apologies

Apologies to the Queen Mary
$13.98
Oh man. I was talking up this band at a party a week or so ago, and it occured to me just now that I was calling them Wolf-mother. Oh man, man. I hope that whoever I was talking to realizes my mistake...

Wolf PARADE is the band that I was speaking of. This album in particular, which I bought myself on a tip about a year or so ago. While the band is undoubtedly 21st century rock, with certain electro pop numbers like MODERN WORLD and the occasional goth slash emo slash men can be sensitive too vibe that floods most of the rock and roll scene these days (Offended? Text me.) there is still a very solid hard rock vibe throughout. (Like, the kind that could totally bitch-slap Nickleback and Linkin Park...)

Whats good about Wolf Parade is that they manage to create an album, where one song doesn't equal the entire bands output. There is a degree in variation between one song and the next... YET the album makes a point in keeping the album in flow. While the vocals may get on the wrong side of the razor blade from time to time, the band rocks out, and actually has a few feel good tunes, and once in a while even a sense of humor... plus most of the songs have some nice and punchy drums. Not studio produced sound effects. My fave songs are the opening track, YOU ARE A RUNNER,,, and SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF HUNGRY GHOSTS...

Andrew Dice Clay: No Apologies
$9.98
First off, humor is not a one size fits all commodity. You could ask ten different people what they think is funny and get at least eight different answers if you decide not to get too detailed about it. For instance, my 14 year-old niece loves Rob Schneider and David Spade. As for myself, I can't stand the two.

Which brings me to Andrew Dice Clay. I'm not going to write him off as worthless because the potential existed for even him to be a good stand up comedian. I remember at one of his concerts he did spot on imitations of Robert Deniro, Al Pacino, Eric Roberts, and John Travolta. During this particular concert, all that potential is flushed down the toilet.

At the time this was filmed, his dubious fame had already peaked and his popularity was well on the downhill slope. His film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane flopped big time and he became the first major entertainer to be banned for life from MTV, or eMpTyV as I prefer to call it. It wouldn't be unusual for someone to harbor some resentment.

Of course, that's the whole problem with No Apologies - too much anger. Instead of telling jokes, he is basically berating the audience with sexually explicit diatribes. It seems as if he was far less concerned about making people laugh than he was about offending them. There's a thin line between giving the people what they want and giving the critics what they hate. All Dice did here was rub the former the wrong way and confirm the feelings of the latter. About ten minutes into this, I just wanted to stand up and say, "Stop it, you're embarassing yourself."

The biggest problem I had with it myself was how he insulted Midwesterners. At least I expected the sexual material, but my mind is still boggled by this blatant bigotry. At the beginning, Dice refers to himself as "the original blue-collar comedian" (I'm paraphrasing here). Yet later in the show he goes on a hate filled rant about people in the Heartland. The details of which I'm not going to get into, and you as a reader are better off not knowing. To make a long story short, it's a slap in the face to all the fans in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and all the other blue-collar Midwesterners who supported Dice from when he was a struggling comic. I expected better, even from the Diceman.

It's not that I hate dirty mouth comedians and only love clean ones. George Carlin and the late Richard Pryor will forever be legends according to me. I also find the work of conservative, Christian comedian Brad Stine to be smug, obnoxious, and criminally unfunny even if he does keep it clean. I only expect one thing from my comedians - make me laugh. That did not happen with me here, and chances are, it won't happen with you either.

I Was Wrong: The Meanings of Apologies
$24.99
Excellent book...makes you really think of what the word "apology" means to convey and how to evaluate its meaning....opens discussion as to how society has manipulated the meaning of the word.

On Apology
$16.95
I picked "On Apology" up at the Oxford University Press table at a conference, The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, and was riveted by it. Lazare discusses if (and how) a doctor should make an apology to a patient (there's much to consider, such as potential litigation). But, I found basically helpful the defined ingredients in an apology, how it's a negotation, and examples of many types of apologies, from his own (parent to child) to national, e.g. Clinton to the nation (both on Monica Lewinsky and to the survivors of the Tuskegee syphillis experiment). I hope teachers, of all types and at all levels, will learn about apology and teach their students. This would be an enormous gift.