Musings of a Punk Rock Father

Mother | Tori Amos
A Mother Has A Hard Road | Killdozer
Mommy, Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight | The Misfits
Mama Don't Get Off | Jack Oblivian
Mommy's Little Anarchist | Crash Dog
Just Like Your Mom | Electric Frankenstein
Your Mama On the Rocks | Hewhocorrupts
Mother was a Vulture | This Et Al
Mommy's Little Monster | Social Distortion
Say Mama | Milkshakes
My Mom Still Cleans My Room | MxPx
If Mother Knew | Oblivians
My Mother's Only Son | Blindside
Mama Said | Metallica
Blame It On Mom [Live] | Johnny Thunders
Mom's In Rehab | Huntingtons
Send A Picture Of Mother | Johnny Cash
Mama's Boy | Ramones

One of the things I miss most about my previously held job at CitiMortgage was the CD club I shared with 2 of my co-workers. Well, just because I was laid off does not mean Citi should lay claim to my need for new music as well as my need for regular pay.

Thusly, I contacted the aforementioned 2 co-workers in an attempt to revive our CD club. The club basically involved the 3 of us deciding upon a theme for a compilation, or mix CD (which sounds so less romantic and elegant than mix-tape, but that's what happens when technology evolves - never mind that it is now the mix-USB flash drive, but I am getting ahead of myself), and then giving ourselves a deadline for producing, for the auditory enjoyment of the other 2 members, an album using that theme. I immediately hear back from one co-worker, but not from the other, although I know the other has far bigger fish or other sea creatures to fry, so I do not hold a grudge against him.

I suggested to my ex-co-worker a city comp, a mix-CD of songs that mention cities. We both excitedly got to work on this project. I like comps, mixtapes, whatever, because the blank audio format becomes a canvas upon which to paint with other artists music in such a way that it becomes its own creation. And I am excited that ECW (ex-co-worker, not Extreme Championship Wrestling) also enjoys making comps.

So yesterday I received a package from ECW. Unfortunately, it was not big enough to be a CD (see, if you remember the 2nd paragraph, then you already know the outcome - if you don't remember it, then you could direct your eyes above and ruin the end of the story for the 2nd time, it's just that you didn't remember ruining it the 1st time). I opened the package, and it held a cassette. See, this made me upset because ECW knows that I do not have the necessary access to a tape player. We have one in the Camry, which Melanie drives (although the other night she sent me out to Oberweis for some premium Conservative Republican ice cream, a trip which I used to blast a cassette with Articles of Faith and Bhopal Stiffs, a tape also made by ECW) and I have one under our TV, but which is not actually hooked up top anything. But I opened it and quickly realized that it was a cardboard tape, a fake, a fugazi, if you will (I just watched Donnie Brasco tonight, forgive me). Inside the fake cardboard cassette tape was a flash drive containing ECW's cities comp entitled "Topics in Audio History: Chicago, Vol. 1." Ambitious, no? See, he compiled 20 songs that all referenced Chicago. I was impressed.

Here, then, since I am actively listening to it, I present my compilation of city songs, dubbed "Downtown Shout Down," a title which is understood and funny only to a select few ex-co-workers. Included is/are the songs referenced.

Be-Common ref Chicago
Cleveland Confidential (Real World)-Pagans ref Cleveland
Safe In New York City-AC/DC ref NYC
All I Can Do Is Cry -Mike Ness ref Kansas City
See Ya Later-The Boys ref Belfast
It's All Moving Faster-Electric Frankenstein ref NYC
Lexington Nightlife-Gas Huffer ref Lexington, Charleston, Concord
Imminent War-Living Sacrifice ref Jerusalem
Doomsday-Transplants ref San Pedro, Washington
Battle Crick-Bantam Rooster ref Battle Creek, MI
Love Kills-Radio Birdman ref Chicago, Detroit
Motor City Is Burning-MC5 ref Detroit
Wanted Man-Johnny Cash ref Kansas City, Cheyenne, El Paso, Pleura, Shreveport, Abilene, Albuquerque, Syracuse, Tallahassee, Baton Rouge
Spanish Fly By Night-New Bomb Turks ref Cincinnati
Gun Street Girl-Tom Waits ref Birmingham, Waukegan
Modern World-The Modern Lovers ref Boston
Idle Hands-The Murder City Devils ref Austin, Dallas
Goodmornin Da-The Tossers ref Dubllin
Bodies-Sex Pistols ref Birmingham, England
The Young Crazed Peeling-The Distillers ref Melbourne
The Strangler of Boston Town-Thee Headcoats ref Boston
Bangkok-Nomads ref Bangkok
Rip Off-Sham 69 ref London
Goin' Back to Tucson-Supersuckers ref Tucson
Normandy-Project 86 ref Normandy

1 U2 - The First Time
2 Half Pint & the Fifths - Orphan Boy
3 Syd's Dance Band - Never Again
4 Crime - Frustration
5 Johnny Wright - The World is Yours
6 Black Flag - Life of Pain
7 R.L. Burnside - Jumper On the Line
8 The Prescriptions - I Shall Punish You Severely
9 Nirvana - Turnaround
10 Murder City Devils - Bear Away

Yes, he wants everyone to take the time to hug your chothers. I wasn't sure what this meant at first either. But then he showed my wife and me a couple of his toys, whose arms were wrapped around each other. "They're hugging their chuthers," he informed us. Aha. We tried to correct him. "No, you mean that they are hugging each other." But he continues to talk about how he likes to hug our chuthers, and he and his sister hug their chuthers, and we should hug his chuthers.

A good reminder with all of the insanity in the world. Go hug your chuthers.

Yesterday around 3:30, I heard on the radio that police activity was reported at Northern Illinois University. NIU's website reported a possible gunman. At 3:55, I saw the update online that a shooting was confirmed. As an NIU graduate, the confirmation floored me even moreso than the other school shootings. I called my wife to see if anyone we know goes there, and then e-mailed one of my old professors. He responded soon after, letting me know he and his wife, also a professor, were safely at home. He was teaching in the next building when it happened.

The count is up to 6 dead, including the man who attacked the university. Everyday something in the news makes me ask "What is wrong with us?"

This tragedy hits close to home because I am a graduate of the university, and because we live only 20 or so miles from the main campus. I walked past that building nearly every day for 4 years. Seeing the doors and windows shot out, footage of students and police, hearing the accounts on the radio, the reality that I personally know some people who lived through this...it is too much for me to comprehend and to find any words to articulate how it is affecting me.

After Columbine, I would just start crying thinking about those kids...KIDS!...who had to dive over tables, around doorways, to avoid a bullet. When I saw Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," I couldn't sleep, and I kept replaying in my head the video from inside the school on that horrific day. I had never seen it until that film, and I found it profoundly disturbing.

I feel the same way now. I think about the young people in that classroom, and I cannot believe that they had to make the choice to jump, dive, crawl, whatever it took to get away from someone who wanted to destroy lives. I cannot believe that 6 of them are dead.

This weekend I am experiencing life as a single dad, as my wife is in Arizona until Monday. I've been looking forward to a couple days of bonding with my kids. Today we were getting ready to leave the house (simply because I was going to go nuts if we stayed closed up in the house), and my son told me, "Daddy, you stay here. Bob [his stuffed dinosaur] will take care of you. Catie and I will go without you."

"Oh yeah," I said, "how will you get to the store?"

"We'll steer with the steering thing."

Later, in the car, he asked me to sing along with him on a song he composed himself. I told him I couldn't because I didn't know the words. "It's ok," he assured me. "I'll give you a hand."

I don't know where he gets this stuff. He recently began responding to our requests for him to help around the house by saying, "it's my pleasure."

After getting laid off in June, which I have already written about, I spent a while searching for a new job. Since my previous job was in the mortgage industry, as a residential mortgage underwriter, things weren't looking very rosy. Things only got worse since then. I applied to several mortgage companies: wholesale, retail, correspondent, broker, mortgage insurance companies. I even got interviews. But no second interviews. A relative got laid off soon after me, but hers was much more harsh than mine. I was told in March, got to work until the end of June, and then got paid until the end of September. She was shown the door that day and got two weeks severance. More and more mortgage companies are going under, more and more are laying off. Two people who were laid off with me have already been laid off again.

So what's a mortgage guy to do when the industry goes to crap?

Start a new business.

This month I am opening a new business with my soon-to-be step-father-in-law. We are opening a store called Ink Station, an ink cartridge refilling store.

It's a very exciting time, but also very demanding. I started officially on October 1st, and it has been a lot of work. But I have had a lot of fun getting it up and running, working on the build-out of our store from design to choosing furniture and displays, to ordering product and equipment, to selecting vendors. I'm very happy with how our logo and store and all of our in-store signage has turned out.

Our grand opening is November 10th, and we have an official ribbon-cutting ceremony with the mayor of the town we are in on November 15th. I am hoping for a busy day!

I had posted before about seeing They Might Be Giants performing on Blues Clues. Well, now I was just watching "Yo Gabba Gabba" with my son, and I saw a live performance from Supernova. I saw Supernova some 8-10 years ago at Fireside Bowl. If I remember right, they were on Amphetamine Reptile Records, who also were home to Helmet, Boss Hog and the Melvins among others.

A lot of you might know Supernova from their song "Chewbacca" on the "Clerks" soundtrack. I remember hearing that song live. I also remember that their schtick was similar to Man Or Astro-man? in that the band members were aliens. Supernova's schtick included a love of tin foil, and they asked that people bring tin foil to shows.

Weird.

I haven't been paying much attention to the movies that are out right now. And so when Melanie and I decided at the last minute yesterday that we wanted to go on a date, we weren't making a very informed decision regarding what movie to go see. We quickly pulled up the theatre schedule, and went through the list of movies. "Balls of Fury," "Rush Hour 3," Rob Zombie's "Halloween," "The Nanny Diaries"...ugh. And then I looked up "3:10 to Yuma." I read the first line of the synopsis; "When a rancher..." and I didn't want to go any further. I had visions of Van Damme and Seagal running through my head. But then we saw that it starred Russell Crowe, so we decided we would give it a chance. Reviews be darned, we would just go.

At the theatre, we discovered the movie had already started. I refuse to miss even the first two minutes of a film, because those two minutes can be crucial. So we went back to the box office to exchange our tickets. The next movie playing was "Shoot Em Up." Never heard of it. Oh, it stars Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti? Okay, let's give it a shot. Actually, Melanie said let's give it a shot, because with a title like "Shoot Em Up," I assumed it was a brainless, plotless action movie, which is the furthest thing from what Melanie likes. But, she picked it.

The movie opened with one of the most ridiculous scenes I have ever seen, in almost every regard. Gratuitous violence, questionable acting prowess, bad, bad dialogue, and more gratuitous violence. I won't attempt to describe what transpires in this opener, because plenty of critics have let the carrot out of the bag, except to say that I enjoyed the use of Nirvana's "School."

I continued to hate the film as crazy, over-the-top shoot-outs were strung together by a plot that existed solely to have a reason to string together crazy, over-the-top shoot-outs. It was either like an extended length music video or a musical. The plot, thin as it is, basically follows Owen as he saves a baby that is being followed by assassins, for reasons explained much, much later in the movie. He ends up on the run with a prostitute who becomes the surrogate mother to baby Oliver. But don't pay attention to the story, because the filmmaker certainly didn't. Some critics have compared this to John Woo, but it really doesn't have the grace of a lot of John Woo films. It reminds me more of "Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane." Immediately after the film, I thought it was like "Children of Men" meets "Sin City," and not just because Clive Owen appeared in all three, and then I saw that a lot of critics said the same thing.

But at some point in the film, I felt like I "got it." Somewhere in the ludicrous gun battles, barely witty repartee and pounding heavy metal (such as "Ace of Spades," which tends to be over-used, but it's such a good song I don't really mind), I started to see the real comedy of it all. I first tried to determine if the movie is a send-up of action films, or a bizarre anti-gun commentary; I finally concluded that it is both. It could be neither, I suppose, and I am reading too much into it. But it is so much, so far out there, that I have to believe the filmmaker had a little more thought put into it than is put into a Seagal movie. The film is quite self-referential, with Owen's character at one point complaining about an infuriating trait of a lot of action movie heroes, so he is sure to avoid their blunders. The seemingly poor acting and bad dialogue actually reminded me of "Wild Things," which was also purposely over-the-top.

Probably the biggest laugh for Melanie and me came at the most "climactic" scene. If and when you see this movie, you will know exactly what I am talking about. Another big laugh came when Owen and Bellucci were changing baby Oliver's newspaper diaper, and Owen looked at the poop-covered front page with a photo of a presidential candidate. "S**t," he uttered. Haha.

When we got home, we immediately looked the movie up online to find out what the deal is with it. Are we crazy for not only not hating it, but actually kind of liking it? I felt vindication in Roger Ebert's review:

"'Shoot 'em Up,' written and directed by the gung-ho Michael Davis, is the most audacious, implausible, cheerfully offensive, hyperactive action picture I've seen since, oh, 'Sin City,' which in comparison was a chamber drama. That I liked 'Shoot 'em Up' is a consequence of a critical quirk I sometimes notice: I may disapprove of a movie for going too far, and yet have a sneaky regard for a movie that goes much, much farther than merely too far."

Yesterday I was on the phone with a customer service rep for Chase, trying to access my account online, when he told me that my last name sound like a word Muslims use for Moses. I looked around online, and discovered he must have been talking about the term "Kalim allah," which means "He who spoke with God." There is no vowel in between the 'k' and the 'l' sounds in my name, and the vowels sound a bit different, but it's pretty close.

It was just an odd little conversation.

Last night I saw the Bronx at Double Door, FOR FREE. If you haven't heard them yet, they are absolutely the best rock n' roll band around right now. The show was completely energetic. Vocalist Scott Caughthran has the coolest voice. He ran around the pit during "They Will Kill Us All (Without Mercy)" and didn't miss a note. I was blown away. Did I mention it was free?

The shame of it all is that the club was maybe three-quarters packed, but that probably had more to do with the fact that it was a mid-week show and the band went onstage close to midnight. But it was worth losing sleep for. They performed practically their entire catalog, which isn't difficult since they have only released two albums so far, both of which are self-titled.

A bonus was hanging with a couple guys I worked with before we were laid off. We used to talk about the Bronx every day at work, so it was a blast to see the band with them.

I haven't done one of these in a long time, mostly because I don't listen to music through iTunes. But I find myself sitting here listening to it on shuffle, so I might as well share.

Los Straitjackets - University Blvd
Ramones - Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World
Anberlin - Stationary Stationery
Beastie Boys - 3 Minute Rule
Mad Season - Lifeless Dead
Alice in Chains - Over Now
Makers - Texture of a Girl
Larry & the Blue Notes - Night of the Sadist
Nomads - Ain't Yet Dead
Rich Mullins - Jesus

Starts off with a great instrumental surf song. Interesting how things segue between Mad Season, featring vocals by Layne Staley, and Alice in Chains, featuring vocals by Layne Staley. The Larry & the Blue Notes tune is from the "Back From the Grave" comps put out by Crypt Records that showcases some awesome 60's punk rock. This random 10 goes out on a quiet acoustic demo by the formidable Rich Mullins.

A while back, we saw a Brian Regan special on Comedy Central. In one of his bits, he told about his son offering the comedian a new joke "for your career."

He eagerly asked his son for the joke.

"Why don't dinosaurs talk?"

Amused, he asked for the answer.

"Because they're all dead."

Similarly, Aidan, just shy of 3 years old, has begun the art of devising his own jokes. One of his latest goes like this:

"Why did the monkey cross the road? Answer: By riding on the chicken!"

He doesn't really answer the why question, instead choosing to explain the how. But from a 3 year old, it is mighty funny.

I just saw They Might Be Giants doing their song "Clap Your Hands" from their album "No!" on Blue's Clues.

Weird. But so awesome.

I was just outside eating lunch with my son and daughter while listening to my iPod. Mae's "The Afterglow" came on, and my 2 1/2 year old son looked at me with an extremely serious look on his face and said, "This is a really good song, yeah," and nodded his head up and down. Then he began dancing in his chair.

A few months ago, I was listening to Eso-charis, which features somewhat growling vocals. He called it the Dino song, believing that a dinosaur was singing. Another time I was listening to an album called "Sideways Soul" by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the Dub Narcotic Sound System. Two songs featured the word "banana" in the title and the word was used throughout each song. Aidan asked me, "Are these guys monkeys?"

Yet another time, I had an L7 album on and he told me, "That guy is screaming." I shrugged my shoulders.

"It's actually a lady, but close enough," I replied.

This morning I took my son to see Ice Age: The Meltdown at one of those early morning, cheap kids movies. Only $1 per person, and it was a nice theater, not one of those second run theaters.

This was his first time at a real movie theater, and he loved it. I predicted to Melanie that he would utter "Whoah!" a lot, and he did. He laughed loudly through most of the movie, and he made me laugh out loud too at some of the silly gags.

This was the first time I've been to a movie where crying kids was accepted, if not expected.

Oh my, I still have a blog?

I was pretty much forced to end my blogging when my employer decided to block this website. I tried to transfer my blog to blogspot, and they blocked that too. And the last thing I ever wanted to do when I got home was look at a computer.

I now have a little more time for these things, though, since I have been laid off. Ah, the joys of "structural expense reviews." Let's just say that Des Moines, Ann Arbor and Mumbai, India are all cheaper than Chicago. The best part is that my branch was actually number one in the country for our last full month.

So I am once again writing resumes and cover letters, and practicing the answers to questions like, "What would you say is your biggest weakness?" I also was able to enjoy the ambiance of the local unemployment office.

I have been able to spend some extra time with my wife, 2 1/2 year old son and 7 month old daughter. We went to Brookfield Zoo on July 3rd, and that ruled. The zoo is so much cooler when you go with a 2 year old. He was chilling in his stroller as we walked past an okapi (yeah, I'd never heard of it either) and he has the zoo map open in front of him and yells, "There's an okapi on my map!" Everything is so much more exciting when seen through his eyes.

The thing I am missing most right now from my job is the CD club that I started with 2 of my co-workers. We would pick a theme (90's songs, songs about war, songs over 10 minutes long/under 2 minutes long) and make comps for each other. In a few months the biggest thing I will miss wll be the paycheck, but for now it is the comps.

I don't know how regularly I will be able to write. I suppose it will depend on what job I get next.

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there!

I had a fantastic father's day. My son (at the age of 20 months) picked out for me a pretty sweet Johnny Cash "Man in Black" t-shirt. To make the gift more awesome, he also got a Cash shirt of his own. When we can coordinate wearing them on the same day, we'll pose together so I can get a photo up.

We celebrated Father's Day today at a Chicago Cubs game. If you saw the game or heard the score, then hopefully you have pity for the poor display we witnessed. Even so, we had an awesome time because my mother-in-law's boyfriend got skybox tickets through work. Mel and I were able to take Aidan, and Mel's sister and her husband came also. Aidan had a great time with his grandma, since she is incredible patient with him.

Originally, we were told the tickets were only for the seats, and did not include the food package. But when we arrived, there were hot gods, nachos, beer and soda available, as well as some other snacks like a veggie tray. The only thing we had to spring for was a slice of pizza that Mel was craving. We even got free parking across the street from Wrigley! So, two skybox tickets (plus a toddler), 5 hot dogs, 1 beer, 2 sodas, 1 water, more than one order of nachos, and that slice of pizza later, and we only shelled out $4. Not too shabby!!

Mel and I are currently in in Portland, Oregon! Expect an update at some point!

Tonight I went to White Fence Farm to pick up chicken for the family dinner. As I waited for a man to get into the car parked next to me, he looked up and quite angrily pronounced, "No one cooks anymore, just so you know."

He had a giant "Greece" knick-knack of some sort hanging from his rear-view mirror, so I thought maybe he was mad because his Greek wife refuses to cook for him like he thinks she should. I mean, I've seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," so I know that Greek women cook for their Greek men, right?

Then I though maybe he was upset at me. My generation, we don't cook. We eat out. We eat fast food. Except that we don't eat out all the time; at least my family doesn't. It would be pretty irrational if he were mada at me. But he did seem irate, although I couldn't tell with whom he was irate.

So what would make someone give this short proclamation to a stranger standing with a bag of chicken and various delectable side dishes?

I apologize for the infrequent posts here; I still update at my Blogger account.

Mostly I'm continuing my Album of the Day series, in which I write about albums I've listened to that were referred to me by others. I have months worth of albums left.

I've started a string of posts over at my Hint of Disaster blog (used only because my employer does not permit access to Brendoman) wherein I write about whatever album I listened to that day. Most of these (for the next several weeks, probably) I was made aware of by Kyle and Kendrick, so I must give them credit. A lot of the posts will be about artists I've never really listened to, and some will be about albums I've never listened to by artists I like.

I read Batman Year One yesterday. I've been meaning to for years. I made it a priority when I heard that Aranovsky was going to adapt it for the first good Batman film since Schumacher ruined the franchise, but then Christopher Nolan did Batman Begins instead.

I liked that Miller's story featured the origins, essentially, for both Batman and Commissioner Gordon. In this book, he is Lieutenant Gordon, then on the last page he is Captain Gordon. Miller cuts back and forth between the two stories, revealing the similarities in the two characters. His storytelling is strong, as is his dialogue. He writes the two characters so well that the reader would be able to figure out which character was speaking without the use of different lettering for each.

I've come to appreciate how comic books can utilize narration in a way that seems lazy in films. Bruce Wayne and James Gordon narrate throughout the book, but it serves the story rather than help the author avoid any real creativity in the storytelling.

Now I need to read The Dark Knight Returns.

On Wednesday, I witnessed a display of enormous importance and impressiveness. Melanie asked Aidan where his eyes were. He pointed to his right eye and said "eye," only with a vowel sounding close to the "aah" that you would give a doctor. She then asked him where his nose was, and he pointed now to his nose, saying "no." She then asked him where his mouth was, and he...you guessed it...pointed to his mouth, saying "mou." Lastly, she asked him where his ears were, and he grabbed my ear (although he didn't say it).

I think he is a genius.