All the Kreskin You Can Handle

WFMU's Beware of the Blog is pretty rad, and today (or TOMORROW as the case may be, time zones equalling TIME TRAVEL in this imperfect universe) is no exception. I love the paranormal, even though I don't believe in it--which is possibly what allows me to love it. I do believe in TIME TRAVEL, however, which is why it confounds and disappoints me like an unambitious son. So if you're on the West Coast, and you read this in the next hour TIME TRAVEL with me to WFMU and dig some vintage Kreskin.

Amen

On a cold October night, this warms my heart. Louis Theroux's documentary The Most Hated Family in America is highly recommended, as is pretty much anything Theroux's done.

Here's a preview:

HEY CLOWNS

Why so serious? (at press time, only Albuquerque remains up for grabs)

Happy Halloween, here's a quintet (and maybe a hidden bonus track, since the J-man's scavenger hunt has been scooped up by bigger dorks than you or I) of seasonal traxx to darken yr doorway.

MP3: "Death of a Clown" by the Kinks
Mp3: "Reflections of the Marionette" by Two Gallants
Mp3: "Cat Claw" by the Kills
Mp3: "Changing" by Witch
Mp3: "The Change" by Tony Joe White

tough shammes, my sweetness

Just finished Michael Chabon's new novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union. It may be the best book I read all summer. That is to say, I can pretty much count summer out at this point, October 31, now that I've read such a fine and satisfying book. It concerns a hard-boiled homicide cop in the Sitka District, a Jewish settlement in Alaska, named Meyer Landsman. On the eve of Sitka's repatriation to the USA (not the literal eve, mind you, more like 2 months off), bringing with it the threat of grand displacement, a man is murdered in the same SRO hotel that Landsman lives in.
A breakneck, Chabon-sized adventure follows in a noirish style full of visceral prose and unfulfilled dreams. It's not quite as grand as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, but in some ways, it's more fun. While there are a few scenes of heartbreak and loss, it's nowhere near as devastating as the end of the second act of Kav & Clay.

I thought maybe I was reaching when I immediately drew a connection between Detective Meyer Landsman of TYDU and Detective Jay Landsman of Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon (who, it should be noted, mutated into John Munch on Homicide: Life on the Street) (sadly, Wikipedia says that Munch has now appeared in more episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit than H: LOTS). But I've just now learned that Chabon spent much of his youth in a suburb of Baltimore, that city of my dreams. So maybe there is a connection there, and according to THE INTERNET, I'm the only one who realizes it (aside from CHABON, of course).

Next up is Knots and Crosses, Ian Rankin's first Rebus book.

First of all, Bigfoot lives in the West...

Some "hunter" in Pennsylvania took some photos of a creature that is totally not Bigfoot. Looks more like Mono Grande to me.

RIP: Robert Goulet

Robert Goulet, 1933-2007: Remember when Elvis shot his TV set? Robert Goulet was on.

I'm not a man, or machine, I'm just something inbetween: TEN GREAT CANADIAN ALBUMS

Proven by science*: Loverboy > Slayer + Coldplay.

About a week ago, I bemoaned the lack of Loverboy on the so-called Top 100 Canadian Albums of All Time. I promised to report back with what my top ten would have been had I not been too lazy to compile and submit one last fall for the book.

In the order that I think of them:

Get Lucky - Loverboy
Ode to Joy - Deadly Snakes
Casa - Roger Dean Young & the Tin Cup
Truthfully Truthfully - Joel Plaskett Emergency
How'd We Ever Get This Way? - Andy Kim
Blow the House Down - Great Uncles of the Revolution
Inhabitants - Inhabitants
Les Sables Magiques - Tricky Woo
Blue - Joni Mitchell
ah, what the hell, Sunday Anthems - the Neins Circa

So, like, that's ten Cdn albums I love a lot. What say you, fussy britches?

MP3: "The King of America" by Great Uncles of the Revolution

*when science = Mike Reno