New Travel Journal!

Yes, another travel journal has come our way. This one, written by Kate Mortell, is our all about beautiful Sydney, Australia. We escaped three solid weeks (no exaggeration) of Brooklyn rain for two weeks of uninterrupted sunshine and lived to tell the tale.

Click here to read the journal, or go to our "Places" link on top of the page.

Rod Stewart Returns To Making Mind-Numbing Adult-Oriented Rock

The formerly brilliant Rod Stewart (see Faces) ends his 20-album mangling of The Great American Songbook and has instead returned to stale, turgid cover songs by other artists who haven't squandered all of their talent: namely Bob Dylan ("If Not For You"), Van Morrison ("Crazy Love"), John Fogerty ("Have You Ever Seen The Rain?") and Bob Seger. Well, okay, Bob kinda squandered most of his talent. Have you listened to "Breakdown" lately? Yeesh!

The album "Still the Same," named after the Seger song, will be released October 10, but you know what? Save your money and just buy the Faces boxed set, Five Guys Walk Into a Bar. You'll be glad you did.

And, no, I haven't heard the new album. I'm just psychic, that's all. Trust me.

Rod Stewart's new album returns to rock - [AP]

Just What The World Needs: Another Shitty Unreleased Hendrix Track

In yet another attempt to rob the grave of Jimi Hendrix, Ocean Tomo LLC, a merchant bank that specializes in intellectual property, will be auctioning off a track entitled "Station Break," which was recorded in 1966, prior to Hendrix being discovered by Chas Chandler, who took Jimi to England and teamed him with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. "Station Break" is really just a Curtis Knight record with Hendrix playing guitar on it. There are already hundreds of compilations containing this material that merchants can't give away (though I am partial to Get That Feeling because it contains the sublimely silly "Simon Says," but it is hardly what you would term essential). Why anyone would pay a dime for this track is beyond me.

Really, I'm just trying to drive down the price so I can buy it cheap.

Never-released Hendrix song to be sold at auction - [Reuters]

The Media Funhouse

I'd like to promote two things today. One is a wonderful show on Manhattan Neighborhood Network (aka. "cable access") hosted by Ed Grant called The Media Funhouse. The other is a show that Media Funhouse featured heavily on one of its episodes, Naked City. It was a film-noir detective show that originally ran on ABC from 1958 to 1963 starring Paul Burke and Horace McMahon. It featured a number of up-and-comers such as Roddy Mcdowall, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, etc. The coolest thing about the show is perhaps the backdrop: New York City circa 1958-1963.

I had never heard of this show in my life. I grew up in Philly, and the syndication gods were apparently not smiling upon me in my youth, as this show was never syndicated there (it was syndicated in New York in the early 80's on Channel 5 and never seen on television since). Luckily, Image Entertainment has released these shows on DVD in a somewhat odd manner. They started with one-disc sets that included three episodes each and then moved on to three-disc sets (Vol. 1-3). I know the 3-disc sets include the original commercials (as bonus material, so you don't HAVE to sit through them if you don't want to, which is brilliant); the one-disc sets I'm not sure about yet.

The Media Funhouse currently airs in Manhattan late Thursday/early Friday at 1:30 am on channel 67 on MNN.

In the meantime, here's a clip from Naked City in which Alan Alda plays an extremely snotty beat poet trying to insult a near-comatose Burgess Meredith. That's really all I know (it was a short clip from the Media Funhouse episode; I've yet to see the actual episode), except that I've been driving everybody around me crazy with my impersonation of this scene.

Click here to download the clip.

Enjoy.

The Baked Ziti Radio Hour: Episodes 32 & 33

Here it is again: America(the vocal group)'s favorite podcast! We've broken down the episodes this time around for easier digestion:

Episode 32

• Did Kenneth Lay fake his own death?
• Boris Karloff Sings!
• Why Lung Cancer PSAs are a bummer

Episode 33

• Why it's a bad idea to clone the Baldwin Brothers
• The truth about Jerry Lee Lewis
• Is it Rip Torn or Rip Taylor?

Download the episodes here:

Episode 32
Episode 33