Well obviously he can, considering two days into office he admitted to a previous long-term cocaine addiction and several instances of infidelity (Huh? Really? Him?). But after reading The Economist this week, he actually had an amazingly prescient quote, and the Big P (I'm hoping that catches on, but I doubt it) has never really been one for words.
"Everyone with a shovel says they're shovel-ready."
[in response to President Obama's plan to put shovel-ready projects into action with the new $789.5 billion dollar stimulus package, $100 billion of which is dedicated solely to infrastructure projects]
[
Disclaimer: Fred Armisen's brutal impersonation on SNL might have impacted my newfound man-love for Mr. Paterson.]
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a black and white, annual series, written by Canadian native Bryan Lee O’Mally and published by Oni Press, has gotten quite a bit of publicity of late. It’s for good reason. Edgar Wright, who brought Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead to the silver screen is attached to direct a script based off the graphic novels, and the cast seems to be lining up nicely (I think they’ve already begun principle). The books are a veritable kaleidoscope of genres. O’Mally has created a hybrid comedy/fantasy/alt-lit/rock graphic novel, that never quite manages to pigeon-hole itself. I’m currently on volume three, of the five released (I assume it should wrap up around seven, two years from now), but it’s still hard to describe the plot, let alone the overall feel. Might as well give it a try.
Scott Pilgrim, our titular hero, (who, (yay!) will be played by Mr. George Michael himself, Michael Cera) is a twenty three year-old wannabe rocker, who squats in an Ontario one-room apartment with his gay roommate. They also share one mattress. The plot oscillates from realistic, twenty-something dialogue, to epic, street-fighter-esq battles for the love of Ramona V. Flowers (Pilgrim’s current crush). Scott needs to battle all seven of her evil ex-boyfriends (who dated our fair Ramona from middle-school to present) to win her heart. In the second book, Pilgrim goes mano-a-mano with Lucas Lee (played by Chris Evans), who, as a famous movie star, is a lot like, um, Chris Evans. Yeah.
The books seem to jump all over the place, never taking themselves too seriously, but always managing to get a good chuckle, or at the very least, a smile. Given the times, I guess that’s all anyone can ask.
Below is a quote from the second book, which comes up on a video store monitor, when Scott, attempting to see what he’s up against, tries to rent all of Lucas Lee’s movies:
"Member: Scott W. Pilgrim Blocked Current Fines: $508.28 Notes: Returned “The Land Before Time IV” 36 weeks late. He claims that mice hid the video somewhere in his apartment. Also claims he rented it as a joke. Do not let him rent anything. He is scum. "
Last Monday night, I walked down a snow-filled Bleeker Street for another chance to see the Scottish, alt-folk band Frightened Rabbit, for the second time in as many weeks. The all-request, all-acoustic set, would be their swansong for the year-long tour promoting the oft praised Midnight Organ Fight. Literally, every song yelled out by the respectful crowd was played. At one point, frontman Scott Hutchinson said that he was expecting people to yell out Freebird, and that every time someone had done that, he was going to pull a song like Floating in the Forth. Of course then someone yelled out Freebird. Over the course of several hours, the band played close to eighty percent of their discography, and one and a half covers (Hutchinson played about a minute of The National's Fake Empire, before admitting he didn't know anymore of the words).
The intimate (yet unfortunately loud) venue of (Le) Poisson Rouge, allowed for a humorous, epic, and often disjointed show (they joked that they had never played Backwards Walk, one of their more sobering songs, on an already sobering album, as the lead in to a show - but "what the hell"). Hutchinson's vocals seemed a bit off compared to what I heard at Bowery Ballroom, but the show was a joy nonetheless. For what it's worth, I put Fight up there with the Fleet Foxes for album of the year, and when Hutchinson, as a joke, picked up the blank setlist as a 'souvenir', I was seriously considering grabbing for it.
