Three Weekend Thoughts

Had a nice long weekend that wasn’t long enough. The following thoughts occurred to me (I had more thoughts than these, but these are the only ones I care to share for now):

-Went to a pool. For the first time in my life, I stayed in the pool during adult swim. It wasn’t the moment of triumph that I thought it would be when I was younger. Still, it was pretty fun to stay in the pool while all the little kids had to get out.

Saw two movies. I’ll write more on one of them (X3, or whatever they’re calling it) later. But I do have two questions about trailers I saw:

-This is the second time I’ve seen the trailer for Snakes on a Plane. Both times the audience laughed hysterically. Is this movie supposed to be intentionally funny?

-Also saw the trailer for Nacho Libre. I do plan on seeing this one. But doesn’t the title translate into “Free Chips”? Are they giving out free chips at every screening? If so, this could be the greatest marketing campaign ever.

King Tom

Double the 24, Double the fun

One of the biggest things I like about the back-to-back-etc. nature of the last two seasons of 24 are the two-hour season finale weeks.

Of course, with the idiots in the scheduling department over at ABC putting the last episode of Alias on right up against the 24 season-ender, my two hours of 24 were punctuated with two hours of Alias. I’m just glad I have multiple ways to tape shows.

Continue reading “Double the 24, Double the fun” →

King Tom

Muchas gracias, El Matador!

Ever notice how sometimes life imitates Seinfeld?

Just like George belatedly came up with a witty retort to a co-worker’s zing, I now have a comeback to all those kids who, in elementary school, told me that their dad could beat up my dad. Not that that actually happened. In fact, I don’t think I was ever told that. But now, at least, if someone were to say to me that their dad could beat up my dad, I could say in response, “well, yeah, but my dad knows someone who is good friends with Tito Santana.”

The Civee and I went out to Jersey this past weekend for a friend’s wedding. We stayed one night at my father’s house, and he had some gifts for us. One of the things that King Classic gave me is this:

Dedicatoria de Tito Santana

The writing reads “To Thomas, From Tito Santana. Arriba!”

I don’t know what’s the best part about this story- that my father knows someone who’s friends with Tito Santana, or that Tito wrote Arriba! as part of the autograph.

Of course, if this is just something made up like that time when I was seven and my uncle said his cop friend was using KITT for the weekend (my uncle was hiding in the back seat as the car talked to me), I’ll be scarred for life.

Either way, this is now a prized item in my collection of stuff. Possibly the best thing since I found my LP copy of the Addams Groove.

Hammer sees the hand!!

King Tom

DIY SFTBH

In 1995, after the Blue Album was released, Rivers Cuomo began writing the band’s follow-up album. Rivers developed a rock opera called Songs From The Black Hole, which told the story of a group of space cadets.

The band started recording SFTBH, but enthusiasm for the concept wasn’t really there and recording sessions were sporadic at best, with Rivers moving off to his first year at Harvard.

At the end of his first semester, the band returned to recording, scrapping the rock opera concept after Rivers showed up with a new concept, a crop of autobiographical songs which would become 1996’s Pinkerton. Some of the black hole songs survived, but the rest were seemingly discarded.

With the publication of the first version of the weezer recording history, fans were clued in to the original concept. And in early 2002, Rivers himself started funneling some of the original SFTBH demos directly to fans, speaking of an “en masse” distribution of not just the black hole songs, but the hundreds of other songs which he and the band worked on throughout the years, but never officially recorded.

For a few years, the band released dozens of songs straight to fans, but that stopped after the summer of 2002, with Geffen finally putting their corporate foot down.

The point of all this: things have changed again. In the last week, Rivers started writing blog entries about the held-back songs, saying:

I’m putting up the lyrics now because I suddenly realized that I can. I’ll also put up the sheet music (when I have time) so that you can play them for each other! I’ll release my home demos as soon as I am legally able.

And he’s put up lyrics and music for two songs, one from SFTBH, another a Pinkerton-era b-side. Fans with much more musical talent than I have started to work off these, developing their own versions based off what Rivers has posted.

While they’re not exactly Rivers’/weezer’s demos, it’s still an interesting idea. While I’m glad to finally be getting an idea of what the songs were supposed to be like, it’ll be nice if we actually get the real versions one day (perhaps when the band is free of its Geffen contract?).

I’m also interested in songs from other years- the late 90’s hiatus period, the Make Believe era and the future, which for weezer, looks like it’s going to happen.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past however many years of being a weezer fan, it’s that it’s going to be interesting. And I’ll probably get to hear some good music too.

King Tom1 Comment