We decided not to clip our cat’s nails for a little while, so that they’d be extra sharp in case she needed to teach Max or Daisy who was boss. This was a bit of a pain, because for the past few days leading up to Max and Daisy’s arrival, any time our cat would walk on us (often) she might poke us with her claws as well.

Anyway, Friday evening showed up, as did Max and Daisy. Our cat was in my home office at the time, and decided that was probably a good place to stay, hanging out on my desk behind my monitor. We took Max and Daisy around the house, and they didn’t even notice Kitty sitting up there on the desk. All good, we thought.

Then, we go out to take the dogs for a walk. I took Max for an extra long walk, hoping to tire him out so he’d go to sleep without causing too much trouble. He was actually fine on the walk, and I was thinking that maybe it wouldn’t be so difficult to take care of Max this time around. I got home, and the wife was already back with Daisy and Sugar (our dog). Apparently, she’d even introduced Daisy to our cat, and, while they were keeping their distance, they seemed to tolerate each other.

That all was about to change.

I brought Max into the house, and undid the leash. Hearing everyone else upstairs, he raced up the stairs at full throttle, and encountered our cat in one of the bedrooms immediately. There was a lot of noise — barking, thrashing, hissing, scurrying — and I raced up the steps yelling. And then, in flash, I saw a dark object fly by me at super sonic speeds. Our cat, apparently, though, at that speed I honestly wasn’t sure. Half a beat later, there was Max in rapid pursuit. Right back down the stairs past me.

And like that, the cat was gone.

We had just installed a cat door a few weeks ago, and our cat loves the free reign to go inside and out — and obviously was thrilled to be able to quickly make her escape. Of course, what we didn’t figure was that she would then never be interested in returning.

Since she’s an indoor-outdoor cat, we don’t get too worried if she’s gone for a little while. She knows the neighborhood, and likes to hang out outside quite a bit, but usually in a few key spots where we know we can find her. And, when it’s time for us to sleep, she’s always back, and always curled up with us in bed, so we figured it wouldn’t be much of a problem. We blocked off Max and Daisy so they couldn’t get to the cat door if Kitty decided to come home and figured that she’d come back during the night.

But, come morning, still no cat. I spent parts of the day, wandering around to all her hiding spots and calling her, to no avail. Then, we start worrying. What if she got injured by Max on the way out? What if she was so scared she ran outside her comfort “zone” and didn’t know how to get back? What if she was just too scared to come back? What if she hated us for bringing Max into the house?

It wasn’t much fun.

We figured if she still wasn’t around by Sunday morning, we’d alert the neighbors and maybe put up some signs. In the meantime, we decided to follow through on our Saturday evening plans.

We’ve been living in this house for about nine months now, and I’ve already mentioned how nice the neighbors all are. We share a driveway with our neighbor across the way, a woman named Frances, who’s lived there for about thirty years. About a month ago, while both of us were taking out the garbage, she’d invited us over for dinner, which we thought would be nice. While we’ve been living across the driveway from her for nine months, we hadn’t socialized at all, beyond brief chats across the driveway. Last night was the night that we’d planned to get dinner.

So, across the driveway we walked, and we had a nice time chatting with Frances. Almost as soon as we got there, Frances mentioned how beautiful our cat is. Frances also has a cat, Gracie, but she’s exclusively an indoor cat. We told Frances the saga of the missing cat, and she said that we shouldn’t worry — she was sure that our cat would return. Anyway, we had a very nice dinner that Frances made. We were sitting in her dining room around her table. I was seated at the head of the table, looking towards her sliding back door onto Frances’ backyard.

Just as we were finishing up dinner, telling random stories, I saw Kitty crawl out from under one of the bushes in the backyard and start to walk across. It honestly took me two beats to realize what was happening. One to notice something was moving — and the second to realize it was our “missing” cat. We ran to the door, opened it, and the cat immediately ran back away. My wife went out and called to the cat — who responded — but wouldn’t come near us. She crawled under a fence and into the drainage chute that runs along the far side of Frances’ house. I ran around and tried to come up from the other side. It’s a narrow cement drainage area, with the house on the left and a fence on the right — so no easy place for the cat to go, other than back into the back yard.

Instead, the cat came running right for me. At first, I thought maybe she was happy to see me — but it was more that she was hoping to dart by me. She faked left, then right, and then dove under a set of wooden steps leading to Frances’ garage. I was right there, blocking her exit, and went to pick her up.

Remember how we decided not to trim her claws?

Yeah, so my loving cat, who likes nothing more than to cuddle with me every night, decided to show me what her claws can do. I got two nice gashes across the back of my hand, another on my upper arm, and (for good measure) a little slash across the neck… and off ran Kitty.

Still, it was good to know she was still alive (and moving quite well). Frances gave us some salmon that we put on a little plate to try to attract the cat (assuming, correctly, that she would be hungry). After one failed attempt to bring her back into our house, we actually lured her into Frances’ house. I ran back to our house and got her crate. With a little effort we got her into the crate (briefly introduced her to Gracie, as well) and then took her home.

Since then, we’ve been living in a bit of a warzone. The pet door is now shut. The dogs are living downstairs. The cat is hiding upstairs, in a state of constant alert — sort of the kitty equivalent of Anne Frank (sans diary) — moving from one hiding spot to another. The stairs are a sort of demilitarized zone. The dogs have made it up a few times, with a few minor flares, but for the most part, we’ve avoided a return to all out cat/dog warfare. We’ve tried a few times to “introduce” Max to Kitty, but so far, all that’s done is get me a few more scratches.

Such is life in our household these days…

Post script: Having now written this up, I’m realizing that back in the early days of blogging, the mocking phrase that the mainstream press used to put down the concept of “bloggers” was that it was a bunch of people writing about their cats — and I vaguely recall promising myself that I’d never become one of “those” bloggers. Oops.

Three years ago, when we all got together to celebrate Grandpa’s 90th birthday, I told Grandma she had to wait for her turn to hear stories about herself. I needed to do so, because I realized how difficult it was to think of Grandpa stories that didn’t have Grandma as a central figure – oftentimes speaking *for* Grandpa, before he was allowed to get out the words.

And, now, in thinking about what stories to tell about Grandma, I realize, again, how much Grandpa figures into every one of those stories – but also just how much a central figure Grandma has been in this entire family’s lives (again, oftentimes speaking for all of us, before we can get out the words!). When we look back on this family, it really is amazing how close we’ve all been for so many years, no matter where our paths have taken us (both literally and figuratively). And, while it may have seemed easy or natural for this to happen, I think we all have to admit that it’s been Grandma’s ever-steady hand (occasionally mixed with a good-natured scolding or question about when we’re getting married/having kids/etc.) that hasn’t just kept this extended family so close-knit, but also instilled all of us with our moral compass, our passion for life and our ability to have fun and laugh so frequently.

I tried to think of a story about Grandma that not everyone would know – and while I came up with a few, one of my favorites was the time I called a few years back, and Grandma answered the phone out-of-breath. She apologized, and explained: “I turned on the TV, and there’s a special on about Elvis Presley, so I started dancing.”

Yes, Grandma is a closet Elvis fan.

“Ah, what can I say?” She’ll say. “Let everyone just stay well. That’s all I want. That’s all.”

We’ve all heard her say that phrase, perhaps a thousand times – and it’s become Grandma’s mantra. But, that’s really not all. Grandma doesn’t just want us all to be well. She wants us all to be happy and find meaning in life. She knows how to make all of us laugh — and she takes a keen interest in what each of us is interested in, even if it’s beyond her scope of knowledge and experience.

For years, every single time I called to speak to her, she would let me know that her and Grandpa sat down at the WebTV every evening, after the 11 o’clock news, and before going to bed, to log onto Techdirt, and read what I’d written about that day.

“I don’t understand half of it — or sometimes all of it — but I read it.”

Sometimes she’d engage me: “So what you’re really saying is…” and it would always be exactly right, sometimes giving me new ways of thinking about things.

I got to see this nightly ritual first hand a few years back, when I was in Florida for a conference. As bedtime rolled around, Grandma and Grandpa came out to the terrace, turned on the TV. Grandma sat towards the back, in her comfy recliner, with the TV tray table and the wireless WebTV keyboard. Grandpa in the front, with the remote control. The two of them, working as a team, would log in, check their email, and then call up Techdirt from a list of bookmarks. Grandma would read each post outloud, and when she reached the bottom, command Grandpa to “Scroll!” with the remote.

Even with me sitting there, Grandma made sure to read every last post, and comment on about half of them

A few years later, the first time I brought (a very nervous) Sunnia to meet Grandma and Grandpa, Grandma immediately made her feel not just at ease, but as if she were already one of the family. The two of them bonded instantly – sometimes to my own detriment. Early on, she heard Sunnia gently scold me for something I had done (or, more likely, not done), and immediately took her side – and later passed on a list of her most important lessons from 60+ years of marriage. There were two that stood out:

• Always kiss each other before going to sleep
• The woman is always right

Sunnia reminds me of this constantly. Any time I disagree with her, she chides: “Remember what your grandmother said!”

And, so we do, always, remember what Grandma says. Grandma. Happy 90th birthday, to the glue that holds this family together and gives us all so much joy and life. And, let us all remember: Grandma is always right.

“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”

– Kurt Vonnegut

I went to a fun gathering last weekend, put on for Jonathan Zittrain, the founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. The occasion was Zittrain’s new book The Future of the Internet… And How To Stop It. I’ve known Zittrain’s work for a while, but never met him, so jumped when I got an invite (thank you, Kara Swisher) to the come to a party for the book. The party itself was put on by Arianna Huffington and Melanie Ellison, who I guess you need to refer to as “Larry Ellison’s wife.” That meant the party was at one of Larry Ellison’s homes, on Billionaire’s Row in San Francisco, where pretty much all of the neighbors are billionaires, and the view is magnificent.

Meeting Zittrain for the first time was cool. He seems like a nice guy and I look forward to reading the book (of which I picked up a copy). The Ellisons’ house was incredible (well, what I could see of it — there were security guards guarding every door), and there were plenty of rich, famous and beautiful people in attendance. Beyond both of the Ellisons, Zittrain and Huffington, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was in attendance as was former governor (and former presidential candidate) Jerry Brown. I also got to talk with Craig of Craigslist fame for a while, which is always nice. He explained to me why he doesn’t want to sell Craigslist (not that I asked). Kara has a nice writeup and short video that includes me failing to come up with something interesting to say:

They also handed everyone a cookie with the book cover from Zittrain’s book on the cookie. I had no idea you could do such things, but apparently you can (I ate half the cookie after dinner — not bad). It’s too bad my wife is out of town, considering that Larry Ellison is her boss’s boss’s boss’s boss… I’m sure she would have enjoyed seeing the house.

However, I’m actually not writing this post about all of that — but about high school and nostalgia. When I got to the event, I actually ran into Zittrain right after I walked in, standing in the entry hallway, before the big living room where most of the people were. He was talking to Dan Farber, who I know and who introduced me. We asked Jonathan how it ended up that the Ellisons were throwing the party for him, and he told us that he actually went to high school with Melanie, and they were friends back then. So, now that the book came out, she agreed to hold the book party.

Arianna told a slightly different story, saying she was having dinner with the Ellisons, and brought along an early version of the book, saying she thought it was something the Ellisons should read, and Melanie surprised her by telling her that she had gone to high school with Zittrain. In introducing Zittrain, Melanie mentioned how she had known him since 1984, and she knew right away that he was “cool” to which Jonathan replied that it was certainly “a very well kept secret” that he was ever cool.

It got me thinking, because I’ve been going through a bit of high school nostalgia myself lately. It’s been 15 years since graduation, which seems like a long time — especially since it still doesn’t really feel all that long ago. But, suddenly I’ve found myself in touch with a few folks from high school that I lost touch with long ago, partly due to Facebook and partly due to randomness.

“Everybody in high school feels like the geek. If you are ten years out of high school and you say ‘damn, those were the best years of my life,” then I don’t want anything to do with you. You scare me.”
– Stephen King on “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” May 4, 2008

I lost touch with almost everyone I knew in high school. This was just as the internet was catching on, so only the super geeks had email addresses prior to going off to school, there was no instant messaging or social networks, so it wasn’t as easy to stay in touch. Sometimes I wonder if that’s still the case today. With email, social networking and instant messaging, it seems like it’s much more difficult to “lose” touch with people. But, without those, I lost touch with most folks within about a year.

Even the kids who I thought I was close friends with pretty much disappeared once I got to college. Perhaps this wasn’t that surprising. I don’t think I was ever really that close with people from my high school anyway. I don’t remember my high school being particularly cliqueish, though, in retrospect that may have just been me being oblivious. I knew lots of different people, and while I did have a group of regular friends, I also was pretty friendly with a pretty diverse selection of kids. So, based on that, I don’t think I really ever spent too much time with any one set of friends — and I always had this thought in the back of my head (which I’m thinking may be quite common among high schoolers) that maybe my friends didn’t actually like me very much. So I always made sure that I was friends with a bunch of different groups, just in case one group woke up and realized that they didn’t like me, I could just spend my time with a different group.

Every so often I would do Google searches online to see if I could dig up info on what happened to this or that friend from high school. Most of them weren’t findable, which was weird for me since I’m… rather findable on Google these days. It’s because of that findability that I occasionally get emails from folks.

Just a few months ago, I got an email from Rusty. This goes back beyond high school. Rusty went to elementary school with me, and I remember that he was the first kid that the bus picked up (the furthest from school) and I was the third stop, so he always got the best seat on the bus. I also remember him teaming up with Pedro to beat me up when I broke Pedro’s gold chain in a fight on the junior high bus (that was fun). Rusty still lives in Huntington and is a DJ (he DJ’d our high school “ska & rave” — yes, we had a “ska & rave” in high school). He’s married with a kid. And here’s the best part: he totally didn’t remember that I went to high school with him (apparently, the speech I gave at graduation wasn’t that memorable). He only remembers me from elementary school (I didn’t ask him about the fight in junior high). He sent me the photo of our second grade class, and I actually remember the names of most of the kids, including Joe Anchundia, who was working in the World Trade Center and died on September 11.

“Hey Michael, it’s me, Job….”

That was the message I got when Ryan added me as a “friend” on Facebook earlier this year. Ryan was a cool kid, but for some reason, I don’t remember being all that friendly with him. I remember that he was friends with most of my friends… and I remember thinking that he was really nice… but I just can’t remember hanging out with him that much. I also absolutely did not initially get the reference to Job, until he reminded me that he played the role of “Job” in a play I had written in high school called “A Day in the Life of God.” I actually co-wrote it with Brendan Gray (who sorta appears later in this story).

Huntington High School held a competition between the grades each year called “Playfest” where each grade put on a play. Some classes license a real play, some have a student write a play. Brendan and I teamed up freshman year to write a play, but we handed it in a day late, and so they licensed some play instead. I think Brendan was the funniest guy I knew in high school. Don’t ask me why I remember this, but I remember meeting him the first day of junior high school as we were both walking to shop class, and he just saw me in the hallway and started talking to me like we were old friends (we had actually met a year earlier on a field trip between elementary schools, but I don’t think that’s why he spoke to me). I used to like hanging out with Brendan because he was so funny that by the time I walked away, my brain was racing faster and even I was funnier (not for very long, though).

Anyway, for sophomore year, the two of us teamed up again and wrote the play “A Day in the Life of God” and handed it in on time. Our class advisors loved it and brought us on to direct, though Brendan rarely showed up, leaving the directing to me. There was a bit of controversy over the subject matter. The (not very original) “joke” of the play was that it was God as if he were a corporation CEO with Satan trying to run a hostile takeover of heaven. The jokes came pretty easily with that (though, our class advisors wanted us to add more characters so we didn’t have to cut anyone who wanted a part, so I went scouring through the bible to find bit players… like Job). The best actress in the school was a girl named Jillian, and we gave her the role of Satan… until her mom read the play, freaked out, called us blasphemers and demanded that Jillian quit the play. She moved to a new school soon afterwards.

That was fun.

We also got into some trouble for a line that I didn’t write. Ari played the role of Abraham, and at one point God (played by Dan Brenner — who recently connected with me via LinkedIn) got mad at Abraham, and Ari ad libbed a line to explain why he was having trouble paying attention: “But… but… but… I can’t find my foreskin.” It got the biggest laugh of the night and a stern warning from the principal that if we used that line on night 2 we would be disqualified from winning the “best play” award. Figuring the laughs were more rewarding than some dumb award, Ari and I agreed that he would still do the line.

I did Playfest (sans Brendan, unfortunately) the next two years as well, and in looking through my high school yearbook (which I just pulled out after having written all of the above), I’m realizing that a lot of folks connected me with those plays, as some of the signatures I got all refer to various plays. I guess that’s not the worst thing to be remembered for — though I’m not sure it’s going to get any multi-billionaires to throw a party for me any time soon.

Anyway, this post is getting long enough, so I’m going to stop it here and post it as “Part I,” soon (hopefully) to be followed by Part II — which includes recently meeting up with some long lost high school friends, and random other bits of nostalgia and thoughts on high school.

Here’s, again, is the photo from 1983 that Pesco’s friend sent him:

So I was looking at that and then started thinking… My parents pretty much declared their basement a federal disaster area after I went off to college (and yes, it’s my fault that it’s was a disaster), and have been waiting for the feds to send in a cleanup crew ever since. I know that they’ve finally been dumping out all sorts of old stuff over the past year, but if I remember correctly (and I might not) that corner of the basement has not been touched in 15 years. In other words, our Atari 800 with the similar setup and the crappy TV may STILL be sitting in my parents basement. I’m not back in NY for a couple months, but Mom & Dad, if you read this and if I’m correct that the old Atari is still sitting pretty in the basement, would you mind taking a photo and sending it to me? And, yes, I do talk to my parents regularly on the phone or via IM or email, but making the request by blog just seems like more fun. If I’m right, and the setup is still there, I’ll update the post with it once they send it.

Hmm… in pending, for some reason, the audio is compressed like the Chipmunks… I’m going to post this anyway and hope that’s not the case when it’s posted for real. If it is, I’ll see what I can do…

Well that didn’t work at all… not sure why it’s playing it like the Chipmunks, but in the meantime, if you want to hear the song, it’s here at Tumblr. Gave me an excuse to try Tumblr.

This version was recorded live on the radio when they were in Texas last year. Vic’s playing a baby grand piano rather than a keyboard or organ, so I’m guessing the album version will sound a bit different… but either way, I know that this song has been stuck in my head for a while, so I’m happy it’s the first song on the new album. I had a lot of fun doing my music post last month, so maybe I’ll try to do a review post once I get this album. In the meantime, take a listen…

No, it’s not as bad as some other types of spam or trolling, and it can be avoided if people lock their feeds and have to approve followers, but it’s not quite correct to say there’s no spam. And, as Twitter gets more popular, don’t be surprised to see them come up with even more spamming and trolling methods.

Anyway, given my (at this point…) 18 year (yikes) and ongoing obsession with ska music, you might think I always expected to have ska music at my eventual wedding. But, actually, that’s never really been the case. I remember talking to Sammy from the Scofflaws about the wedding performances they used to do on occasion, and I asked him if they did anything different than their standard live performance — and he said no. He said that there would be grandmothers and the like staring at them wondering what was going on. It made me wonder. The Scofflaws put on one of the best live shows ever, but part of that is the excitement of the crowd. I couldn’t exactly see my grandparents dancing around to songs like “William Shatner” or “Nude Beach”. While I know how a good song with a good beat can get almost anyone to dance, people most like to dance to songs they recognize. So, I had pretty much resigned myself to the idea that I shouldn’t expect any ska at my wedding — especially if the wife-to-be wasn’t a huge ska fan.

Of course, while it’s true that the wife isn’t a huge ska fan, she is pretty cool (why I married her and all), and she just assumed that there would be ska at the wedding — and looked at me like I was silly when I suggested maybe it didn’t make sense. Either way, it gave me a good project to work on leading up to the wedding. The DJ we picked knew absolutely nothing about ska (of the DJs I interviewed, only one had heard about ska, but knew nothing about it — and we didn’t pick him anyway). So it was up to me to try to put together a nice representative sample of ska music for the wedding. We weren’t expecting all of the music to be ska, but wanted to be able to throw in a ska song here and there to keep me happy (along with the… um… two or three wedding guests who also were ska fans).

That’s when I realized how tricky this actually was. I have well over a thousand ska CDs, of varying styles, eras and quality. However, I still wanted to make sure that the songs were appropriate — which required a few things.

• First and foremost, it had to be a good song (probably goes without saying). However, recognizing that most people wouldn’t even know the songs at all, it had to be a different level of good: it had to be good-on-the-first-listen good. That’s a lot trickier. There are plenty of songs that take a few listens to before you really start to dig them, but there are always a few standouts. I wanted to focus in on the standouts.
• Second, it had to be more upbeat and danceable. Most ska qualifies, but there are some tricky ones — especially if the song has massive tempo changes, as some of them do.
• Third: It has to be relatively short, in the two to four minute range. Longer than that can usually get annoying, especially if people don’t know/like the song. I’ve been told that 2:55 is the ideal length for a “danceable” song. Who knows if it’s true, but I didn’t want to push my luck with something like the Jumpstarts’ “Lucky One” — a fantastic, catchy song that has great lyrics for a wedding… but clocks in somewhere around 7 minutes.
• Fouth: Perhaps the most annoying/limiting: the recording quality had to be good. That knockedout pretty much all first generation Jamaican ska songs. While they really are awesome, the recording quality is generally pretty pitiful. This basically knocked out a good 35 to 40% of my collection.
• Finally, and perhaps the trickiest of all: the song couldn’t have any easily heard or understood lyrics that would seem inappropriate for a wedding.

Combining all those factors really made it stunningly difficult to come up with an hour and a half or so worth of songs. I started (of course) with The Slackers. I have over 200 Slackers songs (between albums and live recordings), and they are far and away my favorite band, and have been ever since I first saw them oh so many years ago at the Wetlands. It seems scary now that they have 8 or 9 albums or whatever out — but I still remember the fact that it took them bloody forever to scrap together enough money for the first album — entitled appropriately enough “Better Late than Never.” However, going through songs from The Slackers, it’s pretty difficult to find “wedding appropriate” material.

Hell, perhaps their most popular song ever is called “Married Girl,”
but it’s all about having an affair with a married woman (key lyric: “Married girl, don’t you wanna… smoke a little marijuana… and think about what you’re gonna do to me…”). Great song. Catchy. Not, so good for a wedding.

Ok, but there must be other Slackers songs among the hundreds. Except… I began to notice that the Slackers don’t have love songs. They have heartbreak songs. Every one of them. A few months ago (after this whole process) I watched the recently released documentary on the Slackers, where Vic basically admits that. He notes that the love of his life dumped him in high school when he couldn’t write a love song about her. The best he could do was write a song about why he couldn’t write a love song about her. Oops.
Based on that experience, he wrote one of my favorite Slackers songs (and the first one I saw them perform live): Sarah. Key lyric (stated very clearly): “Girl you know I love you and I’ll love you for the rest of my life. Sarah! I’m always thinking of you… I’m so sorry I can’t make you my wife.” Oops. No good. And then you notice there are more songs in that vein. “No I don’t want no other girl… at least not for tonight.” Oops. “What I’m sorry for is all those wasted days and wasted ways that I loved you.” Yikes. “I’ll find another before this night’s over. She might not be you, I might not be sober…” Nope.

And, it wasn’t just the Slackers. One of the very best Pietasters songs is “Night Owl”, which sounds sorta like a love song if you’re not listening too closely to the lyrics, until you hit the chorus and they sing (oh so clearly): “I don’t love you no more… and one more thing, now listen here: I hate your guts. You ruined my life. Ba-ba-baby you’ll never be my wife.” Yeah, not quite wedding material.

Anyway.

Ok. So, I did finally put together a list and gave it to the DJ (there’s a post script to this, but you gotta get to the bottom to read it…).

Here’s some quick thoughts on each of the songs in the playlist.

1. “No Strangers Here” — The Robustos: Seemed appropriate for a wedding. About a gathering of people where everyone’s welcome. Plus, it’s the best Robustos song, showing off the lead singer’s vocals and is upbeat and catchy. Years back, I remember talking to Bucket about this amazing band he had found down in Georgia (I think) called the Robustos (Bucket pronounced it “Robooostos”). When their first album came out on Moon Satellite, I rushed to get it and was seriously disappointed. Just didn’t have anything special going on. Even on a classic standard like “Perfidia” the lead singer’s vocals seemed average. A couple years later, I spotted the second Robustos album in a bargain bin for $0.99 and figured I’d give it a shot. And it’s fantastic. The music is great. Plenty of soul. Fantastic vocals. I went back and listened to the first album… and it still sucks. Not sure what happened, but whatever they did for the second album worked.

2. “Take Me With You” — The Jumpstarts: These guys were awesome, though unfortunately went through a few too many lineup changes. Back when we had the radio show, the Jumpstarts were very cool about sending us their demos and all new recordings before anyone else had them, so we helped debut songs like this one on the radio. Again, great vocals (though I’m pretty sure this female singer left the band before their album even came out). The recording quality isn’t great, but had to include a Jumpstarts song somehow.

3. “Do You Know” — The Slackers: Aha! I did find a Slackers love song. This is actually one of my favorites. I saw them perform it the very first time I saw them, and had a copy of it on their “Special Potato” demo tape. However, for completely unknown reasons, they didn’t put it on their first (or second) album. On the first album, instead, they put the song “You Don’t Know I” which has a similar title and an identical opening (and is also sort of a love song, though it’s about falling in love with a girl he saw in an elevator, but couldn’t talk to). The demo version showed up on a European comp somewhere, but the recording quality isn’t great. This is the version they finally put on the third album “The Question.” I actually like the original version better, but the recording quality just wasn’t good enough.

4. “Thank You” — Hepcat: Check it out, kids. Rare Hepcat. Honestly, I think this is my favorite Hepcat tune, highlighting Alex’s vocals. And, yet, it doesn’t (as far as I know) appear on any Hepcat albums. It’s just on a comp of SoCal ska. Unfortunately, the levels on it are really low. But it’s such a good song (and it’s a love song, too) that I couldn’t leave it out.

5. “Kids” — USCB All-Stars: Okay, this one may even stump ska fans. I got this CD recently from Chuck Wren, and have been listening to it a lot, so that influenced the fact that I ended up with 3 songs from the album. I think the band’s from Sweden or something. I have no idea what USCB stands for, but they’ve got some catchy songs.

6. “I Don’t Know” — Blue Beat Stompers: Okay, so it’s a really long story for details (that actually involves how I met Korby, but we’ll skip that part), but I accidentally saw this band in Berkeley one night soon after I first moved to CA, and was blown away. Good trad ska, great vocals. Their album wasn’t as great as I’d hoped it would be (though, it’s still good). This is actually the only cover song on the album, but it’s a favorite, and the original Jamaican recording just isn’t great in terms of recording quality… so I went with the Stompers version.

7. “Subway Joe” — Skavoovie and the Epitones: Probably my favorite Skavoovie tune. It’s a cover of a fantastic (non-ska) song by Joe Bataan. Plus, it’s just a fun song. Not sure about the wedding appropriateness, given that it’s basically about getting beat up on the Subway, but…

8. “Night Before” — The Pietasters: A fun Pietasters song. Not actually sure if it’s really a love song or the opposite, but I figured that if I couldn’t figure it out after all these years, someone listening casually wouldn’t either. The other struggle on this one was which version to include. Before the Oolooloo album came out, there was a different version of this song released on a comp, and I always thought that it had a much better keyboard solo in the middle. But, I think I’ve gotten used to this one now, so I went with the album version.

9. “I Shall Be Released” — The Slackers: Well, since there wasn’t much else in the way of Slackers love songs, I just figured I’d grab a Bob Dylan cover. Not that many Dylan covers turned into ska songs, and the only other one I can think of is just awful (The Rude Boys doing “Blowing in the Wind” recorded in ‘63 or ‘64). Thinking about it now, the fact that this is a song about being in prison, it’s perhaps not really wedding appropriate. Also, that first line: “They say every man can be replaced.” Hmm. But, it’s soooo good. How could anyone complain?

10. “Reggae Got Soul” — Toots + Ken Boothe + Marcia Griffiths — I’m a big Toots fan, not just because of the great music, but the one time I got to meet him, he was incredibly cool, and recorded a promo for the radio show where (right after having performed a 3.5 hour (!!!) show with a soar throat!) he pulled out the most amazing “Give it to me one time!” yell (a la 54-46). In retrospect, not sure why I didn’t include 54-46, considering it’s so catchy. I think maybe I was worried about the recording quality. Which is also why I didn’t include any 60’s Toots recordings. The two in this list come from his recent “True Love” album where he re-recorded his classics with famous musicians from a variety of genres. For this song, though, he pulled in Ken Boothe and Marcia Griffiths, which seems appropriate.

11. “Heart Attack” — USCB All Stars: Another USCB Allstars song. Just struck me as catchy. Not much else to say about it.

12. “Every Afternoon” — The Pietasters: I’d been listening to “Turbo” a bit around this time, which is why there are two songs from that album. The Pietasters have gone through a few different phases, but I tend to think they’re at their best when they tend more towards the Motowny sound. Of course, listening to this song as I write this, I’m realizing it’s actually about stalking someone. Oops.

13. “Bow Bow Song” — One Groovy Coconut: Such a catchy song. I don’t think people can help but bounce along to it. Not much else to say about this band. It had some ex-Scofflaws in it, but never did very much. This was about the only song on the album that was any good, but it’s super catchy. Follow the bouncing ball and sing…

14. “Mama Bird” — Go Jimmy Go: Probably not the best Go Jimmy Go song, but the first one of theirs that I heard, and I still like it. I liked these guys well before I realized their original (occasional?) bass player was actually the brother of this girl I knew back in school who used to hang out with me and Nat and make fun of us for liking ska.

15. “Bin Waitin” — The Slackers: Another enjoyable non-love song from the Slackers. Though, now I’m realizing (uh oh) this is actually the second Slackers song I’ve included that’s actually about prison. Hmm. Bad subconscious, bad.

16. “Time Tough” — Toots + Ryan Adams: Not really going to comment on Ryan Adams recording with Toots here. I’m just a big fan of this song, and since it’s off the album recorded with all these other musicians, that’s what we get. Yet another one with lyrics that, in retrospect, probably weren’t all that wedding appropriate. Weird. I’ll chalk it up to pre-wedding stress.

17. “Old Man of the Mountain” — Skavoovie and the Epitones: Another personal favorite. I was hesitant to put this one on the list, as I thought that it was too long (almost five minutes) or too weird, but it’s just really good — and given that the wedding *was* up on a mountain, it just seemed appropriate. Plus, it’s the type of song that tends to get people dancing.

18. “Give In Give Up” — USCB All-Stars: Yeah, as I said, I was listening to these guys a lot back in June. Still a good song. Funky.

19. “Lightning & Thunder” — The Aggrolites: Didn’t have the latest Aggrolites album at that point (got it about 3 days before the wedding), and the best song on this album we used as our first dance song, so I wanted another Aggrolites song. I think I sort of picked at random from their first two albums, as they’re all pretty good.

20. “Parakeet” — Skavoovie and the Epitones: One of the few instrumentals on the list. Went back and forth between this one and “Cornbread,” both of which are great Skavoovie instrumental tunes. I think Parakeet may be a bit more upbeat.

21. “Rachel” — The Pietasters: Another Pietasters track from Turbo. Not much to say about it, other than that I like it. Has a little more of a “rock” drum sound that the band got into in some of its albums.

22. “Once In Awhile” — After Hours: A random assortment of top SoCal ska musicians got together to do this little side project. Mentally, I file this one as a combination of See Spot and Hepcat (who provides the vocals). A bit mellow, but figured we needed *some* “slow songs” in there.

23. “Love Ya Mama” — Skandalous All Stars: Now here’s an album (Age of Insects) that never got any attention at all, unfortunately. The Skandalous All Stars were an “all-star” band of mostly NYC ska types, who did two albums of covers that were just so-so. Apparently, they had signed a 3-album deal with Shanachie, so they had to do a third album. But rather than actually doing another album with the same cast, the two Vic R’s (Ruggiero and Rice) who are the kings of the NYC ska scene just wrote up and performed a bunch of their own songs. It’s like the lost Slackers + Vic Rice album. Sorta. But most people who had heard the first two Skandalous albums just skipped it over. I know I did until someone told me the details. There are a few clunkers on the album, but a whole bunch of fantastic songs — and this is one of the fantastic ones. Most of the songs seem to be telling the story (I think) of a dustbowl farmer during a time of trouble (The Age of Insects). How two city boy musicians ended up writing such an album, I have no clue.

24. “Ton Tok” — Jump with Joey: If you talk to a ska fan from the mid-nineties, Jump with Joey was this sort of mythical beast. The LA band, who spent a few years performing every Wednesday night at the King King club in LA, had (for some completely unfathomal reason) only released albums in Japan. If you wanted one of Jump with Joey’s three albums, you had to pony up like $50 or $60 via the internet (thank you internet!) and get it shipped to you. For a few years, I debated whether or not to do it. Those who possessed the albums insisted it was totally worth it. Then, just as I was finally about to give in and order it… all three albums got rereleased in the US (on Ryko, no less!). Lots of good songs on all three albums, but “Ska Ba” is my favorite album, and Ton Tok always struck me as one of the catchier songs on it. Not everyone agrees with me, but, hey, it was my wedding, not yours.

25. “My Heart & Soul” — The Robustos: Another Robustos tune from their second album. Seemed wedding appropriate, and a great song too.

26. “Till the End of Time” — The Scofflaws: Okay, this one’s cheating. I have to admit, I realized as I was putting this list together that there wasn’t a single Scofflaws song in the bunch. That seemed unfortunate, since the Scofflaws were who got me into ska so many years ago. So I went through the first two albums, and discovered the Scofflaws aren’t great at love songs either. This one’s a good one, though, and I went with the live recording (which I actually attended, thanks to Glen) as the Scofflaws have to be experienced live to be fully appreciated. Unfortunately, I don’t think the live album they released really was that great. Somewhere in a box I’ve got a bunch of bootleg tapes that actually sound much better. Someday, maybe I’ll convert them.

27. “In Between Times” — Go Jimmy Go: One of my favorite Go Jimmy Go tunes, and seemed appropriate for a wedding.

28. “No Worries” — Hepcat: Another Hepcat favorite (this one from an actual album, though). This one comes from their best and most well-known album. I think it even got a shout out in Rolling Stone (which for a real ska band is pretty much unheard of).

29. “Sugar Sugar” — Doreen Shaffer: A ska classic, performed by a bunch of folks, but this is one of my favorite versions. Doreen Shaffer, backed by Dr. Ring Ding & His Senior All-Stars. This one also had special meaning, as our dog (originally my wife’s dog) is named Sugar, and I gave her (my wife, not the dog) a copy of this song soon after we started dating. Yup, corny modern guy thing: give the girl a song, but you know… it apparently worked.

30. “Love Isn’t Love”: — The Aggrolites: Okay, this wasn’t on the playlist either, but it was our First Dance song, so wanted to include it here. My favorite Aggrolites song (and I’m not alone in thinking that, either). It’s a great song and works as a love song. Plus, with a little bit of training and practice, you can even learn to dance halfway decently to it (well, maybe not halfway, but somewhere above total novice).

Okay… for the none of you who actually made it through this post. Here’s the amusing post script: the DJ lost the CD and didn’t bring it with him. I actually had brought a backup copy, but left it in the car, down at the base of the mountain, and by the time the DJ realized he didn’t have the CD itself (he had the case), there wasn’t enough time to go down and get it. The only song from the list that actually got played was “Love Isn’t Love” for the first dance (which, luckily was on a separate CD). So, after all that… it really was a mostly ska-free wedding. But, it really didn’t matter in the end anyway.