Cover Me!

Take a good song, redo it. It happens a lot. I always thought the idea was to make the song better or at least unique. Hendrix did it with Dylan's All Along the Watchtower. Alien Ant Farm did a pretty decent version of ol' MJ's Smooth Criminal (from back when he still had it). But what's up with all of these current remakes groups are releasing that absolutely degrade the integrity of songs that were much better before the remake? And why is Matt Pinfield still on TV?

I got to thinking about it this morning. I was chilling in the living room, reading a book. I like background noise so I turned on VH1 because they actually show videos for a small segment of their available programming time, mostly in the early morning. Like right now. So they start showing a U2 video, the song One. A great U2 song, I'll have to admit. So I actually start to watch it. Right before the first verse, Mary J Blige appears. Huh?! Then she does all of the singing while the band plays the music. It seems like the current trend in voice stars is to embellish to the extent that you can't really tell that they're crappy (okay, mediocre at best) because they're all over the place notewise. It's hard to be off key when you sing in every key for each phrase. Ewwy, ewwy, ooh.

Notable Cover Tunes
Respect - Aretha Franklin (did you know this was originally by Otis Redding?)
All Along the Watchtower - Hendrix (Dylan)
Hard to Handle - The Black Crowes (Redding again)
Killing Me Softly - The Fugees (Roberta Flack)
Higher Ground - Red Hot Chili Peppers (Stevie Wonder)
Hurt - Johnny Cash (NIN)
I Will Survive - Cake (Gloria Gaynor)
Tainted Love - Soft Cell (Gloria Jones)
Mr Bojangles - Nina Simone (Jerry Jeff Walker)

Total Ass Covers
Sweet Child O' Mine - Sheryl Crow (Guns n Roses)
One - U2 w/ MJ Blige (U2, ruined their own song. sad)
Stairway to Heaven - Dolly Parton (Led Zeppelin)
American Pie - Madonna (Don McLean)
Turn the Page - Metallica (Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band)
Tuesday's Gone - Metallica (Lynryd Skynyrd)
Big Yellow Taxi - Counting Crows (Joni Mitchell)

These lists could go on and on.

What's your favorite/least favorite cover tune?

Drilling for Dollars

What are you supposed to look at when you're in the dentist's chair? Looking at the light is too bright. Looking at the ceiling is boring. Looking at the tools is sort of scary. Looking at the dentist's or the hygenist's face is just too weird (too close for comfort). Closing your eyes (necessary during drilling and stuff, but otherwise...) just makes me feel like I'm having a weird make out session.

A question to you, what do you look at?

there's my next nightmare

I like to leave the TV on when I read. Mostly so there's background noise in an otherwise empty house. (the wife travels for work quite a bit) Now I know that the commercials get a bit naughtier after any reasonable parent would have sent their child to bed. You've all seen them. Commercials for "dating" services. "Pick up the phone." Don't tell me what to do, devil woman! Commercials for Girls Gone Wild. Do you get paid to show your tits on tape? Hell, it beats the old way. You know, having to wait until the guy falls asleep after you blow him so you can roll him. I can't count how many $10's I lost that way in college. But tonight's commercial was a new one for me. Guys Gone Wild. My first thought was "oh, well they have nekkid girls for us guys, might as well have nekkid boys for the girls." Then I realized that it wasn't for the girls.

I feel dirty.

Buck Futters!

I hate having to take classes during the summer.

Especially when it's a total waste of time. I could be working on my tan, working for money, working for the weekend. But no, I'm doing some god awful busy work that we sort of already did in the first 2 modules of the 3 part course. And all of this (200 seat hours they say) for a gifted endorsement on my teaching certificate. Fuck you, you fucking repeating pieces of shit. We've done this stuff before. Everybody is saying it and you get mad at us when we point it out. There'd be an all-out riot if I tried pulling this kind of shit with my students.

Stop wasting my fucking time. I've worked my ass off for 9 hard months to get to this point, the only justification I can make for the cut in pay that I'm taking for not getting a real fucking job.

Am I pissed? You bet. And probably will be every day for the next 5 business days.