Getting the party started tonight at 6:15 at the Locust Rendezvous, where the Jams look to keep the ball rolling. Then we move to Black Sheep at 8 p.m. Music round last night was a lot of fun, and yes it covers several genres, so it should keep the playing field fairly even.
We are still on for Fall Slam on Saturday, October 17th at the East Falls Marketplace. Kickoff will be 5 p.m. Should be a lot of fun. There is a free beer tasting going on beforehand, so feel free to swing by early. It is also across the street from Laurel Hill Cemetery. If you’ve never been, be sure to check it out. Unless cemeteries freak you out like they do the Lovely Ginger.
Hey kids, remember to get your votes in on Donovansfault.com, so we can determine a first and second place finisher. (We’ll start up again in October). Voting concludes tomorrow at noon.
The singer of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” was the first black teenage pop idol. As with so many child stars, his life was full of tragedy. He was married three times, developed a heroin habit by the age of 15, and was dead at age 25. He would be turning 67 today.
Last day to get a suggestion in for Donvoansfault.com. Send your suggestions to me. For those who have already sent them in and had them posted, get your friends to vote. Highest score wins a $50 gift certificate!
I just saw Road House for the first time. Road House is not one of the greatest films I have ever seen, but it is certainly one of the most amazing films I’ve ever seen. It is one of those rare films that is so unintentionally insane that you wonder if maybe it wasn’t unintentional.
Patrick Swayze is Dalton, a big time bouncer with a Zen approach who is hired to come to clean up a crazy bar in a small town called Jasper. It has all the makings of a “flashy big city guy moves to small town and slowly falls in love with the folksy ways of the natives, while learning a little something about himself along the way” kind of film. It isn’t. It is, again, sheer insanity, a film whose eccentricities keep you glued to the screen. There is a blind musician, a bad guy who hits the brakes on his dirtbike just long enough to laugh maniacally, boots with razor blade tips, and boobs. Lots of boobs. But don’t worry, ladies, the director (Penn State grad Rowdy Herrington) wanted to make a film that appealed to all audiences, so there are lots of scenes with a chiselled Patrick Swayze with his shirt off, including an awkwardly long scene of a greased down Swayze doing yoga in the yard while “The Bad Guy” Brad Wesley watches from his house across the lake. (Swayze and his arch enemy lived across a small lake from each other.)
One thing the town of Jasper is short on is an effective police force. Despite numerous knife fights at the Double Deuce, no officer ever makes an appearance. Despite several explosions, there are no investigations. When a Bigfoot truck destroys an auto dealer, there are no questions asked by the local authorities. Even after Dalton (spoiler alert) kills a man with his bare hands, no police show up to ask him any questions. Jasper truly is a vigilante town.
It is also a small town with a hot doctor. Needless to say, despite their apparent differences, the hot blonde doctor who wears short skirts to work and the tough guy bouncer fall in love. Or at least lust, despite the pain she must have been the morning after (spoiler alert!) having sex against a jagged stone wall. The love story endures its ups and downs, as the doctor doesn’t really approve of her boyfriend ripping another mans jugular vein out of his neck (women can be like that). But after Dalton proves his love by killing several men by more traditional means, she falls in love with him all over again. Love can be funny sometimes.
The film also had one of my favorite taglines ever: The dancing’s over. Now it gets dirty. I am not making that up. Another interesting note is that two of the stars of the film also starred in the Big Lebowksi. Sam Elliot, who starred as Wade in Road House, was the Stranger in Lebowski, while Ben Gazzara (Brad) starred as Jackie Treehorn in Lebowski.
The writing in the film is delightfully awful, and one has to wonder if some of the writers maybe one day moved on to writing for Silk Stockings. If you have not seen this film, it qualifies as a MUST SEE. I am giving it a B+, so brilliantly bad that it’s great. PREVIOUSLY: JGT reviews 12 Angry Men.
#1. Steak Em Up. They are just straight rolling through the competition. The Bards desperately needs a nerd infusion to challenge these guys. Last week #1
#2. The Jams. One H away from perfection, they have now won three in a row at the Vous and 6 of the last 8. Last week #2
#3. L. Ron Hubbard’s Diabetics. Not a lot of movement at the top this week, as all of the favorites took care of business. Last week #3
#4. The Ear: Not Your Typical Orifice. They add one new team member and suddenly go from cellar dweller to powerhouse. The new guy is either a genius or adept at hiding a Blackberry. Last week #4
#5. Duane’s World. Finally, the World gets off the schnide and records a win at the Black Sheep. This is perhaps the streakiest team in quizzo. Will this win start a hot streak? Last week #7
#6. Eschaton/Satan’s Minions. Different team name, same result: 2nd Place finishes at Black Sheep and Ugly American. Last week NR
#7. Lambda. Finally emerge from the depths of the earth to finish 2nd at O’Neals. There are rumors of them coming after the bounty this week. A win over Steak Em Up could send this team rocketing up the charts. Last week NR
#8.Unusual Suspects. A third place finish at the Black Sheep keeps them on the charts, but they’ll have to do better this week to stay there. Last week #6
#9. Quiz On Your Face. This team is like the Dodgers of the 40s and 50s; they’d a won a ton if it wasn’t for the Yankees, and these guys woulda won a ton if it wasn’t for the Jams. Last week: NR
#10. Why’s John’s Rum Gone. Only two of them played this week, but they still medaled. That keeps them in the Top 10. Last week #10.
Thomas Crapper turns 173 today (he doesn’t look a day over 135). Crapper probably has more rumors and innuendo swirling around him than any other plumber in the world. For one, there are many who believe that he invented the flush toilet. Not true. This from snopes:
Although Thomas Crapper took out nine plumbing patents between 1881 and 1896, none of these patents was for the “valveless water-waste preventer” he is often credited with having invented. The first patent for a siphonic flush was taken out by Joseph Adamson in 1853, eight years before Crapper started his plumbing business.
Ok, but what about the fact that the word “crap” comes from Thomas Crapper? That has to be true, right? Alas, no. This from the online etymology dictionary. crap: (n.), from one of a cluster of words generally applied to things cast off or discarded (e.g. “weeds growing among corn” (1425), “residue from renderings” (1490s), 18c. underworld slang for “money,” and in Shropshire, “dregs of beer or ale”), all probably from Middle English (1100-1500 a.d.).crappe “grain that was trodden underfoot in a barn, chaff”
