Yeah, Ive been away. Wanna make something of it? Fine. 3 o’clock at the flagpole.
OK, now thats dealt with and behind us we can move on. For me to take on everything thats gone on in technology/film/music/TV/the social life of Justin Beiber would take way to long, so Im going to pretend I never took a break. Im not going to say that Jay Leno has a special place in Hell or Apple has done it again or 3D films are going to be the death of cinema. Im just going to jump on a few blog cliches and ride them all the way home. Starting with:
- TOP 5 PINK FLOYD ALBUMS:
- Animals - Favorite track: Dogs (but the CD should be listed to as one full song)
When taking sides in the Pink Floyd split, philosophically I take Gilmours side, but musically I will take Roger Waters any give day. This album, in my opinion, is the best Floyd album and although David Gilmour had a lot to do with a few of the bigger songs, it was Waters who steered most of the music directions this album took. This is a heart choice, not from my head. I just simply love this album. It is a concept album crying out about social/political injustices that will always seem timeless. Like other pieces in my list, this album really needs to be listened from beginning to end. Ive yet to get tired of it, and I don’t feel i ever will.
2. Atom Heart Mother - Favorite Track: If (this single song shows the direction of the future of Floyd)
I struggled with not putting this album as #1. I think, for me, this album is the picture of a band struggling to find its way after the loss of their leader Syd Barrett. The spacey experimental direction has really started to bend my heart toward it. I really didn’t give it much of a listen in my younger years, but as i get older I find it one of my favorite albums of all time. Its one of the best British albums of all time in my opinion. Which, funny enough, is the opposite of what Waters and Gilmour feel. They hate this album. Which makes me sad. But alas, I move on. You should sit back and listen to all 23:44 of the title track and you let the great big orchestral backed movement seep into your head and forget your cares.
3. Wish You Were Here - Favorite Track: Shine on you Crazy Diamond (my favorite Floyd song)
This album falls right after what most people consider Pink Floyd’s greatest album, Dark Side of the Moon. Although I really do enjoy Dark Side, I believe that most of their other work has more to offer the listener. This album being one of those. This album is deeply personal to the band, mainly because of the love they had/have for their friend and one time mentor Syd Barrett. Most of the songs are about Barrett, and those that are not are about a music industry that eats people like him alive. Its also Wrights and Gilmours favorite. Its also an album with a real level amount of writing credits for the whole group. Id say this is the apex of the collaborative writing in the band. From here on out, waters seems to muscle his way to the forefront until his departure.
4. Meddle - Favorite Song: Fearless (This song really shows the genius that would become Waters lyrics and Gilmours vocal/guitar work)
Im taking another step back in the discography time line with this choice. This album is where we see the first new born glimpses of the classic prog rock band Pink Floyd that we all know and love. They really mature into a band before your eyes on this album, concluding with the epic pot friendly Echoes. The songs on this album show the future of the band. Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour are all still fast friends and show the brilliance they have when they actually work with each other.
5. The Wall - Favorite Song: The whole damn album (you cant listen to this as songs, youve really got to see it as one brilliant play)
Yes, apart from maybe Dark Side, this is the best known Pink Floyd album out there. Due to the film and the iconic imagery of “the Judge” and marching hammers all over T-Shirts and stickers you would be hard pressed to find someone within a decade of my age who hasn’t heard some part of this album. This is Roger Waters baby through and through. Its one of the “children” he made sure to get in the bands court settlement. I love everything about this album. No words I have will do justice to it. My opinion is that you buy it and press play and dont stop till the needle/laser hits the end of Outside the Wall. This is the standard by which all other rock operas are judged. The End.
- My Halloween Costume 2010
Most of you dont know this tid bit of information, but my father-in-law’s name is James Garvin. Well, a few days ago, my wife Heather was Googling that name and came across the Wikipedia site for “Gorgeous” Jimmy “Jam” Garvin. I took one look at a picture of this guy and thought to myself, “Self, you’d be a complete ass if you never got that look together for Halloween. Heck, for your every day life for that matter.” So, with that revelation, I am now going to get an airbrushed shirt, a gorgeous mane (wig) and a wrastlin’ belt. I am now trying to talk heather into wearing a side pony tail and neon colored clothes to be the girl that sits in my corner of the ring and yells obscenities at the other wrastlers. Oh, this is going to be good. One last reason Ill be him, he has a feud with Ric Flair!
- 3 TV shows that renewed my faith in TV shows.
As a kid, I grew up on all the other shows that those of us born in the early 70’s grew up on. (insert very long geeky reminiscence of 80’s TV cartoons and sitcoms thats been waaay over done here) But it wasn’t until I got into my early teens and this new fangled cable channel called Mtv started showing a show called
The Young Ones that i found true solace in the tube. This British alternative comedy sitcom opened my mind and eyes to what TV could be. Music from some of the most awesome new wave/rock bands of the time and comedy that would rival their British predecessors Monty Python. No matter who you were in high school/college you can associate yourself with some part of one of these four misfits. I grieve the fact that there are only two short seasons of this show. But this is one of the things that the BBC does right that American TV can seem to grasp in the 20 something seasons of jumping the shark that most US TV programming does. So from this lesson in TV watching, I was able to watcha nd appreciate shows a little deeper. Shows like SNL, The A-Team, Kids in the Hall and so on (I could go on for a very long time). But in my late 20’s I had really fell into a television watching rut. Although there were a few gems here and there, i.e. Simpsons, all TV was just something to waste time on. Not something to seek out. It wasn’t till about 5 years ago when some friends of mine brought a show to my attention that had already gone for 7 seasons on TV and had been released on DVD collections. A show that revealed a talent to me that I ahve now fallen madly in love with. A show that when i first heard mention of its name I almost laughed at the person mentioning it. That life changing show is… BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER!!
Yeah, yeah, i know what most of you are thinking. And I thought it to at one time. But this is, in my opinion, one of the best shows ever to grace a TV set. The pop writing is some of the best Ive ever watched. Aside from the Buffy herself, I loved every character on the show. Joss Whedon is a god among men in the TV industry to me. Without Buffy we would not have Angel, Dollhouse or the greatest TV show never to make it past the first season, Firefly. This show showed that great story telling will make you sit and watch hours and hours and hours and… well lots of shows to follow the lives of a gang of high school kids. (Freaks and Geeks did it as well btw, just a little later) This TV show grew a new love for TV in my heart. From this point on I started grabbing up all the DVD collections i could. And I even decided to try to catch TV shows before their DVD release on their network broadcast. And the next show I am putting in this lineage is, unlike Buffy, the culmination of a line of shows that brought it about. Where Buffy was the start of some really great forward thinking TV shows, this next show was the perfection of all that have come before it. Those of you who missed out watching the British version of The Office before you had seen the American version really missed the growth of the new TV sitcom. But as i said, Im not talking about the seminal show here. (the following lineage is completely made up in my head.. you can disagree if you want, i don’t mind you being wrong) BBC Office beget American Office which in turn beget Parks and Recreation with then with the help of its mistress 30 Rock squeezed out the star child of the bunch, 
Community! This show, created by another TV genius, Dan Harmon, the creator of such little and well known gems as: Heat Vision and Jack and The Sarah Silverman Program, is the culmination I spoke of earlier. Every week its wonderful humor set in some of the best characters I’ve ever seen on TV re-assures me that it’s top of the pack on TV right now. All this being said, i am still looking for the next show to knock me off my feet and into the nearest La-Z-Boy.
Tell me what you think. Agree? Disagree? Hate? Love?
Welp, until next we meet,
