Isn't It Time For A Revolution?

A musical revolution, that is ...

Allow me to explain ...

The 50's and 60's gave rise to blues, blues-rock, rock 'n' roll, and psychedelic ... which inspired (somewhat) the hard rock movement (via Cream & Led Zep), and Heavy Metal (via Black Sabbath). They, in turn, inspired arena rock and the whole "classic rock" period in the 70's.

On another front, the motown & R&B fads made more use of synthesized music in the 70's to ultimately create disco. The backlash to disco and arena rock was of course, the punk movement, which led to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. That in turn, led to thrash & speed metal, as well as glam, and hair metal in the 80's.

The world ultimately threw up against the excesses of glam & hair metal in the 90's by coming up with grunge, and alternative (for a brief period, there was Guns 'N' Roses, but they were but an aberrant blip on this timeline). Rappers found mainstream success with gangsta rap. By weird coincidence, the "diva" movement can be traced to the early-to-mid 90's. Pop culture, feeling a bit left out, came up with bubblegum-slut-pop, in the form of Britney & Christina. That whole morass of styles created and R&B explosion in the 00's, while grunge & alternative inspired a new legion of college, indie, and post-punk rock. Oh, and nu-metal too, I guess.

So basically what I'm trying to say is that in the last 7 or 8 years, there hasn't been (to my mind), a paradigm shift in musical innovation, as seen in previous decades. To quote a frog & a dog, "I hope that something better comes along" ... cos I'm bored!

And no, I have no interest in jazz. I equate it to somewhat better than elevator muzak.

OMFG!

I cannot believe I didn't know about this website until today!

These are the cartoons I grew up with. These are the cartoons I hope my nephew watches and marvels at. This is the reason I love Superman (and comic books in general) so much. I mean, just look at the scenery & backdrops and the art in general - Max Fleischer is a GOD!

This episode, in particular, was the first I ever saw. I think I must've been 5 or 6 years old, in Nigeria, with just a few cartoons and other video cassettes (now you know why I can recite the dialog to Star Wars episode IV verbatim) to pass the evenings. To a little boy, the whole "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, the man of steel ... Superman!" bit was a surefire way to hold my attention! This was also the first time I heard the phrase "This looks like a job for ... Superman!". Ooh, I got a shiver down my spine just typing that out!

Wall-E 10/10

Ah, Pixar, Pixar, Pixar ... Can you do any wrong? Whence comes this seemingly inexhaustible source of magical storytelling?

In Which I Explain Why People Think I'm Always On Facebook

It's called Twitter, and Facebook's Twitter application. Explaining Twitter is a bit difficult. It's ... a microblog ... a messaging application ... a refuge for the technocrati and technosnobs. In other words, it's my refuge. I typically "tweet" (as it is known) once or twice a day, and the tweets are automatically pushed to my Facebook status. Oh, and the interesting challenge in tweet-ing is that there's a 140 character limit, so one has to choose one's words very carefully! Twitter is starting to get a little traction from businesses, especially hi-tech ones, who use it as a medium to get their word out to the tech-savvy.

You can find me at: http://twitter.com/bloreboy ... The Lady is at /NamrataM (she wants me to plug her work account /EMCMAGELLAN) ... And here are some of the folks I follow on Twitter:

/Malz ... Taz Snow
/patricknorton ... panel-member of TWIT, and tech reviewer
/THErealDVORAK ... John C. "I Get No Spam" Dvorak
/ltshaw711 ... A funny chap in Boston
/sidsays ... The Lady's Brother
/leolaporte ... The Chief TWIT
/wilw ... Ensign Wesley Crusher's alter-ego
/darthvader ... someone with a great sense of Star Wars humor, and way too much time on their hands

Any other readers have Twitter accounts? Let me know!

For those curious, I use Hahlo on my iPhone to write out Tweets.

Curtains!

Yesterday, the Lady & I stepped out for an evening to ourselves, planning a dinner & a show ... well, she planned, I ate.

We started the evening at Maze, a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. The reasons are obvious - we're big fans of his shows, like Kitchen Nightmares, and Hell's Kitchen. On the whole, I'd have to admit I wasn't particularly impressed with Maze - perhaps I built it up too much in my head. The food was certainly delicious, but the menu was rather odd - 50% seafood, and 50% all other meats ... and no chicken! But the unforgivable sin was the portion size - at that price point, they were tiny! Well, perhaps I'm too used to "American" portions of food. I was just about satisfied at the end of the meal (perhaps the dessert provided requisite stomach ballast?), but I was left craving more food - I mean, what's the point of offering 3 bite size portions of delicious food? It just leaves you unhappy, and wanting more!

Anyway, onto the show ...

The Lady had booked us front-row tickets to Curtains!, a murder mystery musical (ooh, nice bit of alliteration there!) starring David Hyde-Pierce (we're both huge fans of Frasier, and I personally think Niles was always the funnier brother). It ends today, and so we jumped on the chance to see it before it closed down for good. The show was a lot of fun ... lots of laughs, nice tunes, and dances ... although seeing our idol so close up was a bit of a shock. Well, yes, he's not a young man anymore, but I think seeing him in person, without the TV makeup and lighting, was a bit of a reality check.

 Anyway, at the end of the show, we waited for the cast to exit the stage entrance, and sign the playbill. DHP was the last to leave (intentionally?), and we got to take a photo with him, and have the following witty exchange:

Lady: We're huge fans! We watch Frasier every night!
DHP: Thank you.
Me: You were great in The Amazing Screw-On Head!
DHP: Aha! (relieved that someone remembers his non-Frasier work)