Ten Songs For Friday

Below are ten songs I couldn't have made it through the day without listening to. There are a few different genres and styles here and even if all of it isn't your bag after the first few notes, give it a chance.

Gang Starr - Code of the Streets

If you saw the 2007 film Freedom Writers with Denzel Washington (which I did not) you may recognize this song. That's not why I love it. The words climb the beat like a tree, ready to drop some crazy thoughts down. I've come to listen to a lot of Gang Starr in the past few months. Great stuff. Guru and DJ Premier kill this song.

Danger Doom - Sofa King

The flow of the lyrics bind together they way that old Nickelodeon Gak would get into the weave of your sweater at Christmas. MF Doom and Danger Mouse made this entire album with the Cartoon Network and the Adult Swim crew. From his success off The Grey Album (Beatles + Jay-Z) and after all of the attached lawsuits were quelled, Danger Mouse produced this album with innovation and dedication, combining cartoon voices with the rhymes that would pop through the mask of MF Doom. If you've never listened to it, explore the entire album from start to finish.

Wax Tailor - Que Sara

The album Hope & Sorrow is a fantastic mix of black and white voice clips mixed with the freshest ideas. Wax Tailor, a.k.a Jean-Christophe Le Saoût, is a Frenchman who does things with the English language that should be described in colors, not words.

Nobody - Wake Up and Smell the Millennium

Found on Pandora. Don't know much about them. Can't find much about them on the interwebs. Crank it up and let it fly. My head won't stop rocking to the beat while I listen.

Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before the Lights Come On

The story's been told over and again, and the song rings true as some people's lives. Like the inside track of your mind during the smokey hours at the end of the night. Last call coming up. All the way through the morning. Arctic Monkeys have had several successes and deserve many more. They need to be listened to in the rain with ass loads of clouds rolling overhead and a sneaking suspicion that things could go awry at any moment.

The White Stripes - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground

From kicking the shit out of a guitar on Go It Alone with Beck to his newest collaboration The Dead Weather, Jack White can rock. More importantly, he knows how to. Bringing Loretta Lynn through with a hit album and touring/recording with three bands as well as doing solo sessions, collaborations and producing 14 albums, the man won't stop. The vast majority of music I've heard that he's been a part of has left me with pleasant feelings in my toes and eyebrows. Oh, yeah, and Meg White could drum the other arm off of Rick Allen.

Kings of Leon - Fans

I don't understand half of the crap coming out Caleb Followill's mouth and I don't care. These guys fucking rock, no bones about it. Guitar timed perfectly with drums and background vocals makes my spine go numb. The pull to crack a beer comes each time I hear them. Sex On Fire brought them up more to the mainstream, but their earlier stuff is just as good as the new album.

R.L. Burnside - Rollin' and Tumblin'

Blues. Southern blues. Mississippi. R.L.'s voice tugs at something in my chest that won't be named any time soon. If you can find an album, buy the album.

The Black Keys - The Flame

Their most recent album Attack & Release was another project of Danger Mouse and produced several good songs, but all of their previous stuff would kick that album's ass in a street fight. Dan Aeurbach and Patrick Carney are two guys from Ohio who play music like they bubbled up from the bayou and cross-pollinated with Zeppelin. The Big Comeup, Thickfreakness, Rubber Factory and Magic Potion are albums which must be sampled if this band moves you in any way. Lyrics heaped atop masterful guitar heaped atop raw percussion make this something I wish I was able to do.

Joe Cocker - Bye Bye Blackbird

Yeah - he sang the song they used for The Wonder Years - what of it? Joe Cocker could take a song, rip out its guts and sew it back up with such love that Mother Theresa would shed a tear. The background singers in this song weaken me. The guitar, the piano and Joe's voice just kill it. Bottom line, the best song to cover whatever kind of day you may be having.

Open Letter to Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles

Dear Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles,


For the first time in my life I have had the (dis)pleasure of entering Boston City Hall this morning. I have often driven by, curious if the bowels of your structure were as horrendous as the exterior. Many things have been said about the building since it was unvieled. Ugliest Building in the World. "What the hell is that?" Historic landmark.

I agree with the first two.


My reason for visiting City Hall was to secure a marriage license. Some said it would never happen, yet it shall. My lovely wife-to-be Carol joined me for the excursion. Upon entering the building I wondered how long I would be incarcerated. Dark concrete is the bones and the skin. Admittedly I only made it down to the Birth/Marriage/Parking portion of the building. I cannot speak for the seven floors I didn't visit. How can a building be so physically clean and dingy at the same time?

Your city structure makes me wonder about how things got to be this way. I wonder how you won the contest to build the damn thing in the first place. I wonder about the mental acuity of the judges of said contest. I wonder about Mayor Menino's plan to sell off the building and surrounding plaza (in the middle of f'n Government Center) and building a new City Hall in Southie (now suspended due to the kickass economy).

I have never built anything on par with what you have created. I am not attempting to drive your collective heads into the sand and tell you how children weep in fright when they look at what you've done. I am simply here to ask why.

As I've told a few friends who asked me about their new tattoos, "What made you think that was a good idea?"

Sincerely,

Nick Seagers

Currently reading Dexter Filkins' book The Forever War. If you need an objective look about what's been going on with the US occupations overseas, read this book. If you want to explore fantastic writing that you can feel, read this book. If you think that the US is right, read this book. If you think the US is wrong, read this book. If you like fuzzy bunny slippers, read this book. I don't care what the hell you think as long as you read this book.

Phelps -vs- Barry

There has been much hoopla over the past several months about Michael Phelps being photographed using a bong, or 'water pipe' as the media seems more comfortable with. Some have said he should be banned from competition for life, his sponsors nothing at all should happen to him. When a grown man relaxes using herbal means and gets caught, some people cannot wait to take him down a peg.

I'm not here to persuade anyone one way or the other. What I would like to do instead is invite you to hop into my time machine (just finished it last night after dinner) and travel back with me to all the way to a mystical era - the 1990's.

On January 18, 1990 Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. was nabbed in an FBI sting operation at the Vista Hotel in Washington D.C. At the time he was the D.C. Mayor, a town with a slight amount of national clout. Videos of him smoking crack had the country fuming. Eventually he was convicted on a single misdemeanor count of possessing cocaine, knocked down from the original charge of ten counts of possession and three counts of felony perjury. Needless to say people seemed to have lost their trust in the man.

Then, in 1994, the populace of D.C. decided that crack wasn't so bad after all and reelected him. A year later he tested positive (the tests stemming from tax evasion charges) for marijuana and cocaine and was placed on probation. Sometime you pick a winner and sometimes you pick an ass.

Marion Barry was smoking one of the most addictive substances known to man while governing a quasi-important city that just happens to be the Capital of our nation and was given a second chance. My suggestion to all those who want to have Michael Phelps drawn and quartered over a bong hit is to chill out. Until you have freakish physical talent and are pictured on a Wheaties box, give him a break. And a lighter.

Ways The Cosby Show Can Save America

Starting in 1984, The Cosby Show began as a pilot by hopeful former ABC executives to Vanessa and Rudy taught us various ways to be good people. It should be a requirement that Nadya Suleman, Jesse Jackson, Sarah Palin and CEOs of all Fortune 500 companies watch no less than one episode weekly in its entirety.

The reasons for this are basic enough for any five-year-old can understand. If this schedule is maintained, perhaps there is even hope for the worst offenders.

Many things can be said about The Cosby Show, and many things have. Many opinions and biases have been heaped atop this particular family sitcom. Here are some more.

Family Values

Cliff and Clair taught their children to do the right thing, even when it wasn't the easiest decision. They took the time to explain why lying and cheating was wrong instead of just saying no. There were shows about breaking the rules and breaking the law. All of the Huxtable children were held responsible for their actions, and would be praised for going above and beyond the goals they set for themselves. Even the dating woes of Theo or the packed dance schedules of Vanessa or Denise ended up teaching us a lesson. The Cosby Show went so far as to portray the relationship between generations in a positive light, unlike some of the preceding trailblazers in the sitcom department, namely All in the Family and The Jeffersons (both fantastic shows in their own right). The kids listen to the parents and the grandparents without much in the way of yelling.

Education

Cliff was an obstetrician, Clair a lawyer. By the end of the series most of the Cosby kids had graduated college and even helped out a few friends on their way to one form of higher education or another. The base of all informative lectures given by Cliff Huxtable involved no less than three funny faces (see: Silliness), a dance and a song (see: Music Appreciation), and a story from back in the day. The importance of education was always stressed. Grades were secondary to doing the best you could. Tests were gone over and homework checked. There was an activity surrounding the education of the Huxtable children as there should be in every household. A lot of parents find it difficult to take ten or fifteen minutes a day to show interest in their own children’s well being. A message to these parents: make the time.

Fiscal Responsibility

The pilot episode set the standard for how Cliff Huxtable would teach his children about all matters financial. After getting multiple Ds on his report card, Theo claims to already have the skill set to live like regular people out in the world. Cliff challenges his son’s stupidity by showing him the cost of living. Though Theo claims to be able to get by on cereal and baloney sandwiches, he ends up with zero dollars at the end of the exercise, just like regular people. This episode alone may be the best thing for corporate executives to watch on a loop in their conference rooms. Learning how to live within your means and still getting all of the necessary things in life is something that has slipped through our collective fingers. As a country where the younger you are the more debt you have stacked against you and the less chance you have of getting out clean, fiscal responsibility is the least difficult and most important thing we need to learn.

Woman’s Lib

Clair Huxtable was a partner in her own law firm. Standing on the shoulders of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and growing into it’s own form, The Cosby Show helped to expand the way women were seen as a part of the family, not only in a matriarchal sense, but in an earning sense as well. From the episode when all of the men give birth, to having Kenny (Bud) and Rudy battle it out and find out where the middle ground was and why Kenny’s brother was a mouth-foaming idiot, women were continuously shown in a position of power and pride.

Music Appreciation

Guest appearances by Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, the Muppets, B.B. King, Mavis Staples, Sammy Davis, Jr.

Music on the living room record player by Count Basie, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, James Moody, Eddie Jefferson, Grover Washington, Jr. and The Manhattan Transfer.

If for no other reason than to expand your own musical awareness, invest some time in jazz. Stretch it out to funk, and sprinkle equal helpings of James Brown and George Clinton. If it teaches us nothing else, The Cosby Show lets us evaluate jazz on an equal playing field, learning with the Huxtable children about the fine points of music, how it comes together in our ears and how it brings us together in our living rooms.

Diet

Cliff’s predilection toward potato chips and bacon-laced sandwiches was a theme throughout all of the seasons. He was caught several times sneaking pie to work, layering an entire head of lettuce on top and calling it salad. While Clair was a guest panelist for a local show of talking heads, Cliff learned from the wiley Cuban janitor that a bear claw was in fact not a donut; therefore he had not been explicitly warned off them.

Although every now and then Clair catered to his dietary whims, there were often salads and carrot juice laid in front of him at the table. The children were always made to eat a balanced diet which included the occasional extravagant dish like Cliff’s secret chili recipe, anything containing cow tongue, or the classic Caribbean food made for Cliff and Clair’s 27th wedding anniversary by the chef who cooked for them on their honeymoon.

Fashion

Cosby sweaters were only the beginning. Denise helped Theo by sewing a designer shirt that turned out looking more like Picasso on acid. For formal events, the Huxtables were dressed for success. Clair didn’t need to have her breasts parading half out of a tube top like some tabloid shocker. When a suit was worn, it was done with style.

No need to buy any thick-bound magazines slathered with stone faced people wearing evening gowns playing miniature golf ; just flip the channels.

Silliness

If nothing else, TV sitcoms are there to make us laugh. To pull stunts and pop jokes that, even if we see the punch line coming, still cannot help but snort a snot bubble out onto the living room table. The Cosby Show has embarrassing dancing, silly faces and stretched voices.

If nothing else, humor should teach us the importance of living. It should teach us that everything will work itself out eventually. Humor releases more chemicals in the brain than most prescription meds. Just behind breathing and water, humor is essential to life.

So for all those people in the world with their eyes glazed over watching American Idol to Rock of Love Bus; pull yourself out of the haze long enough to realize that those images flashing in front of your face are not going to help you land that new job, or get the girl of your dreams, but The Cosby Show just may give you better odds.

John Walsh, You Magnificent Bastard

The story's been told a thousand instances over time, yet I cannot resist. Its pull to my heart is like that of a chef to his knives.

Man approaches police. Visibly distraught, he conveys to the officers his annoyance due to his former female cohabitant gaining entry to his abode. After much deliberation and production of physical and testimonial evidence, including the suggestion that a voodoo doll within the house would spread curses, those two men who not only protect, but also serve sided with the man in the ripped Nascar t-shirt. A temporary restraining order was called for and the woman with whom this man had shared a bed was escorted off of the property.

Joyous of his moral victory, the man invites one of the officers inside of his abode to explain his religion, for under the Constitution of the United States of America, by God, this man had a right to his religion. He would not specify his denomination or lack thereof. Confused as to why the front door would no longer open, the man hoists himself through his bathroom window and opens his house to the officers hoping to show off his snake collection. Fourteen snakes writhe within a coffee table made of glass and wood. A similar cabinet, reptile-filled as well, sits behind the couch. While grasping one of the snakes to show the camera, the man is bitten and begins laughing.

John Walsh, you magnificent bastard.

P.S. Woman locked in bank needs to use the bathroom. Calls 911 to help her get out as she felt the desire to smoke a cigarette. Caving under pressure she admits she smells like whiskey because someone threw the beverage at her during a food fight.