Good word (cc: Dick Cheney)

"Every time you have a chat
It's f-word this and f-word that
I can't control how you young people talk with one another
But I don't want to hear you use that f-word with your mother"

--Peter Berryman, "A Chat With Your Mom"

Good word

"Joan of Arc with the Lord to guide her
She was a sister who really cooked"

--Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, David Grusin, "And Then There's Maude"

Good word

"I doubt myself that Bill Clinton's sex life has been all that different from anybody else's: pastures of plenty, pastures of less than plenty, pastures he should get out of immediately, and not a few acres of scorched earth."

--Larry McMurtry

Good word

Cassio: O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil! ... Oh God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! ...

Iago: Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used.

--Othello, act 2, scene 3

Separated at birth?

Clinton staffer Sidney Blumenthal...

...and Conan O'Brien/E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg?

Quiet out there

Hey Honey, are you still bloggin'?

Big fun

Here at the house I just hosted a roundtable discussion of Madison vocalists. Isthmus assigned me to do this for a forthcoming music insert, and putting the project together was lots of fun. Joining me tonight were: Jan Wheaton, jazz singer extraordinaire; Mr. Parker, emcee of dumate, a new hip hop group that features members of the reggae group Natty Nation; Kyle Peterson, singer of Shotdown, a hard rock band that's perhaps my very favorite group in Madison; and Katy Rykken, singer of the Dorothy Heralds, a sort of prog-techno-rock group. A photographer also was here.

As I thought might be the case, the conversation was a little muted at first. But my editor had encouraged me to supply refreshments, and once the wine and beer began to flow, my colleagues opened up. The discussion was enjoyable: we talked about venues, recording, promoting, politics, and what have you.

I had a great time doing this! Look for the article in the fall.

The refreshments also included grapes, chips and salsa, smoked Gouda and Newman-O's.

Good word

"I'm not being facetious when I suggest that the quiet, concealed art of good craftsmanship may be revolutionary now."

--Pauline Kael, "The concealed art of Carol Reed," review of the film Oliver! in Going Steady (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970)

Deep rough

Watching televised golf is an old stoner activity of mine that has lingered into my clean living. I find the broadcasts hypnotic: the courses are lush and beautiful, the announcers hushed, the players--generally--calm.

So I flipped on the U.S. Open this morning and indeed saw some compelling golf, especially the agony of the seventh green at Shinnecock (ahem). Golfers were triple- and quadruple-bogeying on that green, which was so dry that missed putts rolled on and on and on.

But really, who has time to watch golf if they're not smoking weed? It was gorgeous here in Madison today, and although I'm sure six hours of golf on television would have been very exciting, I just had to get out there. I went for a bike ride.

Good word

"I've seen a million faces, and I've rocked them all."

--John F. Bongiovi, Richard S. Sambora, "Wanted Dead Or Alive," Aggressive Music/Bon Jovi Publishing/Universal Polygram International Publishing Inc. (ASCAP)