Let's imagine the sky is blue

eels - Jelly Dancers (from the Dimension Mix Tribute Album)



As Ryan recently reported, Ryan Adams has apparently lost his mind. Or maybe more accurately, has stopped being able to pretend he's sane. Those in Vancouver were treated to quite the show:

"Adams went visibly and incontestably nuts at the two-thirds mark, first threatening to punch someone in the face, then railing about the Internet, then bargaining with the crowd for a smoke break. He got it, and when he bounded back on-stage the man was reenergized, to say the least. Starting with a cover of “Wonderwall”, the manic version of Ryan Adams complained that the Commodore was filled with snakes (like New Mexico) and was apparently swarmed by invisible aphids during “Sylvia Plath”. He bitch-slapped his sound guy. “Ryan Adams!” he said, baiting the hapless knob-twiddler. “He’s so fucked up! He’s the end of music! It’s not my fault if they forgot to build a house at the end of the street, Mister Man!” This was one of a number of baffling speeches that he would make for the rest of the performance, though his second skirmish with the sound department was a little less equivocal.

“Dave!” he screamed. “What the fuck? Are you taking the night off?!” In fairness, Dave seemed to be doing a fine job while Adams, struggling to stay upright, was more or less engaged in relearning to play guitar. Later, bassist Catherine Popper would tell him to go fuck himself when he melodramatically called a halt to “Let It Ride”. It wasn’t necessary—Adams had already fucked himself quite comprehensively by that point."

Read the rest of the Georgia Straight review.

Ryan Adams - Now That You're Gone (recorded at the Kool Haus in Toronto. Listen to the end when he tells his sound guy that he would pull him out of a burning building, if only to be more like Ponyboy.)



Yesterday I went with Selina to see The Aristocrats, a documentary by Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller) about the filthiest joke ever. For me there were too many talking heads - could have used something to break the monotony (comedians are not always attractive people). But the parts that were funny were knee-slapping, hold your stomach because it hurts funny.

If you go to the movie site you can submit your own telling and possibly end up on the DVD.



The funniest moment for me was Sarah Silverman sharing that she was actually in a version of the act, and ending with an inappropriate revelation as only Sarah Silverman can. Of course I might be biased, since she also told my favourite joke of all time when she appeared on Conan O'Brien.

"I was telling a friend that I had to serve jury duty and I wanted to get out of it. So my friend said ‘When they hand out the questionnaire, write something horribly offensive like “I hate chinks” then there’s no way they will choose you.' But I couldn’t bring myself to do it, because I didn't want them to think I'm racist, so I wrote -- I love chinks. And who doesn't?"

What makes this joke even better was the awe-inspiring reaction from certain members of the Asian community, who managed to miss the point of the joke by a good country mile. Particularly amazing was Greg Aoki, then president of the ominously titled Media Action Network for Asian Americans, who claimed "chink" is "the worst thing you can possibly call a person of Chinese descent." I always thought the worst thing you could call me is a baby-eating, dog-fucking son of a toothless whore. Or something like that.

posted by Thomas @ 09:46