Friday, June 03, 2005

Kylie Minogue

Just a few words to wish Kylie a successful recovery. Last week, the popular Australian pop-star was diagnosed with the early stages of breast cancer. She underwent an operation and is currently resting at her home in Australia.
I became a Kylie fan during her post SAW (Stock Aitken Waterman) era, in the early 90's. She released a single "Confide In Me" featured on an import music program on WDRE. A later single, "Some Kind of Bliss", was a collaboration between her, and Manic Street Preachers (one of my favorite bands). Another huge hit for her was a duet with Nick Cave, "Where the Wild Roses Grow".
Even though she abandoned her "Indie" leanings for straight-on dance with the excellent albums "Light Years" and "Fever", I continued to be a huge fan. Worldwide, she is as popular as Madonna, but in the USA, she was/is mostly overlooked. For anyone uninitiated, be sure to pick up her 2CD compilation "Ultimate Kylie" which features most of her hits, including the great new singles "I Believe in You" and "Giving You Up".

Friday, March 18, 2005

Half-Life 2

I'm in the process of playing (arguably) the best computer game to date. I don't make this claim lightly. After all, I'm Generation X and therefore part of the videogame generation. I've owned and/or played games on the Atari 2600, the first Nintendo, Sega Genesis, SNES, Playstation 2, the Commodore 64, and of course the PC. I've played the original arcade games Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, and Frogger. Those big consoles were everywhere you looked; drugstores, five and dimes, pizza places, and of course the arcades themselves. I consider myself a connesiuer of sorts for all of these games.
I played the original Half-Life awhile ago which was a great game in itself. Considered an FPS (First Person Shooter) its strength lay in its storyline. Its much anticipated sequel (Half-Life 2) released late last year and taking five years to develop, builds on the story and is worthy of a Hollywood script. In addition, the game has amazing graphics which requires an updated computer. Without giving too much away, the gameplay is loads of fun requiring a certain amount of strategy. A certain positivity runs through Half-Life 2 which seemed to be absent in its predecessor. In fact certain parts of the original were simply frustrating.
Well, I'm hooked. I've abandoned all of my other recent computer games like Doom 3 (which is a horror survival game that can scare the sh*t out of you), Sims 2, and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. I'm about two thirds complete, and if my partner was not already playing his Age of Mythology game on the newer computer, I'd probably be playing Half-Life 2 right now instead of writing about it.
Anyways, highly recommended :-)

Thursday, March 17, 2005

WLIR

Since 92.7 changed its format on February 1, 2004, there hasn't been any station on the radio in the NYC area playing alternative music. WLIR which has moved to 107.1 can only be heard in Suffolk County. The radio dial is now horrible, and I can only take refuge in my own music collection.
This posting though is a tribute to WLIR which I discovered in late 1984. I heard a few songs that I wanted to tape from the radio. Yep... back then we used to buy blank TDK or Maxell tapes and record songs from the radio. We were poor high school students on a budget and couldn't afford to buy every record for every song we liked. This was a decade before the internet and downloadable music files.
By early 1985, I switched allegience from Top 40 radio to the alternative WLIR, latching onto groups like Depeche Mode, New Order, the Cure, Dead or Alive, the Smiths, OMD, Alphaville, and artists like Billy Idol, Howard Jones, and David Bowie. It was WLIR at its peak, with DJ's Doona Donna, Larry the Duck, Denis MacNamara, and Malibu Sue. The station aired weekly live concerts, an import program called "Off the Boat", a Friday night "Party Out of Bounds", and of course the "Screamer of the Week" which was the week's favorite new song voted in by the listeners.
In late 1987, the station changed owners and morphed into WDRE. After what I would consider a shaky beginning, WDRE picked up where WLIR left off, getting in stride by 1988 and almost reaching the WLIR peak. On WDRE, I used to like the Sunday morning "Rock Over London" broadcast which inspired me to track the British music charts instead of the American Top 40. I was a fan of the station as well as the music. When I finally got my first car in 1990, I proudly placed a WDRE bumper sticker on it. I also drove to the station to pick up a WDRE t-shirt. I remember listening to the morning show on my way to college in 1990/1991 when the aired parody sketches of serialized stories (one was called "The Dunwich Horror", another "Come Lover Viking" and if anyone out there can remember the others, let me know).
At this time I also found some interesting college radio stations that played some great shows during the weekend. Among them was WRHU's "Post Punk Progressive Pop Party" with Jeff Foss, and WBAU's "Adventures in Modern Recording" with Randy, Kelly and crew. It was there that I found groups like Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, and Yello.
By 1994/1995 the format of WDRE began to change to a commercialized grunge rock. The station even stopped playing some of the new material of groups that were considered staples years ago. During this time I was listening to my own growing CD collection, following groups like Inspiral Carpets, Blur, Manic Street Preachers, Curve, Slowdive, and more. Eventually I lost interest in WDRE altogether, until one day WLIR returned.
Although never achieving its mid 80's peak, it wss good to have WLIR back again. Although the station was blatantly guilty of "missing the boat" on a lot of talent, like the aforementioned Manic Street Preachers, as well as VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk, De/Vision, Mesh, and even A-ha's latest hits (the good music is usually on the other side of the Atlantic guys!), it was still upsetting when they disappeared from the 92.7 frequency.
Anyway, this is my tribute to the history of the great WLIR.

WWW.WLIR.COM

Monday, March 14, 2005

Legion

When I was in elementary school i was an avid comic book reader. When I first started buying them they were only 25 cents each. Eventually my favorite became the Legion of Super Heroes.
The variety of heroes, the futuristic setting, and the great stories were all underlying reasons why they became the comic of choice.
When I reached Junior High School (as it was called back then), I slowly gave up on comic books. I considered them a throwback to childhood, and would feel silly being caught buying or reading one.
Years later, while shopping at the late great Busy-Bee flea market with my sister (Indiyon- http://indiyon.blogspot.com), I picked up an issue out of curiousity. To my surprise, the teen heroes of my youth had grown up and were now adults. In addition, the writing had also matured and targetted to my age bracket. The new writers of Tom and Mary Bierbaum, and Keith Giffen took on some surprisingly adult-themed topics. Two of the Legion members were Lesbian, and one (Element Lad) was gay. In general, the characters were much more well-rounded with personality flaws.
I began a resurgence in my comic book collecting of the Legion during my college years. I shopped at the (late great) Bonmark Books in Plainview as well as smaller comic stores in Nassau County.
Tragically the writing team left, and the new authors really messed things up. In addition, DC Comics decided to revamp all of their comics, effectively wiping out the Legion's rich and intricate history, and calling the event "Zero Hour". It was an obvious attempt to attract a newer, younger generation of readers, but it effectively alienated the older audience. Very quickly, I lost interest in the new and (not at all) improved Legion, and discontinued collecting them permanently in 1994.
However, I still kept my collection, including the entire Tom & Mary Bierbaum (4th series) packed safely away. A heartfelt thanks to the Bierbaums for the great stories & characters and allowing me to revisit the Legion during some difficult college years.

Monday, February 21, 2005

An Exciting Transition


Winter in Forest Hills Posted by Hello

This spring/early summer my partner and I are moving to another building. We are especially excited because we are buying this time. It's going to be an extremely time-consuming and stressful few months for us, but it will be well worth it. The picture above was taken from our current apartment a few weeks ago. It snowed here last night, and the scenery is similiar today. In our future apartment, we will be two floors higher, and will have a panoramic view.