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This week's cover is an homage to the Warren Beatty film "Bonnie & Clyde". This is only our second film homage.

AUSTIN, REPUBLIC OF TEJAS - I gottah admit, I didn't take to Shirley McClain's brother right away. Strange, cause I used to adore her back in her Rat Pack days, when she hung with Frank, Dino and their crew, before she turned whoo-ee-ooh New Agey on our asses. But Warren Beatty? Well, I didn't cotton much to him at first because he was too much a pretty boy in that George Hamilton, too gay kind of way. I think y'all know what I'm sayin', Fellow Sanitation Engineers. I think I saw "Shampoo" a couplah times and I still don't remember a thang about it.

Before I get into all the reasons I think Warren Beatty is a creative genius and an asset to American movies, I gottah tell y'all the one thang - and I'll admit that maybe this is only me - that has always creeped me out about the guy. Because he's got them dark eyes where you can't really even see the pupils on film, I've always felt like he was never focusing on anythang. Y'all know what I'm sayin'? Like the kindah boss who talks at you but never really makes eye contact one of those folks that seem to be looking at your shoulder rather than yo' face when they speak to you? I think Charles Grodin has that same danged quality, come to think of it! It creeps me out. .. MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 14 September, 2003: The past is always more glorious, safer, more heroic, more manageable than the confusing and unruly present. This is so because we have had the time to rationalize the events and concerns of the past. When we think back on the incidents of our lives, they become part of a revisionist narrative meant to explain their result: the person we are today, the author of a personal history. When relating our pasts to others, as in done by politicians and moguls in "authorized" memoirs and autobiographies (as opposed to "unauthorized" biographies), we have the benefit of rationalizing everything done or said as being part of the larger result. We never reveal what we actually thought or felt at the time because it would only mar the narrative and reveal that we were as confused and uncertain in that distant present as we are in this one.

No matter where we are in the timeline of existence, the future is always either filled with hopes or threats.

I think the foregoing is why I have devoted most of this diaristic journal to what I think and feel right now. It cheats me of the chance for rationalizations later on. Every week, exactly what was on my mind and what I feel is there for everyone and myself to see. I can't come back ten years hence and claim, "I did this because of that..." So this effort is also an exercise in my atavistic attempt to uncover "The Truth".

One of my favorite movie lines of all time is mouthed by Jeff Goldblum in the Lawrence Kasdan film "The Big Chill":

"You can go for weeks without sex, but you can't go a single day without a rationalization."

So I am not saying that this diary is completely without rationalizations. There are many, but fewer than would be superimposed over the story of myself given the benefit of recounting it years after-the-facts... MORE





by BOB POWERS

MARIETTA, OH, USA - I've been writing "Powerssound" for esteemed publisher Rod Amis for several enlightening years. Haven't gotten rich yet, but hope springs eternal. The best part of this job, besides being published in such an illustrious and well-edited magazine, is that I get to aim directly at my aging ears some of the best sounds from past and present in the fields of jazz, pop and classic material comprising the Great American Songbook. As I've mentioned before, our home in Marietta, Ohio is beginning to near capacity with at least several thousand CDs acquired over the past half-decade, along with the thousands of books that have accumulated from my other duties as a reviewer for the local daily newspaper.

What a life? More money would be nice, but it would be tough to exchange my bounty of recordings and books for that green stuff that they like down at my local banking establishment.

I certainly wouldn't consider an offer for perhaps the best CD of 2003, at least the most pleasing sounds that have entered my ears. Surprisingly, given my devotion to jazz, the album in question is called "The Spark" and featured the magnificent Chris Daniels and The Kings, along with "friends." "The Spark" comes to discerning listeners through the auspices of Moon Voyage Records (ain't that a nifty moniker?)....MORE






by RADIO RAHEEM

OAKLAND, CA, USA - I knew before I married my wife Tanya that after we jumped the broom it would only be a matter of time before we needed to move out of my place in the flatlands of east Oakland. The flats were okay when we were dating, but we wouldn't fit in for long, being more settled down, in her thirties and hoping for a family one day. Not that there ain't families in my old 'hood but its a tough place to bring up a child or children -- and the school ain't that great.

Tanya never said anything, mind you. This was all my thinkin'. It's better if you anticipate changes, I've always said. That way you can make plans. I've never been the kind of man to wait for his ole lady to have to complain about a problem before already have worked out a solution.

Oaktown has changed a lot over the last few years, I feel, and (mostly) for the better. Jerry Brown has done all right by us, even if he does go hare-brained now and again. A lot of folks who used to live over in The City have discovered the affordability and convenience of the sunny side of the Bay since the dot-com thang happened, too. They've added a little cosmopolitan and bohemian spice to our already diverse and open city. There's been a bit of gentrification, too. But gentrification doesn't always have to be bad. Some of our neighborhoods needed to be built up. On balance, if you understand what I'm sayin', Oakland is a better place.

So I never planned on us leaving Oakland. I'm from here and I like the place and I figure the ghost of Huey P. Newton is still watchin' over us. ... MORE





by YOU

THE WORLD - From Darryl C., Jenkinstown, PA, USA:

Subject: Your Troubles

I'm sorry to read of your troubles with the law. ÝI think you are extremely hardheaded, Rod, and it is costing you a great deal. ÝDo you recall that I urged you to take the job in Boston just so that you could earn some ducats and you refused. I urged you to get out of Baltimore and you gave one excuse after another for staying there until I had to literally take you away. I also begged you to get out of New Orleans long before this legal shit came down. Do you realize that you live in a town where the cops can make you disappear and nobody except your momma will give a shit? I'm sorry that you¼re going through this nonsense but a hard head makes a soft behind. ÝBest of luck, Rod. -- Darryl C.


ROD RESPONDS: Part of my public life ("People who live in glass houses...") is being open to public criticism. I welcome it in my own way. But a leopard can't change its spots. I'm hardwired the way I am and constantly remind myself that no one will share my coffin. ... MORE


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