Blondie: Chris Stein
News about Chris Stein, guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Blondie.
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Posted by Chris Stein at 3/22/2004 05:24:00 AM
you know i think all of you who said they are going to think about geepie have had some positive effect, she is definitely less lethargic, stitches out on wed.
also letterman is wed. i think
maybe geepie could have them taken out on his show...
im quite gratified to see that 'dawn of the dead' has bumped 'passion' out of the number one spot... what the fuck does that tell you... and speaking of fuck, yes its just unfucking canny what is happening, lenny died for eddie murphies sins for gods sakes... lenny bruce and francis farmer are the great american stories/tragedies... theres an horrific book about francis called 'shadowland' that i recommend to any of you who want to get even more pissed off at the american justice/celebrity system than you already might be... there were two awful hollywood crap films made about her one with jessica lange and the other a tv movie with jamie lee curtis (i think not really sure someone like that though).... i understand that the author of shadowland wouldnt allow the book to be used as a basis for either of those productions much to his credit... im not gonna get into it if youre interested i suspect there is a lot of info on her out there... as to lenny i'd always been a fan but about seven years or so i happened to read "ladies and gentleman lenny bruce" by albert goldman which for all of its luridness still was a nice bit of nostalgia/picture of the time... if id been a few years older i would have caught his act, as it is i find myself listening to the recordings a great deal... i saw some show about contemporary comedian bill hicks who was being compared to lenny and was surprised how much the boat was missed, this guy (he died of cancer, was censored off letterman etc) though funny was bitter and sarcastic which i dont get from bruce, its amazing how moral and straight ahead he remained even in the face of all the nonsense he was subjected to... punchline being his new york obscenity conviction being over turned by... i dont know, the mayor or the governor just a few months ago... anyway both of these guys were literally crucified for... for what? you tell me... lots of reasons, there are probably lots more but those two are it for me...
so now we are headed back to the stone age of censorship... but its sooo fucking wacky now its on the level of kids in the playground just throwing out arbitrary rules that they make up as they go along... i cant even bother giving examples of how hypocritical the fucking system is, its just absolutly insane out there right now with a capital I... i cant bear watching tv, i only watch the simpsons the odd wrestling match, curb your enthusiasm a drop of 'news', films and thats it...mcluhan said 'tv is a wasteland' back in the sixties or such, HA! ha ha, ha ha ha
on a lighter note i saw the most amazing old crappy movie: MANIAC i think there are about two other movies with that title but this is an old black and white one with some guy named bill woods, should have won an oscar, just amazing!! some of you may recall a car insurance commercial with an old clip of a dude tearing his hair out yelling "AGONY! AGONY!", well thats from maniac, one of numerous over the top performances by just wackos from i guess the late 30's early 40's... i got a great set of 50 old movies on twelve dvd's for 30 bucks and it was in them, a great deal, i just looked, its from something called treeline and theres a website: treelinefilms.com worth checking out if you're into this stuff (among the films are various classics: atom age vampire, night of the liv. dead, metropolis, hse. on haunted hill, many others
there that was a public service announcement
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Posted by Chris Stein at 3/19/2004 05:25:00 AM
i've gotten some response from the troops out here and asked various people and the sentiment regarding advertising is pretty unanimously negative, various people have been quick to point out that the band of course avails itself to forms of tv adverts but if it were up to me to choose id rather have none at all and do without it for us too...
everybody really hates the ads in the movies, its somehow more obnoxious to pay to get into a film and then be subjected to the crap that one has supposedly left at home with the tv set... so as regards these invasions of artistic privacy, that is the miserable commercials one has to endure at ones local movie joint the solution is not that hard, far off etc. one thing i've learned is that the big corporate entities do live in a certain amount of fear of public opinion... if enough people wrote to some of the big chains like LOWES theaters saying how much offense they took at being bombarded by commercials at the movies i think that something might change...tv commercials are a harder nut to crack but the movie theater ones are a recent horror,
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Posted by Chris Stein at 3/18/2004 05:26:00 AM
its been a while, the baby deal is a major commitment, lots of work, i am consistantly astonished at the amount of energy she expends doing nothing, its amazing she just boogies and gyrates for hours on end, now crawls and grabs stuff so the nailing down process will commence soon...
on a terribly sad note Geepie my favorite cat had some cysts removed and the vet says that the biopsy is bad news, she presumably has kitty cancer, she is Benjamins sister and the mother of Corpie and Squidly, so we would appreciate any prayers and or positive visualizations for her well being, (she is an all black cat) she seems ok now maybe she'll be ok after all
i am looking forward to shows and some tour madness, letterman is upcoming next week and dates are filling in
several comments about age requirements for the shows, yes totally fucked and i dont know what to do about it and i dont think there is actually anything that i could do as its all about local rules and crap relating to individual places, doesnt have anything to do with the band, but the next time somebody is gonna complain about my citing the 'old days' , sixties etc as 'better' remember that all of this kind of government interference is a recent development...
for any of you who havent noticed 'things' are getting really just absurd out in the 'real world'... if bush gets back in i think the excrement may hit the proverbial rotating device... i keep thinking that the only way for things to change now is going to be the result of something extreme, i just keep seeing people as being so complacent, how can the masses of people just sit back and watch the education system turn to absolute shit and not do anything about it, everyone is so into this system of excess that it just blows my mind... all the hooting and hollering about mel gibsons movie is on the same level as the war, its presented as basically the same degree of importance, the stupid oscars are as important as the united nations
i probably have mentioned in the past my idea that in the 1930's the economic depression caused the growth of escapist media, hollywood had its big boom in the sixties and seventies when there was emphasis on people participating in life to a greater degree hollywood declined and the quality of films was up... now in the midst of a spritual depression of great magnitude we see the biggest boom yet in escapist media probably ever
and the election just strikes me as complete bullshit i just cant buy it... i cant help wondering if we might be better off if bush wins and the resulting totalitarianism pushes the masses into action rather than things just dragging along like this the culture slowly eroding...im not advocating revolution or anarchy here just more involvement, humans in general are odd creatures who will complain endlessly without actually making attempts to change their discomfort, animals that are uncomfortable just try to change their situation (except perhaps for dogs who as a result of their contact with humans sit around unmoving while being beat over the head)
so here i am complaining, yes i know...
well we'll see what happens next, certainly its an inter esting period... meanwhile i have been writing more, avoiding television, havent been working on music beyond playing guitar but i keep intending to get some stuff going in the studio...
at least the laptop here is ok i'll keep updating from the road...
thanx for the messages, this last batch contained a lot of stuff about current events which is why i wrote the above stuff, there are so many topics of madness right now i am at a loss to discuss specific events hence the general out line
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