Archive for the 'Music' Category

Blurbtacular Saturday!

Published on October 11, 2008 in ..The Dude, Music, Sports and Television. 1 Comment

Random thoughts for a random Saturday in a random October of a random life.

Went to Bardovan in Poughkeepsie last night and was struck by the people sitting there listening to live guitar driven music like it was performance art. A packed house full of people sat there for 2 hours not reacting to music they paid a decent amount to hear live. No bobbing their head to the beat. no foot tapping. Nothing. But after each song they erupted into raucus applause and cheering. Now I didn’t like the music at all and even I was bouncing my leg a bit. Mostly I wanted to nap or run from how obnoxiously loud the music was.

And that’s another issue I have: The idea that louder = better. Screw nuance or subtlety. Just blow their ears out and they’ll think they’re hearing some good shit. Dazzle them with a sound system and they wont notice how mediocre the music is. THis is a widespread issue even on CD’s which are being produced to play louder. IT’s some of the stupidest shite to happen to music since people started treating Country music as a legitimite art form worthy of a separate awards show.

The performer in question was Susan Tedeschi and her band. Sort of a blues-Bonnie Raitt type of sound. Raitt is perhaps not coincidentally playing the same venue this Sunday night. Thank god I won’t have to sit through that overrated crap. I want twang in my lemonade not my music. But the impression I got from the room last night was of a bunch of uptight elitist hippies wanting to be seen out and about doing cultural things and pretending to like a marginal talent because its Woodstock hippie cool to take notice and support fringe stuff. That’s fine if you really like it. But if you really it like shouldn’t you move to the music instead of sitting there studying the stage like you’re watching a Fellini movie?

I even smelled a few people with Patchuli on them. Most of them men I think. Now as much as I find aspects of the Patchuli smelling experience deplorable and everything it stands for dubious I am prone to want to have sex with a woman wearing it. THis is one of my burdens and or fetishes. Due to a couple of women in my past I want to both vomit at the smell and fornicate. Perhaps simultaneously. Judge me if you must. But a man wearing it just makes me want to beat the living crap out of him until the coppery silver smell of his own blood overwhelms and purifies the stench he has so liberally applied to his flesh. And I do mean liberal in a couple of ways here.

_____

mOre on music: I think Metallica putting out a decent new album is making me revert to an 80′s-early 90′s version of myself. I’m dressing in black, being angry more, wanting to be unemployed just hanging out improving my body and mind on my own time, and am less attractive to women then ever.

See now that I think about it whatever fortune I had with women (and I did have some surprisingly pretty attractive women’s attentions considering my lack of looks, physical prowess or money for a bit from my late 20′s to mid to late 30′s) seems to have coincided with Metallica sucking somewhat. Now just in time for me being ignored and shunned all over again Metallica is back with a pretty good album. In my opinion their first of that decade to 12 year period in question where pretty girls occasionally talked to me rather than spit upon me.

Problem is I doubt they’ll make good albums until I’m 80 or whatever.

But Death magnetic is good. It’s not AJFA or MOP good. Or even Black Album. But it kicks some ass and has some riffage that grabs you by the throat and chokes you refusing to let go until you change your evil ways. THere’s some decent impotent middle class white boy rage venting possibilities on it and perhaps that’s why I’m wanting to revert to the impotent middle class white boy of my misspent youth.

_________

Red Sox take game 1 in Tampa. Still think Rays have an edge if it’s a long series. I think if it goes 6-7 they win. If the Sox are going to win this thing I think it has to happen in 4-5 and end at Fenway. THat remains highly unlikely. But sweet babseball jesus do I enjoy watching Boston play. Thank mythology there’s an American League with a team I’ve always dug and does everything a large market team should do for me to hide out from the Mets in and around.

And speaking of the Mutts no one should be untouchable. I wold trade anyone in the right deal. I would start with Jose Reyes the most overrated player in the game. I’ve never taken to him and his clownish antics. i think he’s a stupid player, incapable of learning, and a showboating loser. If I could get a top line arm for him I’m there. I’ll drive the punk to his new city.

________

Giants looking good but not really tested yet. Even if they take that step back I thought they would and still think will get exposed later this season due to the losses they’ve sustained this is a solid bunch with decent youth and this could be fun to be around for a few years. And they already stole a Super Bowl championship early in the game.

Good times.

________

THis just in: Sarah Palin vomited about a quart of semen since identified as belonging to long dead Pilgrims.

______

Some of McCain’s decent side finally came out Friday when he tried putting an end to his supporters hate filled and ignorant ramblings about Obama. I almost felt sorry for JM when he had to cut off this illiterate white woman that could barely form a sentence about being scared of an Arab President. You know deep down he hates these people as much as he ever did. But he sold his soul to them and has had to live with the legacy of a dumbed down electorate and the fear mongering tactics of his party. He’s in league with the devil and he knows it. That’s worse than Bush who really has no fucking clue.

_______

SPeaking of which I want to see W. I’m not a huge Oliver Stone fan. He’s an ok director who takes things too far quite often. BUt I want to sit in a theater with liberals and watch as they get as tribal as right wingers at a church rally pretending what they’re watching is reality instead of just something that makes them comfortable. It’s stupid shit but it may be fun stupid shit and it’s always good to remind myself of how liberals are just as full of it at times.

Though far less judging from the evidence.

I don’t like the fact that Stone apparently puts a lot of Iraq on Bush’s daddy issues. i think that minimilizes the conspiracy and long standing ideological agenda that was at play there and Dick Cheney’s part in it. One only has to read the PNAC policy paper from the 90′s of which Cheney was an author to know why Iraq happened.

________________

And if it weren’t for Iraq maybe we could use some of that uncountable money to help out the economic crisis. I’ve myself lost 2-3 thousand so far. THis is partly my fault for letting my money sit in a system I didn’t believe in. I’ve wondered aloud how we could sustain our economy when it’s built on invisible money and credit. Debt being the number one industry in America couldn’t be a good thing could it? People buying shit they can’t afford can’t be smart can it? It’s got to blow doesn’t it? And yet I left it in there hoping I was just ignorant about economics. Which I am. So maybe the experts really know something I don’t and that’s why they trust the system.

Well they did know more. But it’s not why they trusted the system. THey were towing a party line and burying their heads in the sand.

But this isn’t all about Republicans and Democrats or Wall Street corruption. I wish Obama had the guts to put some of the blame where it belongs. And that’s on the spoiled brats making up the American people. We have a sense of entitlement here. Americans believe they deserve it all and deserve it now. Whether they can afford it or not. So just charge it. Buy a house because you deserve it and its an american birthright to own a home. Someone will will give you a loan and then you’ll win the lottery or god will provide or whatever.

Didn’t work. All debts come due and if you don’t do the math and show your work you’re going to fail. That’s why I haven’t brought a house these past years when everyone was buying and telling me I had to because it’s a great investment. THose numbers never added up. Equity never added up. now many of those popel are facing foreclosure or are going to get bailed out by my losses and future tax dollars. They’re just as much to blame as the CEO’s and predatory lenders.

But entitlement means never having to say you’re sorry.

________________

Come on admit it. No matter what the polls say part of you thinks the Republicans will fix the election and steal it again.

Not that I trust polling at this time of the election year. How much of a cross representation are they? And do they really take into account electoral college votes rather than popular votes. A broad survey of American might just say a certain percentage of idiots is favoring one idiot over another idiot by whatever percentage points. But if those percentages are not affixed to individual states electoral counts what does it matter?

And didn’t Kerry and Gore lead at this time also?

PLease Barack stop telling me this is the most important election of our time. You guys said that in 04 and choked on it like the Mets in September. 04 was bigger. Much bigger. Just deal with it America. Retrospectively 2000 was bigger than both 04 and 08 combined though we couldn’t know just how much at the time. But 04 was bigger at the time and retrospectively. I wanted that one so bad I could taste it. I know Kerry would lose despite the polling but it was close enough I allowed myself to hope. And i wanted it bad and was commensurately disappointed when it didn’t happen.

I’m not going there now. McCain would not be as bad as Bush. That’s more bullshit Obama rhetoric and he knows it. He is far less full of it than McCain but let’s stop making him out to be Truth & Justice incarnate. The scary thing is a potential Palin presidency if McCain can’t make it through 4-8 years. That could be a catastrophe. That’s what Democrats should be talking about because it remains the single biggest difference between two candidates that aren’t half as different as they are making themselves out to be.

________

And pragmatism.

Look it up. Read your history.

________

A guy who actually writes for the Wall Street Journal actually said taxes are un-american and that the country was built on not paying them. He mentioned the Boston Tea PArty. The Wall Street Journal!

Dude, the slogan was not “No taxation!” It was “No taxation without representation!” THey didn’t have an issue with being taxed. They had an issue with being taxed by a sovereign across an ocean without and say or freedoms. Once we formed our own nation the founding dudes installed taxes. Washington even killed some americans for not wanting to pay them.

Seriously someone who writes for the WSJ should know this shit. BUt right wing ideology real does seem to make people stupid and put some amazing ass big blinders on.

________________

TV:

I loved Pushing Daisies last year but it’s kind of boring me now. It hurts me to say this. THe show needs an arc. Some internal mythology beyond the one note touch the dead thing. Bring back Pee Wee Herman.

Heroes is some of the stupidest stuff on the tv. Show makes no sense. Just from an internal logic angle. None. I can’t watch it anymore. I wish people would watch Mad Men more so I can talk about it.

Jack Bauer is coming. Look busy.

I think Galactica airs the next minute of their final season this week. I hear next weeks minute really rocks! I can’t wait until 2034 when all the minutes have aired.

Did I mention sci fi channel sucks?

MSNBC is sometimes like Fox Left OF The Dial. Can’t someone on tv let people form their own opinions? I like having an outlet like them sometimes but I hate seeing some good folks there like Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow carry on like ideology is strictly a GOP invention and that having the same stable of cheerleaders on board constitutes a broad spectrum or reportage.

_______________

I want a t shirt that says I’m voting for “That one,” with a picture of Obama.

____________

Seriously, how may Republicans do you think have masturbated over shagging Palin? She is literally their wet dream come true. Surface gloss, dirty underneath the librarian cover with a the all-off stain remover of Jesus to make it ok, stupid enough to believe whatever they suggest, would probably let them call her, “mommy,” nice boobies, and a predilection for skull fucking.

Ok I sort of made up that last one. As far as I know. But the rest rings too true and I’m sure many a GOP bedsheet has needed extra laundering the past 6 weeks.

________________

Tommy Can I Hear You?: The Director’s Cut Of My Last Post.

Published on November 3, 2006 in ..The Dude, Music and The Ill-Literates. 0 Comments

Tommy Can You Hear Me? The unedited and unexpurgated single topic bootleg version.

I love a good concept album. “The Wall” and “Operation Mindcrime” are my 2 all time favorites with honorable mention going to Green Day’s recent “American Idiot”. I hear My Chemical Romance’s new one is a concept album and good but I haven’t heard any of it. System Of The Down’s most recent may be but I haven’t heard enough of it.

But is a story about a deaf and blind guy who has a facility for playing pinball machines really worthy of an hour concept album?

There’s alot of good songs on Tommy, as well as alot of filler, but it’s just kind of hard to get too involved in a story so specific.

I mean no matter how hard I try I just can’t quite relate to being deaf, dumb, and blind.

Or rocking the pinball machines.

And being named Tommy Walker.

Yeah there’s some non-literal connections I have to the idea of feeling isolated and unable to connect to the world around me.

But for me Pink Floyd’s The Wall covers this territory better without drawing too fine a characterization that it takes me out of the concept.

Plus The Wall is more thematic than narrative. I think that helps offer itself to a wider interpretation.

I just thought it was about time I spoke out about this.

Plus i just wanted to talk about rock music. I was thinking about Classic Rock in particular yesterday. I think it was because I was hanging at my friend Jeff’s. He is a hippie from back in the day. He grew up with this stuff. But even though I was unborn or too young to remember alot of the stuff, I was thinking about how much I’ve always felt a connection to 60′s and 70′s music.

Those who know me know I’ve had an 80s thing going on for a while. Understandable since i was around and had first hand knowledge of it that created memories which now in my later 30′s have bled into memories sticky, creepy stalkers, nostalgia. But when i hear alot of that stuff like some of Tommy, or CSNY, Joni Mitchell, Simon & Garfunkel, Led Zep, The Byrds or whoever, I kind of feel like I’m connecting in a personal way to a time and place even though I wasn’t in that time and place.

This is probably just a testimony to the great musicians that were so inspired during the period. But sometimes I wish I had been older then. Like I missed my time. I think that’s one of the appeals of Almost Famous, which has become one of my all time favorite movies. I was dropping the DVD off for Jeff to borrow when I got to thinking about all this. I couldn’t believe he’d not ever seen it. I love that movie the way a man loves the first teacher he had a crush on and always felt he belonged with if only she’d wait for him to get older.

For me it’s the kind of movie you just want to hug and be around all the time.

And of course I can’t not mention The Beatles while I’m going on about the era. They are the first older woman you do have a relationship with.

Ok I never actually had a relationship with an older woman but you get my point.

The Beatles are amazing. I can remember the joy of discovery when I really found them. I was in my late teens-early twenties. Having that whole catalogue of material suddenly open before me was magical. An experience of discovery of such wide eyed wonder and pure joy I’ll probably never experience again. Sure there could be other bands in other genres that have gone largely untapped. But rock will always be first and no one in any genre could touch what the Beatles did. Maybe I’ll get into Jazz and Coltrane in a way I’ve never thought to before someday. But I’ve listened to enough Jazz to know it can never make me smile or feel a connection to others the way the Beatles or rock music can.

Throw in the fact that music becomes harder and harder for me over time as my hearing fails in one of my ears and there is certainly a joy and purity lost in that simple physiological fact of my existence. “Don’t it always seem to go that you dont know what you got till it’s gone,” indeed Joni.

Motown can also make me feel alot of that kind of funneled emotion. As a whole that music, of that era made for quite an enjoyable year or so of discovery. I brought boxed sets of the Temptations and Marvin Gaye and just gave myself over to it wondering why it took me so long. I think I was in my mid twenties. The Funk Brothers were the common element running through all the music coming out of Detroit at the time. And I guess Smokey wrote alot of stuff for other acts as well. I had this prejudice against musicians who didn’t play their own instruments until The Four Tops and the rest. I kind of still have it but I suspend it for these guys. Some of the Stax guys down South as well.

But even though no one group captures the mega-status or garners the intimate relationship the Beatles do, the Motown sound as a whole was really a great high point that can still awaken in me a feeling of innocence that resonates with a good kind of naivete about love and a hopeful longing unencumbered by wisdoms cynicism.

Will people listen to all of the above the same way in 25 years? 50? I don’t know. Judging from the music of the past 10-15 years it doesn’t seem like much of it will be worth remembering or preserving. Even the stuff I like just doesn’t have the same life. Maybe it was the drugs of the era.

I loved the grunge era, still dig the Pearl Jam and Audioslave that are its byproducts today. Radiohead, Beck, Green Day, and a few others stand out for me. But even these are hard to imagine resonating with new generations who discover it and through it connect to a time and place. Maybe this has something to do with my generations not living through particularly memorable times. To paraphrase Tyler Durden we have no war, no depression, only our lives. THere is no WWII. No clear cut battle against evil. There is no deep soul searching born of Vietnam or civil rights movements. Yeah we had 9-11 but that’s been muddied and forever linked to grave mistakes and wanton lies. And Iraq’s been done in Vietnam.

Sure there have been changes. I’d say mostly for the better despite the Bush years. But it happens so fast and there is so much happening that nothing serves as defining. Growth and change is exponential and we’re so specialized now. It’s all important but is it memorable? Maybe the music is a byproduct of that. I shudder at the thought of one day not having music as a source of joy, inspiration, or just energy in my life. Individually I will certainly always sing Pearl Jam songs to myself even if they don’t become the stuff of lore for our cyborg grandchildren in a hundred years.

Even if I can’t hear it mysef. I don’t know if things will get bad enough that it will be like that ever but I know it’s harder now and will get harder. It’s only to what degree that remains in question. Hopefully I’ll have enough to keep on rockin in the free world for a long long time.

Even if I can’t do it very loudly.

And Tommy is still overrated. But with some great songs nonetheless.

Pearl Jam

Published on June 7, 2006 in ..The Dude, Music, Reviews and The Ill-Literates. 6 Comments

[image:134:l] After getting a chance to absorb the new album I'm definitely in approval mode. You can buy it here Amazon.

Like most great things it's getting better after a first spin or two that left me a bit lukewarm.

P.J. has been getting alot of buzz with this new one. That's kind of an oxymoron for a band that seemingly dedicated itself to the committed and passionate avoidance of all publicity. Maybe that's why they made this a self titled album, a designation usually reserved for debuts.   But now they're out there doing the interviews, posing for the magazines, and even making their first video since the brilliant "Do The Evolution," from the underrated Yield album. This one will be for the first single that actually was #1 for a bit a few weeks ago, "World Wide Suicide". The song, like the album, has a clear political point of view. WWS is a catchy number with pointed lyrics underlying the quiet part of the war through the loss felt at home:

Medals on a wooden mantle/ Next to a handsome face/ That the president took for granted/ Writing checks that others pay/ And in all the  madness/ Thought becomes numb and naive/ So much to talk about/ Nothing for to say.

The album still isn't selling bucket loads but it may do so over time when the boys release more singles and people hear that there is more to this puppy than just WWS. "Marker In The Sand," is likely to be a single and I'll be curious to see what kind of reception it gets if it is so. It's a song that reveals its pleasures slowly, which when all is said and done works better. Pearl Jam may not blow you away with easy hooks and choruses but unlike those tunes that do I can still enjoy a PJ song years later. Not that sweet poppish tunes can't be enjoyed. The Beatles stuff still holds up for the most part, though I'd have to say the earlier and simpler "I Want To Hold Your Hand," stuff hasn't had quite the staying power as "A Day In The Life," or "Revolution." PJ write songs more like Happiness Is A Warm Gun though usually mixed with a Who-ish classic rock sensibility and various alternative and punkish influences like Fugazi and The Stooges.

Although, there is actually a very uncharacteristic Beatlesque number called "Parachutes," on the new album that took some time to penetrate but has managed to get under my skin. Despite not having a real overt chorus to give us a sense of place it kind of meanders pleasantly in a way that feels to me like a sweet mix of "Across The Universe" and "Norwegian Wood" sans the sitar. It appears to be a troubled relationship song that's managed to get me humming snatches here and there goading me with its harmonic lyric-guitar relationship that perhaps servs as the musical equivalent of the symbiosis necessary in the human kind.

One of my favorite tunes in "Unemployable", a short and to the point song without the clear ending or outcome you'd find just as lacking if you were one of the unfortunate many who find themselves in the position of the title character. The song creates immediately recognizable imagery and recognition as Eddie starts out singing:

He's got a big gold ring that says "Jesus Saves"/ And it's dented from the punch he threw at work that day/ When he smashed the metal locker where he kept his things/ After the big boss said, "You best be on your way."

Immediately we get a sense of that cultural divide that has inexplicably divided many Americans from natural comrades. The song also has a great chorus that sort of reminds me of a cross between The Beach Boys and The Ramones with its "Who-oh-oh," hook.

As you may have guessed there's a political flavor to the album that finds outlets here and there even when not being overt about itself. I could be wrong but there seems to be a religious statement being made as well, no doubt again influenced by that cultural divide Unemployable invokes.

For one we get the aforementioned "Marker In The Sand". I heard it on the radio for the first time the other day and I'm curious to see what if any reaction it gets compared to WWS. My take on the tune is that Vedder is lamenting the direction that religion has taken as its true messeges have been buried deep in the sand. THis made me think of the Bush Sr line about a line in the sand echoed in The Big Lebowski, and how religion is too often coopted as a tool for justifying such acts of aggression that such lines puts me in the mind of. But as Eddie sings:

Now you got both sides claiming killing in god's name/ But god is nowhere to be found, conveniently.

The song builds to its ultimate payoff in the final version of the chorus as Eddie plaintively asks and demands, "God what do you say." The song calls god out to answer for things while possibly doing the same of us. Maybe this is because we invented him or because we're not living up to god's divine standard. But the final version of this refrain in the song adds a sweet touch to its earlier more stolid and angry reading of the line and its last word, much as Vitalogy's "Betterman," did with that final "man," in "Can't find a better man."

Religious and political connotations appear here and there, or at least my imagination makes such interpretations when in one of the more punk inspired songs, "A Life Wasted", I hear Vedder sing:

Your always saying that there's something wrong/ I'm starting to believe its your plan all along…/ Nothing back there for you to find/ Or was it you, you left behind.

I'm not sure he's suggesting the connection to the Left Behind series, but I like to think he is. I guess that's one of the beauties of leaving your songs vague enough for everyone to find some personal truth in. THis is the current video, which I must admit I absolutely hate. Haven't gotten to see theWWS video, but if Life Wasted's is any indicator of their direction in that art form, they should have stopped at "Do The Evolution".

Other songs like "Gone", "Come Back", and "Inside Job" have a spiritual sense more in the tradition of such PJ songs such as "Off He Goes" (especially in "Gone"), "Release', "Indifference", and many more. "Gone" has a Springsteen-like air of moving on meloncholy tinged with blue collar urban truth. The 7 minute album closer, Inside Job has some nice high-low dynamics as Eddie laments how hard it is to keep faith as he vows to continue to do so no matter how hard the world makes it.

But the album doesn't appear to be all polemics and spirit as we get the punk tinged "Comatose" and "Severed Hand", which like "Parachutes", seems to invoke failed relationships. BUt on further consideration perhaps the latter tune does invoke that spiritual element, which is there in one of the catchier choruses of the album which goes,

If I don't lose control/ Explore and not explode/ A preternatural other plane /With the power to maintain/ Like a tear in all we know/ Once dissolved we are free to grow/ What is human? What is more?/ I'll answer this/ When I get home.

The brutality and longing conveyed by Ed's voice just in that one last word, "home," is in and of itself a story that makes the song worthwhile.

Quite a few songs on Pearl Jam, or as some have come to call it Avocado, or the Blue Album (though the last was kind of taken by Weezer), have managed to get under my skin at different times which is a rare pleasure in an album. It seems everyday there is a different tune trying to burst out of my head. And as painful as this sounds, in the realms of Rock & Roll fandom, it's a very good thing.
And it does this while invoking alot of different feels like the "Spin The Black Circle"-esque punker "Comatose", and the aforementioned "A Life Wasted," and "Gone," which not only invokes The Boss, but one of my favorite PJ songs, "Off He Goes."

This is not to suggest that these songs repeat work the band has done. Every band has particular grooves you either like or dislike and PJ's are certainly not for everyone. But for those who do dig what they do and what they've done, they'll hear and appreciate the echoes of past favorites while at the same time getting a completely new album unlike anything the band has done. Which is quite an accomplishment for any band 16 years after its debut.

But then again this is a band that put out a double CD of B sides and rarities 2 years ago that was among the best albums of that time span in my opinion.

It's too early for me to rank this with past studio works as many fans are doing, though I can say it's better than the last 2 studio albums (which have their share of good stuff). Most people are putting it 3rd to Vs and Vitalogy, with some ranking Ten ahead as well. I'm a big fan of Yield which is a greatly underappreciated album the likes of which I didn't think I'd hear again from the boys. But they've managed to make an album that just might rank with or ahead of it in time, though the other two will be hard to ever surpass. Considering how great they were Pearl Jam still ranks as probably the best 8th album or output from a 16 year old band I'll likely ever hear.[image:135:r]

MI:3, Lost, Metal, And Family Stuff.

Published on May 8, 2006 in ..The Dude, Music and The Ill-Literates. 9 Comments

I had a relationship-life epiphany tonight. This post is not about that. More at another time. This is about what the sign on the door says. So step inside and walk this way.

Saw Mission impossible 3. Not going to do a full review because I just don’t care enough. It was a decent enough movie for it’s genre I guess but I’m tainted by 24. I found myself at many points saying to myself Jack Bauer did that, or Jack would do that better, of Jack Bauer isn’t a psychotic medicine hating, alien brained, couch jumping, Brooke Shields hating, starlette jumping lunatic.

I guess I’m saying Cruise is hard to seperate from his recently loosed personality. I still think he’s a good actor but he’s hard to really like now. If he made another Rain Man or Born On The Fourth Of July, human drama, both of which I htink he was excellent and endearing in, it might change my mind.

But dead to me and all that.

As expected the movie isn’t doing the box office you’d expect. $50 million is ok, but not great for this type of movie at this time of year, with a star like Cruise. I think this is partly in response to Cruise’s weird-ass behavior the past year or so. War Of The Worlds didn’t do that well either. Maybe it’s time Cruise went away for a while, be a dad, and come back when he gets the alien out of his head.

By the way it was good to see him get a brain implant in the movie. So the alien would have some company. Do Scientologist believe implants can alter behavior since medicine and therapy apparently can’t? Or is it just Tom who believes that and not necessarily Scientologists?

Phillip Seymour Hoffman was good of course. Not the typical over the top Eurotrash bad guy you get in these movies and some seasons of 24. Very understated but intense performance.

By the by: The Hanso Foundation gets a credit in the movie. Abrams is of course the director so that’s the tie in. Also Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt gets a letter from a Kelvin which is Gale on Lost and the guy who played Ethan on Lost is Cruise’s cousin.

Coincidence?

Of course not. Meaningful?

Not at all.

As for Lost I need to watch some season 1 dvd’s again to refresh myself on some of the many connections. For one thing I want to see the whole Jack-Dad morgue thing. I also want to see the ep with Mike’s ex wife. I always thought her sudden blood disease was curious, but didn’t really think about it as more than an expedient plot device to get Walt with mike. But I think she’s tied to Hanso and her disease, if true at all, is related and that she got Walt involved with this. Finding out the company she worked for as a lawyer and the countries she was in during that period after leaving Michael is something to look for.

And I don’t care what everyone thinks, i liked Anna Lucia. Perhaps because you all hated her. We are stronger because of your disapproval. Like John and Yoko we are ,except we’ve never had physical contact, we most likely will never record together, and no one has ever heard of me.

At the same time I’m not all that sad to see her go. I think the only characters on the show I’d be really saddened about dying are Jack, Locke, Hurley, and Sawyer. Sun, Gin, and Rose-Bernard are all worthy and i like them, but I’d get over it. Kate, Claire, Echo, Charlie, and Libby at this point don’t move me at all.

Why did no one tell me VH1 had a reality series with Tommy Lee going to college at Nebraska University? Apparently it’s been on a few months. Saw a marathon this weekend. In fact VH1 is doing a whole metal thing for the month of May. I’m watching a Most and Least Metal show right now. Infinitely entertaining. Among the important points: Mariah Carey did a remake of Def Leppard’s Bringing On The Heartbreak recently. I did not know this. Saw a brief clip. As anyone not brainwashed by mainstream music media would expect, it sucked and in no way is worthy of the great band that originated one truly epic song after another.

And Sheryl Crow did Sweet Child Of Mine. And she won an award for it!

It wasn’t anywhere near as good. She gets an award and G&R get Chinese Democracy and guys with KFC buckets on their head as an awrdless Axl becomes a joke. This is not right. It’s not Jethro Tull winning the Grammy over Metallica for best metal band wrong. But it’s wrong.

The audience actually booed when Tull won that. Metal? They play a friggin flute! That should automatically keep them out of any metal category. In fact it should have pitted them against Yanni. Was Yanni around then? You get my point. I should let this go now.

But the Tommy Lee thing was fun in a hanging at work and watching with similarly aged products of the 80′s digging on misfit Tommy trying to fit in and grasp Chemistry and not lust after his hot tutor, kind of way. Reality shows are mostly stupid and unrealistic, and this was no exception. But it was Tommy. Flunking band. As a drummer!

His little asides to class mates during lectures we’re awesome. Truly he spoke for a generation of idiots just like him who could feel better about themselves seeing an icon of cultural sex come off as such an outcast and over the hill reject among all those brainy and nubile coeds.

Next time something like this is on I want to be notified people!

Shite now they’re talking about Kiss doing I Was Made For Loving You. Disco Kiss. Really should have seen the backlash coming when they did that.

VH 1 rules!

I like the new Bon Jovi tune by the way. Who Says You Can’t Go Home is the name. It doesn’t sound 80′s but it puts me back there in that era when Jon and the boys were hot, I was still a prized marketing demographic, America wasn’t universally hated, and I was romantic and naive enough to believe in true love and forever. The whole Jersey shout out going on in it makes me think of Yonkers and my friends back there but especially my cousins. This is especially vivid because my cousin Stefano just got in touch for the first time in the better part of a decade. my cousin Freddy sort of reminded me of a cross between Jon Bon Jovi and Sam Kinnison. He was good drummer who actually played and opened for some notable bands. He’s well into his 40′s now I think, but apparently has went and got himself a 22 year old Russian bride according to Stef. Went there to marry her and all. This seems very Freddy and seems, in retrospect, like the obvious and inevitable outcome of his coupling destiny.

Of course these things don’t generally work long term but Fred always was a live for today kind of guy, god bless him. He was what I call a magnificent bastard.

Stef got me into Metallica. We have the same birthday. In fact we were born the same year, same day, and same hour with the caveat that he did so in a different time zone in Genoa Italy. Always a good, funny guy. He’s still appreciative of the metal and goes to shows and that’s good to hear. Say what you will, big hair, mousse, and leather spandex inspired some decent rock tunes.

Stef is a cop in Yonkers now. in my old neighborhood, which is apparently one of the worst areas around there now. Things have changed. But that Bon Jovi song is living right now:

“You take the home from the boy, but not the boy from his home
These are my streets, the only life I’ve ever known, who says you can’t go home
Who says you can’t go home
There’s only one place that call me one of their own
Just a hometown boy, born a rolling-stone, who says you can’t go home.”

There is this one odd point in the chorus where Jon keeps singing, “It’s alright, it’s alright,” but sounding like Senor Wences saying “saldight.” Not sure where he was coming from there. Still it’s genius. In an 80′s kind of way.

Actually got some interview requests for managerial gigs in my agency for Westchester, including one from White Plains where I used to work briefly a long time ago and where Freddy now lives. It’s actually a little tempting, but it’s too much upheaval for me and my dad right now. Will I go home again someday? I don’t know. I can see it, but I lean away from it. Still much to like here.

Starting to like the new Pearl Jam album. Say what you will about the 80′s and the metal, but the early 90′s grunge-Seattle Nirvana movement is my favorite musical period and the one that I think best defined me. PJ was never so much grunge though, as more of a classic rock-punk influenced band. The new album is no different. Full review may be forthcoming when I can absorb it more. Wasn’t loving it at first despite alot of good buzz, but saw potential there. Many of my all time favorite albums had to grow on me. We’ll see if this keeps doing so, but it’s getting good.

Can’t say the same for Queensryche’s Operation Mindcrime II. The first is an all time great album. Maybe the best concept album all time for me. Definitely second only to The Wall. Did an amazing job of making a bunch of great, rythmic songs with lyrics you want to sing and that stick together as part of a coherent story. The story itself maybe a bit cheesy, but the songs worked as part of a general call to anarchy and to the disenfranchised. I can’t reiterate enough how great it was. I knew it couldn’t be approached again. Still early but it looks like I was right.

Oh my god Michael Bolton was part of a metal band at one point!

I totally forgot that dudes.

And the lead singer of Keel, Ron Keel, became a country artist.

We are living in fucked up times people!

And Ricki Rachman is no longer on tv weekly to guide us through.

Top Political Songs

Published on January 3, 2006 in ..The Dude, Music, Politics and The Ill-Literates. 4 Comments

In the proud tradition of…well, of myself, I’m back with another list. This time it’s political songs. Here’s many of my all time favorites. Sing them, shout them in the streets, raise your fists, rage against the machine, beat your head against a wall, or just shed a tear for our collective stupidity. BUt for god’s sake you must read on…

Masters Of Wars- Bob Dylan and particularly for me the live Pearl Jam cover. Love it when he invokes Jesus to blast these war pigs.

Tramp The Dirt Down- Elvis Costello.
Seems like he’s singing about the Thatcher years. Such a great catharsis for me to stand there on any symbolic grave of the disconnected elitist who turn their backs on us all, and tramp the dirt down along with Elvis.

Imagine- John Lennon.
John found a way to make an anti religious, anti nationalist message a palatable radio favorite. Part of him hated that it had to be done that way, part of me applauds that about him. Most of me is glad we have this just as it is.

Redemption Song- Bob Marley
A song of freedom about one of my favorite subjects. Hey it even bonded Sawyer and Michael on the raft.

Strange Fruit-Billie Holliday
An oldie about hanging black people. Brave of her to write it at that time.

Blowing In The Wind- Bob Dylan
Always works as a puff in the face of the established power and institution of choice.

What’s Goin’ On- Marvin Gaye
Another anti war epic that makes you want to throw your hands up like Marvin and say what the fuck is going on here!

Ball Of Confusion- Temptations
Social justice and racism addressed by normally light lyriced Motown boys.

For What It’s Worth- Buffalo Springfield. This so says Vietnam to me though I can’t claim to be old enough to remember events first hand.

Sunday Bloody Sunday- U2. Keep fighting the good fight Bono!

Born In The USA. Bruce Springsteen. So much better for Ronnie and Co not quite getting it.

Big Yellow Taxi- Joni Mitchell. Wouldn’t have thought of it for this category but it does kind of have an anti corporate bent to it. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, mall, waste site, refinery, etc etc.

Lost In The Supermarket- The Clash.
Taking on consumerism and conformity counts as political to me.

Do The Evolution- Pearl Jam
P.J. take on the span of history from early man to our future armegeddon in one 4-5 minute song.

Blackened- Metallica
Hard core environmentalism.

And Justice For All- Metallica
The boys rail against the injustice of our justice system back when they were pure and not in therapy.

John Lennon. Working Class Hero.
John gets angry at the big THEY, or the man, or the other kids, the teachers, the damn system, which tries to supress individuality. I get off on the line, “Keeped you doped with religion, sex and tv. And you think you’re so clever, classless and free. But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.”

Sound Of Silence. Simon & garfunkel
Oppressive forces seek to try to muffle the voices of the prophets written on the bathroom walls. It’s the power of song to unite.

Keep On Rockin In The Free World. Neil Young.
Love sarcasm in an energetic rock song.

Radio, Radio. Elvis Costello.
So many Elvis tunes could make it, but props to the King for coming down on corporate radio years before everyone caught on and it became common knowledge. Unfortunately nobody really listened.

Warrior Soul. The Party.
Written during Reagan/Bush era about the party the Republican Party was having over our dead bodies it is more appropriate now.

Wyclef Jean. Million Voices.
Singable tune about the Rwandan genocide and the ideal of a united Africa. “Hear the cries of the children of Rwanda.” Don’t know what the kids are chanting in it but it’s haunting and catchy.

Fortunate Son. Credence Clearwater Revival.
Because you got to have Credence on here. This is one of the original anti war anti establishment, call the hypocrites out tunes. And the real Dude loved them.

Merry Xmas/War Is Over. John Lennon
A Christmas song with all the sweetness you would want from one packed with an anti war and anti apathy message. And you can barely hear Yoko.

Eve Of Destruction. Barry Maguire. Think there’s quite a few versions of this but I think Maguire’s is the original. He sees the bad moon rising and he’s acting as a prophet of non self fulfilling variety.

The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carrol. Bob Dylan.
Based on the true story of the society approved beating and death of a black woman working as a servant at a hotel. A recent Mother Jones article elaborated on the story including what the killer, William Zantzinger, is up to now (he’s actually helped some down and out people as a slum lord who has been in more trouble with the law since serving a short sentence for killing Hattie). Seems Dylan got some of the facts wrong because he didn’t beat her, he hit her with a cane once and she apparently died from the fear of his verbal abuse and being in a setting with so many upper crust white people who raised no alarm and would do nothing to help her. The ultimate point of her lonely death is still relevant, as are the far reaching affects on her kids, which the article mentions here.

Holy Water. Soundgarden.
Religion is politics and I had to get a good anti religion tune in here. “And they take thine majesty so seriously. It’s the big lies, more likely to be believed.” I interpret this song as a denouncement of the stultifying effects of religion meant to rob people of their indignation and passion. And what other institution stands to benefit from such an arrangement?

Shout At The Moon. The Ramones.
The voice of modern Robin Hoods in ripped jeans and leather.

Me, Me, Me!

Published on December 27, 2005 in ..The Dude, Humor, Irritations, Music, Politics, Religion, Sports, Television and The Ill-Literates. 1 Comment

Well another work week is done. as I add up the holiday pay for working Xmas ( I do really prefer calling it that than invoking the C word which conjures up very silly comic book notions), and as I total the overtime hours worked, sum the social value of time spent with my coworkers as opposed to sitting alone in front of a computer typing posts, reading about the world, reading free stuff at barnes & noble, or working on fictional stuff, I wonder how far out of whack the balance sheet is. And more importantly I’m not sweating it because it’s time to do like Mr Plant said and Ramble On!

It’s 4:30 a.m. and I just spent an hour or two on a political post as I sit here listening to Green Day’s American Idiot thinking about how I’m not even trying to sleep despite not having had a decent nights sleep since wednesday night/Thursday morning (it’s monday/tuesday now), and yet I make no effort to stop reading, writing, or listening. I’d rather download the Beastie Boys than end the cycle of bad sleep habits. And I wonder if bad sleep habits and lack of nocturnal discipline could be a key symptom of a bigger problem. Am I too self indulgent despite all that I deny myself?

No need to ponder long kiddies. The answer is who cares!

I’m evolving and you cant stop me! Tossers!

This is a new thing with me now. Cursing in English. But Mark, or Dude you might even say, are not fuck and shit English words? Well sure, but I’m talking about England’s English. I’m getting back to our roots and will from now on be hurling alot of bloodies, and bollukses at the world. not that I’m a big curser. Generally I don’t use alot of profanity, almost never around kids or women, but I do like to let it out at times, feeling more comfortable doing it around no more than a handful of people. THere is still the time and place for a strategic f bomb, but even those few accustomed to hearing me let one fly now and again can start dealing with this harsh new reality that will probably cause many to call me pretentious more than they already do. And to them all I can say is bugger off you wankers!

Back to the original point of this incoherent rambling. I’ve been dead tired all weekend and now I can finally have 2 or 3 days to sleep peacefully and I’m getting stupid to the B Boys Open Letter To NYC (sweet ny tune full of great new yorker gets like 1010 Wins and Live At Five), and alternately wondering if I’m killing valuable braincells and hours of my life at work, if I should resume my After The Ennui story and where I might go with it now, how are the Mets going to get some pitching to make a real run, was the ending of American Psycho implying Patrick Bateman imagined much or all of what he did, If not how’d it all get cleared up, should I try this other idea as a screenplay or short story, why my vocabulary has diminished the past few years and what I can do to get it back, will this new info about the woman I’ve been crushing on make a difference, why are the Ramones so damn catchy, is Eli making any real progress and who the Giants are likely to lose to in the playoffs 2 weeks from now, how could I have eaten so many damn sweets the past few days, what should I do if the crazy one shows up again someday, I must smell not having showered since Sunday morning (this is not a common practice ladies), life on the road, houses in the area, this strange new growing calm and security regarding women, whether to go to school next semester or not, how I wish I could have a dog, can I grow spirit, how much evolving has been done and wiring changed in my brain and how much can realistically still be done with a 38 year old brains hard wiring, how I have patterns too, how Pedro isn’t going to hold up for another season, do i want to go see Saryana at mall or Rosendale if I go one of the next 2 nights, how something good is due and I have the power and sanctioning from something higher, how full of shit (excuse me, shite), that might be, how I can’t wait for 24 on the 15th, how guilty I should feel over that concerning how right wing the show often is if you really think about, how at least I’ve changed some patterns and understand them so have precedent, how I may just not sleep anymore and suffer the consequences and benefits, how I’m probably going to sleep so damn late tomorrow and have to jump right out of here and head for Kingston to errand and enjoy some civilization at B&N, the Rangers bubble seems to be bursting as inevitably it would in the face of tougher competition, will Dem’s go hard at Scalito, isn’t this White Phosphorous thing also impeachable, Giants defense just isn’t good enough and too battered now anyway and they may not even beat Oakland new years eve to get division crown, and should I stay and work until 9 saturday and volunteer to screw myself as I got screwed Xmas eve which is probably good, and what I need is a good football party/new years eve thing but know no Giants fans, how I miss Manhattan so bloody much, will Al Franken make a good Senator if he runs, Missouri, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Minnesota, Montana, and Ohio can all go Democrat in November if they start making some smart calls and then in the name of god impeach the fucker (f bomb warranted and entirely appropriate there and in most matters dealing with Bush administration, i need more exercise beyond the half hour on treadmill at work tonight (and I still didnt shower for the love of god), and how do i get this Br’er Rabbit thing off here, and do I get evolving spiritual points for my living arrangements, and how if i could teach the world to sing in perfect harmony I’d get a really awesome metal ballad thing going because metal ballads taught us how to cry and we could use a good cry right about now even though the musical era that best defines me and that I am most kindred with is early 90′s grunge era Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and such and how I dont think there’s been a solid musical movement since and will I live to see or hear another one especially considering I could be deaf oneday, and how she talks to rainbows, she talks to trees, she talks to angels, she don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me, what in the name of sweet dancing moses ever happened to Phoebe Cates, will I stay with arc in some capacity when Will heads to Mexico in June and I’ll miss the kid, I hope Jeff’s surgery goes well and he starts getting some satisfaction physically, is my dad sad alot, look out!-dodge that regret! serenity now! so many memorable lines and phrases from Seinfeld, tv show list needs to written, should watch or read High Fidelity again, did Mary Ellen ever see Say Anything and everyone should though I’m not sure everyone likes it as much and did anyone get me referencing it with my title post recently, and does anyone get me, I’m so advanced and operating on higher levels, and oh shite what an arse I am so just stop cause nobody knows better than me what a simpleminded jack off i can be even if ido have rare moments of brilliance not related to post titles, Phoebe Cates was so damn irresistably cute and sexy, bet the Mets are glad they listened to me and kept Wright, why dont they listen more, I think the H on my channel 120 stands for Hitler channel rather than History since most stuff on there goes back to him so much of the time, damn that Davinci Code trailer looked good Opie, I friggin forgot to tape Arrested Development tonight and hope it wasn’t on and I’m part of the problem not the solution with saving this show, will Radiohead make a good album ever again, Phoebe where are you! Barry was more than a man he was a Man-Illow and he was doing ok but not really well life going along as it should, its all very nice, but not very good.

John Lennon

Published on December 7, 2005 in ..The Dude, Music and The Ill-Literates. 29 Comments

Lennon On Thursday December 8th, radio stations including Woodstock’s WDST will mark the 25th Anniversary of the death of John Lennon with moments of silence and other events geared towards the message of peace and love Lennon is so remembered for. There will also be a candlelight vigil in Poughkeepsie at 6 p.m. WDST. Clearly this is a man who has meant alot to many people for him to inspire this kind of passion 25 years after his death. Here’s what he means to me.

John Lennon is of course, one of the most iconic pop cultural figures ever, and debatedly one of the most iconic figures of our time period. He’s certainly one of my favorite artists. This is despite him dying when I was merely 12 years old with little to no appreciation of the Beatles or his solo work. I can still remember that night, though it’s ramifications would not hit me for years to come. Neither would the tears that his life and death are capable of extracting from the dessicated shell of cynicism and aloofness I can often wear. Like many, I heard the news from Howard Cosell during Monday Night Football. My friend Jeff, who did have the pleasure of coming of age in the years Lennon and the Beatles were still together sent me an e mail tonight recounting the same moment as he too watched that game (I seem to recall it being Miami vs New England but I’m not entirely sure). For him it led to a sleepless night tuned to the radio where everyone was paying tribute to John through his music. For me the news led to the rather incongruous and embarrasing thought causing me to wonder if Lennon was the cute one or the smart, or funny one.

I remember the imagery of the period though it didn’t effect me yet. The shots of the Dakota building where my mom would later be offered a job cleaning. The throngs gathered at Strawberry Fields in Central Park holding up candles as tears streamed down their faces. Turns out Jeff was one of them, there with his wife at the time after the wake that it seemed like the world participated in. Much of it did participate in a collective show of remorse and disbelief as if they could will him back or together turn reality into a nightmare they could rouse each from. It wasn’t just New York, but mostly I remember it feeling like New York lost one of its own.

And it did. Manhattan is the adopted home of many who come from all over the world to be part of its amazing energy and opportunity. It is the cultural melting pot where anyone can find acceptance. And if they are unique then they are in like Flynn. One of the reasons it is so special is because so many choose it, or are chosen by the city, and not merely placed there by accident of birth as most people are who are born somewhere and play out their entire lives within a hundred miles of that place. John was a man of the world who could have found home anywhere and chose not only a different country than the one he grew up in, but N.Y. City. We all have seen John in that photo where he’s wearing that N.Y. City shirt. It’s an image that has stood out and spawned t shirts of John wearing that T shirt. I myself own one though it’s a bit small to wear prominently. I think that connection between John and the city is one that speaks to many of us and is why that shirt exists and that image has become as iconic as he has.

John had chosen us, and we were proud.

And to some extent it is that choice that killed him, and that maybe makes us feel just a little bit guilty.

He had this kind of power for many reasons. it is not those reasons that need be discussed. It is the power that I want to acknowledge as a memorial to a legend.

Years later my growing familiarity with The Beatles and Lennon’s music, combined with a cultural awareness would make me feel some of the pain and loss so many felt a quarter of a century ago. Whenever I see images of it now as on one of those VH1 Behind The Music specials, I feel the sadness, I cry the tears, and I live the loss.

Some of what instills Lennon with such legend are the what-if questions. He was unquestionably influential and we can not help wonder where those influences might have taken us over the past 25 years. Though i have not been alone in wondering if he may have even had the power to change our political climate, it is most probably that particular kind of romanticizing and myth making that builds grand cathedrals in the inviolable past where it so easily resides with nothing to tear it down. Perhaps he would have faded from the limelight, becoming cynical (more so), and fed up with the modern music industry. Or were his talents and love of making music so deep that nothing would have stopped him from creating, and subsequently altering the musical landscape? How about a Beatles reunion? Could he have scared Rove as much as he scared Nixon? Would he have forced him to play the “We’re bigger than Jesus Christ card?”

Watching documentaries and anthologies of the Beatles, as well as living their progression and life story through the albums that bring so much history and drama to them, you can’t help feel like you’re going along on a ride that encompasses the zeitgeist of the times and the events that altered the world. It’s almost as if the Beatles and the individual lives lived by it’s members have a religious prominence. Think about a question you have in your life, a problem that needs some wisdom, and just look through the Beatles story and music for a lesson that seems to have the weight of scripture.

And the music managed to be cutting edge without tearing anyone down. All of their stuff, individually and as a group has a joy and perhaps a sadness, without being hateful or angry. Of course John could let the rage out a bit more in his solo work, but it was always tempered by overiding themes like giving peace a chance, the world living as one, and calls to gimmee some truth! John could get personal as when he attacked Paul in How Do You Sleep At Night, or god in the song by the same name, but it was part of his uncompromising standards of truth and activism. Wrong or right, Lennon was dedicated to telling like he saw it without varnishing his vision for record companies or a larger audience. He’d never have the following he enjoyed as a Beatle, but of course part of his charm was that he didn’t want it. His raging at the machine, and spitting in the face of fame, gave birth to the Kurt Kobain’s of the world. This may not be an entirely good thing, but it is real and something people like me relate to and identify with for better or worse.

I think one of the big things about Lennon is how he tried so hard to be a messenger of peace, love, truth, and idealism despite being an acknowledged asshole in many ways. Anyone familiar with him knows this is true. He was far from perfect. Could be a nasty fucker. But he tried hard to conquer the worst of himself and show the world that we can change, just as he did in many respects towards the end of his life.

I try to personalize my own relationship with truth more and more and live to a higher ideal as well despite knowing how all too human i am. It may mean nothing in the end and it will certainly change far less than lennon, but if I have succeeeded at all, and do ever succeed more, he wont be the only reason, but he will be part of the rich gestalt of greatness that has led the way and to whom i owe some thanks.

So on the 25th year after he was murdered for being famous, I cry for that fame and the society that has such a twisted and dysfunctional relationship with it. I cry for the randomness of a bullet, for the culture of his adopted land that embraces and destroys simultaneously, for a land where guns are gotten so easily and truth so rarely, I cry for the lost music, the political activist, the straight shooter so unafraid to say what he thought and spit on the status quo. I cry for my own inability to make a shred of difference in comparison, for millions of people who lost a kindred spirit and leader by default, for a movement that in some ways died with him, for lyrics and music that erases time and might survive to an untold future to connect us to a past and future that I can never be part of.

John Lennon is special because he and his music could have this effect and edgender this loyalty without flags or institutionalized dogma to touch the baser instincts that too often connect us and forge our bonds to others. Those who share a bond in the love of the music and life associated with John, share something that reaches for a higher part of us.

Imagine that.

Top “Ten” Songs That Make Me Sad.

Published on November 9, 2005 in ..The Dude, Lists, Music and The Ill-Literates. 10 Comments

Because ego and lists are distinctly inimical to me and my generation, here’s another bunch of favorites. Post yours after.

Seasons In The Sun- Terry Jacks.
Good bye my friend its time to die. Shit man. He’s just so reconciled to it. Sure it’s corny enough to make ethanol out of but corn helped make this country great.

Arthur’s Theme- Christopher Cross.
This song makes me want to have sex with Manhattan. Sometimes it makes me want to cry.
It’s evocative. But the best that I can do is fall in love. The best.

Mandy- Barry Manilow.
Oh for god sake she came and gave without taking…And he sent her away!

Tears In Heaven- Eric Clapton.
Eerie considering all that inspired it. You can see him taking his sons hand.

In My Life- The Beatles.
I can’t listen to this without thinking of John, moving on, and the end.

Every Rose Has Its Thorn- Poison.
Every cowboy DOES sing a sad, sad song and you know it! Might not be my favorite metal heart tugger but it is the symbolic torchbearer of 80′s butane ballads and therefore is my symbolic addition to this list to stand for all of them.

Lost Cause- Beck.
The whole album Sea Change is a tearjerking tribute to breaking up and moving on, but this one really makes me think of that ex-not so special special someone. “you’re sorry eyes cut through the bone/They make it hard to leave you alone/Leave you here wearing your wounds/Waving your guns at somebody new/…Too many people you used to know/They see you coming/They see you go/They know your secrets and you know theirs/This town is crazy/Nobody cares/I’m tired of fighting/Fighting for a lost cause/Baby your a lost cause.” See what I mean.

Someone Else? – Queesnryche.
Not an 80′s metal ballad. It’s a 90′s ode to evolution from within sung by just Geoff Tate who has one of my all time favorite voices in music, and a piano. Tate is so emotional and passionate it might not matter what he was singing about but it goes something like this: “They used to say I was nowhere, man, heading down was my destiny. But yesterday, I swear, that was someone else not me. Here I stand at the crossroads edge, afraid to reach out for eternity, One step, when I look down, I see someone else, not me.”

Imagine- John Lennon.
Surely I’m not the only one.

American Pie- Don McLean.
How can the music dying not be sad? I lose it when the plane lights the sacrificial light and Satan laughs with delight.

The River- Joni Mitchell.
She knows what she did wrong and the poignancy of wanting to skate away from it rather than drive, fly, or run is especially enigmatic to me. Grace in defeat or something.

First Time Ever I Saw Your Face- Roberta Flack.
Just something about the slow pace of the way she belts this out. It’s so heartfelt and yet a little menacing.

Black- Pearl Jam
As a PJ fan I’m obligated to get this on here. It does make me think of alot of the lost chances and hope over the 15 years since this song debuted. I think I’ve quoted the final lines of it to at least 3 women i was interested in over those years.

The Drugs Don’t Work- The Verve.
I don’t know if he’s singing about someone dying and the meds not working or an addict, but this is a song that gets under my skin.

Daniel- Elton John.
Some of the lyrics here are just too much and too apropos after August 31st.

Puff The Magic Dragon- Peter, Paul, and Mary.
Ever since I was a kid this song killed me. I used to cry over that damn dragon dying, i really did. And then I have to be shattered even more to find out it’s a damn drug song! They made a cartoon about it for god’s sake. How do you make a cartoon about a drug song? I fucking believed you bloody wise-asses! They killed the kid in it too! Jackie Paper? Yeah real funny name. Cute. Go back to Woodstock you hippies!!!!! This is perhaps where it started going wrong for me as far as disillusionment goes.

Not Dark Yet- Bob Dylan
The end draws nigh, he’s been down at the bottom of a world full of lies and he ain’t looking for anything in any one elses eyes.

Steppin Out- Joe Jackson.
I’m not sure why? This song is just so evocative of the darkness of my freshman year in high school and losing touch with the girl I loved, Sandra Objay, who probably never gave me a second thought. Every time I hear this I’m back there getting up for school in the dark, staring out the window from my loft bed and hoping something would keep me from having tto face another day, hearing this on my boombox radio beside that bed, and wanting to be more than I was, take her and run away from the “darkness in our lives…come alive, get into a car and drive, to the other side.” We were, “young but getting old before our time”. I don’t know that any song brings me back to a mood and place more than this.

Hurt- Johny Cash version.
This is just so ripped full of emotion. When I see the video for it I want to blow my brains out.

Bridge Over Trouble Water- Simon & Garfunkel.
When I’m weary.

Don’t Follow- Alice In Chains.
Such a sweet acoustic tune about wandering your own road, moving on, getting lost, and wanting to go home again. Got a new dimension of sadness with Layne Staley’s death on almost the same day of Kurt Cobain’s 3 or 4 years ago.

Pennyroyal Tea- Nirvana.
The unplugged version is especially wrenching listening to this pathetic guy trying to let people know he was just a sickly prick and not rock royalty. Just anemic royalty. All hail.

Hero In Me- Jeffrey Gains.
Despite what Angry Bob has reduced this to I can still find all the haunting corrolaries of the person I might have been and the one that might still be inside.

Runaway Train- Soul asylum.
I don’t know if it’s the association with the video and all the real runaway kids in it, but the song always makes me feel a strange mixture of motivation, anger, and sadness. Therefore it makes the sad list. Mostly it it’s the life out of control thing and getting so jaded life’s mystery seems to have faded stuff. That and being neither here nor there. Very good and very meloncholy tune.

Superman Song- Crash Test Dummies.
It makes me long for hereos. No not the sandwhich, the kind of decent ethical person doing the right thing for the right reasons instead of giving in to the selfish materialism of modern society. We’ll never know another man like him again, and that’s fucking sad man!

Aimee Mann- Wise up, Deathly, and Save Me.
I think of these 3 songs together probably because of their inclusion in the very sad and strange movie Magnolia. It’s a trilogy of despair and dysfunction about hopelessly messed up people with no self esteem sabotoging themselves. When she sings for someone to save her in the third song she makes it sound like a dare she’s so invested in the “ranks of the freaks that suspect they can never love anyone.” She and one of the primary characters in the movie are just so Ulster County.

Bulletproof- Radiohead.
A very meloncholy moody song about not wanting to be hurt again.

No Surprises- Radiohead.
A very meloncholy moody song about ennui and quiet desperation. Radiohead write alot of very meloncholy moody songs you see.

At My Most Beautiful- REM.
Not one of their better known sad and too precious songs but I dig it. It’s like the Beach Boys doped on coffee after hanging out at a pretentious alternative art house for days.

Beth- Kiss
Just a few more hours Beth. You get the feeling shes still waiting dont you? Still calling. Even though it too is a metal ballad I had to give it its own entry since it’s the one that started it all. Thank you Peter Criss. We owe you so much.

I Want My MTV

Published on September 5, 2005 in ..The Dude, Irritations, Music and The Ill-Literates. 17 Comments

Ok I’ll admit it. I miss MTV. I miss the novelty of music on tv, I miss VJ’s, I miss Kurt Loder bringing gravity to what amounted to news about bullshit (except when Kurt Cobain died), I miss pop stars living larger than life and their silly little songs writ visually. Oh sure I complained that they were sell outs, and that someone who really appreciated music wouldn’t want to see any other interpretation of a song that only takes away from the one in their head (Pearl Jam rules!). Yes i complained that MTV reduced our attention span and even aided Reagan (teamed conspiratorially with Madonna) in turning us into the Material Nation. Maybe it was just the naivete of youth but it was entertaining and somehow hopeful.

There was an innocence in the decadence that’s missing today. Maybe its kids being much more savvy now and exposed to so much so fast, but somehow it all seems too cynical and fake. The songs too self-referential, the lyrics ugly and hurtfull, the gangland killings much more visceral…wait a sec, that’s new. No coast wars or musical mafias back then. Kajagoogoo never called out Bananarama at the vma’s. Boy George had better things to do to puppets than have a posse attack them. Motley Crue didn’t have sex with underage girls…well ok we don’t have proof they did. And the tunes weren’t bad. Who can’t still sing along with Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Cruel Summer, Jump, or Looks That Kill? Will anyone still be singing Candy Shop? When they are 40 are we going to see some guy with his mixed tape of classics from the aughts yelling, ” Had me thinking ’bout that ass after I’m gone, lights on or lights off, she like it from behind.”

Timeless stuff right?

I can remember when the video awards were a big deal. They just held the 2005 vma’s. Did you know? I didn’t. Not until about a week later. I mean who cares about 50 Cent going there to fake another drama with some guy named Fat Joe. You’ve got posses running around calling themselves G Unit’s and Terror Squads acting like mobsters intimidating for guys with names better suited to cartoon characters.

And what’s out there musically that gets noticed in large venues like this? Green Day did well apparently and that’s nice since i liked stuff off of American Idiot but didn’t that album come out in Bush’s first term? The awards were fun at one time with hosts that had comedic talent and Madonna rolling around on the stage in in that white gown and David Lee Roth being the harmless idiot a front man for a rock group is supposed to be.

I know it sounds like I’m being an old fogey and lamenting lost youth as I chastise today’s music. But I like some of today’s music. It’s MTV that sucks. I want to see creative videos that either enhanced the subject matter or had fun with it, not songs and videos that are primarily meant to enhance nothing but their singers name and reputation. how many self referential songs can people listen to before they lose identity? Now you have all these guys acting like Spinal Tap at these shows as 5o cent demands condoms and KFC backstage, he and P Diddy demanded no pork to be in their vicinity, not just their rooms mind you, but in the immediate area! The rockers tried to stay true to their roots and simply demanded Red Bull (Green Day and Coldplay), and also for Billie Joe Armstrong and the lads, a fifth of silver tequila, a fifth of whiskey (Jameson or Bushmills), a fifth of vodka (Grey Goose, Vox or Belvedere) and four bottles of wine.

Coldplay wanted vodka and wine, plus no fewer than 48 bottles of lager – specifically demanding that no American beers be included. The band’s menu had organic soup and free-range chicken on the table, and three packs of Marlboro Lights. God bless Kelly Clarkson who only wanted candles and had her contract stipulate with the word please. Plus she’s just so adorable even if shes a contest winner.

And do they even have vj’s anymore? Or videos for that matter? I miss Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn. Alan was witty and Martha had spunk and I like spunk. Nina Blackwood and J.J. Jackson were a bit scary, but hey if Martha hung with them how bad could they be. But these were people you kind of knew. Not supermodels.

I’m not blind to the dark side of that era. In some ways i think the 80′s are more the quintessential American decade than the 60′s. It was all “greed is good,” sloganeering, advertised prosperity with it’s invisible money, credit, floating currency, mounting debt, while we took comfort from that doddering old fool of a father figure who reassured us with his senile smile. I’m speaking of course of Milton Bearle in Round And Round…no Ronnie of course, Bonzo’s favorite Commader in Chief, a leader even a monkey could love.

It’s just so appropriate that it was also the dawn of MTV since it reinforced that economic and political superficiality on a cultural level.

I mean really, as anti-establishment as Madonna may be she was Reagan’s wet dream-we are the material girl, strike a pose,we’re keeping the baby.

And I kind of miss it.

Now MTV is useless. If it defines a generation as the 80′s did for generation x, we may have been poseurs full of excess and ego, but then today you’ve got a generation immersed in the reality programming that features people pretending to be natural and not notice the cameras. That is ego mixed with prevarication. In other words it’s bullshit. Reality tv is bullshit and there is nothing real about it.

MTV started it all with The Real World. Do people still watch it? I think that’s where historians will start when they calibrate the chronology of the end times for pop culture if we don’t escape this morass. It’s ironic that the very first one set in Manhattan is still, after over a decade of them, most people’s favorite and that many list Andre as their favorite character despite that fact that he was never around and couldn’t be bothered to hang around with the group or be involved in their dramas. He had a band. Who needs all the bullshit. That’s cool. Of course he still agreed to be on the show. So maybe the cool was calculated. Maybe the fault line starts with Andre. He was that missing link between cool and affected cool, that has led us to just affected and fake today. Andre is the Bigfoot of the mtv back woods. A sad beast striding into the shadows with a quick glance back to see who’s watching and quite possibly sweating his ass off under a gorilla outfit.

It’s not your fault Andre. You couldn’t have known.