Dabysan’s Neighborhood

What's the closest thing you have to a time machine?
Submitted by Verisimilitude.

My Rainman-like memory. There will come a time in our relationship where I will remember some random fact about you and it will creep you out. you will call me a stalker and I will have to explain that I just have a really, very good memory. It's the only way I can explain it.

In other news I saw the Batman movie and HOLY SHIT DOES IT ROCK. It was so awesome that words cannot quite do it justice. I laughed and I cried, literally. I also gasped and had to resist the urge to clap with glee. It was good. And all that hype surrounding Heath Ledger's posthumous? It's totally well-deserving.

God the batman is good.

As a pretty big DC Comics geek, so I went to see The Dark Knight on opening day. I've been eagerly awaiting the film since Batman Begins and it just felt forever for the film to finally make it to the movie theaters. What made it worst, was I picked up the Batman Bluray and saw the first six minutes of the film, which made waiting for the movie even more unbearable!

So after watching it, I definitely wasn't disappointed. I thought maybe at the end, there was an over usage of sweeping orchestral music that seems to overpower the dialogues spoken. Maybe even Christian Bale's Batman voice is sometime over dramatic and the Gotham mafia is a joke, the movie is still pretty awesome.

By the way, I'm actually kind of surprise that with all the violence in the film, it was still Rated PG-13. I guess the rating board have laxed over the years, but if this movie was released in the 80s, it would've been slap with an R.

I'm sure all the critics will tell you what a wonderful villain Heath Ledger's Joker was. He was pretty frightening in the role, and I'm kind of sad that this will be his last role. In some ways, I hope they don't bring back the Joker in future films, especially if future actors won't be able to carry on the craziness of what Ledger brought.

Anyway, before I let spoilers slip, I'll just keep this short and sweet. Here are some Batman music.

Danny Elfman - The Batman Theme

Prince - Batdance (Vicki Vale Mix)

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Face To Face

The Dynamic Batmen - Batman TV Theme

R. Kelly-Gotham City

A couple of comments: I've previously mentioned Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman before, so check those out. The "Batman TV Theme" was redone, possibly in the late 60s by an outfit called The Dynamic Batmen. I've always loved this surf theme song, but it doesn't seem to suit the seriousness of what Batman should be. It is a fun song and I guess reflect the feel-good theme of the Adam West show.

Prince's "Batdance (Vicki Vale remix)" and had heavy sampling from the 1989 Batman movie. It is, as they say, funky, I didn't think belong in the "grim" and "gothic" Tim Burton film. However, Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Face to Face" fit quite well in the sequel Batman Returns. What a great single! Rounding out is R Kelly's "Gotham City", from the disaster that is known as Batman & Robin.

Links: thedarkknight.warnerbros.com hans-zimmer.com oingoboingo.com

I had a pretty good Friday.  Lunch with Earl of Crom and Neophyte Naturalist.  Good visit.  Underground Pub.  Greasy English fare.  Here's what we had:

Seems like I should have a song named "Beer" too, but I don't.

Yesterday I also got to enjoy the vicarious thrill of Crankycrunk's Free at Noon show with Robyn.  Trilobite right in the Lite Bite, Dwight.  YEAH.

Most people, when invited to a Saturday evening wedding in New York City, might make a weekend out of it.  Not me.  Now to be fair, until yesterday I was supposed to spend tomorrow riding roller coasters, but somebody (let's call him, oh I dunno.... D. San.  No, wait - Daby S.) fell down playing his hippie frisbee game a week ago and is still bitching and moaning about it like a little baby.  My original itinerary was to leave this morning around eight, and drive back home tonight after the reception - getting here around three or four in the morning.  I could get a couple hours of sleep, and nap in the car on the way down to Williamsburg.  It was to be a couple of long-ass days, for sure, but not completely unreasonable.  And ever since I talked myself into the ridiculous notion of making the wedding a day trip, it's been difficult to contemplate alternate courses of action.  Even considering my now-cancelled Sunday plans, I went to sleep yesterday thinking that I'd be back in my own bed the following night.

Now I don't know what to do.  I'm up way too early.  By which I mean: I'm up at the same time I usually wake up.  My plan hinged on sleeping in until about seven.  Under other circumstances, those two and a half hours might not matter.  But staring down a potential twenty hour day, those two and a half hours could be the difference between making it home safely or ending up in a ditch along the New Jersey Turnpike.  I suppose, should things go sideways, there is a hotel room available to me, but that brings up a whole mess of other issues.  Like, what the hell would I do tomorrow?  Does anybody know if there's anything to do in Manhattan?

1. Relax
2. Sleep
3. Rest
4. Read
5. Write
6. Exercise
7. More sleep
8. Eat
9. Clean

My goal is to have a clean, clutter-free environment by the end of next week.  A lofty goal from where I sit.

Tomorrow can't come soon enough because I'm just about ready to raise the white flag. What I'm referring to is my time in the exclusive spotlight. Lately, life has been tossing me around on the stage and kicking me as if I were a defenseless puppy dog.

The much-anticipated opportunity for me to close the door, for good, on my current job has closed the door on itself. And it all abounded due to the correct exercising of cell phone etiquette. A few days before, an ex-colleague of mine forwarded my resume to HR director of the company I was hoping to land a job with. The director left a message for me the night I was indisposed. Yes, I said night. Naturally, I returned his call the next day, ~10:00am, only to get his voicemail. I left my daytime phone number + my evening phone, and additionally specified the hours he could reach me at either number. It wasn't until the following day I arrive to work with a voicemail on my desk phone with the time recorded as 5:45pm! I'm sure you can gather I do not normally work until 5:45pm...and if I do, I'm normally in the laboratory finishing up an experiment, and not at my desk.

So, by this time I called the ex-colleague to acknowledge if I called the correct number to which he responded, "Of course! I know he's flying cross-country to the west coast. I would say try him again during the middle of the afternoon." Once again...voicemail. And not a word back, since. The logical conclusion to draw from this story is: it's not worth getting bent out of shape to begin with. If he's that negligible with setting up an interview, imagine the potential horror stories to follow. So here I am again working at the dead-end corporation on desolation row.

The next installment involves a well-known savings & loans company who set me up with a payment schedule to cover my major & COSTLY dental work from a few months ago. The company sent me monthly billing statements as reminders for what dates payment was due, with $32 as the minimum monthly charge. Since I wasn't keen on paying the bare minimum every month (are ya listening, Stan?), I wrote out checks for as much as 8x per month for the first few months. It had been a while since I received my last monthly statement, until today when the assfucks called me on my way home from work telling me I'm overdue on my monthly payment. First of all, I never received your fucking statement. Second of all, what I've payed in the last few months more than covers. In fact, I calculate I'm due a 5-month grace period, jerkfaces.

Ignorant Twat: "Hey stupid! It's too warm to build a snowman!"
Hobbes: "A Philistine on the sidewalk."
Calvin: "Genius is never understood in its own time.

It's been a little while since I have written something to keep my Misanthrope Status is in good standing, so here goes; the masses are ignorant, tasteless, Philistines.  Any list of alleged definitive excellence as selected by a large committee of individuals is inevitably wrong, laughable while at the same time confounding, and representative of the blandest median "accomplishment."  Repeated examples of this maxim include the NBA All-Star Team, Nielsen ratings, presidential elections (US or otherwise), televised karaoke, and The Pepsi Challenge -- it's a trick question, all cola-flavored soda sucks.

Another example, which truly belongs in a class of its own, and one that angried up my blood this muggy Friday is the Emmy's.  Indeed, that paragon of small screen accomplishment whose sole purpose is to remind you, TV viewer, that everybody really does love Raymond.  And you know what?  It's true, just about everybody does love Raymond.  Which is why it should not be the least bit surprising, yet still drives me to the brink of hair-yanking madness, that HBO's The Wire was again not nominated for a Best Series Emmy.  To put this into a bit of perspective (and I stole this straight from Keith Phipps at "The Av Club"), one of the following people will win an Emmy while neither The Wire nor any of its actors will not:
 

Ryan Seacrest, American Idol
Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars
Howie Mandel, Deal or No Deal
Heidi Klum, Project Runway
Jeff Probst, Survivor

Things that make you go, Hmm...

Of course my favorite piece of evidence proving the woeful irrelevance of the public writ large is the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time (ignore the guy's commentary on the link) as voted on by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine -- a veritable Algonquian round table of dilettantes and taste makers I'm sure you will agree.  Now one can argue taste and style all day but there are some things that are immutable facts, nay, Laws of Nature.  Here are a few as they pertain to this bullshit list:

1. There is no paradigm where Jack White, #17 (!), and Kurt Cobain, #12 (!!!), should be listed ahead of Richard Thompson, #19.  2+2 does NOT equal 5.

2. Your list is an illogical paradox and must therefore destroy itself when it contains Jack White, Kurt Cobain, Johnny Ramone, Lou fucking Reed, and Joni Mitchell whilst omitting the likes of Bob Mould, Larry Carlton, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Mike Campbell, Richard Lloyd, J Mascis, Mark Ford, Vinnie Vincent, Mike McCready, Doug Martsch, Jay Bennett, Glenn Tillbrook, Prince Rogers Nelson, J. Robbins, Joey Santiago...

 Daughter is in Lapland at the moment, being shown where the people who book a trip to see Father Christmas go.  So she will be meeting Father Christmas at some point.

What is she gonna say when he asks her what she had for dinner?

Here is her actual text message:

my go the mosquitos, U wldnt beleive its like soup!  Weathers gd, im gd.  Had reindeer pizza 2night haha!  Very tired.  hope all is well at home, see u sat.

Oh Father Christmas!  I hope it wasn't Rudolph!

Last night was Thursday Night - so off we went to Kay’s, to get a little stoned and a little drunk.

Then BF bought me home, and I got a little more stoned and a little more drunk.

Then we went to bed, and I got a little more stoned and a little more drunk.

Then, as I am pouring a tot of whiskey, I look at the cap, and snort.

Whassup, Hon?

Well, I just looked at this, and it says A Bullock & Co.

Mmnnnnn.

Well, when I saw the A Bullock, the & Co just threw me.  I was expecting an adjective or a verb, not & Co.

Snort - Jarring, that sort of thing. 

And that is why I love him.  Cos I know some people who would have just looked at me as though I were mad.

Pat Benatar - Love Is a Battlefield Pat Benatar Tour Dates 07/18/08 Chicago, IL House Of Blues 07/19/08 Goshen, IN Elkhart County 4-H Fair 07/21/08 Council Bluffs, IA Harrah's Casino - Stir Concert Cove 07/26/08 Oakville, CA Robert Mondavi Winery 07/27/08 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore 08/01/08 C Mesa, CA Pacific Amphitheatre 08/02/08 Primm, NV Star of the Desert Arena 08/03/08 San Diego, CA Humphrey's Concerts 08/05/08 Saratoga, CA The Mountain Winery 08/09/08 Aspen, CO Belly Up Aspen 08/10/08 Colorado Springs, CO Pikes Peak 08/11/08 Beaver Creek, CO Vilar Center 08/14/08 Silverton, OR Oregon Garden 08/15/08 Tacoma, WA Emerald Queen 08/16/08 Richmond, BC River Rock Casino 08/17/08 Coquitlam, BC Red Robinson 08/19/08 Medicine Hat, AB  Esplanade 08/20/08 Regina, SK Casino Regina Show 08/22/08 ON Thunder Bay Comm Auditorium 08/23/08 MN Grand Casino Hinckley 08/24/08 Sault Ste Marie,MI Kewadin Casino 08/26/08 Verona, NY Turning Stone Casino 08/27/08 Jim Thorpe, PA Penn's Peak 08/29/08 Lincoln, RI Twin River Casino 08/31/08 Bridgeport, CT Klein Memorial Aud 09/05/08 CA Chukchansi Gold Casino 09/06/08 Rancho Cucamonga, CA Lewis Family Playhouse Album Discography [1979] In the Heat of the Night [1980] Crimes of Passion [1981] Precious Time [1982] Get Nervous [1983] Live from Earth [1984] Tropico [1985] Seven the Hard Way [1988] Wide Awake in Dreamland [1991] True Love [1993] Gravity's Rainbow [1997] Innamorata [2003] Go

I'm probably not qualify to write this article, as I thought I only knew a few popular songs ("Love is a Battlefield" and "Heartbreaker") from Pat Benatar, a pop singer who dominated the American charts in the 80s, but after giving Pat Benatar: Ultimate Collection 2-CD album a listen, I can tell you that I was familiar with a lot of her works!

Her songs, especially the early pop rock hits, reminds me a lot of Patty Smyth in Scandal, both having strong female vocals backed by a tight band, rocking out to music themes such as the heat of the night, children of the street, belonging to something, and promises of love.

There are many good songs on this collection, but I will only be mentioning a few stand-out tracks. "Heartbreaker", her major-hit debut single, originally released in 1979 from her album, In the Heat of the Night.

"Hit Me With Your Best Shot", I've always thought it was an Olivia Newton-John song. Imagine my surprise when I found out that this was a big hit for Benatar!

I was also surprise to hear "I Need a Lover", a John Cougar Mellencamp song!  Her take on it emphasized more on her aggressive girl vocals.

"Love is a Battlefield", gives new meaning to synchronized dancing by runaways. I think the cheesy music video to this song, more or less, made the song really popular in the 80s. A little bit of trivia, this original release was on a live album called Live From Earth (1983). Out of this live album are two studio tracks, the battlefield song and "Lipstick Lies".

While the first disc covers most of her singles from her first five studio albums (1979-1983), the second disc covers the rest of her career, but only from her former record label, Chrysalis Records (1984-1993). What's interesting to note is her shift from rocker to a more mellow pop and even jazz, on such classic songs like "We Belong" (this sounds like a Journey song), and the jazzy "True Love" (lots of piano and brass instruments on this one).

It is kind of nice to see Benatar dipping into different genres outside of pop (she even does blues on "Payin' the Cost to Be the Boss"), I suppose it's a sign that she was growing up in those later years. We're talking about thirty year's worth of music, although looking at her discography, there are huge gaps after 1993 that suggests she's in semi-retirement of recording original music? Her last album, Go, came out in 2003, but perhaps with this latest tour and Ultimate Collection that was just released might spark some interest to get her back to the studio?

Ultimate Collection is really meant for casual and new fans, but I think it will also appeal to hardcore fans, as it does a wonderful job compiling Benatar's hits with some misses. The forty songs on two CDs (and official digital tracks), with half of it were top 40 hits. For new fans, this is a great way of getting all these songs for a reasonably low price.

To coincide with the album release (June 24^th from Capitol/EMI Records and can be found at all major record stores), Benatar went on tour since May. She's currently just finished up Knoxville, Tennessee, and probably heading to your town. If possible you should see her do live rendition of all her hits.

Links: www.benatar.com benatarfanclub.com myspace.com/officialpatbenatar