Around The World In A Day - A Look Back Review

I became a die-hard Prince fan upon seeing the video for '1999' on NBC's Friday Night Videos. The tatty lil' cable carrier we had in Port Orchard didn't bring us MTV until mid-1984, no matter how much we exclaimed and raged to the heavens that we indeed wanted our MTV in Port Orchard well before then. ANYWAY, the video for '1999' was a performance piece, Prince and his pre-Revolution band doing what they did on a purple lit stage. I dug the song, but I was also enthralled with Prince...he kind of looked like Michael Jackson, just funkier...and he played guitar...and unlike MJ, he had scantily clad hot chicks in his band on keyboards...and a white dude in hospital scrubs on keyboards as well...and a Mexican looking drummer even though the track was obviously recorded using a Linn drum machine...and a shirtless greased up bass player even though the bass was buried in the mix deeper than Jimmy Hoffa...and Dex Dickerson, by-far the coolest sidekick Prince ever had, on guitar. There was just something about the trench coat clad Prince that spoke to me.

After 1984's 'Purple Rain', I was a full-blown Prince fanatic. In retrospect, my obsession with Prince was a wee bit...embarrassing. I tried growing a Prince moustache throughout jr high and high school with little success. I looked more like Freddy Prinze than Prince. I even attempted to grow my hair like Prince's, but back then my hair grew big, not long...so again, more Freddie Prinze with a little Epstein from Welcome Back Kotter on the side. But enough about me...

1984's 'Purple Rain' catapulted Prince into the national and international spotlight. The movie and soundtrack were both wildly successful, the album moving in excess of 13 million units when all was said and done. As spring of 1985 approached, word leaked that a new Prince album was on the horizon. No one knew what to expect, but expectations were high.

Prince's follow up to 'Purple Rain', 'Around The World In A Day', was released on April 22nd, 1985. To say that 'ATWIAD' threw Prince's fans off would be an understatement. Only Weezer's 'Pinkerton' album has created the kind of furor and uproar in a fan community the way 'ATWIAD' split Prince's fan base that spring.

Rumor has it that Prince did a musical 180 from 'Purple Rain' to rid himself of Johnny Come Lately fans. Tired of the so-called 'Minneapolis Sound' that dominated '1999' and 'Purple Rain', it was believed that Prince wanted to branch out and try something new. That is all well and good, but I'm not buying that Prince purposely made an album to alienate a portion of his fan base. The reason this theory exists is that 'ATWIAD' is such a complete departure from everything else Prince had released to date. Gone were the horn tinged keyboards and chattering guitar licks, in were sitars, cellos, and Eastern percussion instruments. The radical departure from 'Purple Rain' has more to do with Prince's restless talent and his growing interest in folk and 60's era pop than it does a desire to cull his fanbase...which is exactly what happened as 'ATWIAD' struggled to do 1/7th the business its predecessor did.

The album opens up with the title track, an Eastern/psychedelic inspired meandering tune that exhorts the listener to 'open your heart, open your mind'. It is evident early on that 'ATWIAD' is not 'Purple Rain 2.0' as the instrumentation on this song could have come straight out of 'Ravi Shankar Inspired Beatles Tunes For Dummies'. In fact, most reviews I remember about this album upon release tried to make favorable comparisons of tracks from the record to songs from the Beatles catalog. That, like Mr. Fantastic, was a stretch.

Track 2 is 'Paisley Park', another mid-tempo wannabe psychedelic tune. Prince goes so far as to ape John Lennon's lyrics on this one (The girl on the seesaw is laughing/4 love is the color/This place imparts), attempting to recreate the vivid mental images from 'I Am The Walrus'. Looking back, it (all) seems so contrived and misses wildly lyrically. Melody wise 'Paisley Park' again conjures The Beatles psychedelic era, somewhat reminding me of 'Penny Lane', but crappier.

The next song is 'Condition Of The Heart', and the placement of this song points to one of the albums glaring weaknesses - track placement. A more apt song in the third slot would have been 'Raspberry Beret', Prince instead kills what little momentum the first two tracks builds up and derails the whole endeavor with a 6:46 ballad. On it's own, 'Condition Of The Heart' is one of Prince's better ballads. The instrumentation is sparse, the piano melody is gorgeous, as is Prince's sporadic acoustic guitar fills and his use of percussion. Prince's vocals are the epitome of loneliness, and his delivery of the line 'thinking about you driving me crazy' still gives me goosebumps. The song is one of the strongest on the album, but making it the third track on the record is still a puzzling decision. From a narrative and musical point of view, 'Condition Of The Heart' should follow track 4, 'Raspberry Beret'...

...and 'Raspberry Beret' was the big single off of 'ATWIAD' and one of Prince's best all-around songs. Equal parts pop, funk, and psychedelica, 'Raspberry Beret' is one of the few Prince songs from the 1980's that doesn't sound dated and forever locked in the rock hard purple amber of 'Purple Rain' or 'Let's Go Crazy'. While the song certainly received a ton of air play, and the video even more (why, hello there, Pat Smear!), it still sounds as good today as it did in 1985.

'Tambourine' is a complete and utter throwaway of a song, a tired double entendre with an annoying vocal and jittery rhythm track. Equally annoying is 'America', an attempt by Prince to be political. Unfortunately, Prince's take on Reagan's America is simultaneously cliched, naive, and just plain dumb. He was much more effective with 'Ronnie Talk To Russia' from the Controversy album. On 'America', Prince's lyrics are a sophomoric take on 'America The Beautiful', his thoughts on America in 1985. While other artists have made political statements using traditionally patriotic songs (most notably, Jimi Hendrix's version of 'The Star Spangled Banner), Prince's attempt falls flat with 'America'. Somewhere in this world exists a 21 minute version of this song that supposedly makes more sense musically and lyrically than the album cut. Side note - Prince would again dip his toes into political and social commentary on 'Sign O' The Times' and is much, much more effective...

The lush 'Pop Life' follows the disjointed clusterfarg that is tracks 5 & 6. Again, Prince takes a stab at social and political commentary, but unlike 'America' it works this time. Prince's delivery of certain lines is spot on perfect. The song failed to make a huge dent on the charts, but this is the second best track on the album after 'Raspberry Beret'.

Remember what I wrote regarding track sequencing? The two songs that end the album are a complete disaster...collapsing under gargantuan mountains of pretentiousness. 'The Ladder' is supposed to crystalize Prince's vision of spirituality and his quest for heaven and redemption...or something like that. What we are left with instead is a tepid track that manages to be self-indulgent, self-important, and boring all at once. While certainly more bombastic than 'The Ladder', album closer 'Temptation' almost plays like a caricature of a Prince song. With lyrics such as 'working my body with a hot flash of animal lust' one has to wonder if Prince was joking when he put pen to paper on this one. I would call the soliloquy at the end of the song nothing short of stupid if it weren't so ridiculous - "Silly man, that's not how it works...you have to want her for the right reasons...I do...You don't, now die!!!...No, no, let me go, let me go...I'm sorry, I'll be good this time, I promise...love is more important than sex...Now I understand, I have to go now...I don't know when I'll return, goodbye."

The last line sparked some talk that Prince was going to 'retire', maybe pull a Bob Dylan and disappear for a while and not tour or record. He of course reemerged in 1986 with 'Parade' and movie 'Under The Cherry Moon' (which needs its own retro review at some point).

'Around The World In A Day' is certainly not Prince's worst album, or even most disappointing as 'Come' and 'Emancipation' have those two spots on permanent lock down. However, 'ATWIAD' is a harbinger of things to come with Prince...for every great track you get three middling to gawd awful songs...and I'll always wonder why two of Prince's stronger b-sides, 'Hello' and 'She's Always In My Hair', were left off the album while 'Tambourine' and 'America' made the cut. Swapping out those songs takes 'ATWIAD' from mediocre to excellent.

Grading on a 5 churro scale, I give 'Around The World In A Day' a 2 churro rating.

And The Beat Goes On...

I can now add my electric razor to the list of items that have turned on me and/or vanished into thin air. As of today, I still can't find the water feature pump, the stove is still acting janky...at least the garage doors are behaving, for now at least.

The electric razor disappearing is particularly troubling as I normally keep it in the glove box of the car. That way, on mornings I'm running late, I can grind it into my face as I careen down the hill in my car on the way to the train. I can't stand being unshaven, even on weekends, as stubble makes my face look fatter than it already is. Not having my electric razor as a backup means I have to be on top of my game and wake up earlier to shave my puffy face...

Maddy and I made a Sam's Club trip over the weekend. The Beatles 'Day Tripper' was playing and I noticed Maddy had her 'thinking' expression going full bore. I asked what was on her mind and our conversation went like this:

Me - 'Maddy, whatcha thinking about?'
Maddy - 'This song, it's called 'Day Tripper'.
Me - 'Yep, this is 'Day Tripper'...
Maddy - 'Why did The Beatles write a song about grandma?'
Me - 'What do you mean? I don't think this song is abo...'
Maddy - 'Grandma doesn't like to drive at night, she has to take her trips in the car before the sun goes down. That means she's a day tripper, just like in the song.'
Me - 'I've never thought about this song in that way, that's an interesting interpretation.'
Maddy - 'Yeah, kids hear things differently, papa. You should listen to what we have to say.'

And with that, we arrived at Sam's Club...and I was once again amazed at Maddy's take on the world around her.

The entire family made a trip to IKEA over the weekend as well. I've called IKEA the WalMart for the hipster doofus set in the past, and I will continue to do so. The only thing differentiating IKEA's cheap imported inventory from WalMart's cheap imported inventory is perception of country of origin. Does anyone think that IKEA would be as popular with the ironic t-shirt and skinny jeans crowd if they realized the BILLY was probably manufactured in China alongside the WalMart furniture? I swear, even though IKEA posts country of origin, most of their customers believe their press board shelves were being manufactured by happy blue-eyed Swedes and not Chinese laborers. It is this perception that allows IKEA a pass from the same people that rail against WalMart and their 'cheap, Chinese' furniture. Ignorance is indeed bliss.

Anyhoo, IKEA - we needed three more chairs as the girls are done with the little kid table they have been eating at. Maddy and Jossy are tall enough to sit in normal chairs (well, Jossy is close...) and Katelyn can't deal with sitting at the kid table by herself. We had purchased chairs from IKEA four years ago to match the Pottery Barn table The Better Half received as a bonus from work. TBH could have purchased chairs from Pottery Barn as well, but PB wanted $160.00 per chair while IKEA had similar chairs at 1/3 the price. So, we bought two...I guess we thought the girls would never sit there or something. Well, the girls are all grown and we bought two more chairs to match the original chairs and a junior chair for Katelyn. The chairs are of decent quality, but assembling the junior chair took about 20 minutes, mainly due to the piss poor instructions and illustrations and partly due to the girls wanting to 'help' put it together.

Navigating the IKEA labyrinth to get to the chairs was excruciating. Not only was their always a throng of shoppers in the way, the slack-jawed employees seemed to be mindlessly milling about. It was bizarre...they just wandered in groups of 2-3 down the aisles with no particular place to go. By the time we reached the self-serve warehouse to get the chairs, I was seething, especially since the chairs we wanted were not readily available on the warehouse shelves. I tried tracking an employee down, but they all disappeared on me so I had to take matters into my own hands. I scaled the shelves and found the boxes I needed, shoved them onto the rollers, and placed them in the cart. All of this was more or less a gross violation of IKEA policy, but I was ready to get out of there...so it was either I take self-serve a step further than policy dictate, or I take swings at random people out of pure rage. I think we are all better off that I chose option one.

Happy Memorial Day to all those that have served and appreciation to the fallen. I'm at work, watching as 18 wheeler after 18 wheeler pulls into Qwest Field with U2's gear for their upcoming show....Bono's ego will be trucked in separately later on this week...I hear that's a double trailer rig.

Shave And A Haircut

So, what does buying at the peak of the housing bubble and selling into a downward spiral look like? Take a gander at this house here:

http://www.redfin.com/WA/Auburn/5727-Francis-Ct-SE-98092/home/3001309

The sellers purchased this home from the original owners in 2005 for $540,000 and made a nice profit. The second owners (or the bank, this was probably a foreclosure) just sold for $339,000, a $200,000 loss. That loss is going to leave a mark in someone's books...

Still think it's a great time to buy a house? Think again - we are no where near a housing bottom, analysts are revising calls for us hitting bottom this summer to as far out as 2016.

Remember folks, a house is not an investment, it's shelter...and it's about damn time those in the lending and housing industry start treating it as such.

Thompson Evans Square Are Not Detective

Yep, it's been a while. I have no excuses.

Anyway - last week was an interesting one. On Monday night I took The Better Half to see Sara Evans at the Auburn Performing Arts Center. I had no idea that Auburn had a performing arts center and even less of an idea as to why someone of Sara Evans stature would play a gig there. It turns out that the Auburn Performing Arts Center is at Auburn High School. The theater isn't quite as nice as the theater at South Kitsap High School, but I haven't stepped foot in that theater since 1993. For all I know SKHS remodeled the place. Have they? Hmmmm...

So yeah, Sara Evans. When I first heard about the show I thought the radio ad said that the Thompson Twins were opening for Sara. I said to myself, 'Sweet! I hope they play 'We Are Detective' 'cause that song is totally underrated." Yes, well...having the Thompson Twins open for Sara Evans makes less sense than Sara Evans playing a gig at Auburn High School. The Thompson Twins did not open the show, Thompson Square did and they did not play 'We Are Detective'. Who the hell is Thompson Square? They are an adorable husband & wife team of singer/songwriters. Their debut album peaked at #3 on the country charts and the single 'Are You Gonna Kiss Me' hit #1.

Thompson Square played most of the material from their debut album. It was an acoustic set with Keifer Thompson on guitar as the only musical accompaniment. They also tossed in a random cover of Tom Petty's 'I Won't Back Down' that was, of course, dedicated to the troops overseas. What I really liked about Thompson Square is that they haven't been spit-shined to an annoying shimmering gloss like so many other country acts. They were a little rough around the edges and they have managed to maintain their personalities as a couple and as performers. If I ever see them again I'm hoping that they refuse to be put through the Nashville Image Make Over Machine and hold on to that organic quality.

The highlight of Thompson Square's set was two ballads - the first being 'Glass' off of their album, the second being a cover of Bruce Springsteen's 'Brilliant Disguise' that was served up with an extra spoonful of poignancy due to Keifer and Shawna Thompson's obvious affection for each other...singing a song about marital distrust may seem an odd choice, but TS nailed it...and Shawna Thompson has a crystal clear and emotive voice. She adds the spark to some of the deeper album cuts that would come across as Open Mic quality without her.

I have two things to say about Sara Evans: She is absolutely stunning to look at live (she cleans up nicely for photo shoots as well), and she is a complete and total professional. A lot of performers would mail in a small gig at a high school theater, but not Sara...she didn't belt out a whole set (I likened the show to that of an MLB pitcher working on a strict pitch count), but she didn't cut corners either. She ran through all of her big hits, including 'Stronger' and 'Suds In The Bucket', and her band was comprised of top notch musicians (when the lead guitarist ripped off one flawless solo after another, Del McCroury's 'Nashville Cats' ran through my head) although the second guitarist looked like an unfrozen Geico caveman. That caveman comment didn't detract from the performance, but it needed to be said. So I said it.

I think the best part about Sara's set was that it felt very spontaneous and intimate. She gave off the impression that she wasn't sure what she agreed to when she boarded the plane in Alabama earlier that morning and arrived in Sea-Tac (via a layover in Houston) 8 hours later. She seemed a little loopy and tired, but like I said, she was nothing but professional...Sara was also engaged with the audience, told some funny personal stories, and appeared to have a good time. Her set was short and sweet, but I don't think anyone left feeling cheated...

...except for the row of very special people that sat behind The Better Half and I. Now, this was about as straightforward a concert review as I have ever written. There was no alcohol poisoning Tom foolery , no Honey Bucket episodes, no near fist fight ballyhoo. Caveman comments aside, I've kept this on target...but I have to say something about the folks behind us. When I say 'very special people', I mean very special people. They tried to sing through the whole show, but no one knew the words...I take that back, one of them knew the word 'stronger' was prominently featured in the song of that word in the title...the problem was that he sang about a beat and a half behind Sara Evans...and this was a small venue, so during quiet moments in a song like 'A Little Bit Stronger' this very off key and LOUD voice would be singing a verse or chorus that already ended. It was...distracting...and when the show ended with no encore I thought there was going to be a very special riot. The aspiring vocalist began rattling off Sara Evans songs that weren't performed and he was upset...so upset that I thought he was going to take a swing at his chaperon. The Better Half and I had to hoof it out of our section before someone got hurt.

The only other incidents that kind of bothered me involved new parents that brought an infant and a toddler to the gig. Both kids unleashed unholy wails of displeasure throughout the show. At one point I thought the sound man was going to ask them to leave...oh, and Jake Locker was in attendance. He got all kinds of applause from the crowd. I was kind of hoping they would ask him to hand the mic to Sara Evans just so I could giggle when he tossed it over her head or sent it skipping across the stage by her feet. That would have been awesome...but not as awesome as it would have been if Thompson Square broke out a cover of 'We Are Detective'. I love that song!

What's Old Is New...

I broke down and bought a new lawnmower. I've never had to shop for a mower before. The one I had been using for the last 8 years was a hand-me-down...the one before that was a gift to The Better Half that we left with the old house. So, a couple of weekends ago Katelyn and I moseyed on down to Lowe's and I picked out a lawnmower...a red little number that isn't self-propelled...with absolutely no help from anyone that worked the Garden Center at Lowe's. I've become accustomed to no one knowing how to do their jobs anymore though, it's part of the consumer experience these days. From the orange vested dopes at Home Depot to the blue polo shirt wearing maroons at Best Buy, nobody can answer questions pertaining to the area of the store they are assigned to. They may as well be geraniums, at least then they would function in an ornamental fashion.

The mower not being self-propelled has been an ongoing source of controversy in our house. The Better Half, after finding out that the new mower was All-Me powered, said, 'You're in your forties, you should make life easier on yourself, not harder.' Yes, well. Here's the deal - the day I can't push a fargin lawnmower around my yard is the day I hire some punk teenage neighbor kid to do the job. I'll sit on the patio with a tumbler of bourbon in my hands and point out all the spots he/she missed...then I'll chase them off the lawn.

By the way, I'm not 'in my forties', I just started my forties...big difference.

Easter was a joy. The night before we met up with our neighbors for some snacks and drinks while the kids decorated eggs and participated in general mayhem. It was the kind of night that makes me happy that I live in the 'burbs with people I enjoy spending time with. Some people become physically ill when the thought of living in a suburb crosses their mind, but I love it. I get enough city life during the work week.

We went to church Easter Sunday and then off to my folks out on the peninsula for dinner and what have you. The Pescado brother was there as well, and it's always nice for the girls to spend time with him.

Lessee, what else has been going on...every item I own that is on the electrical grid has turned on me. The revolt has been subtle, but the electron powered bastards are out to kill me slowly but surely with their little mind eff games. First, the pump to the water feature has gone missing. It was in the garage all winter long, but when I went to find it the damn thing had vanished into the ether. It is not hiding in the shed or the cabinets, it has literally disappeared. The oven has been acting up as well, the interior light turning on and off randomly. That's kind of...creepy...images of Carole Ann in the TV come to mind. Yesterday, my garage door opener made a break for it as well, joining the Andy Dufresne-like water pump in Zihuatanejo, Mexico or something. Earlier this evening, the smaller of the two garage doors decided to literally jump the rails. I had to spend 15 minutes with a pair of pliers, a rubber mallet, and a can of WD-40 to beat the garage door into submission. I fully expect the car to go full blown 'Christine' on me tomorrow on my drive to the train.

Speaking of the train, I forgot to tap my Orca pass on the card reader this morning...a morning the fare enforcement officers were checking for that sort of thing. I'm not sure why I forgot to tap my pass, perhaps because I was running late after having my world turned upside down due to the missing garage door opener. Either way, I forgot to tap and my card pinged the officers magic wand. I had to break out my license so he could snap a photo of it and put me in 'the database'. That's how my day started. A literal giant of a man with Herman Munster sized feet reading me the riot act for not following Sounder protocol. How did it end? I used the off limits due to construction restrooms on our floor at work before heading to the train. When I exited, the CEO of the company was standing outside the door checking out the progress of the build out. That was awkward. At least I tapped my Orca pass boarding the train for the ride home.

I keep promising to post about Prince's 'Around The World In A Day' album, but I keep failing to do so. My three faithful readers are quickly learning what my kids figured out a while ago...I say about of crap that doesn't come true. Anyhoo, I'll post my retrospective review...eventually. Until then, His Royal Badness found himself in foreclosure recently. Turns out he owed back payments to the tune of $368k, so the bank foreclosed. The sheriff removed the property from the auction block when a check for the full amount of the mortgage was received by the lender. I guess he got an advance for all those upcoming gigs at the Staples Center.

It has been an interesting couple of years for Prince financially and otherwise. The music he has been releasing has been mediocre at best. He has also made some dubious financial decisions. Then there were the reports that Prince was living the life of a drug eating gimp because he refused double hip replacement surgery. All those years humpin' his amps and what have ya took their toll.

My one desire as a Prince fan is for him to lose some of the warmed over funk and put out a straight ahead hard rockin' album or a combo of the rock/funk/pop that made him a star in the first place. The self-indulgent nonsense that he's churning out is just tedious.

That's all I've got for now...oh, Bin Laden is dead...