Friday, June 11, 2004

 
Late Night Random Mish-Mash of Thoughts...

1) In case you hadn't heard, former President Ronald Reagan died recently. It's true! Remember, you heard it here first...or 1,376,402nd...

Anyhoo, the orgy of tributes was totally predictable, which unfortunately has not rendered said tributes any less over-the-top or embarrassing. I could go on about how Reagan was not the savior of the universe that the Newt Gingriches of the world make him out to be, but others have already done so, most notably Ted Rall, who has posted some hilarious yet scary hate mail on his blog which he received in response to his own "Reagan Memories."

I'm also not going to go on about how, because I grew up in the 80s, he looms big in my memory, for better or for worse, because Skinny D has already written about that most effectively, and also because, well, no duh. I guess all I want to say (and by that I mean write) is that Reagan's death hasn't really affected me at all. First of all, he had already been gone for ten years, so this wasn't (or shouldn't've been) a shocker to anyone. Second of all, he was the President for much of my youth, and that's about all I really knew about him--he was that guy who was President, and he had some catchy one-liners for which he was known. I was six when he was first elected, fourteen when he left office--not exactly a period in one's life when their political views are well-honed. What I've learned about him has been in hindsight, and my view of him is largely negative. I mean, George W. Bush basically has spent his first (and let's hope only) term in office idolizing and emulating the guy...nuff said. But who cares? What's done is done, and we can rehash the past in either a marathon of genuflection (as Reagan's acolytes are doing) or trash talk (as Reagan's detractors are doing), but what does that accomplish?

So anyways, I don't feel very affected by his death, but I do have some thoughts related to it:

2) Reagan's death, to me, was not nearly as sad as the passing of Ray Charles. I consider myself lucky to be able to say that I saw Ray Charles in concert a few years ago (thanks, IUP Cultural Series!), and, while admittedly not at the peak of his career at the time, he was still awesome. One of my all-time favorite concert memories was at that show when his band broke into "Busted" about halfway through their set. It's a great song, and I totally didn't expect him to play it. It still makes me smile to think of it.

People throw the word "genius" around too often these days (I'm sure there are those among us who think William Hung, for chrissakes, is a "genius"), but Charles was one of the few people who earned the title. He basically created what we know as soul music--the mix of gospel tunes with R & B lyrics. How many musicians can say they've created a new style of music? (No, Eamon, "ho-wop" doesn't count. Nice try, thanks for playing).

Anyhow, if you don't own at least one Ray Charles album, there's something seriously wrong with you. If you're only going to get one, I'd highly recommend Rhino's Ray Charles Anthology, a very inclusive greatest hits collection, which includes his awesome rendition of "America the Beautiful." His recording of that song inspires me more and makes me more proud to be an American than any of Reagan's insipid, pre-packaged "rah-rah America" speeches ever did. R.I.P., Genius.

3) When I think of Reagan, I always inevitably think of one of my favorite SNL sketches from the Reagan era.

In it, the late, great Phil Hartman played Reagan, and the concept of the sketch was that Reagan was actually an evil genius--he was solely responsible for every shady thing that transpired during his administration, going so far as to micro-manage every last detail and blowing off his advisors with lines like, "Never mind, I'll do it myself!"

The best part of the skit was when the President's evil work session was interrupted for a photo op with "the little girl who sold the most Girl Scout cookies," and Hartman's Reagan responds to the interruption by remarking, "This is the part of the job I hate!" before meeting the girl and putting on his "doddering granddad" act for the public.

The sketch was totally over-the-top, but one of the reasons it was so hilarious was that it did contain a small grain of truth--the sneaking suspicion that Reagan's "Well, I don't know" act was just that--an act.

Something tells me that there will never be a similar sketch written about Dubya.

Just sayin'.

4) And now, for some not-Reagan-related thoughts:

I owe an apology to Pittsburgh. One time back when, I posted a little rant goofing on the Steel City for its lackluster entertainment offerings. And while I'm not going to take back that goofing (because, admit it, Yakov Smirnoff is funny...but in all the wrong ways), I will say that Pittsburgh has redeemed itself to a great degree by bringing Wilco to town for a free concert last week, which I attended and hereby deem "awesome."

My favorite non-musical part of the concert was when someone started a beach ball going, and it flew up in the air only to land between the heads of two art school type guys (Wilco attracts an "arty" crowd) who totally didn't see it coming. The ball then ricocheted between their heads, pinball like fashion, a few times before falling to the ground. The guys tried to play cool and act like it didn't happen, but one general rule of thumb in life is that you can't look cool after getting hit in the head with a beach ball--just accept that you looked foolish for that moment and move on.

5) Speaking of concerts:

The other week, I was at Borders. Now, one thing you have to realize about me is that one of my favorite things to do, an activity that is very near and dear to my heart, is to go to a Borders/Barnes & Noble/some other type of book store-cafe place, get a cup of coffee, grab a few interesting magazines off the shelves, and sit and read for a while. So the other week I was looking forward to indulging in this completely non-productive pastime of mine, and went to a Borders shop near home. It was a Friday night, which means they had live music. No big deal--heck, sometimes the performers there are actually good (or so bad they're good--my all-time favorite so-bad-it's-good coffee shop performance was by this horrendous singer-songwriter I saw at another Borders shop a few years back. He sang terrible songs and accompanied himself on a cheesy Casio keyboard, but what really set him apart from the pack was his decision to do a crappy cover of matchbox twenty's crappy song "Push"--twice, which was at least two times too many).

But I digress...this Borders shop was pretty small, and the performer that night was crammed into the back corner of the cafe, along with his band (drummer and bass player--the singer played guitar). Anyway, this guy was pretty mellow--he was playing very Dave Matthews Band-y type stuff, but he, his band or whoever set up the equipment had the sound totally cranked up.

Well, this music was so friggin' loud you just could not go anywhere in the whole store to escape it...the sound followed you into every corner of the store as if the amps were strapped to your ears. It was unbelievable. The cafe/bookstore staff couldn't hear the customers talking to them, the customers couldn't hear them. You couldn't hear the person sitting right next to you--you literally couldn't hear yourself think. I walked out of there with the worst headache--and it didn't help that the guy performing sucked.

Here's my request: People--musicians, roadies, bookstore staff, whoever sets up the equipment--adjust the volume to fit both the type of music being played and the space in which it's played. This is just common sense. Now don't get me wrong--I'm not against loud music. If I'm, for example, going to see the Hives in concert, I want it so loud that I'll be deaf by the end if I don't wear ear plugs. I'm also not against cranking the sound in a large venue. I'm usually in the nosebleed seats when I go to arena shows, and I deserve to hear everything just as much as those in the pit, so I want it cranked at a large venue.

What irritates me is when people crank mellow music in tiny spaces. I don't want to go deaf listening to some horrible Coldplay wannabe band, and, if going deaf is a possibility, I want to be able to get away from it without leaving the building. Just because you think you rock doesn't mean you have the right to turn it to 11. Think about the rest of us--the ones trying to concentrate on the latest moronic Jessica Simpson quote in the "Loose Talk" section of Us Weekly.

Well, I guess that's all...

Oh wait! OK, celebrity deaths come in threes. We've had Reagan and Ray Charles...who will be number three?

My money, for absolutely no reason at all, is on Bruce Vilanch.

Regards,

Helmet Head
posted by Brian 1:39 AM