During #1 Dad gigs, Blake, our quietly dignified bouncer, always covers the television nearest our impromptu stage with a towel. This is to prevent spectators from remembering that #1 Dad can't compete with cable television for variety.

But the TV in the back of the room always remains unsheathed. As it's in my line of sight during shows, I watch it steadily. Typically there is little of interest--lots of sports highlights, plus commercials for exercise equipment and hair-replacement therapies.

Last night, however, the TV was tuned to TNN, a/k/a The New TNN pending the outcome of the legal battle Spike Lee is waging. (See my blog of June 20.)

TNN was showing the Brian DePalma romp Scarface, a film I've still never seen despite my admiration for DePalma. Scarface is, as Soylent Green was till a few weeks ago, a film I can quote lines from despite having never seen it, simply because it has been parodied endlessly. (See my blog of June 19.)

Scarface evidently typifies The New TNN's lad-mag aesthetic of booze, broads, and castration anxiety. Fair enough.

I kept wanting to comment on Scarface during the show, but decided that it definitely was not in my interest to call attention to the television during my set.

But I would like, for the record, to say that during last night's show, I saw the following images:

Al Pacino with suntan makeup and a Caesar cut.

Al Pacino sitting tied up in a small aircraft and being threatened by men with chainsaws, then splattered with the blood of someone of whom the chainsaw guys apparently decided to make an example.

A man dangling by his neck from a rope attached to a helicopter.

A 25-year-old Michelle Pfeiffer with big hair and a bikini. Meow!

All this to the soundtrack of my own renditions of Loretta Lynn and Hank Williams, Jr. songs.

The whole experience was weird. TV is weird.

So the question is, does this big DePalma fan even need to see Scarface now, or have I seen enough?