Slow Daze and Hop Toads

Latest Geritopia DVD reviews:

"Margaret Cho Assassin" " Gee, how could she be sayin' that on da' TV?" I kept askin' myself as I guzzled beer and scratched my hairy ass. And all her opponents are Bible-thumping trailer trash who send her racist hate mail with the salutation "Jesus Saves", uh-huh. And it's political humor with a message, and she's the underdog, see? OK, I think I get it. It's interesting to watch Cho's performance with her death-grip vitriolic humor and then see the balance of DVD extras -- interviews which are swathed in self-serious piety about her "art". She proclaims that being a woman and a minority gives her "charte blanche to say anything" . . . which is a nice thing when it works. However, what's implied on the whole is that if you don't like her style of humor then you are a racist, persecuting, ignorant stooge of the GOP. -A sort of fail-safe mechanism to secure her hipness, which to me has less to do with creative integrity and more to do with insurance of future bookings, as controversy sells.

So I can't say that I didn't like this DVD, 'cause then I'll be adding to the perceived group of Cho detractors that she uses as fodder for her howling fans. No, this is great stuff. I am not agitated by her "prop". I am not! Cho is golden.

"Concert for Bangladesh" I watched this twice, the second time with headphones. I only wish Margaret Cho had been on stage with Ravi Shankar singing about Barbara Bush's "down there" "mothball" taste. I just can't get MC out of my mind, she's such an edgy assassin. Kid's dig that edgy stuff. Anyway, it wasn't a bad scene there with George Harrison, Ringo, Billy Preston, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Klaus, Mr. Clapton, Heddy LaMar and Evel Knevil who jumps over the audience on his rocket-propelled unicycle. You have to be sickly into the Beatles like me to enjoy this DVD, perhaps. It's hard to be objective. Harrison's voice seems to be operating better than any Beatle-era stuff. Mr. Dylan is very, very good here too. There were many times when I thought Bob's shoulder harness harmonica gizmo was going to crash into the microphone but it did NOT even once! So it's worth watching just to see how adroit he is at avoiding that near-catastrophe. The Concert for Bangladesh took place at the top of the Seventies before the big slide into the cultural abyss. So it's a good snapshot of the collective last gasp of these 60s mavericks. Also, for a 16mm print transfer, it looks amazingly good.