Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

Another week, another magazine down. Tomorrow begins our 109th issue, so I'm looking for some inspirational music this week.

I think the topic will be: songs that you freaking loved the first time you heard them.

Here are a few I'll start with:

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

I think I'm in the mood to do a theme this week, so let's go with: covers. What are your favorite covers ever? As always, I'll listen and respond to everything.

I'll start things off with this little bit of pure beauty.



Okay, the Flying Burrito Brothers actually recorded the song first, but Keith and Mick wrote it. Does that count as a cover? I guess not, but I'm starting the day with it anyway.

The A Confederacy of Dunces Excerpt of the Day

"Ignatius! So you got yourself fired."

"Please, Mother, I am near the breaking point." Ignatius stuck the bottle of Dr. Nut under his moustache and drank noisily, making great sounds of sucking and gurgling. "If you are planning now to be harpy, I shall certainly be pushed over the brink."

"A little job in a office and you can't hold it down. With all your education."

"I was hated and resented," Ignatius said, casting a hurt expression at the brown walls of the kitchen. He pulled his tongue from the mouth of the bottle with a thump and belched some Dr. Nut. "Ultimately it was all Myrna Minkoff's fault. You know how she makes trouble."

"Myrna Minkoff? Don't gimme that foolishness, Ignatius. That girl's in New York. I know you, boy. You musta really pulled some boo-boos at that Levy Pants."

"My excellence confused them."

Buy A Confederacy of Dunces.

Planet of the What the Hell Are Those Things?

So, like ... uh. Yeah.

A Space for Entertaining

You know what drives me nuts? On those home-improvement shows, why does everyone always have to call rooms spaces? ALWAYS. Even when they already said the name of the room.

"I really like this kitchen space. It's got lots of room for entertaining."

Which brings me to entertaining. I can't believe the amount of entertaining that goes on in these people's homes. I usually just have friends over, personally.

In my world, a space for entertaining is called a stage. And if I hadn't recently developed an apparent allergy to alcohol, I'd be down with playing the Spaces Drinking Game. "Ooh, this is a great space." Glug glug glug. "We'd really have fun entertaining in this outdoor space." Double-whammy, glug glug glug glug glug glug.

I guess I wouldn't make a very good interior designer.

Friday Music

Guest commenter: Dalyn's Life

Happy Birthday, Small, Young People!

My female small, young person turns 6 tomorrow, and that's kinda crazy. My pal Raoul Duke's female small, young person turns 1 tomorrow. I bet that's crazy to him. They're so, so sweet, and I love them very much.

Happy birthday, small, young people!

Love,

Daddy/Uncle SleekPelt

(Off-subject: Does anyone else forget how to write in cursive?)

[Ed. note: Thanks, m@.]

New Business Watch 2

The win streak for business continues. RtN's Matthes used it in his wildly popular column "Observations" over at Racer X Canada's site. He said:

" Team Yamaha/San Manual Band of Mission Indians' Chad Reed kept his business rolling, but just like Anaheim 3, he made it interesting."

Nice, Matthes, thanks! Also, full props go out to Weege for dropping it four times during the webcast on Saturday night.

Does anyone have Sal Masekela's number? Clash, you probably do....

New Business Watch

Yes! My boy Weege came through already! Check out his latest post, straight from the press box at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. Read it all the way to the end, and you'll see that the business has begun. I knew you'd come through, Weege! I'll be listening tonight.

Business Development

Sometimes I just don't think. Honestly. Here I am trying to get Rob Dyrdek to bust out business on TV, ignoring some of the tighter, if somewhat less substantial, contacts that I personally have.

For example: Jason Weigandt. "The Weege" is a bonafide, autograph-signing celebrity in the high-action world of AMA Supercross. (The only motorsport bigger than ours in the USA is NASCAR.) Not only is he one of the most popular writers in the sport, but he's also the host of the live audio feed that goes out to tens of thousands of people every supercross race. And I originally hired him years ago! That's right, Weege was a green punk out of New Jersey, looking for his big break, and who gave that to him? That's right -- yours truly. So he owes me. (Plus he still kinda works for me.)

So I'm sending him an e-mail after I finish this post, and I'm going to ask him to start using business in context at least three times during every broadcast. Hattica was already kind enough to give some racing examples on my last business post.

Speaking of Hattica ... Hattica, who posts here all the time, writes two very popular weekly columns that are read by legions of people all over the world. Hey, Hattica -- next time you write "Rev Up" and "Number Cruncher," give me a little business, would you?

Next ... Matthes. Yes, Matthes, who used to be a regular poster here on RtN until I stopped posting. Good ol' Matthes is the host of a very popular weekly podcast that is also listened to by thousands of people, many of whom are north of the border in his home country: Canada. Matthes, I checked out that David Vuillemin interview you did and there were at least 40 opportunities for you to drop the business. How about a bone next time, yo?

Last but not least is you, my fellow bloggers. Inarticulate Fumblings and Dalyn have already agreed to run business in Canada, and that's just hot. If the rest of y'all could just find a place for it, here and there, in posts, at the club, in the post office, wherever, you'll be doing your part to set this brilliant word free.

Thank you -- I love you all.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

I don't think I'm going to do these every Friday anymore, but today is a good day for it. I'm starting the day off with Colin MacIntyre's newest masterpiece, released Tuesday: The Water.



Next?

More Business

Long time no talk! The good news is, I've finished my book, and my consulting gig is nearing its end. I look forward to getting back to my normal crazy schedule and hanging out more with you, my blogging peeps.

The reason for my post today is to talk about my latest campaign to get the word business into the lexicon of youthful slang. Unfortunately, since my post in September, the use of the word doesn't seem to have spread much. So I've decided to call out the big guns.

I sent an e-mail describing the term to a friend who's good friends with Rob and Big. He forwarded it to Dyrdek. The examples I used in the e-mail:

"Fettucini Alfredo? That's some good business right there."
"Man, I gotta change my jeans, I got all kinds of business up in these pockets."
"You got so much crusty business in your eyes you could bake an apple pie."

I feel like this could be businesses big break. If Rob reads the e-mail and sees how good of a word it is, he may say it on his television show. The kids will start saying it instantly.

So I have hope. Even though my friend said Rob's horrible at e-mail and I'll probably never hear from him.

Notes from the Good Doctor

I sure love Dr. Seuss, and luckily, so do my shorties. Here is some of my favorite Seuss.

It's a troublesome world. All the people who're in it
are troubled with troubles almost every minute.
You ought to be thankful, a whole heaping lot,
for the places and people you're lucky you're not!

-Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

Here's a good one to think about while working.

Think they work you too hard...?
Think of poor Ali Sard!
He has to mow grass in his uncle's back yard
and it's quick-growing grass
and it grows as he mows it.
The faster he mows it, the faster he grows it.
And all that his stingy old uncle will pay
for his shoving that mower around in that hay
is the piffulous pay of two Dooklas a day.
And Ali can't live on such piffulous pay!

So...

He has to paint flagpoles
on Sundays in Grooz.
How lucky you are
you don't live in his shoes!

-Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

Horton knows what's up.

Their voices were heard! They rang out clear and clean.
And the elephant smiled. "Do you see what I mean?...
They've proved they ARE persons, no matter how small.
And their whole world was saved by the Smallest of All!"

-Horton Hears a Who

This one always killed me as a kid, and now it's one of my girl's favorites.

Now, bicycles were never made
For pale green pants to ride 'em,
Especially spooky pale green pants
With nobody inside 'em!

-What Was I Scared Of?

Yertle, meet the karma police.

And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,
Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see.
And the turtles, of course ... all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.

-Yertle the Turtle

And last but far, far from least, the good ol' Lorax.

"Mister!" he said with a sawdusty sneeze,
"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tounges.
And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs"--
he was very upset as he shouted and puffed--
"What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?"

"Look, Lorax," I said. "There's no cause for alarm.
I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm.
I'm being quite useful. This thing is a Thneed.
A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need!
It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat.
But it has other uses. Yes, far beyond that.
You can use it for carpets. For pillows! For sheets!
Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!"

The Lorax said,
"Sir! You are crazy with greed.
There is no one on earth
who would buy that fool Thneed!"

But the very next minute I proved he was wrong.
For, just at that minute, a chap came along,
and he thought that the Thneed I had knitted was great.
He happily bought it for three ninethy-eight.

I laughed at the Lorax, "You poor stupid guy!
You never can tell what some people will buy."

-The Lorax

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

I'll leave it at that. I'll listen to everything today, but I probably won't respond until next week. Hook it up!

One

You know how much I've been working lately? So much that I haven't really not been working since we got back from Vegas. I've basically been working myself to sleep. My career is always pretty gnarly, but I'm also up to my knicks in a freelance project -- I'm writing a children's book and consulting on five others (it's a six-book series). My book is due Monday. I shouldn't even be making this post.

I've been so busy that I missed my birthday. Yep, I started Reversing the Numbness a year ago yesterday with this little post. Things haven't turned out like I thought they would, but that's okay. I'm glad to stay in touch with some of my best friends through this blog, and I've also met some very cool people. It's like my own smoky little bar.

I will definitely get back to posting more regularly, and reading my favorite blogs more regularly. I can't wait until I see some daylight! Thanks to everybody who's a part of RtN. I'm glad you're here.

Friday Music

It's Friday. You know who needs music?

My friend The Electric Orchid Hunter. He's going to do what I normally do on this weekly post: listen to every music suggestion and post his thoughts. I'm stoked that he's being a good sport about my request for a substitute. (I'm not actually going anywhere; just wanted to try something different.)

So here's how we'll do it this week. Feel free to post any songs you want -- links are always appreciated, and I bet Teoh will think so too -- but try to leave at least one song under this theme: great driving songs.

I hope everyone who stops by RTN will join in this week. Oh, and if you want to read some exceptional writing about things you probably didn't know you'd be interested in, I seriously suggest checking out Teoh's blog, Eclectic Epiphytes and Electrophoretic Epigrams. It's one of the best blogs I've ever read.

Television Nirvana

The DM just told me something that is blowing my mind. I'm sure this is common news to people who pay attention to entertainment news, but the last episode of Scrubs this year -- the series finale -- will have a Princess Bride theme.

It could be the greatest thing that's ever happened.

So, in homage to both:

Substitute Feature

I'd like to try something a little different this week. Anybody want to sub for me on Friday Music? It's easy; people will post some songs, preferably with links, and you'll just check them all out and say what you think (within a few days). I'm hoping at least one person will volunteer, and more is better. Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?

Tonight I'm Gonna Party Like It's 1999

Check out this video from 1967. (The DM saw this on Snopes.com, and it's legit.) Talk about nailing it.

So here we are, still in the infancy of the information age (though this puppy is growing up fast!). What will it be like 30 years from now?

Go Steelers!

At the very least, watch this until 3:20. It's worth it!



Go Steelers!