nurghophonic jukebox: "Sick and Beautiful" by Artificial Joy Club

Written By: All songs written by Louise "Sal" Reny, Leslie Howe and Tim Dupon
Released: 1997
Album: Melt
Single?: #17 on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks.
Web site: Artificial Joy Club



All the world’s your ashtray, I’m just your Marlboro.
Light me up then butt me, you’re sick & beautiful.

It’s Bamby meets Godzilla, a 3D free for all. Set me up then stomp me, you’re sick & beautiful.
Squeeze me like your lemon, then mix with alcohol. Shake me hard then down me, you’re sick & beautiful.

You’re gravy with gasoline & wicked with whipping cream.

I need a quick fix, I’m flashing like an instamatic, crusted like a worn out penthouse, your junk is habitual, you’re sick & you’re beautiful.

Bounce me hard & dunk me, I’m just your basketball. Lay me up then heave-ho, you’re sick & beautiful. Peel my bandage slowly, it’s psychological.

You’re napalm with novocain, a kite in a hurricane.

(chorus)

Leave me in a ditch like roadkill, or maybe we could switch the driver. Have some mercy and Kevorkian me to sleep.

You’re cockroach with cabernet, but taste like a Milky Way. You’re gravy with gasoline & wicked with whipping cream.

(chorus)

nurghophonic jukebox: "Like A Drug" by They Eat Their Own

Released: 1990
Album: They Eat Their Own
Single?: #10 on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in January of 1991.



I don't buy your true life stories
'cause I've seen the way you lie
but I don't mind the things you tell me
because I know we'll say anything to get by

but when we're together
somehow I feel better
my disease always tricks me
I believe you can fix me

you're insane
I love the drama
tell the truth
you love it too, I know you do?

reason strikes
we fight and break up
'cause it seems
the easiest thing to do

but when I don't get your call
I go into withdrawal
you consume every thought
but if you called I would tell you to get lost

I need you like a drug
I need you, I need you like a
I need you, I need you like a
drug

it turns me on
to say "I love you"
but deep inside I know
it's lust, not love at all

one day we will leave each other
but we pretend the end's not inevitable
I require protection from my own obsession
in the object of you

one day I will rise above you

I need you, I need you like a drug
I need you, I need you like a
I need you, I need you like a drug
I need you, I need you like a...

until then we'll stay together
I guess things could be much worse
I guess things could be much better
but I don't really want to write another verse

'cause when we're together
somehow I feel better
my disease always tricks me
I believe you can fix me

I need you, I need you like a drug
I need you, I need you like a
I need you, I need you like a drug
I need you, I need you like a drug

NSFW LIVE VERSION:

2002 Green Arrow "Ollie's Stupendous Chili Recipe (Just Like Mom used to make!)" Pin-Up

Scott McCullar's recipe illustrated by Patrick Gleason & Michael Bair for Green Arrow Secret Files & Origins #1 (12/2002.)

nurghophonic jukebox: "Sea Legs" by The Shins

Written By: James Mercer
Released: 2007
Album: Wincing the Night Away
Single?: 4th off album released in the U.K. to little impact.

Of all the churning random hearts
Under the sun
Eventually fading into night,
These two are opening now
As we lie, I touch you
Under fuller light.

Girl, if you're a seascape
I'm a listing boat, for the thing carries every hope.
I invest in a single light.
The choice is yours to be loved
Come away from an emptier boat.

'Cause when the dead moon
Rises again
We've no time to start a protocol
To have us in.
And when the dog slides
Underneath a train,
There's no cry, no use to searching for
What mutts remain.

Throw all consequence aside
The chill aspire, people set alight.

Of all the intersecting lines in the sand
I routed a labyrinth to your lap.
I never used a map sliding off the land
On an incidental tide,
And along the way you know, they try
They try.

And we got sea legs
And we're off tonight
Can I've that to which they've no right?
You belong to a simpler time
I'm a victim to the impact of these words,
And this rhyme.

'Cause when that dead moon
Rises again
We've no time to start a protocol
To have us in.
And when the dog slides,
Open the door, and where'd she go?
There's no time, no use to searching for
The mutts remains.

Throw consequence aside
And the chill aspire, people set alight.

1993 Marvel Masterpieces Jim Steranko Triptych

Here's card #s 2, 9 & 15 from the set, which some idiot at Skybox failed to line up in sequence to create a glorious single image. The Golden Age Human Torch, Captain America, and Namor the Sub-Mariner before an iron eagle! I dig the missiles, which somehow recall both Schomburg and Kirby, though not in the same period. The dolphins seem like more of an Aquaman thing, but as a part of this majestic image, I'll allow them.

A Frank Review of "Persepolis" (2007)

The Short Version? Iran So Far Away
What Is It? Animated Biography.
Who Is In It? Voices of Catherine Deneuve, Sean Penn, Iggy Pop, and Gena Rowlands
Should I See It? Yes.



I haven't read Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical comic books about growing up in Iran under the Shah and the Islamic Revolution, but I'm glad I saw the movie. Familiar, comic episodes are set against a thankfully foreign backdrop. Really though, isn't the difference between the heroine's liberal upbringing amidst fundamentalism and life in the States in the same period, surrounded by the "Silent Majority" that demonized Iran, mostly a matter of degrees? I don't mean to diminish the author's harrowing experiences in wartime, but to point out, as the film does, that we're all humans of not-so-dissimilar stripes. How do you not feel a kinship to a protagonist who idolizes Bruce Lee, watches Godzilla movies, and headbangs to Judas Priest?

My first instinct was to watch the English dub with subtitles, but the disparity between the two versions was immediately obvious. The English language edition is inadequate. The script is altered throughout in painful ways, removing most curse words and the superior flow of dialogue in the original French. Where the French version is matter of fact, the American tries to awkwardly embellish; almost in a sense trying to give a more exotic ethnic quality, but missing the point entirely. The dialogue is often turned too literal, and even the more accomplished American actors sound like they're dubbing anime. Sean Penn's voice is affected, while Iggy Pop's is achingly more so. Gena Rowlands fares better.

Gabrielle Lopes Benites plays Marjane as a child, and is reminiscent of the young actors from old Peanuts cartoons. There's a lot of Charlie Brown groaning at the inequities of life as well, usually done tongue in cheek. Chiara Mastroianni is perfect as the teen and adult Marjane, especially her gloriously off-key take on Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" at a pivotal point in the film.

The animation is gorgeous, taking advantage of the high contrast black and white to render the figures lushly and the characters universal. Art deco, German impressionism, graytones, scrapings... the decision to go mainly monochromatic allowed for a great many interesting techniques to meld seamlessly with the otherwise accessible presentation. Persepolis can be viewed by just about any audience, with some taking in only the personal narrative, while others can enjoy the politics and allusions to dark turns never made too garish. It's a wonderful film that deserves a broader audience.

Special features on the DVD include The Hidden Side Of Persepolis, about the tedious process of animation. As can be expected, it makes for a tedious documentary as well, especially the overly long Foley sequence. Apparently, drawings on paper are expensive to animate, and hadn't been done in France for twenty years. I could have sworn there was some bad bits of computer animation at times in the production, but overall the effort paid off. Behind-The-Scenes Of Persepolis is a misnomer, as it's really a brief conversation with the American voice actors. It's fine at less than a third of "Hidden Side's" length. The Canne Press Conference Q & A is another half hour you need not devote to reading, as the film explains itself fine without the effort. The film's the thing, and you'll be well served by watching it alone.

A Frank Review of "Rudo y Cursi" (2008/9)

The Short Version? Hick half-brothers struggle through sudden soccer fame.
What Is It? Mexican Sports Comedy.
Who Is In It? Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna.
Should I See It? Maybe.



A dirt poor Mexican family is filled with half-siblings who don't share a father. Beto (Luna) is a low level supervisor at a banana plant. Tato (Bernal)is his younger brother and underling. Both kick a football in their spare time, and have a talent for it discovered by roaming scout Batuta (Guillermo Francella.) The hicks find themselves on competing major league soccer teams, with nicknames alluding to the toughness of Tato/Rudo and the corniness of Cursi/Beto. Both end up proving you can take the boy out of the farm, but not the farm out of the boy, and the inevitability of their delusions shattering lends a bitter fatalism to the otherwise fairly broad comedy.

Bernal and Luna, childhood friends who broke in the States with the erotic drama Y Tu Mamá También translate their natural chemistry well in this amiable little piece. However, the set-up and most of the beats are right out of the generic comedy playbook. While slightly darker and more pointed than the average mainstream domestic fare, it's only just so, and I can see a fairly simple Hollywood rewrite if it came to that. It's an enjoyable diversion, and should have probably been cut to a more general audience friendly PG-rating. There's lot of small chuckles, but the best gag is the music video by tone-deaf Cursi, available free online.