Pop stuff: What I'm hearing, watching, reading, etc.

I'm trying something new: Reviews on the fly, so to speak, a weekly roundup on my recent brain  input. As you'll see, it's not all newly released books, albums or films, etc., but old stuff, too, that I'm rediscovering or checking out for the first time. Maybe it will help make this place  a little more personal.


"The Price of Politics,"by Bob Woodward. See, it's not all comic books and rock'n'roll around here. I'm nearly finished with this: Woodward's latest inside skinny on what's happening, or not happening, in the White House. It's not exactly a roller-coaster ride of excitement. The focus is on the debt limit crisis and the financial apocalypse our nation continues to barely skirt. Lots of numbers and lots of people not getting anything done. But, with Woodward's access to all the key players and lots of fly-on-the-wall details of closed meetings and secretive deal-making, it's a good snapshot of our dyfunctional government and drives home why things are at such an impasse. I'm skeptical the upcoming election will change much, not matter who wins.


"The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson,"by Robert Caro. I finished this one a few weeks back and it's still very much in my mind as I read Woodward's book. Whether you agreed with his politics or not, or liked or disliked the man, LBJ was a guy who could get things done. This huge book looks at his vice-presidency, during which he was essentially sidelined by the Kennedy brothers, who disliked (and in the case of Bobby, hated) him and the first months of his presidency. LBJ was a deeply flawed and power-hungry man. But he rose to the occasion after JFK's assassination and helped the country move forward, achieving an amazing array of policy victories right from the start. This was a president who knew how to work with, around, and through Congress; a master politician who knew where all the bodies were buried and how to achieve what he wanted.

 
"Oh, God!". We watched this for family movie night this past weekend. I hadn't seen it since it was in the theaters back in 1977 and it holds up amazingly well, thanks mostly to the enduring charm of George Burns. It's a sweet and a funny film. Carl Reiner directed. John Denver, as a man appointed by the Almighty (Burns) to help spread a message of simple tolerance and compassion, is a pretty decent actor. The great Teri Garr is her usual wonderful self as his wife. Paul Sorvino is funny as a Falwell-ish evangelist.


Tempestby Bob Dylan. Speaking of the epic and Biblical: Dylan's most-recent LP has been playing in my home and in the car stereo for several weeks now. It's a grower. You've probably read about the 14-minute, Leo DiCaprio-mentioning tune about the Titanic and about the John Lennon tribute tune. Both are great, not as alarmingly bad as you might fear. The rest is very good, too. As with any Dylan album, the lyrics are dark and enigmatic and take time to absorb. The imagery in many songs is angry, violent, with characters making threats and even killing one another. There multiple references to blood and wounds and undercurrents of jealousy and vengeance. Dylan's voice is now reduced to gravel, and actually sounds pretty great over the rootsy, bluesy musical backdrop. One tune, "Early Roman Kings" is a surreal Chicago blues tune that sounds like something off one of his mid-60s albums. If you like Bob, you'll enjoy the album. It continues the long-roll of greatness he's been on since Time Out of Mind.