Star Of Greatest TV Show Of All Time Starts Making Bullshit Indie Movies

Kid from 'Third Rock' enjoying new challenges

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Many young men come to Hollywood to act, but former child star Joseph Gordon-Levitt had to leave to learn what it truly means to be an actor.

In the late 1990s, Gordon-Levitt co-starred as a wise-cracking teen alien on the NBC television comedy "3rd Rock From the Sun," and the 25-year-old's new film, "The Lookout," opened Friday.

Good early reviews for the crime thriller and for two of Gordon-Levitt's recent movies -- he was lauded for low-budget festival films "Mysterious Skin" and "Brick" -- have critics and filmmakers praising him as one of the best actors of his generation.

But plaudits like those might not have come had he not left Tinseltown, taken a bite out of the Big Apple, and attended Columbia University for a while, Gordon-Levitt told Reuters. He also credited his parents, who he described as "hippies back in the '60s," with keeping his mind off Hollywood fame and fortune and allowing him to grow into his own.

"About the time I came back to acting, it wasn't just for my own fun anymore, I had found that I cared about the rest of the world, instead of just myself, and wanted to find a way to connect to the rest of the world," he said.

"When I was a kid, I used to hate any sort of recognition. It would make me nervous," he added. "But now, when people say they saw 'Mysterious Skin' and it meant something to them, or 'Brick' and it inspired them, or even '3rd Rock' makes them laugh, that really means something to me."

Gordon-Levitt, who has been acting since age 6, said he now judges roles based on whether he enjoys the script, finds the characters intriguing, or will be working with people who are passionate about a project.

He said he found all three in the role of a brain-damaged young man named Chris Pratt who is lured into a bank robbery in writer/director Scott Frank's "The Lookout."

The movie gets close to a 90 percent positive rating on Web site rottentomatoes.com, which compiles reviews, and Richard Roeper, film critic for TV show Ebert & Roeper, has said Gordon-Levitt "joins the ranks of our best young actors," in the role.

"In many scripts, the characters are one-dimensional. If it's a hero, he's all good," Gordon-Levitt said. "But all the characters in 'The Lookout' are more complicated. I play the hero, but there's a lot you can blame him for."

His character, Pratt, was a star high school hockey player who severely injures himself and his friends in a car wreck.

Years later, Pratt works as a bank janitor but has problems with his short-term memory, and longs for the life he once enjoyed. This allows him to be lured into helping rob the bank.

Despite his flaws, audiences root for Pratt because Gordon-Levitt portrays him as an everyday guy who has lost his way in life.

"Besides the injury, there is also -- and I think it's more interesting and more damaging -- his shame, his guilt, his regret, his inability to live in the present and wallowing in the past," said Gordon-Levitt. "That is something I think all of us can identify with."

Wu-Tang Clan Schedules UK Concerts For Summer.

According to the British press, The Wu-Tang Clan recently scheduled two UK concert dates for this summer. Interestingly, those among the Clan that are convicted felons, such as Ghostface Killah, can't leave the United States, so the line-up at the shows will inevitable be somewhat truncated. Either way, I'm taking the UK dates as a sign that The Wu's prospective new LP, The Eight Diagrams, is coming along as planned, which is very exciting.

Uh...Fucking Police State?

Fucking Police State!

Why Our Parents' Generation Is Retarded

Keith Richards says he snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine

LONDON (AP) - Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time.

In comments published Tuesday, he said he snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine. "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.

"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared. . . . It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

Richards, 63, one of rock's legendary wild men, told the magazine that his survival was the result of luck, and he advised young musicians against trying to emulate him.

"I did it because that was the way I did it. Now people think it's a way of life," he said.

"I've no pretensions about immortality," he added. "I'm the same as everyone . . . just kind of lucky.

"I was number one on the 'Who's Likely To Die' list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list."

A Modest Proposal: Cut Your Goddamned Hair.

I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a woman who doesn't look like Ben Weasel dressed up like he's in the Pretenders. It's been like six years since this black-on-black Cher wig thing started, can't we try something else for a while? I'm not kidding; It's greasy, it smells like smoke, and it's a constant reminder that you and I are irreconcilably different biologically.

OK, maybe we can compromise; can you at least cut it so I can see your eyes, and maybe wear a nice gingham shirt with a collar? Seriously, take a good look at the pictures and tell me which one makes you want to take monk's vows and give up forever.

British Sophisto-Crooner Publishes First Solo LP in 25 Years

This month Tracy Thorn, a British songstress best known for her work as vocalist of the 1980's sophisto-pop duo Everything But The Girl, published her second solo LP, Out Of The Woods. The record is receiving mainly positive reviews. I'm not quite so enthusiastic.

Thorn's recording career began with the Marine Girls, an all-female band universally characterized as "amateurish," "spare," or "twee," and inspired by acts like The Raincoats and The Young Marble Giants. Thorn released her first solo record, A Distant Shore, in 1982. It too was "spare," and felt pleasantly homemade. It is probably most notable for its very canny cover of The Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale."

In Everything But The Girl, Thorn and her partner Ben Watt established themselves as purveyors of sophisticated (but unpretentious) bossa-nova-tinged pop, reminiscent of The Style Council, or even Sade. EGBT's first record, 1984's Eden, is a classic of it's subgenre. Much of the material on Eden was released in America in a self titled record that same year. State-siders such as your author likely were first introduced to Thorn's work through the brief sophisto-pop revival embodied (perhaps exclusively) by The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group, a non-prolific but well-loved 1990's indie act. Thorn's work finally reached American radio when an electronic remix of "Missing" from EBTG's 1994 Amplified Heart LP became a hit.

Thorn's singing is subtle, mature and appropriately characterized as classic. Her music makes just as much sense played over the loudspeaker in a Gap store as it does played in a well-renowned art gallery or in a rat's nest high school kid's bedroom, and I've heard it played in all of those places. But my initial impression is that Out Of The Woods is not among Thorn's best records.

Out Of The Woods is packaged very nicely; the artwork does much to work with Thorn's unfortunately over-obvious title motif. But the few tracks from the album featured on Thorn's myspace profile (I confess that I have not purchased the new LP) do much to confirm my initial apprehensions that Out Of The Woods might pander too much to fans of Thorn's foray into the dance club world. Much has been made of the fact that Out Of The Woods is being published after what has been universally characterized as an extensive maternity leave on Thorn's part, and I have nothing useful to add to such discussions. It is my hope that the release of this new album might garner interest not only in this new LP, but also in Thorn's entire back catalog.

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Dude, wait. No, seriously, dude, check this shit out. Dude--dude, dude, dude, dude--no, dude, seriously. Wait, dude, fuckin'--fuckin' check this shit out, dude. Seriously, man, fuckin' check this shit out!

Forget Hillary.

Is America ready for its first female President? If that female happens to be a nine-year old health care activist, the answer might be "Yes." You know the average grade schooler has more gravitas than George W. Bush.

So, what exactly is Avondale?

Avondale is a residential neighborhood on the Northwest side of Chicago. Delineated by the Chicago River, Diversey Avenue, Addison Street, Pulaski Road and the Metra Milwaukee District North Line, Avondale is located within Chicago's 33rd Ward. Transportation arteries such as Belmont Avenue, Milwaukee Avenue and the Kennedy Expressway (I-90/94) run through the neighborhood, and Avondale is accessible through the CTA's Blue Line train and Metra's Union Pacific Northwest Line and Milwaukee District North Line.

Consisting of an area of about two square miles, located at 41 56.4 N
Latitude, 87 42.6 W Longitude, Avondale had a population of 43,083
when measured for the 2000 census. The buildings in Avondale are 76.9% residential and 11.4% commerical or industrial. When Avondale was
annexed by the City of Chicago in 1889, its population was largely
comprised of German, Scandinavian and Polish immigrants. Presently,
in certain locations in Avondale, it is common for storefront marquee
signs to be rendered in Polish. However, today Avondale's population
is largely comprised Latino families, and a majority of the small
businesses maintained in Avondale are owned and operated by Latinos.

Avondale is presently experiencing rapid and steady growth and
development. Several successful restaurants and taverns opened their
doors in Avondale during recent years, and condominiums are quickly
being developed in several locations in the neighborhood. Avondale is
the home of a small but well-appointed Chicago Park District facility
at Brands Park, 3259 N. Elston, as well as one of Chicago's most
credible live music venues, The Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace.

The throes of change through which Avondale labors during the coming years is one of the central subjects of this blog.