Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Saw ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ tonight. It was as good as I was hoping it would be. GQ and I both agreed that we weren’t the biggest Mr. Rogers fan growing up. I remember thinking the King was creepy. I definitely have memories of watching the show, but as a kid, Captain Kangaroo and Sesame Street have more of a lasting impact on me than Mr. Rogers.

 

That being said, Mr. Rogers’ message of you are fine just the way you are was and is a message worth putting out there. I’ve read a lot of reviews where people said they ugly cried the whole way through the movie. I think people that are going to do that are either people that don’t work with kids or those who have forgotten their inner child.

 

There were parts that made me smile, parts that tugged at my heart, and parts that surprised me.

 

One of the biggest takeaways I have from this movie is how radical Mr. Rogers was when he started, and honestly throughout his entire broadcast history. While almost every other show was doing physical comedy and showing characters embarrassing themselves in all kinds of ways, he consistently kept his message the same.

 

I highly recommend this movie to anyone. Obviously, people familiar with Mr. Rogers will like it best, but I would think kids who have never experienced him or his show would get some good out of it, too.

Influential Albums – Day 5

The Stone Roses – Stone Roses

These guys. Talk about burning bright and burning out. That is what The Stone Roses did. I guess I saw the video for Fools Gold (Full version) on 120 Minutes then read about them in one of GQ’s Sassy magazines, The article started off talking about the lead off song, “I Wanna Be Adored”. That pretty much sealed the deal for me.

One of my college roommates, the elusive and not-heard-from-again-Tim Smith must have had the CD. It might have been a cassette, because that’s what I had it on. It was in my car and Panasonic Walkman knock off A LOT. The whole Madchester scene was big, but Stone Roses were the very, very top of the crop.

Their album cover art was inspired by Jackson Pollock and even name drop him on one of their b-sides. More on those next. “Going Down“. They are, in turn, name dropped by one of my favorite current bands, The Fratellis, on “For the Girl” – ‘she was into the Stones when I was into the Roses’

When I got to UGA and worked at WUOG I was amazed by all the b-sides I didn’t know about. B-sides in general, I think, are much more of a British band thing than American artists. I may be wrong about that, but it seems like all the best b-side songs I’ve heard are from British bands.

Anyway, The Stone Roses never took off like I think they deserved to and I think that has a lot to do with their self-destructive habits and behavior. The stories are all out there and you can read up on it if you’re interested. Needless to say, they needed to keep the ball rolling, but instead it was stopped and their career suffered for it.

Atmospheric, groove heavy, and transcendent. Those are the words/phrase I would use to describe this album. Anytime I can find something like this first album I dive in. It has not happened very often. It definitely did not happen with Second Coming. I’m not even putting a link to it.

I turned a few people onto Stone Roses, but not that many. Whatever. They must have fallen into that category of being too British. Some people can’t take that, but not me. That just makes me love them more.

They were hugely influential to other British bands as they documentary I watched on them made clear. Too bad they burned too brightly. I’m not sure they could have outdid this first album. They definitely fit into the category of “Debut Albums So Good the Band Did Not Ever Have To Release Anything Else and They Would Still Be Considered Pivotal”.

Stand out tracks for me, well, all of them. Top five from the album, in no order, “I Wanna Be Adored”, “I Am the Resurrection”, “Elephant Stone” “She Bangs the Drum”, and “This is the One”.

I got a Stone Roses collection and it’s great, but I recently went back and listened to this album, and besides “Don’t Stop” it’s an album that needs to be heard as a whole. I guess, if you’re so inclined, you could consider, “Don’t Stop” like “Within Without You” from Sgt. Peppers’. I am not a fan of it. I understand its importance and its place, but I’m not a fan.

Last thing, extended mixes. The Stone Roses had a thing of taking songs and going with them. Extended versions, not dance remixes, but just extended jams that were, I’m guessing, a BIG part of the Madchester thing. Extended dances to get your groove on with whatever was turning your groove up. I’m not sure what those kids were into. I just dug the jams. So, here’s “I Am the Resurrection” (Full version)

30-Day Writing Challenge, Day 20 – First 3 Songs on iPod & Thoughts on Those Songs

 

I love music things like this. I also kind of hate music things like this. I have VERY eclectic music tastes. When I got my first iPod I made a decision that it was a purely selfish purchase, so that I would always keep some music of all the family on there. Mostly music for the Girls. They were much younger then so that means there was a lot of The Wiggles on there. I still have a very soft spot in my heart for Them Wiggles.

The idea here is that I list the three first songs on my iPod and write the thoughts that come to mind  about them. I’m always a little nervous about what will come up. This shuffle is pretty interesting.

“Walking on the Moon” The Police – I love The Police. Absolutely love them. They are an amazing band. The chemistry between the three of them apparently is quite toxic when they aren’t balanced exactly the right way, and from what I have read was pretty often. I had the first four albums on cassettes that an early crush of mine made for me. I, well, my brother, bought Synchronicity on cassette. Listening to them always makes me think of being 16 and listening to The Police in my car on a bad tape player.

“Tongue” – R.E.M. Interesting one here. I like when singers take on the role of the opposite gender which I think Michael Stipe does in this song. I don’t go into the meanings of songs very often. I listen to a song as a whole, or as parts. I don’t analyze them. There are a couple of different theories on this one. I’m not going to talk about either of them. I love R.E.M. more than I love The Police. They’re from Georgia, they were outsiders that made it super huge without ever sacrificing what they wanted to do.

“Kiss” – Prince. Prince doesn’t let his official stuff live Online for very long, therefore, “Kiss”, the official video isn’t there on those InterWebz, and that’s too bad because it’s a great video. The best part is when Wendy rolls her eyes at Prince at one of his lines. What’s not to love about Prince? Well, the fact that he doesn’t let his stuff live Online for very long, but hey man, that’s his prerogative, right? (that’s how you spell ‘prerogative’? Weird).

What are the first 3 songs on YOUR music player, hmmm? Let’s see ’em!

Old Man Rant – Radio Today

I find it extremely disturbing that oftentimes when I am trying to find a song that came out before 2005 I have to go to 98.5 to hear it.  I find it more disturbing that on the weekends almost every radio station in Atlanta decides to have an 80s-90s Weekend.

The state of today’s radio is ridiculous.

http://yerlifeguard.tumblr.com/post/10504104228/radio-radio-an-old-man-rant