just say "know"

For those of you who love the pharmaceutical industry as much as I do, this will make for good readin', I promise...

"I'm the trout player"

Okay, so after having heard about this interview for years, it finally occurred to me to try and catch it on YouTube. And it is so fucking funny (and a two-parter).



It's interesting on a few levels in that the interview took place not long before they started falling apart. But it's very cool - at least to someone like me who grew up a Kiss fanatic - to finally see everyone's actual personalities (sober or otherwise) on display in one room...how they interact and whatnot.

I was surprised to see how humble Peter comes across. He seemed like a genuinely compassionate person in the midst of the chaos they created for themselves. Paul...amusing on occasion, but kinda bland for the most part. And Gene, of course, was just as he is now: a control freak who will play along if he thinks it suits his interests, but otherwise annoyed if he's not driving the train.



I'd imagine Ace probably was/is a fairly quiet, reserved guy when he's not hammered. But for the most part, he was completely - well, mostly - articulate, and obviously hilarious. There were more than a few moments in these clips when I laughed out loud. But, "Actually, I'm a plumber"...genius. Probably one of the funniest lines I've ever heard.

Yes, they were stupid. Yes, most of those songs - certainly lyrically - are totally embarrassing. But as musicians, they worked really well together and, I think, still sound great to this day (what they recorded back then, I mean). Most of all, it was a fun time. And it still amazes me that that entire experience - the original Kiss heyday - only lasted six or seven years. It seemed like forever back then...

God bless Ace Frehley. I still love the guy.

Dear Santa...

I've been a really good boy this year. Well, I've been mostly good. But here's why I'm bloggin' to you...

See this...?












We had a really pretty sunset this evening. Not that you can tell from the perspective of my crappy camera phone. And I am thankful for my crappy camera phone...I know there are lots of people in the world who are much less fortunate than me. In ways far more profound than I dare address here.

I'm just sayin'...If you happen to find yourself with 400 somewhat decent digital cameras to deliver to only 399 mostly good boys on the Baby J's b-day...look me up, if it's not too much trouble. Please. (And I believe I filled out my change-of-address form with the North Pole database. But please let me know if your records do not reflect this...)

Thank you, Santa! Kiss the reindeer for me!

Love,

Danny R. in Dallas

"...I do not want to be devoured"

From Mary F. Mullane of Benton, Arkansas, in the "Correspondence" section of the September issue of The Sun...

To me forgiveness is about letting go of anger and resentment. Like everyone, I have felt these strong emotions, but I've learned to let them go, because they eat away at me, and I do not want to be devoured. Life is too short and too full of better things. When we indulge our anger and let it dominate our thoughts, we inflict more harm on ourselves than on anyone else.

I believe that wholeheartedly. My question is...How do you learn to do that? Where do you begin? I've heard a lot of folks like Ms. Mullane express that same sentiment. But I still haven't seen examples of how people can transform themselves from the type of person for whom anger and resentment seem almost a basic component of character into beings who can sincerely live this philosophy.

Anyone...?

one, two, three, four...

...I declare a poop-flingin' war.

Or something. I don't know if capuchins do that sort of thing. But I find this absolutely fascinating...

...he said, before driving off in his SUV

Short but sweet...

Awareness is Overrated

And, of course, he's right. In my own defense, at least with regard to the title of this post, I do refer to it as The Hypocritical SUV. But, in a better defense, I also think I took Jack E. Jett's brilliantly twisted idea today in a comment on an Unfair Park post and made it brillianter and twisteder by sort of re-proposing it as a larger form of protest / performance art / something goofy to do rather than just throwing my hands up in disgust. Yet again. Because my arms are getting tired from doing that...

And, while I don't expect anyone to take my comment on the Observer post seriously, I was being serious. You know...it's unique, it's something nobody in the world would expect or even know how to react to, and it's just such a clusterfuck of sarcastic weirdness directed at a particular target there's no way anyone could ignore it.

But that's my very small contribution for the day...

monkeys fly out of my butt

I Should Pay More Tax

Pretty impressive that he should take it upon himself to make those observations and comment on them publicly, I think. And, obviously, it's a painfully clear indication of just whom our representatives are actually representing.

So why has no one in the U.S. media picked up on this story...?

and he would have known...

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” - Benito Mussolini

So the clip below is very long, but you can leave the audio playing while you do other things (that's what I did). And it is worth hearing...