Friday Fives – playing LaCrosse

What brand of clothing from the past would the current generation have never heard of?

Izod, aka LaCrosse.  Had this little alligator patch over the breast.  It was expensive clothing in like 6th grade (around 1982… give or take 5 years) and showed you were cool and your parents were rich.  Now, I was far from poor.  We were upper middle class white folk in the suburbs with everything.  But… it’s not like we had ‘izod’ money.   I mean… we weren’t the Rockefellers.

Do you have a TV show you could binge over and over again?

I’ve said it before, but with technology we are now able to easily go back and watch the shows we watched growing up.  I’ve also said few hold up over time.  The 80s was a time of intense overacting.  NOTHING was allowed to breathe, and there was no subtext.  If a character was morose… it wasn’t done with minor keyed music and muted colors while the lead says little.  No sir, ALL acting was “I’m sad, can’t you see that?”  I hate when you can see acting.  It’s why I feel I could be a great actor.  I’m not going to force anything.  Say a line, take a beat… let the audience infer the info they need, and make it their own.

With all that complaining, for pure entertainment… the Fall Guy and CHIPs absolutely hold up and I watch them if they come on anywhere.   Even on Youtube/

Oh, and the State.  My absolutely favorite sketch comedy troupe of all time.  By light years.

Jason Isbell calls Taylor Swift a genius and perhaps the biggest songwriter ever.

What do you guys think?

Yes, she is a genius.  As for her songwriting, I can’t say.  I don’t know a single Taylor song.  However, I can’t think of a bad thing to say about her.  She is such an amazing roll model on every level.  And she writes her own songs.  Know what other pop star does that?  NO ONE!   Well, Gaga certainly is a talent and writes most or all of her own stuff.  Taylor is the SHIT!  She takes no guff, is happy and kind to everyone, and stands up for musicians everywhere.  She uses her frighteningly monster clout for total good.  She is a saint, and a mensch.  Obviously, she is a heck of a songwriter, too.  You don’t fill a catalog like that if you don’t have talent.  

What song makes you emotional, no matter how often you hear it?

Footsteps.  Very specifically this version.  Also, Seasons***  and Like Suicide (again, it has to be this version).  The amount of vocal control and passion in the delivery knocks my socks off, every time.  Plus, they remind me a great era… early college when I first lived on my own.

Name an album where you can listen to every song from the beginning to the end and not have the urge to skip a song.

Pearl Jam – Yield.  Ok, maybe I would skip Brain of J.  Nirvana – Nevermind.  Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream and Gish.  Siamese Dream is so fucking good that even the songs which are clear filler (Sweet Sweet, Luna) are absolutely terrific.  That album is easily the single most impactful record of my life.  It’s like Zeppelin 4.  I’ve heard it so many times… thousands… I can’t even listen any more.  Like, I don’t need to.  It’s hardwired into me.

• *** the reason why these Cornell songs are so important to me isn’t just because they are amazing and perfect songs.  Or some of the best vocal work I can think of in rock… it’s because those were the first time I heard Chris Cornell sing.  I’d been a Soundgarden fan, and even see them live.  Had never once heard Cornell sing.  No sir, for his first 20 years he just screamed in falsetto.  Getting to hear his lower range, like we got to in Temple of the Dog was a game changer for me.

Friday Fives > getting older

 What are you starting to hate as you get older?

Party loyalty over public service.  I know this stuff goes back to our founding fathers, and likely as far back as the first time people split into different groups for any reason.  While its historically been used to keep anything from going forward or getting done (so that your rival doesn’t get credit for a good deed… making you look lazy and ineffective by comparison), I think we can all agree its going backwards now.  Oh, since all of these questions are about aging, i figure I’ll share my age.  it’s 51.

Any politician who says they will ‘reach across the aisle and put politics aside’ is a fucking liar.  Most of them WANT to help, and to reach across.  I think even many Republicans actually want to just make things better.  However, if you are ever caught by your party working with the other one… you are DONE.  You lose critical national funding from the party, and then you lose cherry assignments.  You may see voting to fix bridges a no brainer, but to the hierarchy you are simply a traitor.

If you could instantly learn any instrument, which one would it be?

Piano.  I can play all the main chords, though.  Just this week, believe it or not, I set up a free keyboard in my basement to start learning again.  I’m a lifelong guitarist, so the basement is basically a music studio right now, anyway.  I say piano because to learn piano, you generally have to learn music theory.  That is NOT the case with guitar.  Jimi Hendrix, Steve Ray Vaughn, Eddie van Halen… famously can’t even read sheet music.  I bet you can’t find a single even marginally successful piano player who can’t read music.  So learning piano wouldn’t just be nice, but it will help me be a better guitar player.

 What’s the most challenging aspect of adulting for you?

Patience for anything… traffic, govt, my spouse, career hunting.  

What old school tech gadget is as helpful now as it was 75 years ago?

When I think of completely and perfectly unchanged things, I think of two things:  the toaster, and the can opener.  In 120 years (since electricity invented) the toaster design has never wavered.  Here another thing that surprisingly hasn’t changed at ALL in almost 150 years… the car.  The engine Henry Ford was using is the exact same system we are using today, an internal combustion engine that drives a long rod in circles.  The back of that rod is connected to an axle and a universal joint which (quite cleverly) changes that power that was running front to back to a sideways power.  A wheel in front of the driver connects to a mechanism that turns the front tires.  Bendy metal pieces under the frame to make the ride a bit more gentle.  Rubber tires.  Sure, our cars today are faster and safer and all that.  BUT… they haven’t fundamentally changed much at all, save for the new electric car movement.

 What’s something genuinely beautiful that people ruined?

Politics… public service.  Public service is noble and critical.  It is good for society and good for your soul.  Sadly, though, public service inevitably becomes politics.  I guess that is why all of my public service is volunteering.  I don’t even give money to the companies I believe in and volunteer for.  I don’t know where that money is going, but its probably going to some bullshit that has nothing to with the cause.  I volunteer 3 to 4 days a week right now (a luxury I have being unemployed) because I know exactly where my contribution is going.