I downloaded Big Dipper's Heaven off SLSK today. This is definitely an album that reminds me of the good ol'days of 2002.

I really enjoy the Boston power pop/alternative groups of the mid 80's--The Neighborhoods and Big Dipper bring pleasure to my life. I know they are not from Boston, but Dramarama is a solid group, as well. Everyone knows the song Anything, Anything off the Cinema Verite album. I know a few--probably around ten--people who like the song. I remember I was watching Vh1 with some friends a couple years back and a promo for Bands Reunited was shown during a commercial break--and the band that was on the verge of reuniting was...Dramarama. In seeing the possibility of of a Dramarama reunion, everyone who had heard of the band was like: "I love that song they recorded in the 80's. Is it called Promises, Promises?" Someone who was cognizant towards pop hits from the 1980's interjected: "No, you are thinking of Anything, Anything; Mister, Mister recorded Promises, Promises." The people who knew the facts kept quiet; it seems as though alliteration was quite popular in the 80's.

When I tell people I like the Boston scene of the mid 80's, I am always asked whether or not I enjoy the Pixies. I always answer: I like a few of their songs--Here Comes Your Man--but I probably don't like them as much as you do. To be honest, I think some of the lyrics Black Francis/Frank Black wrote for the band are interesting, but the sound is redundant--and very myopic. Pixies infatuation is very perplexing. Was Soul Asylum better than the Replacements? Was Ricky Nelson better than Eddie Cochran? My education has taught me that it is better to search out the primary source than it is to search out the secondary source.

If the primary source mattered to most, Mission of Burma's Vs. would receive the same accolades that the first three Pixes albums receive--heck, the Obliterati is light years ahead of anything the Pixies ever recorded.

I am watching Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II on the Encore Action channel--it's 4 AM and I just can not figure out how to get to sleep. Anyways, the voice dubs sound like they were recorded at the Northwest Community Television editing suite.

Shootin' a horse with a bb gun

Tommy...

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Hey Guy(s):

I have not posted at the blog for awhile because--let's face it--I have nothing to say. I could talk about a book I just read--suburban nation. However, I was not impressed with it the first time I read it, and the second reading did not help me change my mind in regards to the book. I guess it was filled with too many generalities--tell me something new or at least cultivate an interesting view on things. It was not as loathsome as reading Naomi Klein, but it was still kinda (blah).

Soap Operas: any good one's out there. I remember staying with my grandma in Tower, MN, back in the early 90's and all we did was watch soap operas. Back then, soap operas were actually well made. In the year 2007, soap operas seem rather mediocre. Is there something I'm missing?

Bodog: Battle of the Bands: A show that's not as good as Vh1's Bands on the Run. Of all of the 2-million reality shows I have been subjected to since the early 2000's, Band's on the Run takes the cake--I actually rooted for Soulcracker.

I don't know...Prince's Planet Earth is Coming out Tuesday. I guess I might have to buy it--kinda impressed he played first ave.

I like Akon's "Sorry, Blame it on Me." I guess it's a good pop song--and a good slice of life. I remember watching Steel Magnolios back in HS because it was considered an excellent example of a SLICEofLIfe. FUCK...Akon's newest single has to be the best reaction song I have heard since South Bronx was made to counter the Bridge--and it's telling of the times. With the shit that goes on in the suburbs--parents letting their kids get away with murder--this is a song that needs to make a dent on the charts.

--Straight to fuckin' hell--

straight

_straight_

Shat

_straight_

Shinders closes
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Shinders was a great place to purchase sports cards, comics, and dirty magazines. I guess people will have to make do with Borders.

Fun-in_the-summer

I am watching some softcore porn on Cinemax's Muchmax right now. The show is called The Erotic Traveler--I believe it is a series on the channel. I remember back in the early 90's--when my family first got the movie channels--I used to sneak off to the downstairs family room to watch the late night softcore on Cinemax. Kids--I doubt they liked me to begin with--wanted to sleep over at my house so they could watch softcore; it was quite a big deal for us. Anytime we would hear footsteps from upstairs, we would switch over to Ozzie and Harriet re-runs on the Disney Channel--and this was softcore we were watching. Getting to my point, kids who are in middle school in the year 2007 are spoiled. When I was a kid, it was a chore to get a playboy, so being able to watch softcore was a big deal. All kids have to do nowadays is jump on the internet and type in the word old cunt; it will then lead them to the image of their friend's grandma giving a young man a monroe transfer.

tommy

--Blank Page--

Old Tom Green makes for quality entertainment. I like his new show, but I love his stuff from the 90's.

stoner_rock

I was talkin' up the stoner rock a couple days ago--a miserable name for a genre--and became reminiscent of the days when I was obsessed with the desert rock scene. So, I decided to download a few albums off SLSK from the likes of Kyuss, Monster Magnet, and Nebula. I love this shit; it's great stupid fun--and stupid in the best way. Some people who I know call it mediocre grunge, but I always have to disagree. I see quite a few more layers in stoner rock than grunge. I always saw grunge--mainstream at least--as a genre that was rather formulaic. You always knew where grunge was going to go at all times; it never plays tricks on your mind. On the other hand, stoner rock is pretty fuckin' schizophrenic; it always is taking on a different form--and is quite clever.

Robert Moses<>SHAT

I just re-read The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro. The Power Broker has to be the best book on urban planning I have ever read. Yeah, the book is long--1344 pages--but it sure gives great insight into how modern New York was built.

Robert Moses has to be one of the most interesting characters in American history. He did whatever he wanted; he got whatever he wanted. One of his projects--the Cross Bronx Expressway--turned the South Bronx into an urban cesspool--I guess the area had some middle class inhabitants before the expressway was built, but they left for the suburbs. Eventually, this area, which became filled with drugs and violence during the latter part of the 70's, gave birth to hip hop. Mr. Moses is without a doubt one of the cultivators of hip hop.

Ebenezer Howard
I remember reading about him in a book--with a name I can't recall--a couple years ago. I guess he became obsessed with Walt Whitman--and was encouraged to better the human race. Around 1890, Mr. Howard read the book Looking Backward--and Town and Country was birthed. Mr. Howard, certainly, was a cultivator of headaches and death caused by mini vans.
I really want to write some more tonight. I want to talk about cool shit, but I really don't know what's cool these days.

Sleep: The group that everyone should listen to when they are high/sober
I found this CD today and loaded it into my iTunes. I must say that this little remembrance of days gone by still packs the jams. I must of listened to Sleep from 4 to 5 pm everyday for almost three years--sophomore through senior. I remember people used to give me shit for listening to Sleep; they compared them to the other dime-a-dozen stoner rock bands that polluted suburban Chicago basements back then. Listening to Sleep is not about getting stoned; it's on parallel with the greatest Coltrane or Miles Davis albums: by the end, you are consumed with the sweats.

I really do not think a person has to be stoned to enjoy sleep, which is something you can't say about most of Sleep's peers from the mid 90's. If you are interested in music theory--and bullshit like that--you will enjoy Sleep.

Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girls: probably one of the best throwback songs I have heard in awhile. If Beautiful Girls was a conventional throwback, it would be the powder blue Chargers home jersey or the two tone hat that the Blue Jays used to wear.

The Blue Jays are one of the many teams that has screwed up its identity--now the Atlanta Hawks can be added to the list. Back in the early/mid 90's--when the Blue Jays were a solid team--the two tone hat and jersey set was worn by quite a few kids at my elementary school--and so was the Oakland Raider starter jacket. Most of these kids were ignorant to who played third base for the Jays--Kelly Gruber--or who managed the team--Cito Gaston; these kids liked the image. Today, I cannot see anyone going out of their way--too bad Holiday Plus went under--to purchase a polyester black Blue Jays hat. I willadmit that the graphite hat which the team wore at home until this season was kind of unique. Still, I miss the days when it was alright for a Minnesota kid to wear an A's or White Sox shirt to school. Unless you are a hipster, you are more than likely to wear the colors of your home team these days. In the early/mid 90's, you wore the Quebec Nordiques blue road jersey because you liked the colors--and that was an acceptable response. If you respond in the same manner in 2007, people are bound to think of you as a twat--team/city loyalty is at its highest. How could this be?

I have nothing to write about today--or I can't think about anything important to write about.

Live Earth...OH NOOOOO...FUCK SHIT

Melissa Etheridge went bat shit today...

Fun Day...

I used to watch that show Fun House--the show that J.D. Roth hosted--quite a bit when I was around five years old, which would have been around 1988.

Yesterday, I found a clip on youtube of Fun House, and I must say that the show was rather amateur.

The prizes, host, set, and contestants were all second rate.

Though, I would have been happy to have a mini Sharp television in my basement bedroom back then.

I wonder how many men perished during the construction of the Fun House set.


I used to be quite the connosseiur of the shredded beef jerky back when I was eight. I guess this shit was the precursor from my downfall: Chooch.

A Kind of Loving...
John Schlesinger made a transport movie back in the early 60's about all the happenings at the Waterloo Station; it was called Terminus...I think you can watch it on youtube...Anyways, when will the region one DVD of A Kind of Loving be made available?

Family Ties

I Bought this on Saturday. I must say that I have seen every episode of Family Ties from season four to the end of the series, but I have neglected to watch the first couple seasons of the show--with the exception of the Uncle Ned episodes with Tom Hanks.

After watching every episode from season one--22 in all--I must say that the Jennifer (Tina Yothers) actually played an integral role on the show. Next to Michael J. Fox, Yothers portrayal of the precocious younger sister helped make the show interesting--she often was the one to put the outspoken Alex into his place. Once she hit puberty, Yothers was regulated to Michael Fishman or Kiesha Knight Pullium duty.

In the show's infancy, Michael Gross was sans beard. When I was a kid, Michael Gross with beard was one of the most recognizable characters on television.

I talked to someone last night about Family Ties, and he said that the show was a carbon copy ripoff of Growing Pains. Well, for one thing, Growing Pains premiered in 1985; Family Ties premiered in 1982. Family Ties--especially, early on--had some interesting social commentary; Growing Pains was all about Mike Seaver getting in trouble or getting fired from his job at the burger joint.

Best Episode from season one: "Death of a Grocer"
This is the episode where Alex leaves his job at Alder's Market to work in cat toys at the new supermarket. In the end, Alex realizes that he received more pleasure working at Alder's and quits the job where he was known only as 28. Also, Erwin "Skippy" Handleman (Marc Price) made his series debut during this episode. Skippy (Mr. Price) went above and beyond to make the character his own. Some compare Skippy to Urkel in annoyance, but Skippy was never one-dimensional like Urkel; he was comprised of many layers--he could be Alex's goofball friend or a great friend who is always there for his buddy.