Would Jesus like my wife in this bra?

All right, I suppose I should say a few words about Camper Van Beethoven last night. They played for about two hours, with no opener. That's good, since: 1) most of the openers I have seen for them were just generic local bands, and 2) it was a work night, and I didn't want to be TOO late getting to bed. There wasn't anything especially unexpected in the setlist, but it did include pretty much all of their hits (relatively speaking, of course), and a fair number of instrumentals. One cool thing was that they played "Circles," the lyrics to which are actually some of the words from "Oh No!" played backwards, but David Lowery sang them anyway. They also worked "Club Med Sucks" into the middle of "Interstellar Overdrive," their long jam song that I believe is a Pink Floyd cover. Unlike Cracker, who play extended solos on several of their songs when performing them live, CVB tends to play things exactly like on the albums, aside from the occasional noodling during an ending or weird bit. Really, for a band that's twenty-five years old (they mentioned this at the show) and was broken up for a fair number of those years, they put on a remarkably tight live show. Sure, there's the occasional flub (I'm not sure David has ever sung the lyrics to "Militia Song" in the same order as on the album during a live performance, but they kind of work in any order anyway), but no more than with any other band. Last night, they mostly just played one song after another, but there was a bit of between-song banter. My favorite example was when David talked about the Bible verse printed on the bags at Forever 21 (which I hadn't heard about before, actually), and how he likes to go there and ask the clerks if Jesus would like his wife in a particular bra, or whether it's okay for Jews to shop there. Then Victor Krummenacher mentioned that he got his boyfriend a partner's ring at Forever 21. Anyway, it was a fun show, and I'm glad I got to see CVB again. I also bought a DVD of their live performances at the 2005 camp-out, and another T-shirt (my third CVB shirt, to be exact). It would be nice if they would release another album, but hey, just releasing ONE album in this decade puts them way ahead of a lot of recently reunited bands.

Skanksgiving

Talk about your frivolous lawsuits! Model Liskula Cohen wants Google to reveal the name of the owner of a blog that makes derogatory comments about her, and is suing Google due to their refusal to concede. She commented, "It's petty, it's stupid and it's pathetic. And when I do find out who did this, at least I'll know who my enemies are." Wow, is that the pot calling the kettle black, or what? And someone making fun of her is an "enemy"? Is this chick, like, six years old? She's a public figure (although I hadn't heard of her prior to this), the blog isn't saying anything libelous, and the author has the right to remain anonymous on the Internet. Not to mention that the blog in question hasn't even been updated since August. Why would she think she has a case? Stop reinforcing stereotypes about blondes and models, Liskula!

Incidentally, I couldn't find the name "Liskula" on Behind the Name, but there WAS an early twentieth century Polish Army officer named Leopold Lis-Kula. Maybe the model was named in his honor. Also, bethje tells me that Bill O'Reilly reported on this story, and actually thought Ms. Cohen had a legitimate case. Personally, I think Andrea Mackris had a MUCH better one. ;)