I can quit any time I want!

Hello, my name is Rob and I'm addicted to eBay.

Hey! It's better than needle drugs!

It all started shortly after I got out of high school. I had a disposable income, a steady job and no girlfriend. The significance of a significant other (or lack there of) is that I had plenty of free time to spend my money on stuff that I didn't need. So I started buying this stuff. It started out innocent enough, a cd here, a VHS there. But it wasn't until I discovered records that I became hooked. They just appeal to me. Not in the hipster "they sound better, therefore I'm cooler than you" kind of way. I have an extensive cd collection that I don't listen to, so that isn't it. The best way I can put it is that I like the feeling of owning something historic. I'm instantly drawn to the limited amounts of certain releases. I love color vinyl also.  Once I met my significant other I put my addiction on the back burner for a long time. No more disposable income. I had to buy things like flowers, presents, and dinners. The focus was no longer on me. I even sold much of the stuff that I had originally bought. This included my Nirvana collection. I went around telling people that I lost a bit of my soul, and I meant it. The desire to order crap off of eBay faded away because I couldn't afford to buy anything. This all changed when I got my current job. By then I was married, so I had a little bit more leeway with my money (she can be a free spender, why can't I?). I first sought out getting back the missing piece of my soul. As of today I'm just one record away from doing so, and I'm happy to say it's neither an expensive piece, nor hard to find. If I would have stuck to just this plan it wouldn't have turned into a relapse. But I'm a weak person, and I'm trying to fill a bit of a hole in my life, so I started to buy other records. Now I have a pretty nice collection of records, if I do say so myself. I'll put it on here to show it off if I get the time. Ok, fine, here's a sneak peak of some of my favorites in my collection:

Three things

Those that have known me for a while remember I did a "three things" post about all my friends on myspace. It was both rewarding and challenging. But I won't do that again, I'm old, and nobody cares. But I got to thinking about a lead singers the other day and I thought I'd dust off the format one more time.
David Lee Roth (VanHalen) Dr. Rockso, Might as well jump when your career is over, funny how he thought he was bigger than the band, how'd that work out for ya Dave?

Ozzy (Black Sabbath) Sharon!, doves or bats?, the Alamo seemed like a good place to take a piss at the time.

Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) Maroon 5 and Ke$ha name drop, his favorite flavor is cherry red, what kind of cigarettes make a man?

Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) Shotguns, depression, and heroin don't mix, he was worst at what he did best,  he swore that he didn't have a gun.

Eddy Vedder (Pearl Jam) Ticketmaster sucks, may be the only person on earth that understands "Yellow Ledbetter", don't call him daughter.

Buddy Holly (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) He loves Peggy Sue, the music died when he died, the originator of "Geek Chic".

Freddie Mercury (Queen) What other gay man could get an entire sports arena to sing along to his songs?, Live Aid, nuff said, scalamoosh!

Geddy Lee (Rush) Seriously, is there any band worse than Rush?, no, really, he's a dude, they call him the working man.

Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) Ended up a big ol pile of them bones, his pain was self chosen, he's the man in the box.

Jack White (White Stripes) A seven nation army couldn't hold him back, dude, it wasn't his sister, he just took HER last name, who'd a thunk, icky thump.

Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) Driving backwards in the fog doesn't remind him of anything, he shot his love today, would you cry for him?, he wants the spoonman to save him.

Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) Tight pants + bulge in crotch = burning loins, he knows a lady who's certain all that glitters is gold, in the darkest depths of Mordor he met a girl so fair.

Thom York (Radiohead) Hey, don't make fun of his eye, he can't help it, anyone can play guitar, you kill yourself for recognition, kill yourself to never, ever stop.

Roger Daltrey (The Who) He's not a deaf, dumb, blind kid, he just played one on tv, like that Rush guy he didn't write the songs, he didn't die before he got old.

 2-D (Gorillaz) He's quite animated!, made an entire album on an iPad, the revolution will be televised.

I think you get the idea, this is getting trite.

The 90's

The popular IFC show Portlandia started off its first episode asking the question "Do you remember the 90's?". Looking back today they (the 90's, not Portlandia) are just a dot in the rear-view mirror. Although I had many of my most fond memories in the last decade of the 20th century I also had some of my worst. I was a social reject who couldn't form the most basic sentences even amongst friends for much of the time. A little self confidence would have gone a long way. BUT, that's not what I'm here to talk about. Let's discuss something near and dear to my heart...musical diatribe! The 90's started out with boy bands and glam metal and ended with boy bands and rap rock. Some of my favorite bands started out in the 90's, but for every Radiohead there was a Creed, for every Alice in Chains there was a Nickelback.

My thinking at the time was that this was the best time ever to be around and that for the most part the music was great. Although I've realized that not to be the case, it's hard not to look back and see the various pockets of awesome sprinkled amongst the crap in popular music. I missed out on Nirvana, caught only the tail end of AIC and Soundgarden. I hated the Smashing Pumpkins at the time because all of their fans at my high school were douche bags. I hated the concept of hip hop so much that Rage Against the Machine might as well of been Vanilla Ice. Despite my sister's best efforts to influence me I didn't take to Pearl Jam, the Deftones, or Tool until much later. Hell, I didn't even like the Foo Fighters until I heard "Everlong". My point being is tastes change over time. Acquired tastes need to be acquired.

So what bands did I like then that I still like now? Green Day were introduced to me by Mtv with their album Dookie. Stone Temple Pilots were through my cousin with their album Core. These two albums are the cornerstones of my musical database. A little later I saw the video for "Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead. Their album The Bends is the third corner-stone. This was the first band that I liked and I didn't care what others thought. Somehow I missed their song "Creep" completely when it first came out. So this album was what got me into them and is my favorite to this day. The fourth, and final cornerstone is held by Smash by the Offspring. I think my cousin and Mtv can equally take credit for this one. These four albums are where it all starts. While my friends were listening to Aqua and Blessed Union of Souls (really?) I was trying to figure out why Scott Weiland wet his bed and looking up the meaning of "Libido" and "Albino" (thank you KC). I watched the video "Ruby Soho" by Rancid, which prompted me to buy And out come the wolves on cassette the same day as purchasing The Bends.

Two tapes for the price of 1 cd, as it turns out was a great deal. I didn't appreciate Rancid until MUCH later, but it was a feather in my cap at the time. Where is this all going? I don't know. I'm just trying to prove to myself that despite the decade ending with Limp Bizkit, Korn, Back Street Boys, and Kid Rock, I can't hold that against the decade any more. Times have changed, the cd and music video are essentially dead formats. The masses still like crap that is here one day, gone the next. The girl I married will inevitably like what ever crappy song comes on the pop radio station. I suppose that is my punishment for being so cool. It keeps me grounded and stops me from venturing too far away into the indie genre.

Format Change!

Seeing how I lost interest in this whole blog every day thing I think it's time to change things up. I'm still blogging (sort of) about the blazers on the other page, but since I'm technically getting paid to blog here I'll switch it up. First off an explanation. I quit doing the other blog because I lost heart in doing it every day. Since it was a blog based on events that occurred daily this wasn't going to work. So I quit rather than fall even further behind. I lost heart in it all because some people started to be negative about my writing. Saying what I was doing was stupid. They're entitled to their opinions, but it just made me not want to do it any more. But the main reason I quit was because the person I was trying to impress most kind of quit on me. So I did what anyone else would do and I quit back. But now I don't really care who I'm impressing. I'm going to change the format a bit and write down my thoughts on pop culture and things of the like. Maybe get a few suckers to click the links so I get paid. Greed is good, no? So there's going to be some changes up in this bitch!

Old MacDonald had a farm, Moby had a dick.

November 14th
On this day in 1851 Moby Dick by the bearded one, Herman Melville, is published for the first time. Regarded as a true American literary classic (like there's a false one) it follows the exploits of Ishmael on board the Pequod. Largely forgotten until years after Melville's death, this novel was republished to great fanfare during the 1920's. Melville was probably looking down saying "Motherfuckers!" Cheers buddy!

On this day in 1970 a plane carrying most of the Marshall University football team crashes into a hillside killing everyone on board. The entire school was in mourning and left to decide whether or not to bring back the football program the next season. They decided it would help heal the school and surrounding city by bringing back the team. Not expecting to win any games that first season with a patchwork team, it was a story fit for a movie when the team won their second game on a last second touchdown pass. Yeah, they made a movie about it.

On this day in 1914 the leaders of the Ottoman Empire declare a holy war or Jihad, against Britain, France, and the other allied nations during WWI. The declining empire had lost most of it's vast territory during the previous century and saw the great war as a means to regain lost lands. Right until joining the Germans in the war it wasn't clear which side the Ottoman's would join. Perhaps if they would have sided with Britain they would be able to remain in the middle east, thus avoiding the upheaval that we enjoy today.

Chris Gaines? He looks like Ben Stiller.

November 13th
On this day in 1999 Garth Brooks performed on Saturday Night Live as his alter ego Chris Gaines. Gaines was a risky venture into puss rock for Brooks that would eventually end his career along with his burning infidelity. Brooks had single handed brought country music to the masses and established himself as a great live performing artist. But that all self destructed in a wonderful mess with the pile of shit.

On this day in 1982 the Vietnam War Memorial was dedicated in Washington DC. A black marble was inscribed with the names of those who died in the Vietnam conflict. The reflective material used in the memorial adds to the ambiance as you stare at the names on the wall your reflection stares back at you. It is one of the most visited memorials in the country and draws thousands every day who want to see the names of their war buddies, sons, fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, and friends.

On this day in 1979 Darryl Dawkins, aka "chocolate thunder" breaks his first backboard while dunking a basketball in an NBA game. Dawkins was famous for his high-flying dunks during games, but this dunk topped them all and added to his mystique. He was one the first players to be drafted straight out of high school and helped the Philadelphia 76ers to become a force in the struggling NBA. Two weeks later he did it again, cementing himself in the lore of Philadelphia sports history.

I'll bring home the turkey if you bring home the bacon.

November 12th
On this day in 1864 during his "march to the sea" General William Tecumseh Sherman starts the burning of Atlanta. After building a stockade of supplies Sherman ordered the burning of the business district of Atlanta to prevent Confederates recovering anything of use after he left. Sherman would cause similar destruction as he worked his way to Savannah, Georgia.

On this day in 2004 Scott Peterson is found guilty of the murder of his wife, Laci, and their unborn child in Modesto, California. Laci Peterson was reported missing on Christmas Eve of 2002. His mistress came forward a month later shattering the image of Mr. Peterson being a devoted husband. He referred to himself as a widower even before the authorities discovered Laci's body in San Francisco Bay near where Scott kept his boat. He was arrested in San Diego with his brothers passport, large amounts of cash, and a new hair color. He plead not guilty. The act failed and he was sentenced to death.

On this day in 1979 President Jimmy Carter ends all imports of oil from Iran in response to the hostage crisis in Tehran. All that this achieved was the rise in oil prices and high gas prices in the US. Did he really think an oil embargo would make inspired students change their minds about abducting Americans? Carter had once said Iran was "an island of stability in the Middle East". This act formally ended the friendly relations between the two nations.