Karl THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS:
NO SPOILERS: Imho, Ebert got it right this time. Batman Begins works as a movie with “more emphasis on story and character and less emphasis on high-tech action,” though there’s a fair amount of the latter, too. In particular, it works because it’s about Bruce Wayne. That is crucial to the film, because understanding Wayne allows you to sympathize with The Batman, who is every bit the Dirty Harry-inspired firgure Denny O’Neill brought to the comics in the early 1970s — the one Tim Burton would have liked to film in the late 1980s and Frank Miller resurrected in print for Year One in the 1990s. Sylvia Hauser’s mother is going to have to take a second look at Christian Bale because he was a good Batman and a better Wayne — good enough to carry the movie without a Jack Nicholson around to play larger-than-life. It can be a scary movie because its central theme revolves around fear, but I would not say that it was as graphically violent as the latest Star Wars flick. The scariness is largely psychological. But it also has its moments of comic relief, played out by Bale, but also by Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, who all seem to have a lot of fun with their roles. I didn’t even mind Katie Holmes, who acts much smarter than she’s been acting on television recently. Her new beau’s movie is going to have to be really good to be better than this one.
THE MAMMY NUNS: Pate's own Mike Kelly sends word that the Mammy Nuns' “The Bob Song” made Jim Walsh's 25 Reasons (the scene is now) list in the summer issue of Minneapolis/St. Paul's City Pages. Mike assured me these Nuns are the demon spawn of former ISU student Rob Rule and indeed, they are. Although the band's regular gig seems to have slipped away, the Google cache reveals an old Mammy Nuns page, complete with Quicktime audio.
LEONARD COHEN responds to the extortion suit filed against him. I'm not surprised at the response, but did not float it before for legal reasons.
LIVE 8 may include Jacko? Fortunately, I think that's just the promoter being diplomatic. RELATED: Ex-members of the Boomtown Rats may sue Sir Bob Geldof over alleged unpaid royalties.
CAT POWER is beginning work on her next album in Memphis, at the famed Ardent Studios, with veteran Memphis musicians.
OASIS cannot seem to get through a tour without a Gallagher brother storming off stage, so it's nice that's out of the way now.
BILLY CORGAN channels Rodney Dangerfield in a Pitchfork interview — he gets no respect. “Think about it. I mean, there are books on Radiohead, theories. As far as a theoretical point of view for my generation, I'm probably the most successful theoretician. I mean, double albums and concepts and dresses and major disasters and wonderful successes and yet you don't see the critical review of my work. Why? Because it's all focused on the persona. Billy Corgan…”
INDIE LABELS have formed a second trade association called the American Association of Independent Labels, to (among other things) negotaite better rates from online music services. In part, this is a recognition among the big music services of the importance of the “long tail” — the idea that virtually all back catalog and independent releases will draw a few fans, and that the aggregate consumption of all these obscurities can rival the value of hits.
ALANIS MORRISETTE albums were pulled off shelves by Canadian music retailer HMV Canada on Monday protest at her exclusive agreement to sell an acoustic version of her 1995 hit album Jagged Little Pill in Starbucks for six weeks. I think they're still upset that she became a U.S. citizen. I know I am.
REVENGE OF THE HAIR BANDS: Perhaps the best that can be said of the Rock Never Stops 2005 Tour, featuring Cinderella, Ratt, Quiet Riot and Firehouse, is that it does not include Poison.
JAMES LILEKS lists personally meaningful songs. Pate fans will want to scroll to the bottom.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Warner Bros. execs are hoping to keep Cruise away from the red carpets for Batman Begins. Indeed, while puting out happy PR, behind the scenes, Warner Bros. is mightily miffed at Holmes' (or Cruise's) insistence that a Church of Scientology official accompany Homes every step of the way on her Batman Begins press tour, monitoring (and occasionally interrupting) every single press interview. Sources close to Holmes tell Page Six of the New York Post already credit her Invasion of the Body Snatchers-like behavior to her being brainwashed by the Scientologists, with detriment to her career. Holmes’ Pieces of April co-star Patricia Clarkson is quoted in the June issue of In Style magazine: “So many young women have given up their dignity, but not Katie. It’s refreshing. She’s managed to remain in the public eye without losing a sense of herself. And she’s so charismatic.” I’ll bet that interview was B.C. The L.A. Times looks at Cruise's behavior as continuing a disturbing trend of celebrities acting like reality TV subjects. But he was looking completely normal in Tokyo for the premiere of War of the Worlds…
NORWEGIAN WOOD: The father of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Sven Hoeiby, 68, and his wife, ex-stripper Renathe Barsgaard, 34, are to file for divorce after just three months of marriage. It turns out he's the wacky hedonist; his wife got “tired of this wild life” which she said centered on parties and pub crawls.
DALEK kidnapped and held for ransom has been found abandoned on Glastonbury Tor after thieves said it was “too hot.”
P2P-WATCH: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development issued a report Monday finding that filesharing networks alone are not to blame for the recording industry's woes and might plausibly be converted into legitimate channels for distributing music. The recording industry responded that this could happen, but that piracy and copyright protection still have to be addressed.
THE DOWNING STREET MEMO, a classified British memo some see as proof that the Bush Administration was committed to invading Iraq as early as the summer of 2002, is contradicted by another contemporaneous classified British memo, which indicates that no political decision had been made on the invasion.
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES? Gene Expression notes that there may be reasons why we refer to women as “the fairer ex” and some men as “tall, dark and handsome.”
JACKO JUSTICE: TVNewswer rounds up newspapers' reviews of the TV coverage of the verdict. The New York Daily News tried to avoid having the same headline as the New York Post. They outsmarted themselves. Jackson’s website compares his acquittal to the birth of Martin Luther King, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the release of Nelson Mandela. Nevertheless, Jackson's attorney claims that Jackson would no longer let children or their families sleep in his room. Instead, he will go sleep in their rooms. Thank you; don't forget to tip your waitress.
JIM CARREY AND CHER are among celebrities falling off Forbes magazine's annual Celebrity 100 List, hitting newsstands June 17th.
IRAQ: U.S. and Iraqi officials are mulling amnesty for Iraqi insurgents as a way to isolate foreign extremists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
RUPERT MURDOCH SAVES EUROPE? It's the sort of claim you're unlikely to see anywhere, let alone let alone in London's Guardian, but there it is.
MILBLOGGING: fishbowlDC notes that a new memo by Lt. Gen. John Vines, the commander of day-to-day operations in Iraq, lays out new rules for websites and soldier-written blogs in the theater.
OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL: Investigators are “urgently reviewing” a newly-discovered memo suggesting that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan may have known more than he revealed about a contract that was awarded to the company that employed his son.
ELTON JOHN becomes a life-sized chocolate, sculpted by Madame Tussauds. The Hershey jokes write themselves.
A FIRE EXTINGUISHER is not a toy.
ANDY WARHOL'S FACTORY is going condo.
CBGBs is still in danger of moving to Vegas.
AN EXPLOSIVE HOLLYWOOD SEX TAPE in the works, or a Liz Hurley fantasy chased by a blogger? I report, you decide.
SEAN PENN, JOURNALIST: on assignment for the San Francisco Chroniclein Iran, the prickly actor lets loose with another controversial opinion: chanting “Death to America” does not encourage dialogue between Iran and the U.S. Problem solved.
THE MODEL MUSLIM SCHOOL? Time magazine has posted a “Web Exclusive” titled “The Model School, Islamic Style.” The subhead: “As they learn about the American Dream, these kids wonder if it's theirs to pursue.” So what are the kids learning about the American Dream? According to Time: “Assigned by his English teacher to write an essay about his own American Dream, a 15-year-old wrote that the occupied territories should be returned to the Palestinians and 'the Jews should be left to suffer.'”
Time also notes: The Universal School makes clear its independence from the controversial institution right next door, the copper-domed Bridgeview mosque. Built a decade before the school, the mosque was started by moderates but then saw a power struggle in which hard-liners came out on top. Among its leaders, said the Chicago Tribune in an investigative report, 'are men who have condemned Western culture … and encouraged members to view society in stark terms: Muslims against the world.' Last year a member of the mosque was indicted for allegedly funneling money, before 9/11, to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group.” Time might have added that the mosque, its board members and other leaders have numerous ties to groups allegedly supporting Hamas and even Al Qaeda. And that the Tribune followed up with an article noting that some moderate muslims quit the mosque because it was dominated by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to convert the U.S. into a nation governed by strict Islamic law. It's no wonder that the school “makes clear” its independence from the mosque to Time magazine. It would have been nice if Time explained why they believe it. I'm agnostic on the issue, other than to note the credulity shown by Time, when their own reference to the American Dream suggests some curiosity would have been in order.
CULT OF THE iPod: The gadgets have become the tool of choice for some fraudsters who use them to download vast quantities of corporate information either to sell to rivals or to support their own start-up operations. At the other end of the spectrum, great poems, speeches, rants, philosophical doctrines, aphorisms and more have been converted to iNotes for download at i.am.large.
SIRIUS PLANS: The satellite radio company also wants to beam you stock quotes, sports scores, music videos and cartoons.
BILL AND TED’S NOT-SO-EXCELLENT PLANE CRASH: Two airline pilots joked and laughed as they flew an empty commercial jet to its limits, switched seats in mid-air and ignored automated warnings before crashing into a residential area, a cockpit voice recorder has revealed. “Aw (expletive). We’re gonna hit houses, dude.” Fortunately, no one was hurt on the ground in Jackson City, Missouri.
GLOBAL WARMING: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been working behind his friend President Bush's back to turn him on the Kyoto protocol, including secretly lobbying U.S. senators. However, morescientists are claiming that warming is unavoidable and we may enjoy it.
OVER 350 ANIMALS in one residential house in eastern England. The menagerie included 131 dogs, 48 cats, 80 rabbits and 86 guinea pigs. It may shock you to learn that the premises were described as “cramped and unhygienic.”
ANCHORAGE is plagued by swarms of bugs.
BEAR GUZZLES CAMPERS' BEER, EATS FOOD: The incident occurs at Summit Lake near Richwood, West Virginia, which may rule out the Hamm's bear and Yogi as suspects.
