Stooges

Iggy and the Stooges is as good a pairing of frontman and band as you can get, judging from the group’s joyously chaotic yet deeply musical performance Tuesday at the House of Blues. The Iggy in question is, of course, Iggy Pop, the 63-year-old sinewy and shirtless ball of energy responsible for belting out the tunes. And the Stooges these days consist of guitarist James Williamson, drummer Scott Asheton, bass player Mike Watt and sax player Steve Mackay. This lineup is notable for bringing Williamson back into the fold roughly 35 years after he and Pop parted ways,...

OK, so the Three Stooges aren't high art. They would never be confused with Noel Coward ("Nix the nyucks," Letters, April 13). But are they funny? Soitenly!   Anne Leary Lexington

In the three decades that have passed since they imploded, a few things have changed about the Stooges -- or Iggy & the Stooges, as they were billed on the Orpheum Theatre marquee for Saturday's sold-out blitzkrieg of power-punk and proto-metal. At the merch table for instance, you could buy hat wear such as "The Weirdness Beanie," named after the band's first new album in 34 years, "The Weirdness," or a hoodie with the group's moniker emblazoned across the front. We're also guessing that travel accommodations for this reunion tour are comfier than they were in 1970, when too many people...

No, I don't know why Bobby and Peter Farrelly bothered with a Three Stooges movie, either. But if they're anything like some men I know, their love for Moe, Larry, and Curly (and an assortment of fourth bananas) is deep, abiding, and unembarrassable. In other words: How could the Farrellys not? It pleases me to report that the movie is far from a disaster – on a dozen or so occasions, it's even funny. I write that as someone who spent many a Sunday morning trying to decode the humor embedded in reruns and deciding the nyuk-nyuks-nyuks and "why I oughttas" were for a...

We'll start with the good news. Iggy Pop has reunited with the Stooges and made a lean punk album that sounds like it time-warped from 1967. That's also the bad news. "The Weirdness," out today on Virgin, is the first album Pop has recorded with the Stooges since 1973's "Raw Power. " Pop went on to become a legend with anthems such as "The Passenger" and "Lust for Life," while his bandmates never quite stepped back into the spotlight. These new Stooges are really the same old Stooges, with little regard for the current taste in rock music.

And they say federal prosecutors have no sense of humor. Apparently, we are now asked to believe that, in the highest profile case pending in the highest profile sports "scandal" since the Black Sox, our dedicated public servants accidentally did what the judge already had told them was precisely the thing that would occasion a mistrial. Yes, and This Blog is the Tsar of all the Russias. Sorry, fellas. You're as full of stuffing as the Christmas goose. Either deliberately, or because you're the biggest courtroom bunglers since the Stooges sought the moiderer ...

This Blog usually chuckled very hard when people mentioned that Tom Brady might have a career in politics when he's done being the quarterback around here. The Senate! Governor Of California! Padisha Emperor Of The Known Universe! And so on. Mostly, This Blog would point out the following: a) why would you want to do something like that to a guy who's brought you so much joy, and b) at a time of two-and-a-half wars, and nine percent unemployment, and given California's recent experiment with celebrity governatorship, do you really think it's wise to make, say, a Senate seat an entry-level...

Pop Iggy Pop Préliminaires Astralwerks ESSENTIAL "I Want to Go to the Beach" Iggy Pop experienced such pleasure reading Michel Houellebecq's 2005 novel, "The Possibility of an Island," he made a soundtrack to go with it. In fact the Stooges frontman was so transformed by the moody dystopian narrative (it's about sex, death, and the end of humankind) that he mostly kissed his guitars goodbye and flung himself into a percolating whorl of French crooning, acoustic blues, laid-back electronics, and - if not quite jazz - some seriously jazzy...

"Stella" is the kind of sitcom that makes a reviewer want to throw up his hands and say, "Oh, just watch it. " And that's not because Comedy Central's "Stella" is so amazingly wonderful, although it certainly is a fresh kick for viewers who like willfully offbeat shows such as "Reno 911!" No, just watch it because it's so freaking odd, and so original, that it's really, really hard to describe. In its promotional push, Comedy Central has been likening "Stella" to the Marx Brothers, and there is truth in that lofty comparison.

Moe was the self-appointed boss, the bully who would bonk you on the head, then box your ears, then tell you what you did wrong. Curly was the man-child, the innocent but slightly addled and always mischievous victim. Larry was, as the title of his biography suggests, the Stooge in the middle, the free-spirited guy who was there to react or to get in the way. But there were many more than just three Stooges. The prolific team, which made 190 shorts for Columbia from 1934-59, started out on the vaudeville stage, as fall guys, or stooges, for comic actor Ted Healy in the mid-1920s.

Martha's Vineyard friends Peter Farrelly (center) and Larry David were joined by funny lady Jane Lynch at the Los Angeles premiere of Peter and Bobby Farrelly's new movie, "The Three Stooges. " David and Lynch play nuns in the comedy.

Moe was the self-appointed boss, the bully who would bonk you on the head, then box your ears, then tell you what you did wrong. Curly was the man-child, the innocent but slightly addled and always mischievous victim. Larry was, as the title of his biography suggests, the Stooge in the middle, the free-spirited guy who was there to react or to get in the way. But there were many more than just three Stooges. The prolific team, which made 190 shorts for Columbia from 1934-59, started out on the vaudeville stage, as fall guys, or stooges, for comic actor Ted Healy in...

April 9 RETURN OF THE BAFFLER After a two-year hiatus, radical political and cultural journal The Baffler is back in publication, from its new home in Cambridge. What you'll find inside: long-form essays (in the new issue: founding editor Thomas Frank on society's current "Age of Folly"), fiction, poetry, interviews, satirical art. Harvard Book Store owner Jeff Mayersohn is a new investor in the magazine, and the store hosts the launch party for the journal's 19th issue, its first under new editor and owner John Summers, starting at 7 p.m. April 13 Oh,...

And they say federal prosecutors have no sense of humor. Apparently, we are now asked to believe that, in the highest profile case pending in the highest profile sports "scandal" since the Black Sox, our dedicated public servants accidentally did what the judge already had told them was precisely the thing that would occasion a mistrial. Yes, and This Blog is the Tsar of all the Russias. Sorry, fellas. You're as full of stuffing as the Christmas goose. Either deliberately, or because you're the biggest courtroom bunglers since the Stooges sought the moiderer of Kirk Robin, you did...

This Blog usually chuckled very hard when people mentioned that Tom Brady might have a career in politics when he's done being the quarterback around here. The Senate! Governor Of California! Padisha Emperor Of The Known Universe! And so on. Mostly, This Blog would point out the following: a) why would you want to do something like that to a guy who's brought you so much joy, and b) at a time of two-and-a-half wars, and nine percent unemployment, and given California's recent experiment with celebrity governatorship, do you really think it's wise to make, say, a Senate seat an entry-level...

Iggy and the Stooges is as good a pairing of frontman and band as you can get, judging from the group’s joyously chaotic yet deeply musical performance Tuesday at the House of Blues. The Iggy in question is, of course, Iggy Pop, the 63-year-old sinewy and shirtless ball of energy responsible for belting out the tunes. And the Stooges these days consist of guitarist James Williamson, drummer Scott Asheton, bass player Mike Watt and sax player Steve Mackay. This lineup is notable for bringing Williamson back into the fold roughly 35 years...

Martha's Vineyard friends Peter Farrelly (center) and Larry David were joined by funny lady Jane Lynch at the Los Angeles premiere of Peter and Bobby Farrelly's new movie, "The Three Stooges. " David and Lynch play nuns in the comedy.

April 9 RETURN OF THE BAFFLER After a two-year hiatus, radical political and cultural journal The Baffler is back in publication, from its new home in Cambridge. What you'll find inside: long-form essays (in the new issue: founding editor Thomas Frank on society's current "Age of Folly"), fiction, poetry, interviews, satirical art. Harvard Book Store owner Jeff Mayersohn is a new investor in the magazine, and the store hosts the launch party for the journal's 19th issue, its first under new editor and owner John Summers, starting at 7 p.m. ...

Pop Iggy Pop Préliminaires Astralwerks ESSENTIAL "I Want to Go to the Beach" Iggy Pop experienced such pleasure reading Michel Houellebecq's 2005 novel, "The Possibility of an Island," he made a soundtrack to go with it. In fact the Stooges frontman was so transformed by the moody dystopian narrative (it's about sex, death, and the end of humankind) that he mostly kissed his guitars goodbye and flung himself into a percolating whorl of French crooning, acoustic blues, laid-back electronics, and - if not quite jazz - some seriously jazzy instrumentation.

In the three decades that have passed since they imploded, a few things have changed about the Stooges -- or Iggy & the Stooges, as they were billed on the Orpheum Theatre marquee for Saturday's sold-out blitzkrieg of power-punk and proto-metal. At the merch table for instance, you could buy hat wear such as "The Weirdness Beanie," named after the band's first new album in 34 years, "The Weirdness," or a hoodie with the group's moniker emblazoned across the front. We're also guessing that travel accommodations for this reunion tour are comfier than they were in 1970, when too many people...