Drifting to sleep as the sun comes up....

Ugh. Nothing I hate more than seeing the sunrise. If I am forced to wake up EXTREMELY early and I'm awake to see the sun come up, I kinda hate it, but I can deal with it. On those rare occasions when I am seeing the sunrise and I haven't even been to bed yet, it seriously makes me want to throw up!

Yesterday I spent about 15 hours involved with the new 4th edition of "Dungeons & Dragons." This includes time finishing up my adventure, sitting with the players as they rolled up characters, and then playing the game itself. I'm not even counting all the time I spent writing on Friday night.

We had a blast (I think!) I guess I can't speak for everyone, but I think the five players enjoyed themselves, and I know that I really did. The new 4th edition rules are very cool, in my opinion, and make for a much more interesting game than 3rd edition. I'm not sure why, but 3rd edition never caught my fancy. The excitement I felt as a youngster as I first discovered AD&D will never be duplicated, but 4th edition brought me closer to it than any game since. I'm really glad we are making the switch over!

Unfortunately, since we had to consult the new rulebooks so much during the first few combats, it took a LONG time to play the short adventure I had prepared. It contained a set-up, and 8 room dungeon crawl, and an epilogue, and it almost took us 12 hours to get through it. I think it was great fun though, so it was all worth it.

Anyway, I crawled into bed around 4:30 AM, but I can't get to sleep without reading a few comics. I read the fund-raiser, "Liberty Comics", that came out this week and it was really good. Then I decided to read some stories out of an old Batman archive because the new movie has infected me with Bat-Fever. As I started the second story, I glanced up at my window and noticed some light creeping in.

The feeling that washed over me was indescribable and I almost immediately, as if by instinct, dropped into slumber. My brain didn't like what it saw and knew it couldn't handle seeing more.

Sweet, blissful slumber.

My streak has ended....

...after a seven-month drought, I have once again returned to the world of burgers. The BBQ bacon cheeseburger at the Pizza Grill was just too much for me to refuse. At least it came with a side salad and not fries. It was delicious.

Took in my second screening of "Dark Knight" afterwards. It was a treat for four of my five senses. Looking forward to seeing it again tomorrow.

And so the first challenge concludes....

I was planning to go out with a BANG! and write a marathon post for this, the final entry in the 30-Day Challenge, but just as I sat down to write, I received a call from my sister and brother-in-law and we spent most of my pre-bed time discussing the wonderfulness that is "The Dark Knight." I was glad to hear that they both enjoyed it immensely, especially considering that Mike is one of those dreaded "Marvel Zombies."

As it is, let me just point out how great the timing of this 30-Day Challenge was! When I started it a month ago, I didn't even realize that I'd be covering the release of "Dark Knight", my trip to see Yaz, or even my purchase of the new bicycle. I'm only 3 miles away from the 200 mile mark on my odometer, by the way. I'm looking forward to hitting 500 soon!

Let me tell you, before I go, what a thrill the Yaz show was! To see Vince and Alison together was something that I never even considered because they ended their relationship in 1983 and it just didn't see possible that they would team-up again. Alison had such a great stage presence and such a fantastic voice. Many reviewers have commented on how legitimately happy she seemed to be partnered with Vince again and singing these great old songs. I would say that is 100% true. She was having as much of a blast as we were! They performed every song from their debut album "Upstairs at Eric's" (a classic!) and all but one of the songs from their final album "You and Me Both." The only song they skipped was the album closer, "And On." They also did the song "Tuesday" which was on the UK version of "U@E's" but wasn't released here till the 1990s with the "Best of Yaz" compilation. A great time was had by all!!
Well, even though the official challenge has been successfully completed, I'm still planning on keeping the blog going. I'm thinking of a 3 times a week schedule, so check back soon to keep up with all things Linnen. There are some cool events coming up that I'll be reporting on and I've been challenged to create a web-comic, so I just might do that too.

If you are one of the few that have been reading over the course of these 30 days, thanks very much! Your feedback and your support have been sincerely appreciated.

Some Yazoo Pix!!

It's too late for me to say anything about the concert other than "Vince and Alison were AWESOME!!" Here are some pix to hold you over till I am rested, recovered, and ready to go!

Yazoo

Way back in 1981, Depeche Mode released their first album, and although most people think of songwriter Martin Gore when they think of Depeche, on this first release, Martin only penned two of eleven songs. Their main songwriter at the time was Vince Clarke, who almost immediately after the release of the first album left the group. He's on the far right on the picture below. Considering how dark the group became after he left, it's funny how he's the only one without a silly smile on his face.
As time went by, Vince would eventually find a musical home with the duo Erasure, who released their first album, "Wonderland", in 1985 and are still going strong today. After 23 years and hundreds of songs, they are still listed in the top 40 most successful UK bands of all time.
However, in-between Depeche and Erasure, Vince spent about a year and a half in another successful duo called "Yazoo." Actually, at some point in that two years, he released songs under the name "The Assembly" as well, but I'm going to ignore that because it's already a confusing timeline!

Yazoo was the team of Vince and vocalist Alison Moyet. You might remember her from her mid-1980s hit "Invisible." It's a pretty good song, but unfortunately, she never caught on in the US like she did in the UK. Yazoo, whose fame in the United States was pretty much limited to dance clubs, was huge in England. They had tons of hits and were beloved by many, even to this day. Their first album, "Upstairs at Erics", was a huge success, as was their follow-up, "You and Me Both", even though, by the time of its release they had already broken up.
I was into Erasure first. I discovered Depeche in 1985, bought all their albums, and found out about Vince by listening to "Speak and Spell", their debut. From there I followed him to the initial Erasure album, and decided that he was my second favorite songwriter after Martin Gore. Reading about his history led me to Yazoo (called "Yaz" in the US), unfortunately a couple years too late.

Both of the Yazoo albums are full of classic techno-pop with a soulful edge, courtesy of Alison's wonderful vocals. I embraced both of their releases as fantastic pieces of pop-music's past, never imagining that I would be able to see them live.

Fast forward to 2008, twenty-five years after the disbanding of Yazoo. Erasure vocalist Andy Bell takes a two year break from the group to work on a solo release and Vince finds himself with a summer off. Instead of resting on his laurels, he and Alison decide to do something no one anywhere saw coming and they reform Yazoo!!

Their plan to play 6 or 7 shows, due to incredible demand, becomes a two-month, world-wide tour, including some television appearances. I'll be seeing them tonight in DC. Tomorrow night will be my penultimate post in the 30-Day blog challenge, so you will be able to read my review of this exciting concert.

As we wrap this thing up, you won't want to miss a single post. Stick around!!

Five Important Points

1. Fantastic opening day total for "Dark Knight!" Although they haven't yet figured out the exact amount it took in, they know it's somewhere between $60 million and $65 million, which beats the previous record of somewhere around $57 million for the horrible "Spiderman 3." I can't wait to see the weekend totals on Sunday!!

2. Latest issue of Entertainment Weekly has a cover story on "Watchmen." I haven't read it yet(the article, I mean), but it claims the movie will end up being around the same length as "Dark Knight." Is that enough time to do the story the justice it deserves? No, but it sounds like the director is doing the best he can within the studio system. I have hope it will be worth seeing.
3. Speaking of "Watchmen", did you know that there is a MPAA rule that in movie trailers you can't show anyone pointing a gun at the audience? You can do it in a movie, but not in a preview for a movie. It's ridiculous! But as a result, this guy in the "Watchmen" trailer is holding a walkie-talkie and it's cut fast enough that you shouldn't notice it. What a stupid rule! In other parts of the preview, he has a gun....
4. It's really hot here in Linnen's hometown today! It's in the 90s, but with the heat index it's going to feel like it's about 102. Your faithful and loyal blogger doesn't like that! It's keeping me from the ninety minutes of biking I need to do. Maybe later in the day I can get out there and pedal....

4. THIS is Alanis Morissette???? It seems that as more people lose interest in her music, the hotter she gets! I don't know if I would have even known that was her!
5. After only 7 issues, I have quit buying this year's weekly DC comic book series. Last year's series, "Countdown", was terrible, but I followed it till the end because I am a DC zombie. When "Trinity" began and showed not a single, tiny bit of improvement, I just couldn't take it. I'm sorry to not support the weekly comic initiative because in theory I like it, but I've had enough of bad books.

Ugh.

Tired. Very little sleep all week. Drank too much wine tonight. Nothing to say. Watched "Watchmen" trailer like six times today. You can see it here. Or just go see "Dark Knight." Everyone else is. Huge opening weekend predicted. You know what? The first one struggled to make 205 million. This one will make more than half of that before Monday.

I love it!

Queen Bee saw it today and loved it.

I love this song. It's just a bunch of still pix put to music by a fan, so click "play" and just listen to it as you read. It's not worth watching. Great tune though.

Goodbye for now!

Questionable post

I am too tired to write anything, so you get this questionable post. I will claim for the rest of my life that it counts as having written something today and that the 30-Day Challenge remains unbroken.

The Day After....

You know what pisses me off? The fact that there is a Batman movie out there that is not part of my DVD collection!! When will I finally be able to purchase "The Dark Knight" to add it to my home library?? I mean the film has been out since.....well, I guess it hasn't been released yet. It's been 24 hours since I've seen it though. Uncool! I want to see it again!!

Last night was great! My friend Doug treated us like royalty at the IMAX theatre. As we stood, probably 200 people back in line, he came up and led us to a locked elevator. We went up to a floor for which you needed a key and walked down a long hallway. As we passed through the door at the end of the hall, we found ourselves inside the theatre which was still being cleaned after the 7pm media showing! He prompted us to "pick your seats!" and we had our choice from the entire empty theatre!!!

The movie started and we were treated to select scenes from the forthcoming adaptation of Alan Moore's "Watchmen!" It looked incredible! It was a bunch of shots of all the main characters, even Dr. Manhattan, set to some dramatic music. I had many doubts about this project before, and I'm still pretty certain that they will end up cutting out too much of the story to get it to fit in one film, but some of those doubts are now gone. Something I learned from the preview is that it's directed by Zack Snyder, who we all know and love from "300." I hope lightning strikes twice for him. While Batman is my favorite comic character, "Watchmen" is my favorite comic story, so I'll be monitoring this situation closely.

The movie started and it sucks you into the action IMMEDIATELY with some eye-popping shots. I don't want to go into any detail because I loathe spoilers and those who fling them. All I want to say is that I actually told myself to lower my crazy fanboy expectations because there was no way the film could live up to what I was hoping for, but guess what: it did! It is a masterpiece! See it this weekend and decide for youself.

Meanwhile, here is the picture I promised you last night. Me and my friends at the premiere of the 1989 "Batman" movie. I still have some pretty vivid recollections of that night, 19 years ago. It was one of the best times of my life because suddenly the entire country was going crazy for the character that I had been following for over a decade. I felt totally vindicated in my love of Batman, but it wouldn't last long as Warner drove the franchise into the ground over the next decade.

Anyway, enjoy this yellowing picture from right at the end of my youth. Two months after it was taken, I started college and began walking the road of adulthood. I guess I left my cool, long cut-off shorts lying on the side of that road somewhere....

So late, but I had to tell you....

...the movie was everything I had hoped it would be! In other words - INCREDIBLE!!

I can reveal nothing, so don't ask me! Let me just stress that it was worth the wait, worth all the hype, and the final product makes it obvious what a loss Heath Ledger's death was. This is the Joker from all the best Batman stories - not the campy, clown of crime that we often think of. This is the scary dangerous force of nature who can't be predicted Joker that would frighten the hell out of society in real life!

I'll write some more tomorrow (without spoiling anything) and I have a couple pictures. I also have to tell you how cool my friend Doug is! He came through big-time for us tonight!

For now, I must "zzzzzzzz!"

The moment is almost upon us!

<<29look4.jpg>>

Six hours till the lights dim and "The Dark Knight" rolls on the screen in front of me!  Today is going by soooooo sloooooowly……

I just want to see this movie! 

People have been sending me links to write-ups and reviews all day, and I'm ignoring them all for now.  I don't want to know anything ahead of time.  Just from seeing article headlines though, it seems like this film is going to be something special! 

All the excitement has me thinking back to a summer day in 1989 when me, Beil, Colby, my sister, and her friend Jen spent hours in line to see Tim Burton's "Batman" movie.  That was the "Summer of the Bat" and people were particularly into The Joker.  It's almost a repeat these days with everyone talking about Heath Ledger's sure-to-be-classic performance.  Tomorrow I'll have to scan in the picture from the Patriot of the group of us in line at the Hampden 8 Theatre.  The giant button on Colby's back and my home-made shorts are timeless!

Hellboy 2

Just finished my longest bike ride yet! It was 15.5 miles and I couldn't help but notice my odometer is getting awfully close to 200!


We saw "Hellboy 2" Sunday night with our movie buddies, Rob and Amy. I won't go into it too much, but I have to say what an incredible film it is! I enjoyed the first Hellboy movie, but I was blown away with what they did this time around.

The scale is so epic compared to the first one, and the imagination on display over the course of the two hours will blow your mind. Reading that claim may surprise you until you learn that the writer and director of the movie is Guillermo del Toro, who was nominated for an Oscar last year for "Pan's Labyrinth." While he didn't win, the film did rack up 64 awards and 58 nominations worldwide. Del Toro is a true filmmaker!

I haven't been caught up in a movie like this for a long time. I was actually in awe of what I was seeing numerous times. "Indiana Jones" and "Iron Man" were great recent movies; "Hellboy 2" was a great piece of art!

The fact that Peter Jackson selected del Toro to helm the two "Lord of the Rings" prequel movies makes me so happy now that I have seen what he can do. I have no fears about the future of Middle-Earth!!

Check this out if you haven't seen it - very funny. Hellboy on "Inside the Actor's Studio."



Enough about Hellboy - don't forget about THIS:

Tomorrow is the day I'll be screening the new Batman movie! The excitement here in Linnen's Bat-Cave is palpable and we are just trying our best to go through the motions of everyday life to make it to 10:30 pm Tuesday.

Where did the weekend go??

Man, due to my five days of training last week, I only had a two-day weekend, and you know, it really wasn't enough! How do you folks get by without three days off each week? It's a killer!

Oh, before I forget! The one cool thing about getting back into the week is that it brings us closer to the big day on Tuesday!
Today I wanted to fill you in on the October 1984 "Detective Comics", issue #543 to be exact:
This was an installment in a tremendous multi-part storyline which featured the return of Nocturna, who was the villain in issue #529, the one I wrote about yesterday. Having her back was cool; having Moench and Colan working on the book was fantastic; having the focus of the story be my buddy Jason Todd was another highlight. However, the main reason to pick up this book was found on the letters page at the back of the book:
Yes, my first published letter in a DC comic! I was so excited to see my name in print - and to get such an informative response from the editor! Too bad he didn't see fit to correct my atrocious grammar! Oh well...I was young.

The craziest thing having the letter in there was that my good buddy Beil called me on the phone after he read the issue (he bought it before I did) and he said "There is a letter in the new issue that asks about the Batman movie!" and he went on to paraphrase the response. We talked about it for a while, but he never caught that it was my letter, so he didn't mention it. Then when I got to the store and bought the issue, it was a surprise.

I had a couple other letters posted over the years, but they never brought with them the same thrill as my first one, which was in the pages of the greatest hero of all, Batman!!

It's a scorcher today!!

Yup, only three days till my screening of the summer's biggest movie, "The Dark Knight!" I can't wait - but the sad truth is that I am forced to (wait, that is!) Oh well, I will kill some time with a screening of "Hellboy 2" tomorrow. That's supposed to be very good.

Well, here is the comic that turned me from a "fan" to a "collector." After this issue, I deemed it UNACCEPTABLE to miss even a single issue of "Batman." Yup, you guessed it - it's DETECTIVE COMICS #529 from August 1983!!
This book had it all - wonderful artwork by Gentleman Gene Colan (still one of my top three pencilers), a story by one of my favorite Bat-writers of all time, Doug Moench, and best of all, it was the first part of a multi-part storyline. I got in on the ground floor.
Another part of the book that really caught my interest was this young kid, Jason Todd. You see, at some point in the 1980s, Dick Grayson, then the leader of the Teen Titans, quit being Robin. He was no longer living at Wayne Manor and was pretty much on his own in the world, so it didn't seem right for him to still be considered Batman's sidekick. They really didn't work together anymore. As a result, Dick became a new hero named Nightwing.

Anyway, it was quite apparent as I read this book that DC was grooming this new kid to take over as Robin. At this point, he wasn't a hero and Bruce Wayne was against the very idea, but it just seemed like it was going to happen. I didn't know Jason Todd's story or where he came from, but I sure wanted to know where he was going! It blew my mind that there just might be a new Robin! I have picked up a copy of both "Batman" and "Detective Comics" every month since that day, except for a brief period in time where the book was so bad under the guidance of Jim Starlin that I just couldn't handle it. Of course, I started up again when he left and then later got those books as back issues, so it ended up costing me extra money. Bad planning.

Another annoying thing from the time period I quit buying the book was that after 40 or 50 issues with Jason Todd as the new Robin, they started his story over from the beginning and made him a punk kid who grew up on the streets. He was busted trying to steal the wheels off the Batmobile and Batman ended up taking him in. It was so lame! Jason was always going against Batman's instructions and getting himself in trouble because he was such a hot head. When DC finally had the Joker kill him, I didn't even care. They had transformed him so much from the kid that originally drew me into the book that I was actually happy to see him go away.

I never understood why they changed him so much. It seemed ridiculous.

Next up, the issue with my first published "letter to the editor!" For now though, I must go swim!!

I'm really starting to drag!

Hello! I gotta warn you up front: I am sooooooo tired! And the worst part of it is that I'm afraid of short-changing all of you.

Oh, before I go any further, I had better post this:

OK, so here's the thing. I really want you to be able to enjoy the post about "the comic that turned me into a collector", so I'm hesitant to write it tonight. I'm so sleepy that I know I won't do it justice. It's really YOU that I'm looking out for here - you realize that, don't you?

And so, as I waddle off to bed, leaving the promised post unfinished, I will attempt to make it up to you with a picture of me in drag at Halloween.

A good, in-depth Batman post tomorrow - I promise!

Bat-Countdown Continues!!

We are now only five days away from my buddy-Doug-provided screening of "The Dark Knight!" And to that effect....

In the meantime, see if you can figure out what is significant about this comic:

That is the cover to the first comic I have any recollection of owning, and most likely, there weren't many before it. It was on sale in September of 1976, which would put me at five and a half years of age when I plucked it off the newsstand.

One of the things that I vividly recall from back then was an exciting scene where Batman finds himself in a very un-Dark Knight-ish scene. Take a look at this:

Yes, that is famous Caped Crusader of Gotham City trapped in the middle of a buffalo stampede! Most of you never thought you would see the day; however, it was quite possibly my introduction to the comic adventures of this dread figure of the night!

Another thing about this book that fascinated me was the final page. I remember being so shocked by the ending and "dying" to find out what happened next! I still can picture myself searching desperately for the next issue at the newsstand we used to go to at the Carlisle Plaza. The comics were on the bottom shelf below all the magazines right at the front of the store. I was squatting down on the ground looking all over for #283. I guess I eventually found it, but I don't have great memories of it like I do this issue.

Anyway, here is the way this issue ended:

Can you even believe that??? They shot Batman, point blank, in the back of the head as he was piloting an airplane!! As if the bullet to the brain wasn't enough, they guarantee him a fiery crash as well!! Outrageous! I'm getting fired up over it now; imagine how I was as a five year old!!

So anyway, this is the issue I credit for kicking off my 32 year love affair with the greatest of all superheroes, Batman! So much action between two covers - I still love it! I would say that, from this point on, I was a "comic book fan." I would buy as many as I could get a hold of, but I wasn't yet a "comic book collector." I'll show you the book that caused THAT transformation tomorrow!

Oh, and in case you want to know how Batman survived the bullet to the back of the head, this is how he did it. Even though you can't see the outline of it in the drawing, he was wearing a really hard flight helmet under his cowl, so the bullet never even pierced his skin. I'm not sure why the killers didn't notice the lack of blood or the fact that their bullet was ricocheting all over the cabin, but at age five, I never really thought about it.

More tomorrow - same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel!!!

On a roll since June 22nd!!!

Wow! I have stuck with this 30-day challenge since June 22nd! According to my calculator-like brain, that means this should be the 17th consecutive day of blogging! And the amazing thing is that each and every entry has been incredibly worthwhile - both in terms of you reading it and me writing it. Time well spent for everyone!!

Just watched an excellent movie with my dad - "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. I really like Paul Newman, always have, but I haven't seen too many Redford movies. Let me say this about his performance as the Sundance Kid: I bought it ONE HUNDRED percent! You look at him in that movie and you think you are staring at a real cowboy! What a great job! Newman was wonderful too, playing it relatively light-hearted which makes the famous ending even more emotional when it comes. I liked it a lot. We are recently on a roll with great movies having seen "Glengarry Glen Ross", "Bonnie and Clyde", and now "BC&tSK."

The big news today is the invite I received to a sneak of the summer's biggest movie, "The Dark Knight." Thanks to my buddy Doug, it sounds like I'll get to see it at the IMAX theatre next Tuesday night. I am soooooooooooooo psyched!!!

We are now officially on Batman Countdown!!

Am I up to a challenge??

My good buddy Nate gave me a blog-challenge this week. He said that the point of the blogosphere is to give a forum to people who get hoppin' mad over things that only they care about. He faults my blog with a general lack of frustration and anger, and really that's because I'm such a nice guy.

The truth is, however, there is something in recent history that has been upsetting me, and up till now, I have remained quiet.

No longer.

I am sooooooo psyched for the upcoming release of "The Dark Knight", moreso than most movie-goers. I have been a Batman freak for most of my life and currently own every issue of the comic from 1964 to current day. Most of my clothes have a bat insignia on them somewhere, as do my favorite blanket and half of my bath towels.

The cast they have assembled for the film is incredible. The director is one of the best currently working in the industry. The writer is a really talented scripter with real comic book experience and only one minor misstep against him ("Blade 3"). It features at least one of the very best Batman villains, maybe two.

And yet, even with all of this going for it, and even with all of my accumulated excitement over next week's debut, something about it has me outraged.

Look at this picture:

Do you see anything wrong with it? Feel free to ignore all the weird, pointless shapes and seams on the suit. I have no clue what they are doing there but I'll forgive them. At least it doesn't have nipples again (see "Batman and Robin" - or better yet, DON'T!!!)

Oh, go ahead and block out the fact that the whole thing is pretty much gray and that you have to strain to see the copyrighted bat emblem on his chest. They pulled that on us the last time around so I'm almost used to it.

Take a look at the lower half of the mask. Once you work your way down below where his ears would be, the whole thing starts to curve inwards and taper to a narrow neck. It looks really weird. It's like the middle of his head is the widest part with a tiny scalp and chin. The horns are curved to look like the taser gun Selina Kyle used in "Batman Returns." It's really odd. The part that makes me angry is the neck though. I can't find a picture that shows it as well as the one that is currently hanging at our local cinema. Even Sarah was criticizing it this weekend when we saw "Hulk", and in that moment, I realized that my anger was righteous!

Here are a few examples of how Batman's mask should be sculpted/drawn. Hopefully you will see that it indeed makes for a more striking figure:

So anyway, I'm still 100% behind the upcoming movie, and I have complete faith that it is going to be great; however, I am outraged that the Bat-suit doesn't look at all like the costume I have loved for 32 years now. Hollywood was so close to getting it right; why not go the last few steps and make it perfect????

I feel like this....

And because of this, I don't have it in me to write anything of substance or length. You may counter with "You never write anything of substance!" to which I would reply:

The 4-Day weekend is OVER!!

How did that happen?? It seems like just yesterday I was staring 96 consecutive hours of fun in the face! Now I have to start getting ready for work tomorrow, bright 'n early!! This is outrageous!

Just got back from seeing "The Hulk" with our friends Amy and Rob. While not as awesome as "Iron Man", it was still an excellent movie. The CGI was pretty darn good, I thought, and Edward Norton was perfect casting as Bruce Banner. He's great in pretty much everything though, so it comes as no surprise.
We spent July 4th with Rob and Amy as well, and while we were together that day, we watched the first "Hellboy" movie in preparation of this week's sequel. I had seen it before, but I enjoyed watching it again. I didn't remember as much of it as I thought I did. Sarah liked it too so it looks like we are "GO" for part 2 next weekend. Sweet!!

Oh, I did less than well at the casino last night.

A Quick Follow-Up to Last Night's Post

I'll write a real post tonight when I get back from the Hollywood Casino, just to let you know how much money I won, but in the meantime, I wanted to post some videos for some of the songs that totally controlled my life in the era I wrote about last night.

Enjoy!

"Stripped" by Depeche Mode


"Strangelove" by Depeche Mode


"Don't Leave Me This Way" by The Communards


"Hot! Hot! Hot!" by The Cure


"Just Like Heaven" by The Cure


"Sometimes" by Erasure


"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead Or Alive


"Human" by The Human League

Hey! That was a good song!

Whilst working over at the comic shoppe yesterday, Manager Joe and I were talking about music. I think generally we like pretty much the same kinda stuff. He knows WAY more about '90 Brit-Pop and current alternative stuff than I do, but what he plays that I don't know, I DO enjoy.

He was talking about growing up in Perry County and how much music meant to him, which I would think can be said of the majority of of us since we tend to be a bit angsty at that age. There's an question posed in the excellent movie "High Fidelity" (which could be taken right from the excellent book "High Fidelity" but I'm too lazy to get up and check!) :

"Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music? "

Anyway, I'm not here to answer that question, I just went off on a tangent. He said that growing up, he somehow discovered all these bands that weren't popular in his school - Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, The Smiths - and like me, he would pour over import fanzines and music magazines, saving money to get weird imports and bootleg videos. I did the same thing - I mean, in 1986 I was prepared to lay down my life for Depeche Mode. If Martin Gore called me up when I was in eleventh grade and said "I need you to step in front of your school bus tomorrow" - man, I would have done it! I obsessed with anything with Vince Clarke on it as well - Yaz, Assembly, Erasure....

Joe then said that he was the only one he knew that was into these groups and he strutted down the school hallways alone with his cool import t-shirts. It made me realize that I was pretty lucky...

I rarely think about those days of yesteryear unless I'm sitting around the bar with a bunch of friends and we are engaging in the lowest form of conversation - "Remember when...?". And because I rarely do, I always assume that I was pretty miserable back then. Truth is, I really wasn't.

I had a good number of friends who shared the same musical interests as me. We certainly weren't the mainstream, but we were a small band of knowledgeable snobs. My friend to this day Colby got me into Yaz and The Cure. My buddy Beil got me into Depeche Mode. My wife Sarah and I never dated back then, but we talked a lot about music and generally dug the same stuff. There was a bunch of us that hung out and listened to each other's tapes - Communards, Human League, Erasure, Sigue Sigue Sputnick, Human League, etc. Looking back, it was really lucky that I had a group like that, even if I haven't seen most of them in 20 years.

One of my very best memories from those years was at a cast party after one of our musicals. It was at Greg Morgan's house - I don't know what became of him and I was never really all that close to him, but he was a good guy. There was a group of probably 15 of us standing in a circle dancing and singing along at the top of our voices to the Communards "You Are My World" - a song that ever since takes me back to 1986. Putting it in words here makes it seem quite under whelming, but at 16, at a party late Saturday night, with a bunch of friends, sharing in this album with which I was obsessed, it was a great experience. I remember having such a blast laughing and trying to sing as high as Jimmy Sommerville, until someone came down to the basement to say that his parents wanted us to either shut up or play some good music! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted and then we moved on to the next dumb thing....

I hadn't thought about it for years until talking with Joe, but I thought it would be valid to write about it here. Maybe adding it to the blog will prevent me from having a mid-life crisis when I hit 40!

I don't have any great observations or lessons to impart based on this pointless bit of reminiscencing, so I hope you weren't too bored by it. I guess I'll proofread it and then maybe head downstairs and crank The Cure's "Just Like Heaven." Or maybe some Depeche - "Master and Servant" might be good....

So much good stuff to choose from!!

Such good intentions....

I had such good intentions to write one of my most insightful and personal blog posts of all time tonight! I worked a shift in at the comic shoppe today because I was off from my day job, and Manager Joe said something that sparked a thought in my head. "What a good post that would make!" I exclaimed to myself. "I'll have to be sure to do that tonight."

Anyway, I am now exhausted and all I want to do is go lay down and read a few of my new comics before drifting to sleep. The beautiful thing is that the idea will work just as well tomorrow or Saturday, so it doesn't have to posted today. It will make it up here sometime this weekend.

In the meantime, just because blog posts look barren without videos or pictures, here's a link to the Austrian Slick-Meister Falco singing the song "Jeanny" and its sequel "Coming Home" with a symphony orchestra.

Sweet four-day weekend!

As you know if you have been following the exciting happenings of Linnen, essentially this is my Friday night! I'm cruising into a well-deserved four-day weekend. I've already spent a good amount of time harping on it, so I'll move on.

I was reading a cool article a couple of days ago on Newsarama about the forthcoming "Lightsaber Duel" video game for the Wii, and after a few seconds of consideration, I have deemed it to be extremely cool! Supposedly it is due out in December and while it isn't as delightful as the news about Diablo 3, it still got me worked up because I love Mr. Lucas and a lightsaber battle seems like a perfect workout for the wii remote. It should be great!

Big plans for tomorrow. I'm going to go in and help out at the comic shoppe again and then get a ride in with my friend TC. Sarah has one of those annoying summer colds, so hopefully she will get over that in time to enjoy some of the holiday. Sucks to be sneezing and blowing your nose, but it extra sucks to be sneezing and blowing you nose when it's 90 degrees outside!

Big night tomorrow for my dad and my uncle Ned as they head to NYC to see the Red Sox take on the Yankees! I hope they have a blast and I challenge them both to attempt to beat my five hot dog record.

What a tasty soda!

Mmmm! I'm drinking a bottle of "Orange 'N Cream Diet Stewart's" soda as I'm typing tonight's blog entry and let me tell you this: This is one tasty treat! Imagine if someone took baby aspirin and crushed it up and carbonated it! That's what this tastes like and it's delicious! I'd recommend it to you if you are trying to lose weight but want a quick treat. Only ten calories!

I had my bike fixed today. After only a month, it wouldn't shift into the lowest 8 gears, which didn't seem good to me. I ran it into Cole's Bicycle Shop in Carlisle and they got it up in the rack immediately. Turns out it was my own fault! I installed a mount to hold an air pump and the mount was in the way of the derailer. D'uh! My friend Rob and I both spent time looking at it last week and didn't even notice it. Oh well - they said that the cables needed tightening anyway because they had been all stretched out from riding. That happens to new bikes evidently which is why they recommend a 60-day check-up when you buy one. The folks at Coles have been great to me each time I have been in and I really enjoy their shop.

I found this great illustration on the web and wondered if you all had seen it. It's the secret of the old Pac-Man video game revealed for the first time. It's actually kind of clever:
I played a pretty fun new game tonight with my buddies Nate, TC, and Julie. It's called "Pandemic" and it's one of those new-fangled cooperative games that I enjoy so much. All the players actually work as a team to try to defeat the game itself. As is usually the case, it's really difficult and we lost two games, but it was very fun.

You may have missed the announcement from my earlier posts, but tomorrow is my Friday. Thanks to the holiday and my regular Friday off, I will be celebrating a four-day weekend. Very sweet! I'm hoping to not only celebrate Independence Day, but also make a lot of progress in my reading of the new 4th edition D&D books (nerdy, I know!) and get a couple good bike rides in.

Oh, and speaking of games, check out this cool little online game that I found today. It's pretty sweet, uses only the arrow keys, has scary music, and it will cause an extreme case of DISORIENTATION!!

That's it; I'm outta here. See you all tomorrow!!