I’ve been playing it again on my commute, to and from work. And so many of their songs on this album – incredibly catchy, and just a lot of fun. I’ve been listening to the album a lot, and the hooks even make their way into my brain when the music is off.
I remember playing this game with my old house mate Jim, back when we were undergrads in college. It still definitely evokes a particular feel and time for me, and it was fascinating to hear some of the history and technical details related to the game.
Recently, I was listening to an old mix I created ages ago… back on Rdio (man I really miss that service, and have finally, begrudgingly accepted Spotify’s reign). The mix was a random assortment of favorite songs that I think I made for my birthday party a few years back.
But here’s the weird thing for me. Normally, I’ll fixate on a song and just listen to it over and over again. But lately? For the last few weeks? I’ve fixated on guitarist Vito Bratta’s guitar solos from these songs.
It’s not that I listen to only the solos. I’ve still been looping the songs. But the solos are what echo in my ears, at random hours, even when I don’t have my headphones in. I’ll be doing the dishes, and suddenly one of his solos just starts playing in my head.
The first 20 seconds of this video felt like watching Too Many Cooks for the first time. Totally weird, and not quite convinced what I was seeing was real.
Yes, reader. There’s a Lethal Weapon theme song.
“The impressions of human desire are often left upon objects of their devotion or on the paths leading to where a sense of peace or pleasure can be found; i.e. the worn frets on a favorite guitar; the finger-smoothed ivory keys on an old piano; the ‘secret path’ in the forest blazed by decades of children that’s been ‘a secret path’ to other children for over 100 years.”
The nonfiction piece was an older one I wrote a long while ago, a short essay called Felix + Dzintra + Queensrÿche. It was written for an anthology, reflecting on love in the era of the mix tape, called Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves.
Liz and I opened a bottle of champagne on New Year’s Eve, and mostly just hung out watching TV. We were flipping around the local TV stations when it got closer to midnight, but there was nothing good on… so we ended up switching over to YouTube at some point (I honestly can’t recall the last time we actively tried to watch TV or cable outside our Playstation).
I got into them when I was very young, high school I want to say. I remember putting my cassette of Facelift in my car, as I drove around Indianapolis. But Jar of Flies has a much more subdued feel to me. I can’t recall if this was made during the acoustic craze of the early 90’s, or just something the group did. But for whatever reason, I always think of Fall when I hear these songs.
A week ago, when we were throwing a lot of stuff away, one of the things I finally decided to get rid off was my old tennis racket. I got this while I was in high school, back when I was actually playing tennis with some regularity. I was never very good – and came one or two spots shy…
It’s odd that I’m still so terrible at remembering some things – people’s names, for example. Or birthdays. But by god, there’s a small part of my brain that has expended considerable time and effort to allow me to remember that the password to access David Lightman’s imaginary school computer is ‘pencil’.
Something I didn’t realize until now: for about 20 seconds there, the whole of the Smurf species is infected. They are entirely overrun, and Smurfs basically ceased to exist!
When I say “build,” I really do mean build – they were down in the basement, constructing this large valentine out of nails and 2×4’s. And the thing that’s distinctive in my mind is that right before the parents return home and open the door… the family dog jumps through the valentine, utterly destroying it.
Apparently, I won some award back in 1992 – the Arion Foundation Award for Outstanding Musical Achievement? And it’s posted somewhere in my old high school: North Central High School, in Indianapolis, Indiana.