Bob Sassone

Friday, July 31

I'm listening to the new Marshall Crenshaw album. Is that what they're called still, "albums?" Or do I have to say I'm listening to the new Marshall Crenshaw DVD? I don't think that's right, in this age of downloads. I think album is one of those words that not only describes what it is (or in this case, was - a round, usually black disc that you placed on a turntable and dropped a needle on), but also what it represents, a collection of songs taken together as a whole. Not sure what else you would call them if not album.

Anyway: Crenshaw. He's probably my favorite rock musician. I can go on and on about how the music of Sinatra and Dean Martin and standards and soundtrack music have taken over as my personal favorite, but when it comes to rock music I'm going with Crenshaw. I really can't think of another artist who does it all for me: the songwriting skills, the voice, the guitar chops. And what he sings about is exactly the stuff I like to hear about in my rock music. I was thinking the other day that Crenshaw's music is America. His voice is somewhere between big city pop and country, his lyrics are about matters that everyone can relate to, and his music manages to be almost...jazzy? But his music still has its roots in 50s and 60 rock (the good 60s rock, before hippies took over and everything began to suck).

His new ALBUM is titled Jaggedland, and while I'm not sure what the title means, I love it. And it's my favorite album of his. Field Day used to be my favorite, but it was probably my favorite because of a certain time in my life, with certain things happening that I associate with the songs. And it's still one of my favorite albums of all-time, but somehow Crenshaw has gotten even better. Go to iTunes and download "Right on Time." It's fun, it's jazzy, it's rock, and somehow it even manages to be something you can dance to (the solo version is here on YouTube - it's slower than the album version but really nice). It has become my favorite song of his. "Passing Through," "Stormy River," "Eventually," and "Live and Learn" are gorgeous too.

I interviewed Crenshaw years ago, around 1990-91, when he was on tour for Life is Good. I remember having a great conversation with him over the phone, talking about our favorite music. He was on the floor, talking to me while going through his ALBUMS and telling me what he loved and didn't love. I asked him about having lyrics on the ALBUM sleeves and he said he wasn't a big fan of them, because he wanted fans to hear what they wanted to hear. I was listening to one of his songs from the 80s called "Crying Out For Love (At Crying Time)." It has this verse:

All those days that seemed like years
The silence roaring in our ears
And at night the ticking sound
The time bomb of a life we'd found

I watched her leave my heart in flames
Fanned by all her other lovers' names
And I can feel my restless mind
Calling out for love at crying time

Not sure how it translates without the music, but, again, that's why God made iTunes.

I haven't read that interview in a long time, but I know it's from the last issue of the magazine friends and I did out of our apartment back in the early 90s. I'll have to print up that issue one of these days.

OK, that's it for this weekend. It's humid and stuffy and I'm exhausted. See you in August. That is, Monday!

The T.V. Of Tomorrow

I think I might have posted this several months ago at TV Squad, but what the heck. It's a Tex Avery cartoon, predicting what the future of television would be. It's funny, though a couple of things aren't too far off from what actually happened.

Monday, July 27

Question: why am I supposed to enjoy a season that is often described using the words sticky and uncomfortable? And that's the description by the people who actually like it.

Last week was a busy week. I feel guilty when the only thing I post during the day is a video or a quick sentence to explain why I'm not posting more. As I mentioned recently (link would go here if I wasn't lazy and it wasn't humid and I had the energy to do a search for the post), I've started a new schedule at TV Squad. I'm doing a lot more posts during the day. They're shorter, but shorter posts don't necessarily = easier because I still have to find the new, write the post, embed the video, crop the pic, and it all has to be timely and pithy and interesting. It's a great gig, really. It can be a little intense, getting a bunch of posts up all day long, but then I remember that I used to wash dishes for a living and go home smelling like butter and various vegetables.

You might notice the new pic of me on the right. I've Mad Men-ed myself. Dynamoe and AMC got together to make a cool site where you can make pictures of yourself that look like Mad Men versions of yourself. I immediately put it on my Twitter and Facebook accounts, and my sister tells me that it's a perfect match. I'm assuming this is a compliment.

Stephen Colbert: 1969

While I work on various projects, here's a clip I posted over at TV Squad. More tomorrow.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing
www.colbertnation.com

Wednesday, July 22

I really don't feel like saying anything. That's hardly ever a good thing when you make a living creating sentences out of words, but there are just some days when you don't think you can add anything to the conversation, and if you did you said it better some place else. Right now I just feel like drinking this Diet Pepsi and watching a baseball game.

I suppose I should mention that there's a new section of the site called Cereal and Wine. Do you know what it's about? Sneakers and Lamps! Well, no. It's actually about Cereal and Wine, and everything in between. It's a food site and...well, you can click on the link and all will be explained. Not much there right now except for an intro, but more is a-comin.

Did TV Talk tonight (and every other Wednesday), and it went well. Near the beginning I suddenly got a weird tickle in my throat, like I had a small but tenacious pea stuck. I hate when that happens when I'm on the air live. Do I clear my throat? Wait for the end of my sentence and move the phone away to clear my throat while the host talks? Did the latter. We talked about the Emmys and Wipeout and NBC and a lot of other things. It's here if you have some time and you're interested in television.

Three paragraphs. That's enough. Back to the game.

Two Quick Things

1. The new food and drink section of the site is up now. It's called Cereal and Wine. More on what it's all about tomorrow, but take a look at the intro.

2. Tomorrow night I'll be on TV Talk around 6:25pm ET.

Do They Have To Be Oreos Or Can They Be Hydrox?

Still crazy busy, but saw this at Criggo and thought it was funny:

Friday

Really busy, no time to post. Lots of new stuff up at PBJ if you haven't seen it yet. Have a great weekend.

Summer Night

Muggy night. It's so muggy I feel like a cranberry salesman in England. I have no idea what that means, that's how uncomfortable and dazed I am right now.

I'm having second thoughts about Professor Barnhardt's Journal already. Not if I want to keep it or not, it's here to stay. I mean I just don't know what the hell to do with it? Pop culture blog? That's all well and good, but I already cover a ton of pop culture here. Besides, having to update two blogs every day? They don't pay me enough to do that ("they" meaning me). It's three if you count the stuff I do at TV Squad, though that's a whole different thing. No, PBJ is going to stick around, but I might make it a very specific type of site. Maybe something in the form of a blog but not a blog itself. I have a few ideas kicking around in my head and all should be clearer soon. If it doesn't stay muggy, that is.

I've already changed the design of the site. Now it's...green! I liked the black and blue and white stripe design I had yesterday, but I was having a tech glitch that made the fonts on the sidebar different sizes. Doesn't make any sense to me why it would do that, but it was doing it, and it was driving me up a wall. I'm sure 91% of readers wouldn't even have noticed it, but it would have eaten away at me every single time I went to the main page, and, well, I can't have that. So now it's green and the fonts make sense.

I get in these moods with my web sites. I'm never completely happy with the design I pick. I went to a blog format several years ago because I wanted permalinks and easy-to-access archives and dates that showed up automatically and footers and headers and all that stuff, but that means the design options are limited. But even back in the mid-90s and early 00s when I did my entire site HTML by hand I could never settle on one design. Retro fonts or basic Times Roman? Lots of color or black and white? Splash page? Buttons? What color should the links be? Wide margins? Gah. I'm not anal about a lot of things but when it comes to site design I can stay up all night trying to find just the right combo of cool and whatever else makes a good web page a good web page.

I know what you're thinking: in-depth discussions of fonts and web site design decisions, that's why I come here! I know, I know. I'll talk about other things tomorrow.

If Barney Drank Sanka, Why Was He So Jittery All The Time?

In case you were wondering what type of coffee Andy and Barney drank in the sheriff's office: