Giuseppe Zangara

Oh and now I have "Rocky Raccoon" stuck in my head. THANKS, THREAD.

An odd thing: a few months back, I was at my favorite watering hole, wherein a local singer/songwriter was playing to a largely disinterested crowd (myself included). Though the bulk of his set—a mix of originals and covers—was met with apathy, which changed when he started in on "Rocky Raccoon." After about a minute, the formerly bored crowd started singing along. Joyously, even. The damndest thing, it was. Anyway, Love. The one upside to this is that it might get the right people off their asses to go and given the Beatles back catalogue a proper remaster.

Abita?

They won't let you look at user pics without registering. Looks like I know how I'm spending the next hour!

I was watching some videos of him performing live in the 70s (thanks, youtube!). I wasn't very impressed.

I've missed three opportunities to see him live in the past three years (Well really, two and a half since one of the shows was The New Cars). The first show was on Cinco De Mayo in 2004 but I couldn't go because I was rehearsing for a play. Then, I spent April vacation in Baltimore in 2005 and he was playing a club there the night that we went home. Then, I actually bought tickets to see The New Cars last Sunday but then they cancelled the show due to low ticket sales. Yeah, but who cares about current Todd Rundgren.

Yet that's where he did his best work.

Just got Orphans; I'm listening to the Bastards disc first. It would've been nice if the liner notes listed where these songs originally appeared. A few of them I know, but most of them I don't.

Ranking the Todd Rundgren I've heard: 1. Something/Anything? 2. Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren 3. Runt 4. A Wizard, a True Star 5. Todd 6. The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect 7. A Cappella 8. Initiation 9. Liars

What? It got worse as it went on. That last season was really, really spotty. I disagree. The first season had some clunkers, but the second and third season were perfect I don't get that line of thinking at all. Overall, I like season two more now than when I first watched it, but season three still falls flat, mostly. The Rita story arc spent five episodes—and exhausted itself in two—to build to a joke over what "MR F" stood for. Groan. Plus, "Making a Stand" was easily the worst episode in the show's entire run.

What? It got worse as it went on. That last season was really, really spotty.

The Letterman apology was cringe-inducing. I appreciate that he was apologizing from the heart and not reeling off some Mel Gibson Prepared Statement, but that didn't make it any less painful to watch. He seems genuinely upset by this. Ignorance isn't necessarily hateful. I'm still very much convinced that Michael Richards isn't racist, not anymore than anyone who associates mostly with white people and is unaware of the power a word like "nigger" can hold. Of course, Richards knew it was a bad thing, but I doubt he saw it as anything worse than a way to get at the guy who was getting at him. Even though I thought some of the tirade was funny, most of it wasn't and the hecklers did not deserve that kind of response. Those of you in this thread who thought they did are either showing your own prejudices or are just as ignorant as Richards. And Mel Gibson? It's all about context. He seemed (seems?) to really hate Jews.

I don't get it. Were you coming on to her, or is an inability to detect odors another of your myriad biological deficiencies?

Pynchon pulled rank.

Hotbutter had his moments, though I shed nary a tear over his banishment.

I watched this once. Terrible. Never seen either version of The Office. I've been told I'd enjoy them both, so maybe one day.

Sixty pages into Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day. I'm liking it so far, but there's still another 1,000 pages to go.

Would that satisfy you, RepoMan?

"You get to drink from the firehose!"

Meanwhile, Joanna Newsom's never looked more normal/non-elfin creature, there on the front page. She's almost fetching, even.

That was mean, guys. Sorry.

The difference is that Hicks was talented enough to turn the crowd around and get them back on his side. Richards doesn't have the talent to pull that off. It wasn't the point I was making, though. There wasn't an ounce of humor or wit in Hicks calling an audience member a cunt and accusing her of being what's wrong with America. He'd spout it off like some sweaty, drug-fueled maniac, not unlike what Richards is doing in that video. EDIT: I watched the Richards video again, and it could've been funny—the fork comment, for instance—but he got carried away.

As repulsive as what Richards was saying, I can't bring myself to be offended by it. It was stupid and idiotic of him, but really, Bill Hicks would launch into some vile, misogynistic rants at female audience members who offended him somehow. Hicks wasn't even trying to be funny then; he would have an out-an-out meltdown. I wasn't offended by those and I'm not applying a double-standard here.