CAR COMMERCIALS NIGHTMARE REDUX… I know what they’re up to now!! The commercials were on during ER so I was trying to toss dog food in bowls in between, and what suddenly do my ears begin to hear but The Cult’s “She Sells Sanctuary”… and I look at the TV and it’s a Nissan Sentra commercial!!! I was appalled! Visitors to the Wall from February and March may remember my minor annoyance at The Buzzcocks’ “What Do I Get” recently being used by Toyota, but this, this is blasphemy!

And now I realize exactly what they’re doing (I did take Marketing in high school and college, after all) - they’re trying to directly influence us thirty- and fortysomethings into buying their cars, that’s what. I can see it now…. “What demographic have we not targeted lately?”… “Well, how about the indie Generation X slacker market and the old grown-up punk rockers, never mind that many of them don’t even have the money for bus fare, let’s try and sell them a new car! Yeah!” Snicker.

Anyway, I find it really kind of amusing but, still, it’s darn near blasphemous when they’re using one of the cuts off one of my fave ever albums of all time (and not even one that most Cult fans like - in that regard I think they sorta blew their demographic, would have made much more sense to use something off of Electric or Sonic Temple, duh…). Anyhow, jeez, Ian & Duffy must’ve needed $$ awful bad.

So…. you know it’s probably kind of bad that I now have a decent computer at work now (and am not generally giving that e-mail address out for that very reason)… not only can I now keep an eye on my eBay stuff (including being able to fight tooth & nail during the day now not to get outbid on stuff) and can e-mail late breaking news to Stef & some others, but KC & I can trade insults & barbs transatlantically all day long now and that’s just kind of plain scary, really. I’ll be hard at work actually doing real work and all of a sudden I see my e-mail box alert and I’m just semi-terrified to look and see what’s in there this time, albeit tho it’s kinda like a car wreck you just can’t help but look at…

On a more serious note tho it is kinda nice because now I can actually do work that used to take an hour to do in like five minutes, so now maybe I won’t be hopelessly behind 365 days a year anymore, that I love (and it wasn’t like I haven’t been telling those SOBs in Corporate that that stupid Mac I used to have up there with a 9600 (!!) baud modem was slowing me down for years and years).

What a day today was, by the way… I’ve had the windows open all night, it’s been just gorgeous, and in the Great Minds Think Alike Department, I reckon my neighbor and I were of the same mind as I was planning to mow the stupid yard when I got home, and whaddya know, I get home and he’s putting a (much much needed) new blade on the lawn mower, aces. That’s done, one less chore to do! (But I still hafta do my taxes, ugh….)

Anyway, all around a nice day and it really hasn’t been a bad week, I may even have a date Sunday, wow. (Though I really should be doing my taxes instead…) I still have too much to do but things are cool, I dunno what in the universe changed to suddenly make everything go right, or maybe I just have a bad case of spring fever. In any case, I’m sure there was a Paul Westerberg song worthy of quoting for this fine day and week, but I can’t think of what it might be right now.

The only real downer at the moment is, even as I type, my pal Miss Jen is probably preparing to go see The Monarchs in Brisbane, since it’s Friday evening there, and here I am stuck in crummy Memphis with the darn it why don’t I live in Australia blues again… anyway, things to do so I must go, have yerself a merry weekend and later…

So, long time no see!

So, as mentioned in the February edition of the Wall, I was just seriously disturbed by the use of a classic Buzzcocks single in the latest Toyota commercial, having seen the commercial about forty billion times last month, and wondered what this world was coming to in that regard. Now I’m even more unnerved upon hearing the news that K-Tel - yes, K-Tel, you heard me right - is putting out an ’80s hardcore punk/indie anthology type o’ deal… yup, Black Flag, Husker Du, The Minutemen on K-Tel, I could just about die this is so disturbing to me, I just don’t know what to make of all this, there is just something terribly wrong with all of this… I mean, I know I’m, uh, approaching, uh, middle age (tho not quite as fast as some of you here, heh), and all these rock & roll heroes are starting to get old and die and stuff (I foresee having to shroud the website in black over and over again in the probably not that far away future, ugh), my kid sister is turning thirty in a couple of weeks for goodness’ sake, I’m about to go see a band I’ve loved for over twenty years now and they’re all pushing fifty, and many other things that are just making me feel terribly ancient, but this whole thing with old punk rock being used to sell cars and Henry Rollins on K-Tel is just so incredibly unnerving. What can possibly be next?

So, since I’m in the middle of a musical midlife crisis or something - and since I haven’t had a lot to offer here on the Wall lately - for a change of pace and something different, and because I found so much of it all so very very amusing, I thought you guys might be amused as well to meet the 17 and 18 year old Lynnster, in a manner of speaking. How so, you say? Well, I recently had to dig thru some old stuff to research something that was bugging me - i.e., I’m getting old and couldn’t remember what I was trying to remember - and I happened to come across one of those books, you know those old memory books you (or some people, or in any case, I did) get at graduation time to write in, and I found stuff that had me literally falling out of my chair practically in tears cracking up. (I think the biggest wonder of all reading some of this stuff was trying to remember what it was like to have time to do all this stuff!) However, it’s all a little too big for just the Wall, so visit (link removed, sorry!) to peruse if you dare… and remember, I was a teenager, I had an excuse…

Finally I am home again with nowhere else to go after several extended stays elsewhere this month… had another amusing mini-project for the Wall lined up (that’s two now) but I got too busy the one night I was at home last week, and tonight I’m just too tired, so reckon that’ll just have to wait as well… maybe later today if I ever get out of bed today. But I did want to get a little something up here before February was gone for good… plus I feel a writing jag coming on but it’s nearly 5 a.m. now and I don’t need to get on a tear, so I’m hoping a little Graffiti will just stave off that urge temporarily.

Actually I have a whole heck of a lot of Vandy, Florida, Alabama, LSU and Tulane jokes and sorority girl jokes but I can’t remember what I named the file right now to find ‘em (and, this is no surprise to much of anybody, can’t remember ‘em) so I’ll pass on the humor tonight.

Anyway… so I’ve got fourth row center tix for Cheap Trick down Tunica way in March and am now debating on whether to go see them in Gadsden, AL the next night since having been persuaded in that direction… you know tho, I have been out of town so much this month I can hardly stand the thought of going anywhere right now, well, except for Chuckie’s or Cole’s basement come the usual March trip, I just don’t wanna travel anywhere for a little while. Unless it’s to go to NYC to be on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire since I have known the answer to just about every #$@! question they’ve asked (and good lord, I have been trying… I ace the telephone questions, just my usual luck sucks and I don’t get drawn to be called). If I ever get to go I already have two of my phone lifelines picked out and think the other one should probably be a pal of mine that was on Jeopardy and won last year.

So anyhow… I really need to get some sleep so I’d better just shut up for now… except two more things, I learned this weekend that apparently e-mails from one of my fave music people in the world cures all ills (I kid you not, I was sick as a dog until I read my e-mail and amazingly my tummyache was gone)…

And I am highly disturbed by the Buzzcocks’ “What Do I Get” being used in the newest Toyota commercial, it’s really bugging me every time I hear it - what, does Pete Shelley need money that bad? - and I keep thinking, OK, what’s next, “I Wanna Be Sedated” for Prozac commercials? Or hey, I guess they could just hit the Buzzcocks’ catalog again and use “Orgasm Addict” for Viagra commercials…. (come to think of it, that’s pretty funny). I don’t know, there’s just something bad wrong with using old punk rock to sell cars.

Well, I’m done now, so, ’til later, I am your loyal but sleepy correspondent…

Been a very busy and chaotic week, sorry for the lack of updating, thought I’d drop a quick line or two while I had a moment now that this crazy week has run its course.

First of all, Memphis is very proud of its own Cindy Parlow, the former Germantown High soccer star who is a part of the World Cup-winning USA women’s team! Cindy is best friends with my longtime co-worker’s niece so I’ve been able to keep up with her career the last several years at North Carolina and with the USA team, very exciting to have seen the USA team go to number one!

Next… well, I jotted down a bunch of stuff on a piece of paper the other day I wanted to be sure and mention and not forget, and now I can’t read one of them, so I guess I’ll comment on that whenever I can figure out what it was supposed to say again. I am trying to organize some accounting stuff around here and in the process of searching for receipts and junk, I wound up making the mistake of cleaning out my computer desk drawer starting at like 2 in the morning one day last week… boy, was that interesting. Found tons of stuff I forgot I had, lots of photos that had been missing in action, letters from old boyfriends (EEK!) and I must have more ink pens than anyone human being on earth right now.

And, lately I have been very disturbed by things like the fact that Entertainment Weekly is calling this year’s R.E.M. tour a “nostalgia” tour, and that obviously old punk rockers now must hold high places at some national advertising agencies as, of all things, the Buzzcocks’ “What Do I Get?” is on some commercial on TV??!! I find that mildly disturbing, the next thing you know they’re going to be using obscure Ramones songs for Gap ads or something.

Well, I must go, don’t have much time right now as I’ve suddenly added “detox expert” to my ever-growing list of abilities - apparently I can do just about anything, amazing huh? - though I can’t say I ever want to make a habit out of this no matter how good I am at it and I’m not sure it works on anyone but ex-boyfriends, but nice to know I can apparently do some things right.

And I have something supercool to watch this weekend, as my buddy Carlos in Brazil sent me a video of one of the Gurus’ last concerts from their very last tour ever, and I’ve been saving that since like last Monday to savor at my leisure this weekend - rah!!! So, ’til later, have a most excellent weekend yourselves!