the sticking point

The Unexplained Habits of H

Thirteen-month-old H has been doing a weird thing lately. When he's playing quietly by himself, he'll pick up a toy or ball or book, bring it over his head and drop it behind his neck. It looks exactly as if he were depositing it into an imaginary backpack. Odd.

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Today's shuffle served up a stridently mediocre Friday 10.

01 Walking Contradiction - Green Day: For some reason, this song (and this album) reminds me of sitting in a London flat, alone and bored out of my skull. I know the reason, I'm just not going into it now. Great start to a Friday 10. Yea! I like Green Day. Prior to American Idiot, their songs get in, do their business, and get out of the way.

02 Teenage - Fallen Angels: From the great great Punk Archives comp on Jungle. It's out on Cleopatra Records, too, I think. Fallen Angels is a shitty name. I think every half-assed garage band in the neighborhood I grew up was called Fallen Angel or Destiny or Badass. How much little time do those guys spend on those band names? If you, or anyone you know is forming a band and needs a name, email me. I've got a legal pad full of hot-snot monikers, just waiting to get heat-pressed onto your black t-shirts and kick drum. Anyhow... This Fallen Angels was formed in the mid-80s by Knox from the Vibrators with most of the guys from Hanoi Rocks. By the time they released the "Teenage" single, though, I think it was Knox with a handful of other chaps. The Jungle Records site has some info here.

03 We Know The Night - Replacements: From the "previously unreleased" half of that Replacements compilation that came out in 1997. That's not the best place to start if you're just discovering the band. Most of these "unreleased" tracks were easy to find as b-sides anyway, and quite frankly - they're not the band's best moments. (Apart from "Date To Church" with Tom Waits and "Beer For Breakfast.") The greatest hits half of the disc is alright, but you'd be better served by hearing those songs in the context of the original LPs, especially Tim, Let It Be, and Hootenanny. Especially Tim.

04 Canary - Liz Phair: When she sings "I jump when you circle the cherry," what does she mean? Seriously. If anyone knows, tell me. Phair's first three records are bulletproof in my book. I dig 'em, I still listen to 'em, and I make no apologies. I saw her touring off the last record -- the halfway decent collection of pop songs that everyone hated -- and it was pretty sad. I think she was going through a sort of midlife crisis, where maybe she was trying to behave a bit like some of these young'uns onstage. She playing an acoustic show here in NY on Monday night. I'm looking forward to it and hoping she's a little more comfortable in her own skin these days.

05 Citadel - Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request is unfairly compared to that famous Beatles album all the time. People shit on it. Tosh! TSMR is a little droning at moments, but has some great songs. This is one of them. The riff on this track could smack the parking summons book right out of Rita's "lovely" hand. I love this album. "Sing This All Together"? "2000 Man"? "She's A Rainbow"? Come on! Even Bill Wyman's got a great vocal on "In Another Land" that offsets Jagger's harmony on the bridge ("Then I a-woke...") perfectly.

06 Car Fantasy - Pussy Galore: Didn't I get Pussy Galore on last week's Friday 10? Yup. Another great Jon Spencer song; it's on the Corpse Love anthology.

07 Psychotherapy - Ramones: In 1983, I used to bum rides home from hockey practice from my pal Tommy Reczek. He had a Camaro -- of course -- with the most trebly-sounding car stereo you'll ever hear. We would listen to Subterranean Jungle on 11 -- of course -- the whole way home. This album, End of the Century, and Pleasant Dreams are all great records that came out in my early teen years; my rock and roll wheelhouse. I could feel a sense of entitlement to a band that had already been making amazing music when I was only 8.

Thank God the Ramones happened, you know?

08 12:51 - The Strokes: My iPod loves this song. I usually listen to the machine on shuffle, and this comes on all the time.

09 Caroline - Harry Nilsson: Another artist I heard on last week's Friday 10. Straight Outta Bushwick. Harmless, half-interesting factoid: Early in Nilsson's career, Little Richard told him, "My! You sing good for a white boy!"

10 Pirate Love - The Heartbreakers: From the classic L.A.M.F. album. Thunders was unreal. I am such a fan. I don't care to hear the stories about his junkiedom though, but unfortunately, they seem to precede the music. I saw him once, in March 89, when he opened for the Replacements at New York's Beacon Theatre. Later, he joined them for the encore and they did "Round and Round" and "Born To Lose."

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DIY: Put your mp3 player or digital jukebox on "shuffle all songs." Type the first 10 songs you hear in the comments section below.

iPod Dummy photo found at iPod Lounge.

Shitstorm

A great argument is happening here.

I think ours is the first generation to understand how amazing adoption, its processes, and forming a family through adoption is. It is only just beginning to shake off dust gathered from being treated for so long like a dirty secret. Meanwhile, there are still problems (and a lot of hurt) as some people don't "get it" as soon as others.

Cheers to everyone on that comment site who chimed in to tell the writer that she sounded like a complete idiot. I agree.

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Listening: "4th of July" from This Is Our Music by Galaxie 500.

Weekend in Review

Totally personal, often high-and-inside, and ever-so-brief reviews of moments, concepts, and pastimes from the weekend that was.

Heat. I get it. You're the summer. But give us a fucking break from the humidity please. It's hard to spot potential terrorists on the subway platform when sweat is burning my eyes. grade: C

Project “Spot the Terrorist”. The MTA and NYPD have asked us to be hyper-vigilant in our search for the next mass murderers on our city's mass transit system. We've been told to look for sweaty, nervous characters with clenched fists. That's all of us. grade: D

R. Kelly's Urban Soap Opera “Trapped in a Closet”. So fucking atrociously bad that it is soooo fucking good. If idiocy were a movie, this would be the soundtrack. Hilarious for dozens of reasons R Kelly never intended. It's as if the concept was brainstormed by one of those children R was (statutory) raping. grade: B+

Whatever kind of steak that was. Mrs. Sticking Point brought about 15 pounds of it into the house last week. We had a cookout on Friday night. Good friends old and new came over. I was still eating it on Saturday and Sunday. grade: A

Lance. Unbelievable. He's the greatest athlete of our generation. Don't agree? I'd like to hear your nominee. grade: A+

Sunday A.M. Walking around the neighborhood, just me and my son, H. We hit all of our favorite spots: watched BQE traffic from the garden at Grace Court, walked along the Promenade with the NYC skyline beside us, and hit the playground. We had it practically to ourselves. He made me laugh... a lot. grade A+   Ridiculing the “big kids” playing in the toddler section of the playground -- grade B

John Wilkes Booze Five Pillars of Soul. An eBay purchase that arrived on Saturday. Pretty groovy stuff, and easy to get buried in. Fetishizes Marc Bolan, Melvin Van Peebles, and Patty “Tanya” Hearst, among others. I really like “Meanwhile, At The Hideout.” grade: B-

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Smash You” from the album Too Tough to Die by Ramones 

TSP Special: Are We Safer?

Photo: SOC 2005

Day 1 of New York City Police checking bags of subway passengers. I can't believe this happened so fast -- we heard about it just yesterday, and here it is, already underway. I can't believe there was no public referendum. I can't believe I'm not against it. Go ahead, fucking do it. Right on. Safe me up, bitches.

Is that a Friday 10 in your bag, or are you just...?

01. Stuart - Dead Milkmen: Hilarious. From Beelzebubba. I loved the Milkmen, and got to see them a few times at the Ritz in NYC. Always memorable shows. I always thought of these guys as the Dickies of the east coast.

02. I Love You - Black Flag: From the Complete 1982 Demos disk. It's not an official BF release, but various versions of it are out there and not too hard to find. It shreds. There are a lot of alternate, early takes [what part of "demos" am I not understanding?] of stuff that later popped up on My War and Slip It In. That bald, rotund MusicTV personality, Ian R., had a copy of this that he loved. When I told him I got my hands on a copy for about 20 bucks, he told me I got robbed.

Fuck him.

Patrick Kennedy wrote this about the Demos disk for AllMusic Guide:

While embroiled in a bitter lawsuit with Unicorn Records that cost a countless and overwhelming amount of hours and dollars, the label slapped an injunction against the band, preventing them from recording and releasing under the name Black Flag. Under clear threat of law, in 1982, following the release of the landmark album Damaged, Black Flag snuck into the studio to record songs that would ultimately compose both the My War and Slip It In records. These are the only recordings the band made with possibly their strongest lineup: Henry Rollins on vocals, Greg Ginn and Dez Cadena on guitar, Chuck Dukowski on bass, and Chuck Biscuits on drums. These versions are far more vital and uncontainable than those that would ultimately end up on the official SST releases. Cadena's visceral rhythm is the perfect counterpoint to Ginn's damaging, stinging, cascading leads, while Biscuits' drumming paired with Dukowski's muscular bass is a more feral Phil Rudd-Cliff Williams combo. Though only a bootleg, this is the most visceral and brutal set of Black Flag recordings available. Also included are two songs that never made it past this demo stage: "What Can You Believe?" and the angular "Yes, I Know."

03. I Never - Rilo Kiley: Live in Pomona, CA, in January '04. In 2003-2004, Blake and Jenny from Rilo did an acoustic tour to fine-tine the songs that they'd recorded for More Adventurous. I have about six of these shows booted on cd, and I'm proud of that.

04. Servo - Brian Jonestown Massacre: My wife and I watched Dig! recently. It was a good doc, but it's like Bob Barrenger said, "So... that happened." This song's alright. It's on Give It Back, and a great Bomp comp called Straight Outta Burbank.

05. Die Bitch - Pussy Galore: When Groovy Hate Fuck came out, I signed right up for anything this band would ever record. PG is not for everyone, but they spawned a shitload of great (and easier to listen to) bands. Guitarist Julia is one of the sweetest girls you'll ever meet. This song is from the Corpse Love cd, that comped up all the stuff from the band's first year. I think it's out of print, but you can still find it used here and there. Try Gemm.com.

06. Fancy - The Kinks: Yeah, "Fancy." A mediocre song from one the greatest bands in the history of recorded music. A hundred years ago, I struck up a friendship with the guy who became my best high school pal and partner in all crimes simply because we both had "Kinks" written on our notebooks. Ahhh... boys bonding over similar taste in music -- how romantic!

07. Timebomb - Public Enemy: I can remember back in 2000 when Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch was having his personal and professional issues, he had the guy in control of the Stadium's music play this before his first at bat. It starts, "Yo, Chuck, we got some nonbelievers out there...!" Cool. I always liked Knobby. He had guts. Plus, he took the subway home from games, just like the rest of us. Public Enemy's first three albums are time capsule pieces, must haves.

08. Death's Head - Slayer: From Diabolus in Musica. That record's hot snot. From end-to-end it is room-clearing, sheer sonic assault. Perfect. Recently, my tattoo guy sent me a few mp3s of his kid's band. Every member of the band is 16 or younger. I wrote back that they sound like Slayer (and how a kid makes his voice sound like Tom Arraya's -- I don't even want to know!), and he told me that he turned his son on to Slayer at age 10 and he listened to them non-stop.

09. Whatever - Husker Du: They are this week's Buzzcocks. That is, my iPod has been randomly shuffling in a lot of their music. (I've heard three in the last 90 minutes.) No problem. This is from the mighty Zen Arcade. I've always thought that the Husker stuff sounded like shit on CD. When are they going to get the royal treatment they deserve -- the box set of remasters, with original art, original notes, and additional songs and essays? You've got to be fucking kidding me, that this hasn't happened yet?

10. Coconut - Harry Nilsson: I can't seem to remember the first time I heard Harry Nilsson or which song it was. I have the greatest hits collection and like practically everything on there. Great songwriter -- and from Brooklyn, to boot! I've never gauged his cool/geek factor, but I have a hunch that he's well-liked by those who dig good music. I don't care either way. Stuff like "Spaceman," "I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City," and "Without You" are godhead. When I listen to the song "Without You," I do this thing where I imagine the person I love most is dying. It's kind of like momentarily turning the headlights off on a dark, winding road -- adds a little something, you know? Maybe it's just some morbid shit only I get into.

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Hey, cheers to SOC, who handled his first Sticking Point photo assignment ("Shoot something I can use for a Friday 10") with pizazz.

DIY: Throw the mp3 player or digital music jukebox onto "shuffle all songs," let us know the first 10 songs out.

"Sticking Point Friday 10s make other Friday 10s look like horseshit!"  -- Debi Mazar

Caught On Tape

This week in New York City, a guy assaulted and robbed a 74-year old woman in her SoHo apartment, and took off with her ATM card. (For the record, the guy was able to get into the building because tenants left the front door ajar to circulate air.)

Local news began showing an image of the guy taken by security cameras in a nearby bank. Police recognized one of the bags he was carrying as being from a particular shoe store, and obtained even more footage of the guy at the counter of the store.

Meanwhile, in London, investigators sorted through footage from the hundreds of security cameras ("eyes in the sky") placed around that city and found pictures of the suicide bombers.

Am I the only one expecting the Bush administration to use the London investigation as reasoning to push force through legislation to put cameras in every corner of our lives. Sounds just like this administration to me. The so-called "war on terror" is the Trojan Horse they've been using for years, and they'll point to London's "success" as evidence that we need thousands more cameras in American cities. The obvious argument against this is that in neither of the cases I wrote about above did the cameras prevent the crime.

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Here's this week's Friday 10. You know the deal: Set your iPod, mp3 player, or digital jukebox to "shuffle all songs," and let us know the first 10 songs out the chute in the comments section below.

01. Rest of My Life - Rilo Kiley: I've really cut down on my daily Rilo Kiley intake these days. It's down to only about four or five tracks a day. This is from their first full-length, Take-Offs and Landings. It's amazing, but so is all of their output.

02. This is the Dream - DC3: I think this is off the Vida cd. Not sure. It's great stuff from the band mighty Dez Cadena formed when he left Black Flag. One of those bands which everyone would love -- if only they get a chance to hear them.

03. Outdone - Uncle Tupelo: I came late to the Tupelo party (the off-shoot bands were well underway), but I like a lot of what I hear. This is off No Depression, a must-hear. This song's great, but "Whiskey Bottle" and "Screen Door" are killers.

04. Green Eyes - Husker Du: Spot didn't produce Flip Your Wig, and you can hear it right away. The songs are crisper and cleaner, poppier. Perfect for this album. (FYW is the one with "Makes No Sense At All.") "Green Eyes" is one of my favorite Husker songs, I love the sheets of reverb added to the vocal in the chorus.

05. Shayla - Blondie: This song has one of the all-time greatest vocals. There are a lot of solid Blondie albums, but Eat to the Beat is the one I go back to the most. I've been listening to it for more than 25 years. The first side of that record is nearly perfect, if you ask me. When I hear this song now, I can't help thinking of Shayla LaVeaux. About a hundred years ago, I wrote for an "adult" magazine, and in one very special issue, Ms. LaVeaux was deemed winner of the magazine's "Suck-A-Thon."

06. What's For Lunch, Mum? (Not Beans Again!) - The Shapes: A really funny and snotty UK band from the late 70s. This is pretty hard to find. The total of the Shapes output was one single and an EP. Instant update: I just looked online and discovered that the great Overground Records label comped up the single and the EP with some other stuff and put it out. Find it here.

07. Cyanide (Pub Version) - The Lurkers: I am a huge Lurkers fan. So much of their stuff is on my iPod that I hardly go a full day without hearing them. They are another of those bands that you wonder why the fuck are they not hugely famous. Whenever I play their stuff for someone, the look on his/her face is "where has this band been all my life?" Their God's Lonely Men cd is mandatory.

08. My Wave - Soundgarden: I like them. You like them. Now, let's all stop spreading misinformation. Soundgarden was signed to a major label more than a year before Nevermind came out. It's funny how, post-Nirvana, we all remember that a little differently.This is off the Superunknown cd that everyone's got. I often associate Soundgarden with the days I was a-courtin' S. I guess we were listening to them a lot, or talking about them or something. It was '96, and Down on the Upside had just come out.

09. Agitated - Electric Eels: What a great band. All Music Guide calls them "the biggest bunch of low-lifes to come out of the late pre-punk scene in Cleveland." (Late pre-punk?) Cramps drummer Nick Knox was in this band before the Cramps. Their stuff is not too hard to find; there are a bunch of comps out there. I have this on one called Their Organic Majesties Request.

10. Whatever Happened To...? - Buzzcocks: The Singles Going Steady album is one of the most-played records in my life. By some lucky twist-of-fate, my iPod's been shuffling a lot of Buzzcocks the past couple weeks. Alright by me.

Solipsist

I found this questionnaire/template on Incarcerated Uterus. Though things like this are phenomenally narcissistic and scary to me, they're also right in my anal-retentive, OCD wheelhouse, so I'll play.

Warning: the following contains graphic examples of solipsism, unmitigated self-absorption, and unchecked ego. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.

Ten Years Ago: I was going back and forth to London, writing promos for western movies* airing on Saudi satellite TV. I was in great leg-shape, racing mountain bikes competitively. (Best finish: 9th at a race called the "Jack Rabbit Run" in Connecticut.) I was a contributing writer for a comedian who had his own weekly live show on cable. I don't remember much about 1995, really, except I wasn't very happy and I began listening to Green Day.

* That's not Westerns, the genre, but western, as in movies made by studios in that hemisphere. Stuff like this.

Five Years Ago: I was a newlywed. My wife and I lived in an enormous apartment in Brooklyn: two floors, one-and-a-half baths, two living rooms, huge master bedroom, office, two wet bars, built-in bookshelves, and a private rooftop deck. Our landlord ran and edited a socialist magazine and (true to his politics) charged us MUCH LESS rent than he could have.

It was from that rooftop deck that I watched the horrifying scene on 9/11. I saw people falling or jumping, watched the facade peel off with a sick sound a split second before the first tower collapsed... and that vantage point still frames my nightmares. For days after, we gathered up victims' personal effects (calendar pages, business cards) that had blown across the East River and onto our deck.

(The socialist landlord came to his capitalist senses in 2002, when his accountant/lawyer told him he was bleeding money and informed him how much he could get for our apartment. When the S.L. proposed an 18% rent hike, Mrs. Sticking Point and I bailed. To Boerum Hell.)

One Year Ago: My wife and I were fresh off the home study portion of the adoption process, and were days away from getting even more fingerprints done for INS. We were working on a project together, and though we watched it get scaled back from a million-dollar-live-from-Vegas-event to a puny ENG clip show, I was having a blast collaborating with her again. I was enjoying the old Pussy Ranch weblog. The Sticking Point itself looked like this.

Yesterday: It was my morning to "sleep in," which means my wife got up with H. I scored an extra 45 minutes before they came in and woke me up. I got to work around my usual time. A pal at the office joked that my hair had "extra body." My man Jake made the awesome recommendation that I put some of the 150-300 less-important CDs in my collection into binders. That way I could regain some much-needed space for the good stuff. As it is right now, our ceiling-to-floor CD shelving system is creeping down our 15-foot hallway and into the bedroom. We had no internet connections when I arrived home; the telephone service tech at Time Warner Cable gave me some bad advice, which I followed, even though I knew it was bad advice. Next, our wireless network was entirely lost. After about a half hour of pissing, moaning, and mild panic as I fiddled with all the settings, it returned. It was one of those freakish computer-related things that sometimes fix themselves. (See also: "TV reception, it fixed itself!")

Today: It was my morning to get up with H. After his bottle, he sat next to me on the couch watching Sesame Street. He sat still for almost eight whole minutes! I loved it when he began laughing at something Ernie was doing; H giggled, then looked up at me, as if to say, "Isn't that funny?" I love when he shares stuff like that with me. I came in to work 20 minutes earlier than usual to find that the celebrity-related project failure I'd been sweating overnight was not as bad as I thought. The star is pissed at his publicist and pissed at his movie studio, but may still consider the project I'm working on. For lunch, I ignored recent blood test results (my "bad" cholesterol is a tad high) and had my usual -- double turkey burger on a kaiser roll -- anyway. Then I found this questionnaire on Incarcerated Uterus.

Five Snacks I Enjoy: Cashews and/or pistachios. Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra ice cream (but only because they no longer make Concession Obsession). Tuna on a kaiser with extra mayo (it IS a snack!). Chocolate chip cookies from the cafeteria at work. Pirate's Booty. That was a struggle. I'm really not a "snacker." I've only had two of those items in the past three months.

I Know Most Lyrics By These Five Bands: The Clash, Replacements, Rolling Stones, Rilo Kiley, Luna.

Five Things I Would Do With $1,000,000: Buy a house in Cooperstown, NY. Set up college funds for my son and my nieces and nephew. Open a small music store. Install a batting cage at the house in Cooperstown. Get these. (I never said these were the first five things I'd do.)

Five Locations I Would Run Away To: Biras Creek, Cooperstown, Cape Cod, San Gimignano, Coolangatta.

Five Bad Habits I Have: Just five? Audible gas. Pausing to acknowledge said gas. Short attention span means I often ask, "Wait, could you start over?" Inflexible when it comes to sticking to a plan. Surliness.

Five Things I Really Like Doing: Staying at home. Listening to music. Working out. Reading. Counting things. (Do I sound like a party or what?!)

Five Things I Would Never Wear: denim shorts, any novelty T-shirt, penny loafers, a vest, underwear.

Five TV Shows I Like: The Office (U.S. version), 30 Days, Scrubs, Newsradio, NY1 News All Morning.

Five Movies I Like: Apocalypse Now, Dog Day Afternoon, Yojimbo, Magnolia, The Good Girl.

Five Famous People I Would Like To Meet: (and hopefully, they Google themselves and will make this happen.) Keith Morris, David Cross, Norman Mailer, David Johansen, Chuck D.

Five Biggest (Current) Joys: Waking up with my family, the look on H's face when I enter his nursery in the morning, walking around my amazing neighborhood, H's laugh, playing with H and his new foamy Yankees ball.

Five Favorite Toys: iPod, FutureSonics EM3s, Audacity software, iBook, the foamy Yankees ball I bought H in Cape Cod.

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Listening: "Insight" from Unknown Pleasures, by Joy Division.

History Lesson Pt. 3

Alice Bag of The Bags has a weblog and a cool website.

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The Punk77 site has some Bags info here.
Artifix has a Bags interview here.

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[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “I Remember” from the (various artists) album The Groups Of Wrath - Songs Of The Naked City by Suicide

Gone Fatherin'

Sources are blaming the recent dearth of Sticking Point entries on the existence of white-sand beaches off southeastern Massachusetts.

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[posted with ecto]
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On iTunes right now: “Everything Turns Grey” from the album Living In Darkness by Agent Orange