Monday, June 12, 2006

Cheap Trick ‘In Color’



I’m still alive. I know that I haven’t been updating this thing like I should… Please accept my apologies and welcome back.

I will start with Friday.

Marcia Gan and I attended the Bands in the Stands event at the First Horizon Park. And yes, the Guns N’ Roses tribute band, Appetite For Destruction was everything that I had hoped they would be. They were tight, the vocalist could match screams with Axl, and there was an Izzy in the band.

They were as good as I had heard from friends and acquaintances. It was kind of funny that the “Duff” and “Slash” were both wearing wigs. But the crowd gathered before the faux rock gods couldn’t have cared less. They were there for the live music and interaction amongst friends.

I forgot to take my camera because there was a couple of interesting photo ops to be had… The suspicious wig belonging to the faux Slash. The faux Axl and his “Charlie Don’t Surf” T-shirt with Charles Manson on the front. Two Appetite For Destruction groupies dressed to the nines shaking their sweet asses to the tunes blaring out into the downtown air.

There was even a cat in his 30’s hitting on underage girls. I’ve known him for about 20 years and I last saw him doing the same thing at the Maroon 5 show in Charlotte a while ago. Apparently, if they menstruate they qualify for his attention.

I’m not sure, but I think that gave Marcia a full body shiver.

When I got home, I immediately put in disc 1 of season 2.0 of the newBattlestar Galactica. I’m hooked on this show and I’m trying to get caught up before season 3 starts this fall on either the Sci-Fi Channel or NBC.

That’s right! NB motherfraking C!

The show is doing so well with viewers and critics that NBC is considering it for their fall schedule.

Right now, I’m about neck and neck with the current crop of season 2 reruns. I should be caught up before season 2.5 hits stores in the fall.

Then on Saturday, I attended my first Wine Festival with the lovely Allison Moore. Allison and I work together at DBC Radio and you may remember her from the Weather Dave Will Bastard show.

I figured that it would be a hoity-toity affair so I dressed my black T-shirt up a little with khaki pants and dress shoes. Imagine my surprise when I found everyone running around as if they were at a Jimmy Buffett show. Shirts were unbuttoned and opened in order to expose “wine bellies”. Men and women alike were wearing feminine shoes like sandals and flip-flops. It wasn’t at all what I expected.

I wish I had “bummed” out a little because the weather was hotter than a Shakira hip-shake. I hadn’t walked a quarter mile until I was sweating like a cast member from Cool Hand Luke. The only way to escape the heat was to find shade under a tree where the air was much cooler.

There was live music and when the Fairlanes got off the stage, I was a little surprised to find the air filled with the sounds of an underrated band from the 80’s… Night Ranger. Yes… Night Ranger’s “Sentimental Street” was playing over the public address system from the stage.

A few minutes later, I got another surprise… I heard Cinderella’s “Don’t Know What You Got (Until It’s Gone)”. I don’t know, but for some reason I fully expected to hear music from James Taylor, Al Green, and Van Morrison at the wine festival. Not bands that incorporated Aqua-Net into their stage outfits.

I guess that means Night Ranger and Cinderella are now considered oldies. What does that say about me?

But like the wine, I’m getting better with age, baby. Although my eyesight is failing and I get “pains” from time to time for absolutely no reason.

The coolest thing about the Wine Festival was the fight I witnessed.

I don’t know how it started because I was getting off the phone when I heard women yelling with frantic voices. I saw a man holding another in a headlock. A third man was swinging his fist at the man in the headlock taking easy cheap shots. His cheap shots hit the mark every time and I could hear the meat and bone connect from 60 feet away.

Now call me crazy, but if I’m in a headlock and some dude is hitting me in the face with hard and solid shots, I’m grabbing the nuts of the guy who is holding me and squeezing until he lets go. One shot to the face is enough to put that plan into motion, not four or five punches.

The police finally came running and broke things up. When I met Allison, Robert, and Ben for a ride home, I passed the combatants. Mr. Headlock Daze’s head was swollen around the left eye socket and temple. And not 10 steps away, Mr. Punch was in cuffs. He was walking back and forth between three officers and crying. Yes… He was crying.

When we walked back by on the way to Ben’s car, Mr. Punch was lying on a backboard with a neck brace on.

I’m guessing that he was hoping to go to the hospital before going to lock-up. I’m sure he’d rather make bail there instead of jail. Strange indeed.

I was hoping to stick around Winston-Salem because I was planning to go to the Garage to check out Benjomatic and Stratocruiser later that night. But since it was a hot day that wrung me out of fluids, I decided to go back home and take a shower.

After my shower, I could tell that I was going nowhere and I decided to stay home and watch more goodies from Neflix.

I finished off disc 2, season 2.0 of Battlestar Galactica and watched Gothika starring Halle Berry.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a decent film with Gothika. The story is a little flawed, but the direction from Kassovitz is superb. The cinematography and choice shots from the director kept the film from getting swallowed up in the “familiar-seen-it-before” type of movies.

I gave Gothika 4 out of 5 stars on the Netflix grading scale.

On Sunday, I noticed that my throat was getting a little scratchy. I probably caught a little bug from my nephew Preston and his medley of germs.

I also watched 8 Mile starring Eminem. I’m also giving that film 4 out of 5 stars. It’s like a better and hip-hopped up version of Purple Rain. I surprised myself with that one because I didn’t expect to like it.

Thanks for checking back. I appreciate your patronage

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:48 AM

    Nothing with Eminem will ever be better than anything with Prince. I think it's in the Constitution, or the Bible or something. The Time > 50 Cent.

    Also, what are the chances that you would get all dressed up and go to a wine tasting? And then witness a 2-on-1 handicap match beatdown?

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  2. Kim... I cannot believe that you're an Eminem hater. Jeez woman! And yes, The Time is greater than 50 Cent.

    Did I ever tell you about the time that I met 50 Cent?

    As for the wine tasting... I like alcohol. You of all people should know that and besides, the event was free for me to attend.

    The handicap match beatdown was the hi-lite of the day, baby!

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  3. Anonymous4:52 PM

    I think I already told you this (and I hate to break the news if I haven't), but Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica is broken up into 2 parts - 2.0 and 2.5. (Fracking bastards!) You're watching 2.0 right now. 2.5 won't be released on DVD until (rumor has it) August or September. However, if 2.5 is on wait-list from Netflix anywhere near as long as 1 and 2.0 were, we may have to hold somebody at gunpoint in order to get & watch it in time for the October Season 3 premiere.

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  4. Anonymous4:55 PM

    Duh. I just re-read your blog and saw you already mentioned the 2.0/2.5 oddity that is season 2 of Battlestar.

    Oh well. It's hot out and my brain doesn't work so well at temps above 80. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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  5. It's cool Christine. That doesn't mean that I love you any less.

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  6. Anonymous7:56 PM

    I know you like to drink, but having to dress up to do it? Plus.. wine? I thought you were beer for life!

    Though I have a specific reason for hating Mr. Mathers, I am pretty much anti-all rappers these days. I could not list 10 new rappers if my life depended on it. I fear I have turned into one of those people who is all "back when I was young the music was good!" And that is kind of sad because I'm not even that old. Now it's all "look how rich I am! Look at my car! Look at my clothes! Look at my hoes! Look at my grills!" No thank you. I could not care less and I am all rapped out. If I was Stephen Colbert, Rap would be on the 'Dead to Me' list. As I type this I am listening to the Beatles on the computer and watching a Led Zeppelin dvd on the tv, ten years ago I mocked JJ for liking the Beatles and honstly don't even think I'd ever heard of Zeppelin.

    Then again, I am pretty cluless when it comes to pretty much all new music. I can't be bothered with trying to find the good stuff amidst the crap on the radio... I think I gave up trying around 2000 or so. I can count on one hand the number of new cds I have bought in the past 3 years (Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse, Queens of The Stone Age, Incubus and the White Stripes are the last ones I bought, and I don't know how far back that goes.)
    And what were you doing in a place where 50 Cent was?

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  7. Oh... You got that right! I am all about the beer, but wine is fine too! Plus, it has more alcohol.

    Kim... Get some Cheap Trick please!

    As for 50 Cent... Before his album broke big, he toured radio stations to promote it. He hit our sister station 1075KZL and did an interview with JJ McCain.

    I had read a lot about Mr. Cent and stepped out of the Rock 92 studio and asked, "Which one of you is 50 Cent?"

    His entourage of about 15 looked at me as if I had a cat turd on my shoulder and a nicely mannered man stepped forward and claimed that he was 50 Cent.

    I shook his hand, told him about all the buzz that I had read about him, and wished him luck.

    And for the record, he never pulled a gun on me.

    Also... Since his posse' is called "G-Unit"... The clowns at 1075KZL now call me "Eugene-Unit".

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