What Happened?

Winona Ryder is younger than we are, right?

Ahoy!

OK, it is what is. An Old Spice commercial, but with Bruce Campbell.

Atlanta was Atlanta. Traffic and a bunch of people, but also a lot of traffic. Got gas on my hands refilling my rent-a-car, was late getting to the airport and had to rush, but security was a bitch. Stress, I'm sweating like the athlete I'm not, but then the arriving plane was late. And the departure was even later, an hour later. Traffic, I guess. Atlanta was Atlanta, and I'm happy to be home and listening to Flop, which is somehow better than when I left it. At the end of the day, music may be the only thing that doesn't fail you. And my 2 cents: Atlanta sucks!

Holy Crap!

Back in 2000, Channel 4 produced a remarkably in-depth documentary called On The Edge Of Blade Runner, about one of my all time favorite movies. To my knowledge, it's never been released in the US. (It would seem that someone posted it to Google Video a while back, but - surprise, surprise - it's gone now.)

Download the DivX player, and Flog The Pickle.

In Search Of Steve Ditko

There was a thoroughly fascinating BBC documentary on YouTube a few days ago (broken into seven parts) about reclusive genius Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spiderman. Oh, don't bother looking for it there now, it's already been pulled for legal reasons.

Mr. Ditko basically walked away from Spiderman at the top of his game, never explaining his reasons for quitting. Ditko continued working in the mainstream comic book industry until 1998 or so, but he was never able to recapture the magic. He has refused to give interviews or make public appearances since the late 1960s, and only a handful of photos of him are known to exist publicly. The purpose of the documentary, as you may have surmised, is to find Steve Ditko. Do they? I'll never tell.

Aren't you sorry you missed it? Aren't you glad I saved it while I could? Flatulence Takes Practice!

You'll need a player to watch locally. I like FLV Player. (And it seems to work best if you open the player and then drag the file into it.)

That's IT?

I finally finished this book last night, and although I really enjoyed it, I must admit that I'm a little disappointed with the ending. I'm sorry, but I expect more than a two page wrap-up after plowing through 420-odd pages ...

Dave, your thoughts?

Army of Darkness

Tonight I'm trying on the idea that Army of Darkness is the pinnacle of western civilization. I have the deluxe boomstick edition rented and I mean to use it. Just ya'll steer clear of my house tonight, there's going to be bloodshed.

Found this old trailer last night that got me craving it.

Great forgotten punk classic

God I love this song. I'll try to put it up on the Fragile Tragic Pophead this week. Maybe I'll throw up a few beloved British punk pop Klassics. Or Maybe I Won't!

Jackass of the Week

Meet Coach Gundy of the Oklahoma State football team. Coach Gundy is very, very angry with a reporter from The Oklahoman newspaper. Evidently, the columnist reported that one of the quarterbacks on the team was a real momma's boy and played scared and was a chicken and yadda, yadda, yadda. Coach Gundy is incensed and goes on this three minute diatribe at the unfortunate reporter. A couple of things he clearly doesn't realize:

1) He is proving the columnist's point every time he refers to 'crying home to your momma' over being criticized.
2) Yes, he is an amateur athlete. However, who the hell are we kidding? Division I College Football IS pro sports as far as I am concerned. If you can't take the heat.....
3) This whole thing about having kids. This female reporter probably doesn't give two shits about all that. And who knows, maybe she DOES have kids? Wouldn't he feel like an ass if he found out she'd had one die or something? Give this schmuck a valium.

Paul McCartney's Favorite Beatles Song

I played this for Ian last night for the first time. "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" actually has a pretty interesting story, which you can check out here. For instance, the sax solo was performed by Brian Jones, and the song was almost the first Plastic Ono Band single.

The Wikipedia entry didn't, however, answer the one question I've always wanted answered: is the gibberish at the end supposed to be Bluto and Popeye fighting? It sounds an awful lot like that's what they were going for.

Dave, surely you have a definitive answer ...

Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout At The Devil!

In the beginning, good always overpowered the evils of all man's sins. But in time, the nations grew weak and our cities fell to slums while evil stood strong. In the dusts of hell lurked the blackest of hates, for he whom you fear awaits you. Now, many, many lifetimes later, lay destroyed, beaten down, only corpses of rebels, ashes of dreams and blood-stained streets. It has been written that those who have the youth have the future, so come now children of the beast, be strong and shout at the devil!

"In the Beginning," Motley Crue

Feel The Power of Satan's majesty!

Hilarious clip Joe is lucky he can't see. Or smell.

sick on air
Uploaded by krs601

Hi-lar-i-ous. Yechh.

Those Crazy Dutchmen

A song from a Dutch kids program, but with very nice phonetic subtitles.

Cool Ferrari Dude

This guy's as smooth as I am. (Apologies to Joe, of course.)

Now this is entertainment!

This was a terrible thing to do to a child, but you've got to hand it to those Japanese and their TV shows! Anything for a laugh! Thrill to the hilarious antics that ensue when someone dresses their child as a seal and puts them in front of the polar bear exhibit! God bless America, and God bless Japan!

Neon Horse

I see a video like this one sent to me from my friend Monroe and I think, "this is why they invented music videos." Reminds me of the MTV of the '80s: innovative sound, unpredictable, kinetic images, goofy costumes, and everything colorful, active and meaningless.

Space Invaders

And now, we continue our series of cool videos that Joe cannot see.

This Fucked Me Up

And I can barely watch it now ...

Sigh ...

Seth Green Funny

Good Chris "Leave Britney Alone!" Crocker Parody.

Sorry Joe ...

... but this a funny clip from People's Court.

Floppy Weekend

You asked fer it, ya got it. Please enjoy not one, not two, but three Flop albums at F*&^ The Paradigm. For the uninitiated, Flop was, in my opinion, the finest band to come out of the Northwest in the 1990s.

What? Dave, are you nuts? Yes, I am. Nuts for Flop.

Flop, led by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Rusty Willoughby (Pure Joy, Fastbacks, Llama) played amazingly catchy power pop with extremely dense and obtuse lyrics held together by amazing melodies and great vocals. I tried to model Pophead on Flop, but I didn't have the talent. Still, the ideas stuck and to me, Flop is the by far the best example of the early 90s power pop, heavy rock singles band (with the Smoking Popes a close second).

Album One is Flop and the Fall of the Mopsqueezer, an absolute tour de force. I defy anyone to find an album with a better first nine songs. The rest are great too, but the first nine rock my world. I've yet to meet anyone who didn't become horribly addicted to this album, forsaking work, kids, and spouses just to hear it. Kurt Bloch of the Fastbacks and the Fellows produced, there's a Ray Davies cover, and the Young Brians opened a couple time for the boys during this time period. 'Hello' is a special favorite, and a song I've covered many times.

Album Two is the slightly less successful Whenever You're Ready. By 'less successful', I mean 'still incredible, just not as incredible'. This was their major label debut, a deal that didn't really work out for them. Rusty writes amazing songs, but they are not exactly 'I love you' Top 40 fodder. Which is why we love 'em.

Album Three is World of Today, Flop's swan song. Tasty tunes and great production will keep you begging for more. But there isn't any. Enjoy, Bastards, enjoy.

PS: Did any of you *&^%weeds ever listen to the Parasites? Or that first Cheap Trick album? Feedback? Throw a brother a bone ferchrissakes.

In Color, Bitches!

Might be my favorite Cheap Trick record. Yeah, I said record.

By my estimation, only one stinker on the whole thang, and even it's passable. (Of course, I'm talking about "You're All Talk.")

So what's good on In Color? Well, how 'bout "Hello There," "Big Eyes," "Downed," "I Want You To Want Me," "Oh Caroline," "Clock Strikes Ten," "Southern Girls," "Come On, Come On," "So Good To See you."

Frequently Taking Pills!

Lovely

We had an inspection on the little house we wanted to buy. Turns out that termites have not suffered the slump in the real estate market that everyone else has, especially where this house is concerned. The inspector deemed it "major structural damage" and showed us a couple of spots where you could step on the floor and potentially open up a new access point to the crawlspace. We're dropping what we're willing to pay to ridiculously low levels - so low the owners probably (and maybe hopefully) won't take it. So we're back to square one. Or maybe two, since we've got a couple of other potential places identified.

The best part is that when we went out to look at the place again after the inspection, I was walking around the house and noticed a bunch of wasps on a window. Hmm, there are a lot of wasps on that window, I thought, just as one stung me RIGHT ON THE FUCKING FOREHEAD. So that evening and the whole next day, I was uncomfortable and had a little bit of a headache, but no big deal. Until around 8pm when I looked in the mirror and noticed that my forehead was swelling around the sting spot. By around 8:45 it was starting to spread around my eyes. I iced it down and that seemed to help a little. I woke up yesterday morning and my whole face was puffy. I felt really crappy, so I did the walk-in to the Doctors office. Three hours and a steroid shot later, I walked out with a prescription for allergy medicine and slightly less discomfort.

All seems okay now. Not that you care.

Hipster Olympics

More Goddamn Art

This time, it's Glasgow's David Shrigley. This stuff is striking me as really funny and profound this morning. Happy Friday, ladies.

Welcome to Hell (Theme of my week)

Something about my company's preparations for its annual customer conference always reminds me of a certain post-life hot spot. I enjoy whenever Rowan does something with a religious theme.

Danny Hellman, Hell Yeah

Check out Danny Hellman's online portfolio, specifically his editorial illustration (more specifically, the music section).

Good schtuff.

Hey, Dave!

Please please please please please Fire The President?

Realistically Creepy Or Creepily Realistic?

MotionPortrait is the technology that automatically creates 3D face models from one single picture, which can be animated in a variety of facial expressions.

Is this the most realistic avatar ever?

Little Known Facts About Our First President

These are from Brad Neely's Creased Comics. Most are just weird, but some made me laugh ...

Memory vs. Reality

As enthralling as it has been for me to reconnect with scattered bits of my childhood through YouTube, I have to say that some things live more nobly in the imagination than when resurrected by the internets. The Kids from CAPER, Bugaloos, Land of the Lost, Monster Squad (I'm showing that I'm older than all of you) are prime examples. It's a bit disheartening to see the impact players from your Saturday morning life reduced to ridiculous embarrassments, but HR Puffinstuff hasn't completely disappointed. The kid, Jack Wild, had a fine, young voice and incidentally, has remained active as a character actor in TV and minor films. I went looking for this song tonight, having not heard it in over 30 years but flawlessly remembered the lyrics. And enjoyed hearing it again, without reservation.

She's A Human!

Umm ...

Only Ones

The best thinly-veiled song about heroin ever written.

Whole E Sheet

This is the one I'm waiting for, guys. Wow.

Watch it higher res over to the Apple.

Can we please have some sanity, please?

You must've heard of the Vanessa Hudgens affair--the Hight School Musical star whose nude photo, made for her boyfriend got picked up by the internets. My interest in this was originally simply voyeuristic, but has turned to indignant. What is wrong with this country? Why is this scorching the headlines, causing corporate angst and generating such scandal? I mean, she's not humping a corpse or blowing a horse, she's just standing naked and beautiful in a photo intended for 1 set of eyes. Why does this backwards, puritanical nation flip out over nudity? There's massive speculation about whether or not Disney will fire her, whether her career is over, etc. It's ridiculous! She wasn't smart to do this, obviously, but who didn't make enormously erroneous judgments when they were 19?

Dear God, we simply must take this country back from the neo-inquisition.

Surf's Up (Maybe)...

Have a good weekend, fellers. Hopefully this system off the coast will send some waves my way. Most likely it'll just be wind and rain. Oh well, plants need love too.

I Always Wondered About That ...

Artist and fellow blogger Stephen DeStefano clears up one of life's great mysteries.

Click to embiggen.

You Asked For It

Before there were rockers, there were...Rollers!

Confession Friday

I LOVE "How Deep Is Your Love."

Who's next? Joe, this is your opportunity to come out of the closet. (I think I just did.)

Of Montreal covers Bowie

Fucking nice! It's cool how much he sounds like Bowie when he goes into Hang Onto Yourself. Catch the Starman cover in a live, impromptu performance on the streets of Paris here (second half of the 1st vid).

Calling All Drum Fags

From I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, some of Dave Grohl's raw drum tracks for Songs For The Deaf. Hell yeah!

You guys put the F in my Teepee

Looks like we're going a little Freakin' Totally Psycho these days, what with all this tuneage. Check the Flat Trapdoor Palladium for the first Cheap Trick album, as well as the long-promised Parasites. Everything is a .wma file, so it should work this time.

6363 Sunset Blvd

"6363 Sunset is a fascinating second look at Elvis Presley’s recording sessions at the RCA Hollywood Studios in March of 1972 and 1975. The first 6 tracks are from the 2 nights in 1972 that produced "Burning Love" and "Always on my Mind" and the final 6 tracks focus on the session that produced the Elvis Today album and in the middle, we get 7 tracks from the "On Tour" concert rehearsal sessions also recorded in the same studio."

In other words, the first 6 and last 7 tracks are the most interesting, and the middle part is the same Vegas stuff you always hear -- with the exception of maybe "Until It's Time For You To Go".

Fakin' Tare of Pusiness

Blogger Does Custom Video Now!

This is only a test. If Joe could watch Sophie Marcaeu's dress fall off her shoulder from work, he might get in trouble. I'm just sayin' ...

Standing On The Edge

I played the shit out of this one in high school, too. Not necessarily their best, but not their worst, either. (That would be All Shook Up for my money - George Martin or not, it was a big ol' steaming elephant turd.) For Standing, the band reunited with Jack Douglas, producer of their very first album, Cheap Trick.

Widely regarded as CT's last good album, Standing On The Edge has been out of print in the States for years.

Forsake Tempting Pastries!

Power Pop, David Brent Style

I loved the original Office and this is from the best episode. Rock the cubicles!

Be Responsible, Bastards.

Life is all about balance, right?

The Dream Police, They Live Inside Of My Head

Every few years I go on a Cheap Trick bender. In college, I bought everything I could find on vinyl. Today, I share with you The Dream Police. (I'm working on In Color and Standing On The Edge, too ...)

Finger The Politician!

Perfect Power Pop

I've had this album since 92 or 93 and just ran across it again recently. Absolutely unbelievable stuff. I think this band was really just a guy who did all or almost all the instruments. The best thing, most of the songs sound like they could be really, really good Subteens songs- Kram even sounds like this guy on a lot of it, and those tasty progressions could have sprung from the mind of Jay Hines. Or someone just like him. I've put it up on the Filipino Touring Pram for your enjoyment- tell me it doesn't sound like the 'teens! I mean, really, DON'T tell me that!

Oh You Pretty Things

What can you say that hasn't already been said?

This Is Why I Watch The Telethon

Jerry has become as unpredictable as a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Under The Black Light

New Rilo Kiley album is full of disco moments and prickly kiss-off lyrics. Listen to it for that, or for the fact that Jenny Lewis is yummy yummy yummy.

Also, the Earlimart mentioned earlier is up as well.

First Glimmer

Pretty decent crowd-cam recording of one of my favorite P.W. songs. Seems that the older I get, the more meaningful this song gets. BONUS: Notice the idiots crowd surfing to this mid-tempo, laid back song. Oh the nineties.

Great Rock and Roll blog

Stumbled upon the site He's a Whore and was intrigued because that's the name of my favorite Cheap Trick song. Turns out the blog is very interesting and has loads and loads of free live mp3s from Cheap Trick, Wilco and lots of others. The guy is an 'almost-was' in the rock and roll biz who still records and plays out and has some entertaining anecdotes of his rock and roll journey. He also does lots of record reviews, career overviews and offers up the aforementioned mp3s. Last night I snagged stuff by the Beatles, Nirvana, and Weezer. Enjoy, paisanos, and Happy Labor Day Weekend!