Introducing my new tipsheet meant to rival the exposure of "Playbook" - reprinted clippings of Penthouse Forum articles from 1978-83

Amidst all the standard Spring flings, I've been diggin' a few new things.  Most of all, The Tallest Man on Earth.  Don't be afraid, he's actually quite normal-sized.  He (Kristian Mattson) is Swedish, though, which can be unsettling for some.  He gets lots of music geek buzz and all sorts of comparison reviews that say he sounds like Bob Dylan.  Yeah sure, that's in the sound.  But there's something else masterful, infectious and just downright surprising in his music.  I don't think I've played a new album more often in the first week after buying it than his latest ("Wild Hunt").  Sarah and Maya agree.  This guy's something special.  My rating for this album - a solid A.  Check it out.

I need to also weigh in on the NYTimes Sunday Magazine profile of Mike Allen's "Playbook" obsessive political news/media insider shtick that runs daily on the Politico.  I was an early adopter, especially since I'd been reading Mikey's work for years at the WashPost and the NYTimes.  "Playbook" is just a newer iteration of the sort of tipsheet compendiums so many others have been doing for years (The Hotline, ABC's The Note, lots of others without the buzz - I just noticed that Seattle's Publicola does a good, short "Morning Fizz").  Does "Playbook" have influence because so many people are reading it?  Probably.  Is this worth thousands upon thousands of words in a magazine piece that goes absolutely nowhere?  Nope.  Insiders love this crap.  I'm no insider.  This article isn't worthy of fish wrap, to be totally unfair.  But, admittedly, I still skim through the "Playbook" most mornings.  I'm so meta.

More interesting for me in that same issue of the NYTimes was the profile of the band, The National.  I just love what a writerly example of highly skilled and nuanced musicians they represent - editing and remixing and riffing up until the last minute before release on their new album ("High Violet").  I really look forward to that release next week.  Mmm, dork dork dork.  I'm sure I'll review it here, so feel free to check back.  Why the hell not - won't cost you a thing.

On the home front, Maya really got a kick out of planting a serious stack of vegetable seed packets this weekend.  I have absolutely no confidence in my abilities in that realm, so this one will be up to ol' Momma Nature.  And since we hope to be eating all that stuff, I pray to Jeebus that the compost I collected in our bin and then spread is fit for raising such crops.  If only we were raising a crop of lawn moss.  We'd be rich, beeyatch!

Hope your own playbook has a few tricks worth trying out today.  Rock on.

Covering sleeping homeless people since 1851. Poorly, I might add.

Sunday for those of us churchless liberals is usually about one thing. Unless there's brunch. The lump of deadtree that is the Sunday NYTimes. I know, I know - I need to finally move over to the entirely electronic form of this weekly dive into the finest paper in all the land. So today, my two faves come from other online sources.

The Politico pulls some pretty petty reporting of Hillary's campaign being horrible at paying their bills. But I can't wait for the direct-mail pushback from said lackies as they run to that unseemly copy center way out in the burbs that still writes up advance work orders. Synopsis - Hillary is broke.

New York Magazine has a super-snarky throwaway piece that offers some dish on how John and Elizabeth Edwards feel about the lobbying for their endorsements. Synopsis - Hillary's been very professional, Obama's been a bit of a dick.

As a bonus, here's one half-hearted shout out to the NYTimes for a Sunday Styles piece on the inherent connectivity between Brooklyn and the East Bay. I don't buy the synopsis for a second (they are inextricably connected by some sort of culture warp) since almost as much time is spent talking crap about things miles away from the East Bay. Kinda like saying Staten Island and Milwaukee are one in the same and spending half your time ordering at The Brat Stop in Kenosha. Yet one of my personal faves - the Mollusk Surf Shop in the Outer Sunset of San Francisco - gets a big blurb. I love the Mollusk (best t-shirts in California). So, weirdly...whoo-hoo.

Hope your don't lose an unread section in an unfortunate French Toast spill today. Rock on.