Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

I'm going to L.A. on Saturday for a few nights (mainly to attend this), so I'll start my day with Zep's "Goin' to California."

Who's got next? As always, links are really appreciated, and I'll respond to every suggestion.

A Tribute

1983. Sixth grade. Kings of Morgan Elementary. Hellooo, Alicia Schenk. Hellooo, Angel Blankenship. Wait, they like me? World-changing. Friday night, spin the bottle. Saturday night, Skateworld. Couples skate? No problem, I skate backward. Hellooo, Alicia and Angel. Hair parted in the middle, feathered, thanks to Mom and her curling iron. Hellooo, ladies. Also ... wiffle ball. Wall ball. Strat-O-Matic Baseball. Basketball at Stealey Park. Football at Stealey Park. Take a break, across the street, Aunt Jane's, best human ever, best house ever. Summer at Stealey Pool. Summer at Myrtle Beach.

1983. It's mostly a blur, other than semi-intact memories of a year when everything changed. One thing I'll never forget is walking to Stealey Park with Dave Wolfe, gigantic boom box in tow, cranking, cranking Quiet Riot's Metal Health. It gives me a nervous, exciting feeling of unlimited possibility to this day.

Godspeed, Kevin DuBrow. You made something once that was a soundtrack to a year in the life of a kid somewhere. And that really is something.

Favorite Quotes

When I was in high school my great aunt Alice gave me a little book of quotes. It was so little that it could fit in my wallet, and because of the following quote, it stayed there for years. I wish I still had that little book, but I'll never forget this William Penn anecdote:

I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. William Penn

No amazing word play here, just simple words to live by.

What quotes do you like?

Three is a Magic Number, Again

I posted this once before, but I'm still amazed at just how good it is, so I'm going to put it up again. This song is great on so many levels. Full lyrics are below the video.



Three is a magic number,
Yes it is, it's a magic number.
Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity
You get three as a magic number.

The past and the present and the future.
Faith and Hope and Charity,
The heart and the brain and the body
Give you three as a magic number.

It takes three legs to make a tri-pod
Or to make a table stand.
It takes three wheels to make a ve-hicle
Called a tricycle.

Every triangle has three corners,
Every triangle has three sides,
No more, no less.
You don't have to guess.
When it's three you can see
It's a magic number.

A man and a woman had a little baby,
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family,
And that's a magic number.

3-6-9, 12-15-18, 21-24-27, 30.
3-6-9, 12-15-18, 21-24-27, 30.
Multiply backwards from three times ten:

Three time ten is (30), three times nine is (27),
Three times eight is (24), three times seven is (21),
Three times six is (18), three times five is (15),
Three times four is twelve,
And three times three is nine, and three times two is six,
And three times one is three of course.

Now take the pattern once more:
Three! . . .3-6-9
Twelve! . . .12-15-18
Twenty-one!. . .21-24-27. . .30

Now multiply from 10 backwards:
Three time ten is (30 - Keep going), three times nine is (27),
Three times eight is (24), three times seven is (21),
Three times six is (18), three times five is (15),
Three times four is twelve,
And three times three is nine, and three times two is six,
And three times one...
What is it?!
Three!
Yeah, That's a magic number.

A man and a woman had a little baby.
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family.
That's a magic number.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

And I'm late, and it's the day after Thanksgiving, so perhaps I won't get many suggestions anyway. But if you post 'em (especially with links!), I'll listen with relish.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my 250th post. Thanks to everyone for stopping by!

Gibberish

Learn Gibberish

Catfish Noodling

My brothers and their families were in this weekend, and my older brother, an experienced fisherman, told me about trout noodling. Have you ever heard of this? If not, or if you've never seen it, check this out:



I now have a new activity to add to the long list of things I hope to never experience in life.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

I begin my day with rock. First, Clutch.


Then I move on to the Jukebox Zeros. Bass player Rob Zero and guitarist Zee are both regulars on RtN, and they're damn fine human beings to boot. We've used these guys a lot on our Racer X Films. Go check 'em out.

What else? (Any genre is fine.) Links are so appreciated that I mention it every week.

Pizza Bake

Want to see how we apparently make a "good Italian dish" in West Virginia? Then, by all means, check out the Dalai Mama's latest post. Yummy.

Zookeeper

Want to hear a fantastic album that you didn't even know existed? I highly suggest that you answer yes. It won't cost you a penny.

Let me know what you think?

Kriss-Krossed With Christopher Cross

One of the DM's guilty pleasures is General Hospital, and this means that I get to experience the joy of watching Tivoed episodes many nights in bed. It's insane to me, but I cope by coming up with nicknames for people on the show (Emily is "Mushmouth," Nikolas is "Poor Man's Tom Cruise," and Patrick is "Rick Springfield's kid" -- and I just had to ask the DM their real names) and repeatedly making cracks like, "Oh, my god, that ghost is still on the show? Are you kidding me?"

The other night we got to talking about Luke and Laura, and that reminded me of the Christopher Cross song "Think of Laura," which was featured on the soap when I was a kid. Remarkably, the DM doesn't remember the song, so I went to CC's MySpace dealio and was able to play it for her. Then we checked out his MySpace fan-page dealio and spun Arthur's Song for a few seconds, because the DM remembered that one.

I know he had some big hits, but I must say I was surprised that his songs were played more than 200 times on these two pages today alone! I mean, who goes to Christopher Cross's MySpace dealio and plays "Think of Laura"? Who?

Well, besides me, I mean.

Concert Vault

I recently found out about Concert Vault. It's got complete streaming concerts from tons of bands, most of which are free. I listened to a Black Sabbath show and a Cure show on Friday, and the sound quality on both was great. Awesome site.

Friday Music Special: Hurra Torpedo

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

The Blood Brothers announced yesterday that they're breaking up, so I start the day with "Set Fire to the Face on Fire."



What's next? As always, links are very, very much appreciated, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on music that gets posted.

American Idol X

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed a dude named Bucky Covington, who was a finalist on American Idol two seasons ago and is doing pretty well on the mainstream country charts. He's a big motocross fan, so I did a small piece on him for the next issue. He seemed as down to earth as he did when he was on the show -- just a good ol' boy. Our little chat got me to thinking about the biggest show on television.

I didn't watch American Idol until two season ago, when I finally gave it a chance. (The DM sort of watched out of the corner of her eye but didn't really care much.) I'd resisted before that, probably just because the show was so popular that it turned me off. But sometimes I have to remind myself that disliking something because it's popular is the same as liking it because it's popular -- you're letting its popularity control how you feel about it either way. So I decided to give it a chance and form an opinion based on the show itself. Here's what I came up with:

It's not as bad as I thought it would be. Sure, it's exploitative in early rounds and overly produced throughout, but at its heart it's really just a talent show, and I always sort of liked talent shows. (Even these negative elements can be somewhat controlled with Tivo.) Compare this to other reality shows that are absolutely based on pitting the worst elements of human nature against each other for the deranged enjoyment of the lowest common denominator, and American Idol comes out looking halfway decent.

So last year we gave the show another shot, and while I wasn't overly impressed with the finalists as a whole, a Lily Tomlin lookalike named Melinda Doolittle was really, really good. This girl was the clear winner of the show, and I knew it the second I heard her. There was just no way anyone was going to beat her.

And that might have actually been the case had I (and others like me) bothered to vote for her, but despite my acceptance of the fact that I was actually watching this show, I could not bring myself to vote. I just could not do it. The reality of voting on American Idol was more than I could stand. What if Rob Zero found out? Humiliations galore....

Then she lost to two or three inferior singers, including one dude who is so inferior he shouldn't even be on the same stage she's on. I couldn't believe it. What a joke! I stopped watching the show instantly and vowed to never watch it again. I guess I could blame myself -- if I didn't vote, I probably shouldn't care who wins -- but in the end, I learned that American Idol is also based on one of the worst elements of human nature: extremely bad taste.

Elephant Gun

I first listened to Beirut when Colin MacIntyre said their last album, Gulag Orkestar, was the record of the year. That means a lot to me coming from Colin, so I checked them out, and the DM and I loved the album instantly.

So the DM mentioned Beirut's video for "Elephant Gun" on Chez Mama yesterday, imploring people to check it out. I've decided to help her in her cause, because it really is a great song and a bitchin' video. Let us know what you think?

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

I'm a shapeless mass trapped in a red plastic egg. Free me and flatten me against the comic-strip likeness of your soul.