Dear Friends,
November 7, first and foremost, will always be a day I celebrate the birth and existence of my cousin, Ben. As I have mentioned, he’s more like a brother but there is nothing wrong with being a cousin. I’m so glad that we get to create music together on a monthly basis and that he there’s if I need to reach out to him. That is something I am very, very grateful for in this life.
I hope he is having a great day. It is certainly well-deserved. Happy birthday, Ben. I love you.
*****
So many of the people I love are pissed off, scared, hurt, and mystified right now. I’ve been trying to take as little media in as possible the last couple of days. It’s not a denial or a survival thing. It’s just a reality thing.
The media is so full of lies and misrepresentations and half-truths that I am taking a little break from it. I will read a few things, here and there, to see what is going on, but beyond that, I am staying out of the mix.
To those that are feeling like all is lost, I just say, “That’s what they want.” Each side of this divisive battle for the soul of the United States has been hoping that the other side would get tired and give up. We are often a nation of quitters, so it makes sense. We don’t like it when things are hard, I think. I see it every day in my students, myself, and most of the people I love.
That’s not a put down or a judgment, either. It’s just an observation. We have so many options, a lot of the time, that it never feels like quitting. It feels like we are changing, and we have all learned to embrace change and that “change is good.”
I am always making new options for myself. I’ve gotten better at making sure those options are also good for the people around me…but maybe there isn’t a future in continuously creating a new side door and back door and trapdoor to escape through.
Here’s to walking through the front door more often and doing what it takes to create the society we want to live in on our own dime instead of waiting for someone or something to save us.
*****
Growing up at the time I did, there wasn’t a soundtrack that was more straight up fun than Valley Girl. Many of the bands on the soundtrack, which I will eventually write about in great detail, were new to me at the time. It was great to get to experience all these different songs while enjoying a fun movie that spoke to my 13-year-old brain, too.
One of the bands on the soundtrack that I was super intrigued by was Sparks. They had two tracks on the Valley Girl soundtrack that are featured pretty prominently in the film. The title track of their 1982 record, “Angst in My Pants” and the last song off the same record, “Eaten by the Monster of Love” both caught my attention and I was tended to look for them in the record store fairly often after I got a little more mobile in life.
Little did I know that Sparks was already a well-established band at this point in time (1982) and Angst In My Pants was their 11th record. It’s been great fun to explore their catalog over the years and the documentary that came out about the Mael brothers, (Ron and Russell) that came out in 2021 called The Sparks Brothers. If you are a music fan and interested in stories that are well told, check out that doc.
I picked up Angst In My Pants on vinyl for $10 or so a decade or so ago after having the CD for a long while. You can still find it for pretty cheap if you look and those copies are usually in good shape, too. The record is definitely a bit of an acquired taste. It’s the Mael brothers take on New Wave and it is brilliant.
“Angst in My Pants” starts things off. It’s such a great song. There aren’t many songs about having an erection that you don’t want people to notice. The way Russell Mael sings it is absolutely perfect, too. He has this sneer in his voice that just sells the whole thing. It’s also just a snappy tune,
“I Predict” just oozes the early 80s. it was a minor radio hit, apparently, but it’s not even close to being the most memorable song on the record. “Sextown U.S.A.” is also not very memorable outside of the title. The keyboard sound on it is kind of like Devo-lite. It’s kind of a fun song, I guess, but there are much better tracks.
“Sherlock Holmes” is way more interesting to me and it’s one of the more mellow songs. I really like Russell’s lyrics on it, though. “Just pretend I’m Sherlock Holmes” is an instantly memorable chorus. “Nicotina” is a fun one, though, about smoking. It’s got a little spy world guitar riff.
‘Mickey Mouse” is a wonderful song, though. It’s kind of a tribute, I guess, to Disneyland and Mickey and Minnie. They did it on Saturday Night Live, but I can’t find any video of it. It finishes up the first side and makes a wonderful addition to any DJ set. Ron Mael’s music is so good here.
Side two gets really wild. I love every song on it. “Moustache” starts things off with this rollicking new wave attack where the keyboards are just so fucking 80s it hurts. “Instant Weight Loss,” is about cocaine, I think, but I can’t confirm. It feels like it is, that’s for sure.
“Tarzan and Jane” is wonderfully bizarre, too. The music on this one is fantastic and all over the place. Everyone should have this on their alarm clock (if such things were still used). “The Decline and Fall Of Me” is another great, unheralded song. I’m guessing it has been covered by a few bands over the years. It is ripe for re-interpretation.
The last track, as mentioned, is “Eaten By The Monster Of Love.” The beginning is super iconic. “Don’t let it get me…don’t let it get me…” I was such a fan of how it was used in Valley Girl that it has always been one of my favorite songs. That scene is pretty much a fantasy of any straight male…and probably a few who don’t identify as straight, too.
It galls me that you can still find copies of this record for $10. It should be a $50 record, but that’s easy for me to say. I have a great copy.
Happy hunting.
*****
See you tomorrow.
This is kind of rad, AI.
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