pre-holiday roundup

this is definitely one of the longer stretches i have gone without writing. in case you've been wondering what i've been up to, here is a recap:

1. writing elsewhere
last month, i was approached by the great folks over at HEXBEAT magazine to see if i wanted to start contributing to their new publication. so far its only available online, but there's always hope for expansion. basically its a gathering place for people with underground/offbeat interests with a focus on the creative arts. i have already submitted several pieces, including a review of the recent monkees tour and a Q&A with my great pal and dead boys bassist, jeff magnum. check it out if you have a minute, and follow us on facebook!

2. monkee-minded
speaking of the recent monkees tour...ever since the tour in november (which was a huuuge deal, both personally and otherwise), i have been freshly obsessed. i've gone through stages throughout my life where my love has been reignited, but this is by far the worst it's ever been. for a few weeks after the shows they were all i wanted to listen to and all i wanted to watch on tv. poor josh was in hell (or at least pretending, as i think he likes them a little more than he will let on. i'll take it). even now, i get down to the radio station on tuesday nite and have to talk myself out of the urge to play non-stop monkees records for the whole show. i've really been stepping up my game on collecting memorabilia, and have gotten some neat things for my collection. i think i'll save photos for a post of their own. i am holding out hope (like all monkees fans are, i'm sure!) that the carefully worded "thanks to everyone who came out to see the monkees this year!" is actually a thinly veiled hint that there is more to come next year. fingers crossed. this band means so much to me, and is so much more than just a music group or a tv show!

3. babysitting boogie
having a puppy is lots of work. i've always been a cat person and it still weirds me out that we now have a dog living in our house. what weirds me out even more is how much i dig this little guy. schlitzie has adapted to his new home fabulously, and in just two months i've already fallen for him hard. he turned 6 months old in december, and as much as i love him being a puppy we are patiently waiting for the day he (hopefully!) calms down and starts acting like a real dog :)
teething was a big problem for a minute, although telling him, "no biting!" seems to have finally sunk in when he feels like actually listening. i even had to take away several loose baby teeth that he was chomping away on like they were snacks. now we've moved on to training him to bark to be let outside, and he is picking that up nicely as well. we both read that dachshunds are notoriously stubborn dogs to train, which i definitely see; however, i'm still very proud of how quickly schlitzie picks up on things. at six months old, some of his favorite things include sitting by the vent when the heater kicks on, trying to steal the socks right off our feet, rough-housing with the cats, and howling along with josh while he sings and plays guitar.



4. it's beginning to look a lot like christmas
wow, this one really snuck up on me. i can't believe christmas is less than two weeks away! we're having both our families over to our house this year, so i'm a little nervous making sure everything is just right. i plan to spend my day off next week baking christmas cookies. although i usually make a big assortment, i've narrowed it down to just three this year: orange chocolate chip (a favorite that has become a tradition), peanut butter kisses (josh's favorite) and cherry-almond shortbread with cherry glaze (a recipe from the adorable mr. tiny at wacky tacky that i can't wait to try!) here are some photos of christmas season 2012 here at the ryan arms:


notice that the bottom of the tree is conspicuously devoid of any ornaments...that is because the cats and schlitzie are in cahoots. the cats (mostly lemmy) like to bat the ornaments off the tree, knocking them off so schlitzie can take them and snack on them. rascals!


best $5 estate sale blowmold score ever


these ceramic trees are something i've only come to appreciate now that i'm older. i finally found one cheap at an estate sale last year, and the white one was passed down to me and finally dug out of my mom's attic this year. it was made by my grandma, who i really miss. i wish she could see all the beautiful vintage decorations that used to belong to her, now in my house. also: that tray! i'm so in love. the "gingerbear's first christmas" book was a christmas present to me when i was a kid that i still have. it was always a favorite.


evil little santa has a comfy spot on the chair, except when schlitzie decides to gnaw on him and we have to move him to the top of the chair.


bad lemmy being ornery


several of these cute pastel deer are missing antlers, thanks once again to bad lemmy. the worst part is that some disappeared without a trace! did they end up in lemmy's belly? highly unlikely. did he knock them under something where i would never think to look? possible. all i know is that the antlers have been missing since the old house, so i'm never going to see them again. poor guys!


scored back when you could still find cool vintage holiday decor at thrift stores


the view of the living room from the dining room...but more importantly, my favorite holiday decoration EVER: cats carrying fruitcake garland!!!


josh had better fill that stocking good and full if he knows what's good for him


wotta creep


ha! he learned what "sit" and "stay" means!




christmas in the boat room (in the basement)


creepy life-sized (slightly cross-eyed) santa hangs out at the bar


$20 garage sale score


aluminum tree courtesy of the fabulous MISS FIRECRACKER! i love it so.  decorated entirely with beautiful vintage ornaments that the animals are NOT allowed to be near.


i wish such a beautiful tree could be upstairs where i could look at it in all its splendid glory more often, but it is relegated to the basement boat room because it has a door that can shut the cats out. the one year i tried having it upstairs, their favorite game was to take the branches and see how far they could run with them before i caught them.


vintage christmas + naked ladies = perfection


vintage christmas + naked ladies + weirdo taxidermy = my kinda christmas

hope everyone is staying (mostly) stress-free and has lots of time to spend with family and friends. i promise to try to stick around blogspot more often in the new year :)

30 day monkees challenge (via psycho jello/naked persimmons)

this was originally a 30-day monkees challenge posted on the psycho jello tumblr. because i don't have a tumblr but i still wanted to participate, i filled out the list all in one post here on blogspot. feel free to do your own, and link back to psycho jello and the affiliated site by naked persimmons! this took several days to complete to have everything just right, but i wanted to finish it in time for the monkees shows i'll be seeing this weekend. I CAN'T WAIT! this is one of the happiest moments of my whole life.

day 01 – Favorite photo of the Monkees.


this is my current favorite. i can't stop cracking up at mike and micky's faces, or the fact that davy is totally serious with that huge finger up his nose. and peter is just adorable peter.

day 02 – Favorite photo of Peter.


so boyish and adorable here!

day 03 – Favorite photo of Davy.


aww, he was just a little baby!

day 04 – Favorite photo of Micky.


this photo sums up micky perfectly

day 05 – Favorite photo of Mike.


swoooooon
day 06 – Favorite Monkee crotch shot photo.


it has to be!

day 07 – Post your favorite song from Headquarters.


"you just may be the one"

day 08 – Post your favorite song from Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones LTD.


"love is only sleeping"

day 09 – Post your favorite song from the Birds, the Bees and the Monkees.


"i'll be back up on my feet"

day 10 – Post your favorite song from HEAD.


"do i have to do this all over again"

day 11 – Favorite episode of the Monkees.


"i was a teenage monster"

day 12 – Least favorite episode of the Monkees.


"a coffin too frequent"

day 13 – Favorite song the Monkees/one of the Monkees wrote.


"the kind of girl i could love"

day 14 – Favorite song the Monkees didn’t write, but sang.


"99 pounds"

day 15 – A photo of one the boys topless.


how bout two for good measure?

day 16 – A quote from Peter.

"i'm the dummy, micky. i'm always the dummy." (head)

day 17 – A quote from Davy.

"i make a terrible sound!" (screen test)

day 18 – A quote from Micky.

"my mommy won't let me play with toys that burn, or scratch, or bash, or go boom" (tv episode "monkee vs. machine")

day 19 – A quote from Mike.

"i'd like to do a song off our latest album called headquarters...oh you know it. it's called scroungy girlfriend." (live 1967 album)

day 20 – Post your favorite Monkees song of all time.


"let's dance on"

day 21 – Post your least favorite Monkees song of all time.


"the day we fall in love"

day 22 – Favorite Monkee wife/girlfriend photo from the ’60s.


samantha juste dolenz

day 23 – Your favorite Monkees solo song.



hands down! "don't do it" by micky dolenz

day 24 – Your favorite Monkees lyric.

"my fingers are still burning from the last time" (the girl i knew somewhere)
just because the mike/micky harmonizing gives me goosebumps every time

day 25 – Favorite slashy moment in Monkees history (can be a description, photo or gif)


maybe a little tame, but i love to see them cuddle ; )

day 26 – Scariest Monkees photo of all time


for so many reasons...

day 27 – One thing you learned NOT TO DO from the Monkees.


sell my soul to the devil ; )


day 28 – Which one of the Monkees (then or now) are you most like.


peter -- quiet but goofy

day 29 – Reasons you love the Monkees.


they're silly,


they're cute,


they're an awesome rock'n'roll band!

day 30 – Favorite photo of one (or more) of the Monkees looking stoned/drunk.


"HOW?!" no doubt about it :)

the first band i was ever friends with

Monday night found my cousin Beth and I in the most unlikely of places: backstage at the house of blues, sitting in sum 41's dressing room while they played on their phones and listened to the doors. On one hand, this doesn't make much sense since I don't and haven't ever liked this band. On the other hand, this was probably the fourth or fifth time I've sat through one of their shows, and always for the same reason. Which makes me really nostalgic to think about, and requires me to go back several years to the days of an awkward and rather unlikely childhood...

The beginning of this story would be around 1997 or so, when Beth and I were about 15 years old. We spent our last few years as carefree jobless teenagers having sleepovers, watching for cute skater guys in our neighborhoods, discovering punk music, beginning our record collections, and watching music videos on late night television. The first time we saw the video for "soda" by gob on much music our impressionable young minds nearly short circuited. Look at that guy's blue mohawk! Ew, that other guy is totally eating bugs! This is GREAT! What little information we could gather on a band with the vague name of "gob" was that they were from Canada, which seemed like light years away. Too bad, we had just started going to concerts and really would have loved the chance to see them live.





Then came warped tour '98, and the strange coincidence that gob was actually included in the lineup. Imagine that! We went to the show and made sure to find the stage they were playing on, where only about a dozen or so other people were also watching. Still relatively unknown here in the states, it was easy to say hello to the band when they were done because they didn't have to worry about being bombarded like some of the bigger acts. They were all really nice and we took some photos with them, starting a tradition we had no way of knowing would still be going strong over 10 years later.






We were really impressed that we had not only seen this band that we just discovered and were dying to see, but also that we got to meet them. Somehow or other I met the band's manager online not long after, and he let me know that the band would be back in the states soon to do a tour of their own! He asked if I would do a favor and let him ship some equipment supplies to my house that I could take to the band. Knowing that meant I would get to interact with them again, I readily agreed. They remembered us from warped tour and we took more pictures together. That was how it all began.

Eventually we would exchange contact info with the band and they would let us know any time they were going to be touring nearby. We traveled to any shows within 3-4 hours of us. We sat through a lot of show lineups that we couldn't have cared less about (hence why we have seen sum 41 more times than some of the bands in my life that i actually DO like!). The band and their manager both took us under their wing and made sure we were always taken care of, whether it was getting into shows for free or giving us backstage passes when possible. Everyone always made us laugh so hard and we had the best times (there is one incident in particular that involved a fart machine and several unsuccessful attempts at ordering food from some poor waitress). Sometimes they did things like dedicate songs to us when we were in the audience or introduce us to other fans as "our oldest fans." We knew they were exaggerating, but it blew our minds. When the guys played in our hometown, we would usually hang out after the show and grab something to eat. Sometimes if they got into town early, we would go pick them up at the venue and bring them back to my family's house - ha! That's so bizarre to think that we still lived at home and they didn't mind my mom serving us iced tea and pretzels. One time we made them lasagna and went back to my parents house to eat and play "mario kart" on n64 and watch "Wet Hot American Summer." It was pretty surreal even then, because we couldn't understand why they were always so nice to us. Gob was the first band we were ever friends with, and it made a huge impression on me. Now that I'm older I can understand how a friendly face and a warm meal would mean a lot to a touring band far from home...but back then, all I saw was a couple of silly teenage girls who were hanging out with their heroes and who weren't entirely sure how they had ever gotten so lucky.






























 
It's been years now since gob has toured the states and I often think about how much I miss those days when it seemed like they were in town every few months. Since then I have cooked dinner and lent a floor to dozens of touring bands that I am (thankfully) not as puzzled about calling my friends. I've always had this sort of "rock'n'roll den mother" aspect to me, which I can only assume came from my own mom's nurturing and generous personality, even when it came to strange punk bands she didn't know that her teenage daughter brought home for dinner.

One of our friends from gob plays in sum 41 these days although he is not an original member. When he was in town with them last time (which was about 5 years ago) he called me up out of the blue and asked "wanna come to the show and hang? It would be cool to see you!" It made my heart happy to know he still thought of us as friends, all these years later and through our awkward teenage years where we probably let our "oh-my-gosh-I-cant-believe-this-is-happening!" fandom go to our heads.
So when I got the Facebook message on Sunday night saying he would be here the following day, I didn't hesitate to call Beth and see if she was free.
 
It was so great to see him after all these years, and to realize that so little has changed. It's funny that when we saw that music video on tv all those years ago we never thought we'd get the chance to see them live, let alone see them almost a dozen times and still be friends with them to this day. Even if my musical tastes have evolved since my teenage years, I will always have a special place in my heart for the first band I was friends with. They always made me feel like being a fan made a difference to them and made them happy to be the band that they were, and I have always respected them tremendously for that.

hot trash on the radio: my very first interview!

being the center of attention is not my thing. i get embarrassed easily and i tend to shy away from the spotlight. this might sound weird to some people, who say "well then how do you have a radio show?!" but i always tell them they have to put it in perspective: i'm up there in a room in the middle of the night, talking into a microphone with no one else around except josh. it's really easy to imagine that no one is on the receiving end, and often i have to trick myself into believing this or else i wouldn't be able to do the show. so it comes with a small sense of bashfulness (but also a huge feeling of honor) to have been interviewed by hollie at cool cleveland. she talked to me about my 8 years on the radio, playing records for people all over town, and my love for rock'n'roll. AND she described me with a quote from a little richard song, which was like the greatest compliment in the world. check it out!

Hot Trash on the Radio

hail hail CHUCK BERRY!

josh's birthday was at the beginning of this month, and one of the things i surprised him with was tickets to a chuck berry tribute show put on by the rock and roll hall of fame. at first it just started out as a nite to honor him, with lots of special guests doing tributes throughout the nite. now they have announced that chuck himself will be there, and he will be performing! what great news. i never thought i would get the chance to see him play.





this past thursday was his 86th birthday and i'm thankful he's still with us rockin and reelin. other performers scheduled for the nite include david johansen of the new york dolls, jd mcpherson (who we just saw a few weeks ago and he was excellent!), and LEMMY of motorhead! i can't wait for this weekend, it's going to be an amazing night!

Schlitzie

Something happened over the weekend that I still can't believe.

If you know me even the slightest, you know I am a total cat lady. I love the three I have, and I'd be even happier if I could collect one in every color. Therefore, I still can't even believe it when I say that josh and I got a puppy over the weekend!

We talked before about how we sorta wanted a weiner dog. Josh likes big dogs, and I like little ones (but still not as much as cats, of course). Something we both agreed on was the fact that weiner dogs were pretty cute, though. On Thursday we heard someone was getting rid of a four-month-old dachshund puppy and we quickly decided it was now or never. By the time we could get out of work and pick him up, we were told he was no longer available and we were both a bit more heartbroken than we expected. On Saturday, I found out we could still have him. I made arrangements to secretly get him and surprise josh for his 25th birthday on Sunday. You should have seen the look on his face!

Josh named him Schlitzie after one of my favorite circus freaks, Schlitzie the pinhead. He is adorable! He's timid (he is afraid of passing cars when we take him for walks) but so very playful ( thank goodness he can't jump very high or my face would be covered in doggie kisses). He took to his new home right away and he always wants to be cuddling with one of us. He is still being ornery and trying to play with the cats and they are still not having it. Pogo is the most curious and she will at least sit on the couch with Schlitzie, even if its all the way on the other end. Lemmy is still pretty pissed, while Megadeth is terrified like she is of everything else.

Here is our new little buddy, Schlitzie!