Dave Grohl Proves Rock Ain't Dead
Oooh baby
There was always something weird about Dave Grohl’s ruse as a family man.
He was rock’s goofy dad, making dumb jokes on stage. Obsessed with grilling on the barbecue. Telling stories about his kids rolling their eyes at him, unimpressed by his place in rock royalty.
Remember this one?
It was nice to see America’s last remaining rockstar mocking himself. It made him accessible. He seemed like a regular guy.
But now…
Oof. Ouch.
But look, man, I’m not gonna judge the guy. He’s a rocker. What’s more rock & roll than cheating on your wife?
The dude is still putting out new music and touring, he’s worth hundreds of millions, and he’s holding up well for a guy my age. So okay, sure, he got a groupie pregnant.
That’s showbiz!
What, he’s supposed to castrate himself, like that TMZ doofus said? Yeah, a rocker with no balls, that’s what we all want.
But now the kooks are already coming out of the woodwork. Right after Grohl admitted it, some freak on Instagram claimed to be the mother of the baby. He denies it, and at this point he has no reason to lie. Plus, the weirdo has already deleted her entire account, which is not an indicator of credibility.
This sort of thing will probably keep happening until Grohl and/or the real mom come forward. Either way, Thanksgiving is gonna be awkward!
I know I’m jaded and probably more than a little evil, but I ain’t mad at Dave Grohl. It’s amusing to me. I just hope his new kid is worth giving up half of everything he owns in the divorce.
Long live rock & roll!
I read and write all day for work, so lately I’ve gotten out of the habit of reading for pleasure. Now I’m trying to pick it back up, and I’ve started by catching up with Hap & Leonard. In the past week, I’ve devoured four of their books that have been sitting in my Kindle inventory for years.
For the uninitiated, Hap & Leonard are the signature characters of novelist Joe R. Lansdale. You might have seen ads for the TV show a few years back.
Lansdale has written a bunch of standalone novels without those two knuckleheads, but they’re his series characters. Over the last 30-odd years he’s gifted us with a baker’s dozen H&L novels, and enough short stories and novellas to fill a couple of collections.
Hap is a shit-kickin’ East Texas redneck, but also a frustrated pacifist and a conscientious objector from the Vietnam War. He’s always getting into fights, but almost never likes it. His best friend Leonard is black, gay, Republican, and tough enough to dismantle anybody who has a problem with any of the above. Together, they’re a magnet for trouble and it’s a blast to be along for the ride.
The series started with Savage Season, all the way back in 1990. That’s where you should start. It was adapted as the first season of that Hap & Leonard show, but the book is even better. Page-turning thriller with some of the funniest dialogue in modern crime fiction.
I’m currently reading the latest in the series, Sugar on the Bones. It’s been almost 35 years since the first book, but Hap & Leonard are about the same age and still kicking ass. Much like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books, Lansdale has fudged the timeline, because those guys should be in their seventies by now.
It’s like James Bond and Batman. Action heroes need to stay young, or young-ish. (Unless the story is specifically about them getting older, like The Dark Knight Returns.) Creating a character that’s popular enough to transcend generations is a good problem to have.
If you like Reacher, you’ll probably like Hap & Leonard. And if not, reading any book is better than watching a TV show. Or scrolling Twitter all day. Or any of the other crap I waste my time on.
It just occurred to me that two of my favorite novelists are named Joe. Besides Lansdale, there’s also Joe Abercrombie. He writes fantasy with a serious mean streak, like Game of Thrones but with an even dimmer view of humanity. And funnier dialogue.
Abercrombie has a new series starting up next year. Unlike George R.R. Martin, he knows his audience is eager for more and doesn’t want to keep us waiting.
TGIF (Tempestuous Gertie Intermittently Flatulates) and thanks for reading. If you like the words I keep typing, why not pay for ‘em? What are you, some kinda jerk?
Re: reading. (And apologies in advance for the length.)
About 2 years ago I was on the phone, catching up with my friend, Derek. He mentioned something from one of our shared interests, something he'd read in a book. I confessed that I owned that book -- bought it years before, when it first came out -- but never got around to reading it. In fact, I said, I had a whole pile of such books.
Derek laughed, and said he was in the same boat. He had an entire bookcase of unread books. He saw it as his retirement project: once he was free from the clutches of Ford Credit, he could spend his days reading, listening to music, and playing with his camera.
About 4 months later, Derek had a heart attack and died at 60. He never got to his bookshelf. I decided I didn't want that to happen to me. I resolved to take an inventory, prioritize, and get to reading. I found 75 books that I still want to read (plus a number of others purchased in pursuit of some fancy which has now passed), plus 75 coffee-table books and photo magazines (I'm a sucker for Time-Life special editions).
I figure if I read one book a month, I'll finish the year I turn 70. (I also plan to flip through one magazine per month during my lunch breaks.) I got off to a good start this spring; then summer happened. I'm hoping the depths of Michigan's winter will be a good time to settle in and get caught up.
Now, if I could just break this damn You Tube addiction...
WAIT ONE HOT SECOND, MISTER!
That's Omar from The Wire. How'd I miss this show? Now I'm pissed. I find out about it after it's cancelled, after he died? Damn ... gonna definitely watch it.
And, you know, Omar Little is a perfect example of how the canard of "toxic fandom," as it relates to Star Wars, Dr Who, LOTR and others, is a total joke. Omar was beloved by fans, not because of "diversity" or "representation" but because he was a fully developed character played by a fantastic actor who gave him depth and complexity. Star Wars is just lazy writing, where checking the diversity bingo boxes seems to be a substitute for a characters developmental arc.