death and rebirth
I was sad to hear yesterday that "Grandpa" Al Lewis passed away. He used to own a comedy club on Staten Island, and from all accounts, I heard he was a really great guy. Some people I knew had met him or seen him around or whatever. That article I linked to is actually really cool, and it told me things about him that I didn't know, like that he was a bit of a rabble-rouser and, at age 90, even ran on the Green Party ticket for governor of New York against Gov. Pataki. He didn't win, obviously, but according to the article, he managed to score over 52,000 votes, which I guess isn't band for someone who used to wear whiteface and play a curmudgeonly old vampire on a '60s sitcom. Godspeed, Mr. Lewis. He was 95 years old, and you can't front on that.
I other news, I heard mumblings around the office about Smashing Pumpkins reuniting for this year's Lollapalooza. So today, I Googled that shit and found this. Obviously, this news excites me to no end. Even though I'm not a big Billy Corgan fan, I do love his music with the Pumpkins (his solo album was not good, but Zwan did put out a good album). Jimmy Chamberlain is already on board to do studio work with Corgan this year, who are pretty much the only two dudes other than the producers who played on the Smashing Pumpkins albums. Still, I hope they bring back D'Arcy Wretzky and James Iha too. I mean, they were kinda just there for looks, but, like, Chamberlain and Corgan aren't exactly purty. And I know Iha can play, because I saw him in concert with A Perfect Circle, and he was uncorking all kinds of crazy shit. D'Arcy, though, well...it's bass so it's not like she has to be super good. But just look at her! She's like one of the coolest chicks ever and even was all addicted to crack at one point. And she has a nice voice for backup vocals. The article alludes to another former Pumpkins bass-playin' hottie Melissa Auf Der Maur as a possible candidate. She's super talented vocally and instrumentally, but more sexy in that "she might want me to do something freaky like ask me to let her kick me in the balls repeatedly" kinda way. But that's cool with me too.
I other news, I heard mumblings around the office about Smashing Pumpkins reuniting for this year's Lollapalooza. So today, I Googled that shit and found this. Obviously, this news excites me to no end. Even though I'm not a big Billy Corgan fan, I do love his music with the Pumpkins (his solo album was not good, but Zwan did put out a good album). Jimmy Chamberlain is already on board to do studio work with Corgan this year, who are pretty much the only two dudes other than the producers who played on the Smashing Pumpkins albums. Still, I hope they bring back D'Arcy Wretzky and James Iha too. I mean, they were kinda just there for looks, but, like, Chamberlain and Corgan aren't exactly purty. And I know Iha can play, because I saw him in concert with A Perfect Circle, and he was uncorking all kinds of crazy shit. D'Arcy, though, well...it's bass so it's not like she has to be super good. But just look at her! She's like one of the coolest chicks ever and even was all addicted to crack at one point. And she has a nice voice for backup vocals. The article alludes to another former Pumpkins bass-playin' hottie Melissa Auf Der Maur as a possible candidate. She's super talented vocally and instrumentally, but more sexy in that "she might want me to do something freaky like ask me to let her kick me in the balls repeatedly" kinda way. But that's cool with me too.
2 comments:
I was so sad to hear that news too. I loved the Munsters as a kid, it frightend the crap out of me and gave me nightmares when i was 8! Al Lewis was a legend.
i think i was scared of that show too, but i watched it anyway. i think after a while, i grew to not be afraid of it. fred gwynne was awesome.
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