Hey, Wednesday afternoon, we’re trying.

(Source: pushthemovement)

For your weekend reading, a piece from the LA Review of Books by Alex Harvey that is ostensibly a review of Barney Hoskins’ 2010 biography of Tom Waits, Lowside of the Road. To call it just a book review, however, seems limiting because it’s about fathers and sons, femme fatales, lust, music, addiction, influence, Los Angeles, film noir, biography, autobiography, Tom Waits, “Tom Waits”, and finding one’s voice. And it is pretty fascinating.:

When he and Jones split up, he moved out of the Tropicana and into a more laidback East Hollywood neighborhood, close to his father. By day he worked in the old RCA building on Sunset and Ivar, pushing his images and verbal fragments into a new kind of coherence. Gone was Chandler’s white knight in the form of Marlowe, or the melancholy search for the urban epiphany. In its place is the voice of a semi-psychotic street predator, snarling over savage guitar and bass.

Incidentally, Tom Waits is going to be on The Simpsons on January 6.

And here is the Fresh Air interview with Mr. Waits.

-Nell

image by Anthony Corbijn (2004) via  lifecomesfromwithin

The quiz will be on Wednesday.

laughingsquid:

The Simpsons’ Mr. Burns Explains the Fiscal Cliff

Homer: “Marge, there’s an empty spot I’ve always had inside me. I tried to fill it with family, religion, community service, but those were dead ends! I think this chair is the answer.”

laughingsquid:

Chairs Designed to Look Like The Simpsons

Today: we remember mobster-turned-informant Henry Hill, who died earlier this week. Hill was portrayed by Ray Liotta inGoodfellas. We’re going to talk toNick Pileggiwho wrote the book about Hill’s life which became the basis forGoodfellas.

Stephen Hawking turns 70 this Sunday. Today’s show: Stephen Hawking’s life and scientific discoveries

Above: Stephen Hawking on The Simpsons.

On today’s Fresh Air, Seth MacFarlane, on creating Family Guy: “Here comes The Simpsons, who said, ‘Hey, you can also do this. We’re rewriting the rule book with regard for what you can do on television.’ And I was laughing. This was something that actually was for me. It wasn’t for a family audience. It was for me as a single guy with an edgier sense of humor and what I was looking for.”

Tomorrow: Who Is Ken Jennings and what is talking about maps?

Also: Who is Dr. Groopman and Dr. Harzband on medical decision-making?

lookhigh:

Apple D’oh

From the who-knew department: In 1989, Simpsons creator Matt Groening used to be an illustrator for Apple ads

Matt Groening on Fresh Air

Monday: Keith Richards