hold the duchnovies
Hold the duchnovies?
Strike that. Reverse it. X-tra Duchnovies all around. This guy has gone far and wide to shuff off the character chaff he amassed during the x files – at least at skir-central where enjoyment of the film, The TV Set and the Showtime series, “Californication” abound. Both entertainments sport variants of the same character, the disgruntled WRITER who sells his soul to Hollywood with disastrous personal results. So what’s not to like?
Both Duchnovies flirt dangerously with cliché, but manage to pull out of it, maybe to Duchovny’s credit as an actor. He can manage a complicated ironic performance that, in the reverse of what is often the case, seems real and has weight, knowing of its own irony, as we all often do, yet living in the real world with it. I know, I’m still out there in post-modern land, but forgive me.
TV Set is more comic than “…fornication,” and has a good set of supporting actors including Signorney Weaver’s as the network boss. Usually this role is super cliché, the aggressive, type A++ Ari Gold asshole, right? Who else could head a tv network? but Weaver plays it strong, yet almost naively oblivious, kinda ditzy and likable, yet still manipulates people and gets her own way. Same with his agent, Judy Greer, an actor we liked a lot from the short lived Love Monkey, she too plays it much softer than we expect now from agents. No dis on Ari, we love the Ari. There’s some great TV satire in it, including a couple of fictional shows called things like “MILF Island,” and “Slut Wars” which get big ratings for the network. Also the line from Weaver that “sex beats gross food any day,” about why Slut Wars is higher rated than “America’s Grossest Meals.”
Californication put me off when it debuted. I wasn’t in the mood(y) for the swaggering ultra-disgruntled, hard drinking, womanizing, smoking, speakin’ da truth to the peoples who don’t want to hear it, writer, named of all things, Hank Moody. The name Californication also had me doubting it initially. Seems like that one would have been used already no? Isn’t it a Chili Peppers disc? Plus does it mean “fuck California?” Of is it just come to Cali and get fucked? Or fuck a lot? Turns out its all those things, and it pretty dang cool. F. was into it from the start, says Hank Moody “is a bad ass.” Well that put me off as well, jealous f’er that I am. Anyone who tries for unknown reasons to write, knows how soon you will be jack shit nobody if you act like Hank Moody. Hey, I wanna go around getting into fights with cell phone talkers and dumb asses, drink and smoke to excess, attract all the wrong beautiful women and say all the wrong offensive (yet bitingly true) things and be admired and loved for it. Fucker. I ignored half the episodes, and listened to the other half as F watched them while I tried to sleep. Then the last episode came on and it promised to be the most cliché and hateful of them all. Yet it wasn’t. It was f’n hilarious and a bit surprising and I had to sit up and say, what was that?
So now I have to retract my smug, jealous dislike and go back through the entire series on demand. Or on-on demand to be correct. Confusing also is the appearance again of Judy Greer (see above) as a Hoe Orr in one episode. But she seems to have a heart of gold, so what the hell. Less confusing is my admiration for the actress Natasha McElhone who had the hard job of floating around Soderberg’s Solaris, looking great, and looks even better here. Again her character is at the edge of cliché, the once had, once lost, unattainable Object Woman, a role that would be extremely irksome if not for this character’s predilection to do dumb, impulsive things, including the whopper of a season ender she pulls off, which I won’t spoil for you if you haven’t seen it. I’m about half way through the re-screening, but this time I’m paying attention, not hating and I’m gonna have to recommend it to you alls.
Some Halloween chaff here:
Pumpkin. The word has a freakin’ “M” in it folks. M. em. Like the word “pump” with a kin on the end. When the fuck did it change to “punkin?” Like a small, cute punk? Like a kid sneaking into CBGBs? I don’t think it did, yet I hear professional TV types saying “punkin” and seemingly normal, educated peeps out there saying punkin so please stop it in time for next Halloween.
My pumpkins this year had lots of seeds. That is a good sign. Last few years were kinda stingy on the seeds. Fond childhood memory number 14: digging out tons of pumpkin seeds and the folks would roast them and put them in this special glass jar we had for that purpose. I have never been able to recreate those seeds either. I’ve tried a dozen different methods of roasting them too, drying first, not drying, olive oil, no oil. None taste like my memories. But I roasted a big batch while the kid carved and it was fun. They were close, the seeds. Perhaps it was the green glass bowl…
It’s fun to notice the themes the kids choose to represent with their costumes when you see a lot of them in one place. Last year there was still a preponderance of that Edvard Munch-ian elongated ghost face from the Scream Movies. Those had a good two-year run. But this year, (cue Dream Syndicate) (or Donovan if that’s your bag) it was clearly season of the witch. Hands down, witches ruled. Why? Harry Potter? General witchiness? Hard to say. I also noticed a mini theme of mutated/decomposed/alien sports ghouls, various sports figures like football players who looked liked they’d been dug up after a few years, or had spent a day or so with the Borg. Why this theme? The Balco scandal? Shaq on TV? Again hard to say.
Also funny I thought were adults’ reactions to other adults in costume. You get your handful of people who dress up on the day before Halloween, and the day of, and go about their business dressed as ‘70s disco dancers, or witches, or mutated sports figures. I like this. Makes the world look as dumb as it really is. Also dumb is how people try to ignore them. Why are we afraid of people having fun, flaunting their silly side in public one day a year? We avert our eyes, cast glances downward, shuffle newspapers higher to block the view. Kinda like we act in the public bathroom no? What is the connection?
Still in a bad sway of the Fiery Furnaces. Can’t be helped. There is something somewhat sci-fi about their work, backwards guitars, blips and beeps, surreal narrative. Two years ago I had no defense against Blueberry Boat, and suffered the consequences. Thankfully his year I have an antidote, the great Obliterati. Jeezus. C’mon “Donna Sumeria!” It don’t get much better. What is it about Mission of Burma? Beside the 
So much so it made me wanna pound some drums again, maybe in the company of others. To that end I ran an ad on craigslist which has since been deleted, but believe me it was a riot. And strangely, a bunch of South Bay dudes were brave (dumb) enough to take the bait. They had two really major things going for them: 1) a name I didn’t immediate hate: The Atomic Love Bombs, (unlike half of these ad posters and answerers; and 2) they were pretty flippin’ good! (unlike the other half…) So we got together for an audition. While we decided not to make a go of it, I still have to send a you to their myspace page, ‘cause the dudes have it, Black Rebel MC – ish type of stuff: check them out here, and wish them well. They’ve already shown astute decision making prowess by not having me sit at their drum kit, disturbing their rhythms.
Question: is there a coffee shop in the East Bay without flies? 
My association with Lala.com has been paying off rather nicely lately. Apart from the Obliterati, I just got discs by the Breeders and the Amps, remember them? two Kim Deal projects from back in the dark ages, that I’ve been enjoying here now in the really dark ages. Also one of Roger Miller’s Birdsongs of the Mesozoics came, (I think there are a good dozen or so of them) and its quality good stuff. I gotta say I love that Breeder’s song, Cannonball, and, as is now traditional, got over to Yinztube to see the old viddy for it. Its there. Here. You’ll remember that Kim Deal makes herself look as unglamorous and nasty as she possibly can, yet she has beautiful eyes and an attractiveness that is in there somewhere, sometimes echoed in her sister, Kelly, sometimes not. And she does make this one tiny move for like just a second in the video that kills me every time, watch for it, she’s dressed in a dumb costume in front of a mirror and during the chorus goes hips side to side in what can only be described as, sorry Kim, cute. I will also rememberize now that magic time we got to see the Pixies at the Decade in Pgh, a small, small bar that had no sightlines or sound or good beer or food – exactly what you want from your rock estab., and was kinda hypnotized by Kim Deal and her eyes. So much so that the music (Pixies first tour) ($3 to get in) got into my head without my permission, and stayed there for a fuck of a long time. Eyes.
So I have asked several questions here: do you want Duchnovies with that? Why is Mission of Burma so good? What is the connection between Halloween costumes and public bathrooms? What’s the deal with Kim? (get it, deal...) And more importantly, is there a coffee shop in the East Bay that sports internet, hopefully free, is worth hanging out in, and is without flies? Rhetorical of course, all of them.
I love anchovies, but always have to get them on the side because no one else wants them near their food; Mission of Burma is so good because they're all twisty and swervey, they knew they wanted to use the word 'burma' in their name, and the first song Clint Conley ever wrote was 'Peking Spring' (I watched the documentary last night); I don't know but what up with individual wrapping for one bite of Snickers?; Kim is a bass player therefore Kim is sexy; go whereever you want - I have mosquito netting you can wear over your head.
Posted by: Geener | November 15, 2007 at 01:16 PM
I love anchovies, but always have to get them on the side because no one else wants them near their food; Mission of Burma is so good because they're all twisty and swervey, they knew they wanted to use the word 'burma' in their name, and the first song Clint Conley ever wrote was 'Peking Spring' (I watched the documentary last night); I don't know but what up with individual wrapping for one bite of Snickers?; Kim is a bass player therefore Kim is sexy; go whereever you want - I have mosquito netting you can wear over your head.
Posted by: Geener | November 15, 2007 at 01:17 PM
sorry I sent the comment twice but I got an error message...
Posted by: Geener | November 15, 2007 at 01:19 PM