FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Show Discussion => Topic started by: Bertram on April 08, 2009, 04:57:51 PM
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Bill Robert Thornton (the musician and sometimes actor) takes offense for not being treated like Tom Petty.
listen:
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/qpodcast_20090408_14110.mp3
watch:
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2009/04/vanity_project_or_renaissance.html
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I was JUST ABOUT to post this.
The audio is bad, but the video is physically painful.
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I heard this this morning, too... It was pretty hilarious - it was all a joke, right?
I mean, he drums and sings, but he didn't bring anything to percuss and they played an instrumental song?
Jokes, right?
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GAH!! I listen to Q every single day at work. Today I call in sick, sleep in and miss this. Dammit.
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I think my favorite part is that he thinks it's below him to bring his drums to a studio early in the morning. So he makes his band do an instrumental version of his song while he just sits there. Class act.
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Random observations:
Lots of creepy dead-eyed stares by Mr. Thornton in that video. Unnerving.
But he was kinda funny when he went off on that monster magazine/Forrest J. Ackerman riff.
If I was the DJ, I would have tried to get him to keep talking about monster magazines and other irrelevant topics. Once an interview subject goes rogue on you, you might as well just help push him off the cliff.
Perhaps Billy-Bob genuinely hates Canada. He seemed pretty invested in giving the whole nation a "fuck you" towards the end of that video.
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I think my favorite part is that he thinks it's below him to bring his drums to a studio early in the morning. So he makes his band do an instrumental version of his song while he just sits there. Class act.
I think Charlie Watts might be the only other drummer that could successfully exert his will this way.
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"I grew up a music historian, so, yeah......cosmic cowboy music..."
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"I grew up a music historian, so, yeah......cosmic cowboy music..."
YES! Those are the two best back-to-back sentences in the history of the English language.
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I think my favorite part is that he thinks it's below him to bring his drums to a studio early in the morning. So he makes his band do an instrumental version of his song while he just sits there. Class act.
I think Charlie Watts might be the only other drummer that could successfully exert his will this way.
At least he'd be freshly shaved and in a nice suit. A class act!
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The host of this thing was a paragon of patience, trying desperately to not drop the Truth Bomb on BBT that HIS BAND WOULD BE NOWHERE NEAR ANY RADIO STATION IF THE DUDE FROM SLING BLADE WASNT THE DRUMMER. But yeah, I agree with Dave B - he should've just kept the questioning along the lines of Famous Monsters and Forrest Ackerman.
Tom.
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Interesting comparison are some interviews with Rick Moranis when his album came out, where he clearly instructed that there would be no discussion about his acting career at all. Which made for some of the most boring interviews ever.
I think the host of Q must have been pretty excited getting Billy Bob talking about monster trucks rather than talking about how great Kris Kristofferson is. I just feel so sorry for the band when they get up to do the instrumental, possibly conflicted with wanting to join in with Billy Bob's disdain for the show yet simultaneously realising the host has done nothing wrong.
Canadian audiences do stink though.
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Billy Bob was doing a bad Sling Blade impression from what I could tell. Jian Ghomeshi is the host of Q, he deserves high marks for putting up with that pretentious bulls***. I honestly thought BBT was under the influence, perhaps cocaine or blue. He may have called in to Q after he fell asleep in the van, on the way to the next city.
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If I was the DJ, I would have tried to get him to keep talking about monster magazines and other irrelevant topics. Once an interview subject goes rogue on you, you might as well just help push him off the cliff.
My God, that would have been just sublime. Let him hang himself with that bullshit, see how many people show up for the gig that he failed to promote. Of course, the whole thing is likely to be a publicity seeking stunt. Act like a tool, get linked a billion times on the internet, everyone hears about your band by default. It's just as believable that he's just a huge FWD, so I'm on the fence here.
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Canadian audiences do stink though.
YOU STINK
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Canadian audiences do stink though.
YOU STINK
Hockey rink fight! Hockey rink fight!
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Canadian audiences do stink though.
YOU STINK
I think there may be some truth to this, Jeremy, especially Ontario. We're not the most demonstrative people in the world.
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[/quote]
I think there may be some truth to this, Jeremy, especially Ontario. We're not the most demonstrative people in the world.
[/quote]
Don't be a self loather.
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That was hard to watch. Well, watch and not yell thing while I was doing it.
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BBT reminded me of Captain Beefheart in trying to be intimidating- just way less engaging, and even less rational. I can imagine him as a band leader being a FWD to his players like Don Van only without an artistic mission.
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I bet Willie Nelson (the headliner) was proud as punch that Billy Bob promoted the hell out of their concert to a potential Canadian audience. If Willie was about 50 years younger he might've whupped Billy Bob's arse the moment he stepped on to the tour bus.
I don't believe it was a stunt. BBT aint no Andy Kaufman. He was high as a kite and it's quite evident in the video. Either that or they just woke him up 10 minutes before the introduction. I'm inclined to believe it was both.
If the radio host would've asked Tom Petty about his music career if he was trying to break into acting, I think Tom Petty would've been more than happy to discuss it. I don't think it would've been off limits either.
That's gotta be a host's worst nightmare. I mean Letterman pulled it off but it's gotta be right up there with trying to do stand-up in a room full of jerk hecklers.
Man, that interview was only 18 minutes with a performance but can you imagine if you were stuck with this dude for a whole show?
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CANADA WINS !!!!
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1609026/20090410/story.jhtml
Apr 10 2009 1:25 PM EDT
Billy Bob Thornton Booed Onstage, Cancels Canada Tour
Attempt to explain bizarre radio interview leads to jeers from audience.
By Eric Ditzian
Billy Bob Thornton's trip north of the border took another turn for the worse Thursday night, and then ended abruptly on Friday (April 10).
First he battled with a Canadian radio host who introduced Thornton — much to his dismay — as a movie star while he was promoting his music career. Then, at a concert Thursday night, where Thornton's band the Boxmasters opened for Willie Nelson, he attempted to explain the bizarre interview but ended up fighting with the audience too. The next day, Nelson's official Web site said the Boxmasters had dropped off the tour.
"It seems as if when I say something it's in the news," Thornton told the crowd at Massey Hall, according to the Toronto Star. The audience immediately began booing, to which Thornton replied, "Boo all you want, but I want to say something — we're really happy to be here, but I need to say something. I talked to this a--hole yesterday."
Thornton went on to explain that the radio show's producers had promised not to make any references to his acting career. CBC Radio's Jian Ghomeshi began the interview by introducing Thornton as an "Oscar-winning screenwriter, actor and director." Thornton then became alternately belligerent and nonsensical, drawing comparisons with Joaquin Phoenix's epic unraveling on "Late Show with David Letterman" in February. Over the nearly 15-minute interview, Thornton claimed not to understand the simplest of questions and professed to never having met Willie Nelson.
"I don't really like sensationalism," he told the crowd at Massey Hall. "If you look someone in the eyes and promise them something, and you don't do it, you don't get the interview. That's the way it goes."
Thornton's explanation did not satisfy the audience, and they began jeering, "Here comes the gravy," a reference to Thornton's description of Canadian audiences during the CBC interview as "mashed potatoes with no gravy."
Earlier in the evening, Thornton was asked by a reporter to explain the mashed potatoes comment. "I was talking about the guy who was interviewing me," he said.
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He's pissed that his acting career was brought up, but instead of brushing it off he campaigns over the following days to justify why it wasn't okay to bring his acting career up? He's talking about what bothered him ten times more than the DJ who brought it up. Did anyone else have a hard time gauging the bands reactions during the interview?
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I never thought that highly of Billy Bob Thornton to begin with. But my opinion of him went down a notch. What a toolbag.
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Canadian audiences do stink though.
YOU STINK
I think there may be some truth to this, Jeremy, especially Ontario. We're not the most demonstrative people in the world.
New Brunswick audiences are pretty raucous.
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Thornton's explanation did not satisfy the audience, and they began jeering, "Here comes the gravy," a reference to Thornton's description of Canadian audiences during the CBC interview as "mashed potatoes with no gravy."
That's kind of fantastic, but also...surprisingly organized?
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Did anyone else have a hard time gauging the bands reactions during the interview?
It was very hard to gauge from the audio alone, but on watching the video I thought it was pretty clear they were mortified (staring at the floor, not looking at either Billy Bob or the host, talking very quietly and seeming flustered in their answers). It was like having company over when your alcoholic dad is on a bender.
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BBT was pissed at the interviewer for allegedly focusing on him and his film career instead of the band and the music, but check this out. The Smoking Gun obtained his rider which states that:
"Billy Bob Thorton shall receive 100% sole headline billing on any and all publicity releases and paid advertisements, including, but not limited to programs, fliers, signs, lobby boards, and marquees. Correct spelling of Artist's name is as follows: Billy Bob Thorton And Special Guests The Boxmasters."
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0410092billybob1.html (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0410092billybob1.html)
So I guess you can mention BBT in any and all media except for this poor fool early in the morning on a Canadian radio show.
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The man was Bad Santa, people. Lifetime pass.
"Are you saying there's something wrong with my gear?"
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Bad Santa can suck it.
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The man was Bad Santa, people. Lifetime pass.
"Are you saying there's something wrong with my gear?"
Do people like this movie? I love it, but when I bring it up everyone kinda shrugs.
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I love it.
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I like "Bad Santa". BBT has undoubtedly done some good work, AS AN ACTOR.
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BAD SANTA sucks. I remember sitting in the theater waiting - begging! - to LAUGH JUST ONCE. And a major part of why I think it sucks is because of Billy Bob Thornton. He is as charmless as an actor can be. The best thing he ever did was THE MAN WHO WASNT THERE and that one scene in INTOLERABLE CRUELTY.
Get ready for a topic relating to this on Tuesday.
Tom.
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You shouldn't a-do that, Tom. He's just a boy MMM HMM.
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BAD SANTA sucks. I remember sitting in the theater waiting - begging! - to LAUGH JUST ONCE. And a major part of why I think it sucks is because of Billy Bob Thornton. He is as charmless as an actor can be. The best thing he ever did was THE MAN WHO WASNT THERE and that one scene in INTOLERABLE CRUELTY.
Get ready for a topic relating to this on Tuesday.
Tom.
Loved The Man Who Wasn't There. Also loved Bad Santa.
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Oh, and SLING BLADE was as fraudulent a movie as I've ever seen. TOOL ACADEMY was more emotionally genuine.
Tom.
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I like them French fried pertaters.
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The Man Who Wasn't There is terrific, an insanely underrated movie. But no love for A Simple Plan?
Incidentally, here's the picture for BBT's Wikipedia page:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/BillyBobThornton.jpg/450px-)
He totally uploaded this one himself.
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BAD SANTA is good, but reading that Bill Murray dropped out of it do LOST IN TRANSLATION puts in sharp focus what might have been.
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Tom beat me to it, and then everyone else beat me to it, but The Man Who Wasn't There is one of the best movies. And the entire movie, like, is just a showcase for Billy Bob Thornton's voice.
What is weirder is that you can listen to the commentary track on that DVD, and he has as many smart things to say as either one of the Coen brothers. Even the monster magazine story is funny. For someone that good to be that awful, it makes me suspicious. I wonder how his life works.
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The Man Who Wasn't There was totally a Coen brothers movie and nothing more I thought. I didn't really like it to tell you the truth. Especially Thorton's roll. How hard is it to just stare off into space, be emotionally distant and give a "low-key performance"? Don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan of pulp true crime, film noir, and I'll shell out hard earned dough for a Coen film anytime. The Man Who Wasn't There is a case of style over substance at best and it's way too long. This is coming from a fan of Ben-Hur mind you.
I thought he did a great job in A Simple Plan and Chrystal. Everything else he's ever been in stunk to high heaven.
I saw him and his band play in Salina, Kansas last year in a bar with about 65 give or take a few people. They weren't burnin the place down by no means.
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Is there a Nogravy, Canada?
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He is pretty charmless. But I think Bad Santa is GREAT in spite of him, not because of him.
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ok, i'm gonna have to retract my previous statement about this incident being hilarious, because it has become evident that this was NOT a fake-out. it has now gone from being amusing to simply amazing!
as an actor, BBT is okay I guess. I liked Slingblade, Pushing Tin & Bad Santa (I thought he was great in this one). I am more of a fan of the absolute insanity that this guy dishes out. Hollyweird needs a perpetually baked Hillbilly who is afraid of Victorian furniture and had a padded sex room built for him & his ex wife.
is he a dick? No doubt! Is he more interesting to watch than 90% of A-list actors? Hell yeah.
He probably just had a lot on his mind that day, anyway.
(http://www.kickthebobo.com/bbtdemons.jpg)
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I'm a bit biased against Bad Santa. My brother thought Bad Santa might cheer everyone up the week my mother died. Didn't work.
I haven't seen it since, but apparently my dad watched it again later and thought it was funny.
As usual, I'm pretty much with Tom about movies.
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I'm a bit biased against Bad Santa. My brother thought Bad Santa might cheer everyone up the week my mother died. Didn't work.
Again, I liked the movie ... but yes, that's definitely the wrong movie for the wrong occasion.
He is pretty charmless. But I think Bad Santa is GREAT in spite of him, not because of him.
Um ... wasn't charmlessness the entire point of his character in that movie? That's like complaining that Danny McBride was charmless in "The Foot Fist Way".
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He is pretty charmless. But I think Bad Santa is GREAT in spite of him, not because of him.
Um ... wasn't charmlessness the entire point of his character in that movie? That's like complaining that Danny McBride was charmless in "The Foot Fist Way".
Ehh, sorta. You can have a charmless character portrayed by a very charming actor - Danny McBride is the perfect example. I just don't think Billy Bob really nailed it. I still loved the movie, but his performance wasn't the reason.
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Take your sympathy and shove it!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9F_XHb81N0[/youtube]
Recognize the "drummer"? Ugggg
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Bad Santa is a great movie. The kid in that thing deserved an oscar, and that scene where BBT's character gets all pissed off at him for calling himself stupid gets me every time. I find that movie to be quite touching, actually. I never knew Bill Murray was considered for it. That would have been amazing. Maybe.
BBT acted like a total douche in this interview, and I think you gotta hand it to that Jian guy for the way he handled it. I will say, if BBT's behavior was justified it would have been hilarious.
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Take your sympathy and shove it!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9F_XHb81N0[/youtube]
Recognize the "drummer"? Ugggg
My friends and I probably bring this song up once a week. I am glad others can now enjoy how amazing it is.
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Take your sympathy and shove it!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9F_XHb81N0[/youtube]
Recognize the "drummer"? Ugggg
No. cuz they don't show him for more than a tenth of a second at any time. Suppose I'll go google it now.
Edited for update: Oh, it's my man Jian. This band is probably better than anything BBT's ever done musically.
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Bad Santa is one of those movies that I think I liked when I watched it but have absolutely no interest in watching again. So maybe I don't like it as much as I think.
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I'm a bit biased against Bad Santa. My brother thought Bad Santa might cheer everyone up the week my mother died. Didn't work.
I haven't seen it since, but apparently my dad watched it again later and thought it was funny.
As usual, I'm pretty much with Tom about movies.
I have a terrible story along this vein that involves the death by misadventure of a friend's father and our choice of Reservoir Dogs as the movie the next time we got together with him. I still grimace with embarrassment when I think of that one. Not quite as bad as when I remember some bit of adolescent poetry, but pretty bad.
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Would you ask John Cougar Mellencamp that?
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I'm a bit biased against Bad Santa. My brother thought Bad Santa might cheer everyone up the week my mother died. Didn't work.
I haven't seen it since, but apparently my dad watched it again later and thought it was funny.
As usual, I'm pretty much with Tom about movies.
I have a terrible story along this vein that involves the death by misadventure of a friend's father and our choice of Reservoir Dogs as the movie the next time we got together with him. I still grimace with embarrassment when I think of that one. Not quite as bad as when I remember some bit of adolescent poetry, but pretty bad.
do you live in a town where they do mortified? if so, you should do a reading. I'm going to the one in LA tonight.
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do you live in a town where they do mortified? if so, you should do a reading. I'm going to the one in LA tonight.
I can git ovah to Biloxi once ever' two weeks. Does they do it there?
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(http://www.fruvous.com/96pics/960727s5.jpg)
It gets me all worried when the best show successor refers to Jian as "my man." Have you really listened to any of his other interviews?
There are winners and losers on Canadian radio and when you come up with segues like "And now, a performer who does for the accordion what Kurt Cobain did for the guitar," you go in the loser pile. Being more musically proficient or interesting or whatever than BB is not really the loftiest aspiration.
I guess Toronto Willie Nelson fans treated the Boxmasters to a pretty hostile reception at one of their shows, prompting them to drop off the tour. My pally told me they were chanting "Here's your gravy," or something like that.
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Yeah - Moxy Fruvous are terrible. However, there are worse crimes than being in a corny but successful band in your 20s.
I was skeptical of his show, too. But the truth is that it's good. He gets good guests, and he's a smart interviewer. This guy is not worth hating, Louis - let it go!
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Argh, I know you're right but I think I'm predisposed to loath the dude!
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ok, i'm gonna have to retract my previous statement about this incident being hilarious, because it has become evident that this was NOT a fake-out. it has now gone from being amusing to simply amazing!
as an actor, BBT is okay I guess. I liked Slingblade, Pushing Tin & Bad Santa (I thought he was great in this one). I am more of a fan of the absolute insanity that this guy dishes out. Hollyweird needs a perpetually baked Hillbilly who is afraid of Victorian furniture and had a padded sex room built for him & his ex wife.
is he a dick? No doubt! Is he more interesting to watch than 90% of A-list actors? Hell yeah.
He probably just had a lot on his mind that day, anyway.
(http://www.kickthebobo.com/bbtdemons.jpg)
I thought you were making up his phobia of Victorian furniture, so I googled it. He is also afraid of silverware. I don't know if he would be equally afraid of Josef Hoffman's modern silverware from the early 20th century or a set of Tiffany silverware from the same period. I guess he only eats finger food? Or eats with his hands?
The story also mentioned the fact that he thinks all lizards are evil, especially komodo dragons. I wonder if he believes lizard people walk among us.
The Firefox add-on I use, add-art, replaced an ad banner below the lizard fear story with this picture:
(http://i44.tinypic.com/33m8pde.jpg)
PS: I'm not googling for confirmation on the padded sex room story, so I'll just assume it's true and move on.
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Jeez CBC has nice studios!
I felt most sorry for the band members, I mean they're the ones with most to lose... BBT can just go back to his trailer and pop diet pills and mashed pertaters, but these musicians still work for a living.
The host should have just kicked him off the air after finding out why that douche nozzle was so angry.
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Inspired by the premise of "What if Billy Bob were a sympathetic character in this interview," I made my first one of those new-fashioned Youtube remixes:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEf88F_4rfM[/youtube]
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I think the whole issue stems from BBT not wanting interviewers to bring up Mr. Woodcock. Forget any possible "great" things he has done, Mr. Woodcock will kill any fan base in any discipline.
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He's gonna be on Kimmel tomorrow night. No way Jimmy doesn't bring this up, no way.
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I hope no Canadian terrorists show up.
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dude, I finally got around to trying to watch your video (was looking forward to it) and now it's gone.....
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Today, I replied with a BBTesque "I don't know what you're talking about" to one of my student's question as to whether I got a haircut, which I obviously had. Sometimes, those kids are all potatoes and no gravy.
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You mean "french fried pertaters, mm hmm."
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BBt seemed about one pain pill away from saying "You know Gram Parsons? I gave birth to him."
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Moxy Fruvous was my favorite band when I was 14, and in fact they probably indirectly had something to do with me eventually becoming a Best Show fan. If you ever saw them live you'd know they were a ton of fun - and yes, looking back on it, corny, but decidedly un-corny compared to the rest of what is normally available for 14-year-olds to listen to. JW has a habit of name-dropping a lot of obscure heroes of my adolescence (Dean Clean, etc.)
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I drove home listening to Jian interviewing the FOT fan fav Canadians.
(http://www.cbc.ca/q/uncut.html)
Double ugh!
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I drove home listening to Jian interviewing the FOT fan fav Canadians.
(http://www.cbc.ca/q/uncut.html)
Double ugh!
That may have been the greatest interview I've ever heard.
Thank you.
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It took me a month and a half to get around to watching the Billy Bob interview. It was equally hilarious and infuriating. I mean, what a tool. His band mates look horribly embarrassed. It's not an easy life being a Boxmaster, it seems.
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So is this "HURR DURR KLASSIK RAWK" type music?
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I think the host of Q must have been pretty excited getting Billy Bob talking about monster trucks rather than talking about how great Kris Kristofferson is.
Happy 81st birthday, Kris Kristofferson! One of the best concert reports I've heard this year.
"Sorry, folks, I gotta go!"