Not-So-Lonely Planet

Angela Lansbury is coming back in Mame? I did not know that.

A better title might have been Wanking Alone.

Oh, and… First!!!!!11

“Lonely Sociopaths” would be a good band name. Speaking of which, one of the most popular internet phenomena is looking up old girlfriends/boyfriends. Admit it, you’ve done this. I’ve done it.

I had no idea that every time I went to the bowling alley at 3am with a bunch of friends, I was actually bowling by myself. Amazing!

I’ve seen turkeys, hambones, Yahtzees, six packs and Golden Turkeys on and off the Stinque sheet. And I like it.

@Dodgerblue: Indeed.

I much rather prefer this over the deluded and moranizing (sic) rantings of an utter moran and her clan of grifting snots.

@ManchuCandidate: “Grifting Snots” is another excellent band name. We’re on a roll here.

Those Mamika photos rock. I like the superhero dog.

@Benedick: Click the linque, there’s a dachshund in some of the photos.

@Dodgerblue: I think an old Serious Girlfriend must be dead since she has no net presence.

The guitar player from The Angry Samoans is a math teacher here in town. Of course, people could say that the old No Punks/No Punx (later known as Horrorshow after I left) drummer is a lawyer in Santa Fe.

Horrorshow
http://www.myspace.com/horrorshownopunx

Nojo, applause for an excellent post. Too bad nobody will know about it since you can’t share it with the guys from the factory at the Tuesday night bowling league.

@redmanlaw: I met a guy here in Beijing tonight who was described to me as the guitar player in the first metal band in China. American dude.

@Dodgerblue: I actually think I’ve heard of that dude (metal nerd that I am). I think that guy was in a documentary on the metal scene world wide I saw last year. No Punks claimed to be one of the first punk bands in Albuquerque. I believe that may be true. We played to an audience of 1 one time, a hung over friend of mine who was lying down in the back seat of his car. We got him to sit up. The band was later voted Worst Band in Albuquerque.

@redmanlaw: Love this story!

@Dodgerblue: “Gong of Four”?

@redmanlaw: I played drum (singular) in a high school band we assembled for a senior year talent show. Since I was an editor on the school paper, and wrote a music review every issue, I hyped them incessantly for months leading up to the show. We had a guitar, that drum, and a kazoo line and got about 40 seconds of “Pretty Vacant” out before we stormed off the stage. My AP English teacher and a couple of girls from class were planted in the crowd to shout for us when every other act came on. The hair band that went on before us actually said to us “you guys better be good, because they want you.”

We were called, I kid you not, The Wanquers.

ADD: @redmanlaw: I think Nojo was in one of SPIN’s “Worst Bands of 1992” or whatever year they held that contest. I’m sure he’ll clarify when he wakes up. BTW, great post Noj. When I make it to Sandy Eggo, we’ll have to play a few frames.

@Nabisco: I used to kick over my drums in the living room after my law school band practices, after grabbing the cymbals. We played a gig one time where we got paid in Jagermeister and I cut my hand playing a bled all over the drums. Another band I was in played a party for a wealthy Jewish Mexican lesbian in college. She thought she was getting a jazz quartet for background music and we came on like Led Zeppelin. She fired us on the spot (giving her edible panties for her birthday and stealing champagne out of the fridge probably didn’t help) so I grabbed a bottle of wine, my drums and her best friend and went back to my place.

As a music writer in college I met Los Lobos and Judas Priest. Cool guys.

ADD: I want my next band to be and old guys metal band called Umlaut.

@redmanlaw:
LOL. Didn’t she hear a tape before signing you guys to the gig?

I gotta defend Bob Putnam a little bit here. I’ve read the book, not just the brief paper you’re quoting here, and bowling is not his only data point, and the whole idea of social capital is a lot more complex than you’re making it out to be.

@redmanlaw: You have jogged some wicked memories. I have a story involving two brothers (one not old enough to drive, one not old enough to drink), drums, tutoring, an awesome Wrangler, their suspicious wise mother, their supportive enabling father, Casino, surfing, NJ and umlauts. Wonder if the brothers are on FB…

I’ll wait until After Dark.

@mellbell: Excellent! I’d love to hear more.

@JNOV: Ha. I could send you my thesis? It’s more about political culture, but they’re very intertwined as far as concepts go.

@mellbell: I’d read it. Absolutely.

IIRC, you’d read Mary Roach, right? That time one of her books made the Sunday Book Club here? I think we were the only ones who had. So, if you’re defending Putnam, I’m listening.

No, I’ll tell you what killed bowling leagues — smoking and drinking bans.

I mean, seriously, what the fuck is the fun of bowling if you can’t smoke and drink?

@karen marie wants to know — Fucking integrity, how does it work?: Haha!

@mellbell: Apologies to Flippin’ — she read Bonk and I read Stiff. Yet and still, I’m listening.

And I’ve got to thank Nojo for not using a commenting system that publishes the number of times I edit a comment. It happens a lot.

@redmanlaw:

Surely for full metal cred it should be “Ümläüt”, pronunciation and spelling rules be damned. :)

@al2o3cr: Goddamn right.

@Dodgerblue: @JNOV: Nope, never. Of course, my ex-husband was a sociopath to be avoided at all costs, and the only man I ever loved, apart from Mr Cyn, is dead.

@Nabisco: I think Nojo was in one of SPIN’s “Worst Bands of 1992″ or whatever year they held that contest. I’m sure he’ll clarify when he wakes up.

Don’t remember the year (away from the archives right now), but yes, the Dream Teens received Dishonorable Mention for our “Wite-Out is Milk” video.

Hmmm… Might be a good excuse to finally digitize that tape for a Thanksgiving post. What Spin called an “eerily familiar transurban nowhere” is Eugene at drizzly dusk.

Folks, I think I have found the Best Band Name Ever:

Tremendous Fucking

Surely a great moniker for an old-school punk outfit.

@mellbell: Certainly there’s the book, and the website, and even the original paper makes the broader points you allude to.

However: “Bowling Alone” was the the title, the bumper sticker, the franchise, the mental image that crystallized the point. And, as presented in that original paper, it was a lie. The data as presented did not support it.

And, having worked on a liberal campus at the height of Communitarianism, I was truly sick and tired of the fucking bien-pensant faddishness. Must have been around that time I stopped listening to NPR…

@mellbell: I don’t know what you guys are talking about. Enlighten me, please. I am old, but can still learn.

@redmanlaw: Can I be in the band? I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a 7-string guitar. Or I could play bass. You can’t have too much bass, in my view.

@Dodgerblue: I saw an acoustic bass at the guitar store when I was killing time waiting for Son of RML after his piano lesson. Had the “sold” paper work on it so I was trying my limited stock of speed metal riffs out on a mandolin when he found me.

@Dodgerblue: @redmanlaw: Lemme know if you need more cowbell.