The Mule

Sorry, but her most famous work of art indirectly led to the deaths of tens of millions. Her disgusting ode to fascism is still screened by neo-Nazis in musty little basements to enthralled true believers to this day. As Couw said, she spent the rest of her very long life defiantly, arrogantly, unrepentant and in denial. Strike up a conversation with an African-American about how much they admire the artistry of BIRTH OF A NATION sometime. Straight to Hell.

Thank you. I was rather proud of that one and disappointed that no one commented on it....

From The Village Voice: The Poet of Gower Avenue Winds Down His Dirty Life and Times Warren Zevon, 1947–2003 by Joshua Clover September 10 - 16, 2003 Finally, he'll sleep. (Photo: Pater Palladino) In 1977, when Linda Ronstadt was taking her last shot at being the queen of California, she covered "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me"—a song from Warren Zevon's self-titled, not-really-first album. Zevon had written for the Turtles, played piano for the Everly Brothers, and earned a rep as a songsmith. Ronstadt changed only the third verse: A guy in Yokohama picks her up and throws her down, pleading, "Please don't hurt me mama." It makes you wonder about the original. What would a young gun write in 1973, a professional with an amateur face devising his own rock of the westies in the cross fire of Hollywood decadence and Hollywood liberalism, cf. über-progressive Jackson Browne, who in fact produced Warren Zevon and was presumably at the board when Zevon recorded his own third verse: "I met a girl at the Rainbow Bar, she asked me if I'd beat her. She took me back to the Hyatt House . . . "—and here his voice paused down to a mutter—"I don't want to talk about it." It's brutal, and funny, and not OK. Warren Zevon was Jackson Browne's bad conscience. Careless of the scene's niceties, Warren Zevon wouldn't get released until 1976—all stained romance and bad dope, burnished chord changes and exposed nerve. The songs, when they weren't about itinerant gamblers (his dad's calling, as it happened) or Frank and Jesse James, recalled L.A. hard-boiled pulp novels, where desiccated burnouts are the only shadows in the sun-bleached promised land. The baroquely precise "French Inhaler" pairs a would-be starlet and her bottom-feeding beau: never-wases drinking in the dive behind the dream factory, pathetic and melancholy unto death. Only an ambiguous reference in the song's last second hints, and then only to hardcore consumers of biographical porn, that the song might have been about Marilyn Monroe all along—a ghost version of her life, as if David Lynch had been a piano man in his early days. Murmuring "So long Norman," she's the one who couldn't leave. But so is everyone else on the record, the most delicate, impure document of LaLaLand in the years between Joni's Ladies of the Canyon and Jello's "California Über Alles." The poet of Gower Avenue became a stateless pop star behind the single from the follow-up Excitable Boy, the mini-surrealist "Werewolves of London." As novelty smashes often do, it seemed to come from nowhere, or everywhere. On that record and the next two, Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School and The Envoy, Zevon removed his seamy scenes of betrayal and secret combat to an atlas of international hot spots, filled with spies, drunks, mercenaries, and the women who didn't love them. On the side, he wrote tender, caustic ballads ("Accidentally Like a Martyr" was recently covered by Dylan) and domestic tales of very creepy guys that sometimes sounded indecently enthusiastic. He even cut in at dances where he wasn't invited: "Sweet home Alabama," he sang in his faux-anthemic rebuke to Skynyrd's rebuke of Mr. Young, "play that dead band's song." The chorus continues, strangely forbearing amid verses of mocking savagery, "Turn those speakers up full blast, play it all night long." Not one to burn out or fade away, Zevon drowned. Traditional narrative follows: five-year creative drought, ignominy, rehab, comeback album. Sentimental Hygiene is rich with the usual suspects, but here the bloodied losers and lowlifes were often the singer. "It's tough to be somebody; and it's hard to keep from falling apart," he testifies in "Detox Mansion." "Here on Rehab Mountain we all learn these things by heart." Comeback albums are expected to serve up redemption; this one offered redemption as just another grift and sounded like someone coming up for the second time, just long enough to spew a last round of vitriol. Astonishingly enough, there was one act left—the one where real tragedy teaches the self-inflicted kind a lesson. After a couple of records where the songwriting went flaky and unfocused, and another half-decade hiatus, Zevon rallied his talent on little Artemis Records, composing a series of serrated, rollicking wounds, collaborating with folks from Springsteen to Carl Hiaasen. It wasn't a comeback so much as a persistence of vision. A rare few are born to be stars, fewer live to write. At the time of the first Artemis release, Zevon was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an inoperable lung cancer. The epic from his mortality trio is "I Was in the House When the House Burned Down," and one is tempted to listen allegorically: the house the mortal body, and no way out. Racing the fire, Zevon made two more records, the last one—The Wind, released August 26—when he was supposed to be dead already. They're moving and jocularly messy, three feet deep and rising. Zevon, who died Sunday, was a writer of terrific particularity, the kind novelists are jealous of. He would likely compose his own obit in specific and self-lacerating terms, leave the allegories to others. Or perhaps he would concede that the death he stood off to do just a little more writing was something so dark even he couldn't make an account of it, and offer the phrase suggesting it was better left obscure, the better to fill with our own worst imaginings. I don't want to talk about it.

Straight to Hell....

32. Most of them upgrades and as such I've always bought them at a deep discount or used.

First off, I'm wondering if this is still in the works or not.... Secondly, without disclosing any actual numbers, I was wondering how this worked financially for the band. Given how inexplicably inexpensive it is to download great music on Emusic, how are they making any money and how much of it would Organissimo see? One of the reasons I'm asking is that I just discovered that two cds by the LA underground band Baby Lemonade are also available on Emusic. The guys in the band are friends of mine and they weren't even aware their music was on Emusic!

I've been a huge fan of Dusty Groove for years. I actually avoid looking at the site for fear my wallet will never recover. Speaking of brick and mortar, their store in Chicago is great!

This has hit me even harder than I expected. I have been a huge fan of Zevon and had seen him perform live more times than any other musician. He'd come through Chicago once a year or so and play the Park West--usually solo--and his shows were always energetic, funny, and intimate. At his most inspired, his songwriting skills were unparalleled. Moving, ironic, biting, witty, unexpected...his best songs feel like great short stories or movies. I never really appreciated just how great his songs about Los Angeles were until I moved here. He captured the beauty and insanity of this place perfectly. The Letterman appearance last October was one of the most compelling and powerful hours of television I had ever seen. Two close friends on national television discussing the fact that one of them was about to die. The VH1 special was even more moving. Speaking of his friend Bruce Springsteen, Zevon says, "The great thing about Springsteen is that he's exactly who you'd hope he'd be." I thought the same thing about Zevon since he announced his illness. He handled his impending demise just as you'd hope Warren Zevon would--with integrity, grit, humor, irony, bravery. The only trace of bitterness was in a brief scene in the VH1 special. After the appearance on Letterman he gets into the limo with his publicist. She's going down a list of items and tells him that "The New Yorker wants an interview." Zevon looks out the window at the Manhattan he's seeing for the last time and quietly says, "Too late." I think the comment was not just about how he wasn't up for giving an interview, but that he resented The New Yorker's interest in him NOW. Ghoulish to ask now that's he's dying. Such an interview might have helped his career 20 years ago. Asking for one now..."too late." The special also shows a moment with Zevon and his adult daughter--pregnant with twin boys. She tells him one of the the boys' middle names will be Warren which seemed to please him immensely. He tells the camera that he's determined to hang on to meet the babies...and he did. He got to hold his grandsons. I would urge anyone unfamiliar with Zevon's music to pick up his album "Warren Zevon" which contains one masterpiece after another. The new album is also very fine with the aformentioned cover of "Knocking On Heaven's Door" and the incredibly moving "Keep Me In Your Heart." Sleep well, Warren.

"...after the accident, Doris realized a recording career was her destiny."

This guy's a registered sex offender, I'm guessing.....

Early drafts of the film THE SIXTH SENSE were about a woman who "sees little birdies stealing glasses."

I'll say!

Is there a werewolf about to pounce on her just out of frame or what? What is she so worried about?

The Beatles ripped this off for "The White Album," man....

Okay, I get the "chamber music" thing showing jazz musicians in powdered wigs and whatnot, but what's with the orange triangles?

WHA?!?!?!??! And the winner for worst copy ever on an album cover goes to...

Okay...there's an obvious sound-effects gag that goes with this picture, but I'll leave y'all to think of it yourselves...

Talk about "Noir Jazz!"

This record is also known as "Shelly's Nightmare"...

Combining two of my favorite genres: the "animal" and "bad pun" cover!

Is it me or is this album cover more than a little...er....gay? (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) It reminds me of the one-sheets for the movie based on Jean Genet's QUERELLE...

Did I miss the day when the RIAA was folded into the Department of Homeland Security? Friday September 5, 08:30 AM Music Biz to Give File Sharers Amnesty The Recording Industry Assn. of America plans to announce an amnesty program this week that will let individual online copyright infringers off the hook if they change their ways, sources say. The amnesty program would apply only to alleged infringers who have not been sued by the music industry trade group or identified by Internet service providers as a result of the trade group's subpoena process. Alleged commercial pirates will not receive amnesty. According to sources, the RIAA will not pursue legal action if infringers delete all unauthorized music files from their computers, destroy all copies (including CD-Rs) and promise not to upload such material in the future. Each infringing household member will have to send a completed, notarized amnesty form to the RIAA, with a copy of a photo ID. Those who renege on their promise will be subject to charges of willful copyright infringement. The amnesty program will be revealed at about the same time the RIAA is expected to announce the filing of "several hundred" infringement suits. The RIAA had no comment. Reuters/Billboard

Curious to hear this myself. I know someone who saw NY perform this at the Greek Theater in LA last month and they were blown away by the show....

Still lying...now on dvd! From Spinsanity.org Moore alters "Bowling" DVD in response to criticism (9/2) By Brendan Nyhan In the newly-released DVD version of his Academy Award-winning documentary "Bowling for Columbine," filmmaker Michael Moore has altered a caption that he fictitiously inserted into a 1988 Bush-Quayle campaign commercial -- one of a number of misstatements and deceptive arguments we criticized when the film was released last year. Ironically, on the same day the DVD was released, Moore issued a libel threat against his critics on MSNBC's "Buchanan & Press," saying, "Every fact in the film is true. Absolutely every fact in the film is true. And anybody who says otherwise is committing an act of libel." While we were among the first to call Moore on the inaccuracies in his film, most notably the alteration of the Bush-Quayle ad and his misleading presentation of US aid to Afghanistan in a timeline sequence, we were far from the only ones. Dan Lyons of Forbes Magazine also revealed several important lies or distortions, including the fact that the scene during which Moore receives a gun at a bank was staged. And David Hardy, an Arizona lawyer specializing in gun issues who has worked for the National Rifle Association, has compiled a voluminous list of allegations, including Moore's heavy and misleading editing of NRA President Charlton Heston's speech in Denver after the Columbine massacre. Moore has generally refused to concede error in response to critics, in one case writing an angry email to Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert denouncing several charges as "Internet crap" and "not true." In subsequent correspondence for Ebert's online column, Moore wrote, "if I state something as a fact, I need the viewers to trust that those facts are correct." While promoting the DVD release, he was asked about the charges by guest co-host Jerry Nachman during a August 19 appearance on "Buchanan & Press." Moore then attacked Hardy while accusing critics of libel: NACHMAN: Michael, I want to start with what your critics chiefly say. And that is, while you criticize President Bush for being a fictitious president, as you called him, winning in a fictitious election, a lot of your critics say that your documentary should have been more like an Oliver Stone movie because of the liberties you took with chronology and facts in both "Roger and Me" and "Bowling for Columbine." You've heard that criticism, I'm sure. MOORE: Well, yes. No, the NRA and some gun nut Web sites have really come after... NACHMAN: Well, it's not... MOORE: ... the film. NACHMAN: ... it's not just gun nuts. I mean it's people who have tried to lay out a chronology of what you said happened... MOORE: Like who? NACHMAN: ... when it happened... MOORE: Like who has done this... NACHMAN: Well... MOORE: ... that is not a conservative right-winger that has a vested interest in wanting to attack me instead of debating me on the issues I'm raising? NACHMAN: This guy... MOORE: Every fact in the film is true. Absolutely every fact in the film is true. And anybody who says otherwise is committing an act of libel. However, the release of Moore's DVD proves otherwise. As we first documented, when "Bowling for Columbine" was released in theaters, it featured a 1988 Bush-Quayle ad called "Revolving Doors" (Real Player video), which criticized a prison furlough program in operation when Michael Dukakis was governor of Massachusetts. Though Horton was furloughed under the program in question, the ad did not explicitly mention him, unlike the more famous ad aired by the National Security Political Action Committee, which had close ties to Bush media advisor Roger Ailes. But because this part of "Bowling" attempted to show how portrayals of black men are used to promote fear in the public, Moore apparently inserted the caption "Willie Horton released. Then kills again." into the ad, using a text style nearly identical to the ad's original captions. A casual viewer would assume that the text was part of the original ad. The fictitious caption more directly connecting Bush to Horton is used to back up Moore's statement, which runs over the sequence, that "whether you're a psychotic killer or running for president of the United States, the one thing you can always count on is white America's fear of the black man." However, according to the archived video of the ad linked above, media reports and interviews with a high-level Dukakis official and political experts, the caption did not appear in the original ad. Moreover, it was incorrect -- Horton raped a woman while on furlough, but he did not commit murder. In a tacit acknowledgment that the caption was both phony and factually incorrect, Moore has altered the text in the DVD version. The caption now reads "Willie Horton released. Then rapes a woman." Clearly, every fact in the film was not true, and critics who pointed the alteration of the Horton ad (among other things) were not committing libel. Moreover, Moore's correction doesn't make the insertion of text that wasn't in the original ad any more excusable. And he has conspicuously failed to correct the rest of the film's distortions and inaccuracies. While it is too late for the Oscar voters he deceived, Moore still owes it to the public to set the record straight. Addendum: The DVD also contains further proof of Moore's tendency to stretch and distort the facts. Hardy has criticized Moore for claiming that the plaque at the US Air Force Academy near a B-52 on display "proudly proclaims that the plane killed Vietnamese people on Christmas Eve of 1972. It was the largest bombing campaign of the Vietnam War." This phrasing insinuates that the plaque praises the bombing of civilians. It actually says the B-52 "shot down a MIG northeast of Hanoi" on that date. The plaque does celebrate "the men and women of the Strategic Air Command who flew and maintained the B-52D throughout its 26 year history in the command," including "Aircraft 55,003, with over 15,000 flying hours," which presumably included bombing runs over Vietnam such as the one on Christmas Eve, but it does not "proudly" proclaim that it was used to kill Vietnamese civilians. According to Ebert, Moore's response to this criticism was as follows: "I was making a point about the carpet bombing of Vietnam during the 1972 Christmas offensive. I did not say exactly what the plaque said but was paraphrasing." The DVD captures Moore exaggerating this still further, saying during a speech at the University of Denver on February 26, 2003 that the B-52 participated in the massive Christmas Eve bombing campaign. "And they've got a plaque on there proudly proclaiming that this bomber, this B-52, killed thousands upon thousands of Vietnamese -- innocent civilians." In both cases, his representation of the plaque is extremely dishonest. Update 9/2 5:12 PM EST: A number of readers have written in to point out that Moore's statement is a tautology -- that is, it is correct by definition to say "Every fact in the film is true." However, in context, he implies that all of his factual claims are true -- asserting they are facts -- and attacks critics of those claims with a charge of libel. As such, we stand by the post as written.

Another Anthony Mann western should be at the top of the list: THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (available on dvd). Above is the original one-sheet--which I am lucky to own...