Out on 4/20, of course!
And also …
Local Boy Makes Good
MJ was last year’s reluctant golden boy. I wore the record out, and love this video. He’s from Asheville, so my kid and I went to his record release at a record store and I saw him two nights at the Orange Peel.
Latin Football Cheers
Football season is over of course, but you can use these for any sport. It’s not like Latin had a real equivalent for “touchdown” anyway.
Sequimini, sequimini, facite ut pilam relinquat!
Pursue them, pursue them, make them relinquish the ball!
Illos repellite, expellite, compellite ad fugiendum!
Repel them, expel them, compel them to retreat!
Utinam vincamus!
Oh, would that we would score!
Volebamus atque volemus pilam trans metas deponi!
We have been wanting and shall continue to want a touchdown!
Those are from Latin For All Occasions, by Henry Beard, a Classics major who went on to co-found National Lampoon. For years people gave me books like that.
Here’s a bonus (under “LATIN AT THE AIRPORT”) that might come in handy as we enter the imperial era:
Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!
Stand aside, plebeians! I am on imperial business!
Tap Two
Spinal Tap II began production last spring, and director Rob Reiner is letting fans know what the band’s members have been up to in the 40 years since This Is Spinal Tap came out.
“Nigel [Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest] has been running a cheese and guitar shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed. He’s also been performing with a local folk band in the village that play penny whistle and mandolin, and he plays electric guitar with them. We show a little clip of that,” Reiner explained in a recent interview with Empire. “David St. Hubbins [played by Michael McKean] has been living in Morro Bay in California, and he’s been writing music for podcasts, particularly this one true-crime podcast called ‘The Trouble With Murder.’ He also writes the music that you hear when you’re on hold on the phone.”
“Derek [Smalls, played by Harry Shearer] is living in London and is now the curator of the New Museum of Glue. He’s curated glue from every country in the world – the whole history of glue – and he shows me around,” he added, “He’s also been performing with a philharmonic orchestra, and he’s written this kind of symphony about the fact that the devil wears a bad hair piece. It’s called Hell Toupée.”
Reiner also explained that the idea for the sequel came when Tony Hendra, who played Spinal Tap’s manager Ian Faith in the original, died in 2021. “[W]e came up with this idea that Ian Faith had willed his daughter, Hope, this contract that called for one more performance,” he said. “She thinks initially, ‘Well, this is not really worth anything…’ But then some big music star, while screwing around at a sound check, is filmed on an iPhone singing a Tap song, and it goes wild on social media. All of a sudden, the contract is worth something.”
Uncanny X-Men Pinball
I’m excited about this one. It’s fun living through this new pinball golden age.
A Documentary Made By Fans, With Fans, For … Fans
Crowdfunded project coming Q4, 2025. Order yours today! Of course, you might want to see the film first.
What Did You Think Those Saddles and Boots Was About?
Willie apparently recorded this back in the 80s, but it never saw the light of day until Brokeback Mountain came out, and he decided to release it. He recently revived it with the magnificent Orville Peck. Country gold.
Seeds Documentary!
Not sure how a doc about some of my favorite proto-punks got past me. This goes straight to the top of my list if it’s available anywhere.
Experimental Matrimony
Ah, the emptiness of modern comforts…
Can a song be both great and ridiculous? Fifty years on, I’m still wondering. But I still love this and almost everything from Roxy’s first five albums.