Diane Vincent Shoots James Frey In Berlin
“Manny, look at the pelican fly! Come on pelican!”
Traces of cocaine found on up to 90% of dollar bills in American cities
by Ed Pilkington in New York
Photograph: Getty/Piet Mall
It’s an image much beloved of Hollywood directors: the head lowered over a mirror, a crisp greenback tightly rolled and inserted in a nostril, then applied at the other end to a line of white powder.
Researchers from the American Chemical Society in Washington have discovered that the practice of consuming cocaine through rolled up paper money is far more than just a cinematic cliché. They found that in big cities in the US, up to 90% of the notes tested positive for traces of the drug.
In Washington itself, the percentage of notes with cocaine residue reached 93%, a prevalence almost matched by other urban areas such as Boston, Detroit and Baltimore.
Any film directors hoping to be authentic in their portrayal of cocaine snorting should note that the researchers found that in the US the bills of choice of cocaine consumers were $5, $10, $20 and $50. Both the modest dollar note, and the more elusive $100 note appear to be rarely deployed as an aid to nasal intoxication.
Apache Man Gone
Remembering Michael Viner, The Man Who Recorded “Apache”
8/14/09, 1:35 pm EST
Michael Viner, the record producer whose 1973 recording of “Apache” by the Incredible Bongo Band is the cornerstone of hip-hop, died in Los Angeles on Saturday, August 8th, from cancer. He was 65.
Viner held a number of positions in the entertainment world. He was an executive for MGM Records in the 1970s, signing Debby Boone (whose “You Light Up My Life” was Number One for 10 weeks in 1977) and helping produce Sammy Davis Jr.’s “The Candy Man,” which topped the charts in 1972. He also produced the second Nixon inaugural ball in early 1973, a result of his association with Republican MGM head Mike Curb, lieutenant governor of California from 1979 to 1983. (Viner’s politics were more liberal; he’d worked as an aide for Robert Kennedy in the ’60s.) Later, Viner’s Dove imprint pioneered books-on-tape, and he later made a name publishing books based on tabloid scandal. Still, it’s the much-sampled Incredible Bongo Band recordings that stand as Viner’s lasting achievement.
Viner was born in 1944 and grew up in Washington, D.C. In 1970, as a joke, Viner released the infamous Best of Marcel Marceau — a live LP of a mime, consisting of two sides of silence concluded by audience applause.
Suicide Stash
from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Suicidal man dumps cash on Glendora freeways
Posted: 08/16/2009 05:10:38 PM PDT
An emotionally disturbed man dumped cash out on two freeways in Glendora Sunday, prompting motorists to pull over and try to pick up the money from the roadway, authorities said.
The 56-year-old man, whose name was not released, then went to the Azusa Police Department where he told officials he wanted to commit suicide, Azusa police Lt. Steve Hunt said in a written statement.
The incident began about 11:50 a.m. when the man started throwing money out of his car on the westbound 210 Freeway between the 57 Freeway and Grand Avenue, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Kurt Stormes said.
Six or seven vehicles pulled over, and about 10 people ran into traffic lanes to grab up the cash, Stormes said.CHP officers recovered about $1,000 from the freeway, in 20-, 50- and 100-dollar bills, he added.
Officials ask that anyone who picked up some of the money to turn it into the Azusa Police Department so it can be returned to the man.
Police also cautioned motorists against trying to pick up money on the freeway.
Please do not stop on the freeway to look for money,” the police statement said. “Stopping on the freeway can be hazardous or even fatal.”
When The Saints Go Cataloguing
courtesy of Hi-Grade Lenny the Puglistic Dopeman
Honey-Soy Beef Dippers
Honey-Soy Beef Dippers
by Meghan Pembleton
1 pound flank steak
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
Metal or wood grilling skewers
Cut beef crosswise about 1-inch thick and cut each slice into cubes. Place meat in a zip-top plastic bag. Add lemon juice, honey, soy sauce and oil. Seal bag and turn to coat meat. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes, up to overnight. (If using wood skewers, soak them in water while meat is marinating.) Heat grill to high.
Death Cab For Kerouac
Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard, Jay Farrar Team Up For Kerouac Soundtrack
by Michael D. Ayers, N.Y.
In an ode to iconic author Jack Kerouac, alt-country veteran Jay Farrar has teamed up with Death Cab for Cutie‘s Ben Gibbard for a collaborative album entitled “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur,” Billboard.com has learned.
The twelve song set is due October 20 via F-Stop/Atlantic and will serve as the soundtrack to the Kerouac documentary of the same title. Farrar and Gibbard were approached by the filmmakers in 2007 about writing music for the film, which documents the events surrounding the author’s time spent in the Big Sur region of California.
Both musicians are long time Kerouac fans and according to Farrar, about 90% of the album’s lyrics draw directly from the Big Sur text, including the poem “Sea: Sounds of the Pacific Ocean at Big Sur.” The recordings came to fruition over the course of three years, with the initial session taking place in San Francisco during summer 2007.
Pickled Kiwi In Nude
Drunk nude man wanders into wrong hotel room, scares woman into the bathroom and falls asleep
REUTERS
Thursday, August 13th 2009, 10:27 AM
WELLINGTON – An extremely drunk, naked man lost his way at a New Zealand hotel and ended up sleeping in the wrong room, forcing its female occupant to hide in the bathroom, local media reported.
“He was a bit surprised that there were two people in his room and he was butt naked,” Sergeant Steve Watt of Queenstown police told the Southland Times.
As the intruder slept, the startled woman took refuge in the bathroom as her husband summoned hotel staff.
The man, who could not remember whom he had been with nor what room he had been in, and had no clothes or wallet.
Police gave him a ride home clad in a hotel bathrobe, but let him off after the guests and hotel decided not to press charges.
“It was far too funny,” said Watt.
It Might Get Loud
Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge Say Guitar Heroes Are Here to Stay
Jack White, Jimmy Page, and The Edge in a publicity still from It Might Get Loud. Photo by Eric Lee, 2008, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
The new documentary It Might Get Loud, which opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, is a love letter to the guitar. Director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) managed to enlist possibly the most iconic guitar players of three generations—Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White—for what Page calls “an abstract, almost metaphysical” exploration of the instrument’s power. If the climactic “summit,” in which the trio gather at a soundstage to play together, inevitably falls short of the stratospheric expectations, the film does feature such priceless scenes as Page air-guitaring to a favorite Link Wray single, White hammering together a one-string “diddley bow” on his porch and making a joyful racket, and Edge demonstrating just how simple his playing is when the effects are all taken away.
Outstanding.
“Like The Fist Of An Angry God”
from Discover Magazine’s Bad Astronomy
Like the fist of an angry god
Deep in the outer realms of our solar system, well over a billion kilometers away, something bizarre happened at Saturn’s F ring.
I mean, seriously: what the hell happened here?
This is one of the latest pictures returned from the remarkable human achievement that is the Cassini spacecraft, a probe the size of a school bus that has been orbiting the ringed planet since 2004. It’s returned one incredible picture after another, and lately — as Saturn’s orbit has brought it to a point where the rings are nearly edge-on to the Sun — things have gotten not only spectacular but also really weird.
All Night Long
James Frey Reading 7pm Tonight @ Amagansett Public Library
Doing the first, and most likely, only public reading from my new book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible –
Next Friday at the Amagansett Public Library at 7:00.
215 Main Street, Amagansett, NY.
The book doesn’t come out until next year and I won’t be touring.
– James Frey
Library Science
Cucumber Soup
(Chicago Tribune/Bill Hogan)
Cucumber soup
There are numerous recipes for cucumber soups, some served hot, others chilled. This hot one has its roots in Guatemala and is adapted from “Healthy Latin Cooking” by Steven Raichlen.
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Makes: 4 servings (7 cups)
Young Pervy Wanker
Les Paul Gone
Guitar legend Les Paul dies at age 94
By LUKE SHERIDAN
Associated Press Writer
Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar and multitrack recording and had a string of hits, many with wife Mary Ford, died on Thursday. He was 94.
According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side.
He had been hospitalized in February 2006 when he learned he won two Grammys for an album he released after his 90th birthday, “Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played.”
“I feel like a condemned building with a new flagpole on it,” he joked.
As an inventor, Paul helped bring about the rise of rock ‘n’ roll and multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the “tracks” in the finished recording.
With Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records and 11 No. 1 pop hits, including “Vaya Con Dios,” “How High the Moon,” “Nola” and “Lover.” Many of their songs used overdubbing techniques that Paul the inventor had helped develop.
Eagle vs. Wolf
via the Seemer
Tailfins of 1959
The poet Robert Lowell was heir to a New England literary tradition that included Herman Melville, a connoisseur of the metaphor and the metaphysics of finned creatures. In “For the Union Dead” in 1960, Lowell saw something sinister, even sinful, in the tailfin:
“….Everywhere,
giant finned cars nose forward like fish;
a savage servility
slides by on grease.”
Blonde On Blonde
A blonde woman was speeding down the road in her little red sports car and was pulled over by a woman police officer who was also a blonde. The blonde cop asked to see the blonde driver’s driving license.
She dug through her purse and was getting progressively more agitated. ‘What does it look like?’ she finally asked. The policewoman replied, ‘It’s square and it has your picture on it.’
The driver finally found a square mirror in her purse, looked at it and handed it to the policewoman. ‘Here it is,’ she said.
The blonde officer looked at the mirror, then handed it back saying, ‘OK, you can go. I didn’t realize you were a cop.’
Scientists Discover Terriers Are Stupid As Well As Annoying
Dogs as intelligent as two-year-old children
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
Intelligent border collies include Sampson, winner of Britain’s Most Talented Pet (Photo: John Robertson)
Researchers have found that dogs are capable of understanding up to 250 words and gestures, can count up to five and can perform simple mathematical calculations.
Using tests originally designed to demonstrate the development of language, pre-language and basic arithmetic in human children, the researchers were able to show that the average dog is far more intelligent than they are given credit for.
They have also compiled a list of the most intelligent and least intelligent breeds using information from obedience classes. Border collies and retrievers were rated among the most intelligent while hounds and terriers were the least bright.
The average dog is about as bright linguistically as a human two-year-old,” said Professor Stanley Coren, a leading expert on canine intelligence at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver who has carried out the work.
Revenge Of The Pervy Wanker
Cow Tongues Nailed To Trees in Brooklyn
15 Cow Tongues Found Nailed to Trees in Prospect Park
Brooklyn, NY – Fifteen calf tongues were found nailed to trees in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park recently.
The bizarre sighting was made in Peninsula Meadow, just north of Prospect Lake.
The tongues, which appeared to come from a butcher shop, were hanging about six feet off the ground from 15 different trunks, park officials said.
Parks Department officials said it’s a mystery why the animal parts were hung, but animal tongues are sometimes used in cult or fringe religious rituals.
Saving Whales With Art
A Whale of a Controversy
Japan’s dolphin-hunting industry gets skewered in The Cove, a just-released documentary by director Louie Psihoyos. But after this year’s setbacks at the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting, dolphins aren’t the only marine mammals that are in trouble.
BY BRIAN FUNG | JULY 31, 2009
Blood on their hands: A demonstrator, covered in fake blood, lies on a Japanese flag as part of a 2008 antiwhaling protest outside Japan’s consulate in Melbourne. The first such movement began in 1977 with Save the Whales, which seeks to provide education about “marine mammals, their environment and their preservation.”
William West/AFP/Getty Images
Ruscha’s Frey Showing At Albright-Knox
‘Wall Rockets’ at Albright-Knox celebrates artist Ed Ruscha
NEWS ARTS WRITER
It was the dead of winter in 2006, and James Frey was in a bad way.
His best-selling memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,” had recently come under fire in the national media for factual inaccuracies. He had just appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to defend his work, and Oprah, once a fervent Frey supporter, had torn the author into a billion little shreds.
It seemed that everywhere Frey looked –on blogs and talk shows, in newspapers and magazines –someone was gleefully waiting to vilify him.
Others of lesser conviction might have fled to the hills of New Hampshire or Vermont to become J. D. Salinger-esque recluses, never to set foot in the public spotlight again. But Frey was never much for convention. In his time of need, instead of seeking refuge in alcohol or drugs or even therapy, the embattled author turned to the art of Ed Ruscha.
“I’ve had odd professional experiences,” Frey said on a recent visit to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. And after the odd professional experience that was Frey’s messy evisceration on “Oprah,” Frey’s French publisher called to console him after what she called his “public stoning.” The phrase stuck in Frey’s mind.
“When all that stuff was happening, I don’t know why, I was like, ‘I’ve got to get Ed Ruscha to paint me a picture that says ‘Public Stoning,’” Frey said.
The painting Frey commissioned from Ruscha now hangs in the Albright-Knox as part of “Wall Rockets,” a sprawling tribute exhibition inspired by the work of the legendary California artist. It runs through Oct. 25.
Electric Sheep Real
Real-life Ram-bo: The sheep who abseiled down electricity cable after snagging his horn
Help? The sheep dangles some 15feet above the ground, its horn caught in the live electrical wire
Which One Is Your Favorite?
from M. Husain
Herbie Gets His Due
HERBIE HANCOCK JOINS L.A. PHILHARMONIC:
Jazz great named creative chair; begins two-year tenure in 2010.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic has tapped Herbie Hancock as its new creative chair for jazz, a post that oversees jazz programming at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.
According to Variety, the Grammy winner is scheduled to begin a two-year tenure starting with the 2010 season. He will succeed Christian McBride, who has held the post since 2006.
Baatin Gone
Slum Village rapper Baatin dead at 35
Detroit native, known for spiritual lyrics, had recently returned to group
BY BRIAN MCCOLLUM • FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER • AUGUST 1, 2009
Titus (Baatin) Glover, the Detroit rapper who co-founded the much-acclaimed Slum Village, has died.
Baatin, who turned 35 in March, left Slum Village in 2002, later telling the Free Press he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He continued to record and play occasional solo dates before returning to the Slum fold for the group’s upcoming album, “Villa Manifesto,” due Sept. 22.
Word of Baatin’s passing circulated quickly this afternoon in music circles both locally and nationally, where Slum Village has long been an exalted name in underground hip-hop.
The Art of Harvey Kurtzman
The Art of Rebellion
From “The Art of Harvey Kurtzman”
If not for Mad magazine, there might never have been (in no particular order) 1960s youth culture, underground comics, Wacky Packs, “Laugh-In,” “Saturday Night Live,” R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman or an age of irony, period. Mad, which began in 1952 as a comic book that parodied “serious” comics as well as American popular culture, with an emphasis on television, movies and advertising, was conceived and originally edited by Harvey Kurtzman (1924-93), a Brooklyn-born comic-strip artist, writer and editor. Kurtzman was the spiritual father of postwar American satire and the godfather of late-20th-century alternative humor. If this seems like hyperbole, all you have to do is read The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics (Abrams Comic Arts, $40), Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle’s insightful, entertaining and profusely illustrated (with rare images of original work) biographical monograph, which chronicles almost everything Kurtzman accomplished — and that was quite a lot.
“In Mad and all his subsequent ventures,” the authors write, “Kurtzman drew a bead on the phony aspects and idiosyncrasies of modern commercial culture…. He took on Senator Joseph McCarthy as surely and seriously in the pages of Mad as Edward R. Murrow did on television.” He also fought against a wave of comic-art censorship that overtook the country in the ’50s and fostered the restrictive Comics Code (echoing the role of the Hays Office for motion pictures).