Arkin's Spoils of War: The iTunes Celebrity Playlist

A year ago, Alan Arkin was just another character actor schlub riding a revival wave after Little Miss Sunshine's stunning Sundance run. Today, after exploiting America's soft spot for horny, heroin-snorting grandfathers all the way to an Oscar, the native New Yorker's true payoff arrives in all its head-exploding ironic glory: The Alan Arkin Celebrity Playlist from iTunes.

Yes, for only $11.88, you, too, can enjoy the folky, jazzy idyll of this discriminating (if accidental) tastemaker, including:

"The City of New Orleans," Arlo Guthrie: "A moving and beautiful tribute to a life goneby."

"Is That All There Is?," Peggy Lee: "This song sounds like good Kurt Weill. It's got some interesting philosophy behind it, its moving [sic], mysterious, and almost frightening."

"Hope For Enlightenment," Lama Gyurme: "A lullaby for the whole earth, sung by a Tibetan Lama, arranged by Jean-Phillipe Rykiel which actually enhances the chant instead of dissipating it."

"Better Days Ahead," Pat Metheny Group: "Genuine and deeply moving Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, a couple of geniuses, who together make magic, and present a genuine international music without great heart, and no pretension, that verges on the symphonic."

Van Morrison, Dizzy Gillespie and goddamned James Taylor are elsewhere among the selections; certainly Eddie Murphy bristles at this grave compounding of insult atop injury, as he ached for a critical reappraisal of "Party All the Time" and his photogenic James "Thunder" Early persona would trump Arkin's accompanying "Grandpa Frank's Songs of Love" artwork 10 times out of 10. Will the Norbit curse of lost opportunities and archrivals' Pat Metheny endorsements never abate?

Posted at March 6, 2007 9:58 AM