There he is, he of the nearly fatal sizzurp addiction, stomping all over the American Flag in front of a crowd of excited onlookers in New Orleans. ‘Lil Wayne, the sometimes incarcerated rapper known as “Wheezy”, stirred up a mess of trouble for himself this week during a shoot for the video for his new tune “God Bless America”, when he was filmed standing on the greatest symbol of this incredible country.
What is it about someone who lives in, and enjoys great riches derived from, this country and then insists on trampling on the few representations we have of the values we as a nation have tried to live up to? Can we not all agree that, in general, we have a pretty good thing going here? It’s not like there’s a real chance that you’ll be beheaded today for daring to express your opposition to the ruling party. There are, I would guess, an awful lot of people in Syria right now who would appreciate the opportunity to lead half the life of the one the purple drank swilling douche is so miserable about.
I get it. He’s trying to sell downloads. He wants you to be pissed, and me to talk about and download it. And maybe you don’t care? Is the photo above, as some always say, the very representation of the freedom we Americans are blessed to express every day? Or is it a perfect representation of the kind of thankless, piece of dung users this country is more and more populated by every minute?
I’ll take the latter, thanks. If you like living in this country, and have been fortunate enough to make enough money here to roll around in your Escalade, downing sizzurp til you end up in coma, I think you owe the rest of us the respect of a tiny bit of decent treatment of the flag that thousands have died fighting for. If not, you could always visit Syria, or any other non democratic nation for that matter, and find out how the music video shoot with their nation’s flag on the ground goes over.
We covered the story today about Sarah Thomas, the woman *slated* to become the first NFL referee. She’s 39, a mother of two, and has had a few career notables thus far, including the following: Continue reading →
We are approaching six months since the devastating shootings at Newtown Elementary School, and, in that limited time frame, it is clear that American educators have completely lost their minds. I’m not sure if it is fear, inability to think clearly, lack of common sense, or worse, some kind of agenda, but what happened here this week in The Commonwealth in the tipping point of lunacy.
Mieke Crane of Palmer, Ma. was told on Monday that her kindergartener son wouild have to serve a detention Tuesday and would face suspension from school. His horrendous crime against humanity? Bringing a Lego gun the size of a quarter on the school bus. Thank god he didn’t bring a Lego lightsaber with him on the bus, or he’d be rotting away in isolation at Gitmo right now. Or at Supermax with the Unabomber.
School officials said the other children on the bus were “traumatized”. Really? By a Lego gun? Haven’t most of those kids played with, or at least seen, one of these killing machines before? The snack pack of pudding they had in their backpack was ten times the size of this “weapon of mass destruction”, I hardly think they were traumatized.
This is another in the long list of silly actions by the people we pay to teach our kids how to read, how to write, and how to download games off the internet. Whether it’s a water pistol, a Pop-Tart chewed in the shape of a gun, or the ever horrifying “pointed finger gun”, there is at least an educator a week who throws a kid out of school, or threatens to do so, because they can’t bring themselves to analyze the situation and use common sense.
Or is it perhaps something more sinister that leads to these rediculous situations recurring? Do most of our educators believe that a child who plays with a Lego gun, or a water pistol, or an air soft rifle, eventually become school shooters? Sadly, I think that’s the answer. How else do you explain grown men and women, who can’t look at Lego gun the size of a quarter and determine that there is no threat or “trauma” there?
Most children who play with toy guns don’t go on to be school shooters. And any teacher, or Principal, or Superintedent who thinks so, should rethink their career choice. Lego weapons don’t kill people, insane immoral criminals do. And terrifying a kindergartener who brought a toy to school doesn’t do anything to prevent school shootings, all it does it is show what a small, anti-gun agenda you have. We get it. Now get back to doing what you are supposed to be doing, helping a 5 year old learn how to finger paint.
Boston sports fans are passionate. That we know. We are loyal (until you leave the team), and we will stop at nothing to defend the activities of our beloved players. We also have no problem ripping on what other teams/cities do that might be seen as going against Boston, loudly proclaiming, “that would NEVER HAPPEN HERE!’ Continue reading →
Because I have the phone contact list of a major media mogel, I was able to get Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphy’s on the phone today to talk about their new benefit EP for Marathon victims. Here’s what he said:
How did the duet with Bruce Springsteen, “Rose Tattoo”, come together: We knew Bruce was a guy who has a big place for his heart for Boston, alot of people that work for him are from the area and his son went to school here. I didn’t want to bother him, so our manager asked his manager and his manager said he couldn’t do it because he was busy. But then his manager came back the next day and said “surprise, surprise he’ll do it”
Did you record it together or exchange vocals digitally: We were at Coachella and we sent the song to him, and he ended up laying down his vocals the day he was leaving for a norwegian tour.
Is it hard for a singer, even if it’s Bruce, to do that without the band there: the engineer said he knew the song and did it in one or two takes
For those who don’t know, how did the band’s relationship with Bruce begin: He first came to see us about 9 years ago. His son, Evan, was a fan, so thank you Evan. He came to the show and we struck up a friendship. Now, he shows up when we’re in Jersey or New York. We’ve played with him on stage and as you know, he’s played with us. It’s a mutual like of each other’s music and we’ve become friends.
All of the proceeds from the sale of the EP go to victims: All the proceeds! Believe it, or not, even Apple and ITunes have waived their fees, which is cool. We have already raised 250 or 300,000 through the concert and tee shirt sales, which we are starting to distribute so this should raise even more.
Where were you on April 15th: I was in Santa Cruise, California on tour, and it was my birthday. I looked at my phone saw 20 text messages and I thought they were birthday wishes. Then I read them and realized what had happened. There’s a moment of disbelief and then concern because my family and kids were at game, and I couldn’t reach them. I didn’t know if they had gone to watch the finish after the Sox game. Plus, McGreevy’s is down there so all that goes through your head. It’s a surreal feeling to be on the other side of the country and you’re so close to so many people there. It’s horrible but it was very cool to see the support on other side of the country. People had signs every night and a compassion and desire to help.
Download the EP for $1.29 on ITunes and all the proceeds go to Marathon victims via the Claddagh fund.
I’d like to get into current TV shows. I’d like to feel that week to week anticipation of the next episode. I’d like to suffer through the season break… waiting in agony from one season’s cliffhanger to the next season’s premiere. But… I don’t. I’m a creature of habit and repetition. I watch the same thing… over and over… and over… and over… and over again. Occasionally, I might even consider flopping down and watching an entire season of a show at a time to catch up to the current timeline. But, I don’t.
Many people have active DVRs. They are constantly adding new shows and catching up on their weekly recordings. Not me. My goal is to amass as MANY episodes of my favorite shows as I can, and then I re-watch the crap out of them. Television for me is mostly background noise. I usually put it on when I’m doing other things… cleaning, getting ready to go somewhere, bottle feeding kittens, etc. I don’t really ever sit down just to WATCH TV. If I do, I usually just watch YouTube videos about cooking or fitness or other stuff on my Smart TV.
What kind of stuff do I watch? Well, if you listen to the show, you know I always have either a Seinfeld or Arrested Development reference at the ready. That’s because I’ve seen every episode of both shows more times than I care to admit. Same goes for Little Britain. (If you even have a SHRED of attraction to British comedy, you must try this series immediately. David Walliams and Matt Lucas are genius.) Add to that most episodes of Good Eats and Frasier, and there is my DVR rotation. I know. It’s probably a little weird. There must be some people that do the same thing as me, no?
I am as excited for the May 26th Season 4 launch of Arrested Development as Buster is to have juice. Don’t expect to hear much from me that weekend. I am also a little nervous. It’s been so long since the last season… will this Netflix exclusive live up to the hype? I certainly hope so. Who else is excited? It’s the FINAL COUNTDOWN!
My mom. That is a saying we love on the Hill-man Morning Show. It’s so juvenile… yet we can’t help but laugh anytime someone says it. (Well… at least Spaz and I can’t help it.) Since Mother’s Day is this weekend, it got me to thinking about the differences between all the moms I know. Not necessarily friends who are mothers, but THEIR mothers. Women from all different backgrounds, who practice different customs.
There is no doubt in my mind that you have different traditions in your family than those of people you know. We all had different experiences growing up, and our moms said or did different things. I grew up in an Italian household, and it was just me and my mom. My grandmother always was very close by, living either in the apartment above me when I was younger, or with me when I was a little older and she became incapacitated with Parkinson’s Disease. I became used to certain things in my household that no one else seemed to be familiar with or understand. There were also things that others did or had that were foreign to me.
Many of these foreign things revolve around food. For instance, the only canned tuna I ever ate when I was growing up was Pastene oil-packed tuna. I don’t even think I KNEW that water-packed tuna existed. Solid white albacore in water? HUH? Chunk light in olive oil? OH. Duh. We always had our tuna with celery. That was it. The oil was like a dressing, and to this day it is one of my favorite snacks. I remember one day in fourth grade coming home and asking my mom why the other kids had tuna SANDWICHES on white bread (gross!) and why they were white INSIDE. She explained to me that they were made with mayonnaise.
Stop.
Freeze.
Excuse me? What the f is mayo? We NEVER used it in my house. Ever. Sandwiches were never dressed with any kind of spread except maybe Gulden’s brown mustard. The only sandwich I ever really ate was plain Genoa salami on Scali bread. We never had stuff like Wonder Bread and mayo in the house. My grandmother used to make me run into Twin Bakery in Winthrop on the way home from school to pick up a sliced Italian bread every couple of days. Oh, and don’t forget to throw in a couple of spuckies for my grandfathers lunch. (For those not in the know, a spuckie is like a football shaped roll… almost a small loaf of bread. Bigger than the average sub roll. My grandfather used to have two packed in his lunch every day filled with cold cuts.)
There was a lot of Italian flying around the house. My mom didn’t really speak it but my grandparents used to speak fight in Italian all the time. One of the first things I ever learned to say in Italian was “non ti voglio sentire!” (I don’t want to hear you!) My grandparents loved each other dearly, but they were old school. While my mom doesn’t speak Italian, she does speak DRAMA. No one can set up a phone call or voice mail quite like her. No matter what it is, it sounds like the world has just come to an end. Here’s an example of a conversation between my mom and me:
ME: ”Hello?”
MOM: ”Hi honey, are you busy?”
ME: ”Just doing some production at work. What’s up?”
MOM: ”You’re not gonna believe this…” *dramatic pause*
ME: ”What?”
MOM: ”I still can’t believe it…” (Can’t is said like cahhhhhhhn’t)
ME: ”What? Are you ok?”
MOM: ”I’m really upset about this…”
ME: ”Ma, WHAT? Who died? Is Auntie Yvonne ok? What about Regina?”
MOM: ”I was in the house by myself this morning… I can’t even…”
ME: ”CUT TO THE CHASE AND TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED? Were we robbed? Did the house burn down?”
MOM: *thoughtful pause* ”I killed an ant in the foyer.”
ME: ”An ant.”
MOM: ”Ya. That’s the third one in two days. I’m gonna have to call an exterminator.”
ME: ”Mom… it’s spring. Ants come out. It happens.”
MOM: ”Ya but this is an infestation.”
ME: ”It’s three ants mom. It’s not an infestation.”
MOM: ”I bet its because of the cats. They attract bugs. Remember that time I killed a fly in the house?”
ME: ”Ma, you don’t even have any cats at the house. They live with me.”
MOM: ”Well I’m still gonna have to call an exterminator. I can’t believe this. I just had the house done last year.”
ME: ”Ok, mom, I have to go. I love you, watch out for the ants.”
MOM: ”Ok, I’m making chicken cutlets for dinner and broccoli rabe if you want some.”
ME: ”Sounds good, make me a Tupperware.”
MOM: ”I gotta go. There’s another one. That’s FOUR.”
ME: ”Bye mom.”
All in all, I love my mom to pieces, and I wouldn’t be where I am now without her. She worked very hard as a single mom to bring me up and give me everything I ever needed. There is no way I could ever repay the sacrifice she has made for me over the years. So I guess I’ll just do my best to take care of her later in life. Go do something nice for your mom, and do it more than just on Mother’s Day.
With that, I take my leave of you. Here are some mom videos with which you might identify:
I’m a dreamer. I don’t mean in the “I’m gonna do so much in this world” sense. I mean in the “I’m asleep and what the Christ was that dream I just had supposed to be about?” sense. I usually have pretty vivid dreams and can tie in a lot of the things that appear in them to what’s going on in my life. I also am usually able to find some fun things online or in dream dictionaries when it comes to interpretation of my dreams.
