Today I feel good.

Not that my back feels 100%, or that the pain in my legs is gone. I just feel good. My spirit, my soul, feel.....good. We sealed the deal on a new home this week. I sold my grandfathers VW Westfalia after 4 months of trying. The sun is shining, and I think I have finally exhaled after about 4 months of holding my breath. How to celebrate? Hmmmm.........ah! I know, music. There is little else that can lift my spirits like great music. So what to put on? What fits the mood? Something catchy, something to tap your foot, shake your head, and just plain groove on.

I watched a couple of movies this week, What happens in Vegas & Mama’s Boy. It seems less unusual lately to find films in which the most redeeming parts of the movie occur either during the credits, or in the deleted scenes. I’m not sure what this says about these films. In the case of What happens in Vegas, there is a scene in the credits that makes the film worth sitting through, or at least skipping to the credits and just watching that. I literally rewound it and watched it four times in a row. Mama’s Boy has John Heder in it, the guy from Napoleon Dynamite. It had a few ok moments in it, but the stuff that made me laugh out loud was in the deleted scenes. So, where am I going with this? The most redeeming part of this movie? The Soundtrack. Heder plays a 29 year old pseudo mod who still lives at home with his mother. The soundtrack is full of great 80’s mod music like The English Beat, The Jam, Generation X, Scanners, The Proclaimers. There’s a scene where Heder imitates the classic scene from Say Anything with John Cusack where he stands on top of the car with the Boom Box and they use a Morrisey track. So I went looking for the soundtrack, and almost everything from the movie is on there, except for the pivotal Morrisey track. That pisses me off so much, I can’t understand how they can get permission to put the damn song in the movie but they can’t put it on the album, what’s up with that! There is however two tracks from the movie that Anna Faris’ character plays “Bed, Bath & Bullshit” and “Old Fashioned Girl” that are performed by Billy Bragg on the soundtrack. Good Old “Stick it to the Man” teenage angst performed by a true angster.

Speaking of movies and music, ThingTwo’s current favorite movie is Camp Rock. Subsequently, In order to get her to wear the new shoes and jeans that Sugarmomma bought her last week we had to convince her that they were “RockStar Jeans” and RockStar Shoes”. To be truthful they kind of are, Dark Jeans with big thick rolled up cuffs (because they have to last of course) and white leather shoes with black soles and purple & pink leather hearts on them, they’re pretty rockin’. Her favorite thing to do right now is “RockOut!”. Her favorute character in the movie is Shane Gray played by none other than Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, who are apparently a big deal right now. She informed us matter of factly that her “RockStar Clothes” were a present from Shane. Everytime Shane plays or sings in the movie she runs to ThingOne’s closet, drags out the acoustic guitar that Poppy bought ThingOne a couple of years ago and proceeds to “RockOut” with Shane. It would appear she has a crush on a teenage RockStar. Keep in mind she is not yet three.

It could be worse. ThingOne tends to gravitate towards the more “Glam” characters, ie. “Tess Tyler” the diva of Camp Rock. I had to point out to her how awfully mean the lyrics of Tess’s song were, and how mean she treated all of her friends. I tried to explain how she would not treat her friends like that, and how hurt she would be if her friends treated her like that. I think she has a raging case of what the Weaselmomma calls A.D.O.S. (Attention Deficit ......Ooohhhh Shiny!). ThingOne is a beautiful child with a heart of gold and is deeply passionate, about everything, and this can prove challenging when trying to impart my brand of timeless sage-like wisdom to her.

They are both hilarious to watch as they lip-sync to the songs in their current crop of favorite movies, they strut with the swagger of Jagger and belt it out like Aretha. They know all of the words, or at least think they do, and are not afraid to substitute indiscriminate sounds and words of languages known only to them in order to stay in time with the beat. It’s great.

So I spent the morning washing dishes, eating noodle soup, rockin’ out to tunes from high school with a little super-surfer-mellow-grooves courtesy of Donovan Frankenreiter thrown in for good measure. I just picked up a little eye-candy at the bookstore last night in the form of the Transworld SURF magazine’s annual Photo Issue and noticed a picture of Donovan and his son, Hendrix. He named his son Hendrix! (at least I’m assuming it’s his son) How cool is that?

Today I feel good. Rock On.

BBD.

Tags: Music, Feelin Good, Soul

SugarMomma and I watched P.S. I Love You recently. I picked it out. I cried. I smiled. I laughed. It reminded me of music i had not heard in a long time. Specifically “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues. I love this song, but then again so does everybody. I however, got to see the Pogues live when I was in High School, at The Concert Hall in Toronto, with my dad. It was f*^%ing awesome. I got to see Shane MacGowan, so drunk he could barely stand, stop in the middle of a song, and demand that pair of meatheads in the middle of the crowd stop fighting because in his words, “You don’t fight at a f*^%ing Pogues show!” He wouldn’t start again until they had been thrown out. So this movie, and this song sent me on a quest. I know I own “If I Should Fall From Grace with God” on cassette, and that cassette lives somewhere in my basement, but this is the new millenium, so where do i go? iTunes of course.( I don’t mind paying for music). So while I’m looking through the catalogue of Pogues music they have on there, they hooked me with the “Others also Bought” Section, and wasn’t it a trip down the lane. The Engllish Beat, The Clash, Billy Bragg.....You might call me a sucker, i prefer the term “enthusiast”. I like what I like, and i like it deeply. I came across some new stuff though, Amos Lee, pretty cool, he sounds different on every track. I especially dig “Street Corner Preacher”. I know I’m 2 years too late but the Ok Go album with the treadmill video song is really good for what it is. I can’t forget the new one by G.Love and Special Sauce, “Superhero Brother”, go G.Love. Now I just have to pre-listen them all and create some ShortThing friendly playlists so I can get them singing along!

I Love Music. I f*^%ing love it. I can’t get enough. I love how a song can conjure up a memory so vividly that you can feel it in your other senses. I would like to think that one day I will muster up the discipline to learn to play again. I used to play, albeit Tuba, in the high school band, but it was still music. I’m sure it’s just like riding a bike, which I can still do.....

BBD.

Tags: Punk, Nostalgia, Music, Rebellion