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Michael

Why in the world are we here? Surely not to live in pain and fear. Well we all shine on, like the mo

About Me


Im just a 40 something teenager I suppose. Hey, maturity is overrated. I love good film, all sorts of music from Alt rock to Americana, and most all in between. I'm politically left of center but I'm not quite an anarchist...not quite. I'm a good listener and my goal in the coming years is to care more about other people then myself. The world would be a better place if we all did that, so I'm going to be an example of that.
I recently became independent consultant, for an all natural skincare company. They also offer other naturopatic products from make-up and aromatherapy, as well as top quality vitamins. My sister in law has been enjoying her experience with them. It's a new journey for me and it's not for everyone, however for those who have some curiosity, feel free to inquire.
I truly have a love of music. There is a plethora of tunes on my media player. Music can be so expressive, I put my heart and soul into making that playlist. Sometimes you need to refresh to play.
One of my biggest influences in my life are The Beatles, and especially John Lennon. It's why music is such a big part of my lfe. Another one of my favorite bands are The Smithereens who dared to cover the entire Meet The Beatles record. Here is a very cool video...Beatles and bobbleheads, what more do you need??
The Smithereens - I Want To Hold You Hand
Humor is also important in these less then funny times. Bob Rivers is a comedian and award winning DJ. So here is a Beatles parody that I think a lot of people will relate to.
Free Hugs Campaign video - smiles also free.

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Here is a video of one of my favorite songs, sung by Elvis Costello, and written by Nick Lowe. It's political, but it's not too over the top. The editing is quite creative actually.
What's So Funny 'bout Peace Love and Understanding?
I got turned on to this site by one of my fab friends. Click on the pic above to find out more.

My Interests

I am in love with my little nieces Addysen & Ashtyn, who are proudly on display on this page. They have really added much needed perspective to my life.

Don't be shy, leave me a voice comment. To hear yours truly, click on the blinking play button. No mic needed to leave a message. Just click on record by phone to get a free # and code. Come on, you can do it.

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I love animals, especially dogs. Enjoy the fantastic slide show/video below.
Funny animals
slide show

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Laughter is so important and in keeping with the animal theme, here is Triumph the insult comic dog making fun of Star Wars nerds...I mean, fans.
Triumph vs the Nerds

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Hey, as for nerds, it takes one to know one.

I have studied nutrition and I'm pretty much into natural things, which can be challenging in this pre-packaged world. We need to start taking care of ourselves...

...and each other.

I am a big believer in prevention. The wellness community is something I've been involved with for years. Taking a pro-active roll in our health and well being is something I feel strong about.
In essense, becoming one with nature...
This lovely picture reminds me of the skin care and wellness organization that I recently became part of.

I also admit to being a reality t.v. junkie, especially Idol and Rockstar. Here are a few videos for those who enjoy the same guilty pleasure.
Baba O' Reily
Jordis Unga

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A Star is born. Jordis Unga blows away the band and the host on Rockstar INXS. Not a lot of people saw this first performance. She actually kicked off the entire season.
If you vist Jordis on her myspace page you can finally hear some new Jordis music. The song is called Morning Paper. It's very retro sounding soulful rock and I love it. Could a new Jordis CD soon follow?
Dilana performs Roxanne along with her " boyfriends " on Rockstar Supernova.

Storm Large singing Ladylike, live & uncensored in...Iceland!!
John Lennon tribute, featuring Jordis Unga singing Imagine.

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A random sample of my musical taste

John
Paul
George
Ringo - yes, Ringo
Rolling Stones
The Who
Led Zeppelin
Hendrix
The Kinks
Elvis Costello
David Bowie
Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry
Pink Floyd
Badfinger
Stevie Wonder
Ray Charles
Chuck Berry
Johnny Cash
Bob Dylan
Marvin Gaye
The Supremes
Percy Sledge
Booker T & the Mg's
The Temptations
Traffic/Winwood
Bruce Springsteen
Tom Petty
Billy Joel
The Beach Boys
Steely Dan
The John Butler Trio
Ben Harper
Cat Stevens
Los Lobos
Bonnie Raitt
Susan Tedeschi
Ian Hunter/Mott the Hoople
Bad Company
Jethro Tull
Paul Weller/The Jam
The Clash
The Police
David Bryne
X
XTC
Eurythmics/Annie Lennox
70's Heart
Prince
ELO
Aimee Mann
DAUGHTRY
Rod Stewart 68-77
CCR/John Fogerty
John Mellencamp
Lucinda Williams
Tracy Chapman
Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler
Van Morrison
Neil Young
Peter Gabriel
Steely Dan
CSNY
Elton John
Queen
Yes
Stevie Ray Vaughn
The Black Crows
The Eagles
Jackson Brown
David Lindley
Joe Walsh
The Band
Little Feat
The Doors
Chicago
America
Doobie Borthers
Indigenous
Rocco Deluca and the Burden
Los Lonely Boys
The Bangles
Susanna Hoffs
Matthew Sweet
John Mayer
Cheap Trick
UFO
AC/DC - w/Bon Scott plus Back in Black
Bebox Delux/Bill Nelson
Rush
Triumph
Tragically Hip
Norah Jones
Fiona Apple
Tori Amos
Joan Osborne
Sara McLachlan
Kate Bush
Eva Casidy
KT Tunstall
Regina Spektor
Alexa Joel - Yes, Billy's Kid
Kathleen Edwards
Peter Case/Plimsouls
Ray LaMontagne
Amos Lee
Marc Broussard
Death Cab for Cutie
Morphine
The Flaming Lips
Marty Casey/Lovehammers
Jordis Unga
Storm Large
Magni
Dave Alvin
The Blasters
Social Distortion
Emmylou Harris
Linda Ronstadt
Steve Earl
Wilco
The Jayhawks
The Motherhips
Richard Thompson
The Ramones
OK Go
Jett
Fastball
Joe Jackson
Nick Lowe/Rockpile
Graham Parker
Ian Gomm
Brinsley Schwarz
Grant Lee Phillips
Gomez
Govn't Mule
Dramarama
Blondie
Pat Benatar
Nirvana
Temple of the Dog
The Motels/Martha Davis
Lena Lovich
Split Enz
Crowded House
Green Day
The B-52's
Devo
Natalie Merchant
Counting Crows
Bee Gees/pre disco
Maria Mckee/Lone Justice
Dan Baird/Georgia Satellites
Pete Drodge
Weird Al

I'd like to meet:


We have a new emerging " Rockstar " in this country. His name is Barack Obama. On Feb 10th, 2007, in his home state of Chicago, in front of 15,000 strong Obama made the announcement that he would seek the presidency of the United States of America. In freezing cold those thousands gathered to make a historic speech. In the land of Lincoln, and in a country whose house is again divided we have a vision of hope emerging. Here is the full speech divided into three parts. It's a new day in American and a change is gonna come.
Part 1 Obama Presidential announcement.

Part 2 Obama Presidential announcement.

Part 3 Obama Presidential announcement.

I would love to meet and congratulate Tbe Dixie Chicks. Their dominance at the Grammys was thrilling and well deserved. I was going to put The Chicks video of Not Ready To Make Nice on here, but I found this amazing acappela performance. The group is called, All Night Yahtzee.
Not Ready To Make Nice - All Night Yahtzee

Just to lighten things a tad, a peppy song about murder.

I would also love to meet Chris Sligh, the chreubic young man with the knife sharp wit. He actually can sing. When he said he doesn't sing Teletubbies or IL Divo, that was a classic Idol moment.Well, Sanjaya lives to, err, rock??...another day. Sligh will do just fine. His band Half Past Forever is doing well on Amazon and I'm sure we'll be hearing and seeing much more of Mr. Chris Sligh.

So I just discovered this funny comic...billed as North America's sexiest comedian. Well she's quite attractive, if you like tall blondes. But she's dang funny, so that's sexy.

Music:

Chris Daughtry is doing quite well for himself these days. His new band's self titled debut, DAUGHTRY, hey, it worked for Bon Jovi, sold 304K it's first week. That's the most records sold by a rock band in Soundscan history. It quickly reched platinum and is on it's way to multi-platinum status.
DAUGHTRY
It's Not Over

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The debut video by DAUGHTRY toppled Nickelback to take the top spot on VH1's top 20 video countdown.

On 1/16/07 The Smithereens, one of my favorite bands, released Meet the Smithereens. Yes, they actually remade Meet the Beatles. You can sample it all on iTunes. I put It Won't Be Long on my page. It's my profile song. Just pause my media player and check it out. It's a bold and brave move and I feel they pulled it off. A must for Smithereen and Beatles fans.

Alexa Ray Joel

Billy Joel's kid, Alexa Ray, is a unique talent in her own right. She is a cross between Billy Holiday and Tori Amos...and you can hear her dad's influence too...who admits she's the better keyboard player!
Alexa Ray Joel on the Today Show

OK Go won a grammy for their video Here It Goes Again. The video cost a few hundred dollars and became a youtube sensation. Sadly the VH1 live performance was pulled, but here are some highschool kids who pulled it off brilliantly. Enjoy

Here It Goes Again - Granbury High School

One of my favorite singer/songwriters is Aimee Mann. Her music from the Soundtrack to Magnolia added so much to that film. One of my favorite songs is Save Me. I happened to find that song as a background to hand made video, with clips from Final Fantasy animation...very cool stuff.

Save Me - Aimee Mann

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For a closer look at any of the fine music you see here just click on the Frazy link. I wrote a little blurb about each album as well. They also have a link to amazon.
Here are a few videos of one of my favorite bands, The John Butler Trio, performing live. They are one of the best live acts I've ever seen. It's all about the music with JBT. The last one is just John and his guitar.
Zebra
Peaches and Cream
Come Together
Betterman (turn it up)
Ocean (mind blowing)
New JBT video
Funky Tonight

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Movies:

As I love music, as well as film, it's rare treat to find a great modern day musical. Hedwig and the Angry Inch is this generations Rocky Horror...only with better production values.
The Origin Of Love
Music videos of old, many shot before MTV even began...well they had to come from somewhere, were little movies. Wtih tiny budgets and a bit of imagination there was some real art being created for this new medium. Too bad we care more about Cribs and bad Yo Mamma jokes now. Sigh.
One of the most inovative bands around was Devo. The were all about merging video/music/art and experimentation. Perhaps the greatest Stones cover was their version of Satisfaction. I hear Mick Jagger loved it.
Devo - Satisfaction

One of my all time favorite bands, XTC (way before the desiger drug) This video just blows my mind and I was so happy to have found it. They don't write songs like this or make vids like it either. It's truly inspired madness.
Making Plans for Nigel
One of the most popular videos of all time was Wall of Voodoos Mexican Radio. If you've never heard it or seen this prepare to trip out. For the many who might know it, yeah, you're gonna be happy to take a trip down memory lane. It's kind of eerily current.
Mexican Radio
MTV used to have a program called 120 minutes...yup two hours of videos...cool ones...not the same handful of videos, but some real cutting edge stuff. Concrete Blonde was one of those bands on the edge of making it huge, and sadly they ended before it really happened. Jonhette Napolitano, the lead singer is a stunning singer and performer.
Here is a haunting live performace of Everybody Knows. I also found some great live stuff from the Dennis Miller show, before he became a right wink policy wonk...WFT happened to that dude?
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You can read more about these movies by clicking on the Frazzy link. I have my own take on each film.
A few other DVD's I Own
Adaptation
Almost Famous
Backbeat
Best in Show
Boiler Room
Boogie Nights
Blackhawk Down
Cars
Chicago
Cinderella Man
City of Lost Children
Detroil Rock City
Die Hard( Box Set )
Edward Scissorhands
Elf
the English Patient
Fame
High Fidelity
Holy Smoke
Imortal Beloved
Hard Days Night
Home Fries
Ice Age
In the Bedroom
Kingpin
Life Aquatic
Laurel Canyon
Lord of Rings Trillogy
Magnolia
Mars Attacks
Monsters Inc
One Night at McCools
Old School
Panic Room
Princess Bride
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
Resident Evil
Rocky
Road Trip
School of Rock
Seabiscuit
the Shipping News
Shrek
Sin City
Silence of the Lambs
Shallow Hall
Somethings Gotta Give
Spiderman 1 and 2
Stuck on You
Swingers
Three Kings
Toy Story 1 and 2
True Romance
Waiting For Guffman
Young Frankenstein
You've Got Mail
Y Tu Manna Tambien

Television:

I confess to have watched too much t.v., and still watch my share. There are some great shows on, but not a lot of good comedy. Sitcoms today kinda suck IMHO, except for The Office and What about Earl.
I suppose my favorite show is The Office. I fell in love with the U.K. series
The new American series has really grown on me. Great cast and fantastic writing. But I wonder if it's going to end up different?
What will become of them??
Some of my favorite shows, old and new Seinfeld
The Office - Both versions
Family Guy
Simpsons
The Sopranos
Six Feet Under
Dexter
House
Lost
Entourage
The Larry Sanders Show
Weeds
All in the Family
Desperate Housewives
My Name is Earl
Northern Exposure
Mary Tyler Moor
ER
Lucky Louie
Friends - the first few seasons, HUGE crush on Rachel
Bob Newhart - 70's
Newhart - 80's
Maude
Picket Fences
Hill Street Blues
The West Wing
Ally McBeal
NYPD Blue
Numbers
Dave Letterman
The Honeymooners
The Flinstones
St. Elsewhere
I dream of Jeanie
Gilligan Island
American Idol
Survivor
The Bachelor
Beauty and the Geek
Dancing with the Stars
Strickly Come Dancing
Nashville Star
Days of our Lives - shhhhh

Books:

Wish I read more. But my favorites are The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe series. I like a lot of British humor. Also the new Barack Obama book is fantastic. This guy is the real deal...I hope. Love the name of his book, " The Audacity of Hope "...even though he confesses he borrowed that from his pastor. Here is great review of he book.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19651
Hope is a word I would love to use more often. I havn't felt hope in a long time when it comes to politics.
This is why, just listening to this man is so refreshing.
Senator Obama
Little Rock AK

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The author of The Gift is world renowned for his ideas on enriching ones life. For those who are perhaps searching for a little guidence, consider this wonderful book.

Heroes:

We lost a special voice, that of John Lennon over 26 years ago. He was my hero...not sure it will happen, but we need a REVOLUTION.
Stone Temple Pilots
Revolution - Live

REST IN PEACE JOHN, YOU TRULY WERE A ONE MAN REVOLUTION. SHINE ON BROTHER.

My Blog

Dancing with the stars is back....YAY!!!

Here is a rundown of the first show.  It's really going to be interesting.  Heather Mills is a very controversial figure.  She is dominating the boards and is getting a ton of hate...
Posted by Michael on Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:10:00 PST

Idol season 6, Predict who goes home.

So, we have the top 12.   There were some pretty boot worthy performance.  It seems we should kick a guy off first?  It seems it should be Sanjaya...or maybe Brandon...but guess wh...
Posted by Michael on Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:01:00 PST

Idol Season 6 performance recaps.

The top 12, game on!! Well, kicking off season 6, supposedly a satanic number?? Well this seems to be the season from hell so far. It's all over the map. We have some amazing talent and, err, some not...
Posted by Michael on Wed, 14 Mar 2007 12:40:00 PST

A.I. 6 We have our top 12...whoopie!!!

First off, I'm going to post my original prediction for the top 12 and who the eventual winner will be.  I then will comment on that and update it....I'm OCD too Melinda. The soulful women will ...
Posted by Michael on Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:54:00 PST