here is this week's blog post - Bill
Wild Bill Ketelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
He has a radio program on WXOU out of Oakland University
Wild At Heart
Looks like Thanksgiving is just around the corner and a number of people are struggling to find things to be thankful for. With jobs becoming even more scarce, it is getting difficult to remain optimistic here in Michigan. During my show this morning, one of my faithful listeners called today to tell me he is getting laid off from one of the Big 3 and another friend is leaving Michigan for a job down south. Add to this the prospect of the Lions going 0-12, and it is almost enough to take the fun out of the holidays. Heck I won’t even get into the arguments the Native Americans have about the holiday. I just hope to get together with friends, watch football (go Cowboys) and be thankful for what I do have.
If you see this in time, Dr Pepper has extended it’s Guns N Roses contest to 6PM today where you can try to get online or call there toll free number (1-888-DRPEPPER) and leave your info. I heard part of the album when I was at St Andrews this week though I have never really been a big fan of the band. I was there working the Hawthorne Heights show downstairs and only came up once or twice to check things out. I heard most listening parties were getting around 200 people though only about 30 showed up. I think that might have something to do with the venue. Now I love the staff at St Andrews but it is a little bit out of the way and not really the type of place I think off when I think CD listening party. I would think the Crofoot, the Emerald or some other suburban (Royal Oak, Ferndale) bar that caters to a hard rock audience would have gotten a better crowd. To be fair, they didn’t get permission until the last minute and that never helps when trying to promote.
Still, I hate GNR (Slash excepted) but I thank them for my free Dr Pepper.
Talking about a good album release, Nov 22nd marked the 40th Anniversary of one of my favorite albums, The Beatles’ White Album. It was the #1 album when I was born and despite not having any top 40 hits, it has some very memorable songs such as “Back In The USSR”, “Dear Prudence” (which was covered beautifully by Siouxsie and the Banshees), “Helter Skelter”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (a great Harrison song with Clapton on guitar) and “Blackbird”. Also, you got to love song titles like “Piggies”, “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” and “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey”. The plain white cover was designed by pop artist Richard Hamilton and was originally planned to be entitled “A Doll's House” (luckily the band Family had used a similar title). The album is their most musically diverse (a number of songs were inspired by their trip to India) and you can catch the hints of their break-up starting to emerge (thanks Yoko). I have a German white vinyl version which is one of the cornerstones of my music collection. Some influences include Charles Manson’s borrowing of the term Helter Skelter which he construed as predicting a prolonged race war and justifying the murder of wealthy people (I never got that from listening to the album), the famous Paul is dead fiasco and a wonderful Eric Idle led parody group The Rutles.
I had a good time at the Main Art Theatre this weekend with the premiere of “My Name Is Bruce” which stars and is directed by Royal Oak born Bruce Campbell. Bruce basically plays a version of himself in this film and he is currently filming a sequel to a cheesy sci-fi film. Angry at his manager (one of the many Ted Raimi roles in the film) and threatening to fire him, Bruce goes home to his trailer where he is met by a young kid from Gold Lick who believes Bruce is like his heroic characters in his movies and wants Bruce to help save his town from the evil demon Guan Di. The movie is a must for Bruce fans and b-movie aficionados though the appeal might stop there. Bruce has some great one-liners and there are tributes to previous roles such as Ash and Bubba Ho-Tep. Don’t expect too much from the film and you will enjoy it. After the film, Bruce did a Q&A talking about various items like Evil Dead 4 (he feels he is too old to do it justice – Indy 4 anyone), Ash vs Jason vs Freddy (since they said Ash wouldn’t win, he said no), Bubba Nosferatu (he couldn’t figure a way to get his character into the film so he dropped out) and talked a bit about the fun of Brisco County Jr and Burn Notice. He also mentioned that the film was made in his backyard where he apparently had enough room to build a small western style town. I’d hate to mow that yard.
Good news for Cyndi Lauper fans!! David Byrne stated in his blog that he has collaborated with Lauper on a track for his upcoming “Here Lies Love” and she has recorded a special Christmas duet with Swedish rock band The Hives, entitled "A Christmas Duel", which is available as a download-only single.
I talked to Ingrid Michaelson last week when she did her signing at Borders. She reminds me a lot of Lisa Loeb, but in a good way. Her new album, “Be OK” is not an official album but started as an EP which graduated to a full fledged album containing live tracks and covers. She said she has finished her next album which is a little darker than the last and will be out next fall. A portion of all sales of her current album will go to the charity Stand Up To Cancer.
MCB's Jesse Welter was there to shoot the show and the in-store performance and got a nice shot of me doing the interiew.
Danny Boyle was great to talk to last week in anticipation of his new movie “Slumdog Millionaire” (based on the novel “Q&A” by Vikas Swarup). An Indian former street child from Mumbai is a contestant on ‘Kaun Banega Crorepaii’, the Hindi version of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’. He had gone onto the game show to reach his missing childhood sweetheart, who he knows watches the show religiously. When he gets to the last question, he is suspected of cheating and must reveal his life story to see how he knows the answers despite not having an education of any kind. The movie was filmed in India in the slums where Boyle criticizes Swarup who has never been in the slums. Boyle believes if you are going to make a film (or write a book) you should go to where you can get real-life experience and not avoid it. The crew used handheld cameras on the street to get a lot of the footage because of this. Boyle also admits that he thought the book was unfilmable until he read Simon (Full Monty) Beaufoy’s script. Boyle felt that he really got to the heart of the book and he says he will usually read the book and take ideas back to the screenplay writer but in this case he could find nothing to add to his script. I am hoping to see the film soon though I have read the book and there are a lot of adaptive changes so be careful. Boyle also brought up in my interview that he is looking at making a sequel to the 28 Days Later franchise but it will depend on many factors. He is working on it though.
I also had the pleasure of talking to comedian Colin Quinn who was at Oakland University this weekend. He is known for his work on MTV’s Remote Control, a tenure as news anchor on Saturday Night Live (1995-1998) and Comedy Central’s The Tough Crowd. He is currently trying to put through a number of projects which he will have control over. He is content doing this and his stand-up and doesn’t see himself doing TV roles or guest appearances. I hope you heard my interview with him this morning on my show on WXOU 88.3FM or online at www.wxou.org where we talked about the relevance of Saturday Night Live and Brian Wilson.
Hey, Flaming Lips fans!! You might want to go to the Crofoot on Nov 29th to catch the Detroit premiere of ‘Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips’, a glorious science fiction film that marks the directorial debut of the Lips' frontman Wayne Coyne. The film takes place at Christmas and the colonization of Mars is underway. However, when an oxygen generator/gravity control pod malfunctions, Major Syrtis and his team fear the worst. Syrtis also hallucinates about the birth of a baby, and many other strange things (if you have ever seen them live, you know they can be crazy). Meanwhile, a compassionate alien super-being arrives who inspires and helps the isolated astronauts. The screening will also feature a couple of shorts from local Sci-Fi Comedy troupe, “Iron Core TV”. Listen to WXOU for your chance to win tickets. Actually, the first 2 people to email me at doramu13@yahoo.com will be set up with a pair of tickets for will call. Doors at 8PM or go to Crofoot website for more info.
"Christmas on Mars" is a MOTORCITYBLOG sponsered event as well
My radio show on Thurs will be pre-recorded this week but I will be back in Dec with interviews with the casts of A Bronx Tale and The Rat Pack Is Back. The Rack Pack Is Back, which is playing at the GEM Theatre is a musical tribute to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joey Bishop, who appeared together on stage and in films during the early-1960s, including the original “Ocean's Eleven”. The group never referred to themselves with that title (preferring the Summit or the Clan) but they had a big effect on establishing Las Vegas as a premiere entertainment town and helped break down racial barriers (they refused to play in places that didn’t treat African Americans equally, including their own member Sammy). I can only wonder what it would have been like to see this group on stage but this is the closest I can get now that all the members are dead (Joey passed away in 2007). The show has each member doing some solo numbers of their greatest hits and a number of ensemble pieces. The actors do pretty decent impressions of these icons though I thought the actor playing Frank Sinatra captured him the best. If you enjoy the memories of these greats and what that era represented, come down to the show and be prepared to enjoy yourself. Go to www.gemdetroit.com for more information.
Well that is it for now. Have a great Thanksgiving week whatever you end up doing. I hope to see some of you ska fans Toasters show tonight at the Magic Stick (WXOU will have a promotions table at the event). Wednesday has a few good shows. I will be at the Yes show at the Fillmore but you can also see Fishbone with Natives Of the New Dawn at St Andrew’s Hall or the Hard Lessons with Bump at the Majestic. On Friday, the Verve Pipe will be at St Andrew’s Hall. Saturday is star filled with the Blue Man Group (see them if you can) playing a couple of night at Caesar’s Windsor, Jeff Daniels is doing his annual fundraiser at the Michigan Theatre and the Electric Six will be at St Andrew’s Hall. I will talk to you all again on next Monday. Until then, take care and remember to email me if you want those Flaming Lips movie tickets.
"MCB IS DETROIT"
Check out more MCB-VIDEOs here
