It’s My Birthday
The rumors are true. As of today, I have reached 38 years old. I don’t feel 38. In many ways, I still feel like there’s much to learn about this thing called life. When my parents were my age, they already had the steady careers, the suburban house, and three growing boys. All the trappings of an adult life, yet maybe they too had the same outlook. We’re all on a journey here, and personally I can’t wait to see what twists and turns are in store.
Me and Christopher had a very nice birthday weekend. We started off by visiting the Japanese Friendship Garden in downtown Phoenix. I drive by this place all the time, yet never stopped in until yesterday. It’s a beautiful, restful spot with a swarm of hungry koi fish in the park’s pond. I didn’t take our camera, so you’ll have to view these pages instead. After that we had lunch at a place called Knock Kneed Lobster, a greasy little dive that serves up some of the best fried seafood in town. — kind of a tinier, quirkier Red Lobster. During this visit, we spied the boxer Michael Carbajal eating in a booth not far from ours. Rounding out the afternoon, we went shopping at the grimy Goodwill east of downtown and spent an hour at the library. Christopher gave me a thoughtful birthday gift — an iPod shuffle engraved with our initials and the date we met. That was yesterday. Today was pretty normal, although I did get myself some yummy chocolate cake from Safeway. Another year, another lovely birthday.
Sitcoms on the Brain
Jaime Weinman explains what makes a successful sitcom on his weblog for Macleans, TV Guidance. As on Something Old, Nothing New, the guy consistently wows me with his knowledge of TV, stage and screen. Is there anthing he can’t do?
I’m of two minds on those old sitcoms. There’s the good quality TV, and then there’s TV you remember and re-watch because it’s the visual equivalent of comfort food. In that category I present Dawn Wells, Tina Louise and Natalie Schafer performing “You Need Us” on Gilligan’s Island. This scene isn’t a great example of sitcom artistry or anything, just one of those indelible moments embedded in my brain. Along with The Brady Bunch, Gilligan constituted of the daily after school viewing ritual for a certain time. Seeing it again makes me wish that somebody put out a whole Honeybees album. That would’ve rocked.
Justin Time for a Field Trip
The proprietor of This Justin details a road trip to visit the huge fake Egypt erected for Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 version of The Ten Commandments. What hasn’t been reduced to shards of broken plaster is now buried under a sand dune located 100 miles north of Los Angeles. And the site is likely to stay that way for awhile, since it’s now an endagered bird habitat. Stuff like that is so fascinating.
Oh, and Justin also writes on one of our faves, Charles Harper. The artist has lent his talents to a new line of skateboards and La-Z-Boy fabrics. Good to know that he’s still around to enjoy (and take advantage of) his resurgence.
Lost: One Stranded Viewer
MSNBC’s Andy Denhart is tired of Lost yanking his chain, and I’d have to agree. After an underwhelming second season, we’re no longer watching. How did something so promising turn so … boring? I’ve heard that the powers-that-be at ABC, desperate to court female viewers, demanded that the show focus less on sci-fi and more on the castaways’ relationships. But that doesn’t explain the script’s lurchings into convolutived mysteries that are solved with more mysteries, like a snake eating itself. Whatever the reason, buh-bye Lost. Enjoy your Dharma Project cheez doodles on your own because I’m outta there.
New Month, New Music
With the start of the new month, I’ve updated the Recommended column on the right side of the scrubbles.net front page. My friend Ion sent me a mix disc recently that contained a song by Camera Obscura, “If Looks Could Kill”. I immediately gravitated toward its punchy guitars and winsome, retro-’60s female vocals — so I got their accompanying album Let’s Get Out of This Country as part of my “new music once every six months” cycle. The album was enjoyable and different, although none of the other tracks have the same immediacy as “Looks” and the lead-off, “Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken”. The group is nice but not as distinctive as, say, Belle & Sebastian. If anything, these guys remind me of mopey, fey ’90s groups such as The Sundays, The Cranberries and Mazzy Star.
Also, in the course of assembling an awesome mix of “synthy soul’ from the years 1985-87 I decided I must download all of The Best of the Pointer Sisters off iTunes. Here is one of those groups that you might think in retrospect is kinda cheezy, but actually they’re kinda cool. Much of that coolness comes from the gals’ fantastic harmonies, but you also can’t deny the crispness and warmth of Richard Perry’s production. I can remember being absolutely wowed by “Automatic” when it came on the radio in 1984, and it still sounds dynamite today — beautifully layered and totally state-of-the-art. On a side note, I also remember seeing the Pointers in some computer commercial from back then, and lo and behold YouTube has it! Thank you, YouTube, and thanks to Ruth, June (R.I.P.) and Anita for brightening up my week.
The Happiest Ephemera on Earth
Yowza, this is cool. When Dan Goodsell arranged to sell a friend’s vintage Disneyland souvenir collection, he photographed the lot and posted them to this incredible flickr set (the photos also reside in the Classic Disneyland Souvenirs group). Among my faves is the tattoo set below. See more of Goodsell’s amazing retro collectibless at his weblog, A Sampler of Things.
