And I told myself I'd be asleep by eleven tonight

In memory of Larry "Bud" Melman (who did the best impersonation of Roy Orbison I have ever seen-you might not have, since he did it for only a month before Orbison died) I found this on YouTube (I don't have the patience to embed-it takes me so freakin' long). This is a perfect example of why I loved staying up until 11:30 all through my high school years. I miss the old days of Letterman.

Here's something else that has been making the rounds the last day or two as well: movie director David O. Russell going completely off on Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees. I heart meltdowns. Fair warning-this is actually pretty offensive; he calls her a lot of bad names. I give Tomlin credit for not taking off one of her shoes and bludgeoning him. I was never much of a fan of his movies (Flirting with the Disaster seems to be the best) and I can pretty much guarantee that I will be ignoring any of his future work.

I do wish that this had come out about eighteen months earlier. Last year when I was on the editorial staff of Oyez Review we received a fiction submission from Russell's wife. It was a horrible story. I wrote a very nice rejection letter. Had I seen this first, I would have written a much more interesting one.

I'll wrap this up with a Random 11. Remember, this is a blatant rip-off from here. It's OK because we have Iowa City in common. And we have reason to celebrate heavily tonight!

1. "Waiting on a Friend"-Rolling Stones. God I love this song. Whenever I hear it I wonder why life is not one big party. Aside from that, a very strange memory pops up as well: in the fall of 1981 my family took the plunge and got cable television. It was about fifty channels, and I think a third were public access message board types. One of them was for each city that the cable company served-they would scroll through in alphabetical order, and they'd play music in the background. I always heard this song played on that channel. I'd sneak into my parents bedroom (where the second box that changed the channels was located) and sit there watching this channel in the hopes of hearing some cool music until I'd be busted and kicked out of the room. Yeah, I had a radio, but I was a strange kid.

2. "Gasoline Alley"-Rod Stewart. This is from the "MTV Unplugged" collection. Yep, they used to play music on that channel. We're going for the sentimental touch this round. Every time I hear this song I want to learn how to play the mandolin. And yes, I'm typing in the exact rhythm of the song. So I have to babble about something until the song is over because I want to hear the rest. You know something else I would like to learn? How to speak Irish. OK, Rod is starting to whisper so he should be done by the time I finish this sentence. And he is.

3. "Champagne Supernova"-Oasis. This is what I enjoy most about the 'pod, that it can play three straight songs that make the hair on my arms stand up. I have to move on though, because this song tends to make me really depressed.

4. "Detox Mansion"-Warren Zevon. We're only 4/11 of the way but this has the potential to be the all-time Random 11. "I'm raking leaves with Liza" but really, who hasn't? I have to waste more time here, so may I present a few "lines of the day" from our recent road trip:

"There's something funky about the chicken."

"Can we go see the birds?" "No, there's a cop behind us."

"I'm smelling something-is it your feet?"

"That bagel made me uncomfortable."

"Next year, we're going to the beach."  OK, Warren's done.

5. "The Memory of Trees"-Enya. You probably have no idea what this is, and you're missing out. Trust me. Enya is the third-most featured artist on the 'pod. We are on a roll.

(I notice I am "addressing" readers a lot lately, as if I had more than twelve. Hello everybody!)

6. "Electrolite"-REM. We (that's a "royal" we, just to clarify, loyal subjects) follow with the second-most featured artist. The first time I heard this song was in a bookstore in Galway, Ireland on a rainy afternoon towards the end of my first solo trip to Eire. The hair on my arms is at attention again.

7. "Don't Be Cruel"-Elvis Presley. Eh. I must have felt obligated to have more than three Presley songs.

8. "Revolution Earth"-The B52's. I lost my Good Stuff CD a few years ago, which is unfortunate because I can think of at least four other songs from it that would be on the 'pod if it were still in my possession.

9. "Take Me Home"-Phil Collins. But we just met. THANK YOU!

10. "Ignoreland"-REM. Here's what I don't get about this song: it's got a great sound to it and powerful lyrics, yet they choose to muck it up by distorting Michael Stipe's voice. It sounds like he's singing this song underwater and it's completely unnecessary.  

11. "What's My Scene"-Hoodoo Gurus. I heard this song once sometime in the 80s (I think) and didn't hear it a second time until this past October when I was on my way to pick up a pizza. Thank you satellite radio. I sometimes obsess about things like that; when I hear a song that I completely forgot ever existed I get caught up in exactly how long it has been since I last heard it. Last week while we were gone a friend of mine watched the house for us and I offered him use of our other car. Yesterday I noticed that he left a CD in the player and almost every one of the seventeen songs on it ('twas a mix) was a wayback song that I forgot ever existed. Most were from the two year period of my life where I worked full-time after graduating high school before going to college when I'd be forced to listen to "easy listening" radio for eight hours per day. I was amazed that I still knew a majority of the lyrics.

And we're done. Really, why isn't life one big party?