official off topic thread

[DevsMan84]

3 hours ago, Jerrydevil said:

Michael MacDonald, Kenny Loggins and Christopher Cross, too. When I had Sirius in the car, I also had this station on a lot.

I love that channel and now that my new car has the full SiriusXM module and I have the all-access package, I get it all-year round instead of just in the summer.

I lump in Michael McDonald in with Doobie Brothers because his time with the band is what they largely play.  However I noticed this year they started sneaking in Listen to the Music from the Tom Johnson era that is a gigantic stretch to call "Yacht Rock"

They also play a bit of Rupert Holmes.  Between the songs Escape (Pina Colada Song), Answering Machine, and Him, there has to have been a woman who hurt him good.  I mean Him is pretty acidic (for Yacht Rock that is lol).

 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Always dug "Him" much more than The Pina Colada Song.  The video is for Him is pretty funny because they look like any meh-ish local band that you'd see in some nowhere bar with 20-30 people there (half of which aren't even paying attention), but Rupert Holmes obviously had a solid career.

31 minutes ago, DevsMan84 said:

IIRC, Second Chance was sung by one of the other band members and not their usual lead singer like on their other hits.  You are 100% correct in saying that it had a very late 80's vibe to it.  It was definitely written to be a Lite FM hit.

"Southern Rock for Dummies" is a very accurate description of .38 Special.  Not only that, but Hold on Loosely, Caught Up in You, and Back Where You Belong sounds so similar to each other (at least to me), that anytime I hear one of them I think of this Simpsons clip.

Yeah the early .38 Special material definitely had a common sound...the songs you listed start almost gently, then take it up a notch in the chorus, and in the first two on your list, basically fade out on jams.  I dig em all though...especially Hold On Loosely and Caught Up In You.  Simple yet timeless and incredibly listenable. 

There's a great website somewhere (I'll have to find it), where the site designer/owner interviews several women who starred in a number of 80s videos (the ladies from the ZZTop videos, the one from Journey's Separate Ways, the woman who played Alice in Tom Petty's Don't Come Around Here No More, etc).  They're pretty interesting insights, in that there's so much more to the process than we would think...there's always a fair amount of competition for those parts, and many of the women had to come back for callback after callback and more auditions before finally getting the job.  Most said that the bands were actually very cool and quite respectful of them (didn't see them as easy prey for one-nighters)...the woman from the Separate Ways video said that Steve Perry was clearly very uncomfortable and nervous around her...she didn't know it at first, but it turned out that Steve's at-the-time girlfriend Sherrie Swiffer (yes, THE Sherrie from the Oh Sherrie song AND video) had an insane jealous streak, and had forbid Perry from having any women in his videos unless he ran it by her first...apparently he didn't this time, and she completely hit the roof and insisted on being on set constantly (mostly to make him miserable apparently).  Once the woman in the video knew what was up, she admitted that the shoot was rather awkward, but the rest of the band helped to make things easier for her, so it wasn't too too bad...I forget but I think the band thought Sherrie was a PITA. 

Edited September 7, 2021 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[Nicomo]

9 hours ago, Crisis said:

He was incredible, no doubt.  But allow me to geek out and say that Bodie was the best in my opinion.  No matter what was thrown at him, the kid never wavered.  He was a soldier through and through.

Stringer was probably my favorite, but that show truly was an ensemble cast. Omar was obviously the breakout character, but most “cop shows” we would have just spent the majority of our time with McNulty. The fact that it made both sides (police & criminals) so damn interesting, and even sympathetic, is just super rare. It really was kind of its own thing. 

[mfitz804]

51 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Stringer was probably my favorite, but that show truly was an ensemble cast. Omar was obviously the breakout character, but most “cop shows” we would have just spent the majority of our time with McNulty. The fact that it made both sides (police & criminals) so damn interesting, and even sympathetic, is just super rare. It really was kind of its own thing. 

Absolutely correct assessment. 

I just finished my Game of Thrones re-watch, and I think The Wire may be next. 

[Crisis]

Police, criminals, addicts, politicians, civilians, the dock, the schools, the media, literally every level of society in Baltimore was examined and explored and connected.  Nothing unbelievable, out of the ordinary, or inexplicable happened in the series.  And the best (or worst) part about the show was that it was meta af.  Word came down from the top and told them to wrap up the series before they could finish telling the whole story, like every case they were working on.  And it ended right where it began with a new cycle of faces in the same roles (Michael=Omar, Dukie=Bubbles, etc).  Nothing changed.

[Nicomo]

Hype

[mfitz804]

Just dropped my daughter off at her high school orientation. Those of you with young kids will soon see firsthand how quickly time goes. Enjoy every minute. 

 

[Crisis]

50 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Just dropped my daughter off at her high school orientation. Those of you with young kids will soon see firsthand how quickly time goes. Enjoy every minute. 

 

Today was supposed to be my oldest's first day at public school (he went to private kindergarten last year due to the pandemic and my wife being his teacher at that center) but the storm last week flooded it out his school and pushed the first day to Monday, which is now looking like it will be pushed to virtual for the first 2 or 3 weeks.  But, I suppose it could be good since it will delay the inevitable of my son seeing me cry like a baby when I put him on the bus for the first time.

[mfitz804]

9 minutes ago, Crisis said:

Today was supposed to be my oldest's first day at public school (he went to private kindergarten last year due to the pandemic and my wife being his teacher at that center) but the storm last week flooded it out his school and pushed the first day to Monday, which is now looking like it will be pushed to virtual for the first 2 or 3 weeks.  But, I suppose it could be good since it will delay the inevitable of my son seeing me cry like a baby when I put him on the bus for the first time.

Yeah, that is definitely a moment. But like I tell my wife every time she does the same thing (including today), he’ll be fine. And eventually so will you. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

1 hour ago, mfitz804 said:

Just dropped my daughter off at her high school orientation. Those of you with young kids will soon see firsthand how quickly time goes. Enjoy every minute. 

 

Mine starts high school next year.  And yes it goes by insanely frighteningly quickly.  She's now approaching 5' 8" and is looking more like a young woman everyday...but I can still see the kid, the youth.

The way I always put it as much as you enjoy who your kid is, there's those days where you'll miss who your kid was.  But yeah, enjoy what every stage has to offer, because soon they won't be in your life on a near-daily basis.  That first day when my daughter's off to college and not due to come back for many weeks...man that's going to be brutal.  

[SterioDesign]

I never noticed until now that Patrick Kane was in Madonna's video.  

[RunninWithTheDevil]

Slightly off-topic, but fellow graphic-designers, how fast would you get fired for thinking this was an appropriate image to create? I get the sentiment that they're all American-born, but jeez, read the room

 

 

[NJDevils1214]

1 hour ago, RunninWithTheDevil said:

Slightly off-topic, but fellow graphic-designers, how fast would you get fired for thinking this was an appropriate image to create? I get the sentiment that they're all American-born, but jeez, read the room

 

 

I don't find anything about it offensive, but at the very least it is really weird. 

[jagknife]

I watch this every year around this time, Kleenex warning in the spoiler

Spoiler

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/11505494

 

[Nicomo]

So I met a bunch of the View Askewniverse guys today a Horrorhound convention. I didn’t get a pic of Jason fvcking me in the ass like Sterio (lol), but I did get this really cool metal poster signed up. 
 

I was a little bummed I didn’t get to meet Paul Sorvino (I really wanted a signed picture of Paulie slicing the garlic), but apparently he canceled at the last moment, and one lady told me he’s in the ICU. Hopefully he makes it through whatever he’s dealing with. 

[jagknife]

4 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

So I met a bunch of the View Askewniverse guys today a Horrorhound convention. I didn’t get a pic of Jason fvcking me in the ass like Sterio (lol), but I did get this really cool metal poster signed up. 
 

 

I was a little bummed I didn’t get to meet Paul Sorvino (I really wanted a signed picture of Paulie slicing the garlic), but apparently he canceled at the last moment, and one lady told me he’s in the ICU. Hopefully he makes it through whatever he’s dealing with. 

That's an awesome get.

I'll be honest though, I thought Paul Sorvino died a little while ago until you confirmed he didn't....

[mfitz804]

3 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

So I met a bunch of the View Askewniverse guys today a Horrorhound convention. I didn’t get a pic of Jason fvcking me in the ass like Sterio (lol), but I did get this really cool metal poster signed up. 
 

So he just fvcked you in the ass and you didn’t get a picture? Lol. 

But seriously, that is really cool. Still one of my favorite movies of all time. I probably bought 50 copies for various friends I met while working in retail while in school. Kind of like “you have to watch this and see how accurate it is”. 

Nobody disagreed. 

The quotes on there are great, but anyone who ever worked any kind of retail knows “This job would be great without the fvcking customers”.

[Nicomo]

5 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

So he just fvcked you in the ass and you didn’t get a picture? Lol. 

But seriously, that is really cool. Still one of my favorite movies of all time. I probably bought 50 copies for various friends I met while working in retail while in school. Kind of like “you have to watch this and see how accurate it is”. 

Nobody disagreed. 

The quotes on there are great, but anyone who ever worked any kind of retail knows “This job would be great without the fvcking customers”.

Yeah, I definitely channeled my inner Randal from time to time when I worked at Blockbuster lol. I never spit water on anyone,  or ordered porn in front of children, but I was admittedly a bit of a snob when it came to what movies people rented. Despite all the annoying customers I do look back on that job fondly though. 

[Nicomo]

24 minutes ago, jagknife said:

That's an awesome get.

I'll be honest though, I thought Paul Sorvino died a little while ago until you confirmed he didn't....

Nope. And according to his IMDb he’s actually still working fairly regularly. At 82. 

[mfitz804]

35 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Yeah, I definitely channeled my inner Randal from time to time when I worked at Blockbuster lol. I never spit water on anyone,  or ordered porn in front of children, but I was admittedly a bit of a snob when it came to what movies people rented. Despite all the annoying customers I do look back on that job fondly though. 

You may never have done those things, but you understood.

I worked in retail from 1992 at age 15, basically straight through until I got my bar exam results in November 2001. Most of it was spent working in a shoe store. Became a junior assistant manager at age 19 or so, which meant I was allowed to carry keys and open and close. Had lots of fun, what happens in the stockroom stays in the stockroom, hitting on/picking up customers, etc. 

Also, had to point out whenever a customer was wearing a hairpiece in the following manner:

Me: How would you like toupee?

Customer (angrily): WHAT DID YOU SAY???

Me: You know, cash, credit card…

Customer always selected their payment method in hopes that their clever scalp disguise had not actually been detected and they just misheard me. Every time, and there were plenty. 

I definitely miss retail, all the time. 

 

[jagknife]

32 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

You may never have done those things, but you understood.

I worked in retail from 1992 at age 15, basically straight through until I got my bar exam results in November 2001. Most of it was spent working in a shoe store. Became a junior assistant manager at age 19 or so, which meant I was allowed to carry keys and open and close. Had lots of fun, what happens in the stockroom stays in the stockroom, hitting on/picking up customers, etc. 

Also, had to point out whenever a customer was wearing a hairpiece in the following manner:

Me: How would you like toupee?

Customer (angrily): WHAT DID YOU SAY???

Me: You know, cash, credit card…

Customer always selected their payment method in hopes that their clever scalp disguise had not actually been detected and they just misheard me. Every time, and there were plenty. 

I definitely miss retail, all the time. 

 

My favorite retail story was when I had just gotten picked up for my current job back in ‘12, but was working at sh!tstop then, so I knew the light was at the end of the tunnel. Some guy came in, flipped his sh!t on me about some stupid game system or another. He actually threatens to beat the sh!t out of me, I said let’s see what you’ve got…. He pops to attention, tosses a salute and says “army, special forces” so I returned it and rattled off where I knew I was going and made up what command I would be under. Never saw that “special forces” guy again, but I ended up getting what I rattled off 2 years later, so that was pretty funny.

[mfitz804]

2 minutes ago, jagknife said:

My favorite retail story was when I had just gotten picked up for my current job back in ‘12, but was working at sh!tstop then, so I knew the light was at the end of the tunnel. Some guy came in, flipped his sh!t on me about some stupid game system or another. He actually threatens to beat the sh!t out of me, I said let’s see what you’ve got…. He pops to attention, tosses a salute and says “army, special forces” so I returned it and rattled off where I knew I was going and made up what command I would be under. Never saw that “special forces” guy again, but I ended up getting what I rattled off 2 years later, so that was pretty funny.

My favorite moment was a pair of young ladies who told me that they couldn’t decide between them which one “gets” me, and do I think I could handle them both. 

Indeed. 

[jagknife]

12 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

My favorite moment was a pair of young ladies who told me that they couldn’t decide between them which one “gets” me, and do I think I could handle them both. 

Indeed. 

I had one that I dropped my number to on a whim

[Nicomo]

5 minutes ago, jagknife said:

I had one that I dropped my number to on a whim

If you didn’t get laid at least a couple times from working retail you were doing it wrong.

I pulled a couple from Blockbuster back in the day, and even one when I worked the meat counter at a supermarket. Which sets up the easiest pun of all time if Mfitz chooses to take it lol. 

[mfitz804]

4 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

If you didn’t get laid at least a couple times from working retail you were doing it wrong.

I pulled a couple from Blockbuster back in the day, and even one when I worked the meat counter at a supermarket. Which sets up the easiest pun of all time if Mfitz chooses to take it lol. 

Lol. 

Honestly, I did this all the time, with the customers and with my co-workers. From age 15-18. It was too easy. 

Then I met “the one”, not at work.