The latest issue of The Los Angeles Times Magazine, lamenting the loss of the Melrose Avenue restaurant Morton’s (“the place to schmooze and make deals,” as well as the home of the annual post-Oscars bash hosted by Vanity Fair, closed its doors in December), takes a look back at Hollywood hot spots that matter… Citywide change may now be afoot with the announcement that a tentative deal between striking writers and Hollywood studios has been reached… Far away in Little Rock, Arkansas, the 75-year-old actor Roy Scheider (Jaws, The French Connection) passed away after a battle with cancer. And in Rhinebeck, NY, John Alvin, the designer of memorable posters for films like Blade Runner, E.T. and Star Wars, died of a heart attack at 59.

Somewhere, Babe Ruth is weeping. In 2009, Yankee Stadium — the House that Ruth Built — will close its doors. As AP reported this week: “The new Yankee Stadium will have party suites, a members-only restaurant, a martini bar and a price tag to match all the luxury — $1.3 billion, up from the original estimate of $1 billion.” … Ah, the sounds of summer: “Martinis, get your martinis here!”

Meanwhile, the construction of a new ballpark for the Minnesota Twins (to replace the cavernous Metrodome) is underway. As ESPN’s Jim Caple put it: “The new stadium … was supposed to halt the slide of talent to richer teams, but apparently, that’s not the case.” The loss of stars Torii Hunter and Johan Santana (“the best pitcher in Twins history”) has Twins fans wondering if a new luxury stadium outweighs the rewards of a competitive team. (RIP Lakers, North Stars.)

And the New York Mets are bidding farewell to Shea Stadium this season. Like the Yankees, the Mets will have a new home in 2009. It was announced today that the final performer in Shea will be Billy Joel. Why not? It’s a New Stadium State of Mind.

Personal feelings about the whole Obey phenomenon / commodity empire aside, we are pleased to see Shepard using his cultural capital to prop up Obama. Happy voting.

Time for a glance up at the buildings that surround us: 60 Minutes glides into Dubai, “a physical manifestation of Arab oil wealth set in concrete, glass and steel…”; Esquire slips into North Korea to reveal “The Worst Building in the History of Mankind“; Metropolis looks at “Caffeinated Architecture“; and Slate‘s architecture critic asks hard questions about avant-garde architecture. For example, does Rem Koolhaas‘ building in Beijing deserve the nickname “the twisted donut”?

Following their Weekend Arts piece about the seeds of Lincoln Center, the Times posted an interesting supplemental video titled “Jazz In New York” (view it here), which explores the history — particularly the vibrant music culture — of the Lincoln Square neighborhood, before it was paved over by franchise pharmacies and skyscrapers. Locals revisit the grounds and recall a young Thelonious Monk wandering the neighborhood “in a daze,” while also reminding viewers that there was a time when neighborhood kids could dig out their own worms from beneath city trees, then eat the fish caught from the docks. (This is pre-Cloverfield New York.) Also making an appearance is Phil Schaap, curator of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and a contributor to the upcoming Jazz Issue of STOP SMILING, due out in March.

This single was recorded for Parrot Records in 1969. Parrot Records was a division of London Records, not to be confused with the first Parrot, which was connected to Chess Records and released great blues records by Albert King, and many more. Frijid Pink was a Detroit band whose first self-titled LP (on Parrot in 1970) contained this song, as well as a fuzzy version of House of the Rising Sun, which probably brought them more attention than anything else and made them a staple of the late Sixties / early Seventies Detroit rock scene. Check the vocal / guitar back-and-forth at the end of the song. Their drummer, Richard Stevers, was a monster. I wish more rock bands still mixed their drums this loud.

— Audio – Frijid Pink – Cryin’ Shame

— Post by Eli Russell

With the secular holiday that is Super Bowl Sunday just around the corner, it’s time to take a quick inventory of some surreal media off-shoots being reported in anticipation of the Big Day: the Boston Globe devotes actual news space to a kind of mood-ring piece headlined “What does your Patriots jersey say about you?“; the New York Post covers Ice T and his wife attending a Pre-Super Bowl Tupperware Party; some of the ads that corporations have paid millions of dollars to air during the broadcast can already be viewed at the Chicago Tribune; the New York Observer critiques the upcoming three-hour program on Fox News, hosted by Shepard Smith (“possibly the highest-paid on-air talent in cable news history”), that will seamlessly blend coverage of the Super Tuesday primaries and the Super Bowl. … Was Hunter S. Thompson correct when he wrote that “wartime Super Bowls are always dismal and lame”?