Loneliness is a cloak you wear

As I was doing dishes tonight, I was listening to my iPod and a Cher song I had completely forgotten about played. Taken from what is probably my favorite Cher album, It's A Man's World, "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" is one of those Cher songs that, when you think about it, is perfect for Cher. Made famous in 1966 by The Walker Brothers, it's a melancholy song that makes great use Cher's lower register. It was used to great effect in The X-Files episode "The Post-Modern Prometheus," an episode in which Cher (as well as Roseanne Barr) was asked to appear, but she declined. Cher later regretted that decision, although probably not as much as she regretted the Lori Davis informercials.

As I said, the song has a melancholy streak a half a mile wide, and it is very autumnal. As my friend Steve said, I am over this summer shit. I want cold bones and moods and rain. This song fits in very well alongside other such autumnal hits of Dan like October Project and Madonna's Erotica album. The first line alone gets me "Loneliness is a cloak you wear/A deep shade of blue is always there." Let's have a listen. This version is clearly not live, which is a shame because Cher really can sing live.



Not one to forget where her bread is buttered, Cher also commissioned a couple of dance remixes for the clubs. I have a few remixes of this song in my iTunes library, but I don't know that any of them are official remixes. They are a bit hit and miss, which is par for the course with Cher remixes. For every "Believe (Almighty Definitive Mix)" you get at least two completely unlistenable remixes. These aren't bad, but they kind of wreck the melancholy of the song, even though sometimes melancholy mixed with a driving dance beat works much better than you might imagine.

While I was listening to this song, I got to thinking about all the other people that have recorded it. Of course, you have the Walker Brothers original. Another worthy version is by Keane, who usually can nail melodic melancholy pop. They do a pretty good job on this one.



It's not quite Cher, but really, what can be? The only other version of this song I have "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" is the high-nrg version by Quantize from the Gay Classics series which puts together a bunch of songs that really don't go all that well together if you think about it . Anyway, I'm pretty sure I snagged this song off of Audioscrobbler back in the day. I'm not sure this works any better than Cher's attempts to rework this for the gay clubs, but you certainly can't fault them for trying. And besides, I have kind of a soft spot for those high-nrg covers of popular songs by unknown artists.



Still, for my money, Cher has the best version. Why? Because, as is pointed out on Twitter nearly daily, she's fucking Cher.

Related posts: Cher's It's A Man's World album revisited, as well as my post on "The Post-Modern Prometheus" episode of The X-Files.

My inner Mulder

My folks came over to Ames yesterday for the adoption party the Jan & Sarah were throwing for their four kids and they arrived bearing gifts. Well, actually A gift. For me. As it turns out, they had gone to the Clay County Fair this week. It seems like they go every year. A few years back, they saw a pre-out-of-the-closet Clay Aiken in concert at the Clay County Fair. Last year, they found a 12" Doctor Octopus that I proudly added to my collection of random pop culture bits that I have in my office.

This year, my mom and dad completely outdid themselves, because this is what they brought me.


It's an alien baby! In a lava lamp like apparatus! My mom told the guy that she bought it from "this is for my 38-year-old son who is going on 7." I would say more like going on 12, but whatever.

The Fox Mulder in me is positively giddy because, as my brother-in-law pointed out on Facebook - it might be a REAL alien baby! It bears a remarkable resemblance to the alien fetus in the X-Files episode "The Erlenmeyer Flask" which I think I'm going to have to rewatch today since today is going to be nothing but lazing about exerting as little energy as possible. Witness:


So if I end dying mysteriously soon, you'll know why. It will be up to my loyal friends and family (and people who stumble upon this blog via random searches) to make sure my death was not in vain. THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE.

A couple more pictures, just because my mom and dad are so damn awesome.

Happy happy joy joy

It's 2 days till Christmas and we're due to get ice, rain, thunderstorms, and heavy snow all before Saturday. The next thing you know, there'll be a tornado. Anyway, I work Christmas this year which always causes this outpouring of grief and sympathy from people but really, I haven't worked it since 2006 so it really is my turn. And I do have the weekend off so no big deal.

So since the weather it so much crap, I took advantage of the last day at home and finally watched "The Post-Modern Prometheus," a 5th season episode of The X-Files. It had been built up by many an X-Phile, so I was half waiting for it to be disappointingly underwhelming, a victim of my own lofty expectations. I am happy to say that nothing could be further from the truth. It was everything I love about The X-Files - intriguing, unpredictable and a little bit scary. While the mythology arc of The X-Files is endlessly fascinating to me, sometimes it's these one-off episodes that stand out the most.

For those that don't know, "The Post-Modern Prometheus" is an homage to the Frankenstein story. Frankenstein's Monster is, in this case, The Great Mutato. He is the product of genetic experimentation gone horribly awry and as a result, he has been hidden away from the rest of the townspeople. All he wants is a mate, someone to be wih and to spend his life with. The pursuit of that goal, through some rather questionable tactics, is what leads Mulder & Scully to town.

This episode shines because of strong writing and the strength of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in their roles. Anderson, as Scully, is always the skeptic, the foil to Mulder's unfailing belief. At one point in the episode, Scully asks "Is there anything you don't believe in, Mulder?" which he (wisely) never answers. Additionally, Cher plays a rather substantial role in the story, after we find out that The Great Mutato is a huge fan of Cher's, based upon her portrayal of Rusty Dennis in Mask.

I've mentioned in previous X-Files posts that Mulder & Scully are always written so serious and the characters always have to play it so straight that when they do get a chance to be funny or let their hair down a bit, it's jarring at first and then such a relief. We don't get quite the "funny" in this episode that we got in "Detour" or "War of the Coprophages," as the subject matter of the episode doesn't really lend itself to comedy. Instead, what we get is joy and happiness that is also frequently denied the viewers when watching Mulder & Scully. Mulder especially, never seems to smile, and Scully is equally serious. But at the end of "The Post-Modern Prometheus," you get a glimpse this. Mulder & Scully inexplicably take The Great Mutato to a Cher concert (a lookalike playing in the tiniest venue EVER), and while the excitement and joy in The Great Mutato is obvious, you can see it in our intrepid FBI agents as well - especially Mulder. Have a look:

I love how much he is smiling in this photo. And then, many X-Files fans probably got what they wanted when Mulder asks Scully to dance. I still don't buy the sexual tension between them - I mean, yes, it's there, but it feels almost incestuous.



The only way this episode could have been improved is if the producers had gotten their original wish and had Roseanne Barr and Cher cast in the episode. Both declined citing scheduling conflicts, although I remember reading somewhere that Cher regretted not appearing in the episode. The song placement felt oddly like a commercial for Cher's It's A Man's World album, but since the episode aired a full year and a half after the release of that album, we can chalk that up to me being cynical.

One of the all-time best episodes.

Not the morning I expected

I had grand plans for this morning, which should have been my first clue that things would NOT go according to plan. I did manage to get a couple of e-mails I've been meaning to send sent out, but beyond that, nothing. I have a blog post cooking that I am very eager to write - one that I intended to start this morning. Did not happen. The problem with blogging is I always get the urge and inspiration to write while I am at work. That is decidedly not happening. Ever.

I did do 15 minutes on the bike this morning while I watched an episode of The X-Files. The episode was "Small Potatoes" in which a man is able to change his appearance at will and eventually turns into Mulder. It was obviously fun for David Duchovny to play that dual role, but I thought the writing was predictable and boring and it has made me not want to get the next disc in the series right away. I think I am going to get the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got To Do With It which I haven't seen since college and I have kind of been into the song "I Don't Wanna Fight" recently.



So as the Eddie Izzard joke goes, the best laid plans of mice and men. Exactly which mice plans was he really honing in here on? But my plans did definitely gang aft aglay.

Scully & Mulder workin' 9 to 5

This is the Dan equivalent of "your chocolate is in my peanut butter!" What a fantastic amalgam of two of my very favorite things. Totally worth watching.



(Confidential to my female sibling: Duchovny must have had creative control here as well as he is shirtless within the opening minute!)

Tattoo you

I just had one of those moments where I vividly remember a dream from last night that I had pretty much forgotten about all day long. I dreamt last night that I was getting a tattoo, and I was incredibly nervous about it. I had my arm out and whoever was doing the tattoo started in, even though I tried to jerk my arm away. I remember being nervous that it was going to hurt, but it didn't for some reason. I also remember it being just one little spot on my forearm that was being worked on.

When they were done, I had this elaborate tattoo all over my inner forearm and all the way up to my shoulder. What's even better is the entire upper arm was white, but the bottom was reindeer in a line all around my forearm, connected with little reins. I remember being just shocked at what the person doing the tattoo had done, and how I would never be able to wear short sleeves to work ever again.

I looked up what dreaming of tattooing means, and I found a variety of interpretations. They range from the what you'd expect (dreaming that you have tattoos represents individuality and a desire to stand out; wanting to be unique and different from everyone else) to the depressing (you are the object of a stranger's jealousy, someone from you past is hunting you, a difficulty will result in a long and tedious absence from your home.)

Mostly, I just think it's my slightly sick and still recovering from working overnights subconscious on overdrive. But as Fox Mulder says, "Dreams are the answers to questions we haven't yet figured out how to ask."

But don't worry, no real tattoos in my future. I'm too much of a wimp.