Women! They let 'em vote, smoke and drive - even put 'em in pants!

One of my favourite movies of all time is the 1965 Russ Meyer pulp classic Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!  There's not an awful lot you can say about it cinematically... I mean, the plot is paper thin, the characters are flat in every way except one and the actors are worse than that kid with glasses in Troll 2.  The direction isn't even particularly well executed.

So why does Faster Pussycat! occupy the same hallowed ground in my mind as The Godfather or The Shawshank Redemption does for others?

Fast and Bulbous. Got Me?

I wasn't around in 1969, so I can't really tell you what the cultural zeitgeist looked like when Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band put out Trout Mask Replica.  But I have this sneaking suspicion that for all our nostalgia about the hipness of the counterculture, Trout Mask Replica was outsider music even back then.

I'm not about to bang on about people under-appreciating good art when they hear it.  Hell, I'll even agree with you that Beefheart and his ragtag band of weirdos would make a shitty soundtrack to a party.

But that's not to say I don't believe that it holds value.  I think that Beefheart, Zappa and other outsider musicians were key in advancing music as an art form.

... In which I tell Burger King where to stick it.

Dearest Burger King,

I try to avoid eating a whole lot of meat.  In fact, for the purposes of in-flight meals, I will often check the “vegetarian” box.

One of my (admittedly many) exceptions to such a “low meat diet,” is the Angry Whopper.  You know the sandwich I’m talking about… The Whopper with the jalepenos and onion rings, lovingly smothered in a delightfully piquant mayonnaise-based sauce.