19 posts tagged “phoning it in”

Look, it's not that I don't want to explain myself.  It's just that between the Liz Phair show, watching Obama's speech through a window on a crowded U Street sidewalk, a bizarre cab ride home, a looming 5:00 AM wake-up call, a sudden shitstorm at work, and that aforementioned vacation....  Well, a careful and thorough dissection of my reasons for the selection of this song nearly a week ago as representative of some particular aspect of rock music is not the highest on my list of priorities right now.  So let's just say that somebody has to speak on behalf of all those pussified singer-songwriter types, and it may as well be Jackson Browne.

Today marks the second anniversary of our little corner of the Voxosphere, and it's been another busy year for hotrod.vox.com.  Aside from finally growing up and adding capital letters to our arsenal of prose, we've welcomed some new faces and we've seen some others gradually drift away.  Our sisters joined us for a bit, blowing in on a whirlwind of comments and departing almost as abruptly.  An old friend from high school randomly found us - little old us - out of all the many Vox pages from which to choose.  That may have a little something to do with the good people at Six Apart finally recognizing the sharp social commentary our organization offers on a semi-regular basis (i.e. when we feel like blogging).  Sharp social commentary like:

• Our thoughts about the long-awaited big screen treatment of our life story.
• Our feud with Guitar Hero (and our subsequent reconciliation).
• Our report on our summer vacation.
• Our unwavering dedication to the rock and roll.
• Our initial foray into the live-blog paradigm.
• Our pearls of wisdom in our "Rules for Life" series.
  
• Our continuing exploration of the questions that haunt men's souls.
• And our faithful documentation of occasions when DC area Voxers get together....
• ....such as at the newly revitalized Karaoke to the Death.

But it hasn't been all serious reporting for the past year.  There's been some time for fun and games.  There were a whole bunch of challenges from various members of the 'hood, and we won them all.  The only challenge we didn't win was our own.  (And - frankly - we failed miserably.)  But despite our sterling record, we think we will have to put the challenges behind us for the coming year.  Our latest ended badly with a breach of contract on the part of the loser after our victory.  The whole episode has soured us on the enterprise; it's just not the same any more.  Consider this the announcement of our retirement, undefeated, immediately upon the conclusion of our "yoga is easy challenge" at the end of this calendar year.

Even without the occasional challenge, though, we are looking forward to year three of hotrod.vox.com.  We don't have children of our own, but we have nieces and (now plural) nephews.  That third year is when they really start to become fun.  No more poopy pants here!  We're big kids now!!

It's been a while since we last posted audio of those songs which so generously offer us their sponsorship.  It's not that we're not appreciative; nothing could be further from the truth.  It's just....  we don't know.  We're lazy?  Yeah, that actually sounds about right: we're lazy.

So here's a few tracks for yinz.  And if anybody can recall what this site was called between "Made-Up Dreams" and "No More Workhorse Blues" maybe you could refresh our memory.

[UPDATE:  Jodi helpfully points out that the missing song in question was Whiskeytown's "Losering."  Many thanks; we are grateful.  We'll tell you what, though - we'll be spending some time over the next couple of weeks searching diligently for a song entitled "The Dork Bulletin."]

Careful readers might recall a certain bargain we made with the Question of the Day during our week in purgatory.  To wit: in exchange for a pass on that particular day's question we would respond to it with serial retelling of the tale of our long-standing nickname at a later date.  Careful readers might also note that the bargain was struck one month ago today.  (Really?  It doesn't seem that long ago.  Time flies when you're not answering the Question of the Day.)  This would give us just another four days to begin, and clearly that's not enough time.

With that in mind, we are pleased to announce that our petition to the Question of the Day for a two-week extension has been granted.  Look for our version of "1001 Arabian Nights" (in this case - five nights) to begin sometime around the beginning of August.  Unless we spend the next two weeks slacking much like we did over the previous four, in which case we intend to file another petition.

whew!  thank god that's finally over.  it's been a long week.  we now return to our regularly scheduled programming.  you clod!

What other names did your parents consider for you?

so this is it, question of the day: the end of the road.  and i see you've lobbed another juice-ball in honor of the occasion.  so, um, see ya....

i share the same name as my father and my grandfather before him, so i'm betting not a whole lot of debate went into boy's names.  and i don't recall my parents ever mentioning what name they had picked out if i had been a girl, which strikes me as somewhat odd because i know if either of my sisters had been a boy he'd be called "james."  it's curious.  but, well....  i dunno.  so what's for lunch today?

What time is your alarm clock set for?  Do you use the snooze button?

i have to hand it to you, question of the day.  this was certainly an, um, unexpected topic.  not in a hundred years would i have guessed that my dear and loyal neighborhood would want to read about my snooze alarm, but there you go.  you're the expert here.  it's your world, question of the day; i just live in it.

i don't really have a constant time for which my alarm is set.  today it was quarter 'til five (with fifteen minutes of snoozin', but the clock is set fifteen minutes ahead so i really got up at the time i was going for) because i had to get in to work early.  i'll probably leave it there for tomorrow because i need to do some laundry.  and even though i might set it for five-thirty the day after that, i'll probably wake up before it goes off.  i almost always wake up before it goes off, regardless of the time.

for most of my life i was a night person, but a few years back when i started getting up earlier on saturdays to ride than i did during the week, i made a conscious effort to switch to the early morning routine.  it worked out pretty well because my then employer was all but requiring a few hours daily of overtime.  i hated all of my coworkers (literally all of them, and my job too - but that's another post) so by going in two or three hours early, i could get my time in and not deal with the drudgery of their dismal company any longer than was absolutely necessary.  it took a few months to stick, but now i actually prefer the morning.  it's when i get that mundane shit, like the aforementioned laundry, done.

truth be told, though, the one thing i'm not particularly good at (and by "particularly good," i mean "fucking exceptional") is sleep.  i've always been a problem sleeper.  as far back as i can recall, i've had insomnia to some degree.  i have memories - very early memories - of staying awake far past when my parents went to bed, and it wasn't uncommon in high school - when most kids exist in a state of perpetual exhaustion - for me not to sleep at all.  about the only time of my life in which i wasn't plagued with insomnia was college, when i would go for days on just a few hours of sleep and then crash in a big way.  my personal record - after a particularly grueling project - was eighteen and a half hours in the sack.  that's time measured straight through without waking up.  i always wanted to hit that elusive twenty-four hour mark.  just think of it: a whole day spent in blissful slumber.  alas, 'tis apparently not to be.  at this point, i'm okay with that.

TV, books, movies: Who's your favorite fictional father?

i gotta tell ya, question of the day - this one was tougher than i would have thought.  oh sure, it seems easy enough on the surface, but once you start to filter through all the worthy candidates the choice becomes quite difficult.  immediately upon reading your query, some of fiction's finest fathers - from homer simpson to jack torrance to darth vader - paraded past my mind's eye.  how to choose?  they all have so many endearing qualities.  and then like a cactus to the forehead, it hit me.

h.i. mcdunnough (you can call him "hi") comes from a long line of frontiersmen and outdoor types.  and it's true he's had a checkered past.  but that troubled background has manifested itself in a steadfast resolve to provide a youngster for his lovely wife edwina and to raise that child with her to the very best of his abilities.  whether procuring some much needed diapers or loading his weapons in advance of setting out to retrieve his kidnapped kidnapped son, hi's determination, perseverance, and creative solutions illustrate his devotion to his young family.  and he recognizes the importance of an appreciation of the finer things - both educational and football.  hi, like so many new fathers before him, dreams of a land where all parents are strong and wise and capable, and all children are happy and beloved.  maybe it's utah.

What set you apart from the rest of the kids at school? 
Submitted by jks.

ah, a softball today, huh, question of the day?  well, i guess what set me apart from the rest of the kids at school was that i was smarter and funnier and better looking than the rest of them.