Cap Battles the Assassins!

Among the great internal debates that blogging has produced in me (and we'll pretend that these are the reasons why I can't update regularly), deciding how self-indulgently nerdy I want to be is chief among them. That being said, I'm leading off this post with the following clip of Steven Colbert receiving the recently deceased Captain America's shield.



Charming, but more importantly, further blurring the line between fact and the "truthiness" of Captain America's existence.
We all know about my obsessive love affair with Paste magazine (the thinking man's...magazine). It's an absolute essential for people of the XPN persuasion interested in broadening their musical/cultural horizons. But recently I was reading the "letters to the editor" section of a couple issues and noticed some really innane letters coming in. This is from the October issue, regarding coverage:

I was perplexed to find full pages on Kanye West, Jamie Foxx and, to my shock, madonna (small m intentional, since she's not the real Madonna)....

My feelings about bringing religion into every single sentence that escapes your mouth aside, this is just too much. It's the woman's name. If it were a stage name I could maybe understand the most passive-aggressive attack on a celebrity I've ever seen, but it's the woman's real name. This is like refusing to respect anyone of Hispanic heritage named Jesus, or lower-casing (what an action verb!) the names of two Beatles (John and Paul of course, although Ringo could stand to be taken down a peg as well...yes, I'm still angry that he left "Shining Time Station"). However, as far as misguided actions based on religion go, this one is pretty neutral. Here's another letter from this month's issue:

Let me start by saying that you guys make a good magazine, the features are usually insightful and well-written. But your reviews section needs serious work. Of the 50 or so music reviews, I've heard of perhaps 10. As far as this month's film reviews, I haven't heard of a single one [...] I suggest putting in fewer movies directed by some Russian intellectual living in Malaysia and adding more that people have heard of.

I was unreasonably angry when I read this. Look, if you want reviews you've heard of, buy the vapid and limp publication that calls itself Rolling Stone (I'm pretty sure the real Rolling Stone is relocated in some sort of witness protection program). This isn't specifically to knock RS or its writers, but it is a jab at the awful "music" their writers cover, and the kind of people who only want to read about corporate music that's already getting too much airplay. You don't buy an alternative magazine -- especially one dedicated as much to culture (read: foreign films) as to music -- to read about things you already own. Not only do I not understand someone being subscribed to a magazine that is apparently not satisfying their expectations, but after a few issues, wouldn't you get the hint and perhaps not write in and make an ass of yourself? Godspeed, Johnny Mulligan of McLean, Virginia...one can only hope that you're 14 years old.

Meanwhile, James Morrison was on World Cafe a few days ago. Interesting guy...his voice is this perfect and very eerie marriage of Ray Lamontagne and Jonny Lang. Notice I said "interesting guy": this means that his voice is bad, and his songs are also bad. That sentence includes both uses of the word "bad"; look him up and figure out which is which.

I'm going to post again tomorrow, and you will all be stunned.