One year later...

I read something recently about how we think time moves faster as we age.  It's about encoding memories, and when we're younger there are more new things to encode.  As we get older there are fewer such events, and so we perceive time is moving more quickly. 

That thought popped into my head as I thought about this year.  For me, I had LOTS of new experiences, and so I think it's been at least two years since 2018 ended.  So, to feed my ongoing narcsisitic tendencies I'll give you the Cliff's Notes version:

• I became officially Disabled.  In and of itself this is no relevation--it's been three years since I passed out in front of Samsonite's corporate HQ and began my life on the Disabled List.  But in May I sat in front of a Federal Judge and my attorney laid out why I should be "disabled" per the Social Security's standards.  It was about 30 minutes, and it recapped the long, strange trip I had been on.  At the end of my hearing the Judge said "I am ruling you completely disabled.  Good Luck."  
• As a result of that half hour, I became a Ward of the State, receiving payments (which MetLife deducted from the Long Term Disability they were paying me) and attaining eligibility for Medicare. I guess the more Libertarian amongst us would call me a "Taker".  I'd be happy to trade that for just about any iteration of my life prior to 2011 (the Original Sin of a-fib) for the monthly Direct Deposits.
• Marjorie (the Patron Saint of Lost Causes) said to the first of two psychologists I'm seeing "He's in mourning for his career".  Truer words were never spoken.  But the fall has seen me go through the 45 stages of grief and I've put all that on the side of the road.  I had no idea how to move forward, no tools to stanch the bleeding of my emotional state.  So one shrink handles the meds, the other handles the therapy.  Both say my progress has been amazing.  At least I'm not thinking about how things might be better if I was left by the side of the road with my grief.
• I became a College Student again.  South Carolina lets seniors take classes at any state supported university and not pay tuition.  No degree and no grade, but who cares?  My first class was Intro to Buddhism.  I learned that all Karma is bad (a sad moment for Marjorie).  I meditate 15 minutes a day and it's helping the quality of my sleep.  
• We're beginning the Great Home Renovation.  A new kitchen, an enclosed side porch, and an enclosed back porch.  Marjorie already has her SheShed.  

That's the Executive Summary.  I'm "better", meaning that I'm not suicidal.  It also means that I'm seeing more sunshine than clouds these days.  We're approaching our 40th wedding anniversity, a time lapse that has boggled my mind.  Marjorie is working at Starbucks essentially for benefits, 20 hours a week gets health care and while the cost is about her entire pay it's saving us a fortune.  

I'm always (well, almost always) happy to engage, so here's the way to do it:

(843) 902-6591

pete.mitchell.ltd@gmail.com

pmitchel@coastal.edu

May 2020 bring you peace, good health, and contentment.  Remember to wallow in your employment, as it can be taken away from you at any minute with zero warning.  I am a walking personification of that axiom.  Be safe...

Pete

To warm the cockles of your heart...

Welcome to thatwasrockandroll. 

With 211 MILLION people facing zero or below temperatures tonight and tomorrow, thought I'd send some virtual warmth into the ether and see what comes of it.  Let's dig (oops, poor choice of words) right in, shall we?

First off is "It's Hot Tonight", the leadoff single from Alice Cooper's Lace and Whiskey.  Like Welcome to My Nightmare and Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, L&W was a "concept album" when there were such things as "albums", and the pressure to deliver something new every other month was not as fierce as it is now. 

Cooper would release one more of these wannabe epics, From the Inside, a running diary of his time in rehab.  I saw the concert he created to promote this album, and it began with a short film projected onto a wall at the rear of the set.  At the end of the movie, Alice runs towards the camera, and the actual Alice breaks through previously-unseen slats in the wall.  He breaks into "From the Inside" and we were off to the races.  To my knowledge he was less adventurous in the studio from that point on.

So, put on your gumshoes and strap on your .38 holster.  It's hot tonight...

And while we're on the subjects of heat and Alice Cooper, let's try on some serious hotness with the title track to the album BEFORE L&W.  Might be my favorite AC tune ever, due in no small part to the autobiographical nature of the tune and how it follows nicely on the theme of "No More Mister Nice Guy" from a couple years earlier.  The opening verse says it all:

For criminal acts and violence on the stage
For being a brat, refusing to act your age
For all the decent citizens you've enraged
You.  Can.  Go.  To.  Hell...

Finally, a shameless opportunity to plug my favorite Pop/Rock/Prog band, Toto.  Last week I attended a concert by the LA Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.  The program was devoted to the music of John Williams, he of Jaws/Star Wars/ET/Superman/Harry Potter fame.  The Great Man was even there himself to rapturous applause when he came on stage.  By the way, I highly recommend seeing a concert--ANY concert at the WDCH.  Even upstairs and way back, the acoustics are incredible.  Plus, the building is nothing short of amazing.

Why did I digress?  Well, turns out John Williams has three children--a daughter and two sons.  It's the second son that brings me full circle.  Joseph Williams (born 1960) is the lead singer of Toto.  Has been off and on since 1987.  It's obvious that the fruit didn't fall far from the tree, as Joseph writes music for the TV series Roswell amongst other projects.

Feel the burn, and stay inside for a day or two...



Pete

Ah ha ha ha...

Welcome to thatwasrockandroll.

If you came on board the Guy Ritchie Bandwagon around, say, Sherlock Holmes (2008) you're missing some truly bizarre movies.  Go out right now and see his genius at work in Snatch or Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.  

My madness has a method.  One of the really superior traits of a Guy Ritchie film is the soundtrack, exposing a younger audience to things they might not ever hear over the din of Pitbull, Katy Perry, and R. Kelly (currently recording "can I stay one step in front of the Feds" for a fall 2054 street date, assuming he is paroled).

The Song of the Day is from Snatch.  It's actually from the late '50s, and you can hear how much this track is influenced by Fats Domino, Dr. John, and it fit the mood of the movie perfectly.  So, let's get to it:

Always makes me smile...


Pete

ah ha ha ha

Welcome to thatwasrockandroll.

Got a chance to see Spider Man:  Into the Spider-Verse and it was spectacular.  Sorta animation, sorta anime, sorta CGI.  With a Nic Cage voice performance (try and guess it--I doubledog dare you).  And of course, there's the obligatory riff on the TV series theme, with modern flourishes included.

Since the movie was targeted, ahem, slightly younger than I am, it was something of an adventure to listen to the music.  As someone who believes that 98% of all current popular music is unlistenable, it was somewhat jarring to be watching something and having no cues to my upbringing.  Except the theme, of course.

But the TV theme brought me back to afternoons after school and hours spent reading comic books (alas, my mom threw them out, along with my baseball/football cards and other stuff that would be worth a small fortune now).  I was more a Flash guy, and Green Hornet (the TV version with Van Johnson and BRUCE FRICKIN LEE).

Now that I've roamed all over the pasture, let's get to today's song.  While I am on record having a distaste for remakes, sometimes I make an exception.  Bur first, let's luxuriate in the original:

While nothing can be as good to my closed-off mind (especially the dischord at the end), there IS a version that is damned near perfect.  And by someone who I don't listen to all that much.  Chances are you forgot about it, as it's from the first Tobey Maguire movie.  But it's worth a listen because it's just SO different...

It's a take that Sinatra would have endorsed.  Way cool...


Pete

Prog, or Porg, or something...

Welcome to thatwasrockandroll.  By some chance I found myself listening to Klaatu.  You have to be of a certain age to even know of them.  And if you're able to remember them, you probably didn't have the time or the OCD to chase the Conspiracy about who they were (or, more accurately, who they were not).

Klaatu is a child of its time. The whole "Are they the Beatles?" hysteria would never fly in today's always-connected, insatiable thirst for knowledge world. But in the late '70s, College Student Me actually called Capitol Records in Los Angeles because I wanted the Real Scoop. I ended up in Marketing, where some intern or toady said they had "no comment" before "no comment" meant anything. We listened backwards, did mathematical analysis on the track lengths, and scoured the record sleeve for any clues that might solve the "mystery". Oh, and it was a true staple of our Stereo Wars. I didn't notice any references to Alan Parsons in the YouTube comments, but this track in particular has a very Parsons-esque vibe.

But the music was good. Really good. So good that when it was revealed that Klaatu was not indeed The Beatles, but rather a group of Canadian lads with an excess of appreciation for the Fab Four and a fabulous grasp of symphonic music. This was Prog Rock at its finest.

40 years. Really...

I'll start doing this more often...


Pete

Too much time on my hands...

Welcome to thatwasrockandroll

One of the great things about the Internet is that has allowed people with skills and too much time on their hands to create stuff.  Stuff that you used to find out only after you knew someone for a while (like: "I didn;t know you built a replica of the Death Star in your backyard").  Now a trip to YouTube will reveal all sorts of crazy stuff.

These alchemists take disparate elements and combine them into something "different".  Sometimes the results are awful (The Britney Spears crying fan comes to mind).  But I'm gonna leave those out of this discussion.  Instead, I want to share some truly inspired creations. 

Let's start with my favorite of all time--"Stayin' in Black".  Yep--take the Bee Gees, take their classic "Stayin' Alive" and mix it with AC/DC's "Back in Black".  While that sounds like a three decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic salt (full and earnest apologies to Dr. Seuss), it's actually awesome.  Just listen for a minute (or rock out for the duration.  Your call):

Want more AC/DC mashup?  Try this one on for size-a little diddy called "Rolling in the Black":

AC/DC isn't alone here.  My favorite of all time is the mashup of six country songs by different artists that sound EXACTLY the same:

Once you go down the YouTube rabbit hole it's truly amazing.  Whatever your taste in music, somebody is working on something that will blow your brains out.  It's fun.  I'll keep listening and share some others with you...


Pete

PS:  Yes, I've been silent for some time.  It's been a rough few months.  The light I see at the end of the tunnel is actually not another train.  I'll try to do this much more often...

The Market works, or how Pepsi's Marketing people are incompetent

Welcome to thatwasrockandroll.

I drink a prodigious amount of diet soda.  Hell, I used to have Diet Dr. Pepper on hand for trade shows and education sessions.  I loved many different brands but probably none more than Diet Pepsi. 

Diet Coke has always had a "metallic" taste to it, especially in the early '80s when it was introduced.  I always preferred Diet Pepsi, almost to the point of being exclusive about it. 

Two-odd years ago the Geniuses at Pepsi decided that they would take this iconic brand and change the formulation.  It had been "sweetened" by aspartame for as long as the compound existed.  The Geniuses read too many articles authored by self-proclaimed "experts" and determined that aspartame had to go.  I think I remember the research--that if you drank 400 cans of diet soda a day for 10 years your chance of getting cancer went up 3%. 

They chose Sucralose, a poor substitute that rendered Diet Pepsi undrinkable.  I stopped buying it.  I even sent a note to Pepsi registering my disappointment.  Some areas of the country got a "Classic" version of Diet Pepsi, but the Carolinas did not. 

Flash forward to February.  Pepsi announces that it's going back to the aspartame version.  And there was rejoicing in all the land.  It appears that the "New Coke" debacle wasn't heeded by the Geniuses at Pepsi.  In the end, they got too much blowback and had to change the formulation. 

What does all this have to do with music, or rockandroll?  Nothing, really.  It does show that Pepsi cannot find its rear end with both hands, and do not learn from their mistakes.  I present to you Exhibit A in how not to choose a spokesperson. 

In the early '80s, Maddona happened.  From obscurity to the top of the heap in just a year or two.  Pepsi, seeking to appeal to younger drinkers (who preferred Pepsi to Coke in taste tests), spent an amount equal to the GDP of most Central American countries for Madonna to do commercials and be visible in Pepsi's marketing.

Madonna.  Lightning Rod.  Makes her own decisions about her image.  What could go wrong?

THIS is what could go wro ng:

"Like a Virgin".  writhing around on the stage singing "touched for the very first time".  After signing Madonna to a $10 million contract, Pepsi was besieged with complaints from parents who would prefer their daughters not to emulate the product spokesperson.  They pulled the plug on Madonna, probably incurring a very high "Pay or Play" clause.  I loved it. 

What were the executives thinking?  Didn't they know Madonna was the Poster Child for "Sex Sells"? Idiots.  You'll probably notice they aren't going out on the edge for endorsers anymore.  This adventure, coupled with the Diet Pepsi mess is what happens when you're #2---you get desperate and start taking risks.  Some blow up in your face.  I'm just glad they woke up and smelled the aspertame on Diet Pepsi.


Pete