What’s even better than hearing that my niece can’t come to the phone because she’s engrossed in reading Magic Trixie?
I was recently made aware that E and her sister M — that’s for privacy purposes, not because my family names its children after club drugs and Fritz Lang movies — lent their book to a friend and were eagerly awaiting the sequel, Magic Trixie Sleeps Over. Sharing is great! And they need wait no longer. I’d already bought it, and I mailed it out after hearing this rather than hold onto it for the girls’ upcoming visit. HarperCollins was smart to advertise the next installment in each book, price them low ($7.99 each), and of course snap up this series from the brilliant Jill Thompson to begin with.
Cover to 1st Issue Special #1 © 1975 DC Comics. Pencils:
Jack Kirby. Inks: D. Bruce Berry. Colors: Tatjana Wood.
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... Links — about The Late Late Show and Lily Allen.
As soon as The Late Show wraps up each night, Craig Ferguson pops in with a cold open of The Late Late Show. He might ramble a bit, address the “People… of… Earth!” via hand puppet, bring on a special non sequitur guest, or launch into a lip-synched musical number. It’s fun largely because of the shoestring budget, going to the heart of the host’s sense of “I have a TV show! Yeah, it’s on CBS at 12:30 a.m., but still!” glee, enticing viewers to stick around.
Well, Monday night had a little of almost all of that. Ferguson, a couple of costumed dancers, and a chorus of puppets performed Britney Spears’ “Oops… I Did It Again” [bad link].
The skit reminded me that if you find Spears’ “Womanizer” hella catchy yet kind-of annoyingly overproduced there’s a virtual cottage industry of cover versions to sample. Franz Ferdinand’s [bad link] has strangely off-key vocals but proves that the song can work unironically as rock. The All-American Rejects [bad link] slowed it down and set it to acoustic guitar, beer-bottle percussion, and concertina, yet despite some winkingly substituted lyrics and a smart segue into the Turtles’ “Happy Together” it doesn’t quite transcend the sum of its parts for me.
My favorite take on “Womanizer” is Lily Allen’s. Although her studio output is heavily electronic, here she’s backed mostly by piano, acoustic guitar, and timpani evocative of Brian Wilson or Phil Spector. Even if it’s not as boldly different as the renditions linked above, it changes things up and stands on its own, which is what I look for in a cover.
Related: Mad Mix • 41 Favorites: #7-9 • Sisters
Go Bangles • Double “You” • Muppet Monday
Here at last, on the heels of the brief Star Trek review I put up the other day, are
some expanded thoughts on the franchise and the film...
I suppose I’m a Trekkie.
I’m not making this up.
When I first saw these Star Trek fragrances advertised, in a comic-book distributor’s catalog a couple of months ago, I had to wonder if it was an April Fool’s joke. Nope... You too can smell like a Vulcan in heat.
