Joshua P. Simon's Blog, page 26

Music Monday - Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies

No Excuses


Nutshell


Don’t Follow (my favorite on the album)

Observations from a Father - Part 2

Kids, for some reason, don’t understand the concept of time zones. If they did, they would not wake up bright-eyed when it’s still dark outside (1-2 hours earlier than normal) when on vacation.Tom Araya from Slayer has nothing on my 10-month old daughter. Let’s see him scream for five hours straight without going hoarse. Yeah, that was my car trip home after a family vacation to the beach.I didn’t think I’d be talking in “parent code” so soon with my wife. Our young son, who is not even three yet and whose vocabulary and understanding of context (including sarcasm) has pushed us into that realm.I always imagined wrestling with my kids, so doing that now is no surprise. However, I never thought I would become the wrestling mat for their shenanigans.Watching your kids play with each other, laughing and egging each other on to be silly, is something I doubt I’ll ever get tired of.

Music Monday - Misfits

Sorry for last week’s hiatus. I was on vacation with the family and focused on other things.

Misfits is a great band that combine punk, rockabilly, and horror. They are most famous for the music they created when Glen Danzig fronted the band (before his solo career). However, some of their later music is just as good, if not better. In fact, the first song below was released after Danzig left the band and is probably my favorite from the group.

Enjoy!

Saturday Night


Last Caress


Die Die My Darling


Static Age

Weird Food Creations

I’ve always been a big food person. As an adult, one of the channels the TV in our house stays on is Food Network. However, before the network began I remember looking forward to Saturdays as a kid so I could watch Yan Can Cook and later the other shows that came on around it. Not what you would normally expect an eight year old to go bonkers for, huh?

Watching all of these shows had me wanting to create my own “creations.” So, I’d experiment with a lot of weird combinations. Some of these were surprisingly successful (pizza rolls dipped in BBQ sauce) while others not so much (peanut butter and mustard sandwhich).

I still eat some of these experiments today. However, the one I get the most ridicule for is the way I prepare my tuna fish. I know it’s odd, but I really can’t imagine eating it any other way. Below are the ingredients.

1 can of tuna
3 boiled eggs
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Mayonnaise
Mustard
A1 Sauce
Tabasco Sauce
Italian flavored bread crumbs
Broken up potato chips
Ritz Crackers (used to scoop the tuna with)

I don’t know anyone who eats their tuna this way. However, I know others who have their own crazy methods of eating seemingly normal foods.

What odd mix of food do you enjoy?

The Princess Bride

The film, The Princess Bride, celebrated its 25th anniversary last week. This is one of two films that I watch every single time it comes on, and never tire of (The Rocky franchise is the other). The Princess Bride is not only one of my favorite films of all time, it is also my favorite comedy and yes, I’ll even say the best fantasy film ever made. Gasp! Better than LOTR? Yes, you wanna fight about it?

The Princess Bride has everything you want in a good movie: action, romance, intrigue, comedy, great characters, great acting, some of the most quotable lines in history, and most of all, when the movie ends, you’re genuinely upset because you want more.

It’s not hard to imagine why this movie came out so well, given William Goldman’s source material. Even still, it didn’t do very well at the box office, but later made tons on video/dvd, becoming a cult classic.

This is hands down a perfect movie, and a movie that Hollywood would be dumb to remake.

Below are a few of my favorite scenes. What are yours?

Music Monday - Conan the Barbarian Soundtrack (1982)

When I write, I sometimes like to listen to music. However, I won’t listen to anything with vocals. Otherwise, I’ll become too distracted and start singing the song rather than thinking about the work in progress. Therefore, I used Pandora to create a list of instrumental tracks that I play while writing. There are a lot of good songs within the station, but the ones I like the most (which I based the station around) are from the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack (1982). I’ve always loved this movie, and the soundtrack matches the tone of the movie perfectly.

Here are my two favorite tracks. I encourage you to listen to the first video at least as it includes the awesome voiceover from the beginning of the film.

I’ll probably post more stuff I listen to while I write in the future, but for now, enjoy the Anvil of Crom!

Hero of Slaves Cover Art

Hero of Slaves: a Blood and Tears Novella (target release date of December 2012) officially has a cover! I think it turned out pretty awesome.

I don’t have an official blurb yet for the story. However, I can tell you that it focuses on Cassus, Jonrell’s best friend. Basically, we learn what he’s been up to since leaving the Hell Patrol at the beginning of Rise and Fall.



Once again, I want to give the credit to Brooke White of Sprout Studio in Houston, Texas,. And just like the last cover, if you’re interested in procuring her services, please contact her at the following:
Brooke White
Sprout Studio (in Houston, TX)
brooke@sproutstudio.us

Don’t forget to leave a comment about your thoughts!

Music Monday - The Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels

I know what you’re thinking . . . The first Music Monday featuring The Rolling Stones and you pick the Steel Wheels album? Yes, I know it’s not their most iconic or their best work. However, this was one of my first introductions to the band (I was 9 when it was released). I owned the tape (you heard me) and played it quite often. I re-listened to these songs the other day, and they actually hold up well.

Even if you aren’t a big Stones fan, just watch the Mixed Emotions video on mute. Mick Jagger moving around in leotards is pretty hilarious. Between this video and the Start Me Up video, I was able to pull off a pretty good Jagger impersonation as a kid.

Mixed Emotions

Rock and a Hard Place

10 Things You May Not Know about Me

Just as the title says, here are ten random things about me that some (if not most), might not know about me.
Like most people, I have some minor OCD quirks. For instance, I check my pockets dozens of times each day, going over a checklist in my head for the following reasons:
a. Make sure I didn’t forget something.
b. Something didn’t fall out.
c. Someone didn’t pick my pocket (very common in the rough streets of suburbia) (Note: that’s sarcasm, folks).I really dislike sunlight, almost to the point of hating it. Give me an overcast sky any day. I have light-sensitive eyes that even with sunglasses causes me to squint. This causes my eyes to water which eventually leads to a headache. Plus, I hate warm weather.In line with number 2, I’ve always been a bit of a night owl. In a perfect world, I’d be up during the evening and night hours, and then sleep during the morning and day.I hate waking up early, but I do it almost every day of the week. I’ve suffered with ADD for most of my life and I find that I get the most done in the mornings when I’m a bit groggy. Reason being is that my sleep-deprived mind is able to better focus on one or two items rather than the thirty usually running through my head.I think the Eagles (followed closely by Fleetwood Mac) are the most overrated band of all time. Boring, bland, uninspired, and extremely repetitive in my opinion. I have a particular distaste for the Eagles for also ruining Joe Walsh. He was much better with the James Gang and as a solo performer.I have more education than anyone should ever have. I originally majored in Marketing, hoping to start a career in advertising. However, I realized that most marketing degrees led to sales which I didn’t want to do. So, as a backup I also majored in Finance. Then, after I graduated with a double major, I realized that the finance jobs I was interested in preferred candidates with an Accounting background. Therefore, I got my MBA with a concentration in Accounting. This meant going back and taking about 30 extra hours of accounting prerequisites I didn’t take as an undergrad. Therefore, I finished my college course work with over 200 hours. And then I got my CPA….blah.At 32 years old I can still dunk a basketball (one or two-handed) off one step. Not too bad for someone who is 6’3” with knee and back issues that act up from time-to-time. Oddly enough, my vertical is actually getting better lately, moving up toward what it was in high school.Like most writers and nerds, I consider myself an introvert. I feel really uncomfortable around large groups of people I’m unfamiliar with. Now, once I know a person, then I come out of my shell.Despite number 8, I can lecture to large groups of people without any major problems. I guess a lecture format is much different for me than carrying on a personal conversation with a relative stranger.Both of my kids are named after the real names of superheroes. And yes, it was intentional. Don’t worry, both names are completely normal. No "Kal-El"s in my house.

Music Monday - Anvil

Gotta love this band. Influenced a ton of people back in the early days of Thrash and surprisingly are making some of their best music now.

This Is Thirteen (my personal fav)


Metal on Metal (this is the song they are most known for)


White Rhino - Drum Solo (Fun Fact: Rob was actually asked by Ozzy to join his band on drums back in the day, and turned it down to stay in Anvil. Fun Fact 2: With that in mind, Lips was asked to join Motorhead on guitar and also turned Lemmy down to stay in Anvil. Talk about commitment.)


Juggernaut of Justice. Something off the new album.