Old guy at a Girl Talk show

(He read about it in Boston Metro, thought he'd check it out.)

Why does R. Kelly try to sound like Akon on the "Go Getta" hook? He had his own good thing going!

Also a true thing

Below, a five-star Amazon.com user review of C. M. and Jim Cramer's new book, Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich, written by one Moises Rivera Escalona, "Jesus...King of Kings, Lord of Lords," from Wheeling, IL:

James J. Cramer...This book is amazing. I finished reading the book and I am now currently reviewing it. Jim Cramer has GREAT investing and trading information in this book (in consideration with doing your homework). I consider this book more like a text book because it more of a learning program rather then just read and you're done. If you want to learn how to make money work for you. BUY THIS BOOK and get in the GAME!!!

Unfortunately, this is the only review Moises Escalona has written for Amazon, so there's no way to check whether he always provides this kind of preface.

True thing

kibbleman: if tv was just jeopardy and law and order no one would complain

With that, let's give DJK a big Sulky welcome to the blogroll!

Mixed messages

This old one says don't:



But this new one says do!

Yoga-ass gangster / organic b-a-n-a-n-a-s

Andre 3000 is back to rapping, but all that singing and clapping he did on "Hey Ya" has not left him unchanged. Thanks to D. A. for directing me to this verse, from the remix of "You," a song by some crooner named Lloyd:

I said, "what time you get off?"
She said, "when you get me off!"
I kinda laughed, but it turned into a cough
Because I swallowed down the wrong pipe
Whatever that means, you know, old people say it
So it sounds right.
So, I’m standing there embarrassed
If we were both in Paris
I would have grabbed her by the waist and kissed her, but
We in the middle of Whole Foods, and those foods
Ain't supposed to beef, but you'd think they hated tofu
The check-in line got rowdy, my vision got cloudy
I started seeing circles like some Audi
Emblem; I'm hearing them say, come on man
Do this on your own time, get the hell on, man
I walked out, hm, I got 'bout
Half-way to my car when I heard shorty shout
"3000, forgot your credit card, smart move!
By the way, my little sister loves your cartoon!"
Well, here's my name and numb
If I ain't the one, lose it, if I am, use it
If a man chooses, and he can, do's it
And he don't, don't take it personal, he might be swamped
With making mozarella - no, making worlds better
Cheese will come, believe me, I'm never focused on the cash
Ask Mel Gibson, Jesus Christ, I'm 'bout the passion!

It's an undeniably wonderful verse (with the exception of the last line maybe), but: is this okay now??

This could go either way

Cardboard sign posted on the side of the only newsstand in downtown Oak Park, spotted this morning but presumably left over from the other day:

"I guess I knew it was coming..."

I saw the Hold Steady last night at the House of Blues in Chicago. They referenced "Dick in a Box." A fellow next to me in the audience was thrilled, yelling "Step one!! Step two!!! Step three!!!!" as loud as he could.

Later, a kind of sour thing happened at the end of the show, between the first and second songs of the encore, when everyone was yelling out requests. "Hey," the bass player sneered, "this is the part of the set when people prove they know some of our songs" (I'm paraphrasing). Like, I understand that since most bands openly prepare their setlists in advance, this practice/tradition is sort of questionable, especially when people ask for b-sides and obscure outtakes. But this was the fucking encore, which is the only part of the show when yelling out requests makes sense. It's the part of the show that follows five minutes of applause; ostensibly, the band is there because we love them so much, because we don't want them to go quite yet. Again, I realize that encores became standard practice many years ago, and that most bands plan them just as much as they plan the rest of the show. But still, if you're going to go through the motions of playing an encore, don't fucking degrade your fans by making fun of them when they make requests. Leave that to the concert bloggers (more on those guys here).

The front page gets Stylish

The big year-end blowout piece on Iraq in today's New York Times predicts that if Bush decides to send in more American troops now, "historians may well ask why it took him so long." This may be true, but the phrasing is pretty reminiscent of the old "some say"/"experts say" trick you see in the kind of baseless trend pieces J. L. warned us about in August. Actually, "reminiscent" is probably the wrong word, since "historians may well ask" is not just a shot in the dark about some faceless individuals, but a shot in the dark about some faceless individuals who don't even exist yet.

On a related note, the article starts with a subliminal not unlike the "haters" thing in the Obama article:

President Bush began 2006 assuring the country that he had a “strategy for victory in Iraq.” He ended the year closeted with his war cabinet on his ranch trying to devise a new strategy, because the existing one had collapsed.