Man's Day

Jennifer: "So what did you and your friend Pat talk about?"

Me: "Oh, you know, the usual stuff. We talked about how we were both getting fatter and talked about each other's clothes. I really liked that Ben Sherman shirt he was wearing. We probably gossiped about people we know."

Pause

"Then we drank some appletinis and went out to buy some new shoes."

Actually, I'm pretty sure we talked about the usual punk music and stupid movies at some point, but still. And I would like to point out that the appletinis and shoes were completely made up. Really.

Portrait of the Artist as an Old(er) Man

I'm terrible about uploading pictures from my camera. Probably as bad at taking photos in the first place. These are from last month's artwalk. I had a couple of decks in this skateboard art exhibition. I am now an established local artiste.

Here's Jacksonville's newest artist displaying a skateboard deck which has sat in his closet for 20 years.



Second deck on a brick wall. It makes it classier.



Oh crap! I totally forgot! There were Asian breakdancers. Yeah, no shit. I felt they were distracting the masses from my artwork, but nevertheless, they were pretty cool. I got a lot of pictures like this, right before or right after someone would bust a move.

Hey, now that I think about it, I wonder how I get my boards back? Well, for a while you can go see my decks, along with a bunch of other cool ones at the gallery downtown above the jewelry store. Listen for the breakdancers. I don't think they let them out yet.

WDUV, The Dove

My mom drove me and my sister to school up 'til middle school. Although the radio had the usual number of buttons, the only station she ever played was WDUV, "The Dove." It sounds like a Christian rock station, but they played what they called "Beautiful Music." I've found out that "Beautiful Music" is an actual genre, or at least Jones College Radio in Jacksonville uses the same phrase.

If you were lucky, WDUV would play stuff like instrumental versions of Beatle songs, or string-heavy versions of "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" along with your Sinatras, Streisands and lesser crooners.

WDUV still exists, so I took a look at today's playlist. Lou Rawls, Barry Manilow, Perry Como, sure. Wait, Billy Joel? Elton John? Those guys would have sounded like Black Flag at the WDUV I grew up with. They also seem to have retired a lot of their '50s and '60s instrumentals, branching out to more contemporary (i.e. late '80s) artists. Sellouts.

When I took driver's ed in high school, our instructor had a game. He'd put the radio station on and you couldn't change it until you correctly guessed the song. I could ruin the game in seconds flat.

"Oh, it's my turn? Well, that's "This Magic Moment." Jay and the Americans. Before that it was "Secondhand Rose" by Barbara Streisand. "Little Spanish Flea" by Herb Alpert started it, and we heard the very end of "There's a Kind of Hush" by Herman's Hermits."

"OK, you win. You get the radio for the rest of the class. So am I turning it to 98 Rock or Y95?"

"Nah, I'm cool. I think there's gonna be a Lennon Sisters marathon coming up. Don't want to miss that."

Have You Played Atari Today?

I stumbled across this site a couple weeks ago that reviews Atari 2600 games. It's pretty funny that they'll say things like, "graphically, the game leaves a bit to be desired, but gameplay..."
Of course it leaves a bit to be desired graphically! It was made in 1982! That started a coworker and I to start talking about those awesome graphics on the Atari cartridges. They were all Frank Frazetta looking, usually with a guy in the foreground screaming at you.
This also prompted the following conversation:
Coworker: "I had one game, I can't remember what it was but there was a big square and you had a ball that you bounced against it and..."
Me: "That was every Atari game!"
C: "Yeah, I guess so."
M: "That's totally a dad game. 'I got a game for you. How about bouncing a ball against the wall for a couple hours?'"
C: "Just do it outside away from me."
M: "If you're bored you can help me dig holes for a fence today."
C: "Now that's a dad videogame. It would be called Fencepost! with an exclamation point.
M: "And the cover would have a guy in a hardhat up front screaming while in the foreground some other guys were raising a fencepost like in Iwo Jima."
C: "From the Dadgames laboratories, makers of such previous hits like Mowing! and "Keeping Quiet in the Car!"
M: My dad was always hard at work on his game, "Stop Slamming the Door!"
C: "Man, imagine coming home from Sears all excited with "Saving!" only to find out it's about saving electricity by shutting the door when the air is on."
M: "The cover would be a lineman in a hardhat screaming while some kids throw money out of an open door."