She's been on the elevator in the last...six months

If you ever worked at the League (especially downstairs), you'll know why this is funny:

DETROIT (AP) -- A federal judge says a Detroit city employee can proceed with a civil suit claiming she couldn't work because of a co-worker's strong perfume.

The Detroit News says U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff determined Susan McBride has a potential claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The city is asking to have the suit dismissed.

McBride says she's severely sensitive to perfumes and other cosmetics. She says the perfume worn by a co-worker in the city's Planning Department made it difficult for her to breathe.

She says the co-worker also used a plugged in room deodorizer.

The suit says the co-worker later agreed to stop using the room deodorizer but kept using perfume.

Memory

A nice little mention on the Democrat website about LRHG's Step-mom here.

NMT 63

Ok, short and simple this week.

I got my first (and Only) drum set in Christmas of the sixth grade. My uncle gave me his old Slingerland kit made in 1966 (I know this from the stamps on the inside) that he used to play in his country band. It was red and had some jimmy-rigged components, but it was mine and I pounded the shit out of those things. My poor parents.

I was only ever in one "band" and by band I mean more than two shitheads who liked the same music and wanted to make noise. We sucked, but we tried really hard (I have a tape: one of you has heard it, one of you was there). We were just young and full of grand ideas and visions, but unfortunately, not a whole lot of talent. We lived out in the boonies in this tiny duplex and practiced in the living room. And by practiced I mean we played the only five songs we had and then tortured some of our favorite songs at the time. A lot of Smashing Pumpkins as I remember. The guitar player had a huge hard on for them. Anyway, it was fun.

We never played out anywhere, but we did play for a friends birthday party once. Complete with a setlist and everything. We even had to go to his house, so we had to pack up the van (Tour bitches!) It was fun. So much simpler then. To quote American Beauty, "I had my whole life ahead of me".

Sadly, it's been ten years or so since I've played at all. Not like a guitar where you can travel with it and play quietly if need be. So it goes.

Anyway, our pick this week is a little different. I was reading the drummers book ( a gift from Mormon Girl, thank you.) and I was looking up videos and found this one. It's a live performance, but it only shows the angles for the drums. I think you can do this on the DVD, but I'm not sure. I've heard of multi-angle DVD options, but have never actually seen one. So, this is him performing, you see why you get an aerobic equal workout while playing (the drummer in the band I worked for confirmed this. He put the heart beat monitor from his ski machine on his ear while playing his electric drums in his room. Science.)

So, sit back, relax, put your ankles up (sorry) and enjoy. Oh and quick note:I was never this good, but to be fair, he did have a 20 year head start.

From Toronto, Ontario, Canada:

Rush - "Subdivisions":






Bonus Tracks:

We went to see this last night and it was pretty good. If you haven't seen the other one or it's been a while, then do that first. It is a direct continuation. Oh and be warned: he takes his shirt off. Totally gross. Also, first duet Bond theme song.

Jack White and Alicia Keys - "Another Way to Die":






I bet nothing fights off the long, cold New Hampsha wintah's like some pale, skinny, effeminate British guys. Let's find out.

Suede - "Animal Nitrate":

NMT 62

Let's all congratulate LRHG on the engagement this weekend. A good friend of hers got engaged over the weekend and LRHG gets to play MOH now. (See what I did there?). This is appropriate since Top 40 and I are currently watching Made of Honor. Well, she's watching it (and falling asleep. Mormon Girl, I think there's something about watching House on that couch.) while I'm writing this.


In the book I mentioned a couple of weeks ago the author mentioned those rare albums that are perfect from beginning to end. Joshua Tree, Nevermind, etc. He refers to them as "Dingers", but that's a lame term, so I'll just say they're good.

This one came up on my iPod at work today and it's one of my favorite records from my formative years. In the eighth grade, we took a band field trip to Busch Gardens. We got to ride on a charted bus instead of a Cheese Log, with the big comfy seats and all. We all brought our Walkman's for the trip. There was this girl I was totally infatuated with in the 8th grade, Angie Calhoun. She was brunette, you needn't know anymore. She loved this band and I hadn't heard of them yet.

On the trip, the girl sitting next to me had a copy of this album and my curiosity being peeked by the shirt Angie always wore, I borrowed it. Right away, I liked it. Not because it was Angie's favorite band, oh no, that connection ceased to be relevant upon the first listen. Again, one of those records you hear and recognize it's brilliance straight away. I took it home and listened to it beginning to end about 40 times before I returned it the following Monday.

It holds up now and it's my favorite of theirs. Hearing it does remind me of that time. The time when I was still always nice, before I became truly cynical and bitter (yeah, she said no. She wasn't the first, nor the last). Which, is ironic, because this singer's songs have always been the themes of the mopey and disenfranchised.
And I do believe all of his videos are just him wandering the streets of London in some from or another.

So, from their album, "Strangeways, here we come" and Manchester, England:

The Smiths - "Stop me if you think you've heard this one before":



Bonus Tracks:

This is for Top 40, who LOVES rock music. I mean, when the band just really ROCKS! WOO! Rock on!

David (THE American Rock Idol) Cook - "Light on" (written with Chris Cornell, so it can't be all lame. Just mostly 99% Lame):




Random Pick of the Week:

To keep with the theme of our pick this week.

Radiohead - "The Headmaster Ritual" (a Smiths song):

NMT 61

So, here we are. The end of a very bad 8 years and the begining of what many hope will be better times. Always out of the bad, the destructive, the hyperbole comes the hopeful. We never know what will be the result, it was never quite as bad as we were told (oh it was bad, but we survived) and it will never live up to the absolute hopes. Utopia and Eden were ideas, not places on a map, but it does feel wonderful to think we can get closer and stop getting farther away as we have been.

I've always liked the idea of, no matter how dismal an outlook a song or a poem or a story had, that there was always a chance for hope at the end. Michael Stipe said once that no matter how much he tried to write a desperate, depressing lyric, he always stuck a bit of a hopeful ending on it. It just wasn't in his nature to make it all bad. I've always tried to do that in my writings.

Our pick this week is representive of that. On a record full of sadness, heartbreak, confusion and anger, it ends with a song that is upbeat and has that tinge of hope. It's probably not directly related to the other experiences on the rest of the album (as she explains at the beginning of the performance), but it does have this bit of feeling that it will all be ok.

She explains it as being about thinking of the end of your life when you've accomplished everything you wanted, achieved all your goals and you can finally allow yourself to relax and enjoy life and not waiting, but doing it now. I think there are many of us who need to do this more.

Those who get lonely, but forget about the amazing adventure they're undertaking. If they're not careful, they could miss it.

Those who worry about having enough that they forget that if they look hard enough, they always have exactly what they need. No more, no less.

Enjoy it. You only get one.

So, again, I love that after listening to the pain it ends on this note.

So, still from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:

Alanis Morissette - "Incomplete":




Bonus Tracks:

Ok, so, she's supposed to be the next big thing. Even Rolling Stone gave her a big review and they don't usually do that for country. It did mention that she co-writes most of her songs, which is rare in that genre and that her new album isn't all that country, but it's not wretched pop. I don't know, they did wonder why a guy with as good a voice as Gary Allen wasted his time singing silly country songs, but that's for another time. This song isn't that bad. It's not my usual, but I can see that it's good for the radio crowd. You make up your own mind.

Taylor Swift - "Love Story":




Random pick of the week:

If it doesn't make you laugh you're either dead or Mormon Girl. The ending always gets me:

NMT 60

How many people have wet themselves trying to get their button-fly pants open?


We need to start off with some sad news. Little Red Haired Girl's Step-Mother passed away last Sunday. So let's all give her our best or I'll kick your teeth in.

We're thinking about you LRHG:




Ok, now I trust you all did your civic duty as I instructed so I don't have to jack-slap anyone. Especially those of you who "worked from home" today (read: Those too lazy to put on pants. That's right, KG worked in her underwear today. Guess it was lucky for her it was one of the rare days she wears some).

I walked to my polling place this morning. The walk there, voting and the walk home took a total of 20 min. So, I got to vote and get some exercise. Everybody wins.

Good job everybody.

Our pick this week is fitting to the theme of the day. This is a beautiful song written during the civil rights movement and makes you feel good no matter when you hear it. I've always loved and I found this video, which is probably cheese ball, but I'll take the hit for one day. So, sit back and enjoy as you watch election coverage and know hope.

From Clarksdale, Mississippi:

Sam Cooke - "A change is gonna come":




And just to keep the cheese ball rolling:





I Miss the 90's:

Keep your head up LRHG. We love you:

Get out

If you haven't already-and I know you lazy asses, so I know you haven't early voted, I am here to encourage you to vote. Even if you don't think the Presidential election effects you all that much, there are many local issues on that sheet of paper that will effect you directly. Judges, commissioners who make the laws and ordinances that you directly live under.

Above all of that, is this: it is not just your right, but your duty. It's the fundamental thing that separated us from the monarchy our forefathers fought to free us from. A people with a voice. In other countries it is a crime to not vote if you are able. How embarrassing it is for the country that is on a crusade to spread Democracy throughout the world and only 68% of it's able citizens actually exercised that right in 2004. It's an insult to your ancestors who came from countries where they didn't have that right or to those who came from this country, but had to fight to get it. Those who were scorned, beaten, arrested, shot and hung, all because they just wanted the same right to vote everyone else had. By not voting you are telling them, "Thanks, but no thanks" and you don't want to be the kind of Jackass who says that.

Don't take it for granted. There are groups of people who would gladly take it from you and force their own rules on you (No, not Republicans). Thankfully, we have people willing to risk coming home to their mama's like this......so you can keep your right to choose your own leaders. Don't waste it.

I'm not trying to swing you one way or the other as to which way to vote (you all know where I stand), I'm just trying to tell you it's important and it matters. Whatever your views are, no matter your leanings, speak up. Grab a ballot and say it. You won't always win, but at least you had your say.

As this ad says: You vote is the only way to cancel out your inbred neighbor who has "had enough of Hussein" and gets hard when he hears the word "Maverick" (doubly so when it's in reference to "Top Gun": greatest piece of Homo-erotic art since Huckleberry Finn).



If none of that convinces you: if Sarah Palin becomes VP, Little Red Haired Girl will have a coronary. She's really not a fan.


Here's a an idea I am taking from a co-worker who early voted: I am going to vote my ballot backwards. I am going to start with the crap on the back and work my way around so that the last thing I do is fill in the bubble next to Obama's name. Doing it any other would be a bit anti-climatic.

"What began as a whisper in Springfield has swelled to a chorus of millions calling for change...This time can be different, because this campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different. It's different not because of me. It's different because of you. Because you are tired of being disappointed and you're tired of being let down...Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for...We are the change that we seek."