Through the Past Dorkily: Top of the Rock

Editor's note: Through the Past Dorkily is a recurring feature that looks back at the embarrassingly dorky diary I kept as a 16-year-old in 1984.

Saturday, March 10, 1984

Song of the day: You Can't Kill Rock 'n Roll - Ozzy Osbourne

Good deal. Today before I went to the party, I was phoning WHEB's T-shirt Trivia. I almost won, but not quite.

The party was pretty good. Jeremy's uncle was pretty wild. He drives like a friggin' lunatic! Me, Jeremy, [a buddy], [his cousin and her friends were there]. [Her friend] is built! Wow! Their hot tub was awesome! It was 102 degrees, but it felt alright. We had Chinese food just before we left. Me and [buddy] both left at 11, Jeremy's uncle drove us home.

Later, man.

- The (Hot Tub) Barbarian

Sunday, March 11, 1984

Song of the day: Top of the Rock - HSAS

Pretty boring day. I drove Mom to the dump and back, did my homework, and vegged for the the rest of the day.

Heard the new song from Neal Schon and Sammy Hagar. Kicks butt!

- The Barbarian

Monday, March 12, 1984

Song of the day: Heartbreaker - Led Zeppelin

Top 5 at Five
1. In the Beginning/Shout at the Devil - Motley Crue
2. Panama - Van Halen
3. Against All Odds - Phil Collins
4. Rock You Like a Hurricane - The Scorpions
5. Runaway - Bon Jovi

I got moved again in Civics. Hosebag moved me to the front of the room (right in front of her!). Tomorrow I'm gonna sit in my old seat and see if she kicks me out.

I got a 75 on that Geometry test. I took the Algebra re-quiz, I think I should get something in the 80s. We get a chapter test in there tomorrow!

Remember that girl from Jeremy's party? Well, he says he might be going with her now. Last I talked to him (6:30 p.m.), he was waiting for her to call him with an answer. Hmm.

- The Barbarian

Tuesday, March 13, 1984

[CUTE GIRL I LIKE]'S BIRTHDAY
 
Song of the day: Lay It On the Line - Triumph

Top 5 at Five
1. Jump - Van Halen
2. In the Beginning/Shout at the Devil - Motley Crue
3. Runaway - Bon Jovi
4. Footloose - Kenny Loggins
5. Murder - David Gilmour

Yeah, you read it right! Today is [cute girl I like]'s birthday (she's 16). I wished her a happy birthday and told her I would've given her a card if I knew about it. Happy birthday, babe.

Shoot! Jeremy's already going with [girl he likes], and he said he's gonna give her his class ring today! Man, that dude moves fast!

It's been snowing since 8 this morning and it's still going! I hope it stops so I can go to school tomorrow!

It's almost midnight so I better get to sleep! Pronto!

Hey, [cute girl I like], you're awesome!

- The (birthday) Barbarian

Wednesday, March 14, 1984

Song of the day: Where Eagles Dare - Iron Maiden

Top 5 at Five
1. Jump - Van Halen
2. Against All Odds - Phil Collins
3. New Moon on Monday - Duran Duran
4. Runaway - Bon Jovi
5. Rock You Like a Hurricane - The Scorpions

We got almost 2 feet of snow! Needless to say, school was cancelled today. After shoveling out the walkway at 9 a.m., I took an hour nap, and then started reading The Sword of Shannara, which I started on Sunday. I read up to page 680. Other than that I busted the lock on the back screen door and that was it.

Later,

The Barbarian

Postscript: Guess that girl I thought I was over wasn't totally out of my system. At least not yet, anyway. At least I wasn't making a complete fool of myself anymore.

Man, it's amazing how fast you can read without distractions. 680 pages in a couple of days? Damn. Now I struggle to read 50 pages in a week.

As for The Sword of Shannara, I was big into the fantasy stuff back then. I had already read all the Lord of the Rings stuff and this was along those same lines. You know, elves and dwarves and swords and shit. Between those books and comics, I was definitely into alternate realities.

Hagar Schon Aaronson and Shrieve. Jesus:

 

 
  

Turn the Key

One of the great things about getting older (or so I'm told) is the accumulation of wisdom. Which in turn allows you to blather on about how things were different when you were a kid. But it's true. Things were VERY different when I was the age my daughters are now (they're 8 and 10).

Specifically, the whole latchkey kid deal. Both my parents worked, so when I got home from school (to which I walked about a mile--yes, yes, backwards uphill in the snow), I had my own key to get in. I would let myself in, fix myself a snack and then either watch TV (reruns of Happy Days or Gilligan's Island or Alice) or go out and play street hockey with some friends in my driveway. My little brother would be at a babysitter's house until my parents got home from work. It all seemed to work pretty well. There were never any problems or issues with creepy adults. That's not to say there weren't any creeps in the late '70s; I just never had to deal with any.

Of course, nowadays we won't let our kids walk anywhere except maybe down our dead-end street by themselves. I can't even imagine letting them come home and stay here by themselves--even though they get dropped off by the school bus at the end of our street and I know they'd be perfectly fine on their own. That's not really the point, I suppose.

Is a society of latchkey kids better than one where parents know their kids' every movement? In some ways, yes, but it really is a different world now. My parents, who were extremely overprotective, would go hours in the summertime without knowing where I was, and it was no big deal as long as I was home for dinner. Now we're in such a paranoid society that we have to know where our kids are at all times, and even then that may not be enough. So those idyllic childhood memories will remain in the past, relics of a seemingly kindler, gentler age.

Completely Conspicuous 215: Could This Be Magic?

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss the new Van Halen album. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



Show notes:

- Recorded via Skype

- Jay: An impressive outing for a band at this stage

- Not many bands have taken such a long break and returned strong

- Mission of Burma and the Feelies are better than ever

- Where does this rank in VH pantheon?

- Jay: Ranks 7th after first six DLR albums, ahead of Hagar

- Brian: Michael Anthony's harmonies are missed

- Brian: VH should do a tour with Dave and Sammy

- What would you pay $90 to see live?

- Brian: McCartney's current band is excellent

- Arena shows are quickly getting priced out of reach of much of public

- Brian: Bob Mould noted particularly egregious lyrics on new VH single

- Brian: Aerosmith is long overdue for a good album

- Jay: Last good Aerosmith album was more than 20 years ago

- Good run of Aerosmith albums in the '70s

- Steven Tyler has become the dude who looks like a lady

- Brian: This VH album could've been much worse

- The sad story of Jason Becker, DLR's guitarist in early '90s

- Jay: Couldn't have expected the new VH to be any better

- Brian: Interested to hear the follow-up

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
The Hounds Below - For You and I

Dinosaur Jr. - No Bones (live)

Black Mountain - Mary Lou

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The Hounds Below song is on the band's as-yet untitled debut album. Download the song for free at Consequence of Sound.

The Dinosaur Jr. song is on the DVD Bug Live at 9:30 Club: In the Hands of Fans. Download the song for free at DinosaurJr.com.

The Black Mountain song is on the soundtrack to the movie Year Zero. Download the song for free at Stereogum.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his site PodGeek.

Until the Day is Done

The short weeks are the long ones. Five days of work condensed into four. It doesn't help that I have two book deadlines this week, which means lots of editing for yours truly. I was even too busy to go to the gym the last few days. Add to that the fact that they're doing work on the roof, so in addition to the occasional concussion blast, there's debris flying past my window like Martin Sheen in The Departed.

The big override vote is coming up next week in Beverly. Deb's been transformed into a serious activist working to help pass the override, which would provide enough money to save Hannah's school from closing next fall. Opposition forces have been out doing their part to keep the override from passing. It's hard to say what will happen. Any time you bring up the idea of raising the t-word (rhymes with "schmaxes"), you're going to get folks in an uproar, but the current economic climate makes it even less appetizing for a lot of people. But there are plenty of people who are willing to pay a little more for education, so it should be interesting next week.

Memorial Day was fun. I got up and ran a 5K in Swampscott in 22:33 (22:28 by my watch), which wasn't my best 5K time but still wasn't bad for a hilly course on a warm day. You know it was a small race because I finished 28th out of 165; too bad they spelled my name wrong in the official results. Ruh roh, Rumar! Afterwards, we went over to our friends Deb and Pete's place for a cookout with a few other families. The kids had a blast and we ate like pigs all day. Muy excellente.

Pass the dutchie:

• Crazy stuff happening in this area in the last few days. Last night, two MBTA trolleys collided in Newton, causing a mass of twisted wreckage and killing the operator of the second trolley. It's amazing there weren't more injuries given the damage to the trolleys. Then this afternoon, there was a huge fire at a condo complex in Peabody, forcing 900 people to evacuate.
• After Detroit totally dominated the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals with two shutouts of the Penguins, Pittsburgh finally woke up last night and took Game 3, 3-2. It was a really exciting game, with great scoring chances, big hits and good goaltending. It was a welcome change from the first two tilts, which had the life sucked out of them by the Wings. Hopefully, the Penguins will win Saturday night and make a series out of this thing.
• You know I'm a sucker for Van Halen/Hagar news. While the reunited, DLR-led VH played in Providence last weekend (my buddy G-money tried to get me to go with him but I didn't have $50 to spare), Sammy and Michael Anthony announced this week that they're teaming up with Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Joe Frickin' Satriani to form Chickenfoot. Hey, Sammy knows about supergroups. Of course, with a name like Chickenfoot, they should have gone with Buckethead as their guitarist. That dude's all about the chicken.

Time, Gentlemen, Time

Twas a strange week. I still haven't quite caught up on sleep from our marathon drive last weekend. But I'm not stumbling around in a punch-drunk stupor, either.

I'm getting back into the marathon training swing of things after about 10 days off; I missed two long runs the last two weekends. So tomorrow I'm heading out for a 15-miler first thing in the morning. Fortunately, it shouldn't be too hot out. Then I've got to run some errands before Deb and I head off to a wedding in the evening; the couple are friends of Deb's from work. Tomorrow also happens to be our seventh wedding anniversary. Wow, that went by quick. Of course, I feel that way about my entire life to date.

Deb and I went to the Sox-Jays game last night at Fenway. She had a better time than I did, as Roy Halladay and the Jays got smacked around a bit to the tune of a 7-4 loss. But it was a beautiful night to be at a ballgame, so that was nice.

And that's the way it was:

• When you're a teenager, you've got the whole world in front of you and a future full of possibilities. Unless you're this kid and all you can think about is getting it on with sheep. Hard to imagine the reasoning here, but one thing's for sure, he won't ever live this down.
• I didn't get hear any of last weekend's Live Earth concerts because we were driving through the countryside, but this story was pretty funny. Metallica singer James Hetfield was delayed by London authorities after they deemed his beard a little too Taliban-y. Eventually, they realized their mistake and sent him on his way. I don't know, I think he's rockin' more of an Amish look than anything else.
• It's summer and there ain't a whole on the teevee, but HBO's holding up its end of the bargain with interesting programming. In addition to Entourage, I've been digging a strange show called John From Cincinnati. It's a quirky drama from the creator of the awesome and late lamented Deadwood and NYPD Blue, David Milch. People are split right down the middle about this show: they either love it or hate it. It took me a few episodes to get into it, but more than anything else, it's interesting. It's hard to even describe what's going on because it's so damn weird. Essentially, the title character is this mystical simpleton who shows up in a California surfing community and causes all sorts of paranormal things to happen. Ed O'Neill, aka Al Bundy of Married With Children fame, is acting his ass off as a retired cop who has OCD and talks to his pet bird. There's a lot of unexplained (so far) phenomena, profanity, surfing, and Milch's amazing writing. I don't even know if I can recommend it to everyone because not everyone will like it, but I think it's cool.
• So it looks like Van Halen may finally have its act together and announce a David Lee Roth-led fall tour soon, at least so sez Billboard. Meanwhile, former VHers Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony this week announced a fall tour of their own. Hell, Sammy doesn't even need to tour. He recently sold an 80% share in his Cabo Wabo tequila business to liquor conglomerate Gruppo Campari for $80 freakin' million! Wow. He will no doubt keep his money in a three-lock box.