Given the name of our blog, it’s unfortunate we haven’t yet discussed anything related to Germany. Thanks to the terrific Kulturblog travel budget, however, we can now remedy that. Last month I spent a couple of days in Berlin wandering around the city core, lounging in cafes, and checking out monuments and buildings. What follows is a collection of random thoughts, mostly on architecture, and links to photos of what I’m talking about.

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I don’t know that there’s ever been a joke thread on this blog, but I’m in the mood for a few good jokes to get me through Friday.  I’ll kick it off …

A dyslexic man walks into a bra …

Happy Friday!

This post is dedicated to a
Random John, who thinks most rock bands that write songs with the same
name as their band are lame. Lame or not, let’s see what we can come up
with.

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I know my excuse for falling behind is usually that I get busy. This week, though, I’ve had computer issues (and I’ve been busy). But I’ll start now.

This week’s theme is in honor of Steve’s birthday last week:

Songs I Like by Bands/Artists Steve Loves, Even Though I Otherwise Think the Bands/Artists Are Overrated

• Sufjan Stevens, "John Wayne Gacy, Jr."
• Elliott Smith, "Memory Lane"
• Bonus: The Flaming Lips, "Seven Nation Army"

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The Carpenters CRUSHED the Captain & Tennille in last week’s post, thereby inserting possibly the worst song ever into our playlist.

This week is better, I guarantee.

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Time has an article on Geek Chic, an interesting phenomenon whereby those of us who read sci-fi, watch Buffy re-runs, purchase comic books and blog get to finally be cool and feel validated by the world at large.  Fantastic!  But I don’t buy it.

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Anybody catch Scorsese’s Dylan doc on PBS over the last couple of nights? I thought it was amazing: loads of terrific unseen footage, revealing interviews (including with Bob himself), wonderful sound, and perfectly edited.  Even my wife, who can’t stand Dylan’s music, couldn’t look away. What’dya think?

Maybe I’m just feeling cranky, but after viewing this season’s first two episodes of what used to be the greatest TV comedy going, Arrested Development, I fear that the show’s development is now retarded.  So far, this season’s two shows have strained under the burden of obvious, schticky, overbroad bits.  I groaned when David Cross was forced to deliver that lame "bob" pun.  And what’s with the special guest stars?  Charlize Theron? Scott Baio? When did AD turn into Will & Grace?  Anyone share my concerns?

Don’t forget that tonight is the best night of TV: Lost and Veronica Mars are both at 9:00 p.m. tonight, so record one.  I recommend recording Lost, as VM needs the viewership.

…published and presented yesterday. Although I might re-order them, I do think this is a pretty good list, representative of most of what I think are great scores. Can you guess which one of these I don’t like?

My own favorite film score is The Best Years of Our Lives, by Hugo Friedhofer, followed by The Heiress, by
Aaron Copland.
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Well, she doesn’t really hate her. But she’s not going to go see her latest movie, coming out in November: a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. (Here’s the trailer.) Why not?, I ask her. You love Jane Austen. Because it’ll be travesty!, is her response. Two hours to tell the story of Pride and Prejudice?! They’ll have to hack scenes and characters and dialogue right and left! They’ll ignore subplots and subtlety! That’s no way to treat a masterpiece! "Elizabeth Bennet is a modern woman…" (so the trailer says)–baloney! They’ve plainly no idea what the story is really all about! How cheap! And so on, and so forth.

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I’m going to see The White Stripes/The Shins/Brendan Benson tonight. I also just picked up my tickets for Antony and the Johnsons in a few weeks and decided which night I’ll catch Gogol Bordello. With all this fresh in my mind, and reading Susan’s disclaimer about not usually paying more than $15 for a concert, I’ve been thinking. I don’t usually pay more than $15 for a concert either, but I sure will for some bands — the concert tonight, for example, is more than that and A and the J’s was more than I would have thought. Luckily GB isn’t above $15, although I’d probably pay it if it were.

The point is, thinking about what bands I’d pay more to see is an interesting measure of how much I like a band. It might not be the best measure, but it’s one. Anyway, here are the bands that I can think of off the top of my head that I’d happily pay more than $15 — let’s say, like $40-$50 (’cause I’d pay $20 to see tons of bands, really) — to see:

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I’m very excited about this week’s category:

Songs Covered by Bands with Charismatic Frontmen

• The Darkness, "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (Radiohead)
• Ted Leo, "Since U Been Gone" (Kelly Clarkson)
• Korn, "Word Up!" (Cameo)
• Velvet Revolver, "Money" (Pink Floyd)
• Scissor Sisters, "Take Me Out" (Franz Ferdinand)

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Let’s just get the obvious out of the way:

1. M*A*S*H
2. Seinfeld
3. The Simpsons

Yes, IN THAT ORDER.

Feel free to argue with those, but what I’m most interested in is what other shows would you nominate.

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Wow, the Doors surged out in front and never looked back: "L.A. Woman" got 17 of 34 votes.

Let’s take it easy this week.

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I was sitting at work one day when I found out a favorite band from my teenage years, Madness, was playing a music festival this month. Tickets were hefty compared to what I normally pay for a show (I rarely spend more than $15), but this was MADNESS! A band I never in my life thought I’d be able to see. And when I saw some bands my kids really like–311 and Weezer–were playing, I decided to splurge and get us all tickets.

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Wow, close race last week, but The Verve ended up squeaking a victory with 12 votes to 11 for Beck!  Heavy, heavy voting again made all the difference. 

Three good songs for you this week.

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Television is the most important thing in universe.  Or, at least, so it would seem, based upon the amount of time we all spend watching it.  Bow before your phosphor god!!

As some of you may know, I put together last year a guide to the Fall TV schedule, which met with universal acclaim and widespread fame for yours truly.  So, I undertake to do it again this year, in an effort to educate you philistines about what to watch and what not to watch.  Don’t give me any crap about it, either.

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Now that’s a rock star.  Pretentious, glam, talented, but self-sacrificing at the same time.  Check out the NY Times article.

p.s. if you guys haven’t checked out Pandora yet, you really should.

Well, after a time of being, um, “busy”, I’m back. You may remember my feature from Kulturblog’s infancy, in which I posted a song to our radio.blog every day, counting down year by year. This one will be similar, but instead of a long countdown I’ll choose a new category every week. In an effort to avoid having to put up something that thinks of itself as “the best” of anything (see how disastrous our collective taste can be), it’ll just be whatever I feel like.

Since my wife’s birthday is this week, our first category will be:

Songs released in 2005 that Amy likes

• Antony and the Johnsons, “Fistful of Love”
• Beck, "Hell Yes"
• The White Stripes, "Little Ghost"
• Ani DiFranco, "Studying Stones"
• Iron and Wine, "Woman King"

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There’s another song that I can’t help but think of as sarcastic, even
though I know it’s not intended to be.

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Mike (who is a commenter here) and I met up at last night’s Ted Leo & the Pharmacists show.

I took my 15 year old son along, he came with me last time I went to see Ted and wanted to come along again. He fell asleep during the show again, too.

But he’s young and wimpy and can’t keep up with his mom.

Ted was awesome. But let me start at the beginning…

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Nirvana’s "Smells Like Teen Spirit" crushed the competition last week.

Now for a new challenge!

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The difference between the two is not as subtle as a spelling change… trust me. It’s a chasm a mile deep and light years wide.
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"And the way it’s panned is cool" – Britt Daniel, frontman of Spoon.

I’ve been listening to the Super Furry Animals quite a bit lately in anticipation of their upcoming release Love Kraft.  One song from their last album Phantom Power hooks me everytime I listen to it on my headphones: "Golden Retriever".  At the end of the tune, a wash of synthesized white noise rolls back and forth from right ear to left ear.  There’s no other way to listen to that song if not on a good set of headphones.

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