Sweetney™

No hell below us, above us only sky

Allow me to introduce you to this week's Flashback prompt: Where were you when...? Our parents' generation can recall exactly what they were doing when JFK was shot - it's a cultural moment that defines a generation. What big cultural event occurred during your childhood/youth that you recall clearly, if juvenile-ly? What was its impact on you? Oh the possibilities. I remember the Challenger explosion, when Reagan was shot, and when MTV, CNN, and HBO each launched. I remember the oil crisis of the 70s, when the Berlin Wall fell in the 80s, and vividly recall fighting to stay awake...

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Kid A

Her: Hey! Don't fast forward through commercials! I LIKE the commercials! Me: They're just trying to sell you stuff, M. Stuff we don't need. Her: HUSSSSSSH! HUSH, LITTLE BABY! Capitalism: 1, Parenting: 0. (Speaking of capitalism: Awesome Radiohead kids shirt and others yonder.) (We also got the Beastie Boys tee.)

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A few minutes with Gen-X Andy Rooney

Listen, you people with the bands, making up the dumb band names up? You need to cut that shit out. Perhaps I'm alone in this, but lately it seems to me as if there's some kind of contest going on for who can come up with the most ridiculous, dorktastic rock band name of them all, and that increasingly the competition is getting -- as Tyra Banks would say -- FIERCE. To wit: on my most recent mix (available for your downloading pleasure in ye olde sidebar), I have songs by Okkervil River, Vampire Weekend, The Arcade Fire, and Architecture...

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Oh hai, I upgraded mah website

SO! After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, including a brief period yesterday during which I seriously considered hunting down one specific "Customer Service" (SO airquoted) representative from my old web host and cutting his heart out with a pen knife, VOILA! Welcome to Sweetney 2.0, rev 3 (or whatever), now hosted on TypePad. I know, it doesn't look much different. Which was kind of the point, actually. But then, durr, why did I move to TypePad after four years of self-hosting, you ask? Isn't that sort of a downgrade, you query? Am I just some kind of pussy, retreating...

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Music to scrape your car's windshield by

It's been a long time since I've posted a new mix here for your listening enjoyment, mostly because the voices in my head have been demanding showtunes, NOTHING BUT SHOWTUNES, which turns out to be something of an impediment to mix-creation. But after many long hours of negotiation, and the application of a sturdy tinfoil hat, I've managed to quell my internal demons just long enough to bring you the Sweetney Winter 2007-2008 Mixtacular, a collection of some of my favorite tunes from the past year. Some of these songs are also M's favorites, which she's bludgeoned me with over...

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Transformers Best Day Ever!

Subtitle: This Little Miss Sunshine goes to ELEVEN. Yeah, I'm probably going to hell for this... but I couldn't resist sharing M's first musical composition. No longer content to simply cover “Umbrella” and other songs, she's breaking out with a little original guitar-based rock. And the lyrics? PRICELESS INCOHERENCE. Optimus Prime says: “No sacrifice is too great in the service of freedom.... Well, except for listening to that song. That might in fact be too great a sacrifice. Come to think of it, you know what? FUCK FREEDOM, I'm outta here.”

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What's the point of having kids if you can't publicly embarrass them?

I mean, isn't that one of life's greatest joys -- the humiliation of one's own children? They are, after all, simply human-shaped repositories of comedy gold. For example: For better or worse, she's just picked up on Hanna Montana being, like, THE BEST FREAKIN' THING ON PLANET EARTH, so I'm guessing this might be the first in a series of fabulous musical numbers. Try to contain your enthusiasm.

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