Blind Boscoe

A legend from my childhood died this week. At 12 years old, I was introduced to the world of Heavy Metal. My cousin was 2 1/2 years older than me and always knew what was cool before me. So, what he had was what I wanted. He had Candy-O by the Cars and Freedom of Choice by Devo. So, it would only follow that when the heavy metal craze hit in the early eighties, C would be right on board, and I would be tagging along.

As I look back on it, I was not fortunate enough to own any of the so-called truly cool heavy metal bands of the day, because they were a little too centered around Satan. I cannot remember if this was my choice or my Dad's. Or, if it was the influence my Dad had on me to make that kind of choice. I may have requested Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast or Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil as a birthday present, but I know that I did request Quiet Riot - Metal Health and got it. What a great album. It was total poser heavy metal. Wannabe heavy metal. Almost as bad as Christian Rock... but not that bad.

There were a few heavy metal bands at the time who qualified to be listenable, because they did not subscribe to such blatantly satanic themes. Quiet Riot seemed to be the king of these groups opting for the spotlight of popdom with Cum on Feel the Noize, a song spelled in a way which suggests sex instead of satanic influence. Way better for kids! The other groups were Def Leppard and Twisted Sister. Twisted Sister was a major one-hit wonder. Def Leppard never seemed that interesting to me. I would probably like them more if I listened to them now.

Quiet Riot's lead singer, Kevin Dubrow, died yesterday. He was only 52. I wonder what kind of life he actually lived. I heard a quote of his one time about how he wanted to live a life of a quiet riot. I think it was on one of those 80's Has Been shows. It was funny in his videos from the early 80's, Kevin's hair was really thinning, but in the photo on the news he had really long, curly hair with no sign of aging at all. Did he honestly wear a wig all these years? That just does not seem like what a true rocker would do... So maybe he wasn't.

Quiet Riot was important to me if for no other reason than that they were there for those early years when I was trying to fit in to a world which was full of cross-dressing, over-the-top, screaming-their-heads-off, big hair dudes. And now I wonder why I wanted to be a part of that...

I blame my cousin.

The Descriptive Niece

One can never assume that any one year old is going to be interchangeable with any other. I have 3 of them in my life right now and each is as different as the other. This past week I got to spend it with the descriptive niece, the tour guide niece, the prepositional phrase niece, the action verb niece. She was absolutely hilarious as we continued to shower her with praise and affection.

I wonder just what people are capable of when they have nothing to prove to anyone but themselves. Isn't that the goal? Don't we all ultimately want to have the confidence to achieve anything? And shouldn't we be able to get there knowing that we have the support of those around us?

I realize that not everyone grew up in homes where the parents were loving and supportive. But I would like to think that most people would seek out those who would be giving and nurturing in their lives. Wouldn't people figure out that they would want to be around those who care about them?

I feel pretty fortunate to have grown up with great parents who cared about me and listened and were part of my life. I think it was difficult to be single for as long as I was, but it was always meaningful for me to have their support and know that I was not crazy. All the woman I was dating were. Okay, not all of them. But, having that kind of parental support should be enough to propel anyone forward, to believe that they can accomplish anything.

But what holds us back? What keeps us from dreaming? Is the disappointment of failure too much to want to take more chances?

As I look at my descriptive niece, I wonder what it is that could hold her back. She should be able to tackle anything. She should be able to be anything she wants. With loving parents who want the best for her, what is there to stop her? She should be able to be the tour guide who people look to for guidance through the city. She should be the teacher who sees the demonstration with proper vocabulary words. Or she could be the scientist who describes the procedure for a new method of space travel.

And there we will be clapping in support, because no matter what she accomplishes, her very existence has already touched our lives in more ways than she could possibly know.

Criticism

Some people that I sort of respect in the entertainment industry really get down on critics. I guess it comes down to not wanting to be criticized for work that they do and may be proud of. Or, maybe they just do not want to be criticized for putting forth the effort. Perhaps they know what they do is bad, but it is still their passion.

But I still find a need to express my own opinion when it comes to the work that others may do. I figure no matter what it is or where, something needs to be said about it. It could be the train conductor who blasts his horn as he goes through the neighborhood in the middle of the night. Or, it could be the waitress who does not know how to kiss butt well enough. Maybe it is the old person who does not know how to drive. Shouldn't all these people be criticized for their poor performances?

And so it goes with actors who take lame roles or cannot act. Producers who make the same movies over and over again. Or, they come up with a lame script which cannot be rewritten because it already has all the basic producer elements it needs. The dopey main character dude, the hot chick who goes beyond her stereotype, the incompetent government, the dense parents, the clever mouse, the cute robot. We have seen it all before! Help!

But what good am I doing by criticizing? What am I doing to change it? Am I writing the script for the movie the way it is supposed to be written? Am I coming up with the next big thing, technology, way to look at things?

Not yet.

Barefoot in the House

In the movie Die Hard, John McClane's chauffer tells him that when he gets up to his room to take off his shoes and squish the carpet in his feet. This is meant to be some sort of relaxation technique, but if you see the movie, you will notice this is an interesting plot point as he spends the rest of the movie barefoot. Now, it seems that everytime I take off my shoes and I am on carpet I think of that scene.

My wife and I were at a sort of reunion party with some old friends from my single days. Somehow, the subject of using a squeejee to wipe down the shower door came up by this woman and her husband. They went to Home Depot and picked up the industrial size one. Now, every morning as I use our stupid little squeejee I think of them with their big squeejee!

When I get on a plane and buckle my seatbelt, I think of Seinfeld's bit on airplanes "Oh, you lift up on the buckle..."

The Cars' Panorama and Oingo Boingo's Only a Lad albums will always remind me of Uncle M.

Is this what makes these people or items famous? Some people you can associate with many things. But there are others who have hardly anything to connect them with. What am I known for by the people who have come across me? I was the guy who shook all the time or barged in without knocking or said rude things to people because it seemed more clever to insult them rather than compliment them. But I did some good things too... I think.

A friend of mine at work named R has decided to no longer be Negative R. He is now going to be known as Positive R. This is amusing to me, because I never thought he was negative. I kind of just thought he was funny. Now that he has pointed this out to us, I guess we need to take notice. We need to start doing Negative Watch. We need to keep him away from dull objects.

What is our responsibility at this point when it comes to R? Do we need to be more negative ourselves so that he can show us his true positive nature? What exactly does he want from us by telling us this? Couldn't he just start being positive and then we would notice?

But we don't notice because he was never negative to begin with. Well, no more than anyone else.

So, now R is going to be the guy who went from Negative R to Positive R by virtue of his declaration. Hmmm, I prefer to think of him as the guy who helped write the book on hiking in Utah. He is also the guy who took the pictures at our wedding. I wonder if R likes Die Hard. He did not put it in his top five. Nor should anyone...

May I Introduce...

We got ourselves a dog this week and it is killing me that we cannot let him in the house. I think it is killing him too. He really wants to come in. Unfortunately, I am in no position to even have him come downstairs with me as my newfound (last 10 years) allergy to dogs has taken root. Also, he is fairly big and has been known to be a little slobbery.

The dog's name is Forrest and he has been a friend of mine for almost as long as I have known my wife. He came with us on the family campout last year and was a pretty easy going dog. Once he knew that everyone else was essentially sleeping outside he no longer had any jealousy and just enjoyed everyone else's company.

So the last couple days I have been familiarizing him with the neighborhood. My contingency is that if he happens to get out of the yard then he will be able to find his way back when he recognizes certain landmarks. Dogs are like teenagers. They escape when one is not looking and then go hog wild, chasing cats, eating garbage, sniffing butts, etc. Well, sort of like teenagers... But eventually they have to come home. So, they slink back after you call them and as they walk in the gate, that is when you give them a swift kick in the butt.

The Illusion of Saturday

One of my favourite things to do in life is sleep in on Saturday. I guess I should not limit it to just Saturdays though. I like sleeping in most everyday, but since every other day of the week has some sort of responsibility associated with it, Saturday becomes the only allowable day to do so. I think coupled with this sleeping in concept is the idea of staying up all night on Friday night.

It seems that the last couple Fridays I have done this. And in doing so, I have watched some rather silly shows. Having a DVR makes life much more simple. No, it is not simple, just convenient. Actually, that is not the right word either. The word I think I am looking for is... Let's come up with that word based on these ideas.

1. Pointless shows which would have been better to miss.
2. Time wasted watching contrived plots.
3. A feeling that you owe the tv/satellite your time because you pay so much money to have it.
4. Wishing that you could be reading books instead of painfully viewing society's garbage.
5. Putting off an assignment I have for work until the last minute.
6. As a positive note, there is an escape associated with silly tv shows.
7. Catching up with all of my recordings.

So the word has to do with the idea of saving lots of time and effort throughout the week for one particular night in which the flood of all waste gets absorbed. It is sort of a catch-all concept based on unfulfilled escape during the week. Maybe we could combine two words to make this work. Trash pickup? Garbage Day?

Well, I need to go back, because trash and garbage imply that I do not like what I watch and part of the problem is that I do like it. I do like the characters and their horrible plots and their interaction with the oddities of life. A term that they use for music which one loves to hate is: guilty pleasure. So, we need to combine the idea of leaving the garbage out for the trash man to pick up once a week with the fact that the truck likes the trash he is picking up and later dumping out.

Perhaps, I should just pick the show which best represents this love/hate relationship. The shows I watch are CSI, CSI Miami, Numb3rs, Life, Journeyman, Survivorman, The Office, Scrubs, My Name is Earl, Law and Order SVU, etc. Numb3rs is probably the worst out of them all, but SVU is the one I have the least interest in watching. Maybe I could just call it Subtraction (or Subtraction Night), since that does have a mathematical concept in it and we are subtracting shows from the DVR list. Also, I am subtracting knowledge from my head since I do become dumber after watching them. And, I am subtracting time from more worthwhile projects and endeavours. Not to mention that sleeping in on Saturday subtracts from the only non-work day of the week.

I like it. Subtraction.