It's All About Me, Man: Re: [ILoveIshtar] Howdy

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Re: [ILoveIshtar] Howdy

On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 9:02 AM, Ishtar The Movie Webchef
<itmcontact@ishtarthemovie.com> wrote:

> Very cool to hear, Matt.
>
> Jef Leeson,
> Ishtar The Movie Webchef
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> "People would rather suffer with what they have than try the unknown."
> http://www.ishtarthemovie.com
> http://www.lddonline.com

Hey Jef,

Thanks for the shout out - but I'm beginning to think you're avoiding
me, this is the 2nd time I've been to Toronto and failed to connect
with you - I hope the situation can be corrected in a future visit.

In more recent Ishtar related activity, I finally took the plunge and
ordered Moes Haven's CD "November the 'Tar!" The significance of the
name escapes me, though I wonder if the 'Tar might have something to
do with Ishtar, since the lengthy cover blurb notes that the CD is:

"A collection of songs written in the tradition of the compositions of
Rogers and Clarke, as portrayed by Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman in
the 1987 Columbia feature film, Ishtar, a much maligned production
centered on the meteoric rise of an ill-received singer/songwriter
duo, which in no way deserved the almost universal disparagement it
received from critics who focused disproportionately upon the
picture's lavish budget instead of its groundbreaking humor and ribald
social commentary, which is only now, some two decades later, finally
being recognized by a select few respected scholars and erudite
theologians."

As an exercise in songwriting (and extreme obsessive compulsive
behavior the group wrote and recorded a mind-boggling 365 albums one
year - that's right, one for every single day. They then selected the
best songs from each month and issued 12 CDs. The November CD is
devoted to Ishtar. I ordered it from CDBaby a fair amount of time ago,
and though I have always had great customer service from them in the
past, a couple of days ago I found myself thinking, "jeez it's been a
long time since I ordered that Moes Haven CD from CDBaby - I pretty
much paid a premium rate for the postage - postage from the US to
Canada isn't nearly what they charged me!"

So then I checked my mailbox, and guess what was in it?

I've listened to it repeatedly (it's going head to head with Robert
Plant and Allison Krauss for ear space, and it's pretty much a dead
heat), I absolutely love it, it's just wonderful, wonderful music,
containing perhaps the best couplet ever committed in popular song:

she does it so derisively,
it's like she's dumping ice on me...

You would have thought that they'd be running pretty dry on
inspiration, having already done 300+ songs that year, but that isn't
the case at all. You don't need to be an Ishtar fan to enjoy this
album (though it helps) - I only heard one explicit Ishtar reference,
when they singer invites a date to watch a movie, maybe even Ishtar!
Who could resist that romantic invitation?

If you haven't checked them out yet, I urge you do so now. Their
website is http://www.moeshaven.com/