On Location in Maine

I am on vacation, 'bout damn time, been since the beginning of March since I had my last and have only been off for 1 day in the meantime. So, it's time to relax and do nothing for a while, forget about all the other BS and kick back. Weather was good yesterday, but looks like the week  might not be so great, which kinda sucks, but whatever still beats working. Gonna take in a Sea Dogs game on Thursday, that should be good, Hadlock field is a great place to watch a game and I look forward to getting a Sea Dog Biscuit, which for the uneducated is basically a Chipwich, although I grew up knowing them as Hoodwiches, but whatever you want to call them, they are probably my 2nd favorite Ice Cream novelty, with the first of course being the old WWF Ice Cream Bars, which I have covered here on the Blog before, although Drumsticks, especially the chocolate ones are up there also. Anyway, lets get to the randomness

Red Sox made a move, I know it was a week ago, but haven't posted since then. They got Erik Bedard, not terrible, would be better if the big reason for the move was because Buchholz may not return this year because of his back issues. He had a decent first start, he's still just coming off the DL, so he's not 100% yet, but he pitched well, if the bullpen hadn't sucked, and the offense had been better, could have been good enough for a W. Bullpen also blew it on Monday night, specifically Bard, only bring this up, cause I was at the game, and totally randomly was in the same row as some people I know, what are the odds of that, also given that fact that these same people randomly also have season tickets in the same section as me for the Bruins, what the hell?

So, this is random, but today on TV, both She's The Man and Just One of the Guys was on, pretty sure there are only a couple people who will understand why the was significant, and who knows if they are even reading this, but there it is. Now, I didn't actually watch either of them, but just happened to notice they were both on. Well, I know I sorta mentioned this in the blog before, but She's The Man, basically the same story as Just One Of The Guys, although apparently She's The Man is based on William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, but whatever, you be the judge:

Well, I guess She's the Man does have David Cross in it, plus the dude that plays the teacher in The Killing, but  Just One Of The Guys has William Zabka aka Johnny Lawrence, although he isn't really featured at all in the trailer which is weird considering they do mention The Karate Kid, plus apparently has it's own theme music, which is always a plus.

Was watching Stand By Me earlier, which actually brought up an interesting question here, cause it came out in 1986, one year after The Goonies, both of which by the way star Corey Feldman, but here's my point, both are set in Oregon, which is interesting, originally the Goonies had a scene where they all get covered in leeches, but it was cut out of the script, but Stand By Me features a scene where they get covered in leeches. Also The Goonies has the scene where Chunk is telling them the story about how he got fake vomit and then make everyone throw up at the movie theater, which am I wrong, seems very similar to the pie eating contest scene.

Kinda weird with these coincidences, no? The thing that makes the whole Oregon this even stranger, is cause the original story was set in Maine, Stephen King, so obviously, so why move it to Oregon, just cause they filmed it there? Which also brings up another good point, cause The Goonies was filmed in Oregon too, as it was set there, so Corey Feldman spent a lot of time in Oregon, wonder if he's still welcome there. River Phoenix did deliver a great line at the end when he said to Wil Wheaton after he says "See ya" and he says "Not If I see you first" but then he died, not just his character, but him too, his character died in a much more respectable way then he did, but whatever it happens. Speaking of dying..

So, Amy Winehouse died a couple weeks ago, and while it wasn't what I would call a shocker given her history, there is something interesting that came of her death, and this will probably be debated for a long time. She was 27 when she died, and she has now been put into the 27 Club. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the 27 Club, it is a group of musicians who all died at the age of 27, here is the list:
Robert Johnson who was a Blues musician and died in the 1930s, don't really know too much about him, but I guess he was the original member of the club, but im reality, the next 4 are what really got this whole thing going.
In 1969 the founding member of the Rolling Stone Brian Jones died after he "left" the band, but in reality was kicked out cause of him being unable to perform due to his drug use, on July 3rd, he drowned in his swimming pool, probably cause he was messed up at the time, but whatever, wouldn't be the last founding member of a huge popular band for that time period to drown, Dennis Wilson ring a bell, although he was not 27, not not the point, moving on.
A little over a year later on September 18, 1970 Jimi Hendrix, and I don't think I need to explain who he is, died after a night of partying and taken some sleeping pills, and choking on his own vomit, he was 27, then less then a month later on October 4th, Janis Joplin died of a suspected Heroin overdose, she was 27.
Then to bring it all back full circle on July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison died, of what was called Heart Failure, there was never an autopsy, he was found in the bathtub of his Paris Hotel, so something tells me drugs or alcohol or something was involved. So there you go, even if you don't could Robert Johnson, that's 4 major rock stars dying at the age of 27 in the span of 2 years, pretty crazy, but then,
Almost 23 years later, Kurt Cobain killed himself, as I have previously discussed on the blog, at the age of 27. So, now 17 plus years after that now Amy Winehouse is dead at the age of 27, now to me, she doesn't really fit into this group, and that's in no way meant to be disrespectful in anyway, cause there have been many other artists that have also died at the age of 27, but weren't put in the 27 Club, but whatever, I guess that's just like my opinion man.

Alright, so last time out I talked about MTV's turning 30, which happened last Monday, and I was doing a countdown to it, kinda fell off the pace, but whatever, gonna keep going until the 20th year, cause that was about the time I stopped paying attention to MTV, especially in terms of music anyway. So last time out I discussed 1998, but I definitely rushed it a bit an missed a few things, a couple I did on purpose, and I'll explain later, but there were a couple that I shouldn't have missed at all, and so I'm gonna go back before I go forward. 1998 saw the return of the Beastie Boys, and they had a new DJ with Mixmaster Mike, and were getting all intergalatic on us:

The next song that I can't believe that I left of, was actually featured on the Godzilla soundtrack, and no I'm not talking about Puff Daddy doing some crap version of a crap Led Zeppelin song, man did that song suck, not only so I not like Puff Daddy, but I don't like Led Zeppelin, so, put them together, absolute crap. No, the song I was talking about was from Rage Against The Machine, and it's interesting that this was included on the soundtrack, given the song is pretty much just ripping the media, conglomerates and movies and stuff, even making fun of Godzilla in the song, but whatever, typical label, since the soundtrack was on Epic records, which was RATM's label, they probably made them do it, so they decided what the hell, lets make fun of the movie and see if it still gets on, and it did, and they made a video:

Also in 1998, which, I really can't believe I left this out, Pearl Jam released a new album: Yield and holy crap, they actually made a Music Video for the song Do The Evolution, and actually released it in the United States and on MTV, the last video they made was for Oceans back in 1992, but they never released it in the US or on MTV, so the last video before this one was for Jeremy, but if should be noted, that even though they did make this video, they weren't exactly in it:

Ok, so these next few artists, they may have had their stuff initially come out towards the end of 1998, it wasn't until 1999, that they really got popular. First off, this next guy, much like Rob Zombie did in 1998, broke away from his group, in this case House Of Pain and released a solo album, but interestingly enough, was not his first solo album, before he joined House of Pain, Everlast actually had a solo album back in 1990 called Forever Everlasting, but it didn't do very well, then he joined up with some guys to form House of Pain, but House of Pain had ran it's course, and he was looking to do something new, but then crazily while doing it, had a heart attack, but he recovered and had a huge hit with What It's Like:

Another guy, who had a similar situation, well, minus the House of Pain thing, was this next guy, Kid Rock, who actually had a major label album back in 1990, but it didn't have any success, then after having some indie albums, was back on a major label in 1998, and after having a little success with his first couple singles, he DJed the 1998-1999 New Years Eve party for MTV, and right after that blew up with this song:

He would go on to have much success after this especially with the TRL crowd, and speaking of which, at the very end on 1998, this next artist made her debut and would be a staple of MTV and TRL for years and years and still now, in fact she'll be performing at the TD Bank Garden tomorrow night:

Then as 1999 kicked off, this next individual would make his mark on the music world, including MTV and the TRL crowd and much like Britney Spears, would be around for years to come, and is still around:

Of course, this whole thing was pretty confusing, here's this new guy named Eminem with his first song called My Name Is, and the whole time the song tells us his name is Slim Shady, um, what the hell man, which is it? When the album came out it was at least called the Slim Shady LP, so for people who didn't understand what his name actually was, if they saw that, at least it was easy for them to find I guess.

1999 saw an influx of a lot of pop crap, thanks alot in part to the boy band craze, but also, Britney Spears opened the doors for other young pop stars, such as Christina Aguilera:

Nashua, New Hampshire's own Mandy Moore:

and the women who is currently engaged to Needham, Massachusetts own Eric Johnson, and yes, I did go to school with him, he was a Senior when I was a freshman, but whatever, anyway Jessica Simpson:

Now, rock music would pretty much pick up in 1999 where it left off in 1998, Korn did make a pretty sweet vudeo for Freak on a Leash though:

Now, if you are thinking to yourself, hey, that animation looks kinda familiar, well, that's cause the same guy that did that video did the Pearl Jam video, so there you go. In addition to Korn continuing to do what they do, Limp Bizkit was continuing to suck, with a new album worth of crap, and this song:

Now, while Fred Durst was busy putting out terrible music, he was searching for new talent to sign to his label and in 1999, he found a good one out of Springfield, Massachusetts, in the way of Staind, who would break out that year and had a big hit with Mudshovel:

Staind was one of the new bands that came out in 1999, which started pioneering the new genre known as Nu-Metal, and while Korn may have been considered the first, they were busy at this time along with Limp Bizkit focusing more on hip hopish, rap rock stuff, but other bands like Staind and this next band would bring this genre to the forefront over the next few years, and System of a Down had a big hit in 1999 with Sugar:

Red Hot Chili Peppers were back in 1999 with John Frusciante and a new album called Californication and had a big hit with Scar Tissue:

Now, while I already mentioned this band earlier cause I forgot to mention their big hit from 1998, Rage Against the Machine release a new album in 1999 and had one of their biggest hits with Guerrilla Radio:

Metallica was trying to get crazy and decided to do a couple concerts with a orchestra and put out a album which featured a new song No Leaf Clover:

Now, in 1999, Jack Black was not really known yet, he was an actor who had done bit roles here and there in a bunch of different movies, but had yet to have his big break out, which would come in 2000, but in addition to movies, Jack Black was also doing music with his buddy Kyle Gass, in a group called Tenacious D, which at this time, noone had really heard of either, but somehow he was buddies with some musicians and ended up in music videos, and 2 of them came out in 1999, first of all Beck had an odd video for his song Sexx Laws:

Then the Foo Fighters, still with the apparently endless battle against Foo, made a video for their song Learn to Fly:

I would be remissed if I didn't mention a huge infamous event in the music world in 1999, and that was Woodstock, for the 30th anniversary, they decided to do another concert, similar to what they did in 1994 for the 25th, but while, other then some rain and mud, the 1994 one went off without much of a hitch, which made it seem like another one wouldn't be a bad idea, for whatever reason things didn't work out so great at the 1999 one, there was riots, fires, lots of people got sick or injured, or beaten or raped or robbed, just lots of bad stuff going on. The angry aggressive nature of some of the music, such as Limp Bizkit, Korn, Rage, etc got a big part of the blame for what happened, although there were a bunch of the same bands that were at the one in 1994 and there were no issues, so who knows what the real problem was, they haven't had one since, but it seems like there are always big music festivals that are happening all throughout the summer, and there usually aren't many problems. While the 40th anniversary came and went without anything, I have a hard idea believing that they won't try it again for the 50th, but that is still 8 years away, but hopefully if they do decide to do it, they are better prepared and get things in order.

Finally, 1999 saw the debut of a certain individual on MTV, and at the time it seemed pretty funny, but it got old quick, and while this individual did everything he could to jump on his success, pretty sure he ran his course and is gone, but his initial show was pretty good:

Yeah, maybe he was just annoying to begin with, I don't know. Have a good one folks