Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

The power of music

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The question comes up often, maybe too often, in blog and forum memes: what super power would you want to have? When I’m not in the mood to play along with the invisible flying healing walking through walls program, I have said that I want the super power of being able to make music.

For those of you who were born with the gift of music, you might not appreciate that it does seem like a super power to me. Music has the power to inspire us, to reduce stress, and to enhance physical performance in workouts and competition. Even if you don’t believe there is sufficient scientific evidence (and truly, I don’t think there is), there is certainly no shortage of anecdotal evidence that music does indeed have powers.

The reason I am thinking about this should be somewhat obvious. 2009 has been a year of many losses to the entertainment world, and yesterday’s passing of Les Paul, musician and innovator, is a huge loss indeed.

I’m not old enough to have known much of Les Paul’s music, but I’m certainly familiar with the guitar that bears his name. I worked above a music store for a short time during high school, and I got to actually touch and attempt to play some very expensive guitars. Really, who didn’t secretly want to be a rock star (yeah, I know it’s more of a guy thing, but it’s definitely not exclusive to males). And part of that was the Fender Strat… or the Gibson Les Paul.

In reading some of the many tributes and articles for Les Paul, in general and music publications alike, one thing really struck me about his accomplishments. The awards and honors he had received over his long life included awards for music, inventing and broadcasting. How amazing to make a mark and a contribution in three different disciplines like that.

I love music. I have no gift for it. In spite of that, I have a solid body electric guitar that I can’t really play. It’s not a Les Paul or any flavor of Gibson, but that’s ok. Tomorrow no one will be home to hear me play it badly, so play it I will.

RIP Les Paul. Thank you for your creations that gave to so many the super power of music.

(NaBloPoMo | August ’09: 14 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 202 of 274)

Piano men

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While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters, sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night*

I still haven’t quite gotten used to the idea of concerts at Wrigley Field. Tonight, Elton John and Billy Joel did a concert there. There will be another concert next week. Tonight’s show looked like a good time, from the photos and video clips I’ve seen so far.

In junior high school, I used to joke about how great it was that a short, chubby person like Elton John who wore glasses and played the piano could find huge success. Being a short, chubby person who wore glasses and played the piano (badly, not like Elton John), I meant it.

I didn’t get any better at piano playing. I did see Elton John twice, though, in two totally different phases of his career. The first time was in Honolulu in 1973, during my sophomore year in high school. That would be the tour for “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” with Kiki Dee as the opening act. Elton was in his glam rock phase with the super outrageous sparkly huge glasses frames and impossibly tall platform shoes. Back then, I wanted “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” to be played at my own funeral. I think I still do.

For unless they see the sky, but they can’t and that is why
They know not if it’s dark outside or light*

The next time was in 1979 at Chicago’s beautiful and historically significant Auditorium Theatre. This was light years away from the 1973 show. It was just Elton, his piano, and percussionist Ray Cooper. It was not quite what I expected but it was a good show.

I’ve never seen Billy Joel in concert, but his song “You May Be Right” set the tone for the soundtrack of my life during my twenties.

Even rode my motorcycle in the rain
And you told me not to drive but I made it home alive
So you said that only proves that I’m insane**

Yeah, I wonder how I survived that decade as well.

You may be right, I may be crazy
But it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for**

I think I’ve left the lunacy behind for the most part, and I don’t say good morning to the night that often any more. But the soundtrack of my life will always have some good strong keyboards running through it.

* “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” Honky Chateau, 1972, Elton John and Bernie Taupin
** “You May Be Right,” Glass Houses, 1980, Billy Joel

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 16 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 173 of 274)

Ordinary heroes

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(This month’s NaBloPoMo theme is heroes.)

There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He’s ordinary

“There Goes My Hero” is one of my favorite Foo Fighters songs. I’ve heard more than a few people say it’s about Kurt Cobain. Since I consider Cobain a talented but troubled individual who died far too young, and not a hero by my definitions, I far prefer Dave Grohl’s own explanation:

“My heroes were ordinary people and the people that I have a lot of respect for are just solid everyday people – people you can rely on.”

Especially those everyday heroes like firefighters, police officers and teachers. Not all of them, of course, and definitely not even all of the ones I personally know.

But in a week like this one, when a young Chicago police officer was killed and others seriously injured, think about those ordinary, everyday heroes who put it on the line for us, because it’s just what they do.

(brought to you by the proud wife of a Chicago firefighter/EMT)

(NaBloPoMo | June ‘09: 2 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 129 of 274)

Musical surprises (24 of 30/90 of 274)

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I’ve told you before about my love for the mobile versions of internet radio services Slacker and Pandora. Due to music licensing restrictions, neither service can play music on demand, and each service picks songs for your user-created custom stations in a slightly different way. The song choices I get on both services are usually right on the money. But recently I got a couple of unexpected results.

My main custom station on Slacker is built mostly around ’70s-’80s classic rock: Styx, Journey, Foreigner, Scorpions, Rush… you get the idea. I’ve had that station for a while, so I’ve done enough favoriting, banning and skipping to give it a good idea of what I like. Imagine my horror when my morning commute was marred by the sound of my least favorite REO Speedwagon song ever. REO Speedwagon is not one of the artists I selected for my station, and even if I had, the song “Take It On The Run” would have been banned straightaway.

Let me digress. Back in high school and college, I was definitely a fan of REO. Stuff like “157 Riverside Avenue,” “Roll With the Changes,” “Riding the Storm Out”… that stuff. I was quite eagerly awaiting the release of Hi Infidelity. It was one of the biggest disappointments of my young life. Song after song of unmanly whining. Ewwww. Just ewwww. In my mind, even to this day, the worst offender was “Take It On The Run.”

I may have been too stunned to click the button to ban the song. I don’t really remember, so there is a chance I will have to repeat the sad experience at least one more time.

It didn’t take much digging to find out why Slacker thought I might enjoy the song. Seems that there is a double live album from the “Arch Allies” tour that Styx and REO Speedwagon did together in 2000. Who knew!

Pandora’s surprise for me was a bit more pleasant, given that it wasn’t from Hi Infidelity. It even sort of played into my obsession with imaginary bands. I would have never expected any of my Pandora stations to serve me up a song by Hannah Montana [warning: link auto plays music/video]. Nor would I have expected to love the song, “If We Were a Movie,” [warning: link auto plays music] but I do!

This one wasn’t that hard to track down either. The station I was listening to was built around Liz Phair, and this song actually has a similar style to one of the songs on her self-titled album. You know, the second one where she went all power-pop instead of singing about blow jobs. Wait, she still sang about blow jobs. Anyway. The choice did make sense.

Much better surprise from Pandora than from Slacker, but I still love both services.

5 great imaginary bands (9 of 30/75 of 274)

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A great opportunity presents itself today for me to both indulge my love of fictional bands and fulfill the Day 2 31DBBB assignment to write a list post.

So let’s rock!

5 great imaginary bands

I am far from alone in my obsession with imaginary bands. The Rocklopedia Fakebandica lists about a thousand fictional bands and singers from movies and television. Here are five of my personal favorites, in alphabetical order. You didn’t really think you were going to trap me into rating and ranking fake bands, did you?

1. The Barbusters. Light of Day is a (mostly) filmed-in-Chicago movie with a title song written by Bruce Springsteen. Already you see two of my personal obsessions there. Great casting and unexpectedly good performances (acting and music both) from Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett as the brother and sister team fronting the Barbusters. One of the bar scenes was filmed at the Iron Rail on the northwest side of Chicago, which was then owned by a friend of ours.

2. Eddie and the Cruisers. John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band provided the sound for the fictional band from Jersey. Their Springsteen-like sound is the best thing about the two movies (particularly the original one). Michael Paré is hot and mysterious as Eddie Wilson. Tom Berenger is a big personal favorite of mine and definitely in his role as Frank Ridgeway.

3. Ellen Aim and the Attackers. Michael Paré is once again hot, though not too mysterious, as Tom Cody in Streets of Fire. Diane Lane as Ellen Aim is even hotter. Fire Inc. does the musical performances, and the songs were written by Jim Steinman. If you don’t like Meat Loaf’s Bat out of Hell album, you might not like “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young.” Get past it… “let the revels begin, let the fire be started, we’re dancing for the desperate and the broken-hearted…” what is not to love there?

4. The Monkees. This is where my love for imaginary bands started. I’m sure many other baby boomer females can relate to that love. Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones were pretty much the first made-for-TV-band. I was probably the only girl in my 4th grade class who wasn’t crazy about Davy Jones, though. “Daydream Believer” and “I’m A Believer” still make me smile and yes, are both on my MP3 player.

5. 2ge+her. This was MTV’s send-up of the formulaic boy bands made popular by… hey, how about that, MTV! They were featured in a TV-movie and then a short-lived series. Their actual songs were surprisingly good, in a boy band kind of melodic harmony good, that is. The series was cut short not only by falling ratings, but also the tragic death of 16-year-old cancer survivor Michael Cuccione from respiratory disease. One of the other band members was Kevin Farley, brother of the late Chris Farley, and funny in his own right.