Goodwill Hunting

I made a trip to Goodwill today. I love shopping thrift stores. There's one rule that you have to respect though when thrift store hunting, you have to be prepared to walk out with nothing. Some days you find nothing & some days you find a veritable treasure trove. This trip happened to be one of those days when the stars were aligned. In fact I'm going to tell you about my last 2 Goodwill trips because as far as entertainment shopping in thrift stores goes, these last 2 were the mother load. I'll start with my most recent. Also, you should understand that I'm not talking about a Goodwill store in NYC or even say, Tampa, in which you would expect to find a huge amount of ultra cool stuff. My Goodwill is located in a little place called Spring Hill, Florida. It's basically a retirement community although over the years since I was in high school, it has become more & more populated by families. Anyway, here goes.

01. Soul Asylum - Let Your Dim Light Shine (1995).



I actually don't know this album very well but I do love the first album by them & this one has "Just Like Anyone" on it which I love and not just because Claire Danes was in the video. I'll be giving this a listen in the next few days.

02. Weezer (The Blue Album) (1994).



This is another one I don't know much of. When it came out with "Undone - the Sweater song" as the lead single I wasn't impressed. I also wasn't a huge fan of the song "Buddy Holly" either. However "Say it ain't so" is fabulous. I've since grown to like "Undone" as well & have liked a lot of what they've released since.

03. 24 seasons One & Two (2001 & 2002).




I absolutely loved this show when it first came out. There was nothing like it. I did begin to lose track eventually thanks to Heroes being on at the same time. I'm looking forward to catching up thanks to Netflix instant streaming.

04. Forrest Gump special collector's edition (1994).



This is one of the best movies of my generation & an amazing performance by Tom Hanks, maybe the best of his career. And in case you were wondering, that's saying something. Oh, and in case you didn't read my blog about movies that make me cry, don't forget the tissue box while watching this one.

05. Harold & Kumar go to White Castle (2005).



Yeah, this movie is really funny. Plus, there's a great performance by Neil Patrick Harris playing himself.

Pretty good trip, no? Well here's what I got on the previous trip. This trip I didn't find any movies or TV shows but a bunch of good cds. Keep in mind that these are just the ones that I actually bought.

01. Corinne Bailey Rae (2006).



This is actually a really good album. I loved the song "Put Your Records On" & I had heard & liked the album opener, "Like a Star' as well but wasn't sure that this was an album I would like all the way through but I do. She has a fantastic voice.

02. Vanessa Carlton - Be not Nobody (2002).



I love the songs "A Thousand Miles" & "Ordinary Day" & also "White Houses" which is not on this album, but again wasn't sure that this would be something that I would listen to all the way through either. I do like it quite a bit though. Vanessa may not be Fiona Apple but that's ok. This is a good album.

03. Gwen Stefani - Love. Angel. Music. Baby. (2004).



I have been a Gwen Stefani fan since the video for No Doubt's Just a Girl was on constant repeat on MTV (remember when they actually played music on music television). The band is a bunch of great musicians but it's Gwen that made them who they are. I'm of the opinion that she is one of the great "front-people" in music history. It didn't surprise me that she did solo work and continued to be successful.

04. Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castle (1998), Up Up Up Up Up Up (1999) & Dilate (1996).







Okay, so I probably shouldn't admit that I never really knew much of Ani's music other than 32 Flavors (which is an amazing song) but it's the truth. Boy was I missing out. All three of these CDS are good but Dilate is incredible. I've already listened to this cd quite a few times. "Untouchable Face", "Dilate" & "Joyful Girl" are all amazing songs worth listening to over & over again. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite albums.

Drum roll please...And now for what is possibly the GREATEST Goodwill find of all time...

05. The Presidents of the United States of America (1995).



First off, I should tell you that I can't believe that I haven't owned this before now. I'm ashamed really. "Peaches" is one of the great sing-along songs of my generation & when "Lump" comes on the radio I turn it up as loud as possible. I get excited like a kid pulling into Disney World. I even convinced my cover band to play "Lump" withing the first month that I joined the band. But, if you know those songs & love them but have never heard the rest of the album, you're missing out. Every song is that good. From the first ("Kitty") to the last ("Naked and Famous"). The songwriting is top notch although obviously quirky. It only becomes more impressive to know that they don't play normal guitars. One guy plays a 2 string & one guy plays a 3 string. This cd has pretty much been in the player since I walked out of the store & will stay there for quite some time. Thank you Goodwill.

Father’s Day 2010

For Father’s day this year my family got me 4 presents. I’ll list them for you.

#1. They wrote lists of all of their favorite things about me. The biggest reasons that they love me. I’m going to keep them to myself but you should know that they made me laugh, blush, gush & get a little teary. They were very sweet lists.

#2. A Book called ‘I Can’t Sleep’ by Knock Knock. It’s an inner-truth journal. A journal for passing the time when insomnia strikes and my brain is circling in on itself, cannibalizing the trivialities of the day and exaggerating the ticking of the clock, reminding me that every minute spent awake is another minute closer to when I’ll have to get up, though many of the great artists and sages were insomniacs & that’s part of how they got so much done, so if I can’t sleep I might as well write and channel my misery into something productive. Their words, not mine. You see, I have a hard time falling asleep. I can’t shut my brain off. Once I’m asleep I’m usually good. In fact, most of the time, it’s as hard to wake up as it was to fall asleep in the first place. Harder even. I’m pretty sure that I’m nocturnal. I function better in the dark. We’ve been through a tough few years with work, finances, house stuff like sinkholes & what not and this hasn’t helped. So the book is something to help with that. You list in it all the reasons that you can’t fall asleep on that particular night & maybe it will help you find some rest.

#3. Another book. ‘Listography’ by Lisa Nola. It’s basically your life in lists. They give you a topic & you fill in the blanks. The topics vary but here are a few.

“List your favorite films”
Some of mine: ‘Labyrinth’, ‘Donnie Darko’, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, ‘Eurotrip’, ‘Sin City’, ‘Fight Club’ & ‘Toy Story’.

“List your favorite T.V. shows of all time”
Mine: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “My So-called Life”, “Heroes” (season one at least), “24”.

“List your favorite bands”
Mine: Counting Crows, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Drive By Truckers, Led Zeppelin, Soul Coughing, Soundgarden.

“List your biggest pet peeves”
Mine: When people blow their nose in the middle of a restaurant while other people are eating.

Some of them are likely to not get filled in on paper. “List the strangest places you’ve had sex”, “List people you wouldn’t mind having sex with”. You never know who will get there hands on it, you know?

This could help with the insomnia too. Or not. When I can’t sleep, if I start filling in a topic like “List your favorite songs of all time” I could probably write until the sun comes up.

#4. A special collector’s edition of Rolling Stone called 500 Greatest songs of all time. I like to add “as selected by Rolling Stone” to the end of that title. You see, I like lists. Especially if they are about music or movies or TV. Music lists get me going the most. When someone starts to tell me the best songs, bands, albums, guitar solos, etc. of all time they’ve got my attention. I’ll go through and say things like, “I can see that” or “are they nuts? That shouldn’t be that high on the list” or “I can’t believe they left off (fill in the song, band, album, guitar solo, etc. that got the shaft)”. That’s kind of where I decided to go with this blog. I’m going to make lists. Lists about movies, TV, music. Basically the things that entertain us. I know, there are a million blogs about these things. Well mine will be in list form. I’ll try to make it interesting. I won’t just tell you what my favorite ten of this or that is every time. Sometimes, just not every time. I’ll probably start with a discussion on the Rolling Stone list. Like maybe, The top 5 songs that Rolling Stone left off their 500 Greatest songs of all time list. Or the 5 songs that shouldn’t be on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest songs of all time list. We’ll see. I hope I can find some people who are interested in reading. Let me know what you think.