Seven songs from my summer (so far)

The one good thing about having a computer crash that requires you to completely reinstall everything is that, even though you lose your iTunes play counts *sob*, you find yourself in the unique position of totally shaking up the Top 25 Most Played playlist. Some of the most interesting songs are in mine right now - the top song has a mere seven plays. So I thought, what the hell, let's do another seven songs post. They're always fun and if you aren't careful, some of you might find a present in your inbox. Here we go.

1) Carrie Newcomer / Before & After
Very much in the vein of Mary Chapin Carpenter, this is so much more a fall song than a summer song. If you listen closely, you'll even hear MC squared on harmony vocals.
Choice lyric: I've lived on fumes and religious corn flakes.



2) Madonna /Run
If the "Broken" demo didn't exist, it'd be the hands down best Madonna demo out there. A nice mix of William Orbit blips and bleeps with a very rocky guitar. Straight forward vocals by Madonna make this better than anything on Hard Candy. I read somewhere once that Madonna's voice is remarkable only in its familiarity and I feel like that's so true here.
Choice lyric: Don't ask me to slow down/I don't wanna go down/You won't catch me lookin' back/Coz people like me don't live like that.



3) Annie / Me Plus One
Probably my favorite song that spells (which is a post all its own), I've never cared much for most of Annie's other stuff, but this is perfection.
Choice lyric: Mrs. D, Mrs. I, Mrs. F-F-I, Mrs. C, Mrs. U-L-T. If ever there's a girl that could rock your world/Then that girl sure is me.



4) Blondie / Love Doesn't Frighten Me
My favorite song on Blondie's fanfuckingtastic new album (I like it 100 times more than No Exit and The Curse of Blondie combined), I still can't get over how little Debbie Harry's voice has aged.
Choice lyric: All this nothing is real something/It's time spent.



5) Duran Duran / (Reach Up For The) Sunrise
I have gone on record in several places that Astronaut is my favorite DD album - heresy in DD circles, I'm sure. But there simply isn't a bad song on that album and the first single is very indicative of the album as a whole.
Choice lyric: You can touch the sunrise/Feel the new day enter your life.



6) Erick Macek / Aries Man
I have my friend Bess to thank for introducing me to Erick Macek. He's kind of a cross between Jason Mraz and Eric Hutchinson and although that's kind of the last thing this world needs, his stuff really works for me. I downloaded this on a whim because of the astrology reference. Now if someone would just do a song called "Gemini Man."
Choice lyric: You gotta learn to be patient/And feel the pride/Cuz I'm an Aries Man inside.

7) Chesney Hawkes / The One & Only
Total soft spot for this song. It feels like an 80s song even though technically it's 90s. We never heard from Chesney Hawkes again, but this was enough for me. I always love a song that makes you feel good and this one does it for me. I remember listening to it during my darkest moments trying desperately to make myself believe it. And what do you know? It finally worked.
Choice lyric: No one can be myself like I can/For this job, I'm the best man.

Tall people

Apparently, Friday was Hug a Tall Person Day. Normally, I don't get into these fake, made up holidays but as someone who is fairly tall, I must say that I didn't get nearly the hugs I was hoping for. But hey, win some and lose some. It did, however, get me to thinking about my favorite tall people. Naturally, my 6-foot-tall wife and my tall-for-her-age daughter are far and away my two favorite tall people. But of course, there are some others. Who knows, maybe I would have hugged them today. No particular order, as usual.

1) Robert Wadlow
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, he was the tallest person that ever lived, measuring 8'11" (or something like that.) I can't even imagine being that tall. Anyway, Wadlow grew so tall thanks to an overfunctioning pituitary gland that secreted wild amounts of growth hormone. He only lived 22 years, dying from a cellulitis caused by a leg brace, but even then, he showed no signs that his growing had stopped. I remember Wadlow being one of the subjects of the HBO special Some Call Them Freaks which was on when I was a kid. It kind of freaked me out, as did Wadlow.

2) The Tall Man (from Phantasm)
Jesus Christ, is Phantasm one fucked up movie or what. I've seen it several times and I still don't think I could give a synopsis of the plot. That said, the Tall Man is one scary m.f. He runs Morningside Mortuary and, as near as I can tell, is using human bodies as slaves on his planet (dimension?) He has super human strength and yellow blood and well, what can you say. I hope that Angus Scrimm has squeezed every last ounce of coolness out of playing such a titular character. I think it's probably high time for a rewatch of that entire series.

3) Treebeard
While technically not a person, you can't deny that Treebeard is most certainly tall.

4) Jack Skellington
I never saw The Nightmare Before Christmas until just last year, and I have to admit that it was better than I expected. It scared Anna (of course) but the influence it had on Corpse Bride, which I think is the better of the two pictures, is palpable. I have no idea how tall he is in his world, but man, he seems like he'd be the tallest thing around with legs that just go on and on. I totally should go as Jack Skellington for Halloween some year, it would be a piece of cake.

5) Wonder Woman
Again, don't know how tall she actually is, but she's an Amazon so she must be tall, right? She will forever be Woman, Wonder to Jeff and me (that's pronounced Woman Comma Wonder), and the ultimate potrayal of her will always be Lynda Carter's in the TV show from the 70s. She'll make the Axis fold, stop a war with love, make a hawk a dove and make a liar tell the truth. You're a wonder, Wonder Woman!

So if there are any tall people in your life that you didn't hug, get to it! Even though Hug A Tall Person Day is history, as a wise person once said (Kylie, I think), it's never too late!

Zombies of a different color

Lance tweeted to me tonight that he was watching the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead which, for those that don't know, features a zombie baby. This got me to thinking - most zombies in zombie movies are interchangeable. They're slow (or fast, depending on the movie), decomposing, bloody and looking for human flesh to consume. It's not like them to stand out in the zombie horde. But there are some that have - zombie baby being one of them. Here's some other ones I thought of.

1) Nurse Zombie (Dawn of the Dead, 1978)
Nurse Zombie is easily the most memorable zombie from the original Dawn of the Dead. However, I've never been able to figure out what a nurse was doing at the mall in full uniform. Did she do the zombie shuffle from a nearby hospital? Was she at the uniform shop? The world may never know.

2) Zombie Dixieland Band (Land of the Dead, 2004)
Dawn of the Dead may feature the only zombie pie-fight in cinematic history, but 2004's Land of the Dead does it one better by having what, to my knowledge, is the only zombie Dixieland band. In the opening moments of the movie, you see zombies in a park gazebo with a trumpet, a trombone and a saxaphone all trying to play the instruments as if they were still living. I don't remember tons about that movie, but the zombie Dixieland band really stuck with me.

3) Hare Krishna Zombie (Dawn of the Dead, 1978)
Another rather unforgettable member of the undead mall walking club in Dawn of the Dead, Hare Krishna zombie helps us to remember that yes, this movie was made in the 70s. The only thing that gives away his zombie nature is his shuffling gate and faint blue skin. And although it's been a while since I've seen the movie, I'm pretty sure that he's the one that first finds the heroes' hiding place although he ultimately does no harm. There is an action figure of this that would go quite well with my Fly Boy Zombie and Plaid Shirt Zombie from the same movie, but alas, I have not yet purchased it.

4) Half-a-girl Zombie (The Walking Dead, 2010)
One of the first real zombies we see in the pilot of The Walking Dead, I was amazed to find out that this zombie, who is nothing but head, arms and torso was pretty much entirely done with CG. There is an actress there, made up and snarling and what not, but the bottom half of her has been green-screened out a la Lt. Dan's legs in Forrest Gump. When we originally watched it, we weren't sure if that was an amputee or if it was CG or if somehow they had cleverly disguised her lower half so as to give the image of a legless zombie. It showed that the best kind of CG is the CG you don't know is there.

5) Corpse Bride (Corpse Bride, 2005)
If you really think about it, Corpse Bride is a zombie movie. It's not one in the traditional sense, but the Corpse Bride is a reanimated corpse, right? And Scraps, the all bones dog - is that a zombie dog? Animals are usually immune to zombification, but as Brian Keene has pointed out, anything's possible when it comes to living things being zombified. The Corpse Bride makes this list if, for no other reason, than because she is the best looking zombie I've ever seen.

Did I miss any?

Ring ring ring goes the telephone

I heard it said once that it's impossible for a song about phones to be bad. I don't remember where I read this, but I do remember thinking that seemed like quite a blanket statement. Surely this can't be true. Well, as it turns out, if it's not always true, it certainly is 99% of the time. So I went through my iTunes library using the search terms "phone" and "call" just to see what I had. From those results and from some songs I already knew would make the cut, I've culled my top 8.

1) Hung Up / Madonna
The most obvious choice for this list is probably my favorite telephone song. I think my favorite part about it is the play on words that is the phrase "hung up" in that she is hung up on the guy and also "hangin' up" on him. Some of the remixes went a step further, incorporating ringing phones, dial tones and "please hang up and try again" into the song. It's classic Madonna and a song that deserves its place amongst her best-known 80s hits.

2) Telephone / Lady Gaga & Beyonce
This was the song on The Fame Monster that I never really got into. Not even its cinematic video really sold me on it. It wasn't until the folks over at NPR did their spoof of it that I really began to appreciate it. Now, one of our favorite things to do is to say "stop calling, stop calling, I don't wanna talk anymore/I left my head and my heart on the dance floor" in our best Robert Siegel.



3) Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair) / Sheena Easton
In the running for the cheesiest song on this list, it certainly has the cheesiest video. I mean, seriously? Frankenstein's Monster and Dracula? This is a quintessential "80s song" for me - right up there with early 80s classics like "Total Eclipse of the Heart," "Down Under," and "True." Say what you will about the production values on those cheesy old 80s songs - they don't make them like this any longer. I can't even imagine someone like Sheena Easton getting a chance these days.



4) I Wish The Phone Would Ring / Expose
Expose were heading toward the end of their hit-making days in 1993 (although the gag-inducing "I'll Never Get Over You (Getting Over Me)" was just around the corner), but for my money, this song tops all the hits from their brief 80s heyday. Barbra Streisand would probably put this in her "dependent victim songs" category. The song is about nothing more than waiting for that special someone to call, hatching the phone as one of my friends used to call it. Sure it's co-dependent and playing the victim, but never has it sounded like quite so much fun.



5) Callin' Baton Rouge / Garth Brooks
"Callin' Baton Rouge" also belongs on the "country songs I like so much more than I should list." As a rule, I don't like Garth Brooks much (too many college nights in bars with drunk frat guys singing along to "Friends In Low Places") but this song is a major exception. I think it's the fact that, at 2 minutes 38 seconds, it doesn't overstay its welcome and the rather awkward prepositional phrase "But until then I'll spend my money up right down to my last dime" that seal the deal. A great 90s country song.

6) Hanging On The Telephone / Blondie
I deliberately didn't pick "Call Me" which is arguably more well known but I do like this one better. While not a Blondie original, they did make it famous. My sister Wendy and I have always been fond of the line "Did she go to work or just go to the store?"

7) Ring Ring / ABBA
When word leaked that Madonna might be sampling ABBA for the kick-off single from Confessions on a Dance Floor, "Ring Ring" was high atop everyone's list of possibilities - well, everyone's list but mine since I didn't even know this song until I sought it out around that time. And forget what I said about Sheena having the cheesiest song and video on this list. I should have known that ABBA would win that, hands down.



8) He's On The Phone / Saint Etienne
"He's On The Phone" was the very first Saint Etienne song I heard, thanks to a friend via last.fm. It's not surprising that I took to Saint Etienne as Sarah Cracknell is, in many ways, very Debbie Harry. Cool and detached but decidedly more pop and less punk, she fits the band like a glove.



Of course, this list is not all inclusive - which of your favorites did I miss?

Five favorite books

Heidi did this a while back, and I always meant to do it as well. Then Christmas happened and I lost track of it and I thought why not now? What she did was very simple - she picked her five favorite books. When I sat down to do it, I found out that it only seemed simple. I thought I'd give it a go anyway.

1) Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney


This is hands down my favorite book. It's not a high art. It's not great literature. It's not even particularly original, borrowing its structure liberally from Salinger's A Catcher In The Rye. But nonetheless, this book spoke to me. New York City in this book spoke to me. The unnamed narrator spoke to me, adding countless lines to my vocabulary ("there's a certain shabby nobility in failing all by yourself" is one of many.) Without this book, I would be without "men don't trust other men who don't watch the Super Bowl" which started me down the road to being really interested in the nature and definition of masculinity. Add to that it reads like a train running down the track at breakneck speed. To borrow from the book itself, it is decadence, debauchery, and drugs and how one man finds redemption from a world spinning out of control. Highly HIGHLY recommended.

2) And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts


This book literally changed my life. Randy Shilts harrowing account of the early days of the AIDS epidemic was the first thing I ever read on AIDS that really crystallized the reality of it for me. It reads like something you hope is fiction, as otherwise healthy young gay men start dropping like flies from obscure illnesses. It also chronicles the incompetence of the federal government, scientists more interested in notoriety than in curing sick people and the deafening silence of a man named Ronald Reagan. Reading this book made my walk past the Stonewall Inn in New York and through "gay New York City" in 2008 a very somber affair. I read this book every couple of years - you should too.

3) A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving


Although I haven't been able to read anything by Irving since A Son of the Circus, I knew he'd be on this list. It came down to this one and The World According To Garp, and Owen Meany won by a hair. Like all of Irving's books, it is sweeping and covers decades and is chock full of tragedy and enormous amounts of what appears to be insignificant detail. But it's also funny and amazing and I love how everything that's happened in the previous 400 pages all comes together for an ending I really didn't see coming. This really was Irving at his peak. He's become pretty much insufferable now.

4) Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer


I didn't think I gave a shit about mountain climbing, and the fact is, I don't. But I sure did while I was reading this book. A first hand account of an attempt to reach the summit of Mt. Everest that goes terribly wrong, this book grabs you by the shirt in the and doesn't let go. Krakauer's writing is top notch and even the technicalities of mountain climbing are become not only interesting but also important in understanding the story. It topped his Under The Banner of Heaven which I expected to like more than I did and even Into The Wild. The man was truly humbled by his experience on the mountain.

5) The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon


Heidi cited The Adventures of Kavalier & Klay in her list, and I enjoyed that book tremendously as well. But for me, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh has the edge. I think that the fact that I am male and she is female made all the difference here. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is really a book about guys. It's about how they relate to each other and how women affect that. It's about unrequited love and lust and the crazy things that you can only do in your youth. I expected it to make me a bit sad for missed opportunities, but really it didn't. It sometimes tries a little too hard to be literary (a trap Kavalier & Klay avoids), but I somehow managed to forgive that. Six months after reading it, I have a hard time remembering what actually happened, but I can remember how it made me feel. And that's a sign of a good book.

6 random songs

I'm staying up late tonight (not by choice - I've been up since 4AM-ish) so lucky everyone, I'm doing a blog post to ring in December right. 6 random songs from my iTunes library and no more than three sentences on each.

1) Dear Anne Sexton / Vanessa Daou
I love Vanessa Daou's Zipless album from start to finish - it has a very Erotica feel to it only without the couple of significant duds that otherwise mar Erotica. This is quite possibly the only song that has prompted me to move a biography of a poet into my to-be-read pile.

2) Let It Will Be (Live - Confessions Tour) / Madonna
I remember loving the choreography for this song on the tour, thinking how it had been so long since we'd seen Madonna dance that organically. I also remember that her vocals were God-awful during this song at that show we saw in Vegas. It's not much better on the DVD, but at least it still sounds live.



3) Whataya Want From Me / Adam Lambert
I bought the Adam Lambert album on AmazonMP3 for $3.99 on the day of its release. At first, it was only okay, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it. This song is written by Pink, and I honestly can't believe she didn't keep this one for herself.

4) Rubberband Girl / Kate Bush
I am not a huge Kate Bush fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like several of her songs and "Rubberband Girl" is one of them.

5) June Afternoon / Roxette
Man, Roxette is so embarrassing, but they really did do some pretty awesome pop songs. One of the first things I remember about Heidi is how Roxette was really the only pop music she listened to. Needless to say, her tastes have expanded significantly.

6) Say You Really Want Me / Kim Wilde
Kim Wilde's work is so amazingly uneven that sometimes I'm tempted to just write her off completely. But when she's good, she's brilliant - and this is one of those songs. It was never the hit it should have been (it has a killer bridge), but then at least it didn't suffer from overplay.



I would be interested to see what other people come up with. If you want to do it, go for it.