Diary of a Wolfeman

Here’s a bit of silliness for you: a music meme.

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here’s how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing (feel free to annotate, since snarky commentary is half the fun)
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend that you’re cool…

Okay, that doesn’t really make any sense – why would I put the player on random for this? If my life had a soundtrack, I’d want it planned out properly! The soundtrack is a vital component to the situation. Nobody gets naughty with J-Pop in the background, it just ain’t done!

So I’ll compromise and do this both ways – the first song will be the random one, and then I’ll put what it should have been. For the sake of limitation, I will only use my personal collection.

Opening credits: “Kiss me, I’m shit-faced” by the Dropkick Murphys. Not exactly what I would have chosen, that’s for sure. This might not be too bad as an ending credits cut though…

My choice: “Tank!” by The Seatbelts (Cowboy Bebop OST). It worked for Bebop, it should work for me too.

Waking up: “Beautiful World” by Devo. Not a bad choice, actually. Unless, of course, you happen to wake up hating the universe.

My choice: Something that starts out slow and then builds up, like “Burn Up” by Siouxsie & The Banshees.

First day of school: “Fascination” by The Human League. I wouldn’t have picked this originally, but now that I listen to it in that context, it makes an okay choice. Of course, it’s really all about the next scene though.

My choice: “No Spill Blood” by Oingo Boingo. Children are animals.

Falling in love: “No One Lives Forever” by Oingo Boingo. Huh. My randomizer is trying to tell me that love kills. Bullshit.

(Then again, Tolerant got me a set of glasses that say “Love Kills Slowly”, so maybe I should think about this…)

My choice: “Jane’s Getting Serious” by John Astley. The tale of a guy realizing he’s falling in love with his best friend – just the way it should be.

Love scene: “Digging My Potato” by The Seatbelts (Cowboy Bebop OST) It’s an instrumental bit, but slightly whimsical so maybe not the best fit.

My choice: “Nights In White Satin” by the Moody Blues. Duh.

Breaking up: “Good Ol’ Fashioned Lover Boy” by Queen……. No.

My choice: “Ball and Chain” by Social Distortion

Life is good: “Red Barchetta” by Rush. Pretty good choice – the tale of a young man evading the cops and having fun driving. I’ll leave this one be.

Mental Breakdown: “That Day” by Poe. Yeah, this one fits here.

My choice: “Insanity” by Oingo Boingo. Kinda obvious.

Driving: “Speed Freak (Moby Remix)” by Orbital. Too many interruptions in the flow, sounds more like I’m in Downtown traffic.

My choice: “7 Minutes” by The Seatbelts is just that – 7 minutes of movie car-chase music, with a 30-second interlude for the “oh no! I’m caught but I get away!” bit.

Flashback: “Come Around Again” by Jet. Score one for the randomizer.

Getting back together: “Shock to the System” by Billy Idol. Not really feelin it with this track.

My choice: “Hey Jealousy” by the Gin Blossoms. That track was on heavy rotation back when I was on-and-off with Twiggy.

Wedding: “Travels in Nihlon” by XTC. Great track, REALLY does not fit here. This would be good for mental breakdown or maybe as a lead-up to the final battle.

My choice: the song we played at my wedding: “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica. Why? Because it’s a waltz!

Birth of Child: “Fantasie Sign” by The Seatbelts. The lyrics are French, so no clue.

My choice: What’s the name of the song they play whenever the spawn of Satan crawls out of the sacrifice in the horror movies?…

Final Battle: “Just a Little” by Used. Nah, not a fit.

My choice: “One Little Victory” by Rush. The drumline alone should get your through the fight.

Death Scene: “Bastards on Parade” by the Dropkick Murphys. This one would have been better earlier on – the song asks for a second chance not just for the singer, but for all those like him.

My choice: “No One Lives Forever” by Oingo Boingo.

Funeral song: “Subdivisions” by Rush. This would have been a good choice for first day of school.

My choice: “We Are The Champions” by Queen.

End Credits: “Strutter” by The Donnas. Heh.

My choice: “The Real Folk Blues” by The Seatbelts. If we opened with bebop, might as well close with it…

And there ya have it folks – enjoy. My typo percentages have tripled, so it must be time for bed.

Just a couple blocks South of MFP, the East Bank Saloon can be found on the West side of Grand at #727 – just North of the Morrison bridge, so parking sucks out loud. You’ll probably end up walking a block or two, and it’s that long stretch between crosswalks so transit-users may walk even farther.

I’ve driven by the place three days a week for years now and it wasn’t until Friday that Tolerant and I finally decided to swing in. The decor is very nice – brick and wood, and the ceiling is painted a lighter color so the room doesn’t seem as dark. There are a pair of bookshelves on the North wall stocked mostly with filler (old encyclopedias and the like that look good together, ya know?) but there are a few gems in there – like an actual Settlers of Catan box! I’ll have to bring the boys here sometime…

I’ve seen other reviews call the place a dive, but it isn’t – it’s a sports bar more than anything, but also has a very restaraunty-feel to it. The food was good, and had a few gems in the menu – I had the Hawai’ian Burger, and Tolerant had her usual fish and chips. One of the best parts though, was finding tater tots on the menu! Both meals were tasty and too much food, so the price (more in line with a McMen’s) wasn’t so bad.

Service was good, but I was a little disappointed to see dreadlocks on our waitress. I know that it is perfectly possible to wash dreads and keep them clean, but they have always struck me as messy and unkempt, and I can’t for the life of me understand why any self-respecting girl would deliberately do that to herself.

Overall I’ll give the Saloon a ‘B’.

Wow, I just realized that the whole pubcrawl theme pretty much derailed after one review – we’ll have to fix that. I really could have sworn I’d reviewed this place before.

The Moon and Sixpence is a nice little English pub at 2014 NE 42nd in the Hollywood district (just ’round the corner from Sam’s Billiards). Parking is a crap-shoot, as there is only on-street, and it fills up fast. Inside you’ll find lots of wood and a fairly dark interior, but there is a fair amount of seating between the tables, chairs and pews. (Tolerant keeps wondering which church they lfted those from).

For the beer snobs out there, they carry quite a selection from all over – it will take a while to dig through the list. For the hungry, the list isn’t as long but you’ll find items listed here that you won’t have seen anywhere else. Cottage pie may be common (and usually known as shepherds pie) but the pasties were new to me and the idea of a pear salad was too. Sometime this summer I’ll have to go back and try the ploughman’s platter – sometime when I don’t want hot food.

The fish & chips are traditionally made and served – most of a fish dipped in batter and fried up with chips, here have some tartar and malt vinegar. Hot, not too oily, and a nice flavor to both fish and batter. I can also attest to the cottage pie and pasties being damn tasty. For those not wanting to try something new, the roast chicken is pretty normal.

Service is just attentive enough – the waitresses are apparently trained in being relaxed and showing up just when you were about to go looking for them, but in the good way. You know, you’re just getting to the bottom of your drink and you’re thinking ‘should I get up and go order another’ when the waitress pops ’round.

The ‘Pence is currently Tolerant’s favorite, so we’ll give it a ‘B’ leaning towards an ‘A’.

I know, I know, there’s only so much of this crap you can read. I’m almost through this.

(Over a month now since I stopped smoking, and almost a week since I stopped nicotine patches…)

Anyhow, I did most of my blogging (both the reading and the writing) from my desk down in the garage where I could smoke. Now that I don’t smoke, not only am I not down there, I’m also not using the laptop very much, and that was the blogging tool, so I’ve been falling behind on everything. So, some updates:

My health: I’m getting fatter, and find myself eating for no reason. This sucks.

Windows 7 Beta: still using it, still okay with it.

D&D: running Da Boys through the Scales of War campaign, currently about halfway through Rescue at Rivenroar and I haven’t killed them yet. I’m proud of this part, they didn’t bring a Cleric with them. They opted for “do lots of damage fast” instead of sitting there and taking it.

Leatherwork: finished the bracers for J and D’s X-mas gifts, need to post some pretty pictures.

And… that’s about it. Oh – Tolerant is still (and even more so) the World’s Best Girlfriend.