Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Plagiarist Links - Illustrated Third-Person Edition

I've noticed that a lot of blogs (Coolfer being one of the most guilty) write in the third person, with the third person being the name of their blog, when they're really only written by one person. I think this is rather pretentious. So obviously, I'm going to imitate it for today.

The New Yorker's profile of Sarah Silverman. Plagiarist saw the preview for Jesus Is Magic when Plagiarist went to see The Aristocrats, and Plagiarist laughed Plagiarist's ass off. Plagiarist can't wait to see it.

(too much third person? Plagiarist will tone it down. Plagiarist MAD! URGGGH!)

The American Society of Magazine Editors has released its list of the Top 40 magazine covers over 40 years. Annie Lebovitz' Rolling Stone cover of a naked Lennon embracing his clothed wife Yoko Ono is #1. The whole competition leads Plagiarist to wonder what the criteria really should be for judging a magazine cover. (Judges were allowed to make up their own criteria.) Are we looking at mere composition? Or are we taking into account the culture surround the cover? Can any of us judge this cover fairly on its own merits, without taking into account that the photo was taken mere hours before John was killed?



Speaking of objectivity, Stevie Wonder's new album is out - his first full album in 10 years - and while the reviews seem to be mostly positive, Plagiarist can't tell if it just has more to do with his long absence than anything else. A few negative reviews have surfaced (and you should see the comments on Plagiarist's Stevie Wonder mailing list. They are a defensive bunch.) Plagiarist will probably get it, but won't listen to it more than once or twice. Just a hunch.


A list of words made up by The Simpsons. The ones Plagiarist has used the most: boo-urns, Gamblor, meh, saxamophone, Yoink!, and of course, Glayvin, which Jess and Plagiarist have apparently been mispronouncing as "Blayvin" all these years.



Finally, the NY Times has reviewed the Queen + Paul Rodgers concert at the Meadowlands Continental Airlines Arena. Kalefea Senneh is clearly a Queen fan, as seen by the quote "He even sang Bad Company's "Bad Company," though he declined to follow it with Queen's "Good Company."" Only a music geek would know "Good Company." Plagiarist used a quote from that song in his high school yearbook.

Anyway, Plagiarist was at Sunday's concert, along with Down With Snark, who was nothing but snarky the entire night. (To be fair, Plagiarist was plenty snarky as well and only encouraged DWS.)

It's not that Paul Rodgers was horrible; he just wasn't Freddie. Not sure what Plagiarist was expecting, come to think of it. He did do a good job on a few of the numbers, most notably "I Want It All" and...well, Plagiarist can't think of another one. He just wasn't Freddie.

Highlights, though, were Brian May's singalong of "'39" and "Love of My Life," as well as his guitar solo. And "Bohemian Rhapsody" was done quite tastefully: the entire opening, up to the opera section, featured huge video of Freddie singing and playing piano in 1986, stripped of all other prerecorded tracks, with the band backing him live. The studio, pre-recorded opera section was played, as it always has been, but this time it was accompanied by a wonderful compilation video of Freddie. Plagiarist would be lying if he said he didn't tear up a little during this song as well as "These Are The Days Of Our Lives."

The ultimate highlight for Plagiarist and DWS was, as predicted, the "clap-clap" part of "Radio Ga Ga," which was more fun than it had any right to be.

That's all for now. Plagiarist has another Yesterhits in the works, which got sidelined due to a show opening and a bad migraine last week. Expect that soon.

Third-person experiment over. Annoying, perhaps, but oddly empowering for Plagiarist me.

1 Comments:

At 10/18/2005 6:06 PM, Blogger Michael said...

DWS (as Roger Taylor): I'm only doing the Paul Rodgers thing if you let me sing my Nelson Mandela song!

Plagiarist (as Brian May): Fine, we'll get Stewart Copeland.

You *loved* every minute of my snarking of that concert. You know it, I know it and the American people know it.

My highlights were unquestionably Brian's acoustic bit, Brian's electric bit, and just generally reveling in the glory that is Brian May. One of the few truly original and innovative rock guitarists.

Lowlights? Paul Rodgers' stage banter, (I can't believe you wrote this up and din't mention that) and the tragic lack of a Spike Edney extended piano solo.

 

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