Together

You'd best watch Together while it's still on-demand on Netflix.  Anthony Lane loved it, der.

Nick's Picks

If I had to name an annoyance more vexing than a twitching eye, it would be winter dry skin...it's cold out and a good night for eggs in hell...interesting that all this news would come from Tunisia as I just read Patricia Highsmith's The Tremor of Forgery this week...why in the world did Apple help James Taylor's career, instead of leading him blindfolded into a vat of molten pig iron?...Probably the most beautiful music in the history of the world (this week) is Astor Piazolla's "Primavera Portena"...I respect them but I worry I don't love DEVO enough...this would be a good weekend to look into someone's eyes and ask plaintively "We were happy then, weren't we?"...that Yes "Leave It" video must have used the entire computer power available in the world in 1983...yes, I will be making the Chez Panisse Vegetables book's radish salad soon...just saw my reflection at lunch and I look about 300 years old...wow, that new Wire album is so good I wish I hadn't already forgotten it entirely...with the Bride currently the president of our neighborhood association, I will suggest that we get an ED-209 unit to prevent crime...Martin Balsam was both the Dan Hedaya of his time AND God...

Nick's Picks 11/2/2010

Between his super-scrumptious new album and the fact he's dating his son's ex-girlfriend, Bryan Ferry may be the best 65-year old on earth, and I will celebrate by listening to Roxy/solo shit all week...everyone tells me I need to watch Dexter, and I mean everyone, but I'm scared I will yell "Call Keith!" at Michael C Hall the entire time...can one gain 40 lbs by eating Sweet Tarts over one trick-or-treat weekend? I feel like I have...I'm anxious to try this Sunday Sauce thing that Italians seem to know about...had my brain blown all up out my head Saturday by visiting Menard's for the first time...M4A format still annoys me...also, someone find me the Droid knockoff for the iPhone "4 track cassette" app; no, I mean come to my house and find it for me. I don't understand all this app bullshit -- I'm not 11. I will write a hit in your honor...I would listen to The Beatles 2nd Album for the entire month, if I didn't have all this Roxy...listening to these numb zombies talking about their voting experiences is leaving me emotionally bereft...I'll be the first to say that the Chiefs will be in the Superbowl...to all haters who said I would never, ever rent a leaf shredder, too bad: we will be renting one within the next two weeks...be careful before appointing me dictator, there will be a dress code...I left a Cheerwine in our friend's fridge on Sunday and I wish I had it right now...I wonder if I can find the cedar cologne I bought in Bermuda in 1987, if they still make it, not the actual bottle...I hope you tell your friends to come check out my blog and join as followers by saying "he's the new EB White!" Actually, I don't care...saw a cute pic of an under-three in a Robocop Hallowe'en costume, his neighbor was probably ED-209...have to decide soon what movies we will watch on Lockdown...

Nick's Picks 8/19/2010

Of all the G'n'R-related stuff ever, Gilby Clarke's 1994 single "Cure Me or Kill Me" is the best (only?) thing to say about it all...gotta say, going out in the yard at night is pretty glorious...why should I trust what The Sartorialist has to say when he doesn't even know that "a lot" is two words?...Anyone who takes The Band seriously, well, you don't have to take them seriously, or even pull them from a wrecked and burning car...heads up, this Sunday is the Times fall fashion mag insert...I mentioned I'm going to follow the Redskins, yes? Rigginomics!...when you are looking for something to read, it's hard to beat books...I believe the blossom-end rot is arrested, truly had not been watering nearly enough (he was ashamed to say)...gonna take Don to Yellow Springs for dinner Friday...hoping to learn alot (dammit) about late season growing and hot composting this Saturday at a seminar given by the Beachdog...it would be wild if there really was an ED-209...getting geared up for that new Belle and Sebastian, will have to re-assess all the God Help the Girl stuff...I have a ton of movies, but not enough time...man, do I ever love appositives...

Nick's Picks 6/4/2010

That time when John Ashcroft had the statue of Justice's tits covered with a drape? That was stupid...there's something just plain nice about sprinklers...for 840 months running, a good clean preppy look remains the best...did that whole Stop Peter Bjorn and John thing really happen? Those were innocent times...whoever invented the wheelbarrow sure was a smart one...for th' record, I'm against the oil slick...saw a cop making an estranged husband leave a house yesterday; in Detroit they would have called out ED209...Red Star Over Russia is the whip when it comes to books about Soviet era propagandist art (and "Soviet" was an instrumental track on Electronic's 1991 debut LP, now that I think)...if you watch 10 episodes of The Hills in a row, you will understand what the girls are saying about "being careful with your heart...," or so a wise man said...like you, I'm all ready to not even consider getting excited about the World Cup..."Roy's Keen" - not so bad! Why all the hate?...whether Magruder bombed or not, I demand a Brian Fellows movie...I have talked to three different people this last week who concur: Sonic Youth pretty much suck...

Nick's Picks 4/1/2010

Googled to see if anyone else had written that that Penguin Prison guy sounded just like Phil Oakey; no one had, so I am the first. If you don't know what I'm talking about, more power to you...I still want to keep the "k" in Knopf silent, although I've know differently for at least 10 years...hey, Beardy McNextcube - don't EVER ask me about Mark Knopfler (silent K, here) again...also: why is there blues music?...just learned about amortizing yesterday - what a racket!...Robert Fripp is a dick, right, but the two minutes of mayhem on "Baby's on Fire" - career!...my ex sister-in-law used to say "I love the sun!," which rankled, but it turns out she was right...saw my lovely primary care doc driving a gorgeous Mercedes yesterday - gonna call her to tell her to double her rates to ensure this sort of thing continues...James M Cain = badass...that Flash Forward show sounds good, but it's on TV
:(...got a Neiman Marcus cookbook (2003) at the thrift - all sorts of good shit...my brother was trying to tell me that there is some April Fool's Day French schoolkid tradition involving putting a fish on someone's back, but I don't remember this, though we attended the same junior high school...What? No ED-209?...

Nick's Picks 12/7/2009

Not really sure why but "The Beautiful Ones" by Prince and the Revolution always makes me think of Christmas...sort of shocked that Barry Larkin has retired from baseball...was anxious to try Five Guys Burgers and Fries until I saw their sign, which looks like the signage one would see for a failing bagel shop in late 1988...trust me: the Republicans are going with Palin/Tebow in '12...the older I get, the more tolerant I become of people telling me shit I've known for months as if it were brand-new information...is this Girl With the Dragon Tattoo book really anything at all?...Art Brut deserve the Nobel Prize for the line "Why don't our parents...worry about us?"...Putin strikes me as a wily character...was excited when my close-to-day-job Kroger added their ultra-modern olive bar, but they don't stock the pickled garlic that the other stores do, so they can suck it...if I had time, I would write something else about Dash Snow...if we're going to succeed in Afghanistan, they'd better send in ED-209...bet you didn't know that Frances "Six Feet Under" Conroy is the chick living in Martin Landau's boyhood home in Crimes and Misdemeanors...a new broom really does sweep clean...

Nick's Picks Oct 7, 2009

Summer is over, but I'm still seeing lots of dogs enjoying having their dog faces stuck all up out car windows...it's October - where the fat is McRib?...I can play guitar okay, but I sure can't fathom the piano...why wasn't "Untouchable" by Rialto (1998) a bigger hit than, say, "I Will Always Love You"?...next weekend - crab legs, even if I have to beat the crabs to death on the street myseff...I still chuckle when I hear the faux-tough cry "Cibo Matto nineteen ninety-nine!!" in "Sci-Fi Wasabi"...how come no one has yet made a computer program yet that makes everyone around you look like the drawings from The Preppy Handbook?...you can't really ask for a better b-side compilation that Suede's Sci-Fi Lullabies...I don't drink anymore, so don't worry overly much about getting pulled over, but if I were to be, I sure wouldn't want to be pulled over by ED-209...

Come back, Larry

Does anyone else remember Larry King's USA Today column? More to the point, his occasional "King's Things" doodad he'd run once in a while? It was amazing, just a bunch of sentence fragments about whatever. One time, somewhere, Bob Costas even wrote a parody of it. King's Things was a listing of what, say, the surly, down on his luck drunk 59 year old salesman guy at the airport bar may be thinking about, or, indeed, Larry King. Sort of like this:

Con Air is the most exciting movie since The French
Connection...still great to see Debbie Reynolds doing her
thing...when you're thinking of great Oakland A's from the 70s, don't ever
forget Bill North...the new Scott Turow is his best yet, be
ready to lose some sleep...I miss filmstrips...Maya Angelou is one hell of a
poet...it's hard to beat top round when talking cuts of beef...I'd love to see Jack Nicklaus in his prime against Tiger Woods
on 17 at Pebble Beach...

Was thinking, since the Cryptkeeper is apparently too busy to bother with this sort of thing, that maybe I can occasionally run an item like it, "Nick's Picks" or something, with my attendant dumb obsessions:

I like dogs, but for my money you can't beat a good old tabby..."Have You Seen
Your Mother, Baby, Standing In the Shadow?" is an ace early Stones deep cut...it's hard to beat a good, clean preppy
look...Lester Holt is great at whatever he does...I'd like to
buried with some Oreo Cakesters...I miss filmstrips...you can't really beat Aladdin Sane when talking 1973 Bowie
records...John Updike sure knows adultery...garlic is hard to
beat as a flavoring agent...

Maybe a new thing for the oh-nine!