POSTED WITHOUT COMMENT

...Totoro turned out to be incredibly light for his size, no heavier than my husband, really...

SCANDAHOOVIAN GARAGE ROCK

My latest review at PTW: Bonk.

GIVING NO SLACK

I gotta start checking out newyorker.com more often. Had I known this profile of Crazy Lou Dobbs was online, I could have saved myself $4.50. It's a pretty fact-heavy but useless piece, doing exactly what Dobbs himself stands most firmly against: giving all sides a chance to filibuster without ever calling bullshit on anybody. Sure, it's objectively pro-Dobbs; the photo's a goddamn campaign ad. But still, Auletta seems unwilling to actually sack up and take a side on Crazy Lou's frothings one way or the other. Me, I think he's the king of dinner-hour comedy - some of what he says is true, but it's true in the most felt-not-thought, no-such-thing-as-gray possible way. (And that dead-eyed female substitute they get to run the show while he's out patrolling the border, or whatever, is like something out of They Live.) Anyway, read and enjoy, but don't expect to come away with your mind expanded, or even changed about anything. Ken Auletta's an empty-suit access-broker, one more rich white typist whose reputation is utterly mysterious to me.

CAVALERAS Y DIABLITOS

Here's a little thing I wrote about Sepultura for the Scene. I don't know; the idea that Andreas Kisser is the sole remaining original member bugs me somehow. I guess it shouldn't, given my feeling that Napalm Death, who have no original members, have only gotten better since their lineup stabilized (give or take the late Jesse Pintado) in 1990 or so, but it does.

PLAYING FAVORITES

Monday Morning 20:

Bad Brains, "How Low Can A Punk Get (Live)"
Blue Cheer, "Summertime Blues"
Willie Nelson, "She's Not For You"
Louis Armstrong, "I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Rare Take)"
Agoraphobic Nosebleed, "The House Of Feasting"
Marc Ribot, "Saints"
Wayne Shorter, "Super Nova"
Isis, "C.F.T. (New Circuitry And Continued Evolution)"
Isis, "Weight"
Falkenbach, "Laeknishendr"
Agoraphobic Nosebleed, "Lithium Daydream"
Che, "Blue Demon"
Louis Armstrong, "Gambler's Dream"
Decapitated, "The Fury"
Beck, Bogert & Appice, "Livin' Alone"
Melvins, "Queen"
T.Rex, "To Know You Is To Love You"
Warren Zevon, "I Was In The House When The House Burned Down"
Motörhead, "The Wolf"
Isis, "Celestial (Signal Fills The Void)"