And Now . . . Jack Handy

It’s relieving to know that not only is the man still alive, but that he is in fact real.

The New Yorker has published Jack Handy, former skit-writer for Saturday Night Live, most famous for his creation of Deep Thoughts, several times in the past few years.

In last week’s issue, The New Yorker published “How Things Even Out,” a short including some Handy philosophy in the “Shouts & Murmurs” section.

“Things are evening out all the time, if you take time to notice, like I do. . . . You might hear that some guy you know is having a party, so you call him up, but he says there’s no party. But then you call back, using a different voice, and suddenly there is a party.

One day, you ask people to take a look at a skin rash you have. Then, a few days later, you’re looking at their rashes. You send someone a death threat and then, mysteriously, the police come to your house and threaten you.”

The story (about a 5 minute read), is not as powerful, perhaps, as some of his most famous one-liners, but for the Deep Thoughts fans out there, it is relieving to know that this man is still around, and has not past as SNL has over the years.

For those unfamiliar with Jack Handy, he is comparable today to Dimitri Martin, who writes and performs for The Daily Show. Handy first began publishing his Deep Thoughts in National Lampoon Magazine, 1984.

Get your Deep Thought of the day, read by Jack Handy, HERE.

Smashing Pumpkins suffer loss of “Artistic Integrity”

The Smashing Pumpkins have filed a lawsuit against Virgin Records who has allegedly posed a threat to the band’s “Artistic Integrity.”

Virgin Records used the band’s music in a promotional deal with Pepsi and Amazon.com.

Unfortunately it seems as though their music, discovered in the background of a Pepsi Stuff commercial, has already undergone a great deal of mass media exploitation, as the Smashing Pumpkins first began work with the big-time record industry when the recorded and released “Gish” in 1991.

The Smashing Pumpkins are suing Virgin Records, saying the record label has illegally used their name and music in promotional deals that hurt the band’s credibility with fans.

In a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, the Chicago-based rockers said they have ‘‘worked hard for over two decades to accumulate a considerable amount of goodwill in the eyes of the public,’’ and that Virgin’s use of the band in a ‘‘Pepsi Stuff’’ promotion with Amazon.com and Pepsi Co. threatens their reputation for ‘‘artistic integrity.’’

The Smashing Pumpkins, led by singer Billy Corgan, are suing Virgin Records, saying the record label has illegally used the Chicago band’s name and music in promotional deals that hurt the band’s credibility with fans.

Virgin released the Smashing Pumpkins’ music for more than 17 years, but the only active agreement between the two parties, the lawsuit claims, is a deal granting Virgin permission to sell digital downloads of the band’s songs. The agreement does not give Virgin the right to use the band in promotional campaigns to sell outside products, the lawsuit said.

The band members said they would ‘‘never grant such authority to Virgin, or any other entity.’’

An after-hours call to Virgin Records wasn’t immediately returned.

The lawsuit demands that Virgin pay with the profits earned in the promotion and asks for an injunction against using the Pumpkins’ name or music in the future.

John Lennon, released, happy at last

John Lennon’s ex-lover is out to prove that he was not an unhappy man.

With the final release of a collection of photos taken by May Pang during the 18 month period that the two spent together as a couple—from the summer of 1973, to early 1975—Pang hopes to dispel the common belief that Lennon’s hiatus from Yoko Ono, his second wife, was not an entirely miserable one.

In 1980, Lennon coined that time in his life the “Lost Weekend.”

The collection, entitled Instamatic Karma, features 140 pages of various photos the feature Lennon off-set, with his family and friends. Until now they have been kept in a shoe box in Oangs closet, said The New York Times (Read the story here).

The collection also includes an image of Lennon signing the document that officially un-established the Beatles in 1979. According to Pang, the photo has been valued at over 1.2 million euros.

More interesting, in an article published by Pang at mailonsunday.co.uk, Pang claims that Yoko Ono had encouraged her to date Lennon in 1973. At the time, Ono and Lennon were having relationship trouble.

Read more and see a collection of casual photos of Lennon here (Also featuring: Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney).

Click here to view a mediocre slideshow provided by The New York Times.

Eels, “With Strings: Live at Town Hall”

The Los Angeles 90s-styled rock band Eels has recently released a best-of collection under the title, Meet the Eels: Essential Eels 1996-2006.

Despite its strength, the band has yet to top its most recent full-length record, With Strongs: Live at Town Hall.

In 2006, the multi-talented rock artist behind Eels, Mark Oliver Everette produced a remarkable success—combining a soft 90’s alternative sound similar to Cake, Weezer, and Beck.

Any yet, Everette’s decision to tour with a small string-ensemble made the album a masterpiece comparable to Nirvana’s Unplugged live album.

Here, Everette reinvents his previously released work, a majority from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, 2005, combining them to form an impressively well-written album.

Watch and listen to a clip from the album’s DVD documentary below, or listen to “Dirty Girl,” in a powerfully-sad performance by Everette.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xVTI1IozwtA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=urdKYYTLU74&feature=related

Raymond Carver: “I’m not them, I’m not us, I’m me.”

The New Yorker recently published “Beginners,” the original manuscript to one of Raymond Carver’s most famous short stories, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.”

Along with the story, the New Yorker provided a series of letters between Carver and his editor, Gordon Lish, that have exposed Carver’s reluctance to allow Lish the amount editorial freedom that he had once encouraged.

The article, entitled, “Rough Crossings: The Cutting of Raymond Carver,” revealed that Carver’s original document had been cut by Lish by over 40 percent. It also noted that much of Carvers other work had seen similar truncating, many stories loosing up to 70 percent of their original content.

In the story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” Lish’s revisions become increasingly controversial. He omits entire pages, often replacing them with Carver-styled paragraphs of his own.

“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” ends several pages earlier than the original, “Beginners,” and with a paragraph provided entirely by Lish.

Unhappy and anxious, nearly suicidal over the “minimalist” style that Lish had carved from his manuscripts, Carver wrote to Lish begging him to, at least, postpone publication.

Carver, acknowledging that Lish had made many of the stories “far better than they were before,” feared embarrassment from those who had seen what his stories had been prior to revision. He was also afraid that they exposed him as a vulnerable individual.

Below is a snippet from a letter Carver wrote to Lish on July 8, 1980.

“Maybe if the book were not to come out for 18 months or two years, it would be different. But right now, everything is too new. . . . Gordon, the changes are brilliant and for the better in most cases—I look at “What We Talk About . . .” (Beginners) and I see what it is that you’ve done, what you’ve pulled out of it, and I’m awed and astonished, startled even, with your insights. But it’s too close right now, that story. Now much of this has to do with my sobriety and with my new-found (and fragile, I see) mental health and well-being. I’ll tell you the truth, my very sanity is on the line here.”

Lish went through with publication, anyway. It made Carver the most influential American short story writer since Earnest Hemingway.*

“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” was published in a collection under the same title. It was featured on the front-page of the Times Book Review—a “rarity” for short story collections, according to the New Yorker.

Most fascinating in the printed New Yorker article is a photo of what became the final page in “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” which includes the hand-written revisions by Lish.

Online, the New Yorker has posted the entirety of Lish’s revisions for “Beginners,” shown through Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes” format. View the revisions here.

Click here to view photos of Raymond Carver from the New Yorker’s slide show.
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Other Sources:
*”Two Interviews with Raymond Carver”
http://titan.iwu.edu/~jplath/carver.html

They’re Probably Drinking Right Now: “White Denim”

Rolling Stone recently featured this potentially-promising three-man garage band from Austin, Texas on its Breaking Artists page.

The band has yet to release a full-length album—currently offering its fans only one record, the EP Let’s Talk About It. The wild and semi-psychedelic trio owes this swift achievement to the experimentation done by Jimi Hendrix, the Stooges, and the White Stripes.

The punchy, free-styled guitar and bass riffs on singles, “Let’s Talk About it,”and “All You Really Have to Do,” although not entirely satisfying, have high points that distinguish them as a band we must keep an eye on. Notable are the verses in “Let’s Talk About It,” and the choruses in “All You Really Have to Do.”

Should the band learn to embrace a small amount cleaning-technique while preparing for their next record, we might find something truly special.

That said, such clarity might also expose White Denim as lacking the lyrical depth necessary to survive more than a handful of years in the popular media.

Check them out on their MySpace page at:

http://www.myspace.com/bopenglish

Lost in the 90’s: Jeff Buckley’s “Grace”

Rock fans today must live off a steady diet of the 90’s.

When Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic has lost it’s buzz, when Cake’s Nugget begins to irritate you because that, as long as your Pearl Jam records and 90’s rock radio-single collection needs a break, try Jeff Buckley.

Today Jeff Buckley is a true hidden treasure—overlooked after a sudden death that ended his career before it could begin.

Buckley performs the soul of 90’s rock. He is the melodic-grunge in Nirvana, the vocal talent of Bob Dylan, the innovative electric guitar that is Eddie Vedder. He is the next step in your career as a listener. He will hold your attention.

Grace, Buckley’s first and only studio album, is the next and perhaps final album for your essentials collection.

Discover “Grace,” Buckley’s first hit, and “Lover, You Should of Come Over”—two songs, two very-different moods, to make the 90’s plaid-shirted, long-haired, rock-enthusiast within you twist and sing out loud.

Listen to two of his songs on YouTube below.

“Grace”

“Lover, You Should of Come Over”

Read about him here in Rolling Stone, which nominated him as artist of the year in 1995