Rutina Wesley Cast As Reba McClane

Check it out at TVLine.com here.

Full Body Shudder Playlist

Okay, we know Richard Armitage is in Toronto to do Hannibal and I normally do a playlist and if you haven’t read my sidewinder Obscura’s funkadelic playlist from today you should totally go do that because it’s far more danceable than this is going to be, guaranteed. I’m not looking forward to this one, I have to tell you, because I’m not really a fan of death metal at all and that’s about all I could think of while contemplating this installment of the playlist. I’m not squeamish…okay, yes I am, I’m a total wimp. I’m going to be watching it but through my fingers and while clutching my husband’s arm and I’ll be sleeping with the lights on for a while. Ready?

So last week Mr. Armitage Tweeted something that I cannot get to embed no matter what I do (you can find it here). It was this bit from Red Dragon:

‘You see me now, Yes

That’s how you feel to see me

Do you feel me now? Yes.’

Now, for me that caused a particular earworm to burrow into my head and not just me but also the fabulous FaboLaktuko and the equally fabulous Fanny Thornton. This one, from the rock opera Tommy.

Richard Armitage should totally do a rock opera, shouldn’t he? Of course he should. He has a thing about Keith Moon, right? Keith Moon covered in groupies, at least. You gotta love The Who, who did it louder and harder than anyone else. Well, until Paul McCartney decided he was going to be louder and harder than they were. The Who released “I Can See For Miles” in the summer of 1968 while The Beatles were recording The Beatles and bragged about how loud and dirty it was and it’s just a bad idea to do that within earshot of McCartney because he’s going to have to show you up. Like this.

You know what “Helter Skelter” means, right? What you may not know about Charles Manson is that he was a musician. There’s been a rumor for fifty years that he auditioned for The Monkees, debunked by snopes.com here. If you didn’t click the link and decided to just take my word for it up there, you missed this interesting nugget: one of Charles Manson’s songs was recorded by the Beach Boys as the B-side to “Blue Birds Over the Mountain.” Manson’s song was called “Cease to Exist” but he gave it to Dennis Wilson, who kept the lyrics but reworked the music into “Never Learn Not to Love,”  and failed to give Manson a songwriting credit.

The Beach Boys aren’t the only ones who’ve covered Manson over the years but I’ve sufficiently creeped myself out so I think I’m going to stop there. If you’re interested in an actual discussion of the music and soundscape of Hannibal, check out this and this by the brilliant Tim Storhoff. I’m gonna go listen to some Chuck Berry. You all have a great night.