Way back in the day when there were three TV channels, I was a wrestling fan because I got a kick (pun intended and you’ll see why) out of their over-the-top antics.

Here’s another sign I’m getting old: rassling ain’t been the same since Andre the Giant died. It seems now each performer (not athlete) is more intent on shocking us and topping what we’ve already gotten used to. Here’s the latest entry. What will they grab from the audience next?

Bought a camera for my three upcoming trips this summer: an anniversary celebration at Lake Tahoe this week and a couple of nights in the Bay Area next month, both of which bookend a company trip to beautiful Columbia, South Carolina. What interests me about that trip includes the chance to see Fort Sumter, a significant Civil War memorial. I’m hoping to see Little Round Top up in Pennsylvania in my lifetime. While there’s disagreement among historians exactly how important its defense was to the Union, it’s safe to say Gettysburg was the decisive battle of The War and the 20th Maine’s victory on LRT probably made the difference.

A couple of quick pix of this beautiful Spring day:

Here’s a color you won’t often see on the Big C: Green.

By the way, Iron Man is a decent super-hero flick and the latest Indy Jones is, IMHO, the third best of the four (ROTLA, IJATLC, IJATKOTCS, IJATTOD).

Knights in Satan’s Service? This must be a clever editing job (please let it be a clever editing job.)

Can it be eleven years since he left us…and over thirty years since he shot one of his last films in Carson City? Hard to believe.

Jefferson Smith: I guess this is just another lost cause, Mr. Paine. All you people don’t know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for. And he fought for them once, for the only reason any man ever fights for them; because of just one plain simple rule: ‘Love thy neighbor.’… And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any other. Yes, you even die for them.

Have you ever a movie wondered why a particular movie wasn’t a smash hit? “Streets of Fire” fits that bill, a fine piece of 1980’s Americana. The excellent cast was headed by by Willam Dafoe, Diane Lane, and Amy Magidan, and the sets and writing were better than average. The soundtrack was first-rate as proven by the video below.

This is a Dan Hartman hit (click on this link to see his hair-gel-filled video), but it’s the Sorels that make it jump: Stoney Jackson as lead, backed up by Grand Bush, Robert Townsend, and Mykelti Williamson, all before they hit it real big in Hollywood.

Dismal box office returns killed a potential movie trilogy. Ah well. What could have been.

Edit: OK, here’s a little Diane Lane lip-syncing to “Nowhere Fast” with Willam Dafoe as her stalker. Time to head out to iTunes. :)

Doing something far, far worse instead. Does anyone else remember Perfect Strangers?

From a recent Time magazine interview of iconic Brit and Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren:

Q: You were recently in Reno, Nev., filming your new movie, Love Ranch. What’s your view on brothels?

A: I think legal prostitution is the way to go, given the awful, horrendous traffic in women and the danger of girls being out on the street, so vulnerable to pimps and johns. In a legal brothel, they’re licensed, they’re protected, and the johns are protected because they know the girls have to be medically checked every week.

If you live in Northern Nevada, then most times you have to surf the ‘net to get real news stories with honest-to-goodness thoughtful analysis behind them. It’s not to say the folks up here don’t try, but there’s are only so many political brainfarts you can write about before they all sound the same. Same with droughts, housing problems, and gangs.

So wrapping up this always-wordy lead-in, there’s Peter Hartlaub’s article on break-up songs and he did a fine job, so fine, that it’s a pity I just present the list below. The man resists the Gannett-Newspaper-prone habit of paying attention to entertainment from the last five years and writes about songs from previous generations.
Please click on this link and read the whole thing.

In the meantime…

Share the pain: Breakup songs to die for:

5. “Cry Me a River,” Justin Timberlake (2002)

Psycho breakup line: “Girl I refuse, you must have me confused/ with some other guy/ Your bridges were burned, and now it’s your turn to cry.”

Why it’s a classic: I’m happily married, but if my wife ever got so mad at me that she felt the need to burn our mattress and spread crushed tomatoes all over the house, “Cry Me a River” would definitely be the song playing in the background. The fact that JT wrote this for ex-girlfriend Britney Spears only makes it more legendary. How glad do you think Timberlake is now that she’s someone else’s problem?

4. “Piece of My Heart,” Erma Franklin (1967)

Psycho breakup line: “You’re out on the streets looking good/ And baby deep down in your heart I guess you know that it ain’t right/ Never, never, never, never, never, never hear me when I cry at night/ Babe, I cry all the time!”

Why it’s a classic: This is the “Citizen Kane” of breakup sons. All breakup music must be judged by it. The Janis Joplin version is more iconic, but Erma Franklin’s is equally intense, and in some ways more direct. Joplin sounded a little wasted when she sang it with Big Brother and the Holding Company. Franklin sounds sober, which is much more scary.

3. “You Oughta Know,” Alanis Morissette (1995)

Psycho breakup line: “Every time I scratch my nails down someone else’s back/ I hope you feel it/ Can you feel it?”

Why it’s a classic: Where to start? Pound for pound (or line for line) this is the most anger-packed breakup song ever. Even Amy Winehouse wouldn’t think to write a song this crazy. Morissette also frequently performs an acoustic version, which is even scarier, because you can hear the lyrics more clearly. Based on this, the government should have put Dave Coulier and everyone else she dated in witness relocation.

2. “Against All Odds,” Phil Collins (1984)

Psycho breakup line: “I wish I could just make you turn around/ Turn around and see me cry!”

Why it’s a classic: “In the Air Tonight” has a better urban legend, but this song - written after Collins’ breakup with his first wife - packs more emotional impact. He sounds like such a colossal wuss that you almost want to turn the song off to save him the embarrassment. But you still have to feel for the guy.

1. “I Will Survive,” Gloria Gaynor (1978)

Psycho breakup line: “I should have changed my stupid lock/ I should have made you leave your key/ If I had known for just one second/ You’d be back to bother me.”

Why it’s a classic: It starts off with one of the best openings in songwriting history (”First I was afraid, I was petrified”) and never stops picking up speed. What’s especially great about the song - which was inexplicably written by two men - is the way the narrator grows from a shrinking violet to a self-assured take-no-prisoners love Terminator. Modern medicine will never come up with a better breakup cure than “I Will Survive.”

My eyes popped open at 0530ish this morning and I could not get back to sleep, so I’m sitting at work well before I need to be here. My PC’s got two monitors so I’m working on one and cruising the internet on the other. This morning’s find, courtesy of Steve Spears at Stuck in the ’80’s:

Top 10 Top Gun* lines to recite to annoy coworkers:

10. Swilling down Starbucks on the way in from the parking lot: “I feel the need … the need for speed.” (Or, if you’re already caffeinated enough, “Time to kick the tires and light the fires!”)

9. When coming in the office door: “Good morning, gentlemen, the temperature is 110 degrees.”

8. When your boss asks you to do something: “That’s a negative, Ghost rider, the pattern is full.”

7. When seeing your friend in the restroom: “Hey Goose, you big stud!” (Or, if you’re feeling daring, “Great balls of fire!”)

6. After that three-martini lunch to nobody in particular: “I flew with your old man. VF-51, the Oriskany. You’re a lot like he was. Only better… and worse.”

5. When passing off an assignment to a subordinate: “If you screw up just this much, you’ll be flying a cargo plane full of rubber dogs–t out of Hong Kong!”

4. On spotting targets at Happy Hour after work: “Too close for missiles, I’m switching to guns.”

3. What to tell your wingman at Happy Hour after switching to guns: “Do not fire until fired upon.”

2. What you tell yourself when your ATM won’t cough up more cash: “Son, your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash.”

1. And whenever you get the chance: “Take me to bed or lose me forever.”

*Since I can’t seem to post lately without something from YouTube, it seems right to remind you that Top Gun was the Brokeback Mountain of the “Me Generation”: