NAME: Gordon Dymowski
BLOG NAME: Blog This, Pal!
NAME OF CD: Non-Stop Hit Parade
NUMBER OF CUTS: 26
RUNNING TIME: 79:11
COVER ART: Clever (that picture of Ricky Gervais from The Office apparently dancing scares me)
SONG LIST: His post of June 7
ALREADY REVIEWED BY:
GENERAL THOUGHTS: He noted in an e-mail that was a “pretty conservative – some alternative/rock with one reggae song”. I really liked the first half dozen tunes, which really rocked. And indeed, the first ten are excellent. The Futurama song seems to be palate cleanser for the second half. These songs are also pretty fine, and indeed from Bow Wow Wow to the Easybeats especially well programmed. Oh, and I LIKED the outro track, possibly because I thought it was SUPPOSED to sound tinny.
THINGS I PARTICULARLY LOVED: Echobelly (I love women who rock, and that “Penny Lane” sounding bridge.) Picked a fairly obscure Monkees tune. The Brian Wilson song is a great ending.
ON THE OTHER HAND: There was no half hour speech by Dan Quayle, as he had promised in the e-mail. Oh, he was kidding! Never mind.
OFFICE FRIENDLY: I’d skip by MC Chris
ONLY VAGUELY RELATED: My wife thinks that Steve Winwood is this lightweight performer, based on his 1980s output. “I’m a Man” was playing, and I think he’ll get a reassessment.
Category: music
RM 4
Popeye, my first childhood hero, was more right than he knew: Spinach to power green computers, phones
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There really is a Potted Meat Museum, apparently, as I read in Greg Haymes’ Times Union column. Sarge, this is VERY disturbing.
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As a black church-going man, I was VERY fascinated with the Washington Post article How Today’s Church Is Failing Black Men, by John W. Fountain,
Journalism Professor and Former Post Reporter. If this article disappears, please let me know; I have the full-text in an e-mail sent to me.
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Top 10 Driving Songs, from About.com: “Drivers who are singing along to favorite music are likely to concentrate more on their driving and are less likely to fall asleep.” So this will not only entertain you, it may save somebody’s life, maybe even your own.
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Conversely, some of these folks, “winners” of the Darwin Awards lacked the capacity for self-preservation.
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I know you I’m sure all you erudite computer maven types know this, but as librarian, I get queried on a wide range of things not as commonly known as you might think. I was asked recently if the fact that you type in the URL and nothing comes up means that the website is available. I said, no. Actually, I said, “NO!” I directed them to a couple websites such as Whois Source or InterNIC. I suggested they buzz around the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers website, for even more info.
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Which American City Provides The Best Consumer Test Market? If your from these parts, you know, it’s Albany, NY. Or more specifically, “the Albany, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has a consumer life stage profile that correlates almost perfectly with the consumer life stage profile of the whole U.S., with a correlation score of .90904 (A score of 1 would be a perfect correlation.)” Where does your MSA rate? Check here. Albany, New York: the epitome of America. This came out last year, but I had need to look it up this month, and pass it on to you lucky folks. (Also, I didn’t blog last year.)
Blackout
The song playing in my head: Last Night, I Didn’t Get To Sleep At All. Actually, the last TWO nights.
Seems like only yesterday that I was in the dark in the sweltering heat without electricity. Wait, that WAS yesterday.
Let’s start with Monday night. It was warm and I had trouble sleeping. So I got up, posted my Tuesday blog, worked on a future piece, went downstairs to read or watch TV. I wondered what was the ugly thing Carol had attached to the curtain rod on the (partially glass) front door. Suddenly I realized it was a sleeping bat! Crap, I HATE bats. I paced around for about 10 minutes, then got a towel, grabbed the bat, opened the door, and tossed the bat (and towel) out the front door. I went upstairs and told Carol, and neither of us got any sleep the rest of the night.
Tuesday morning, the towel is still outside. Is the bat still in it? I put the towel in a box. Carol took the box to a lab, where the technician found no bat. In other words, I had put a towel in a box, and poked holes in it so it could breathe.
Tuesday noon, the Health Department didn’t believe we were exposed to rabies.
Prevention
Tuesday night, Carol implemented some bat-proofing activities, which included putting down a towel (another towel, not the bat towel) in the space under the door leading to the attic. This process also involved staring at the roofline at dusk to see if a bat might come in, so we could identify how the bat came in. This was a fruitless activity. We went to bed around 10:15 p.m.
At 10:30 p.m., the power went off, only for a few seconds, but long enough for the clocks to go to the flashing mode. Carol reset the clock, we went back to bed, and the power went out again, for 3 to 5 minutes. She reset the clocks AGAIN, and we returned to bed.
Daughter Lydia has a tendency to wake up during the night, but then she rolls over and goes back to sleep. But at 12:30 or so, she must have seen the netting Carol put over her crib as bat-proofing, and she started wailing uncontrollably. She stood up, which made her even more frantic. I went into her room and picked her up, expecting to rock her back to sleep in the guest room.
Then the power went off AGAIN. So I brought Lydia to our bed, because I figured it would be better to be on the prowl for bats together, and I got a flashlight. The power remained off. As the air outside became more still, the stickiness quotient increased. I looked for batteries for the portable radio to see if I could get some news. I found 4 new C batteries; unfortunately, the radio needed 6 D batteries.
Redux
I got dressed to go to the 24-hour grocery store a couple of blocks away. While we had no power, the school across the street that’s being torn down must have a generator for their night work. A house two doors down must also have a backup system. The main street in the area, Madison Avenue, was fairly well lit. The library had an emergency light system, the police station, the TrustCo bank and the gas station (which was closed) all had some lights from generators.
Unfortunately, the Price Chopper on Madison was dark. Almost mockingly, the street east of Main Street, just a block away in that direction, was lit. As I peered south down West Lawrence, dark as far as I could see, I discovered a peculiar thing. Tree-lined streets are lovely in the day, and quaint at night with street lights. But these same trees block the limited illumination of a half-moon already obscured by high clouds, making the trek down that street feel like a tunnel, with only a flashlight for guidance. It was strangely unsettling.
I went home, and the three of us slept, more off than on. (At 3 a.m., it was 79 degrees F, with a relative humidity of 66.9 at the Albany Airport, which is usually COOLER than it is in town – that reading meant hot and quite humid.) Finally, at 4:15 a.m. yesterday morning, power was finally restored.
The other tune running through my head is I’m So Tired.
SPIN out of control
Greg Burgas over at Delenda est Carthago noted the recent list from Spin magazine of “the 100 best albums of the past 20 years,” then made comments about them. That was SO intellectually lazy that I decided to do the EXACT SAME THING. Then I noticed that Tom the Dog had ALREADY RIPPED OFF THE IDEA. You’d think that would dissuade me. But NO! I’d already started, so what the hey…
The ones in italics I own. The ones I didn’t own and had no comment on, I deleted:
1. Radiohead – OK Computer (1997). I feel like like I should like this more than I do.
2. Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988). Greg wrote: “I should own this, shouldn’t I?” So should I.
3. Nirvana – Nevermind (1991). When I first heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, I thought it was very funny. I didn’t realize it was a REAL expression of existential angst. First time that I felt old in terms of listening to current music.
4. Pavement – Slanted and Enchanted (1992). I own no Pavement, don’t know that I’d recognize a Pavement song if you played it for me.
5. The Smiths – The Queen is Dead (1986). I have a Morrissey album, which is as close as I get.
6. Pixies – Surfer Rosa (1988). Own a different Pixies album.
7. De La Soul – 3 Feet High and Rising (1989). I have different de la Soul
8. Prince – Sign O’ the Times (1987). Ah, an album I’ve actually played in the last 60 days.
9. PJ Harvey – Rid of Me (1993). She’s always intrigued me when she’d show up on other people’s albums, but I don’t own any of her work.
10. N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton (1988). Oughta get this, too, I suppose.
11. U2 – Achtung Baby (1991). There’s a Wim Wenders film Until The End Of The World that came out in 1991, which utterly confused me, but made me intrigued by the U2 song of the same name.
13. Hüsker Dü – New Day Rising (1985). Have other Hüsker Dü.
15. Liz Phair – Exile in Guyville (1993). I have “Whip-Smart.”
16. Beck – Odelay (1996). I’m old enough to actually have been confused by his name (with Jeff Beck).
18. Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction (1987). No big fan of theirs.
19. Hole – Live Through This (1994). A whole song or two on compilation. Not my cuppa.
22. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991). This group showed up on these Sire Records compilation series Just Say Yes.
24. Sleater-Kinney – Dig Me Out (1997). I admit, I’m not at all familiar.
25. Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral (1994). I suppose this is backward, but Johnny Cash’s version has made me want to seek out the original.
26. Bj̦rk РPost (1995). Have an early Sugarcubes album.
27. The Cure – The Head on the Door (1985). They make me depressed, though I have a remix of theirs that ain’t bad.
28. Oasis – Definitely Maybe (1994). Have different Oasis.
32. The Replacements – Tim (1985). I think I was given this CD. Hardly ever play it.
36. Pixies – Doolittle (1989). I have on VINYL, one of the last LPs I got.
39. Lucinda Williams – Lucinda Williams (1988). I share Greg’s affection for “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.” Saw her in Washington Park in Albany.
40. Run-D.M.C. – Raising Hell (1986). Most of the rap I own was given to me.
44. Green Day – Dookie (1994). I think I have an irrational like for this band, because of its name.
45. Kanye West – College Dropout (2004). I’ve heard the tunes; I shoulds put it on my want list.
49. Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998). I was “supposed to” like it, and didn’t at first, but it’s really grown on me.
50. New Order – Low-Life (1985). Have earlier New Order, which was sleep inducing.
51. Nirvana – In Utero (1993). Play it every February, for Kurt’s birthday.
52. Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill (1986).
53. Rage Against the Machine – The Battle of Los Angeles (1999). Probably will get some Rage sometime.
54. The Breeders – Last Splash (1993).
55. The Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole (1997). Have one of their discs.
57. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells (2001).
58. Metallica – Master of Puppets (1986). I have never wanted to own any Metallica.
59. Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West (1997). He shows up on some compilation discs I own.
64. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP (2000). Greg said: “I never liked Eminem.” Me neither.
77. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002). This has been on my wish list for three years.
79. Moby – Everything is Wrong (1995). I own “Play.”
84. Soundgarden – Superunknown (1994). I love Weird Al’s version of “Black Hole Sun”.
85. R.E.M. – Automatic for the People (1992). I have a LOT of R.E.M.
86. Meat Puppets – Up on the Sun (1985). On some compilation I have. Not my style.
88. Stereolab – Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996). I think I have a song or two on a compilation.
89. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell (2003). Ditto.
90. Sonic Youth – Sister (1987). Ditto.
91. XTC – Skylarking (1986).
93. Pearl Jam – Ten (1991).
95. Elastica – Elastica (1995). Totally missed them.
96. The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy and the Lash (1985). I should get some Pogues.
97. Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998). Don’t know.
98. Cornershop – When I Was Born for the 7th Time (1997). Don’t know.
14 out of 100. Not very cool by SPIN standards.
Then Tom came up with a missing 25, plus the last three “worth fighting for”:
Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes
Bad Religion, Stranger Than Fiction
Barenaked Ladies, Gordon
Ben Folds Five, Whatever and Ever Amen
Johnny Cash, American Recordings
The Cure, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Faith No More, Angel Dust
Peter Gabriel, So
Indigo Girls, Rites of Passage
Lemonheads, It’s a Shame About Ray
Metallica, the black album
Metallica, …And Justice For All
Alanis Morrisette, Jagged Little Pill
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, She’s the One soundtrack
Rage Against the Machine, the first album
The Refreshments, Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy
R.E.M., Green
R.E.M., Out of Time
Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger
Bruce Springsteen, The Rising
Sugar, Copper Blue
Therapy?, Troublegum
They Might Be Giants, John Henry
Weezer, the first album
Neil Young, Harvest Moon
Foo Fighters, The Colour and the Shape
Green Day, American Idiot
Tom Petty, Full Moon Fever
13 out of 28. NOW I’m getting cooler.
Then correspondents of Tom offered up some others; I’ll list only the ones I have.
Sting’s The Soul Cages
Tracy Chapman’s Tracy Chapman
U2’s The Joshua Tree and Pop
Cassandra Wilson’s Belly of the Sun
Elvis Costello’s King of America
James Horner’s Glory
Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind and Love & Theft
Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love
Paul Simon’s Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints
I’d also consider albums by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, and Loretta Lynn (produced by Jack White) and what the heck, the Beatles and Elvis Presley’s greatest hits. Or can a GH be a best album? I always thought that the Sly & the Family Stone’s GH, with several songs not otherwise available on LP, was one of the great albums of its time.
Gee, Greg, this SEEMED like a good idea at the time…
What’s in a (Band) Name 2
Still in a music groove. (The pun wasn’t intended, and might have been missed had I not noted it.) I’ve been musing again about whether bands can legitimately use their name after members leave and years go by.
The Lovin’ SpoonfulThe current group features Joe Butler (father of actress Yancy Butler) and Steve Boone from the original group, plus Jerry Yester, who replaced Zal Yanovsky in 1967. So the group has the historic right to lay claim to the name. Still, it’s hard to recognize them as such without John Sebastian. Not so incidentally, the group is playing tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Empire State Plaza in Albany.
The Temptations– I’ll make the point up front: when Otis Williams, the last original Temp retires or dies, I believe this will STILL be a legitimately named group. You started with Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul williams, Otis, and Elbridge Bryant. David Ruffin replaces Elbridge, Dennis Edwards replaces David, Richard Street replaces Paul, Ricky Owens replaces Eddie. And on and on. Think Mormon Tabernacle Choir; people come and go, but it’s still the MTC. (An odd analogy sure, but it makes the point.)
The 1980-1 lineup was Otis, Melvin, Dennis, Richard, and Glenn Leonard, augmented by the briefly returning David and Eddie. I saw this septet perform; one of the two or three best concerts I ever saw. They performed as seven, but also as various permutations of the five that were on that particular recording that they were singing (Richard took the Paul parts, Paul having commited suicide in 1973.)
One of the things I liked about the Jefferson Airplane is that when they changed musically, they changed their name, to Jefferson Starship, then Starship. As a consumer, I always appreciated that. (I have no Starship.)
The Who – I really love the music of the Who. When Keith Moon died in 1978, and was replaced by Kenny Jones, there were people who wondered if they were still the Who. But when John Entwhistle died in 2002, and Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry performed a few days later, it was clear the SURVIVORS thought they were still the Who. I just don’t think so, though the Townsend website refers to Who activities in 2004.
Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham died in 1980, and LZ broke up. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page have since performed together, but as Page/Plant, which I consider a good model. Here’s an Onion piece about the Who and commercials.
The Dave Clark Five got together, decided to call a day in 1971 (although Mike Smith and Dave played with others as “Dave Clark & Friends” for a time for contractual obligation reasons.)
The Supremes – a tricky case. The Supremes (nee the Primettes) were Diane (later Diana) Ross, Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Barbara Martin, who left before fame struck. Flo left in 1967 (and died in 1976), replaced by Cindy Birdsong, as the group became Diana Ross and the Supremes. Diana left in 1969 for a solo career and was replaced by boxer Ernie Terrell’s sister Jean. To the surprise of many, the group continued to have hits. Cindy left in 1972, replaced by Lynda Lawrence. Eventually, the group consists of Mary, Cindy and Freda Payne’s sister Scherrie. In 1978, after the hits stopped, Mary toured with two other women. In 2000, Diana toured with Scherrie and Lynda, Mary’s old cohorts! Reportedly, there’s still bad blood between Mary (who had, but lost the rights to the “Supremes” name) and Diana. Oy! When Mary came to Albany last month, there was no pretense that it was the Supremes, only a Supreme. It’s likely that there never will be a Supremes again.