Month: January 2007

The Lydster, Part 34: The Curse of the Purple Dinosaur

I think my in-laws hate me.

First, one set of them bought this singing rabbit and chick for Lydia’s last birthday (singing “Easter Goodies” to the tune of Rockin’ Robin”), then the spinning, singing snowman doing the Springsteenesque “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, which Lydia played over and over and over…
…and over and over and over…
but now another set of them has provided the Barney DVD, which Lydia is fully entranced by. I don’t remember the name of the disc, and I’m too lazy to check it, but it’s a game between those smaller characters, Baby Bop and BJ. BJ wants to be a rock ‘n’ roll star, Miss Muffet only PRETENDS to fear the spider, and blah, blah, blah. Lydia is enthralled, and I am appalled.

Actually, my Barney emnity really predates Lydia. My niece Alex, when she was 3-5, was Barney crazy. I asked my folks what to get her for Christmas, and they said, “Something with Barney”. But Alex had Barney bedding, Barney lights, Barney EVERYTHING. What could I get her that she didn’t already have? So I declined, and felt some disappointment, not from Alex, but from my parents. Feh.

Anyway, the irony is that Lydia’s disc is not tracking correctly, and I may have to get her a replacement copy. Instant karma IS gonna get you.

Lydia’s going to have her adenoidectomy in the next week. She’s passed her pre-surgery physical. We’ve gotten her books about the hospital, a doctor’s kit that has a stethoscope, thermometer, and whatnot, to try to prepare her. Wish us all the best.

Happy 2 5/6, Lydia! Love from daddy.
***
Oh, I went here and realized I needed another title. Since Lydia has had earaches, this one seems to fit.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
The Very Reverend Roger the Free of Lardle St. Earache
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

ROG

Favorite Albums 2006

I’m going to forgo the notion of BEST and give you a list of my fifteen favorite albums of 2006, the albums that gave me the most pleasure. I’m convinced that there’s a strong correlation between expectation and what one likes.

15. Paul Simon-Surprise. I discussed this before, as did Tosy. I still like the first and last songs best, though just this week, I was chair dancing to one of the other tunes, to the delight of my daughter.

14. Johnny Cash-American V: A Hundred Highways. My assessment pretty well matched Nik’s. Not as strong as the first 4 American albums, which I love, or even material from the posthumous box set.

13. Jerry Lee Lewis-Last Man Standing. I had low expectations on this one, so it was a pleasant surprise. 22 guest stars, but many of them are used well.

12. Dixie Chicks-Taking the Long Way. Yes, I’m glad they’re “not ready to make nice,” but I liked this musically as well.

11. Neil Young: Living with War. Will this album age well, Lefty wonders. I don’t know, but I enjoy it for what it does in 2006/2007 in the midst of the current situation.

10. Ronstadt/Savoy-Adieu False Heart.
My initial assessment was that I LOVED most of the Annie Savoy Cajun stuff, while Linda’s stuff was only OK, but the latter’s grown on me.

9. Knopfler/Harris: All the Roadrunning.
The musical chemistry is good.

8. Beatles-Love. Nik wasn’t crazy about it, and even Beatles uberfan Fred gave it a lukewarm reception, but I fully expected to, well, LOVE this album, based on the initial cut I heard, Within You, Without You, with the instrumentation of Tomorrow Never Knows. The problem with this, and I now understand Paul and Ringo’s point on this, is that it didn’t do MORE of this. A lot of it sounded like slight variations on the Beatles’ catalog, which I already own. More backwards Sun King! More segued cuts, even if it treads close to “Stars on Forty-Fab” territory. I’m not offended by the remixing, I only wanted it weirder.

7. Costello/Toussaint: The River in Reverse. I thought the last album I have by Elvis, North, was a bit of a bland disappointment, so I was pleased to hear this one. I think the album’s latter tracks are generally better than the earlier ones, and the album as a whole improves with every play.

6. Black Cadillac-Rosanne Cash.
Weird, I suppose, that the album about JRC’s death should rate higher with me than JRC’s album. In any case, it’s not just about her father’s death, but her mother’s and her stepmother’s, all in a couple-year period. Bit I didn’t find it to be a depressing album at all.

5. Tom Petty-Highway Companion.
Somebody please tell me why the Tom Petty albums are, in general, more enjoyable than the Heartbreakers albums over the same period? This is a recent acquisition and may go higher with repeated listening.

4. Ray Davies-Other People’s Lives.
Given its long gestation period, an amazingly coherent album. Recent acquisition, may go up.
Sidebar: The album is on V2 Records. A very good friend of mine writes:
“V2 Records North America is no longer. This ten year old company has sadly bitten the dust as a functioning label.
My 9+ years here have run the gamut. There’s been the satisfaction of witnessing a small bird taking flight and the brutal crush of a boulder rolling down a mountain.”

3. Bob Dylan-Modern Times.
That I didn’t love it quite as much as Love and Theft – but I may, with time – doesn’t negate the enjoyment I’ve received.

2. Bruce Springsteen-We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.
As I said before, this album came pre-loved.

AND, my #1 favorite album of 2006:

Spongebob Squarepants: The Best Day Ever.

Maybe it’s because I came in with such low expectations, despite Fred’s affection for it; I mean, the man has SpongeBob underwear! And while I’ve watched the cartoon in the past, I’m not a regular viewer.
But I bought into the concept of the album as a radio broadcast, more fully realized than The Who Sell Out; the Who ran out of time, or interest, in completing the theme. My favorite song: “Barnacles”, a word you use when you stub your toe and don’t want to say something inappropriate.

What was your favorite album of 2006?
The Beatles- LOVE
Johnny Cash- American V
Black Cadillac-Rosanne Cash
Ray Davies-Other People’s Lives
Dixie Chicks-Taking the Long Way
Bob Dylan-Modern Times
Jerry Lee Lewis-Last Man Standing
Nellie McKay-Pretty Little Head
Tom Petty-Highway Companion
Corrine Bailey Rae
Paul Simon-Surprise
SpongeBob Squarepants- Best Day Ever
Bruce Springsteen-The Seeger Sessions
Neil Young-Living With War
Something else
pollcode.com free polls

ROG

Underplayed Vinyl: The Neville Brothers


It’s the 66th birthday of Aaron Neville, who had a hit single in the 1960s with Tell It Like It Is as a solo artist. I discovered him and his brothers, with their second album, Fiyo on the Bayou. Let me tell you about my copy.

As I’ve mentioned, I loved one radio station in the late 1970s and early 1980s, an eclectic station known as Q-104. What I don’t think I mentioned is that at different times, and briefly at the same time, I lived with a couple of weekend/fill-in DJs from the station at 264 Western Avenue in Albany, which, once upon a time was a Jewish fraternity house. One was Mark, who also briefly employed at the comic book store FantaCo, where I worked, and the other was John; no Matthew or Luke, though. One of them gave, or sold to me cheaply, the station’s copy of the Neville Brothers’ Fiyo on the Bayou.
Side A
1. Hey Pocky Way
2. Sweet Honey Dripper
3. Fire On The Bayou
4. The Ten Commandments Of Love
Side B
1. Sitting In Limbo
2. Brother John/Iko Iko
3. Mona Lisa (Dedicated To Bette Midler)
4. Run Joe
I no longer remember why the station was getting rid of the LP, which they acquired on June 29, 1981 – perhaps they changed music format, or maybe they just got the CD – but the LP has a big card on the cover – covering up the large reptile – describing the DJs’ comments.
“Beat me! Oh God I’m sold on this!!“
“A1, A2, A3, B1, B2″
“One of the year’s best!”
“Agree”
“Agree”
“A2 + A3“
“David Fathead Newman on tenor sax. Funky horn section and New Orleans Soul make a great record. B1, a Jimmy Cliff song. A1 A2 and B1 especially. You’re gonna love it. Allen Touissaint-Little Feat sound or maybe that’s L. Feat-A. Touissaint have a Neville Bros. Sound.”
“Rolling Stones have done Neville Bros. songs. Meters have covered a lot too – Top drawer funky stuff. Put this in red. this is Q104, remember?”
“Give me a week and you got it (only kidding).”
“Anybody remember the Wild Tchopitoulas(spelling?). The Album Network called this stuff reggae, believe it or not!”
“Sure wish we had some Meters!”
“We do, and there’s some in my LPs.”.
(Just for the historical record, the Meters were a band in the 1960s and 1970s featuring Art Neville, signed by Allen Touissaint’s label.)
Anyway I literally played the first three cuts over and over for weeks. I also played the fourth cut, a real change-up, featuring Aaron on vocal on that 1958 Moonglows tune. I listened to the second side much less, though the first two cuts are quite good, Mona Lisa (“dedicated to Bette Midler”) is a standard Aaron take on the Nat Cole classic fare, and I can never remember the last cut without playing it again.
Still, I saw it on Amazon for $7, and it’s worth getting. It was paired with their 1989 Yellow Moon album, and that’s DEFINITELY worth the $18 bucks.

ROG

Watching the President Tonight

It’s the State of the Union tonight. I feel, as a patriotic American who wants to be an informed citizen, as though I ought to watch. Yet listening to George Bush Jr. makes me verklempt, not just with the content but the delivery as well. So I need your help. I need to come up with a drinking game. For instance, every time he says “war on terror” or “homefront”, I can have a shot of something. Likewise if he announces an aggressive environmental program which will never get funded. (Has anything happened with the switchgrass initiative he mentioned in last year’s speech?)

I also need to set up a pool to figure out at what minute and second he will first evoke 9/11; no cheating by looking at the press copy of the speech.

OK, so I’m being cheeky, and I won’t REALLY watch the speech inebriated. Will I?

Why is this man jumping for joy? Because he’s looking better all the time by comparison.
***
As for the 2008 race, the GOP attack dogs are in full force: Hillary’s Kerryoake On Iraq. I’m not even likely to vote for her, but yeesh…
***
U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting
By CHRISTOPHER DREW

A laboratory that has tested most of the nation’s electronic voting systems has been temporarily barred from approving new machines after federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests.
The company, Ciber Inc. of Greenwood Village, Colo., has also come under fire from analysts hired by New York State over its plans to test new voting machines for the state. New York could eventually spend $200 million to replace its aging lever devices.
Experts on voting systems say the Ciber problems underscore longstanding worries about lax inspections in the secretive world of voting-machine testing. The action by the federal Election Assistance Commission seems certain to fan growing concerns about the reliability and security of the devices.

ROG

97 random questions

Go, Indianapolis Colts! I almost gave up on you yesterday. I was going to do a joke about everybody rooting for the team with the black head coach, except that not everyone would know that BOTH teams, the Colts and the Bears, have black head coaches.

101 RANDOM QUESTIONS, cut down for some reason:

0) The Junior Senator from Illinois, who’s black, announced he’s running for President last week. The Junior Senator from New York, who’s female, announced that “I’m in. I’m in to win.” The Governor of New Mexico, who’s Hispanic, throws in his hat today. What’s the chances that none of them will be on the national ticket in November 2008? Pretty poor, though I thought over a year ago that Richardson should be VP, a position he says he does not want.
1) Do you have a crush on somebody?: Thousands, all the time
2) Do you hate more than 3 people?: No
3) How many houses have you lived in?: greater than 20
4) Favorite candy bar?: Mounds
6) Have you ever tripped someone?: Not intentionally, except in play.
7) Least favorite school subject?: calculus
8) How many pairs of shoes do you own?: 4
9)Do you own a Britney Spears CD? No
10) Have you ever thrown up in public?: yeah, a long time ago
11) Name one thing that is always on your mind: music
12) Favorite genre of music?: 1960s Motown
13) What’s your sign?: Pisces
14) What time were you born?: 3:15 pm EST
15) Do you like beer?: no
16) Have you ever made a prank phone call?: no
18) Are you sarcastic?: occasionally
19) What are your favorite colors?: blue, green
20) How many watches do you own?: one, which I got from my parents’ house in Charlotte in late December
21) Summer or winter? Summer
22) Is anyone in love with you?: hope so
23) Favorite color to wear?: wine
24) Pepsi or Sprite?: Pepsi
25) What color is your cell phone?: none
26) Where is your second home?: work
27) Have you ever slapped someone?: no
28) Have you ever had a cavity? More than one
29) How many lamps are in your bedroom?: 2
30) How many video games do you own?: one
31) What was your first pet?: Peter the cat
32) Ever had braces?: nope, never
33) Do looks matter?: more to others than to me
34) Do you use chapstick?: rarely
35) Name 3 teachers from high school: Helen Foley, Joe Maughan, Mrs. Greene
36) American Eagle or Abercrombie?: neither
37) Are you too forgiving?: can one be?
38) How many children do you want?: 1
39) Do you own something from Hot Topic?: apparently not
40) Favorite breakfast meal: a mix of Cheerios and spoon-sized shredded wheat
41) Do you own a gun?: no
42) Ever thought you were in love?: more than once
43) When was the last time you cried?: this week
44) What did you do 3 nights ago?: choir
45) Olive Garden?: very rarely
46) Have you ever called your teacher mommy?: no
47) Have you ever been in a castle?: no
48) Nicknames?: not really
49) Do you know anyone named Bertha?: yes
50) Ever been to Kentucky?: yes, in 1993
51) Do you own something from Banana Republic?: no
52) Are you thinking about somebody right now? Define
53) Ever called somebody Boo?: no
54) Do you smoke?:no way
55) Do you own a diamond ring?: no
56) Are you happy with your life right now?: some days
57) Do you dye your hair?: obviously not
58) Does anyone have a crush on you?: maybe
59) Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts? Probably DD
60) What were you doing in May of 1994?: probably having a big fight with my estranged wife
62) McDonald’s or Wendy’s?: Wendy’s, definitely
63) Do you like yourself?: most days
64) Are you closer to your mother or father?: even when my father was alive, I’d say my mother
65) Favorite physical feature of the preferred sex?: the mind
66) Are you afraid of the dark?: depends
67) Have you ever eaten paste?: don’t think so
68) Do you own a webcam?: no
69) Have you ever stripped?: not in that way
70) Ever broke a bone?: no
71) Are you religious?: “being religious” has such a bad connotation of “religiosity” – I’m a person of faith
72) Do you chat on AIM often?: never
73) Pringles or Lays?: neither
74) Have you ever broken someone’s heart?: undoubtedly
75) Rugrats or Doug?: neither
76) Full House or The Brady Bunch?: neither
77) Do you like your high school guidance counselor?: he’s deceased, but yeah, he was OK
78) Has anyone ever called you fat?: yeah
79) Do you have a birth mark? No
80) Do you own a car?: well, if my wife’s car counts
81) Can you cook?: minimally
82) 5 things that annoy you: 1.) drivers who ignore emergency vehicles and keep on coming through the intersection 2.) drivers that park their cars so that one can’t access sidewalk cutouts and other accessibility locations 3.) lying politicians 4.) people who never stop talking 5.) litter
83) Do you text message often?: no
84) Money or love?: peace
85) Do you have any scars?: yes, from two bicycle accidents
86) What do you want more than anything right now?: sleep
87) Do you enjoy scary movies?: not so much
88) Relationships or one night stands?: relationships
90) Do you enjoy greasy food?: much less than I used to
91) Have you seen all the Rocky movies?: no, 1, 2 and I think 4
92) Do you own a box of crayons?:yes!
93) Who was the last person that said they loved you?: possibly my daughter
94) Who was the last person that made you cry?: probably my daughter
95) Who was the last person that made you laugh?: probably my daughter
96) Who was the last person that instant messaged you?: it’s been months, but Carla in Oregon
97) Who was the last person that called you? My wife.

ROG
Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial