One about redheads

I had originally intended to review Acid Tongue by Jenny Lewis in this space today. I picked up the album on Saturday because I'm completely incapable of buying gifts for friends or family for the holidays without snagging something for myself. I'm a new music whore, there, I said it. Still, given my curiousity, if not great admiration for Rilo Kiley, and Lewis' previous album with The Watson Twins I had long intended to grab a copy. Acid Tongue also features guest appearances from Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward, and the esteemed Elvis Costello, so I was eager to review it. The thing is, I haven't had a chance to listen to the album at length yet. I heard the first two tracks, and I'll confirm that they're solid, but my experience with it is about as deep as the half-urine/half-chlorine mix known as a rec center kiddie pool.

Luckily, I ride the bus for a good (see: bad) 45 minutes Monday through Friday. So I figured I'd listen to the album, take some thoughtful notes and make some overbearing and asinine observations to bring to this very space. With my portable music device in hand (yes it's an iPod) I sat down in the cramped bus seat and flipped (see: turned the "wheel") through the digital album covers. With Acid Tongue mid-screen, and with a boisterous "Engage!" I pushed Play, and prepared to be dazzled.

I was not.

But it wasn't the album. No no. It was the iPod, which immediately locked up and refused to reset via the standard "Menu + Center button method," leaving me feeling like I was the High Fidelity-John Cusack(A tangent: I propose a series of action figures portraying the various iterations of John Cusack's lovelorn loser character. If there are Einstein action figures and Jane Austen action figures, surely the world needs a Lane Meyer) to its Euro-trash, patchouli-stinking Tim Robbins. If only I had an air conditioner to heave aloft and drop down on its smarmy album-stealing face... Alas, I did not.

Instead, in honor of Jenny Lewis, whose album I will (mark my words) review in the next couple of entries, I present an all-star tribute to exceptional redheads (or for those of you who prefer, auburn-heads) of music, pen and screen:



1. Must see: Willie Nelson's guest appearance on the Colbert Report's Christmas Special.
2. C'mon. Emily Dickinson! Don't make me turn the blog around.
3. Sitcoms continually "recycle" her classic bits... without the winning effect. I mean, remember the one where she's stomping the wine? Or when they couldn't stop the candy manufacturing line? Genius.
4. Just see Children of Men... and also acknowledge that she's been in a lot of great films, such as: Boogie Nights, The Big Lebowski, and she watches Ray Liotta's brain being eaten by Anthony Hopkins in Hannibal. (And I have a bit of crush on her, too.)

Thanks for stopping by.