What makes Lucy different?

Driving to the grocery store this evening I had the distinct pleasure of hearing an amazing radio report on NPR about a chimp, Lucy, that was raised from day one by a psychoanalyst and raised as his daughter. Having arrived at the supermarket I sat as captivated to the report as Lucy was by her human family unable to leave the car. She learned to serve tea to new guests using all the utensils, was potty trained, and even learned to communicate using sign language eventually combining words to create new ones. The radio program can be downloaded by clicking-hear. Upon hearing the program I began to wonder what makes Lucy different.

With the ability to say I'm sorry and perform everyday tasks, it wasn't until her later years that she became to strong and unruly to manage. The beautiful, and rare, part of this story is that Lucy was able to be tracked upon being released into the wild, a feat that the heroism of one caretaker named Janis accomplished through an amazing connection with Lucy. I would argue that Lucy became part human and that this phenomena merits more research and understanding.

The reporting is amazing and the personal stories, including the posthumous diary of the doctor who raised her, heart wrenching as Lucy grows older and nature affects nurture in an affront to human mores. I leave you with a photo taken from Radiolab, the New York City NPR affiliate. It is a last photo of Lucy hugging tightly her caretaker Janis, whom she had not seen for years after Lucy's painstaking reintroduction to the wild. Lessons Lucy learned in life and love had not left her; isn't this the most human emotion of all?

If Billy Madison and James Bond had a baby...

...it would be called Archer. OMG every word that comes out of this guy's mouth is hilarious. The female protagonist Lana is just as gutsy and even more in charge making her the perfect counterpoint to Archer's backward bond-type idiocies. The shows allusions are extremely literate and it successfully lampoons the secret agent genre. Sexual innuendo abounds in this super gory, action packed semi-animation that will leave your jaw dropping and you asking yourself, "Did I just hear that?"

The cast is amazing and talented. Archer is played by H. Jon Benjamin who you may remember from "Home Movies" or "Dr. Katz" while the heroine Lana is played by Aisha Tyler, one time host of "The Soup." This show is going to be the most quoted cult classic of the decade no doubt. So do yourself a favor get the torrents or catch the show on the FX network website. Also, now available on Hulu.

Fuck this in your ear hole!!

No,for serious though, this is really good music. May I suggest wearing a turtle neck and listening to this with a group of friends doing a light twist with Negroni in hand having left your inhibitions at the door. Darling, if this song doesn't mellow you out and transport you to another place and/or time then you are untransportable :( So, sorry, may I suggest sweet soothing seppuku(せっぷく).



Koop is amazing. With their song "Waltz for Koop" they bring hip 50's lounge music together with a more modern, relaxing ambient electronica. Where did I leave my martini and lucky strikes?!

A Button Busting Book Review

As the very first post for this blog I'd like to kick it off with my very favorite of distractions--Literature.

Apathy and Other Small Victories

Is a classic in my contemporary book collection that I believe to be highly underrated. In the form of Classic Noir its dark humor keeps the rather ingenious plot clipping along, splitting your sides and wondering if the life you lead is as necessarily stressful as you seem to make it for yourself. The book even starts out with the main character, Shane, and a couple of cops exchanging, and possibly lampooning, the kind of witty banter reminiscent of Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart. Shane is the Holden Caulfield of corporate America. The neurotic debauchery alone is worth the read but add in a dash of the absurd, enough to be realistic, and you've got a classic. With a main character who sleeps with his landlord's wife to catch a break on the rent and the dominant corporate she-tool he dates Shane illustrates a life rife with carefree apathy most of us are too afraid to live. And when he waxes philosophical on the merits of being lucky enough to take a bus ride and have no one sitting next to you so you can stretch out your legs describing it as "knowing you've found a treasure, a treasure nobody else is looking for," you know this author has been where this main character finds himself and is good enough to show us that place.

Author Paul Neilan puts on paper crazy things that, very similar to real life, one doesn't usually talk about but most definitely happen. Catharsis is rarely so carefully invoked as when an author walks that razor-sharp line between culturally acceptable and politically incorrect. From leather-clad guinea pigs to deaf dental assistants who sing atonal karaoke the characters might seem more of a cheap joke if they weren't so poignant of the flaws and mundane sterility of mainstream American life. Oh, and the spot-on representative use of cliche by the aforementioned girlfriend reminds me of every person I've ever run away from upon hearing them string together TV show phrase after TV show phrase.

Seriously, do yourself a favor. Read this book then please respond to this blog and tell me what you thought. I'd really like this blog to be a shared experience in Lit., Music, Art and life.

James