Howdy

In response to Jim's comment to my previous post: I did watch the science fiction program last night. Well, to be truthful, I caught the last half hour. When I joined in I was surprised how little of the story I had missed. Then, when the commercial breaks started coming every ten minutes (or less) I knew why. They really did stick a thirty to forty-five minute program into an hour-long slot. Unbelievable. That did almost make it unwatchable. I guess if you want to watch something on network television that is not complete ass then you have to pay with a commercial to program ration of 4:6.

To answer Jim's question the author of the original story is John Kessel. He teaches at NC State and he writes kick ass short stories. We have a few of his books of shorts stories at the Morrison library. I've made sure that we keep that book. One of my favorite stories by him is written in the style of an essay. An essay about Herman Melville if he was writing during the golden age of science fiction. Remarkable.

Instant Karma

I don't know if you've heard about Instant Karma, a two CD set of John Lennon song covers. It's purpose is to raise money and awareness for the situation in Darfur. I've heard it and some of it is amazing and some of it is pedestrian. Bono's reading of the title track is spectacular. He was born to sing that song. Also the Flaming Lips version of "(Just Like) Starting Over" is gorgeous. Green Day knocks out "Working Class Hero" with a satisfying readng and Lenny Kravitz's "Cold Turkey" is a nice restrained effort. Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison's version of "Gimme Some Truth" has a nice urgency to it. The album falters with songs like Avril Lavigne's "Imagine" and Christina Aguilera's "Mother." Neither song is bad but both songs pretty much ape the original.

You know what band and what song would be great to hear? I would love to hear the White Stripes cover "Woman is the Nigger of the World." Man, that would be good. I can hear it already. It's gold, Jerry. Gold.