The New York Times looks at Randy Newman's "Louisina 1927" and its evolution via the folk song tradition. While the song's prominence after Hurriane Katrina was hardly surprising, it did strike me as slightly odd, or ironic, that a song about people being flooded to save New Orleans, or New Orleans' reputation, would be coopted to be about the destruction of New Orleans. But as this article shows, that's to be expected, given the towns tradition of reinventing songs. And certainly the callousness of authority to the destruction is the same.

In other Randy Newman news, apparently he can't outrun the damn paparazzi. LEAVE RANDY ALONE! Actually, though, this makes me wonder if I shouldn't leave a piano in my front yard, maybe it will attract Randy Newman.

Today is Pi Day. Maybe I'm just a bitter old crank, but I hate Pi Day. Not that I hate March 14th, that would be an odd thing. But I hate people who pretend that Pi Day is interesting. Wow, 3/14, that's the numbers in Pi, let's do stuff. Eat pie, that's crazy. Who cares? It seems like such an affectation, like people who purport to be very concerned with the latest news on Pluto no longer being a planet (if you have a documented interest in astronomy or are under 10, you get a pass on that one--and Randy Newman, your mention of this fact in your latest single does NOT get a pass, sorry). So go ahead and eat pie if you want. But guess what? If you have a few dollars in your pocket and some mode of transportation, you can eat pie whenever you damn well please! Keep Pi Day alive in your heart all year round! Just shut up about it, geez.

Steve Job's MacWorld keynote address was today. This is the speech where he rolls out new products; last year, it was the iPhone. Rumors had this year's speech announcing movie rentals on iTunes, an updated Apple TV, a new ultra-light laptop, and possibly an updated iPhone. So when I got up this morning and started reading the liveblogging of the event, I wasn't too surprised to read about movie rentals on iTunes, an updated Apple TV, a new ultra-light laptop, and an update to the iPhone's software. The video of the speech isn't up yet, so I haven't taken in every detail, but about the only surprise for me in those announcements was that every major studio is on board with the movie rental store, with new arrivals due one month after the DVD release (and presumably several months after the pirated digital release). Prices weren't too out of line, $2.99 for back catalog, $3.99 for new releases, and an extra dollar for HD releases. Cheaper than Xbox Live Marketplace, especially for HD content (I refuse to rent a movie for $6), but I'll probably stick with Netflix (even though I often go two or three weeks without watching a Netflix movie, which makes the monthly fee difficult to justify, until a month comes where I go nuts with movie watching). But the fact that all the major studios are involved suggests they may finally be serious about pursuing new digital distribution models (an iTunes subscription model for movies would be very interesting to see).

So anyways, the announcements were made, it looked like things were wrapping up, and I was a bit disappointed by the lack of surprises. Certainly nothing to compete with last year's iPhone announcement. That's when the announced the closing musical entertainment, Randy Newman. I was half-convinced Steve Jobs was just fucking with me: "Not surprised, huh? How's this for surprising?" Or was the speech simply tailored to every observer, and Randy Newman is whom Steve Jobs knew could sell me a $1500 laptop? In any case, I was glad to see him there. I was especially surprised that he sang his latest single, "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country," which hardly strikes one as an effective jingle. But I was very excited, and this assures that I will be downloading the video of the speech when Apple puts it up. And it was nice that non-Newman fans were exposed to a side of him besides his Pixar stuff. He did sing "You Got a Friend in Me," but prefaced it with his Toy Story shtick that he uses in concert. Certainly made an impression on Gizmodo's livebloggers:

Jason Chen:
Aaaand it’s over. Holy crap. Who knew Randy Newman, the guy who makes the songs your kids play over and over and over again, would sing such crazy crap about our government?
10:41 am ON Jan 15 2008

Jason Chen:
The first song’s over, but now Randy Newman’s just riffing about random stuff. The next song is from Toy Story. Randy says he wrote another song to go with the love scene between Buzz and Woody, but the scene was cut. This guy is blowing our minds right now.
10:39 am ON Jan 15 2008

Jason Chen:
“It pisses me off a little that the Supreme Court is going to outlive me.” What the crap is he singing about? We have no idea. We think he’s gone nuts.
10:36 am ON Jan 15 2008

Jason Chen:
Randy’s singing a song about America, the president, and comparing them to Hitler and Stalin. USA! USA! USA!!!!!
10:34 am ON Jan 15 2008

I would point out that our present leadership is compared favorably to Hitler and Stalin (faint praise, of course). Anyway, always nice for audiences to be exposed to the full scope of Newman's talent (though I think "The World Isn't Fair" might have spoken to more of the audience).

I'm downloading the new iPhone firmware as I write this (just managed to connect to the update server after many, many tries); perhaps I will write about the new features (and my general satisfaction with the phone) in the near future.

UPDATE: Video is up. Newman did a fine job. I mentioned his Toy Story routine; he didn't do that here, just made a one-off joke about Buzz and Woody's love scene.

Randy Newman: Sincerest Cynic.

Song for Randy Newman, to be sung by Randy Newman.

Randy Newman: Pop MacGuffin

Randy Newman Q&A in Newsweek.

Randy Newman's new song on YouTube:

Randy Newman is in the New York Times' Op-Ed section today, with an abridged version of the lyrics to "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country," published in response to Bush's State of the Union address. Nonesuch has the full lyrics online.

Just a few words in defense of our country Whose time at the top Could be coming to an end Now we don’t want their love And respect at this point is pretty much out of the question But in times like these We sure could use a friend

Start saving your pennies; the song will be on iTunes next week. I've heard it live a few times, and would definitely recommend downloading it. After hearing the final version at Disney Hall, I worried that the conclusion (the bit about the Supreme Court, excised from the NYT version) felt a bit forced, but reading it, it's grown on me. After all, how can you not laugh at a line like, "I defy you, anywhere in the world/To find me two Italians as tightass as the two Italians we got [on the court]?"

Oh, and Randy, congrats on the Oscar nod.

Randy Newman was on The Colbert Report last night, performing "Political Science" after his interview. To the best of my knowledge, this was Colbert's first musical guest to perform a song (he's had musicians on, but not to perform, though Neil Young tried to sing "Let's Impeach the President," but was quickly cut off by Colbert). Newman carried himself fairly well, I thought. I was hoping he would perform his new song, "A Few Words in Defense of My Nation," which he's been doing in concert, but maybe he feels it's not ready for a national audience yet. Besides, "Politcal Science" could practically be Colbert's theme song, the musical embodiment of the arrogance the show parodies four nights a week. And Not to give away the punchline, but at the end of their interview, when Newman explains the concept of the unreliable narrator in his songs, and that in "My Life is Good," he's merely pretending to be an obnoxious rich guy, Colbert, in a very meta moment, chastizes him, explaining, "Nobody wants to listen to somebody pretend to be an obnoxious rich person, and not mean what they say, sir." To which Newman, thinking back on his recent studio album sales, no doubt, responds, "I'll say!"