Up and coming folky Elvis Perkins swung by Great Scott’s last night in Allston as part of the Fenway Recording Sessions series. He’s been getting some great pub for his debut album Ash Wednesday from both Stereogum and Daytrotter (be sure to download the live cuts) and with a recommendation from a buddy I decided it would be worth it to check him out. Opening act Patrick Watson, from Montreal and playing their first ever gig stateside, delivered the goods as well with cuts from their latest Closer to Paradise.

I profess to being a total ignoramus regarding both acts before last night but if anything is clear it wasn’t just me that was won over by the completely different bands last night.

But before we get into the nuts and bolts of the sets from Patrick Watson and Elvis Perkins it should be noted, if you’re scoring at home, that thanks to the adorable staff writer of the Boston Phoenix (whose name I didn’t ask) I’ve now been told I have a Canadian accent to go along with others telling me I have a southern accent and a midwestern accent. I’ve lived in Boston my entire life except for a few short stints in upstate NY, Indianapolis and Charleston, SC. At no point have I ever lived in Canada, eh? Regardless her needling of my last name and accent would have made my night, had it not been for the stellar live tunes.

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Gotta love this kind of heavy weight title fight! After taking home the Oscar for Best Documentary (honestly, was anyone else going to win it?) Sunday night, Al Gore’s own environmental record was called into question by a group named the Tennessee Center for Policy Research on Monday.

In a press release issued by the policy center they claimed Al Gore’s personal home used nearly 20 times the national average for both electricity and natural gas. It’s all very scandalous, with the AP picking up the story and then, of course the right-wingers led by Matt Drudge sensationalizing it. But Drudge, who lots of people read the headlines on his site, but necessarily the articles, failed to mention that Gore buys most of his electricity from clean, renewable resources and tries to maintain a carbon-neutral lifestyle.

Gore fights back courtesy of Think Progress today. Chalk this up to much ado about nothing, except that people will try to bring you down if you become too successful. See Sean Hannity. Don’t think for one moment that this is nothing more than an attempt to curb the “Is Al Gore running for President?” wave that is slowly cresting amongst the liberal community. Becuase if there’s nothing more dangerous than a man who already won the popular vote in 2000, it’s a man who has come out of his shell in the past six years and appears very humorous, very intelligent and very focussed. In other words… very presidential.

But the back and forth continues with The Economist chiming in on the debate. The article makes some fairly good points regarding this brouhaha.

When you donate money to build a new windfarm, you don’t take any of the old, polluting power offline; you increase the supply of power, reducing the price until others are encouraged to buy more carbon-emitting power. On the margin, it may make some difference, since demand for electricity is not perfectly elastic, but nowhere near the one-for-one equivalence that carbon offsets would seem to suggest. Especially since the worst offenders, big coal-fired plants, are not the ones that renewables will substitute for; solar and wind power are not good replacements for baseload power. Instead, renewables are likely to take relatively clean (and expensive) natural gas plants offline, since those are the ones that provide “extra” power to the system.

Furthermore, the article concludes that, “any attempt to abate global warming has to be massive. Huge numbers of people in the rich world have to fly less, drive less, consume less, and live in smaller houses. If Mr Gore really wants to encourage this (as I do), then he should try leading by example.”

I buy that, but by no means should Gore’s efforts to change people’s energy habits, to educate people and persuade people on this issue be diminished simply because he lives in a large house. I’d be curious to compare Gore’s energy bills versus the average energy bills for households of similar square-footage. Obviously living in a large house will of course lead to energy bills 20 times larger than the national average. What you think the White House doesn’t have an expensive energy bill?

Though we still haven’t seen Cars we’ll cop to the notion that Pixar can pretty much do no wrong. With every movie they release the animation studio sets the bar that much higher for their next affair. With such modern day animation classics as Toy Story 1 & 2, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles - not to mention their outstanding second-tier films like A Bug’s Life, Cars and Monster’s Inc. - Pixar has a track record for artistic and financial box office receipts unlike any other studio.

We’re betting, I know I know it’s not much of a bet, that this summer’s Ratatouille (directed by Brad Bird) will be another milestone achievement. Jim Hill Media has an early look at Pixar’s 2008 movie titled WALL E, directed by Andrew Stanton.

From the sounds of the article WALL E stands to be another huge leap forward in terms of artistry and storytelling from a company that pushes both boundaries with each film release.

This individual believes that Stanton’s next movie is important. That it’s going to be such a step up from the work that Andrew did on “Finding Nemo” that “WALL E” is going to shock people. Both for its choice of source material as well as its style of storytelling. And the story that this animation insider told me … It’s such a departure for Pixar, such a ballsy choice that one wonders how mainstream audiences are actually going to react to “WALL E.” Will they be able to embrace a message movie that so liberally mixes science fiction & satire?

So what’s got Jim Hill Media all in a bunch? We won’t give away any spoilers here, but if you’re curious and it sounds like you should be head over to read a synopsis of the Pixar’s 2008 release.

Planning on staying in tonight? Well you’re in for a treat. Fox has American Idol and Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?, NBC has Dateline: To Catch a Predator (each of them are good for some solid laughs), CBS has the testosterone of NCIS and The Unit. But we’ll be catching up with the Gilmore Girls and our fave sassy detective Vernonica Mars. This week, before going on hiatus (dang you CW), Vernonica and Keith catch Dean O’Dells’ killer. As for Lorelai and Rory, well, Rory apparantly gets an interview with the New York Times and other fast-paced-pop-culturey dialogue will ensue.

Also not to be missed is the ABC special Bob Woodruff: To Iraq and Back. Word on the street is the esteemed Woodruff uses his near-death experience in Iraq to examine the treatment soldiers recieve for head trauma wounds when they return from combat. I’m thinking it’s going to be a three or four hanky program tears wise. Either way it should be required viewing for every American.

I’ll be checking out Elvis Perkins and Patrick Watson over at Great Scott’s in Allston, so look for that tomorrow or late tonight. Anyone going? Anyone want to meet up for a brew?

The real debate is who do I love more? Alexis Bledel, Lauren Graham or Kristen Bell.

NBC has been making a huge push for it’s new show The Black Donnelly’s. As if you may not have heard already it’s the new show from multiple-Oscar winner Paul Haggis. It aired last night at 10 p.m. nearly commercial free. The executives figured the Irish-crime-family-coming-of-age story centered around four brothers in NYC would be a better fit with the runaway train known as Heroes. Speaking of, last nights ep was the best of the season yet. Gotta love young Hiro.

But back to the pedestrian show titled The Black Donnelly’s. In a way it’s fitting the show was created by Paul Haggis, who I’m firmly convinced sold his soul to someone for the right to birth not only this show but also the travesty known as Crash. Haggis may just be the most unskilled successful writer in Hollywood working today.

The good news in all of this is that fans of the much better written and directed show, Studio 60, can rejoice that the brilliant Aaron Sorkin show will be back sooner rather than later.

So you’re probably wondering then what’s wrong with The Black Donnelly’s? Short of writing a thesis paper on it out of the gates the show is all wrong. Haggis’s decision to tell the story of the Donnelly brothers through an unreliable narrator takes all the power and emotional heft out what could have been a fairly powerful coming of age story.

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This Keith Olbermann Special Commentary during last night’s show doesn’t really need any introduction or background information for context.

But here’s the shorthand. On a Fox News interview, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice compared the current situation in Iraq to the rebuilding of Europe at the end of World War II. Now Olbermann always likes to go over board with some of his special commentaries. And why not? Since they have brought him higher ratings, more buzz and much love from liberals.

So what exactly drew the ire of Olbermann? These are the exact words Rice spoke during her interview:

It would be like saying that after Adolf Hitler was overthrown, we needed to change then, the resolution that allowed the United States to do that, so that we could deal with creating a stable environment in Europe after he was overthrown.

Except that the President did go to Congress to fashion what would become the Marshall Plan. A plan that pumped $12 billion dollars into Europe to rebuild and maintain democracy, at least in Western Europe.

Though it makes for great television, Rice should have taken a history lesson before comparing Saddam to Hitler and Iraq to post-World War II Berlin.

Honus Wagner was actually a darn good shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates back in the day. He was one of the first five players inducted into the Hall of Fame, along with Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth, Christy Matthewson. Nuff said about the skills of “The Flying Dutchman.” But for the majority of folks his lasting legacy is his T206 1909 baseball card, otherwise referred to as “The Holy Grail” and “Mona Lisa” of baseball cards, so to speak. Well, according to Yahoo Sports (via the AP), his baseball card is up to some major shenanigans again.

The famed baseball card, once owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky, has sold for a record $2.35 million dollars.

The buyer has only been identified as a Southern California collector. SCP Auctions Inc., a company that holds sports memorabilia auctions, said it bought a small share of the card. It is scheduled to be shown at a news conference at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday. The seller, Brian Seigel, in 2000 paid a then-record $1,265,000 for the prize card, which is in much better shape than the others.

But what’s absolutely insane about this is that there are 60 of these particular baseball cards in existence, although only one of them is practically mint. According to the article the other 59 cards still fetch a hefty price on the auction market:

The others “you could stick in middle of the street and let cars drive over it through the day, take it in your hand and crumple it up, and it still would be a $100,000 card,” said Seigel, CEO of Emerald Capital LLC, an asset management company, who lives in Las Vegas. Gretzky and Bruce McNall, former owner of the Los Angeles Kings, bought the card for $451,000 in 1991. During his ownership of the card, Seigel displayed it at several sports collectible shows, showed it at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum and at brought it to opening bell ceremonies for the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York.

The true kick in the nuts for me, is I still have all my baseball cards I collected as a kid and early teenager, except that my prize cards are all rookie cards for steroid era players. How much do you think my Mark McGuire rookie card would fetch? Or for that matter my Barry Bond’s rookie card, once he gets nailed to the wall by George Mitchell? Sigh.

Stranger Than Fiction - Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, and Maggie Gyllenhaal star in this unusual comedy. Will Ferrell is an IRS agent who hears the voice of a novelist in his head. He must persuade the novelists (Thompson) to change the ending of her story so that he may live. Very Kauffmanesque.

Tideland - Terry Gilliam directs this story about a young girl with a terrible life. To escape said life she retreats into a fantasy world. Unfortunately even Terry Gilliam can’t save this convoluted mess and a plot similar to the much superior Pan’s Labyrinth. Speaking of? How did Pan’s not win the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture?

A Good Year - Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott teaming up for a movie that’s the exact opposite of Gladiator. Crowe stars as an investment banker who inherits a French vineyard. And he learns the true importance of life. Yeah, it’s that schmaltzy.

Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny - The epic story of how The D became the greatest rock band in the world. Um… Jack Black and Kyle Glass steal a supernatural pick. It’s sort of funny, but was much funnier when they used the same jokes for their HBO show.

The Return - A creepy horro movie staring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Someone needs to call her agent and let them know SMG doesn’t need to do teen horror movies anymore. Treads a similar tone to The Grudge.

And just because we love Jack Black, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. I’m still sad I missed this live. Oh well.

Chris Myers Asch is only 33 years old, but already he’s made a difference in the everyday affairs of Americans. First he worked with Teach for America in Northern Mississippi and then afterwards, realizing the impact he could make on the gulf state he co-founded the Sunflower County Freedom Project. He stayed there until he reached a crossroads. The concept for the first US Public Service Academy began to take off, not only in the media but also in Congress. A bill, co-sponsored by Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Arlen Spector (R-PA) will be introduced within the coming weeks.

We sat down with Mr. Asch on 2/21 to find out more about his concept after first learning about the US Public Service Academy from a friend. It’s idea so crazy it could be genius, an idea that might just be the most necessary thing for America’s youth and future generations of American public servants.

The academy would provide an education for 5,000 students free of charge. It would cost taxpayers roughly $200 million per year. Potential students would be nominated for this academy in a process similar to that of the military academies and once enrolled they would be required to study abroad, complete a summer of emergency response training, and have internships with either military or non-profit institutions. Inxchange for the free education, graduating students would be required to payback the country with five years of public service.

SO: Let’s just jump right into it. You mentioned earlier that you live in Cincinnati and commute once a month to DC. Is that for meetings how does that work out?

CMA: Well it’s not much of an office. Basically it’s donated space in a firm. We don’t have a staff. I’m the only one who works full time on this because of the lack of finances. The office stays empty and I go to pick up the mail and take meetings.

SO: What’s the status of the Public Service Academy in Congress?

CMA: It’s about to be reintroduced to Congress and we wanted to get a marker down to establish the bill during the last session of Congress. But the plan was always to reintroduce it this year with hearings and take action. If all goes well it’ll be introduced next week or the following week. Sometime in the next two weeks.

SO: The bill is sponsored by Hillary and Arlen Spector. What’s that experience been like to have them jump on board.

CMA: We’re pleased with Senators Clinton and Spector. We were trying for months and months to get people’s attention in Congress. But we have no money, so it’s been tough to get their attention. We don’t have much clout. It was Senator Clinton, really, she read about us in the Washington Post about a couple of yahoos and the article said we were nothing more than a website and a couple of advisors. For eight months we were pounding the doors of politicians and I can’t tell you the number of times they tell us to come back when you have more staff or more money or whatever. A lot of politicians are constantly looking over their shoulders for cues and all that stuff because they don’t want to take a risk. The one politician who has been the least risk adverse in our experience was Clinton. She instructed her staff to find us and we didn’t go after her. We got a call from her staff and they said she loves the idea and it’s something we should do. I’m not committed to anyone in 2008 and her public image is of someone very poll driven and cautious and certainly not a risk taker and for us, my interaction with her, it’s been the exact opposite.

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We kicked things off last Monday with a fairly difficult trivia question. This one might be slightly easier: What is the name of the bottle of wine that Paul Giamatti treasures above all others? In other words, the one he ends up drinking in a styrofoam cup at a fast food joint towards the climax of the film?

Remember: all answers should be submitted by 5 p.m. on Thursday 3/1. We’ll print the answer the next morning. Drop us a line at either food@slyoyster.com or thewineguy@slyoyster.com

Lost in all the Oscar hoopla was a stellar two song set from Arcade Fire on SNL this past Saturday. The started off with “Intervention” and then closed with “Keep the Car Running,” both cuts from the forthcoming Neon Bible.

Arcade Fire certainly delivered the goods and made the Rainn Wilson hosted show worth tuning in for. Sure makes me wish I could have gotten down to NYC for their five night run at Judson Memorial Church. If, like me you didn’t get down to see those performances you can grab the Friday show at Hearsay and the Saturday show over at NPR.

Is it just me or does Winn look an aweful look like Christopher Walken’s creepy art son in Wedding Crashers?

Look at Winn on the left and the actor who plays Todd Cleary in Wedding Crashers in the photo on the right. He’s the creepy one on the far right, in case you couldn’t tell. Enjoy the aural pleasure of “Keep the Car Running” from SNL. And in case you were wondering, Sak Vide Pa Kanpe (as taped to Winn’s guitar during their first song) means “An empty sack cannot stand up” in English. It’s a creole saying.

Neon Bible streets 3/6