Do you remember....
Walking down washed out concrete walkways in a the haze of nineteen-eightyfive
kicking dusty feet in a dirty river on a hot summer eightyfour day
drifting clouds of burnt clover in heatsink clubs
paisley pantaloons and hawaiian flowered shirts
and Marillion ???
Through the deep, smoky haze I still get glimpses, today was a glimpse day
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Band Number Two I played in was rather...boring. I got a chance to play with the two Charles' who were excellent guitarist, but that was where the fun ended. I wanted to call the band 2 Charlie...I had no vote of course.
Firemuth was all about the lead singer, Firemuth, who was a jerk and into heavy metal and wanted to be another Sammy Hagar, not much to get excited about there, but it was ok. I got to smash my bass into a gong at the begining of Hells Bells( a wee bit of Who influence) and look the part of the bored bassist really well.
Heavy Metal in Knoxville in the mid eighties was not all that great, a bit of a pariah if you will. From the north you had the Minneapolis Sound of Prince and from the south, you had R.E.M. One of my fave bands was the White Animals out of Nashville, who I thought was just the coolest thing since sliced bread; they played Beatles, punk, new wave, and had recorded ALBUMS. Yeah albums and videos...they were good, real good. I saw them a couple times at frat parties and Sam & Andy's(local punk bar).
There was a few other really good bands floating around then too. Dont know whatever happend to the firemuth boys as it was a short, frustrating career. We did it for the girls anyway, and we were in college, and smart enough to know we were never going to the big show. And in the realm of whiskey tango foxtrot check out this blog ....or this video , I so remember the yellow elephant art!
In the end we died a fiery
death of metal.Thankfully.
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Watching Wild Palms for the upteenth time again. Why? It is so good on many levels and I can never get enough of the Rhino.
The changes, so this is how it begins, with a dream of a rhino in a pool....and for Harry Wycoff its just the begining of his awkening to a new reality. Everything must go from his past life, a clean slate, to start his new life. Deidre saying everything must go, her first words, and the start of the change. Grace sinking into despair, Paige breaking away from the Senator. This first episode is all about change, for everyone. I love the cyber punky feel to the whole series. Not so much punk in this one, more, cyber upper-class, but its still got the same themes and ideas. William Gibson's walking through cameo is fun too.
Harry discovers New Realism and yet, is confused by all thats happening. The Senator and his quest for the holy grail and the begining of Harry's journey into an alternate reality starts off this series rather well. I like the look, the feel, the story, the whole enchilada.
Off to dream of the rhino, then on to the next epsiode...
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For several years now, we have been running the Paddy Cup, a Blood Bowl League with the eventual winner receiving a glass mug as a trophy. We have been running seasons since winter of 2003/2004. Blood Bowl is a great game produced by Games Workshop , and we have had a bunch of fun, maybe more fun with the reporting on the games then the games themselves...Most of us in the league are 'old timers', gamer geeks from way back. We like to fluff up our miniatures and the games we play with them.
It reminds me of when I was a wee lad, and I used to take my Lincoln Logs, Legos, and Erector Sets and little green plastic army guys and build elaborate battle scenes in my bedroom. I loved doing that, spent many a rainy day trying to recreate WWII battles. I built plenty of plastic models; ships, tanks, planes and of course cars. With the discovery of minis where you could build, paint and then play games with them...oh man...whoo hoo! I was in heaven.
And then I found other folks who liked to do that too. So we play all kinds of mini games, including Bloodbowl. But its not just a boardgame with brutal rugby style play. Oh no. Its a whole atmosphere, a culture if you will, of the whole Bloodbowl universe that we have created around it. The game is the game no matter where you go, but in the land of the Paddy Cup, well...its just our brand of fun. GW created a great game and we just ran with it. Kudos to them for sparking our imagination!
See you on the pitch!
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Another fun day at my day job. Well its actually my evening job, because technically second shift would be considered evening and thats where I am stuck. The good thing about that happy hour time is I have sole control of the radio station and can get the channel off of the local Country station and onto the Joe.
The Joe plays everything, they really do. From Disco to recent releases and all things in between. I of course, listen for the 'classic' 80's music. I remember when 'classic rock' was stuff from the 60's, the modern stuff was the 80's. Still like the 60's stuff and still enjoy the 80's stuff, even if my teenagers refer to it as 'classic' rock! it surprises me just how diverse this station can get, songs from Grease to Jukebox Hero (Foreigner)to Pink and all kinds of stuff in between.
One of my all time faves is Jukebox Hero, and I dont know why. Probably because I was just a kid when it came it out and I wanted to start a band with my buddies. We did do a band and it was fun. Heck I was in a bunch of different bands without any success, but I had fun and did a lot of crazy stuff. I was in a lot of No-Name garage/basement/living room bands, but I was also in The Rumours and Firemuth. Still no name bands but we tried hard and had fun.
It inspires me to go to YouTube and watch old videos. See? that wretched technology is good for some things, but I'll always be a radio man myself..and a jukebox junkie....
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I just finished reading Chapterhouse:Dune and I really enjoyed it. I started re-reading the Dune books and this was the first in the series that was 'new' to me. Yeah, I am little behind in the reading department. I read the first volumes many years ago when I was in high school(the long ago early 80's )and just never continued, and I dont know why.
So, I read Dune when I was a freshman in high school way back in 1980. I remember it well. I was going through a 'tour' of the new school and we stopped at the library and got a library card and a tour. I love libraries, whoe doesnt? but I was skeptical. I mean what are the chances of this library having any science fiction?
Well then, lo and behold, they have a section and the one book that stuck out was a big hardcover version of Dune. I had no idea what it was, but it was big and SF and I checked it out. The librarian, a kindly older lady who got to know me well over the four years I hunted through the library,she looked a little taken aback that I wanted this book.
I was a jock you see, but little did she know I was a closet geek, and loved to read! So I grabbed it and when I got home I delved into the world of the Atreides and Dune and was gone!
Chapterhouse:Dune was good all on its own; and a good continuation of the series. Now I am inspired to hunt down all of the other books I havent read. And on a side note, the movie Dune was crappy, but i really liked the SciFiChannel mini series, both of them.
Off in search of spice!
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I am a long time (albeit in a Fry kinda abstracted way) fan of Futurama . I got to watch Benders Game last night on Comedy Central and I kept thinking, where was I? How did I miss the original release? Am I becoming more and more like Fry? Arrgh?
The demolition derby was worth a snicker or two. But Bender sitting down and growing an imagination to play D&D was great, esp. the references to going insane if you play that horrible game! I remember those dark, dark days in the early 80's when it was 'bad'...not so bad anymore huh? The Hal Institute??? Priceless!!
All the jokes and nerdy geek stuff throughout was a lot of fun for me and I got a good laugh out of even the stupid potty humour of Wipe Castle...moronic,but poop jokes never really go out of style..
It was worth the stupid ads for Reno 911, then again those were snack and drink retrieving breaks! I loved it, more goofball humour to make a sunday night almost worthwhile in front of the tele. Time to shut down the engines, make a little dark matter, and off to Cornwood Dreamland.
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So friday comes along and I am witness to the great migration North. Every friday the sheeple of the world migrate up the Great Road to the North for the weekend. I have the good fortune of living next to the Great Road, and working next to it; I can see it from the back of the shop...all those sheeple scurrying North for their weekend, more on Holiday weekends sure, but none the less, a raving mass of North bound sheeple occurs every friday.
And even though I know this(and have occasionaly been part of that great migration) it still can catch me off guard.
Last night, its lunch time(2nd shift lunch time of 7pm), and I figured what the hell, time for a fish sandwich at the golden arches. So off we go and Lo, there are the sheeple, stopped on their great migration North, gathered arounf the golden arches water hole, dad ordering food while herding small sheeple,(the mother of the tribe is in the potty) and the line is long and they...are...slow...
Thirty Minutes is not long enough to navigate the crazy sheeple around the watering hole. But through the annoying dance around the cashier, we were able to wend our way to the fish and escape with a few of the migrating sheeple starring at the crazy 'locals' but no fatalities....
The Great Road to the North is peopled by Sheeple migrating. They move in long caravans and are annoying and should be avoided at all cost. Beware the Sheeple!
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It is Stanley Cup Playoff time, baby! That means lots of watching playoff games, and not just the Redwings either...
Although the playoff traditions in Detroit are the coolest by far. Lets take a look at the legend of the Octopus. It all started in the 1950's and the lgendary teams and championship runs of Swachuck, Howe, and Co. It is stilling going strong to the current run, even in game 4 at Columbus .
The Wings have fans everywhere! And the Ocotpi fly everywhere(even a plush one goes for a jaunt in my living room on occasion...)
Hockey's greatest tradition is going strong!
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So today my 3 1/2 yr old wants to watch Disney channel. Cool, cause I loved watching the Disney channel with the older two all those years ago(the other two are 19 and 20). So we watch Raven...I remember her as a baby(again all those yrs ago!) Then Herbie Fully Loaded comes on.
I loved the old Herbie movies, remember watching them at the drive-in as a kid way back in the dark days of the seventies. I loved Herbie, loved the movies.
And sure enough, I loved this movie too. Who doesnt like Herbie, the lovable Love Bug? Good story, cool music, kids obviously love it, heck I am older then dirt(just ask my kids) and I liked it.
What got me though, was Simon got into it and really likes it. At the end during the race he was yelling Go Herbie Go! That made the movie awesome! And thats what Disney does. I'm a Disney kid, so is the wife and the older two boys. Now Simon is too. Thats just cool.
Now I am on a mission to get all the old Herbie Movies including Fully Loaded, cause Simon wants to watch em...and so do I.
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