Moz on tour

Morrissey to play here in NYC on June 30 at Madison Square Garden. I'm hoping it's at the Theatre at MSG and not the main arena. But I have a feeling it will be in the arena. In any case, I'm glad it's on a Saturday!

Check the True To You website for dates in your area. There are lots of dates.

Class of 1984

TGIF! TGIF! And it's a three-day weekend for me. I'm so excited I can just spit!

Who remembers this movie? Did you see it? I went to see this twice when it came out. I had a "crush" on that wild chick. Every Male Mo in the world loves a bad girl with an attitude. I'm sure if I see it today, I might be a little embarrased that I loved this flick so much that I drew that bad-ass punk chicky a thousand times over in class. I guess I just loved that outfit she had on. I had a pretty big punk fascination at the time though the only band I was listening to was Blondie.

I may have to rent this movie this weekend to refresh my memory of it. The reason why I thought of this movie is because every time I pass by my old school on the way to work, these memories keep flooding in and each day I pass by, I get a "remember this?" thought into my brain.

Next stop - Videodrome starring Debbie Harry herself.

Vinyl Mania

Another one bites the dust. VinylMania closed it's doors on March 18. Off course we are not surprised as every record shop takes its turn to close down. I mean, I guess it had to happen. And why should I be upset at all this when I haven't bought a vinyl record since the early 90s. But it's not even just the record shops but also shops that sell CDs. If Tower Recods could not keep up, how will the small shops do? It was sad to see Tower Records go though because I had special memories connected to that place as do most music maniacs. When I was 17 that would be around 1984, I abandoned the local records stores in Queens to that of Manhattan's Village shops. My first stop on my big venture out in the Village was Tower Records. On my first ever trip to Tower Records, I bought Depeche Mode's Speak & Spell. And when WLIR (The Station That Dares To Be Different 92.7) announced the release of The Smith's Hatfull of Hollow, I dropped everything ran over to Tower Records and dashed my way over to the import section to buy my most treasured and most beloved Smiths record. It began a love affair that is still strong. But soon I would even abandon Tower Records to those of smaller spaces. Those little shops where you walk in and hear the door make chiming noises. One in particular is located still at St. Marks place. SOUNDS was where I went to buy just about all my records. This is where you will find slightly used LPs, promos and imports at half the price as well as bootlegs. I would always find what I was looking for and there was so much music for me to catch up on and SOUNDS had it all. I remember buying Talk Talk, Alphaville, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, Soft Cell and a bunch of others and not spend any more than $20. And these albums got played plenty. And I always made sure to by blank tapes (chrome off course) whenever I finished my records shopping so that I can make a mix of all the music I had just bought for the walkman or the portable stereo. Imagine if we could blog then.

There was so much warmth in all that. Hunting for your records from store to store and getting home all excited and making those tapes. Now in the digital age, things have gotten so cold and sterile. But I'm mostly reminiscing and romanticizing the exciting days of my youth. I just wish it had the same hold on me now as it did back then so that I cold enjoy life more. Ah well....

St. Marks is losing its charm and I just know that it won't be long before SOUNDS closes its doors too.

Please watch

Perhaps if more people realized that we are not the center of the universe and that we reside on just a mote of dust in this vast universe with a thin layering of life, we might like each other more. Or even me for that matter.

Lunar Eclipse

There was a Lunar Eclipse last Saturday. And what was I doing? I don't even remember, but I had not the slightest hint of this going on. I guess I need one of those calendars.

So, if you're into this and you missed it or if you didn't miss it, watched it and want to see more of it, then head over to this site where there are some fantastic photos of the eclipse from certain parts of the world. There's one link that will show you a movie of the whole eclipse which looked very dramatic.

From APOD website:

"Completely immersed in Earth's cone-shaped shadow during the total eclipse phase, the lunar surface is still illuminated by sunlight, reddened and refracted into the dark shadow region by a dusty atmosphere."

I Satellite - Cover Songs

Sometime ago I posted about a Chicago based synth artist by the name of I SATELLITE. I was checking out his website recently and noticed he's got page with cover versions of some cool stuff out there. You can download them from his site. The mp3s are towards the bottom of the page.

Songs include:

• Alphaville - Into The Dark
• Alphaville - A Victory of Love
• ABBA - I Am The City
• New Order - Your Silent Face
• Japan - Life In Tokyo (two versions)

I was very impressed with his version of Alphaville's A Victory of Love and New Order's Your Silent Face (a favorite NO song!) He sounds like Marian Gold as well as Bernard Sumner.

Good stuff. You should check it out.

Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker

Over the weekend I got the new Skinny Puppy CD - Mythmaker. I've been listening to it since.

The album begins with signature Ogre's vocoded voice titled "Magnifishit" a great opening track.

The whole album is a great deal of Skinny Puppy coming back in full force. My opinion is that The Greater Wrong of Right though a good release does not have that "we're back" feeling. Whereas Mythmaker is saying "We're really back!" Just hearing that opening track with Ogre's signature vocoder voice put a near smile on my face. I thought "finally" a kick-ass beginning. No slow build-up or anything. At each level, the opening track builds to a good dose of synth sounds echoing in stereophonic pleasure. I started thinking to myself that maybe this is as good as it gets, the next song might disappoint me. But it didn't and I enjoy listening to the entire album. I think Puppy's release Last Rights was the first time they began incorporating more melodic elements into their song and you'll find some of that in Mythmaker as well. I like the melodic beginnings and angry harsh choruses in some of their songs.

I have yet to venture out to all the side projects that Ogre and the rest have been involved with. To date, I have some old releases. One from Download, Cyberaktif, and the single Doubting Thomas.

Grey Gardens - Final

Walter Kerr Theatre - 3/2/07

Some reviewers state the women of Grey Gardens are mentally ill and probably didn't even know that they were being exposed through the Maysles' documentary.

I just think these were two beautiful and talented people who did not get the chance they deserved and lived a secluded life outside of the world. Where inside Grey Gardens, time seemed to have stood still. Where little Edie still sees herself as a little girl who dreams of taking off to her New York career after the age of 56 and big Edie who believes she's never strained her voice and how she should get it back to the way it was when she was in her 40s.


I don't care much for musicals. I can't stand all that singing and dancing "Broadway" style. The lyrics they use are so silly as in this musical, the song "Jerry Likes My Corn" proved to me that I may never see a musical again. The first act killed me with all the exhausting Broadway routine of song and dance. For most people, the first act was a necessary as we had to see just where these women were coming from. How they ended up the way they did. It was interesting only a little bit to me. You first realize how important music is to big Edie. Well, you'd have to be if you had your own live in pianist. A gay one at that, complete with those neck scarves they they all wore at the time. Total poofster, and one that no rich bitch in East Hampton can do without.

Anyway, it was during the second act that shook me to attention. Everything was familiar and I was amazed at how closely the characters resembled both big and little Edie. This is where little Edie becomes the lovable innocent looking after her mother after all these years and never getting the chance to get out and live. It's a little heartbreaking towards the end when she's all packed up to leave Grey Gardens but hears her mother crying for her because she's starving and can't open up the can. She puts everything down and gets back to tend to her mother.

Morning Rain

There are other rain songs out there. But today I thought of this one only because on the way to work, I pass by my JHS and my HS. They were just a few blocks away from each other. So this classic by the Eurythmics is the obvious choice for me.

The video makes me want to take the plane and head on over to Scotland. Great scenery.

Happy Friday, all!!