Shit That I Dig (November 19)

Nah, I'm not going to sit here and sing the praises of Kennedy today, but rather I'm going to sit here and sing the praises of Stephen King's latest book. I was more than a little skeptical about the premise of King's latest novel 11/22/63. It is a time travel book, which sounded pretty stupid to me when I initially read about the book. King's last book, Under the Dome was a crapfest of the highest order, so I was hesitant. I shouldn't have been. 11/22/63 is King's best book since Bag of Bones and quite frankly deserves to be held up with his better works. He is not dealing in horror here, although there are some nods to the genre, but rather the book seems to be a blend of his other period pieces (Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, The Body, and The Green Mile come to mind) and his less grotesque Dark Tower books (think the underrated Hearts in Atlantis). King gets a bad rap. As a writer he is often ridiculed as the literary equivalent of junk food. Is he a literary artist that weaves his tales in prose that scrapes the sky with its abition? No, but his mantra has always been to serve the story. If he tortured over each word like Joyce, he'd only have put out about a third of his current output and probably not be appreciably better as a writer. Nah, I'll take King as he is because King's best works are Americana for the late 20th-early 21st centuries. 11/22/63 is an homage to a simpler time, a world that has gone by, but King doesn't whitewash the past. He shoves the reader's nose in the shortcomings and problems of the past while still longing for a simpler, purer life. And he does it all while trying to stop Lee Harvey Oswald, among others, from making the world a darker place. It's a great read. I highly recommend it.

Makin' it Rain!

So apparently some dude in North Dakota was having some personal problems. To help nurse him through the tough times, he decided to visit the local gentleman's club for some stripper therapy. Since he was having problems, he was forgetful and just wrote a check, which the club took. Before we get any further in the story, who still writes checks? I can never find my checkbook, because I only use it for occasional bills. Talk about a dying concept. Anyway, this guy wrote just over $8,000 in checks that of course bounced. He's now being prosecuted for theft and planning to vigorously defend his name and honor. Is it just me, or did he lose the opportunity to defend his honor and name when he wrote checks for lap dances? I mean c'mon dude, throw a few twenties around and go home. Eight grand at a strip club? Who did he think he was, an NBA player? This world is filled with morons...

Shit That I Dig (November 5)

All hail the 'foot! It goes without saying that I would dig Chickenfoot. I mean it contains the most fully functioning half of Van Halen: Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar and guitarist Joe Satriani. Somehow they convinced Will Farrell to play drums for them... The first Chickenfoot album was a bit of a glorious mess. It exists primarily as a really polished demo, the songs were rough, but they reflected the influences of these musicians. It sounded like a group of guys from the mid-70's just trying to rock out.

What I'm digging today is their newest album titled III. It is full of fully developed rock songs, and it seems to exist just for the pure enjoyment that these guys have for playing together. As far as some sort of cultural impact goes? These guys are too old and their reputations are such that it will be considered some sort of throwaway, but this is an ambitious recording, dealing with some pretty mature thematic ideas (well, except for the song Bigfoot, but somehow it works in the context of the album). My favorite song on the album is difficult to identify as this album is fairly diverse. Hagar is singing a little differently, something that Satriani wanted and Hagar pushed Satriani into playing differently as well. Which is kinda the point of this album, these guys who could just crap out 10 jam sessions and release them, pushed each other to do something different. It is pretty cool. One last thing, you'll listen to this album and realize that Eddie Van Halen must have been out of his mind to let Michael Anthony get away.

Not what I expected and more than I was hoping for, Chickenfoot III is the goods. Check it out if you are in the mood for some solid rock.

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Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Whew, that was tough. I just had to get that out of my system. The idea that Kim Kardashian was being somehow critical of her 'husband' for chasing fame just doesn't get any funnier. I still think Kim is pretty hot, but just because she got famous because she let Ray-J pee on (in) her doesn't mean that she should get all judgy.... you know? Besides, just think about how much money there is in televising divorce procedings.... And you know there's another video coming out right?