Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Meme Spirited

 

What was that old Goffin-King song called, "He Bit Me (and I Felt Like a Kiss)"?

Tennis Tuesday

 

Even more flex appeal BELOW.

Song of the Day: 'Adventure' by Television


 I was rocking out to Television's "Adventure" (1978) the other day when I realized one of the bonus tracks from the 2003 Rhino reissue was actually the title track -- which wasn't on the original album. I immediately thought to myself -- "You can't omit the title track!" -- which then got me thinking of others that I know of: "Everything" was left off the Bangles' 1988 album of the same name, only to pop up as a bonus track of the band’s greatest hits album the following year. "The Crossing" was the name of Big Country's 1983 album, although the song didn't turn up until "The Wonderland" EP the year after, before later being added to the CD of the former. Belle and Sebastian named their 2006 album "The Life Pursuit" but saved the titular tune for the B-side of "The Blues Are Still Blue,” a single from the album. You kind of have to think the band didn't think the song measured up to leave it off yet still name an album after it, no?


And along the same lines, "Revenge" was a song on Eurythmics' little-heard 1981 debut album, "In the Garden," then the title of their 1986 release. The band recorded a very different version called “Revenge 2" but it wasn’t on “Revenge.” although it was a bonus track on the 2005 reissue. And Blondie's most famous album, "Parallel Lines," had a song in the works titled that, only to be downgraded to a poem on the liner notes. Was also thinking about a corollary, where album titles are not song titles, but are lyrics in songs, such as "Kissing to Be Clever,” which was the title of Culture Club’s debut album but later a line in "Miss Me Blind" on the band’s second LP, "Colour by Numbers," and "From Luxury to Heartache," which was the title of Boy George & Co.’s 1986 album and a line in the song “God Thank You Woman.” Debbie Harry called her debut solo record “Koo Koo,” yet only mentioned it in the song “Oasis.” ("… Not the doorbell, not a bird call Koo Koo.") "Another Passenger" was the title of Carly's Simon's sixth studio album and a lyric in the song "Libby" while "Last Splash" was the title of the Breeders' 1993 album and a lyric in their most popular song, "Cannonball." (Oh, and the word "dare" is used in two songs on the Human League LP of the same name, neither being a title track!) Can you think of any others? 

Page 1 Roundup (05/31)















Matthew's Island: Morning booty calls














Hot Cat of the Day: Greetings from Jersey City!

Morning Wood


I guess when you're 6-4 it's hard to find pants that reach your ankles. More looks BELOW.

Monday, May 30, 2022

Weekend Tennis Roundup

 

Depending on what time you read this, Damian and I may already be in divorce court based on the outcome of today's Nadal-Djokovic quarterfinal in Paris. (The King of Clay is looking very fit so I don't have high hopes, which makes what happened Down Under -- where Novak has the huge advantage -- even more vexing.) But until then, here's what I've gathered over the past week, starting with a proxy Manspread Monday starring Andreas Mies and Kevin Krawietz that has me wondering how they were already eliminated. (Somehow was able to concentrate playing against that?!) Full report BELOW.  


Back to the '80s: Holy, Kathy Rinaldi -- four teenagers in the French quarters! 

Sun of a Gun


Damian and I had a low-key Memorial Day weekend, but we did have brunch-cum-afternoon drinking with our friend Leah -- and happened upon Manhattanhenge


View to a thrill.

Memorial Day 2022


As so many Americans continue to think it's acceptable that our military bases are named after our enemies who killed our soldiers, and that it's OK for civilians to be walking around in military-grade body carrying military-grade assault weapons, it really makes me wonder what half this country stands for. I know there have been other turbulent times in recent memory -- my parents forgot my first birthday because they were so distraught over Robert Kennedy's assassination -- but things truly are the worst I have seen in my half century on this planet. Democracy isn't a given. Are we really willing to allow our veterans' deaths to have been in vain? Sadly, for enough people the answer is a resounding "yes."  

P.S.


rosannecash: Cover of Time this week. On Memorial Day, give a thought to all the children who’ve given their lives to uphold a distorted interpretation of the 2nd Amendment to mean that a disturbed teenager can legally purchase a weapon of mass destruction.

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Sunday Comics

 

Hope you're having a nice weekend!

Speedo Sunday

 

And check out his Saturday 'Stache potential BELOW.

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Saturday 'Stache


Wife-beater comes off BELOW.

Friday, May 27, 2022

Caption Me


"Wait. You're not THE OFFICER whose attention I was trying to get." 

On the Rag, Vol. 710

A weekly look at what's making news in the gay magazines:





















Song of the Day: 'Blasphemous Rumours' by Depeche Mode


The hits keep coming, this time with news that Andy Fletcher -- the ginger co-founder of Depeche Mode, one of the biggest and most influential bands of my childhood -- has died at 60He leaves behind a wife, Grainne, to whom he was married for almost 30 years, and two children, Megan and Joe.



With no cause of death given and a history of depression and a nervous breakdown on his C.V., I'm thinking the worst although the outcome is the same no matter what the cause: It hurts that we've lost another childhood idol, and there's plenty more where that came from. RIP, Fletch.

Page 1 Roundup (05/27)

 
























Morning Wood

 

Looks like he's standing on the corner of my old street! More leggy boys HERE.

Death of a Nation

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Thursday Ad Watch


Good Lord! Have you gotten a load of Bryson DeChambeau's tits in that new commercial for Club Fitter? It's no secret that golfers aren't tubbies like they used to be. But no one told me there'd be a player who turns up Google searches such as "Is Bryson DeChambeau on steroids" and "Bryson DeChambeau gained 30 pounds in the offseason and is hitting bombs"! More pics and the advertisement BELOW.

Meme Spirited


I still have yet to speak to someone with my camera on during the pandemic. The phone worked fine for 144 years before this virus came along, so why start now? 😜

Song of the Day: 'The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game' by Blondie


It's mind-boggling to me that "The Hunter" -- the first Blondie album I waited for -- came out 40 years ago this week. (Of course I'm old, but I'm not that old!) Seems like yesterday that I was calling Wherehouse Records at Fiesta Mall every day in May to ask if they "had the new Blondie yet?" and ditching class to walk up there (in 100 degree heat) to buy it when they finally did. I'm only aware of this anniversary because Ultimate Classic Rock wrote an autopsy on the first incarnation of the band's last album, which you can read HERE. I'm not sure how old the writer Dave Swanson is, but he pretty much got everything wrong. Yes, Blondie was coming off three No. 1 hits in a row, but the album hardly bombed because they were "overexposed" at the time. The aforementioned hits were all from records that came out in 1980, so by the time the explosion of MTV happened in the summer of 1982, Blondie had quietly become yesterday's news. (Ironic, of course, given that they were video pioneers in the late 1970s.) But if the writer was off base, guitarist Chris Stein was borderline delusional, having been quoted as saying: "I think 'The Hunter' is our best record to date. ... I know we've got some real hit records on this record."


That singer Debbie Harry had a major flop solo album in 1981 didn't exactly help matters, the way Stevie Nicks's "Bella Donna" did for Fleetwood Mac's "Mirage." And although I'm not sure there was an obvious better choice, "Island of Lost Souls" -- a poor man's "The Tide Is High" with an incredibly awkward video -- definitely sealed the album's fate. ("Island of Lost Souls" whimpered its way to No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- on good will, I'm assuming, as I never heard it on the radio once -- and remains Blondie's last U.S. Top 40 single to date.) 


"War Child" is the album's best song, but probably wouldn't have fared any better. And "Dragonfly" was its most clever, although I'm not sure a radio edit would have been possible. (It uses all six minutes to build to its chilling crescendo.) Perhaps if the Bond people had used "For Your Eyes Only," Top 40 and adult rock stations might have taken the bait, although I doubt it, despite its being a fine theme song. Unfortunately for diehard fans, "The Hunter" still remains shoulders above anything the reformed Blondie has put out over the past 25 years or so. (Occasional songs have been better, but none of the albums compare at all.) Listening to it again all these years later, I must say with the exception of the aforementioned single (which is cute enough, especially in retrospect) and "Little Caesar," every song holds up rather nicely. (The lyrics to "The Beast" sound like they were written 40 years ahead of their time.) Interestingly, the sort-of title track is the one that's grown on me the most. What seemed like a misstep to me in 1982 now sounds like a well-played cool-blonde twist on Motown, which speaks to the band's legendary genre-busting instincts. (Incidentally, Smokey Robinson was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame just five years after "The Hunter" was released.)  


Noise11 also marked the occasion, noting that the last time songs from "The Hunter" were played live were as such: 
"Orchard Club" (2019) 
"War Child" (2014) 
"Island of Lost Souls" (1998) 
"Danceway" (1982) 
"Little Caesar" (1982)
This, of course, means that "For Your Eyes Only," "(Can I) Find the Right Words (to Say)", "The Beast," "Dragonfly" "English Boys" (another masterpiece) and "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" have never been performed by Blondie live, even on the band's Tracks Across America tour, with opener Duran Duran in 1982. 

Note: Debbie did do “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game” on her 1989 solo tour. My friend Greg and I were at After the Goldrush in Tempe when she inexplicably opened with it, leaving the crowd underwhelmed at best! 

Mask4Masc

 

A new forecast predicts nearly every state is expected to see an increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations, so it looks like THIS FEATURE won't be going away any time soon.