September 18

Pardon the cartoony mood today; it'll make sense in a moment or two...

Lance Armstrong is celebrating another birthday today, which apparently doesn’t surprise anybody. If I was talking about any other cancer survivor, I’d be impressed. What impresses me is that he got third place in the Tour de France this year, and he still plans on competing in 2010. His naturally conceived son was born this year, too, which impresses me even more. Is there anything he can’t do?

Apparently, there is…

Ami Onuki is the pink-haired half of Puffy Amiyumi, a Japanese pop-rock duo that crossed over to the US via cartoons.

In Japan, they’re known simply as “Puffy;” they added the “Amiyumi” for international audiences, to avoid legal trouble with P-Diddy. The rest of the world knows them for singing the “Teen Titans” theme, and their own 2004 cartoon.
This summer, they released their latest album in Japan, along with a song for the new Naruto movie.

June Foray has been voicing cartoon characters since World War II. She worked in radio, then children’s records. In the 40’s, she voiced Lucifer the Cat for Cinderella – and modeled as a mermaid for Peter Pan. But she became the go-to female voice in the cartoon world for decades. She even does voice-over work for the occasional live-action feature (you can hear her in Pirates of the Carribean.)
But here’s a collection of Foray performances you may have seen, and you’ve probably heard:



Dee Dee Ramone (born Douglas Colvin) was a bass player and songwriter for the Ramones. He’s the one who read that Paul McCartney would sign into hotels as “Phil Ramon”, and added the “e” to the end. He wrote most of the band’s songs, and had the most personal problems; the story goes, he traded the rights to three of his songs for bail money.


Finally, today’s column is dedicated to my daughter Sam.


Tommorow: the Rolling Stones are killed...

September 9

First, happy birthday to Doug Ingle, vocalist for Iron Butterfly and chief composer of the seminal classic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”. This seventeen minute psychedelic epic is in the DNA of every heavy metal song, so that deserves a raising of the horns. Story goes, Ingle was partying hard when he told the song’s original title, “In the Garden of Eden,” through slurred lips. The mis-spoken name stuck, but the original name hasn’t been forgotten:


In the “Big in Japan” department, Ai Otsuka is the Miley Cyrus of Japan. Here's a video for her single "Smiley"; you should probably turn down the brightness on your monitor before you watch this:


Hugh Grant: women love him, men would love to get away with half of what he does. His disdain for acting suggest that he knows how inane his films are, but he finds a way for himself – and us – to enjoy the ride.
One of my guilty pleasures is the film “Music and Lyrics”, a movie that was supposed to be his last acting job. He must have enjoyed the experience; his next film with the same director comes out later this year.
In “Music and Lyrics,” Grant plays a washed-up ex-“boy band”-er, and we get to see that band in action during the opening credits…


And now, a commercial message:



Finally, before everybody thinks I’ve gone soft, light some candles for John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren and Stimpy, and inspiration for every TV-MA animator working today. Matt Groening may have made it okay to make jokes for more than kids, but “Ren and Stimpy” was like the drunk uncle at Thanksgiving that totally ignored the fact that he was telling blowjob jokes to the fold-out table.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Can’t think of a happier ending for today’s column than that…

august 29

Right out the box, I find A+, born Andre Levins, and his biggest hit, “Enjoy Yourself.”

I’m convinced that anything sounds good with a Fifth of Beethoven. I think the reason nobody’s heard of him is he hasn’t found the right name. He’s not to be confused with the rapper A Plus, from the Hieroglyphs. But his birth name’s too close to Andres Levin, the music producer. So (for now) he’s trying to release a new album under the name Young Plus. None of this speaks well for the imaginativeness of his lyrics, I’m sure….

Elizabeth Frasier gave the Cocteau Twins their ethereal voice in the 80’s and 90’s. Imagine if Enya had the hankering to start a pop band, and you’ve got the Twins. They’re like those instant summer rainstorms, the kind that fall while the sun keeps shining, a slightly miraculous feeling.

Since the Twins broke up in ’97, fans have been waiting for their return. Heck, fans have been waiting for Fraser’s solo album since 2007, but it was pulled, without explanation. The band was scheduled to reunite for Coachella 2005, but they cancelled, without explanation. The fan site Elizabethfraser.com was taken over by her management team in ’07, and currently only has a “coming soon” type notice (don’t know if the music on the page is new or not…)

Anton Newcombe is the chief mastermind of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, another college radio staple of days gone by. If you liked Pink Floyd before Syd Barrett ‘left’ the band, definitely give the BJM a try. Otherwise, the rock documentary “Dig!” can give you a better idea of his reputation, deserved or not. I picked a song from their 2008 release, which sounds and looks like something that would have run on Night Flight in my childhood…


And it’s David Desrosiers’ birthday, too! The secret weapon of pop-punkers Simple Plan! He’s, uh… a bassist! Yeah, so…

Aw, heck, I’m trying to dole out some attention to others before I write about Michael Jackson. How can I not? And yet, what hasn’t been written about him since he passed? About his homicide, his kids, his mystery son, his legacy? I mean, I was blasting his greatest hits when my friends were still throwing around babysitting jokes; now, everybody's finally saying nice things about him, while I still need a break.
No matter what happened, you’d be reading about Michael Jackson, just so I could post his 'appearance' on the Simpsons:


Happy Birthday, Michael. We miss ya…