1946 - 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
All Over The Map
I'm tapping away at the laptop with my right hand, checking my cell with my left hand, and watching the latest hour-old updates on CNN. I am my own weather headquarters, and I am fully prepared for tornadic Missouri weather. Except I don't live in Missouri (or even the United States, for that matter). Nonetheless, when mid-west atmosphere gets turbulent, be assured that I'm on top of it... a thousand miles away.
I used to know people who lived in Joplin. I don't anymore. Maybe I still do. I don't know, I've lost touch with so many people. But the Joplin people I knew years ago were still in school, and kids from Missouri towns tend to take off after finishing school.
David Bazan's new album is good. It's available to stream in its entirety in a couple places so I've spent the past couple days getting familiar with it.
http://www.davidbazan.com/2011/listen-to-strange-negotiations/
I like the title track.
Tuesday, after dropping my mom off at the airport, my wife, daughter, and I went to the Lake Effect Diner in Buffalo. We went for no other reason than it being featured in an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The restaurant itself is in an old sleek boxcar like the ones you'd find in Grand Theft Auto IV. Despite the 50's aura, the music they were pumping closely mirrored my own music library. Modest Mouse and Shins and Wilco and Eels and etc. As for the food, I had a pulled pork sandwich, coleslaw, fries, and a root beer milkshake. All of it was delicious. If (for whatever God-awful reason) you find yourself with a couple hours to kill in Buffalo, I recommend eating a meal here.
Speaking of Buffalo and root beer, between the airport and dinner I picked up four bottles of "Draft Root Beer" made by Natural Brew. Very good, very flavorful. I don't know if using natural ingredients makes it taste better by default, but somewhere somebody discovered that mashing together sarsaparilla, anise, licorice root, birch oil, wintergreen oil, and bourbon vanilla extract (whatever that is -- though it sounds delicious) makes a dang fine beverage.
Find a store that sells it, then buy it. Then drink it.
http://www.natural-brew.com/where_to_buy
I used to know people who lived in Joplin. I don't anymore. Maybe I still do. I don't know, I've lost touch with so many people. But the Joplin people I knew years ago were still in school, and kids from Missouri towns tend to take off after finishing school.
-------------------------------------------
David Bazan's new album is good. It's available to stream in its entirety in a couple places so I've spent the past couple days getting familiar with it.
http://www.davidbazan.com/2011/listen-to-strange-negotiations/
I like the title track.
-------------------------------------------
Tuesday, after dropping my mom off at the airport, my wife, daughter, and I went to the Lake Effect Diner in Buffalo. We went for no other reason than it being featured in an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The restaurant itself is in an old sleek boxcar like the ones you'd find in Grand Theft Auto IV. Despite the 50's aura, the music they were pumping closely mirrored my own music library. Modest Mouse and Shins and Wilco and Eels and etc. As for the food, I had a pulled pork sandwich, coleslaw, fries, and a root beer milkshake. All of it was delicious. If (for whatever God-awful reason) you find yourself with a couple hours to kill in Buffalo, I recommend eating a meal here.
-------------------------------------------
Speaking of Buffalo and root beer, between the airport and dinner I picked up four bottles of "Draft Root Beer" made by Natural Brew. Very good, very flavorful. I don't know if using natural ingredients makes it taste better by default, but somewhere somebody discovered that mashing together sarsaparilla, anise, licorice root, birch oil, wintergreen oil, and bourbon vanilla extract (whatever that is -- though it sounds delicious) makes a dang fine beverage.
Find a store that sells it, then buy it. Then drink it.
http://www.natural-brew.com/where_to_buy
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Living in Houses That Aren't Mine
The great thing about house-sitting is that it's sort of like staying at a multi-star hotel. No bills to pay, free cable, a fridge full of food, drinks, etc. Maybe you have to feed a cat, but the only thing you really have to do is ensure the house doesn't burn down. And if it does... who cares? It's not your house.
I like to pretend I'm Robin Williams' creepy character in One Hour Photo. I'll sit on your couch, I'll watch your TV, I'll use your toilet... I'll do these things as if everything had always been mine. Except instead of kidnapping you and locking you in a hotel room I'll simply give you back your house when you come home. I might be creepy, but I try to avoid being awful.
I'm currently in Woodstock, Ontario.
Facts about Woodstock, Ontario:
- population of 35,480 (as of 2006... we're still waiting on the results of this year's census)
- "Dairy Capital of Canada"
- first settled in 1800.
- site of the "Woodstock Wood Show" held every October
- there's a life-sized statue of a cow downtown named the Springbank Snow Countess
- on Wikipedia the "Notable Natives" section features a list of Woodstockians who aren't very notable.
There are also a lot of old buildings, some new houses, and a place that will sell me habanero chipnuts.
Also, and this may be most important, there is a sushi restaurant that is surprisingly good. Surprising because it's a sushi restaurant... in Woodstock, Ontario... that's good. It's like finding a gold nugget in the pocket of a two-hundred year-old pair of pants.
But I don't live here. I'm pretending to, but later I'll go back to my real home and watch my own dumb TV and eat my own dumb food. I'll have to feed my own dumb cat. Of course, anybody house-sitting for me will find it all luxurious -- in a I'm-not-paying-for-this-multi-star-hotel sort of way.
I like to pretend I'm Robin Williams' creepy character in One Hour Photo. I'll sit on your couch, I'll watch your TV, I'll use your toilet... I'll do these things as if everything had always been mine. Except instead of kidnapping you and locking you in a hotel room I'll simply give you back your house when you come home. I might be creepy, but I try to avoid being awful.
I'm currently in Woodstock, Ontario.
Facts about Woodstock, Ontario:
- population of 35,480 (as of 2006... we're still waiting on the results of this year's census)
- "Dairy Capital of Canada"
- first settled in 1800.
- site of the "Woodstock Wood Show" held every October
- there's a life-sized statue of a cow downtown named the Springbank Snow Countess
- on Wikipedia the "Notable Natives" section features a list of Woodstockians who aren't very notable.
There are also a lot of old buildings, some new houses, and a place that will sell me habanero chipnuts.
Also, and this may be most important, there is a sushi restaurant that is surprisingly good. Surprising because it's a sushi restaurant... in Woodstock, Ontario... that's good. It's like finding a gold nugget in the pocket of a two-hundred year-old pair of pants.
But I don't live here. I'm pretending to, but later I'll go back to my real home and watch my own dumb TV and eat my own dumb food. I'll have to feed my own dumb cat. Of course, anybody house-sitting for me will find it all luxurious -- in a I'm-not-paying-for-this-multi-star-hotel sort of way.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Thoughts: The 80's, North Americans, Music, Homosexuality, and Popularity
Something was recently brought to my attention regarding 80's music and homosexuality.
The question was posed: how many gay North American 80's chart-toppers can you name? That is, how many musicians are there from the United States or Canada who had a top-10 North American hit in the 1980's and who were also openly gay.
The first names that come to mind -- Elton John, Boy George, George Michael -- are all British (or is "English" the proper nomenclature?). We'll even open up the doors to switch-hitters. David Bowie, Freddy Mercury... British, British.
The most obvious flamboyant American contender, Prince, is straight as an arrow.
Supposedly Luther Vandross was gay. If he was he kept it in his closet.
The only one that comes to mind is Michael Stipe of R.E.M., but even he won't outright say that he is, by his own definition, gay (although he will freely admit past relationships with men which makes him, by everybody else's definition, gay).
Maybe we can include Bob Mould from Husker Du as everybody knew he was sort of gay in the 80's (he finally came out for real in the 90's). But as far as charts were concerned the band never held much mainstream success. In the States, Warehouse: Songs and Stories made it to 117 on the Billboard 200. Candy Apple Grey went to 140.
And that's pretty much it.
Strike that. I just discovered (or kind of already figured, but never really confirmed) that the founding male members of The B-52s, Fred Schneider included, were gay. I don't think the American mainstream ever really accepted the B-52, but "Love Shack" was too irresistible. Tin roof, rusted.
North America's reluctance to embrace gay culture is not shocking, but it is curious that gay acts from England were welcomed with open arms. I have no explanation for this, only speculation.
Theory 1: With all of the resistance against homosexual lifestyles in America, it would be difficult for any openly gay musician to develop a successful career. They may thrive within small scenes, but a wider listening audience was reluctant to accept them. On the other hand, gay musicians across the pond were allowed to develop and flourish.
Theory 2: Gay Brits made better music than Gay Americans. I don't personally believe this is true, but someone once said the simplest explanation is often the one that's correct.
Theory 3: Americans couldn't tell the difference between English gays and English straights. It's difficult to be prejudice against one group when they're not so obviously different from the other group.
In the decades since the 1980's North America has become a little bit more open to gay musicians. It's mostly the men we have problems with. Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, Joan Osbourne, most of the Lilith Fair... all have done well. Shoot, when Madonna smooches Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears the video gets played over and over. But when Adam Lambert smooches a dude on stage, America cringes. That's not to say the men haven't done well. Lance Bass, Clay Aiken, Lambert, even Billie Joe Armstrong have all admitted their gay-ity, although they all waited until they were famous before making it official.
Rufus Wainwright seems to be the unquestionable quintessential popular North American gay poster boy. He was born in New York, spent most of his youth in Montreal, let everybody know he was gay before he was famous, and despite this he still makes an occasional appearance on the Billboard charts (his latest album reached number 4 on the Top Canadian Albums chart).
I suspect this is the stuff theses are made of. Or books. Or cultural movements. Maybe someday, when I've got large quantities of free time instead of minimal amounts, I'll do the research and flesh these things out.
The question was posed: how many gay North American 80's chart-toppers can you name? That is, how many musicians are there from the United States or Canada who had a top-10 North American hit in the 1980's and who were also openly gay.
The first names that come to mind -- Elton John, Boy George, George Michael -- are all British (or is "English" the proper nomenclature?). We'll even open up the doors to switch-hitters. David Bowie, Freddy Mercury... British, British.
The most obvious flamboyant American contender, Prince, is straight as an arrow.
Supposedly Luther Vandross was gay. If he was he kept it in his closet.
The only one that comes to mind is Michael Stipe of R.E.M., but even he won't outright say that he is, by his own definition, gay (although he will freely admit past relationships with men which makes him, by everybody else's definition, gay).
Maybe we can include Bob Mould from Husker Du as everybody knew he was sort of gay in the 80's (he finally came out for real in the 90's). But as far as charts were concerned the band never held much mainstream success. In the States, Warehouse: Songs and Stories made it to 117 on the Billboard 200. Candy Apple Grey went to 140.
And that's pretty much it.
Strike that. I just discovered (or kind of already figured, but never really confirmed) that the founding male members of The B-52s, Fred Schneider included, were gay. I don't think the American mainstream ever really accepted the B-52, but "Love Shack" was too irresistible. Tin roof, rusted.
North America's reluctance to embrace gay culture is not shocking, but it is curious that gay acts from England were welcomed with open arms. I have no explanation for this, only speculation.
Theory 1: With all of the resistance against homosexual lifestyles in America, it would be difficult for any openly gay musician to develop a successful career. They may thrive within small scenes, but a wider listening audience was reluctant to accept them. On the other hand, gay musicians across the pond were allowed to develop and flourish.
Theory 2: Gay Brits made better music than Gay Americans. I don't personally believe this is true, but someone once said the simplest explanation is often the one that's correct.
Theory 3: Americans couldn't tell the difference between English gays and English straights. It's difficult to be prejudice against one group when they're not so obviously different from the other group.
In the decades since the 1980's North America has become a little bit more open to gay musicians. It's mostly the men we have problems with. Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, Joan Osbourne, most of the Lilith Fair... all have done well. Shoot, when Madonna smooches Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears the video gets played over and over. But when Adam Lambert smooches a dude on stage, America cringes. That's not to say the men haven't done well. Lance Bass, Clay Aiken, Lambert, even Billie Joe Armstrong have all admitted their gay-ity, although they all waited until they were famous before making it official.
Rufus Wainwright seems to be the unquestionable quintessential popular North American gay poster boy. He was born in New York, spent most of his youth in Montreal, let everybody know he was gay before he was famous, and despite this he still makes an occasional appearance on the Billboard charts (his latest album reached number 4 on the Top Canadian Albums chart).
I suspect this is the stuff theses are made of. Or books. Or cultural movements. Maybe someday, when I've got large quantities of free time instead of minimal amounts, I'll do the research and flesh these things out.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Phil Phridays! -- I Missed Again
I feel like the conversation went like this:
"Phil, your album cost so much to produce that we dipped substantially into the music video fund. Also your backing band all quit at once. Also the record company wants to see the finished video in about thirty minutes. But don't worry, it's the 1980's, so we're going to figure this out."
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Gravity Or Levity: I'm Probably Just A Downer
I like to sit on things.
After seeing a movie, I like to push it out of the forefront of my mind for a day or two before bringing it back and developing an opinion about it.
Same with pieces of art.
Same with sudden events of large cultural significance.
So now that I've had some time to chew on the concept of dead Osamas...
Like hearing about the events of September 11th for the first time, this will be one of those things where you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the initial reports. I was watching the end of "The Borgias." The Pope was trying to form an alliance with Naples. My wife was on the laptop and saw something on somebody's status update. I flipped to CNN for confirmation, then, because I wanted to see how my silly TV show ended, I flipped back. For the next several minutes I flipped between the two channels until "The Borgias" ended. I'm probably the worst person to watch TV with.
After that I mostly kept it on CNN. The Canadian news stations seemed uncharacteristically inept, CBS's graphics couldn't compete, and nobody else had a host named Wolf. I also stuck to Twitter and Facebook for instant updates and unthoughtful reactionary drivel.
My feelings on the whole "shoot Osama in the face" incident are mixed. Initially I was happy and relieved. Happy that we finally smoked the bastard. Relieved that he won't oversee and fund any more blow-up missions. But as I thought about it I became more uncomfortable with the celebratory reaction of our US nation.
I remember 10 years ago seeing footage of foreign America-haters stomping on our flaming flag, joyous about our 3,000 dead. I couldn't understand how one human being could feel that way about another human being. Those people are still jerks, but I now understand their misguided national pride. I know it's not the same thing, 3,000 civilian dead compared to one evil man, and I agree that we have the better reason to celebrate a killing, but I finally get it. I get it and I'm not going to reduce myself to that level of hate.
Osama Bin Laden--
I don't want to defile his body.
I don't want to kill his family.
I don't even want him dead.
I don't want to hate anymore.
These are things he would have wanted.
I'm bigger than that.
So we can still celebrate. His terror network has been hindered. He personally isn't going to hurt anybody anymore. (Even in his last seconds he used one of his wives as a human shield.) Some form of earthly justice has been served. The prospect of peace, at least temporarily, is shining in our faces. But I'm not going to celebrate death. That's religious extremism's business.
Do we mourn him? We can mourn a life lived so twistedly that he felt justified in murdering thousands all over the world. We can mourn the fact that he seized opportunities to do evil rather than doing good. We can mourn the wretched past, but, more importantly, we should celebrate a hopeful future.
After seeing a movie, I like to push it out of the forefront of my mind for a day or two before bringing it back and developing an opinion about it.
Same with pieces of art.
Same with sudden events of large cultural significance.
So now that I've had some time to chew on the concept of dead Osamas...
Like hearing about the events of September 11th for the first time, this will be one of those things where you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the initial reports. I was watching the end of "The Borgias." The Pope was trying to form an alliance with Naples. My wife was on the laptop and saw something on somebody's status update. I flipped to CNN for confirmation, then, because I wanted to see how my silly TV show ended, I flipped back. For the next several minutes I flipped between the two channels until "The Borgias" ended. I'm probably the worst person to watch TV with.
After that I mostly kept it on CNN. The Canadian news stations seemed uncharacteristically inept, CBS's graphics couldn't compete, and nobody else had a host named Wolf. I also stuck to Twitter and Facebook for instant updates and unthoughtful reactionary drivel.
My feelings on the whole "shoot Osama in the face" incident are mixed. Initially I was happy and relieved. Happy that we finally smoked the bastard. Relieved that he won't oversee and fund any more blow-up missions. But as I thought about it I became more uncomfortable with the celebratory reaction of our US nation.
I remember 10 years ago seeing footage of foreign America-haters stomping on our flaming flag, joyous about our 3,000 dead. I couldn't understand how one human being could feel that way about another human being. Those people are still jerks, but I now understand their misguided national pride. I know it's not the same thing, 3,000 civilian dead compared to one evil man, and I agree that we have the better reason to celebrate a killing, but I finally get it. I get it and I'm not going to reduce myself to that level of hate.
Osama Bin Laden--
I don't want to defile his body.
I don't want to kill his family.
I don't even want him dead.
I don't want to hate anymore.
These are things he would have wanted.
I'm bigger than that.
So we can still celebrate. His terror network has been hindered. He personally isn't going to hurt anybody anymore. (Even in his last seconds he used one of his wives as a human shield.) Some form of earthly justice has been served. The prospect of peace, at least temporarily, is shining in our faces. But I'm not going to celebrate death. That's religious extremism's business.
Do we mourn him? We can mourn a life lived so twistedly that he felt justified in murdering thousands all over the world. We can mourn the fact that he seized opportunities to do evil rather than doing good. We can mourn the wretched past, but, more importantly, we should celebrate a hopeful future.
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