Desiree has refused to watch Return of the King for nearly a year now because she's convinced that she'll turn into a pile of blubbering tears at the end.* She says she gets antsy just thinking about the scene where Frodo and Gandalf sail off to the Undying Lands, never to be seen again.

She'd never let me film her--she has enough of an issue with crying just in front of me--so I must commend this woman for allowing her own Lord of the Rings meltdown to be recorded and posted for the whole world to see:



Wait...it looks like the end of the Star Wars trilogy makes her a bit weepy too:



And who doesn't dissolve in tears at the end of the...Back to Future trilogy???



Wow.

---
*Desiree also cries at the end of Smoke Signals, My Neighbor Totoro, Anne of Green Gables, and Spirited Away. I still maintain that we should just do a back-to-back viewing of all five movies one day as the ULTIMATE CATHARTIC EXPERIENCE. If she survives, she'll be set for life!

I've long loved the girl group era, so you can imagine my joy when I spotted a four-disc collection of "Girl Group Sounds" at the library the other day. Des and I have been listening to the goodness for the last few days and having a lot of fun with the music. And the lyrics! It's funny to hear Des make these random exclamations at the tales of betrayal, abuse, heartache, and general mind-fuckery that the girls sang about. You really can't ask for a balder portrait of patriarchy than in the lyrics of girl group songs.

The set, by the way, is from Rhino. If and when I find myself back in some money, I might have to splurge and get the set just for its sheer gimmicky opulence: it comes boxed in a hat box, the booklet is made to look like a diary, the CDs are housed in oversized makeup compacts, and the discs themselves look like powder puffs. Fantastic!

As the AMG review rightly points out, the set is strengthened by the fact that it skips the obvious songs, going for B-sides, rarities, and lesser-known hits. This is a big beef I have with oldies and classic rock-style radio programming: there's such a rich heritage of great music from the three decades you're picking your playlists, why go with the same 50 songs over and over?

To whit, here's a few selections of my personal favorites:

Hey, it's also been a while since I flooded your Friends page with a bunch of YouTube videos that you probably won't watch. I will not only be embedding videos, but linking to yet more! Here we go!

I posted this vid over on my Facebook too. Halloween is a great time to invoke Lightning Bolt--



--no! Not that kind of Lightning Bolt! This kind:



I love that pan at the end where you suddenly see somebody literally swinging from the rafters. Looks like quite the show.

###

From the life imitating art files, here are a couple videos of bands playing their effing hearts out despite what I think few would argue are less than rockin' surroundings.

First, we have seminal 80s doom pioneers Saint Vitus kicking ass at...the Palm Desert Community Center.



I love how the lead singer has this standoff about shilling for Cokes before grudgingly acquiescing.

It's all strangely reminiscent of when Spinal Tap winds up playing at an Air Force base.

Second, legendary Swedish hardcore punk band Refused playing...an Irish pub??? WTF!?



Playing their hearts out, tight as all hell, trying SO hard. And you've got these typical Saturday night bar-goers just...sitting there. Christ. I immediately thought of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Much like Hedwig, Refused wasn't long for the world thanks to bookings like that one. Just too damn depressing, I guess.

Thursday really threw me off. I've been trying to tap back into the groove I was in before all that rigamarole. How could I forget about this gem?



Sufficiently cranked up, The Barbarians make everything A-OK.

Most hardcore high school ever:

For tigerpillow:

"SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT'S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER. I USE TO USE IT TO BUILD UP MY ESTEEM WHEN NOBODY BELIEVED IN ME. NOW THAT PEOPLE DO BELIEVE AND SUPPORT MY MUSIC AND PRODUCTS THE BEST RESPONSE IS THANK YOU INSTEAD OF "I TOLD YOU SO!!!" IT'S COOL TO TALK SHIT WHEN YOU'RE RAPPING BUT NOT IN REAL LIFE. WHEN YOU MEET LITTLE WAYNE IN PERSON HE'S THE NICEST GUY FOR EXAMPLE. I JUST WANNA BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM. I NEED TO JUST GET PAST MYSELF. DROP THE BRAVADO AND JUST MAKE DOPE PRODUCT. EVERYTHING IS NOT THAT SERIOUS. AS LONG AS PEOPLE THINK I ACT LIKE A BITCH THIS TYPE OF SHIT WILL HAPPEN TO ME. I GOT A LONG ROAD AHEAD OF ME TO MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE I'M NOT ACTUALLY A HUGE DOUCHE BUT I'M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE. I'M SURE THE WRITERS AT SOUTH PARK ARE REALLY NICE PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE. THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO DRAW MY CREW. THAT WAS PRETTY FUNNY ALSO!! I'M SURE THERE'S GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN THIS... THAT'S HOW YOU KNOW IT'S ME!"

In reference to this:

I'll let a couple of the YouTube comments intro this clip:

They were so psychotic at this point. My favorite era.

...

Black Flag rumor control: Henry Rollins was on tons of acid during this time period, Kira was intensely creeped out of the band by savage man lust, Greg Ginn blew all the band and labels money on pounds & pounds of pot. Whaddya think? We all know this doesn't matter at all, its the music that counts. Still, I am curious.

..

I love the acid-era Flag. Greg called is "psychedelic violence."



Rollins' face at the beginning is just...insane. Another commenter said this was their first punk show. Good lord.

Man, I really want to run an urban horror game where the characters are 80s hardcore punk kids.

If you're not watching Tim & Eric...why the hell not??

Fun fact: composition of the song had stalled until Dr. Teeth came up with the bridge.

Fear was formed in Los Angeles by vocalist Lee Ving (whose past is shrouded in mystery, though he's rumored to be a Vietnam veteran)...and they found a devoted fan in comedian John Belushi, who talked Saturday Night Live into having the band on as a musical guest for the Halloween episode in 1981. Not a band to behave in a public forum, Fear invited a pack of skinhead slam-dancers on-stage for their performance, resulting in costly studio damage and a bit of on-mic profanity.

They don't make TV like this anymore, kids. Sit back and feel the love:


via videosift.com

Well, I've had two lovely ladies reminding me that I've been neglecting this corner of Bloglandia, so here I am updating. Let's fire up the Internet machine and see what's going on in the life of David...



(BTW, that picture is real but the caption is fake. More's the pity.)

Turns out not a whole lot's going on. I'm not even sure where the last couple weeks went. How is it almost the end of February already? Sheesh.

Aside from being proud of and supporting Des's academic pursuits, I've been updating a lot on my gaming blog lately, because that's mostly what's been going on with me. Which is both good and bad. It's good because, hell, them's good times. On the other hand, it's bad because it means I don't have much else, like things that pay me cash money, to take up my time.

It's going on three months since my last writing job wrapped up and I'm getting a skoche anxious about finding more. Looks like I'll be writing papers for high school and college students to plargiarize off of before long.

Actually, I've been working on my transcribing skills. After seeing Des get screwed over by her transcribers, I was inspired to get into transcribing to put skunks like the guys she hired out of business. Helps that the pay is good. I've done a couple practice transcriptions and this week I'll be doing my first paid assignment.

Ah, but enough of all this seriousness. I've got an adventure to work on for tomorrow night, and a novel to pound into a workable second draft. In the meantime, let's breakdance our cares away. Take it, Grandmaster Flash!



That actually just reminded me--I have this really vivid memory of my Mom tucking me in the night before I was set to start second grade and of me crying. Because I thought of second graders as "upper classmen" and assumed they all knew how to breakdance. And I didn't. ::sigh:: I never did learn to breakdance. Turned out it didn't really matter--no one else knew how either.

But hey! It's never to late to start, right? Teach me how to move and groove J.B.!



Ah, forget it...

A hard-hitting video on the realities of inner-city gang warfare in the 80s:



I can't believe this video only has 40,000 views! I'm getting the word out--c'mon folks, let's get this thing's view count up into the millions.

"We as a nation have to ask ourselves: what the hell is going on?"

Long-time readers may remember me talking about my Dad's past life as a painter of scenic drops for Bay Area rock concerts. Well, I semi-regularly peruse YouTube to see if I can find footage of those old concerts and sets, and today I came across a nice li'l gem.

There's a shot of my Dad's set at about a minute in, from a crowd's-eye view no less.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Free Bird" (July 4, 1977):



It was a Mount Rushmore set, seen in full here:



(Peter Frampton was also on the bill that day.)

(As an aside, good Lord--look at all those chicks! I guess that's what they call "pulling pussy," am I right ladies? Eh? Eh?)

Des and I were just having a conversation about how jarring it is to feel actual pride and optimism in our leader(s), how it's a moment of almost hysterical disbelief to watch America waking up (for the most part).

And I realized that one could draw a pretty close analogy between what's going on now in the American psyche and the ending of the (original) Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Check it out: America is Sally Hardesty, the previous administration is Leatherface & Co., the America of the last 8 years is the house she escapes from, the (conveniently black) big rig driver is Obama, and the F150 she jumps into is the America of the future. Her elated hysteria is how Des and I are feeling, blood and all.

Embedding has been disabled for the clip, but for those of you who don't mind a bit of scary imagery, check out the link and see if you don't agree with my thesis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT_HQht9X-M

ETA: Leatherface's dance of frustration at the very end is, of course, the frustrated minority who are now proclaiming "dark days ahead" for America.

Prop 8's been a bit of a turd on what should've been an otherwise cake of a day. Therefore, I propose to do some rawkin' out. Please join in.

( And God said, 'Let there be ROCK.' )

And while we're at it, let's look at some videos of a chubby Japanese cat. atomic_star, this part's for you.

( Eases the pain... )

Ah. Much better!

Just remember folks--when things look down, keep those balls in the air!