Why Am I Still Up?

4:20amPain
Thanks to you, I have been watching Neil Peart instructional drumming videos on YouTube!


4:22amPerdu
That is so funny about Peart. as my kitchen cleaning whirlwind was FUELED BY RUSH!!!!


4:22amPain
2112 motherfuckahs!


4:22amPerdu
WE ARE THE PRIESTS....OF THE TEMPLES...OF SYRINX!


4:23amPain
You sire are SO right abour Signals! Brilliant, and totally underrated album!

4:23amPerdu
Did Rosemary show you the video of "Subdivisions" that I sent her in my Anisette-crazed reverie last week/

4:24amPain
I recently watched their latest concert video from the 30th anniversary tour (2003), and those guys STILL have it!

Yes!

I remember that video well!


4:25amPerdu
I told her that "I was the dude in the glasses" in the Subdivisions video. And it is true. I was that person.


4:26amPain
So was I....which is why Adam and I cruised every Friday night in his black Peugeot listening to RUSH!

Time to move from Anisette to "the Green Fairy" my friend!


4:27amPerdu
Creme de Menthe? Or Absinthe?


4:28amPain
RUSH was always, in my mind, the nerds' hard rock band! Geddy Lee was the guy who was ugly as butt, but still got all the girls because he ROCKED!!

Abynthe!

Still banned in many countries, I believe


4:29amPain
I always looked at Mr. Lee and thought, there is hope..

AND, he certainly rocked the thunder broom!

But Neil was the 29-piece drum set GOD!


4:31amPerdu
I cannot believe how I completely wrote off Rush as an 8th-grade dalliance! I have owned these cassettes for going on 26, 27 fucking years, AND I NEVER LISTENED TO THEM! Just because it was something I ordered from the Columbia House Record Club in 1982, no way could it be good, and then I'm digitizing them last week and I'm like "HOLY SHIT" this is incredible!!!


4:31amPain
didn't he have to be lowered in with a crane or something?

You wrote RUSH off!?!?!? As an 8th grader!?!? My GAWD!


4:33amPerdu
Not as an 8th grader...maybe as a 10th grader...by then I had moved on to R.E.M. and Talking Heads. It's just that I never thought to try them out again...for TWO DECADES.


4:33amPain
I'd be writing manifestos in font size .25 with my own excrement if it wasn't for RUSH!

They helped me survive HS


4:34amPerdu
CONFORM OR BE CAST OUT!!!


04:34amPain
Exactly!


4:35amPain
Not all of their albums are great, but they had a good stretch for a while (2112 --> Grace Under Pressure)

Then Geddy went all Depeche Mode with the keyboards!

But they've gone back to basics lately

I was fascinated by Neil's objectivist-inspired lyrics


4:37amPerdu
But I was just going to give a shout out to GL for the keyboard work on the albums I do have (2112 ->Signals). Just excellent. I tried to get Stumpf to bring his Yamaha to SS so we could rock out on "Countdown."


4:38amPain
YEAH!!!

Well, the keyboards went a little overboard in the late 80s until mid 90s


4:39amPerdu
I must say I do have a strange new fascination and appreciation for Peart's libertarian themes.


4:39amPain
The remasters are mighty fine btw...


4:40amPerdu
Hmmm..remasters could work. I had to punch up some "Treble reduction" on my iPod to cancel out the hiss from the tape.


4:40amPain
I think that Cygnus X-1 Book II could become SS's theme song


4:42amPain
I bought a bunch of RUSH remasters from someone who was friends with someone at UFE I think...


4:43amPain
The inside picture of the band in 212 is priceless! Uh.....gay!

2112

I mean, WTF is Neil wearing?

"Let me put on my satin bathroom for this shot"

bathrobe


4:46amPain
So, yeah, RUSH is still the shit, no doubt!


4:47amPain
I envy you, rediscovering them after 20 years! It must be so orgasmic!


4:47amPerdu
I have no albums...All I have of "2112" is the little cassette that the Columbia House Record Club sent me...insid the little card is a list of "MORE POP TAPES" including Ohio Players, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, 10-cc, Uriah Heep, and Thin Lizzy.


4:48amPain
Thin Lizzy, another great, underrated band!

10-cc, not so much

See, this is a good reason to get the reissues....with all the pictures, lyrics, etc.

2112 had this great text inside, under the "gay" pic of the band


4:51amPain
"I lie awake, staring out at the bleakness of Megadon. City and sky become one, merging into a single plane, a vast sea of unbroken grey. The Twin Moons, just two pale orbs as they trace their way across the steely sky. I used to think I had a pretty good life here, just plugging into my machine for the day, then watching Templevision or reading a Temple Paper in the evening. My friend Jon always said it was nicer here than under the atmospheric domes of the Outer Planets. We have had peace since 2062, when the surviving planets were banded together under the Red Star of the Solar Federation. The less fortunate gave us a few new moons. I believed what I was told, I thought it was a good life, I thought I was happy. Then I found something that changed it all..."

I mean, when you are 13, this is like, poetry!

A bit of trivia:

Megadon was a coin-operated arcade game from the '80s that is listed as very rare now. The game merged maze games like Pac-Man with space shooting games, like Space Invaders.

I did not know that.....weird, wild stuff


4:53amPain
The only thing that was a bit of a turn-off was Neil's obsession with Ayn Rand

I just didn't get that


4:56amPerdu
Speaking of arcade games, have you seen the documentary "King of Kong?" About two guys, our age, who are still playing arcade games and trying to be the best Donkey Kong player in the world. Highly recommended.


4:57amPerdu
As a youth, I don't think I really grokked the Ayn Rand stuff from Peart. I've never been one to focus on lyrics anyway, which I do recognize as a failing.


4:57amPain
I heard about it through a friend here, and have yet to see it...but I will put it on the ol' Netflix list

Thanks!

4:59amPerdu
The director's commentary on King of Kong is pretty funny as well.


5:01amPain
"It's 2 in the AM here in lovely Mid-City Los Angeles..."

Why Am I Still Up? hartman/gossot copyright 2008


5:01amPerdu
Yep...time to get some sleep...this was fun, though! I'll try your AIM account soon...talk to you later

5:02amPain
OK....oh, almost forgot: I went to a Dodgers game today - they beat the iNdians 4-3

It was fun, but I did wish you and Helen had been there

Good night, and sleep tight my friend!

It's About French Toast, People!

Don't over-analyze it! It's just about the gooey goodness known as French Toast. THAT'S IT!

You take some bread. You dip it in some egg. And you fry it up. That's it!!!! Stop trying to read more into it than what's there in front of your face.

Some people like to put butter and maple syrup on the French Toast. That's my route. But maybe you like orange marmalade. Speaking for myself, orange marmalade is disgusting. ANY marmalade is disgusting. What is marmalade anyway? Is it jelly? No? Is it jam? No? Well what the fuck else is there?????? I propose that marmalade be banned posthaste.

But WHATEVER, dude, you like marmalade, go for it! Spread it out on your French Toast like the marmaladista you are!!! Just leave me the fuck out of it!!!

Me, I likey my 100% pure Maple Syrup from Vermont. But you all do whatever the hell you want!!!!! Just leave me alone already!!!

Reaper: Pretty Darn Good!

Hey, here's a new TV show that's actually worth checking out: Reaper. It's from Kevin Smith and stars Leland Palmer from "Twin Peaks" as the Devil. The show is about a slacker who finds out that his parents sold his soul to the Devil before he was born. Such an obvious premise; amazing no one has done this show before.

On the radio, Smith called it "derivative in all the right ways," which is true. There was DNA from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ghostbusters, plus a Seth-Rogin-type character and a "Forty-Year-Old Virgin" workplace milieu. Plus, it's on the C-Dub!

Visit cwtv.com/shows/reaper

Skull Made from 1980s Metal Tapes

I can see that the teeth of the matter is Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil, while Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance forms the temple.

By the way, this is Skull #11 ('80s Metal), 2006. by Brian Dettmer.
Currently on display at the International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago.

Photo by Flickr user Andrew Huff used under a Creative Commons license.

Via BoingBoing Gadgets.

LA Celebrity Sighting #17

I spotted Sonic Youth guitarist/singer Thurston Moore at Canter's just a few days after seeing SY perform at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. I did go up to him and thanked him for doing a great show; I felt kinda dorky about it, but I've been such a huge fan of his band for so long, not saying something was simply unthinkable. Plus, Thurston is under the mistaken impression that Kim Gordon is his wife and mother of his daughter Coco. I need to break the news to the man at some point about Kim being with me. I'll be gentle about it...

LA Celebrity Sighting #16 (French Edition)

My Niece Mathilde spotted French entertainer Johnny Hallyday having dinner at the French bistro Morels at the Grove in Hollywood. Hallyday became famous in the sixties as a sort of French Tom Jones, mostly for his French-language covers of American and English rock hits. He is adored by his French fans to this day, and still performs frequently. He is also known for not being the sharpest knife in the drawer.

LA Celebrity Sighting #15.50

It's been awhile since my last sighting blog entry. Lots to catch up on! Let's start with David Marciano, not exactly an A-list star, but well-known to fans of the TV series The Shield as Detective Steve Billings. The Ex and I spotted David with a female companion while we were at Lucha Va Voom!, enjoying the Mexican wrestling and burlesque striptease! Us bald men love them boobies!

Down El Paso way...

...things get a little spread out.



This YouTube link is posted mostly for the benefit of Pain. Pain will likely know why. As a bonus, it also happens to be one of my favorite songs.

In addition to Tina, I guess Mr. Belew also knows his way around a guitar.

There are 10 other totally awesome clips from this 1980 Talking Heads concert in Rome, available via the above YouTube link.