Thoughts While Watching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

• On first seeing Chevy Chase in the audience: "what is Dick Cheney doing here?"
• Was Meg Ryan supposed to be Tom Hanks' date? Gee, I guess real life is just like the movies!
• Justin Timberlake: "Bringing Sexy Back?" Really?? More like "Bringing my paper back from the end of the driveway."
• Best line of the night: "I have seen the future of rock and roll and it's not Leonard Cohen" (said by Leonard Cohen, quoting music critic/rock producer Jon Landau).
• Madonna: Although she still appears to be unfamiliar with the concept of sincerity (at least in front of an audience), she did seem to be more forthcoming than usual, offering up her take on confronting a sea of girls all dressed exactly like her, when she first played Madison Square Garden ("freaked me out"). She also finally lost the Brit accent, thank gawd!
• Best performance: Joan Jett on the Dave Clark Five's Bits and Pieces.
  

What to listen to the day AFTER the day after Valentine's day

• Lyle Lovett's My Baby Don't Tolerate
  
• John Prine's In Spite of Ourselves
  
• Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love
  
• Tina Turner's What's Love Got to Do With It
  
• Loudon Wainwright III's More Love Songs
  
• NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

What I learned from watching the Grammys

• That Herbie Hancock loves Joni Mitchell almost as much as I do.


• That Amy Winehouse's prodigious talent does not extend to dancing.


• That Tina Turner should maybe start to rethink the wardrobe (sorry, Tina!)


• Natalie Cole? Tall. Tony Bennett? Not so much.


• My new favorite couple: Kid Rock and Keely Smith (you go, girl!)


• That I don't mind so much dinosaur acts resurrecting their old hits, if the dinosaurs in question are Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis.


• Rihanna? Grammys cutest!


• Beyonce? Irreplaceable.

"We won't stop until somebody calls the cops...

...then we'll start again, and pretend that nothing ever happened..."
Juno (2007) the movie is one thing. Sweet and amusing, much like it's heroine. The soundtrack, however, is something else. Studded with obscure indie gems from the likes of Kimya Dawson (who?), alongside rock classics from The Velvet Underground, The Kinks and Mott the Hoople, this is THE must-have disc to own in 2008. Warning: If you're a fan of our current President, you may wish to stay away, as one of the songs takes him on in a tirade which would make your grandma blush!!

New Soul

Check out this enchanting (at least I think so) video clip, posted on YouTube, of great new artist, Yael Naim.

May I take your order now?

After viewing the late Adrienne Shelly's sublimely whimsical Waitress (2007) on DVD yesterday evening (starring the ever angelic Keri Russell), I got to thinking about some of my favorite waitress-related music:
Sweetheart (Waitress in a Donut Shop) / Maria Muldaur
She's a Waitress (and I'm in Love) / 5 Chinese Brothers
Tip That Waitress! / Loudon Wainwright III
Lawyers, Guns and Money / Warren Zevon (not strictly speaking about waitresses, but it does contain the immortal lyric "I went home with the waitress/the way I always do/how was I to know/she was with the Russians too?")
and, it being the season, after all..
Christmas Wrapping / The Waitresses

Runnin' Down a Dream

Last night I watched a documentary directed by Peter Bogdanovich, of all people, on that Sara Lee of rock 'n roll bands, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Their (and his, solo) back catalogue of hits is near to amazing: Runnin' down a dream, Free Fallin', American Girl, Don't Come Around Here No More, Refugee, Learning to Fly, I Won't Back Down, Gimme Some Money, uh, no, wait....(:) What I liked about it most, was that, unlike many a rockumentarian, Bogdanovich didn't cut away in the middle of a song, and let us hear the whole thing. Fan-tastic!

What I'm Listening to Now

Raising Sand, an amazing album of covers, performed by rock/blues legend Robert Plant (front man for Led Zeppelin), and folk icon Alison Krauss (together again! for the first time!) Who'd a thunk it? Their voices actually blend really well together. I especially like the opening song, the old blues standard, Rich Woman, and an old Everly Brothers hit, Gone Gone Gone. But there are a lot of other gems here as well, including songs by Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, and Plant himself.