The Finndego's Greatest Hits

There are memorable and unmemorable songs. Memorable songs invariably take us back to one of three things. These are a time, place or a person and most of the time all three. Not long ago Pearl Jam came to New Zealand. I didn't go, but the build up meant that the radio stations were playing a lot of Pearl Jam songs an it took me back to my time in Korea when I first heard of them and also to Holland where they HUGE and where I did get to see them in concert. Good on them for still being out there and doing it.

Anyways, this got me to thinking of my own music anthology. Just like everyone else certain songs put me into certain places and I started putting those songs into a list. I've had different phases in my life and some are music rich(Holland,for example) while others are music poor (Colorado). I also discovered that most of the music I know was "given" to me by someone else. If I trace my own music history I can easily see the music that I learned from other people that were in my life at the time. Pearl Jam, for example, was from my roommate Brett who also gave me Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana and They Might Be Giants. My mate Dave gave me Iron Maiden. Luckily, it was easily curable with Penicillin and a dose of David Bowie. Leonard Cohen, I remember, was Dr. Bart. We were at someone else's house actually and going through their CD collection,as you do. Anyways, we came across Leonard's Greatest Hits album and Bart said "what a great album"and I said "never heard of him". Bart gave me a look somewhere in between "are you serious?" and "are you an idiot?". Dr. Bart put it on and gave me the ol' "what a great songwriter Leonard Cohen is bla bla bla..." speech. Don't get me wrong, I like having Leonard in my life but that's just the thing. Cohen is a divisive figure, in the sense of people either like him or hate him. If Bart hadn't "given" him to me I might not have ever met him. It's sort of like the people who have either heard of Jeff Buckley or not. If you know of him you like him. I've yet to meet someone who didn't like Jeff Buckley, so thank you Merijn. Just a side note on crusty ol' Cohen. If you have a copy of his greatest hits, on the inside cover he has little notes for each song like: "I wrote this song while watching a sunset on a ferry from Sardinia to Corsica while making love to two Swedish tourists who taught me all I needed to know about love and politics. I'll always be grateful to them for that...and the sandwiches." I made that up, but geez, what a tosser!

Some songs take me more to a person. I can't hear "Peaches" without thinking of Thirza and Tivoli and the first column on the right or Rob wanting to be able to play "Wish You Were Here" on guitar or "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and Michiel.

Some are just time. Black Sabbath was just hammered on the the boats in Alaska over and over and over again. Little Feat, Harry Chapin and Gordon Lightfoot are just representations of the music that was being played in my house in the 70's. We weren't a musical family" in any sense of the word but I do remember having Elvis Presley and Elton John albums in the house.

Some have a sense of uniqueness like KISS which was the first album I bought because a friend of mine at school liked them and we used to rock out in my bedroom playing air guitar on the tennis rackets or Guns and Roses Appetite For Destruction which I bought in Guam for no reason in 1987 a good year or two before the album took off. I was quite proud of that one!

The last type are a bit more abstract. Tori Amos, for example, is just a representation of learning to be friends with women platonically instead of being friends with women hoping like hell to have sex with them. There is no direct connection between the two but somehow they are linked and even I don't know exactly why. Tori is also a bit twofold. I like playing music that reflects how I feel at that moment. If I'm happy, something like the Beatles work. If I'm going out for the night, Chemical Brothers are usually good. Canned Heat is good for a long drive. If you're bummed out and got some heavy shit to work through Tori Amos is really good for that, for some reason. Other people like music to put them into a mood but I can't do that. If it doesn't fit where I'm at, it doesn't work for me.

Going into the new year and having gone through my 40th birthday this year I'm probably guilty of being a bit retrospective but I went and made a musical anthology on Grooveshark that covers a lot of these songs which I've put here. Listen if you like and see if it puts you anywhere but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't, but then again everyone has their own list anyways.

Cambridge, New Zealand. Where Nazis go to party

Going into 2010, can we officially proclaim it totally uncool to dress up in Nazi gear under any circumstances? It's just not funny or cool anymore, people! I don't believe that we should legislate against this sort of tomfoolery, but I would like to see these mental deficients taken to their closest RSA, VFW or synagogue and let the old boys have a go at them like they used to back in the day. It might be these boys last chance to kick some fascists asses, even if they are poseur pussy fascists.

Merry Christmas!

These Christmas cards are available from http://www.esty.com/.

Here is a bit of brain candy if you've got some spare time:

Here's a cool little piece NZ Book Council using text from New Zealand writer Maurice Gee's Going West. The funny part is that I've never seen this in New Zealand but found it on one of my favorite websites Boing Boing.

Here's another piece from Boing Boing that I found. It's a lecture from primatologist/anthropologist Professor Robert Sapolsky from Stanford University about the "Uniqueness of Being Human".

And the hits just keep on coming from Boing Boing. Two quircky pieces about God and Adam at the Sistine Chapel.

Everyone I know knows I love guns as much as I like a good kick to the nuts. Here's a good story about gun nuts spreading their wings into other policies. Here is a related story that starts to make me scared. And here is a video that definetly scares me.

Down with the sickness

The other day my beloved Red Sox went out and signed Marco Scutaro from the Toronto Blue Jays. Before he could be signed he had to go through a special workout to ensure that he was fully recovered from plantar fasciitis‏ that had plagued him the at the end of last season. I didn't know what that was but it sounded serious. I'm not so sure my team should be signing a guy with an affliction that sounded so serious. So I looked it up on medicinenet.com. Turns out it's an inflammation to the foot. The name is actually overrated when compared to the seriousness to the affliction. I then proceeded to get distracted by medicinenet.com and went looking for other cool disease names and which ones I might like to get. Here are some of the ones I've found:

- Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm : Next time I call in sick to work I'm using this one. "Ah, yeah sorry boss I've got abdominal aortic aneurysm and I won't be coming in today."

- Aches Pain & Fever : The Trifecta! Every other commercial in America tries to sell you a pill for this. God forbid they should every find one that works. They might lose profit margin.

- Amenorrhea : We wish

-Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Otherwise known as Lou Gehrigs Disease. How cool is it to have a disease named after you? Mine would probably be lame. Mark Anderson's Disease would likely lead to the chronic inability to shave or something.

-Landau-Kleffner Syndrome: Doesn't have the same ring as Lou Gerhig's does it?

-Hydrocephalus: Sounds like an allergy to Greek Mythology

-Agoraphobia: You mean it's not the fear of 70's carpet?

-Latex Allergy: Also known as "Catholics"

-Achondroplasia: Just a side note on this. I refuse to be offended by the idea of Dwarf Tossing until the dwarfs stop allowing themselves to be tossed. (The clip is a must see. A 9.5 on the unitentional comedy scale)

Anal Fissure: What happens between a man and another man is really none of my business.

Ankylosing Spondylitis: I don't know what the hell it is but it sounds serious.

Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia: Even better! (...or worse.)

Binswangers Disease: I don't know who this Binswanger is but he's no Lou Gehrig!

Bioterrorism: It's actually listed on the website (probably American). They thought Saddam had this but it turned out he didn't but it is contagious and has apparently spread to Iran.

Black Plague : Get all medival on your ass!

Mad Cow Disease: Has to be one of the best names ever. Simple yet sounds really serious but yet somehow funny at the same time.

Gilbert Syndrome: One of the syptoms is the urge to sing showtunes.

De Quervains Tenosynovitis: Can a brother get some help with the pronunciation?

Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis: My winner for the most serious sounding disease. I much prefer Mad Cow.

Discogram: Easlily cured by listening to The Clash 2/3 times daily until syptoms clear.

Guess who's coming to dinner part III

My first two guests (Noam Chomsky and Helen Clark) are a bit too serious for a full evenings entertainment. I, on the other hand, will be in need of diversions through the evening. In order to keep the balance right I'm choosing Wim T. Schippers as my third guest. To be perfectly honest, I only know a few things about Wim (I find it hard to call him just Wim, I always call him Wim T. Schippers). I know that he is an artist ( I've since learned that he is related to the Fluxus movement. Whatever the fluxus that is about!) and that he was the voice of Ernie on the Dutch Sesame Street. I came to know him as the irreverent host of the National Science Quiz and he was just perfect for the part.

I've always considered him a bit of a modern man. I know he's done art. I know he's done television (even though his shows from the 70's and 80's were before my time) and that he's done screenplays and poetry. I know he sings and does cabaret too. What I didn't know was that he had done a play where all the actors were trained dogs! Here is the youtube clip if you'd like to watch. The dogs bark in dutch but I think everyone can figure out what's happening so I won't translate it for you. One of his other art pieces was a floor covered in peanut butter. It seems that a few students got some bread and threw them onto his piece. The public were outraged but apparently Wim T. came out and said that it was all cool and that at the end of the day it was just a floor covered in peanut butter. I always tell that story when discussing the pretentiousness of art. Just a side story here though, I once went to a modern art museum in Belgium and one piece was a thimble full of lint collected from under the artists bed. Value? You betcha!

Anyways, back to Wim T. He may not connect with Noam or Helen ( although the two do look a bit alike) but maybe he might. I imagine that he's so interesting enough, with so many ideas and such a cool history that he would fit in just about anywhere. I've picked him with future guests in mind too so you will have to keep an eye out to see who they will be.