waking's so ugly
sleep is so pure


Niocolai Karadjov, Sleeping Beauty, 2007

* No Chemistry, No Trust, Possibly No Chance:

"Commenting on a new joint interview with John McCain and Sarah Palin, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd described the Republican ticket as lacking cohesion, chemistry, and (he hinted) trust.

"'There was a tenseness,' Todd told MSNBC's Chris Matthews. 'I couldn't see chemistry between John McCain and Sarah Palin. I felt as if we grabbed two people and said 'here, sit next to each other, we are going to conduct an interview.' They are not comfortable with each other yet.'

"Todd, who was remarking on the interview conducted by NBC's Brian Williams (he was in the room), speculated that the candidates had come to the realization that 'they are losing' the campaign, and guessed that McCain may have begun to hold his vice presidential choice responsible for his dwindling White House chances.

"'When you see the two of them together, the chemistry is just not there. You do wonder, is John McCain starting to blame her for things? Blaming himself? Is she blaming him?' asked the highly regarded NBC newsman. 'And maybe they don't feel they can win right now, so they are missing that intensity. That was the thing that struck me more than anything. You almost wonder why they wanted the two of them sitting next to each other.'

"The interview, Williams said, would air over the course of three days. And some actual news - beyond the body language - was drawn from the proceedings: Palin, apparently to her own staff's surprise, promised to release her medical records.

"'Both of these candidates are on the verge of pulling a Bullworth,' said Todd, referencing the late '90s political classic about a pol who stopped spinning. 'We are at a critical juncture inside this campaign for the McCain folks and that is who is trusting who? You have got people worrying about their reputations. Now you are wondering do the candidates trust the staff? Does the staff trust the candidates? This is a dangerous time in a campaign that is behind. They desperately need some good news because you do wonder if cohesion is disappearing on the inside.'"

* In NYC?

-- Tomorrow evening at Union Pool (484 Union Ave. Brooklyn) The Caribbean perform at the Hometapes CMJ showcase. 8pm

-- Next weekend (October 24 and 25) will see the debut of 13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, a project jointly commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust for the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts 2008. Dean and Britta have composed music (and arranged some covers too) for a selection (13) of Warhol's four-minute, silent film portraits, the Screen Tests, which will take the form of a multimedia performance featuring large scale video projection of the Screen Tests above the musicians performing live on stage.

Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, which number approximately 500, are revealing portraits of hundreds of different individuals, shot between 1964 and 1966. The subjects—both famous and anonymous— were visitors to his studio, the Factory. They were asked to pose, lit with a strong keylight, and filmed by Warhol with his stationary 16mm Bolex camera on silent, black and white, 100-foot rolls of film. Each screen test lasted only as long as the roll of film. The resulting 2¾ minute films were projected in slow motion so that each lasted four minutes.

* "In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol and it was the worst 20 minutes of my life." -- George Best