The Verdant Dude: ska

Showing posts with label ska. Show all posts

Oct 11, 2011

Date Night

Lately, Gia and I have been trying to do a date night at least once a week. Maybe a movie, maybe dinner, whatever. This past Friday, our date night landed us at our recent favorite haunt in town. Got to meet the new owners of the joint, and enjoyed some delicious pub food. I had a fried pickle burger with swiss (as good as it sounds), and my woman had herself some short rib risotto. It all rocked so very much.

Then we headed down to a little sports pub that we've been frequenting lately to watch some of the MLB playoffs. Sure, the Yankees are out of it. But that just means I get to root for good baseball instead of my team. Lose some, win some.

As we were leaving, we heard what sounded like some live music coming from the restaurant that we ate at earlier. So we went to investigate. Sure enough, every Friday night they clear out one side of the joint around 11ish and a local band takes stage. The band that night was a reggae/ska/soul group called The Bluebeats. They were...really good. At one point they took a break from the reggae/ska and did what sounded like a Motown number. And the lead singer, a dude by the name of Mike Drance, really pulled it off.

Then they did a great version of Elvis Costello's "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down". Well, Sam & Dave originally released it back in 1967. But I know it from Elvis, so that's that.

Anyway, I looked them up when we got home and I found out that Mike Drance was the co-frontman of my favorite ska band of all-time. The Scofflaws. I've written about them here before, a long time ago. He left the band right around the time that I was getting into them and ska in the early 1990's. But that's pretty freakin' cool. Makes me wish I had seen more of them back when he was skankin' along with the rest of the criminals (not really) in that band.

But he's still jammin' out with The Bluebeats, and that's cool enough.

I dig date night.

Here's a little Elvis Costello for ya. Enjoy!

May 3, 2011

A little ska

I dunno, man...the events of the past 24 hours or so have my head spinnin'. Lots of political talk back and forth. Mostly one-sided, but we'll see how long that lasts. Politics always messes with my head.

Then again, I like my politics to be splashed with a little ska. Like when The Specials sang about Nelson Mandela. A different era and a different issue, of course. I'm just wondering how many wrongs can make it right again. Maybe we'll never know. Maybe it'll never be right again. Was it ever right in the first place?

Ah, forget it...just dig the grooves, man.

Nov 17, 2010

Earl's Favorite Film Scenes: Volume VII

Thanks for all your kind words and thoughts yesterday. Sammi is hanging in there, but she's lost even more mobility. Not sure where this is going so let's go for something a little lighter today.
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The big fight scene from Grosse Point Blank.

Three things I wanna mention about this particular clip:

1. I remember seeing this in the theater with a group of friends. When they started fighting, I immediately nudged my friend next to me and said "Kickboxing...sport of the future" from Say Anything. I think a lot of people in the audience were thinking the same thing.

2. The man that Cusack is fighting is Benny "The Jet" Urquidez. A real-life martial arts champion. Maybe one of the most famous of all-time. He won over 200 bouts with no losses in full contact karate, and he held six different world titles in five weight divisions for over 24 years! So yeah...in reality he would have kicked Johnny Boy's ass!

3. I love me some 2 Tone ska, and The Beat, or The English Beat if you prefer, are one of my favorites. I always loved the song "Mirror in the Bathroom", but now when I hear it I can't help but think of this scene. Amazing the things that a good soundtrack to a good movie can do with your head.

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. This is my 999th post. Wow!