From Great to Awful in One Week

I was flipping through the channels two weekends ago and I came across a show on the IFC channel featuring Henry Rollins on stage spouting his deep loathing for the current occupant of the White House. But then he began a long, richly detailed story of his experience flying from Los Angeles to Frankfurt to Moscow, just to get on the Trans-Siberian Express train and ride it to Vladivostok, just for the experience. The resulting tale was as good as anything Theroux ever told, and yet, here was Rollins, who I was not really familiar with, telling this story alone on stage in front of a large theatre audience. And he pulled it off. Fascinating, funny, disconcerting, gross, sad, wise, and funny some more.

And when the show ended, IFC ran an ad for Rollin's upcoming weekly series, The Henry Rollins Show.

It aired this past Saturday night, and featured, in addition to some awful monologues from Rollins himself, an interview with Oliver Stone, and a performance by Sleater-Kinney. Sleater-Kinney were great. The rest of the show was beyond abysmal. It lacked all of the energy of the live performance I'd seen the week before. One big problem: Rollins is trying to do Charlie Rose, and it doesn't work. He needs a live audience. In the deadened studio, with too many camera angles, the whole thing is awkward and bad television. I could not believe how badly this show stunk. Whew. I doubt it'll last the whole season.

50 Greatest Indie Films

At least according to EMPIRE, the film magazine. Out of the 50 greatest indie films, I was chagrined to discover I've only seen 41. And I thought I was a film fanatic! Oh well. Must see the rest.