A few weeks ago the kids and I were out in the front yard. I was telling Liam to go get me the extension cord so I could blow off the driveway but found myself stammering a bit when I had to explain which side of the cord to bring to me and which to leave up in the garage.
I had told him without thinking to bring me the end with the female connector but then found myself needing to explain why it's called "female" and the fact that normally one doesn't even think about that when the term is used.
He told me as I was hesitatingly explaining that he got it. Yes, I can see him understanding while the prong side is called "male" and the socket end is called "female" but the fact that they connect together kind of lends itself to the "act itself".
It's funny that the terminology never came up before especially when at one point, his life was Thomas track and the connections are a major facet of the whole track experience.
In one year when he's 10, he's getting The Talk
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Once there was a Bug, an Opel, and a Lancia...
I know I never lived up to the promise I made here but I am gong to make it up to you.
Errr... soon.
After I update my Den's site...
and finish tiling the "backsplash".
Errr... soon.
After I update my Den's site...
and finish tiling the "backsplash".
No hurling on the shell, dude.
I am a little amazed at the recent proliferation of the use of "like" to mean "said" or "expressing" as in "When I gave them the price of the PLC upgrade, they were like 'no way' and I was like 'It is what it is, buddy.'" .
It used to be a Valley Girl joke then general teenage mockery but now I'm hearing educated adults using it... the example above is not far from something I overheard at work.
I guess I can see the economy of ideas thing but do are we really nearing the point where we are all going to sound like Crush from Finding Nemo?
It used to be a Valley Girl joke then general teenage mockery but now I'm hearing educated adults using it... the example above is not far from something I overheard at work.
I guess I can see the economy of ideas thing but do are we really nearing the point where we are all going to sound like Crush from Finding Nemo?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
207 row f can't wait
I’ve covered this part but quick synop:
1) I was big into Metallica first four albums, stood outside a sold-out show in Hollywood in 85.
2) Hated their 5th, wrote them off, and jumped headlong into the 120 Minutes world.
3) A few months ago, I heard their latest album hearkened back to the old stuff and that they were doing a lot of their early songs in concert so decided to go see’em.
Judging by the metal tee-shirts, I shared the MARTA heading downtown on the night of Sunday, Oct 4, with a bunch of other like-destinationed folk. The train dumped us outside Phillips Arena and I made my way to the food court at CNN Center which was slammed with a thousand guys 98% of which were wearing Metallic tee shirts and 100% drinking beer from tall plastic cups from the local vendors who heckled customers into buying from their stands. $5 for a tall Yuengling beats $7 for a short Bud Light inside so I settled in for a happy hour of wandering amongst the tables people-watching and beer-sipping while waiting for my brother-in-law to show up. I was missing the first opening act Gojira – an environmentally-minded French new metal band – but I am all about sacrifice…. and cheap(per) beer.
Entranced and supremely happy observing the older fans with the bloody hammer and electric chair t-shirts as well as the younger crowd with… errr… the bloody hammer and electric chair t-shirts, I thought back as I often do now that I am firmly enmeshed in 3-kidded domestica and wondered why my friends and I didn’t drink at cool places like airport lounges, hotel bars, and food courts outside of mega-concerts. I mean, we could’ve hopped on the MARTA and hung with a Beastie Boys crowd one night and the SuperCross one the next, not to mention Thursday night with the revelers from the medical supply show from the Georgia World Conference Center next door…. those dudes are outta control! Then reality reminds me that my friends and I generally didn’t have girlfriends so please explain how one gets laid from getting drunk at a food court.
My brother-in-law showed. I went in to meet him.
All stadiums have that same kind of backstage girder and I-beam look when your walking outside of the hall with all the overpriced beer, t-shirt, and pretzel stands but I have to admit, I was pretty impressed when I entered the arena. Like I’ve said, I don’t go to these things much. I think I may have been in Phillips many years once for a hockey game or something but it was all lit up. This thing was like entering that crazy council chamber in the first of the newer Star Wars movies… very, very vertical. It was quite a feat finding my seat (another thing I’ve never dealt with at shows) and after several false leads, the 2nd opening band (Godsmack?) was just finishing up when I finally found Mike. Time to get one last beer before Metallica starts!
Ok… here’s the setup… after playing my Metallica LP’s over and over in high school and early college, I basically knew each song by heart. Twenty years later, although I can’t remember where I left my keys, the number of my Blackberry, nor my daughter’s exact age, I can remember every note of Master of Puppets. Before I broke down and bought an Ipod while I was training for a marathon, I would actually run through most of the first four albums in my head to try to keep from getting bored. For three or four months before the show when I bought the tickets, everytime I worked out or cleaned up the kitchen, my ipod was playing not only the old album but the newest as well… which is actually pretty great.
The setlist was basically from my ipod.
That Was Just Your Life
The first song of the new album (Death Magnetic) and a great one.
The End Of The Line
A good song off of DM
Ride The Lightning
Fantastic song off of the same-named 2nd album. Likely one of the first Metallica songs I ever heard.
No Remorse
They actually ended up playing three songs from the first album (Kill’Em All) which is great and it’s a great album but two of the three they played are in the bottom half of songs from KEA.
One
This was their breakthrough song, their first video although they originally said they’d never make one. An epic song.
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Off DM. Ok.
Cyanide
Although the biggest hit off of DM, I don’t see the reason.
Sad But True
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
A classic off of Puppets. This is the sequel of their first song to get radioplay, Fade to Black, which is one of their few early songs still heard occasionally on the radio.
All Nightmare Long
One of my favorites off of DM, although at times sounding like they’re playing fast just to impress, there is an unbelievably cool part in the beginning. Lar’s drumming cannot be denied as a major component of what makes Metallica Metallica.
The Day That Never Comes
DM again. I was underwhelmed by this at first but definitely it grew on me.
Master Of Puppets
The number one metal song of all time. The song before it on the album (Battery) is a close second.
Blackened
The opener on And Justice for All proving their 4th would not disappoint.
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
I guess this song is listenable (if it wasn't so overplayed) off of Black but the whole “hush, don’t say a word” thing killed it for me along with the rest of that album.
Encore:
Last Caress (Misfits cover)
Of course it as one of Metallica’s draws in their early days that they claimed punk influences and the other covers off the EP this came from are amazing but Misfits does Misfits better.
Hit The Lights
The first song they ever recorded
Seek & Destroy
One of the best off KEA and their usual crowd-pleasing encore from KEA.
On the crowd, there was a pretty typical mosh pit… moshers of note were a very buff Rocky-type from the 80’s with a red bandana and a guy in a full suit and tie. The guy next to me was very into the show and very supportive of my air guitar interpretation of it. My neck hurt for three days.
Of the banter from the band, I don’t know how James can have been doing this for 25 years and not sound like everything he says he’s said a thousand times but he doesn’t. At the end when the lights came up, Lars told everyone that we were the best Sunday crowd he'd played for in a long time. And like their passion for doing what they do, it rang true.
1) I was big into Metallica first four albums, stood outside a sold-out show in Hollywood in 85.
2) Hated their 5th, wrote them off, and jumped headlong into the 120 Minutes world.
3) A few months ago, I heard their latest album hearkened back to the old stuff and that they were doing a lot of their early songs in concert so decided to go see’em.
Judging by the metal tee-shirts, I shared the MARTA heading downtown on the night of Sunday, Oct 4, with a bunch of other like-destinationed folk. The train dumped us outside Phillips Arena and I made my way to the food court at CNN Center which was slammed with a thousand guys 98% of which were wearing Metallic tee shirts and 100% drinking beer from tall plastic cups from the local vendors who heckled customers into buying from their stands. $5 for a tall Yuengling beats $7 for a short Bud Light inside so I settled in for a happy hour of wandering amongst the tables people-watching and beer-sipping while waiting for my brother-in-law to show up. I was missing the first opening act Gojira – an environmentally-minded French new metal band – but I am all about sacrifice…. and cheap(per) beer.
Entranced and supremely happy observing the older fans with the bloody hammer and electric chair t-shirts as well as the younger crowd with… errr… the bloody hammer and electric chair t-shirts, I thought back as I often do now that I am firmly enmeshed in 3-kidded domestica and wondered why my friends and I didn’t drink at cool places like airport lounges, hotel bars, and food courts outside of mega-concerts. I mean, we could’ve hopped on the MARTA and hung with a Beastie Boys crowd one night and the SuperCross one the next, not to mention Thursday night with the revelers from the medical supply show from the Georgia World Conference Center next door…. those dudes are outta control! Then reality reminds me that my friends and I generally didn’t have girlfriends so please explain how one gets laid from getting drunk at a food court.
My brother-in-law showed. I went in to meet him.
All stadiums have that same kind of backstage girder and I-beam look when your walking outside of the hall with all the overpriced beer, t-shirt, and pretzel stands but I have to admit, I was pretty impressed when I entered the arena. Like I’ve said, I don’t go to these things much. I think I may have been in Phillips many years once for a hockey game or something but it was all lit up. This thing was like entering that crazy council chamber in the first of the newer Star Wars movies… very, very vertical. It was quite a feat finding my seat (another thing I’ve never dealt with at shows) and after several false leads, the 2nd opening band (Godsmack?) was just finishing up when I finally found Mike. Time to get one last beer before Metallica starts!
Ok… here’s the setup… after playing my Metallica LP’s over and over in high school and early college, I basically knew each song by heart. Twenty years later, although I can’t remember where I left my keys, the number of my Blackberry, nor my daughter’s exact age, I can remember every note of Master of Puppets. Before I broke down and bought an Ipod while I was training for a marathon, I would actually run through most of the first four albums in my head to try to keep from getting bored. For three or four months before the show when I bought the tickets, everytime I worked out or cleaned up the kitchen, my ipod was playing not only the old album but the newest as well… which is actually pretty great.
The setlist was basically from my ipod.
That Was Just Your Life
The first song of the new album (Death Magnetic) and a great one.
The End Of The Line
A good song off of DM
Ride The Lightning
Fantastic song off of the same-named 2nd album. Likely one of the first Metallica songs I ever heard.
No Remorse
They actually ended up playing three songs from the first album (Kill’Em All) which is great and it’s a great album but two of the three they played are in the bottom half of songs from KEA.
One
This was their breakthrough song, their first video although they originally said they’d never make one. An epic song.
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Off DM. Ok.
Cyanide
Although the biggest hit off of DM, I don’t see the reason.
Sad But True
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
A classic off of Puppets. This is the sequel of their first song to get radioplay, Fade to Black, which is one of their few early songs still heard occasionally on the radio.
All Nightmare Long
One of my favorites off of DM, although at times sounding like they’re playing fast just to impress, there is an unbelievably cool part in the beginning. Lar’s drumming cannot be denied as a major component of what makes Metallica Metallica.
The Day That Never Comes
DM again. I was underwhelmed by this at first but definitely it grew on me.
Master Of Puppets
The number one metal song of all time. The song before it on the album (Battery) is a close second.
Blackened
The opener on And Justice for All proving their 4th would not disappoint.
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
I guess this song is listenable (if it wasn't so overplayed) off of Black but the whole “hush, don’t say a word” thing killed it for me along with the rest of that album.
Encore:
Last Caress (Misfits cover)
Of course it as one of Metallica’s draws in their early days that they claimed punk influences and the other covers off the EP this came from are amazing but Misfits does Misfits better.
Hit The Lights
The first song they ever recorded
Seek & Destroy
One of the best off KEA and their usual crowd-pleasing encore from KEA.
On the crowd, there was a pretty typical mosh pit… moshers of note were a very buff Rocky-type from the 80’s with a red bandana and a guy in a full suit and tie. The guy next to me was very into the show and very supportive of my air guitar interpretation of it. My neck hurt for three days.
Of the banter from the band, I don’t know how James can have been doing this for 25 years and not sound like everything he says he’s said a thousand times but he doesn’t. At the end when the lights came up, Lars told everyone that we were the best Sunday crowd he'd played for in a long time. And like their passion for doing what they do, it rang true.
Friday, October 30, 2009
A very brief respite from pics...
As a continuation of this post, the other day I saw a development named "Forest Brooke".
Forest Brooke
#1 No forest. It's obviously been knocked down.
#2 No brook. If there was one, it's now a series of concrete tunnels and storm drains.
#3 Brooke....
Brooke.
Brooke?!!!
Although they may call a stream a "beck", "bourne", "nant" or even "syke" in the United Kingdom, they do not call it a goddamn "brooke". Unless they're referring to a person named Brooke that was a tenant of the bulldozed woods, "Forest Brook" is right up there with Kwik-Stop.
Actually, I respect Kwik-Stop a lot more as it knows it's wrong and doesn't care (or at least is in on the joke) whereas Forest Brooke is proposing to be godammn Thurston Howell III or Percy Smythe, Viscount of Stratfordshire-upon-Avon.
Forest Brooke
#1 No forest. It's obviously been knocked down.
#2 No brook. If there was one, it's now a series of concrete tunnels and storm drains.
#3 Brooke....
Brooke.
Brooke?!!!
Although they may call a stream a "beck", "bourne", "nant" or even "syke" in the United Kingdom, they do not call it a goddamn "brooke". Unless they're referring to a person named Brooke that was a tenant of the bulldozed woods, "Forest Brook" is right up there with Kwik-Stop.
Actually, I respect Kwik-Stop a lot more as it knows it's wrong and doesn't care (or at least is in on the joke) whereas Forest Brooke is proposing to be godammn Thurston Howell III or Percy Smythe, Viscount of Stratfordshire-upon-Avon.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
This post will self-destruct in 10 seconds.
Today was Liam's 9th birthday party and since he asked for a Spy theme, I did this big code and Secret Agent training school thing plus a National Treasure-style hunt for clues leading to Dr. Sinister's hidden lair along with a teleporter that the agents could use to beam to the head of a giant robot.It was fun running it for the kids and fun setting it all up but with work, 3 kids, and the Scouts, it was too much. Next year it's Lazer Tag!
Friday, October 09, 2009
Fam Update
Finn is about 15 months old, almost running, is very sporty, eats everything, screams when we turn on the blender but loves the lawn mower, and adores dogs. His word for dog is to stick his tongue out and pants goofily.Erin is 6 and into reading endlessly. She read all 42 of the Magic Treehouse series and she's reading many of the American Girl books in hopes of getting one of the way-overpriced dolls. She's also likes to fight the power. She wrote a manifesto titled "It's Not Fair" detailing what she thinks are unfair advantages about being a Cub Scout vs. a Daisy. Also, once when she was in time out for hitting her brother in the face, she climbed out the window.
Liam will be turning 9 soon and has Kerry and I planning a spy-themed birthday party full of codes, puzzles, and spy training exercises (ie., lots of work for Dad). He's gradually getting into reading more than the short blurbs under the pictures in non-fiction books. He just finished the 2nd book of the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series.
Kerry is taking long walks to the park with dog-happy Finn, giving all the local merchants a run for their money with her ever-haggling ways, and is planning on how to keep Jim busy working on the house tiling the kitchen backsplash and continuing the eternal back-and-forth transfer of stuff in and out of the attic.
Jim is wondering why he used to think that work couldn't get any more chaotic, sending out e-mails nightly because he naively volunteered to be the Communications guy for the Cub Scout Pack, and is considering joining a gym because he no longer runs and needs some form of non-Yuengling stress relief.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Fade to Black
Once again, I'm going to have to pull out of the blog thing. We've got a big kitchen project impending and I'm going to be the main guy for communications for my Cub Scout pack. Not to mention I've hardly got even close to where I want to be prepared-for-the-worse job-wise.I mean, I can make time for little blurbs like always but that's not really what I want to use this for. I'd like to write up some of the stories here and other longer commentaries.
The countdown to my re-emergence in force after Halloween begins now.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Acorn Summit - Is it live or is it Memorex?
As everyone knows, I just love the clever little names that developers come up with for their suburban projects, whimsical titles like Mulberry Farms (with nary a chicken in sight), oxymorons like River Hill and Valley Pointe (I confess I made up that last one but all the rest in this post are bonafide and in my area), and, speaking of “Pointe”, grammatically-challenged misspellings like Park Brooke and Thornbury Parc.Well, Erin’s Pixie Hollow “game” is full of names like this. Of course, the Springtime Orchard in this virtual world IS a springtime orchard… not a sterile subdivision full of lookalike homes. Cottonpuff Field is actually a field full of cotton plants not a field full of empty streets and weed-choked lots waiting for the recession to end.
Even the names of the servers have development names like "Hidden Ridge" and "Sunflower Vale".
Anyway, I’m going to list some names and you tell me which are actual subdivisions in the Atlanta area and which are locations on Pixie Hollow.
Ivey Falls
Lake Forest
Arbor Meadows
Shady Shores
Rose Hill
Beaver Cove
Grand Cascades
Briar Meadows
Autumn Hills
That’s right. They’re all goddamn subdivisions.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Random notes before the end
I'm going to Roseau, Minnesota next week. If you look at a mpa of the US, you'll see a little piece of Minnesota sticking up into Canada... this is the most northern point of the contiguous United States... that's where I'll be.This was a bit I heard on NPR about an artist that recently died. I liked his quote at the end of the article: "We don't see each other. We are blind to each other's humanity."
What ever happened to those sun shades everyone had back in the late 80's/early 90's? I mean, EVERYONE had these cheap pieces of folded-up cardboard in their cars. At first, there were just the ones with a pair of sunglasses pictured on them then, like everything, they came out with all kinds of graphics.
But now, I never see them.
Has the sun's power diminished... it's nuclear fires slowly waning away? Has plastics technology improved to such a level that car interiors are no longer susceptible to the harming rays of the summer sun? Maybe it's the windshields that are hi-tech... incorporating nanobotic microshielding flavor crytals!
No, much like the swine flu hysteria, it's hype. It's always hype.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Jump in the Fire
My last running post was this and since then I've only gotten up to two 3-milers a week and my knee bothers me a little at various times.
I was planning on doing the Peachtree very non-seriously and enjoying the party side of it but alas... it is not to be. My normally passive brother-in-law has pretty much challenged me to race it and the thought of a 43-yr old with a bum knee beating a 25-yr old former college baseball player is just too sweet to pass up.
So I'll suffer and strain for the next few months and run all out and kill myself and still lose but, hey, that's me.
I was planning on doing the Peachtree very non-seriously and enjoying the party side of it but alas... it is not to be. My normally passive brother-in-law has pretty much challenged me to race it and the thought of a 43-yr old with a bum knee beating a 25-yr old former college baseball player is just too sweet to pass up.
So I'll suffer and strain for the next few months and run all out and kill myself and still lose but, hey, that's me.
On the Move
Finn started crawling yesterday although it's not quite full on crawling.. he kind of keeps his right leg bent under his body and drags it along. So... a bit gimpy right now but he's gettin' around.
His favorite toy has been a plastic hammer but that may be a thing of the past now that he's mobile, the theory being that he liked the hammer because he used it to drag items within reach. He also likes one of those weighted diving toys kids play with in the pool along with balls in general.
His favorite toy has been a plastic hammer but that may be a thing of the past now that he's mobile, the theory being that he liked the hammer because he used it to drag items within reach. He also likes one of those weighted diving toys kids play with in the pool along with balls in general.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Pokin' Around
I took last week off from work and spent some time on America's roadways along with half the population of Georgia since the entire school system was on Spring Break. An 8-hour trip to Titusville, FL became 13 hours.... yes, a new record!
We left north Atlanta at 3pm Friday (too late) and took about 3 hours to get to freakin' Macon just south of the city. Then we decided to skip the 75 route to Florida figuring everyone would be on this heading to Mickeyville and the Tampa area where all the old folks live.
But got stuck in construction traffic just north of Jacksonville... went 3 miles in two hours. Sitting there with a seemingly perfect lane blocked off... fun stuff. But the kicker was getting up to the construction area with a bunch of idling trucks and dozens of gigawatt klieglights all for the cliche... nine guys standing around looking at one guy poking a piece of rebar in a patch of tar.
Anyway, the weather was nice..... did some swimming and beaching and it was great to see my family. Midway through the visit, Finn decided he did not want to be in the car at all for any trip so we were very much dreading the ride home and basically planned to stay in a hotel on the way but he was fine and the traffic was fine... 9 hours which is definitely a record (on the good side) for us.
We left north Atlanta at 3pm Friday (too late) and took about 3 hours to get to freakin' Macon just south of the city. Then we decided to skip the 75 route to Florida figuring everyone would be on this heading to Mickeyville and the Tampa area where all the old folks live.
But got stuck in construction traffic just north of Jacksonville... went 3 miles in two hours. Sitting there with a seemingly perfect lane blocked off... fun stuff. But the kicker was getting up to the construction area with a bunch of idling trucks and dozens of gigawatt klieglights all for the cliche... nine guys standing around looking at one guy poking a piece of rebar in a patch of tar.
Anyway, the weather was nice..... did some swimming and beaching and it was great to see my family. Midway through the visit, Finn decided he did not want to be in the car at all for any trip so we were very much dreading the ride home and basically planned to stay in a hotel on the way but he was fine and the traffic was fine... 9 hours which is definitely a record (on the good side) for us.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Hybrid children watch the sea
I’m going to Metallica in October.
I haven’t been at all into them since 1991 and, other than some Lollapalooza’s and Midtown Music’s (which are really more like “festivals”), I haven’t been to a big show since Van Halen’s 5150 tour in 86… which is probably a main reason I stopped seeing big shows.
They’re way, way overpriced. You can’t see the band. The beer is priced at captive rates and the whole crowd thing sucks. I always ended up standing around pretending I didn’t feel like a moron for dropping so much cash on an “event” when I’d be having a better time at a bar.
But, me an’ Metallica…see… we go way back.
In the early 80’s, I was into hard rock and metal…longish hair… ¾ sleeve concert shirts and all that. I liked the crap along with the good stuff but the spandex and hair bands were getting tiresome as well as popular…. something I’ve always veered away from for some reason.
Enter Metallica.
I don’t remember when I first heard them… it was either just before or just after their second album “Ride the Lightening” came out in 84 but I do remember glomming on to them like… like… I don’t know… white on rice? Hipsters to a Starbuck’s with wi-fi? Ants to one of those liquid poison bait traps that you can get in 10-packs at Home Depot (they really work!)?
Well, it looks like I covered a lot of this here… especially the part about standing woefully outside their show in Hollywood in 85. Heck, I even covered one of my “music moments” when I first put Master of Puppets on my Dad’s turntable.
Master of Puppets was purchased without ever hearing a song. Of course, this wasn’t really out there because Metallica never got much airplay back then but what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t have to hear a single sample before slapping my money down. A big deal for me and an attribute of only a few other bands.
I bought their 4th album the same way. I also bought a picture disc and an EP. I still have all of these… most of them well-played but since I already had all the songs on the EP, I never even opened it and it still sits in my garage in its original shrink-wrap.
I bought The Black Album in 91 the same way as the others. I listened to the first song… whatever it was… and was utterly unimpressed. I then listened to the first 30 seconds of the rest of the songs, pulled the cassette out of my tape player, and pulled out all the tape. I never bought another album and I could probably only name five or six post 4th album Metallica songs and most of those are covers.
And I shall spare you the old Metallica rules/new sucks blather. Amazingly, in any Comments section on ANY SINGLE THING TO DO WITH METALLICA since Comments sections existed, this argument will immediately be revisited. I’m not talking down deep either, I’m talking a day-old comment “Cliff Rules!” Dave Mustaine got kicked out of the band twenty-six freakin’ years ago… before their first album. Cliff Burton was killed twenty-three years ago. Move fucking on.
Anyway, I’ve always loved their older stuff and still listen to it fairly often. Supposedly, the latest album harkens back to it and I’ve heard they play a lot of their old stuff on the latest tour. I’ve always wished I saw them live and this’ll likely be their last hurrah so I’ll be there.
I haven’t been at all into them since 1991 and, other than some Lollapalooza’s and Midtown Music’s (which are really more like “festivals”), I haven’t been to a big show since Van Halen’s 5150 tour in 86… which is probably a main reason I stopped seeing big shows.
They’re way, way overpriced. You can’t see the band. The beer is priced at captive rates and the whole crowd thing sucks. I always ended up standing around pretending I didn’t feel like a moron for dropping so much cash on an “event” when I’d be having a better time at a bar.
But, me an’ Metallica…see… we go way back.
In the early 80’s, I was into hard rock and metal…longish hair… ¾ sleeve concert shirts and all that. I liked the crap along with the good stuff but the spandex and hair bands were getting tiresome as well as popular…. something I’ve always veered away from for some reason.
Enter Metallica.
I don’t remember when I first heard them… it was either just before or just after their second album “Ride the Lightening” came out in 84 but I do remember glomming on to them like… like… I don’t know… white on rice? Hipsters to a Starbuck’s with wi-fi? Ants to one of those liquid poison bait traps that you can get in 10-packs at Home Depot (they really work!)?
Well, it looks like I covered a lot of this here… especially the part about standing woefully outside their show in Hollywood in 85. Heck, I even covered one of my “music moments” when I first put Master of Puppets on my Dad’s turntable.
Master of Puppets was purchased without ever hearing a song. Of course, this wasn’t really out there because Metallica never got much airplay back then but what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t have to hear a single sample before slapping my money down. A big deal for me and an attribute of only a few other bands.
I bought their 4th album the same way. I also bought a picture disc and an EP. I still have all of these… most of them well-played but since I already had all the songs on the EP, I never even opened it and it still sits in my garage in its original shrink-wrap.
I bought The Black Album in 91 the same way as the others. I listened to the first song… whatever it was… and was utterly unimpressed. I then listened to the first 30 seconds of the rest of the songs, pulled the cassette out of my tape player, and pulled out all the tape. I never bought another album and I could probably only name five or six post 4th album Metallica songs and most of those are covers.
And I shall spare you the old Metallica rules/new sucks blather. Amazingly, in any Comments section on ANY SINGLE THING TO DO WITH METALLICA since Comments sections existed, this argument will immediately be revisited. I’m not talking down deep either, I’m talking a day-old comment “Cliff Rules!” Dave Mustaine got kicked out of the band twenty-six freakin’ years ago… before their first album. Cliff Burton was killed twenty-three years ago. Move fucking on.
Anyway, I’ve always loved their older stuff and still listen to it fairly often. Supposedly, the latest album harkens back to it and I’ve heard they play a lot of their old stuff on the latest tour. I’ve always wished I saw them live and this’ll likely be their last hurrah so I’ll be there.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Nationwide
Rarely do I ever see anyone drive with their windows open. And if they do, it’s usually because they’re smoking. I’m not sure why this is but I can think of a few possible reasons:1) the wind noise makes it difficult to chat on the cellphone,
2) the wind disturbs their precious hair,
3) their temperature comfort band is very narrow,
4) fear of carjacking,
5) having the windows open lets in the real world disturbing their cocoon and disrupting their homogeneous home-car-office continuity.
I suspect it’s mostly #3 with a little bit of all the rest but me, I like all the windows open which is one of the reasons the only car I’ve ever “cared” about is a Jeep.
Unlike most people, especially guys, I do not notice cars. Unless there is something pretty unique about it, I have no idea what type of car anyone drives even people I’ve known for a while and even cars I’ve been in. Sure, I guess I differentiate slightly between a sedan, a truck, an SUV, or a minivan but not styles or colors at all and a fancy BMW looks like a Saturn or an Accord or whatever. To me, cars are like shoes.
But I like Jeeps. And by Jeep, I don’t mean a Liberty or Cherokee… I mean the Wrangler with the removable top. And, yes, I admit… I even like the tough-looking ones with the black rims and massive bumpers and all that.
In the late 90’s, I bought an old CJ-7 that was like that with the metal interior and basic seats… pure utilitarian... save for the ghostly "Beast" airbrush design on the tire cover! I remember once after leaving it out open in the rain, I rushed off to somewhere and braked suddenly at an intersection and tons of water that had collected in the back came rushing up soaking my feet and splashing all over out the open doors to the amusement of the pedestrians about.
I took it out for off-road stuff a few times but decided it wasn’t worth spending hours and hours fixing my Jeep after these endeavors. I had no problem with forest roads, mud and brush, but didn’t need the rock-crawling. And then I wrecked it when I guy cut in front of me on Spaghetti Junction. The bungeed-on battery flew through the hood and hit the guys car… along with my Jeep.
I decided that I wanted a Jeep that was dependable and didn’t keep me under the hood so I bought a brand spanking new 99 TJ. The first ones that came out (again) with the round headlights from the old days. Yeah, the seats weren’t vinyl and the interior was carpeted but the top came down, the doors came off, and it had two big speakers on the overhead “sport” bar.
I loved driving through town in it and would keep the top down as often as possible wearing a big coat, hat, and gloves on cold mornings and getting rained on. My favorite times were going through town on weekends. I loved being a part of the surroundings instead of insulated in a cupholder/NPR/air-conditioned shell.
One Jeep moment was driving through the beep-boop—beep-boop intersection of Highland and Ponce as a Smurf on a Halloween night painted blue with no shirt with Rage Against the Machine blaring. Another was straight out of a commercial when I had three girls along on a spring day with the trees in bloom. I even drove my new bride from the cathedral to the reception in that Jeep festooned with ballons and streamers.
And practical, too. I would leave it wherever I ended up getting drunk and would ride my bike back to it the next morning and strap the bike on the rack on the back and drive off.
Other than the slight bother of putting the cover up and down it did have the downside of accessibility. People would go in and rummage through my crap every once in a while because you never lock a Jeep up in town. Better a little stolen change than a knifed-open soft top. But I still rarely lock my doors even now. My philosophy is too never keep anything in the car worth stealing.
Yup, I loved it but when Liam came along, I sold it to save money.
I will Jeep again.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
I can’t wait to can’t wait for winter
I’ve always liked the cold more than the heat and even in my many trips up north I’m usually the only one not complaining about the cold. My Mom is from Newfoundland, Canada and my Dad is from Duluth, Minnesota so I guess it’s in my blood.
But I am looking forward to summer. I’m actually relishing the thought of sweating out in the backyard pushing around that lawnmower week after week then sitting back in the kiddie pool with Finn while the cicadas do their banshee thing.
And - jesus christ - I really can't wait for Delaware 2009.
Sorry no bloggy
but I was in Rochester, NY, for work. Nothing much to report. Lots of work… pizza and sandwiches at the plant… only crept away from the hotel for one night when we went to Dinosaur BBQ…. kind of a Fatt Matt’s mixed with just a smidge of Hard Rock. I recommend it if you find yourself in Rochester…. after you figure out what was in that punch you were drinking last night, of course.
Today, went to Erin’s Pinewood Derby… more on that when I get the pics uploaded.
Tomorrow is Erin’s birthday party… she turns 6 on Tuesday.
Today, went to Erin’s Pinewood Derby… more on that when I get the pics uploaded.
Tomorrow is Erin’s birthday party… she turns 6 on Tuesday.
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