![]() |
The catch-all for items related to and/or inspired by the music that shaped me. |
Music has played a role in nearly every situation of my life. This is where I'll be collecting items inspired by those moments- poems, lyrics, blog entries- the soundtrack of me. ![]() ![]() I may also contribute blog-style entries here from time to time:
And this month, I've decided to take part in... |
Wow...so, as far as "Invalid Item" ![]() ![]() It helped that I woke up not really in a bad mood. Not a great mood, but definitely not dreadful. Opened up iTunes and was greeted by a steady stream of decent music that I didn't hafta click out of, which is always nice. Sometimes iTunes is weird like that when you're set to shuffle...a solid group of songs play and there's like some sorta hidden theme or something. The best way I can address this phenomenon (and I think I've mentioned this before) is by relating this story: I was dating a girl whose parents lived about forty minutes away, deep in a rural community. We drove out to visit, had dinner and drinks by a bonfire, and left around 1am. Dark and creepy as hell in the middle of nowhere...and my iPod kept playing songs that referred to sleep, dark nights, and general creepiness. I think at that point I'd only had about 3,000 songs loaded, but it was still just...random and bizarre. Anyway, Today's Current Playlist consists mostly of late-90's/early-00's pop-punk rock stuff. Energy and good vibes and shit, mostly. Get out, go somewhere, and play this stuff loud. Or shove some buds in your ears, lay down as still as you can, and play this stuff loud. Whatever you do, do it loud. 1) "Anything" ![]() 2) "Hum" ![]() ![]() 3) "Get Over It" ![]() 4) "If You C Jordan" ![]() 5) "Walla Walla" ![]() ![]() 6) "Oh Be Joyful" ![]() 7) "We've Had Enough" ![]() 8) "Congratulations Smack & Katy" ![]() 9) "Hash Pipe" ![]() ![]() 10) "Where'd You Go" ![]() Bonus track! 11) "Happiness & The Fish" ![]() Ok...that's that. Time to see if I can keep up this momentum... |
Ok, I know...I feel behind by over a week here in "Invalid Item" ![]() ![]() Today's list is...the hump I couldn't get over. I've seen a couple "Songs I Don't Like" lists already and thought to myself "That should be easy!"...I've worked in malls and drug stores that pump in the saccharine pop drivel all day long. My problem here, however, is twofold: I must not have paid enough attention, and I don't spend much musical appreciation on songs I don't like. Like, I'm not gonna bother looking up names and matching lyrics and doing work when I could be doing none of that. And that's why, if you know me and/or my musical tastes, some of this list might come as a surprise to you. Also, I'm not even gonna bother x-linking these songs. They don't merit my promotion any bit more than they're getting here ![]() 1) "Blister In The Sun" by Violent Femmes -I. Can't. Take. This. It's so whiny and shittily produced...no matter what system you play it on, it sounds tinny and cheap. And I can deal with cheap, but not tinny. I also dated a girl in the mid-nineties who had this on a soundtrack cd that doesn't seem to come up on Wikipedia or anything, but she loved it, and people tend to get weird when songs they love come on. It's annoying as fuck. There, I said it. [EDIT: I will however dance my pasty ass off to it if I'm drunk. Very drunk.] 2) "Who Let The Dogs Out?" by Baha Men -Who authorized this shit? Who said it'd be ok to release this as a single? And has no one caught this person/persons who let the dogs out? Why is there no resolution to this conundrum? Also, "woof, woof" should not be an acceptable chorus or refrain. 3) "Moby Dick" by Led Zeppelin -I know I'm gonna get flamed for this, but listen...I love Zep. I celebrate their entire catalog. But I ripped my brother's copy of How The West Was Won ![]() 4) "Stupid Hoe" by Nicki Minaj I will admit that I've never listened to this entire song...it pops up once in awhile when I'm playing Songpop2, a time-killing Facebook game where you have to pick songs faster than your opponent. So I've heard, like two seconds of this song. And if it can annoy me that quickly, then it belongs on this list. It has probably set the women's movement and hip hop in general back at least twenty years. I hate music that makes me think my laptop and/or tv have shit the bed. 5) Anything by Skrillex -So Sonny (that's his name) was in an emo/screamo band and he wasn't happy; they broke up, he did a lot of drugs, and now he's an EDM wunderkind. Good for him. But gottdamn it's unlistenable. Like, who goes to clubs to hear that? It's not danceable. It's not anything-able. There is so much terrible going on here. He is the Nicki Minaj of music, in that he has set it back at least forty years. 6) "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd -Nope...it's no longer cool to yell "Play 'Free Bird'" at any concert you go to, and if you do you're a douche. All you need to know about "Free Bird" is in Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock's takedown ![]() 7) "Proud To Be An American" by Lee Greenwood -No. Not by his standards. He doesn't speak for me. This goes beyond my hatred of country music, and the fact that I was treated to a "private show" of his as a Boy Scout during the '89 Jamboree (where only the best scouts from around the country get to go). Fuck him. I'm proud to be an American until someone gets on the mic and tells me I should be. I'm proud until America decides it wants to try anal on the rest of the world without her consent, like she won't notice. 8) "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd -Again, nope. The south lost the Civil fucking War. Get over it. This would be an enjoyable song if I didn't have to associate it with Confederate flags and people who live as if "The South will rise again!"...which is a really sweet way of saying "We will bring back slavery, eventually, once we get our way". At least Florida and Georgia are kinda decent...if I ever have to go to Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, that whole area, nope. Fuck it...I'm out. If I'm dying of a rare illness and only they have the cure, peace out fam. It's been good knowin' ya. 9) Anything by Elvis -No brainer. I didn't ask him to invent American rock 'n roll. He wasn't my preferred choice of influence over the multitude of society for decades before I was born. If I learned anything from Public Enemy, it's that Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me ![]() 10) "Better Man" by Pearl Jam -Ok, look...I love Pearl Jam. But I know what this song means and represents, and I always skip over it. Corporate rock radio will have you believing it's the best song in their vast catalog. It's not. But when you're driving around after a breakup and it comes on and you realize maybe she was with you because she couldn't find a better man, and then she did, this song will eat you up from the inside even if you were never nearly as bad as this song's antagonist. You have no idea how long it took me to build this list...I focus on the music I love, not what I hate. Feel free to pump any of these jams if you want me to leave your party without having to physically eject me. As a service to me and me only, I will leave you with a Pearl Jam Elvis Presley cover. Danced to it one night at a Sabres game with then-girlfriend, Cool Shit Nicole, on "Elvis Night" at the arena (before we almost died) and then realized I owned a copy of this. |
I joke a lot that I've seen maybe four movies from start to finish, because my attention span is so lousy and whatever. And that's partially true; may attention span is...oooh shiny red ball! I try to avoid conversations that revolve around cinematic adventures because it always seems like I've never seen the one people are talking about. I also dislike wasting time, and I hate the idea of devoting ninety minutes or more to something that's gonna end up sucking. I would honestly rather rewatch something I've already taken the time to see than gamble on something that I may or may not enjoy...and therein lies the rub: to have enjoyed it, I would've had to have seen it in the first place. That means I have to trust my gut...it has to look like something I will 100% be on board with after previews and commercials and whatever. Plunk down half a day's wages to sit in a stank-ass movie theater for two hours because maybe? is just not good business to me. That said, in honor of Rex Manning Day ![]() ![]() 1) Friday ![]() ![]() 2) Major League ![]() ![]() 3) Dumb & Dumber ![]() ![]() 4) Austin Powers ![]() ![]() 5) I Am Trying To Break Your Heart ![]() ![]() 6) Tommy Boy ![]() ![]() 7) Happy Gilmore ![]() ![]() 8) Slap Shot ![]() ![]() 9) Blazing Saddles ![]() ![]() 10) Empire Records ![]() ![]() I'm sure there are others that I'm forgetting, and there are way better movies and everyone's probably seen all these hundreds of times, but this is my list and I don't care. Today, we will not dwell ![]() |
Awww yeah, the TBR pile. We've all got one, whether we know what TBR stands for or not ("To Be Read", for the uninitiated). Another reason I use Goodreads (besides shaming myself into reading more)...it allows me to keep better track of books I think I'll eventually want to read, and when I'm looking for something but not sure what, now I've got a nice list to choose from. Instead of just listing the last ten or first ten or whatever, I'm gonna cherrypick a bunch from my virtual shelf and see what happens. 1) We The Living ![]() 2) , said the shotgun to the head. ![]() 3) How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy ![]() ![]() 4) Catching Life By The Throat: How to Read Poetry and Why [With CD] ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 5) The Typewriter Is Holy: The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat Generation ![]() ![]() 6) Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memior ![]() ![]() 7) Solutions And Other Problems ![]() ![]() 8) Not Dead And Not For Sale ![]() 9) Home is Fucking Burning ![]() 10) Rickshaw ![]() ![]() 11) The Silver Linings Playbook ![]() 12) Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña ![]() 13) The Bassoon King ![]() ![]() Sounds like a good enough spot to wrap this up. Good christ, I'd be here all day trying to figure out everything else I wanna read that isn't documented somewhere. I'm that dude who takes his tablet to the library once in awhile, logs into the the public wifi, and starts scanning ISBNs directly into Goodreads because books...why not. ![]() |
Well, I missed yesterday...I wasn't feeling all that great, then I got sidetracked, then I got lazy. Excuses, excuses! ![]() ![]() 1) The Dead Emcee Scrolls ![]() 2) Vintage Hughes ![]() ![]() 3) Unincorporated Persons In The Late Honda Dynasty ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 4) Lost Journal Vol. 1: Confessions Of A Failed Paperboy ![]() 5) Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things ![]() ![]() 6) Hyperbole And A Half ![]() 7) Brave New World ![]() ![]() ![]() 8) Ariel ![]() 9) The Elephant Man ![]() 10) Tarantula ![]() Huh...so I just looked, and I started using Goodreads on July 5th of 2015. That mean that in less than a year, I've read 25 books. Maybe not a lot for some of you, but even when I worked in a bookstore I don't think I read that many over the course of any other 12-month span in my life (not my adult life, at least). Hey, my purpose when I downloaded it was to shame myself into reading more. Looks like it worked! ![]() |
Cool...this should be fairly easy actually. I'm pretty sure I've written more poetry in 2016 than 2015 and 2014 combined. I'm not doin' that math...I've already tracked down ten items I like that I'm at least somewhat fond of; the hard work will be the physical act of copy/pasting the item numbers. I wasn't sure if this subcategory, "Poems you've written (or written this year)" meant "any poems you've ever written", or "any poems you've written within the last year", or "any poems written this year (2016)"...leave it to me to further complicate something so uncomplicated; I know what it says ![]() And to further subcategory today's list, I'm adding this caveat: all ten of these are now also my amended I'll Read One Of These (Or More) For "Poetry Readings" ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Anyway, the list, which is what we're all gathered here today to pay our respects to. Numbers 1-6 are taken from an unfinished collection of mostly super-awkward and depressing non-standard poetry-type words in a notebook called "Born Fat, Baby!" ![]() ![]() ![]() 1) "One Less" ![]() ![]() 2) "Cut Your Teeth" ![]() 3) "Goodnight America" ![]() 4) "The Broken Code For Remembering" ![]() ![]() 5) "Cryptogram" ![]() 6) "Tired" ![]() ![]() ![]() 7) "Good Ideas" ![]() 8) "I machine monster" ![]() 9) "and, again" ![]() 10) "Major Bomb" ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 11) And I haven't properly added it to "100" ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In Dreams? Wow, that took longer than I thought it would. But it's not a bad list, I don't think. I hope they're enjoyable, if you like to read that sort of thing...it's not "textbook poetry" and that's something I'll never be, but we can have that conversation somewhere else ![]() |
Ok...today's lists for "Invalid Item" ![]() ![]() 1) Buffalo, New York: It's not cheating if you've lived there most of your life but don't anymore, because I go back to visit my mom and brother a couple times a year now. And you'd think that after living there for like 30-some odd years I'd know all there is to know about what it's like there, but somehow before this past Easter when I went back I didn't like the fact that usually when I go, I have to pack for all four seasons just for a four- to seven-day trip...and it's more of a challenge when going by bus (which is how I've been doing it the last few times). Gotta cram shorts, jeans, sweaters, sweatshirts, t-shirts, and everything else in a backpack...and make sure I've got the right pair of shoes on for all occasions. Like most of the northeastern US, this time of year it can be 65° and sunny on one day, and snowy and rainy the next. The weather struggle is real. 2) Cortland, New York: So this is the small town where I live now, and it counts as travel because I had to get here somehow. The closest sorta major city is Syracuse, and despite what you hear from anyone who asks where it is, it's not all that close if you don't have a car. Or cable TV. Despite this being the Syracuse television market, I can't pull in local channels with a decent antenna...which negates about half the points of me wanting a TV for Christmas. I mean, I have other ways and means and uses...but I can't just flip on the local news for a half hour of entertainment just because I don't subscribe. Screw the digital revolution. 3) Cleveland, Ohio: When you take a "Guys Weekend" trip and one of your friends says he's got a friend out there that knows some ladies we can hang out and party with, don't believe him. He's full of shit. Also, their science museum's auditorium is a great place to take a nap on a Sunday afternoon when you're hungover. ![]() 4) Toronto, Ontario: Canadian cigarettes are better than American smokes, for reasons I could never figure out. However, if you're at a gas station trying to buy them in US funds, I'm pretty sure they just make up a price to compensate for the fluctuating exchange rate. And I think they knew I knew I was being ripped off, but nothing says "dumb American tourist" more than not exchanging your currency at the border. 5) Barrie, Ontario: Further north of TO, and since I've been there more than once (twice!) it makes the list. Don't get rushed into mosh pits. And if you do, avoid crowd-surfers. They will murder your face before you can even see it coming. Also, don't expect to find your glasses or your friends when that happens. 6) A Caribbean Cruise: I loved it; it's the best way to vacation. But if you have the choice, get the all-inclusive package. I went with a large group of extended family, and some people didn't want to pay extra because they weren't waking up and heading to the ship's bars after breakfast with the cool uncles. Five days at sea, at least 12 hours a day of some sort of consumption, at at least $6.25 (US funds) a beverage (and this was 10 years ago or so, so it's probably even more now)...you'll have a lot more fun if you're not wondering two days in what your overdraft charges from the bank will look like. 7) Nashville, Tennessee: Possibly the coolest all-day live music bar scene of any city I've been in. Maybe the only one. Because most cities frown upon being able to walk into a bar on a Tuesday morning so you can listen to blues over a 32-oz. mug of Budweiser. 8) Savannah, Georgia: An absolutely gorgeous little place...and it's laid out like a grid, so it's easy to get around. Take an all-day bus tour...it's inexpensive and you stop at all the cool places. Bring a camera, and a girlfriend who doesn't have migraines the whole fucking time. 9) Miami, Florida: There are a couple of Walgreens in the city where the associates hardly speak any English. What was a simple question of where something was turned into a mini-fiasco because of communication issues. Bring someone with you that understands more Spanish than I did, which consists of how to order beer and one semi-obscene sentence that translates to "You have no hair between your legs". Five years of Spanish in high school, and that's all I remember. 10) New York City, New York: Everything is way more expensive there than anywhere else I've been to. If you can get to anywhere that isn't three blocks from where you're staying. 11) Washington, DC: Always follow directions and take no shortcuts, even if you're just participating in an endurance race with your boy scout troop in some remote area just outside the city. We took a wrong turn and had to wade through a sewage pit we thought was just a muddy lake that was deeper than it looks. I've never been so filthy in my life. Also, in general, I'm not the best traveling companion. My sleep schedule is never like everyone else's, I'm never hungry when everyone else wants to eat, and I have to control the radio. I tend to get cranky more easily. As easygoing as I'd like to think I am, I can turn into an obnoxious little bitch. I'm not proud of that, because I wanna have fun and I want everyone else to enjoy their trip too. That's probably part of why I haven't been to as many fun places and done a lot of different things. But I'm trying to be better about it. I really am. We'll see; if I ever make it anywhere else, I'll try to be more behaved. I'll let you know how that works out ![]() |
It's day number three of "Invalid Item" ![]() ![]() 1) When I was eight or nine years old (I wanna say eight, but maybe not), I was selected to participate in a local audition for the PBS kids' show Reading Rainbow ![]() ![]() 2) At some time in the mid-nineties I had a poem or two published in a large national poetry anthology (which was more like a money-hungry scam than an actual contest, if you ask me). I still have it somewhere, but I haven't looked at it in ages. The poems weren't very good, but I probably thought they were the best I'd written in my life up to that point. 3) I have five visible scars (and one crooked pinkie finger): two from my ankle injury in 2012, one from having a birthmark removed on my back around 2005, the hernia surgery in 2000, and one long one in between my ankle surgery scars going down my left shin from basically having a bookshelf fall on me when I tried moving it, also probably around 2005...it was tall and narrow, and I didn't realize it was a top-half/bottom-half assembly. It took off a piece of skin roughly 6"x3/4". 4) I have two tattoos and wore up to six piercings at one time (I'm down to three, and that's fine for me, but I will probably add to the tattoo count eventually). 5) I am a "3rd"...my father, grandfather and I share the same name. This is one of the last-known pictures of the three of us: "Three Generations" ![]() 6) I was a defenseman on a championship-winning rec-league floor hockey team back in '99...and all I got was a t-shirt that doesn't fit me anymore (but in my own defense, I also only played in one game that season, which happened to be the title game ![]() 7) I was also the MVP of my high school's Modified Wrestling team in my freshman year (my first year going out for it). 8) Halfway through 7th grade I got bumped up into the Honors Math class in school...which was basically just 8th grade math for smart kids. After having poor (but not failing) grades in 8th grade Honors Math the following year, I was dropped from the program...which put me in regular math classes with kids who were a year ahead of me until my senior year. It was often awkward. 9) The first time I ever cut classes in school, I was caught...by my mother. I didn't think that she would be driving past the school on her way to work at the same time we were walking back to class. 10) I cheat at crossword puzzles if I think I'm really, really close on an answer or know that I should know it but can't remember it. ![]() Not interesting stuff to me, but it's the best I can do for not feeling very motivated today. I'll try to be more interesting later on this month; no guarantees though. |
Ok...today, a more conventional playlist because I was apparently a distraction yesterday with the whole iPod Shuffle thing. I'm invoking one of Elle - on hiatus ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Today's specific occasion? When I used to work out and lift weights and run. It'll be a heavy early '90's mix...I made mixtapes for training purposes. Back when I was an upcoming star wrestler/football player/playground hero. Wish I still had those tapes...and that body. If the one I had now was still ok with exercising on a regular basis, I'd probably still pump these into my earholes. And I'd be mega-hot. Instead, I'm just an old, brokendown fat dude who can barely walk and gets out of bed most mornings wondering WTF happened to my joints, back, legs, arms, and head. And I've got sweet music to push along the adrenaline for things I'll probably never do again. 1) Ice Cube, "When Will They Shoot?" ![]() ![]() 2) Public Enemy, "Tie Goes To The Runner" ![]() 3) Soundgarden, "Rusty Cage" ![]() 4) Beastie Boys, "Pass The Mic" ![]() 5) Soul Coughing, "Super Bon Bon" ![]() ![]() 6) Stone Temple Pilots, "Sex Type Thing" ![]() 7) Metallica, "Seek And Destroy" ![]() 8) Ice-T, "Midnight" ![]() ![]() ![]() 9) I know House Of Pain shows up on that mixtape. 10) So does cheap-ass cock-rock from the tail-end of hair-metal days. I had my own inspiration by then. I was nuts-deep into "Straight Outta Compton", and gave less of a shit about WASP or Poison or whatever that meathead coach was into during summer lifting sessions. Uhh, I think I hit all the checkbox requirements here, right? I'm not disrupting anyone's thought process? Make a damn list! That's all you gotta do! Don't overcomplicate shit like I did yesterday...just do your thing. Listy-like ![]() |
Ok...I'm a sucker for lists. I make them, I forget them, I make more of them, I ignore them. Fran 💜 💜 💜 ![]() ![]() But today...one day in already and I'm finding a way to circumvent the status quo. I will feature something called "The iPod Shuffle Quiz"...it came up recently in discussions somewhere, like "The Soundtrack of Your Life" ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The point is to turn on your music, however you listen to it, and set it on shuffle. Copy/Paste the thing into your entry field. The answer to each question is the song that comes up. You're not supposed to cheat and keep hitting ![]() The iPod Shuffle Quiz Your favorite thing to say when drunk is... Song: Morphine Artist: Moist Comment: "Yes" is always the best answer when it's offered. Off to a great start. ![]() Your biggest fear…. Song: Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness Artist: Smashing Pumpkins Comment: Too close to home, iTunes. Your deepest secret... Song: They're Red Hot Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers Comment: What a let down, I guess...if you were dying to know something. Your innermost desire... Song: Street Carp Artist: Deftones Comment: Truly. ![]() The best thing about you is… Song: Again Artist: Alice In Chains Comment: Maybe so. Maybe not. ![]() Where would you rather be right now? Song: Never There Artist: Cake Comment: Truth, iTunes. If you found yourself lost on a desert island, you'd yell... Song: Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends Artist: Sammy Davis Jr. Comment: Better off not knowin', I guess. You are happiest when… Song: Puppets Artist: Atmosphere Comment: Dude...Muppets make everything better, right? One of your biggest regrets is…. Song: Sure Shot (European B-boy mix) Artist: Beastie Boys Comment: A blessing and a curse I guess, depending on the situation. What couldn’t you live without? Song: Messiah Ward Artist: Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Comment: Gotta end up somewhere, I guess. ![]() Right now, your feelings are... Song: Till The Walls Come Tumblin' Down Artist: J. Geils Band Comment: Not accurate, but ok...I can get behind that. You scream during sex... Song: Perfect Disguise (BBC Radio Sessions) Artist: Modest Mouse Comment: Never have I ever.... ![]() What best describes your personality? Song: Yesterday's Hero Artist: Bay City Rollers Comment: I guess, maybe. I suppose. What will be a big challenge in life for you? Song: Everything To Nothing Artist: Manchester Orchestra Comment: Kinda surreal. The best advice you’ve ever gotten is… Song: Slow Ride Artist: Beastie Boys Comment: "I got the trees on my mirror so my car won't smell." Live it, love it, be it. ![]() What do you say when life gets tough? Song: The Night Is Young And You're So Beautiful Artist: Frank Sinatra Comment: The easy way out. ![]() What do you avoid if possible? Song: The Trial Artist: Pink Floyd Comment: Don't ask the questions you don't wanna hear the answers to. Will you ever become manically depressed in your life? Song: Choking The Cherry Artist: Poe Comment: Had this song stuck in my head for no reason recently. If I wonder about the relevance, I'll hamstring myself. Your life's soundtrack should be…. Song: Twice As Hard Artist: The Black Crowes Comment: Somewhat fitting. Where will you be in 25 years? Song: Don't Fade On Me Artist: Tom Petty Comment: I guess it's not really about me then, is it? ![]() Your farewell message to the readers of this: Song: Footsteps Artist: Pearl Jam Comment: It was you! It was you. Well, that was fun, and kinda cathartic. I did minimal shuffling...I'm kinda proud of myself for that, instead of just filling out responses to my tastes. Wonder how my iPod Classic would've responded...there's different music on that because I can't figure out how to cross-sync them. Oh well...one day down, 29 more to go. Bring it on! Share your music player's interests! Let's get some love up in here for the technology that kinda defines and owns us. My lists, continuing on, won't be so long or subjective, I promise. They'll just be...lists. |