Kaleidoscope

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Published: Nov 23, 2009

Raw and simple, at least compared to later Nirvana albums, 1989's Bleach was the closest Kurt Cobain came to his dream of a Black Sabbath-Beatles hybrid. Not to be a negative creep, but Sub Pop's recent reissue — reremastered and repackaged with a complete 1990 show as bonus tracks — isn't a mind-blower. Still, if you're like me and only have Bleach on cassette, this is a necessary upgrade.

Unlike other holidays, Thanksgiving movies tend to get the shaft. But John Hughes' Planes, Trains and Automobiles should be the Turkey Day version of It's a Wonderful Life. Steve Martin just needs "four fucking wheels and a seat" to get home to his family for Thanksgiving — but gets the fabulously unrefined John Candy, playing a shower-ring salesman, instead. Check out the new "Those Aren't Pillows" edition, for no other reason than that's the best part of the movie.

Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins' recently updated Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital (Akashic, Dec. 1) paints the '80s-'90s D.C. punk scene more like a twisting family tree than a wild coming-of-age romp. But it's still fun to read the final where-are-they-now chapter like the end of Animal House. What's crazy ol' Canty up to? Did Toomey ever graduate?

Made of papier-mâché-like polyurethane plastic, Jedediah Morfit's There Goes That Idea, on display this month at Pentimenti Gallery (pentimenti.com), depicts a flying monkey and a group of clenched-jawed humans fighting over the rights to a disproportionately tiny cow. Seems less like a sculpture and more like a tee design, which makes sense given Morfit's background in printmaking. But what the hell does it mean? "What has emerged is ... images from an uncomfortably bleak, and surprisingly religious, worldview," Morfit says in his artist statement. "These are dark stories wrapped in jokes, crude violence and absurdities."

Anything Goes
Anne Carson
The :nv:s:ble Play
Tom Judd: Evidence of a Collected Past
Marcel Wanders: DAYDREAMS
New Wave
Sweetness and Light
Upcycle: Sk8lamps