Wanted Dead or Alive

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was sometime in the mid-to-late 80s, sitting in some bar outside the naval base in Yokosuka, Japan, having a beer or two before making my way home about 10 clicks to Hayama, on the other side of the peninsula. They were playing some music videos on the TV, and suddenly, there’s this appealing ballad-sounding sort of song backed by a back & white video.

It’s Bon Jovi doing a song called Wanted Dead or Alive. I sat there mesmerized for the next three minutes or so. Rather than a set-production video, it’s simply B & W clips from the band on the road and performing. In essence, it turns out to be a 3-minute mini-anthology of what a tough, tough life they live on the road.

That was to become my favorite music video of all time and nothing I’ve seen since has ever come even slightly close. Funny thing is, I’m not even a Bon Jovi fan, particularly. On the other hand, I love it when metal bands do songs that start off as sort of a slow-moving ballad that at some point bashes you against the head with full-on screaming metal guitar.

So, what brought this up? Kind of a long story, but my TV situation has sucked since we moved in November. At the house, I was rigged to the hilt with satellite and off-air antenna, TiVo, HDTV, etc. But these new construction lofts, though they have a satellite dish on the roof, can only accommodate some of the services, not all. After giving up on trying to get the builder to add the necessary muti-switch, pull two more cables, and split in an off-air digital antenna, I just called Comcast and got their setup.

Turns out it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, and in fact, is quite good. I’ve got two-tuner DVRs with HDTV in both locations. And, we now have On-Demand. If you don’t know what that is, it’s like when you’re in a hotel and you can watch whatever is on the menu whenever you want. Only with this, they’ve got hundreds of things to choose from: movies, TV series, sports, special events, and… music. Turns out they’re running a Bon Jovi special, and I wasted no time in going to see if they had that video. They did. I guess they redid the video in 2001, which they had also. It’s OK, but, you know; when you get something perfect, there’s just no improving on it.

I walk these streets, a loaded six string on my back
I play for keeps, ’cause I might not make it back
I been everywhere, still I’m standing tall
I’ve seen a million faces an I’ve rocked them all

Brokeback to the Future

Perhaps the only thing funnier than the way the echo-chamber of Hollywood and its media sycophants are promoting Brokeback Mountain–reminiscent of an overly-defensive white guy exclaiming, "I like black people"–is this trailer for the upcoming release of Brokeback to the Future. (via Hit & Run)

I guess the other message is that you can make a movie trailer to be anything you want it to be. Don’t believe me? Remember the film The Shining? Yea? Well check out the trailer for this new release.

 

Capitalism in One Lesson

Perhaps you’ve heard of the announcement by BB&T not to take part in commercial lending on projects that involve eminent domain. Good for them. Better late than never, in this case.

One of the links in that article linked to above is to BB&T’s vision, mission and purpose page. Go read that and tell me it’s not just one great concise package on what capitalism is all about. Every essential and implication is right there.

Update: OK, I just did a bit more digging. Go read BB&T’s values page. Keep in mind that we’re not talking about some mom & pop, here. BB&T is the nation’s 9th largest holding bank with $109 billion in assets. I would venture that there in no company in the world of this import that has anything even remotely like this on their website. It is at once sad and encouraging. Well, that does it. I am contacting them to begin both a personal banking relationship and a business one as well.