Growin' Up

Top 5 reasons "High Fidelity" is essential:

1. Voluminous and spot-on pop-culture references.
2. The knowing that record obsessiveness can overwhelm one’s world and influence lives; i.e., how the relationship between men and music can be special, complicated, inspirational, and at times, self-defeating.
3. A prescient view of how the innocence and promise of youth can never quite be fulfilled, but that it can all turn out OK.
4. Yes, “Thunder Road” is the best opening track in rock and roll history.
5. Rob = Dennis, or the written soundtrack of my life. Up to a point..

High Fidelity is not great literature. It won’t go down as one of the most important books of the century, decade or perhaps even of 1996.

It is, however, funny, touching, and like holding a mirror up to my face and seeing my silhouette covered with words. Words that are not just recognizable, but defining: mix tape, obsessed, records, confusion, women, failure, redemption….

I spent countless hours with friends and colleagues at Wee Three Records in the Lycoming Mall, discussing or arguing:
* Who was better, Tom Petty or Graham Parker?
* If “Get it On (Bang a Gong)” has the greatest fade-out in all of rock music
* Whether “I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)” was the best rock and roll song of the ‘70s
* Fred Sanford or Archie Bunker?
* If “Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads” is the best record ever made
* Ways the New York Giants will embarrass themselves next
* Whether Badfinger was the second coming of the Beatles (really)
* Shemp was no Curly, but still pretty good and way ahead of Curly Joe and Joe Besser
* Why Rush are great musicians but not a great – or even good – band
* That Willie Nelson never wrote a decent song after the early ‘70s
* Lemmon and Matthau or Randall and Klugman?
* Stax or Motown?
* Which will ruin baseball first, Astroturf or George Steinbrenner
* That the Police, the Doors and the Grateful Dead are the most overrated bands in history
* How and why our hometown resembled Mayberry and/or Hooterville of “Green Acres” fame
* That 1966 was the greatest year in music history
* If the songwriting team of Difford and Tilbrook (Squeeze) were the new Lennon and McCartney
* The greatest soul singers, the greatest debut albums, the greatest George Jones songs
* Why the girls we knew didn’t care about any of these things, and what this said about our relationships (or lack thereof)
The movie version of "High Fidelity," while good, does not quite hold up to the Hornby's novel. The British setting offers a great deal more truth, and there is no cartoonish Jack Black to muddle things up.

The novel touches all the bases; it nearly overwhelmed me with the shock of recognition.

And gave me the hope that despite all of my missteps, if I keep trying, maybe I could someday get it right.
Strictly 100 – Number 9: High Fidelity (the novel)

I Hope You're Happy Now

I've always felt that New Year's was the most overrated of holidays, and maybe because it seems a little incongruous and melancholy to watch and celebrate the passage of time. Even when I was a kid, something about it was depressing.

Perhaps it's also because of this song, performed by the only band (to me, anyway) officially licensed to perform it on New Year's Eve, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.

Seeing Lombardo perform this from the Waldorf Astoria was a rite of passage in my youth. My parents never stayed up late, except for this night, and when I reached 6 or 7, I got to stay up late as well. As least on this night I did.

We made this night an event because my parents saw it as a tradition and also because I imagine they thought this was the classiest thing anyone could do to celebrate the beginning of another year: New York City. The Waldorf Astoria. Couples all dolled up and dressed to the nines. Champagne.

As this type of music fell out of favor, the night began to belong to Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. But it wasn't (and isn't) the same.

Now, the traditions still involve television, but now it's reliving the past. Which is still somewhat sad.

So, I would like to pull myself away from The Three Stooges marathon on AMC and the Twilight Zone marathon on the Syfy (yes, that's the new, proper spelling) Channel to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

For duty and humanity!

Watching the Giants' dreadful performance on Sunday, I am reminded of The Three Stooges football episode, but not in a good way. Tom Coughlin, Bill Sheridan, and the entire defense comprise the current stooges from East Rutherford, but trust me, there is nothing funny about it. At all.

But it's time to move on, and fortunately, AMC is here to ring in the new year and remove all memories (hopefully) of the Giants disaster. Trust me, this is the best revelry of all.

Oh I know, it's said that many people -- and most women -- don't like the Stooges -- and my wife is certainly no exception. And my son Jack is still not old enough (according to her) to enjoy an eye poke or a hammer to the skull. Maybe it is all too much for little kids, although I watched them religiously when I was young, and I've never taken a pair of pliers to anyone's nose. Yet.

But, despite any criticisms, the real Men in Black remains the funniest 18-minute short in the history of film.