Oh, what the hell...

After posting the blog about Johnny Ramone, and just today hearing from a friend from PA that I haven't heard from in over 15 years, and my band rehearsing Plasmatics songs for the Dead Rock Stars show on halloween, I've been feeling sort of nostalgic.
So, I thought I'd relate another story of a show I went to years ago in PA.
My friends and I found out the Plasmatics were playing locally. It was in a made-over movie theatre in Sunbury PA.
My friends Chris and Ellen and I got permission from our parental units and made the hour trip to Sunbury. When we got there, there was a small line of "punks" standing outside, and across the street from the theatre was a park. The park was loaded with religious protesters with signs saying shit like "Satan is coming to Sunbury", etc... Along with the protesters were a small army of tv reporters aiming their cameras at us while the protesters screamed at us about what sinners we are. Geez, we just wanted to see a rock show!
At one point, a reporter came up to me and asked me what I thought about the protesters, why I liked punk rock, shit like that. They took my picture, too. I gave them the quote "We're not on drugs, we don't like to drink. Just wanna dance real fast, get sweaty and stink."
Jumping ahead, my picture was in the paper the next day with that quote underneath it, much to my parents' horror. Why they were horrified that I announced to the world that I don't drink or do drugs was never satisfactorily explained to me.
But, I digress...
The show itself was amazing. I got right up front in front of Wendy O. At one point, during one song, Wendy dragged a 6 foot step ladder out and placed a small tv on top of it. It was turned on, and the screen was just snow. She pulled out a sledgehammer from somewhere, and while the music continued, she held the hammer up over her head, using all the theatrics she could muster. She turned around and swung the hammer and it crashed into the side of the tv. It landed on the stage about 5 feet from me, exploding in a ball of sparks, glass and smoke. The crowd went nuts! A while later, I wiped the sweat from my forehead, and looked at my hand. Blood! My head and face were covered with blood! I felt my face and head to see if it was mine, when I felt a small bump above my hairline. (my THEN hairline, not my NOW hairline). I picked at it, and pulled out a half inch long piece of plastic that matched the color of the tv. Plasmatics shrapnel!! I kept that piece of plastic for years, along with my Ramones pick, but I long ago lost it.
Sometime during the show, Wendy reached down to shake my hand, and when I grabbed her hand, she pulled me up on stage with her! She started dancing at me, so I danced back! After a couple seconds of that, she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek and pushed me backwards into the crowd. My first stage dive!

After the show was over, I left with the best after-show glow I've ever had! As we left the theatre, the protesters were still across the street screaming "Have you been saved???"
I thought to myself, "Fuck yeah, I have."

Come back, Johnny...

A few days ago was the anniversary of Johnny Ramone's death.

It got me thinking about an encounter I had with him years ago.
It was the spring of 1980, and the Ramones were coming to a small college about an hour from where I lived in Pennsylvania.
I got right up front against the left side of the stage where Johnny stands. He kept throwing guitar picks out to the crowd, but, being right under his feet, they were all going over my head.
At one point, he looked down at me and I mouthed the words "Can I have a pick?"
I must have looked so pitiful and pathetic that he dropped a pick on the stage right in front of me. I quickly put my hand over it. Woo hoo! I got a pick from Johnny Ramone!!
Suddenly, I got punched in the back of the head, knocking my glasses onto the stage and momentarily stunning me. I scrambled to retrieve my glasses. When I finally got them on, I looked around and my pick was gone! Seriously! Someone punched me in the back of the head for a goddamn guitar pick!
Well, apparently Johnny saw all this, and more than likely thinking I was even MORE pitiful and pathetic than before, handed another pick directly to me. I was so happy!
I still carry that pick in my wallet 28 years later.
I saw the Ramones 14 times after that. Everytime it was an incredible show.
So, thanks, Johnny, for the pick and the music and the memories.

A little tip for you....

So, I figured out how to abruptly end a conversation with an insanely boring customer without being completely rude.
While they are jabbering away about a subject I lost interest in by the time they hit their second sentence, I reach into my pocket and slyly open my phone. I find the arrow pad with my thumb, nodding every once in a while to act like I'm interested. I press "down" which brings up my phone book. Then I press "up" which goes to the last name in my phone book, which is "work". Then I press "go". Suddenly, the work phone rings! "Oh, I'm sorry, I have to cut you off. But I'm very interested in why the blacktop looks darker when it's wet! But I have to answer the phone."
Then I pick up the phone, and pretend I'm in a conversation until the bore leaves. And, believe me, a conversation with no one is more interesting than the shit I listen to sometimes.

So, there you go.
You're welcome.

Here we go....

From Margaret Talev, McClatchey Washington Bureau--

The ad- A new 30-second TV ad claims that Barack Obama backed legislation to teach "comprehensive sex education to kindergartners." The announcer then says, "Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family."

The truth- The accusation came hours after the Obama campaign released a TV ad critical of McCain's votes on education.
As a state senator in Illinois, Obama voted for but was not a sponsor of legislation dealing with sex education for grades K-12. But the legislation was designed so that local school boards could offer "age-appropriate" sex education, not comprehensive lessons to kindergartners, and it gave schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators.
Republican rival Alan Keyes tried to use Obama's vote against him in the 2004 U.S. Senate race. At the time, Obama spoke about wanting to protect young children from abuse. He made clear then that he was not supporting teaching kindergartners about explicit details of sex.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Tuesday of McCain's ad: "It is shameful and downright perverse of the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls."


And this guy's ahead in the polls.....

Yep....

So, who are YOU gonna vote for??

I don't know who wrote this, so I don't know who to give credit to, but I thought it was interesting.....


Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.


Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere.
"

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere.
"
(edit-just heard, she also didn't give the money back.)

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate.
"

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.


PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.
"

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.


Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.


He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.


MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.


THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.


MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.


THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.


FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.
"

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.


FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.
"

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.