MEDIA MONDAY
What have you been listening to, watching, reading?

Should you read the book?
Movies based on novels have been common for a long time, but are coming fast and furious during the last months of this year. In the Washington Post, Stephen Hunter ponders the eternal dilemma of book and film lovers:

Should you read the book before you see the movie? Does it matter if they change the book? If you know how it ends, what's the point in seeing it?

His answers, "Maybe. No. If you think this way, you're an idiot.", are entertaining and mostly right. I haven't read Shopgirl, The Constant Gardener, the CS Lewis book, the Harry Potter book, Memoirs of a Geisha, or Everything is Illuminated. But I'm likely to be tempted by all 6 movies.

Bill Maher
Was mostly hilarious last weekend. You can read the transcript here. The best parts? An interview with Kurt Vonnegut ("I think the earth's immune system is trying to get rid of us, and it's high time they did. My goodness, we are a disease on the face of this planet."), a claim by the American Enterprise Institute's Jim Glassman that we have cured cancer, and Maher's final "new rule" of the night, that it's time to recall the President:

Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you anymore. [laughter] There's no more money to spend. You used up all of that. [laughter] You can't start another war because you also used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. [laughter] [applause]

Yeah, listen to your mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit card's maxed out, and no one is speaking to you: mission accomplished! [laughter] Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. [laughter] [applause] Like you did with your military service. And the oil company. And the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or spaceman?! [laughter] [applause]. . . .

On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Trade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans…Maybe you're just not lucky! [laughter] [applause] [cheers]

I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. [laughter] So, yes, God does speak to you, and what he's saying is, “Take a hint.” [laughter]

C-Span Gazing
If you miss the Roberts hearings during the day, c-span 2 will carry them in replay at 9 eastern every night. Since there is not likely to be anything dramatic or surprising happen, you can't be faulted for skipping, but I can't help myself. C-Span is my late-night guilty pleasure.

NYTimes on Paul McCartney
Paul's new solo CD, Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard, is released tomorrow. In the NYTimes, Jon Parales reports on the evident tension between McCartney's sweet, simple inclinations and his more experimental leanings:

For this album, on Capitol, Sir Paul chose a producer who favored the experimental side: Nigel Godrich, who has worked with Radiohead and Beck. Sir Paul also lined up his best backup band since the Beatles: himself. Except for some string-section arrangements, he plays nearly every instrument on the album. That's something he hasn't done to this extent since he made his first solo album, "McCartney," back in 1970, and it makes the songs more intimate and less conventional.

That also makes it not so surprising that the music is filled with "unabashed echoes of the Beatles," since his writing isn't as filtered through the performance style of others. Could be worth a listen

Live Music Weekend
Nashville hosted the Americana Festival this weekend. I'm not sure what makes music Americana. What seems to mostly hold it together it the artists' collective wish to not be pinned with the label. I caught 2 different nights of interesting music--bluegrass sets by Adrienne Young and Tim O'Brien on Thursday, after a riverfront performance downtown by the Indigo Girls. Then Saturday night: Robbie Fulks, The Dukhs, heard a few songs by Webb Wilder and then the reason I bought the tickets to begin with, Frank Black! More later, including my review of Frank's new CD, Honeycomb.

What sounds graced your ears over the weekend and linger on Monday morning?

Weekend Box Office
1. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
2. The 40-year-old Virgin
3. Transporter 2
4. The Constant Gardener
5. Red Eye