Jim/Jesus

Yesterday was a mixed bag for alternative rock fans: The Times reported both that Jim Carroll had joined this week’s list of people who died (serenity now!) and that the second coming of the band Jesus Lizard has come to pass, as foretold by prophecy, or at least by my friend Jake Harrison, who liked them way back when New Kids on the Block were still a relatively new phenomenon (he kind of liked NKOTB, too, actually — I think it’s a Boston thing).

Of course, amusing as “People Who Died” is, Carroll will probably be remembered for sounding hip (and looking hip as played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in The Basketball Diaries due to being so completely screwed up, as if that’s an accomplishment. The late twentieth century, alas, was a time when one could almost say without irony “Insanity is the new black,” what with all the Prozac people and the plagiarism people, you know what I mean. Someone probably did say that. Some rich Valium-user.

On a vaguely “People Who Died”-like musical note, here’s Weird Al doing a Dylan parody that may be the best use of palindromes I’ve seen.