Dear Friends,
It makes me sad that people (and I use the term loosely) were so bummed that Easter Sunday was also the National Transgender Day of Visibility. It’s been celebrated on March 31 for the past 15 years. It wasn’t some sort of assault on the day Jesus supposedly rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.
The hypocrisy of these people who like to exploit weak-minded people is re-fucking-diculous. I mean, if Jesus were here today, I’m certain beyond any doubt that he would embrace and love EVERYONE. I studied the New Testament quite a bit in college and I don’t remember any stories about Jesus where he was like, “Oh, fuck the people who don’t look like me or believe what the moneychangers say.”
I hate that a lot of my friends on social media probably had to think twice about whether they should like the post. I hate that some people I know make snarky comments about the transgender community when, if they just thought about it, why does it bother them at all if someone doesn’t feel like they are in the right skinsuit?
Well, I could make some big announcement on social media about unfriending people, but I’m just going to say this once right here. Hate on people for being different than you and nothing else and consider us done. I have no time or place for people who can’t live and let live and love everyone. It doesn’t mean you have to like everyone, but don’t put stupid shit on my page because you are an idiot.
I am a fan of Jesus, by the way. From what I’ve read, he was an awesome guy. I’m pretty sure he loves me no matter what based on what the books say, too. If you disagree, you’re reading it way wrong.
*****
End rant.
*****
Not quite, actually.
If we don’t start figuring out how to get along better, this world is going to get a lot worse. Why does it feel like people just want to fight? I don’t want to fight with anyone, to be honest. I spent enough time doing that when I was younger. I just want to live and let others live, as I said. If we disagree, that’s cool. I’d actually like to know more about what you think and feel and need, but not if you can’t just share. Don’t try to sell me your ideology, please. Agree to disagree or keep walking. Listen or lump it.
*****
(The Bet)
On the way home, Sean almost hoped Aidan was not there. He wasn’t sure what to say or how to feel about the day he had and what he had been told. There was something that Arlene wasn’t telling him, too. He was sure of it.
As he walked in, he looked at the kitchen table for a note from Aidan. They left each other messages on a yellow legal pad and had been doing this for years. There were several boxes of these pads at the house in Tucson and more in the garage at the current house, too.
Sure enough, there was about a paragraph of jumbled words waiting for him. It read:
S-
What a day! Beat. Work good. Had Barney do some grocery shopping – see the food?! Don’t eat all the granola-la-la. Early call tomorrow and hoping to see Friday after work…don’t wait up…Toodles.
A.
They had developed a sort of short hand over the years of living together. It had started, actually, when they were still in college and living in their own places. They worked on a few scripts together back in sophomore and junior year and would leave little notes in the margins for each other when they were editing drafts.
Sean shook his head at the note and went immediately for the granola. They both loved the shit and ate a box or more a day sometimes. Sean liked his without raisins and this box was raisin-free. Good job, Barney, he thought.
He reached up in the cabinet next to the fridge and got the honey he had bought on the side of the road at the bottom of Mulholland Drive. It was really good. He drizzled a healthy amount on the top of his granola. It made a nice barrier between the milk and the cereal for the a few seconds.
A thought crossed his mind and he cursed himself, again, for not hitting up Rick for a bit of that Panama Red. That would have been really nice right now. He had some buds in the living room but after smoking with Rick earlier in the day, it would have just been a disappointment.
Sean put the milk in the fridge, replaced the honey and granola in the cabinet, and grabbed his midnight snack and headed towards his room. As he walked through the small foyer, he noticed there was an envelope by the front door. It looked as if someone had slid it under the door.
Being careful to balance just right to avoid spilling the milk, he bent over to grab the envelope. Sean was a bit of a neat freak and if he spilled the milk, he would have to go back to the kitchen to grab a paper towel and he didn’t want to do that. If he did this just right, he would save the cereal and get the envelope.
Grace was something Sean had been blessed with early on, so he executed the maneuver perfectly. The card was addressed to him. “Huh” he said out loud as he walked down the hall and into his room. He nudged the light switch with the side of his left arm and the ceiling light kicked on.
Sean set the granola on his nightstand and looked at the card again. The handwriting didn’t look familiar at all. He turned the card over to see if it was sealed and noticed a small smiley face written in the lower right corner of the card, although it wasn’t exactly a smile, It actually looked more like a grimace.
He opened the card and inside was a card with a red rose on the cover. He opened the card and in the same handwriting as the envelope it said:
Leave it alone, waiter.
*****
On February 15, 1990, I saw Prong, Soundgarden, and Voivod at the Americana Ballroom in Phoenix. This was a very interesting show, for sure, and I might even say that all the bands were firing on all cylinders at the time. I was there to see Soundgarden and Voivod. Prong was never a big draw for me, although I saw them a few times.
As previously mentioned, in 1989 I got Nirvana and Soundgarden mixed up and missed out on a chance to see Nirvana up close. When the Voivod/Soundgarden show came around, I wasn’t about to miss the chance. I was a little bit familiar with Voivod and liked what I had heard from them, but I was completely sold on Louder Than Love by Soundgarden. My interest in the band was cemented.
Two years later, I was there for Lollapalooza 1992 when the band was absolutely crushing the songs from Badmotorfinger live. As great as some of the other performances were that day, I was most impressed by how fucking heavy Soundgarden had become. They were great in 1990, but by 1992, they were something else completely.
While I will probably write about Louder Than Love another day, Badmotorfinger is the topic du jour. It quickly became my favorite Soundgarden record, mostly thanks to one song. Which one do you think it is?
Let’s dive in…
“Rusty Cage” is such a great opener. Kim Thayil’s guitar riff just sets the tone right off the bat. Chris Cornell had one of the best rock and roll voices ever and was also a helluva song writer. It breaks my heart to this day that he took his life, but that is not my story to tell. This particular song was all over MTV at the time, as well as the radio, and is sofa king commercial, but also heavy and great.
Ben Shepherd’s bass and Matt Cameron’s drums are spot on, too. You might remember them from my earlier piece about their side thing, Hater. Everybody in Soundgarden shines on “Rusty Cage” and the record is just getting started.
“Outshined” was a big hit, too. “I’m looking California and feeling Minnesota” is a line that just sums up the whole grunge phenomenon so well. I have to assume there was some sort of back story to the line, but if not, it’s still brilliant. It’s the quintessential drop D riff, too.
My all-time favorite Soundgarden songs and probably also in my top ten heavy songs of all-time is “Slaves & Bulldozers.” What really cemented it for me was seeing the band play it live at the aforementioned Lollapalooza. It was just huge and the wall of sound the band created swept my sober ass away. To this day, I get a little sonic buzz from it.
Part of me wonders if they knew that “Rusty Cage” and “Outshined” were going to be the big hits off this record and followed them up with “Slaves & Bulldozers” as a way to say, “Yes, we rule, but we’re also still completely bad ass.” It is just so fantastic. “Now I know why you’ve been shaking”??? C’mon…that’s so rad. Cornell just kills this song. “What’s in this for me?” Sing it man, sing it.
While the album goes down hill from there, it’s still damn good the rest of the way through. There are great moments throughout. “Jesus Christ Pose” is a powerhouse. There are some cool little riff-y things going on in the beginning and then, “boom.” Thayil doing his thing again making Jimmy Page proud with some killer Zeppelin-esque riffage then everybody locks in and builds it up into the first verse.
Having seen a lot of people over the years to do the “Jesus Christ Pose” on stage, this song just ruined for them all. As a fan of Shepherd’s song writing, I really like both “Face Pollution” and “Somewhere.” The guy really knows his way around a riff. “Face Pollution” brings the energy back to the record. Not that it was lacking at all, but just brings a different kind of almost manic attack to the song.
With “Somewhere,” Soundgarden allows Badmotorfinger to grow a little bit more with a middle song palate cleanser. “Somewhere” is another opportunity for Cornell to show off his impressive vocal range, but the song also has a jammy bridge/outro that allows the band to wind back down into the epic, “Searching With My Good Eye Closed.”
Over the years, I’ve read a lot of people’s writing who mention this one as their favorite Soundgarden and I can understand why it is. It’s got all the elements of a great Soundgarden song. There are excellent lyrical hooks, it’s heavy but melodic as hell in a Beatles’ kind of way, too. Almost as if Thayil was channeling George Harrison and Paul Leary’s love child for this one. It soars to some awesome heights in its six and a half minutes.
The band cranks it back up to heavy and serious on “Room a Thousand Years Wide.” This is a Matt Cameron song and the lyrics are by Thayil. It’s one of those take no prisoners kind of songs and reminds the listener that Soundgarden is, indeed, heavy. It’s also got some horns and sax going on, too. I guess they had to give that a try, but it sounds good.
“Mind Riot” is tuneful and full of Cornell’s usual twists and turns. I remember seeing the title the first time and thinking, “probably some bad metal” (thanks Quiet Riot), but it’s anything but. The way Badmotorfinger ends is pretty damn epic. I know I said that it was downhill after “Slaves & Bulldozers” but I didn’t mean that there wasn’t some great moments. “Mind Riot” is one of them.
“Drawing Flies” keeps things going really well, too. It’s got a nice rock and roll pace that makes you want to drive a muscle car really fast. It’s another Cameron song, so it could have easily been on the Hater record. “Holy Water” is all about the heavy groove. Shepherd’s bass sounds bad ass on this one. It’s almost like they took a bastard son (or daughter) of one of the first three songs on the album, slowed it down a bit, and fattened it up.
“New Damage” is the type of closing song that makes you hungry for the next record. It would be a few years before there would be Superunknown, but it wasn’t as if the band wasn’t working hard. They toured like mofos. “New Damage” is a good fucking song, too. Thayil throws it down, too.
Soundgarden couldn’t help but get more commercial after Badmotorfinger. They were fucking huge, Kurt Cobain was dead, and nobody could belt out a tune like Chris Cornell. I was sad to see some of their edge leave them, but they continued to make great music.
Just not for me.
*****
See you tomorrow.
Sean's not sleeping well tonight.
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