Mountain of Judgment

Well, the Christmas question is settled.

The first two Nuggets garage rock compilations from Rhino (by way of the original, 1971 archival project by future Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye) are among the best multi-artist boxes ever released. In my experience, only Rhino's Beg, Scream and Shout: The Big Ol' Box of '60's Soul is a more entertaining listen. When I first heard "Diddy Wah Diddy" by Captain Beefheart and "Double Yellow Line" by The Music Machine off the first Nuggets box, and then "Making Time" by The Creation, from the second collection, I was so excited that my continence was called into question. They still make me almost poop myself.

Then again, what doesn't?

The new box, Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the Second Psychedelic Era: 1976-1996, looks to broaden the series' scope by taking Kaye's mission of rescuing lost 1960's garage classics and applying it to more recent, similarly neglected material. If it's even half of what the first two sets were, I'll need new underwear again. Due to the time period covered, I already own more of the (relatively) famous songs on this set, from Teenage Fanclub, the Soft Boys and a few others. But still, there are so many bands I've never heard of: The Swingin' Neckbreakers, The Point, The Green Telescope, and on like that for 100 tracks. I appreciate the prominence given to XTC side project The Dukes of Stratosphear, whose Chips From the Chocolate Fireball album is an enormously fun pastiche of paisley psychedelia.

My only regret is that some obscure bands from my early 1990's college radio days are missing--but there's an entire box set to be had in singles by the Groove Diggers, Immaculate Hearts and all the other acts whose 45s showed up in those Rockpool magazine "RockBox" shipments to college stations circa Nirvana's Nevermind. Get going, Rhino!

don’t you worry Steve
there’s time to reach Zemo’s bomb
“No, Bucky, look out!”

Flippa Dippa down
through the briny deep he swims—
token skindiver

Stand back, Superman!
your pal Jimmy Olsen is
homo-disastrous

Notorious B.I.G., Marley 'duet' on new song

ick ick ick--just let them fucking die already. However, I would like to see a "We Are the World" style stunt single featuring dozens of all-star corpses. Which, now that I think about it, is something I've wanted my entire adult life.

Don't make me send Clifford here to break your pelvis.

Item! I bought a lot of comics at the San Diego ComicCon this past summer, but none were as rewarding as Little Lulu: My Dinner With Lulu. This particular volume, part of a reprint series from Dark Horse Comics, collects John Stanley and Irving Tripp's first Dell Comics adaptations of Marge Buell's character from 1945. How did I never know about this? I mean, I had seen the strip listed on the Comics Journal's Top 100 English-language Comics of the 20th Century (Lulu was #59), and I vaguely knew who the character was, but these comics are a revelation. The minimalist art is a delight (especially in the early comics, where Stanley provided much of the art), but the real strength of the strip is the absurd kid logic of the plots. Stanley's wit is fairly subversive, he's wonderfully unsentimental, and the stories never fail to surprise even as they unspool to their illogically logical conclusions. For a prime example of what I mean, check out one of the best Lulu stories here.

Item! Rod Stewart is awesome. No, really. I know he's mired in those insipid songbook albums, and he spends more time in the news for legal problems than rocking, but after recently listening to Gasoline Alley, Never a Dull Moment and especially the brilliant new Faces box set, I don't care what show tune he murders now or how far he's fallen. "Lost Paraguayos" alone absolves him of the entire 1980s. And to be honest, I can't decide whether I hate "Infatuation" or actually kinda love it. "Love Touch", however, does unquestionably suck.

Item! Whenever I see a picture of Bill Frist, my first impulse is to gather up the other villagers, raid his castle, torch the tapestries and run a pitchfork through both him and his unholy creation (in Frist's case, his hair). Yet here we are, in a world where he's considered a contender for the Republican primaries in '08. Good god in heaven I hope these insider trading stories kneecap him. Of course, we know how effective the similar Harken scandals were in derailing Bush's political career.

Item! Now that the DVD is out, and I can judge for myself, I have to say the gratuitous shower scenes in season 4 of Smallville don't really bother me. Look, nubile teenagers get dirty.