DadCentric

SanDisk SlotRadio Giveaway - What's Your Essential Road Trip Song?

We're in the middle of summer, and many of you are packing up the metaphorical Family Truckster for your metaphorical Trip To WallyWorld. Our sponsors, the good folks at SanDisk, have sent us another SlotRadio digital music player to give to One Worthy Winner.

So in the spirit of The Great Summer Road Trip, we want to know - what is THE most essential road trip song, the one that no long distance car drive should be without? Give us your answer in the Comments section - tell us the song, and why no road trip soundtrack should be without it. The deadline is this Friday at 9:00 a.m. PST; we'll announce the winner on Friday afternoon.

AND THE SLOTRADIO GOES TO...

Alyce. Simply because as weird as it sounds, the title/main theme of "The Mission" score is great driving music.

(Also, I can't believe that no one picked my favorite road trip song - Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild", the theme song to perhaps the two greatest road trip movies ever.)

The Obligatory "Michael Jackson Was A Dad" Post

"When history is personified, and the person behind that history dies, history itself is no longer real." - Greil Marcus, on the death of Elvis

Greil Marcus' quote can easily be applied to Michael Jackson. Live fast, die young, leave a freakish surgically altered corpse, a grieving pet chimp, and the remains of the Elephant Man. So long, Michael Jackson; we hardly knew ye. Or maybe we knew ye too much. Michael Jackson was perhaps the most polarizing performer of the last 30 years; love him or hate him (full disclosure: I skew towards the latter), it's hard to deny the impact he had on popular culture. 

Of course, when any controversial entertainer dies, there's a symbolic as well as actual voiding of the bowels - lots of shit comes out, and it usually ends up splattering the people that were closest to the deceased. Sadly, Jackson's kids may be caught up in the custody battle to end all custody battles - who gets to claim the King of Pop's heirs?

And worse - are they even his?

Bastion of journalistic integrity TMZ is reporting that MJ is not the biological father of any of his kids. Us Magazine claims that Prince and Paris Jackson's father is Michael Jackson's dermatologist. And the Weekly World News? They've got the scoop on Michael Jackson's funeral, President Obama's reaction to his death, and Kim Jong-Il's planned tribute. (I love that The Weekly World News has separate headers for posts about Aliens and posts about Mutants.)

But back to the kids. Personally, I'm convinced that Jackson was up to some pretty sick shit at the Neverland Ranch, and I think that we'll learn more than we ever wanted to know about his penchant for young boys over the next few months. That said, I sincerely hope that someone steps up and looks out for his three kids. They're about to be thrust into a media circus that they never asked for and do not deserve. The sins of the father shouldn't fall on their heads, and after years of what must have been a bizarre (at the very least) and potentially damaging life with a father who clearly suffered from various forms of mental illness, the Jackson children need protection, care, and love. Katherine Jackson, Michael's mother, has filed for guardianship and the kids are currently residing with her. 

And that, sadly, doesn't give me a whole lot of hope for them.

DadCentric Reviews: New Kids' Music From Ziggy Marley, Cathy Heller, and Rick Springfield

I found myself backlogged: three new albums plus a shiny car to review (I'll get to the car next week). So I'll cut right to the chase:

First, a thought: reviewing kid's albums is not as easy as one might think, because the tendency is to hear it through (in my case) the ears of a jaded 39-year-old. And it goes without saying that what we like, and what the kiddies like, are often not one and the same. (Exhibit A: Jay Jay the Jet Plane. Holy hell is that show awful.) Further complicating things is my somewhat sentimental and probably naive view that musicians, especially popular (or formerly popular) ones, should get a bit of a critical break when making music aimed at kids; I'd like to think that they mean well, even if the results are less than spectacular.

The Aggrolites Want You to Have a Banana

It's good for you. So are The Aggrolites.


The Aggrolites - Banana (Yo Gabba Gabba!)

And robots! And cowboys! And unicorns! And, and....

I know this song came out like three years ago, but I just saw the video today. It's packed with so many of the coolest ideas, genres, and archetypes that the universe has to offer, it seems exactly like the kind of thing you would get if you pulled together a group of 8-12 year olds and told them to come up with a music video.

Chris Cantore on Success

Fellow San Diegans know Chris Cantore; he was the morning voice of 91X for a great many years. The Cantores welcomed a new member to their family, and Chris wrote a great little post about the birth of daughter Lucia. Please stop by and say congrats!

Dojo Rock

We have been pwned:

Sailin' Off Into The Weekend

It has not been that great of a week. But when things get grim, I can usually count on surfer/dad Chum to even things out. The ocean, after all, is the world's biggest dose of Perspective. I'd never heard this Tom Waits song before. It's going into permanent rotation. Clear skies and calm waters, y'all.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Seriously.  Where the hell is everyone? 

I don't remember it being this quiet around here since we all got back from that awkward trip to Vegas, and by awkward I mean awesome. I swear, some of these guys have balls the size of my balls.  It was crazy.

We're not hungover now.  None of us are in hiding or the doghouse- as far as I know.  We're just busy, like you are, but that doesn't mean that our respective battles are going to keep us detached from here, "i.e., society."  We're living the life dad, and as you know that makes for great fodder.

Not as good as the Vegas stuff, but legal, and that's a good place to start.

I'm sure someone will post something worthwhile any minute now.  In the meantime enjoy some music:

You're welcome.

Why I Love Wired So Much

It's not often that I come across pure genius outside my own daily delusions of grandeur, especially with regard to viral videos.  Let's face it...YouTube is chock full of large, steaming piles of donkey poo.  So when they chose to remove the "Shreds" videos by user St. Sanders, I was pissed.  I had been subscribed to his stream for months, ever since discovering the "Eddie [Van Halen] Shreds" video that had me literally laughing so hard I cried and peed my pants.  Apparently, a couple of guitar gods that had been spoofed got their egos taken out at the knee and claimed copyright infringement.  YouTube, the spineless douchebags that they are, caved in and removed them. 

However, Wired pulled through and is now hosting them on their site.  The "Shreds" live - at least for now.  Thank you,Wired, the tech Bible that you are.  So, if you missed these hilarious spoofs, take a gander and see what all the hubbub was about.  Or, if you're lazy, I've set you up with an Yngwie Malmsteen sample below: