The Greatest Band That Ever Lived

When rockers Weezer released their eponymous-ly titled album earlier this year, given the nickname "The Red Album," it was clear that they really didn't care what anyone thought about their music. Various band members penned songs (not just leader Rivers Cuomo), and they traded off on the usual instruments they play. With lyrics like "I'm a troublemaker, not a double-taker/doin' things my own way, and never givin' up," (from "Troublemaker) or "One look in the mirror and I'm tickled pink/I don't give a hoot about what you think" (from "Pork and Beans"), and "After the havoc that I’m gonna wreak/No more words will critics have to speak" (from "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived"), they left it no doubt how they feel about criticism.

To paraphrase, they don't care, they don't care, they don't care.

That set the stage for their stop in Houston on Thursday (10/23) at Reliant Arena. (The arena is more like a convention hall, but the venue was cozy enough, making for a good view and good sound.) The band came on in white over-alls, and burst into the raucous "My Name Is Jonas." Except Rivers wasn't singing. In fact, he relegated his vocal parts to other band members, throughout the show. He even played drums, sometimes. And the guys played and joked around all night, as if having fun was all that mattered. They played rare b-sides. They removed the over-alls to reveal red track suits. Rivers jumped on a mini-trampoline, and ran across the stage sliding on his knees. At the encore, they brought on about 50 people for what they call a "hootenanny", all carrying instruments ranging from flutes, to guitars, to cellos and tubas to play two songs with the band. For the song "Beverly Hills," Rivers invited the men in the audience to sing the chorus parts, and the women to chime in with a high pitched "gimmee, gimme."


They even did a spot-on cover of Pink Floyd's classic "Time." So good, in fact, I have revisited the original, realizing the sonic mastery that song truly is. Drummer Patrick Wilson played lead guitar and sang. When he introduced the number as "very heavy," he wasn't kidding. A perfect rendition.

Rock 'n roll connoisseur Kevin asked his mom what her fave was. She liked "El Scorcho," but "Hashpipe" will always be tops with her. Ever the inquisitor, Kevin followed up by asking me the same question. I went for the weird and wacky "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived." Justin just shrugged and said of the show, "It was alright."

They said they’d be back in 2009. I can't wait.

Freedom of the Press

Shocked. And Stunned.

Read this endorsement from the local rag, the Houston Chronicle:

"After carefully observing the Democratic and Republican nominees in drawn-out primary struggles as well as in the general campaign, including three debates, the Chronicle strongly believes that the ticket of Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden offers the best choice to lead the United States on a new course into the second decade of the 21st century."

I can still hardly believe it. The Chronic-cull, firmly in the Bush camp in 2004, actually made it official on Sunday that Obama and Biden are the best bets to lead our country. In fact, this endorsement is only the second time since 1960 that the newspaper has backed a Democrat for President. Wow.

I'll say it again.

Wow.

Yeah, I know, it's a no-brainer of a choice (it's the economy, stupid), but right here, deep in the heart of Bush country, folks in general, and big institutions like the Houston Chronicle, are uber-conservative. Just to the right of Rush and Hannity.

The announcement came on the same day that Colin Powell tossed his hat into the Obama ring, and the morning after Caribou Barbie appeared on Saturday Night Live. Yikes.

Get this: "The Obama-Biden ticket maintains its strong lead in the race for daily newspaper endorsements, by 124 to 46," according to Editor & Publisher. The website goes on to say "At least 27 papers have now switched to Obama from Bush in 2004, with just four flipping to McCain."

The Times (and the Chronicle), they are a changin'.

Is Your Roof Most Like A Staircase?

"Some of the strongest winds are being found along the west end of Galveston Bay in locations such as Clear Lake, Kemah, Seabrook, Shoreacres, and La Porte where winds are in the 85 to 105 mph range." (From the weather channel.)

After Hurricane Ike huffed and puffed and didn't blow my house down -- but sure the heck did rip my fence apart, along with a few roofing shingles, and spread some neighbors trees around, I called my insurance company. As part of their 10 minute survey (after 45 minutes of beautiful muzak), the agent asked me the above question. I paused. "Er, excuse me?," I mumbled. She repeated her question. Then she followed with "How steep is your roof?" Getting her explanation, I said, "Oh, I see. Um, not steep." What I was thinking but didn't say was "Not as steep as my insurance premium." I wondered how I could phrase that question in a way she'd understand. How about "Are your rates most like the Iraqi war? You know, always escalating when you least expect it, and with no end in sight?"

But I didn't do that. I was very fortunate, living close to the water, and with a predicted 20 foot storm surge that didn't come my way, after all. For that, I am thankful. My fence is tacked up for now (thanks Justin and Kevin, for your fine hammering skills), and soon to be replaced. The cats are happy to run in the backyard. And I can post right here on the blog. (Ptewie! Still hate that word...) What could be better?

Michael & Me

Michael Moore was recently on "Larry King Live" (9/5) to talk about his new book, and his upcoming film. The book, titled "Mike's Election Guide," pokes fun at the 2008 presidential election. His film, called "Slacker Uprising," documents his quest to get out the youth vote. The film is available for free, via download at slackeruprising.com.

Moore published an alternative newspaper in Flint, Michigan called the Flint Voice in 1976, that reached wider circulation in 1983, under the new banner of the Michigan Voice. The newspaper ran stories exposing corruption, police abuse, chemical dumping and racial discrimination.

In 1980, the Flint police raided a local printing firm looking for information related to an article in the Flint Voice criticizing the city's mayor. By that summer, the ACLU defended the Voice, when their case reached the Supreme Court, eventually moving Congress to pass a law prohibiting such searches.

In addition to the newspaper, Moore hosted a Sunday morning radio show on Flint's WWCK 105 FM, called "Radio Free Flint." This is where I discovered the brash activist. I couldn't believe some of the "radical" ideas that came out of his mouth at the time, but after tuning in weekly, I became a convert. His plain-talk, common-sense view of local and national politics made a lot more sense to me than the drivel and gobbledy-gook that was aired everyday on every tv news program. Even if I didn't always agree. And unlike the popular commentators today, he never yelled and screamed at his guests or his callers, and he never called them names.


My feeling is that it's that approach that scares politicians so much that they feel compelled to bring his name up in the unlikeliest of places. At the 2008 Republican Convention, Joe Lieberman mentioned him. Four years ago, John McCain did the same. Why? He isn't a candidate, he isn't even a politician! Are these folks so afraid that the common citizen just might be listening to this man? You bet. Millions of people buy his books, see his movies, and find a resonance they can understand. That's political influence. They should be very afraid.

In 1980, I was working at a Pizza Hut restaurant in Flint, and a phone order came in. It sounded shaky to me. We used to get fake orders all the time, so I called the number back to verify. It was the Flint Police Department! I hung up, and threw the order away.

Twenty minutes later, up drives Michael Moore to the drive-through window. "I'm here to pick up a pizza for Moore," he said. Ooops. It was a real order. We had this guarantee that if the order wasn't ready when we said it would be, the customer would get the order for free. I had some explaining to do. I told Mr. Moore what happened, apologized for my goof, and quickly made his pizza. While it was baking, I took the opportunity to have a chat with him. This turned out to be the first of several rap sessions he and I had from that drive-through window. On those invariable Saturdays, we'd talk about current events, political happenings, whatever was in the recent issue of the Voice, and his speaking appearances at the University of Michigan-Flint.


Michael left Flint in 1986 to take a job at the magazine Mother Jones. When that didn't turn out so well, he headed back to Flint, got a film camera, and made his first documentary, "Roger & Me" in 1989. By that time, I was teaching in Dallas. Michael appeared on Larry King's radio show on January 16, 1990. Excited that someone I "knew" had made a film (about my hometown, no less!), I just had to call in.

You can listen to our conversation by clicking the button below! Michael remembered our window-side chats at the pizza joint. He remembers to this day "where he came from." Whatever our political views, we should all be so moved to get up and do something about them.

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Within the past year, I've been lucky enough to finally see some of the rock legends I've never seen before. These legendary figures include John Fogerty (of CCR fame), Bruce Springsteen, and from this past Friday night, Tom Petty.
After all these years and all the concerts I've been to, it's hard to believe I hadn't seen them, but at the time when they were most popular, things like ticket costs and availability made attending their concerts prohibitive for me.
The gosh-awful freeway exit to the Woodlands Pavilion took 30 minutes to traverse, causing Lisa and I to miss part of another classic rocker's act, Steve Winwood. There are a series of ironies here. Firstly, Winwood fronted an old group called Traffic. Second, our tickets were for row PP. No lie. And I had to go, but my gal pal urged me to wait because we were almost there. Yeah, as Tom sang, "The waiting is the hardest part."
But none of that diminished the show. Winwood did a great "Dear Mr. Fantasy," even if his time on the stage was a bit short. Tom Petty brought his Heartbreakers, and he didn't disappoint the throng who came out to see him.
The setlist included most of your faves, but as Lisa pointed out, "Here Comes My Girl" was noticeably absent. Anyone would be hard-pressed, though, to not find something they liked in the lineup: You Wreck Me, Listen To Her Heart, I Won't Back Down, Even The Losers, Free Fallin', Breakdown, Learning To Fly, all leaving the crowd breathless. Absolutely great rock and roll, and I can now cross one more name off the list.

Metal Hearts

Last night the "Metal Masters Tour" came to Houston, and Lisa, Justin, Kevin and I took our expensive seats in the 4th freaking row! We got to see, up close and personal, all the facial expressions, all the gestures, and all the rock theatrics of classic metal gods Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, and Motorhead.

As I watched my heroes onstage, I couldn't help but pinch myself -- Tony Iommi, Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton -- they're RIGHT THERE! When they'd come over to our part of the stage, they'd just look and smile, or point, or nod. Folks, you just don't get that when you're sittin' waaaaaaay back next to the hot dog stand.

Just ask Kevin about wanting to vomit when the pounding bass drums of Heaven and Hell vibrated every part of his body. Justin joked, "I thought it was going to collapse my lung!"

All of us jumped and pumped our arms to all the metal anthems you could want in a single evening. There was the trademark epic and namesake, "Heaven and Hell," "Sign of the Southern Cross" (from H&H), "Breaking the Law," and "The Hellion/Electric Eye" (from Priest). Justin says Heaven and Hell's performance of "Falling Off The Edge of the World" was the best, and Kevin got his wish to hear both "Metal Gods" and "The Green Manolishi" from Judas Priest. Lisa said she preferred the sound of Motorhead to the "mash" of the two other bands. To each her own, I guess. Me? I kinda liked watching my peeps get off on the kick-ass rock 'n roll I've been worshipping for all these decades. The family that rocks together, gets tinnitus together. Or, something like that.

Fontspace: The Final Frontier

If you're looking for cool fonts to dress up your documents, make cool stationery, or just to add zip to your Myspace page, Fontspace is for you! They have almost 9000 free fonts for you to download, organized by category. I typed in the search keyword "Beatles" on their site, and found the fab four fonts, as pictured here. Whatever your thing is, they have a font for you. Check it out.