Embarassment - O - Meter

What song is more embarassing to be caught listening to:  metal version of Miley Cyrus or metal version of Phantom of the Opera?





Kudos to you if you thought, for a second, that Nightwish would cover the classic Iron Maiden song.  Andrew Lloyd Weber?  Oh my fucking God.

Answer:  Nightwish is definitely higher on the Embarrass - O - Meter.

You read it here first: Bruce Wayne adventures

I have this new idea for a Batman comic. It would be told from the Bruce Wayne point of view rather than Batman. In this series Bruce Wayne is a business mogul that uses the Batman brand to further his business agenda.

Scenarios would work like this: Batman would bust a bank robbing crime ring. He would then invest in their targets, because those banks must have a lot of money.

Another scenario is that Bruce Wayne buys up a bunch of properties in a high crime ghetto. Then as Batman he patrols the area. Crime goes down and the area becomes known as a "Batman Neighborhood" and quickly gentrifies. Bruce Wayne then makes a killing in the real estate boom.

Just remember you read it here first.

Starship Troopers: A movie ahead of the times

Starship Troopers was a movie ahead of the times.  I know what you're thinking.  The book was better.  The plot was juvenile, the acting wooden.  Campy.  But watch it again and look at the details.  Embedded journalists.  Watching newsfeeds in a youtube like manner.  It was a movie that was oddly prescient in depicting how future wars are waged.  The dramatic show down where they are ambushed in hills that look like Kandahar.  The search through mountainous caverns for the leader.  Remind you of anything?





Just saying'

Some people think the movie is pro-war.  Some people think the movie is satirical and is anti-war. Why do you think they dressed Doogie Howser like Dr. Mengle?



Is this a pro or anti war statement?

Anyways, feel free to disagree, but first watch the movie with a critical eye.  Think critically about the themes and the way the movie is presented.  And remember; I'm not arguing that Starship Troopers is a good movie.  I'm just arguing that it was ahead of the times.

Are we in a whiskey bubble?

There was no doubt in my mind that vodka had become a craze.  A mania.  An extraordinary popular delusion.  The crowds were mad for vodka.  The proliferation of brands alone told me this.  Crystal skull vodka.  Black vodka.  Quadruple distilled vodka.  Expensive vodka.  I mean who pays more than 40 dollars for grain neutral spirits anyways?

The whiskey renaissance, meanwhile, was producing new and interesting brands.  Amrut Indian whisky is a solid entry in the new "Indian whisky" category.  Rye whiskeys are coming back from near death with some solid brands.  But then this caught my eye:  St. George's English whisky.  Sounds very exciting and promising indeed.  But then to learn that the first batch that can be legally called whisky, merely 3 years old, has completely sold out.  Has whiskey become a craze as well?



But there's more.  There is the first whiskey produced in Chicago since prohibition, Lion's Pride.  Again a very young whiskey selling for quite a lot (more than 40 dollars a fifth) for being two years old.  Shouldn't your price be based on taste and not location?

I'm starting to get the impression that young men are watching Mad Men and drinking whiskey in large quantities because they want to be Don Draper.  Funny digression:  the Mad Men generation largely drank blended Scotch whisky and not the single malt Scotches that are popular among these pretentious young men.

So what do you think?  Are these new whiskies part of the great whisky renaissance?  Or is whisky starting to become a craze, a mania like vodka?  A whisky bubble perhaps?  And is that a bad thing?

Champion of the internet

First, a refresher on the original you all know and love, the Airwolf theme



Airwolf on electric guitar



Awesome!  Please make one for Streethawk.  Thanks!

collective memory

I've been thinking about memories since reading this weird trip on the old Crow blog.  It is weird because I've never heard of the sitcom Too Close for Comfort before.  That itself is kind of weird because I was raised on sitcoms.  I remember watching Small Wonder, the show with the little girl robot.  Sure everyone claims they liked that show because VH1 I Love the 80s mentions it.  But I can remember episode gags.  Like how the robot girl Vickie was super strong and could drag the dad around.  And how they used green screens to show the dad demonstrating how he'd make the robot girl age with the girl getting bigger via green screen.  And just to show you how much I love sitcoms I'm going to drag up a sitcom from the 80s that only I seem to remember:  Down to Earth.  Thank God for IMDB or I'd probably go crazy, but I remember the sitcom about the flapper who dies in the 20s and comes back as a guardian angel for a yuppie family.  The catch phrase of the show was "wacky do".




Thank you youtube, for giving me my sanity.  Nobody seems to remember the show but me.  Wacky Do!

Collective memory is a weird thing.  Growing up in metro Detroit lots of old people told grand stories of old Detroit.  School teachers told me this tall tale more than once:  back in the day (the 50s and 60s) if you got off the train in Detroit you'd be immediately accosted by Ford and GM recruiters just begging you to come work in the factory.  No really, many people told me this story with heartfelt sincerity.  Back in the day they were so desperate for workers that the car companies sent recruiters to canvass the streets like some hobo looking for money for St Ides.  Just begging you, no matter who you were, to come work for middle class wages with no skills or education.  Please baby please!

To this day I've never really found any hard evidence for this.  It is such a tall tale that it is hard for me to take seriously.  People say this went on through the 70s even.  Could this really have happened?

Death metal for adults

Today my boss threatened to fire 2/3 of my co-workers.  I need a vacation.



Finally, death metal for adults.  Maybe they will start making death metal songs about 401k plans, job interviews, the resume grind, and things that actually matter to me.