Category: Friday Fives

1. Who is your favorite Muppet/Jim Henson character and why?


Kermit. How can it not be Kermit? It ain’t easy being green.


2. Ernie or Burt?


I always like Burt – better comedic timing.


3. Piggy or the Swedish Chef?


Chef- one makes the food. One eats the food. Go with the creative one.


4. Battlestar Gallactica or Pigs in Space?



Ha, funny. I think the special effects in Pigs in Space are better. Try this: Over on the Peacock app they have the original Battlestar Gallactica – man, that show does not hold up.


5. If Kermit was a famous fiction character, how would he be?


I always thought he would be a Raymond Chandler kind of character, like Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe.

1. What single ingredient will spoil an entire meal for you if it’s included?

Beef liver.  Actually, any organ meat.  I haven’t eaten mammals or birds for nearly a decade, but could probably be tempted for a beef burger or chicken  – but for the liver? Nope

2. What is a lot more dangerous than most people think?

Christian Dominionism.  via Wikipedia: a group of Christian political ideologies that seek to institute a nation that is governed by Christians and based on their understandings of biblical law. 

3. What movie did you see at way too young of an age?

Sabata with Yul Brenner.  A really violent spaghetti western.  My dad and I used to go to movie night a few times a month as a kid and he would haul me to inappropriate films, usually westerns.

4. What’s the best excuse for “Sorry I was late”?

“Sorry, I was late – the butt plug got lodged in too deep. Boy, did that take a bit. “

5. What is your go-to song to test a headphone or earbud’s quality?

Jorma Kaukonen’s “Blue Railroad track” If you can hear Bela Fleck’s fingers come of the neck of the banjo and feel the thump of the upright string bass you have some fine ear thingies.

 

1. What has been the greatest concert you’ve been to?

Springsteen at the Pepsi Center. We were in the pit, about the fourth or fifth row or so.

2. What’s in your pockets right now?

Wallet and favoritist ink pen.

3. What was normal when you were a teenager but rare or nonexistent now?

That telephone in the kitchen with that long twist corded handset that moms could rule the roost from their kitchen realm.

4. What’s the biggest band or artist you’ve seen in a small venue?

Lou Reed in a tiny cafe in Stuttgart.

5. Do you still have any old mix tapes lying around?

I don’t think so. I have a few mix CDs lying around I think, though.

1. What was normal in the 1990s but rare or nonexistent now?

Those little white caller id boxes that we attached to our home landline phones.

2. What food do most people think is healthy but is actually unhealthy?

Bagels. They are huge carb bombs – there are actually fewer calories and carbs in a donut.

3. What is something that is “not a cult” but seems like a cult?

Crossfit.

4. How would you hide a body from the FBI ?

Bury in a library.

5. What modern-day practice/ belief is most likely to be considered barbaric and outdated in the future?

Male circumcision.

1.  What is a good Rock and Roll themed novel? 

I can’t think of a lot – the only one that really comes to mind is “Pinball” by Jerzy Kozinsky. A pop superstar lives a double life as some kind of classical musician and works hard to keep it secret. I read it decades ago so some of the details are fuzzy.

2.  What is the weirdest Rock and Roll star story?

I just discovered this one yesterday – Jim Sullivan who mysteriously disappeared in the New Mexico desert at the age of 34.

3. When did Rock and Roll really feed your soul for the first time? 

My childhood neighbor Paul was about seven or eight years older than me and I remember him playing me some Styxx back in the mid-1970s and realized that rock, rocked. We also had an album of 1950s-era rock and roll cover songs that I remember playing over and over and over again while a middle schooler.

4. What new music/musicians have you recently discovered?

Well, the musicians are new but the music is – I am really digging the new Wilco album. Very much a return to their alt-country kind of roots.

 5. What is the best music-based movie montage?

The drugged-out scene in “The Big Lebowski where The Dude is a bowling ball flying down the lane with “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” by the New Edition.

Potpourri

1. Your username is now a company, what do you sell?<

majikwah – I sell magic flying carpets. Really, why don’t we have more of these – just blissfully flying off to where we need to go. Landing then poof, folding up the magic rug and going on about business.

2, What are people stupidly proud of?

Voting for Trump.

3. What old game should be remade with 2022 graphics?

Atari’s Tempest – with that twisty knobs – it would rock in with high-tech 3D graphics.

4. What will lead to the downfall of humanity

Instant feedback via social media

5. What are you tired of?

Doomscrolling on instant feedback on social media annotating and documenting the downfall of society.

1. What is your favorite rap/hip-hop performance?

I still like “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang. It just has its own umami, unlike any other early rap.


2. What is your favorite soul performance?

“What’s Goin’ On” by Marvin Gaye



3. What is your favorite movie soundtrack song?

This one is so difficult and can change at any given mood. But I heard this yesterday and remembered how much I loved the entire soundtrack and listened to it over and over. “Chariots of Fire” by Vangelis


4. What is your favorite country/western performance?

There is a long back story with this one around the time my father was dying of cancer and gathering with the support of friends and family and listened to a lot of music together.
“He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones (plus that head of hair – man on man!)


5. What is your favorite rock anthem?

I listen to a lot of classic rock. BTW, Van Halen – is just ok. Van Hager – is way over-rated but I digress. My favorite rock anthem is a song I will always rewind and give another loud dancing relistne. Jeff Lynn needs some love. “Do Ya” by ELO.

1. Without saying the name of the movie, what is a movie quote most people would know?

“Here’s looking at you, kid. ” (too easy, I know, but one of my absolute favorite movies. )

2. What famous person died too soon?
Buddy Holly. He had such a tremendous influence on music. I shudder to imagine where his career would have taken him and music.

3. What’s a great song about music or records?

Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down A Dream”
“I was drivin’
Trees went by, me and Del were singin’
Little Runaway
I was flyin’

Referencing Del Shannon, whom Petty would go on to produce a comeback album of sorts.


4. What song has such a great, powerful grand climax/finale, that they make you shudder every time?

Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” – That ending is just epic.

5. What was your best/favorite Album/CD/Cassette find from the Colombia House Music Club
Elvis Costello’s “Imperial Bedroom.” I had it on cassette and on vinyl. I still love that complicated album.

1. Are you following the public hearings on January 6?

I wasn’t going to but I got sucked in and was riveting last night. That Lyn Cheney really doesn’t care for Donald Trump. And I am obsessed with stories like this. I have read a number of books about Watergate and have been sucked into Gaslit, the dramatized story of Watergate with Julia Roberts and Sean Penn – so great television and so the hearings are just the sequel really. To know how close the country came to a democratic collapse is still so baffling. I remember January 6. I was working from home that day and was gripped in front of the television watching this unfold and now knowing what is in the wrinkles is chilling.

2. Are US politics irrevocably broken?

As long as we remain wedded to the two-party system and first past the poll balloting, yes. And social media, reality TV, and the addiction to instant justice and impatience of modern society are part of the cause as well.

3. What’s a better way to elect a president?

A game of Twister – those fat old white men trying to get to Right Foot Blue would be solidly entertaining.

4. Should we instead be led by a queen?

Why not – all the pomp and ceremony and family drama. And tiaras. Everyone loves tiaras.

5. Should there be an age limit placed on the US presidency and US Federal judges and supreme court justices?

Yes. ’nuff said.

1. What would you do if your pet just said “go ahead tell someone no one is gonna believe you” and never talked again?
“See, I told you were a good boy -but let’s just keep this to ourselves. People think we are nuts as it is.

2. Which cheap and mass-produced item is stupendously well-engineered?
The potato masher is so practical. I use it all the time. Potatoes, pinto beans, mixing and kneading bread; a true kitchen multi-tasker.

3. What do you eat/cook/prepare for yourself when you’re off work and have the time?
I have mastered the sourdough discard pancakes. A couple of cups of the sourdough discard (that part of the starter you would pour out before feeding a new batch) and then an egg and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, some sugar, some salt, and some baking powder are all whipped up in a batter for the tangiest and fluffiest pancakes ever. They make great weekend breakfast or weeknight dinner.

4. What’s your go-to movie when you need a good cry?
I cray at movies pretty easily but there are two that always do the trick: “It’s A Wonderful Life”, and “Finding Forester.”

5. What common thing would be designed completely differently if our current knowledge was applied when it was created.
The typewriter keyboard. The layout is just nuts on the QWERTY keyboard and no real science or studies behind it. Created more to ensure the keys didn’t get stuck on old 1900s style manual keyboards rather than a focus on efficiency.