Monthly Archives: October 2012

Silver Shamrock

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If you’re a real tv/movie-head, you like Halloween III.  It’s the Halloween with no Michael Myers and a bunch of masks that turn your head into snakes and cockroaches.  
BONUS: Insanely, the pumpkin mask from Halloween III’s Silver Shamrock product line made
an appearance in a Halloween episode of Knight Rider.  It has the Silver Shamrock logo on it and
everything.  In Halloween III, the little logo-badge was the thing that had a microchip in it that
was set up to receive the satellite signal from Easter Island where there was a bunch of bad Irish guys.
Something very close to that.

Here’s the full studio track of the Silver Shamrock Theme.

The Knight Rider info comes from http://www.flickr.com/photos/billypolard/ and www.freddyinspace.com.

Silver Shamrock

by
If you’re a real tv/movie-head, you like Halloween III.  It’s the Halloween with no Michael Myers and a bunch of masks that turn your head into snakes and cockroaches.  
BONUS: Insanely, the pumpkin mask from Halloween III’s Silver Shamrock product line made
an appearance in a Halloween episode of Knight Rider.  It has the Silver Shamrock logo on it and
everything.  In Halloween III, the little logo-badge was the thing that had a microchip in it that
was set up to receive the satellite signal from Easter Island where there was a bunch of bad Irish guys.
Something very close to that.

Here’s the full studio track of the Silver Shamrock Theme.

The Knight Rider info comes from http://www.flickr.com/photos/billypolard/ and www.freddyinspace.com.

New Balance Bootlegs at NWL

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NWL, or National Wholesale Liquidators, are the kings of close-out.  They’ve got everything.  From 70’s Spraypaint to cheese-cracker brands you’ve never heard of and well past the expiration date, NWL has something for everybody be they a cat or a horse.
Today’s NWL special is a fine pair of New Balance cross-trainers.  Oh wait, that’s not an “N”, it’s an A and a slanted line with a line connecting it back to the A.  Maybe that’s not an A.  I don’t know what that is.  

It’s a little bit like the Flux Capacitor.  Whatever it is, I couldn’t get the florescent light out out of my eyes
for two days.  This symbol is burned into my retina.
Please write in and tell us about your favorite Lin Shi product!

New Balance Bootlegs at NWL

by
NWL, or National Wholesale Liquidators, are the kings of close-out.  They’ve got everything.  From 70’s Spraypaint to cheese-cracker brands you’ve never heard of and well past the expiration date, NWL has something for everybody be they a cat or a horse.
Today’s NWL special is a fine pair of New Balance cross-trainers.  Oh wait, that’s not an “N”, it’s an A and a slanted line with a line connecting it back to the A.  Maybe that’s not an A.  I don’t know what that is.  

It’s a little bit like the Flux Capacitor.  Whatever it is, I couldn’t get the florescent light out out of my eyes
for two days.  This symbol is burned into my retina.
Please write in and tell us about your favorite Lin Shi product!

MC Gigs

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In the year 2000, my girlfriend at the time, Rosalie, had family who lived on Roosevelt Island.  Her little brother Willie, age 14, had this little hip-hop crew going and they’d visit my apartment from time to time. They were just sort of doing it as a fantasy thing — I think all their friends were part of some sort of rap group even if they barely listened to rap, never mind rhymed. Willie was supposed to be the DJ, Willy Wonka, but he couldn’t really cut, and I don’t think he had any records. The other 3 maniacs in his crew were rappers, led by a 16-year-old Polish kid who went by Arcane. They didn’t have a name for the group, so I offered up the name Ghettoblasters, which they were happy to go with.

To the young ear, Arcane could rap.  Freestyle even.  He was hype off the recent success of Eminem, but was more into the underground stuff, like the backpack rapper Esoteric.  He looked in Roget’s Pocket Thesaurus for synonyms of the word esoteric and found his name, Arcane.  He was a very nice kid, and pretty focused, but his rap style didn’t interest me at all.  I recorded a bunch of his rhymes, but I didn’t wind up using them.

The next up rapper was age 15 and called himself Gigs.  Gigs was a Black kid, with a lisp, and a raspy voice.  He looked like Grover.  To me he had a natural, excellent rap skill and easy charisma.  He was funny.  But he was the opposite of focused and he definitely didn’t have the rhyme or vocab skills necessary to step up and annihilate Arcane — but I sat with him for two afternoons, recording a little bit at a time — and the rest of the crew were good enough to contribute to his notes and get him through enough passable raps for the two Gigs tracks that I wound up stitching together.

It would be criminal not to mention the other rapper, Big Mike, a chubby 13-year-old white kid, born and bred on RI, who I think was probably the most into hiphop out of the 4 of them.  He was wild and funny but he just couldn’t deal with the mic when it came down to actually recording.  I barely have his voice on any of my old Zip Disks.

Here are some of Gig’s notes that I’ve saved over all these years. 
PARENTS BEWARE!  There are some bad words and a weird drawing of a building shaped like a penis.

That’s Arcane’s tag on the top but the raps are Gigs’.

Onion Crunch and Astro Diner

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America’s newest condiment is Onion Crunch.
I was in the Astro Diner on 55th Street yesterday and they had it right there on the table
along with salt, pepper, ketchup, and Sweet’N Low.

It’s sort of like bacon bits, but more onion-y.  It’s also sort of like confetti, but more onion-y.
If anything, I’m just glad there’s an anthropomorphic onion running around now.

I like Astro Diner, but not that much. The fact that people review it on Yelp strikes an excellent sweet spot for me — I think it’s crazy and super funny.  It doesn’t make me laugh out loud, but it makes me feel in a funny mood for, like a half hour after reading the reviews.  I think it shows that you are 100% insane if you actually go to Yelp, log in, and write up a review of Astro Diner.  It’s so crazy to me.  It’s just a diner — it’s definitely bad, but it’s not that bad. It’s kind of good. Do you like diners? I do, mostly because you can talk with your friends in an easy and carefree manner.  In a diner booth, you can get into it — gossip, cursing, complaining, whatever.  But I hate diners too because they’re kind of gross.  That’s where I eat BLT’s and french fries and stupid old chicken fingers.  Now, I can always get down on some chicken fingers, but they’re fried and mostly frozen, and it’s just stupid to eat them.  They’re bad for you and make you feel like a jerk, but they’re probably better than some of those dinner specials that the old people get at 4 in the afternoon.
Anyhow, here’s my top four out of the Astro Diner reviews on Yelp.
I basically don’t believe her.  I bet she didn’t eat in there.

Big, juice and fresh!

This guys CAPITALS game is ON POINT.

11 dollars for a waffle sounds so funny.

Onion Crunch and Astro Diner

by
America’s newest condiment is Onion Crunch.
I was in the Astro Diner on 55th Street yesterday and they had it right there on the table
along with salt, pepper, ketchup, and Sweet’N Low.

It’s sort of like bacon bits, but more onion-y.  It’s also sort of like confetti, but more onion-y.
If anything, I’m just glad there’s an anthropomorphic onion running around now.

I like Astro Diner, but not that much. The fact that people review it on Yelp strikes an excellent sweet spot for me — I think it’s crazy and super funny.  It doesn’t make me laugh out loud, but it makes me feel in a funny mood for, like a half hour after reading the reviews.  I think it shows that you are 100% insane if you actually go to Yelp, log in, and write up a review of Astro Diner.  It’s so crazy to me.  It’s just a diner — it’s definitely bad, but it’s not that bad. It’s kind of good. Do you like diners? I do, mostly because you can talk with your friends in an easy and carefree manner.  In a diner booth, you can get into it — gossip, cursing, complaining, whatever.  But I hate diners too because they’re kind of gross.  That’s where I eat BLT’s and french fries and stupid old chicken fingers.  Now, I can always get down on some chicken fingers, but they’re fried and mostly frozen, and it’s just stupid to eat them.  They’re bad for you and make you feel like a jerk, but they’re probably better than some of those dinner specials that the old people get at 4 in the afternoon.
Anyhow, here’s my top four out of the Astro Diner reviews on Yelp.
I basically don’t believe her.  I bet she didn’t eat in there.

Big, juice and fresh!

This guys CAPITALS game is ON POINT.

11 dollars for a waffle sounds so funny.