What I'm Into These Days: Drawings Edition

The idea behind Axe Cop is so simple that it's shocking no one thought to do it before: the stories are written by a six-year-old with a hyperactive imagination, then illustrated by his 29-year-old brother, with all of the strange logic, randomly appearing and disappearing characters, and bizarre plotting intact. Read it now, before the author gets old enough that he starts trying to make sense.

Kate Beaton's Hark, a Vagrant, on the other hand, has a charmingly hand-drawn style and a predeliction to make jokes about obscure historical figures. It's also quite hilarious, even if you have to head to Wikipedia before you can understand the references.

It was via a link on Ms. Beaton's site that I came across a pair of great Lost-themed comics. First, there's Nedroid's #lostcomics on Twitter, a bunch of dumb/brilliant three-panel gags, often involving a heavy-lidded, grinning Jacob and a hope that Vincent still has an important part to play before the series ends.

Also, there's Lost Showdowns, a collection of cute drawings of major conflicts from the series (Faraday vs. Jughead, Desmond vs. the computer, Eko vs. the Smoke Monster). My personal favorite is the drawing of Keamy, Alex and Ben, which is just adorable, until you remember what happens next.

What I'm Into These Days: Music Edition

Childish Gambino is better known as Donald Glover, a comedian who used to write for 30 Rock and currently plays Troy on Community, and has a side career rapping over songs by Pitchfork-approved artists like Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective. There's plenty of stuff to download over at his website, and my current favorite is "New Prince," which features shout-outs to Sports Night, Anna Wintour, the Situation and "nerd girls losing their shit like Prom night," all set to the eardrum-punishing "Crown on the Ground" by Sleigh Bells.

I had never heard of Pavement when they were actually together making music, and didn't bother to do much remedial listening in the time since. Then this track comes along and makes me think this was a foolish decision on my part.

Your calender probably says that summer starts on June 20. Well, your calendar is a filthy liar. The first day of summer is May 17, when the new LCD Soundsystem album is released.

Correction of the Day

From Slate:

In an item in the March 12 "Slatest," Jessica Loudis incorrectly stated that Karl Rove left the Bush administration a year ago. He resigned in August 2007.

OK, so the mistake itself isn't so bad, but the image of Karl Rove still lurking around the White House months into Barack Obama's presidency, like one of those Japanese soldiers who thought World War II was still raging, is too amusing for me to resist.

And When I Woke Up, My Makura Was Gone

So today would have been Akira Kurosawa's 100th birthday. Unfortunately, I didn't think ahead and call out sick from work so I could take full advantage of TCM's all-day marathon, but I did do the next-best thing: have a really weird dream about the legendary director last night.

I was on the set of a movie he was shooting with Toshiro Mifune (of course) and set in feudal Japan. The film was going to be an ambitious, multi-part work (My sleep-addled brain might have thought that Kurosawa had something to do with Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters) in which the performances would be mostly improvised. On the very first take, though, one of the actors missed his cue or something, and Kurosawa became so enraged that he grabbed a bow and started shooting arrows at Mifune. Why he was trying to kill his lead actor made no sense; it wasn't his fault that some other guy messed up. Plus, if you're trying to make an unscripted movie, it's hardly fair to punish your actors for not doing exactly what you expect them to.

Kurosawa was also giving direction in English; I was a little embarrassed that he was doing that for my benefit when I was just some guy hanging around, and his actors probably couldn't understand him very well.

Anyway, that's the story of my wacky Kurosawa dream. Although if you ask him or Mifune what happened, I'm sure they'll tell you a totally different story.

"This is a big fucking deal."

With those 6 words, caught by a live mike and broadcast on CNN, Joe Biden moves a little closer to becoming the hilariously sleazy character found in the pages of The Onion:

Joe Biden Shows Up to Inauguration With Ponytail

Shirtless Biden Washes Trans Am in White House Driveway

Biden Requests to Be Named Special Envoy to Reno

Biden Invokes Freedom of Information Act to Find Out When Woman Gets Off Work

Walletless Biden Found Handcuffed to Bedpost

Biden Winks After Offering to Buy Eggnog for White House Christmas Party

White House Infested With Bedbugs After Biden Brings in Recliner Off the Curb

Biden Criticized For Appearing In Hennessy Ads

Rock 'n roll is here to stay / Come inside now, it's OK

Alex Chilton has passed away at the age of 59. I can't quite explain why that saddens me as much as it does, since I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan of him or of Big Star. I mean, I knew and liked a handful of their tunes -- "Thirteen," "In the Street," "September Gurls" -- but never went much deeper than that. But I'm a sucker for all things power-pop, and Chilton was very much an elder statesman of that genre. I always meant to get into his music, because it seemed like it would be exactly the sort of thing I would love. In fact, after spending the last hour or so listening to songs on YouTube, I can confirm that it is exactly the sort of thing I love. Thankfully, the music's not going anywhere, though it probably sounds a little sadder than it would have last week.

To further highlight my ignorance, I've heard the Box Tops' song "The Letter" so many times, but never knew that it was Alex Chilton singing.

Was the Chilton School in Gilmore Girls so named as an homage to the singer? I'd never made the connection, but it seems obvious in retrospect.

I'm Going Back to New Jersey, I Do Believe They've Had Enough of Me

If you like any combination of the Gaslight Anthem, the Pogues, and/or song-cycles based on the Civil War, you really owe it to yourself to check out Titus Andronicus's new album The Monitor. If nothing else, listen to the epic closing track "The Battle of Hampton Roads."