As Far As You Know

My 2¢ worth: you won't find better political commentary than Tom Tomorrow's weekly offering, This Modern World, which can be read online here. It's topical, scathing, and extraordinarily witty. New cartoons appear each Monday on the Salon.com web site.

Apple's recent iTunes upgrade (version 4.5) has the nifty feature of being able to "publish" your favorite music playlists for other users to peruse. Click here for details. The caveat is that the songs on your playlist have to be drawn from the iTunes Music Store catalogue, but with over 700,000 downloadable choices, assembling that perfect iMix can't be too hard.

The 1963 song "Masters of War" by Bob Dylan just popped up on random shuffle on iTunes. It's eerily fitting for the events of 2004!

In an effort to catch up on my lapsed blogging, what follows is an assortment of quick takes on a variety of topical subjects.

John Edwards: Kerry made what was probably the safest choice for a vice-presidential nominee, but one that I think ultimately will help him in November. Yes, the pollsters will tell us that Edwards may not move any of the swing states into the Kerry column--not even North Carolina, probably--but he represents an articulate, charismatic presence on the ticket that could be reassuring to swing voters in various demographic categories that will be crucial in what should prove to be a close general election. The Tar Heel senator has a fascinating life story, coming from humble origins and facing genuine adversity along the way. Of course the GOP immediately attacked Edwards this morning as lacking the experience for the vice-presidency, what with only six years in the United States Senate. This is laughable, given that the man at the head of the Republican ticket boasted exactly six years experience as governor in a state in which that office held little real political power. Moreover, Bush was more or less a failure at everything he attempted in his life before his political career, in spite of all the advantages conferred by Poppy and his friends. In contrast, Edwards was a self-made millionaire who fought corporate wrong-doing and then distinguished himself in Congress by co-sponsoring sweeping reforms such as the Patients' Bill of Rights.

John McEnroe's talk show: Tomorrow night CNBC debuts a new talk show featuring former "Super-Brat" John McEnroe. As an adolescent tennis fan, I always rooted for Mac's greatest rivals: Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors. (Though I never warmed up to Ivan Lendl, so McEnroe occasionally enjoyed my support!) I must admit that I've come around on McEnroe over the years. Maybe he's mellowed; maybe I have. When he started as an announcer on tennis telecasts I found him occasionally amusing but fairly undisciplined as an analyst. Nowadays he's refreshingly insightful, more open-minded (while still refreshingly honest and opinionated), and is capable of substantial slef-deprecating humor. So I am looking forward to seeing what he'll bring to the table as a talk show host. Mac seems to have become something of a polymath, with genuine interests in art, music, politics, sports, etc. He can do no worse in this new role than Dennis Miller, whose show is in the adjoining slot on the cable network; Miller is someone I used to enjoy immensely before his gradual transformation into a right-wing crank (which corresponded fairly precisely with his becoming more or less unfunny).

Spider-Man 2: This film deserves the box office success it has enjoyed the past week. It won't change the world and it not quite perfect, but it's a pretty spiffy summer popcorn flick. Have fun with this one.

Farenheit 9/11: On the other hand, this movie--also a relative box office champ--might, in fact, change the world. Michael Moore's documentary skewers "W" and company pretty effectively. For the most part Moore avoids the heavy-handedness that made me feel sorry for Charlton Heston in Bowling For Columbine. That's not to say there is no point of view here; quite the opposite, the director has conceded. He wears his politics on his sleeve and is unabashed about presenting his opinions on the Bush Administration, the war on terror, the Patriot Act, and the current Iraq misadventure. But for the most part, Moore himself maintains a lower profile in this picture, instead letting the objects of his derision condemn themselves on camera.

Wimbledon 2004: In spite of the seemingly endless rain (that kept me from getting out to the All-England Club while in London during the opening days of the fortnight) this was one of the best Wimbledons in recent memory. Finals weekend was particularly satisfying, with the coming of age of the charming and talented Maria Sharapova in the ladies' championship and the enjoyable and highly competitive Federer/Roddick tilt on Sunday. The sport needs a few more majors with the excitement we saw in SW19 the past two weeks.

Sting in concert: I caught the former Police front man in an outdoor show at Jones Beach last week. He was in exceptionally good voice, sharing the bill with Annie Lennox. I knew it would be a good show when the second song played was one of my Police faves, "Synchronicity II."

Whither Euro 2004? While I was ambling around Paris, Scotland, Ireland, and London in June, I could not escape the football frenzy surrounding the European Cup soccer championship. Every day, there was wall-to-wall coverage in the newspapers and on television. Upon returning to the States, I was struck that highlights of the tournament merited hardly a mention in our papers.

Lately I have been listening to an iTunes playlist of music from the first season of Alias. It's a great mix of tunes; check it out here.

In the nostalgia category, the short-lived Freaks and Geeks show has an awesome mix of songs from when I was in high school.

Apparently I am in this month's Teen Vogue magazine. For real. I wouldn't make this up. (Well, actually I might, but I am not in this case.) I haven't seen the issue myself, but I've heard about it.

The funniest man on television returns to HBO tomorrow, Sunday, at 10:30 p.m.

I saw the ads for the Brit comedian's season on HBO when it first aired but was not impressed enough to tune in. Big mistake. In the winter my friend Julie Goodyear loaned me a DVD of Ali's six U.S. episodes; it took me a couple months to finally drop the disc in the player, but after fifteen minutes of trying to figure out what was going on, I was HOWLING with laughter and wishing it wouldn't end.

Don't miss it. Booyakasha!

I was struck by the power of Springsteen's "No Surrender" before Kerry's speech last night and then U2's "Beautiful Day" immediately afterward. There's a good piece on the use of pop songs at the Democratic Convention this past week here.

Jon Stewart and his ensemble have been bloody brilliant in their take on the Boston sonvention scene this past week. No cows are sacred. Just damned funny stuff. I hope they are equally on form in New York in a month's time, too.

NPR's Weekend Edition program ran a great feature yesterday on Jim Surowiecki's new book, The Wisdom Of The Crowd. Jim is a Choate alum and one-time colleague in the History Department. He currently is the business writer for The New Yorker. His book has gotten great reviews. Click here to listen to the story.

Check this out if you want to watch Will Ferrell as "W" on the set of his most recent campaign commercial. This parody was assembled by America Coming Together.

Check out this piece in the Op-Ed section of today's New York Times:

Chords for Change

by Bruce Springsteen

A nation's artists and musicians have a particular place in its social and political life. Over the years I've tried to think long and hard about what it means to be American: about the distinctive identity and position we have in the world, and how that position is best carried. I've tried to write songs that speak to our pride and criticize our failures.

These questions are at the heart of this election: who we are, what we stand for, why we fight. Personally, for the last 25 years I have always stayed one step away from partisan politics. Instead, I have been partisan about a set of ideals: economic justice, civil rights, a humane foreign policy, freedom and a decent life for all of our citizens. This year, however, for many of us the stakes have risen too high to sit this election out.

Through my work, I've always tried to ask hard questions. Why is it that the wealthiest nation in the world finds it so hard to keep its promise and faith with its weakest citizens? Why do we continue to find it so difficult to see beyond the veil of race? How do we conduct ourselves during difficult times without killing the things we hold dear? Why does the fulfillment of our promise as a people always seem to be just within grasp yet forever out of reach?

I don't think John Kerry and John Edwards have all the answers. I do believe they are sincerely interested in asking the right questions and working their way toward honest solutions. They understand that we need an administration that places a priority on fairness, curiosity, openness, humility, concern for all America's citizens, courage and faith.

People have different notions of these values, and they live them out in different ways. I've tried to sing about some of them in my songs. But I have my own ideas about what they mean, too. That is why I plan to join with many fellow artists, including the Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, Jurassic 5, James Taylor and Jackson Browne, in touring the country this October. We will be performing under the umbrella of a new group called Vote for Change. Our goal is to change the direction of the government and change the current administration come November.

Like many others, in the aftermath of 9/11, I felt the country's unity. I don't remember anything quite like it. I supported the decision to enter Afghanistan and I hoped that the seriousness of the times would bring forth strength, humility and wisdom in our leaders. Instead, we dived headlong into an unnecessary war in Iraq, offering up the lives of our young men and women under circumstances that are now discredited. We ran record deficits, while simultaneously cutting and squeezing services like afterschool programs. We granted tax cuts to the richest 1 percent (corporate bigwigs, well-to-do guitar players), increasing the division of wealth that threatens to destroy our social contract with one another and render mute the promise of "one nation indivisible."

It is through the truthful exercising of the best of human qualities - respect for others, honesty about ourselves, faith in our ideals - that we come to life in God's eyes. It is how our soul, as a nation and as individuals, is revealed. Our American government has strayed too far from American values. It is time to move forward. The country we carry in our hearts is waiting.

Well said.

This is pretty clever. I saw it on a guy in the mall about a month ago. You can order the above logo on a T-shirt of your very own by clicking here.

This is too rich! From the AP wire:

Readers of a British magazine have rated President Bush the year's top screen villain, for his appearance in Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

Readers voted Bush top film villain over those from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man 2, and Kill Bill: Vol. 2.

[snip]

Almost 10,000 people voted in the poll, conducted by Total Film magazine. Results were announced Wednesday.

Pretty hard to not be drooling for one of these U2 Special Edition iPods!

The new teaser trailer for Episode III: The Revenge Of The Sith is on the Internet (at least for AOL members). Looks pretty cool.

Go see The Incredibles. Pixar does it again!

As I write these words, I am enjoying an advance preview of the forthcoming U2 album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. This is good stuff--on a par with 2001's All That You Can't Leave Behind.

Heads up: U2 is scheduled to perform on Saturday Night Live tonight.

My family spent the day in New York City, taking in the matinee performance of Movin' Out, the Twyla Tharp dance performance based on the music of Billy Joel. Since I grew up on Long Island, Billy Joel was to me what Bruce Springsteen was to people in New Jersey: a hometown boy who hit it big. So I knew the music of this production pretty well. One of my cousins has been a member of the company since the show premiered, so we got to have dinner with her after the show. An enjoyable outing in the Big Apple!

Here, for your consideration is my first Top 10 list of the season. First up: the best in television in the past calendar year. I've limited myself to regularly scheduled programs (no specials, sporting events, wardrobe malfunctions, or presidential debates--"He forgot Poland!")

10. The Simpsons. Because more than fifteen years into its run, the show is still capable of moments of brilliance, even if it is not as consistent as it once was. Moreover, it retains its delightfully subversive sensibility. As in the past, it’s the wonderfully detailed second- and third-tier characters that keep this half hour ticking.

9. Curb Your Enthusiasm, which we need to see a lot more of. It's more or less an HBO version of Seinfeld focusing on George Costanza living in L.A.

8. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. At its peak in this election year. A spot on send-up of the worlds of politics and the media.

7. The West Wing. Despite the continued absence of a sorely missed scripter Aaron Sorkin, the shake-up in the White House staff following Leo’s heart attack, the machinations involved in the forthcoming election to detemine Bartlet's successor, and the president’s recent battles with his multiple sclerosis have returned this program to "Must See TV" status.

6. The O.C. I know, I know: it’s mindless, but a guilty pleasure nonetheless. The snappy dialogue makes up for the tedious soap opera angst.

5. Drawn Together. Little seen show on Comedy Central that features totally warped humor. It’s amazing what they have gotten away with, but I guess the animated format makes it easier for the censors to hold their nose. If The O.C. is a guilty pleasure, then this one's a naughty pleasure.

4. Alias. I was a latecomer to this show, having watched the first three seasons on DVD--which may, in fact, be the best way to watch a serial thriller like this. I'll be watching season four when it returns to the air starting in January.

3. The Sopranos. Hard-hitting season #5 was a welcome return to form. Oh, poor Adriana!

2. Arrested Development. Friggin’ hilarious. Hasn't missed a beat in its second season, either. Best comic plotting since Seinfeld.

1. Lost. Heads and shoulders above the field. Not just the best new show on TV, but the best overall right now. This was a surprise to me. I watched the premiere with some wariness, but by the third episode I was totally hooked. There is no more inventive, suspenseful character-driven show on the air.

Near misses and honorable mentions: the third season of 24; HBO's Entourage; the new season of Smallville--the addition of a young Lois Lane to the cast has made this program a bit more interesting; Saturday Night Live, which always seems to find its voice in an election year (the debate send-ups were clever); Everwood--I gave Jack & Bobby a try, but this is the only "family drama" that I see with any regularlity; and The Office special, which wrapped up this terrific British import both sweetly and snarkily.

In presenting my picks for the best DVD releases of 2004, I’ve leaned heavily toward multi-disc collections, which appears the direction into which the industry is moving.

10. The Simpsons, Seasons 4 and 5. The golden age of this animated classic. Some of the episodes in these two collections released in 2004 are absolutely delightful.

9. Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 2. A priceless assortment of 60 cartoons restored to their full glory. A worthy successor to the excellent Volume 1.

8. The Office, Seasons 1 and 2 and Special. Bloody brilliant British comedy with a perfect cast. Hilarious.

7. Live Aid. This gem on four discs is a time capsule of pop music in the summer of 1985. The Live Aid double concert in the U.S. and the U.K. was equivalent of Woodstock for the MTV generation. I missed seeing the original broadcast, as I was far from a television set, immersed in my first teaching job on the campus of St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, but later that summer I wore through a VCR cassette of the action in Wembley and Philadelphia. The clear highlight for me: U2’s breakthrough performance.

6. Da Ali G Show: The Complete First Season. I stumbled on this show in the late spring almost by accident. A friend had loaned me a bootleg copy of the first season shows on HBO before the disc had been commercially released. It sat next to my TV for a couple of months before I started to feel guilty I hadn't given it back to her. So I popped it in the DVD player on a quiet weekend night while on duty in the dorm. After fifteen minutes in which I was trying to figure out what this was all about, the laughs came: fall out of the chair, gasping for air, deep belly laughs. At their best moments, Sasha Baron Cohen’s characters--Ali G, Borat, and Bruno--made me laugh as hard as I've ever laughed.

5. Alias, Seasons 1, 2, and 3. This is a bit of a cheat to lump all three seasons together as one item on my list, especially as not all were released in 2004. But I watched them all this past year and 2004 is when I got hooked on the series. Season 1 was a February obsession, Season 2 took up more of my spring break than I'd care to admit, and then I got up to date with the release of the third set in September.

4. Seinfeld, Seasons 1 & 2 and Season 3. I went for the collector's set, with the Monk's Café salt and pepper shakers and the annotated script. I usually steer clear of these fancy packages, but I this case it seemed like the cheapest way to get all three season at once from Amazon. I got to watch a slew of Season 3 episodes with some colleagues while we traveled to a school function on a bus and was reminded just how very funny this show was at its peak.

3. Freaks And Geeks: The Complete Series, Deluxe Edition. This package, delivered in a replica of a high school yearbook, wonderfully captures my days as a teenager. The setting of the show lines up nearly perfectly with my era. And the deluxe set has just loads of material. What a terrific soundtrack, too. I missed the show when it originally aired, but it's a treat to see it in this wonderfully complete DVD package.

Tie, 2. Indiana Jones and Star Wars trilogy boxed sets. These offerings from Lucasfilm contain some of my all-time favorite movies plus a bunch of nifty behind-the-scenes extras. They look and sound great. The DVD versions were well worth the wait. But they could have slid into the top slot, had (a) we been offered the original theatrical releases of the Star Wars flicks (we know Greedo did NOT shoot first!); and/or (b) Spielberg had broken down to give us director's commentaries on the Indy movies.

1. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Version). The conclusion to Peter Jackson's magnum opus winds up at the top of my list in part because the original film was so well made, but more because Jackson shows the rest of the film industry just how good the DVD format can be in presenting a film. The extended versions of all three LOTR movies reflect tremendous care in their assembly and probably will be regarded as the "definitive" versions of the these films in years to come. When put together, the three extended version packages comprise an epic that spans almost 12 hours of film. And it's all utterly gorgeous. But what makes these collections so exquisite is the sheer volume of extras. The additional materials reflect the same sort of attention to detail that was typical of the movies themselves. An A+ release.

Honorable mentions and near misses: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seasons 1 and 2, if for nothing else than for the "Beloved Aunt" episode; The West Wing, Seasons 2 and 3: the good old days of Aaron Sorkin dialogue, snappily delivered by one of television’s best ensemble casts; and Spider-Man 2, a movie that was deservedly a box office smash in the summer.

In middle of the parking lot of my Condado Beach hotel here in San Juan, I found lying on the ground the CD boxed set of the first four U.S. releases. This is something I could never imagine spending money on, as I already have all the music on other discs, but it's sure nice to have drop into my lap!

Okay, I admit my pop music tastes have not developed much since 1990, but for better or worse, here's what earned my top ratings for the past calendar year:

7. The acoustic versions of Seal's songs on Best: 1991-2004, especially "Kiss From A Rose."

6. Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits. A great collection of Mellencamp's work over the course of twenty-five years.

5. Five For Fighting, "100 Years." I really like this song.

4. Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters. Because I'm a sucker for a group that channels early 1970s Elton John in such a captivating fashion (check out "Take Your Mama"). The strange cover of "Comfortably Numb"--hands down, one of my favorite songs of all time--is beguilingly catchy.

3. Elton John, Peachtree Road. Sir Elton still has a knack for melody and this collection of tracks picks up where Songs From the West Coast left off--a fine assemblage of tunes worthy of comparison to the singer's early 1970s work.

2. The Complete U2. This exclusive iTunes release was significant for me less because of the music it included--I had the majority of the material on CD already, though there were some nice unreleased, rare, and live performance cuts included in the mix--than because of the ground-breaking concept of a digital box set. I can think of a dozen artists for whom I'd part with money to get something similar.

1. U2, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. The Irish quartet prove they are still the most important band in the world. 'Nuff said.

I confess to having seen precious few movies in the theater this year. I've missed many of the picks on critics' best 10 lists, in particular. So the following group consists mostly of popcorn flicks that I enjoyed in 2004; I have not ranked them 1-10, so in no particular order:

Hero. A tremendous visual spectacle. Stunningly gorgeous.

Kill Bill, Volume 2. Far from perfect, but visceral when at its best. The scene of Uma Thurman being buried alive still gives me chills.

Farenheit 9/11. There surely are valid criticisms of Michael Moore's presentation, but but controversy aside, this stands as a fine piece of film-making.

The Passion Of The Christ. There surely are valid criticisms of Mel Gibson's presentation, but controversy aside, this stands as a fine piece of film-making.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Alfonso Cuaron's sure-handed direction raises the bar in the latest installment of this Warner Bros. franchise.

Super Size Me. An effective documentary in the best muck-raking tradition.

Spider-Man 2. This sequel successfully captured the spirit of Stan Lee's Marvel Comics in the 1960s.

The Incredibles. Like Spider-Man 2, this manages to be a lot of fun while making some thoughtful points. Terrific animated film.

Collateral. The best movie I saw this year. Great script, tremendous acting, excellent direction from Michael Mann.

Honorable mention: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. An underrated movie that does amazing things with digital technology. A throwback to the "B" movies of sixty years ago.

Check it: new episode of Lost, season premiere of Alias, and new episode of The West Wing, plus Drawn Together. That is one tough to beat line-up!

Tonight marks the return of MI-5 on the A&E cable channel. This British import--called Spooks on the other side of the pond--is pretty gripping stuff. And with Alias and 24 also returning to the air in the same week, it's the first time we've had spy shows on TV in months.

Fresh from the Interet:

NORTH AMERICA DATES AND TICKETING INFORMATION

March 28th San Diego, CA - Sports Arena
April 1st Anaheim, CA - Arrowhead Pond
April 5th Los Angeles, CA - Staples Center
April 9th San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion
April 14th Phoenix, AZ - Glendale Arena
April 20th Denver, CO - Pepsi Center
April 24th Seattle, WA - Key Arena
April 28th Vancouver, BC - General Motors Place
May 7th & May 9th Chicago, IL - United Center
May 14 Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center
May 17 & May 18 East Rutherford, NJ - Continental Airlines Arena
May 21 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
May 24 & May 26 Boston, MA - Fleet Center

Tickets for performances in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia and San Diego will go on sale this Saturday, January 29th.

Tickets for performances in Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Jose go on sale this Sunday, January 30th and tickets for New York and East Rutherford go on sale next Monday, January 31st. (All additional on sale dates will be announced in the next few weeks.)

Once again, U2 will offer General Admission floor tickets giving fans the best view in the house for the lowest ticket price. Reserved seat tickets in the stands will also be available. In North America, general admission floor tickets will be $49.50 (plus applicable service fees). Additional ticket prices will vary per market. There will be an 8 ticket limit per person with a maximum purchase of 2 general admission floor tickets.

EUROPEAN DATES AND TICKETING INFORMATION

June 10th Brussels - King Baudouin Stadium
June 12th Gelsenkirchen - Schalke Stadium
June 14th Manchester - City of Manchester Stadium
June 18th London - Twickenham Stadium
June 21st Glasgow - Hampden Park
June 24th Dublin - Croke Park
June 29th Cardiff - Millenium Stadium

2nd July Vienna - Ernst Happel Stadium
5th July Katowice - Slaski Stadium
7th July Berlin - Olympic Stadium
9th July Paris - Stade de France
11th July Zurich – Letzigrund Stadium
13th July Amsterdam – Arena
19th July Milan - San Siro
23rd July Rome - Olympic Stadium
27th July Oslo - Vallehovin Stadium;
29th July Gothenburg - Ullevi Stadium
31st July Copenhagen - Parken

3rd August Munich - Olympic Stadium
5th August Nice - Parc des Sports Charles Ehrmann
7th August Barcelona – Camp Nou
9th August San Sebastian - Anoeta Stadium
11th August Madrid - Estadio Vicente Calderon
14th August Lisbon - Alvalade

Tickets for the UK shows go on sale at 9am Friday, January 28th; tickets for
Brussels go on sale Saturday, January 29th and tickets for Dublin go on sale on Friday 4th February. (All additional on sale dates will be announced in the coming weeks.)

I have pre-sale access tickets to the tour tomorrow and have to decide where to see the band (maybe the end of the leg in Boston?). I may try to score tickets to Glasgow as well!

The current season of 24 is clearly the best yet. The first six episodes have been increasingly satisfying. Tonight's was probably the best hour of the show so far. Here's hoping they can maintain the pace!

I am heading to the Fleet Center in Boston on May 26 with primo seats for U2!!! The last concert I saw in Boston Garden--the previous incarnation of the Fleet Center--was also U2, on The Joshua Tree tour in the fall of 1987. I am SO psyched for this. It will be the last show of this leg of their tour. (I may try to get more tickets for a New York show when they add dates, as they inevitably will after the initial round of sell-outs.)

I well remember twenty years ago--January of 1985--spending a very cold night on the streets of Worcester, Massachusetts outside the Centrum, waiting to get tickets for a show on U2's Unforgettable Fire tour later that spring. A few of us in college made an adventure out of it back then. It was a pleasant contrast to roll out of bed rather late this morning on this school holiday, sit at my computer a few minutes before 10:00 a.m., press a few buttons and have the tickets sent to me via email. I certainly stayed a lot warmer!

I caught the new trailer for the final Star Wars installment last night while checking e-mail on an AOL account (turns out AOL members have exclusive access to the trailer for a while). It looks pretty promising. Hopefully I'll see this trailer again on the silver screen tonight; I am heading out to the movies for the first time in over two months--which surely is a record drought for me since the age of about 12!

Like the terrific current run of 24, this season's The West Wing is reinvigorated. I just ordered the Season 4 DVD package, but the current episodes featuring Jimmy Smits, Alan Alda, Tim Matheson, and Gary Cole playing characters vying for the White House have provided a much-welcomed breath of fresh air as the Bartlet Administration nears its end. The infusion of new characters and election storylines has enabled the writers to explore virgin territory. Though Aaron Sorkin is still sorely missed--no one nails dialogue like the scribe behind A Few Good Men, The American President, and Sports Night--I am far more interested in this show than I was a year ago.

Apparently the plan is to inaugurate a new president halfway through the 2005-2006 season, assuming the show is renewed, of course. Whether Bartlet's successor will be a Republican (Alda) or a Democrat (Smits, most likely) is yet to be seen. In any case I will miss Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet.

Next week NBC will be airing the premiere episode of the American version of the brilliant British show "The Office." Having become a fan of the original, I hope the Peacock doesn't screw this up. Apparently the pilot is a faithful recreation of its counterpart, then the rest of the episodes are new scripts. Check it out here.

I checked out Robots last night, the latest in computer-generated animation films. The movie was cute in terms of story and character--appropriate for kids, with enough knowing pop culture references worked in for the benefit of older viewers. What was amazing was the eye candy; the refinement of this sort of animation has continued to develop impressively. The metallic surfaces that dominated the look of the film worked really well when rendered by computer.

The surprise of the television season for me has been the Sci-Fi Channel's resurrection of Battlestar Galactica. I remember the cheesy 1970s version, which was more or less an attempt to cash in on the Star Wars craze. The current incarantion takes the central premise and main characters of the original and gives them a darker, more serious, and more realistic spin. The season-ending cliffhanger aired last night wrapped up a very strong batch of episodes.

Here's a first: Trent Reznor has made available his new single release in GarageBand format, so if you download it, you can manipulate the tracks yourself to create your own mix. Pretty cool. It's here. One cautionary note: you'll need the latest release, GarageBand 2.x (a.k.a. iLife '05), to access the song.

One of the few truly funny shows on TV right now is Arrested Development, which the critics love but the ratings don't seem to support. Watch this show, buy the first season DVD set, tell your uncle who works in the Fox programming department to keep this show around.

Season finale is tonight at 8:30.

The above "art" masterpiece was created by manipulating filters of a digital photograph in Macromedia Fireworks.

Okay, so I didn't exactly run out and see this flick right when it came out at the tail end of last year. Wes Anderson's latest is about to come out on DVD next month, but I caught it on the big screen at the discount theater on a rainy Saturday night. It's typical of Anderson's other films: quirky, droll, and surprisingly engaging. Thumbs up.

Bruce Springsteen's new album has been released as a DualDisc, which I read as the recording industry's efforts to keep consumers buying discs in the era of downloads. The premise is that one side is a traditional CD, while the other is a DVD with video "extras." Of course, this format is much harder to duplicate that conventional CDs (or DVDs, for that matter).

On first listen, the album is pretty good. It's acoustic solo Bruce, in the vein of Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad.

In the category of pretty cool coming attractions, I present this.

Sydney Pollack's new film The Interpreter is an entertaining entry in the political thriller/mystery genre. This is set in and around the U.N. headquarters in New York and features Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn.

I've been listening to the 1991 release Achtung Baby extensively while driving the past week or so, no doubt in anticipation of seeing U2 in concert in late May. This album still stands up as an absolutely TREMENDOUS collection of songs: "Zoo Station," "Even Better Than The Real Thing," "One," "Until The End Of The World," "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses," "The Fly," "Mysterious Ways," "Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World," and "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" stand out. Most artists would be thrilled to have one or two songs as good on any one album.

Tomorrow night, May 1, the Griffin clan returns to television in new episodes. Fox canceled Family Guy a couple of years back, only to reverse the decision in light of through-the-roof DVD sales and rerun ratings on cable.

Over the Long Weekend break from school, I visited my folks on Long Island and dove into The Errol Flynn Signature Collection, a Warner Brothers compilation of some of Flynn's best movies on DVD (with the notable exception of the five-star The Adventures Of Robin Hood, which WB already released as part of another collection). This set includes such gems as Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, Dodge City, and They Died With Their Boots On, and each disc includes a newsreel and a Warner cartoon to emulate the moviegoing experience of the late 1930s and early 1940s.

It's Thursday.

One week until Revenge of the Sith.

Two weeks until U2 in Boston.

A new Harry Potter flick is on its way in November. The trailer is now online here. Looks pretty cool.

Both USA Today and The New York Times gave positive reviews to the latest Star Wars installment, due later this week, in this morning's editions. The latter paper described Revenge of the Sith as better than Episode IV: A New Hope (or, as I knew it in 1977, simply "Star Wars").

10:30 show tonight.

I didn't want to deal with the hordes of REAL die-hards at midnight last night--you know those who showed up in Jedi robes and Yoda ears. Moreover, since I'm taking a dozen allegedly studious schoolchildren with me, getting home at 3 a.m. would have killed them in their Thursday classes. So tonight it is and I am looking forward to it.

Okay, folks, still pretty wired as I write this in the wee hours of the morning in spite of a two-hour drive from Boston. Just got in from the U2 show, you see, and it was terrific, fantastic, wonderful, inspiring, and the like. The band adjusted their setlist to include a handful of my favorite songs; they must have had a hunch I was there!

This was my fifth concert with the boys from Dublin and on the way home I was trying to piece together in my head the songs I had heard in previous shows. Thanks to the Internet (and a site called U2tours.com), the following is everything I've seen U2 perform in person. (This is probably more to document my nostalgia than to inform any reader who stumbles onto this blog, but here goes:)

The Unforgettable Fire Tour
Date: April 16, 1985
Venue: The Centrum, Worcester, MA

11 O'Clock Tick Tock
I Will Follow
Seconds
MLK
The Unforgettable Fire
Wire
Two Hearts Beat As One
Sunday Bloody Sunday
The Electric Co.
A Sort Of Homecoming
Bad
October
New Year's Day
Pride

Knocking On Heaven's Door
Gloria
40

The Joshua Tree Tour
Date: September 18, 1987
Venue: Boston Garden, Boston, MA

Where the Streets Have No Name
I Will Follow
Trip Through Your Wires
I Still Haven't Found
MLK
The Unforgettable Fire
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running to Stand Still
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Exit
In God's Country
Help
Helter Skelter
Bad
October
New Year's Day
Pride

One Tree Hill
With Or Without You
Spanish Eyes
Out Of Control
40

Elevation Tour
Date: June 03, 2001
Venue: Civic Center, Hartford, CT

Elevation
Beautiful Day
Until The End Of The World
Mysterious Ways
In My Life/Stuck In A Moment
Kite
Gone
New York
I Will Follow
Sunday Bloody Sunday/Get Up Stand Up
In A Little While
Desire
Stay
Bad/40
Where the Streets Have No Name
Pride

Bullet The Blue Sky
With Or Without You
The Fly
One/She's A Mystery To Me
Walk On

Elevation Tour
Date: October 30, 2001
Venue: Dunkin Donuts Center, Providence, RI

Elevation
Beautiful Day
Until The End Of The World
New Year's Day
Out Of Control
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Stuck In A Moment
Kite
Angel Of Harlem
Please
Bad
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Pride

Bullet the Blue Sky
What's Going On
New York
One
When Will I See You Again
Walk On

Vertigo Tour
Date: May 26, 2005
Venue: Fleet Center, Boston, MA

City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Gloria
The Ocean
Beautiful Day/Dream On
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love And Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running To Stand Still
Pride
Where The Streets Have No Name
One

The Fly
Until The End Of The World
With Or Without You
Out Of Control
All Because Of You
Original Of The Species
Bad/40

This morning I passed by the old K-Mart plaza on Route 5, just north of Route 68 in Wallingford and it looks like the movie theater they've been working on forever is finally taking shape. We may have our very own multiplex five minutes from the Choate campus within a matter of weeks!

With classes ending early--around 10:30--on Wednesday, I bolted for the New Haven train station to spend the day in New York City, taking in two critically regarded Broadway plays. A week ago I deduced that I see more top-quality theater in London than I do in New York, despite living not much more than an hour away from the Big Apple. So I caught the matinee performance of Doubt, which won both Pulitzer and Tony awards as best play of the season and certainly lived up to expectations in my estimation. Then in the evening, I saw The Pillowman, the latest from Martin McDonagh. The latter play was a witty, provocative drama featuring excellent acting from Billy Crudup and Jeff Goldblum, among others.

As today brought a rainy summer afternoon, I decided to head to the matinee of the season's latest popcorn flick, The Fantastic Four. In the interest of full disclosure, I was an avid fan of the F.F. comics way back when. In spite of the tepid reviews I read this morning, this film did not disappoint me. It was a fun romp. Despite tweaking the origin of the foursome and altering Dr. Doom a bit, the writers and director seemed to "get" the dysfunctional family dynamic, including the relationship between the Thing and the Human Torch, and injected a fair amount of humor into the script. Thumbs up: this was a fun movie.

Thanks to Amazon.com and the U.S. Postal Service, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince arrived right on schedule in the morning mail for my weekend reading pleasure.

I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith tonight, less because I wanted to see the flick in question--it was okay, if a little slow in places--than to try out the Holiday Cinemas, which opened yesterday in the old K-Mart Plaza. The new 10-screen theater complex is okay, but nothing special. It is less than five minutes from home, though.

Okay: for all of you who have finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (and if not, what are you waiting for?), here is a site that fleshes out conclusions that I had come to when I read the end of the book. As the URL itself is something of a spoiler, I won't list it here, but only click here if you don't want the end of the book ruined!

(Thanks to blog reader Michael Koh in Singapore for the link!)

Just got in from the Coldplay concert in Hartford, the opening stop on the band's 2005 U.S. tour. For those who care about this sort of thing, here is the show's setlist:

Square One
Politik
Yellow
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Speed Of Sound
Low
The Hardest Part
Everything's Not Lost
White Shadows
The Scientist
Til Kingdom Come
Don't Panic
Clocks
Talk

Swallowed In The Sea
In My Place
Fix You

I was saddened last night to hear of the death of Peter Jennings, the ABC News anchor whom I got to know a little when I was his son's adviser at school. While I have not been a regular viewer of evening news programs, Peter always seemed to come across as a classy and sincere presence, both on the air and in person.

This sad event, combined with the recent retirements of Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, really changes the paradigm for network evening news broadcasts. How odd to have three torches passed in such a short time.

DC Comics just released a trade paperback of "imaginary stories." By that, they mean those stories that fell outside of regular continuity (like Jimmy Olsen marrying Supergirl or Lex Luthor killing Superman). Of course, the title of this collection suggests that the rest of the comics produced in the last sixty-odd years were somehow NOT imaginary! Hmmmmm . . .

Having just read these books:

I am now very much looking forward to this film by Martin Scorsese:

Check out the trailer here. It will be broadcast on PBS and released on DVD in September.

This week's edition of The New Yorker (cover dated August 22) is unusually good. Among the features are a fascinating profile of Billy Graham, another of Kinky Friedman, and a thoughtful piece on the state of French politics and culture at this time. In the "Talk of the Town" section Hendrik Hertzberg skillfully skewers the Administration's anti-science bent in the context of the current hullabaloo over "intelligent design" and the President's recently articulated (ok, not the best word to describe the man's utterances) poisition that the theory ("creationism" in new packaging) should be taught alongside evolution, as if the two approaches had equal scientific merit. Here is an excerpt:

I.D.—whose central (and easily refuted) talking point is that certain structures of living things are too intricate to have evolved without the intervention of an “intelligent designer” (and You know who You are)—enjoys virtually no scientific support. It is not even a theory, in the scientific sense, because it is untestable and unsupportable by empirical evidence. It is a last-ditch skirmish in a misguided war against reason that cannot be won and, for religion's sake as well as science's, should not be fought. If the President's musings on it were an isolated crotchet, they would hardly be worth noting, let alone getting exercised about. But they're not. They reflect an attitude toward science that has infected every corner of his Administration. From the beginning, the Bush White House has treated science as a nuisance and scientists as an interest group—one that, because it lies outside the governing conservative coalition, need not be indulged. That's why the White House-sometimes in the service of political Christianism or ideological fetishism, more often in obeisance to baser interests like the petroleum, pharmaceutical, and defense industries-has altered, suppressed, or overriden scientific findings on global warming; missile defense; H.I.V./ AIDS; pollution from industrial farming and oil drilling; forest management and endangered species; environmental health, including lead and mercury poisoning in children and safety standards for drinking water; and non-abstinence methods of birth control and sexually-transmitted-disease prevention. It has grossly misled the public on the number of stem-cell lines available for research. It has appointed unqualified ideologues to scientific advisory committees and has forced out scientists who persist in pointing out inconvenient facts.

For the entire piece, click here.

This is priceless:

Yeah, I could tell you about it, but just click here and be surprised.

The Internet has all kinds of interesting corners to explore. There is a database on this site that contains tens of thousands of comic book covers. The issue pictured above is the very first comic I can remember reading as a 5-year-old in the back seat of the family car. For the record, it's Superman #228 (July 1970). I think this was bought to entertain me when my family was driving south to spend the summer in Guadalajara, Mexico.

It's posted here. Check it out.

Today's magazine section of The New York Times has an excellent piece on U2 frontman and ambassador of the world Bono.

The season premiere of "Lost" on ABC was excellent, highlighted by an amazing opening sequence. Hopefully this show avoids a sophomore slump; if tonight was any indication, Season 2 will be a fun ride!

If you haven't seen the show, I recommend you digest Season 1 on the recently released DVD set.

I like the scans posted of this scanned brochure because it combines Matt Groening's brilliant "Life In Hell" cartoons with an education-oriented Apple Macintosh advertisement. (Click on the cover to see the entire brochure.)

Sheryl Crow's new album, Wildflower, arrived via iTunes Music Store download this morning and it's very good. Thumbs up!

Tonight at 8:00 there is a logjam of shows I want to watch: the season premieres of both Alias and Smallville in addition to the latest installment of The O.C. While it's not unusual that there have been two things of interest to me on the telly at the same time, I can't recall a three-way contest for my viewing attention.

I saw Serenity tonight at the local multiplex. I was one of those who missed the film's antecedent television series Firefly (which was incredibly short-lived) when it aired, but I did watch the DVDs some time later, so I was familiar with the characters and setting of the film. But I don't think one had to be to enjoy this movie. Most critics have praised the writing and I would agree: this film blends drama, action, and special effects eye candy with considerable humor for a an enjoyable two hours of escapism.

I saw Bruce Springsteen perform at the Hartford Civic Center tonight--the first Springsteen concert I've attended. The show was part of his "Devils And Dust" solo acoustic tour (in other words, sans the E Street Band). Apparently there are over 100 songs The Boss rotates through his set lists on this tour, alternating between organ, guitar, and piano accompaniment.

The evening's 27-song set list:

Back In Your Arms Again
Wreck On The Highway
Idiot's Delight
Devils And Dust
The Ties That Bind
Long Time Comin'
Silver Palomino
Incident On 57th Street
Tougher Than The Rest
Part Man Part Monkey
All I'm Thinkin' About
Something In The Night
Reno
All That Heaven Will Allow
Lost In The Flood
My Hometown
The Rising
Lucky Town
Jesus Was An Only Son
Two Hearts
The Hitter
Matamoros Banks

I Wanna Marry You
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
Bobby Jean
The Promised Land
Dream Baby Dream

Enjoying the Long Weekend break, I digested the entirety of Neil Gaiman's latest novel, Anansi Boys, which was an entertaining read. It's a sequel to American Gods but does not require familiarity with that book at all. Thumbs up.

New DVD out today, for all of you looking to complete your collection!

This child of the late 1970s and early 1980s enjoyed a retro night at the Journey concert right here in Wallingford. I took eleven teenagers see a band that peaked long before any of them were born. I was only mildly disappointed to find out that I had been hoodwinked during the show into thinking that the lead singer was actually Steve Perry. The soundalike was pretty credible, though, belting out renditions of "Don't Stop Believing," "Faithfully," "Wheel In The Sky," "Anyway You Want It," et. al.

The DVD of U2's Vertigo 2005 tour arrived via Amazon this morning (the deluxe edition, of course!). It holds warm memories of the May concert I saw in Boston just after this Chicago show was filmed.

I took in the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise at the local cinematic emporium last night with an assortment of 16-, 17-, and 18-year-olds who apparently have been weaned on a steady diet of Hogwarts books and movies. The film did not disappoint. I find that while I read these Harry Potter books when they come out--usually flying through each one in a day or so--I promptly forget all the details of the plot so that when the corresponding movie comes out a few years later, it all seems pretty new to me. I suppose that's good. For example, I had forgotten the twist at the end of "Goblet of Fire." Thumbs up.

. . . and I will be there. December 7--a day that will live in more than just infamy!

ABC announced Wednesday that Alias will be canceled at the end of this, its fifth, season. I was a latecomer to the show, devouring the first three seasons on DVD. Frankly, I thought the show gradually went downhill, season by season. What used to be grippingly suspenseful has gotten boringl it can no longer hold a candle to 24 in the category of outlandish serial action thrillers on television. Nothing that followed could match the appeal of the first season, with Jennifer Garner as a part-time grad student with a seemingly normal existence who was leading a double (triple?) life as a CIA spy within the SD-6 organization. The detailed touches of the "normal" side of Sydney Bristow's life--like her interactionx with roommate Francie and best friend Will--brought some much-needed human interest into otherwise far-fetched plots. I even liked the Rambaldi mythology before it got too played out. But this season, with a very pregnant Sydney still in action around the world, has become preposterous far beyond my capacity for the suspension of disbelief.

A good piece on the world's biggest rock band in the Business section of the this morning's Times:

Media Age Business Tips From U2

by David Carr

IN pop culture, nothing lasts forever. But U2 is coming close.

On the surface, the formula U2 used to send 20,000 fans into sing-along rapture at Madison Square Garden last Tuesday night was as old as rock 'n' roll: four blokes, three instruments, a bunch of good songs. Add fans, cue monstrous sound system, light fuse and back away.

But that does not explain why, 25 years in, four million people will attend 130 sold-out shows this year and next that will gross over $300 million and how their most recent album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," has already sold eight million copies.

For that, you have to look at U2 less as a band than as a multimillion-dollar, multinational media company, one of the smarter ones around.

"We always said it would be pathetic to be good at the music and bad at the business," said Paul McGuinness, the band's manager since the beginning. And while U2 hasn't become a Harvard Business School case study (at least not yet) it offers an object lesson in how media can connect with their customers.

MEET THE CONSUMERS WHERE THEY LIVE For years, the U2 fanzine Propaganda was used to feed the tribe. The band's Web presence was restricted to temporary sites for specific tours. But in 2000, U2 opened an extensive Web site, with an index to every song and album, lyrics, tour news that is refreshed nightly and subscriber features - for those die-hards willing to part with $40 - that allowed them access to tickets, exclusive content and streaming downloads of every song and video the band has ever made.

APOLOGIZE, THEN MOVE ON With the Vertigo tour, it became apparent that some of those fans who had paid good money to join U2's Web site had been elbowed aside by scalpers in the scrum for tickets. The band's response was to apologize immediately and promise to do better.

"The idea that our longtime U2 fans and scalpers competed for U2 tickets through our own Web site is appalling to me," the drummer Larry Mullen wrote in a statement issued by the band as soon as the problem arose. "I want to apologize to you who have suffered that."

EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY While other big acts were scolding and threatening fans for downloading music or, in the case of Metallica, suing Napster, U2 was busy working on a new business model.

A collaboration with Apple yielded a U2 special edition iPod that was a smash hit and gave visibility to the band at a time when most radio station playlists don't extend much beyond a narrow selection of pop singers. With iTunes, U2 produced what may be the industry's first downloadable version of a box set, offering the band's entire musical history for $149.

"We thought it was an opportunity to be taken with both hands," said Mr. McGuinness. Contrast that statement with anything from Hollywood on digital technology in the last three years.

DON'T EMBARRASS YOUR FANS Sure, U2 has recorded some clunkers (1997's "Pop" comes to mind) but the band works and reworks material until it has a whole album's worth of songs, no filler. Last Tuesday, the band played at least four of the songs from the current album, giving the songs a shot at entering the pantheon and affirming U2's status as a contemporary band, not a guilty pleasure or retro musical act that covers their own earlier greatness. (Quick, what's the last Rolling Stones' album?)

"Don't embarrass your fans," Bono told The New York Times last year. "They've given you a good life."

BE CAREFUL HOW YOU SELL OUT U2 has been offered as much as $25 million to allow a song to be used in a car commercial. No dice. They traded brands, not money, with Apple. Bob Dylan may wander around in a Victoria's Secret ad and The Who will rent "My Generation" to anybody with the wherewithal, but the only thing U2's music sells is U2. Just because it will fold and go in someone's pocket - The New Yorker publishing ads illustrated by its cartoonists comes to mind - does not mean it will be beneficial over the long haul.

EMBRACE POLITICIANS, NOT POLITICS I watched Bono, during the Republican Convention last year, hold Bill O'Reilly of Fox News rapt with a lengthy discussion of AIDS in Africa. Last summer, he posed for a photograph with President Bush, congratulating him for the work his administration had done for Africa.

"Their credibility is very strong," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, a trade magazine covering the concert industry. "I don't think there is anybody who doesn't believe that they are sincere in what they are doing."

(Bono came close to jumping the shark by donning a blindfold and miming a prison torture scene during "Bullet the Blue Sky," the band's fatwa against United States military intervention and then saying at the end of the song, "This is dedicated to the brave men and women of the U.S. military." Which of these things, Bono?)

IT'S CALLED SHOW BUSINESS FOR A REASON In 1980, I was standing with my sister at First Avenue bar in Minneapolis watching a then little-known band from Dublin take the stage. The Edge, the band's lead guitarist, kicked into a chiming, ringing salute, the opening chords of "I Will Follow." Bono ambled out, absently drinking a glass of water and when the drummer kicked in, Bono tossed the water into the lights above him, a mist enshrouding him - and us - as he stepped to the mike.

Much theatrical and musical combustion ensued, on that night and in the decades since. The current show is a testament to reinvestment, with a huge lighting and stage structure that managed to make Madison Square Garden seem like a cozy church, the backdrop for a secular sacrament. The Vertigo tour included seven curtains of lights, consisting of 12,000 individual bulbs, and a heart-shaped runway that may have wiped out a few hundred prime seats, but allowed thousands more to feel engaged as The Edge and Bono strode out along it during songs.

SEIZE THE MOMENT, BUT DON'T STEAL IT For years, U2 declined invitations to play at the Super Bowl, but the first one held after the attacks of Sept. 11 had special significance. Bono, in the middle of singing "Beautiful Day," slyly opened his coat to hundreds of millions of viewers and revealed it was lined with the American flag. The band adopted industrial and electronic motifs into their music in the 90's to give currency to their sound and then promptly stripped it down for the current tour. Not every gesture and instinct resonates: Let's not forget Bono's decision to go with a mullet in the mid-80's.

AIM HIGH As the central icon in the Church of the Upraised Fist - a temporary concert nation of gesturing frat boys, downloading adolescents and aging rockers reliving past glories - Bono can command his audience to do anything. During the concert last Tuesday, Bono asked the audience to send, via text message, their full names to One, an organization that fights AIDS and global poverty. They happily complied and their names were flashed on screen between encores. MTV's "Total Request Live" may attract a wider audience, but its members probably aren't made to think they are part of something bigger.

As today is World AIDS Day, it is fitting to note that Alicia Keys and Bono are releasing a song on iTunes next Tuesday that will raise money to fight children's poverty in Africa. The song is a cover of "Don't Give Up," a terrific Peter Gabriel composition (which he recorded with Kate Bush on his So album).

This morning's USA Today features the first glimpses of the new on-screen versions of the X-Men, to appear in next summer's third installment of the franchise. Above, of course, is Beast; below is Angel.

This time tomorrow night. Hartford Civic Center. U2. Me.

Less than three hours 'til showtime. Gettin' ready to leave the ground . . .

Still flying high from last night's show, the sixth time I have seen this particular Dublin band live. I sat in the best seats I've ever had for a U2 concert--two rows from the ellipse runway. Bono and the boys seemed especially energetic and made a lot of musical connections to The Beatles and John Lennon on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Lennon's death.

Here is the set list:

City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Gloria
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Beautiful Day / Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band / Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
Original Of The Species / Norwegian Wood
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love And Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah
Bullet The Blue Sky / The Hands That Built America / When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
One
Help

Until The End Of The World
Mysterious Ways / We Wish You A Merry Christmas
With Or Without You

Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Instant Karma!
Yahweh
40

On an impulse--perhaps sparked by spending a week in South Florida--I picked up the first two seasons of Miami Vice on DVD and have been gradually digesting episodes. The show is a guilty pleasure. I saw "Vice" only sporadically when it orginially aired--I just didn't watch much television at all while in college--so most of the episodes are new to me, even if it all feels somewhat familiar. The '80s soundtrack is certainly nostalgic. (There's a terrific web site guide to the music featured on the show: click here to access it.) And the show has an undeniable flair for fashion.

While at the movies the other day, I saw a trailer for a forthcoming Miami Vice film, starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx as Crockett and Tubbs. Michael Mann, who produced the television series before becoming a noted film director (Last of the Mohicans, Heat, Collateral) will direct.

I polished off two books while in South America:

My sister gave me a copy of Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia, a 1977 travel book--though the author apparently disputed that categorization--about the barren but beautiful area in southern Argentina and Chile and the people who lived (and still live) there. Interestingly, Chatwin is the most famous proponent of the Moleskin notebooks I like to use.

In Brazil the past few days, I tackled a book my mom picked out for me for Christmas: The River of Doubt, an account of Teddy Roosevelt's perilous exploration of the upper reaches of the Amazon basin after he lost his 1912 comeback bid for the White House. Candice Miller wrote a gripping treatment of this journey, grounding it in such diverse disciplines as history, politics, geology, and biology, without ever losing the human dimension of this fascinating story.

The funniest podcast I listen to comes from Ricky Gervais--he of The Office and Extras fame--and friends. Gervais and producing partner Steve Merchant host, along with the (I think) unintentionally hilarious Karl Pilkington. What makes the weekly podcast so enjoyable is the interplay, especially between the often off-the-wall Pilkington and the often incredulous Gervais. You can access the podcast here.

Last night's 2-hour season premiere of "24" was kick-ass! Two more hours tonight.

Tonight's episode of Lost was another strong installment. The creators of this show don't seem to be capable of being thrown off their game. Week to week, this drama is first-rate--the Golden Globe it won the other night was well-deserved.

NBC announced that this, the seventh season of The West Wing will be the show's last. Too bad, as it was enjoying a creative renaissance the past year, with the Vinick/Santos campaign to take over at the end of the Bartlet presidency. Tonight's episode was a good one, as the White House and the two campaigns had to respond to a nuclear power station crisis.

. . . here is a pretty funny video spoof that popped up on the 'Net.

This one is even better than the one I linked to the other day. Click here.

I drove down to Fort Lauderdale this morning to check out the exhibition at the city's art museum, "Tutanhkamen and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs." Maybe it was seeing Steve Martin host Saturday Night Live last night, but the whole time I was in the museum, I couldn't get his "King Tut" song (from a late 1970s SNL) out of my head as I meandered around all the antiquities.

I was pleasantly surprise to learn I could find the song as a download on iTunes.

Having been away over the weekend, I caught the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded," on my ReplayTV a few days after it aired; this may well have been the best one yet. Because the show falls in the science fiction genre (and because of the cheesy 1970s incarnation) a lot of potential viewers probably dismiss this show without having seen a single episode. But it's one of the best conceived and best written shows on television.

Sting recorded a vocal track to enable Sheryl Crow to release a duet version of "Always On Your Side," a song from her solid last album Wildflower. The addition of the former Police frontman's vocals made this a much better song. It's available as a download on iTunes.

Two episodes of 24 tonight. Great season so far!

The trailer for the third X-Men flick, coming out in May, aired during last night; it also has been posted here.

I saw V For Vendetta tonight. It seemed the filmmakers did a pretty good job translating the graphic novel to the screen. The movie has gotten mixed reviews, but I found it entertaining, visually interesting, and provocative.

I fired up the DVR today to get current with the new season of The Sopranos. Episode 1 of the sixth season ended with a shocker, and the follow-up dealt with the fallout. It's good to have this show back.

For the first time in a LONG time, I saw two movies in one weekend while school was in session. I watched The Inside Man this afternoon, the new Spike Lee-directed film, starring Clive Owen, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, and Christopher Plummer. It was an enjoyable movie: tautly paced, cleverly scripted, and well acted--a perfect caper flick!

I took in a very entertaining Coldplay concert this evening over at Mohegan Sun Casino. The setlist was pretty similar to the August 2005 show I saw at The Meadows in Hartford:

Square One
Politik
Yellow
Speed of Sound
God Put a Smile on Your Face
What If
Don’t Panic
White Shadows
The Scientist
Till Kingdom Come
Ring of Fire
Trouble
Clocks
Talk

Swallowed In The Sea
In My Place
Fix You

This rainy weekend I finally got around to starting the Nip/Tuck DVDs I picked up in Shanghai last month. (The boxed set of the first three seasons was awfully cheap over there!) I've digested the first two episodes and, aside from the graphic surgery scenes, it's pretty enjoyable thus far. Watching a season of a TV show on DVD is a pretty good way to do it, as the viewer controls the pacing from episode to episode, rather than being subjected to the vagaries of network scheduling.

Bruce Springsteen's new album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, is something of a romp: the music is energetic, foot-stomping, and fun. This a a radical departure from last year's decidedly more sober and somber Devils & Dust album.

I spent much of yesterday in New York City, catching the Rangers game at Madison Square Garden--in which the Devils completed their sweep to advance to the semis of the Stanley Cup playoffs--and then watching the hot new Broadway show, The History Boys, in the evening.

The production was one of the best I've seen. As a teacher--and a history and English teacher in particular--I found the play wonderfully provocative. The work is a thoughtful meditation on competing philosophies of education, the role of a teacher, and the very nature of history itself. While there is lot that's uniquely British about the play, there are universal themes here too. It's more than just serious "thee-a-tah," though, as the play is entertaining on many levels, with loads of biting humor on hand. The acting was first-rate and the staging wonderfully effective. The production was a critically acclaimed hit on the West End when it opened in London in 2004 and seems destined to a similar fate in its New York run.

It the mark of a great place that one can move seamlessly through the worlds of sport and art so easily. New York City is such a place. So is Choate.

Check this out.

For some reason, the cover to this 1971 comic book, which I once possessed, sticks in my mind. The issue was a collection of reprints, as I recall, but it was the wrap-around cover, with two Supermen, Batmen, Robins, Flashes, Green Lanterns, Atoms, Hawkmen, and Wonder Women--from Earth-1 and Earth-2, of course, as any well-read aficionado could explain--that made this so cool. Oh, the stuff that has accumulated in my head!

Saw the 10:30 p.m. debut of Mission: Impossible 3 last night. It's a "check your brain at the door for two hours" popcorn flick, but some strong points were Philip Seymour Hoffman's excellent villain and the sure-handed direction of J.J. Abrams--the man who brought us Alias and Lost.

Not sure if this is legit--it's from the Internet, after all--but here for your viewing pleasure is a pretty cool-looking "one-sheet" (to use the official term for movie posters) for the forthcoming Superman Returns:

Another:

Just one more:

The West Wing ended tonight. I'll miss this drama. It was a fixture of my Wednesday nights, and more recently Sunday nights, for seven years now. Though Aaron Sorkin's departure diminished the show somewhat, it was re-energized creatively with the Santos/Vinick campaign in the final two seasons.

Check out the very end of this international trailer for the forthcoming Superman Returns.

Last night's season finale of 24 wrapped up the loose ends of the excellent Season 5 pretty well. Nice to see President Logan get his due! But of course our hero Jack Bauer was captured by the Chinese and was last seen in the hold of a freighter bound for Asia. What will next season bring in January 2007? It's a LONG time to wait!

Saw The Da Vinci Code last night. The movie didn't really capture the breadth of ideas in the novel, but like the book, it was entertaining, if somewhat preposterous.

Second night in a row at the cinema yesterday! It was opening night for X-Men: The Last Stand. Typical summer blockbuster fare: somewhat mindless, but lots of eye candy on this roller coaster ride. The story doesn't do justice to the original Dark Phoenix saga, but who cares? One word of advice: stay until the end of the credits!

I've been enjoying a great series of inspirational ads running on ESPN2 during the Roland Garros coverage. The commercials promote the upcoming World Cup on the ABC networks and feature the music of U2 as well as voice-overs by members of the band. Check out the ads online here.

If, like me, you are a fan of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, then 2007 will bring something to look forward to: for the film's 25th anniversary, Warner Bros. is compiling an ultimate DVD edition, with all the various versions of the movie, as well as a slew of extras. The package also will be released on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats at the same time.

On the recommendation of a colleague, I started David Lodge's Nice Work today. Though I am not far into the book yet, it's already an engagingly funny satire of life in mid-1980s Britain, with a particularly acerbic take on the academic world.

It's official . . . Sir Paul McCartney is 64!

I didn't notice this coming from Paris on the Eurostar two summers ago, but on my trip from Brussels yesterday, just before the train's arrival in London's Waterloo Station, there appeared this huge factory with four smokestacks in the corners--the exact building (and from the train, viewed from pretty much the same angle) pictured on the cover the Pink Floyd's Animals album from the 1970s.

Another cool movie trailer is now online here.

Just got in from the first showing of Superman Returns. It measured up pretty well, though Kate Bosworth's Lois fell a little flat. The movie treats its source material--Richard Donner's 1978 Superman and the first of it sequels--with great reverence, even incorporating some of the best lines from those earlier films (and liberally mining John Williams' majestic scoring). Good flick overall, if perhaps a bit too long. Thumbs up.

This is a piece of music NBC Sports has used in its Wimbledon coverage since the late 1970s, something I never would have been able to track down and acquire had it not been for the good ol' World Wide Web.

Here are my results from the "Which Harry Potter Character Are You?" web quiz.

You scored as Albus Dumbledore. Strong and powerful you admirably defend your world and your charges against those who would seek to harm them. However sometimes you can fail to do what you must because you care too much to cause suffering. Albus Dumbledore 95% Harry Potter 80% Sirius Black 80% Remus Lupin 75% Draco Malfoy 70% Hermione Granger 65% Ron Weasley 55% Severus Snape 50% Ginny Weasley 40% Lord Voldemort 40% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

I saw Michael Mann's Miami Vice film tonight. It was stylish, but mediocre overall.

I spent yesterday in New York City, catching two Broadway shows: a Wicked matinee and an evening performance of Sweeney Todd.

A little over a year ago, I realized that I was seeing more theater in London than I was in New York, which is rather ironic for a resident of Connecticut! So I resolved to get in to the city to see shows at least a couple times a year. Heading in to New York on a Wednesday--something that is not really possible for me when school is in session--enables me to catch two performances in one day.

Wicked is a wonderfully subversive version of The Wizard Of Oz from the perspective of the misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West. The show is an upbeat visual effects spectacle with a peppy Stephen Schwartz score and a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

On the other hand, the current incarnation of Sweeney Todd is a stripped down rendition, with just one stark set and the ten cast members doubling up as the musicians (and stagehands, as well!). This very dark story was presented in a dramatically gripping style. The casting was first rate, especially considering the versatility needed in actors/singers who could also handle the challenging instrumental duties. This show, though very different than the afternoon production, was a treat, too.

Though I'll cop to liking the music of James Blunt, I still find this very funny.

Okay, this is kind of sophomoric, bit it IS pretty funny: click here.

Little Miss Sunshine is a very funny movie. See it.

. . . the new compilation of traditional sea chanteys featuring such singers as Bono, Sting, Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams, and two Wainwrights (father and son), among many others. The double CD is entitled Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, & Chanteys. The Bono cover is particularly affecting.

I'm also listening to the Death Cab For Cutie iTunes Originals playlist. The iTunes Originals series includes some spoken word tracks with exposition from band members, some "greatest hits" cuts, a few versions of the band's songs re-recorded specifically for this collection and--at least in this case--some music videos, all for $9.90.

Check out this ad, which I'm sure will be in heavy rotation during the U.S. Open the next couple of weeks.

This promo ad for Lost has me looking forward to the third season of this excellent show.

Just saw the Broadway production of Rent. Yeah, I know I'm ten years behind its debut, but I figured it was about time.

Bob Dylan's recent release, Modern TImes, arrived in my mailbox yesterday and it's a good listen. The album captures a lot of what's great about American music and Dylan in particular, without wallowing in nostalgia.

YouTube makes it absolutely clear that some folks have WAY too much time on their hands. In that spirit, check out this amusing little clip.

Some choice excerpts from the interview with "Comic Book Guy" (from The Simpsons, of course), courtesy of TVGuide.com:

TVGuide.com: Numerous reviews of Superman Returns cited homoerotic undertones in the film. Did you get a sense of that?

Comic Book Guy: No, and neither did the eight guys I saw it with.

TVGuide.com: Heath Ledger has signed on to play The Joker in the next Batman film. What are your thoughts on that casting choice?

Comic Book Guy: To me there is only one true Batman villain: King Tut. A true hero to all us full-figured fans.

TVGuide.com: Currently, Joss Whedon is working on a script for a Wonder Woman film. If you could give him one piece of advice, what would it be?

Comic Book Guy: Make sure Wonder Woman wears a Wonderbra. Oh, baby.

You can view the entire interview here.

Aaron Sorkin, creator of Sports Night and The West Wing, returned to television with the premiere of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip this evening. The first show had a lot of the feel of The West Wing: witty, talky, interesting character dynamics, and top-notch production values. I'll be keeping it on my DVR list to record this season.

"Eltonius Johnson" is what my friend Chuck calls Sir Elton John, whose new album out this week, The Captain And The Kid, is a sequel of sorts to the 1975 smash Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy. The latter traced the story of Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin from their days of obscurity right up to their big breakthrough in America. The new CD updates their autobiographies with material drawn from the early 1970s to the present day. It's been getting stron reviews and is well worth a listen.

The U.S. version of The Office returned for its third season tonight with an absolutely hilarious season premiere. I really thought this show would crash and burn two years ago in a lame attempt to capture the magic of its BBC predecessor. After a slow start, though, the series has gotten better and better. Based on the first new episode, it looks like the third season will continue this trend.

I got a flat tire on August 31. I got my tire repaired today. So it's been over three weeks since I've needed to drive my gas-guzzling Ford Explorer. I've either been able to drive my scooter around town or I've taken a school-owned vehicle for work-related travel.

Amazon delivered a HEAVY package today, containing the new book by and about U2. It's more than the average coffee table book, with hundreds of pages of interviews and pictures of the band drawn from the past 25+ years.

From the dependably on-target Tom Tomorrow:

I saw The Departed, Martin Scorsese's new film, tonight. It features great pacing and a first-rate cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg). The story is a version of the Hong Kong hit Infernal Affairs, set among cops and gangsters in the Boston Irish community. Thumbs up.

I took to Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip right out of the blocks this fall, but after four episodes it might be that the show in the time slot right before, Heroes, is the real NBC hook on Monday nights. The pilot was a bit slow, but I caught up on the next two episodes on my DVR this past weekend and then watched the current installment tonight. The show is getting better each week, with a bit of the Lost mystery vibe at play.

I am told that Chris Borgstrom wants to see more controversy in this blog. Okay--this is admittedly sophomoric, but it's a great example of unintentional humor from mid-1960s pop culture:

In the vein of the last post, this is taken from a 1940s Batman comic book:

I started the new book by Newsweek technology correspondent Steven Levy, The Perfect Thing, about the commercial and cultural significance of the iPod, which is five years old this month. Like songs on the device itself, the chapters of this book are shuffled in a different order, depending on which copy of the book one picks up. It's an interesting overview of the impact the Apple music player has had on the music industry, the tech industry, and global culture.

I surely don't pretend to have the pedigree of an opera lover, but I did book myself a ticket to see The Barber of Seville at the Met at the end of the month. As it will be the beginning of my sabbatical, I figure I can afford the time to develop my tastes in a new direction. While in Sydney this January, I hope to see The Marriage of Figaro in the world-famous Sydney Opera House. And, if I can swing what is a very tough ticket to get this fall, I may also check out the Anthony Minghella-directed Madame Butterfly in New York next month, too.

With no classes today, last night was an opportune time for a Mem Garden movie trip. We saw The Prestige, starring Christian Bale, High Jackman, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, and David Bowie. Everyone really liked this movie, which is about the competition between two rival magicians about a hundred years ago. Interesting food for thought in this film.

Click here for the accompanying dialogue.

I've switched my iBook to the Region 2 DVD code for the time being and have been watching the BBC's brilliant 2003 political thriller State Of Play during the Long Weekend break. Highly recommended.

Tonight I took in two diverse entertainments: I watched an all-female student cast perform Antigone on campus and then took the Mem Garden crew to see Borat (or to use the full title, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan). Pretty wide range of high culture and low culture!

Tonight I will see Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera House. The performances of this production have been sold out, as it's been greatly hyped. Anthony Minghella, the auteur behind such films as The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed.

It was a treat to travel to New York City for the opera. The Madama Butterfly production was an interesting mix of culture: a Chilean diva starring in an Italian opera set in Japan dealing with attitudes of American imperialism. I cannot claim expertise enough to assess the quality of performance as a true aficionado might, but it was an impressive visual and musical spectacle.

Just got home from seeing Casino Royale, a leaner, meaner installment of the James Bond franchise starring Daniel Craig as the new 007. It holds together pretty well as an action film, with more emphasis on great stunt work and drama than the old reliance on gadgets and humor.

Today I listened to Love, the new Beatles release--well, to be more accurate, a mash-up of classic Beatles tracks--created for the Cirque de Soleil show in Las Vegas by Fab Four producer George Martin. I got the deluxe edition with the DVD Audio disc, which sounds spectacular. These familar songs sound fresh, having been remixed with tracks from other songs. The entire disc is sonically very interesting.

I made my second trip to the Metropolitan Opera this month last night, seeing Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). As a neophyte to the world of opera, I still was blown away by the talented singers who gave impressive rapid-fire deliveries of Rossini's music. The production was funny and engaging. Perhaps because I listened to a recording of the opera the past few weeks in preparation, I got more out of this performance than I did Madama Butterfly a few weeks back.

This book--Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman--is an entertaining series of entries on all manner of low culture in American over the past thirty years or so: a perfect read for someone of my age and sensibility. The fact that the book is a collection of short, unconnected essays makes it perfect bathroom reading. (Thanks, Max Alpert, for showing me this.)

The film 300, based on the epic Spartan battle at Thermopylae, is based on a Frank Miller graphic novel (as was Sin City) and the trailer suggests this will be a visually striking flick. Check it out here.

If Battlestar Galactica were produced by the makers of The Simpsons, this is what you might see. More here.

Looks like I won't get to see the Nip/Tuck season 4 finale tonight as planned. The Anaheim Marriott doesn't get the F/X cable network. What th-?

Hope my ReplayTV records the show as scheduled.

If you're not watching NBC's The Office, you are missing one of the truly great shows on television. Tonight's hour-long episode was hilarious.

I saw Eragon tonight. It was not as bad as I had expected, given the pretty tepid reviews, but it was awfully derivative (about 60% Star Wars + 30% Lord Of The Rings + 10% Harry Potter).

I saw The Queen this afternoon at a cinema right next to Circular Quay and the Opera House. It's a captivating film featuring a brilliant performance by Helen Mirren, who is already being tipped for Oscar honors. Don't miss this movie.

A bit obvious, perhaps: "New Year's Day" by U2 on the War album.

After dropping off my passport and visa paperwork at the Indian Consulate in the morning, I took the bus over to the Paddington neighborhood to see The African Queen, the John Huston-directed 1951 classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. I had never seen it before, and it was far better to watch the film on the big screen. One of the art cinemas in town had a restored color print. Besides, while there are a bunch of films playing back home I am still eager to see, there's precious little else playing in the movie theaters here that looks worthwhile. The Queen--which I watched Sunday--was one exception and Babel--which I surely will catch one of these days--is another.

Okay, this song may be another obvious choice, given where I am right now, but it's an interesting acoustic take on "Down Under" by the lead singer of Men At Work.

Rather than just looking at the landmark Opera House here in Sydney, I decided to see something IN the building, and so I attend the opening night of the summer season, catching The Marriage Of Figaro. The Mozart opera is something of a sequel to The Barber Of Seville, which I saw at The Met a few weeks back. Both productions were impressive, though the Sydney opera couldn't compete with the star power and manic energy of the New York production. It may be that Rossini's Figaro is a more interesting character, too. Both shows were impressive, but the Barber was more fun.

Keeping with the Australian theme, here's my favorite song about a woman lying naked on the floor.

Today's offering is from Elton John's Live In Australia album--which now is 20 years old! This gem of a song, performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, is called "The Greatest Discovery."

On a whim, I caught the 3:30 showing of Blood Diamond in a downtown mall in Brisbane. An entertaining movie about the brutal intersection of the diamond industry and African warfare. Not a great film, but a reasonably well made one on a provocative topic.

This ain't no party
This ain't no disco
This ain't no foolin' around.

When I got up this morning and checked my e-mail, there was a message from the iTunes Music Store alerting me that the latest episode of The Office was available for download. Staying in touch with favorite shows back home like this is a relatively recent treat; certainly I couldn't do it during my last sabbatical trip in 1998.

Earlier in the week, I downloaded from iTMS an episode from the Discovery Atlas series on the Discovery Channel, one called "Australia Revealed." The overview of the country is nearly two hours long--but still only $1.99!--beautifully photographed in high definition, and narrated by Russell Crowe. I was turned on to the series by another Discovery Atlas episode ("China Revealed") on DVD that I was given for Christmas by a cousin; I watched this documentary on my portable Panasonic player on one of my flights. It's a great series. You can see it in all its splendor on the Discovery HD network, if you get it. Or you can order the DVDs for about $20 or download episodes from iTunes Music Store for $2. Here's the link to "Australia Revealed":

The David Bowie classic: Life On Mars? 'Nuff said.

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl

This is a Sydney-themed piece: the great anti-war song "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" about an Australian soldier going to fight for the British Empire at Gallipoli in World War I. This cover is by The Pogues.

I've been working my way through Volume I of Gene Wolfe's The Book Of The New Sun, a highly regarded science fantasy tale I picked up last week here in Sydney. Like the best of the genre, it's very provocative and creates a detailed world of its own.

Boston's "More Than A Feeling." I heard it on the radio Sunday morning while driving back to Brisbane and it brought back memories of junior high school. A great song.

The Dire Straits, "Sultans Of Swing," featuring some of Mark Knopfler's virtuoso work on the guitar.

I fnally got around to seeing Babel tonight. It's a long movie, but it is engaging. At first, it's not clear why the film is jumping around along four seemingly disparate storylines, but it all comes together. The film is well made and thought-provoking.

This is Peter Gabriel's 1990 re-recording of his own "Here Comes The Flood." It's a much better version than the original, which is a bit too over-produced for my tastes.

This morning, I walked over to Darling Harbor's IMAX theater to see The Mystery Of The Nile. As I am scheduled to be spend some time on the Nile myself just a few weeks from now, I thought this would be a good preparation for my visit to Egypt. The ads for the film are a bit misleading, as the film is much less about the historical aspects of Egyptian culture along the river (pyramids, tombs, etc.) than it is about an adventure-filled modern-day rafting trip from the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia down to the river's mouth in Alexandria. Still, the photography was stunning in the big film format.

The master lyricist among the singer-songwriters who came to prominence in the 1970s was Jackson Browne. Here is one of his earliest hits: "Doctor My Eyes."

I saw Pan's Labyrinth this afternoon. This movie, like Babel and Children Of Men (the latter of which I have not yet seen), is a highly regarded recent release from a talented Mexican director. This film by Guillermo de Toro--who brought us Hellboy--featured Spanish dialogue (and subtitles in English) and was viusually very imaginitive. It's a thoughtful, creative fairy tale set against the grim realities of fascist Spain in 1944. I recommend it.

An '80s classic: R.E.M.'s "Orange Crush."

This is Jem's cover of one of Paul McCartney's greatest solo works, "Maybe I'm Amazed."

Here is "Bright Lights" by Matchbox Twenty.

While waiting for the new season of 24 to be posted on iTunes Music Store, I have been catching up on epidoses of 30 Rock, a show which is getting better and better by the week. Alec Baldwin is brilliant in his role as the overbearing G.E. executive in charge of programming and microwave ovens, and the quirky minor characters are getting fleshed out nicely too. Though this show is not yet in the league of The Office--which also started slowly, as I recall--it's picking up steam.

This cover of "(What A) Wonderful World" is from Art Garfunkel's 1977 album Watermark. I can remember hearing it for the first time on the radio many years later. It features the striking harmonic blend of the voices of Paul Simon and James Taylor with Garfunkel.

I just finished watching the telecast of the Golden Globes Awards, which was reasonably entertaining. I haven't seen Dreamgirls, but I did see Babel last week and I guess these two films were the big winners of the night. Ugly Betty is a show I've never seen, either, but it's hard to believe it's better than The Office. Helen Mirren took two statues for playing the two Queens Elizabeth--an impressive accomplishment. Anyway, being able to see the show made me feel a little bit like being at home.

A one-hit wonder from the 1970s: "Magic" by Pilot.

Paul McCartney called this tune from the landmark Pet Sounds album the most beautiful song ever written. It's Brian Wilson in top form with "God Only Knows."

I watched the first four hours of Season 6 of 24 in the last day and a half. Although the show is preposterous in many ways, it's damned entertaining, too. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm addicted--so much so that I shelled out $45 for a Season Pass in the iTunes Music Store so I won't miss an episode while globe-trotting.

"I like to dream . . . " Thus begins "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf.

One of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs: "Human Touch."

Few pop songs have hooks as well crafted as "Invisible Touch" by Genesis. This reminds me of the year of my college graduation and the five weeks I was a substitute teacher at my alma mater, Bayport-Blue Point High School, and particularly of the 10th grade field trip I chaperoned to Great Adventure theme park the last week of school. (By the way, the key change late in the song is sublime.)

The timeless "Pinball Wizard" from The Who's rock opera Tommy. (By the way, Elton John, who played the Pinball Wizard in the movie version of Tommy, has a great cover of this tune, too.)

Because I will forever associate it with the opening of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now--and the opening lines of the film, spoken by Martin Sheen playing Willard: "Saigon . . . shit; I'm still only in Saigon," an unforgettable line that I have been repeating to myself like a mantra the past few hours since arriving in the city--here is "The End" by The Doors.

As much as I try to purge this tune from my mind, it's an infectious ditty. I've seen the music video a couple of times during my trip and it's memorable too: "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" by the Scissor Sisters.

The song title "Let's Go" is fitting for another off-to-the-airport-and-into-another-country-day for me. This song from The Cars' second album evokes memories of my 9th-grade cross country season, sitting in the team captain's living room, listening to this song (on a vinyl record playing on a turntable, of course) instead of doing our assigned workout.

A trashy one hit wonder from the '80s is in my head for obvious reasons: Murray Head's "One Night In Bangkok."

I, um, acquired online the second season of Extras, starring Ricky Gervais--a very funny show which is airing on HBO back home this month. This song--the title track of the Cat Stevens classic album Tea For The Tillerman, plays over the closing credits. (By the way, episode 4 in this season guest stars Chris Martin of Coldplay, who also stands in for Cat Stevens on this song at the end of the show.)

No new episodes of The Office or 30 Rock this past Thursday. I guess I'll have to wait another week to download my little bits of mirth. Of course, there's always Sunday's Battlestar Galactica and the formidable Monday line-up--Prison Break, 24, Heroes, and Studio 60--to download and tide me over in the meantime.

Here is a great song: "Amie" by Pure Prarie League.

Getting used DVDs on Amazon.com is often a great deal. I picked up the first two seasons of the critically-acclaimed series The Wire a few months back. I finally started watching the first episodes on the plane last night and in bed this morning. Good stuff. And supposedly it gets a lot better in seasons to come.

Carly Simon explained the context of this song once at I concert I attended in Hartford (Carly and Hall & Oates shared billing at The Meadows about a decade ago). It is about one of the Eastern gurus she worked with back in the early 1970s. The song is called "Haven't Got Time For The Pain."

Alanis Morissette, "You Learn."

A little California song from Tom Petty: "Free Fallin'" is its name!

You want guitar power? Van Halen has it in "Panama."

My favorite Elvis song: "All Shook Up."

This won the Oscar for Best Song a few years back; it's Annie Lennox singing "Into The West" from the last of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

This pretty much describes my life since November: "Man In A Suitcase" by The Police.

"Walk Like An Egyptian." The name of this song is the "pick-up line" the locals use when they want to strike up a conversation to lead you to a shop. This first time I heard it Saturday afternoon, I thought it was amusing and somewhat charming. But when I heard it for the third time within 24 hours, I realized it was a common piece of schtick. The original song, of course, is by The Bangles.

This was in my head much of yesterday. Why? I don't know. From the 1980s: "Alive And Kicking" by Simple Minds.

This was a breakout hit, originally used to open an episode of Saturday Night Live: "King Tut" by Steve Martin. It coincided with the touring exhibit of Tutankhamen artifacts in the U.S. You can probably figure why I threw this one out there today: I am off to the Valley of Kings, site of Tut's tomb.

From The Prince Of Egypt soundtrack: "When You Believe" by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Another tune rattling around my brain as I explore pyramids, temples, and tombs here along the Nile.

The Clash's "Rock The Casbah."

"I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain." So sang Elton John in "Daniel."

The classic ballad by the Eagles: "Desperado."

This song was strangely appropriate for a day in which I spent a couple of hours lost: it's "Where Are You Going" by The Dave Matthews Band.

This is one of those songs I liked when I occasionally heard it on the radio as a young teenager and I was thrilled to finally own a copy when digital downloads made it easy to get one track rather than an album of stuff I didn't really want. This is "Everlasting Love" by Andy Gibb, the late younger brother of the Bee Gees.

Happy Valentine's Day, loyal readers. Here's a fitting tune from a pair that I am now thoroughly embarrassed to admit were by favorite recording artists circa 1975: The Captain and Tennille. Here is "Love Will Keep Us Together."

Had a couple of mini-marathons in the last couple of days, getting up to date with the last three installments of 24 and the last two of Heroes.

A little French-flavored ditty from Beauty And The Beast, courtesy of Jerry Orbach and Angela Lansbury: "Be Our Guest."

A U2 B-side: "Spanish Eyes."

This is from Man Of La Mancha: "I, Don Quixote."

Here's a cover of U2's "In A Little While" by--of all groups--Hanson. (I also have a good take on this song by James Blunt.)

I spent much of today exploring two major art museums: the Queen Sofia and the Prado. The former specializes in modern works and is the home of "Guernica," Pablo Picasso's masterpiece, and lots of cubism and surrealism (e.g., Salvador Dali). The latter is the Spanish equivalent of the Metropolitan Museum, with a range of Spanish and international masters represented (it's heavy on Velázquez and Goya). The early Dali work above, "Mujer en una ventana," was my favorite of the day.

Justin Timberlake collaborated with the Black Eyed Peas on "Where Is The Love."

A Steve Winwood song from the 1980s: "Don't You Know What The Night Can Do?" This tune was memorably used in a Michelob commercial.

I watched one of my favorite films, Casablanca, in an actual movie theater for the first time in my life this afternoon. I still find the scene where Victor Laszlo leads the café in singing "La Marseillaise"--in the process drowning out the German song being sung by the Nazi officers--one of the most thrilling moments of the silver screen.

Tonight I saw the new production--it was only the fifth performance--of Peter Shaffer's brilliant play Equus, starring Richard Griffiths (who won a Tony last year for his performance in The History Boys) and Daniel Radcliffe (a.k.a. Harry Potter; Griffiths plays Uncle Dudley in the same films, by the way). I had read the play years ago, but I now understand that to appreciate it, one has to see it staged. Anyway, in typical Ned Gallagher fashion, I scammed my way into a private question-and-answer session with the cast, director, producers, and Sir Peter Shaffer after the show (it was part of some benefit for select audience members, but I just stuck around). I met Daniel Radcliffe on my way out; I have strange luck for running into celebrities while leaving a theater in London (e.g., Patrick Stewart, Elton John).

In honor of my return to Wallingford: Simon & Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound."

Here's to waking up in my own bed for the first time in many a day: Coldplay's "In My Place."

Something from the early '70s: "Ride Captain Ride" by Blues Image.

This song by Steve Winwood features backing vocals by James Taylor: "Back In The High Life."

Here is a live version of Elvis Costello's "Alison."

While it was nice to see Marty Scorsese finally get his Oscar (it sure would have been awkward for his buddies Coppola, Lucas, and Spielberg to present the statue to someone else if he didn't win!) most of the Academy Awards telecast this year was a snore.

From Sir Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats: "I Don't Like Mondays."

As I am sitting in Bradley Airport, waiting for my flight to Miami, there's only one tune for the day: Jimmy Buffett's "Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes."

A little jazz today: Dave Brubeck's landmark Time Out album contained experiments with musical time. "Take Five"--with its famous 5/4 beat--is probably the best known example.

I watched Monday night's episode of Heroes tonight and it was incredible. This show is getting better and better.

Muse's "Starlight."

My first chance to watch The Office on regular television in months (last week I was in the New England squash seeding meeting and was on the road for two months before that) and it turns out to be a repeat. Boo!

Aruba, Jamaica . . . ooh, I wanna take ya.
Bermuda, Bahama . . . come on, pretty mama.
Key Largo, Montego . . . baby, why don't we go?

Admittedly not The Beach Boys' finest moment, but once I arrive in Aruba this afternoon, I'll have been to all of these places, so "Kokomo" is the song of the day.

R.E.M. playing "Man On The Moon."

I caught back-to-back episodes of Digging For The Truth on The History Channel this afternoon. Both shows brought me back to my time in Egypt a few weeks back, with their backdrops at the Giza Pyramids, the Egyptian Museum, the Valley of Kings, the Karnak temple in Luxor, and Abu Simbel. One episode was about Tutankhamun and the other about Rameses II.

Indiana Jones wanna-be Josh Bernstein, who hosts the program, recently announced he is jumping over to The Discovery Network, which may mean the end of Digging For The Truth, at least as we know it. Bad news for The History Channel, as this has been its highest-rated show.

This song was ubiquitous during my very first Caribbean spring break vacation in 1989 in the Bahamas: "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin.

The Marriott Surf Club here in Aruba sure is a swell place. Because it's set up as a time-share property, the units are fully furnished with complete kitchens, full living and dining rooms spaces, laundry facilities, etc. There's a marketplace right downstairs to stock the kitchen. The beach is beautiful and the multiple pools are clearly the centerpiece of the resort (although the poolside bar is an interesting concept, in that I've always thought that alcohol and swimming were not the best things to mix together). One of the pools is essentially a river, with a strong current that pulls you around an artificial island as you float your troubles away. The only critique I have is the resort's incessant soundtrack. This place pipes what I'd call "elevator music" all over the grounds, except that all the familiar radio-friendly tunes are performed exclusively by steel drum bands. It was cute at first, but after three days of this tropical treacle, I am about ready to go postal.

Another tropical party tune: "Hot Hot Hot" by Buster Poindexter.

I'm enjoying the latest Daniel Silva spy novel, The Messenger, featuring the adventures of Gabriel Allon, an art restorer who is secretly an Israeli assassin. It's about the sixth in a series of novels featuring this character.

Since 24 and Heroes are airing at the same time--10 p.m. here in Aruba, which is an hour ahead of East Coast time--I had to choose which one to watch live. Then I remembered I bought a Season Pass for 24 on iTunes while I was in Australia, so I'll watch the NBC show now and check out the adventures of Jack Bauer when the episode downloads tomorrow.

I was planning to watch Prison Break in the time slot before, but I realized in the first minute of the show that I had not seen the previous episode, in spite of watching what I thought were the last two shows earlier in the day. So I have to download last week's episode of that show, as well as tonight's, to get current.

Keane's album Under The Iron Sea was everywhere I looked when I was in London in 2006. Here is "A Bad Dream."

At the end of last night's airing of Heroes, NBC ran a short clip from the upcoming Spider-Man 3 flick, then announced there would be seven more minutes of footage posted on the NBC website for the next 24 hours. So I watched it this morning. The clip was basically the fight scene between Peter Parker and the new Green Goblin, Harry Osborne (formerly Peter's best friend). I think this is set in the beginning of the movie (as there are supposed to be two other villains--Sandman and Venom--on tap for the major story). At any rate, the action sequence featured some amazing visuals. I am looking forward to this movie.

David Bowie singing about ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

To get out of the sun for a while this afternoon, I digested two entertaining Kevin Smith Q&A sessions--one in Toronto and another in London--in this international sequel to An Evening With Kevin Smith. (Look up the easter eggs for these DVDs online if you watch them.)

"Change" by Tracy Chapman.

As an unabashed fan of all things Ricky Gervais--I loved the original British version of The Office and have listened to all the episodes of his podcasts--my initial reaction to the Extras series when it first aired on HBO was mild disappointment. But having seen the entire second season and now taking in the first six episodes again (and the hilarious gag reels) on DVD, it's really quite good.

As I'm about to jump on a flight to Miami, today's song is "Jet Airliner" by The Steve Miller Band.

I never saw the animated movie Cars when it came out last year--I was traveling at the time, as I recall. So my first exposure to James Taylor singing this beautiful Randy Newman song was the Oscars last week. It's called "Our Town."

I am getting into the second season of HBO's The Wire on DVD. This is a terrific show, as good as its press.

Here's one to commemorate the passing of Boston lead singer Brad Delp: "Rock And Roll Band."

No Sci-Fi Channel among the offerings here at Saddlebrook, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to download tonight's Battlestar Galactica on iTunes. Also, you would think a tennis-oriented place like this might have The Tennis Channel, too, but no such luck. This means I'll have to wait until Wednesday for my pro tennis fix, when ESPN2 picks up coverage of the Indian Wells event.

At least there are a handful of HBOs to pick from!

A live version of "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" from Panic! At The Disco.

This is an amusing mash-up of Dr. Seuss lyrics presented in the style of a mid-'60s Bob Dylan album: click here.

Fits Bush's America as much as it did LBJ's in the 1960s: Bob Dylan's "Masters Of War."

Team trip to the movies tonight, where we saw 300, the adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel about King Leonidas and 300 Spartans taking on Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Terrific eye candy, which--like Sin City before it--faithfully captured Miller's visuals.

I really like this Sheryl Crow song, "I Know Why."

. . . well this month, anyway, that U2 released The Joshua Tree, the album that shot the band into the musical stratosphere. Hard to believe it was that long ago! I remember the 1987 tour announcement. I worked the autodial on the phone one Saturday morning in Andover, Massachusetts, trying to get tickets to no avail. But when I moved to Connecticut at the end of the summer, one of the students in my dorm had two tickets to the Boston Garden show but no way to get there. I had a car!

Rob Thomas covers the awesome Smashing Pumpkins tune "1979" for iTunes Originals.

Billy Joel's "I Go To Extremes."

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here is Jerry Lee Lewis and Don Henley teaming up for "What Makes The Irish Heart Beat."

A little country-tinged California rock from the Eagles: "Peaceful Easy Feeling."

"Waiting On The World To Change" is the first single from John Mayer's recent release, Continuum.

As I return to teaching, here is "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones.

This is "a little ditty" from John Mellencamp (who was then know as John Cougar): "Jack & Diane."

From my college days: "Rio" by Duran Duran.

One of Prince's best tunes: "Little Red Corvette."

The Cars were a favorite band I discovered in ninth grade. From their self-titled debut album, this is "Just What I Needed."

In honor of Elton John's 60th birthday, here is the live version of "Sixty Years On" from the Live In Australia album.

Cheap Trick's "Surrender" is always worth a listen.

Clarence "Frogman" Henry's signature song: "Ain't Got No Home."

The best thing in the movie Shrek 2 was this song: "Accidentally In Love" by The Counting Crows.

Ground control to Major Tom. Thus begins David Bowie's "Space Oddity."

This song certainly cleaned up at this year's Grammy Awards: "Not Ready To Make Nice" by The Dixie Chicks.

This is a sweet song by Five For Fighting: "Superman (It's Not Easy)."

A fitting offering for April 1: "What A Fool Believes" by the Doobie Brothers.

"Linger" by The Cranberries features an etheral vocal track.

One of Don Henley's best tracks is "The Last Worthless Evening."

As we move our tennis scrimmage indoors, "Here Comes The Rain Again" by the Eurythmics seems to fit the bill.

With The Masters golf tournament getting underway in Augusta today, here is Willie Nelson's cover of "Georgia On My Mind."

"Bring 'Em Home" was a popular Pete Seeger tune in the Vietnam era, and Bruce Springsteen covers it in an era in which it has new resonance.

The tune may not be as cool as its album cover, but here is "Surfing With The Alien" by Joe Satriani.

An interesting article in the "Arts & Leisure" section of today's New York Times makes the point that the "Hallelujah Chorus"--usually associated with Christmas, but an appropriate pick for Easter, too--actually was an anti-Semitic piece intended to celebrate the destruction of Jerusalem.

CItizen Cope's "If There's Love" is a great first-thing-in-the-morning song.