I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: TENACIOUS D-The Pick of Destiny (2006) & MUSE-Black Holes and Revelations (2006).

TENACIOUS D-The Pick of Destiny: Let’s face it, The D are the greatest band in the world. However, this album, basically a soundtrack to their film, is not their greatest work. The interludes are pretty slight and while the tunes all rock, the lyrics are too much of an “advance the plot” rather than “just song” nature. Having said that, the opening song is awesome, and the rock-off with the devil is pretty amazing. My other gripe is how many “fuckings” there are on the record. It’s practically more than in Scarface! I’m no prude by any means, I just think it’s lazy writing.

SOUNDTRACK CONT.: MUSE-Black Holes and Revelations (2006).

When Muse first came out they were pegged as a Radiohead knock-off. But the thing was that they sounded like Radiohead USED to sound like circa OK Computer, and since Radiohead no longer sounded like that, we can be thankful for Muse for picking up that mantel. Now with this latest record they moved somewhat beyond Radiohead, although a voice is a voice after all (see DIGRESSION below), and are now verging into Queen territory. With a healthy dose of Philip Glass (or is that Michael Nyman?) thrown in. And it is filled with pretension, and overblown orchestration, and earth-saving geopolitical ideas, and it simply rocks! Not for everyone, that’s for sure (my friend’s wife cannot STAND this band), but if you like RadioheadmeetsRush, then check out Muse and be blown away.

[READ: June 2007] Born Standing Up.

I surprised myself, by actually reading this book very quickly and before it came out! I picked up an Advanced Copy at BEA. At a previous ALA I had picked up Sacred Games and it took me over a year to even look at it. This prepub attracted me immediately because the cover was Steve Martin in a b&w photo of him in a white suit with his bunny ears on.

When I was a kid I LOVED Steve Martin’s stand up. I used to listen to his records all the time, and I STILL think of many of his jokes, most of which I haven’t heard in some 25 years. (I was thrilled when my boss referenced one of my favorite Martin jokes: SM: I can’t remember what I was going to say. Antagonist: Well, it must not have been very important then, HA HA HA HA! SM: Of yes, I’m radioactive.) I am amazed when I think of how many times I listened to comedy records over and over as a kid. And from what I understand, comedians did that with their predecessor’s albums as well. Now, I’m no comedian, although I do still enjoy comedy records, but I don’t listen to them over and over. Is this because I’m older? Do younger kids have a higher tolerance for repeated jokes, or just a greater appreciation for laughing. I’ll never know, and that’s okay.

At any rate, this book is a memoir of SM, written about his standup days, which he explains, he hasn’t really looked back upon since he gave it up. So fair enough, he feels like it’s less an autobiography than a biography about his younger self by his current self. The only thing that belies this idea is the sort of wide-eyed wonder he seems to have about his life, which no biographer would ever affect for a book.

In the past, I have critiqued memoirs in general. And, frankly, I’m not sure if a memoir of a famous person is better or worse than one of a nonfamous person (I’m shocked at how many non-famous people’s memoirs are getting published these days). I realize also that many famous people’s memoirs are in fact ghost written; however, I know that Steve Martin is, himself, a writer, so we must hold his work to a higher standard. Having said that, I’ve not actually read any of his fiction (aside from short bits in the New Yorker), so I can’t say how this book compares to those.

Wow, lots of introduction there. So, this book: The two things that I really came away with from this: Steve Martin WASN’T ON DRUGS??? and Steve Martin studied philosophy in college! The memoir itself is exceedingly fast paced and quite short (200 pages or so), which is kind of refreshing that he didn’t feel the need to pad out his life so much. He is pretty matter of fact about his pre-standup experience (performing at Disney and Knott’s Berry Farm in their magic shop!). And doesn’t really embellish anything to make it sound better or worse than (I imagine) it was. You don’t come across feeling sorry for him or amazed at his perseverance. Which is also refreshing. He peppers the work with examples of some of his jokes (It’s amazing to read that one or two had been in his repertoire for years!). I enjoyed reading about the soon-to-be famous people he knew, and even his stories from college. The end of the book is primarily concerned with his rise to fame, but it neither gloats on his success (more of that ‘gee whiz!’ attitude as his audience grew), nor does it really discuss the stand up at that time. I suppose it would be unnecessary to talk about the material, as it has been preserved on record, but I did leave wanting more (the comedian’s credo, I guess). So, overall, its a fairly slight work, but it is nicely written (The pacing really is great), and an enjoyable insight into a guy who had a big impact on my childhood. I wasn’t quite as crazy for Steve as the kids in Freaks and Geeks, but it was in that realm, I’d say.