May Consumption

Music

Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
Ben Harper - Both Sides of a Good
Eagles of Death Metal - Death by Sexy
Dannii Minogue
Catch 22 - Live
MC Lars - The Graduate
The Cardinal Sin - Demos
Pearl Jam - S/T
Paris Texas - Like You Like an Arsonist
Rob Zombie - Educated Horses


Books

The Bill from My Father by Bernard Cooper

Live Video: Johnny TL @ Todd's Bar & Grill

For the unfortunate few of you who missed our show at Todd's Bar & Grill with the infamous Rhett McCaughey, you're in luck - we recorded it! As a treat to you loyal Manifesto readers, here's a live clip of us performing our world-wide mega hit "Conceited Girl."

 

Alice in Chains Reunite

Bands replacing dead founding members is problematic at best. Strangely, though, I was happy [maybe not happy, but at least interested] when I heard that Alice in Chains is reuniting after the death of frontman Layne Staley. Staley, by far the coolest character from the grunge invasion, will be replaced by William DuVall from Comes With the Fall (a band I have never heard.)

Normally, this sort of thing would really bother me. But I think the fact that Alice in Chain's guitar player Jerry Cantrell wrote almost all of the music, half of the lyrics and even sang a bunch of the songs, it's probably tolerable to have a new singer. Unfortunately I never had the chance to see the band live, so maybe this will have to be the next best thing.

Ex-GnR man and current Velvet Revolver Duff McKagan will also be touring with the band on a few of the dates.

Get Your Photo On with George Bush

My friend Bert visited me the other night. He works as a facilities manager at a convention center in Iowa. He said George Dubya was in town a few weeks ago to endorse a political candidate. When I asked him if he had a chance to meet the commander in chief he said, "Almost."

Bert had hoped to get his picture taken with the prez, but apparently didn't have the wallet for it. Anyone attending the conference was welcome to get their picture taken with the president, given they were willing to pay for it. The price? $10,000. What sucker would pay that much for a photo? Bert said that there were at least 20 people who shelled out the cash. Who could blame 'em?

A Fax from Thurl Bailey

Since Utah doesn’t really have any real celebrities, we have to settle for news reporter [see Shauna Thomas Disappears], creepy Mormon recording artists [think Kurt Bestor] or senators who think it’s a great idea to blow up music file sharers [please don’t vote for Orrin Hatch, please].  Oh, and old basketball stars.

I interviewed ex-Utah Jazz star Thurl Bailey for Utah Business Magazine a couple of weeks ago.  Big T now has his own clothing line (cleverly called the Thurl Bailey Collection) in addition to his career as a Mormon music artist, his film career which includes such roles as Goliath in a seminary movie, a Jazz commentator and the owner of a fertilizer company (whah?!). 

I must say it was very cool to check the messages on my cell phone and hear, in the deepest voice imaginable, “Hey, Spencer.  This is Thurl Bailey.”  But the funny part was that he was calling to tell me that his email response to me kept getting sent back to him.  I gave him two other addresses, but still no luck.  I started thinking that Thurl wasn't such a superstar in the email department.  He called me again and told me he’d fax it to me.  Yes, Thurl Bailey printed off the email and faxed it to me.  I couldn’t help thinking of Kip singing at the end of Napoleon Dynamite, “Yes, I love technology.  But not as much as you, you see…”