Thank you, Touchdown Jesus!

Even though the ND-UCLA game was in Pasadena, Touchdown Jesus must've been looking out for us. A win, finally, a WIN, I tell you! This meant so much. I can't begin to tell you how rough this season has been so far. It just made me feel heartsick to see them keep losing, and to become the butt of jokes, and to know that they are decent kids who want to win. I hope this gives them a great morale boost, and they can build on things from here. They still have plenty of work to do, but I think we saw some positive things. I predict that Jimmy Clausen is going to be a great quarterback. Yep, I said it.

I'm watching the Colts-Buccaneers game right now (Hey, where's your Buccaneers? Under my buckin' hat. Sorry, it's a joke I have to do whenever I say or think Buccaneers.), and Dallas Clark just got hit really hard. Ouch...oh good, it looks like he's up and mobile. And now Dallas is back in the game. Good, but be careful, buddy!

Joe of Magic Smoke was kind enough to give me a "Friday blogplug." It's really nice, because it gets people I don't know to take a look at this blog, and it's always a treat to have someone new give it a read (and hopefully comment!). Joe wrote that he wasn't familiar with The Godfathers, which isn't totally surprising, because they never hit it really big in the States, and I don't think they could ever be considered "mainstream." That got me to thinking at work today about the music I like, and about how once I got into high school and college, I definitely shunned the mainstream. Cousin Shane is the same way, and we've always sought out new and interesting music. Way back when, we liked Tom Petty in the "Breakdown" days, Blondie pre-"Heart of Glass," and the fabulous B-52's long before they hit the Top 40 with "Love Shack." We used to joke that we should be A&R people for a record company!

I was listening to our MP3 player at work while I was thinking about this, and I have some great old stuff on there, some of it kind of obscure, or at least not well-known to most folks. I thought I'd write about some of my favorites every so often, and I bet I can find a video or two on YouTube! Maybe I can come up with a snappy little title (any suggestions, anyone?) for this, like Beth's Music Moment or something like that. That's not snappy, that's lame, but you get the idea. It might get some people to listen to some great bands that they've never heard of before, and that's always fun. Today I'll write about one of the bands I was listening to at work today, Big Audio Dynamite.

BAD was led by Mick Jones, the former guitarist and one of the singers for The Clash, so that gives him and any band he's in immediate credibility, in my book. BAD was not much like the Clash, though. They still had some crunchy guitar, but the other band members brought a definite reggae/dance/hip hop sound to the group. It's some very danceable stuff, but Mick also hung on to his punk sensibilities and wrote some clever and biting lyrics about social injustices and current topics. This is from one of my favorites, "Stone Thames," a song about AIDS. Remember, this was in the '80's, when AIDS was first recognized.

Heard the news about the scare in the underwear
Population's getting thin, forget the bomb, its carnal sin, yeah
Marriage up, divorce is down, who wants to fuck around
Save the rose, reject romance, Mickey Mouse don't drop his pants

Now to sexual relations better take a wife
Now that sex is death, better lead a boring life
No time for social kissing, you'll hardly raise a smile
When you think what you'll be missing, iron undies back in style

The tramp of time continues, en masse to wedding bells
But they haven't made no breakthrough to helper T white cells
Wholesale Hyper wipe out, technology against the pest
Put away those etchings, sorry baby no contest

Notches and phone numbers, collecting flesh as pelts
Stealing cancer's thunder, blows below the belt
Oh don't it make you wonder 'bout how the cards are dealt...holy cow

AIDS certainly changed behaviors. This wasn't a little bacterial infection that could be cleared up with antibiotics--this was a virus that could kill you. (Thank goodness there have been so many advances in treatment--when it first appeared, it was a death sentence. No longer.) So Mick and his bandmates were quite topical and clever with their lyrics. They were also one of the first bands that I know of who used sampling in their songs, with snippets from movies, radio broadcasts, etc. Fatboy Slim owes them a lot.

You can find more info at Amazon, including all their CD's, and listen to some of their songs. Some of my favorites are the aforementioned "Stone Thames," "Medicine Show," "The Bottom Line," "Limbo the Law," "The Big V," "James Brown," and "House Arrest." There are plenty of others I like, too, and this is the song that I first heard from them. I don't recall if it was in a movie, or if it was on MTV (Remember when they played music? That was cool.), but I loved it. Here is "E=mc²." Try to focus on the song and not Mick's teeth. Yikes.

Tags: Notre Dame, Jimmy Clausen, Big Audio Dynamite, Colts, Buccaneers, Dallas Clark

Nine dollars well spent

After work today, I wanted to get a few things at the store, so I went to Walmart (which is on the way home). Note to myself: avoid Walmart on Saturday! Yikes!

Anyhoo, on my way into the store, there was a little kid standing there by a table--he was maybe 8 years old, and he was selling popcorn for his Boy Scout troop. He asked me if I'd like to buy some popcorn, and I was in a hurry and knew I didn't have enough cash on me, so I said, "I'm sorry, honey, I can't today." For the first time in my life, I think I actually saw someone look "crestfallen." As soon as I got in the store, I felt so sad and so bad about it, I knew I couldn't let it stand that way. After I got my stuff, I went out the same door, and luckily he was still there. I asked, "Will you take a check?" He said, "Sure!" then turned to his Mom and asked, "Can we take a check?" Awww! He showed me all the stuff they were selling, and even said, "If that's too expensive, we have this for a dollar." (It was an individual bag of microwave popcorn.) I said, "How about the caramel corn?" It was nine dollars. He said, "Okay!" and while I wrote out the check, he said, "I'll just put this in your cart, okay?" Bless his little heart. When I gave his Mom the check, she said to me, "Thank you so much...he was getting kind of discouraged." I said, "Yeah, I could see that on my way in, that's why I wanted to stop."

Sometimes it's the little things that can make a difference. Seeing his little face in my mind, I'm just so glad I stopped. I hope I brightened his day a little bit. I know there are a lot of school fundraisers going on right now, and we get bombarded at work with them, although my coworkers are very low-key about it. If it's something I will use, I usually try to get a little something (I just bought a cookbook from my friend Pat's daughter's class), but I know we have to draw the line at some point. However, if a little guy (or gal) is standing out in the hot sun, and he makes the effort to ask for your donation, take the time and help him out.

As for my Boy Scout, I think it might have brightened MY day even more than his.

Friday for you, Wednesday for me

Yep, I have to work this weekend, so today is my Hump Day. It shouldn't be too bad, though, because we had a good day today, which bodes well going into the weekend. The big bummer is that Ken has tomorrow off, so we won't get to have a day off together until next weekend. This too shall pass....

The Godfathers message board continues to get comments from members, and everyone is all a-quiver. I would say that most of the members are from England or Europe, so they probably have a much better chance of seeing them than any of us in the States do. I hope it works out that they play here, but if not, I'm sure the guys on the board will give extensive reviews, and there will also be a reissued CD with extra tracks! Actually, I probably have most of the extra tracks--I found some obscure stuff like BBC sessions, dance mixes, etc. But I'll buy it for the liner notes! I'll stay optimistic, though, because you never know what will happen! As you know if you read this regularly, I've been on a major Dandy Warhols kick, but to celebrate the news, I played The Godfathers at work today. I'm tellin' ya, it's some good stuff!

Oh my goodness! I was just looking out the window and watching the birds at the feeder. I saw one little guy, and thought, "Hey, he's kind of small for a nuthatch." I got the binocs for a close look, and while he IS a nuthatch, he's a red-breasted instead of a white-breasted! We've got white-breasteds galore, but I haven't seen the red-breasted for a few years now. How cool that they're still around! He's a cute little thing.

We're having a mini-heatwave here at Nutwood--it's getting up into the 80's this weekend (it's 82° here at the moment), which will probably set some records. The leaves are falling like crazy, so it LOOKS like autumn, but it feels like summer! I'm not complaining, I love the warm weather. The squirrels also know it's autumn, because they've been very busy burying walnuts and acorns. It seems that they're in the yard constantly, finding a spot, digging a little hole, sticking their nut in it, burying it, and then what cracks me up every time...they pat it down with their little paws. They look around, too, almost like they're saying, "What? There's no nut here. Move it along, nothing to see...." But then I tend to anthropomorphize our critters.

Ohhh, I got an email today from Mr. Baker of New Smyrna Beach. He wrote that the demolition of the Alba Court Inn started yesterday, and he sent along a few pictures. It was so nice of him to take the time to write, but it sure made me sad.

As she was:

And as she is (sniff):

 

Breaking news from the music world

This just in, from The Godfathers Yahoo group:

London, October 3rd, 2007

Hi there, I'm The Godfathers' manager and here is some news you may be
interested in:

The Godfathers are reuniting their original line-up to reissue an
expanded 21st anniversary edition of their debut album Hit By Hit on
January 10th, which has been repackaged to include 19 extra tracks.
Selected headline shows and festival dates to promote this will
include their traditional Valentines Day Massacre concert at a major
London venue in 2008.

THE GODFATHERS are:

Peter Coyne - vocals
Chris Coyne - bass guitar & vocals
Mike Gibson - guitars & vocals
Kris Dollimore - guitars & vocals
George Mazur - drums, percussion & vocals

Needless to say, the message group is going crazy, clamoring for tour dates for places from Sweden to Detroit. (Martyn's comment was "F*** me!!!!!" Ha! I added my two cents with a request for a Chicago date.) Most folks probably aren't familiar with The Godfathers, but they're one of the finest bands to come out of the eighties/nineties. They had one fairly big hit in the States, the fabulous "Birth School Work Death," but they had plenty of other great songs. Kris Dollimore is a crazy-good guitarist, and Peter Coyne's voice is awesome. How cool that they're getting back together, and I hope a serious tour develops. I never got to see them "back in the day," but I'd definitely make a trip to Chicago for them. Ken? Shane? ROAD TRIP! Heck, I think I'd go to Detroit for them, for that matter (I doubt if they'll play Indy, but I'd go there too, of course). I also don't think they'll be charging some $250 per ticket, not to mention who would do that, POLICE.

This is very exciting. Wow, I can't believe they're reuniting (and it feels so good). I shouldn't be too surprised, though, because from what I've read, they've stayed in touch, and recently, Peter Coyne was managing Kris Dollimore for his solo CD (which is quite good and bluesy, and Kris was kind enough to sign it for me before he sent it off from England!), so they must have got to talking. COOL! Watch a little and see if they don't rock most totally awesomely. By the way, the original title of this blog was "Breathing Down the Line," a line from this song. I changed it not out of losing my love for The Godfathers, but just to reflect our place here a little more.

Later

More breaking news! I fired off an email to Kris and Peter via Kris's website:

Hi Kris and Peter,

Is it true? A reunion, plus concert dates? Are you coming to the States? Please come to the States! The message board is going crazy!

Beth

And got back a quick reply from Peter, with a little officialese after his reply:

Hi Beth

It is so! 100% fom the horse's mouth!!

Thought we'd personally let you know the breaking news - be good to see you on Saint Valentine's Day 2008. Official website www.godfathershq.com coming soon...

Peter Coyne Chris Coyne Kris Dollimore Mike Gibson George Mazur

_____________

Legendary English rock and roll band The Godfathers are reuniting their original line-up to reissue an expanded 21st anniversary edition of their debut album Hit By Hit on January 10th, which has been repackaged to include 19 extra tracks.

Selected headline shows and festival dates to promote this will include their traditional Valentine’s Day Massacre concert at a major London venue on February 14th 2008.

After 19 years away from the world’s stage the original classic line-up of The Godfathers are reforming to play some selected dates to promote the reissue of their seminal debut album ‘Hit By Hit’. The influential 80’s band were regarded as the finest exponents of Brit-based rock ‘n’ roll and were regularly hailed as one of the best live acts in the world.

The Hit By Hit album comprises all the single recordings from the band’s early career on their own independent label Corporate Image, augmented with studio and live extra tracks culled from international live shows and BBC Radio One Sessions.

A list of tracks followed, and I was intrigued by one in particular, a live version of "Blitzkrieg Bop." How cool is that?

Tags: The Godfathers, Peter Coyne, Kris Dollimore, blogplugs

Two presents

Another gorgeous day!

There wasn't much work at the lab today, so I took off an hour early. That was my first present, and what a treat THAT is! I knew I'd better enjoy it while I could, because Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are probably our busiest days in the ol' Micro lab. I don't think I'll be leaving early the next few days!

My second present was in the mailbox when I got home. Cousin Shane had told me he was sending me a birthday present, so I knew that's what it was. (My birthday was in August, but for various reasons, we just haven't been able to get together for a while.) When I opened it up, I was delighted and touched to see that he'd gotten me the DVD of "Elvis," better known as the "68 Comeback Special." I don't feel like finding the post in the archives, but I had raved about it a while back, and Shane, bless his heart, got that for me. He's such a cool cousin--I'm so lucky to have a great cousin like Shane! :)

From the Cruel Irony File: Every once in a while, Sheeba has a slight barfage problem. I don't know if he eats too much out of boredom while we're at work, or if he eats a bug, or what, but sometimes we'll have to do Barf Detail. Poor little guy, he barfed today--on the dresser, a little bit on one of my T-shirts laying there, and a whole bunch on--here's the cruel irony part--one of Ken's Notre Dame hats. I know I feel kind of sick watching the games lately, but gee Sheeba, isn't that a little much? Et tu, Sheeba?

We're gearing up for my pal Jillian's online book club! The two of us were practicing a bit with the Google group, so we can figure out the posting, etc. The reading doesn't commence until Nov. 1st, so I should have time to finish my current book before then. I'm reading American Mafia by Thomas Reppetto (it's nonfiction). Like most people, I have a bit of a fascination with the Mafia, but pretty much all I've read about them is their involvement in Vegas (which is no longer true, from what I've heard). I'm not very far into it yet, but already I'm learning that there are a lot of misconceptions about it. It's not some kind of ancient Sicilian brotherhood--it's actually fairly new, and the structure of the Families is a relatively American thing. Interesting stuff! They also include the picture of Bugsy Siegel's corpse, after he was hit for not being able to account for the bosses' money. I've seen it before, and it's not a pleasant picture. But then, it's not a pleasant organization!

Oh, I was talking about our book club. A lot of these should be really interesting--I was reading some synopses on Amazon yesterday. But I know the one I'm dreading the most: James Joyce's Ulysses, topping the charts at Number One with a bullet! I read a snippet, and I don't know if I'll be able to make any sense of the book at all. I have a feeling I'll be saying, "Why, exactly, is this one of the greatest novels of the 20th century?" It looks a little crazy. Okay, it looks a LOT crazy. I do read a lot, but I like my books to have some cohesiveness.

Good news, a good show, and a great interview

The good news? I had a doctor's appointment this morning, just my usual yearly checkup and exam. High blood pressure runs in my family, and last year, it was something like 150/90. This year? 110/70. Woohoooo! I rock! And why the big difference? Because I quit smoking. Of course, I feel better, but to see such a huge drop in an actual number was amazing to me. My doctor was pretty happy, too--in fact, she said, "I am so happy with you!" It's got to be frustrating for doctors to tell their patients what they should do, and the patients pay no attention whatsoever. (We've all known people like that.) I'm sure it made HER feel better. Oh, she also asked how much caffeine I have a day, and I said I stopped that, too. She actually shook my hand when I left. I love my doc!

The good show part of this post is a new show: "The Big Bang Theory." I don't know if it will make it or not, but it's tops on my list of new shows right now. It totally cracks me up. The premise is that these two geeky guys are roommates (they have two geeky friends, too), and a hot girl moves into the apartment across from them. The hilarity ensues. Last night, the four geeky guys were having a Superman marathon and invited the girl to come over. Before she could accept, they got into a heated discussion about the physics of the movie, with one guy (probably the geekiest one) saying that if Superman actually caught Lois Lane in her free fall, a few feet from earth, she would be cut into thirds by his arms. I don't know why it struck me so funny, but it sure did. Perhaps I can relate a little too much (to the geeks, not the hot girl).

Finally, the great interview is Paris Hilton's recent appearance on Letterman. I've written about her before. (I think my friend Dan might have called his sculpture "Wishful Thinking" instead...but that's just my opinion.) The clip is a good 8 minutes long, but it's worth watching--Ken and I were laughing so hard! It's priceless. I think I'll watch it again after I put it up here, because it's so funny.

You know, just her whole attitude makes me want to smack her silly. She came out with that smug, arrogant look on her face, and I think Dave kind of wiped that look clean off. Except when she gave that precious little pout because he was making her sad. UGH, she's just plain GROSS. She is the product of what happens when we don't hold people accountable for their behavior. You broke the law, you skank, and the only regret you truly expressed was that you got caught. By the way, whatever happened to her jailhouse religious conversion? Didn't she say that she'd been praying, and that God was now going to be part of her life? I think Dave had a truly legitimate point when he told her that she has an opportunity to make a difference for people, especially kids, who need to know that if they're going to drink they need to have a designated driver. She didn't have much to say to that, did she? I loved how she started swinging her leg like crazy--ooo, she was pissed off. 

I've never been so proud to have David Letterman come from my state, or to be a fellow alum of our alma mater, Ball State. Dave, you're the best.

Later

Ah, what a productive day! Got my appointment taken care of, got groceries, called my Mom and Dad, emailed my buddy Jay, got the fresh salsa made, did a load of laundry...excellent! At the grocery store, boneless/skinless chicken breasts were on sale in the family-size package, so I stocked up (a tip from me--if you have the room in the freezer, buy stuff like that on sale and freeze it), so I got all those separated and put into freezer bags. When I went downstairs to put it in the freezer, I had to put all the bags on a tray. I had a tray o' meat!

For dinner tonight, I'm going to do Asian Peanut Chicken, rice, and egg rolls. I was going to steam some broccoli, too, but if I do egg rolls, I don't think we need the broccoli. (I'm not making the egg rolls from scratch. The frozen ones will be good enough tonight. My sister Sue makes egg rolls from scratch, and they're delicious.) As for the rice, while I often use Minute Rice just for the convenience, tonight I'm making REAL rice. It really is so much better, especially with Asian food.

I'm watching the news. Looks like Britney Spears lost custody of her kids. Gosh, what's up with that?! What has happened in our country when a hard-partyin', head-shavin', crotch-showin' gal can't keep her kids? I think Paris needs to take Britney under her wing and teach her how to behave.

Tags: The Big Bang Theory, Paris Hilton, David Letterman, Ball State

A not-so-lovely Nutwoody day

It's not awful, just very gloomy and drizzly. Now I'm hearing that tomorrow is supposed to be pretty nice--and it's my day off! Later in the week, it's supposed to get close to 90°. What the heck?! It's October. Oh, wacky Indiana, you so crazy....

I saw five turkeys earlier, and a woodpecker just tried to ram the sliding glass door. Luckily, the screen cushioned his impact. It always startles me, though, when a bird hits the window, and I usually say something like "Oh! Are you okay?" like they're going to answer me. I especially hate it when they wallop themselves a good one, and sit there stunned for a few minutes. You can tell they're trying to shake it off, but they're pretty stunned. It just breaks my heart, and I always want to try to fix them. I end up just standing guard over them until they come out of it and can fly away. Poor little critters.

I was checking out the Star Trek website yesterday, and was very excited to read that the latest movie project is being cast. If you haven't heard (you heathen), it's going to be about the original crew and their time at Starfleet Academy. Cooooool. So far, they've cast Spock, Chekhov, Uhura, and the rumor is that they've cast Kirk. I've never heard of these young actors, although my buddy Greg watches "Heroes," and the guy playing Spock is on that show. Greg said he thought it was a good choice. The tentative release date is Christmas Day 2008. Ken said, "We're there!" I said, "It'll be the most specialest Christmas EVER!" Have I mentioned that we're geeks?

Hey, it's going to be an excellent movie year for us next year: a new Star Trek movie (one about the original cast) AND a new Bond movie. We rarely go to see movies at the theater anymore (we like our big TV and sound system a lot), but there are a couple that we go to the theater for, and Bond and Star Trek are the main two. And it's always a treat to have movie popcorn--is that the best, or what? Ken doesn't like the faux butter on his, but I load it up. I will pass along a trick I learned from Tom Griswold, of the Bob & Tom Show. This is brilliant. When you're putting the butter on your popcorn, grab a straw, put it down into your bucket, and let the butter flow down into the bottom ofthe bucket. That way you get butter on more of your popcorn, not just the top. I usually put some salt into a napkin and fold it up, too. Oh, it's so bad for you, but it's soooo good. Good thing we rarely go!

Dang, I'm hungry for movie popcorn now.

Tags: Star Trek, Spock, Chekhov, Uhura, Kirk, Heroes, Tom Griswold, Bob & Tom Show