Haloween at W+K

Halloween is a big deal here at W+K.

Everyone decorates their area and makes it all scary, then they bring in the kids and they walk around collecting candy and generally having a good time.

This year we added some snakes and other reptiles.

And you could also get your face painted.

Some people had to be escorted out because they were scaring the children.

I think kids and adults all had a good time.

The B-52's - The B-52's

The greatest dance record of all-time, bar none. If your party is boring and going nowhere all you need is a little B-52's and even the most boring person in the room will be getting down to Rock Lobster.

If you thought this record was a joke or silly, you need to listen again. The 2's had a lot of fun, but the music itself is amazingly well crafted. It is simple and subtle and like reggae or rock steady, it's what they don't play that makes the music so great.

Texas Longhorns Crank Dat Soulja Boy @ UCF

I think I found the problem with the 2007 Longhorn's. They are more interested in dancing than playing football. This is during the Central Florida game, a game we barely won in the last minutes by covering an onside kick.

Ramones - Ramones

The latest edition of Spin Magazine was dedicated to 30 years of punk. 1977 was the seminal year in the movement, with initial releases from the Sex Pistols, the Clash and other now infamous bands. This makes the Ramones the trend setters as they released this, their first record, in 1976.

I have to admit I was not listening to the Ramones in 1976, but I loved what followed. I sometimes have a hard time thinking of the Ramones or any of the American bands as truly punk. According to legend, Malcom McClaran came to the US, tried to manage the Ramones, failed, moved back to England and ripped off the look with the Sex Pistols. OK, so New York was a crappy place in 1976. There was a lot of crime, a garbage strike, a mass murderer on the loose. America's response - disco. Let's be honest, punk was a footnote. The original CBGB bands were Blondie, who totally gave over to disco, the Talking Heads, an art band, and the Ramones. I love the Ramones and this is one of the best records ever released, but... this is not the angry response you expect to hard times. In fact, the songs are pretty funny. And the guys look more like comic book character versions of punk rockers. London 1976, unemployment is through the roof, times are equally tough. The reaction? Anarchy in the UK, God Save the Queen (the fascist regime), and I'm so bored with the USA. The US bands never had the hard political edge and anger that their British counterparts (imitators?) had.

All that said, you need this record in your collection and you need to buy the DVD Rock and Roll High School. The Ramones get the last laugh, they always looked like they were having fun.

The view from my desk

The view from my desk is a lot better than some in the building. I get to look out east towards the river and sometimes you can see Mt. Hood. Today there was a special treat. Apart from the tress changing color, which is pretty cool, there was a vivid rainbow that broke through after a day of rain and black clouds.

I am not sure the camera on my phone does it justice, but you can see it going behind the building and probably ending with the pot of gold right under the Burnside Bridge.

The people who look out to the west have a terrible view, unless you are on the 6th floor, which has a great view back into the SW hills. Looking north is no longer the great view it used to be, they put up a huge building right next door. Same for the south view, unless you are on 6.

Blond Faith - Walter Mosley

Walter Mosley has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I was first drawn to him by a review of Devil in a Blue Dress in the LA Times in 1990. This was the first Easy Rawlins novel, set in LA, it traced the adventures of a young black man trying to make his way after his return from World War II. Mosley's writing has many of the classic detective novel traits, but what appealed to me was the setting: south central LA in the 50's; and he insight into life as a black person at the time. He paints a vivid picture of the life many blacks lived after migrating west from their southern homes post WWII to find work, and they hoped, to escape racism.

Easy is originally from the fifth ward in Houston. While the parallels to my migration from the Memorial area of Houston to 1990's Beverly Hills adjacent are minor at best, they at least allowed me familiarity with the street names.

With Blonde Faith, the 10th in the Easy Rawlins series, we are now in 1967 post Watt's Riot LA (one of Mosley's previous books in the series, Little Scarlet, takes place during the 1965 riots - a great read). There have been a lot of changes in Easy Rawlins life over the years and it helps to know the history of all the characters, as they are all back for Blonde Faith. Per usual, you get a murder mystery wrapped in a social commentary on the times. I can't say this novel stands out as one of the best in the series, but it is page turner and if you take the time to read the previous books in the novel, you will be sated and left hanging for the next installment.

Nirvana - Nevermind

Seems like it took a long time to get to this no-brainer.

The seminal band of the Pacific Northwest grunge movement will be forever linked in my mind with a very strange advertising moment. Right after they perform their first song on Saturday Night Live there was a commercial for a deodorant called Smells Like Teen Spirit. Who thought hits up? Let's pair the most anti-commercial band around with a deodorant, very strange.

Anyway a total digression. Nirvana's first major label release is epic. Almost every song on the record got some amount of airplay and will be well know even to the most casual rock fan. It is also the record that spawned hundreds of imitators and influenced the way we dressed, talked and thought about the world. It is truly one of those industry changing events. Music was boring, record sales were down. Along comes Nevermind and all of a sudden things are fun again. To me this is as important a moment as the birth of punk.