david denby's review of gibson's passion in the new yorker disturbed me. i should clarify: i was disturbed both by the writing (he takes the film way too seriously), and by the movie he's reviewing.

if you trust or respect denby, i guess don't see the movie. it sounds downright awful. certainly, if you have children, see it alone first, before bringing them along. (can't imagine why children need to see a movie about a crucifixion, but okay, people are entitled to their desires.)

what i want to say about it is this: in the end, it's just a stupid fucking movie folks! sure, denby's livelihood depends on them, and therefore, he treats them (as do all critics) like they're the most important things in our lives. but a film's ability to sway opinion, to affect our collective consciousness, as denby and many other critics fear, is limited. take, for example, cecil b. demille's the ten commandments. who really believes half the depictions of biblical events happened as they do in the film? show me one person. if you think the red sea parted like that (one of my favorite scenes btw), you've been living in a serious cave. do a little reading, attend a bible class, visit the sinai. maybe it was an unusual low tide, maybe it never happened at all, but one thing's for sure, the movie, while being a wonderful film, ain't accurate. and everyone agrees that it isn't. yet, the film is shown on tv year after year after year. so how much has it changed our views on the events depicted? not one bit.

likewise, in nixon oliver stone battles with historical accuracy by suggesting that it was kissinger who leaked the information that led to nixon's downfall. does anyone know for sure? or, more importantly, is anyone going to take stone's word for it? fuck no. it makes for good movie making. to approach something resembling the truth, i'd suggest checking out a documentary on watergate. of course, even there, a lot depends on the filmmaker's angle.

last time i checked, gibson's movie wasn't being touted as a documentary on the last 12 hours of jesus christ's life. it's fiction. and as fiction, he can tell the story any way he chooses. and while i don't agree with the way he's done it (this, based on the 5 or 6 reviews i've read, for i'm sure as shit not going to waste $10 sitting through it) i can't really take it seriously. and i really don't imagine most people will. except the media, of course, and david denby, whose livelihoods depend on it.

just remember this: no one ever erected a statue for a critic.

i've been thinking about the Lad Lit article in yesterday's ny times. and while it might feel natural to roll your eyes over yet another manufactured pigeon hole, it seems useless to fight the massive marketing machines that fabricate our zeitgeist. so i guess i've developed a healthy, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude and, as a result, have to embrace "lad lit," especially seeing as my books will most likely fall under the umbrella. and it's broad enough to encompass many different types of novelists.

when i think of lad lit's forerunner, "chick-lit," i think of so many different styles, authors, aesthetics, philosophies of life, and methods of story telling. the only thing they all seem to have in common is that they were written by women, largely for women, and their protagonists are roughly between the ages of 25 and 40. of those that i've read, melissa bank's girl's guide to hunting and fishing is, in my opinion, the finest example of the genre--in terms of depth, character development, humor, an original voice, etc. but what's interesting to me is this: why isn't lorrie moore lumped in with the chick-lit chicks? for if she were, i'd have to name several of her stories as the finest example, the best written, the funniest, the darkest, the most honest.

is it because moore's work falls under the "literary fiction" umbrella as opposed to the more commercial "chick-lit"? is it because the book buying gals who consume jennifer weiner's good in bed, don't dig moore's sometimes highfalutin vocabulary? or is it because the publishing world's marketing machines don't think the girls who buy weiner would be interested in moore?

i don't have the answers. i just pose the questions because i'm fascinated by works that have successfully stood under multiple umbrella's simultaneously (oh you sluts!). books like girl's guide to hunting and fishing are perfect examples, which is maybe another reason why it gets my nod for best in show. i've seen it proudly displayed on the shelves of reclusive editors with ivy league degrees as well as coke-snorting party girls who barely managed to graduate community college. i've also seen it on at least one guy's shelf (not including mine).

when i set out to write my novel, behind everyman i wanted to fill a void. not because i thought it would bring me attention as a writer, but because i was tired of combing the bookstores for an engaging guy book. i had had enough of chick-lit and wanted to read something similar from the guy's perspective. i never thought, "there needs to be a chick-lit equivalent." but i did think the time was right for a funny book about love and relationships as told by someone other than nick hornby.

well, here we are six months later, and we've got articles in the ny times about a new genre called lad lit (thank god they didn't call it "dick-lit"). and though i haven't read any of the books mentioned, i intend to, and hope that a best seller emerges from underneath.

it began friday night with the rene risque show. (photos going up in the gallery later today). moby joined the band for a couple encores, the last of which was "whole lotta love," a song i hadn't seen live since i was 17 and went to the TLA in philadelphia to see the film,the song remains the same.

"whole lotta love" was the very first zeppelin song i believe i ever heard. i must have been about 9 or 10 at the time. it was so intoxicating that i went out and bought zeppelin II, maybe the first LP i ever purchased with my own money. at home, with the lights off in my bedroom, i'd sit with cheap radioshack headphones plugged into my little self contained turntable (the kind that only played when you closed the lid) and listen to the panning psychedelic effects, robert plant's high pitched, "I, I, I, I" and jimmy page's theremin.

well, moby and renee kicked the song out and got joes pub on it's feet. and it's not an easy song to pull off, live. so much of the brilliance of the original recording is in the production values. take it from someone who owned several dozen bootleg concert recordings of zeppelin, live performances, especially without a second guitar track under the solos, can often sound thin. but the acoustics in joes pub are rather phenomenal -- perhaps the best i've ever heard. and although no robert plant, there's power in renee's voice that push-push-pushed the song into a fucking frenzy. that made the hair on my arms stand up. and who knew that moby had such chops on the guitar?

the risque rendition of whole lotta love inspired me to go out saturday morning and rent the new-ish zeppelin dvd. why it took me so long is a mystery. especially when i had read quotes like this written by a reviewer some 6 months ago: "Quite simply, this is what all the fuss was about."

i didn't have time to view the entire collection (there's something like 5 hours of footage on the double dvd set), but what i did see floored me. sent me spinning back to 1981, when every inch of my walls and ceiling was covered in zeppelin posters. the 1973 madison square garden footage is priceless! the version of "trampled underfoot" is worth the rental fee alone. plus there are interviews with page and plant that i had never seen, and a few promo videos from their first album.

what you walk away with is this: zeppelin was perhaps the hardest rocking blues band of all time. it's really just the blues. "baby baby baby, i'm gonna leave you" blues with edge and power and funk that no band ever had, or has had since. there's also humor in there. like in "the ocean" -- one of the funkiest, kick-ass songs ever written. but then, toward the end, just when they've got your heart rate up, they relax into some do-wop-a-diddly-diddly that at first doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the song, but always manages to put a smile on your face, or at least on my face.

other than that, it was a great weekend weather-wise. the light was phenomenal. longer days. sun. incipient spring-like smell in the air. i went out and bought daphodils to celebrate.

the site got its official launch yesterday. links and photos, soundbites, it's all up now. for better or worse. feel free to give me feedback, criticize, make corrections, point out typos, or flatter (the latter is especially encouraged). mail to: david@davidisrael.net

my favorite part continues to be my grandfather singing the romanian shepherd song (see entry below)

still need to get instruction from dan on how to post photos to the gallery and insert text on the homepage (it's a lot for a little guy from cinnaminson to take in at one time). look for photos next week then.

going to rene risque show tonight at joe's pub . maybe i'll bring the camera along. maybe you'll get some of those photos next week as well. maybe i'll shut up now.

have a relaxing weekend. it was supposed to be 51, now they're saying 49. fuckers.

the site is nearly complete now. the music page has been added. most impressive link toward the bottom where my late grandfather can be heard crooning out a rumanian shepherd song he used to sing as a small boy back in the old country.

check back tomorrow cause we've got more tricks up our sleeves.

so the site is almost up. if more than 3 people read this entry (not including my parents, of course, and my web designer, dan), i'll be happy. lots of details to be worked out, but here i am journaling again, at least. kept one privately for 17 years. filled trunkloads of books. hurt my back once moving them all down to the basement.

it's friday the 13th.

13s are usually cool for me, though. lots of wonderful things have come my way on the 13th, so i'm hopeful that this public journaling will be another one.

book news: went out last night with danielle durkin, my editor at random house, and emilie stewart, my agent. it was our WAY belated celebratory dinner for the signing of my novel, BEHIND EVERYMAN (BE). we went to L'Orange Bleue down in soho. amazing seared tuna...great time. danielle ordered champagne for all of us, and then surprised me by having the wait staff treat me like it was my birthday, which it wasn't (bitch, i'll get you back!). it's actually a great place for a birthday. they turn the lights off, and this funky moroccan music comes blasting over the sound system. then they bring out dessert with a wild sparkler/flame throwing device that scorches your eyebrows off. fun for the whole family, honestly.

danielle was very patient, explaining the whole publishing process to this novice. what happens next, when i get part two of my advance, when the manuscript goes to production, when the galley proofs are made, and when the marketing arm gets involved. pretty fascinating shit. but probably dull for the reader...so...

there are photos from last night. i'll post them once the gallery page of this site is up and running. you'll be able to see things like danielle's tattoos, and me blowing into a bottle. maybe i'll put that photo up now on the homepage. yeah. i think i will. hold on.

okay, i'm back. so where was i? right, we were in L'Orange Bleue...

i handed out complex schematics outlining the bulk of the new book i'm working on--mostly to get feedback on plot lines from them. by that time the restaurant was packed though, so i wound up screaming the plots out over the din. and now i have a sore throat. lovely. totally worth it though, cause i'm pretty sure where things are headed. more discussion of the new book in this journal next week.

what else? emilie is working hard to sell BE as a film. though today we got our first rejection from a hollywood film agent who liked it, but didn't want to take it on. said we'd do better approaching screenwriters first. still, we've got the manuscript out with a few other agents and at least three producers...so we're still hopeful.

going to go publish this little entry and see how it scans. wild, this stuff.

happy v day for those who get into it...