Three Way News
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Monday, February 21, 2005
Ambition
Matt Wilson and John Munson were The Flops. Hammer and Ms. Hammer were fortunate enough to attend the Flops' farewell show, where the Flops said goodbye to the body of songs that have entertained audiences for years. The Flops intend to resurface in the fall with new material.
Digression: Why can Ticket Web sell tickets to a couple hundred people with a $2 service charge (total of $4 in fees for 2 tickets), but TicketMaster routinely charges at least $10 for the same service?
Three Way News wants to be the Flops. The Flops don't have any gold records. They don't enjoy rich advances to record albums. They don't go on international tours to world-wide acclaim. Yet they are undeniably great at what they do. Matt Wilson and John Munson stand on small stages before small crowds and play great songs. More than that, they entertain. They are full of wit and joy. They demonstrate enormous affection for one another and what they do. It's fun to see, and the Hammer doesn't say "fun" very often.
There's a shared dignity among the talented many who never achieve broad success. It's the dignity of choice: of never choosing to play White Goodman or to reprise your role as Greg Focker. I like Ben Stiller a lot, but I like his edgy, aggressive work -- The Ben Stiller Show, Mystery Men, Permanent Midnight -- a lot more than his safe, commercial output. Then again, if Dodgeball is really what Ben Stiller wants to do more than anything in the world, he's not quite the artist I thought he was.
We're setting the bar high, aiming to be as good as a live Flops show. We're clearly more Fangs than Jill Can Drive, at least for now. We might never unleash the magic of Toolmaster, the joy of The Slacks, or the impenetrable lyricism of Two Wheeler, Four Wheeler, but we promise we will try.
