(via Amanda, via Filmstalker): Sacha Baron Cohen to play Freddie Mercury?

“According to The Mirror newspaper through Digital Spy, one of those pesky insiders has told them that Sacha Baron Cohen is the forerunner for the role ([In a Freddie Mercury bio-pic]and that Cohen loves the idea of the role, especially since his character of Borat looked so similar anyway.

Well I was very skeptical of the rumour of Depp being involved, even though it came from the mouth of Queen guitarist Brian May, but this rumour seems much more plausible. Look at the man himself, although he’s way taller than Mercury was, he has a great look and is a strong character actor.”

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It is a rumor. The last rumor was Depp which would have been awful. I’m sorry, it would have. Cohen looks enough like Mercury and he is good at sliding into characters I think he could do it. No, obviously, it isn’t Borat but don’t forget that the man did a wealth of stuff before Borat and has serious talent.

I am more worried about the movie itself. It runs, of course, the risk of the Behind The Music movie syndrome, as Amanda put it. But if May is involved, and he is it would seem, then I will have faith.

And either way I will go see it. Seriously. A Freddie Mercury Bio-pic? I am so there. Good or bad. But I’m gonna hope for good.

So Les mailed me and asked about Waits. He wants to get into Waits’ stuff but isn’t sure where to start. And I realized that I could just post my long, rambly answer instead of mailing him.

The problem is that Tom Waits works across so many genres, and has so much catalog open that where to start is different for pretty much everyone. It’s an interesting game finding the right song for the right person. Once you’ve hooked someone on a certain corner of Waits, it becomes easy for them to see the edges they normally wouldn’t respond to in a much fuller light.

The first Waits song I ever heard was Earth Died Screaming off of Bone Machine

I wasn’t a fan of it. I listened to a bunch of jazz, country, metal, rock, classical, opera and rap at that point but something about the song didn’t work for me. I went to a friend and started waving my hands around about it. “And then there was this sound, and he was atonal but it merged and wrapped and…” but I didn’t know who sang it or anything. And my friend laughed and said “Oh. Tom Waits. Try this.” and he handed me a cassette of Small Change. It started with Waits’ cover of “Somewhere” from West Side Story:

And I was madly in love. But then I heard the title song:

And Jesus, I was his forever. Sometimes that’s all it takes. The right song, the right album and you’re gone. Gone for good and happy about it. Small Change is the album that made me a fan. I’ve since fallen in love with Bone Machine as well as everything else in his catalog.

But in general I find that people either enter on the ballads, or the up-tempo - not that the ballads are never up-tempo or the up-tempo is all one sound or that the ballads are - but still. And then they populate from there. So let’s see. An example or three from each, perhaps.

Ballads

Up-Tempo

Of course for every song I list there are 14 I miss, easily. And I want to post them all. But I won’t. So yeah there is no real good Waits primer. It’s try a bunch of different things and then settle into an album from there. Then expand slowly and enjoy. It’s like cooking.

Someone posted the opening to the Waits show in Ohio. I can’t hear it, no sound on this machine this second, so I don’t know how it sounds, but enjoy.

Also got a full setlist for Saturday night:

• Lucinda
• Way Down in the Hole
• Falling Down
• All the World is Green
• Chocolate Jesus
• Cemetery Polka
• Sins of My Father
• 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six
• Trampled Rose
• Cold Cold Ground
• November
• Black Market Baby
• Hoist That Rag
• Lucky Day
• Innocent When You Dream
• Lost in the Harbour
• Lie to Me
• Misery is the River of the World
• Big in Japan
• Dirt in the Ground
• Make it Rain
• Jesus Gonna Be Here
• Eyeball Kid
• House Where Nobody Lives
• Time

So there we were: Hammerpants and Jenni and I. We were in Ohio for a Tom Waits show. Vrax showed up to hang out for a while, and that was awesome, and then Pete showed up Sat. afternoon to hang out as well. Extra awesome.

We ended up at O’Riley’s in the afternoon, for some preshow drinks and food. Fell in love with the place. Great staff, good music, good food: the key though is that it feels like a bar where they want you to hang out. Not because they want you to drink more but because they enjoy your company.

So around 7 we head off to the theatre and say good-bye to the local flavor. Now I had a ticket for B who was flying in and so on. I didn’t know what was going on, on his end, at that point. He missed his flight due to a series of argh and because his phone was also fucking up couldn’t get in touch with me.

And that’s the punch line but here’s the story:

We head to the theatre and I’m calling B and starting to worry. Around 7:55 Hammerpants and Jenni go in. I hear that Waits won’t start until at least 8:30, from house staff, so I hang out and keep waiting to hear from B. I call and I pace and I come up with time tables for myself. When will I go in, when will I give up, etc.

See there were no paper tickets pre-show. You go up, give them ID and the card you bought tickets with and they print them and usher you in right then. Once they even print the tickets there is no going out and coming back in. There is no Will Call window. there is no way to go get someone once you enter. So you have to wait outside and work out the math.

It was getting close to 8:20 before B got through. I was sad as hell to hear he couldn’t make it after all, and happy as hell to be able to get in and see the show. So I ran in. I had two seats on the floor. Row N. They start at A, huh? So Not Far Back. Really awesome seats.

Hammerpants had seats on the balcony. Not bad seats but not as good. When B bailed, Jenni came down to take that seat. Then we realized after a few songs that the seat right in front of my was open and txt’d Hammerpants to come take it. Which he did. Yes, sir. So we all got to sit in the awesome seats.

I don’t have a full set list on me. But he played, that I can recall this second: Lucinda, Down in the Hole, Chocolate Jesus, Falling Down, Make it Rain, Lie to Me, 16 Shells from a 30.06, Innocent When You Dream, Hoist That Rag, November, Misery is the River of the World, Black Market Baby, Eyeball Kid, The House Where Nobody Lives, Big in Japan, and he ended with Time. But there were more. No opener and he played for a bit more than 3 hours.

I don’t know the words to describe the show. It was religion, it really was. A few hundred people singing along with Innocent When you Dream - gently and at Waits’ direction - is hard to beat. He puts on the type of show that everyone wishes they could put on. And no one else really does.

Yeah, I don’t really have the right words to describe that show.

Religion, I tell you. Down home, old school, “the universe makes a little more sense when you walk out that door” style religion.

After the show the lights came up. And directly to the right, leaning against the wall with a grin was Dustin Grovemiller. He’s the Goddamn Batman. Anyway, we got to hang (far less than I would have liked but that’s life) for a bit at O’Riley’s, since he knew and loved the place, too.

Then we came back to the hotel, looked at the fact it was almost 3 and sighed. Because we get back on the road at 10am. And it’s a long drive back to NY.

A - Wrist is better. Not up to speed, but better. Will be taking brace with me for…

B - Tonight … we dine … in OHIO!

C - ‘Cause Tom Waits concert is tomorrow night.

D - Which means people, parties, the rock star life and…

E - Well, if ‘Rock Star Life’ is sitting in a car for ten hours, getting to a hotel and drinking.

F - Which, let’s be fair, it is.

G - Back Sunday, mind the store, clean up on aisle 10.

H - Bern, you need to get in touch with me.

I - Happy Birthday Robyn, my Sith Lord of Movies.

J - …and I’m gone.

An oldie but goodie, a video of Seaseme Street muppets doing Fuck tha Police. You heard me, bitches.

John Belden comes through with a fantastic thing he shared. A Star Wars danceoff. Disney did Star Wars weekends and this was part of it. Hysterical shit. Watch a wookie and Jawa get down! See the Queen and her daughter strut. And then… watch Vader… well you have to just watch Vader.

Not the best or funniest thing ever but hey, it’s Sunday afternoon. This is worth a bit of time on a Sunday.

Fairly NSFW lyrics, but reasonably funny. Also offensive to a bunch of different folks. But fun.

YES, WE SHALL: the Cobra ‘08 campaign video. This… well… Cobra Commander has my vote now.