Road Trips and Pawn Shop Guitars

Whiskeytown's Stranger's Almanac (1997)

Whiskeytown's Stranger's Almanac is an album I leaned on heavily during some less than ideal times. I have a tape of it I wore out playing in the car, along with Alejandro Escovedo's More Miles Than Money, Uncle Tupelo's Still Feel Gone, and Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True. It was traveling music from Buffalo to Boston dozens of times before I moved here. It helped pass the miles, first literally, then metaphorically. 

I finally picked up the Deluxe Edition today. In the liner notes, I found that Ryan Adams showed up to the original recording sessions with no guitars. They had been left outside of the van in Raleigh, North Carolina when it was loaded before the drive to the studio in Nashville. The band couldn't afford anything but pawn shop guitars, so the acoustic on the recording of "Inn Town" and probably several others, the one that sounds so fantastic, that I listened to a thousand times or more, was a $100 Alvarez pawn shop guitar. Also noted, they didn't even change the strings. That makes me happy for some reason.

I have to think of who used to own that Alvarez, what it lived through before that session. I think of some kid who bought it as a student guitar, struggling to learn "Stairway To Heaven," "Free Falling," or even "Wonderwall" (which, coincidentally, Adams would cover beautifully on 2003's Love Is Hell, pt 1 EP). Some kid who had just graduated and needed some cash, and was hoping to come back for it. Or, probably more likely, it had been a birthday present for someone who played it for two weeks and never picked it up again. Whatever function it filled originally, it had a hell of a second act.

I wonder if Adams kept it. I hope not. I hope he let it loose back into the stream from whence he first caught it, and it got picked up soon after that. Maybe by that college kid, who had no idea what happened to it while he was away. Maybe some new songs fell out of it that weren't in it before.  

I recently bought a Fender resonator on Craigslist. I know the history of most of my other instruments, but not that one. I bought it from a guy in Salem who seemed fairly disinterested in it (and the Dean acoustic/electric bass I also bought from him, and a couple of other guitars he had for sale). Who knows what's in there. But it feels right when I play it. It changes songs I've been playing for years. And it's just about time I introduce it to "Inn Town." 

This was the only video I could find with the original studio version of "Inn Town," but it fits. Lyrics below. 


Inn Town
(David Ryan Adams)

Parking lot, movie screen, I can't feel anything.
Cigarette, beat up TV, I can't feel anything.

Now that I, I'm in town.
I feel fine, fine for now

Hang around with the people I used to be.
Hang around on a corner waiting to go, have a seat

Now that I, I'm in town.
I feel fine, fine for now

Fifty cents, or a dollar three, I don't owe you anything.
Spent a life on a heart that would rather not feel anything.
I can try, I can see, Ican want it to be
I can laugh, I can feel, I can't see anything without dreaming

Now that I, I'm in town.

Hang around with the people that we used to be
We hang around on a corner waiting to go have a seat
And I can try, I can see, I can want it to be
I can laugh, I can feel, I can't see anything that seems real
It's just like a dream.
I can feel, I can laugh, I can want it to still be real
It's a dream I've had.
It's the last, now it seems.

Now that I, I'm in town.
I feel fine, fine for now

Help Beaver Nelson Kickstart Macro/Micro Film and Tour

Beaver Nelson's Kickstarter campaign ends in two days.

If you are a fan of great songwriting, please take a look at Beaver Nelson’s new Kickstarter project. Less than two days left to go, and touring plans depend on just a few more donations.

I have been a fan of Beaver Nelson since I first heard a snippet of his “Forget Thinking” from 1997’s The Last Hurrah. The name and cover of that, his debut album, was a bit of an inside joke. Nelson had recorded a few albums that never saw the light of day and had been called a prodigy by Rolling Stone. Considering his past experience in the music industry, no one could blame him for thinking that would be the first and last album.

It’s tough to keep yourself going if you’re an independent musician. It’s been five years since Nelson’s last album, Exciting Opportunity. I had thought perhaps that would be the last I heard from him. I was thrilled to learn a few weeks ago that I was wrong. Nelson has a new album all ready to go called Macro/Mirco, which has a tentative release date of May. It’s his most ambitious work to date, musically and thematically. I’ve heard it, and will have more to say about it either here or in one of the music magazine for which I freelance.

Nelson would like to tour with it, but he needs a backing band to pull it off. That is an insurmountable expense, so Nelson is making a movie he can tour with. The album is the soundtrack, and Nelson will bring that on the road and play along.

Here's some more info about the project:

Serious Comedy Criticism at TheSpitTake.com

Serious comedy criticism at www.TheSpitTake.com

For people on here who know me from writing about comedy, I have a new gig writing for a new site, officially launched this week, called TheSpitTake.com. It is a bit of a departure for me. Most of my time writing about comedy has been spent writing profiles and news bits. This site is devoted purely to criticism. Some of you have actually asked me to be more opinionated in my writing. This is where that will happen.

It has taken some getting used to, as I have written several reviews up on the site already. I don't particularly love the idea of writing negatively about comedy, but where I see problems or something negative, I will now be obligated to say something. I try to make every effort to look at something from every angle before I comment, and to make sure my criticism is fair. But if there's a more subjective artform than comedy, I have yet to see it. To some, it might not seem like a big deal, but I feel sometimes I have had to take a deep breath and dive in.

I am really hoping this site is successful. I'm putting as much of myself into it as possible. And I'm hoping all my comedy nerd friends and acquaintances will tune in and enjoy it. There are a lot of people on this site who are serious about developing comedy criticism. It's a worthwhile effort. 

So here it is. Enjoy. And if you like it, spread the word. Thanks in advance.

Libboo.com Humor Writing Contest

Read, download, and review on Libboo.com

Thanks to everyone who has read, downloaded, or reviewed my essay, The Nutcracker: As I See It, in the Libboo.com contest. I know it's asking more than going someplace and clicking or voting, and I appreciate every moment you've spent on it. We are going into the last week of the contest, so this will be my last post here about it.

This is a humor/short story contest with a holiday theme. The top five make it into an eBook compilation, and the writer's get paid and earn royalties. I convinced my friends Mike Vago and Jessie Baade to write stories, as well. Right now, it seems we're all in decent shape. But the other writers are likely making their last appeals, as well. So I am posting the links to all of our stories one more time. Reading them all the way through helps the score (it tracks how far a reader gets in a complicated algorithm). Downloading helps a bit more (for desktop, Nook, or Kindle). A good review helps the most, although you have to create an account for that.

So if you'd like a trippy account of the Nutcracker ballet, take a look at my first-person essay. If you ever wonder how Christmas would be for a vampire visiting his girlfriend's family, read Mike's story. And if you want to read how a Journey songbook brightened a couple's Christmas morning, read Jessie's story. That should cover most of you, right?

The Nutcracker As I See It by Nick Zaino
http://www.libboo.com/read/the-nutcracker-as-i-see-it

Vampires We Have Heard On High by Mike Vago
http://www.libboo.com/read/vampires-we-have-heard-on-high

A Very Journey Xmas by Jessie Baade
http://www.libboo.com/read/a-very-journey-xmas

God's Twin

“God of the rich man ain’t the god for the poor.”
Clouds by The Jayhawks

We once thought we were praying to the same god. And the results left us confused. Those praying for a cure for cancer, or a little more time to make that payment before the lights got shut off, or a bed to sleep in that night, those people usually waited a long time. But the people waiting for their big defense contracts to be signed, for their tax breaks to be extended, for their sons and daughters to be spared strapping on those boots on the ground, those people seemed to have an express line. And sometimes, they even claimed god talked to them.

Come to find out, he did. Or at least one of them did. One of the gods. Come to find out, there are two. And they are brothers. Theoretically, they are both all powerful, Jesu and Larry, but Larry has an inferiority complex. He could do some serious damage to Jesu, if ever he got the gumption. But he doesn’t think he can. He thinks he has to do everything Jesu tells him to do.

So Larry monitors the prayer circuits of the poor and needy. He listens to all of the sad stories, then reports to Jesu. Jesu takes the reports and files them and produces a giant marketing database for the people whose prayers he answers, the people who are just right, the ones that do seem to be made in his image. And when those people need something, Jesu gives it to them and balances the scales on the backs of Larry’s people. Divine intervention is a zero sum game, you see.

Larry can’t talk to his people. Jesu talks to his people all the time. Directly. Lunches with them, although that’s kind of a courtesy, really, because Jesu doesn’t really need to eat. But if he shows his image once in a while, sometimes his people will commission a really cool painting about the experience, and they will wind up paying a painter, usually one of Larry’s people, for the job. Jesu thinks in that scenario, everybody wins. And sooner or later, a software giant or an oil tycoon will need that money back, and Jesu will raise gas prices.

Larry always objects, of course. He’s a decent sort of god. But Jesu knows how to put him in his place. “What do you matter, anyway?” he’ll say. “For all you’ve lobbied for these people, never once have they written ‘Larry, Joy of Man’s Desiring.’ There’s not even a Latinate translation for ‘Larry.’”

Larry will sulk back to his prayer banks and listen to all of the pain and suffering, and wish liquor affected him.

Music: A New Song, "Live Through You"

A new song, shot somewhere in the vicinity of the computer what posted it, and edited shoddily by the musician:

OC-Ed: Sometimes A Good “Fuck” Is Called For

The King's Speech will get a new
sound edit to move from R to PG-13.

The King’s Speech won big at the Oscars last night, taking home awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Colin Firth in the title role), Best Director (Tom Hooper), and Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler). That’s going to mean more theaters for the drama, about King George VI struggle to overcome his stuttering to address a nation sorely in need of leadership as it heads to war.

And now, according to the Hollywood Reporter, the film is going to get a quick edit so it can exchange its R rating for PG-13, which would allow more people to see it. The Weinstein Co. wants families to be able to see the film together, so they have removed the word “fuck” from the film by muting the sound whenever it is said.

The King’s Speech is a wonderful film, a great story told with humor, passion, and empathy. I am all for more families seeing the film. It’s inspiring. But cutting the language seems like a desperate grab to wring a few more dollars out of the screenings.

The word “fuck” in the now Oscar-winning script is not gratuitous. It perfectly expresses the anger and frustration that King George VI feels as he receives his tutelage from Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush in what was also an Oscar-worthy performance). I’m sure ever utterance of the word was agonized over by Seidler and Hooper, and it is used to great effect, sometime bursting a bubble of tension that has been skillfully built throughout a scene. Cutting it, or muting it, hurts the film.

For what it’s worth, Firth agrees with me. Backstage at the Oscars last night, he told the Hollywood Reporter that he does not support the new edit of the film, which he said has “integrity as it stands.”

"It serves a purpose," he told the Reporter, mentioning that he doesn’t take profanity casually, but that he takes his children to soccer games where they might hear swearing because he still wants them to experience the game. "But in the context of the film, it couldn't be more edifying, more appropriate. It's not vicious or insulting. It's not in the context that might offend."

When I was a kid, my parents allowed me to hear all kinds of language in film. They trusted me to handle it. We would sometimes watch fucktastic flicks like Scarface, the atomic profanity weight of which was the rough equivalent of uranium. We made a joke of it. It was absurdly profane and over the top, something we acknowledged in its context and moved on. In my admittedly biased opinion, I was not harmed from it.

We would have watched a film like The King’s Speech without flinching. The profanity (I agree with Billy Connolly on this – it is not “cursing” or “swearing,” there is no oath taken here) is organic to the scene and the character. The character of King George VI presented in the film is tightly wound and has a rash temper. He can even be a little mean. A handful of well-placed “fucks” is exactly what the script calls for.

We are too shy about language as a culture, which is somewhat amazing. Context should matter more than it seems to. Cee Lo Green had a viral video hit over the summer with “Fuck You,” one of the most joyous, soulful songs I have heard come out of the mainstream in years. But in order to reach more people, the song got changed to “Forget You,” a version that loses a lot of its potency. It was terrible on Glee, it was terrible on Saturday Night Live (but still great on Later with Jools Holland). The groove was there, but without that lynchpin profanity, the urgency of the narrative is gone.

Which of these moves you more?

I see you driving round town with the girl I love
And I’m like, fuck you
I guess the change in my pocket wasn’t enough
And I’m like, fuck you and fuck her, too

OR…

I see you driving round town with the girl I love
And I’m like, forget you
I guess the change in my pocket wasn’t enough
And I’m like, forget you and forget her, too

The guy in version two is milquetoast. I don’t care what he is feeling if all he can muster from his pain and frustration is “forget you,” which is a meaningless stand-in. The phrase is counter-intuitive in the context of the song. There is no release in it (pardon the roundabout pun).

Sometime post-Oscars, the original version of The King’s Speech will fall out of circulation in favor of the sanitized version. So if you want to see the film that just won four Oscars, get out and see it before it leaves. And if you want to hear Cee Lo’s song the way it was intended, the video is below. And for good measure, the next time you see Scarface on network TV, skip it. It’s not worth it.