Raised on R

So tonight, I was looking for the Joni Mitchell song "Raised on Robbery" in my iTunes. It is one of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs - seriously, those of you who dismiss Joni as just a flaky folk singer from the 60s know not what you do. Anyway, I typed in "raised on r" into the search box, which was far more than I needed to type to find it, and not only did it bring up "Raised on Robbery", it also brought up something a bit unexpected.

I am no Journey fan by any stretch of the imagination, and it just goes to show how little I cull my iTunes that this entire album is still taking up space on my hard drive. Clearly, I am an archivist afraid to delete anything on the off chance that I might want to listen to it sometime 22 years from now.

Now I say I'm no Journey fan, and if that is true, why have I listened to "Girl Can't Help It" 25 times? That's twice as much as I have listened to "Raised on Robbery"! Well, "Girl Can't Help It" snuck its way onto my favorites playlist (all 5 star rated songs) a while back and, what can I say? Truthfully though, Raised on Radio isn't THAT bad of Journey album. It's definitely more of the same from them, and the well was starting to run dry, especially since it's one of the last Journey records with Steve Perry. I think I have that vinyl somewhere, but I don't think it's worthy to go up on the vinyl wall of fame.

Journey is at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand this year, playing a double bill with Heart. I was tempted, mostly because of Heart, but ultimately decided against it because $45 is a lot of a show at the State Fair and also because I'm not that big of a Journey fan.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, even though while writing this post, I have listened to nearly half of Raised on Radio.

Questions from Heidi

It is past time to start answering some of these questions that came my way via Heidi, Jeff, Caryle and Mary because of the 5 questions meme. At first, I thought about putting these on my dust-covered LiveJournal that I only keep around for commenting on other people's LJs, but then I decided, no, I'll just do it here. So here we go. The first set of five questions comes from Heidi because that's just the way it is.

(Incidentally, if you choose to comment on this post, don't expect questions from me. I'm tapped out. But far be it for me to discourage comments.)

1. So, be honest. WHY do you think David Tennant is so attractive--I don't just mean to you or to me, but in general. I'm talking the whole package: the person, the physique, the everything.

Leave it to Heidi to start out with asking a question that concerns my mancrush, David Tennant. I'm not ashamed and totally comfortable admitting to that! There are many reasons why I think that Tennant is just so damn cool (and why he ends up being my avatar more often than not.) First off, he comes off as a big kid, someone who will sit and talk the minutiae of whatever obscure 12-year-old boy thing you can think of until the cows come home. You can tell this by the pure and unadulterated joy he so obviously gets from playing the Doctor. He also has the geeky cute and cool thing down to a science. I could only hope to reach Tennant levels of that! He also proves that tall, lanky guys that are not built CAN be famous. Plus, I would pay large sums of money to have his hair.

Naturally, I don't know Tennant and will almost certainly never meet him (never say never), so who knows if any of that is accurate. Mostly, he just seems like a genuinely nice guy that would be cool to hang out with, someone who would be a cool friend to have and meet up for lunch every so often. And then talk 12-year-old boy things to death.

But he could be a total dick (although I doubt it.) There's a reason why it's best to keep your distance from your heroes.

2. What is the best movie/fiction monster, and why is it the best one? (You define what best is, btw.)

This is an easy one and the answer to this will come as no surprise to most people: zombies. Zombies are truly the best movie monsters of all, although as I was telling Thomas, it is much more of a challenge to translate the visceral terror of a zombie apocalypse in a book than it is in a movie. The reason they are the best movie monster is really twofold. The first reason is they are us. How many people have bitten it (no pun intended) in zombie movies because they made the mistake of thinking that some shred of humanity remained in their zombified loved one? The fact that any of us could be a zombie makes it truly terrifying. Also, the exponential growth of the zombie mob ensures their survival. What they lack in speed, they make up for in numbers.

3. You get a one night stand with no repercussions with one member of the BVTS gang. Who do you take with you into the closet? Or are you holding out for Scully?

While the natural tendency would be to say Cordelia aka Charisma Carpenter (not that I would ever dream of turning her down either), I think I am going to shock the hell out of everyone and pick someone unexpected - Jenny Calendar. Although not technically a member of the Buffy gang, she did play a key role in Season Two and since anyone in on the whole "Buffy's the Slayer?" thing is immediately a member of the gang, I think it counts. She had this whole sexy yet nerdy, smart and down to earth thing going on. She was spunky and independent which beats the hell out of some weeping violet. And when she turned out to be part of the gypsy clan that cursed Angel, well, who saw that coming?

But yeah, I'm totally holding out for Scully.

4. You are in charge of a U.S. federal agency for one day and you have the full power and money to do ONE thing. You can build a bridge or set up a train or pay off something or fire somebody or reverse a decision. Full power over everything, and it's lasting, but you have ONE shot. What do you do?

My inclination is to do something like keep a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage from ever seeing the light of day in the U.S. Constitution, but since that does little to actually change people's minds, I would probably get into the Transportation Department and get light rail going in this country like it should be. We don't all need to be driving our cars to get everywhere we need to get to!

5. Best moment from your childhood: the one that makes your heart glow just to think of it. Could be obscure or could be a recurring event.

Well, it's not the Branded bike, that's for sure! Although I'm not sure I would trade that memory either, even though it is not a warm and fuzzy one.

I think it's probably that summer of 1986, age 14. It was my favorite summer of music of my adolescence. I was about to head into high school. True Blue was released, for God's sake. We took a family vacation to the Grand Canyon and listened to more Bee Gees and 5th Dimension than should be legal. I watched "One Day At A Time" reruns on Channel 8 every weeknight at 11. Sure, it wasn't all roses, but I always think of it fondly and really, it's the reason why I like this music video so much.



It was the very first Heart video I ever saw! Ann's hair is insane, but just thinking of it reminds me of that summer.

A predictable rant

For those of you reading from outside the confines of Iowa, be happy that you are not living here right now.

The phone has rung 5 times in the last hour (probably would have been more if I hadn't spent a half an hour on the phone with my brother) and EVERY SINGLE TIME it has been a political call. It has either been a political survey or an automated call from Hilary or Obama or whoever. It is damn annoying. It is still at least two months till the caucuses and it cannot possibly come soon enough. Perhaps this time around, it's the lack of a clear personal favorite like there was the last time, but this presidential election (which hasn't even really started yet) is really getting old.

So I've decided to whip out Heart's Dreamboat Annie tonight. And what that has to do with the above, I couldn't tell you. I do know that there's a new live version of Dreamboat Annie out today, and I went to iTunes and listened to the samples and really, all it did was make me want to listen to the original. So I saved my $9.99 and listened to the classic.

I bought Dreamboat Annie when I was in late high school, when really, all I knew of Heart was their late 80s arena rock band incarnation. I had no idea they did the kind of music that is contained on Dreamboat Annie! While it is rockin' stuff, it is so different in style and tone than the albums they put out from about 1985 on. Consequently, it did not impress me all that much and I put it away, nearly selling it on several different occasions (the horror!)

I finally appreciated Dreamboat Annie for the classic that it is in the mid-90s when I had a huge Heart renaissance thanks to The Road Home. On a record that contains such recognizable songs as "Magic Man," "Crazy On You, " and the title track, I think my favorite track is still "(Love Me Like Music) I'll Be Your Song." It has such a strong melody and the chorus is simply aces, referring especially to the "sometimes I'm not so strong/but even now I could be wrong" part. I love the nuances of Ann's voice - she is truly a great rock singer. (watch it here - it won't let me embed.)

I may or may not pick up the new live album. But mostly, it has reminded me of a classic album that I don't frequently think about.