Odd Obsession

So, we're doing this this at work where we have to learn about Web 2.0 , and I had to do another blog for that. Of course, I know all about Web 2.0 already, right? Actually, it turns out that Blogger has updated all its templates and now you can add stuff to your blog without having to figure out where in the html code it would go. Who knew? Anyway, some of my co-workers had cool widgets on their blogs, so I'm trying that. I've got my Flickr photos , my books from Librarything , and my Del.icio.us links . For music, I'm trying this new web site called SeeqPod . It's a search engine for audio that lets you play it and save it as a playlist. I'm hoping to get most of my favorite song list on there. Just let me know if I start adding so much that Odd Obsession starts looking like a Myspace page (shudder). ---------------- Now playing: john cale - heartbreak hotel via FoxyTunes

Well, I can finally say I talked to someone who's been made into a Simpsons character. The great comic artist Daniel Clowes was on the show, along with Alan Moore and Art Spiegelman . I once called Clowes on the phone when my friend Susan and I were visiting Chicago years ago. I didn't say much, I was just so surprised that he was in the phone book and actually picked up. I also saw him at the College of Comic Book Knowledge with Peter Bagge (the Hateball tour). I believe Joey Waronker was the drummer for R.E.M. when they were on the Simpsons , but they never showed the drummer's face. I think there was some contractual thing--he was never to be considered part of R.E.M., just someone who happened to be on stage while they were playing. He may have been on the Beck Futurama episode, but I'm not sure. Maybe my friend Hellbound can weigh in on this. Of course, I knew Joey from Macalester and Walt Mink , back when only a few of us were regulars at their house-basement...

Sorry, Jfro fans, this year has been busy, so I haven't been able to do mini-reviews for a while. Here's the list of Movies of the Month for Jan- Aug, I'll try to write some more mini-reviews starting with September 2007.

There's a great article about MIA in the latest Nation . It sums up a lot of what pissed me off about Simon Reynolds' snooty review of her first album in the Village Voice , where he said it sounded like she "came from nowhere." What is up with rock critics and authenticity? I like music that is: mixed-up, confused, eccentric, inauthentic, impure and adulterated. That's what the world is like today. If you want "authentic", go find a lost tribe in the Amazon, but once they hear your radio, they'll be corrupted. Later, so-called "authentic" musicians will be discovered to have gone to college or read a book or something and be denounced as "phony", anyway. Well, certain white rock-and-roll-canon-approved artists like Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones can rip off all sorts of styles if they want, but if you're consigned to the "world music" ghetto, you have to give the critics one pure-sounding ethnic style so that...