[[Ray's Escalade on the road]] Ray [on phone]: Yeah, man! The fruit salad was hella raunchy! That fruit was ooooold. But that Captain's salami tray was tight, yo. You plump for the roast pork loin, dogg? Oh, proclaim on that pork loin!
[[Pat is revealed to be in the passenger seat next to Ray]] Pat: If you're going to have a stupid conversation, at least do it when you're not driving!
[[Ray puts phone to shoulder and puts on his serious face]] Ray: Don't distract me, Pat. Accidents. Crashes. A family is changed forever.
Ray: Sorry Kev. Yo, you try any of the club eggnog? Man, that action was a coma with nutmeg on top. I pour one out for the stick of butter that gave its life to be that eggnog. Pat: Eggnog isn't made with butter. It's made with heavy cream. Which is still better for you that driving on the phone.
[[Ray puts the phone to his shoulder again, with angry face]] Ray: Pat! What I tell you! Crashes! Wrecks! A child's pink Converse on the pavement...Is there a foot inside? The police walk up the mother's driveway! I'm serious!
[[Ray is back on the phone]] Ray: Sorry Kev. Oh! Oh! That bubble-butt bartender! Talk about dumb! Heh--hey, don't get me wrong, I looooove dumb, but that was like "stick two wires in her and she can power a clock" dumb. I mean, you ever seen a bartender thinks Heineken is wine?!
{{Alt text: This is every overheard cell phone conversation ever}}
I came across a quote from a Zadie Smith interview on KCRW. It was so dead on it made me feel shameful about my reading career. Then less shameful as I thought about the reading habits of others I know (with a few exceptions). But still, damn:
"But the problem with readers, the idea we’re given of reading is that the model of a reader is the person watching a film, or watching television. So the greatest principle is, "I should sit here and I should be entertained." And the more classical model, which has been completely taken away, is the idea of a reader as an amateur musician. An amateur musician who sits at the piano, has a piece of music, which is the work, made by somebody they don’t know, who they probably couldn’t comprehend entirely, and they have to use their skills to play this piece of music. The greater the skill, the greater the gift that you give the artist and that the artist gives you. That’s the incredibly unfashionable idea of reading. And yet when you practice reading, and you work at a text, it can only give you what you put into it. It’s an old moral, but it’s completely true."
I feel sad that the book that started my reading career as a kid was a novel adaptation of Return of the Jedi.
In any case, to be faced with a challenge is a good thing. In literature, you can run against some walls. Some people take this as an opportunity to say "this sucks" and toss the book into the fireplace and that's that (and sometimes funny).
What is lost is that there are indeed plenty of rewarding returns that are missed if you approach a piece of literature (or indeed music) like something consumable and disposable. People lose a sense for subtleties, word play, exposition and other forms of mind-expansion. Leaving behind a lack of imagination.
The alternative is just to try again. Attempt to understand. Don't be discouraged.
The same goes for other forms of art from which people demand instant entertainment. Music, film, painting, etc.
i wasn't planning on being so preachy, it shows my amateurnessocity, it was not what i originally wanted to say. But its not like i draft or edit these posts. I just find it annoying when people give up their right to think.
Anyway, rock on Zadie. Great analogy.
"it can only give you what you put into it" sums it up nicely, for morsel's sake.
---------------------------------------------- this piece of easily digested media was made possible by: Boing Boing
We had a nice gathering to watch the game. Tho since we're not the real sports types, everyone was pretty much late, and when i turned on the TV in the 4th minute, Taylor Twellman had just scored what turned out to be the game winning goal. Whoops. So the rest of the game we saw the Revs hold off some strong attacks and hold on till the end.
So, on for next Sunday, Revs vs Houston Dynamo in MLS Cup 2006. If i don't somehow go to Texas to see it personally (perhaps see some fam) I'll be on the couch with nacho things.
I'm excited that the New England Revolution have made it past Chicago in the Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference semifinals.
It came down to the wire. Chicago won the first game (in Chicago) 1-0. Game 2's official time ended with the Revs leading 2-1, but tied in aggregate goals for the series 2-2. There were fantastic goals by Taylor Twellman and Pat Noonan. After a scoreless overtime, it came down to penalty kicks. Among New England's successful kicks the goalie, Matt Reis managed to get one in, and the clincher came from Taylor Twellman in a picture-perfect moment at Foxboro as the Revs won on the penalty kicks 4-2.
Nice. For yet another year, the Revs move on to the Eastern Conference championship. I'm glad we have a soccer team of this calibre in New England.
Unfortunately for me, I wasn't able to attend this game. Which sucks because all the games (Eastern Conference Championship, possible MLS Cup) left are away. All this due to lack of a car (you try and help out the planet, and for what?) and the unexpected crapping out of the tailgating crew.
Aside from the whining:
the Eastern Conference championship between the Revs and DC United will be Sunday, November 5. 4pm on ESPN2. I'll be watching.
Currently I'm dealing with my first semester at Tufts Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy Program (which is UEP, and not UEPP, so stop giggling you skoolkids) (oh wait, that was just me).
It's a lot of work. I'm not such a good student. It's a good thing I managed to acquire a brain somewhere. It helps a little. but.
Why did I never learn how to budget time? Write a paper with enough time to edit and review? Learn how to search databases properly? If anyone knows the answer, please tell me. I'm so disorganized, I would call it an Obsessive Disorganized Disorder (ODD). I think I would crack if things actually went smoothly.
(By the way, if yr having some serious life problems, which I do also deal with [just not here], this is not the post for you. This is the post that people like you wanna kill people like me for writing. Wah.)
What makes things easier? In the little time between reading (I can't fool myself into thinking I can listen to music while studying)?
Listening to Fuzzbox's "Love is the Slug" repeatedly. important.
Discovering a lost song and video from around when i was 10. Christopher Williams "I talk to myself". Classic New Jack Swing, so much so you'll swear your listening to Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative". See for yourself:
Christopher Williams - "I Talk to Myself":
Bobby Brown - "My Prerogative"
Its kinda messed up that "I talk to myself" was a big song for me when i was 10 (11?). I was realizing that my future was going to be one of antisocialness. Thanks to 7th grade and up, I was right. I identified with the isolation that I was forced into. It would be cooler if it was Joy Division or something that got me into that mode of thinking, or at least if i was some nihilist into hardcore or something. but no. Christopher Williams.
Just look at how he sneers at the TVs when he's talking to himself. Or when he says "People think I'm crazy, they say i'm strange, cuz my attitude has taken a change, but it really doesn't matter, i really don't care, cuz all of them can GO TO HELL!"
ahhh.
i had a dream involving the rapper at the end. i was in some sort of gigantic college in the middle of mountains in the desert. and i was rounded up with a bunch of people to hear this guy give us some tough "scared straight" talk. but it devolved into incoherent ramblings and something "no one callin me on the phone" much in the same way the rapper does. that rapper is probably dead. or sad.
speaking of, and i hate s*it like this, but apparently there was a rumour that Christopher Williams died in 2005. He had to come out and tell people it wasn't true. That just sucks. That's when people wanna know what's up with you? When they think you're dead?
In the neverending task of finding out what happened to my childhood, I found a key piece that was stored in the back of my mind. From a childhood that consisted of waking up Saturday mornings at 5am to catch all the cartoons I could want. But those bastards stuck PSAs into my brain:
Zack of All Trades - "Future Blob"
What bugs me is that (among so many things) is that even after Zack turns the Future Blob into a sewing machine (ugh) it TURNS BACK INTO THE FUTURE BLOB! Even tho he turns it back into a sewing machine, how does this girl know it won't happen again? Ah well. Its funny that so many of us are still running from the Future Blob. "I am the Blob, the Future Blob!"
But lets get out of the negative. As a treat, and because my life is nothing but an embedded YouTube video, here is an essential part of my life. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12 !
Sesame Street pinball countdown compendium
They've just released old school Sesame Street as "Sesame Street: Old School" http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/reviews/dvd/sesame_old_school_1.shtml
There is also a documentary out now called "The World According to Sesame Street" that focuses on Sesame Workshop developing co-productions in places like Kosovo, South Africa, and Bangladesh. It raises some interesting questions about cultural sovereignty, teaching tolerance, reaching children, and also just how do you manage to wrangle international production teams to make it all happen? Its all interesting to me how they sort of export this model of production. There are moral issues, but I can deal with Sesame Street rather than Nike exporting globalization models. http://www.participantproductions.com/films/Coming+soon+on+DVD/63/TheWorldAccordingtoSesameStreet
Check out the Electric Company as well. I think that's where a lot of animated segments from Sesame Street came from. http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/reviews/dvd/electric_company.shtml
i was perusing Stylus Magazine's top videos list when i came upon images of lace, hairspray, crazy colored hair and layers of clashing clothes. an 80s video.
I learnt to dance in the indie clubs of Birmingham, and the main thing I learnt was this: don’t dance like nobody’s watching. Dance like everybody’s watching and you are, in fact, really good at dancing. The best way to do this is to make up a dance routine all of your very own for each individual song, including moves pertaining to the lyrics wherever possible. The video for “Love Is the Slug” takes this noble concept and bases an entire video around it, and films it in An Actual Indie Club In Birmingham In The Late 1980’s, resplendent with craply mirrored walls, a drunk guy who either isn’t with anyone or is with some people who have long since dissociated themselves from him, and first-hand evidence of what happens when you take STUDIO LINE hairspray and six-inch heels out of the hands of trained professionals. The high point: probably the bit where Fuzzbox illustrate “I feel emotion, I feel pain” by stumbling backward into a wall and going “Ow.” [William B. Swygart]
"
i thought this sounded great, i love the aspect of the 80s informed by both a sort of DIY and a love of pop.
Here is the video for "Love is the Slug":
"Love is the Slug" is an excellent song. the harmonies traded by Vickie Perks and Maggie Dunne are stupendous and remind me a little of Sleater-Kinney and the B-52s. In accordance to their name, they also use a fuzzbox and it sounds like the beats are being attacks by some determined hornets. Going back to the harmonies, the lyrics are pretty much from the view of a jilted girl talking about a guy and his new, possibly overpowering new girl. "i feel emotion / i feel pain" sounds ridiculous, but the whole package makes you want to believe. The vocals are super-serious, the dance moves home-grown, the hair super-ridiculous. beautiful.
Then i decided to do a little research.
Their beginnings are similar to the Go-Go's. Four girls decide, regardless of the fact that they don't know how to play anything, that they must be a band. The early days are full of the craziness of a indie/punk scene-inspired eclectic group of friends. they seemed to have fun. (Then on to total pop domination).
They had a run in the indie scene, had some great singles in the same fashion. (Fantastich videos for "Rules and Regulations" and "What's the Point" are at the bottom of this post). Their sense of humor had them name their first album "Bostin' Steve Austin". All of this around 1986.
But then they signed to a major and the producer of the Bangles and in 1989 released "Big Bang". It was a super slick dance pop record. The flip side to the 80s dancepop sound. one could say its devoid of anything real. you may not be completely wrong. in this period, its been alleged that the girls did not play their instruments. one thing thats clear is the DIY and edge are gone.
The vocal interplay and replaced by more traditional backup vocals. Vicki is put up front and apparently given a makeover into a sex symbol.
You can judge for yourself here with the video for "International Rescue", which plays tribute to the Thunderbirds show and Barbarella.
International Rescue:
I find it a little embarassing that Jo Dunne (guitar) and Tina O'Neill (drums) are relegated to being the Thunderbirds marionettes and Vickie is all super-sexy up front.
The song is catchy as hell though, as corny as it is.
So I've come away from the experience with two songs constantly stuck in my head.
After that album, they broke up. Vickie tried a solo career as Vix, which i believe is still going on. and she's still rather fit. Here's her site: http://www.vix.uk.com/
and it was rumored that they may reunite after the recent release of a horrendously named Fuzzbox cd/dvd compilation called "Look at the Hits on That!" Vix has recently said "no".
Still, i'm glad i found out about this Fuzzbox. I had those moments of staying up late so i could hear a song (Love is the Slug or International Rescue) one more time.
a review.
early = "What's the Point"
late = "Self"
an really early punky one = "Rules and Regulations"
You can also check out this video they did with their (indie label) Vindaloo labelmates The Nightingales and Ted Chippington in this song "Rockin with Rita (Head to Toe)". Its like everything BBC 6 tells me that the indie scene in England was like. Fuzzbox does backing vocals and clown around.
Rockin with Rita:
In "Big Bang" they also cover a Yoko Ono song, which i thought was an odd choice with the slick direction, but perhaps they kept a little of their edge somewhere:
They attempted some sort of nostalgia comeback a few years ago..
i heart.
a fan myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/fuzzboxsex
I have just listened to Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight" feat Ronnie Spector at least 17 times now.
Have you ever done that? Listened to "Take Me Home Tonight" multiple times? Till the words made sense? Then quickly didn't.
It brought me back, to rollerskating at the Rink in my hometown with this song blasting, wondering at this adult world i would one day assume.
Those 80s synths, sing-a-long chorus, super compressed drums and buzz guitar.
The nonsensical addition of Ronnie Spector given money to say "be my little baby" and "oh oh oh".
I feel a hunger. It's a hunger that tries to keep a man awake at night. Are you the answer? I shouldn't wonder when I feel you whet my appetite.
Those words, the sentiment, I mean, damn.
The 80s man did not know what to do.
Presented with what i imagine are red pumps, hairspray and a sweater that fit on one shoulder.
Let's find the key and turn this engine on.
He's driving along, his skinny tie and jacket all smooth, looks over at his passenger through his boss shades, and its all
Take me home tonight! I don't wanna let you go till you see the light! Take me home tonight! Listen honey just like Ronnie sang: Be my little baby!
And i imagine its all wood-panel rumblin after that.
and a soulless sax solo.
the realization of this in video form presents us boss shades, "bad" jacket, shirt unbuttoned to see his passion, silhouettes of high heels and big hair, a soulless sax solo to express the pain of his loins played on one of those fake saxes that look pinned to his shirt.
Then it goes through the trouble of having Ronnie Spector in the video, mostly as a silhouette cuz she is perhaps older than he thought, and the stage he sings on big enough so that he's like "hmm, yah maybe not".
I would like to one day create a pop song and have Eddie Money only repeatedly sing one line.
I've noticed a spate of 70s & 80s seminal punk* and otherwise formerly underground acts are touring very soon.
The Germs @ Axis - Sun July 30 - $15 (Apparently a movie is coming out about them, and the problem of Darby Crash, the lead man, being dead for nearly 30 years is solved by having the actor who plays him on vocals, because apparently he did a great job) (and get ready for even more people to have their 'trademark' blue circle as a patch)
Rocket From the Tombs @ TT's - Mon July 31 -$15 (A band that existed for a year and became Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys is back with Richard Lloyd from Television on guitar)
Throwing Muses @ Middle East Downstairs - Fri August 11 -$20 (The show i'm most excited by. You must love Kristin Hersh.)
Rollins Band / X @ Avalon - Sat Aug 19 -$20 (I'm much more excited about X)
Flipper @ Middle East - Fri Aug 25 -$15 (you must have 'Ha Ha Ha' or 'Sex Bomb Baby' on a compilation somewhere)
I will definitely be at THROWING MUSES (and YOU SHOULD TOO).
All these bands (except Throwing Muses, Rollins and X) have experienced the death of pretty vital people. usually singers. but that wont stop em.
i want to go to the other punk revivals, sorta. the money situation is a deterrent. Also is the possible crowd. I envision high school kids invading from the suburbs with make-up and clothing bought from Hot Topic ("TAKE THAT, MOM!"), with precious mall-bought attitude (also from Hot Topic). A few oddly placed crusts. And middle aged men with thick glasses.
Interesting. There's actually no real point to this post.
-- jsnk
* and by 'punk' i dont mean just fast, every song sounds the same, sung by a whiny voiced singer about girls, occasionally throwing in an ironic 80s cover. i've noticed that some of you believe this to be the case. NO. It is actually a mountain you go to when you die and its made of rock sugar candy.
Nice slithery verses with plaintive vocals A rebuke to those in relationships who've let laziness and complacency creep in. You are to be reminded:
"There are wants and there are needs, and they're two very different things. You can love or be in love. Again, they're two very different things! Yes, they're two very different things!"
Tell it, my wise sister.
The LBs have a very strong batch of 7"s, "Weekend Without Makeup" is the 5th. There will be a record coming out... oh god, sometime this year? i hope.
i dunno. check out their podcast on iTunes. i did.... i did.
i'm not sure if i ripped this whole entry off Pitchfork. i'm tired.
------------------
Speaking of whether i'm ripping off Pitchfork, if i start going on about how cute The Pipettes are...
and how great their girl groups harmonies are, then you will have confirmation. um...
Look below! It's the Pipettes with their new single (buy here w-sunglasses) and video "Pull Shapes". love it.
Hey, where ya from? What town? Where'd you go to school? What major? OK.
I'm quite looking forward to the World Cup in Germany (official site).
Its about the only time i can stand to watch multiple soccer games on tv without falling asleep.
i mean, yes, there are shameless displays of nationalism that i always feel uncomfortable with. but its always different in this game. Its festive. Not that this ameliorates the blindness nationalism produces. But its fun to watch. Plus, the US national team is not respected by people around the world, not to mention people in the US. So my attention to them has more of an underdog leaning, more than just beating my chest bloody screaming USA! USA!
I'm curious about how they'll do. they've been getting stronger since World Cup 94 that was held on these shores. Now they are #5 in the FIFA world rankings. Actually down 1 notch from earlier in the year. Higher than Argentina, Italy and Germany. I want to see if they've really earned that complement. In the last tournament, they made it all the way to the quarterfinals before losing to the monster that is Germany.
I wish em well. Get in on the ground floor with this USA thing i've been hearing about.
I also am keeping an eye on England. Also known as ENG-GER-LUND!!! Those English seem to be attached to this game. Whenever their squad makes it to the Cup, there's a big contest amongst bands to produce the Official Anthem of that year's World Cup team. This year its unfortunately gone to boring band, Embrace with some horrid and no-fun-at-all song (here). Unless you think his earnest lyrics about "going all the way" are some plea to a 16 year old girl to get into bed, then its kinda funny.
In the past, New Order and others have put together some stomach churningly awful and wonderful anthems to cheer on the team.
Here is New Order's "World in Motion"
Plus they got this tall guy, Peter Crouch, with the best celebration dance:
Tues May 16 Team Name: Theoooo! Placement: n/a Points: 76 Comments: The purity of our monoTheoistic thought was compromised by cowardly sabatoeurs, imperialist running dogs and spies. We must remember, as said by Brother JonaTheo Huxtable: "Theoooo!!! is the Red Sun in our hearts!" "Theoooo! is the great school of Huxtable thought!" The great Cutting is upon us.
Tues May 16 Team Name: Cockroach! (Theooooo!) Placement: 1st Points: 108 Comments: With 4 of 6 of the original team missing due to a ball shortage, "Theoooo!" could not achieve a quorum. It was decided that his best friend, Walter a.k.a. "Cockroach" help make our scheme work (me and jon with the assistance of seth and shannon). We did surprisingly well, wagered well, and defeated 17 other teams and got out of having to do homework. Take that, Mrs. Westlake. We did not get to have his mother's delicious pulpeta, however. Why? We do not have heart problems.
Sloth bears in a Dutch zoo chased this Barbary Macacque into an electric fence, which stunned it, and it got away in that wooden structure you see above. But the bear was huuuungry. HUUUUUUNNGRY!
Monkey eaten in front of children. tsk.
Its bad enough that the conservatives in charge have managed to distract the country from their mismanagement into thinking that illegal immigration is the #1 problem facing it. (i kno grammar bad, its 3:45am. f.u.)
This image alone should be enough to make America forget the name "Osama Bin Laden". (it goes down the lonely road of words like "universal healthcare")
i have no idea where the political angle came in. thats just what happens.
thats just what happens when you see a BEAR EATING A MONKEY.
Tues May 9 Team Name: Theooooooooooooooooooooo! Placement: 1st Points: 101 Comments: In our 3-peat, we were proclaimed "dynasty" by Fred the quiz guy.
In this episode: Blake Carrington is angered when the beloved Good Waitress is replaced by Idiotia Devareaux-Rappaport-Cunningham-Steele via a cunning scheme by Alexis Morrell-Carrington -Colby-Dexter-Rowan who is covering up her affair with Krystle Grant-Jennings-Carrington with Farnsworth behind the scenes. Pearl necklaces abound.
after sharing in a little KLF history last night after the softball game, i came across their sampledelic 1988 #1 UK single "Doctorin' the Tardis" which they released as the Timelords. A horrid and awesome mixing (because the now-played-out "mash-up" wun't 'round) of the Doctor Who theme and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll (Part two)" (you know, "DUH duh duh-duh HEY! duh-duh duh-duh").
They would later inspire my childhood with the Stadium House sounds of the KLF single: "3AM Eternal", which they would then perform (video) with a death metal band Extreme Noise Terror at the Brit Awards in 1992 with the lead man dressed in a trenchcoat on crutches and at song's end, shot blanks from an AK-47 into the crowd because they weren't allowed to throw sheep's blood at them. then announced their retirement. and threw a dead sheep at the awards' afterparty with a note saying:
WASTELAND I was checking out the excellent pixel art of Eboy featuring excellent pixel represenations of cities and concepts and came upon a design he did for Boston Magazine for an article byPhil Primack entitled The Waste Land (which i can't find on their wesbite).
The article talks about the proposed Greenway plan for the Big Dig. Here is an article which may be the one in question (at a different site).
NORTH STATION SUCKS TOO: Not realizing that Boston Magazine had any useful articles, I checked out if this article was available online (its not as far as i can search), in the process finding another Primack article about why MBTA's North Station is so awful. A part of it is the obvious: its being in the FleetCenter/TD BankNorth Garden. The current North Station was supposed to be temporary.
(an aside here to point out that the 'A' line of the Green Line of the T being suspended was "temporary" in the 50's, the 'E' line being cut off at Heath St was "temporary" in the 80's)
The article is Dysfunction Junction. from September 2002 and yet still accurate (not entirely sure about the water fountain).
"Bob Egan, the MBTA's project director for North Station, says he didn't assume his post until 1999 and doesn't know the details of the original agreements or, for example, why there's not a single water fountain in the entire station."
Sudan (ranked at #1) leads the list somehow, even though the D.R. Congo (2) has a government barely able to operate outside its capital city. Of course this is a shitting contest because both are the home to wholesale slaughter. One is a little more state-sponsored-y than the other. Humanism not high on the agenda.
Meanwhile, the US (128) is very far from this state, but i thought it would be in the green (Sustainable, like Norway (146 - highest and most sustainable), Sweden (145) and Canada (139)), but instead we are in the yellow (monitoring, like most of Western Europe and some fun states like Estonia (111), Oman (117) and Uruguay (120)) .
The factors that went into it regard the use of state power in internal security and strife, human rights abuses, economic factors.
Tues April 26 Team Name: Theooooooooooooooooooooo! (House of Cosby reference) Placement: 1st Points: 121 Comments: an amazing come-from-behind. Chiang Kai Shek my ass. Ignorant Folk from the South refer to Ice Hockey as a slur offending homosexuals participating in a race on ice. This is why Canadian teams such as the Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques become (not factually) Nashville Predators and Phoenix Coyotes and Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning. what?
Pub Quiz updates of days past and uncovered:
written by Jonathan Airport:
Pub Quiz Update #4 Tues March 28, 2006 Team name: Buttzilla Placement: Didn't place Points: Don't know
Skinner: Oh, it won't come down for months. Curse the man who invented helium!Curse Pierre-Jules-Cesar Janssen.Now to find out who did this...Bart!Empty your pockets.
Bart: Empty _my_ pockets, you say?[does so] Well, certainly, but I fail to see how --
Skinner: [picking something up] Hmm...blueprints of the dummy... notarized photos of you _making_ the dummy...and an alternate wording for the _banner_, "Buttzilla".
Pub Quiz Update #5 Tues April 4, 2006 Team name: Curse Jean-Pierre-Cesar Janssen! Placement: 1st Points: Don't know
Curse our memories of the name of the inventor of helium!
Pub Quiz Update #6 Tues April 11, 2006 Team name: Curse Pierre-Jules-Cesar Janssen! Placement: 3rd Points: I forget
Skinner: Oh, it won't come down for months. Curse the man who invented helium!Curse Pierre-Jules-Cesar Janssen!
Pub Quiz Update #7 Tues April 18, 2006 Team name: Naked Cosby Placement: 3rd Points: 97?
Invoking, then defiling name of Cosby with nakedness did us nothing but harm.
------------------ thank you. i also went to London and Barcelona.
Team name: Vietnam Vet Playing Air Guitar (ref) Placement: 1st Points: 89
sing:
Acid casualty with a reposessed car Vietnam vet playin' air guitar It's just the shit-kickin', speed-takin' Truck-drivin' neighbours downstairs
Whiskey stained buck-toothed backwoods creep Grizzly bear motherfucker never goes to sleep It's just the shit-kickin', speed-takin' Truck-drivin' neighbours downstairs
Belly floppin' naked in a pool of yellow sweat Screamin' jackass with a wet cigarette It's just the shit-kickin', speed-takin' Truck-drivin' neighbours downstairs
Psychotic breakdown double-edged axe Growin' hair like a shag rug on a greasy back It's just the shit-kickin', speed-takin' Truck-drivin' neighbours downstairs Oh, yeah Come on, honey, feel the grease Grease, grease Come on, honey, feel the grease Oh, my goodness Come on, honey, feel the grease Oh yeah Come on, lay it on me Bring it down one more time Come on, honey
Last night was a bit of a farce, it was Northeastern's spring break.
This meant that the bar was mostly empty and there were only 5 teams. 3 of which were mine and my friends.
Our team suffered from some casualties and causalities.
Cassie was taken ill. Jon was taken by Chrissy (and for the librarians, vice versa).
In their stead came two powerful substitutes in the form of JessO and Laura (Cassie's friend from TX and OK).
Right before the game, I'd just been listening to Goldfrapp's excellent new album "Supernature" and was quite taken with its 2nd single "Ride a White Horse". i wanted us to be something with the slight coccaine reference of "i want to ride on a white horse". Then with a quick remembrance of Scarface and Grand Theft Auto 3, we came up with a bastardization of the hit song featured in both "Rush Rush (to me, yayo)". Silly, referencing the 80s and coccaine. For no reason whatsoever. almost perfect and useless. Thus, our name.
We had some struggles. Remembered that Lincoln was born in Kentucky. Found out that the founder of Texas was Austin, not Houston. I came across the realization that the flamethrower was first used in WWI by the Germans. Why? I reasoned that tanks were being used at that point, and the best defense against early tanks? flamethrower. score. and other stupid crap.
It was a crazy evening.
Jess spilled her drink and broke her glass on poor Laura.
Laura forgot her wallet after leaving and Jess lost her cellphone.
Scott felt he'd smoked too many cigarettes (!)
You'd think we'd been on some sort of coke and booze-laced bender.
but no, just nerd olympics.
huh.
um so.
the standings,
in first place: Rush Rush with the Yayo (us) (110pts) in second place: The Night Kitchen (librarians) (96 pts) in third place: The Minus 3 (engineers) (93 pts)
as always, the contra team pulls out ahead.
and for 2.5 hours, our lives are meaninful once more.
much like the quiz God gives you before you go to heaven...
growing up in the NYC area in the Bronx and then New Jersey with no cable, my family tuned in religiously to Channel 7, WABC New York. it was the channel that came in the clearest on our rabbit ear TV.
sometimes, i would stay up late.
then on rare occasions, i stayed up too late.
somewhere around midnight.
the late night movie would start. with its special theme
Channel 7 was my friend.
Bill Beutel would never be a part of something that would hurt me.
but somewhere around midnight
it would all go black
there came loud jeering trumpets
glistening with cheerful brutality and
cruel black and white elephants
marching very fast all over the place
motorcars gunshots
as i sit back screaming
with eyes wide open
there was nowhere to run or hide
the fact that this was happening
could never be stopped
and those elephants in
black and white grainy film from the 30s
were going to kill me
as their time period and disposition
gave them no choice to do otherwise
and the booming trumpets blared
and blasted in my ears
it was never going to end
until my heart stopped
but even after that
the screams would not and
as cascading animated shockwaves
bludgeoned me
warned me of a world
much more cruel than
i had imagined
black and white elephants
the Bronx is no more
America is waiting
speed of death i was encased in a tomb
with the inscription:
"LATE NIGHT MOVIE"
finality
and the brutal pomp would fade
and i shudder in a corner
with eyes and mouth wide open
and the TV is clicked off
(my parents or other caretakers never seemed to be around at the right moment).
well.
since then, i could have found the source of this terror.
but i didnt. i talked about it. but i didnt.
finally Ria found a WABC late night movie theme.
but it was the much tamer late night theme that they currently use.
no no.
thanks to some search engine, i found it. the key to the worst pure terror in my life.
I've been meaning to update about my pub quiz team.
For years i've been coming up with band names but have regretfully no music skill or band. So at least i've been able to contribute to having a good name for our team.
We play at Flann O'Brien's in Brigham Circle on Tuesday nights because its convenient and we do much better there than at Charlie's Kitchen in Harvard Square. Damn Harvard kids. Teams compete with a max of 6 people, which we all try to have. Our team competes mainly to counter teams of our Simmons grad school library science friends (such as Elliott's sister Sarah and Jon's girlfriend Chrissy) and our fellow NU grad engineer friends (Barry, Andy).
We typically pick a name through a painfully democratic process taking a half hour. Its painful because i do not always win the competition. If we win or place 2nd or 3rd (which we do, more often than not), we usually keep the name. I like to go with names that confuse and horrify in an abstract or brutalist way.
The librarians usually go with "Teenage Fathers Against Nicotine (TFAN)". which i hate. The Engineers are usually "Team X" which they've dropped to go with a movie band name. Such as their first pick "Wyld Stallions" from Bill and Ted.
We started off as Soylent Green Cattleprod. Which I did not pick. It was Barry's choice during a formative period. We did well with good placements.
When we lost, me and Jon played off a Simpsons reference. Our name was "The Cure Is Killing Me and the Toaster's Been Laughing At Me". a play off of Homer's famous "The Doll's trying to kill me and the toaster's been laughin at me!" during the evil Krusty doll Halloween episode as well as a comment during a previous game when the Cure was playing during a question and Scott said "The Cure is killing me".
After losing that one after a good streak, my memory loses me. There was one regrettable time when i wasn't there for the naming and we were "A Dingleberry Ate My Baby". pathetic 1st grade poop joke name.
One after that was a particularly awful name that i enjoyed (and chose): "Its A Family of Hair". named after listening to "Its a Family Affair" and remembering hometown hair salons named "Hair It Is" and "Hair We Are".
An excellent one (that i picked) recently was "Dick Cheney Shot a 78 Year Old Man (in the face)". we got 2nd that time. wonderful, got some laughs plus a dynamite "And in 2nd place..."
After that I was in London visiting the lovely Carolyn.
That week the team became "Throw Up In My Mouth". another horrid name picked by some girl i dont know.
Upon my return I lobbied to have it changed. Democracy changed it to "Dick Cheney in My Mouth". a rather sad compromise which still got a few chuckles.
This week: Dick Cheney In My Mouth - 84 points, 4th place. players: Me, Jon, Cassie, Mike, Scott, Keith.
finishing 4th behind Wyld Stallions (NU Engineers) in 1st, Teenage Fathers Against Nicotine (Simmons Library Science) in 2nd.
Hard-Fi have been constantly playing in my subconscious for about a year. While I was working at the Joslin Diabetes Center, I needed some tunes to get by, and I eventually tuned to the wonderful saviour-of-my-existence: BBC 6 Music (over the internet).
Hard-Fi had just begun their run of solid singles in the UK with "Cash Machine". Its a song I enjoy a lot now. At first I thought it was pretty hokey; like this was an indie band acting as boy band. but there was an earnestness at play. The song is pretty much about how you work for little money and next thing you know, its gone. Simple, and the song includes melodica backing (its like a little keyboard you blow into, sounds like a harmonica). Then there was another single "Tied Up Too Tight", about how the "cognoscenti don't like us" as they blast out of the suburbs into London. fairly rockin.
What finally hit me was their single "Hard to Beat". Another great pop song that rocks. I find it utterly irresistable. Great beat, great urgency. Its all about how the lead singer fancies this lady and how they'll make a big splash when they're together. "Can you feel it? Rockin the city".
As for the show, they delivered their album "Stars of CCTV" (CCTV for Americans means 'closed-circuit TV', the UK is covered in security cameras recording your drunken actions on the street, making you the "star" of CCTV). As far as musicianship goes, they were tight and pretty close to the record. The frontman Richard Archer gave the crowd quite a performance himself as a charismatic leader. he held the crowd in full attention with his antics. you could giggle at his melodica bursts, but it was done with such enthusiasm that you had to admit it works.
Also enjoyable was a vigorous dub-rock rendition of the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army". yes, with melodica.
Great performance. Hope to see some more animated British bands soon. -------------
Though now that i said that, i'm sad that i won't actually get to see THE animated british band The Gorillaz, as they will be performing at the Coachella Festival a little after my trip to retrieve the beautiful Carolyn from the clutches of the UK and Spain. Damn Cash Machine.
both thoughts bothered the shit out of me. Would I stoop so far as to love a single because it sounds like a marriage between Le Tigre and Elastica?
I'm still working that out unfortunately. I'm learning more about the band, and they are giving me a bit of hope. They are a touch of mid-90's brit-pop for sure. Under the banner that Elastica and Sleeper held up (regardless of the quality of either).
The Elastica is there in force, with the swagger and knowingness of the Kate's vocals. The spare yet highly effective and fast moving rhythm section and housefly guitars buzzin. ahh i love it so.
The Le Tigre-style restless femme-disco-punk sounds (complete with girl-chants!) are I believe an addition of these days we live in. (If there is a group of lesbians without a band imploring girls with thick glasses to get on the dancefloor, then they are behind the times. but i digress, this is a tenth of the single's sound)
um.. or the action sound is just cool. i really hate to get cynical about the post-punk/dance punk sound. its something i awaited for years to be "the" thing. it'll be a while till i need sludge and total trash all the time again.
What they are showing me is that they are an honest band from an honest town (Sheffield, home of Pulp, many awesome 80s synth bands, and post-industrial decay). It just so happens that the singers cooing and knowing voice harkens me back to the days of hearing "connection" and "stutter" on the radio.
Very seductive.
But is it the Devil?
and of course the answer is yes. but that's because music, the internet, left-handed people and vowels are evil.
and have a listen and peek at the video. unfortunately they've made both to start at the same time. a selection of other songs at the top, video for Separated By Motorways in the middle.
and speaking earlier of Pulp and Elastica, this song, like the others seem to be great voyeuristic stories and character sketches in Brit cities and suburbs. drinking and running around all night and girls and boys.
here is perhaps their mission statement that perhaps confirms that view from their site (perhaps):
" There are things you won’t forget: 4711 at the nape of the neck swallow tattoos and cameo brooches applying eyes on southbound coaches piles of unread Sunday papers cheap guitars and timeless vocals
Suburban pop and the politics of love?
There’s more where that came from, you know."
Consider me swooning.
enjoy!
I'm Torn Into Pieces, Can't Deny It, Can't Pretend -JSNK-
Sorry spider-fans, I've been addled by a brain freeze. but no more.
Over the past few weeks, there's been the usual holiday rush, cold, unseasonable warmth, sadness because Carolyn has left for study abroad, a total music burnout from me burning cds of the classics for her with hand-picked bonus tracks and filling a book with them, and then... i just go blank.
but to help fill in that blank, i had a series of visitors: Elliott, Kelly and Robin. All seperate.
Here's a short story of Kelly. She was having some mama-drama during the visit. Not literally of course. So i decided to cheer her up with a little help from another Kelly who made us laugh, cry and yell back in our Forest Hills days:
And of course, it worked. But as time drew on, when Kelly would awake in the morning and be confronted with "Here I Am" it reminded her of something else... Something sinister...
