In Like a Lion, Out Like a LambThese are some of the Lemmy-approved reviews I'm working on this month.Amazon CDs: Bird York - Wicked Little High (featuring the Oscar-nominated song"In the Deep" from bestpicture winner Crash).Amazon DVDs: Police Woman - The Complete First Season[six-disc set] (above-average detective drama with Angie Dickinson as undercover cop "Pepper" Anderson), MacGyver -The Complete Fifth Season [five-disc set] (my fifth MacGyver review--yep, I'm now an official "Mac" expert!), Huff - The Complete First Season [three-DVD set] (Showtime dramedywith Hank Azaria and Emmy-winner Blythe Danner), The Flintstones - The Complete Fifth Seas

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In Praise of LeeThe following paragraphconcludes Manohla Dargis'sNew York Times review ofSpike Lee's Inside Man.Mr. Lee, meanwhile, most likely wants the respect that has always been his due. Consistently underrated and underappreciated, this film-maker is an erratic talent, if no more so than many ensconced in Hollywood, and his insistence that race matters has cost him dearly with the mainstream (i.e., white) audience. He's right, of course, that race matters, which is why, in between plot points and star turns, he gently and, at times, rather hilar-iously, insists on reminding us that it does. He may have sublet this "Spike Lee Joint" to out-of-tow

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From Missouri to Minnesota (by Way of Memphis and São Paulo)I guess I'd rather be judged by twelve / Than carried by six.-- The Plastic Constellations, "Best Things"*****The Bottle Rockets, Zoysia, Bloodshot (6/6/06 release date)Zoysia just goes to prove what a diverse studio Ardent has become. Back in the 1970s, Al Green, Big Star, and all the great Stax acts layed their mellifluous sounds down at the renowned Memphis studio. Earlier this year, Cat Power released The Greatest, which was recorded there with some of Green's most celebrated sidemen. The result is one of her finest recordings. Well, the Bottle Rockets don't sound like any of those artist

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Artists Aren't Really PeopleHere are my favorite lyrics and quotes by/about musicians. "A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast 'n' bulbous, got me?"-- Captain Beefheart, "Pachuco Cadaver" (1969)"[Serge] Gainsbourg has been cursed by an attribute which has proved a more powerful hindrance to rock stardom that being blind, tone-deaf or dead: that most fatal of adjectives, French."-- Robert Chalmers, The Independent"And if a ten-ton truck / Kills the both of us / To die by your side / Well, the pleasure -- the privilege is mine!"--The Smiths, "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" (1986)[While living in Blighty in '86, I had "the pleasure --

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Talkin' With Lucinda WilliamsPart Two: My Own WorldThis is the second part of an interview from 1989. Unfortunately, I lost the published version, so I'm glad I kept the original draft. It's typewritten and dotted with Liquid Paper as this was before I had access to a computer. As mentioned previously, I've cut quite a bit of text, which means my rambling--if heartfelt--intro, but I haven't made any other changes, so please forgive the awkwardness of the writing. When I get the chance, I'll transcribe a few of my other Wire interviews, which include Bill Frisell, Jon Spencer, and Dinosaur Jr.Click here for part one.Wire: How do you feel about being on

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