Hoboken’s historian in residence, Holly Metz, has written a fascinating new book, The Untold Life of Peter Lee, about a man born into slavery for the prominent Stevens family. I had the honor of interviewing Ms. Metz for hMAG.
Aquarium Playlist, 12/10/19
EPISODE #360: LIVE HIGHLIGHTS 2019
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
The Original Sins — “She’s on my Side”
Electric Light Orchestra — “Hold on Tight”
The Church — “Under the Milky Way”
Squeeze — “Up the Junction”
They Might Be Giants — “Ana Ng”
The Minus 5 — “Hotel Senator”
Mates of State — “Proofs”
The Ladybug Transistor — “Meadowport Arch”
Peter Holsapple — “Commonplace”
The Mountain Goats — “Golden Boy”
Juliana Hatfield Three — “Spin the Bottle”
Liz Phair — “6’1″”
The Go-Betweens — “Surfing Magazines”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Ford v Ferrari
3 stars out of 5
I dig fast cars and Matt Damon. I do not dig rooting for big stupid companies. Eh, I gave the movie a chance. Meh, I reacted.
Starts out pretty promising. Driver’s point-of-view, speeding through a race course at night. Cool. And if there has been a previous movie about the 24-hour Le Mans race, I haven’t seen it, so that’s pretty compelling. And at the very least, I finally learned to pronounce it le MON instead of le MONZ.
Damon, as real-life former driver/racecar builder Carroll Shelby, is reliably solid and likable. Christian Bale, as real-life bad-boy mechanic/driver Ken Miles, is reliably unlikable. Tracy Letts is quite believable as thick-bodied corporate blowhard Henry Ford II. And Jon Bernthal is a poor man’s Chris Messina (himself a poor man’s Dermot Mulroney) as young Lee Iacocca, Ford marketing upstart.
From what I’ve read, the story sticks pretty closely to the facts: To appeal to younger consumers, Ford wants to build a racecar. They tried and failed to purchase Ferrari, so decided to challenge the Italian auto greats at the legendary Le Mans. Iacocca recruits Shelby, who brings Miles aboard. The only real exaggeration seems to be making Ford’s Leo Beebe into a cartoonish corporate-stooge bad guy, thwarting Shelby and Miles at every… uh… turn. That caricature is unfortunate, as it hurts the movie’s overall realism.
Other problems: It’s 1957 and I blinked and it was 1965. Huh? Also, I know we’re rooting for Shelby and Miles, but Shelby often comes across as a sellout to Ford Motors, and that didn’t make me feel great. (Plus he cheats a little.) Also, too much gearhead lingo. And most damning, where there should be great drama — which we’ve seen in racing movies time and again, so it’s quite possible — there is not great drama. This is likely a failure of sticking too closely to reality. Interesting subject but not interesting enough for a 2.5-hour movie. Le Yawn.
Aquarium Playlist, 12/3/19
EPISODE #359: 8TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL (RADIO VOL. VII)
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Spiritualized — “Here It Comes (The Road) Let’s Go”
The Shivas — “Playing on the Radio”
Buzzcocks — “Radio Nine”
Henry’s Dress — “(You’re My) Radio One”
Bingo Hand Job — “Radio Song”
The Ramones — “We Want the Airwaves”
The Church — “Electric Lash”
Jason Forrest featuring Laura Cantrell — “Nightclothes and Headphones”
Christie Front Drive — “Radio”
George Harrison — “Devil’s Radio”
KHJ Los Angeles Radio Report
Soul Coughing — “Screenwriter’s Blues”
Chris Stamey — “On the Radio (for Ray Davies)”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Album Review: ‘You’re So Jaded’ by Joy Cleaner
4.5 stars out of 5
Click to sample or purchase
Yes, I’ve seen Bloomfield, New Jersey’s own Joy Cleaner 18 times, not yet counting December 10 at the Pet Shop in downtown Jersey City. And yes, I am thanked in the liner notes of their new album. Oh, so I’m not objective enough to review this record? Man, you’re so jaded!
Joy Cleaner are still recognizable as the indie-pop darlings who delivered their solid 2017 debut, Total Hell. But this follow-up unveils some new tricks. Perhaps most significant is the addition of drummer/band hunk Justin Grabosky (so long, Amish dude) — a talented singer/songwriter in his own right — who contributes more intuitive playing as well as backing vocals.
The boys also prove they can capital-R Rock. Not even 30 seconds into lead track “I’ll See You at Home,” the big Cobain-esque guitar comes out, emphasizing the power in Joy Cleaner’s power pop. The mighty crunch continues in the ultra-melodic “Pink Lite,” a should-be smash hit single.
Guitarist Joey DeGroot’s bouncy rocker “Dramatization,” and later, the gentler, wind-swept “Post-Neurotic,” have been in the band’s setlist the longest, so these tunes seem like old friends to me. Continuing the band’s tradition of clever song titles, bassist Kyle Wilkerson’s “So Much for the Quiet Car” is the sort of textbook indie pop that earned the fellas a slot at the revered Athens Popfest in 2018. And Joey’s “Out on the Balcony” sounds to these ears like a modern cousin of the Fabs’ “You’re Going To Lose That Girl.”
“See Through” is jittery and catchy, while “Bad Advice” is a groover with a soaring chorus. “Phlox” is 95 seconds of urgent pop-punk complete with a quick guitar solo and feedback fadeout. The expansive, midtempo album-closer “Dyson Sphere” is not an ode to a vacuum. Rather, Dyson sphere is an astronomical term for a hypothetical shield around a star. But for Joy Cleaner, there is no such barrier. With songs as strong as these, the sky is truly the limit.
Aquarium Playlist, 11/26/19
EPISODE #358: THANKSGIVING 2019 (FAMILY)
Ray Davies — “Thanksgiving Day” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Sly & the Family Stone — “Family Affair”
The Undertones — “Family Entertainment”
The Black Lips — “Family Tree”
The Ramones — “We’re a Happy Family”
Amanda Palmer featuring Ben Folds — “Runs in the Family”
Papercuts — “Family Portrait”
The Wrens — “Strange as Family”
The Gazetteers — “The Family Reunion”
Nodzzz — “Family Name”
Hanni El Khatib — “Family”
Fleetwood Mac — “Family Man”
John Eddie — “Family Tree”
Mary Gauthier — “Thanksgiving”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Similar Names, Different Callings V
Beloved British TV writer/star Phoebe Waller-Bridge and
beloved American indie singer/songwriter Phoebe Bridgers
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Guest Post: Who Art Thou, Whistleblower?
My case for outing the whistle-blower.
Despite the fact that all of the relevant parts of the whistle-blower’s complaint have been corroborated by other witnesses (or by the president himself), it is still vitally important that we know the identity of the whistle-blower that raised concerns about the July 25th phone call between President Trump and President Zelensky, and to allow the American people to hear him testify, for the reasons I cite below.
Maybe he (and we know it is a “he,” thank goodness) is exceptionally tall or short, for example. If he were abnormally tall and works for the CIA (how fortunate we are to know that too!) maybe he has had occasion to stand in close proximity to the president and to look down. In this case he would have been able to see that the president’s hair is a trick, and therefore he might harbor bias against the president. On the other hand, if he were unusually short, we could surmise that he has a Napoleon complex. Maybe he himself wants to be president. We’d want to know that too.
For another example, maybe we will see (and be able to judge for ourselves from the many pictures that will certainly emerge) that his teeth are not as white as they could be — as can be the case when a person has consumed a large quantity of black tea. This may suggest that the whistle-blower’s loyalties lie not with The United States, but somewhere else, like The United Kingdom.
It also may be useful to know what culture, and therefore climate, the whistle-blower’s ancestors came from. Studies have shown that cultures from warmer climates tend to eat spicy food while cultures from colder climates eat bland food. This fact would be helpful should we need to know what to feed the whistle-blower in jail or what to feed his family at the soup kitchen.
Since it is generally agreed that all government is good (local, state, federal, both within the United States and everywhere else as well), and that more government is always better than less, there is no need put in the effort to enforce the whistle-blower protections we now have. There will certainly never be another case where we need to bring dubious government actions to light. Adam Schiff, let us have the name of the whistle-blower now.
Aquarium Playlist, 11/19/19
EPISODE #357: CLOTHING
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Jonathan Richman — “Everyday Clothes”
American Music Club — “Blue and Grey Shirt”
Sparks — “Angst in my Pants”
Cake — “Short Skirt/Long Jacket”
Lisa Germano — “You Make Me Want To Wear Dresses”
Yo La Tengo — “Autumn Sweater”
Belle & Sebastian — “Long Black Scarf”
Sharkmuffin — “Leather Gloves”
Don and Dewey — “Get Your Hat”
The Magnetic Fields — “Underwear”
Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five — “Your Socks Don’t Match”
Jimmy Hughes — “Hi-Heel Sneakers”
Leonard Cohen — “Famous Blue Raincoat”
Alex Chilton — “Take It Off”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Jojo Rabbit
4 stars out of 5
When I saw that Flight of the Conchords collaborator Taika Waititi had a new movie coming out, I was excited, even if wasn’t a prequel to Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling. He’d also done nice work on Thor: Ragamuffin, though most recently, the What We Do in the Shadows TV series did leave me a bit cold. So when this starts off on the too-silly side — look at the ridiculous Nazis, hahaha! — it felt like second-rate Python, Mel Brooks, Hogan’s Heroes. And very Wes Anderson-lite. So maybe I could Taika leave this guy?
Ah, but it was good enough to hold my attention, and by gum, the movie got better and better as it went along. We meet Jojo, young WWII-era Berliner, gleefully attending attending a Nazi Youth camp. Sam Rockwell is a hoot as the camp’s leader; Rebel Wilson as an assistant didn’t really impress. Jojo isn’t faring too well, as his compassion interferes with his Nazi rhetoric. He does keep receiving pep talks from his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Taiki himself, mostly hilarious).
Back at home, we meet Jojo’s mom, Scarlett Johansson, who knows her sweet little boy is still inside that small uniform. She has a couple of really nice scenes. And when Jojo learns of an Anne Frank-esque situation going on in his home, his loyalties slowly start to turn.
Stephen Merchant shows up in another Python-type scene. There are laughs throughout, though some fall flat, such as a German shepherd pun. But the movie truly succeeds when it’s more serious, and we realize there are important messages here about friendship, looking out for others, the horrors of war, as well as a timely cautionary tale about fascism. I actually got choked up at the sight of an American flag, back when we used to be good.
Jack Silbert, curator