Lskjfwerlkjsadfoiuw! (Again)

After such an intense couple weeks of posting, I had to take a break and gather myself. Apparently I’ve been gathered, because here’s another post. Hooray. And as is my M.O. after a some PTO, this is probably gonna end up long and random.

It’s summer in Georgia. Flamboyantly so. If the seasons were contestants from reality shows, this summer would be a like the gay little man who won Project Runway: fierce. On a straighter note, it’s hot as ding (ding is a fun little word that you can toss in anywhere: “Hot has ding”; “Smells like ding”; “Looks like ding”) here, with temps in the mid to upper 90’s the past several days and humid. My glasses fog up every time I leave the house/car/office. It’s the best. I can’t wait to head out west this July and spend 10 days in the mountains where humidity is as foreign as common sense in Congress. (Seriously, click on the 'Congress' link. And people expect these jokers to manage a health care system?!)

When I was but a youth, there was an ongoing struggle in my home between the forces of good and evil. Okay, not really, but there was a struggle over the television. My mother wasn’t a fan and my dad was (I take after dad here); during these years, sometimes the TV would end up on sabbatical in the attic for a few weeks. Anyhow, during one such break when I was 10 or so dad started reading these books to Nathan and I – the Shannara books by Terry Brooks. These aren’t little kid books either. But we loved them. We’d lay on the floor and listen as dad read for a couple hours at a time, until we fell asleep, and then we’d resume the next night. We ended going through the original trilogy in this manner – 1191 pages.
So real were the characters and so attached I became to them that I remember actually crying twice: once in the first book when Hendel died after he and Menion Leah had thwarted a secret attack at Tyrsis; the other was Helt sacrificing himself in the gear house to keep the gate shut.

Two weeks ago I finished the trilogy again. Dad sent the 25^th anniversary edition to us boys. Excellent, excellent, excellent books – the classic battle of good versus evil, right versus wrong. Some people would say those battles don’t exist anymore. I just think the darkness is better disguised. Regardless, I commend these to anyone who is looking for a good read. Though don't tell my wife you're reading them because you'll be labeled "nerd".

I went through and organized my CD’s recently. I seem to do this once a year because what happens is Paula and I get our music mixed up and pretty soon all I have in my case is Michael Buble (pronounced ‘Bubble”), some hip-hop junk and Jim Brickman. Anyway, while sorting I came across a bunch of compilations that took me back; I’ve grouped them by timeline – not so much when the CD was purchased or made, but rather the memories they create invoke. The titles are profound and deep with meaning - I'm not sure if I can decipher them, but here are some highlights (featured songs from actual CD):
High School 1994-1998: (Volumes 1-3). Spacehog, Nirvana, Better than Ezra, Seven Mary Three, Third Eye Blind, Reel Big Fish, Dogs Eye View, and even one Backstreet boys song. All the good stuff (and stupid stuff) that was popular during those formidable years. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about high school anymore, but these tracks bring it all back – the best 6 years of my life.

Fall 2002: Ltrain’s PV 58 Mix. Lifehouse, Fuel, lots of 3 Doors Down and even some rap (shout out to T-boz w/ Welcome 2 ATL-Remix (edit)). This semester I bought a computer with a CD burner, so I did a lot of ripping and catching up on stuff I’d missed from 99-01. It was the Nerf and my first time together after 28 months of separation and meeting Zach. Good times.

I’m Angry. Linkin Park, Disturbed, Papa Roach, Puddle of Mud and such. For those times when things weren’t panning out right – or when we were going snowboarding. Nerf, Cackifer, Slam and I each had a copy. I think the Nerf’s was titled “Girls are Gay”. But we weren’t bitter.

TFTL. What is this acronym? In the interest of absolute candor, I abashedly admit “Tunes for the Ladies”. This was a little something called mood music, my friends. As you laugh, I remind you the Buck had a bench seat, which means no pesky center console, so…yeah.

Memorial Day AZ Campout 2004. Somehow a CD that starts with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, ends with REM and has Saliva, Hoobastank, Lit, Travis, and Mest stands the test of time (all four years). I made this little mix while spending a summer making just enough money to pay for gas but having the most fun I’ve ever had in four months. Ironically, I chased a girl down there and spent exactly 0 seconds of face time w/her. Should have broke out TFTL, I guess.

This little poem is to the rhythm of "Jack and Jill":

Lydia climbed up the stairs,
Mom and Dad, they were so proud.
When Lydia fell down the stairs,
Mom, she screamed; Dad, he cursed; both felt awful for the rest of the day and Lydia never had to cry for anything the rest of the day because she was super-indulged the rest of the day to ease the parental guilt.

I guess that last line doesn't rhyme. 14 stairs. Apparently she can get her cute, chubby little fingers in the crack of a door, open it up and zip on through; I was working, Paula was getting a recipe off the net and there it was. But she's super tough (kids seem to be) and after a 4-oz bottle, she was smiling and crawling again.
Gates have now been firmly established in the Roberts household.

More than what? A feeling...

I looked out this morning and the sun was gone - especially since switching from EST to EDT here in the ATL. This Monday was an exceptionally sunless morning as Lydia let out some cries around 4:40, 20 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, so I hopped in the shower to start my day.

I've given up listening to FM radio here in Atlanta ever since 99x disappeared to make room for Q100. Even before then, my listening to the FM dial in the morning had become a thing of the past after one of the popular morning shows had their token gay/lesbian personality talking about her amazing date that ended at 4am. Thanks, but no...

Well, this morning I was listening to the news for my traffic reports and wasn't too impressed; same story different day and who needs that on a Monday? Fortunately, I’d grabbed my cd's from Paula's car on Saturday and rifled through them and put one in. A smile found its way onto my lips and I lost myself in a familiar song, I closed my eyes and I slipped away.

If I’ve paraphrased Papa Burgundy once, I’ve paraphrased him a million times – if you don’t think this classic rock song is the greatest classic rock song ever, will fight you. That’s no lie. Why is it the greatest ever? So many songs have come and gone, the notes they fade as the years go by; yet still I recalled as I drove on, as clear as the sun in the summer sky…

In a tribute to this song that has set my day off on a good note, in spite of a pre-5AM awakening, I give you - performed by Sacred Heart’s very own air band, Cool Cats, (Turk on vocals, Ted on lead guitar, Delivery Guy on drums, Janitor on bass) in one of the greatest renditions ever – More Than A Feeling.

Se délecter.

Scrubs : Les Perroquets Sauvages : The End
Uploaded by Pylou59

Lyrics | More Than A Feeling lyrics

Stuff

I just noticed that it’s been over two weeks since I last posted. The weird thing isn’t the lack of posting – it’s that somehow the world continues to spin in spite of this. Is it possible that I’m not as influential as I think I am? Hmmm….

Since the world’s spinning, that mean time marches on and stuff’s happening. Since 90% of you who read me read Paula, you know we’ve purchased a house. Yep, I’ve just accrued a bunch of debt. And honestly, I don’t even care. Sure, I’ll probably care when something breaks and I can’t call maintenance (not that it’s done much in our apartment) but right now I’m just excited. It’s a pretty sweet house and I spent most of my day there Saturday prepping everything for paint, changing locks, killing fire ants and ripping out a nasty linoleum kitchen floor. I did some serious sweating, grunting and a little bleeding – so yeah, a good day. I’m starting to come in early for work so I can leave early and spend the evenings getting the place ready. It’s a wild ride, but exciting.

Lydia’s awesome. Still. She’s a big hit at church and other places, so that’s cool. I mean, I’m a big fan, but am also admittedly biased; having other people affirm my prideful ambitions is nice. But seriously, she’s a great kid. I’m sure it would be helpful if I posted some pictures. I’ll do that later.

What else….oh, upcoming events. Tomorrow I’m going to a Smashing Pumpkins concert. That’s right. Wild, eh? Well, my coworker and friend Jeff had a ticket and his wife doesn’t like the Pumpkins so I’m going for free. I’m not a huge fan, but it’s free and I know a couple songs from back in the day, so what the heck. I’m pretty convinced there are going to be a ton of crazies there, dressed in black and stuff. I’ll try to get some pics. You can all look forward to that.

Thursday night/Friday morning Grandma and Grandpa Roberts are flying into town to visit their granddaughter. That should be a lot of fun – I’m excited for them to see her and her them. From what I’ve heard, Grandpa can be quite the baby-monopolizer. Luckily there are only two of them or it could come to blows. That wouldn’t be good. But seriously, I don’t know what we’re going to do while they’re in town, but it will be nice to see them. Sometimes living a couple thousand miles away from your parents really stinks.

I’ve just re-read this post. It isn’t really that clever or informative. But it fills the space. Here’s a song from Finger Eleven. It’s called Paralyzer.

My Top 10...

As eluded to in the last post, here is my Top Ten Songs During My High School Years (Fall of 94 to Spring 98). This wasn’t easy. At first I had 10 and was pretty confident in them; then another would come to my mind and I had a list of 12…then 13…then 14. I've designated a couple of back ups I elaborated on, then some honorable mentions. I did a little research to try to find out how these songs did nationally and have editorialized a bit on each song. (BT 100: Billboard Top 100; MR: Modern Rock 50)
My criteria for the ranking consisted three parts: Enjoyment level then; Enjoyment level now; Sentimental value. For those who experienced the music of this period, feel free to give me your Top Ten or tell me how I’m wrong. (I won’t be wrong, but whatever the delusions of your mind want to think. Ha ha ha.)

10b. Santa Monica – Everclear (#5 MR, 1996)
Let’s be honest: can anyone name another song from Everclear’s first album? Not me. But this song I know. There were a couple more songs that were big before I graduated, but none really stuck out more than this one. Probably because all the songs Everclear does sound pretty much the same, so the first will always be the best.

10a. Good Riddance – Green Day (#2 MR, 1998)
Why not anything from the groups first album? It came out prior to my entering the ranks of high school, that’s why. But this song – way overplayed but equal to the task – was a great acoustic number by the alternative rock group. Since this time I have grown increasingly disenchanted with the group (political views at opposite poles) but this was a great song.

10. Name – Goo Goo Dolls (#1 MR, 1995; #5 BT 100, 1996)
This track comes from the debut album called “A Boy Named Goo” and was one of the earlier CD’s I owned; it is one you could stick in the player and not skip one song…well, maybe just one song. Anyway, this song and album kicked off the Goo Goo Dolls. Some might argue Iris is better than name…but they’d be wrong. (Do I need to elaborate more? It loses points for being on the City of Angels soundtrack; that movie was stupid. Aside from the fallen angel thing, how could Meg Ryan not hear a big diesel truck coming towards her on a quite country road?)

9. What I Got – Sublime (#1 MR, 1996)
The radio edit, of course, but there’s just something catchy about this tune. ‘Got to find a reason, reason things went wrong; got to find a reason why my money’s all gone.’ Considering the lead sing died from a heroin overdose, I think we all could answer that question. The bitter irony is that he died before the album was released. Lesson: Just Say No.

8. One Headlight – Wallflowers (#1 MR, 1997)
This was a great song and came from a double-platinum album. One Headlight, 6th Avenue Heartache, The Difference and Three Marlenas all were from “Bringing Down the Horse” and all made appearances on the Billboard Top 100. But One Headlight was the only one I knew all the words to.

7. Better Man – Pearl Jam (#2 MR, 1995)
This one barely makes the cut, not because of quality but because of timing. The album was released in December of 1994, the midpoint of my freshman year of high school. I don’t own any Pearl Jam and I highly doubt I could listen to an entire album over and over, but this song is a definite Top Ten.

6. Lightning Crashes – Live (#1 MR, 1995)
The olive green jacket and the oddly drawn minister walking along while people scoffed at him…it was a unique album cover. Of the several songs on ‘Throwing Copper’, this song was my favorite and is still as good today as it was then. And we can only be thankful these guys cut their hair. When I saw them perform with Chris Daughtrey from American Idol, all I could do was draw an Austin Powers correlation: Live and Mini-live.

5. Undone (Sweater Song) – Weezer (#57 BT 100, 1994; #6 MR)
The line is blurred here; this hit the shelves during the lame duck period between 8th and 9th grade. But, since this is my list, I’m allowing it. I don’t know of anything preceding Weezer that sounded remotely like Weezer. And this song was weird and cool all at the same time: the talking at the beginning, the mellow lyrics, the 80’s guitar riff in the middle, the singing in a round. Totally unique sound; and afterwards if anyone mentioned the word ‘sweater’ some clown tried to tie it into this song. (I may have been that clown once or twice.)

4. Good – Better Than Ezra (#30 BT 100, 1995; #1 MR)
From the album Deluxe, the one with a purple curtain and some gold hands, comes this classic alternative track. It was one of those where it was hard to figure out exactly what was being said, (is it Waha, Uhu, Walk-on, or Aha) so you had to listen to it a lot to figure it out. “Maybe I’ll call or write you a letter, maybe we’ll speak on the 4th of July…” One has to ask why the 4th? Why not Christmas or Thanksgiving? I’m not too sure and I’m not to proud to say…I don’t know. (It’s ‘Aha’, bytheway)

3. Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Deep Blue Something (#5 BT 100, 1996; MR #30)
A one-hit wonder, who doesn’t remember trying to figure out the line in the chorus: “She said I think I remember the film and as I recall…” before seeing the lyrics on that show VH1 had where the lyrics scrolled across the bottom of the page. I remember where I was when I first heard this song: taking a shower before school. For the next couple of weeks I had a blank tape in the player waiting for the song to come on again so I could record it. 93.3 FM out of Billings, MT.

2. Semi-charmed Life – Third Eye Blind (#4 BT 100, 1997; #1 MR)
From the self-titled album, this little tune was prelude to one of those CD’s you could just pop in and enjoy the whole thing. Though the follow-up album “Blue” was okay, they haven’t been able to even touch the original. And there were two jackets: a green and a red; in the jacket the words to this song were in a square-spiraling pattern. This is one of the rare songs where the radio edit cripples the original; remember, you couldn’t hear the ‘and when the plane came in she said she was crashin’…One; and you hold me, and I’m broken’.

1. Push – Matchbox 20 (#1 MR, 1997)
Who can argue with this pick? Obviously America did because this song didn’t even rank on the BT 100. Ridiculous. Great song, great album, great sound. I’m cool with Rob Thomas and the solo effort; still, I miss the alternative, guitar and drums sound of the band as opposed to the pop thing. Released in 1996, the album spun off chart toppers through 1999 (Back 2 Good, #24 BT 100); it went platinum 10 times by 2000. It still lives in my CD collection. And even though Push is the classic track, it barely edges out track 12, ‘Hang’, an awesome song that got too little PT; it’s better than 3am, Real World, Long Day and Back 2 Good (these all landed on top charts).

Honorable mention (in no particular order): Hootie and the Blowfish (anything from Cracked Rear View); Alanis Morisette (Ironic); Offspring (Self-Esteem); Dishwalla (Counting Blue Cars) Will Smith (Getting’ Jiggy); Coolio (Gangsta’s Paradise); Sugar Ray (Fly); Tonic (If You Could Only See).

One Headlight

A caveat or two:
First, I don't really care for Bruce Springsteen or his political views. Not even a little; the Boss and I are on totally opposite ends of the spectrum in regards to our moral, ethical and political viewpoints.
Second, I don't really like seeing songs I like performed live; there's something about seeing some musicians sing that makes me want to hurl or drop the curtain so they stop embarressing themselves. It can be ridiculous and ludicrous.
Thus being said, this video I pulled from YouTube.com features the Boss and The Wallflowers performing at the VMA's in the late 90's. This song makes my "Top Ten Songs That Came Out When I Was In High School" list...I'll have to create a post with that info...and I think it sounds really good live. And I'll give Bruce this - he played a sweet guitar solo in this song.

Pandora

Okay, I'm going to give some mad props to one Melissa Cashman for the email she sent concerning Pandora. This, as your friend and mine Napoleon would say, is a "flippin' sweet" website for folks who are looking for some good tunes for free. I'll explain why I love this thing:
As of late I've had this attack of conscience in regards to pirating music online. I used to do a little bit of it, justifying my actions because of my meager circumstances. Now that I'm doing a little better financially (I'm not rich, just not a starving college student anymore) I've been avoiding that stuff. It would have been more noble if I'd of avoided it in my meager circumstance, but I digress.
Working where I do, there are stretches of time spent on the computer and I can listen to music. I tried VH1 radio and a Q100, but I get tired of the exact same music. But now with Pandora, I can listen to music...I'll let Melissa explain it.

"i know there a lot of music buffs out there and this is a fun way to listen to music at work and be introduced to other types of music. you type in an artist or song that you like, and they'll play music that has similar characteristics by other artists. for example, if you type in "jack johnson"-you'll get songs from jack, dave matthews band, ben harper,etc. it's fun-check it out!!"

So there you go. Check it out. One of the coolest things is that if you like the song, you can buy it from iTunes. It's a great way to preview music and then buy what you like! Sweet!

Remembering "I'm Angry"

"So here I go again on my own"....that song just came to me. I can't remember who it's by. I want to say White Snake. But I'm not convinced.
When I was in college my roommates and I made a cd. It pretty much rocked. We all called it different things; I called it "I'm angry", my brother called it "Girls are Gay" and I don't remember what Arch and Zach called theirs. The lead-off track was the Adam Sandler's little bit from "The Wedding Singer" when he sings that song for Drew Barrymore about his ex, Lisa? Anyway it had some other sweet tracks: "Down with the Sickness" "1 step closer" "Crawling" "She Hates Me" and some more songs (Metalica, AC/DC, Rage) that aren't coming to me right now.
It was basically a flippin' sweet (N.D. shout out) cd and we'd listen to it whenever we went snowboarding or just got the shaft from some xy. But now it's gone. I don't know what happened to it. I tried to make a replacement but it just didn't have the flippin' sweetness to it the original had. I miss it sometimes, like when my BYU Cougars lose; when traffic in the ATL is, never mind, it always is awful; when I lose in the Turkey Bowl over Thanksgiving. Those times.
So, in tribute to that CD I'm posting the lyrics - edited - to that angry Adam Sandler song. Enjoy.

Spoken: Ok, I just want to warn you that when I wrote this song I was listening to the Cure a lot.

Sung: You don't know how much I need you.

While you're around I don't feel blue.

And when we kiss I know that you need me too.

I can't believe I found a love that's so pure and true.

But it all was bologne

It was a goshdarn joke.

And when I think of you and I,

I hope you really choke.

I hope you're glad with what you've done to me.

I lay in bed all day long feeling melancholy.

You left me here all alone, tears running constantly.

Oh somebody kill me please,

somebody kill me plee-ase,

I'm on my knees, pretty pretty please kill me.

I want to die. Put a bullet in my head.