Hucklebug, Episode 106: shout-outs, RIP Tim Russert, Cyd Charisse, George Carlin and Dody Goodman, movies (Bet: The In-Laws, Brute Force, There Will Be Blood, Get Smart; Stennie: George Washington Slept Here), lowlights & highlights, fuck-offs and you-rules, CDs and Albums We Never Would Have Bought If They’d Had iTunes Back Then.
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I went to school with Betty Sue Johnson. She worked in the cryogenics lab at the University of Arizona which was next to my dorm.We attended microeconomics class together. She always had a purple notebook and green pens. She was part of the marching band. You look just like her!!!!!!!! If this is not Betty Sue Johnson, I am sorry. You look just like her!!!! If you are Betty Sue, email me so we can get together.
I am an Alan Arkin fan.
Maybe Bet will like this movie better. I’m pretty sure Stennie’s cousins would.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9ClsOQdlUE
Now, we got some things to talk about re: your music purchasing decisions.
#1: There was nothing ever worth buying from Sister Hazel, Deep Blue Something, Smashmouth, Nada Surf, Marcy Playground, or Meredith Brooks. That DBS song was, in fact, absolute shit. The 90s were the WORST time ever to buy an album based on one song you heard on the radio or tv.
#2: And with those you lump in the excellent New Miserable Experience? That was a great record, with much more than Hey Jealousy to offer. Equally as good were Mrs. Rita, Until I Fall Away, Found Out About You, and the lost gem of the record, Allison Road. They tragically lost their main songwriter to suicide after the record’s release, but they did manage afterwards to come up with one of the best songs of the day, a co-write with Marshall Crenshaw, Till I Hear It From You. If you haven’t heard it in a while, track it down on your favorite p2p server asap.
#3: Aimee Mann’s first couple of albums were quite good, but I haven’t had any interest since those. A lot of very cool people I know like her, I just don’t fall in with that crowd, I guess. Michael I’ve always thought was the 3rd least interesting Penn. Chris’ unfortunate passing hasn’t changed that ranking at all.
#4: I’ve seen Eels live, but am not a fan. I fall on neither side of the issue.
#5: Blur’s album The Great Escape is really good, just overly long. Stop making hour long albums, guys. Forty minutes of tight, well-constructed pop is unbeatable.
#6: That La’s album is a source of frustration. There She Goes is a piece of pure gold, but there’s too much filler to consider the album to be anything close to brilliant and too many great songs to dismiss it entirely. But I hope everyone agrees that it’s got a great cover.
The new logo is out-fucking-standing. I can’t wait to get it on a T-shirt or a coffee mug — a hucklemug, if you will.
I actually like PT Anderson movies for the most part, but I thought “No Country for Old Men” just ate this one’s lunch. (Deliberately avoiding a “milkshake” reference.) I don’t agree, however, that Daniel Day-Lewis was overacting. I thought his performance was a tour de force, but I may have drunk the Kool-Aid where he’s concerned. I’m just awed by his range and how you see not one iota of any other character in any character he plays. (See, e.g., Cecil Vyse, Hawkeye, Christy Brown, Bill the Butcher.) I think if he were to play every role as a weak variation on a theme with a lot of shouting (a la Al Pacino), that’d be scenery chewing.
“There she goes” was also used a lot in “So I Married an Axe Murderer.”
Apropos of nothing, (or maybe of great/cancelled shows) I’d like to know more about Bet’s aversion to watching TV series on DVD. I would argue that some shows are better that way. Also, what if you somehow missed out on a “great but cancelled” series like “Freaks and Geeks,” “Firefly,” or “Arrested Development”? What if you don’t have premium cable? No Sopranos? No Weeds? Is it just that you don’t want to get invested? Got enough on your pop-culture plate as it is?
Stacey Q could be my shout out song or the lyric “And then came Maude” from the show’s theme. How can you disparage the GIN BLOSSOMS? A finer collection of songs I have not heard. They are the male version of the Spice Girls, and that’s a compliment as I think the Spice Girls are one of the most important bands of the last 20 years.
My choices for songs that made me buy albums that were crap:
Torn by Natalie Imbruglia
Are you Jimmy Ray? by Jimmy Ray
How Bizarre by OMC
Murder on the Dance Floor by Sophie Ellis Bextor
I Touch Myself by the Divinyls
Heartbeat by Don Johnson
You Get What You Give by The New Radicals
Hucklebug and Diane Rehm are the perfect combo for a 3:30AM exercise routine.
If you could save a movie character from dying/being killed, which character would you save?
How do you know if you’re oversexed? undersexed?
The long-awaited verdict on Across The Universe:
You know, Bet may be fruity herself, have awkward social graces, need some serious analysis (the kind you can only get in Vienna or something, at the University level), but she’s not far off in her assessment of AtU. It was quite the pile of ass. And while Bono made me want to kick him in the stomach a few times (and I like U2), Eddie was much, much worse.
Wait…I sent Bet movies? Don’t I know any better?
Let me add my vote for the positive for the new logo.
How do you like ours? “www.socaldims.com”
I agree that Brian May is not only an awesome guitarist but a musical genius as well.
Bet is right… I AM A BEATLES FAN!!! Hoohaa!
Hey, how about doing RIP’s on people we could do without?
And one last line from the great George Carlin: “Things I could do without. A proctologist with very poor depth perception”
Let me add my vote for the positive for the new logo.
How do you like ours? http://www.socaldims.com
I agree that Brian May is not only an awesome guitarist but a musical genius as well.
Bet is right… I AM A BEATLES FAN!!! Hoohaa!
Hey, how about doing RIP’s on people we could do without?
And one last line from the great George Carlin: “Things I could do without. A proctologist with very poor depth perception”
Re: unviewed reviews – Would you like my thorough critiques of all the 2009-2012 releases now as well? Crystal balls and monkey’s paws never lie!
Re: Stacey Q. Uncle! I’ll do anything. Name your price.
Please bookmark the TWBB review for future posterity. The whole thing about PT Anderson, etc. was gold and had me laughing out loud. Also, Mike’s link to There Will Be Bud is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.
Great topic about music before I-Tunes. Here’s one for you: Mazzy Star. I liked them, but every one of their songs sounds like “Fade Into You”.
Mmm. I’m with Bet and Stennie on Gin Blossoms. I saw them live on a New Year’s Eve bill that saw them get their asses kicked by Ween and Flaming Lips. I never hated them; just found them kinda meh.
I have a sister named Michele. One L. Ahem.
(Can’t wait, I love some good backpedaling…)
No shoutout? I’m giving you the hump!
My iPod is old, old, old. I can’t see the icon. But I trust you when you say it is there.
I didn’t vote in the primary this year, and I’m not going to vote in the general election either. Give me a real candidate to vote for, and I will. But there is NO way I’m voting for McCain, and Hilary vs. Obama was a joke. However, I do agree that having a non-white person and a woman run and be seriously considered is historically significant, I would have prefered another non-white person and a different woman. Why not Michele Obama, for example?
I saw Get Smart this weekend, and while the differences between the series and the movie bothered me, I really enjoyed the movie for what it is. I don’t think I’ve laughed this much since Little Miss Sunshine. Alan did a great job.
Chief, are you thinking what I’m thinking? The line that comes after that is the funniest, no Betster?
Here’s a topic for you: What magazines do you find yourself buying by impulse? I hardly ever get magazines, because I have no patience for them (with the exception of Vegetarian Times, for which I have a subscription.) But from time to time a magazine like Marie Claire ends up in my wagon, and I have no idea why I do things like this, because I just detest fashion magazines.
And if it isn’t too late – I have a FUCK OFF for the list. That would be the German national soccer team, for playing like drunken fools yesterday and losing to Spain.
I was a fan of Tim, but I was also a critic. I don’t think a *single* journalist did their job in the lead up to Iraq—I don’t care what any of them die of or when. Sorry, Tim, you were one of the better guys out there, but still you should have done more. That said, it’s a real shame you won’t be around to do better for Iran. 🙁
George Carlin never seemed old to me. So, I was shocked.
Hey Bet, I hate Paul Thomas Anderson, too, and I totally agree with your take on him. Yet, I loved “There Will Be Blood.” I really thought it was a brilliant movie. However, I disagree with both of you guys about the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis. I’m not sure I see a very thick line between scenery-chewing and becoming a different character in every movie. I also felt like the film was very subtle and hey, there’s no dialog for a good while in the beginning. Day-Lewis acted with no dialog—any actor doing that impresses me since it hardly ever happens. I think you should give it a try, Sten. But try to check your expectations at the door. The film is pretty subtle, in my opinion. I was ready to hate this film, but I loved it.
Then again, we seem to disagree on a lot of stuff these days, so maybe you’ll really hate it but you’ll LOVE “Dark Knight”.
Sorry, I really need to catch up on my HBs!!
Bet, here in the Big Apple, we haven’t paid less than $12/ticket to get in to see a movie since we got here. If there’s a cheapy-theater here, we haven’t found it yet (but would really like to!) I’d love to find a New-Beverly-like theater in NYC.
Sorry about your problems, Bet! I did check out the video (as Stennie ordered) and as I watched your car get hit, I found myself wondering why you didn’t try to protect the car some how. Perhaps you could have quickly built a garage out of popsicle sticks?
I’m sure you can just bill God. You know, get an estimate from a local repair place and then drop it by the nearest church.
You know what works on car dents? Peanut butter!
HATE Nancy Grace—and most mainstream news people.
So, are you moving to Spokan, Sten? I think moving is a great idea. do it! do it! do it!
PEACHES FOR ME
Hey, good stinger—Skype does that to me a lot, too—I had to call my mom back like four times this past weekend. It may be more expensive to use my precious cell minutes but at least the call doesn’t drop.
OH Yeah and I’m looking forward to HB merch, as is Mr. Middlebrow. Of course, I’m looking forward to having money again, too.
I’m also with Mr. MB on the DD-L thing—I think Al Pacino is a scenery-chewer while DD-L actually bothers to, you know, *act*.
I’d also like to say that I really respect and like Michelle’s stance on voting. I think it’s important to participate, but if you don’t like what is being offered, I don’t think you should vote. I don’t like our “selection” of candidates this year, either. I’m going to vote, though. As you can tell by this absurdly long comment, if I have an opportunity to express myself, I do it. So, I’ll be going with Jesus—I mean, Obama.
Fun show, guys!! I’m catchin’ up!!