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That Nash thrives in the NBA by virtue of his guile and quickness among players a lot bigger than he is, and the fact, as a point guard, he fulfills the basic principle of making his teammates better, is reason enough for me to be pulling for him.

A SHORT WEAKEND PLANNER FOR A LONG WEEKEND

Hey, Cut Us Some Slack, Already—We Wanna Get Outta Dodge As Much As You Do
TRAKIN CARE OF BIZNESS
1. Steve Nash
: After dismantling both the hometown Lakers and Clippers in two consecutive series, the league’s reigning two-time MVP is persona non grata with my family, the kind of player you hate when he’s on the opposing team and love when he’s on yours. White and Canadian to boot, with floppy hair and a kind of Energizer bunny perpetual motion that makes him seem in several places on the court at once, Nash has emerged as the star of this year’s playoffs, a guy, who in the lieu of any big, bad opposition (although the specter of Shaq now looms large), could be the one to spring an upset in this year’s seemingly wide-open race for the crown. And it would be doubly fun to see him pull the plug on the Mavericks of Mark Cuban, who let him get out of town a couple of years ago as a free agent, the reasons of which he revealed in his online blog here. That Nash thrives in the NBA by virtue of his guile and quickness among players a lot bigger than he is, and the fact, as a point guard, he fulfills the basic principle of making his teammates better, is reason enough for me to be pulling for him. Hey, anyone who can make Knicks bust Tim Thomas look like Amare Stoudemire is a true hoops alchemist. Just call him the anti-Marbury. —Roy Trakin

2. The New Cars and Blondie @Gibson Amphitheatre: Don’t know why this show should have a stigma attached to it, other than the fact the former are performing without Ric Ocasek and the latter have been hounded by the appearance of ex-members trying to horn in on their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. The idea is decent enough—put together a pair of ’80s new wave icons into one hit-based package for the summer shed season and hope there are enough thirty- and fortysomethings willing to relive their youth to make it worthwhile. That said, the New Cars—with Todd Rundgren, Tubes drummer Prairie Prince and bassist Kasim Sulton joining original members Elliot Easton on guitar and keyboardist Greg Hawkes—are a better live band than its predecessor ever was, with Easton and Hawkes providing the patented, precision art-pop hooks that produced a string of radio hits like “Just What I Needed” and “Let the Good Times Roll.” With Rundgren adding in his own material like “I Saw the Light,” “Black Maria,” “Bang the Drum All Day” and even the Nazz’s “Open Your Eyes,” it was more than a little like Ringo Starr and his All-Star Band, but I still don’t see anything wrong with that. If rock & roll is about constantly being able to redefine and repackage yourself, you can’t hold it against any of these guys for wanting to share their legacy, Ocasek or not. As for Hall of Famers Blondie, their career has been marred by several instances of shooting themselves in the foot, but this purported last go-around is a chance for Deborah Harry to solidify her standing as one of rock & roll’s great female frontpersons, even as she finds herself an opening act while Madonna, who followed her blueprint, headlined the Forum across town. Of course, like the Cars, Blondie was never the most dynamic live performing act, but Debbie, awkwardly clad in a lime-green track suit that looked left over from the Elvis Vegas collection, was more effusive and emotive than she’s been in years, and while that’s not saying much, there’s always the wildly athletic Clem Burke, channeling Keith Moon, to provide the onstage focus. The hits were all there, from “Call Me” and a wildly received “Rapture” to “One Way or Another,” as well as covers of Roxy Music’s “More Than This” and the Ramones’ “Havana Affair” (for the late Joey’s birthday) to remind you of the group’s high pop IQ. That there was a slight whiff of bittersweet sadness to the festivities was more the fault of rock’s insatiable thirst for the next big thing, and the fact it never forgets...even when it’s sometimes painful to remember. —RT

3. Secret Machines, Ten Silver Drops (Reprise): Is it just my drug-addled mind, or should this trio of Oklahoma-by-way-of-Brooklyn psychedelic rockers fronted by brothers Brandon and Ben Curtis be packing the arenas their music seems to aim for? Don’t answer that. With an edgy feel for brooding melodies that could be dubbed prog-emo, the band’s sophomore album chooses to remain relatively earthbound in its choice of topics—mostly doomed romance in the self-explanatory “Alone, Jealous and Stoned,” the look-back-in-sorrow “All at Once (It’s Not Important)” and the heightened state of “Lightning Blue Eyes,” which takes the band’s Pink Floyd acid-rock and fuses it with ’80s influences like the Cure’s foreboding and the shiny techno of the Cars. There’s also the requisite drug-fueled paranoia of the Dark Side of the Moon-ish “Daddy’s in the Doldrums” and the dealing scenario of “I Hate Pretending.” Throw in an accordion solo by the Band’s Garth Hudson on “I Want To Know If It’s Still Possible” and you have a classic-modern hybrid of dance-trance pop-rock that stays tethered to terra firma, thanks in no small part to drummer Josh Garza’s tribal stomp anchoring the Curtis’ space-age dreamscapes. —RT

4. Allen Ginsberg, Kaddish (Water): A reissue of the original Jerry Wexler-inspired Atlantic Records 1965 release documenting the famed poet’s historic Nov. 24, 1964, performance of his epic work at Brandeis University, an extended eulogy and tribute to his beloved mother Naomi, who died in 1956. The hour-long piece incorporates elements of the Jewish Mourner’s Prayer while documenting his family life growing up in Paterson, NJ, against the backdrop of World War II, coming to terms with his homosexuality. Legendarily inspired by hearing Ray Charles, Ginsberg wrote it in 1958 over 40 straight hours in the Lower East Side apartment at 170 E. Second St. he shared with fellow writer Peter Orlovsky, fueled by Dexedrine and a “tiny hit of LSD 25,” as revealed in HITS contributor Harvey Kubernik’s comprehensive liner notes. Dubbed “a 20th century American ecstatic narrative poem,” Kaddish, published by San Francisco’s famed City Lights in 1960, was the follow-up to his groundbreaking 1956 piece, “Howl,” an attempt to create a singular voice carved out of a common language, with the subjectivity of a very particular life experience. The recording illustrates how language can carry the cadences of music, and the earthy, conversational performance, belying its lofty goals, was a precursor of Dionysian rock poets from Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan to Patti Smith. By digging beneath the conformity of ’50s America to unearth the yearning self that would consume us through the ’60s to the present, still thirsting for elusive transcendence and meaning, this fascinating artifact is every bit as enthralling and rapturous as the day it was created. —RT

5. N.Y. Times Mets Forum: This New York Times discussion board located in their online Readers’ Opinion section is a gathering place for disgruntled, disgusted, despairing, distraught, dyspeptic Mets fans, who love to kvetch even in the rare occasions when their team is ensconced in first place, as they are as of this writing. I enjoy logging on during the course of a game to catch the diehards reacting to every twist and turn with anguish, joy (plenty of exclamation points and cap letters) and just plain wonderment at our Amazin’s. It’s a veritable MySpace of Mets rooters, with monikers like tlagee, ethrich, pamiam, lisametsfan, reyogold, skatz12, rbloomclu and dimaliv, all arguing their points with the passion and belief that can only come from followers of a team that has always managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It’s a lot more fun when they’re losing, and you get to read the sniping and calls to fire manager Willie Randolph and trade off half the team, but these days, the incredulous euphoria of fans suddenly awakening to the fact they might actually have a contender to follow is no small pleasure for this long-suffering Metsaholic. —RT

6. Kulak’s Woodshed (5230 1/2 Laurel Canyon Blvd.): Tucked away on a nondescript corner north of Magnolia Blvd. in what is now known as Valley Village, this storefront is run by Paul Kulak as a free performance space, which he’s equipped with six cameras to beam out digital webcasts of the shows that take place there. Inside, it looks like someone’s den right out of the ‘60s, festooned with old blues album covers, DVDs and fortune cookie-like aphorisms like “Everyone has a story to tell...but not every story is worth hearing” while patrons lounge with their pets on sofas, folding chairs and a large twin bed right in the middle of the room. The night we were there, veteran session man Freebo played a two-hour set, interspersing songs by answering instant messages from all over the country flashed on an overhanging monitor, joined by a shifting group of musicians, including longtime local session guitarist Shane Fontayne, who has played with Marc Cohn, Bruce Springsteen, Shania Twain and Maria McKee, among others. With no admission charged, an actual bucket is passed around for suggested contributions, and the whole thing seems a hippie anachronism in these increasingly materialist, profit-driven times. Musicians making music just for the love of it... Imagine that. —RT

7. T-Pain, “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper)” (Jive): The title of this Tallahassee (the T in T-Pain) native’s recently gold-certified debut, Rappa Ternt Sanga, says it all. A 21-year-old veteran who got his start as a teen in the regional rap group Nappy Headz, T-Pain certainly utilizes hip-hop iconography in his image and sound, but his solo debut finds him more a traditional R&B crooner with a ladies’ man touch that recalls the likes of Marvin Gaye. Following up his first breakout hit, “I’m Sprung,” an ode to his wife, with what’s certain to be a pole-dancing perennial, the youngun’ turns his romanticism to a most unlikely object of affection… or not, considering how many Urban hits are breaking out of strip clubs these days. It’s pure fantasy, delivered with a straight face and a tongue firmly in, unh, cheeks, just another smash that has seemingly come from nowhere, but is soon to be everywhere. Go figger. —RT

8. City Sleeps, Walker’s Ridge (Maverick): They don’t call music biz vet Jim Del Balzo “Rocky” for nothing. He knows what Rock radio likes, and they’re undoubtedly gonna like this Atlanta-based quintet, whose debut is slated for an August release, a lot. Led by vocalist Elliott Sharp and gun-slinging guitarist Adriel Garcia, the group is poised at the nexus of emo (“Ordinary High”), Police-style new wave world beat (“Just Another Day”), Queen prog-rock (the first single, “Prototype”) and even Metallica-like grunge (“Bones”), with a dash of classic British Invasion pop (“I Can’t Make You Love Me”) thrown in for historical measure, all given stylistic congruity by producer John Feldmann of Goldfinger, who performed similar duties for Story of the Year and The Used and got the band signed to Maverick. Think Loverboy meets Fall Out Boy, all big arena-rock gestures, angular guitars and muscular harmonies, with some cheeky lyrics to boot (“If looks could kill, you’d be a murderer” goes the refrain in “Andrea”). If Rock radio is to still be relevant, this band of Dixie dynamos should be right at home next to fellow southeasterners like Blue October, Big 10-4 and 10 Years. —RT

9. Blooming Ideas: Blog site of one-time High Times Editor and all-around music, sports and pot pundit Steve Bloom, a fellow Knicks/Mets fan and James Brown confidant whom I’ve known since our days together at the old Soho Weekly News, the Avis to the Village Voice’s Hertz back in the day. Bloom intersperses daily coverage of our beloved Metsies with idiosyncratic discussions on a variety of hot-buzz topics, including The Sopranos’ “Gay Problem,” his travails trying to get press tickets to cover a local Black Crowes concert, a New Riders of the Purple Sage live review and answering Yippie Dana Beal’s complaint about High Times’ supposed lack of support for this year’s Global Marijuana March in New York. —RT

10. Gripe of the Week: To paraphrase an old Woody Allen line, it’s not a dog-eat-dog world, it’s more like dog-doesn’t-respond-to-the-other-dog’s-IM. A record company publicist recently lamented to me, “I tried to pitch a writer on a band and I was told to email him instead.” For a business that once prided itself on people-to-people communication, it sure seems like I have less and less contact with actual people and more and more with voicemails, cellphones and BlackBerries. Actually, that should please me, being a writer, because expressing oneself in words has taken on increasing importance in the digital age—that and an ability to type quickly could save the world, if you believe 24. At any rate, I must admit to missing the old days when publicists actually used to call to tell you something they were passionate about—or that they were simply promoting—rather than just sending out mass emails into cyberspace like a message in a bottle, hoping one sticks. —RT

CALENDAR
Friday, May 26th
7:00am
Dixie Chicks: Good Morning America Concert Series @ Bryant Park.

5:30pm
Suns @ Mavs on TNT: The Mavericks look to even up the series against the amazingly resilient Phoenix Suns.

8:45pm
Rocket Summer @ The Knitting Factory

Saturday, May 27th
10:00am-6:00pm
Fiesta Hermosa @ Hermosa Beach: The oceanfront event brings thousands of revelers to Pier and Hermosa avenues for award-winning arts and crafts, international food vendors and live entertainment. This event goes through Monday.

11:00am-9:00pm
Pasadena Summer Fest @ The Rose Bowl: More than 100,000 people turn out to mark the unofficial start of summer at the Rose Bowl as the Pasadena Summer Fest erupts with music, art, food and games over Memorial Day Weekend, with several festivals in one. Going on all weekend long, through Monday.

5:00pm
Pistons @ Heat Game 3 on ESPN: The scene shifts to Miami.

Sunday, May 28th
5:30am-2:00pm
Bike the Drive @ Columbus and Balbo in Chicago: If $4-a-gallon gas doesn't get you to rethink your relationship with your bicycle, perhaps Bike the Drive will. OK, so you love your big, honking SUV, but Bike the Drive is also big -- one of the country's biggest bicycle rides, in fact -- in which you experience a carefree, car-free morning gliding up and down Lake Shore Drive with spectacular views of Chicago's lakefront and skyline as your companion. In addition to the one-of-a-kind ride, you'll snag an event T-shirt and a festival after the ride that offers music, pancake breakfast, activities for kids and families, sponsor booths, healthy-living information and screenings and much more.

11:00am-6:00pm
Topanga Days Country Fair @ Topanga Community House: If the beach isn’t for you, then spend your Memorial Day weekend in free-spirited Topanga Canyon, where a three-day festival of music, food, crafts and children's entertainment is held.

11:00am-12:00pm
Memorial Day Celebration @ Navy Pier in Chicago: So you're going to grill a few sorry hamburgers and call that celebrating Memorial Day and the official start of summer? Come out to Navy Pier and treat the kids to classic Pier Park attractions such as the famous 150-foot-high Ferris wheel as well as three new attractions: the Skytrail, a ropes course suspended 25 feet above ground; the Lighthouse, a ride that lifts you 15 feet into the air and gently back down again; and remote-controlled boat racing.

5:30pm
Mavs @ Suns Game 3 on TNT: The Mavericks will look to regain homecourt advantage by stealing one or two in the desert.

Monday, May 29th
9:00pm
Rocket Summer @ House of Blues in Anaheim.

JE-C’S NEW-MOVIE RUNDOWN
X-Men III: The Last Stand
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, James Marsden, Anna Paquin
Synopsis: In X-Men 3, a "cure" for the mutant X gene has been discovered, which threatens the very existence of mutants like Magneto and Professor X. The two leaders have opposing viewpoints on the situation: Magneto insists on a violent revolution to stop humans from exterminating their kind, while X prefers tolerance and working with the government on a compromise. But the balance is shifted by the shocking return of Dr. Jean Grey, who appeared to die in a great flood at the end of X2: X-Men United. Now she's more powerful than ever as Dark Phoenix, and if Wolverine can't persuade her not to join Magneto's crew, a war could be at hand.
Thoughts: Is this finally the blockbuster we have all been waiting for? Gee, I sure hope so. Although the reviews were terrible for The Da Vinci Code, I still enjoyed it, and I’m hoping the same for this one. Yeah, I know, it’s Brett Ratner, but I’m hoping he can deliver.
SPRINGTIME
FOR HITS LIST
Meet this week's ensemble cast. (3/18a)
NEAR TRUTHS: STREAMING AND STREAMLINING
Knight's new day (3/18a)
TOP 50: ARI BASKS
IN THE sunshine
The biggest bow of the year (3/15a)
THE COUNT: ROLLING LOUD KEEPS ITS EYES ON THE PRIZE
The latest from the live sector (3/14a)
DEEPER WELL MARKS KACEY MUSGRAVES’ “SATURN RETURN”
Gleason on Musgraves (3/18a)
THE NEW UMG
Gosh, we hope there are more press releases.
TIKTOK BANNED!
Unless the Senate manages to make this whole thing go away, that is.
THE NEW HUGE COUNTRY ACT
No, not that one.
TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN PLAYLIST
Now 100% unlicensed!
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