Category Archives: arts

Ash Wednesday blues

Posted on February 22, 2012 by oddmanout215

A butcher friend of mine on Ninth Street said hello today, and I couldn’t help but notice the thin black cross on his forehead. I realized this was the first day of Lent and the cross was ash rubbed into … Continue reading →

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‘I’m Looking Through You’

Posted on February 15, 2012 by oddmanout215

I assumed for many years, because of the scorned and scornful tone of the lyrics, that this was a Lennon song. Actually, McCartney wrote most of it. The fact that he’s the lead singer should have tipped me off. John … Continue reading →

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‘Who Do You Love?’

Posted on February 14, 2012 by oddmanout215

I walked 47 miles of barbed wire/Used a cobra snake for a neck tie/Got a brand new house on the roadside/And it’s made out of rattlesnake hide/I got a brand new chimney put on top/Made out of human skulls/Come on … Continue reading →

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‘Third Stone From the Sun’

Posted on February 13, 2012 by oddmanout215

Your people I do not understand So to you I shall put an end And you’ll never hear surf music again

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Rats on sinking ship, no exit

Posted on February 12, 2012 by oddmanout215

Background: Danny Ciello (Treat Williams) has cooperated with a federal investigation into NYPD corruption, after being assured investigators wouldn’t go after his friends and fellow cops in the narcotics unit. He learns he made a deal with the devil as … Continue reading →

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When he was good

Posted on February 8, 2012 by oddmanout215

From Rod Stewart’s first solo album (1969), released not long after he broke with the great guitarist Jeff Beck. This was before Stewart stopped singing songs about working-class misfits and turned into a Hollywood poof (“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”). … Continue reading →

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Naomi Wolf’s Madonna crush

Posted on February 8, 2012 by oddmanout215

Madonna is “that forbidden thing, the Nietzschean creative woman.” I didn’t know this until I read journalist Naomi Wolf’s complaint about reporters who diss the Material Girl whenever she “steps out of her pretty-girl-pop-music bandwidth” to make a movie or … Continue reading →

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Hope you don’t find no shadow…

Posted on February 2, 2012 by oddmanout215

Groundhog people with your groundhog ways I see you in the sun but you fly when the shadows get long This is an alternate version of the song that appeared on Clear, the third Spirit album (1969).

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Newt promises the moon

Posted on January 28, 2012 by oddmanout215

Newt Gingrich was in Florida the other day, speaking of plans to build a colony on the moon. This is funny, but cruel. Florida’s economy collapsed when the housing bubble burst. There will be no more housing booms in Florida, … Continue reading →

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A life-affirming little theft

Posted on January 27, 2012 by oddmanout215

Call Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad a collection of interrelated short stories. Or call it a novel, if you like. The book has won several prestigious awards, so Egan might not care what you call it. She … Continue reading →

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