22

Once again a cover of a cover (not originally a Beach Boys song) but who cares? That's how it goes. This is # 22 in our famous series of people playing Beach Boys songs on youtube. Collect them all!

Mostly In Their Own Homes

Here is the 21st in our series of people enjoying themselves mostly in their own homes by performing covers of Beach Boys songs.

Media Report

Time for another timely "Media Report." Today we are covering the media of newspapers, movies, and books. Here we go. There is a nice, long profile of "Blog" Buddy and film director Lynn Shelton in today's New York Times. That takes care of newspapers and movies. Now, on to books. Don't forget to purchase your copy of BURY ME DEEP by Megan Abbott, and come see Megan read at the Lyric Theater at 5 PM on Wednesday. This has been today's media report. Farewell, friends.

Cover Cover

I am not faking you out this time! Here is the 20th entry in our popular series FOR REAL. Purists will note that the following song was not original to the Beach Boys, so that what we have here in effect is a cover of a Beach Boys cover song, okay? Is that clear? And you're just going to have to live with it and deal with it in your own way. Sometimes the world doesn't play by your rules! Today's performance was scouted and recommended by McNeil. It has the McNeil Seal of Approval (patent pending)!

This Doesn't Count

This doesn't count as our twentieth Beach Boys cover because as you know, the rules state NO PROFESSIONALS and NO REPEATING SONGS. But here it is anyway because I can do whatever I want and nobody can stop me.

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Were I to blurb BURY ME DEEP by Megan Abbott, I would say, "BURY ME DEEP... in awesomeness, that is!"

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I have my copy of BURY ME DEEP... do you? This has been your subtle exhortation for today, July 3, 2009.

Unicorns Are Over

"You can pretend you are over unicorns, which you are not," writes Rhea, maliciously attaching this photograph, which has not been doctored in any way, and it is true of course that as Independence Day approaches, my mind is drawn ever back to the patriotic unicorn of yore. But that means nothing, I tell you! Nothing. Unicorns are over.

Nineteenth in a Series

Here is number 19 in our series of Beach Boys covers by everybody who has ever been on the "internet." Which one is your favorite? Why not write me and tell?

This Week In Exhortations

Welcome to the week in which I plan to exhort you over and over to go see Megan Abbott read from her new book BURY ME DEEP at the Lyric Theater in Oxford, MS, at 5 PM on Wednesday, July 8. This is a Square Books event, so why is it at the Lyric rather than the usual reading spot, Off Square Books? I don't know! It could be that they are planning something special. So there's that. But I am sure Megan's book is reason enough to go. I can't wait to get my copy. Look at the cover! I think there is a hatchet murder in it, maybe. Why do I think that? I am not sure. But I want to say there's a hatchet murder. This has been the first in a series of exhortations on the same subject.

Start Baking a Cake, California

Hi, California! I love you and am coming back to you in November. My new book supposedly "drops" in August, but who knows with all the craziness that goes on in the world these days what with the economy and all the various troubles and so on? So I am coming to see you in November, just to be safe. That's November 12 at the renowned, historical and awesome City Lights in San Francisco and November 14 at my beloved Skylight Books in Los Angeles's famed Silver Lake area. Okay, get ready, because I am only telling you once. Ha ha ha! Just kidding. I will probably tell you every day between now and November.

Your Jerry Roundup

Let's see what's going on with Jerry Lewis today. Last night Brian Z. reported (and it has been confirmed today by the New York Times in their "Arts, Briefly" section - not to be confused with our "Arts, Briefly" section - where I read yesterday [in the former] about the "pyrotechnics bursting from" Lady Gaga's costume) that Jerry Lewis is going to Broadway, to direct a musical version of THE NUTTY PROFESSOR. His collaborator is Marvin Hamlisch, a person I once frightened on an elevator. In other Jerry news, the month-long Cinefamily film festival has come to an end. But according to the Cinefamily twitter account, they are on the trail of some lustrous prints of THREE ON A COUCH and THE BIG MOUTH. Yes, they are going to keep the Jerry party rolling if at all possible. Surely Cinefamily is the greatest movie theater in the world. (Pictured, Lady Gaga - I still don't know who she is - looking like she stepped out of a Frank Tashlin movie; Jerry; Marvin Hamlisch.)

Squonk Informant

My squonk informant (we'll call her "Informant J2") tells me that the entire text of FEARSOME CREATURES OF THE LUMBERWOODS by William T. Cox is available on the "internet," much like THE COMPLETE BOOK OF CHEESE by Bob Brown. The former is where she gleaned her squonk information, and there are some hodags in there as well. I have leafed through the electronic pages and must say that I part ways with Mr. Cox on the subject of leprechauns. If I am reading him correctly, he is saying that leprechauns were jolly and prone to innocent frolicking in the old country and turned surly when they moved to Canada. If I may quote, "Teamsters toting supplies across swamp roads have been attacked by the animal, which would bound clear over the load, snapping its teeth at the driver and reaching for him with its villainous claws." But in my readings the "little people" were never that nice to begin with. For example, THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH, a book of folklore compiled in the late 1600s by Robert Kirk, contends that such "subterranean and for the most part invisible people" are "ever readiest to go on hurtful errands." According to Reverend Kirk's research, they also live in "continual sadness." (Pictured is "Bloggy" the "Blog" Mascot, as always the exception that proves the rule.) In other monster news, our friend Sepsey writes in to say that there was recently a good monster story in THE NEW YORKER magazine.

McNeil Has a Point

Speaking of the New York Times, there was a guy in there the other day comparing Dean Martin to Brecht and Godard. "I thought I'd see that on the 'blog,'" McNeil said via phone earlier today. And you know, McNeil has a point.

What's In Today's New York Times?

In today's New York Times, we read about Werner Herzog's emotional involvement with a vain albino turkey. There is also the time a book made him so upset that he took it out and buried it. As a bonus, I found a pleasingly stiff phrase of the kind that delights me. It was a description of a performer named Lady Gaga (a hazy abstraction of whom I am far too old to have any substantial knowledge) "writhing atop a piano and pyrotechnics bursting from her costume."