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Well,
now you've done it. You've made The Passenger so popular that I don't
even have time to write the column any more, as busy as I am travelling
the Web. Fortunately, the future looms. The Technical Ministry of
Department Lemur is designing a HAL-style
Passenger program that should be able to pen the column, answer hate
mail and take the blame for my numerous boo-boos. Currently, the prototype
is a six-foot abomination with a bunny
head, but I'm sure the boys will make everything OK as long
as I make good on my promise to deliver the remaining members of Bananarama
for experimentation. Hey, better them than me, right? I'll just scribble
out this quickie pop culture report while they measure my brain.
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THE
NEXT BIG THING
Well, why not? Why not embrace Jesus
Jones as your pop savior all over again? Never mind that
you likely haven't heard a peep out of Mike Edwards and crew since
1991's "Right
Here Right Now". It's time to come back, and the band is
making it easy for you to do just that. Edward's scratchy tenor
and gift for penning catchy pop hooks has not dimmed one bit in
the intervening years, the band - an outfit that can claim a member
of the fabulous Waco Brothers, bassist Alan Doughty, among its ranks
- continues to translate Edwards' sometimes-convoluted vision into
great songs and the new record, "Already",
is rich with potential hits. You need to have at least two copies:
one for home use, one for automotive. Try the wistful "Top Of The
World," the half-man/half-machine "Motion" and the idealistic "For
A Moment" on for size. The website has all the materials you'll
need to restart. You'll smile, you'll nod, you'll succumb.
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WILDER
BARCELONA
Antoni Gaudí was in touch with parts of his mind most of us don't
even have the resources to contemplate. The famed 19th-century Spanish
architect - in the Passenger's humble estimation, one of few talents
one can unequivocally call a visionary genius - is honored at Gaudí
Central, a well-done tribute site. Read about his life,
his analyses of the times he lived in, and above all, marvel at
his breathtaking body of work. From the playful Casa
Batlló to his unrealized designs for a New
York City hotel, Gaudí's vision is as unique as a thumbprint,
and swirls twice as much.
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GREAT
WALL
The art's all around you, my friend, and you didn't even know
it. Art Crimes: The Writing
On The Wall is more than a repository for street art (the
page authors seem loath to call it "graffiti") and a gallery of
artists (called "writers" for want of a better term). It is a story-in-progress,
an uncompromising look into a genre most dismiss as self-serving
or immoral. Art Crimes is full of startling and beautiful images
from all over (links
to notable sites are also provided), all of which serve several
overlapping ends: they delight the eye, provoke the heart and stir
the mind. Punk icon Jello Biafra once said that a nation faced with
"tabloid journalism" had little choice but to turn to the artists
to find out what was really going in. The only criminal aspect of
this venerable craft is its adoption by street gangs; aside from
that, it remains the raw, honest form of documentation that informed
us well before television was even conceived.
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WASP'S
NEST
Boy, what the Passenger wouldn't do to be on the narrow, winding
streets of a small Caribbean town on a brand-new Vespa
PX motor scooter. And Vespa's official
site does little to sate my desire: between reading the
touching "I-want"
essay by Umberto Eco and thrilling to the real-life saga of Giorgio
Bettinelli, who's riding the '98 model around
the world, I'm more than ready to pitch this Web thing,
buy a mess of madras shirts and move to Europe. To sate my desires,
the site thoughtfully provides swell digital
postcards and other goodies, but I don't know how long I
can hold out. I will have a Vespa, mark my words. I'll grow my beard
out, live in bars and go to bullfights. Sigh.
CRIPES! Did you hear that explosion? Sounds like the guys have
punched a hole in the world. I'd better get on the Bananarama trail,
or there will be no hope for humanity. Talk to you next week ...
maybe.
The Passenger first appeared on Vegas.com and ran from March 1998 until February 2000.
Back to list of Passenger columns
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