Funkdafied

I was funkdafied last night. I gave up the funk. I tore the roof off the sucker. I was up for the downstroke.

Also, I blew a 0.0 in the breathalyzer, which is always a good thing.

Dear Cartoon Network:

When I saw ads in the last couple of weeks announcing that Saved By The Bell was being added to your Adult Swim line-up, I chuckled. There had to be a catch - there could be no way that SBTB reruns would fly in the ultra-hip Adult Swim line-up. Maybe you were going to mess with the dialogue, or....something.

Alas, from last night's inaugural viewing, SBTB was aired with no alterations and it sat there amidst the Adult Swim lineup like the proverbial turd in the punch bowl.

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MINDS? Is this supposed to invoke some feeling of warm nostalgia a la Full House reruns on Nick At Nite? It doesn't!....not for me, anyway. I was in my 20's when SBTB began its original run, so I didn't watch this putrid bag of crap. (I didn't watch Full House, either....those of my age group were Brady Bunch people...anyway.....)

Saved By The Bell (1) ...isn't a cartoon, and you are the Cartoon Network (I know, I know; MTV set a very bad precedent....in the old days, the M in MTV actually stood for music.....try finding music on there now...) and (2) IT ISN'T FUNNY!!!

Please remove this offensive blight from your lineup at once, or at least put it somewhere else in your lineup and GET IT THE HELL OFF OF ADULT SWIM!!!

Thank you.

Blogging For The Sake Of Blogging....

The more that people tell me they read my blog, the less inclined I am to post anything of any substance....weird.......Part of the fun of a blog is going back and reading older entries and seeing how things developed. I don't feel free to do that anymore and that's a shame. Safer to stick to pop culture b.s., I guess, so.....

Katie Couric is leaving a show that I rarely watch to be on another show that I never watch, so the "big news" has essentially no impact on me. Two things, though: Saw Katie in person at President Clinton's inauguration in 1992; 'course, we had a LOT of celebrity sightings that week. Next, I will always remember an interview that Katie did the day after the Columbine shootings. She was with a parent of one of the children that died and she held his hand as one of the surviving kids described what happened to the man's son. Very powerful.

YouTube is fantastic! I've been watching old music videos that I never even knew existed (Osmonds, Merle Haggard on "The Porter Wagoner Show", Boomtown Rats....the list goes on). I also caught up on recent South Park episodes that I missed.

Speaking of South Park.....Fuck you, I love "Family Guy." Frankly, I don't think Trey and Matt have a clue as to what Seth McFarlane is trying to do.

Queen?

I like and respect Todd Rundgren, but his participation in something called the "New Cars" is highly questionable and reeks of desperation.

Merle Haggard is coming to Monroe, and I want to go. Apparently, old and forgotten Opry star Billy Walker is coming to the Beekman School gym. I would like to go to that, too.

I have never seen a single episode of 24.

Recently watched Brokeback Mountain. Now that I've seen both Crash and Brokeback Mountain, I think the right movie won the "Best Picture" Oscar.

Gas was $2.70 today. I drive 90 miles round trip every day. So does my wife.

Midnite Sun is back at the All Star Club on April 22. Can't believe I'm saying this, but we've actually been working on new material (new to us, anyway) quite a bit. Having Brandon come in as a new band member has really given us a much needed kick in the pants.

My limited experience on MySpace so far has been that it is somewhat creepy.

I really don't give a damn this year as to who wins "American Idol." Ditto "Nashville Star."

Still more proof that "Gilmore Girls" is a cool show (I seem to keep trying to justify why I watch this show....): Sonic Youth, ONE OF THE GREATEST BANDS OF ALL TIME, will appear in the season finale in a few weeks.

I'm probably late to the party on this, but my latest musical interest is the country music coming out of Texas. The "X Country " channel on XM radio is primarily devoted to this. A lot of it is really good and it beats the hell out of the "redneck pop" being played on mainstream country stations. Shooter Jennings, Mike McClure Band, Ray Wylie Hubbard, James McMurtry, etc. ROCK. Strangely, though, the most popular band in this genre seems to be Cross Canadian Ragweed and I can't seem to get into them that much. I'm told that I have to see them live, so I'll try to do that....

I was squarely in the Dixie Chicks camp in the Dixie Chicks v. Toby Keith debate (and Natalie Maines is "more right" every single day). I like the new Dixie Chicks song, but I'm not crazy about the video. I will buy their new cd when it is released just to show my support. As for you hypocritical country radio stations out there: You won't play the Chick's new song "Not Ready To Make Nice", but you're all over Toby Keith's new song, "Let's Get Drunk And Be Somebody." Great message to be spreading to your listeners, country radio. Whoever programs K-104 in Monroe: You are a gutless **** of *****. (Sadly edited after I thought about it).

So that's it for pop culture. Am I involved in more substantial things? Of course. Are there local topics that I would prefer to be weighing in on? Absolutely. It's a shame that I can't do that.

For Me, This Is Huge....

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002274305

Got Some Time To Kill; Might As Well Blog....

My RSS feeds are getting a little out of hand; takes a long time to go through them. Time to purge. Will probably delete a lot of the indie rock sites - I've never heard of most of those bands, anyway.

Note to Chris from "American Idol": You blew it big time, dude. Creed is quite possibly one of the worst bands of all time. And you didn't even sing it very well. What's next, Chris? Nickelback? 3 Doors Down? I may have to switch my allegiance to the Kelly Clarkson clone.

I'm very late with this, but thanks to my loving wife for surprising me with Rolling Stones / Merle Haggard tickets. Merle was great (although not nearly loud enough) and the Stones....well, they were the Stones. I've seen them before so I didn't have the "need to see them before they die mindset." Watching Mick Jagger cavort around the stage, I thought to myself that I hope I have that kind of energy when I am in my late 60's.....but then, hell, I don't have that kind of energy now. Their best song was a Ray Charles cover where the back-up singer, Lisa Fisher, stole the show.

Caught up on a lot of movies lately.... Walk The Line and Cinderella Man are really good movies; Pride and Prejudice is okay; and Just Like Heaven....not so good. I was, of course, kidding about Larry The Cable Guy - Health Inspector --- it was a very, very, very bad movie.

Experienced karma of the "My Name is Earl" variety: my very nice tax refund was approximately just enough to cover our sudden need for extensive plumbing work.

Perfection

Every so often you see a film that actually changes your life. I had that experience yesterday with the sublime Larry The Cable Guy - Health Inspector. You can have your Crash, your Brokeback Mountain - even your Casablanca or your Citizen Kane. This film impacted me on a much deeper and visceral level than any film I have seen in a long time.

The direction, the cinematography, the script -- they were all superb. All of the audience sat enraptured through the entire 89 minute experience. At the end, we all stood teary-eyed and applauded. We all actually had to be asked to leave the theater because we all desperately wanted to stay for another viewing. I was so proud that I had accompanied my son to this cinematic tour-de-force.

Easily comparable to Godard's Breathless or any of the other films of the late 60's new wave of French cinema, this film will haunt me for a long, long time.

Next February, I predict that a certain genius in a cut-off flannel shirt and baseball cap will be standing on stage at the Oscars accepting a "Best Actor" statue. I can't imagine anyone surpassing this performance.

It seems like a lot of my (admittedly infrequent) posts lately have been to say goodbye to some celebrity who meant something to me. This one is no different.

Buck Owens is the first singer that I idolized. Most people only remember him from "Hee Haw", which actually probably tarnished his image somewhat. I remember him before "Hee Haw" when he had his own half-hour program. It usually came on on Saturday afternoons and it consisted only of Buck, his band, and guest stars singing. No cornfields. No haystacks. Buck's guitarist, the great Don Rich, was another hero of mine.

When I would try to sing, it was Buck whom I would try to imitate. For some reason, I have fairly strong memories of trying to imitate Buck doing his cover version of the Coasters' "Along Came Jones."

I was pleased when Dwight Yoakam brought Buck back to the forefront in the late 80's by publicly proclaiming his influence and his greatness. I have a great download of the Derailers, with Buck sitting in, on a song called "Play Me The Waltz Of Matilda." I also have a vinyl box set of Buck and the Buckaroos, and Buck's Christmas album is one of my all time favorite Christmas releases (second only to Brave Combo's Christmas album).

Buck, I'm playing again on April 22 and you can bet that at some point, I'll play a Buck Owens song as a tribute. Hell, I might even spray paint my guitar red, white, and blue.

Oscar

Cool! For once, I've actually seen Oscar's Best Picture of the Year before the ceremony. Crash is a helluva good movie that had me thinking about it for several days after I watched it. Highly recommended. Hustle & Flow is good, too.

Best moment? Semi-obscure Memphis rappers Three Six Mafia won an Oscar for "It's Hard In Here For A Pimp."