Decisions, decisions, decisions

Potentially great weekend this weekend. Saturday night, uber-ultra-siked for UFC 94. I keep finding out more about this card and getting more and more excited. Rooting for BJ Penn but kind of skeptical as to whether he can pull it off. Also picking Lyoto Machida, Stephan Bonnar, and Nate Diaz. I do like to watch Clay Guida fight, but I think Diaz is a way too wily for him. I'm actually not sure that fight is being televised but I hope so. The rest of the guys on the card I'm still learning about. I love this sport of MMA more and more every week. So that's the major sporting event of the weekend as far as I'm concerned. The Super Bowl is icing. That's the cake. No that's the dressing.

But what to do with the time between? A few movies I want to see. The Wrestler is finally in a theater down here. Kind of interested. Still have a mild interest in seeing Gran Torino. Also Taken is kind of falling in line with the kind of videos I've been watching lately, and reading the AllMovie review got me a whole lot more excited about it. But then that brings up another issue, what I've been watching at home. Should I just stay home and watch more JCVD movies this weekend? Could be. Pretty sure I'm going to watch Lethal Weapon 2 with my oatmeal tomorrow morning though.

More Snow Day

Got another one today. Hard to complain. The only bad thing about it is these days go by pretty slow because there's nothing to do, nowhere to go, good for a day but three would be too much. I need this week to go by a little quicker because this weekend will be sweet. UFC 94 on Saturday and Super Bowl on Sunday, emphasis on Saturday.

As far as my movie marathon, yesterday was a little disastrous. The one I chose to watch was The Delta Force, the most interminably long action movie I've ever seen. It was so fucking boring I wanted to shoot myself. How much crap can you try to cram into one terrible movie? A couple minutes for racism, a couple minutes for sensitivity, a couple minutes of patriotism, a couple minutes for romance, a couple minutes for torture, a couple minutes for family, on and on and on to make a 2 hour movie. And very very little fucking karate from Chuck Norris! I wanted to shoot myself in the face it was so ridiculous. And yet I didn't turn it off. Some kind of syndrome I have, I can't turn them off. Once I start a movie I have to finish it apparently. Like a couple weeks ago I was watching Excalibur. Not interested in it at all, but I couldn't shut it off. I get a half-hour in and I'm invested, no matter how awful. The other thing about this disappointment was that I completely had The Delta Force confused with Missing In Action. I thought I was about to watch Missing In Action, which I was excited about. Realized about 15 minutes in I had the movies completely mixed up. Anyway, horribly boring. And I love bad Chuck Norris movies. Last summer I watched The Octagon I would say 4 days in a row when I was disabled in Myrtle Beach. And LOVED it. So I will give Chuck Norris more chances, but he better not do this to me again.

Anyway, that ruined my whole movie day because after that one I didn't feel like watching any more movies. I ended up watching 5 episodes of The Shield. I think I have one episode to go and I'll be finished through season 4. This morning I got back on the movies with the suggested Lethal Weapon. Much MUCH better. That movie moves baby! That was funny, because it was about as long as The Delta Force, but Delta Force seemed about 6 times longer. Also, Lethal Weapon marks the second time this week I've seen a naked woman die in the first few minutes of a movie, having watched Marked For Death on Sunday. Later today I think I'll either watch another Lethal Weapon or take on a JCVD movie, probably either Hard Target or Lionheart. Another Lethal Weapon tidbit, Mel Gibson movies are becoming my go-to's for mornings of days off. For some reason they just work for me. Last Saturday morning I watched Mad Max and Sunday morning The Road Warrior and I had a blast. Goes great with a certain oatmeal I've been eating lately.

Snow Day

Probably the one big perk of working for a school system. I put up with all the bullshit for the possibility of snow days. That and payment. But basically what can be better than an unexpected day off? Where you've made no plans and can't really make any plans because you're stuck in the house? Right now I'm watching The Street Fighter on FX (not Street Fighter, THE Street Fighter) and The Return of the Street Fighter is up next. After that, it could be anything. I have a bunch of movies I need to watch. Delta Force, Raw Deal, all 4 Lethal Weapons, Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Highlander, The Color of Money, too many for one day. Probably need tomorrow off too. One thing's certain, I doubt the world is going to get much movement out of me today.

More randomness

It occurred to me recently that I'm not posting on this thing near as much as I'd hoped to. I think it's because I'm not being nearly as random as I'd originally hoped. Originally the whole appeal of the blog to me was that I could post any stupid thought I had at any time, and instead most of what I've done has turned into overblown posts that take me a long time to write because I am of slow brain. And then that makes me not want to post anything because I know I'm going to be stuck working with it a while. So, more of the stupid stuff.

Such as, I have a new favorite paper towel. It's a Kleenex paper towel. Kind of feels like a cross between a tissue and a handkerchief. I like it. Man alive I'm tired.

I hope that you'll think this is as much shit as I do

Just last night I caught wind of what went down at the Flaming Lips New Years Eve show this year. More than enough material there to raise my ire, and hopefully at least some of yours.

1.) They played a cover of "Purple Rain." It was. Ho. Ren. Duss. Horrendous. Musically it was what all of their covers lately are, pretty faithful but not as good as the originals. The vocal is terrible. Not only does Wayne forget the words, obviously he had to spend more time on the light show than learning the song, but his tries to scream like Prince are completely pathetic. Worse than karaoke. I tried to listen to it last night and I lost interest very quickly. By the time it ended I realized I had zoned out partway through and hadn't heard much of it. Tried to give it another go today to make sure it was terrible. It was. I'm reading a lot of praise of this cover from their fans. They're idiots. Like they get a free pass for a terrible rendition because it's a good choice of song. I really wish Prince would find some way of getting litigious over this.

2.) Definitely will not listen to the whole show, because I still have not listened to the songs from the last album.

3.) Three songs included in the set that they haven't played in a really long time. "Turn It On" and "Mountainside" both had the same problem for me. Without the noise that only Ronald Jones could create live over top of them, they sounded incomplete. I know "Mountainside" is not originally a Ronald-era song, but he tore it UP live with sounds that were completely out of this world. What could Steven do? Bend some notes? Try to make some noise? FAIL.

Also, "The Process." When Ronald Jones was in the band, "The Process" was probably, as far as what I've heard, the greatest alt-rock instrumental that ever was. A masterpiece. They played it without him after the NYE countdown. Two words. Limp. Dick. I don't care how much people want to praise him as the real musical force behind the Lips even when Ronald was in the band, Steven Drozd is not Ronald Jones. He may be a good musician that can adequately handle several different instruments, but he cannot will the insanity out of a guitar the way Ronald could.

So of course then it all comes together and makes me mad. I used to have a favorite band. I used to have a band that I could point to amongst all others and say, "They do shit right." And now they're awful, and what I look for in music is a lot more aimless. Very frustrating.

Should you get curious, download it.

33 1/3 Call For Proposals Results

The 33 1/3 blog posted up a list of all the submissions they got before the New Year and it's a LONG list. If a portion of these books actually get written it will be a huge year for 33 1/3's. More than likely most of these never get written, or most of the ideas get rejected (I don't think the editors have read the proposals yet), or these authors actually take years to put them together. But here's some of what I think of the list:

Ones I would be crazy siked for and shit myself to get my hands on them their first day out:
Bob Dylan – Time Out of Mind
Erykah Badu – Mama’s Gun
Fairport Convention – Liege and Lief
Joanna Newsom – Ys
Randy Newman – Good Old Boys
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks

Ones I would wait on pins and needles for after I'd gone through the above:
The Blues Project – Projections
Dennis Wilson – Pacific Ocean Blue
Joni Mitchell – Hejira
Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night
The O’Jays – Back Stabbers
The Stooges – Fun House
Television – Marquee Moon (although I thought somebody had already signed up to do this one)
The Who – Quadrophenia
X – Los Angeles

Ones I would definitely love to check out:
Arcade Fire – Funeral
Black Star – Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star
Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town
Carole King – Tapestry
The Cars – The Cars
The Fugees – The Score
Galaxie 500 – Today
Jerry Lee Lewis – Live at the Star Club, Hamburg
Metallica – Master of Puppets
Modern Lovers – Modern Lovers
Paul Simon – Graceland
The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed
The Velvet Underground – Third Album
X – More Fun in the New World
Yes – Fragile
Yo La Tengo – I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

Ones that would be of great comfort in the time between the ones I'm really waiting for:
Allman Brothers Band – At Fillmore East
Aretha Franklin – Amazing Grace
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chronicle Vol 1
D’Angelo – Voodoo
Danzig – Danzig
David Bowie – Let’s Dance
David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
De La Soul – 3 Feet High and Rising
De La Soul – Buhloone Mindstate
De La Soul – De La Soul Is Dead
Dinosaur Jr. – You’re Living All Over Me
Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera
Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
George Harrison – All Things Must Pass
Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast
Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden
J Dilla – Donuts
King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King
Metallica – Metallica
Michael Jackson –Thriller
Moby Grape – Moby Grape
The Monkees – Pisces Aquarius Capricorn and Jones Ltd
New York Dolls – New York Dolls
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Tender Prey
Olivia Tremor Control – Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle
Pearl Jam – Ten
Pearl Jam – Vitalogy
Pearl Jam - Vs
Richard Hell and the Voidoids – Blank Generation
Sandy Denny – Sandy
Songs Ohia – Magnolia Electric Co
Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger
Soundgarden – Superunknown
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Damn the Torpedoes
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Greatest Hits
Van Halen – MCMLXXXIV
Various Artists – Pebbles, Vol 1
Various Artists – Pulp Fiction: Music from the Motion Picture
The White Stripes – Elephant
The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
Willie Nelson – Stardust
Woody Guthrie – Dust Bowl Ballads

Now, it's kind of hard to actually criticize people's choice of album. The point of the series is not necessarily to write about the best albums ever (though of course the ones I want to read are the ones based in some way on albums I like) but to use an album as inspiration, and really I guess anybody could use any album for that. I definitely go through the list and see a bunch of albums that I would have to give the benefit of the doubt that they mean something to someone. There are definitely a few I had to completely roll my eyes at though. They are:

The Beach Boys – Smile (Unless you make some good fiction out of this album, is there really anything to say that hasn't been said about it. Come on! I mean, this is some of my favorite music ever, absolutely, but it's some of the most commented on pop music of all-time.)

Britney Spears – Blackout (Britney Spears is an easy target and this is barely worth mentioning, but really, who cares? And more than one person submitted a proposal for this album.)

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

John Lennon – Live in New York City (I didn't like this album even when I cared about John Lennon. To me the choice of this album smacks of trying too hard to make an outside choice. Then again, there can be a story in there, so I can't really criticize.)

John Mayer – Heavier Things

John Mayer – Room for Squares (Geez.)

Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music (Maybe someone can come up with a way to make a story out of this, but I couldn't be less interested.)

Modest Mouse – Good News for People Who Love Bad News

The Mountain Goats – All Hail West Texas
The Mountain Goats – Tallahassee
The Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree
The Mountain Goats – We Shall All Be Healed (I really have given this band a chance and I just don't get it. Let four different albums inspired proposals in people. Whatever.)

Slint – Spiderland (Apparently seven people submitted proposals on this album. I don't really have a whole lot to say about it, except I fucking hate this album. So fucking much.)

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend (Unless the book violently insults this album and the praise it shouldn't get, the author should shoot his/herself.)

Various Artists – Now That’s What I Call Music Vol 26 (Someone's trying to be funny and they're not. The ironic thing has been done in the Celine Dion book. I'd like to break all of this person's fingers.)

Wilco – Forthcoming 2009 Album (This one just makes me furious for a lot of reasons. This person is trying so hard to pick an album nobody else will that they picked an album that is not only yet to be released but yet to be named, probably also wanting other people to think he's in on something ahead of everybody else. Unless this is a book that gets written and released really fast and is all about how far from special hearing something before it's released has become in the internet age, I declare it a failure, and I hope its author dies hungry and penniless.)

A couple other notes for albums I should probably be more excited about:

Various Artists – American Primitive Vol 1: This one would go on my “crazy siked and shit myself” list as long as it put more stock in the music than in the compiling of the album. As long as it didn't become all about John Fahey. Give him a chapter and be done with him. Don't be lean with the protein. A really good choice if it's done right.

Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley (1956): Seems like this would be a no-brainer for me, but my choice for an Elvis album was better. Once again, what can a person say about this album that hasn't been said a million times over. A painfully obvious choice. I don't think an Elvis fan chooses this album, I think a fan of the time period chooses this album. Unless this book is just a tour de force that violently goes after every person who makes up reasons why Elvis doesn't matter, I'm not that interested.

Randy Newman – Born Again: Love Randy Newman, but there's better albums to be chosen. Then again it's all about what you do with it, so we'll see.

Bob Dylan – Saved
Bob Dylan – Self Portrait: Who am I to judge? Maybe someone can make good books out of these. But once again it seems like choices that scream out, “I sat down and tried to think of the one Dylan album that nobody else is going to do.” Basically feels like making a book out of a prank. Then again, one of the things I love about Dylan is that even when his music is not that fun to listen to, it can still be compelling because you always feel like he knows what he's doing. Like it's no accident that he's being awful, and the proof is that he can turn around completely and his next album will be incredible. There's definitely something to be written about there, but I would foresee more hammering on that point over and over and over again than really discussing the album.

Bob Dylan – Theme Time Radio Hour With Your Host Bob Dylan: I assume this is referring to the compilation that was made out of songs Dylan played on his show. I think this actually has the potential to be interesting, because his choice of songs is all over the place and tying such different songs together could make for decent reading. It makes for a fantastic listen. But if it's made all about Dylan, which I assume they'd try to do considering they list him as the artist instead of calling attention to it as a compilation, I'm less interested. Not because I love Dylan any less, but because he's not a major part of what makes this music great. He only pulled it together, and if you focus on the comp in particular you can barely say that since his input beyond having aired the songs originally on his show seems to be minimal.

That's all I have to say about that. I look forward to seeing what actually gets published. And I should probably read more often.

SoulBounce Blended & Beat Vol. 3

SoulBounce put up a new Blended & Beat today and I am very excited to tear into it. If you like mixtapes that flow so flawlessly between songs you can barely tell where one begins and the next ends, you will probably like these. At least that's what the first two did. Would definitely recommend to all that they download. A fantastic way to hear some new (and old) stuff and a just an all-around fun listen.

Oh, and...

The closest I came to making a resolution this year was to remain Pitchfork-free in 2009. It just came to be the 6th or 7th and I realized I hadn't looked at it for a few weeks (because they weren't updating) and then when it finally occurred to me I might check it out, I wondered "Why?" It's been a long damn time since they've written any review that piqued my interest, made me want to go find a record. Or if they did raise any level of interest in me to go listen, I was always majorly disappointed. If I heard about one more whisper-singer, one more expert on I hyphenated genre I couldn't care less about, or saw the phrase "Brooklyn-based" one more time, I might have strangled somebody. So, that's that. I'll stick with Allmusic and Soulbounce to keep up with new releases if I feel the need to.

A bunch of crap that should mean nothing to anybody

I was thinking today, now that Ron Asheton has died, I bet this is the year, after 13 or 14 years of eligibility, that they put The Stooges in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. The hall of fame loves putting dead people (Joe Strummer, Joey Ramone) immediately in, it gets them more attention. It's just absurd that it would take a founding member's death to get this one-of-a-kind band that's influenced more rock than just about anyone to get the douches who vote people into the hall of fame to give them the recognition they deserve.

I read this yesterday and it made me furious:

"At one point Suzan Evans lamented the choices being made because there weren't enough big names that would sell tickets to the dinner. That was quickly remedied by dropping one of the doo-wop groups being considered in favor of a 'name' artist ... I saw how certain pioneering artists of the 50s and early 60s were shunned because there needed to be more name power on the list, resulting in 70s superstars getting in before the people who made it possible for them. Some of those pioneers still aren't in today."

Nothing new of course, and what do you expect when Jann Wenner is in charge of the whole thing? It just re-ignited my ire the last couple days. I used to be way into the Hall Of Fame, paid as much attention to it as possible. I even wrote a letter to them in '99 letting them know some of the people they hadn't put in. Yeah, that was a pretty douchey move on my part. But they're just idiots. And now Wenner is saying it was a mistake to put the Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, that it should be in New York City. FUCK NEW YORK CITY! What's special about New York? Doesn't everything in New York seem like it's a dime a dozen? I would consider visiting the museum in Cleveland, but never New York. Sometimes I'm pretty sure music would be better off if Rolling Stone never existed, and that we'd all be better be off if New York would just sink into the Hudson. It just bugs me. Reading that Wikipedia article, the "big" scandal they apparently made out of putting Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five in before The Dave Clark Five, I don't really have much problem with that. No problem at all really. Honestly that doesn't even seem like a contest. Who had more impact? Grandmaster Flash obviously! Dave Clark Five was pleasant enough and had some big hits, but other than that, why should I really care?

However, it would be pretty sweet to see The Stooges and Sonic Youth go into the Hall Of Fame the same year, cuz I think Sonic Youth is one of the only bands that could match the intensity of Fun House Stooges. But what are the chances Sonic Youth goes in their first year? Zilch. I'd love to see Metallica go in too. Wouldn't those three getting their due at least make for decent TV? Wouldn't happen though. Noooooooooo, cuz the Madonnas of the music world, those will get us ratings/money. And ZZ Top? Really? I like ZZ Top, but Hall of Fame? And John Mellencamp gets in that quick? Good grief. Whatever. This is all crap I've been complaining about for years, as has anybody else who pays attention to those idiots that run the Hall, but what's the internet good for if not for publishing complaints?

In other news, in about the past 10 days I've worked my way through most of the first two seasons of The Shield. I'm actually less surprised by how fast I'm going through it than I am surprised that I ever turn it off. Other stuff I've been viewing: going through several of the VHS's I've been buying trying to watch movies that I should've seen a long time ago. For instance, since the Christmas break started, I've gone through the first two Die Hards and had a little Steven Seagal marathon of Under Siege, Under Siege 2, Hard To Kill, Above The Law, and Out For Justice. Desperately need to get my hands on the VHS of Marked For Death. Then tonight I also watched Commando. So much flexing. I miss macho. I wish Black Dynamite was going to be in theaters.



Oh well. What else can I put here? Two "Seen On TV" things that I want: Sham-Wow and Snuggie.

Er, actually, to hell with a TV lull

Thank goodness, I found a way to fill my TV time. I've started watching The Shield on DVD (Season 1 a Christmas present) and I've been instantly hooked since the first episode. I think I've gone through 7 episodes since yesterday. It is the fucking greatest. There is not one character on there that I am not in love with. And, despite all the fighting amongst characters, somehow I want to side with all of them at once. Except of course for that motherfucking Captain Aceveda. Even so, most shows I watch have a character I hate, and I feel like I have to sit through their screen-time as payment for getting to the good stuff. But even the guys I despise on this show, I want to know what they're up to. Phenomenal show. Too bad I completely missed out on it when it was on. Too bad there's only 13 episodes per season too. Too bad for my wallet that I have no choice but to see them all.