This month has probably been the most prolific month for me since I’ve started this blog. I’ve blasted out 20 posts (21 counting this one) and cleared out my mailbox three times. By my own low standards, that’s amazing. I think I deserve a vacation.
Items of note for you to note: Amanda Zelina makes a third appearance on these hallowed pages. This go ‘round, she has released an album of gritty blues under the name The Coppertone. It’s very much in the vein of the Dead Weather. I’ve liked everything I’ve heard from Amanda and this is no different.
When I opened the e-mail from These Guys and read all the typical raves, “These Guys are the second coming, blah, blah, blah,” I almost hit delete and just moved on. Instead, something made me click the link to watch the video for “Pete’s Sweet Sixteen.” It is just auto-tuned, cross-dressing hilarity: “You’re like a sister to us, bro.” I can’t let you miss out on this.
In a similar vein are the Deli Boys, whose indictment of Sex & the City culture is neatly wrapped up in “P.R. Girls.”
And if you’re tuning in for some regular ol’ rock ‘n’ roll, try Shellshag, The Enthusiasts, or Tomorrow’s Tulips. You know I ain’t gonna steer ya wrong.
This picture is of a car I actually saw a few days ago here in Miami. I only wish I could have seen it at night: It seems like a truly glorious holiday spectacle.
And so Christmas draws ever nearer. I watched “A Charlie Brown Christmas” the other night, so I suppose you could say my holidays are coming together nicely.
Once again, here are a few random, seasonally appropriate songs. Enjoy.
On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: Nine Ladies Dancing Eight Maids a Milking Seven Swans a Swimming Six Geese a Laying Five Golden Rings Four Calling Birds Three French Hens Two Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree
I gotta try to inject some levity into the season. Everyone – including me – is all stressed about this holiday situation.
George Carlin, a comedy great, died yesterday of heart failure. He was 71.
Carlin, along with Cheech and Chong, was one of the first "counter-culture" comedians I ever heard. I was introduced to his comedy by a real life hippy who lived next door to my family when I was about 10 years old. I saw Carlin perform live a couple of times and he was always sharp, always insightful, and always made you think.
Here's George Carlin's classic "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television":
Enough dicking around. MediaMax is still sucking, so here’s what I’m going to do. I mentioned awhile back that I have a RapidShare account. The downside of that (for you) is if you don’t have an account, you have to wait something like 45 seconds to download, and you’re limited to how many downloads you can do. I didn’t want to hassle you with all that crap, but it’s sucking that I’m not able to post.
What I decided to do for now is go ahead and use RapidShare. I’ll put all posted songs in one zip file. You can download that, check the songs out, then do what you want with the ones you like. Personally, I usually like to listen to a little bit of a song before I download the whole thing, so I hope this method will work for the time being.
Moving on.
Like I started to say before I was so rudely interrupted, I want to sample a couple of tracks from the “Private Parts” soundtrack. “Private Parts,” for those who may not know, was the 1997 film based on Howard Stern’s 1993 autobiography of the same name. And if you’re not sure who Howard Stern is, I will refer you to his Wiki entry. You can also check out HowardStern.com to see the type of stuff that happens on his Sirius Satellite Radio show.
“Private Parts” premiered at the top of the box-office in its opening weekend with a gross of $14.6 million. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics, most notably from Siskel and Ebert, who were frequent guests of Stern's radio show. Some critics, however, claimed the film glossed over his use of sexual and racial humor.
For his performance, Stern won the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for “Favorite Male Newcomer.” He was also nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy.”
Radio's larger-than-life bad boy, and self-proclaimed “King of All Media,” Howard Stern exposes his “Private Parts” in this adaptation of his best-selling autobiography. Tracing his evolution from hopelessly geeky student to top-rated shock jock, the film not only chronicles his legendarily off-color on-air demeanor (Lesbian Dial-a-Date; frequent nude guests) and his continuous battles with management over content and co-hosts, but it also examines his unexpectedly touching and sincere relationship with his wife, Alison.
What I like about the soundtrack, in addition to the little skits between songs, is the mix of old and new contributions. Were this disk an LP, Side 1 would feature newer artists such as Marilyn Manson and a collaboration between LL Cool J and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, while Side 2 would be the classics Howard probably played back in his days at WCCC.
To give you the full effect, I’ve picked a fair range of things from this disk: The opening skit, “Pig Virus” features an anti-Stern rant by Paul Giamatti, in his role as Kenny Rushton, the WNBC program director. “The Great American Nightmare,” a collaboration between Rob Zombie and Stern, is the current opening theme for the radio show. The live ACDC song, I think, comes from a Stern appearance in New York, although I’m not certain about that.
Music: ~“Pig Virus” (skit) ~“The Great American Nightmare” Rob Zombie with Howard Stern ~“Hard Charger” Porno for Pyros ~“You Shook Me All Night Long (live)” AC/DC
This month has probably been the most prolific month for me since I’ve started this blog. I’ve blasted out 20 posts (21 counting this one) and cleared out my mailbox three times. By my own low standards, that’s amazing. I think I deserve a vacation. 
The Coppertone 
These Guys
The Deli Boys
