Do you remember, remember D. Boon?
Part of what he was is a part of me now
And if you think back, where would he be
Where would I be if time had allowed?

from Uncle Tupelo's D.Boon from album Still Feel Gone



I swear I just walked into the Record Collector to see if they were selling Dave Alvin tickets since they had the poster for the upcoming Mill show in the window. Alas, they were not but on the counter was the dvd pictured. I watched most of it last Saturday morning before hitting the road. It is a true tragedy of a band hitting its peak and losing an integral member to sheer chance. I remember first listening to them on an SST compilation tape that I picked up because it had the Husker Du covers 8 Miles High and Love is All Around so it was after D.Boon died that I heard them. Solid documentary with a whole extra disc of songs and live footage.

Coincidently the Gram Parsons documentary Fallen Angel was waiting for us via Netflix when we returned. Another tragedy but one that evokes much less sympathy. Gram was amazingly talented as well but seemed more inclined to throw it away. Born rich, beautiful, and gifted he proceeded to take several steps backward for every step forward. I love his songs but ended up leaving this film not feeling that sorry for him and feeling more for his family especially after the whole post-mortem farce that must be heard to be believed. Again by chance, I happened to be reading the liner notes to the Dwight Yoakam box set from Rhino Records and ran across this quote from Chris Hillman, exasperated frien and band member, who had to twice fire Gram for various reasons chief of which was that he would rather just hang out with Keith Richards

“Of all the people out there, I…look at (Dwight) Yoakam as being the Gram Parsons that worked – the operating model.”

Following the same string of chance, Dwight is playing a free show at casino in Des Moines which is where I am headed this afternoon.


On a dramatic note we watched Woody Allen’s Match Point that is not as much written as assembled. I am curious as to why it received many rave reviews. It only stands up well compared to some of his later films. It seems to be a hodge-podge of an overt Crime and Punishment rehash (main character is reading Doestovesky at the start of film) with a bit of Thedore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy (filmed with Montgomery Clift/Liz Taylor as A Place in the Sun) thrown in, and capped off with a subplot from Woody’s own Crimes and Misdemeanors. The cast was decent but even Scarlett Johanseen seemd a little off but perhaps it was just some of the dialogue. Not a bad film just a bit overhyped I guess.

We fared better with the film version of Everything is Illuminated. It captures the essence of the Safran-Foer novel with just a few major gaps. I recommend checking out the deleted scenes features. It’s worth watching but I keep excepting Elijah Wood to revert to his Sin City character and start bouncing around and eating people. But that’s just me.