ornithology. records. abusing my liver. exploring the balance between peace and chaos. reading watching creating. these sorts of things. animals. excess.
eat it
It all started listening to those Looney Tunes, Disneyland story 45’s Cricket , Silly Songs, and Mamas and Papas records. Puff the Magic Dragon. I used to listen to my mom's Rhinestone Cowboy LP and wonder if Glen Campbell and the band were actually inside the speakers.
I also listened to The Monkees plus a lot of Elton John's greatest hits and whatever else my sister was listening to
Then i joined the Kiss army. This dude living next to me, Chris Jones, casually turned me on to Devo as soon as he heard that I was into Kiss, I think because he wanted to challenge me. He had a sister named Pipa (they were Aussies) who was one of my babysitter crushes. Man that girl could draw. Anyways, that first metal phase peaked when I got Kiss Alive II for Christmas. Check out this photo of me (coming soon)right after I unwrapped that bad-ass: (Yes I know Kiss Alive is a cooler record, but gimme a break I was like 7 or something). Then I went upstairs to listen to it in my room. I came back down a few minutes later, disappointed. I thought there was defect in the recording until my mom explained to me that it was a “Live†record and the static I heard was the awesome roar of the crowd. Silly kid, you’ve got the Metal on the brainz. Then I heard the line in "Surrender" from Cheap Trick Live at Budokan about "got my Kiss records out" and I thought that was absolutely the coolest thing ever.
Sometime after that I got into such things as The Police and Genesis I started recording dozens of cassettes of what I was hearing on KSHE-95. My mom used to let my younger brother and I take a city bus to St.Louis Centre which I don’t think exists anymore (we were around 11 and 8 at the time) where we would get Rocky Roccoco’s Pizza and I’d buy my Led Zeppelin and The Who cassettes. My brother in law took me to Vintage Vinyl when I was 13 or so, back when it was in the store next to the Tivoli around the same time my sister took me to see The Rocky Horror at the Varsity, up the street (which, now that I mention it, is where Vintage Vinyl now is located, as seen here: ). Anyways, on with the story... I bought Black Sabbath's greatest hits, the one with Bruegel's painting on the cover and Axis:Bold As Love. So that experience combined with the KSHE 95 situation pretty much led directly to my metal phase part duh. I started playing guitar, wearing acid-washed jeans, writing band names on my clothing, and generally started being really strange. KSHE had a metal program on Tuesday nights called Monday Night Metal which I taped every week. The show was hosted by Radical Rich, a character who was reported to be the last resident remaining in Times Beach, a sort of infamous Dioxin contaminated abandoned community. He was actually DJ Richard “Radio Rich†Dalton’s alter-ego, but don’t tell anyone – that’s a big secret sssshhhhhh...Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne mixed with the Zeppelin and my weird inclinations towards Yes led me to Rush for god’s sakes. Hell, who says Canadians can’t rock?!?? Around this time my sis turned me on to John Prine. I tell you I was one mixed up kid. She was desperately trying to save me from myself.
(UNDER CONSTRUCTION: PLEASE STAY TUNED. Thx - mgt)
IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. I like movies as anyone does - I wouldn't say that I've got mad knowledge but I know most of the names at least...
The 'Bu yallwannadosomecocaine?
Still working on Dave Eggers, Neil Stephenson, and Memoirs. RCA Studio B and other classic recording studios. Computer manuals and Pro-Tools guides. Self-help books on how to not be such a mess.
GB H