Random thoughts while cleaning out the pop culture junk in my brain and pondering why they don't make songs like Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun" anymore ...
This Phoenix isn't rising -- The new book "Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age" includes an essay by Steven Taylor titled "Is That a Real Reality, Or Did You Make It Up Yourself?"
A lot of people are asking Joaquin Phoenix a similar question. Has Phoenix really abandoned his acting career to become a spaced-out rapper, as he proclaimed during a recent, bizarro appearance on "Late Night With David Letterman"? Or is Phoenix pretending -- that is, is he still acting, but as part of some Andy Kaufman/Kafka-esque hoax?
This Phoenix isn't rising -- The new book "Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age" includes an essay by Steven Taylor titled "Is That a Real Reality, Or Did You Make It Up Yourself?"
A lot of people are asking Joaquin Phoenix a similar question. Has Phoenix really abandoned his acting career to become a spaced-out rapper, as he proclaimed during a recent, bizarro appearance on "Late Night With David Letterman"? Or is Phoenix pretending -- that is, is he still acting, but as part of some Andy Kaufman/Kafka-esque hoax?
Reports that actor/director/producer Casey Affleck has been seen
following and filming Phoenix is the giveaway -- the pair must be
involved in a bit of guerrilla filmmaking, an on-the-fly mockumentary a
la "This Is Spinal Tap."
Also check out a commentary by director James Gray on Moviemaker.com. It's a "goodbye" to Phoenix in which you can almost hear Gray tittering and smirking -- "Perhaps that's why he's done with acting: When you can do it all yourself and your genius has outgrown the mediocrity of others, why bother?"
Indeed, if your resume includes a turn in M. Night Shyamalan's nightmarishly horrible "Signs," why bother?
But Joaquin's genius at pulling a Kaufman is already slipping. See those slight smiles that occasionally slipped onto his face as Letterman wisecracked back at his weirdness? Those were the signs of Phoenix slipping out of character.
Don't expect a flick as entertaining as "Spinal Tap" or Sacha Baron Cohen's guerrilla-filmed "Borat" to come out of this.
Kanye pulls a Phoenix -- While Phoenix is courting rap, rapper and egomaniac Kanye West tells Details magazine in its March issue that he's through with it. Instead, Kanye claims he's aching to become a clothes designer: "There's nothing more to be said about music. I'm the (expletive) end-all, be-all of music. I know what I'm doing."
The article claims Kanye spends hours studying collars in clothing stores, and was ticked that his "(expletive) sweater didn't come back right from Korea."
As long as we don't have to hear Kanye at future music awards shows comparing himself to the Beatles and Dylan, it's all good.
Leonard Pinth-Garnell Award for Veddy Bad Poetry -- The reviews are in on poet Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem, "Praise Song For the Day," written specifically for
President Obama's swearing-in ceremony: Worst. Poem. Ever.
Leonard Pinth-Garnell, that Dan Aykroyd "Saturday Night Live" character given to praising bad art, opera and plays, must be thrilled.
But don't blame Alexander for coming up short. Manufacturing a poem for a specific august occasion is like singing the New York City phone book -- a genius can make such endeavors work, but such tasks are beyond the grasps of the merely good.
To get an idea of the true measure of Alexander's poetic fire, visit elizabethalexander.net and read her poems "The Venus Hottentot (1825)" and "Race."
Also check out a commentary by director James Gray on Moviemaker.com. It's a "goodbye" to Phoenix in which you can almost hear Gray tittering and smirking -- "Perhaps that's why he's done with acting: When you can do it all yourself and your genius has outgrown the mediocrity of others, why bother?"
Indeed, if your resume includes a turn in M. Night Shyamalan's nightmarishly horrible "Signs," why bother?
But Joaquin's genius at pulling a Kaufman is already slipping. See those slight smiles that occasionally slipped onto his face as Letterman wisecracked back at his weirdness? Those were the signs of Phoenix slipping out of character.
Don't expect a flick as entertaining as "Spinal Tap" or Sacha Baron Cohen's guerrilla-filmed "Borat" to come out of this.
Kanye pulls a Phoenix -- While Phoenix is courting rap, rapper and egomaniac Kanye West tells Details magazine in its March issue that he's through with it. Instead, Kanye claims he's aching to become a clothes designer: "There's nothing more to be said about music. I'm the (expletive) end-all, be-all of music. I know what I'm doing."
The article claims Kanye spends hours studying collars in clothing stores, and was ticked that his "(expletive) sweater didn't come back right from Korea."
As long as we don't have to hear Kanye at future music awards shows comparing himself to the Beatles and Dylan, it's all good.
Leonard Pinth-Garnell Award for Veddy Bad Poetry -- The reviews are in on poet Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem, "Praise Song For the Day," written specifically for
President Obama's swearing-in ceremony: Worst. Poem. Ever.
Leonard Pinth-Garnell, that Dan Aykroyd "Saturday Night Live" character given to praising bad art, opera and plays, must be thrilled.
But don't blame Alexander for coming up short. Manufacturing a poem for a specific august occasion is like singing the New York City phone book -- a genius can make such endeavors work, but such tasks are beyond the grasps of the merely good.
To get an idea of the true measure of Alexander's poetic fire, visit elizabethalexander.net and read her poems "The Venus Hottentot (1825)" and "Race."
Leave a comment