Heteronym...palindrome? Although the definition (a palindrome is a word or phrase which reads the same in both directions) does not exactly work in this case, I still like the date. The number "9" has always been a favorite and when my firstborn was born on 3-3-99, it felt like kharma. Although the B's Johnny Bucyk wore the number in my early hockey watching days (and I did love the Chief's frequent hip checks), there really was not a #9 I looked up to in the Boston sporting world. Basketball Jesus Larry wore #33 for the C's but maybe, just maybe, subliminally or genetically I received my mom's love for Ted Williams and his famous "9." Maybe it wasn't subliminal at all?!
It seems big numbers are popping up more frequently these days and I can't seem to avoid a 20 year anniversary of this or 25 year anniversary of that to save my life. Those dates used to happen to somebody else. Now, I reflect and just say, "25 years, really?" My 25 year high school reunion, which I missed this year due to work commitments, happened in the spring. Interestingly enough, Boston Latin School is celebrating its 375th year of existence in 2010 (it antecedes Harvard by a year) and I'm going to somehow take part in that. I'm hoping to take my little ones to Boston and introduce them to some significant, fellow alumnae (Cotton Mather, Henry Knox, John Hancock, Sam Adams, Joe Kennedy, John Honey Fitz Fitzgerald, George Santayana, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Leonard Bernstein, Jack O'Callaghan to name a few). I didn't realize at the time that I was part of the 349th graduating class from BLS and I guess that goes to show you how little perspective an 18-year-old has for what is going around him in the past, present and future. I don't think there's a name yet invented for a 375 year celebration but I'm looking foward to experiencing BLS's quadricentennial celebration... With grandchildren, perhaps?
Yet another 20-year anniversary appeared in 2009: the 20 year anniversary of the release of the Pixies' seminal work "Doolittle." I do remember my first listen and thinking, "Damn, this is probably as out there as I'm going to get, but it is good." References to aliens, nightmares, mutilation and b-movie horror heroes seemed exquisitely normal and inviting yet disturbing, and the screams interspersed with lilting tunes and captivating beach music seemed par for the course. Of course, after years of consistent play, multiple live shows (along with a few good stories) it found a special place and now is a top 3 album of all time. In honor of the Pixies, I named my fantasy football team "Wave of Mutilation" and tried to explain the title to my good buddy, a Rush-loving Canadian whose musical tastes don't often bump into lead singers that scream "Got me a movie,ha ha ha, slicing up eyeballs, ha ha ha ha, girl is so groovy, ha ha ha, I want to be, be a debaser..." Unfortunately, I'm most likely not going to take in any of the dozen or so shows where the Pixies are going to play Doolittle start to finish. Like the Decemberists with their Hazards of Love, these "concept" shows are the rage these days.
How 'bout those band leader names, like the Pixies' own Black Francis aka Frank Black? A couple of my new favorite noms de plume (or whatever you call a singer pseudonym) are Jay Reatard, Art Brut and Kurt Vile. They may be their birth names but somehow seem the musical equivalent of porn pseudonyms, like my buddy Murph's alias M. Clydesdale. How does one appropriate one of those names? Do you just go down to the local town hall with your birth certificate and say my name is now Marvelous Marvin Hagler? Are you even allowed to give yourself a pseudonym or do the rules follow the key nickname taboo: thou shall not give yourself a nickname, it must come from somebody else. Isn't that righ A-Train? Do you think, maybe, the scenario plays out something like this; "Hi my name is Paul David Hewson and I will from now on be referred to as Bono Vox or maybe just "Bono." Yeah, Bono works just fine. And my friend here, you and all others shall refer to him as The Edge and he will forever wear a skull cap." What the hell happened there? Anyway, Art Brut is quite a character and I've enjoyed a few of his interviews and a number of his songs. Very entertaining. Art Brut vs. Satan contains such gems as "Alcoholics Unanimous" and DC Comics and Milkshakes. His song "Moving to LA" has the following lines:
I'm drinking Henessey
With Morrissey
On a beach
Out of reach
Somewhere very far away"
Nice.
Well, that's it folks. Gotta get my sleep in preparation for Nation's Triathlon this weekend. TO, JG, Planman, B-Hee, Speed Wilkinson and The Crusha are battling it out for athletic supremacy. Who will gain the bragging rights to the best middle aged athlete of 2009? I'll let you know next month...
