Definitely Not L.A.

Virginia blues and world music maestro Corey Harris, a Monroe Blues Series alum, has been awarded a 2007 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” that tosses a half-million bucks in his guitar case over the next five years.  (Story here.)

Congratulations to Harris, and I salute his plans to use the money for educational and cross-cultural initiatives, but I can’t resist adding that it’s a good thing punctuality and consideration for others weren’t criteria for the honor.  When he headlined “The Big Gig” in 2005, Harris’s agent insisted he and his band perform the first sound check at 1:00 pm to get comfortable with the RRCA’s sound and get on the same page with the sound crew. The concert’s other acts would follow, every hour on the hour, no problem–that’s how it usually goes. 

The problem was Harris’s estimate of the time it’d take him to get to Monroe from his gig the night before–at 4:00 pm he was still AWOL, he hadn’t called to let us know he was running late, and messages left for his agent went unreturned.  We were strategizing how to cover for his absence (with extended sets by the other, very patient acts like Chris Smither, who couldn’t have been nicer about the inconvenience) when Harris’s van pulled in around 4:20 pm.  We’d advertised that the doors would open by five, so, after expressing my relief that he hadn’t driven off a bridge, I impressed upon Harris the dire need to set up, sound check, and get the doors open.  He wanted to know where the organo-ovo-malt-o raspberry juice required by his tour rider could be found before he bothered with plugging in a guitar. 

In spite of the loud “Let!  Us!  In!” chant that could be heard from outside, Harris noodled around until we basically bum-rushed the stage to end his sound check and let all of those patient, chilled music fans inside.   Not one of the finer moments in Blues Series history. 

Mellencamp rips one out of the headlines–and the studio.

Update: not everyone’s digging the tune.

How about asking them to not suck? 

(Dotmusic, via Yahoo) The Sex Pistols have been asked not to swear during their upcoming reunion tour, to avoid offending any children watching.  John Lydon claims bass player Glen Matlock has insisted the punk icons keep their language clean, because his son will be at some of the concerts.

(With the departure of the So Alive blog, I guess it’s up to DNLA to hold down the Ryan Adams fan fort at Blogsmonroe.) 

That said, here’s a timely site that gives me yet another opportunity to reference zombies on the blog:

Zombie Pumpkins!

Love this one.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children’s health insurance.  It was only the fourth veto of Bush’s presidency, and one that some Republicans feared could carry steep risks for their party in next year’s elections. The Senate approved the bill with enough votes to override the veto, but the margin in the House fell short of the required number.

Bruce looking like Reverend Jim.

In his latest attempt to out-Quayle Dan the Man…

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush ripped into “Hollywood values” on Monday, in a surprise attack at the entertainment industry that overwhelmingly backs his Democratic foes.  Bush’s rhetorical broadside came as he paid tribute to the new chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, noting that his parents were well regarded behind-the-scenes players in the US movie industry.  “Many people are surprised when told about the admiral’s show business roots. After all, he is humble, well-grounded and filled with common sense. Not exactly what one thinks about when they think of Hollywood values,” said Bush.

Unconstitutional for White House speechwriters to punk the boss?

ROME (AFP) — A convent in southern Italy is being shut down after a quarrel among its last three remaining nuns ended in blows, press reports said Sunday.  Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista, reportedly upset about their mother superior’s authoritarian ways, scratched her in the face and threw her to the ground at Santa Clara convent near Bari in an incident in July that was kept quiet until now.