Abyss Bites Back

More of the same today as I'm prepping for Wed night. Y'know, there's nothing more uplifting than reading even more about modern Middle East history. Tribes with flags, as Charles Glass put it. If only they were armed with just flags, I might revise my anti-flag bias, but only a bit.

Al Franken's PR offensive continues, this time via an upcoming docu about his "fighting back" the GOP. How inspiring. We certainly need more pro-war/pro-corporate centrists running for office, as Franken plans to do against Norm Coleman in Minnesota. This movie is part of his political celebrity campaign, so expect online libs to throw whatever confetti's left over from their Ned Lamont celebrations Franken's way. Hillary's, too.



When in New York next week, I hope to catch "Factotum," in which Matt Dillon plays Hank Chinaski, Charles Bukowski's alter ego. Dillon's a lot better looking than Bukowski and has a deeper voice, but he seems to grasp Bukowski's essence in the scenes I've seen. Not surprising -- Dillion gave an excellent performance in the audio book for Jack Kerouac's "On The Road"; and while Kerouac and Bukowski are completely different writers, Dillon finds what makes these authors' prose and personal style unique and subtly, completely embodies it.

Here's the "Factotum" trailer:



And here's the real Bukowski, from an interview in 1976.



My little essay about Brian Wilson earlier this week inspired a lot of mail, and one kind reader forwarded this page from WFMU's Beware of the Blog. On it you'll hear a tape of Murry Wilson testing the patience of his much more talented son, and the rest of the Beach Boys as they try to lay down "Help Me, Rhonda." But the real meat is found in the four Peter Bagge cartoons about Murry's madness, co-produced by "Simpsons" regular Dana Gould, and featuring the voice talents of the old "Mr. Show" crew of Paul F. Tompkins, Jill Talley, and Tom Kenny, aka SpongeBob. Really funny. Here's Part 1 to get you started.

Back to the books. Nationalism. Racism. Oppression. War. Lies. All around brutality. Boy oh boy, is this gonna be a swingin' weekend!