I heard he was coming back. He played himself in one episode with a paper bag over his head.

If the Simpsons had a guy w/ a cape and Viking hat sans horns running around "Fickt nicht mit der Raketemensch!" I would die a happy man (probably on the spot), whether or not Pynchon was the one playing Rocketman.

Will they call it Too Little, Too Late? (Yeah, I know they deserve better, but some jokes just have to be made.)

If the Simpsons had a guy w/ a cape and Viking hat sans horns running around "Fickt nicht mit der Raketemensch!" I would die a happy man (probably on the spot), whether or not Pynchon was the one playing Rocketman.

Ha! In this nation of Pynchonoids, those dying of happiness on the spot would number into the 5s or 6s. It would be an epidemic!

Will they call it Too Little, Too Late? (Yeah, I know they deserve better, but some jokes just have to be made.)

Sweeet! I hope they include their Shangri La's cover "Out In the Street" - it was great live. I don't think Conte's even remotely in the same class as Thunders as a guitarist. I'm curious to see how how much sloptastic roar into the studio. He was fine live, but that's a more forgiving setting.

Is Shadow Morton still alive? I suppose they could use Rundgren again... but I vote for Sideshow Bob Spector if Shadow's unavailable because dead or otherwise.

Yeah, that picture is its own excuse. Maybe someday it will get old, but this is not that day.

It is one of the great whackaloon hairdos of recorded history.

Only the conks of James Brown in the 50s and Esquirita really compare.

Actually, JB's mugshoot is pretty whackaloon.

Dr. Funkenstein always did have a sense of style. Of course, while there's no denying that "that dude is fucked up" (the pic does not lie), George, unlike James & especially Phil, is not a fucked up dude per se. (Nick Nolte, on the other hand...) It's one thing to look like a whackjob when the cops haul you in, but it's quite another to choose that look for court when you're facing a murder indictment.

Did you ever see or read Anna Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirror about the Crown Heights riots? Al Sharpton is one of the people she interviewed/portrayed. I can't remember the connection to the larger piece, but she chose to use the part of the interview where he talks about his hair, which is a tribute to James Brown, who inspired or maybe even mentored Sharpton. It's been a while since I've seen it, but it's actually a really moving sequence, essentially "Look, I don't care if people think my hair's a joke. James means a lot to me, and I promised him I'd keep my hair like this, so let people laugh if they want to; I'm not changing it."

Hec find that Stevens CD - it is fan-freaking-tastic.

The one and only time I saw Neil Young I thought it was going to be a greatest hits kind of show but instead it was his theme album/theater thing Greendale, which was fucking awesome and goes in my top ten shows of all time but I was so sad I didn't get to see him do "Powderfinger" which is one of my favorite songs evah. For the encore? First song = Powderfinger. It was awesome. Had no idea he wrote for LS first. Huh.

ION, I now have a wicked sunburn.

Ravinia is alot of fun. It's totally where I wanted the LotR symphony to be performed with you know the CSO and a really good choir.

Lyle Lovett is amaing live, isn't he? That was Francine Reed, who has a couple of solo discs out as well as performing with the Large Band -- Lyle Lovett duets on "Why I Don't Know," I think it's called, with her on her first CD.