Beloved Belgian youth sleuth Tintin is a favorite of many emotionally stunted peeps. Forever getting into complex scrapes and head-spinning adventures that take him to exotic locales and remote climes (and on more than one occasion, The Moon) the wussy, blond, go-getting cub reporter is an enigma. He frequently meets fantastic characters, but instead of developing an awesome drug addiction or boning some grateful heiress, he chooses to hang around a perpetually drunken sea captain and his faithful companion Snowy, the Fox terrier.
Walking with my girlfriend downtown last week, I spotted someone who looked EXACTLY like one of the bumbling Thom(p)sons from Hergé's animated stories.
Me (excitedly): “Hey, that guy looks exaaactly like one of the Thom(p)sons!”
Her: “Oh, you mean Dupond and Dupont?”
Me: “What?”
Her: “Dupond and Dupont... from Tintin.”
Me: Yeah, I know Tintin... I live and breathe Tintin, beotch. But those gooves are called Thomson and Thompson.”
Her: Yeah, to English idiots. In French, the language that the stories were originally written in, those “gooves,” as you call them, are called Dupond and Dupont.
Ah yes, being the clueless xenophobe that I am, I conveniently forgot that each country calls the two mustachioed, bowler-hatted bumblers something different (i.e.: Hernández and Fernández, Schultze and Schulze, Tik and Tak).
Me (conceding): “Oh yeah....”
Right about now you might be asking why on Earth am I blathering about goofy-looking twin detectives from a comic that no one reads when I should be dithering on about the spectacular-looking pop couple The Rosebuds that everybody loves. You would be right to be curious. So, to afford you some closure on this anecdote -- yeah, The Rosebuds? I like ’em fine, but my girlfriend liked them back in the ’80s when they were called The Thompson Twins.
The shape-shifting duo of Kelly Crisp and Ivan Howard will bring to the live forum their latest album, the Merge-released elec-retro master class Night of the Furies, their hooky debut album The Rosebuds Make Out, their melancholic gloom of a second album Birds Make Good Neighbors, and hopefully some new tunes of unspecified orientation when they play a string of dates beginning late April. The tour includes shows at many of the usual suspected haunts, including one night in Kentucky and one show at the “My Old Kentucky Blog” concert... in Indianapolis. Nope, I don't get it either. Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles, here are the dates!
04.28.08 - Lexington, KY - The Dame
04.29.08 - Chicago, IL - Subterranean
04.30.08 - Indianapolis, IN - My Old Kentucky Blog Concert
05.01.08 - Columbia, MO - Mojo’s
05.02.08 - Oxford, MS - Proud Larry’s
05.03.08 - Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge
05.04.08 - Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle
05.06.08 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
05.07.08 - Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom
05.08.08 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
05.09.08 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
05.10.08 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
05.11.08 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
05.13.08 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
05.14.08 - Portland, ME - TBD
05.15.08 - Montréal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
05.16.08 - Toronto, Ontario - Lee’s Palace
05.17.08 - Buffalo, NY - Tralf Music Hall
05.18.08 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Small’s Theatre
