The Dawn of a New Age

Hey gang, how goes it? I hope everyone had spectacularly kick ass holidays, I know I did. I didn't have as much time off as I would have liked, but that comes with having a new job where you don't have the necessary time off accrued.

So far 2013 has been pretty kick ass. I can't help feeling that there is a different vibe in the air in terms of how people are feeling and doing. It's hard to pinpoint when it started...maybe after the election? But anyway, it's something not only I have noticed but others too. The Canadian Belle works as a cashier at a big box supercenter-type store and she observed that people were being nicer to each other over the holiday season. My mom had a similar observation herself when she was out shopping...people were being more polite to each other than normal.

Maybe these are isolated incidents but I don't know...my mom's theory is that everyone was so happy the world didn't end on December 21 that they're now acting like better people. This theory may have some merit. The Canadian Belle informed me of some astrological info, saying that this is now another Age of Aquarius, and could account for changing attitudes. Maybe. All I know is something is going on, and good things have been happening to me for the last few months. As you know, I recently got a new job with higher pay (I was hired on election night). When my car broke down for good a few weeks later, a friend informed me he was getting a new car and I could buy his. The timing worked out great! Since I'm making more money, I'm paying off more debt, which is of course awesome. More money means more potential to do awesome stuff, and buy sweet collectibles (although I have kept that under control...for now).

And one more thing...some of you may not know this, but I have an 11 year old son from a previous relationship. He lives with his mom in Tennessee so I don't get to see him as often as I would like. Well, after years of not being able to stand being in the presence of each other, his mom and I formally buried the hatchet a week ago and have opened up all lines of communication (instead of using the little guy as the go-between). Now, you could say, "Well, JEP, maybe things are just going your way for once. It doesn't mean there has been a paradigm shift for how society acts." To this I would have to say, "If my ex can extend an olive branch, I KNOW something is up with the world!"

                                           Take it away, cast of "The 40 Year Old Virgin!" 

                                                     Harmony and understanding
                                                   Sympathy and trust abounding
                                                  No more falsehoods or derisions
                                                   Golden living dreams of visions
                                                        Mystic crystal revelation
                                                   And the mind's true liberation
                                                          Aquarius! Aquarius!

Anyway, things are just ducky in my world. I hope you all are feeling the same...and now, what you've been waiting for...RANDOM RAMBLINGS!

RANDOM RAMBLING!
In my last post I mentioned buying a handful of cassettes. I have been busy listening to them, and one thing that has sucked is the quality of some of them has been lacking. I know it's a crap shoot when you buy stuff from thirft stores, and it's not like I'm out a lot of money, but it is disappointing when you wanna rock to something and it doesn't work. The Bryan Adams tape I bought was very hissy sounding, so I had to toss it. I kept the little liner notes though and hung them up in my basement cavern, so it wasn't a total loss. The Al Corley tape had a problem when I tried rewinding it...it would not rewind past a certain point on the tape. Weird. I kept that one though, for it's pop culture schlock value. 

So far, the tape I have enjoyed the most was Winger's debut album. First off, I love this album cover. It might as well say in neon, "This came out in 1988!"

My friend John would describe this as "artwork you would expect to see in an '80s dentist office."

Most people would disregard this as pop-metal drivel, but these guys were talented. Allmusic gave this album 4.5/5, and they're a record reviewing web site that usually knows what they're talking about. They had this to say about them:

"Since Winger was marketed largely on the looks of lead singer Kip Winger, and since their sleazy rockers and lovelorn ballads cover the same old pop-metal territory, the band's high-quality musicianship tended to get overlooked. Guitarist Reb Beach earned wide praise from other musicians, and he, ex-Dixie Dregs drummer Rod Morgensten, and keyboardist Paul Taylor, bring a distinct progressive metal influence to many of the tunes on Winger. Even if the lyrics are standard issue, the album is impeccably composed, crafted, and played, with melodies, riffs, and guitar solos taking off in unexpected directions and keeping the listener slightly off balance -- no easy task in the cookie-cutter hair metal genre."

Little known fact: Reb Beach formed a band with King's X front-man Doug Pinnick called the Mob. They had only had one album, which was released in 2005.

Looks like Stewart was ahead of his time.

RANDOM RAMBLING!
Staying with the topic of music, one of the awesome gifts the Canadian Belle bestowed upon me for Christmas was the autobiography of Gregg Allman which came out this past year, titled "My Cross to Bear." I'm about 1/4 of the way through it and it is a good read so far. I love Gregg's writing style; like Ozzy's autobiography, he writes the way he speaks. A lot of sentences end with words like "man,"or "brother." It almost creates the illusion that he is having a conversation with you. I have read some great stories in this book so far, one of which is when Gregg met the Doors. My favorite part of the book though was the story of how he shot himself in the foot to get out of the draft. Now that shit is hardcore!

I'm looking forward to reading about his short-lived marriage to Cher. I'm sure there were some fireworks involved in that relationship!

RANDOM RAMBLINGS!
You know what old school character actor I like? George Kennedy. He's been appearing in season 12 episodes of "Dallas" I have been watching lately as Carter McKay, and I enjoyed his airline trouble-shooter character Joe Patroni in the "Airport" series of movies from the '70s. You may also remember him from "Creepshow 2" and "The Naked Gun" movies. He carried a certain gravitas, and his presence dominated any scene he was in. His booming voice commanded repsect. And he had bad breath.

I first recall seeing him in the '90s doing commercials for "Breath Assure." He never went anywhere without it!

RANDOM RAMBLING!
On Friday I saw "Texas Chainsaw 3D" with my buddy Shane from high school. We're big horror buffs, and spent many hours watching the various '80s slasher franchises and cult classics of the '70s back in the day. It was a pretty decent flick overall. The best thing about it was how it picks up right at the ending of the original one from 1973, after a montage of clips from that film...I felt myself smiling a Jack Nicholson-size grin when that part came on! Bill Moseley (who played "Chop Top" in 1986's "Texas Chansaw Massacre 2") returns to the franchise as Drayton Sawyer, a part originally played by the late Jim Siedow. He may not look exactly like Jim, but he sure has the voice down!

Once it flashes forward to the present it becomes your generic hack-up-slut-fest, and it has a wonky timeline, but it did have some sweet gory parts. It looks like the 2003 reboot will only consist of the two movies that came out in that franchise, as it appears they're going back to the beginning and negating the other sequels in the original franchise (part 2, "Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3," and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation"- the less said about the last one, the better). If horror is your thing, it's worth checking out. It had some sweet 3D effects too (I flinched when Leatherface threw a chainsaw in my direction)!

RANDOM RAMBLING!
My favorite song (this week). "Twilight World" by Swing Out Sister

I remember this song from when I was a kid, but never knew the name of the artist. I recall one of their other big hits, "Break Out," but I thought that was their only hit. They had one more big success in the early '90s with a cover of the Dusty Springfield track "Am I the Same Girl?"

No, I'm not gay, but I do enjoy '80s sophisti-pop music, a genre of music that includes such bands as Level 42 and ABC. I really like singer Corinne Drewery's voice...she has a certain Annie Lenox quality at times. Plus she's hot. I know it sounds like something you might hear in a dentist's office, but like I said before, my taste in music goes against the grain.

And speaking of dentist's offices, remember earlier when I mentioned how some album artwork from the '80s looks like it belongs in a dentist office? Here's another classic example:

This album by Rush came out in 1989. I remember seeing it at a record store 4 years later and thinking how dated looking it was. Talk about a short shelf life!

Well, that's all I have for this week. You all be sure to come back to hang real soon alright?

Cuz when you get your friends together, there's never a dull moment in the basement.

Post-Apocalypse Post

So the world didn't end the other day, and I'm rather happy about that. Earlier this week though I was almost happy with the idea, due to everything that went down in Connecticut last week. I was about ready for the Lord to smite the Earth with a flaming sword. Sometimes man's inhumanity against man get me a little down.

But anyway, this is not the forum for such downer topics. We're here to talk about cool stuff. First on the docket:

Random Rambling!
Maybe it's just me, but doesn't the latest Kid Rock tune sound like Aerosmith?

Random Rambling!
This past week was the 14th anniversary of the passing of Chris Farley. I remember hearing about it when it happened and not feeling too surprised. He made no secret of his appreciation for the late comedian John Belushi, and he ended up following in his footsteps, doing rails of coke and acting like a loud wild man. I miss his work though, that guy could get me laughing like no other. This is one of his funniest moments...

Random Rambling!
Today is the 10 year anniversary of the passing of Joe Strummer, guitarist and singer for The Clash. They put out some amazing music in their short career. This song is one of my favorites:

Random Rambling!
My new favorite song (this week) is "Hot Love" by Aldo Nova. It is a prime example of your typical hard rock/AOR single from the early '80s. Aldo's one big song was "Fantasy," which I love, but this also has the tendency to get stuck in my head. Whenever I hear it I'm reminded of when I lived in Kalamazoo, as it used to be played on my all time favorite radio station out there, 92.5 WZUU.

The ZUU was the only hard rock/classic rock station I've heard that played such early '80s obscurities, deep cuts, and forgotten relics of denim jackets passed. I listened to it recently when I was driving through the area and it seems to have gone to the more traditional classic rock format, spinning the typical overplayed Bob Seger and AC/DC tunes that every other classic rock station plays. Kind of sad. But I digress...here's the tune:

Random Rambling!
On the eve of the apocalypse I ran to the drug store down the block and on the way back I heard the Prince song "1999." I really dig that song, and it seemed to be an appropriate choice for that radio station to play, as some people may have been partying hard due to the imminent end of the world. It also reminded me of what I was doing at the stroke of midnight, 1999.

I was a Freshman at Western Michigan that year, and was back home for holiday break. I had gone to a couple parties with my buddy Joe that night, the first one was at the house of one of my sister's friends while the second one was with some old buddies Joe and I graduated with. I got pretty loaded at the first one and  on the way to the second one I puked in Joe's car with my head hanging half out the window while we went down the road at 45 mph.

We got to the second party with me feeling a whole lot better but unfortunately there was some drama going down. One of our buddies got black-out drunk and started throwing punches so the rest of the dudes locked him in a room. One guy we knew sat on the couch blubbering about it, saying "I can't believe he did that!" Lame. Joe and I decided to split after 20 minutes of having to listen to this guy cry and hearing the occasional thud of a drunken fist hitting a door. By this point it was 11:40PM-ish, and my parent's house was about 20 minutes away

As we pulled in the driveway a robotic sounding voice came on the radio that said "It is now 12:00AM, Eastern Standard Time." And what song did they play? "1999." It's a moment in history I won't ever forget. So what did I end up doing the rest of the night? Well, we went to a third party where I saw a friend named Mandy who I ended up bringing back to my parents hot tub. It was a fun night, and one of those magical evenings where the stars align to provide a time that can only happen when we're young and have our whole lives ahead of us.

Random Rambling!
I got out of work early this past Friday and went on an impromptu thrift store spree. I found something that I have been wanting for a long time: one of those nylon/snap button jackets, with the stretchy cuffs. It kind of looks like this:

 
How much did I spend? $3.50. Now I can walk around and pretend it's 1981 and do my best impression of Carmine Ragusa from "Laverne and Shirley." You all remember him right? If not, here's a pic of him with the Fonz and the "Happy Days" gang on one of the many crossover episodes they had with their spin-off:

Actually, this is me and my buddies back in high school. Those were happy days.

Oh yeah, have you seen Eddie Mekka (the actor who played Carmine) lately? Yikes!

Back to my thrift store purchases...I also picked up 3 old VHS tapes, and they were all good flicks: "Taxi Driver," "The Shining," and "The Good Son" (featuring Macaulay Culkin as a pre-teen psychopath). In addition, I also picked up 8 cassette tapes (I just bought a car that only has a cassette player so I'm trying to stock up on cheap tunes). Here's the list:

-Bryan Adams: Reckless - "Run to You" is a good jam.

-Asia: Asia. I own this on vinyl but it never hurts to have a back-up. This band is despised by most of the rock intelligentsia but I dig them a lot. It's just progressive rock merged with arena rock. And I like it!

-REM: Life's Rich Pageant - I dig on '80s college rock and I knew the Canadian Belle would dig it too.

 -Rush: Moving Pictures. Essential for any classic rock collection. "Tom Sawyer" may be overplayed, but the musicianship never ceases to amaze me each time I hear it. My favorite track on it though is "Limelight."

-Stevie Wonder: Songs In the Key of Life - Probably his masterpiece, I love the song "Sir Duke."

Van Halen: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - Yes, I know, this is an album by "Van Hagar," but seeing as how I'm a fan of Asia you've probably realized I go against the grain when it comes to music (as in, I like a lot of stuff that most people don't). I grew up with this version of the band, so I can't help but dig it. Plus I like Sammy as a solo artist...he seems like a guy who just wants to have fun. I will admit the title is kinda lame though (the abbreviation for it is a CUSS WORD OOOOH!). Fave track is this one:

Winger: Winger - Like I said, I like a lot of stuff that most people don't (Beavis and Butthead in particular liked to slag this band a lot back in the day). Their guitarist is a monster though, and they wrote some fun party music. My favorite track from this album may be the all time best power ballad of the '80s...I had a buddy from Kalamazoo tell me recently that whenever he hears this song he is reminded of parties I used to throw in my garage, where '80s hard rock was always the soundtrack to good times. I consider that high praise:

And last but not least,

Al Corley: Riot In Color - You're probably thinking, who? Go ahead, google his name...yes, he was an actor who played John Forsythe's son on the '80s primetime soap opera "Dynasty." I haven't listened to it yet, but the main reason I got it is because it is the type of obscure pop culture collectible I just can't pass up...especially for 25 cents.



Before I go, I would like to give a shout out to my music soul brother Ben, who recently started a blog of his own called Washed Up Sounds. His knowledge of music, particularly old '60s and '70s obscurities, psychedelia, and garage rock, rivals mine. Whenever we get together we have the best convos about our favorite bands. Check it out, I'm sure you will find something you will enjoy.

I also recently came across a Tumblr blog that features pictures of gorgeous, all natural women from the 1940s to the 1980s. Check it out, and be prepared for some NSFW work pics of beautiful ladies. Here's the addy: bigbennklingon.tumblr.com.

We had fun this week, didn't we boys and girls? I will see you on the flip side.