I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PUBLIC IMAGE LTD-“Poptones” and “Careering” on American Bandstand (1980).

The Dick Clark article below alerted me to this bizarre gem–PiL “playing” on American Bandstand.   The article talks about John Lydon ignoring the lip synch, climbing into the audience and generally disregarding the show’s script. The video suggests something sightly less sinister (although maybe for 1980 it was outrageous–do you really cross Dick Clark?).

Dick Clark himself announces the band nicely, and then the crazy off-kilter bass and simple guitar of “Poptones” kick in.   Lydon runs into the bleachers with the kids (most of whom are dressed in New Wave finery not unlike Lydon).  They shriek with glee when he comes nearby (do any of them know who he is?  I have no idea).  When Lydon’s spoken rambling come in a little later you can’t help but wonder what the hell they are doing on AB.

Then, Lydon starts grabbing people from the audience and pushing them towards the stage–something I believe was unheard of on AB.  The fans dance around to the impossible-to-dance-to “Poptones.”  The song ends and Dick asks John if he wants the kids out there for song two.  Yes, song Two!  He does and John faux lip synchs through “Careering,” avoiding cameras at all costs and dancing with the kids–one of the most egalitarian performances I can think of from Lydon.

And listen for Dick asking Jah Wobble his name (reply THE Jah Wobble) and him saying, nice to meet you Wobble.  What a surreal moment–wonder what Dick thought of it.

Enjoy it here:

 

[READ: December 28, 2012] Grantland 4

Grantland continues to impress me with these books (and no, I have not yet visited the website).  My subscription ran out with this issue and I have resubscribed–although I take major issue with the $20 shipping and handling fee.  I even wrote to them to complain and they wrote back saying that the books are heavy.  Which is true, but not $5/bk heavy.  The good news is that they sent me a $10 off coupon so the shipping is only half as painful now.

This issue’s endpages were “hypothetical baseball wheel-guides created by JASON OBERG–they were pretty cool and a fun idea.  They look very retro, but use contemporary batters, pitchers and catchers.  I’d like to see them for real.

Each issue makes me like sports a little bit more, but not enough to actually watch  them.

BILL SIMMONS-“The Playoff Eclipse”
A cool article about the excitement of one L.A. Arena hosting six playoff games and a cycling race in two days.  All during an eclipse.  And Simmons attended all of the events (well, except one–family obligations .  I enjoyed his daughter’s comments about the cycling race (yawn), and that Simmons actually went to the hockey playoffs too.

MARK TITUS-“Oden on Oden”
A personal interview with Titus’ friend Greg Oden, a promising basketball star who has been plagued by injuries, and what may lie ahead for him.

RAFE BARTHOLOMEW-“Down by Madison Square Gardens”
Boxing as spectacle–how St Patrick’s Day produces many Irish-themed bouts, regardless of the caliber of boxer, and how boxing suffers when the best boxers can’t fight real contenders.  (Do people even watch boxing anymore?)

REMBERT BROWNE-“Endangered Species Watch”
Can D’angelo save R&B?  I really enjoy these short articles about genres of music that I don’t like.  It’s fun to read these little pieces that don’t try to argue why you should like the genre, it just assumes you do and goes from there.  This looks at how R&B has changed over the years.

BRYAN CURTIS-“The Phantom of Baseball”
This is a funny piece about Jose Canseco and his Twitter feed–is he an idiot or far more clever than one might imagine?

MARK LISANTI-“The Captain’s Log”
Derek Jeter’s diary.  This is pretty funny, especially when he’s rained out in Boston.

ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“Teenage Dream”
A eulogy of Dick Clark, the eternal teen.   This was an interesting look at the man who was very square yet never promised to be anything else.  This is where I read about PiL on AB.

WESLEY MORRIS-“Does This Suit Make Me Look Insane?”
I have no idea who Craig Sager is, but apparently he dresses crazily–which ultimately just means he’s comfortable in himself. I can’t believe they did this whole article about a sartorially eccentric sports announcer and never mentioned Don Cherry.

CHUCK KLOSTERMAN-“The Rock Tautology”
Klosterman goes to see Creed and Nickelback–at two venues on the same night!  All to find out why everyone hates them so much.  And he honestly can’t say why they are both quite so hated, except that there are certain bands who earn that title

AMOS BARSHAD-“Goodbye, Nasty”
R.I.P. Adam Yauch.

HUA HSU-“Boys to Men”
How the Beastie Boys matured into respectful men.

BRIAN PHILLIPS-“Sudden Collapse”
Athletes get hurt on the field, but do we ever see one die on the field?  On this day, many people believed they had.

WESLEY MORRIS-“More Than a Hoodie”
The Miami Heat promote solidarity with shooting victim Trayvon Martin

DAVE McKENNA-“When Their World was the Playground”
Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain used to square off–on a Washington D.C. playground.  Even when they were becoming big names in the NCAA, they still found time to play playground-rules hoops on the street corner.  This is an interesting and nostalgic article.

REMBERT BROWNE and MARK LISANTI-“INSERT: Grantland Funny Pages”
–This one is called Rembert Explains the 1985 Video Music Awards.  Rembert watched the Awards in a state of heightened excitement marveling at the category of Favorite Black Single!  And then Favorite Black Album (presented by Madonna and Huey Lewis.  And he is right to marvel that the three favorite Back Albums : Lionel Ritchie’s Can’t Slow Down, Prince’s Purple Rain and Michael Jackson’s Thriller were also the three Top Pop Albums!  And Prince wins them both!  1985 was a good year for black performers.

–Lisanti writes the Don Draper Fingerbang Threat Level in which he charts the sexual escapades of Draper in Season 5.

ANDY GREENWALD-“The Sunset of Television’s Gilded Age”
Greenwald predicts the death of awesome TV now that The Sopranos is over and Mad Men is cresting to a sixth season.  It’s an interesting assertion, and, since people are saying that films are getting much better all of a sudden, perhaps he is right.

DANIEL KELLISON-“Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”
A very funny interview with Aziz Ansari–foodie and all around nice guy.

JAY CASPIAN KANG-“Shot or Not”
This phrase confused me until context made sense of it–this is a question of whether you career is shot or not.  Kang is talking specifically about boxers, but it apples to all athletes.

BILL SIMMONS-“Scaprgoat du Jour”
Apparently the New Orleans Saint’s coach told his players to hurt somebody on the field, and was caught saying it.  He got in a lot of trouble even though it is clearly a widespread issue.

MARK LISANTI-“Everybody Poops?”
But what about zombies?  Do they digest?  Do they poop?  It appears they do not.

HARRIS WITTELS-SOME HUMBLEBRAGS
Special attention to Tyler the Creator this time.

DAVID HILL-“The Invaders”
This was one of the longest pieces in the book and was also my least favorite.  It was about horse racing in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  I’ve been to Hot Springs–it’s a wonderfully interesting anachronistic city, and I thought this article would be awesome.  But it was kind of tedious.

BILL SIMMONS-“The Fenway 100”
The celebration of all the Sox at Fenway before a Yankees game.  And everybody who was ever a Sox (Sock?) was there.

AMOS BARSHAD-“The Rising Tide of Wangolution”
Men are baring all, thanks to Jason Segel.  But has the era of the penis already been cheapened?  And what’s up with the Minotaur?

WRIGHT THOMPSON-“The Lost Bob Dylan”
This article is about Sixto Rodriguez, a singer of whom I had never heard until WXPN started playing his song “Sugar Man” all the time.  I assumed it was a n old song(which it is–it contains the phrase “sweet mary jane” after all) but why were they suddenly playing it all the time?  Well, it turns out that he has been rediscovered through a documentary and his songs are being re released.  This article gave some nice background about the guy.

TESS LYNCH-“Girls is from Mars, Women are from Venus”
Lynch can’t relate to the show Girls, even though she thinks she’s supposed to.

JEFF CHANG-“Elegy for Chocolate City”
Chocolate City is Washington D.C. and this article is about Chocolate City superstar Chuck Brown (who I’ve never heard of).

MOLLY LAMBERT-“Public Acts of Indecency”
How it’s much easier to read trash in public (like Fifty Shades of Grey) when you have a kindle.

JAY CASPIAN KANG-“Divawatch: And I am Telling You, I Will Always Love You”
Jennifer Holliday tries to take back her diva crown (who the hell is she?)

ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“The Inquisition of Mr. Marvel”c
A lengthy bit about Stan Lee and one of the first things I’ve read which tarnishes his reputation–evidently Stan Lee gets all the credit for the characters he “created” when in fact Jack Kirby actually drew most of them, but he was more or less a contractor and got very little credit and very little pay. Lee just happened to be  master of getting paid and now he is the official spokesperson for all of the Marvel blockbusters.  But Pappademas interviews him and learns that he’s actually a really nice guy.

KATIE BAKER-“Welcome to Smashville”
Hockey in Nashville?  You bet!  That’s a county music audience who knows how to holler!

CARLES-“San Antonio’s Finest”
Carles writes about sports but he rarely attends games–the HDTV view is so much better.  But he gets some awesome seats from StubHub and sees a game up close–but he is so overwhelmed heard by the experience and everything around him that he barely registers the game.

DAVID JACOBY-“The Hypnotic Laser Eyes of Survivor Kim”
Something about women on Survivor.  (Is that show still on?)

MICHAEL WEINRIB-“Don’t Call It Ping-Pong”
A fascinating look at the high-speed, high stakes world of Olympic Table Tennis.  I really enjoyed watching it during the Olympics and this was a fascinating look at the lives of a few American stars (who have no chance of beating the Chinese stars).

CHRIS RYAN-“Rooting for Coach Cal”
A nice article about John Calipari (I have no idea who he is).

DAVID SHOEMAKER-“Of Giants and Hulks”
Remembering Wrestlemania III (I remember that one) when Hulk Hogan battled Andre the Giant and Macho Man Savage battled Ricky the Dragon Steamboat   Every Wrestlemania since has tried to capture the magic that III had, but none have succeeded.

BRIAN PHILLIPS-“Celebrity Entropy”
This is largely about Pele and the cult of himself that he has created.  But it also looks at the fading star–the athlete who has peaked and has no where to go but down and how he has to cope with that.

REMBERT BROWNE-“Vernacular Problems”
What do white people do at a Jay-Z show when he asks them to say Jigga My Nigga.  Pretty funny stuff.

ANDY GREENWALD-“The Titular Game of Thrones”
A dense piece about the series, which I haven’t seen and so I didn’t get this piece at all.

CHARLES P. PIERCE-“Castrogate Follies”
Pierce is awesome once again. This time he chastises the U.S for all of its bungled handling of Cuba.  Why are we still listening to an old group of ex-Cubans when it comes to our foreign policy.  Pierce says that if the Expos had just moved to Cuba back in the day, it would have opened up relations  given Cuba (a country who loves baseball) a real franchise and ended a cold war.

KEN DRYDEN-“CSI: NHL”
A look at violence in hockey and how some avoid it.

BILL BARNWELL-“All Hail the Commissioner King”
Another article about the Saints and violence, although this one looks at exactly what causes the harshest penalties in sports leagues.  Primarily it seems to be not letting the commissioners know what you’re doing.  The actual crime is meaningless, but you’ll be hung out to dry if you lie to the guy in charge.

WRIGHT THOMPSON-“James Brown’s Augusta”
Augusta is known for golf, but it is also known for James Brown.  This article explores the problems with the James Brown estate and how because of legal tie ups, the estate is not visited as it ought to be and the money did not go where it should have.

PETER ORNER-“Denny Coughlin”
A short story which I reviewed yesterday.  It’s about playing hockey in prison.

Also Bill Simmons interviews Barack Obama about sports and playoff teams visiting the White House.

Another stellar issue of the magazine.  I suspect that the website has way too much stuff fr me to read daily.  And this gives me a greatest hits of a variety of subjects.  One year down–I look forward to many more.