I might be disowned by my forward-thinking, music loving friends, but I just cannot keep on track with that ’80s British music obsession, even though I still get chills when thinking about how damned good Magazine and the Soft Boys are, but right now I’m on an Elvis jag! For the moment, I’ve totally bought into the mythology of “Mystery Train” and probably hear exactly what the Beatles heard when they loved Elvis. I’m downloading some indie-rock songs by the likes of the Dismemberment Plan and Les Savy Fav to offset this Elvis fixation. I blame Lou for letting me get steeped in the traditions of the South, and I find my old love for bluegrass less embarrassing than this Elvis jag. Yes, thankfully right now it’s ’50s Elvis, but most of you know what a completist I can be, and this time next year, I’ll be listening to his Vegas material. Why o why?
So I’m behind the cutting edge in indie now, but it’s nice to find that Dismemberment Plan and Les Savy Fav are not all hype by weak-eyed indie kids eager to get excited about something. It’s weird to page through the stripped copies Rolling Stone and Billboard (i just want everyone to know that good money was not spent on such tripe) to see that At the Drive-In seems to be mentioned on every third page of Billboard. Barnes and Noble still won’t carry them though, even though I’ll bet that we have thirty copies of that airhead Nelly Furtado on the listening stations next month. (I have the right to call her an airhead, as I saw her interviewed on Much Music. It was as qualifying a moment as one could ever find.) And now i notice that a band that i rediscovered on my harddrive last week, the White Stripes, is in this Rolling Stone! And weirdest yet, in some magazine that i might have already thrown away (Spin?) almost every member of Radiohead raves about Clinic. I never thought that Clinic sounded like a typical Pitchfork band, but since I’ll bet that some of the Pitchfork staff knows what Radiohead ate for breakfast, their love of Clinic influenced the Pitchfork reviews, not so much Pitchfork’s love of Clinic. Hell, it’s just a theory.
And the theory on tonight’s episode of Survivor is that Kimmi gets voted off because she’s got a loud mouth, and she chickens out when she’s most needed for challenges. Rodger is also weak on challenges, but he’s more pleasant to be around, and they seem to be keeping the weak people for the end of the show. It’s best to kick someone who is weak and annoying.
Last week, i KNEW who they probably were going to vote off, hoping against hope that they wouldn’t, and by leaps and bounds my respect for this guy grew and grew, and he even made an alliance of sort with one of the other contestants, who i decided to root for if he was voted off, and even SHE turned on him! I am SO pissed off!!!!
I told my mother that i don’t know whether i want to watch the rest of the season, but i said that when they voted off Greg last season, then Gretchen, and Colleen later on. there’s a small chance that I could gain some respect for one person or another, one of the people flying radar right now. I like Rodger on one tribe, even though he’s a devout Christian. He seems to be a straight arrow. Mike on the same tribe seems okay too, but he’s even MORE devout, it turns out, and he’s quite arrogant, as he’s designated himself the leader! Three other people seem okay, but nothing special, Liz and Amber, who are seemingly ditzy girls, but not as cool as last season’s Colleen, who was actually NOT a total airhead, as she was a firefighter in Africa (something she never seemed to mention on camera!) and the seven foot tall geeky guy. The rest of the people seem like the scum of the earth. I would have liked Maralyn, the ex-horse cop, but she turned on Kel, possibly the best person on the whole damned show. I am beginning to forgive her a little, as if she voted as she told him that she would, she would have singled herself out to the others, as there seems to be an alliance. She DID stand up for him when they rifled through his belngings, and insisted that he deserved an apology. it may have all been staged though. Who knows what happens off camera?
I was all set NOT to like Kel on the debut, as i tend not to like military types, but he was an officer, and in intelligence. He seemed different. When he appeared on camera, he was firm, direct, earnest, and hardworking. I liked him, and waited him to show his dark side. After tonight’s episode, i don’t think he HAD much of a dark side! When they were talking about him behind his back, he overheard them, and came straight over to confront them, to tell his side of the story, then walked away. Anyone else in the tribe would have plotted immediately, but he was open about it. He was upbeat and supportive when they competed too. However, he was the toughest, most consistent person, the most charismatic in a good sense, and he was a target.
It bugs me that they singled him out before they took out the two-faced chef who cannot cook, or MUCH, much worse, that bitch Jerri. I hate her fucking guts. She started a rumor that Kel had a secret food stache, which was bullshit, and that turned opinion against him. She also kept trashing how bossy and annoying it is when he’d say something as simple as, “I’m going to try to fish.” She reminds me of that no-mark lawyer bitch last season, and i saw from the previews that she beds down with one of the guys, Colby, a Texan who is flying below radar. She also decided now that SHE is the cook because she managed to make a single fucking tortilla, and everyone in the tribe had a slice. it was a single tortilla! She’s not Jesus and this is not the miracle of the loaves! I will eat mushy rice for months if it keeps me away from that whore! What am i talking about? THE REST OF MY LIFE!
Besides, one of the rumors is that what he was really doing off by himself was masturbating, and who begrudges a fellow masturbator but a hypocrite? It must be hard to keep your hands off yourself in Australia. Those koalas are just so cute!
And yesterday, we pulled out a new autobiography by Andrew Loog Oldham from the boxes. He’s a wanker in the bad sense of the word. It’s good to wank (unless you are wanking on the guitar) but it’s bad to be a wanker. The title is “Stoned” and knowing that, it was too predictable to flip open to the index to see that the Small Faces were mentioned only once and Steve Marriott twice. Fact: The only thing that most Rolling Stones fans like is “Best of” album and a poster. The people who even know who Andrew Loog Oldham is are rock critics and record collectors. A few of them, most likely writers for Mojo, will eagerly devour it, but no one else is going to want to pay $25 for it, as they are going want to get the obscure factoid on some obscure ’60s mod band, not picking over the bloated carcass of the Rolling Stones, something that was quite likely documented elsewhere. Even scavengers have standards. I have not read the book, but I’m betting it’s a total waste of time.
sheesh…. only a single graphic today? I just get so carried away in Survivor…. even more than what Bush is doing. I just want to cry when it comes to what evil he plots.