KROQ FM, STAR JONES, AND SISTERHOOD IS GLOBAL: A VERITABLE CORNUCOPIA OF TOPIC TONIGHT

Ok, nobody who is into this blog is also into my new wave 80's bullshit, I know, or my obsession with KROQ radio from Pasadena, but since this is my space, I don't care - today I had the frigging brainwave, after almost 10 years on the internet, to see if KROQ was broadcast live. You see, since I was like 13, I've been dying to get KROQ. They were one of the most influential and cool radio stations in America back in the day, and they played all my kind of music. How I ever heard of KROQ, I dunno, because it's odd for a 13 year old in Saskatchewan to actually know about some L.A. area radio station, but I wasn't exactly the most normal kid. Anyway, as I've also said, I used to be addicted to reading Billboard, and I would get so excited because they used to report what new songs KROQ would add each week, and their top 10, and I'd see all this new wave and cool stuff on there and wish I was out in L.A., where I would be with people who understood me instead of being miserable in the sticks. Of course, I had this notion that life in the Valley was just like Valley Girl, with cool music and spiked hair and all this new wave thing, and even though it wasn't probably true in the slightest, it was Mecca to me. LOL, I wanted to cruise the valley, listening to my music on KROQ, going for coffee to DuPars... good grief I was a loser. But just to find a radio station that played X, my fave punk band, and the Cure, my heros, and even my beloved funk, like Grandmaster Flash, well, it was the cat's ass to me. So anyway, as I said, it isn't online, but I found so many KROQ worship sites by other weirdos like me. SO, what's got me all hot and bothered is that I found a site with the listener's top 100 for each year of the 80s - KROQ was famous for their New Years Eve top 100 listeners countdown, and it's all fucking the cat's ass. So I found this site, http://earlhoward.com/kroq.htm that lists all of their countdowns for each year from 1980-1990. Wait, it gets better - I have also found an online website at live365.com that only plays songs from the top 100 lists for that era. So I am in hog heaven today - listened all afternoon at work and right now. Curently, I am listening to the godawful "Mickey" by Toni Basil (but I can handle the song if I pretend I am cruising in the Valley in 1982), which was the number 15 song in 1982 on their listener poll, just finished listening to Morrisey's "Ouija Board, Ouija Board", which was number 42 in 1990, and now, OMG, "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush, number 37 of 1985. I SO FRIGGING LOVE THIS SONG. The video used to be my alltime favorite video. Did you know Kate produced her own music?
So, nobody gives a shit about this I know, but I do, so boo hoo. That's the beauty of blogs - I can ramble about all this stuff that I can't talk to anyone about because they don't share my passion for it, and I don't have to worry about boring anyone, because you can just skip it - I feel so liberated! (lol, I am such a nutbag, aren't I?)
Anyway, enough of the music stuff. I am so glad it's the weekend. I so love my job, do you all know that? I am scared that this term position will just be a term because I don't know the status of funding for my job beyond July, so if I have to go back to the old job, it would truly suck, but I don't want to think about it - just think good thoughts that this one will turn permanent. So I love my work, and I don't regret a thing. Rachel is done work now, as of today, so that is so awesome. She is done for a whole year! Keryn is so excited! It was so emotional though when we picked the kids up from my sister's today because she's sad she won't be babysitting anymore, and Rachel was thinking on the way there how glad she was we didn't have to put the kids in a daycare, so she started crying when she was thanking my sister, and they are crying and I am just looking at the floor trying to hold it together. So the kids get a year with mommy now! It's so nice to have her home. Keryn BEGGED to go to Bonanza when we were leaving my sister's, so we took her and I pigged out after being so good, so I feel all guilty, but no biggie, tomorrow's another day.
OMG "Heartbreak Beat" by the Psychedelic Furs is on now (#49 of 86). I love this song so much - it reminds me of partying in Edmonton as a teenager, dancing in my friend's livingroom, in their penthouse apartment overlooking the river, watching the night glittering. Joyous times, and joyous memories and music has been such a big part of all of them.
Keryn wanted us to buy diapers for the baby tonight, so we went and got diapers and baby lotion and Ivory Snow and it's so excited for her this baby business.
Ok, let me interupt - the lyrics "There's a heartbreak beat, and it feels like love... I've got the radio on, and it's all that we need....." really just sum it all up, doesn't it? LOL, why do I supsect I am the only one who's heart gets all fluttery like some nutbag when they hear that song?
So, tell me, am I the only one who really sorta preferred the fat version of Star Jones? I mean, she looks so damn healthy now, and she really looks remarkably thin and good for her. But whereas I thought she was sort of pretty before, now I think she just looks, well, as my wife would say, she wasn't hit with the pretty stick. Make no mistake, glad she's thin and healthy, but sister's just got a froggish face, like a male Randy Jackson. Hey, did you all see Janet Jackson put weight back on? It's actually good to see - as soon as the Jackson family members lose weight, they turn all squirrelly and then they just turn retarded.
Has anyone watched any of the new shows this year? We only catch Amazing Race, Survivor, and the Apprentice. I was going to watch that frigging Doogie Howser show, whatever it's called, but I dunno, I just don't have time for a new show. Everything looks so damn stupid. Oh man, I sound so old. I sound like Mrs. Crabappel when she said "I can't go to the library anymore - everyone stinks!"
Hey, read in the paper yesterday that the congress of movie something or other has said they will stop producing vhs tapes this year, so the vcr is going the way of the dodo. How in the hell will we tape anything? Fucking cd-rs get too frigging scratched up, so I can't imagine. We need to protest, to revolt in the street. We are mad as hell and we will not take it anymore, damnit!
Hey, did I ever tell you about how we were in this bookstore with Margo one time and they had this frigging 4 million paged tome called "Sisterhood is Global" and she said "that's the kind of book I'd like to read, sitting in the park" and then she started shaking the book saying "sisterhood is global!" and said "I will shout it from the rooftops" and I don't know why, but we thought it was the funniest thing since Burns and Allen, and so Sisterhood is global has been our catchphrase forever. LOL, that was the time she took us to the gay bars in Calgary, of which there were like 2 or something, and there was this spooky fucking woman person in the one that gave us the willies.
Well I am just free associating tonight, aren't I? I guess I should get to bed because I want to read. So I will sign off now. Now I leave you to sit, brokenhearted....
Have a great weekend everyone. Find your inner Siouxie Sioux of Siouxie and the Banshees and KROQ out my good peoples.
xo
JT

Random Babbles about whatever

Happy Sunday peeps. As usual, I should be in bed, but I am waiting for the dryer to finish, so here I sit. So today I begin the diet again, after being bad for like a month or 6 weeks or something, I can't even remember. I refuse to weigh myself, because that will just make me panic. I must have gained, I dunno, almost 10 lbs back I would think? Who the hell knows, maybe it's only 5, but I just know that I still fit all my clothes, but there aren't as flattering as they were at the end of August. So, I am back on board, baby. I just keep thinking it's not for me, but the kids, because I don't want to drop dead on them. Yes, I sound dramatic, but really, it's a big fear of mine, so I resolve to stay the course. I am such a boredom eater - well, who are we kidding, I eat when I am happy, sad, lonely, nervous, content, tired, hyper, you name it - but when I am bored I just want to nosh. So right now, when I am tired and blah, I keep thinking chocolate something or other would be the cat's ass...
But anyway, I am motivated again, so just shame me into staying with it.
So I don't have a whole lot of anything to say. Today we worked like dogs in the house and then Rachel took Keryn for a little excursion to Zellers, so I took Kim and went grocery shopping and for coffee with my family. It was so much fun to have that one on one time with the kids for us. But alas, the frigging weekend went by too damn fast. I just don't feel like doing sweet bugger all tomorrow.
Anyway, I am too frigging tired right now to even type, so I will just end this boring entry before I ramble on about nothing. Full moon tomorrow. Fuck, I dread them, because it's true, everything and everyone just goes wonky and crazy. Just watch and you will see - people are crabby and testy and it's always the day before and a couple days after until things get to normal. LOL, I sound like I should be some tripped-out hippy named Lance or something, and smoking a big fatty.
Hey, "Human" by Human League is on right now, and now I am thinking, that song was written by someone strange. I am too lazy to google it right now, but someone odd wrote it - Babyface or Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis or someone you wouldn't think would have written it. I really loved the Human League in the 80s (surprise surprise). "Fascination" is just the most contagious damn song. Today I was listening to James Taylor - the dvd "Pull Over". I never talk about old James, but I am also James fanatic. Not life-changing fanatic like Joni and Stevie, but a fanatic nonetheless. I own almost every album, and we even gave Kim the middle name Taylor after him. When Keryn was born, I used to put her to sleep by rocking her and playing and singing a couple certain songs, like Joni's "Little Green" and "Willie", Elton's "Levon" and James's "Only One". Well, she ended up just loving that song, and the entire "That's Why I'm Here" album, and when she was one year old, we drove out to Vancouver for a conference I was presenting at, and that's how we kept her content all the way - the album, and "Only One" specifically. If she'd fuss, we'd put the cd on, and if she'd really cry, we'd play the song over and over, and boom, she'd be sleeping in no time. Then when she got a little older, she'd sing it a bit and we'd have to dance. I haven't played James forever, so she actually sorta forgot the song, but we danced today to it and she grinned so much I swear she got flashbacks. Anyway, James's "Sweet Baby James" always makes me weepy. Sometimes I think I am a fucking nutbar, I really do. When Kim was born, I used to listen to a bootleg I have of James and Joni singing "You Can Close Your Eyes" and we made that song Kim's song, so JT is always with me. I named my blog self after him - that's where the JT comes from.
"Home Sweet Home" by Motley Crue is on right now. It always reminds me of Margo, because she frigging loved that song in grade 10. I couldn't stand it, or the entire album, back then. I will admit to owning "SHout at the Devil" back then, but I couldn't stand Theatre of Pain, because, well, I was more into new wave and funk. Grade 10 was my obsession with Severed Heads, Simple Minds, the Alarm, and Ready for the World..... lol, "Oh Sheila" was the bomb!
Margo used to always sing "Smoking in the boys Room" at the top of her lungs, and she's always say "FUCK with your rules!" instead.... lol, ah, God love her. I haven't heard from her for ages. I don't know what the hell is happening in her world. Margo, drop me an email.
Hey, anyone remember Nu SHooz? They sang "I Can't Wait." Damn, they were good. ANd you know who else I love and still listen to? Quarterflash. I wonder where they are and if they are still married, Jack and RIndy Ross.
Well, that was some musical verbal dia.. dia... oh fuck I can't ever spell it.... the shits!
So tell me peoples, one more random question before I go: Wherever you lived in the 70s, did you hear the urban legend about the chick chewing Bubbleicious gum and having all the spiders crawling out of her mouth? Where the hell did that one ever come from? We lived in fear of that gum in B.C., and it was the same story here too.
And one more - did you all live in fear of acid rain burning you when it was a big thing in the 70s? I remember on Different Strokes and Kimberley washed her hair with rain water and it was acid rain and turned it green and then I was scared of getting caught in acid rain.
Margo and I also both had fears of quicksand too, and of somehow being caught in it.... too much Gilligan's Island for us I guess!
Oooh, Little Lady is looking shifty, and she ain't gonna drop a turd in the house before bed if I can help it. I am going to head to bed and read my depressing book. Have a nice day y'all.
xo
JT

Smokin at the Grey Goose

So Roxanne mentioned that she hated Nickelback, and that's so funny because I can't stand them either. They are just Creed without the religion. They are also from Hanna Alberta, which is the armpit of the prairies in my opinion. We stayed there for a few days in 2000, when Rachel's family had a family reunion there. Why Hanna, I don't know, but we went, and while the hotel we stayed in was dirt cheap (I think under 40 bucks a night - the Grey Goose Inn), it was like being stuck in some hillbilly time warp. Everyone smoked, and while I was still quite the smoker then, it was unnerving to have the people at the front desk wait on you while smoking or to have the maids smoking while they pushed their carts down the hall - I ain't kidding. Anyway, the whole place gave me this freaked out, backwater vibe. It was like Deliverence without the banjo and rape. But you know what's funny? I totally love the new Nickelback song, and the video with shots of Hanna in it is cool too. I really like it. It's really too bad that bands from the prairies usually just annoy me - sorry Rox, but Wide Mouth Mason ain't my thing, the Northern Pikes were ok but just not quite good enough, and the Waltons just disappeared. Of course, there is my sweet Joan, and Jann, but bands, well, just aren't that good.
Hey, anyone else in love with "Santa Monica" too?
I was listening to the 80s music thingy, you know, the commerical free radio shit on digital cable, today, and now I can't get Grace Jones's "Love is the Drug" out of my head. I used to think she was so frigging cool, but really, she's quite frightening, isn't she?
So I am just rambling, I realize, but I am writing from the comfort of my bed. I should be sleeping but I just realized that I don't know if the frigging cat is in, so now I have to haul my ass all over the house looking for her....
Anyway, I am reading Ann Rule's "Small Sacrifices" again, but it's the first time I have reread it since I've had kids, so I just can't stand it. I've got so many books on the go I can't believe it.
Well, we bit the bullet today and bought bunk beds for the kids. Spent way more than we thought, but these are good ones, and the bottom is a double, so we can still lay with them if need be. They don't arrive for 2 weeks though, so Keryn is going bananas with anticipation. I saw some awesome leather furniture I want for our living room, but it's like 3000 smackaroos, with is 3000 smackaroos more than I have, so that ain't going to happen. In theory, we don't need new furniture since we bought the current living room stuff probably 5 yrs ago, but holy doodle, is it crap - trust me, if you buy new furniture, look underneath to see how sturdy it is.
Oh man I feel so bad for Rachel baby - she is so pregnant now, and moving so slow. She doesn't believe me, but she's just so damn hot when she's pregnant. No, I don't have a pregnancy fetish, but there is just something about her when she's pregnant that is just.... I don't know how to describe it, so nevermind.
Ok, I think my battery is going to konk out, so I better log off, find the cat, and get to sleep.
Have a sunny Sunday, peeps,
xo
JT

Ho Hum and Whatever

Good Evenink Dahlinks, how the hell are ye? It's 11 o'clock again and I should be in bed, but somehow the effort to get myself into said bed just seems like too much for me at the moment - the epitome of laziness. Anyway, just checking in. TGIF tomorrow. Even though it was a short week with the long weekend and all, I am counting down. My poor Rachel has one more week of work left, and I dunno if she'll make it. She's 35 weeks pregnant today, so 5 weeks left. She's really starting to feel it now, and of course, I don't make things any easier for the poor girl. So she's had a headache since yesterday on and off, sorta migrainey and whatever, and she's been stuffed up like crazy so I was telling her she has to go to the Dr. tomorrow, and then tonight, I say the stupidest fucking thing ever... lol, it's just typical of me. I say to her that she has to stay home tomorrow and go to the Dr. and she said "yeah, maybe I have a sinus infection" and then what pops out of my mouth you ask? LOL, I can't believe this myself - I say "yeah, you need to go to make sure you aren't having a stroke or anything." Now, where the hell that came from, I have no idea, but she looks at me and yelled "what kind of thing is that to say - now I will be worrying I am having a stroke" and I am sitting there thinking "where in the hell did that come from?" Sometimes, I just don't even get myself.... so now I feel like a shmuck - note to self - just shut the fuck up sometimes. So, I owe her a foot rub or something. Again, it proves my point that men are just, well, stupid.
So anyway, my poor babe has another week of work left, and then she'll hopefully be able to relax before the big event. Man, there is no way I could be pregnant, because I am too much of a wussy. Case in point: the pushy fucking dentist's office called me a couple weeks ago wanting me to finally get my permanent crowns done on my two root canals. One is 5 years old, and the other is 2. Well, they want to do them both at once, so both sides would be frozen, and I made the appointment and was supposed to get them done tomorrow but I cancelled last night. I just can't do it. The dentist is my worst panic attack inducing fear - flying and the dentist. Well, I can sit through a cleaning, and even a small filling now, but three fucking hours in the chair? No way Jose - I got 12 ativan from the dr. for the dentist this summer, but I need something stronger - besides gas, what will make me all relaxed and funky? Anyone tried Valium? Can I score some good shit from the dentist? Lemme know.
So I wimped out of that one yet again. I'll do it someday. This weekend, I just want to relax. We worked like dogs last weekend doing yardwork and such, so I am looking forward to some down time. I've been eating like a son of a bitch lately, so I have to get back to the diet tomorrow because I am not going to be a big fat fucker again - I can't let that happen, although I am scared to weigh in.
LOL, wow, this is sure an upbeat post, isn't it? Wait, let me make it even better. We got this library book the other night, and it made me bawl like a little girl. It's called "When you Were Born" and it's the most touching thing, so I ordered a copy from Amazon.ca, but I have this strange feeling Amazon in Canada is shitty. I don't know if someone told me that or what, but now that I placed the order, I think it might be true. It will take like a month to ship the book, when I found it ships in 24 hrs from Chapters. However, I also ordered myself a book, the Billboard Hot 100 in the 1980's, which is a reproduction of every weekly Hot 100 chart of the 80s, and while most normal people would think "what kind of moron would want that", it is making me piss myself just thinking about it. Another oddity of mine as a youth was an obsession with the music charts, and so I used to read Billboard faithfully as a 13-16 year old, and would be obsessed with them, and so I am dying to get my hands on this book. It's unavailable from bn.com and chapters, but Amazon said they had it, so I went with them. I hope I ain't disappointed with Amazon. Oh hells bells, I am rambling.
Oh, and my other sad story is I discovered that there was a Stevie Nicks Storytellers a few years ago, so I found the transcript online and relived this story I forgot, about how she wrote the song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" She was on tour with Joe Walsh, and she was bitching about something and going on about it, and they were in Denver and Joe said he wanted her to come with him. So they rented a jeep and he drove her to Boulder where he was from, and he was telling her about his daughter who was killed in a car accident on the way to preschool - oh fuck, it bothers me to even type this, I am going to blubber again - and something about how he used to take her to this park where she could never reach the water fountain. Well, he takes Stevie to this park and there it is - a small little fountain with a plaque that says something like "for Emma Kristen and all the others who are too small to reach the fountain" or something like that, and then Stevie freaks out because she was all upset about trivial shit, and he did this in his daughter's memory, and that story just makes me cry again like a baby. There's something about having kids that just changes you - I cry so much now, and before I had kids, I was a very controlled, bottled up person. Hells bells, Keryn is going to Kinderdance, and you know how shy she is. Well, she loves it (and her cousin goes with her, so she is comfortable) and this week, I am watching them from the hall and they are putting their feet together and bending their knees to make a diamond, and the teacher says "good diamond Keryn" and it has made her week. She was beaming, and as soon as we were done she told me the story of how the teacher said this, and then she made me tell her aunty and her mom, and on and on, and I was just bursting. She also goes to storytime at the library and she loves it so much too that it just makes me all mushy to watch her. And then there is little Kim, who has turned into a little daddy's girl, so let's just say I am a very fortunate and lucky man. Oh God, I am fucking sickening tonight, aren't I?
So Little Lady is doing well, but still shits all over the frigging place. Maybe it has something to do with all the food she eats - go figure! She's a fatty, that's for sure.
Well, I just drank like a litre of water before bed, so guess who will be pissing all night? Too much info? Too damn bad, it's my blog.
Oh, I am so glad the weekend is coming - did I ever blog that I also do a night janitorial job? I've done it on and off for years. We clean a large office, and I did it during summers in university and then gave it to my dad when he was retired and we still do it. We fucking HATE doing it, but it's to pay off my student loans - I still owe - I don't even want to say how much, but you could buy a frigging nice SUV with what my loan is still sitting at, and I have another SIX FRIGGING YEARS of paying on it. So anyway, my loan payments add up to 600 buckeroos a month, and coinky-dinkilly, the janitorial job pays 600 buckeroos, so there is my loan payment, but they don't take income tax off of the cheque, so I get dung big fucking time at tax time. Rachell REALLY hates doing it, but what can you do. We usually take the kids - it's Monday to Thursday, and we do it so quick, it usually isn't longer than 1/2 hour or so, but there is nothing you will dread more when you are done dinner and finished the dishes and playing with the kids than heading out in the dark of night to go empty garbage cans and clean toilets... you know, warn your children, student loans ain't worth it. If I could do it over, I'd be tempted to be a plumber or something. Actually, in 3 years, when our mortgage comes up, we'll remortgage and pay them off, but OMG, 3 kids, a dog, a cat, and each other to look after, and working two jobs - it builds character!
LOLOL oh man, this whole post has been a long winded pity party. Good grief, I will go to bed now. I hope y'all have a great day tomorrow and I'll blog on the weekend all peppy and fresh.
xo
JT

Oodles of Onions, Sitting in my Sock Drawer

Well I should be in bed and not posting, as I am tired, but just dropping a line whilst all is quiet on the western front. Finally got the kids to sleep. Keryn fell asleep on the couch, and read books to Kim until she crashed, and then Rachel came in and proceeded to doze too, so here I am. Just went to put my jeans in the dryer and, lo and behold, I did it again - I washed a fucking Pull-Up. For any of you who are not acquainted with laundering Pampers and Pull-Ups, when they rip open, they spill this beaded gel shit all over the fucking place, as well as bits of plastic and stuff - let's just say it's a mess, and I've done this countless times. How, you ask? Well, because I am a moron, that's how. So, I am waiting for my load to wash again so I can actually have jeans to wear tomorrow. Anyway, enough complaining.
So the big news around town today is that Weyerhauser is closing their pulp and paper mills here. That's 700 jobs gone - and holy shit, the town is panicking and freaking out. I heard it might be the biggest job loss in the province's history. Let's just say there must be a bunch of people getting drunk tonight. And I mean, you were on easy street working there, so tell me where are these people going to find jobs that pay as well? We were friends with some Americans here who were with the company - he was a big-wig in charge of HR or something, and they suddenly moved back to the states this summer - now I know why..... Anyway, it's like a bad episode of Rosanne around town today.
Ok, so I have nothing to really say - today I took Keryn to her Kinderdance class, and it was the first one, and she loved it, so that's good. We had Kim's "Time for Two's" at the library tonight, which was hilarious, because it is like 15 two year olds and their parent, trying to sing and listen to stories and whatever, and the poor librarian woman was all frazzled. Anyway, the funny thing was this: There was this woman with a funny voice there, and her child (I say it's a boy, Rachel says it's a girl) was named "Allero" and we get there and sit on the floor, and I think I keep hearing this frog voice saying "HELLO - HELLO" and I am like wtf, thinking it was some kind of flashback or the voices in my head are finally escaping or some such thing, and I keep hearing it, and then I realize it's this person saying "Allero"! You had to be there... it was funny.
Oh, and then yesterday, I am so mortified that I did this. I have this accent thing now, where I just take it on. For example, my southern Weyerhauser friend, Lynn, has this southern accent. WELL.... last year, I was walking with Sharon and we saw Lynn and she said hello to me and I guess, according to Sharon, I put my hand on my hip and exclaimed "Well, HIIIIII LYNN!" in the biggest southern drawl. So I never lived that down. Then yesterday, I met this German lady named Claudia. Well, I have spoken to her before quite a bit but this is the first time we met, and she said "Hi, I'm CLOWDYA" as she pronounced it, and so I just boomed out in my loudest voice "CLOWDEYA! NICE TO MEET YOU" and I am thinking "it's just Claudia you moron." Again, you had to be there.
Hey, what's this Rosie contest? Not open to Canucks?? Who knows the scoop on that poop?
Speaking of poop, I have had the worst gas lately.... I am scared to frigging move... yes, too much information, but it must be said.
Ok, one last nugget to leave you with - I was reading the Joni discussion list today, and someone posted a thread about things you horde. This person said "I horde onions" and went on about how they always buy onions and have tons on hand. That, folks, is the strangest sentence I have ever seen - "I horde onions". Try and use that one in daily life. What the fuck... I horde onions....
Hey, anyone else call asses onions? I always use the "that onion is so sweet it brought tears to my eyes" line, and people honestly seen to have no frigging clue what in the hell I am talking about.
Well, I gotta go and horde me some onions or something.
xo
JT