Tuesday Teaser

So, Pitchfork and Popmatters have weighed in on Jarvis Cocker's latest album. Popmatters was particularly kind:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/7859/jarvis-cocker-jarvis

Earlier this year, he released probably the best single of 2006: "Running the World." As many young punks/goths may sing about wanting to wipe intolerant people off the face of the Earth, Jarvis Cocker's response is more nuanced by maturity, but the message equals anything you would hear on a Descendents song:

"In theory I respect your right to exist/ I will kill you if you move in next to me."

The only problem was that this is shaping up to be a sort of Return to Cookie Mountain of the last part of this year, meaning a well-received album that was available in the UK but it was an annoying six months of pushed-back release dates before being available in the 'States. Of course, my nephew would say "Just download it from LimeWire and save your money." But for some CDs, like albums, I like to actually own and enjoy the ritual of going down to a local record store and keeping those stores alive in the age of LimeWire and heavily-discounted albums from Best Buy.

I saw Casino Royal this weekend. Daniel Craig is the mack. For what it's worth - it was the best James Bond film I have seen in a theater (I think my first Bond movie I saw in a theater was A View to A Kill.

Finally - sorry, this is a bit scattered - I woke up and found my inbox stuffed with four attachments. It was a short story a friend of mine wrote. The only thing is that this friend is a rather prolific writer and sends me EVERYTHING. "Here's an email I sent to ... - don't you love my response?" "Why haven't you left any comments on my LiveJournal blog?" She also has this habit of saying "Oh my god, I said the funniest thing..." - uh, no. Saying that pretty much, by default, almost completely negates the humor of the statement. It's sort of like saying "I wrote the best song..." or "I wrote the best poem" or "I cooked the meanest salsa last night" (ok, I've been guilty of saying that). Anyway - writers are a sensitive lot and need incessant feedback. And I'm not good at giving feedback with every single thing some friends send me - especially if I'm juggling a full-time job and two freelance projects. I guess as a writer, I'm extremely sensitive about sending stuff for folks to review. As for blogs and online album reviews, yeah - the stuff is out there on the Web, if you want to read it, awesome - if you want to comment, that's hellishly awesome. But as for stuff that I really want feedback, I tend not to show my stuff to friends, assuming their schedules are as busy as mine - and as a result, the only thing I would want to show them would be something I would absolutely want them to see/review.