The Friday Fives

1. Who’s a celebrity no one can hate?

The pat answer is Tom Hanks, but I am going with beloved national treasure Dick Van Dyke.

2. Music is my . . .

end-of-day decompression tonic

3. I remember radio when . . .

you would call into the request line. I guess that probably still exists and folks are now tweeting in their requests, but it isn’t the same ad dialing in and waiting on hold from that one phone in the kitchen with the long spiraled cord.

4. I bought … from the Columbia Music Record Club?

The Cars

5. What great life advice have you gotten from a song?

Don’t Talk To Strangers – Rick Springfield. Very apt advice for those riding any kind of public transportation.

4 Replies to “The Friday Fives”

  1. 1. These days, Paul Rudd is the lovable everyman. I overheard two young straight men talking about how handsome and ageless he is. If teenage boys are man-crushing on you, you must have *something* going on.

    2. Soundtrack. I lead an action adventure kinda lifestyle, so the music really helps propel the romance, drama, and danger of being me.

    3. We would wait until dark when we could get KFI Los Angeles to come in over the AM waves. We were so starved for outside voices that this was a viable means to an end.

    4. Zilch, nada, zip. Never was a customer.

    5. I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.

  2. 1) Jimmy Stewart – plus he’s dead, so if you hatin’ on a dead legend then you are a miserable SOB.

    2) First love. I love singing along. I love knowing who the artists are, I love it all. I don’t, however, love the current state of musical artists or the industry. I miss having some favs and loving their new albums when they came out and the discovery of two sides of music, not only the few songs I want to hear on streaming services.

    3) Repetitive…oh wait, it still is? Hmmm, I remem working as a DJ on radio. I was radio.

    4) So many CDs. Still have most all of them…I would sign up get the big first order, buy my 3 required CDs and then cancel. A year later, do it again. I did exactly what they didn’t want members to do…sort of like paying off your credit card every month, those companies hate that.

    5) I avoid both Jim and Slim and, of course I don’t fuck with Leroy.

  3. Who’s a celebrity no one can hate?

    1. Donald Trump. He’s a mensch. A hero. A truth warrior. He makes Tom Hanks look like Adolf Hitler. Wait… let’s update that analogy. Trump makes Hitler look like Tom Hanks. Yeah, that is the analogy I was pushing for. Hitler was a way better speaker, though.

    2. Music is my . . .enema

    3. I remember radio when . . it had DJs in your city. That doesn’t happen anymore. Its called ‘Multi-tracking’. Clear Channel… er… I heart radio owns all the stations in your town, too. They will use 1 dj for multiple markets simultaneously. Like, while it’s a commercial break here, he is talking to Phx. While Phx is in commercial and Denver is playing a song, he can do the traffic in Albuquerque. Its brilliant, and a little unsettling.

    4. I bought … from the Columbia Music Record Club?
    Bought? Well, I received 12 cassettes for 1 penny. With absolutely no strings or fine print. That I bothered to read, anyway. Are you asking what I got? That is 40 plus years ago, but I can give you and idea of what 10 year old me was listening to: Billy Idol, Rush, Journey, Pat Benatar, the Police, and Leonard Cohen***

    Ok, last one was a joke. I love Cohen now, but giving me Leonard Cohen at ten would be like giving me beets or spinach to a kid. Well, maybe once I was into Dylan, I could have handled Suzanne. Oh boy, I still remember the first time I heard Suzzanne blew my mind. Tore my face off. It made me question what made a ‘song’, because it was so unstructured… so dada. And the way he descends, and holds the words SO previous like they were handed down from god personally… but those words were ‘oranges all the way from China’.

    5. What great life advice have you gotten from a song?

    Live is what happens when you are busy making other plans – John Lennon

  4. 1) Betty fucking White! I’ve never heard anyone not think that girl rocked.

    2) Subtle background tapestry.

    3) When DJs were local and you might bump into them out and about.

    4) I had the hook up, my dads job kept me in more music than I knew what to do with. Lots of pre release stuff that I was privy to months before it actually was available to the public.

    5) Life’s been good to me so far…

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