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Andrew "Dice" Clay's "Hardcore Comedy Crew" at the Orpheum, Belle and Sebastian returns, and more
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Man bites Dog There was a delectably snarky kerfuffle in the rarefied world of contemporary English letters a few months back when author Tibor Fischer penned a blistering, blindsiding review in the Daily Telegraph of his (soon to be ex-) friend Martin Amis’s new novel, Yellow Dog (Miramax). Although since the book’s contents had been embargo’d until publication, it wasn’t a review in the truest sense. Fischer wrote, "I won’t tell you anything about the contents of Yellow Dog, but what I will tell you is that it’s terrible," adding that "Yellow Dog isn’t bad as in not very good or slightly disappointing. It’s not-knowing-where-to-look bad. I was reading my copy on the Tube, and I was terrified someone would look over my shoulder (not only because of the embargo, but because someone might think I was enjoying what was on the page)." He later confesses that his own novel, Voyage to the End of the Room (Counterpoint), is due to be published on the same day as Yellow Dog — which might go some way toward explaining his vituperation. At any rate, Amis, no stranger to slings and arrows and sour grapes, seems to have taken the whole affair in stride. And reviews by compatriots who aren’t competitors have been on the whole positive. Amis will be at Borders in Downtown Crossing on Wednesday November 12 at 6:30 p.m. to read from Yellow Dog, his first novel in seven years. Tibor Fischer, we’re assuming, will not be in attendance. That’s at 10 School Street; call (617) 557-7188. Lewis and Clark bicentennial Can you believe it? Time really flies. It was two whole centuries ago that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark undertook their treacherous expedition from St. Louis, heading northwest across sweeping plains and through craggy mountain passes, then onward to the shining Pacific. Their geographical discoveries were hugely important, but their interactions with Native Americans along the way were arguably more so, creating a crucial cultural bridge between the founders of a fledgling nation and those who’d always been here. To celebrate the journey’s bicentennial, Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archæology and Ethnology, which is home to the Native American artifacts collected and catalogued by Messrs. Lewis and Clark, is curating an omnibus exhibit, "From Nation to Nation: Examining Lewis and Clark’s Indian Collection," and sponsoring a series of related lectures that will last well into the new year. The exhibit opens on December 11, followed two days later by the Lewis and Clark Family Day Festival. After that, and throughout the spring, free lectures at the museum will focus on everything from Thomas Jefferson’s mentoring of the expedition to the Native American perspective. The Peabody Museum is at 11 Divinity Avenue, in Harvard Square; call (617) 496-1027, or get a sneak peek on-line at www.peabody.harvard.edu/Lewis_and_Clark The Dice Man cometh Jim Florentine is on television. He does the voice for "Special Ed," that helmet-clad developmentally disabled marionette kid from Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers ("Yaaaaay!"). Jim Norton is on television. The pasty, shiny-pated homunculus is a regular on Comedy Central’s Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, his barbs splitting the difference between derision and self-abasement. Andrew "Dice" Clay used to be on television. But when his trademark naughty nursery rhymes got a bit too randy on the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, the chainsmoking greaser earned himself the dubious distinction of being the first person banned from MTV for life. But who needs TV? The Dice Man’s stock has risen — a little — lately, and he’s cashing in, ordaining Florentine and Norton as disciples in his "Hardcore Comedy Crew" and taking ’em out on a short tour that on November 11 stops by the Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Place. Tickets are $27.50 to $37.50; call (617) 931-2000. Clear as a Belle On their new Dear Catastrophe Waitress (Rough Trade), those waggish Glaswegians in Belle & Sebastian aim to shut the door once and for all on the accusations of tweedom that have dogged them from the beginning. Their first proper album in three years (and the first since some significant personnel changes), Waitress finds Stuart Murdoch and company boisterous and bawdy and bursting at the seams with ribald good humor. Producer (and ex-Buggle) Trevor Horn has helped corral their encyclopædic musical notions — popping bubblegum, Mancini-esque filmic flourishes, lite funk, ’60s soul, swooning strings, and bright brass sections — into a coiled package that glints with mischief. Some of the argyle-sweater-vest-clad old guard of their fan base might not know who Murdoch’s singing about on the wry paean "Piazza, New York Catcher," but the playful song — which continues the B&S tradition of addressing real-life figures (Bob Dylan, Seymour Stein) by asking the enigmatic Mets power hitter flat out: "Are you straight or are you gay?" — is emblematic of the band’s rejuvenation. The sprawling collective play the Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Place, on November 13. Tickets are $30; call (617) 931-2000.
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