Ike Turner died in his sleep Tuesday night.



Ike will no doubt be remembered for his contributions to Rock n Roll in its infancy.

He will also no doubt be remembered for beating and abusing his one-time wife, Tina Turner.

Anthony Bourdain sure has a high opinion of himself.  I mean, I love watching his show No Reservations on the Travel Channel and I think he is a smart, open minded traveler for sure, but wow, he really loves himself and his image (see photo, right-- classic)!  I find myself rolling my eyes at him but adoring the program just the same.

As someone who rarely has the opportunity to travel anywhere, much less to destinations like Namibia, Sicily, Iceland, Peru, New Zealand and, uh, New Jersey, I find myself swept away in the show's exotic locations, locals and of course, food.  Bourdain was a chef for many years so a major focus of his show is indulging in local cuisine.  I really appreciate the fact that he tries to get off of the beaten path and hang out with people who know their city/country like the back of their hand, and I think this is what plays a major part in making the show so addicting-- Samantha Brown, be damned!  This show is no Tourist Board advertisement.


Bourdain likes to present himself as someone dark and edgy, someone who's seen it all before, someone who is tough enough to scrap through any given situation and then light up a cigarette.  [Although I recently heard he quit smoking when his daughter was born this April!  That's a huge deal.] Some portions of the show are so self indulgent!  I can forgive Bourdain's Ramones obsession, which seems, incredibly,  to come up in about 50% of the episodes, but in Shanghai we got an entire segment of Bourdain swinging from wires in fighting style and edited into a fake movie.  It got a little much.   His Dante's Inferno fascination in the Tuscany episode quickly becomes grating. Where's the food??

Well, I somehow managed to throw my back out yesterday and thank god I've had Dallas Season 4 at home to keep me company and to numb the pain! 


Dallas was one of the definitive shows of the 80s and I have to say, if nothing else, it's worth watching just for the styling and the cars.  Everything is completely over the top--  from the wood paneling to the exposed chest hair, the whole show is one long nostalgic trip through the fashions of the 80s and I love it!  Pammy's hair (see photos, left and right) alone makes the show!  It goes from rat's nest to sleek to curly to shagged-- every which way.

Maybe I should provide a little more background here:  Dallas is about the trials and tribulations of the Ewing Family.  The Ewings are rich as all get out from their oil business and they live on a ranch in Texas.  The family is large, with matriarch Miss Ellie, patriarch Jock Ewing (left) and their sons, meddler JR and do-gooder Bobby.  They have another son, Gary, who lives in California and returns from time to time.  His young adult daughter, Lucy, lives on the ranch with her grandparents.  Sue Ellen is JR's long suffering alcoholic wife and Pam is Bobby's young, fresh wife.  With this much family living in one house and all that wealth around, trouble just comes right to the Ewings!

Most of this week I have been listening to the new EP Ask Forgiveness by Bonnie Prince Billy, just repeating it over and over.  It features 7 covers and one new original.


The best tracks are the Danzig cover "Am I Demon", and the Phil Ochs cover "My Life".  Yeah, there's an R. Kelly cover on there too, of "The World's Greatest", and it's funny and semi ironic and all, but I like other stuff on the cd much better. 

Bonnie Prince Billy is always both covering and writing songs about identity and struggling with that whole thing! Previous tracks "Little Boy Blue" and "Wolf Among Wolves" both are about those kind of issues.  Anyway, the Danzig track is slow and pretty and asks "Am I Demon?/I need to know".  We all get the somewhat resigned answer by the end of the song. I love when BPB ends the phrases by singing waaay up high.  It's lovely.  It's fun to hear a song about demons that's all folky and acoustic and not screamed! 

I'm a fan of Phil Ochs (See the name of my blog!), and it's great to hear someone like BPB covering him since he was such a talent and so brilliant and cutting.  His lyrics are better than about 90% of everyone else's, give or take a few percentage points, of course.  Anyway, "My Life" is a beautiful choice, and I guess it's yet another song about identity, about what life means and changes and paranoia and growing up.  I guess it covers a lot of ground!  It's really a poem: