Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Wallflowers by Sean Michael Wallflowers: ’s Blues … Björk: Selma Sings. Jakob Dylan said something telling near the end of ’ performance at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 3. “I think you guys have been very patient,” he told the crowd. “Thank you very much.” Opening for the Who in its currently reinvigorated state has got to be unnerving, especially given that Mr. Dylan’s band served as a last-minute substitute for Jimmy Page and the Black Crows’ Led Zeppelin revue. But, from where I was sitting, the half-capacity Garden crowd didn’t seem particularly intolerant. They seemed to be enjoying the Wallflowers’ set, which relied heavily on the band’s last CD , . That sold more than 4 million copies, license enough for Mr. Dylan to behave as if he belonged on that stage. But instead of treating the Garden gig as an opportunity to steal some thunder from a bunch of venerated rock ‘n’ roll geezers, Mr. Dylan seemed to have convinced himself that the Wallflowers were testing the audience’s patience. On the Wallflowers’ third album, Breach (Interscope), Mr. Dylan grapples with the issues that obviously fuel this potentially self-defeating self- consciousness, and it represents a move forward in his songwriting. But though Mr. Dylan has finally dragged what’s spooking him into the light of day, he never quite manages to conquer it. Breach sounds like it’s entangled in the crushing grasp of some gigantic psychic octopus. Whenever it sounds like it’s about to break free of its weightiness, some dark tentacles lash out to pull it back into the inky darkness. As Mr. Dylan sings on “I’ve Been Delivered”: “Nothing’s hard as / Getting free from places / I’ve already been.” Some of those tentacles seemed to be connected to the expectations that come along with being the pretty-boy son of Bob Dylan, a subject that Mr. Dylan deals with pretty explicitly on the song “Hand Me Down.” “You feel good and you look like you should / But you won’t ever make us proud,” he sings, only to conclude later on in the track: “Now look at you / With your worn-out shoes / Living proof evolution is through / We’re stuck with you / This revolution is doomed.” Mr. Dylan sneaks plenty of self-lacerating observations like those onto Breach , which makes the lyrics a good read–but rock ‘n’ roll, especially the traditional kind that Mr. Dylan practices, is built on redemptive moments, and Breach suffers from a lack of them. Given the album title’s Shakespearean reference and lyrics such as “Let me in, let me drown or learn how to swim / Just don’t leave me at the window” (from “Sleepwalker”), Mr. Dylan is sending the message that he’s in it for the long haul. But there’s no goose-pimply moment on Breach when Mr. Dylan brushes back the skeptics and defines just who he is, the way that Bruce Springsteen–another guy who suffered from comparisons to Dylan père – did when he sang, “Mister, I ain’t a boy / No, I’m a man / And I believe in the promised land” on his similarly bleak album, Darkness on the Edge of Town . The closest Mr. Dylan comes to such a moment of conviction can be found on “I’ve Been Delivered.” At one point in the song, he describes being 10 miles out at sea and waving back at the shore “Like a little boy up on a pony / In a show / ‘Cause I can’t fix / Something this complex / Anymore than I can build a rose.” But by the end of the song, he proclaims: “I’ve been the bull / I’ve been the whip / I just pulled down the matador / So now, turn on your lights / ‘Cause I’m coming home / I’ve been delivered for the first time.” If he’s not quite convincing, the music’s partially to blame. “I’ve Been Delivered” just totters along, buoyed by what sounds like a synthesized calliope. But like the Garden performance, it’s ultimately too self-conscious to achieve the emotional heat it needs. And that is true for a lot of the album. Wallflowers fans expecting the freewheeling exuberance of “” or “Sixth Avenue Heartache” from the last album will find a much denser, contained album that takes many listens to plant its hooks. In some respects, it’s like a funhouse ride, where little musical effects–like the ghostly percussion on “Sleepwalker”–suddenly present themselves on the soundscape, then just as quickly sink back into the aural murk, which was produced by Mr. Dylan’s manager, Andrew Slater, and (brother of Sean, husband of Aimee Mann). Mr. Dylan’s smoky scotch-on-the-rocks voice remains a thing of beauty, though, and it complements the Wallflowers’ guitar, bass and organ sound, which hasn’t changed much from the last album. There are moments, however–such as on the back-to-back tracks “Witness” and “Some Flowers Bloom Dead”–when Mr. Dylan seems to have been listening to a lot of Warren Zevon, circa Sentimental Hygiene . After “Some Flowers…,” which is the sixth track on the 11-song album, Breach starts to flicker. “Mourning Train” and especially “Up From Under” sound like Springsteen knockoffs, as does the title and some of the lyrics of the New Wave-y “Murder 101.” But Elvis Costello’s spirited backing vocals help the song transcend its lyrical limitations. Next comes the sluggish “Birdcage,” which really should have been tossed in favor of “Babybird,” the hidden track that appears at the end of the album. But I can probably guess why Mr. Dylan decided to “hide” the song: He wrote it for his three children, and it feels more like a present to have it semi-secreted in some wrapping paper made of digital code. “Babybird” is a simple, lovely song, set to a music-box-like piano accompaniment. It’s not a rock ‘n’ roll song, but it’s the one moment on Breach where Mr. Dylan shrugs off the weighty mantle of his cultural dowry and gazes at his future. “And when all my days are through / And I fly these hills no longer / I’ll lay beneath the stars / And I’ll watch you flying over,” Mr. Dylan sings. And, for the first time, he sounds delivered. Björk: Selma Sings. Björk is bjack after a three-year absence from the pop-music marketplace with an impeccable, somewhat modest album–it’s just seven tracks, a little over 32 minutes long–called Selmasongs . It’s her finest record since … well, since her last one, Homogenic , in 1997. The new album, with tracks produced either by Björk herself or by Björk and Mark Bell (of the electronica group LFO), has a beautiful sound that marries a full orchestra (led by -based arranger Vincent Mendoza) with real and electronic drums, sampled beats and more found noises than you’re likely to come across on an old Eno record. It’s a continuation of the sonic territory Björk mapped out for herself on Homogenic –on which she laid the Icelandic String Quartet over dirty beats–only Selmasongs is lusher. Selmasongs is a soundtrack of sorts for the new Lars von Trier movie Dancer in the Dark , which stars Björk as Selma. The album is meant to translate the longings of Björk’s character, an introverted factory worker who finds solace in music as she goes blind, into something beautiful and lasting. That may explain why this album has fewer moments of harshness or dissonance than Homogenic and Post (1995). That is not to say that Selmasongs is necessarily better or worse than those two ; but Björk is a little sweeter on Selmasongs , a little more tender than she has been, probably in an effort to counteract Mr. von Trier’s fetish for bleakness. Do you know the great Björk ballad, from Post , called “Possibly Maybe”? It is a mesmerizing torch song that makes the feeling of heartbreak terrifyingly alive again for the receptive listener–”I suck my tongue in remembrance of you,” she sings at one point in the song–and yet, in an interview, she once said she was ashamed of herself for having written “Possibly Maybe” because there was no hope in it. That same sensibility, with its distrust of despair as a source for art, keeps Selmasongs aloft, keeps it from falling into that gray Scandinavian bleakness. There is nothing gray about Björk; she is all wildness and bright colors. She specializes in expressing extremes of emotion–and for her that means not only anger, despair, longing and lust, but joy. She doesn’t shy away from joy. In fact, a joyous “Clatter! Crash! Clack!” are the first words you’ll hear on Selmasongs . You may be a little embarrassed to hear this kind of thing, but Björk is not embarrassed about singing it. Björk is never embarrassed. She just goes for it. You either go along with her, or you take the disk out of your Walkman and toss it in the river. The star of any Björk album is the voice. Björk Gudmundsdottir, 34, has been a singing star in her hometown of Reykjavik, Iceland, since she was a girl, and she can do anything with her voice (and does). But unlike Mariah Carey and Celine Dion and the other divas of VH1, she is not all that interested in “wowing” people or in singing in a manner that could too easily be called beautiful. Björk lets you hear the effort. She whispers and stutters and lets the lyrics catch in her throat. You hear her breathe; you might hear her scream. Notes swoop impossibly, and then she throws in a spoken word. Björk is not a machine. She sometimes seems to be the ultimate human being. She’s down in the muck of emotions and behavior and experience with the rest of us schlubs, not above it all. She may not be a diva, but she is a show-off. On the Selmasongs track “107 Steps,” she pulls off the closest thing to a singer doing the telephone book by making her way through a song that has lyrics consisting almost entirely of numbers. In Björk’s interpretation (meant to get across a blind person’s memorized steps from one place to another), “31” is tentative, “32” is sad and “38” is puzzled; “51” brings with it a moment of hope, and the light comes in more fully with “65”; but “68” is interrogative and “69” is a mixture of anger and confusion, with the creeping sense that this life is maybe not worth the pain. Don’t worry, though–by “79” we’re feeling those desires again … only to have melancholy “86” usher in a new regime of uncertainty. A stand-out song here is “I’ve Seen It All,” a tearjerker duet sung with Thom Yorke of Radiohead. “What about China?” sings Björk. “Have you seen the Great Wall?” “All walls are great,” replies Mr. Yorke, “if the roof doesn’t fall.” Alongside these two distinctive voices, you’ve got swishing electronic beats, swirling violins and a booming electric bass stumbling around in the basement. “New World,” a major-key ballad that ends Selmasongs , is such a powerful example of its genre–the hopeful movie ballad–that it should make Phil Collins and Andrew Lloyd Webber ashamed of themselves. Along the way, there is the Hollywood fun of “In the Musicals”–which gives us Björk at her Björky best–and the slightly menacing “Scatterheart.” (On both of those tracks, she goes quietly up into her lovely clear falsetto voice for phrases here and there, only to come inevitably back down to her earthy chest voice.) The simple conclusion: Selmasongs is a marvelous production of a great singer- putting on a damned good sonic show. Too Long Between Go-Betweens. More than a decade has elapsed since Australia’s the Go-Betweens put out an album of original material. But whatever it was that enabled the band’s principals, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, to churn out gem after indie-rock gem in the 80’s has not gone on walkabout. The new album is called Friends of Rachel Worth (Jetset) and, surprisingly, it is neither overly ambitious nor excessively nostalgic. It is just damn good. The shiny guitar’s still there. Porcelain acoustic guitar lines à la Yo La Tengo sit atop plush power chords à la Pavement (pumped through an amp borrowed from the latter band’s leader, Steve Malkmus, I’m told). And for filigree, there’s accordion, fiddle and exquisite synthesizer sounds programmed by Sam Coombes of Quasi. Every one of the 10 tracks on Rachel Worth follows the same primordial pop-song structure: verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse. Sometimes there’s a bridge; sometimes not. Almost every song lasts four fastidious minutes. The longest is five and the shortest, three. Take “Spirit” (3:59), one of the Go-Betweens’ most satisfying love songs since their last album of original material, 1987’s Tallulah . An acoustic guitar and bass plink out one of the oldest, simplest lines in . Mr. Forster’s Australian twang peeks through the holes in his deadpan impression of a Yank as he sings: “I’ve got tickets to the best show in town / If you wanna come on down and listen.” If it went on like this, “Spirit” would be the best Hootie & the Blowfish song ever. But just as things are about to get insipid, Messrs. McLennan and Forster jolt the song with some idiosyncratic old-school chords. As an electric guitar fills out the song’s acoustic skeleton, Mr. Forster sings: “I’ll keep you guessing.” Then it’s back to the original line. Or take “Orpheus Beach.” It begins in spooky discord: The bass drone takes the lead over an electric guitar–then a cymbal roll, just for effect. Mr. Forster doesn’t even try to mask his accent now as he sings such slightly grotesque lyrics as “The eerie sound of blade on lake / Cracks my skin and I fill with ache.” It’s beautiful even as it borders on unlistenable. “I don’t need this blood,” Mr. Forster sings. Then an angelic chord quells the cacophony and the band sings in chorus: “Time to believe.” And the Go-Betweens make you believe that a band can take the decade off and still come up with an appealing album of sophisticated yet unpretentious pop. Speed Dating Bibliophile Style: March (Catherine) Last month I read a couple of books. Then I put my sassy pants on and wrote a single sentence book review* for each of them. It was kinda like the fast-food version of book blogging, but it worked out so well that I thought I’d do it again in March. Only this time… I refuse to wear pants. Betcha didn’t see that coming, did ya?! 1. Unbreak My Heart (Unbreak My Heart #1) by K-Lee Klein: A quietly beautiful story about a drifter who falls in love with a brokenhearted cowboy musician in a way that feels both authentic and inevitable. [4 smooches] 2. Floodgates by Mary Calmes: A fluffy popcorn read that was let down by a doormat of a main character, too many ludicrous plot points and improbable red-herrings, and an entire gaggle of extraneous characters. [2.5 smooches] 3. Charlie, Rentboy by J.P. Barnaby: A sexy short story that grabbed my attention with its narrative style and the Cockboys on the cover, but had a happy ending (get your minds out of the gutter!) that felt… hopeful. [3 smooches] 4. Secrets, Skin and Leather (Secret Series #1) by Sean Michael: All porn and no plot, this book had little to no character development, repetitive dialogue, clunky narration, and inexcusably bad punctuation. [1 smooch – DNF’d at 33%] 5. Trouble & the Wallflower by Kade Boehme: With its three-dimensional characters, realistic depiction of a sweet but sometimes rocky opposites-attract relationship, and a bittersweet ending, this book by new-to-me author Kade Boehme far exceeded every expectation I had for it. [4.5 smooches] 6. All in a Duke (Gambling on Love #1) by Ava March: This M/M historical romance was the perfect balance between sweet and sexy, with great characters and a realistic struggle towards their happily ever after. [4 smooches] 7. Medium, Sweet, Extra Shot of Geek by R. Cooper: While the characters in this short story are familiar, Cooper makes them enough against type to feel fresh and interesting, their dialogue both snappy and mundane, and their HEA satisfying in its realistic work-in-progress nature. [3.5 smooches] 8. The Perfect Play (Play by Play #1) by Jaci Burton: I really tried to enjoy this contemporary M/F romance, but even though there’s no denying the steam level of those sex scenes, having two main characters who were nearly flawless bored me to tears. [2 smooches – DNF’d at 60%] 9. Ball & Chain (Cut & Run #8) by Abigail Roux: The eighth installment of Roux’s fantastic Cut & Run series, this book disappointed me with its beyond ludicrous plot and its startling lack of focus on the series’ main characters Ty and Zane, but gained ground in some other areas (e.g. the relationship between Ty and Nick and between Nick and Kelly) and provided a few solidly sweet/cute/funny moments to appease my mushy heart. [2.5 smooches] 10. Stripping the Pain by Kathleen Lee: A friends-to-lovers short story that deals with too many big-ticket issues (sexual abuse, BDSM, etc.) in too short a time-frame (which makes it seem a little exploitative). [3 smooches] 11. From the Ashes (Fire and Rain #1) by Daisy Harris: A great novel by a new-to-me author that gave me a main character (Tomas Perez) whose voice felt fresh and unexpected, yet entirely relatable. [3.5 smooches] 12. After the Rain (Fire and Rain #2) by Daisy Harris: One of the main characters is a firefighting cowboy, gay sex virgin, who saves puppies, and the other is a snarky French-Canadian obsessed with coffee; my ovaries never stood a chance. [3 smooches] 13. Keeping Sweets by Cate Ashwood: A solidly sweet but entirely predictable story about a wannabe porn star who falls in love with his porn Yoda (like Amy Lane’s Johnnies series but with very minimal angst). [3 smooches] 14. Doctor, Doctor (Groves Anatomy #1) by Scarlet Cox: This short story is pure fantasy that reads like the raunchiest porn you’ve ever watched (but not in a good way). [1 smooch] 15. A Fostered Love (Foster Siblings #1) by Cameron Dane: A book about two men with troubled pasts finding a home in each other that manages to balance the sweet, the angsty, the primal, and the thrilling. [4 smooches] 16. Snowfall (Foster Siblings #3) by Cameron Dane: A sweet, gooey (and insanely hot!) glimpse four years into Jonah and Christian’s life together that made me deliriously happy to read. [4 smooches] 17. Taboo For You by Anyta Sunday: A totally adorable GFY romance told from three rotating perspectives (the two MC’s and the one MC’s teenage son) that is equal parts sweet, frustrating, poignant, and sexy. [4 smooches] 18. His Client by Ava March: Ava March sweeps you into her stories by creating characters you’ll care about, then sprinkling liberally with smokin’ hot sex, genuine affection, and a hard-won happily ever after; His Client is no exception. [4 smooches] 19. To Feel the Sun by Marie Sexton: Eight pages of poignant perfection. [5 smooches] 20. This is What a Cold Lake Looks Like by S.A. McAuley: A 4-page story that reads like the most heartbreaking poetry. [4 smooches] 21. Slide (Roads #1) by Garrett Leigh: With its unique characters and gripping story, Garrett Leigh’s Slide will break your heart but leave you wanting more. [4 smooches] 22. Marked (Roads #1.5) by Garrett Leigh: This “missing scene” from Slide was perfect – sweet and sexy and if you read this without getting just a little turned on when Ash tattoos Pete, I’d check for a pulse. [4 smooches] 23. Coffee Shops and Condoms by Eden Winters: Effectively a PSA on safe sex, this cute friends-to-lovers story about two sexually inexperienced teenage boys is sweet but purposeful. [3 smooches] 24. Blind Faith (Blind Faith #1) by N.R. Walker: Not my favourite by this author, but Blind Faith was another sweet novella with mostly likable characters (I wanted to throttle Isaac after his last temper tantrum), a few tear-jerking moments, and a gooey happily ever after. [3.5 smooches] 25. DILF by Twentysomething: The third person present tense narrative style of this Teen Wolf / #Sterek story took a little getting used to, but the dialogue was so spot on, the characters so endearing, the humour so well-written, and the sheer cuteness factor so overwhelming that I couldn’t help but adore it. [4 smooches] 26. Normal Enough by Marie Sexton: A raunchy muscle car kink/fetish novella from the same woman who wrote the adorable twisted fairy tale, Cinder: A CinderFella Story. [3 smooches] 27. Where the World Ends by Kade Boehme: This book had strong, likable characters, palpable tension, blisteringly hot sex scenes (facial cum shots – yeah, buddy!), and a setting both familiar and alien, but I found that it lost momentum in the last third of the book and not all of the conflicts were resolved in way that I found personally satisfying. [3.5 smooches] * I sometimes use punctuation in a shameless (and often incorrect manner) to give myself a second sentence. Don’t judge. Why Hollywood Won't Cast Seann William Scott Anymore. Seriously, where did Seann William Scott go? He was everywhere for a few years following the success of American Pie and its sequels, but right around 2010, it seemed like he pretty much disappeared. He's been dealing with personal issues. In March 2011, Scott entered rehab. According to TMZ, the actor voluntarily entered a treatment facility for unspecified health and personal issues, staying for the allotted 30 days before heading off to film American Pie 4: American Reunion . It's still unclear what he was struggling with, as he hasn't addressed anything publicly—and despite his party animal onscreen persona, Scott insisted to People in 2003, "I don't really party. If I did, it would probably just be trying a new bottle of wine." If he's trying to avoid vices, it's probably for the best that he avoids the Hollywood scene altogether. He doesn't court publicity. A lot of celebrities don't actually work much, but are constantly on red carpets. Scott isn't one of them. The actor flies under the radar and is rarely seen at events or even papped going down the street, and in an era of constant celebrity blogging and a 24-hour news cycle, this otherwise respectable behavior may have actually hurt him. Scott's lack of visibility between projects may have made him forgettable for audiences, which could help explain his box office bombs. He's been typecast. At his peak, Scott was the goofy hot high schooler, sleazy party boy, or college jock, even if he was in his late 20s and 30s when he took most of those roles. Now that he's sporting some scruff and a hint of salt and pepper, he's not going to get the same sorts of parts. Perhaps if Scott had expanded his horizons during his heyday, like his Dude, Where's My Car? co-star Ashton Kutcher—who took serious turns in The Butterfly Effect and later landed the titular role of Steve Jobs in Jobs —he might not be in as much of a rut right now. It seems like Scott got the memo, though. In 2010, he told MTV News that his role as Steve Stifler may have, er, stifled his career development, saying, "I had so much fun and loved the character, [but] I don't want to be known as that character forever." Unfortunately, as he's repeatedly learned the hard way, it can be hard to get Hollywood to take you seriously once you've been pigeonholed in a particular type of role. Bulletproof Monk. The failure of 2003's Bulletproof Monk to make back back its budget, let alone any kind of profit, was a big career setback for Scott. On top of the obvious drawback to losing millions of your employer's dollars, he reportedly went all out, telling SF Gate that he "became obsessed with performing all his own stunts, immersing himself in a grueling martial arts training regimen for three months to prepare for the role." That probably made it sting even more when reviewers like David Edelstein made it a point to diminish the fight choreography of the film as being disguised by "millisecond cuts" and "chopped into scores of little kicks and punches and leaps that don't cut together." Slant 's Ed Gonzalez took a broader and even harsher approach, describing the entire film as "infinitely juvenile"—a slam that had to affect Scott, who also told SF Gate that his intention in pursuing the role was that it hopefully "gets the audience into that (more serious) aspect of what I can do." The Dukes of Hazzard. Though the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard movie made some money, it was destroyed by critics, leaving it with a dismal 14 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. The site's users weren't kind either, rating it at 46 percent; one audience reviewer called it "A stupid, idiotic, ridiculous film that has no reason to exist apart from to cash in on a classic TV Series." The Houston Chronicle described it as "either one of the worst [films] of the decade, a trenchant political allegory or both," while Time Out London zeroed in on Scott's performance, describing it as "mildly perverted puppy-dog goofing." Ouch. Aside from the critical slams, Scott also had to put up with co-star Johnny Knoxville's gross-out antics on set, including what he described to Chud as an almost daily surprise flashing of one or both of the Jackass star's testicles. Even if this film had been an Oscar contender, which it decidedly was not, we're not sure dealing with repeated unwanted genital exposure would have been worth it. Mr. Woodcock. Two years after The Dukes of Hazzard , Scott returned in Mr. Woodcock , a film boasting humor so subtle, the poster featured the title character holding two giant basketballs in front of his crotch. Get it? Even if this film had grossed a billion dollars—which it did not, by a long shot—it wouldn't have escaped the wrath of critics. IGN said there were "no likeable characters in the movie," and described the overall film as "an uninspired, unfunny and irritating experience." Reel Film Reviews offered a similar slam, calling Woodcock "a tedious and hackneyed effort," but it was DVD Town reviewer John J. Puccio who really went for the jugular when he said, "The whole film is like a depressing nightmare." After describing the setup of the film as having "virtually nothing in it of any humorous value," Puccio groaned, "just when you think the film can't get any worse, Scott shows up." Just Before I Go. Perhaps the worst failure of Scott's career to date is his attempt at a dramatic turn in Courteney Cox's film directorial debut, 2015's Just Before I Go . While doing press for the film, Scott talked about how great it was to shift from comedic roles into something more serious by playing a man on a farewell tour of sorts before he commits suicide. "It was rewarding to play pretty much the antithesis of what I've done in the past," Scott told Variety , adding, "To get a chance to play a totally different character—because he's just a good, average, relatable guy going through obviously an awful moment in his life—was great." Unfortunately, critics and theatergoers didn't agree. On top of the staggeringly low $10,970 total box office gross the film drew, Scott's performance was described as "tepid" and "colorless" by Stephen Holden of The New York Times . Justin Chang at Variety called the film "a dismal, tonally disastrous small-town farce," but actually threw Scott a bone by saying he "convinces well enough as a guy who wants be put out of his misery, and there isn't an actor here who doesn't look ready to join him." Oh wait, that wasn't a compliment at all, was it? He's often heard, but not seen. Scott has sustained his career with voiceover work. The actor's pipes can be heard voicing Crash in Ice Age: The Meltdown , Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs , Ice Age: Continental Drift , and Ice Age: Collision Course . Scott also voices Crash in the franchise's TV movies, shorts, and video games. At least if his fame isn't secure, his finances should be. But it's not all bad. Though Scott obviously hasn't continued on the career track everyone thought he would after he rocketed to fame as Steve Stifler, that doesn't mean we've seen the last of this leading man. In 2017, he resurfaced in a pair of sequels, with Goon: Last of the Enforcers as well as Ice Age: Collision Course , which has basically been his meal ticket for over a decade now. He's even mentioned during interviews that there's been talk of a Dude, Where's My Car? sequel, called, Seriously, Dude, Where's My Car? , for which we are 100% down. Scott's also hinted that he would return for a new installment of the American Pie franchise if the script was right, so it seems like he has no problem going back to his roots in order to keep his film career moving forward. Speaking of which. American Pie changed his whole life. Three years after that awkward first gig, Scott got the lucky break to audition for American Pie . Obviously, the part was a huge leap forward for Scott's career, and according to his Reddit AMA , it also dramatically changed his life. "If I had never gotten that part, there's probably a good chance that I wouldn't have gotten ANY parts, knowing how competitive the movie business is," he wrote. "So the fact that I got Stifler in American Pie , and that movie did so well, it was just a dream come true." Scott's mother was so excited about her son's big break, she even took her church group to see the movie—whoops!—and proudly referred to herself as "Stifler's mom," for a while, according to HuffPost . But even after he finished filming American Pie , Scott had to wait a bit for the fame to come. In an interview with Today , he said he actually took a job as "the churro guy" at the zoo while waiting for the movie to premiere. He only lasted two days before he had a revelatory moment when a gorilla threw a pine cone at him. "I was like, you're right, gorilla, I quit," he told the morning show. "I quit, and then I got Final Destination the next day." He's basically the complete opposite of the character who made him famous. Though Scott admitted in his Reddit AMA that he's "a HUGE instigator of trouble," he also said that's where any similarities between himself and Stifler end, adding, "the majority of that character I took from the friends i went to high school with." Which is also surprising, considering he once told The Sun that where he grew up, "everyone's so chipper and you make friends just grocery shopping. We kill each other with kindness." Scott's also referred to himself as having been "a nerd" in high school, despite his aforementioned athletic prowess, and even admitted to hating "the funny kids in high school because they got all the girls." That's right, the onscreen party animal was more of a wallflower in his formative years. In fact, when he shipped off to Hollywood, he didn't even have his sights set on the world of comedy. What's up with the second 'n' in his name? Just like "Stifler" is spelled with only one 'f' despite the obvious double entendre, the spelling of Scott's first name has confounded people for a long time. In an interview on Conan , Scott recounted the many times it's been mispronounced throughout his life—a baseball announcer once made it sound like "C-Anne"—as well as the dubious reason his parents chose the spelling. "So I asked my mom, 'Why did you add the extra 'n'?' and she was like, 'Oh, honey, if you were a girl we were going to name you Sunshine,'" Scott said. He then joked, "That doesn't answer my question, but I think there were some drugs involved." He also said that his parents were "fans of Sean Connery," which still has no bearing on the spelling since his first name just has the one 'n.' Conan summed it up well by saying, "Doesn't sound like a lot of thought went into it." "Zero thought," Scott agreed. The Wallflowers. It ’ s impossible to talk about The Wallflowers for long without addressing its direct lineage from one of the most profound, influential, and distinctive voices of late twentieth century America. The Wallflowers ’ singer/songwriter, Jakob Dylan, is the youngest of musical and social icon Bob Dylan ’ s five children. That fact unquestionably brought The Wallflowers premature fame and intense scrutiny — while, ironically, distracting attention from the band ’ s music. It ’ s a unique burden which Jakob Dylan has borne with reticence, grace, and a stubborn will to have his music judged on its own merits — not as an echo of his rock ’ n roll heritage. “ Absolutely, I think the name worked against me, ” Dylan told ’ s Gerri Hirshey. “ And I actually found some kind of power in that. I still do. I do not mope and I do not complain. I ’ ve driven my own path here, and I ’ m on it, and it ’ s fine. But … people think it must be easy. ” The Wallflowers ’ self-titled debut album was released in 1992 by Virgin Records. Unfortunately, it flopped; reviews were mixed and sales were poor. For most young bands, that would be part of the learning curve. For The Wallflowers, who reluctantly occupied a spotlight which the music press and the record industry reserved for the offspring of a legend, it was devastating. “ (M) ost of the band ’ s members were 22 and weren ’ t ready for prime time yet, ” Geoffrey Himes wrote in The Washington Post in 1996. “ The songs had flashes of inspiration and promise, but really didn ’ t hang together, and most of the publicity dwelt on Jakob Dylan ’ s parentage rather than the music. ” Following its disappointing debut, the band was released by its and endured a series of personnel changes. It would be four long years before The Wallflowers released their second album, Bringing Down the Horse . The album ’ s title, Dylan told Rolling Stone , reflects “ what it felt like … trying to make this damned thing. It was like trying to pull down a horse. ” Starting Over. The second time around, The Wallflowers had a new lineup, a new record company, and matured songwrit-ing. They also had all-star assistance from legendary producer (and Dylan family friend) T-Bone Burnett, , Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz, Jay-hawk Gary Louris, Heartbreaker guitarist , and Michael Penn, who also knows a bit about working in the shadows of a famous relation, as he is the brother of actor Sean Penn. The album went double platinum, cracked the Top 10 and the MTV rotation, received favorable reviews, and two Grammy nominations, and spawned the singles “ , ” For the Record … Members include Mario Calire, drums; Jakob Dylan (born 1969), vocals and rhythm guitar; , keyboards; Greg Richling, bass; , lead guitar. The band formed in the early 1990s and played around Los Angeles — notably in the Kibitz Room at Canter ’ s delicatessen. After its poorly received first album, the band was released by its record company and underwent a series of personnel changes. The Wallflowers ’ 1996 follow- up, Bringing Down the Horse , shattered the Billboard Top 10. Addresses: Record company — , 10900 Wilshire Boulevard #1400, Los Angeles, CA 90024. “ One Headlight, ” and “ The Difference. ” Dylan credits Burnett with helping to bring dynamics to the songs on their latest album. The songs feature a soulful, rootsy sound bathed in organ, dobro, and pedal steel guitar. “ This time, ” Himes wrote, ” they were ready. The folk-rock melodies are strong, the playing is clear and muscular, and the production … frames the lyrics ’ storytelling imaginatively. Jakob Dylan can never escape comparisons to his dad, but his new music can stand on its own as some of the year ’ s best. ” News-week ’ s Karen Schoemer likened TheWallflowers ’ sound to that of the Counting Crows and the Jayhawks. ” (T) he Wallflowers play rootless roots music: vaguely retro country-folk rock, with plenty of ’ 60s antecedents … but with a keen sense of modern production and sturdy hooks. In other words, they ’ re wildly derivative, but songs like ” One Headlight “ and ” “ feel so comfortably, soulfully right that you won ’ t care. ” “ If there ’ s one thing missing from Bringing Down the Horse , it ’ s a slightly stronger sense of Jakob himself, ” Schoemer wrote. ” His songs are full of quirky characters and wry observations, but they don ’ t always add up to a coherent perspective. … The transcendent melodies and the band ’ s furious precision carry him through when he ’ s too shy to put himself on the line. ” Dylan was raised by his mother, Sara Lowndes, after his parents ’ bitter 1977 divorce. He attended the private Windward School in Los Angeles and the School of Design in New York, where he had visions of becoming a painter. He dropped out of art school after four months, however. Ultimately, he was drawn to songwrit-ing. ” It was something I felt compelled to do, ” Dylan was quoted in Newsweek . ” So I just started. Everybody lives under shadows. I obviously have one, but I don ’ t pretend it ’ s any worse than anybody else ’ s. ” Dylan has been notably reticent to discuss his upbringing or his personal life. ” I feel like I had a normal upbringing — I consider it normal, at least, ” he told People . ” People have a lot worse things happen to them. The truth is, yeah, it was weird. Relatively interesting, but weird. I could write a book. But I ’ m not going to. ” In an interview with Rolling Stone , Dylan picked up the same theme: ” Do I think people are curious about growing up with one of the most influential minds of the 20th Century? Of course I do, ” he said. ” I get asked all the time, ’ What was your dad like as a parent? ’ And I say, ’ I ’ m 27 years old, I ’ m not a crackhead; I don ’ t go on afternoon talk shows and spill. ’ I mean, you can probably figure it out for yourself that he did a decent job. ” Dylan has said he never felt defeated by the trying events that unfolded following his first album or the long period he spent rebounding from them. ” It was almost comforting at that point, ” he says, ” I spent a year putting this group back together, writing more songs. ” In the end, it appears, that ’ s what kept him going. ” Jake loves playing music, ” says Wallflower bassist Greg Richling, a Dylan friend and bandmate since high school. ” He likes writing songs. No one wants to believe it ’ s that simple. ” Selected discography. The Wallflowers , Virgin, 1992. Bringing Down the Horse , Interscope, 1996. Sources. Audio , April 1993, p. 86. Entertainment Weekly , May 31, 1996, p. 60. Newsweek , September 2, 1996, p. 68. People , November 11, 1996, p. 74. Rolling Stone , June 12, 1997, p. 52. Washington Post , August 30, 1996. Additional information obtained from Interscope Records publicity materials. AMBER PAX COLLECTIONS. Simply put, AmberPax™ Collections are groups of five stories centered around a specific theme. Each story within an AmberPax™ is released individually, on the same day as the others, and can be purchased separately, but these five stories can also be purchased as a single unit (the full AmberPax™) at a discount, currently 25%. Generally, an AmberPax™ is similar to an "anthology" of stories, but instead of the titles being released in only a single volume (file), they are also available individually. These AmberPax™ Collections are sold exclusively through our website and only in electronic format. THIS BLOG is for news about the Pax Collections - follow it to keep up with releases, find early news of the upcoming collections, and share Pax fun and chat with the authors! All Amber Paxes can be bought at Amber Quill HERE . Friday, 21 December 2012. More about Wallflowers. If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all five, and that's five chances to win! 2 comments: I'm looking forward to reading this one. I'm always fascinated by characters who have a different sensory experience to life, whether it's by choice or not. Thanks for sharing! :)