Things I Am Looking Forward To In 2005

1. More great music. Thanks to my pipeline of music info Derek & Rachel I am assured that I will find a bunch more bands I like, just from Oct. on I have discovered The Delgados, The Arcade Fire and Earlimart just a couple of bands I really enjoy. Looking forward to discovering more great acts and seeing more live acts.

2. Europe, so far Bush hasn't unduly pissed off the Europeans so it should be great.. now if the dollar was in better shape, but what the hell.. it's going to be an experience. Different people, different experiences. Want to make this a more regular vacation. It still doesn't seem real.

3. Better Job. Here's to much fewer occasions of running around like my hair's on fire or being drilled into the ground with long (unpaid) hours. We are still getting into the swing of things, but I think it's going to be a good position.

4. Better, Fuller Life. Finally coming out of living dead status I held for about 10 years, no more of sitting around doing nothing or next to it. Time to get out and experience life much more. Granted I'm still fairly conservative so won't be growing a handlebar moustache and hanging out at the Manhole in West. Hollywood on leather chaps night, but be getting out a lot more and that's progress.

Well.. it's late so that's good for now.. more later

Things I Could Do Without For 2005

Well I feel compelled to come up with some lists since it's the end of the year and that's what you are supposed to show and I am going to be a blog sheep... so
Things I Could Do Without For 2005.. not in any particular order.

1. Any mention of Kobe Bryant v. Shaq, Kobe v. Eagle, Colorado, Kobe v. Anyone outside of a game situation. Dude, keep your magic johnson out of the white girls, your foot out of your mouth and your head out of your ass and just hoop it up.

2. Any mention of Scott Peterson... unfortunately they can't kill the asshole in the next couple of days so we are stuck hearing about him in '05

3. Partisan politics, I hate election years... The other candidate wants to: raise taxes/cut funding, kill the world/sell out the country to terrorists, destroy the line between church and state/turn us into Godless heathens... oh and they have an illegal immigrant working for them, they have shady finances and molest farm animals

4. The FCC's Holy Crusade... Let's make the country safe for the Moral Majority again.. I'm looking forward to 1 Minute feed delays and Seventh Heaven Marathons. Hey guys look... you can't censor me here... Fuck you, you nipple-induced panicking, overreacting, inconsistent, Bush-lapdog cocksuckers

5. Further decline in Airline industry standards... Oh so you need a last minute flight somewhere.. bend over and say ahhhhh. Only industry that actually raises prices the closer their product comes to expiring. And the government is bailing out these vampires? Sure sounds like they not acting in the public interest so I think Big Govt. should step in.. not like we can take our bag of pretzels and go elsewhere. What are we going to do.. take Amtrak lol. We are the most powerful country in the world and we have a rail sytem that works worse than if it was conceived by a 12th Grade Honors Govt. class working with Railroad Tycoon and an airline industry being run like they wanted them to tank.

6. People's happiness being trampled on because it doesn't suit someone else's "values" Be it gay marriage, medical use of marijuana to ease pain, or about anything that involves sex.. here's the standard.. Are the people consenting adults? Yes. Does it hurt anyone else? No then go find real criminals rather than chasing down someone selling vibrators. And explain to me rationally how Same-sex marriages "hurt" the instutute of marriage.

Well that's enough for now..

Dad & Christmas Don't Mix

So, I called up my Dad to check on a present I was thinking about for my Step Mom, Kim.

Me: Hey, does Kim have Rod Stewart's third standards album, I know she has the other two.

Dad: I don't think so, let me check.. (away from phone) Do you have the third Rod Stewart album.... (back to me) No, she doesn't

Me: Did you just ask Kim?

Dad: Yes

Me: What the hell did you do that for, you aren't supposed to ask her!

Dad: (chuckling) Well, if you weren't sure, what if you gave it to her and she had it already. Oh, get it anyways.. I'll give it to her from the animals

Me: Jesus, she could have returned it, at least it would have been a surprise.. (Dad chcukles some more) I ought to kick you in the ass, hell with the animals I need something extra to give her....


I love Dad, but if you want to keep the Holidays and in general any special event going smoothly, just tell him exactly what you need then let him off the hook for the rest of it. That's why I generally come down and help my Step Mom for our family get togethers.

Though we are alike in some ways we are so different in others, this is one of those times where he's travelling one direction and I'm going the other way in thouht process. We get along great, we give each other hell all the time but it's all in good fun.

If... Dec 19th

Some more questions to answer, ignore.. whatever.

1. If you were to be paid to write a new book on any subject you wished, what would it be about
Either: The failures of The German Military preparation in World War 2 or The history of the Adult Movie industry in Southern California... don't even try to analyze that as something more than it is.

2. If you could have one person from history work for you as your personal assistant, who would it be?
Thomas Jefferson (one of many of hundreds of possibilities)

3. If you could arrange a jam session with any 3 musicians in history, who would you include?
Charlie Parker, Jaco Pastorius & Thelonius Monk

4. If you could sing any one song beautifully and perfectly, which one would you pick?
Bridge Over Troubled Water

5. If you were going to turn to crime to support yourself from now on, what kind of criminal would you become
Run a bordello (I guess I wouldn't be a criminal in certain parts of Nevada). This is about as victimless a crime I could think of. I suppose I could be in just as much trouble selling "adult" items in most of the South and upsetting a bunch of backwards crackers... that would be worthwhile.

Simple Pleasures in Life

I can be quite happy hanging out with my friends. In fact, to me it's one of the most worthwhile things you can do. These days it seems to be harder to do. As we get older, significant others, kids, houses and all the attendant activities that go with them makes available time shorter. This is why time with my friends is even more smportant now, no longer do I take it for granted that we can just get together whenever.

Most of my "old" friends are family to me. I may not see them for quite awhile but we know each other so well it's a small matter to catch up. It's never more true than in the case of my friend Jeff. I've been friends with Jeff since probably we were about 10, and he's been a de facto family member since early teens. We met up Sunday and shot the breeze for a while and it was great to be able to relate stories from years ago and he could either remember them, fill in the gaps or correct me. Hell he could even remember the names my Grandfather called my Mom's boyfriend 20 years ago... that's when you know they are indellibly part of your life LOL. My friend's John, Jennifer & Danny are like that in our times together as well, we have so many memories of times together, we can piece together all these little bits of stories.

Enjoy time with your friends all you good people out there, keep the stories alive and make new one's to reminisce over when you are 75.

Holiday

One of the best way I get into holiday spirit is with Christmas music (unless you work retail and have the same tape looping endlessley). What music says holidays to me?

Johnny Mathis - As far as I know, he doesn't sing anything but Christmas tunes and a damn fine job he does at that.

Burl Ives - He even did voice over for classic CHristmas shows and he just always reminded me of Santa Claus as a kid.

Mitch Miller - Cheesy as all get out, but I love it for nostalgia reasons. Sing Along With Mitch takes me back to when I was 5 years old, all the family was together and I was putting out cookies for Santa.

Big Crosby - Anything is great, but Do You Hear What I Hear is amazing

Nat King Cole - No one does The Christmas Song any better.. his signature holiday song

Those are some of my standards. Not sure why, but there does not seem to be many new holiday songs that seem to stick. Besides Do They Know it's Christmas? and Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, I can't think of any original "Christmas" songs from last 20 odd years that gets a fair amout of airplay. And let's face it.. those are both gimmick songs.

U2's version of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) is great, as is Travis' version of River. Barenaked Ladies' Xmas Time I enjoy as well. Feel free to add in some other recommended songs of a more modern tilt

If you are looking for funny Christmas tunes, then look no further than Christmas Time For My Penis by the Vandals, Santa's Coming by Hoobastank or Twas the Night Before Christmas with Snoop Dog & Nate Dog. There are many others but those are the best of the irreverent, Non-kid friendly songs

Well, that's it for now... I will add in some stuff before Christmas.. till then

If.... Play along at home

Ok.. in the spirit of community involvement, feel free to comment and add your own responses. These questions come from The Big Book of If, they have some interesting one's. I think I might throw in some random one's now and then in the future. Here we go..

1. If you could make a sequel to any movie you have ever seen, which one would it be:
A Godfather sequel that would have taken place during the 30's with DeNiro as a middle aged Don Corleone, focusing on his rise to power.

2. If you were to be cremated, where would you want your ashes scattered:
The flippant answer: Charlize Theron's bed.. then I could say I got my ashes hauled by her. Seriously, I would say the mountains, nice and peaceful

3. If you won a lottery, what is the first thing you would do:
Give 2 weeks notice.. easy answer

4. If you could become famous for doing something that you don't currently do, what would it be:
Sing, rockstars have quite the life and hell you can look like Keit Richards and still have groupies

That's all for tonight.. adieu

Music For Me

I've always enjoyed music. It's always accompanied me through life, and whenever I hear a song I am familiar with I instantly associate it with something in my life. But what I have missed out on up to very recently, is looking beyond the usual radio play list for music.

My musical tastes have varied widely: I've focused on Heavy Metal, Alternative, Top 40 Pop, New Age and world music. Alternative has been my mainstay. Listening to KROQ during the 80's and 90's I never felt I was missing out on much, they played songs I loved, and most of my friends had the same mindset on music. Then came the increase in programming and the musical tastes changed to crap I didn't care for, so I was stuck with old music, sicne I didn't find much new I liked. I stayed stuck in that rut until I came back to an old favorite, REM and expanded my interest in them.

This led me to Murmurs and to a whole hell of a lot of people who actively sought out interesting new bands. As my involvement with the fan community grew, my interest in new music grew. Derek recommended some bands to check out and some were good, then I met Rachel who has a huge music library and she gave me even more great examples. Now, I have so many choices it is overwhelming! (...Speaking of being overwhelmed, Gerald, apparently part Korean, part Eskimo has cranked the heater up again, I am just wearing shorts and I am damn near sweating... not to mention I have 3 times erased 400 instances of "e" that have scrolled across my screen as I dozed hitting it)

The new music choices are a saviour. I now have so many other sounds I can turn to that suits my mood. Living by LA, there are a ton of these same bands I can go enjoy first hand too. Music has definitely taken over as my #1 interest and hobby. This is all the better since music can bring such a visceral response that I can continue to enjoy over and over. As I step out and live life more fully, seeking new music has become a welcome addition and companion to my life now, which although not complete, is a lot fuller.

Anime... someone stop the insanity

I have watched some anime.. and I have to admit there has been some good stuff, quality animation and interesting story. The majority, however, is complete shit. I have never seen a format so obsessed with the same damn themes.

Some powerful alien/ancient being/Pissed off Earth Mother/Giant robot etc is threatening to thump the populace and their lives are in the hands of some adolescents. Of course they overcome their obstacles and save the day. Now if it was real life...Congratulations Neo Tokyo.. you are fucked. I guess that they market most of these shows to adolescents so that explains many of the protagonists Teens, but it's way too overboard. Anyone else out there feel that giving a 15 year old the power of the stars is a really bad idea. They have enough trouble handling a car. You remember how much drama teen years were... I'm waiting to see the anime where the main character gets dumped by their boyfriend/girlfriend and then blasts the living shit out of Hokkaido while screaming "You don't understand me" That would be more like it. Oh, and they seem to really be into girls as the main protagonist in school uniforms, which is not exactly a surpirse since it seems to be a national fetish.

The other thing that pisses me off about a lot of anime is the typically over the top voice acting and portrayal of the characters, it's just in much of the style, but I don't get it.. just like Mexican TV shows I guess. I would have to be drunk, have someone drop a nude playmate on my lap then take her away and then kill my dog to go through the extremes they have their characters go through in 5 minutes. Every other response is exaggerated and then let's not forget the 20 minute monologues they have regarding their relationship to the opponent while waiting for their enemy to perform the Purple Flying Dragon with a half twist kick

I could probably go on, for much longer.. For some decent one's Ghost in The Shell, and Cowboy Bebop are decent quality and don't follow the same conventions as slavishly. I don't consider Miyazaki's movies like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke to be anime, both movies, especially Spirited Away are very well crafted. Adieu for now

Holiday Road

This is going to be long winded... feel free to skip it, it's more of me rambling for me, but if you want to read or skim, feel free

I have to backtrack a bit to Thanksgiving weekend... what a weekend. Thanksgiving itself was good as usual, but I need to get down to business and talk about the weekend itself. The fact that REM added Albuquerque on a weekend was just too good to be true. I didn't have to miss a lot of work to see them & they were in the home town of Kelly & Donna Asher , two of the best people you could possible meet. So, when Rachel posed the question and I sized it up I was a go.. as was Josh. It wouldn't have been the same without Naomi who has been my REM concert companion for several shows, and while it took just a bit of talking her into it it was pretty damn easy. We decided on Road Trip and then we would crash at the Asher residence.

Sat. night in the rain we saddled up and headed off, not in a big hurry, which is funny since we had been champing at the bit for weeks to get moving. We drove for several hours with little incident. The weather was not the best so we didn't make Flagstaff as we planned we ended up at the Historic Route 66 Motel. It wasn't the best I've seen, but it wasn't the worst it was decent.

Naomi and I roomed together, we had shared a room in Atlanta last year and it went fine. She has the unique ability to sleep through most anything which is important since I snore like a jackhammer. This was evidenced by my waking up to hear Nai talking on the cell and I could hear Rachel laughing in the next room.... Apparently my snoring went right through the wall and Rach was asking Nai if she needed to come sleep in their room. Fortunately we all got to sleep after that... embarrassing.

The first night was primarily Josh driving with Me driving a bit at the end. Josh and Nai drove from the Motel to Albuquerque since we were hitting a lot of sleet and snow and they had more experience in that. Once we got to Albuquerque we visited a bit with Kelly, Donna and Heather another Murmurs denizen. We also had the pleasure of meeting Kathleen, Kelly & Donna's youngest daughter who you can tell is as sharp as her folks. On to the concert...

For those of you who are REM fans, there is nothing like seeing your favorite band live, and this was even better since Nai and I had 4th row tickets! Rachel & Josh were a couple rows back in the 2nd set I bought. The crowd at a concert really can make a difference, and fortunately this was a good crowd around us except for two ladies right in front. Nai is an ideal concert mate since she is always fired up and jumping up and down.. just helps to keep you going. The show was fantastic, the band was loose and sounded good as ever. Michael seemed to be in real good spirits, talking to the crowd more than in other shows I had seen. It was excellent to hear High Speed Train, since I hadn't heard that live.... what an amazing sound it had there. I can't adequately explain the concert anymore it's just a feeling.. marvelous.

After the show we partied at the Asher residence. I had a bit more than I should have... One of these days I need to figure out it's not the # of drinks you have it's the size. I mean 2 mixed drinks are usually not a big deal, but then again in the restaurant it's not mixed in a water glass.. duh. But I watered myself down enough to where I was ok.

2 and a half hours of sleep... awake.. Look outside.. it's snowing! It seemed to take us quite a long time to get out of Albuquerque, Josh was driving thankfully since the road sucked in the area. He drove to Winslow, AZ and I took over there. I drove from Winslow to Barstow, CA. The more I drove the more amped I was, I had forgotten how great a road trip was and being behind the wheel. Nai took over at Barstow and got us into Fullerton sometime after Midnight Tuesday morning.
Reflection
There is nothing better than going on a good long Road Trip with friends. Rachel I had just met in October at the Greek show. She is a burst of energy, full of confidence and has a great heart. She is someone that I felt like I had known for years, you can talk to her about anything and feel fine. I feed off of her confidence, that's' how strong it is. Josh I had met last year at Hollywood Bowl and while we kept in touch periodically I didn't see him much. Fortunately I have hung out with him more of late. The more you are around Josh the more you like him (as Rachel discovered) A very optimistic sort, who is fairly unperturbed by most anything and has a great sense of humor. Then there's Naomi (Nai) who I met a year and a half ago through Murmurs. As with the others, a great heart, a wonderful sense of humor and all around great woman. You couldn't ask for a better person to do spend time with and just enjoy the day. Oh and by the way, my road trip had more beautiful women than yours did and I don't care who you are lol.

As people are the greatest joy in my life, Music is the other now (something for later). Rachel brought her iPod and a fantastic selection of music. Musical moments:

-Nai constantly hoping for Let Me Entertain You by Robbie Williams.. and Rachel stopping searching to play another great song she loved (she has great taste in music)
-Josh reprising Oh What A World by Rufus Wainwright and getting me hooked on it.
-Bridge Over Troubled Water... Simon and Garfunkel were often present on trips to camping when I was a kid so it's not only a beautiful song, but a great memory
-Baby Got Back by Sir Mix A Lot... damned if it isn't fun to drive to.

I don't know what else to say, but when you get a chance to see a great band, party with excellent people and have a nice night of open road singing with your friends, it's pretty damned special.

Cheers

Fire For Effect

Well, I finally decided to join the rest of the world and start a blog. I don't have a clue what I will regularly post here, or how regular that will be. I don't plan on making it entirely self referential or deep thoughts..or What the hell... here it goes.

My Audience - I figure I am writing this for myself and for any of my online friends who want to keep up with me. My family, fortunately know nothing of blogs and message boards, I love them, but I like to keep them at a distance from certain parts of my life.

Myself - For those who don't know me as well, here we go...

Basic Bio:

Name: Steve
Age: 35
Residence: Pasadena, CA (1 roommate, Gerald)
Occupation: Marketing Specialist (I make maps and flyers for Commercial Real Estate Brokers)
School: Cal State Fullerton, B.A. in History '92
.... oh hell I am falling asleep, since Gerald has thermostat set to Arizona in July this will be truncated..

Misc: Single, never married. I have family in Florida, Montana, No. Cal and So. Cal. anything else you want to know.. drop me a line.. too damn tired for now, more to come later I am sure.


I believe.. Random Thoughts for Tonight:
Consenting adults can do whatever they want in privacy.

Homosexuals should be able to get same benefits as hetero couples do. The concept of marriage as a bond between two people who love each other seems to apply well to both sides. Marriage between only Man and Woman was fine and great when they needed to legally figure out who got the cattle in exchange for the wife and they needed to pump out kids To help farm and replace population lost through high mortality. Nowadays the hang up with it just doesn't make sense, unless of course you take the ever-popular religious point of view, which I don't.

In the right to take whatever means neccessary to protect my friends and family. Depending on the situation and the severity of the situation is how my respone varies.

American culture is still too obsessed with a puritanical view of the human body. CSI will show some pretty gnarly corpses that would give a lot of kids nightmares, but I have ever seen as many disclaimers as when they showed a bare breast of a victim on an examination table.

The FCC right now would have been at home during the hayday of the Meese Commission. I can understand setting boundaries... although I think the parents hold primary responsibility of monitoring kids viewing habits, certain programming shouldn't be on earlier in the evening. What gets me is trying to dump large fines on broadcasters for something that happened live and was not expected. Although I guess it is good to maybe clue in the networks that if you bring on trailer trash like Nicole Richey or some rappers you might be asking for problems.

.... Well, signing off for now, bought ready to go face first in the keyboard.. more coherent thoughts later