08. November 2004 · Comments Off on On A Hot Summer Night… · Categories: That's Entertainment!

Jay Tea over at Wizbang is having a bit of fun trying to speculate who else Jim Steinman could write for besides Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler. Who else has got the pipes for a Jim Steinman rock opera? You can go leave comments with him on that subject, I have to do my obligatory why I love “Bat Out of Hell” rant.

In the summer of 1977 I was getting ready to turn 16 and FM radio was a wasteland of Disco babies singing to that insipid heartbeat backbeat. We also had “Back in The Saddle” by Aerosmith and that was the year that “Rumors” got Fleetwood Mac noticed. Queen hit us with “We Are the Champions.” But we also had Shaun Cassidy torturing us with “Da Doo Run Run” and Dan Hill making the little girls cry with “Sometimes When We Touch.” Just kill me NOW. I’d complain about “You Light Up My Life” but that song got me to second base with a very blessed young lady so I’ll leave it alone. The Ramones were still banished to college radio and the Punk Clubs. My fake ID worked almost everywhere BUT the Punk Clubs.

Midnight Movies were where kids my age hung out. Led Zepplin’s “Song Remains the Same” was at the Uptown or the Nortown, The Fantastic Animation Festival…where Pixar first made it’s splash with the Desklamps was at one arthouse or the other, and a weird cult movie out of Britain called, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was going into nonstop Friday and Saturday Midnight rotation at The Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue. I’ll admit I did a decent Riff-Raff and even once did a night as Rocky, but I wanted to be Eddie. “Hot Patootie, Bless My Soul…I really love that rock and roll.” Besides…Eddie got Columbia and I LUSTED after the girl playing Columbia.

In the middle of all that throw in hormones raging and Boones Farm down by the lake drinking. Junior year was coming up…no longer a Frosh and already suffering from senior-itis. All of this was swirling around and around and around….out from the radio came a chilling voice…

“On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?” What the f*ck? Turn that up…”On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?” “Yes.” “I bet you say that to all the boys.” And “You Took the Words Right Out Of My Mouth” crashed through the clutter and the garbage and I was dancin’ barefoot in the arms of an angel at sunset on Morse Beach and all was right in the world for those moments. And yeah, we danced at Morse Beach to the radio…you got a problem with that?

The next day found a bunch of us at the neighborhood record store picking up, “Bat Out of Hell.” Produced by Todd Rundgren, backed up by most of the E-Street Band, and holy sh*t, Carla DeVito!!! She’s local!!! No sh*t she went to Loyola…she used to sing at Baby Huey’s…my brother DATED her!

Pure, unadulterated rock taken to operatic levels and with words every teenage kid in the neighborhood could understand. From “I know that I’m damned if I never get out and I know that I’m damned if I do…” to “We were glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife.” we got it. This was an albumn about summer, at the beach, with kissing and making out and all that stuff that made being a teenager bearable.

And that’s why “Bat Out of Hell” is to this day, one of my favorite albumns. Someone out there got it. Someone outside of our circle knew. Cuz ya know when you’re 16…you figure that no one gets you or your friends.

04. November 2004 · Comments Off on What Kicks Your Doubletime? · Categories: That's Entertainment!

For those of you who have been runners for awhile, I’m curious…what music do you listen to when you’re pounding the pavement? Does anyone have a favortie playlist or albumn that seems to work for them? Just curious.

19. October 2004 · Comments Off on Monster Army · Categories: General, That's Entertainment!

On tonight’s episode of Discovery Channel’s hit Monster Garage, a team of Army mechanics turns a WWII Willys jeep into a twin-supercharged 502 Chevy powered tractor-puller. Oh yeah baby!

The host, chopper master builder, and general media personality Jesse James just commented on a distinct difference with this crew: ” Everybody’s just doin’ their jobs. Nobody’s sittin’ on the couch looking at catalogues, or pointing fingers acting like an expert.” Army discipline in action.

Here’s to the crew:

THE DESIGNERS

* Jesse James, custom-bike builder/designer, West Coast Choppers, Long Beach, Calif.
* Joe Eder, multi-engine tractor-pull builder, North Collins, N.Y.
* Keith Kaucher, industrial designer, Kaucher Design Werks, Santa Monica, Calif.
* Chief Warrant Officer 3 Kevin Sargent, utilities operations and maintenance technician, Headquarters Company/1st Engineer Brigade, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
* 2nd Lt. Brian Johnson/2LT, armor officer, 1st Battalion/16th Cavalry Regiment, Fort Knox, Ky.

THE BUILDERS

* Jesse James, custom-bike builder/designer, West Coast Choppers, Long Beach, Calif.
* Joe Eder, multi-engine tractor-pull builder, North Collins, N.Y.
* Pfc. Jesse Dugan, wheel vehicle mechanic, D Company/801st Main Support Brigade, Fort Campbell, Ky.
* 2nd Lt. Brian Johnson/2LT, armor officer, 1st Battalion/16th Cavalry Regiment, Fort Knox, Ky.
* Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Morin, light-wheeled vehicle mechanic, Headquarters Company/187 Ordnance Battalion, Fort Jackson, S.C.
* Tim Porter, single-engine tractor-pull builder, Louisberg, Ky.
* Master Sgt. Darrick Preston, mechanical maintenance supervisor, 16th Ordnance Battalion/Aberdeen Proving Ground, Abingdon, Md.
* Chief Warrant Officer 3 Kevin Sargent, utilities operations and maintenance technician, Headquarters Company/1st Engineer Brigade, Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo.
* Spc. Benjamin Smith, metalworker, D Company/801st Mechanical Support Brigade, Fort Campbell, Ky.

13. October 2004 · Comments Off on whoo hoo · Categories: General, That's Entertainment!

CSI: Crime scene Investigation season 4 is now avaliable on DVD.

17. September 2004 · Comments Off on I Don’t Get It · Categories: That's Entertainment!

On Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Reiner, as documentary filmaker Marty DiBergi, wears a baseball cap embroidered “USS Coral Sea OV-4B” (rather than CV-43). Why is this changed? What’s the joke here?

06. September 2004 · Comments Off on A Must See · Categories: General, Politics, That's Entertainment!

I advise all to check out AMC’s Rated R: Republicans in Hollywood – just as a reminder that the town doesn’t only breed fools. 🙂

27. July 2004 · Comments Off on Faith Manages · Categories: That's Entertainment!

I finally got the fifth and final season of Babylon 5 on DVD the other day, and noticed something interesting in the booklet that came with the set. In the booklet’s introduction, series creator J. Michael Stracynski talks about those who thought the series would never succeed or reach completion, but calls out only one doubter by name:

TV Guide critic Jeff Jarvis, weighing in on the odds of us making it to series, said simply, “fat chance”