creature with the atom brain

never thought it would happen to me

2010-09-22T11:11:00.001-07:00

wow... did facebook sink the final nail into the coffin of this blog or what?

be back to writin' when i do something worth writin' about.

rain date

2010-08-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

black landlord BBQ was canceled due to thunderstorms which may or may not have happened. i didn't bother to look out the window. instead, the fam and i did the following:

- watched clips from that sun ra: a joyful noise movie. the kid didn't take kindly to marshall allen's screeching sax. she did like the outfits. she didn't remember seeing the arkestra live a couple summers back.

- played kiddie banjo, piano and hippopotamus percussion along with the tunes on the oldies station. "sweet city woman" is an oldie? it does have banjo in it.

- took out some aggression in a no-holds-barred (gentle) balloon fight.

- took a big nap.

2nd annual black landlord BBQ - sunday noon 'til nine

2010-08-21T06:05:00.000-07:00

so, black landlord is throwing their second annual BBQ up in northern liberties this sunday. all the food ye can eat and all the beer ye can swallow, courtesy of some fine local establishments. we're currently broke (wife's a teacher/don't get a check in summer months) and our old friend steve-onpoint, also a performer, was nice enough to help us with tix. pretty excited to go to and the lineup looks extra special dope.

home again (with sand in socks)

2010-08-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

if this reads like one of those "what i did on my summer vacation" essays the teachers made you write each september, well... that's sorta the point. below are some of the highlights:

- the guy in the black pickup truck we drove behind a good 30 miles on the AC expressway/garden state parkway that had "stroke this" etched in big white letters on his rear window. was surprised he actually had a woman riding shotgun w/ him in the cab. the confederate flag decal on the front grill was less surprising.

- having drinks and watching the phils stomp the mets at mulligan's bar with the wife, big bro and sis-in-law. back in the day, the pad used to be called "the roost" (even had a big sign out front with a crowing gamecock on it,) and was always the family's first stop when we arrived on the island. it was a place to cool off (pop used no a/c on the 2+ hour drive down from philly,) have a nice sandwich (even as a kid i'd order the liverwurst & onion on rye) and prep ourselves for our time at the shore.

- after an extended happy hour, my pop inviting brother john (my best man and longest friendship stretching all the way back to second grade) to come crash with us for the night upon learning he was halfway to wildwood and still hadn't secured a room (a tough go on a saturday in august.) was doubly nice that he didn't have to spend his birthday alone in the city. what a great night. we had beers and whiskey till the wee morning hours - sitting on the front porch and watching the ships pass in the bay.

- playing with the kid at the beach and getting level 9 sunburn in the process. we dug holes, smashed sand castles and splashed in more waves than i could ever hope to count.

there's that sensation, when the current rushes back out to sea and you can feel the water digging holes under the balls of your feet, that prompted the kid to ask me: "daddy, really... what are we standing on?" she might not have received the answer she was looking for, but this little wonder, at 4 years old, is still 1000 times smarter than i could ever hope to pretend to be. water was nice and warm but contained a few too many floating tampons for my liking. the kid absolutely adores brother john. he spent a good twenty minutes digging a hole in the sand with his feet and the results were beyond hilarious:

- getting shit on by an ornery gull 3 seconds after thinking to myself: "that thing about birds shitting on you being good luck is a load of crap." not only are they good-luck-bringers, turns out they can read minds too.

- drinking 99 cent 24oz. cans of PBR and high life from green's liquors (or, as my pop calls it, "greenie's") on pacific avenue. i had many (and many more.)

- getting the "old world hoagie" from bonelli's market at spencer & pacific. eating one is an annual wildwood tradition. sure, it smells like feet and will probably take a few precious moments off your life, but it's the best italian hoagie anywhere on the planet. they make a good cuban sammie too. both tasted great, albeit a little sandy, when enjoyed on the beach.

- playing ski ball on the boardwalk (or simply, "the boards," as my grandma called it) and winning a bag full of junk for the kid. they got some new deal where you feed your tickets into this machine that counts 'em for you. i remember having to do it by hand when i was a kid. i came away with a bamboo finger trap, 3 plastic dinosaurs, a top, some smiley face erasers and one of those styrofoam build-it-yerself airplane dealios that breaks after its maiden flight. the girl at the counter was speechless as to why winning this garbage would mean so much to someone over 30. the kid was thrilled beyond words. the treasures of the shore are surely not all buried in sand.

- convincing john and his younger brother josh to go on the brand new ghost ship ride with me. not scary at all, but it was a ton of fun. i actually felt bad the few times i inadvertently laughed in the faces of the actors trying to scare folks. can't help it - haunted rides make me giddy.

- hearing my older brother explain the quatrains of nostradamus over beef stroganoff at family dinner. some of the funniest shit i've ever heard.

- going to hooked on books in the weird, half-abandoned stretch of wildwood that was formerly home to a lot of clubs where many early doo wop performers got their start in. had to search and double back a bunch just to find it. got a collection of kurt vonnegut writings, a dick francis book and one for the kid for about 12 bucks total. one of the best used book pads i've seen, and the kid's history book on the life of robert e. lee was hilarious if not entirely in poor taste.

great vacation and great times. tomorrow, it's back to the salt mines.

get back

2010-08-10T04:12:00.001-07:00

my two ladies have been away on a well deserved little vacation since last week. work and a deader than dead automobile kept me behind. can't remember a time when i've felt this lonely. house is quiet 'cept for the sound of cats beating the shit out of one another and this here writer lighting smoke after smoke while waiting out the hours til they get back. just a few more days. just. a. few. more. always thought i was a content loner but it turns out that's only when it's on my terms. miss them so much. nothing left to do but tough it out and listen to some of the most bittersweet tunes i've ever heard.

les mccann - benjamin

2010-08-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

sitting here pissed that my car won't start and listening to les mccann. was over at the folks' place for a good old heart-cloggin' philly breakfast this morning (pork roll & scrapple over eggs on jewish rye) and pop asked me to track down some of this dude's records for him. i tried to tell him about iTunes and the easiness of downloading, but since he never even bothered to learn to work the VCR we bought from crazy eddie in 1985, getting him to learn a computer at age 70 is pointless (he still writes down all his work stuff on big yellow legal pads.) pretty good stuff though. i'll try and surprise him with a few of the albums he's had his eye/ear on later in the week.

annie hall

2010-08-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

seeing this in my late teens gave me new appreciation for how good comedy can be. woody's made his fair share of stinkers, but from the mid 60s through the late 90s, this guy is responsible for some of my favorite stuff ever filmed.

simon & garfunkel - homeward bound

2010-08-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

yeah, yeah... i take it all back.

adios, khyber

2010-08-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

no more shows at the khyber - philadelphia's legendary rock club/bar on s. 2nd street in the olde city neighborhood down by that bell with the crack in it. for most of my post 21/legal-to-drink life, it was the only reason to ever head into that part of town after 8pm. that area is a lot of velvet rope club pads, trendy chow spots and a whole lotta other shite that never appealed to me (AKA records, sugar mom's and the pizza place next to the khyber notwithstanding.)

truth be told, i haven't set foot in the khyber in years, but i do have some great memories of the place. loved spending happy hours there watching jeopardy and downing $1 PBR bottles every afternoon when i still lived downtown. loved playing the burning brides on the juke and how flip (barman there for years) would crank the volume tenfold whenever i did. loved the disgusting men's washroom and all the great band graffiti therein. loved drinking there in the afternoon, walking a couple doors down to the tattoo parlor for some new ink, then heading back to the bar to get even drunker. loved how exciting it was when friend's bands started booking their first gigs there and how, to us, that was the pinnacle of success. loved the gold curtain behind the stage and how it looked like iggy's pants on the raw power cover. loved how dedicated the sound cats were to making folks sound their best. loved dave - the guy who'd play sax on the street a couple doors down - and how i helped him remember "star eyes" one night by humming it to him. loved when the doorman would kick some obnoxious drunk or don't-wanna-pay-the-cover mofo out on their rear. loved all the times i saw mike watt on that stage and how those are (still) some of the best gigs i've ever witnessed.

sad there's no more gigs there, but i'm not heartbroken or anything. i don't see a lot of shows any more and, as far as clubs go, there's better places to hear rock music than that dumpy little room in the middle of tourist/meathead central. it wasn't without its charm though. thinking back on all of those afternoons, evenings and late nights spent there really makes me smile.

farewell.

louis mckee

2010-07-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

an amazing philadelphia poet and a true genius of a man, he taught at my high school, though i'll never know why. an all male school made up of 1200 monsters with hormones-a-raging was not the ideal environment to provide him the respect and undivided attention he deserved. i always felt he was too smart for that dump, though he never acted like it. mr. mckee was quiet and thoughtful and mostly kept to himself. he taught the smartest and dumbest kids - of which i was neither - so i never got the opportunity to directly benefit from his many gifts. i have read his poems though. they contain some of the most heartbreakingly honest stuff you'll ever read and i'm not ashamed to admit i get a little choked up digesting his mighty words. there's lots of good stuff on his website, but i especially like this one. read it if words mean something to you.

wanda jackson - hard headed woman

2010-07-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

this makes the elvis version look like a flaming pile of horse crap in comparison. i also like how, without tweaking the lyrics in the slightest, she turns this from an ode to chauvinism to a tune of empowerment. it's all in how you sell it. good on you, wanda.

jean pierre mirouze - sexopolis

2010-07-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

you'd be amazed how much how can't get done on an afternoon off when you're getting your fix of late 60s french orgy music.

fabulous three - answer me softly

2010-07-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

reminds me of the songs you'd here on the funk show on WPRB (that i don't believe is on their schedule any longer.) one time, i got in my car about 2 minutes into "make it funky pts. 1-4" and drove from east mt. airy to downtown with the thing still going when i parked.

soul vibrations - the dump

2010-07-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

where have you been all my life:

wanda jackson - funnel of love

2010-07-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

it even sounds good at 33 1/3 rpm:

31 years

2010-07-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

not too shabby. gotta start taking better care of myself if i want to see 31 more. no complaints though - why complain? better to just ride it out and count them blessings as they come. lotta blessings. minimal heartaches. some i can't stomach - nothing i can't handle. i'm still here so life is good. amen.

tomorrow night: birthday meal with the whole fam at alyan's mid eastern chow pad downtown. can't wait.

please, please stop

2010-07-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

i keep getting comments on this blog - about one every couple days - that are written in japanese (maybe korean) and are more or less links to weird porn sites. i only made the mistake of clicking on them once, after saying to myself: "how neat - someone in japan (maybe korea) is reading this blog." such was not the case.

dear internet: i can find my own porn, thank you very much.

black landlord - dear god

2010-07-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

philadelphia's own:

wipers - return of the rat

2010-07-27T12:32:00.001-07:00

talk about your all time classics...

walkabouts - got no chains

2010-07-27T08:50:00.001-07:00

good tune that i haven't heard/thought about in many years. wish i treated my stuff better and still had the sub pop 200 compilation it came on. song's slow to get started but quick to take off - and it's full of all the things i love about bands like dead moon, X and the fastbacks: crunchy guitars, male/female harmonies, solid drums. good stuff and a nice walk(about) down memory lane.

a weekend

2010-07-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

tacos barbacoa at la lupe friday night were outstanding. the oven roasted goat meat was tender as hell and the radish and lime they give you is always a nice compliment. they were so good, i momentarily forgot it was a hundred degrees and we were sitting at an outside table guzzling dark rum and ginger beer in relentless pursuit of dehydration. was fun sitting around brian and bethany's south philly pad afterwards - playing records, joking, having drinks. never made it inside ray's happy birthday bar, but the chalkboard out front informed me that woody harrelson, raymond chandler and monica lewinsky were all born that day. pretty hilarious combo. what wasn't funny was this horrible bitch yelling and cursing at her toddler on the bus ride home. it was nauseating.

saturday was another scorcher so we packed up the car, picked up the kid from my folk's place and hit the jersey beach. it's what people in these parts do to beat the heat. sea girt is one of the closer beaches - a little over an hour away and a straight shot east across the garden state. the sand there is coarse and gritty with lots of pebbles and there's nice rock piles jutting out into the surf. you kind of have to bound down this weird 5 foot sand cliff to reach the wet sand down by the water. looked like beach erosion maybe. was nice sitting in the sun on the rocks and eating a ham and cheese from the cooler. i like when the cheese starts to sweat a little in the heat. reminds me of all those sandy beach lunches i wolfed down as a kid. sand wasn't much good for building castles, but the water was 72 and i took a half dozen of the most refreshing soaks i've ever had. was nice to be back in the old atlantic. got some good sun and had fun with my two girls. even stopped in roxborough on the way back for some well deserved cones at cakes & custard (the best homemade, hand dipped hard ice cream on the planet.)

talk about two fine days. i even took a couple shots:

looking for mermaids:

on the town

2010-07-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

my folks are watching the kid friday night, so the wife and i are heading down south philly way for tacos and chat at la lupe with friends the suitcases (aka brian n' bethany.) i'm pretty excited to hit the town with the one i love since parenting doesn't provide many opportunities for such outings. not complaining - just grateful for the chance to catch our breath and kick back once in a while. things get stale and problems arise when you don't take the time to reconnect with your special someone. after chow, i'm hoping we'll head next door to ray's happy birthday bar for some cheap cans of cold domestic served in one of the last joints in town where you can still enjoy a smoke with your brew. the weekend's looking good...

hawkwind - 7/7

2010-07-18T21:09:00.001-07:00

frank the barber

2010-07-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

had one of the nicest encounters in recent memory at frank's barber shop in chestnut hill early this a.m.

my old barber, an italian immigrant named andre who cut my hair for over 20 years down on princeton avenue in tacony, retired about a decade ago, and i've been hard pressed to find a suitable replacement ever since. these days, i alternate between letting it get slightly shaggy and a self-shaved bald dome, but there's something truly timeless about an old fashioned italian men's barbershop. not to get all chauvinistic, but those unisex salons never cut it with me (absolutely no pun intended.) they do men's hair, women's hair, coloring, nails, etc. i think it's better to stick to one thing and do it right - but that's just my worthless opinion.

frank salemno, who turns 88 this tuesday, is exactly what i've been looking for. he's an absolute treasure, the last of a dying breed, and the type of artiste my pop likes to call "a true master of shears." he's also one of the last holdovers from a time before chesnut hill became mostly high-end shopping and dining - and of minimal interest to regular folks like myself (should mention that on the hill there is a great breakfast pad and a respectable record store too - but i don't spend much time up that way.) fella bought his shop for $40 some seven decades ago, and was recently offered something like half a mil for the property, but frank ain't selling. the inquirer had an absolutely must-read article on him last week. check it out if you like having your heart warmed.

pulled up around 6:45 this morning and he already had one in the chair. walking past the barber pole and through the screen door was like stepping back in time. jars and bottles of barbicide and ancient hair tonics covered the shelves. an old fashioned hot lather machine sat beneath a vintage 'ma bell rotary phone bolted to the wall that must've weighed 30 pounds easy. lots of USMC kitsch everywhere else (frank is a WWII vet and fought on iwo jima among other places.) there was even an antique cash register that could only ring up a sale as high as $1.95 because, as frank put it: "haircuts only cost 30 cents when i bought the thing." pretty funny, but not as good as: "i won the whole second world war by myself. didn't need no help from no one." i have a feeling he's used that line on customers before me, but i could listen to his jokes and stories all day.

the thing i enjoyed most about the whole experience is the very same thing i appreciate about all craftsman: frank took his time. when i was a kid and me and pop would go to andre's for cuts, the one thing he'd always point out to me was that no matter how many people were waiting, andre always took his time. never rushed for no one. try getting that at the hair cuttery.

35 minutes later, i was the proud owner of the best haircut-and-a-shave i've had in years. only set me back $15 - which is more than reasonable these days. others think so too. the guy before me must've got there at 6:30 for his snip, and the guy after drove all the way over from jersey to let the master do his thing. quality is hard to come by these days and it ain't going to come to you. a little legwork is required if you want things done right.

it's been a while since i've had my freshly straight-razored neck slapped and rubbed with stephen's bay rum, but frank assured me it would drive my wife wild. she's still asleep so maybe i'll test that hypothesis a little later. damn that stuff smells good...

not sure how much longer frank's going to be trimming heads up on the hill, but as long as that pole is spinning, he's got a customer for life in me.

unknown passage: the dead moon story

2010-07-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

i very much need to see this.

dead moon - "D.O.A."

2010-07-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

niagara in the late afternoon

2010-07-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

family dinners as a kid found us listening to pop's favorite AM station: WPEN ("the station of the stars...") in particular, we'd hear the joe niagara show during meals, much to mom's disgust. she didn't care for his silly, pun-heavy old man humor as much as the three men she shared a kitchen table with. i was fond of how he always slipped a lame joke into the intro before each record. pop liked all the old big band music from the 40s and 50s he played. guess it reminded him of the stuff he grew up listening to. my dear father damn near cried when they switched to an all talk format a couple years back.

the dellwoods - don't put onions on your hamburger & (she got a) nose job

2010-07-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

not sure i could love a woman who didn't hold sacred the blessed union of onions and beef...

here's the opening track on the most chauvinistic mixtape of all time:

more roots

2010-07-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

all the way live from 215.

roots - concerto of the desperado

2010-07-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

great tune. reminds me of being a teenager, walking around my old neighborhood and my youthful belief that no technological advancement would ever surpass the walkman.

and just for good measure...

warm wishes from charlie hustle

2010-06-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

my mother's father worked as a security guard in the phillies' bullpen during the autumn of his years. rumor has it that gramps, always dressed to the nines in his matching white shoes and belt, coaxed the relievers into the practice of spitting their chaw into cups so as not to muck up his prized footwear. always loved that story - even more so when i realized that there's likely way more truth to it than the tale he told me about a seagull flying off with his ice cream cone on the Atlantic City boardwalk (or how his male pattern baldness was the result of falling asleep in the barber chair.) why is lying to kids so much fun?

so... i was looking through some of grandpop's autographed baseballs here at the parent's place today, and i came across one i forgot about. it read:

To Andrew:

Best Wishes,

Pete Rose

not sure why reading that made me laugh so much, but it did. little known fact: charlie hustle had elegant handwriting. just gorgeous...

home (the other one)

2010-06-30T11:45:00.001-07:00

sitting in my old room at the parent's place on the NE side of town. managed to find an old johnny thunders comp that looks scratched beyond repair, but that ain't exactly why i came over.

the journey to these parts centered around picking up a new set of radials from pop's tire guy up on holme avenue. dad's a true lover of deals and is one of those fellas who "knows a guy" for everything under the sun. if he doesn't "know a guy" who can save you $$$ on something he, at the very least, "knows a guy who knows a guy" that can knock a few bucks off the total. it never fails to make me smile. we're terminally irish/italian catholic and not the most open about our feelings, but i hope it's understood how much love and respect i have for him. a guy who knows so many things should be able to pick up on that pretty easily.

later on, we'll have beers and chit-chat on the front porch. the same one he used to make me shovel as a kid - just so i'd have something to when it snowed. god forbid i actually enjoy myself and build a snowman or something... when i'd ask why i had to perform such an unnecessary task, his response was always the same: "the mailman's gotta get through somehow, schwartz (his nickname for me since i was a tike.") at 70 years and counting, he's still the funniest guy i know.

mom's making raviolis and hot italian sausage for dinner chow. it's going to sit like a brick atop the prosciutto and provolone sandwich with marinated eggplant she made me for lunch, but i don't mind. it's good to be home.

dinner

2010-06-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

about to head up the avenue to the trolley car with the fam for some chow. hoagie or burger... i can never decide.

teddy robin & the playboys

2010-06-25T06:12:00.000-07:00

hong kong psych! i love it. they do a pretty respectable "i'm not your stepping stone" too.

can - vitamin C (live!)

2010-06-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

the clip is cut a little short, but goddamn... hearing/seeing it live gives me a whole new appreciation for this great tune.

simply haunting.

king tubby & prince jammy - dub of rights

2010-06-23T07:26:00.001-07:00

kraftwerk - das model

2010-06-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

4 of the most humorless guys ever to grace the stage. the more robot-like they act, the more i laugh.

monday

2010-06-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

spent a good number of hours straightening up the basement yesterday. threw out a ton of junk and tore up the carpet (and my hands on the 3 million staples the homebuilders used to lay the shit) on the downstairs steps. hosed out the trashcans and tried to make some order out of this mess. feels good to get work done. good and exhausting.

jealous girlfriend of one of our local wayward youths rammed him with the car in the afternoon. looked like his legs were pretty banged up. i dislike the guy immensely - but i still don't want to see people hurt. the mom was out there doing her whole "woe is me" schtick for the police officer, but it's all an act. an act by an unstable middle aged drunk who can't comes to terms with the fact that her kids turned out rotten because of her lousy parenting (or absence of it all together.) even though the whole situation is a constant annoyance, it's sad too. sad that families and lives and love itself implode sometimes. sad.

took the 23 bus (philly's longest route - something like 15 miles of red lights and four way stops) down to my pal the professor and his lady the music teacher's place in south philly last night. read a good and funny book on the animals of the '86 world champion new york mets on the ride and the trip went quickly enough. i needed a break from that 800 page opus on the nixon administration i'm almost through anyway.

i miss spending time in their part of town. reminds me of going to my grandparent's house back when they were alive - especially when i pass a rowhouse front window with a statue of the virgin mary on display. or a trio retirement aged italians bullshitting about baseball, taxes and the price of whatever on a corner stoop. the same kind of corner stoop where grandpa would hang out as a young man and get chased by a billy club-happy rookie police officer the world someday know as philadelphia mayor frank rizzo. in fact, rizzo loved using that nightstick so much, he sometimes wore it tucked into his cummerbund at black tie political galas. seriously.

i went there under the pretense of watching some velvet underground documentary, but that turned into chewing the fat over beers and tunes and ended up with us cracking wise at some bad 80s martial arts revenge flick on the tube. had a great time and tried a bunch of beers i've never had before. what more do you want?

up early today to take the kitten for her spay operation. gonna try a new playground and new ice cream parlor with the kid later on.

diego stocco - bassoforte

2010-06-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

very, very cool.

prince jammy vs. king tubby - ruling power

2010-06-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

in dub we trust.

more larry wallis: motorhead - city kids

2010-06-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

from the first record - the one with larry wallis on guitar.

larry wallis - on parole

2010-06-16T06:35:00.001-07:00

from the stiff records singles volume 6 compilation.

tubeway army - when the machines rock

2010-06-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

found another album of mine the kid likes. that makes two.

the larry king game

2010-06-12T07:59:00.000-07:00

cracking jokes about larry has become a favorite pastime for myself and the other folks i work the overnights with at the job. think we've got our work cut out for us after seeing these:

paul f. tompkins - i'm outta here like steve martin

2010-06-12T06:22:00.001-07:00

my favorite comic working today. caught his new cable special last night and it was fantastic. paul's approach to standup is certainly unique - so far removed from a lot of what's out there. that's probably what makes him so special. unavailable cash and a trip to the jersey shore will cause me to miss his show here in town in late august, but that's life, ain't it?

big star - when my baby's beside me

2010-06-10T17:57:00.000-07:00

larry wallis - police car

2010-06-09T04:46:00.000-07:00

i knew it was you: rediscovering john cazale

2010-06-09T03:54:00.000-07:00

saw this short documentary last night. there was a lot of that "hollywood pats itself on the back" stuff that always makes me cringe, but overall, the reverence that so many had/have for this guy's brilliant yet all-too-brief career was well deserved. always loved that scene in "the deer hunter" where he combs his hair while looking into the reflection of the car window. it was real humanity - the kind that can often only be mimeographed by even the best stars the acting world produces. i can only imagine the career this guy would've had if he'd lived past 42.

tom verlaine & jimmy ripp

2010-06-09T03:26:00.000-07:00

saw these two by complete accident when i was 18. i had never heard of television and was clueless as to the identities of the gentlemen seated on stage. liked what i heard though. still do.

jerry reed (and friends)

2010-06-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

smokey and the bandit 3 was on when i got in from work last night. a pleasant surprise and a nice way to wind down the day. you gotta love jerry reed.

last but not least...

wounds

2010-06-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

a broken toe
maybe two
that's the last time
i chase a jailbreak housecat
down the front stoop
in flip flops

life's little moments

2010-06-05T08:33:00.001-07:00

you can't make them last
but you sure as shit
can make them count

confessional

2010-06-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

god help me... i actually like a gg allin song. a lot. in all fairness to me, warren zevon wrote the tune and mr. allin's version is such a far cry from his shit-flingin' rock n' roll depravity that i'm not sure it even counts as part of his discography. still...

future shock

2010-06-04T06:35:00.000-07:00

call me a sentimental sucker, but i get a little emotional watching the heroes of history marvel at all of our modern conveniences at the end of "bill and ted's excellent adventure." and while i can't imagine anyone getting that enthused over a trip to the mall, it probably would be a bit of a shock if you were catapulted from a 15th century battlefield to the orange julius stand in the middle of the food court in the blink of an eye. i believe curtis mayfield called that "future shock." from terry gilliam's "12 monkeys" (took a date to see that when i was 15 and we were beyond confused by it) to "back to the future," i've always been interested in hollywood's take on the phenomenon of time travel. just wish i hadn't waited until i was 30 years old to watch bill and ted rip through time dr. who-style in a rickety phone booth (or napoleon's first trip to the water park.) great flick.

graduation

2010-06-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

the little one receives her diploma from preschool tomorrow. very much looking forward to seeing her in her cap n' gown, but i can't promise i won't get all misty eyed when she walks down the aisle. this parenthood stuff sure does fly by fast...

alley cat scramble

2010-05-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

little video i shot of just a few of the maybe 2 dozen strays that live in the alleys, dumpsters and garages on and around our block. regardless of what the wife may tell you, i'm actually quite fond of them. music by the monks.

funky president

2010-05-31T08:22:00.001-07:00

monday 5/31

2010-05-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

whirlwind of a weekend: ice cream cones, scrubbed floors, 2nd birthday party, a trip to the zoo, watching a bad elvis movie with a good friend, hung with the alley cats, some homemade smoked beef and chicken, time with the family, much early/mid 70s james brown, a couple beers, a whole lotta whiskey, too many cigarettes and a criminal amount of coffee. it's memorial day and i'm heading into work soon. no complaints and no reason too.

roadtrip

2010-05-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

driving up to new york city with some friends in a few hours to see roky erickson at webster hall. should be a great show.

you'll need, like, 8 cats

2010-05-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

and if you can assemble them all in close proximity
and somehow convince the group to fall asleep in unison
the orchestra of their snores
sounds like a million tiny car horns
bouncing off the concrete walls
of some weird miniature city

burn this disco out

2010-05-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

listening to off the wall - possibly the best produced pop record of all time. it's important to remember that before things got all weird and the myth overshadowed the man, there was a time when mike surely was king.

thursday, 1:19pm

2010-05-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

saw the phils play a lackluster game at the ballpark last eve. the kid had a good time and, as is always the way, we left in the 7th to beat the crowd. some drunk teenager was jumping on car hoods and slurring "i got kicked out for no reason!" as we made our way out of the lot. dude was an ass. was good to get down there though - especially to see jamie moyer throw a few. there's something pretty magical about a 47 year old pitcher. sure, his best days are likely behind him (except for that complete game shutout he had a few weeks back,) but just the thought that he's able to take that mound every five games is something damn inspirational. we had fun. and the hot dogs and hoagies weren't bad either.

had fun in the yard today watching the kid on the swing and petting the stray cat we call "mama." we picked some flowers and i kept looking for the damn mailman to see if he brought my tickets for the roky erickson show in manhattan next week (yeah!) nothing yet.

off to get some grub with the kid and my folks later on. hoping to swing by the grey lodge for some of their world class chow. scoats, the ownerman of the joint, is a real character - and it's been pretty awesome to watch his pad evolve over the years from an amazing beer bar with a dirt floor and board games stacked in the corner, to a still amazing beer bar with trippy artwork, great food and a friendly atmosphere that makes it a neighborhood gathering spot for all the good folks on the northeast side of town. oh, and they have the coolest bathrooms in philly hands down.

drug dealing fucks still making the trip to the mailbox a stressfest. now i'm no moralist. people are going to do drugs regardless and there's no reason to waste so much time, money and resources fighting an uphill losing battle trying to stop the flow. what i do mind is the bullshit posturing, violence and general don't-give-a-fuck-how-my-actions-affect-others-in-the-community way that a lot of folks in the city sell them. it's destructive and senseless. if i had the decent credit and available cash to move, i already would have. since i don't, i guess we're stuck with each other for the time being. it's not a huge deal when you think about the hells that folks all over the world have to contend with everyday. it just feels that way when you're the one living it.

r.i.p. ronnie james dio

2010-05-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

every teenage kid has that friend with the cool older brother. the one with tattoos and a weird mustache, who's dresser drawers you root through looking for cigarettes, less-than-legal smokables, porno and rock CDs. in between stacks of bartender tip dollars and this bong shaped like satan with a huge erection, i remember seeing a lot of this guy's albums in that coveted drawer of wonders. very sad to hear of his passing. rest in peace, devil man.

cats snoring

2010-05-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

is a gentle sound
wheezy, humble, small

it fills the spaces
between these walls
with peace
and
quiet comfort

overheard on the #65 bus

2010-05-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

between a fella who looked and sounded like an elderly Mr. T and a young, blonde-haired, clean cut christian boy with a bible verse on his shirt:

old Mr. T: you ever heard the iron butterfly?

beardless young christ-enthusiast: can't say that i have.

old Mr. T: you say you never heard the iron butterfly?

beardless young christ-enthusiast: no. any good?

old Mr. T: drums. lots of drums. loud ones.

beardless young christ-enthusiast: cool.

old Mr. T: they had this song - this "ooh ooh banna goveeda." something like that. you ain't never heard that one?

beardless young christ-enthusiast: (shakes head in confusion.)

old Mr. T: (increasingly frustrated) damn! who the hell sang "the iron butterfly?"

at first i was shocked the young fella never heard/heard of that dumb record before. seems like something most people would be familiar with. i used to own a copy. bought the stupid thing in my teens at a flea market. cost me all of a dollar. now i'm jealous of the guy who never heard it.

paul f. tomkins - "go ask alice"

2010-05-15T07:44:00.001-07:00

the funniest take on one of the biggest wastes of time i've ever read.

monday blues

2010-05-03T05:33:00.000-07:00

a rainy one here in the city of brotherly love. a week off whittling down to the last few precious hours before i return to the working world and i all want to do is sit and stare out the window. woke up sad and teary with no reason why. so goes the mystery of depression, though as always, the storm will eventually pass and calm seas shall prevail. there's nothing romantic about the captain going down with his ship.

on the beach

2010-05-02T13:59:00.001-07:00

tuesday morning

2010-04-27T04:09:00.000-07:00

having a nice 3rd cup of coffee, listening to neil young's on the beach and contemplating just how to go about starting the dozens of household chores and repairs that need doing. might nap on it and approach things with a refreshed head upon waking. later, i'll give the new roky erickson album a first full listen. might head downtown for drinks with friends later after the family falls asleep. off for the week on a mini go nowhere vacation. can't think of a single complaint and don't want to.

cosmos: a personal voyage

2010-04-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

carl sagan's groundbreaking PBS interplanetary epic is online and watchable - for free (provided you don't mind watching an advertisement or two.) you can see all the installments HERE.

pretty inspiring stuff - and from a more spiritual point of view than a lot of science programs i've come across. easy to grasp as well. the guy was a genius - infinitely smarter than most anyone who ever watched "cosmos" - yet he had this way of breaking things down, in an almost poetic fashion, that made the ins and outs of science understandable to the masses. not in a dumbed down way, but rather through his unbridled love and excitement for the subject at hand. fella had a gift for language and i'm pretty sure that "wisps of nebulosity" is uniquely saganesque in its prose. my verdict: well worth the watch.

the guy liked turtlenecks too. A LOT. thumbs up all around.

cissy strut

2010-04-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

more background music. by the meters.

every christian lion-hearted man will show you

2010-04-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

doing lots of cleaning today. i felt this appropriate background music.

black merda - cynthy-ruth

2010-04-21T03:33:00.000-07:00

hendrix meets whitfield-era temptations. i love it.

r.i.p. GURU

2010-04-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

one of the greatest MCs of all time succumb to cancer this week. he was 43. an in-you-face kind of poet, dude asked a lot of big questions in his rhymes. hope he got at least a few answers before checking out. rest in peace.

the nine lives of marion barry

2010-04-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

pretty good documentary on the tube this afternoon. amazing soundtrack too.

everyone remembers the crack pipe in the downtown hotel room. most folks, myself included, might not have known that the fella was an inspirational giant during the civil rights movement and a force in creating positive change in the neighborhoods he lived in and fought for. dude for sure was pretty in-your-face and militant in the turbulent 60s, though his background in the nonviolent resistance movement gave a nice balance to his often smartass, arrogant, anti-establishment persona. just because you don't believe in an eye for an eye doesn't mean you have to smile and take it either. at least that's what i got out of it. a lot of his early rhetoric and bombast was pretty funny too. reminded me of muhammad ali at times. and that pic of him in the cowboy hat riding a horse in front of the white house was priceless.

sadly, during the crack epidemic, a time when washingtonians needed his support the most, barry was too consumed to by his own demons to give it his usual 110%. imperfect society that we are, it's probably a little arrogant of us to demand our elected officials be some sort of shining beacon of righteousness when we're all so fucked up. it's also sort of pathetic when idealists turned leaders fall under the spell of the same temptations and corruption of the system they hoped to change. i guess that's the way the game is played though. in the end, none of us are fit to cast stones.

mr. tough guy meets his match

2010-04-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

i'm pretty good at keeping my emotions in check. i rarely cry at funerals. if i do, it's in some out of the way place, usually at the luncheon afterward, when the weight of the day, and the alcohol used to ease it, finally take hold.

no one passed away saturday afternoon, and i was dead sober, but that didn't stop me from losing it big time as we went to the local pet shelter/adoption center to look for a dog to give a good home to. never been to one of those pads before. never want to go again. the animals were all healthy and well cared for, but nothing could have prepared me for that long walk down the row of cages. sad eyes and desperate faces that, without begging or pageantry of any kind, whupped up some major waterworks in yours-truly. "why doesn't anyone love me?" was the phrase that kept repeating in my head as i peered into each pen. i felt so bad for them all. still do.

hopefully our adoption thing goes through and we can bring home a new friend some time soon. a friend for life. a friend that will never have to worry about finding another home. a friend who, with the passage of time, will realize how much they're loved and valued. a friend who can finally rest easy knowing that the darkness is behind them and happier days are ahead.

i even got choked up writing this.

a longer shelf life than you'd imagine

2010-04-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

without even trying, my pop is hands down the funniest person i know.

never one to pass up on a good deal, one of his favorite moves is making me guess how much he paid for something. i always shoot pretty low, and as he leans in with that leprechaun grin in full flash mode to tell me it was even cheaper than i assumed, i know i've made his day. last week it was a case of 16oz. beck's cans he copped for 18 bucks. usually it's a 20 pound ham he has to struggle to fit in the freezer as mom looks on in disgust.

he also stows away massive amounts of cereal, pasta and snacks in the hundreds of old fruit and veggie boxes that make up their basement and garage (pop worked for the A&P in the late 50s and took a lot of leftovers home w/ him.) i remember as a kid how my friends would laugh at the warehouse-like way they were stacked floor to ceiling - and the way my pop could tell what was in each just by the fruit company logo stamped on front. he'd write the date he purchased each item on its package (and still does,) though it never occurred to me that this was anything but normal.

all that said, i had to laugh a couple of weeks ago when i went over there to pick up the kid after spending the night with her grandparents. she was sitting in the kitchen, just finishing up her breakfast, when the bottle of ms. butterworth's sitting next to her caught my eye. "9-11-08" was printed on the neck in my pop's trademark blue bic rollerball. good lord, i thought to myself, they've got my kid eating an almost two year old bottle of syrup. upon closer inspection, i noticed that the date was actually "9-11-01," putting its original purchase date almost a decade ago (and on one of the most horrifying days i've ever lived through.)

"syrup doesn't go bad schwartz," he tried to reassure, using the nickname he's called me since my earliest memories. i guess so, but the more i thought about it, the more his bargain hunting/food hoarding insanity revealed itself. observe: on september 11th, 2001 all hell broke loose. planes crashed, towers fell and nobody was really sure what was to come next. in bed with a hangover, i was surprised when pop woke me up telling me to come downstairs. "why aren't you at work?" was the best i could groggily muster as i made my way into the living room. one flick of the remote and i could see why.

here's what i hadn't realized until i looked at that syrup bottle 8 years later: somewhere between work and home, still not knowing if we were witnessing the lead up to world war 3, my pop decided the best course of action was to hit the local supermarkets and scout any potential deals on breakfast condiments. guess he figured that even if the rest of our existence was to be lived out in some fallout shelter or post-apocalyptic wasteland à la the road warrior, he'd be damned if we were going to eat dry flapjacks while doing it.

the man is my hero. no question.

the magnetic fields - you must be out of your mind

2010-04-06T18:21:00.000-07:00

i'm miserable. this helps.

friday

2010-04-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

rolling chicken wire, chopping logs downed during the snows, planting flowers, doing dishes & washing floors. spring cleaning is in full sprung. during chores, listened to that alice cooper greatest hits from the 70s - the one where they're dressed like gangsters on the cover. forgot that donovan sang on billion dollar babies (and how weird that is.) talk about contrast.

addition & subtraction

2010-03-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

was in the bathroom at my folks' place today and noticed they got one of them stainless steel hospital railings installed in the tub. it's nice for safety's sake, but it still doesn't make me feel any more comfortable with the idea that they're getting on in years.

here's to health, a long life and non-slip showers.

driving through northeast philadelphia

2010-03-29T05:37:00.000-07:00

found a photo blog online where this person took all kinds of cool shots of what we call "the great northeast" in this town. nice photos and a nice cross section of the area i called home the first 18 years of my life. they even got a shot of moe's deli for cryin' out loud! my folks used to take me there for an early lunch after sunday mass, and when you'd order a hotdog, they'd serve it in these little plastic disposable boat-shaped things i used to keep and play with in the tub. can't remember if it made the bathwater smell like hot dogs or not.

a cruise down memory lane for sure.

sprung

2010-03-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

no more six feet of snow. no more holding parking spots with lawn chairs. no more freeze. spring has sprung here in olde philadelphiatowne. the sun is shining and the birds are shitting on windshields. looking forward to a day of heavy scrubbing, sweeping and much garden planting. some chicken on the charcoal and a few cold ones as day wears on. little NCAA tourney on the tube in the evening. life is grand.

woke up this morning thinking about ram.

alex chilton r.i.p.

2010-03-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

new used furniture

2010-03-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

almost pulled a bon scott last night.

no pills nor booze involved, just a little beef w/ elbow macaroni in tomato sauce eaten by one tired guy. throwing up while sleeping on your back is horrendous, and not being able to breathe while your throat and nasal passages quickly flood w/ puke is one of the 7 least pleasant ways to wake up (#'s 1 through 6 will be covered in future chapters.) my teeth hurt all night.

all expectorating aside, snoozing on the new used salvation army couch is a dream. i've owned two new couches my whole life. both tied for worst. any kind of sitting receptacle needs a good amount of breaking in, and like the farmer grounds [sic] the wheat of his autumn harvest, so must the coccyx repeatedly pulverize the cushions to yield the bounty therein. i think wallace stevens said that and i have no idea what he meant. weird guy.

the budweiser's still cold and the 65 bus was right on time. tomorrow: we bowl.

snowstorm conversations made while cooking a giant pot of chili

2010-02-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

"daddy, is this david bowie?"

"no honey - richard hell. he does sound a little like bowie on this one though."

"yeah. daddy?"

"yes sweetheart?"

"this song is crazy!"

philadelphia stories

2010-02-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

all horrifying - all true - all HERE.

storm nonsense

2010-02-04T22:55:00.000-08:00

is screwing with my plans.

snow's a coming friday afternoon and i had a bad movie get together planned in the deepest wilds of old south philly that night. "turkish star wars" (to this day, it's stands as the only movie i've ever walked out of a theater on) and "terror beneath the sea" would've been the featured attractions, but i'd rather have people be safe than risk navigating the roads in the (alleged) forthcoming hellstorm. not getting plowed in for two days on tasker street and not being mortally wounded from a hairy ass hangover is a good thing too. look forward to making snow angels and snow werewolves in the yard with the kid anyway. it's going to be great.

life's more than bearable and i'm still here. storm... do your worst.

porridge

2010-02-03T12:40:00.000-08:00

is fucking gross.

i'm no snob. i like my hot breakfast cereals as much as the next guy. oatmeal (either the irish steel cut kind or the old fashioned whole oats variety) is my daily morning meal and i actually enjoy it - especially when it's the consistency of wallpaper paste. seriously. this porridge shit, on the other hand, is god awful. not only does eating it make me feel like a chorus member in a stage production of oliver twist, but the texture leaves a feeling in my mouth akin to what i imagine your average streetwalker experiences on a nightly basis.

i will finish the box though. as my mom always says: it's a sin to waste food (and that's the truth.)

lionshead

2010-02-02T19:54:00.000-08:00

is the name of a pretty good econo beer brewed in these parts. about 14 bucks will get you a case of bottles, and all the caps have rebuses printed on the underside that get tougher and tougher to solve the more bottles you open. last night i saved a bunch in the hopes that a new dawn plus a clear head would make solving them a little easier. i was mostly successful. the dude josh from the new motels (very good local band) tuned me onto this shit at a party i attended last fall. said it's his hometown brew and he swears by it. i can see why - it ain't bad. it's got kind of a flat taste to it, but the price is right and it helped pass the evening hours on this day off with no worries. my drinking has slowed quite a bit in the early hours of this new decade, but i still like to know i can get something decent on the cheap as everything else gets more and more expensive - or entirely unaffordable.

concrete faith

2010-01-31T11:08:00.000-08:00

i've spent a decent amount of my adult life simultaneously pondering, ridiculing, dismissing, serially avoiding and trying to come to terms with a lot of the conflicting info i was dealt during my catholic upbringing. my folks were (and still are) decent, caring, kind people who raised me the only way they knew how: the same as they were brought up. it's hard to fault anyone for that, though i do remember a few choice moments where the smell of grade A bullshit was more than detectable.

once, a family that lived across the alley put a concrete buddha out by their back steps. we never got along with them like we did our other neighbors (but not because of the offending statue.) simply put: they were noisy, crude, abrasive jerks who would most fittingly be described as upper middle class greek white trash (now there's a combo for you. just picture it and... laugh.) it was if someone took the obnoxious neighbor character from every dumb sitcom and cobbled them into one family unit. driving past one day, my mom shook her head in disgust at the false idol and remarked under her breath about how "sacrilegious" it was. sure - maybe for catholics - but i couldn't think of anything less sacrilegious than a buddhist paying tribute to their faith in the form of a stone likeness of their supreme deity. the way my mom reacted, you'd think they were performing the rituals of the black mass nightly on the 8x4 patch of grass that sat beneath the kitchen windows of all the houses on our block.

as luck would have it, they were atheists all along, so it's tough to tell the winners from the losers on this one. distasteful speech notwithstanding, i'll side with my folks here. religious over-enthusiasm is something i understand, but faith as fashion? really? that's like wearing a parka in mid-july because someone decided it looked hip.

george plimpton, i ain't

2010-01-25T08:42:00.000-08:00

but i have been enjoying a good deal of saturday night boxing these days. yeah, yeah... i know it's the easiest sport to be fixed, and that it probably is, but there's something darn poetic about two big lugs beating the piss outta one another - at least when it's done in the name of good sportsmanship and competition.

was sad to see locally-based comeback kid rogers mtagwa get put down early at MSG last weekend - but that does set the stage for a possible bout between undefeateds juan manuel lopez (let's hear it for the southpaw!) and yuriorkis gamboa somewhere down the line. all very exciting.

how much one man can take is a dilemma that has always interested me. there's really no better proving ground than the ring - or possibly riding public transportation.

nature's horror

2010-01-25T07:12:00.000-08:00

was out on the back stoop this morning, smoking a cigarette beneath the pounding rain like an idiot, when a small hawk (i think) swooped down and plucked a tiny bird off the power line and flew away with it clutched in its talons.

#6 mudd's women

2010-01-17T18:31:00.000-08:00

earth ship, mr. spock?
nope - interstellar orgy
mudd's dames lookin' fine

pre-orbital course
a paragon of virtue
bones contemplates wood

rigel twelve's miners
are looking for a good time
space pimp mudd taunts kirk

lithium crystals
damned things are tough to come by
kirk's self worth pep talk

** WATCH THE FULL EPISODE "MUDD'S WOMEN" HERE **

more teddy

2010-01-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

change of plans

2010-01-16T12:39:00.000-08:00

the balance on the old bank account says any excessive spending is a no-no, so the wife and i canceled our dinner plans in favor of staying in tonight and watching a flick on the tube. have a head of red cabbage and three pork steaks i picked up from the amish cats at the market stewing in the crock pot as we speak. in a little bit, gonna head out and spring for a cheap yet respectable bottle of vino to wash it all down with. a night at home with my special lady - can't ask for much more than that. all is great.

r.i.p. teddy

2010-01-16T08:54:00.001-08:00

so sad to lose such a huge talent.

SIDENOTE: i had forgotten how large don cornelius' hair was back then.

patton oswalt - my weakness is strong

2010-01-16T07:51:00.000-08:00

hands down the best comedy album i've heard in years. so, so good. youtube has his whole cable special up in seven parts. check it out if you like funny:

saturday morn

2010-01-16T06:48:00.000-08:00

so nice to be off today. had a decent slumber last night after the job and a chicken steak w/ onions and six pack from chubby's on henry avenue. the car smelled so good - like warm, greasy comfort - as i steered the auto over the hill and back into my crazy neighborhood.

did someone say crazy?

saw a crazyman on the bus yesterday doing a robot dance for an unimpressed woman. he then removed his shoes and socks and began messaging his tired dogs in front of us all. it was pretty special.

this stuff in haiti is so heartbreaking. can only imagine what it's like for the people there. so, so sad. if you can swing it, doctors without borders has ways to help. they're amazing and do great work. not to be cynical, but i advise not going through the red cross. i know it's probably easier, but after all that donation money from katrina and 9/11 got "appropriated," i simply don't trust them.

bruce just rang the bell to see if we needed any yard work done. he's a good neighbor and i love him as much as we both love beer.

gonna pack the fam in the car and head down chinatown way in a bit to get our grub for the week at the reading (pronounced the same as otis' surname) terminal market. love that place much. imagine the world's greatest food court and supermarket - all located inside a 19th century train shed. i recall it always being such a special event when my pop or uncle jackie (r.i.p.) took me there as a kid. 9 years and 50 pounds ago, during my brief stint as a bicycle courier, i loved heading over to the market on payday to watch the price is right with all the old timers in the beer garden while munching on a roast pork sammich.

after that, i'll take the kid over to my folks' pad on the northeast side of town where she'll spend the night. might get some chinese at our favorite place in germantown and then catch a flick. really want to see the new terry gilliam one (tom waits plays the devil in it!) but it's the wife's pick so all i can do is hope for the best. that's not a slight on her - we just have different interests. i just pray it's not that vampire one. i fucking HATE vampires. lousy undead jackasses...

EDIT: on second thought, i do like all those 60s/70s hammer dracula flicks with christopher lee and peter cushing, but on the whole, vampires figuratively suck.

lame-o

2010-01-08T04:38:00.001-08:00

even more than paul simon and george lucas, this jay leno character really burns me up. it was lame when he poached stuttering john (he's also not funny) from the howard stern show without asking if stern minded losing one of his top trouble makers, it was unconscionable when he continued writing monologue jokes during the writer's strike a while back, and it's nearly impossible to believe this jackass is moving back to his old time slot.

to be honest, i never thought conan would cut it at 11:30pm. his humor is a little too weird and juvenile for the tonight show crowd. still, NBC should've been decent enough to let him flame out on his own.

i don't watch late nite talk shows any more, but i always thought conan was pretty funny. was even lucky enough to catch a taping of his show about 10 years ago up in new york. it was cool, though a bummer that the great dan aykroyd was there to promote the horrendous blues brothers 2000. yikes

what the hell is wrong with this leno guy? he was on the air for almost 20 years - most of it spent at number one in the ratings - and that still isn't enough for him? is it too much to give someone else a chance? he's a workaholic in the worst sense. also, he never had will ferrell as robert goulet singing loverboy on his show either (i'll type the story of seeing bob goulet on stage with my mom at age 16 some other time.)

eddy current supression ring - which way to go

2010-01-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

good stuff from way down under in the land of paul hogan. the ECSR singer fella has got some moves.