Playlist 45 Has Hope!

Last week, I talked about the dread, the fear that filled me with both the Eagles and Phillies playing at the same time. Years of tough losses and disappointments at big times have left me unable to get hopeful.

But I'm trying.

The election is just a few weeks away and my candidates are up in the polls. The Phillies are in the playoffs -- two wins away from a World Series visit, the first since my teen-age son was only months old. And the Eagles season is still young enough that things can turn around.

I felt bad for Cub fans last week. What a great season so quickly wiped out -- and now it's more than 100 years since a World Series. I was trying to talk down a Cubs fan colleague who was upset. I explained to him my theory that Cubs players must feel the weight of all their fans and the past losses on their shoulders. I told him that it's sort of like why my Philly teams can never seem to quite get over that hump.

I was trying to console him. I knew how he was feeling. I was trying to connect with him through our shared sports disappointments.

His response: "Philly fans are ---holes."

On that note, let's jump into this Week's Playlist.

Thanks But No Thanks: The Voters Guide to Sarah Palin. Sue Katz.
Can you think of a anybody who has become such a polarizing figure in so short a period of time as Sarah Palin? In her well-written and heavily researched first novel, blogger extraordinaire Sue Katz details all of the reasons why we need to very concerned about a potential Palin vice presidency or, gasp, presidency. Katz dissects Palins' feminist (or lack, thereof) and religious views. You think Jeremiah Wright is troublesome? Then you haven't met the witchdoctor Thomas Muthee.

Over 176 pages, Katz gives you all you need to know about this lipstick-wearing, moose-killing hockey mom. She delves into the rape kit scandal and revisits the sad riff on community organizers that Palin played part in at the Republican Convention. Thinking of voting for the McCain-Palin ticket? Read this book. Or if you have friends who are suppporting McCain-Palin, buy this book and feed them the facts.

And you won't be alone in buying the book, which is doing brisk sales on Amazon. And, as of yesterday, was Amazon's number one book in Kindle sales. Congratulations Sue!

In honor of this wonderful book, our Weekly Wikipedia link is Victorial Woodhull, the first female presidential candidate and a great early leader of the women's rights and suffragist movements.

Oh, and does the whole Palin thing sound like a Disney movie? Well, check out this film trailer for the fictitious Head of Skate. (Thanks Josh!) And if they did make a film out of a mom running for president, let's make sure it's not Palin, but Florida's Gov. Rothrock.

The Silver Lining Playbook. Matthew Quick.
Hope is the message in Quick's warm and funny debut novel. Pat Peoples has lived the last few years in a mental health facility or, as he calls it, the bad place. He can't remember the events that led to his stay in the bad place, but he knows what he has to do to reunite with the wife he loves. So he avoids Kenny G's music and works out ferociously. He reunites with his brother, his friend Ronnie and his parents -- a loving mom and a defeated father. He slowly ends up befriending the emotionally challenged Tiffany. What a memorable character Quick has developed in Pat Peoples.

You don't have to be a Eagles fan or even a football fan to enjoy this poignant book. However, if you, like me, have many family members who know the Eagles fight song by heart (Fly Eagles Fly, on the road to victory ...), this makes a wonderful gift.

See Matthew Quick's Guest Playlist on Distractions.

And one final note: E-A-G-L-E-S!

4. Dungen.
If the thought of a band that bounces from psychedelic rock to Frank Zappa-like guitar explosions to moments of free jazz with lyrics sung in their native Swedish tongue, doesn't appeal to you, then I'll feel förlåt for you. You're going to miss out on the excitement of Dungen. These guys can plan, whether it's the elevator music feel of Ingenting är sig likt or the amps-to-11 jam Samtidigt 1. Dungen has reigned in their excesses a bit. Their self-titled debut had three songs that averaged over 14 minutes. 4's longest is only 4:45. I can't pronounce any of the titles, but I'm certainly enjoying this. If you like both the Flaming Lips and Frank Zappa, you'll enjoy it too.

Nicknames and Natives. The Antiques.
This 2006 album is, as far as I know, the only full-length put out by this LA band. It's a sorely overlooked Americana release. Armed with pedal steel, mandolin and organ, the Antiques come off as an indie version of the Band, albeit much mellower. Of all the releases from 2006, this is one that I find myself coming back to most often.

Guest Playlist -- Matthew Quick

Matthew Quick has excellent taste in movies, music and books as you'll see below. But he also has great taste in sports. Like me, he's a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan. His quirky, quite funny and poignant debut novel The Silver Linings Playbook takes place during the course of Eagles' 2006 season, when Donovan McNabb went down, but the Eagles rallied around Jeff Garcia. That was also the season of the great Christmas Day win in Dallas. And the narrator Pat Peoples is nicknamed Hank Baskett -- after the Eagles back-up wide receiver.

We caught up with Quick (no to be confused with former Eagle great Mike Quick) this past week and he shared his Playlist -- not necessarily his favorites, but what he thought of first when the guest playlist was posed to him. Thankfully, there's no Kenny G.

Movies
The Shawshank Redemption
Be Kind Rewind
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (original Capra version)
The Darjeeling Limited
Lars and the Real Girl

Books
Life of Pi. Yann Martel
Soul Mountain. Gao Xingjan
Kafka on the Shore. Haruki Murakami
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Kurt Vonnegut
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Jonathan Safran Foer
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Junot Diaz

Music
Louder Than Bombs. The Smiths.
Ani Difranco. Ani Difranco.
Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash. The Pogues.
The Low End Theory. A Tribe Call Quest.
Eastern Sounds. Yusef Lateef.

To find out more about Quick and his great book, check out these links.

• His Web site -- matthewquick.com
• His blog (although on hiatus, it offers some great insight into how TSLP came together) -- Questioning Q

And did you know that Hank Baskett is dating Hugh Hefner's former girlfriend? Find out more here.

Playlist 44 is a Real Maverick

Some of you who know my devotion to Philly sports might think I'm hyped today. Phillies playing Game 4 of the NLDS. And the Eagles taking on the Washington Redskins at the same time. But hyped isn't quite the word.

It's more like dread.

It's quite possible that the Phillies, whose offense has gone missing again, could lose in Milwaukee (setting up a terrifying Game 5) right around the same time that my injury-plagued Birds could be falling to 2-3 and deep into the NFC East cellar.

I'm currently reading Matthew Quick's wonderful debut novel -- The Silver Linings Playbook. (More on the book next week). In it, the main character's father is in a foul mood almost all of the time except when the Eagles win. During one highly disappointing game, he breaks the television set.

I'm going to to remove any big, tossable objects from my living room right now.

Hey wait a minute. What am I doing? I'm setting up some pretty low expectations for my teams, aren't I? But maybe that works. Maybe, I should try it at work.

What if I showed up and blathered on about nothing and when directly questioned by my boss, appeared clueless. Then, at my next meeting, as long as I didn't burn down the building or vomit or cry, everyone will think I'm a pretty smart guy. Heck, I'll be so confident, I'll even wink at all the bosses.

Yeah, that's the gosh darn ticket.

For no apparent reason, our Weekly Wikipedia link is the the television show Maverick.

Now onto the Playlist ...

Victory Shorts. Absentee.
I love this album. Deep-voiced Dan Michaelson writes big hook-filled rock songs and gorgeous ballads with a unique turn of words. The London-based five-piece indie band also includes Melinda Bronstein on vocals, glockenspiel and keyboards. Absentee sounds like a mix between the Silver Jews (see Playlist 39) and Magic Numbers. I can't say much more, except that I highly recommended this. I've put two songs onto the Hear This! tool on the right-hand side. Give it a listen.

Starbucks Nation: A Novel. Chris Ver Weil.
First of all, this is a novel. It's in the title. But I could see how someone might walk by it thinking it another piece of barista-filled wit and wisdom. Second, to know how dead on Ver Weil's take on Hollywood, celebrity and today's coffee- and text messaging-obsessed youth is, just look at your local movie page where you'll find the new film Chihuahua in Beverly Hills. Ver Weil's story follows screenwriter Morgan Beale, who is suffering from writers' block while he's supposed to be penning the script for Chihuahua in the Blue Prada Bag. In the first few chapters, particularly as Beale talks to a young People reporter, Ver Weil is a joy to read. The book soon descends into a strange, sleeping-drug induced tale of Beale in a giant hole outside of a Starbucks. I preferred the start of the book, but still found Starbucks Nation to be very biting. Very funny. And very creative.

Decline of Western Civilization. Holy Sons.
Holy Sons is actually one person -- Emil Amos who wrote all the songs and plays every note on this dark album. He's wildly talented, and he must be a real bummer at parties. The song titles fit right in with the lo-fi trudging music -- Nothing Left, Bleakest Picture, Satanic Androids and Decline's closer -- Things You Do While Waiting for the Apocolypse. No, it's certainly not going to cheer you up, but it's great music if you have a seat of headphones and rainy day.

Playlist 43, circa 1969-1974

As the wife and I drove down 192 on our way to the Osceola Library System's Fall Into Reading Book Festival early Saturday morning, we passed a familiar sounding road. My wife pointed out that it's the road that leads to Paul Newman's "Hole in the Wall Camp." We did our usual back-and-forth about how cool the guy is.

A few hours later as we sat eating lunch, we heard that Paul Newman had died.

Every few months, a famous actor dies and we mourn. It's easy to see why. Movies play a key role in our memories. But Paul Newman was much, much more than an actor. His philanthropic works ensure that he'll remain a beloved figured long after his passing. His celebrity won't die with the last People magazine feature. It'll continue on in all the good works that he sponsored through his Newman's Own and other charitable works.

In Sunday's New York Times, a close friend remembered Newman as a good neighbor.

And now onto the Playlist ...

City of Refuge. Tom Piazza.
We had friends who were relocated to New Orleans a couple of years back. They had hoped to move back to the Northeast and were slightly disappointed to be going to New Orleans just a couple of years after Katrina.

But they've found the city to be a wonderfully diverse and cultural place. And they love it.

On the other hand, I can remember a few people who warned me about the crime as I prepared for business trips there. Their disdain for New Orleans was clear.

Piazza, author of Why New Orleans Matters, clearly understands this love-hate relationship with his adopted city. And he tackles it in City of Refuge, which follows a black family in the Lower Ninth Ward and a middle-class white family living Uptown. We follow their lives before Hurricane Katrina, as the storm approaches and in the aftermath through places like Houston, Oxford, rural Missouri, New York and Chicago. The Donaldsons decide to evacuate, finding themselves stuck in traffic before finally making their way to relatives in Chicago. SJ Williams and his family try to stick it out in the Lower 9th. The families take some real punches from Katrina. They survive, yet the face the question -- What now?

Piazza captures the grittiness, diversity and originality of New Orleans, as well as the fear and worry that enrapts you when you know a storm is coming directly to your town.

To find out more about Piazza and why he wrote the book,
visit Harper Collins' site.

The Great Schlep.
Are you young? Are you Jewish? And do you want to make sure that Barak Obama wins this critical election? Sarah Silverman wants you to schlep on down to your grandparents in Florida and convince them to vote for the guy with the scary name. After all, Florida could be the key to the election. Just ask Al Gore. Or Pat Buchanan. (And make sure you get yourself an Obamica like Arjewtino is wearing on his latest post.)

Are you excited about the debate this Thursday? I'm not. I think the media will set the bar so low for Gov. Palin that as long as she doesn't mispronounce any names, she'll come out a winner. Is she prepared to be vice president? Absolutely not. But she's not dumb.

Then again, if you're a Palin supporter and you wish you were Track's bro -- head on over to the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. And if you don't get a response, don't worry, Sarah will "check it out and get back to ya."


The Uglysuit. The Uglysuit.
This young Oklahoma City band plays a mix of piano-based pop with a tendency to sometimes be a bit too dramatic. Their longest song ... And We Became Sunshine carries a consistent shimmery wave for all 7:19. The shortest song -- the 1:19 piano-only Elliot Travels -- sounds like it could be an intro to a Runt-era Todd Rundgren song. In between, Uglysuit succeeds most when it just lets loose as it does on the album closers Happy Yellow Rainbow and Let it Be Known. They've earned comparison to their fellow Okies -- The Flaming Lips. I don't see it at all. Though this album, though sometimes inconsistent, is not a bad start to a career.

I subconsciously found myself listening to three albums this past week that had a year in the title of one of their songs.

1972. Josh Rouse.
Song: 1972
This 2003 throwback to the early 70s is all about the vibe. It's impossible to listen to the album and not feel "groovy." There's the bounce of Love Vibration or Slaveship and the heartfelt Under Your Charms and Sparrows Over Birmingham. It's solid throughout, but kicks off just right with the title track -- She was feeling 1972/Grooving to a Carole King tune/Is it too late baby?/Is it too late?

What was going on in 1972? You'll find out in our weekly
Wikipedia link.

The Stooges. The Stooges.
Song: 1969
Boy, what it must have felt like to hear this roar out of your hi-fi speakers back in 1969. All sweat and snarling. Fuzz box guitar that seemed so simple, yet carried a power that took it beyond its garage rock predecessors. It was punk before there was punk.

Rock N Roll. Ryan Adams.
Song: 1974
In retrospect, it's easy now to see why this album, so full of rock cliches, received less than critical praise when it was released. But after a trio of albums that played more to the singer-songerwriter angst, it was good to see Adams rock out. And boy did he. It's still fun to hear the roar of songs like This Is It (a nod to his New York rivals The Strokes) and Note to Self: Don't Die and 1974.

And finally, visit the Princeton Record Exchange Blog where you'll find me rating Led Zeppelin's catalog -- and you may be surprised at my Top 5 list.

And read this short San Francisco Chronicle article to see who gets named in the same breath as R.L. Stine and J.K. Rowling.

Signing off,
Foot Challis Pallin

Playlist 42 Wishes You Were Here

Please somebody help me.

There are still six weeks left until Election Day, but I can't help checking the polls and the latest news several times each day. I go to Politico, Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos. I keep an eye on the electoral college at FiveThirtyEight and NPR.

Then throw in the fact that the Phillies are fighting for the NL East title, or at least a playoff spot, with just over a week to go. And my Eagles are playing one of the toughest early season schedules to date.

Please somebody take my computer away.

The Stand Ins. Okkervil River.
You'd think after two critically received albums and a spot among the indie-rock elite, Okkervil singer Will Sheff would be happy. Instead, he spends most of this album discussing sadness, loss and the phoniness of pop music, as evidenced on the very catchy "Pop Lie." (Check it out in Hear This!). The music, however, belies the depressing lyrics. Whether it's country rockers or songs with appropriately timed horn charts, the music is very accessible. Yet, Sheff's band remains as unique as any on the indie landscape. This is a worthy successory -- it's actually billed as a part two -- to last year's Stage Names, one of Distractions Top 10 Albums of 2007.

The Shape of Jazz to Come. Ornette Coleman.
The 78-year-old saxophonist has enjoyed a bit of resurgence lately. In 2006, his Sound Grammar won the Pulitzer Prize and he performed last year at the Bonaroo Music Festival (sadly, he collapsed that day due to a heat stroke). As a jazz neophyte, I'm just discovering Coleman's music. The descriptions -- free jazz, avante-garde, controversial -- make the music sound much more daunting than it really is. The Shape of Jazz to Come is bluesy, melodic and, as Amazon called it "infectious."

Coleman is the subject of our Weekly Wikipedia link.

In Defense of Food. Michael Pollon.
Pollon likes to say that his In Defense can be summarized by the first seven words in the book which also happen to be in small print on the cover -- Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

This is good advice and does partly summarize In Defense. But the book goes way beyond that. Pollon looks at the Western diet and the diseases that result from it. He notes that most of what we eat today is some type of processed product, not actually food. And he finds most of our problems starting back in the '70s when the American Heart Association pushed the industry to "modify" foods to get out saturated fats. And the FDA the followed, by repealing a 1938 law, allowing the spread of "imitation" foods like the no-fat snack products that jammed the supermarket shelves. Food became more about nutrition. And, oddly enough, the more it became about nutrition, the less healthy it became.

As far as food books go, it's an easy, interesting read. I'm currently reading Tom Piazza's engrossing City of Refuge. I'll post on that next week.

Wish You Were Here. Pink Floyd.
Sadly, keyboardist Richard Wright died last week. I felt like listening to some Floyd. Their follow-up to Dark Side of the Moon, though written about original Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett, seemed appropriate. I know I'm supposed to drool over The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I love Lucifer Sam. But that album does not stand up to the test of time -- at all. And later Pink Floyd, starting with The Wall, is bloated and inconsequential. Give me the three mid-career albums -- Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and, my favorite, Animals.

Burn Playlist 41 After Reading

This was one of the most disturbing weeks so far in this presidential race. The Sarah Palin celebrity machine. The unchecked lies (what happened to our media?). And the vicious, stupid campaign ads. Lipsticks and pigs -- not health care and the economy.

So you'd think the last thing I'd want to pick up would be a book about politics. But Playlist 41 starts off with a comedic political page-turner.

American Savior. Roland Merullo.
Merullo's novel helped pull me out my funk. It's funny, engaging and actually quite inspirational. The plot in a sentence: Jesus runs for president, gathering a motley crew of well-meaning people from West Zenith, Mass., as his disciples/advisors.

Narrator Russ Thomas, a TV journalist, describes the rise of Jesus (don't call him Lord) in a tough campaign with a far right-wing female candidate and a somewhat dimwitted former war hero on the Democractic side. It's fun to hear Jesus give his positions on issues like gun control and abortion. The only downside to the book is Merullo's decision to use lame psuedonyms for real media types -- Lenny Queen and Bulf Spritzer. Still, Distractions heartily recommends American Savior.

Burn After Reading.
The critics were tough on the Coen Brothers when they followed up Fargo with a crazy farce about a dimwitted White Russian-loving bowler and his misfit friends. Now, they're doing it again -- taking down Burn After Reading, the Coens' follow to the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men.

Yes, I'm calling out you Wall Street Journal critic Joel Morganstern, who suggested the film be called "Forget After Seeing" or the New York Observer's Andrew Sarris who called it one of the most "awful movies" he'd ever seen.

If you haven't seen it yet, you have undoubtedly seen the trailer and know the plot. It's a great cast. And it's so much fun watching these great actors ham it up. Following a summer with long super-hero films eating up the big screen and with so few decent comedies, what a pleasure to see an artfully paced laugh-out-loud flick. I don't think Burn will earn the cult dedication that Lebowski has, but it will most certainly prove the critics wrong.

And you gotta love that old school poster.


Fleet Foxes. Fleet Foxes.
What amazes me most about the Fleet Foxes is the maturity of their music. It's not the type of album you expect from such a young band on their debut full-length. They're like a Baroque Beach Boys. Appalachia meets sunny SoCal. You'll hear touches of the Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span in their music. But it's no hodgepodge of sounds. It's a beautiful, modern indie-folk gem. Go ahead and pick this up, play it often and give it time to soak in.

See my review of the Fleet Foxes' Sun Giant EP in Playlist 38.

Gotham Acme.
Howard Wolfson was communication's director for Hillary Clinton's campaign. He blogs on the New Republic's Web site as The Flak. And he works at (hold on, let me hold my nose, here) Fox News. But he also has Gotham Acme, a mostly music-related site with a touch of politics. It's a welcome addition to the musical blogosphere.

Couple final notes ...

My birthday passed last week and I received a great birthday greeting from my You Tube-friendly son and his friends. It's here.

And finally, the Playlist leaves you with another You Tube gem. If you haven't already seen it, this is very funny, but it's also somewhat sad. But then I thought, with a few years of journalism school (at a few different colleges), Miss South Carolina may be ready for the vice presidency.

Playlist 40 Awaits Arrival of Ike

Our Playlist hits the magical 40 this week, but little time to celebrate what with party-crasher Ike hanging out there near the Leeward Islands. When I heard that the tropical depression had turned into Ike, I just knew it was going to be a bad one.

Here's this week's playlist...

The Night of the Gun. David Carr
Carr, a media reporter with the New York Times, once covered the controversy over James Frey's Million Little Pieces. So it's no surprise that when he decided, somewhat reluctantly, to do his own memoir, he approached it as an investigative reporter. He didn't rely on his own memories, but did extensive researching and interviewing over a two-year period.

The result is one of the most fascinating memoirs I've ever read. Honest. Brutally honest. It chronicles Carr's long spiral into addiction. It includes moments where he beats women. And when he and his girlfriend continue to smoke crack -- even when she's pregnant. Then after he sobers up and begins a new life as a single father, he finds out he has cancer.

Once you've read the book, check out the Web site Night of the Gun Web site, where Carr has posted all of the various documents, photos, videos and audio clips that were a part of the book research.

NPR's 2008 Election Map.
In Trade.
I find that national poll of registered voters to be pretty useless. As we all know, a candidate can win the presidency without capturing the popular vote. So what's the best way to follow this horserace?

NPR's election map uses an average of state polls to tell you who's winning each state. But if you want to know what's going to happen, whether it's politics, sports or entertainment, you need to look where the money is. And that's why I trust In Trade. It appears that John McCain has gotten a bit of a convention bump as his In Trade stock has jumped to 42.3. It's not just politics. You can trade on global, weather and entertainment events as well. I really like the look of their new beta site.

McSweeney's Quarterly. Issue 28. The folks at McSweeney's really outdid themselves with the artwork this time. Eight small books create two beautiful panels of pictures. The stories? Well, there are eight and they're short fables. One involves an eggboy. Another involves a girl and her beloved book. And in another, a boy keeps meeting himself. Eight modern-day fables. Usually, it takes me a good two months to read through an entire McSweeney's. I was done this quarterly within an hour.

Sahara. McCoy Tyner.
John Coltrane's former sideman is a monster on the piano on this 1972 classic, selected the 87th greatest jazz album of all time, according to Rocco Stilo, author of the A History of Jazz Music. Just listen to his hands all over the keys on the ferocious, rock-like Ebony Queen. Then listen to the plaintative playing on the more mellow A Prayer for My Family. In each song, you can just see that right hand flying all over the piano. All the musicians shine on this Coltrane-influenced work, but Alphonse Mouzon's drums jump right out at you.

Interest in our Dumb Poll has waned over the last few weeks, so this will be our last for a while. This time, it's Pick a Tony. For those who missed it, our last winner (Pick a Jackson) turned out to be painter Jackson Pollock (our weekly Wikipedia link) He beat out Andrew Jackson, Jackson Brown and Tito Jackson.