I was 15 years old when My So-Called Life was on TV, exactly the same age as its main character, Angela.  I remember watching it as it originally aired on ABC and becoming more and more obsessed with the show.  I really felt like it was like watching my own life in so many ways...  except I don't have an annoying little sister, just an aggravating older brother.

The parents are truly exactly like my parents, the friends really are like my friends from high school, especially Sharon, Ricky and Brian-- I didn't have my own Rayanne until college.  Everyone has had a Jordan Catalano in their life to some degree, let's face it.

Anyway, so the show has just been reissued on DVD and I am having the best time watching and reliving it all.   I guess it's been about 2 years since I watched any of the 19 episodes, and this DVD set has all kinds of extras the other one didn't.  The day I got the new box set I eagerly watched every extra (minus the commentaries as of yet). 

There's a recent interview with Claire Danes (Angela) and she has this weird air about her.  She seems unnaturally poised or something, and her perfectly coiffed layered blond hair stands in stark contrast to her fire engine red stick straight hair back when she played Angela.  She seems miles away from Angela, and I guess she should since that was 13 or so years ago.  In a way though, I still feel often like that kid I was in high school, and Claire, despite admitting to sharing many characteristics with the fictional Angela, seems not only to have moved waaaaay beyond her 15 year old self, but also seems determined in her speaking on the DVDs to prove it to be so.  Maybe a lot of people come up to her in the street and still expect her to BE Angela.  That really would get old.  I'm glad she's agreed to be on the new DVDs at all.  It was an interesting experience to see her now, speaking about what transpired so long ago.

Naomi
9 years employment
Promotions Diva

ME:  I love learning about what has formed people's musical taste.  What kind of music were your parents listening to when you were growing up?

NS: I can't tell you how many Santana concerts I've been to. During my toddler years we listened to the good stuff. My mom was all about salsa, Banda and Freddy Fender. My pops fancied himself to be somewhat of a Pachuco, so it was all about the oldies! Later, in their quest to become more Americanized, we were subjected to the likes of Juice Newton and Sammy Hagar.  Then my parents got divorced and my dad thought he was the Urban Cowboy, so it became all country all the time during our visits, which wasn't so bad. But Ronnie Milsap can be a bit depressing when you're a kid.

I know you have 2 older sisters.  What were they into listening to? Did they have any influence on your listening tastes?

Hmmm, good question. They're 9 & 10 years older than me, so we had very different taste. They mostly listened to rock and metal, but the oldest used to get down back in the day to some disco and soul (let's just say that we spent a few nights working out routines to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack).  The other one was more into the punk classics. I remember when I was 6 my sisters battled out the stereo time between Journey's Escape and the Adolescents. There was no space for me, until I discovered the misunderstood world of teenage angst music. I was sure that The Smiths and The Three O-Clock were writing songs for me. I dyed my hair and shaved my head, only to become the butt of all jokes at the dinner table. 

Who was the first artist you became obsessed with, that really got you into music?

This is really creepy.

Linda S. Stein, ex wife of Seymour Stein, the head of Sire Records (Morrissey, Madonna, Talking Heads, etc), was found dead in her ultra ritzy NYC apartment on Tuesday.  She was bludgeoned to death.  No one knows why she was killed or who killed her.


Linda (on the left) was a manager of the Ramones and a major player in the 70s NYC rock scene.  Just a few weeks ago I randomly saw her profiled on some cable show about high end real estate, as she had become a high rollin' "real estate agent to the stars" (like Billy Joel and Sting) -- it seems really strange that someone would kill her.  I mean, they must have somehow gotten past all the security in her high class building and waited for her in her own apartment.  Freaky.  If the mystery ever gets solved, I will post what happened here.  But something weird is afoot.

Wooden Shjips are, quite simply, my favorite local band.  They have really got it all right.  They've got it right in sound, melody, musicianship, energy, independence, intelligence and gentlemanly-ness (very important).

They have a dense, heavy, fuzz filled sound that nonetheless still reverberates with hooks and energy, and its at their fantastic live shows that they show off this sound at its peak.  They have it stripped down to just the right basic elements with nothing remotely computerized (thank god!).  Those who speak and judge quickly may lazily label them "stoner rock".   Have you ever gone to see a "stoner rock" band where they busted out a trumpet?  Yes, the musicians lock together in repetitive, tantalizing riffs, and yes they have big amps, but the moral of the story here is although we do happen to live in a hipster- approved "stoner rock" time, didn't your mom ever teach you to not judge a book by its cover?


This band is far too smart and skilled to be labeled by simpletons.  They started off their recording career by literally giving away a 10" and a 7" to anyone that happened to find them at Aquarius Records, or anyone that would listen.  Imagine that, a San Francisco band, a ROCK band, no less (It's a rare breed here, don't know if you'd heard.), who care more about building an audience of listeners than making money?  Wooden Shjips' first show was a free show at Cafe Du Nord.  Again, they used their sound and their songs and their mysteriousness to build word of mouth support that packed the room.  Their second show ever was opening up for recently recuperated 13th Floor Elevators' Roky Erikson!  They've parlayed all this into a recently released full length, self titled record on Holy Mountain and they just got back from playing at CMJ.   One of the record's tracks was featured in the giveaway CD in a recent issue of Mojo magazine.  They got a write up in David Fricke's section in Rolling Stone.  They released a single on Sub Pop.  Not bad for less than a year's time since that first show.  A little intrigue and all the skills to back it all up was all it took.

Last night I watched some of the Johnny Cash Show DVDs, which just came out and from what I saw are completely fantastic!  My favorite performance is by Mr. Ray Charles.  He adds some soul to "Ring of Fire" and it's fantastic.  Check it out here:



Isn't that amazing? I just wish people were still making TV talk shows as daring and intelligent as Johnny Cash's. At least we have the DVDs now to remind us how things were.  Hopefully sometime very soon when I have watched the whole offering, I will have a more thorough review of The Johnny Cash Show!  I couldn't resist putting Ray up now though.