Art, Books, Entertainment, Films, Lists, Music, TV

My Christmas Must Sees

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Films (in no particular order):
1) It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
2) A Christmas Carol (in any of it’s versions, specifically 1951. I usually attend the play, as I will be in two weeks. One of the few plays I enjoy seeing)
3) A Christmas Story (1983)
4) Home Alone (1990)
5) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
6) The Santa Claus (1994)
7) Edward Scissorhands (1990) (okay, so only towards the end of the film this is applicable, but for me it gets me in the mood)
8) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) (I suppose this is more apropos for Halloween)
9) Bad Santa (2003)
10) Die Hard (1988)

Tv:
1) The Simpsons- Most of their Christmas specials are worthy, but specifically, “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire” (1989)
2) South Park- Same deal as above, but especially “Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo” (1997)
3) Family Guy- “A Very Special Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas” (2001)
4) At least one Johnny Cash Special
5) Dr.Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1964)
6) Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964)
7) Frosty The Snowman (1969)
8) It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas (2009)- Potentially Must See because the show is great, but I have not yet seen this special
9) A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
10) SNL- various skits

Reading:
A Christmas Carol By:Charles Dickens (1843)
A Story A Day Till Christmas Various Authors (1985)
The Catcher in the Rye By: J.D. Salinger (1951)

I usually end up viewing only half of these! But, either way, I have a lot of work to do and I recommend others to watch/ read them too. I would recommend music, but that will take too long. I’ll save it for another day. To kick things off, here’s Adam Sandler in a classic SNL skit. It’s too bad that Youtube doesn’t have the actual video, oh well.

Chris

Entertainment, Music

Jay Is Better Than One Line!

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Look at your Boston Globe and read the Pixies review:

JOHNNY REATARD GOT ONE FREAKING LINE!

“Buzzed-about indie rocker Jay Reatard handled the evening’s warm-up duties.”

NO FUCKING SHIT HE WAS THE OPENER. THAT’S OBVIOUS. HE GOT ME SWEATING, SHAKING IN MY SKIN. APPARENTLY HE WAS ONLY WORTH ONE LINE TO YOU, BOSTON GLOBE. YEAH NO SHIT THE PIXIES ROCKED THE  SHIT OUT OF THE PLACE, BUT  ONE LINE FOR “INDIE-ROCKER”? GO F YOURSELF.

Art, Entertainment, Films, rant, TV

Chri$tmas

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I love Christmas, plain and simple. It’s my favorite holiday. No, not for the sharing of joy, and spirit, not for celebrating some dude’s birthday (can’t remember the guy’s name), and certainly not for seeing some fat fuck lodge his holly, jolly ass in my chimney. No, rather, I adore all the little doo das that are packaged with this season. At first glance, y’all that know me, must be screaming to yourselves, “WTF?! WHAT HAS THIS WORLD COME TO?!” But, don’t bash your pathetic, worthless skulls through your computer screens, just yet. It’s not like I’m hawking Dr. Pepper *cough Mr. NWA. Mr. Dr. Dre. Gangsta* Anyway, I think if one carefully plucks out the good, the bad, and the ugly, you can still maintain some politico aficionado dignity. So, yeah I’m mostly anti-consumerism and anti-corporate, but I must say I have an affinity for the GOOD Christmas specials, films, songs, decorations, traditions, etc. that make Christmas Christmas, that is the commercialized Chri$tmas, not that guy’s birthday, whoever he was… So, like everything else in life, I have mastered the task of weeding out the bad and especially the ugly and preserving the good ( a must see Christmas list will appear as a future post). To wrap up (no pun intended lol) this little, somewhat aimless, rant, I’d like to mention that a major beef of mine about Christmas is the way it’s pushed on consumers sooo early. I for one, do not begin my Christmas splurge until the day after Thanksgiving, in which Christmas With Johnny Cash rocks into heavy rotation until the Twenty-Fifth of December. Anything before this is wayyyy too early. Satan’s little helpers market Christmas the day after Halloween, if not before then. Thanksgiving is merely a break between the jamming of Christmas down your throat, squirting out red and green blood under the mistletoe.

Chris

Art, Entertainment, Music

Jay Pixies H & E

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Hey, it’s No Age!

Well, in a rare instance, this post is mostly reserved for the opening band, Jay Reatard.

Hopes: Jay plays all of my favorites, plays for an hour, and his new crew sounds infinitely better than his last band, whom were entertaining and talented in their own right. And for the Pixies, I hope they put on the best show I’ve ever seen and play all my non-Doolittle, favorites.

Expectations: Jay and gang have better chops than his previous band mates, but aren’t as amazing as I suggest above. Seeing them live will be fun, but not the same experience as the previous show at Harpers Ferry, because we will be seated and what not. He will play a good amount of my favorites. The Pixies’ performance will be top notch and the show will enter my top 5 or at least top 10. They will play at least a few of my non-Doolittle favorites.

Chris

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

Classic CD Review: Safe As Milk

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Band: Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Label: Buddah Records
Release: 1967

1. “Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do” – B+
2. “Zig Zag Wanderer” – B+
3. “Call On Me” – B+
4. “Dropout Boogie” – A-
5. “I’m Glad” – A-
6. “Electricity” – B
7. “Yellow Brick Road” – B+
8. “Abba Zaba” – B
9. “Plastic Factory” – A
10. “Where There’s A Woman” – B
11. “Grown So Ugly” – B+
12. “Autumn’s Child” – B+

Comments: This is a very encouraging album for me. It’s an exciting listen (as is most music from the 1960s), although I won’t go as far as to designate it as one of the best “classics” that I’ve heard. I wouldn’t say a lot of modern day garage/punk/psychedelic bands are necessarily derivative of Captain Beefheart, but influenced for sure. The best way I can describe this record is: saner than Bloodshot Bill. I guess my own real gripe is that most of these songs feel too archaic; this may be where the delta blues references are validated. My comments may be a bit skewed: most of the bands that I love play music that has several grand-daddies in a plethora of genres and styles. These guys, on the other-hand, could only draw upon a few primitive fathers such as the blues and early rock. I can’t wait to hear Trout Mask Replica, their magnum opus.

Grade: B+

Drugs, News, Politics

Cigarette Bureaucracy

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Promo Magazine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning more than a dozen online cigarette sellers that they may be in violation of the new regulations against selling most types of flavored cigarettes to U.S. citizens and have 15 days to prove that they have stopped those sales or risk government action.

A ban on the U.S. sale of cigarettes flavored with anything other than menthol went into effect on Sept. 22 as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

That law, enacted in June, gives the FDA power to regulate the content of tobacco products, along with the marketing and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, and the impact of ads for those products on young people. The new law also lets the FDA limit the amount of nicotine in products and block labels such as “light” and “low tar” that appear to offer “healthier” cigarettes.

So some of us like BBT absolutely hate large scale cigarette smoke in places that clearly say don’t smoke, but we respect smokers’ freedom to light up.

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Getting Ready 4 Friday

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Complete B-Sides
1. “River Euphrates” – Let’s ride the tire down! – Great bass-line and great explosions from Black.
2. “Vamos (Live)” – Spanish – Clingy acoustic guitar; lots of regular guitar effects.
3. “In Heaven” – Screaming – Easy on the vocals, Black! Good God!
*4. “Manta Ray” – The Build-Up! – Rock me, Joey!
*5. “Weird At My School” – Cone of Light Intro! – The bass line is just like in “Bad Kids”! Yee kid.
*6. “Dancing the Manta Ray” – Day-ants the Man-ta Ray! – Funny and awesome how Black slows/lisps his vocals.
*7. “Wave of  Mutilation (UK Surf)” – Way-hey-hey-ave – Extremely chill version? I guess!
*8. “Into The White” – Kim sings!- Excellent bridge. The repetition may be excessive.
*9. “Bailey’s Walk” – It’s cra-hey-hey-zee!” – As some guy said…I see where Cobain got his vocals.
10. “Make Believe” – David Lovering sings! – DL does his best Morrissey, intentionally or not.
11. “I’ve Been Waiting For You” – Such a long time – A little forgettable, but it’s actually pretty good?!
12. “The Thing” – Narrative Great Salt Lake – I dig the  direction of this song.
13. “Velvety Instrumental Version” – Good rhythm; would have been interesting with vocals.
14. “Winterlong” – You seemed to be where I belong – Okay, but weak on the vocals.
15. “Santo” –  Hey ya boy, how ya doin? – Nice and heavy with quirky vocals.
16. “Theme From Narc” – Videogame theme – Just kind of there…
17. “Build High” – Megaphone chants – I like the continuous command; kind of country-rock
18. “Evil Hearted You” – Spanish – Espanol invasion!!!
19. “A Letter In Memphis” – The riffs are all there!

Come On Pilgrim
*3. Isla De Encanta – May-oit May-oit May-oit – Frenetic and crazy!
*6. Nimrod’s Son – You are the son of a mother fucker! – Decent flow.

Yes, yes, they’ve been playing a few other tracks like “Gigantic” and “Where Is My Mind?” but those are instantly memorable.

GREEN = GREAT, LIGHT GREEN = GOOD, YELLOW = AVERAGE

Boston based shows/fests – DIY, punk, noise