I love the Misfits. You may or may not love the Misfits. They have some great songs. They have some really great songs beyond the confines of the Misfits. There also exists many terrible terrible things under the Fiend Club umbrella.
We’re going to play a game.
Which is the worst?
Please, spill some fanboy tears and discuss. I’d love you to elaborate on your answers, and maybe even point out something I’ve missed.
What’s the Worst Misfits-Related album?
☠💀☠
So, I’ve written about tipping at length before. I won’t get into all of it again, but I have heard the subject come up lately, and I just want to know where I fall. This is all about discussion. I want feedback. How do you tip? Some questions I’d like answered…
I try to tip well as with my food allergy I have a small circle of places where we dine out or get delivery with a high level of comfort. I want to make sure I’m in the right place.
Please, discuss!
Moo.
💵 💸 💳 💰
We have seen gross toe fungus and several different mucus cartoons in commercials, we have seen anthropomorphized pills, and we have seen cartoon body parts. We have heard bastardized Elvis songs and seen randy middle aged or older couples in unapologetic boner pill commercials.
If we’re making cartoon body parts, I predict the nose is next… then maybe a talking feminine hygiene product, then the talking penis will arrive. We’ll get a talking penis before we get a talking vagina. Maybe boobs will win the race. Boobs always win. But, we’ve had boobs in advertising for years. We don’t really need singing cartoon boobs. (OK, maybe we do.)
Maybe it’ll be an inchworm or caterpillar, or even a hot dog, but it will undoubtedly be standing (pun intended) for a penis. Remember the ads for a lady’s razor that showed triangle-shaped topiary trees? We’re not far off. I don’t know if the penis will be advertising more boner pills (do they really need advertised?), underwear, a jock strap, jock itch, a manscaping product (is that still a thing?), or something new that we didn’t know we needed.
I’m calling it now. Soon, before traditional TV is relegated to the level of relevance of AM radio… we’ll see a talking cartoon penis trying to sell you something.
What do you think? Did I miss any other signs of the coming advertising cockpocalypse? Has there already been a talking ding dong in a commercial? Have I missed any other anthropomorphized body parts, bodily fluids, or abhorrent infections? Do you think a singing hemorrhoid or some testicles having a conversation with each other will be first? Will it be an animated sperm first? I think that still counts as a win for me. Let me know if I’m right on the direction we’re headed…
Recently, I was contacted by a non-native PA resident as a sort of last ditch effort in providing an answer behind the reason to the local-ish custom of horn honking. I believe a Google led to my blog on horn honking traffic trolls (or maybe one of many road rage posts). As much as I’d like to proclaim myself an authority on all things ridiculous in Southwestern & Central PA, I must confess that I’d only be guessing here. So, I’d like to ask you to help this southern transplant understand the ways of us nothern-ish-ers here in Pennsyltucky.
Here’s the email:
Name: Victoria
Email: XXXX####@gmail.com
Website: http://victoriasviewpoint.wordpress.com
Message / Comment:
Hi,
I really hope you can help me, and answer my question before I either lose my mind, or go running out into the street to flag down a driver and ask him/her.
A bit of background: I moved to Central PA 5 years ago from Memphis, TN. It’s a very long and stupid story but, suffice to say, I am stuck in Hollidaysburg for now. It’s not a bad little town. And, compared to Memphis, it’s safety personified.
Anyway, I have noticed over the years that people honk their horns here. A lot. And not (seemingly) to acknowledge a friend they see on the street, as I have noticed this happen when there is NO one on the street (my street, in particular).
It always bugged me, and no one seemed to know why people do this (or it’s a stupid reason and they are ashamed to tell me), but today I really got in a snit.
From around 2:30 this afternoon for a good 5 minutes, people were honking their horns. A lot of people, honking a lot of horns. It annoyed me.
I looked on the internet, which is where I found your blog about horn-honking, and since you are in Pittsburgh, I thought you might be able to explain to me what in hell is with all this honking! I didn’t see anything on the internet that it’s, say, “Hollidaysburg Annual Honk-Your-Horn Day” at 2:30 PM or anything.
It’s snowing a bit, the first time this season. Is this some kind of weird weather ritual I never noticed until today? “Honk if you like snow”?
To me, it just seemed like an exaggerated example of something I hear on an all-too-often basis. And it’s, as we say in Memphis, getting on my last nerve!
Do you know what’s going on with this behavior??
Thank you in advance,
VictoriaHow’d you find my blog?: searching for “Pennsylvania horn honking”
Time: November 13, 2014 at 2:50 pm
IP Address: ##.###.###.#
Contact Form URL: https://aixelsyd13.wordpress.com/contact/Sent by a verified WordPress.com user.
And here are my thoughts:
Other than that, I’m stuck. What say you, people of Pennsylvania? Please comment below. Victoria and I would appreciate it!
🚌🚍🚙🚘🚗🚕🚖🚛🚚🚓🚔🚒🚑🚐
OK, so it’s been a while since I’ve been productively making music & actively writing songs. Apparently the bug never goes away. I have been thinking about doing punk rock-ish kids songs for a while. (The Sablowskis beat me to it!)
Yeah, there is the AiXeLsyD reunion gig coming up… whenever that is, and it doesn’t seem like Ernie and the Berts was all that long ago.
I saw a contest online last week and it sparked me to get my ass quickly in gear. Music Go Round in Monroeville is holding a guitar giveaway, and I have been mentally drooling all over Eastwood Guitars online for quite some time. The Side Jack is pretty awesome!
It would be really cool if you could help me win this axe by clicking “like” on this post: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=698216686929723&permPage=1
It may help to follow or like the Music Go Round Monroeville, PA Facebook page too. It has to be on that post on their page, no “likes” here or on my link(s) to it on my Facebook profile count. Voting is only open this week, they pick a winner on the 27th!
As far as the song goes, I threw it together in under an hour with a downloaded app for the tablet, using crappy headphones, the built-in mic on the tablet, and my acoustic guitar down in the basement. I think it shows. But, I still think it’s a hooky tune with some potential. I may have to recruit a few of the usual suspects or even some unusual ones to help me complete the process.
Molly is absolutely terrified of the Chick-fil-A cow. My guess is that other kids are too. Seems like we can find a whole lot more to relate to with some feet-tapping tunes!
Chick-fil-A-Go-Go
They sadly had a lot of good points overshadowed by ignorance and arrogance:
I sort of blogged on Facebook itself. First you have to read the original rant, I’d guess. Here’s what I said:
At first I found this amusing, but the more I read, the more the author seemed like an arrogant prick. Sadly, I agree with a bunch of the points on bad band behavior and have had similar rants as the person trying to organize a show or simply having to put up with the antics of another band.
#21. It shouldn’t hurt to ask.
#22. I think you meant “you’re.”
#23. You’re too cool to have a conversation with someone who may just be bored that they’re there with their kid’s band and they’ve heard all the songs 8004 times?
#35. If you use the R-word, you’re an A-hole. If you use the R-word twice, you’re a double A-hole, and you must shit in stereo.
#36. “Load-In Time.” If it’s a local band and they have a 6:30 load-in time, chances are they’re not going to get there on time. Unfortunately a lot of local musicians have day jobs that have a quitting time of 5:00 or later. Getting to the gig by then may be impossible.
To reply to an overall arc of the list… In general I understand clubs need to have people come to shows or they don’t make money or can’t pay the bands. I understand that a band needs to promote its ass off via word of mouth, flyers, classified and event pages in local rags, social media, and any other way it can… but clubs can do some of that too. I can’t get my head around being a draw. I’ve been in a handful of bands over the years that are generally and sometimes wildly well-received when put in front of a crowd… but have found it difficult to predict a draw or to become a steady one. Sometimes I have brought a crowd, sometimes I couldn’t draw if I had a bucket full of crayons and a stack of paper. How does one gain a steady and loyal following, oh great bringers of so much musical knowledge?
I have played many shows with no pay. I have been paid more than what came in the door at shows. I have bought T-shirts and CD’s from bands who were on tour knowing that was probably the only way they’d eat before they get to the next stop.
Things you missed:
- Setup/Breakdown – Set your drums up before you get on stage. Take them off, then break them down. Don’t take longer to set up your amp and pedal board than it takes to play your terrible set.
- Tune silently.
- Watch the other bands, asshat. Also, don’t play first then take your crowd with you. Hang out, buy drinks, catch another act. Don’t hang out in the parking lot while the other bands are playing then swoop in like a rock star when it’s time for you to play.
- Don’t complain about the monitor mix after every song, or blame equipment for your epic lack of awesome.
Also:
I should have blogged this, but didn’t think I’d rant that long. Ha ha.
Related reading:
The other day, this Facebook status fell on deaf ears.
So, I ask again:
Party Light
Ever see those colored light bulbs in the store labeled “Party Lights”? I must have been invited to the wrong parties all these years. I have never been to a party with party lights. Please, if you’ve been to (or thrown) one of these zany-lighting parties… tell me what it’s like!
G.E.® Party Light Bulbs in Various Colors – 6 Pack – Standard Incandescent Bulbs
The other day I posted a Facebook status, and wanted to expand upon it here. This is what I said:
I get that digital & cloud media are the next step. I get that ALMOST everything is available for streaming as part of a service. Anyone else weirded out by it? Some stuff… obscure or whatever just isn’t available for streaming. What happens when the companies close or the cloud’s redundant services fail? What happens if someone buys the rights to streaming movies, just to keep them from the public? What if censorship goes out of control and some committee decided certain movies are no longer available? Will they all be lost forever because no one will have physical copies? Don’t say it can’t happen… it has in the past with books.
It sparked a discussion. Not too long after I posted that, Amazon posted this:
Announcing AutoRip from Amazon MP3: Buy an AutoRip CD and instantly get the MP3 version for FREE. Learn more: http://amzn.to/VMhFaJ
I of course shared it, and it sparked a tiny bit more discussion.
Photograph of Roku XDS player with remote. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I like the idea of digital music & cloud storage. I just purchased a 3TB drive, and in addition to other uses, hope to eventually rip all of my CD’s & put them on there so I can set it up to listen to all of my stuff from any browser anywhere. Well, after I make a few decisions.
I like the idea of Digital movies & TV shows… I love having Netflix‘s library available in an instant. I love being able to watch a movie from Netflix or rent a digital movie from Amazon through the Blu-ray player.
I like the idea of Pandora or Google Play where there’s streaming music there in an instant. Pandora just disappoints because of the variety of music I listen to… a lot of smaller bands that I really dig just have a minimal or even no presence there. Google Play at least lets you upload your own mp3’s in addition to purchasing new ones. Amazon holds your stuff in the cloud too. I just wish all the music that I wanted was all in one place.
I have had an older external hard drive crash. It’s not good. I still need to get it fixed without breaking the bank. Anything physical can be destroyed… CD’s & Records can melt or scratch, and not too many people have 8-Trak or even cassette players any more.
My original question is as much about content control & ownership as much as anything else. Say you purchase a ton of music that’s in the cloud… and that company shuts down. How do you hold on to that music? Were you just renting it? What happens if the parent company gets into a disagreement with the management of your favorite band and their catalog is removed from your clous storage?
“…a time when people cared about who’s ass it was, and why it was farting!”
What if you bought the movie Idiocracy and it becomes so true to life that it’s banned? Don’t sit back comfortably and think it can’t happen. Books are banned all the time by different groups. No one comes & takes all of your books… yet. What if the banned book could be deleted from your Kindle or Nook? All In The Family would never fly on TV now, but what if it was no longer available because of its abrasive humor?
I just feel uneasy about it.
That being said, I absolutely hate cash money. I hardly ever have it on me. I like swiping my card for everything. If I could use it in parking meters and pop machines, I would. There’s a swing back towards cash though, as credit card company fees are crushing small businesses, especially if you’re making a purchase with a low dollar amount. Is it odd that I have no problem with my money being intangible, but when I use to to purchase an album or a movie… I need that to be tangible?
I’d like to get a good discussion going in the comments.
Lars Frederiksen
The other day I plugged my crappy old Insignia Pilot into the truck stereo’s auxiliary input, & I started playing the songs on my trusty & hardly ever updated mp3 player in order by song title. I have no idea why I decided to take it off of “random”, but I did. (Sadly, my 500 GB hard drive has stopped working and unless it’s fixed I’ll lose a TON of music, so whatever this Best Buy generic brand mp3 player holds may be it for my collection for a while!)
I thought that “song titles that start with numbers” would be a pretty cool playlist. I’d thought I’d share some of my favorites.
I noticed I’m missing a song that starts with 8. Ha ha. What songs would you put on your numbers playlist? Dig any of these?
Insignia Pilot
Chick-fil-A wrote back to me, and sadly I predicted that they’d give me the “no unsolicited ideas” speech which is equivalent to the “it’s not you, it’s me” speech. Shenanigans, I tell you.
From: Chick-fil-A CARES <chickfilacares@na.ko.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 26, 2012 at 8:09 PM
Subject: Chick-fil-A Response
To: <me@my.email.address>Dear Valued Customer:
Thank you for taking the time to contact Chick-fil-A. You are very important to us, and we appreciate your suggestion regarding the cup holders. We hope the following information will be helpful.
Chick-fil-A is fortunate to have many loyal customers. Many of these fans take the time and effort to inquire about sharing their own ideas about ways they wish to see us improve – whether it is adding a specific new product, service or feature. We are grateful for our customers’ intent, and this motivates us to work even harder to keep improving.
Unfortunately, it is our corporate policy not to accept or consider any unsolicited creative ideas. This is a difficult decision because we realize that by following this policy, Chick-fil-A may miss out on some great ideas from our customers. We would rather miss out on some of these ideas than to risk any potential future misunderstanding should Chick-fil-A develop or already have developed a product, service, or feature that may seem similar to a customer’s idea.
We hope you will understand the reasons for our policy. You can view our Unsolicited Ideas Policy at www.chick-fil-a.com/Legal (under Submissions) for more information on this issue. Beyond this policy, we gladly welcome customers’ feedback about their restaurant experiences.
We appreciate your family’s loyalty, and we look forward to serving you all at Chick-fil-A for many years to come. Again, thank you for your time and interest in Chick-fil-A.
Sincerely,
Cheala
Chick-fil-A CARES
Chick-fil-A…We Didn’t Invent The Chicken,
Just The Chicken Sandwich.
On the Web at www.chick-fil-a.comP.S. Please retain your ticket number. This will help us locate your information should you need us again.
{ticketno:[8002084683]}
So, of course I wrote back…
From: <me@my.email.address>
Date: Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: Chick-fil-A Response
To: Chick-fil-A CARES <chickfilacares@na.ko.com>Hello Cheala,Any idea how I can get my idea solicited? I’m honestly not interested in monetary compensation, I just don’t want to spill my drinks. Has anyone run this by Mr. Cathy? He’s responded to my emails before, and I understand that he’s a shrewd business man as well as a great family man. I’m sure he wouldn’t want drinks spilling on anyone… and that he’d like to pick up a free idea.
Thanks once again for your time & help!
My pleasure,
-Eric
Wonder if I’ll get a reply? I just want a good cup holder.
World (and Lunar) Domination 