Don't you get fresh with me.

I make no apologies for my love of this song:



Okay, the video hasn't aged well. But the "Gigolo! Huh, Sucker?" gets me everytime.

Know whut I mean?

The Boss of Me.

One of my co-workers confessed to me this morning that he doesn't get Bruce Springsteen and that he felt lost when the people in his area started debating the relative merits of everything from Greetings From Asbury Park through Magic. I told him that the best thing to do whenever he found himself in a situation like that is to confidently state that Born in the USA is a great album that suffers because of its production. In addition to being true, it's the kind of statement that makes you sound like you've given the matter a lot of thought. Whoever you're talking to may disagree, but that's fine. Springsteen fans are an opinionated bunch. And they (okay, we) are used to being on the defensive. It's the Jersey thing, I suppose.

Anyway, observe the E Street Band in 1975:




And covering the Arcade Fire (with Win & Regine lending a hand) in 2007:



I love the audible audience reactions. So much joy....

And as a bonus, here's Badlands. Just because it's awesome.

Just Call Me Butterfly

Actually, don't. I would go out of my mind if I tried to stay in a tree for 738 days. I am no Julia Hill. I'm not even a Lisa Simpson. Remember that episode of Arrested Development, where Lindsay tries to get Johnny Bark out of the tree but then totally relates to him and decides to join his protest and Michael's all, "I'll come back when you figure out what the bucket's for?" That's closer to the truth. (Hopefully, that is the only time I ever compare myself to any member of the Bluth Family. Though I loved them so...)

BUT! I would love to be able to just hang out in a tree, for the fun of it. If I had a yard, I would want to build a tree house. Something a bit more traditional than this one, though it is beautiful.

Apparently, I'm not the only one. Oh, and this guy too. You can rent it!

Yeah, I've always loved forts. Growing up, my sister Anne Marie and I used to build elaborate forts from blankets & card tables in our basement. Some of them were multilevel. One year, my mother was the cookie coordinator for our Girl Scout troop and we built a SWEET fort out of cartons of girl scout cookies, eating many boxes in the process. My mother had to pay for them. She wasn't happy about it. We would pretend that we were in our mansion, where we lived with our husbands, Duran Duran. Anne Marie was partial to Simon. I vacillated between Nick and John. Poor Andy and Roger got no love. But I digress...

Where was I? Right, treehouses. Love them!

Across the River to the Jersey Side

Over on the WFMU blog, Mike Lupica explains the PATH. Complete with Teddy footage.

I'll admit, if I'm traveling on the 33rd Street line late at night, I am one of those people who will get on the Uptown train so I have a seat when it comes back down. It's not drunkenness, it's strategy!

And, as a public transportation bonus, here are some of Neighbor Doug's awesome subterranean photos.

Too much of a good thing

I have 6 boxes of books sitting in the middle of my apartment waiting for me to be organized enough to donate them somewhere. Maybe I should just give them to these guys. Or get off my ass and bring them to the Grace Van Vorst book sale.

Ain't that America?

"Some campaigns held whiskey parties for potential supporters, he said, then handed out tiny jugs with the candidates’ names so voters “would remember who had gotten them drunk."

It's not Michael Bolton, that's for sure.

Oh, Steve Sanders.

My Beyond the Valley of the Dolls post reminded me that Russ Meyer guested on 90210. I went looking for a clip, but I found this instead.

Why..

Am I sitting here watching clips from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls on YouTube when I should have gone home half an hour ago?

Oh, right. Because they are awesome. Observe here, here and, most importantly, here.

House Guests!

Last night, I was extremely psyched to play hostess to the recently-affianced Colleen and Tom, who are on the last leg of their holiday escape from Baton Rouge. There were tacos and beers and a good time was had by all.

The sight of a Breakfast Club poster at the Taqueria led to a discussion over who be cast in the inevitable remake- we got as far as Micheal Cera as Anthony Michael Hall, the girl who played Juno as Ally Sheedy and Luke Perry as Judd Nelson. Then our tacos arrived and we were too busy stuffing our faces to determine who could fill the shoes of Emilio Estevez and Molly Ringwald.

Oh, and my cat has been rechristened "Burger Time."

I got sad for a moment though- Colleen and I share a birthday, and it's coming up fast. For the past few years, we've been celebrating it jointly. Maybe it's because I'm facing down 35 and that just seems like a milestone year, and where has my youth gone and what am I doing with my life and all that, but I haven't been able to muster much enthusiasm for it. I think a significant portion of my ambivalence can be attributed to the fact that this year Colleen won't be there to share it. Sad Sack-y? Yes. Stupid Birthdays.

I wish I could speak Portuguese.

I cannot stop listening to this compilation:

While cleaning. While cooking. While getting ready to go out. Always. I've come around to the fact that every task is made better if you hum Bat Macumba while you do it. Try it, you'll see.

The Bronx Museum presented a great exhibit on the Tropicalia movement about a year ago. If you missed it, you missed out.

I made my mind up back in Hoboken

I went to Maxwell's yesterday for the Glen Jones Radio Programme's annual Holiday Party. I was a little apprehensive to go in, after the Incident on New Year's Eve, which I shan't go into here, suffice to say it earned me a dedication on the Cherry Blossom Clinic. The song? New Year's Bathroom Magic by the Starlight Desperation. Anyway, the Skels and Holmes played, but my favorite moment, by far, was the sight of X-Ray Burns prancing about the stage, chest exposed in his Santa Clown outfit, to the strains of Cabaret.

(Many more photos can be found here.)

Amazing. Liza who?

Is this really necessary?

Steve said I should post about things other than the Park. I think it's time to oblige him. So here we go.