This is what I heard, all three in a row, the other morning when I woke up. Isn’t that just great? So happy. Waking up happy is a beautiful thing, baby, can u dig it? And these three songs, playing one after another, with little DJ interruption, is the reason why Steve wants to jab himself in the eyeballs come 6 a.m. — cuz he just. can’t. reach. my clock radio aiiiiiiiiiii make it stop!!! she needs to set it to NPR like I do aiiiiiiii…

“love her madly” — the doors

“the backstabbers” — o’jays (My daughter, watching this video, “Look at their hair! They wore it so… big.” me, getting all misty, “yeah, all the guys wore their hair like that,” (thinking of the black guys I went to grade school and high school with) “it looked great.” Wacky Girl, “But the girls wore it big, too!” me: “Honey, you should have seen Grandma’s hair, it was big.”)

“grazin in the grass is a gas baby can you dig it” — the friends of distinction

“And it’s real, so real, so real, so real, so real, so real
Can you dig it
Whooo-oooh”

My husband Hockey God and I just spend all day cracking each other up over here. We’re not good at much else but we’re good as hell at that. He knows this is my favorite YouTube clip ever:

I am living proof of what happens to a girl when she grows up with her dad’s parents loving them some Lawrence Welk and her mom’s parents loving them some Hee-Haw. I know for sure Steve’s gonna love this one:

You know why that one is so good? Well, a lot of reasons, obviously. The technical wherewithal, the go-to-it-iveness of the whole dadblasted thing. June is so adorable, and John is so handsome. (That’s what I called him, John.) But mainly, it’s classic because no matter how big and how famous she got, how many fancy houses and cars and all that, she was still that little honey who started out with her family, performing. I love u, June. (John, too.)

That’s right, I just do not know when to stop. Last one. I promise. Look for that sexy little vixen Tammy Wynette, and my friend John with a pie in his hand.

I love this video. Brad Paisley, Costanza, Costanza’s ma, Captain Kirk, Marcia Brady… it really does have it all. hahaha. Enjoy.

happy Wednesday to you.

— wm

hello.

do you remember when we had time for one another?

yeah, me too.

— wm

ps — happy weekend, everybody. It’s Wordstock here, it’s 3 days off from school, it’s ice cream and Italian food and running into my sister, her red-headed fiance and their friends at dinner. that’s alright. (no, we did not run into the Mayor.) (You will be pleased to note that the service at PIZZA FINO in beautiful downtown NORTH PORTLAND KENTON was the WORST IT’S EVER BEEN IN OUR LIVES.) (No, worse than that, even. I kid you not. It’s a tragedy. It is an urban tragedy how bad the service is, YET WE CONTINUE TO DINE THERE. Why? I have no idea.)

(The best rock and roll song ever.)

and, of course…

Rock the Casbah

I once heard the Clash described as the band “fronted by this skinny guy who looked like he was going to lose his mind if you didn’t let him sing.” Or something like that. Anyway, I thought that summed it up nicely.

— wm

My cousin is funny. I mean, all of my cousins are funny, but this one is extra-funny. Her kid? He’s the funniest one of us all. Just turned three and I gotta say — he already knows how to grab life by the balls.

(If my friend Ralphie were here he’d say, “Is it alright to say that here? ‘Life’?”)

Did you catch this? It’s a little talk they had in the car…

wc2.3: Mama, did you know that video….? (trails off)

wc2.3: Hm. Maybe we can get one at the store.

Yes, son, that’s the first music video MTV ever aired… that’s right! It’s the Buggles with Video Killed the Radio Star.

How about this little classic, Wacky Cousin 3.0?

I was at a party with a bunch of punk rockers one time and that song came on. They all just completely lost their shit. Started singing along, doing the little Axl Rose snakey dance. I was thinking, You have all just completely lost your punk rock credentials, right there.

This next one is dedicated to Someone Who Shall Remain Nameless, who really does Give Love a Bad Name.

That’s all. Goodnight. Oh, yeah. And if you don’t start leaving me some comments, you people, I’m shutting this thing down. I mean it. Don’t test me I’m not in the mood.

xo

wm

PS — Just because I know that Wacky Cousin 3.0 is going to be a total rocker when he grows up… here’s one he’s going to love the hell out of when he’s a teenager:

PSS — I’m basically writing this thing for TOL and my cousin right now, cuz they’re the only ones who read it. My sister and mom say they’re reading it, but they’re lying.