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Showing posts from July, 2007

MOVIES OF THE MONTH RETURN!

Barbara Stanwyck TV Shot Originally uploaded by Walker Dukes Sorry, Jfro fans, I've been so busy lately that movie mini-reviews have fallen by the wayside. I'm determined to get caught up in August. Here's the reviews for December 2006.

JFRO, QUEEN OF ROCK & ROLL

Over at the Chunklet Blog , they've been talking about who they would induct and de-duct into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , were they in charge. Here is my list: Induct: The Monks, The Troggs, Guided By Voices, ESG, The Ohio Players, The Runaways, The Modern Lovers, Badfinger, The Jam, T. Rex, Scott Walker, Mission of Burma, Buzzcocks, Roxy Music, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, The Melvins, The Misfits, New Order, Gang of Four, Wire, Pavement, Husker Du, The Minutemen, Black Flag, Sonic Youth, Big Black, Monster Magnet, Naked Raygun, The Stooges, Motorhead. De-duct: The Greatful Dead, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, The Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas & The Papas, Paul Simon, Crosby, Stills & Nash (anyone see a pattern here?), Billy Joel, The Eagles, Bobby Darin (an excellent Sinatra-style crooner, but his good songs aren't rock and his rock songs aren't good). Who would you choose?

ALT-WEEKLY DEATH WATCH?

Here's an interesting article on New Time s buying out LA Weekly and OC Weekly . This explains a lot about why the Village Voice and the Twin Cities' own City Pages (both owned by the same company) have been going downhill lately. Here's my favorite quote: The company has imposed a "fat layer of middle management," to which editors are required to report. "Our covers have to be approved by a guy in Oakland. The film reviews are assigned by somebody in Denver. Five people oversee the marketing manager. They say it's a sophisticated business system. My sense is that it's lard. People who've never edited a newspaper tell editors how to edit." Another LA Weekly employee familiar with New Times's corporate strategy said the chain runs "the most Stalinist operation imaginable," with "commissars in Phoenix" overseeing every phase of the seventeen newspapers, "from graphics to the web." Maybe I'm getting ol
LIVIN' LA VIDA GEEKSTER So, I was going to the comic book store the other day to pick up a copy of Shojo Beat and the cashier asked what I was doing this weekend. I said, "Playing World of Darkness and going to see Fantastic Four ." Am I the geekiest geek in the world or what? Or am I? I also went to a hip gallery and saw a lowbrow artist , bought an obscure 80's Swedish garage band record, and took some graffiti shots . Am I a hipster pretending to be a geek, or a geek pretending to be a hipster? Maybe a whole new nomenclature is needed--"geekster": a person who is half geek, half hipster. In a recent posting on the Chunklet Blog , Henry Owings accused new musical sensation Dan Deacon of being a hipster disguised as a geeky outsider musician , while in the comments his defenders say Deacon is %100 percent sincere. These days, with movie stars wearing fake glasses to premieres and million-selling emo punks playing at being outcasts, it's hard to te