and--in the 50's--a female holding her own place in the band) could get an audience to loosen up and let its guard down, so the truths slipped between the cracks like a blade.
Earning an indulgent chuckle at the follies of youth with the line "Now I'm a man/Made 21" is a sly rejoinder to the posturing of that song; echoing it later with Who Do You Love's haunting, confrontational "Just 22 and I don't mind dying" is something else entirely. Likewise the hysterical lover's plaint Dearest Darling, where the singer's devotion is so strong he promises, "if I get to heaven before you do," to drag her up behind him. His Willie and the Hand Jive riff Nursery Rhyme ends not with new parents beaming approvingly when their son reaches fame and fortune, as in the original, but brother "so scared he couldn't walk/Papa's afraid he could not talk." Run Diddley Daddy is a hilarious jape, sure; but look again while your eyes are squinted up with laughter and you'll see it's also the scariest song about the slave trade this side of Newman's Sail Away.
Tough stories to sell; no wonder the beats were constructed to be so irresistible (and other, more innocently enjoyable gags were included along the way--take that, Mr. Khrushcev). Lou Reed once mentioned that, as a rhythm guitarist, heaven would be something like living in a Bo Diddley song forever. Seconded.
Post a Comment