I can only wish Chris Smith the best of health. But I have been a bit taken aback by this story ever since I heard it yesterday. I suppose the thing that I find my mind getting caught up on is the fact that he has been positive for 17 years. Which is just phenomenal to me. And so sad in another way, because I can recall a funeral I went to in 1990, fourteen, no, now fifteen years ago. And I think how cruel fate is, that some could have gotten sick a few years later or even today on a different continent and that instead of a death sentence with a less than pleasant death, you could talk disease management and so many more years of life.
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Destroyed I tell you! Destroyed by JEALOUSY!!! Not only has she seen X three times, she saw Waits at the Wiltern. I could just weep in frustration.
And she’s right, I can’t resist a good music meme.
1. Album you've bought the most? – Album I have bought more than one time? I bought a copy of Los Angeles by X because I lost my original vinyl. And I think I may have bought Imperial Bedroom three times (once on vinyl, twice on cd, accidentally).
2. Download illegally? – Ella Fitzgerald, Mack the Knife. But otherwise I’ve started paying for my tracks. Not that I can find any Foo Fighters.
3. First album you owned? –Fly Like an Eagle –Steve Miller Band and Born Late by Shaun Cassidy for my 11th birthday. The first album I bought might have been something by The Carpenters. I too inherited the S & G from the ‘rents, took the Mammas and the Pappas too. Fool that I was, I turned my nose up at the Fifth Dimension.
4. Song you've had the most sex to? – Am I supposed to notice this?
5. Senior Prom song? – I grew up in a horrible rural California town that was heavily into hair-sprayed glamour rock, it was probably something by Journey. Like Don’t Stop Believin. I suppose I should be greatful it wasn’t something by REO Speedwagon. For the record, I wore white tails to my senior prom and well, created a bit of an impression.
6. First song you danced with the opposite sex to? – I can remember the junior high gym, but not the boy or the song. Fond later memories of Rock Lobster.
7. Album you listened to/listen to most in high school? – The first two years of high school had my serious Bealtes phase. I think I probably did damage to Revolver (Which I stole from my brother, who was into ZZ Top—have I talked about how much I hated the town I grew up in?). Then I discovered Lord God King Elvis Costello and the rest is history.
8. Album you listened to/listen to most in college? –Moving on from the last question, my then room-mate hid my Elvis Costello Imperial Bedroom after the actor broke up with me (a story worth blogging about), little knowing I had the album on tape and hence my walkman and I continued to be morose together.
9. Box set you own but don't brag to your friends about owning? – I’ll admit to the Billy Holiday. No one seems to care, though
10. First concert? – Little Richard, Magic Mountain. Saw Pat Boone the same year at Knott’s Berry Farm..
11. First concert you paid for with your own money? – Devo, Bakersfield.
12. Best concert ever? –Elvis Costello, The Blood and Chocolate Tour. A) Tom Perry showed up for the Encore. B) I was at a frat party a couple days later (alright, I was on the roof of a frat party doing upside down margaritas) and one of the brothers asked how was the concert. I told him it was better than sex. I stand by that review.
13. Worst concert ever? – Pat Boone?
14. Who have you seen three times or more? –Elvis, Elvis, Elvis. I even saw him with Burt!
15. If you get me really drunk, I might admit to knowing all the lyrics to....? – I do a great preamble to the US Constitution thanks to School House Rock.
16. Old rock star crush? – I can’t believe I am admitting this, Tom Petty. I had a thing for blondes when I was young.
17. Current rock star crush? –Dave Grohl. Shay from Nerd. Brandon Flowers.
18. Why don't more people like....? – John Coltrane. My friends all hate the jazz.
19. Why do so many people like...? – All that techno crap. I don’t get the techno thing.
20. First rock poster you owned? – I had a room decorated as a tribute to Sting. Should I add him to 16?
21. Rock poster on your wall now? – John Coltrane. I am in the market for some Lord God King Costello.
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Dissed the Blessing on my blog. I love the Blessing, I really do. She makes me laugh (which annoys her); she currently likes dancing to Schoolhouse Rock with me; she has some lovely Bratz dolls. But she keeps taking my Teddy Bear. Now, I may have alluded to how badly the H did christmas this year. He got be a trio of Charlie Kaufman movies (an okay gift but really for him, but I am guilty of the same present logic), some horrible lingerie that doesn't even fit and finally a small purple bear that you put in the microwave to get warm and smells of lavender. It was the most successful of the presents. I like the bear. It's been cold; the bear is warm. The Blessing keeps taking the bear. Last night she took the bear off my cold feet because she was cold. She then informed me she was taking the bear to bed.
I want my bear back!
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It's amazing what a little sunshine will do to improve one's mood. Last week, I might have agreed with this. With the wind, the snow, the blocked drain that meant wading through several inches of water to get to the train to go home and then walk uphill in the wind with cold wet feet. Yesterday was sunny. I even went out in the garden and pulled up some grass and started a bit of a clear out. Today is even sunnier. There is no ice. And hopefully, tomorrow, the new car. Which will have a working radio! And a door for the Blessing to use. And hopefully the driver's seat will not suddenly lurch back when I stomp on the clutch to change gears.
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How Many Yanks are there in this part of the world? Would the census provide an answer? Do I really want to wade through pages of NISRA trying to find an answer.
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I planned to do so much in the new year. So many blog posts to write! I wanted to blog about my gifts, what I liked, what I didn't, whether it was a good year. I have a whole how I am approaching new year's resolutions blog to make (I hope, sometime before the end of the month) and I am toying with starting another blog. A blog not for the faint-hearted. A blog based upon Pansy's attempt to find a boy through internet dating. Well, something like that. That blog might still happen. It will likely be quite a rude blog though. And well, I do worry that Pansy is sick or something cos I ain't heard from her since Xmas. But before I start anything else, I figure I need to finish my favorite ten film list. It has only taken me weeks and weeks and well, weeks.
Last up in a Kubrick film. Now it isn't Paths of Glory, which is my favorite war film and has an actor I swore could have been John Turuttoro's father. It isn't 2001 which started me off reading all sorts of sci-fi (In part because I couldn't understand the film. Strangely enough Kubrick is responsible for getting me to read Stephen King for exactly the same reasons with The Shining). It is actually this film, which I saw in Berkeley with a french noir film Bob Le Flabeur. I'll admit it, there is nothing like two classic black and whites (after a really nice Italian meal in North Beach) to make you feel like a cultural elitist. And boy was I smug watching Reservoir Dogs and knowing I'd seen the source. Strangely my list begins with a crime film and ends with one. But even with my nifty new subscription to lovefilm.com, I still wish there was a good revival house somewhere in the Greater Belfast area. Because I love the big screen.
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The H got a green laser for Xmas. He loves it. All the boys love it. However, I would just like to point out to the FBI that we don't live in the states anymore.
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...And as I am at my number ten, I thought rather than reveal the last one (It's a Kubrick film, if you want a hing) I would actually blog about what didn't make the list. I most regret not having any room on my list for any Spike Lee. For a long, long time, Do the Right Thing was on the list. I really like Lee as a film-maker, even if he is just so New Yorkish. I actually like School Daze and somehow made my mother watch He Got Game, which she kind of enjoyed but was a bit puzzled by and well, Lee has used one of my favorite actors over and over again (See film choice #3) but he doesn't make the list. I don't have to think twice about not having Woody Allen on the list. Yes, I loved Sleeper. When I was 12. The H gave me a bunch of Charlie Kaufman for Xmas (The H sucked this year at presents. Sucked!) and even watching them over again, yes they are imaginative and all but no, not on the top ten list. Fight Club (Brad every day of the week and twice on Sunday, yeah, I hear you are single, Mr. Smelly) almost made it onto the list. So close. Great direction, great dialogue. And Beautiful Brad. It could climb up in years to come.
Speaking of Xmas, I didn't get a dvd subscription but I did get the job so I went out and signed myself up. Which means I can go to work on films I have always wanted to see but just failed at it. Top of the list is Touch of Evil. Really wanted to see it when they released the new print about 7 years ago. Missed it. Only ever seen snatches of it on late night BBC2. That is all going to change this week. I was quite excited that over Xmas they were going to show The Wicker Man on ITV. I was excited. Alas, thanks to the joys of Ulster Television, they didn't show it when I expected it and I was only told after the fact when it was shown. Now I have seen this film. I saw bits of it when I must of been on the cusp of adolesence. For years afterwards, I could recall scenes, dreamt about scenes, was astonished by the narrative hold it had one me. I thought perhaps I had imagined the whole thing, then caught it one night on late night television in my early college years. I was just so excited that it wasn't a figment of my mind but actually existed that I to this day can't recall if it was any good or if I liked it. I have to watch it to put some demons to sleep. A colleague sits at my shoulder. Must stop blogging now.
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Or is the person who sent this would prefer to be uncited. But yeah, I did like it:
Hello, my name is Bernie McGuinness, your name has been given to me by a
reliable mutual acquaintance who has advised me that you may be able to be
of assistance to me in a matter of business.
Our county has been occupied by a foreign power.
My husband Martin is a former education minister in the government of our
country, he and his party collegues are being persecuted by the occupiers of
our country for their political and religious beliefs.
My husband and his party collegues have accumulated party funds in the
region of £26 million Stg which they wish to relocate outside of the country
URGENTLY.
Please provide to me your personal banking details, account Nos, sort codes
etc and I will arrange for the money to be placed in your account.
In return for this service we will give to you 20% of the overall funds.
THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM NIGERIAN EMAIL SCAMS !!!
Should you wish to discuss this proposal further I can be contacted C/o
Frankie Ramseys, William Street, Derry - (I'm the one that pours the tae and
butters the bread)
Love
Bernie XXX
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Tomorrow night on Channel Five is number 8 on my list. I am tempted to just leave this blog entry with that. But really the story of this choice is really two stories. 1) about how I just don't do horror films and 2) a really good friend from university.
I don't do horror films. Really. Scary music comes on, I leave the room. Maybe we can trace it all back to early childhood memories of a brother who loved all those old black and white universal favorites like the Creature from the Black Lagoon and various Frankenstein's. Now having an older brother with a taste for the macabre wasn't all bad. He introduced me to the Godzilla oevre and well he absolutely loved both Omega Man and the Planet of the Apes series (yep, i've seen all five original films, the remake and can ever remember the tv series. is it any wonder I grew up to be a geek?) and well this love of Charlton Heston probably did presage my older brother's political leanings but I can watch all those films. No, I can. John Carpenter scares the bejeesus out of me. The Thing gave me nightmares. A different college roommate made me watch on video one night at her mother's (who was a big fan of Caligua and thought all master bedrooms should have a bathroom for the man and one for the woman. I, at the time, thought that was terribly over-the-top. I now see the wisdom of her home design). That same college roommate and her then boyfriend also made me go to see a Carpenter film in the cinema on Halloween. I enjoyed that Halloween. I was at university and had decided to go trick or treating despite it being my final year of university because I was inspired by the tale one guy told of how he had gone ringing doorbells in the neighborhood only to find Jimmy Stewart's house who had invited them all in for hot cocoa. I wanted to meet Jimmy Stewart. My friends agreed to drive me and another college student around Beverly Hills as we went door to door getting candy. My, you get large sizes of candy bars in Beverly Hills. That's all I am saying. That and I think a few domestic servants had been put on door duty. Anyway, took my haul back to the beat up old van that the then boyfriend drove and got talked into seeing what in my opinion is the scariest movie ever. Of course I use the term seeing loosely. As I remember it, the then boyfriend sat between me and the college roommate. We kept our heads buried into his shoulders. He explained what was happening on screen. Several years later, my younger brother was going through his horror film phase (reading fangoria, etc.) and came home with a video of Prince of Darkness. My then (almost married but called off wedding 8 days before) boyfriend was staying. Andrew said, "Do you want to watch?" I said, "No way. Its the scariest movie in the world. I am going to bed." The next day, after lunch my mother made me go and wake up said brother and boyfriend. I asked why they slept so late. It transpired that after they had watched the video, they had to stay up for several hours watching informercials before they felt ready to brave bed. Why would I put myself through that?
So anyway, number 8 isn't a horror film. Even if it is Mr. Carpenter. Again, I saw it at university with my first university boyfriend. We lasted a whole term (ten weeks and a week of finals) before breaking up at the Apple Pan and then going record shopping at Tower on Sunset. Needless to say, we remained on good terms after the break-up. I had come down to LA during the summer break to visit the new record shop that had opened near campus and well to see this film. Mainly because it had been written by the same guys who penned Buckaroo Banzai. I argue this is a better film. The guy concerned might disagree. Still, the day it came out on video, he drove up from the valley to my parents house and rented it so we could watch it again. Guess what I will be doing tomorrow night!
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