Suitedjustice's Ongoing Mid-life Crisis

I watched the first episode of the much-hyped Ozark and dustbinned the series. I like Jason Bateman and the series looks like it will be done well; but man, if I want to watch a middle-aged white guy try to wriggle out from under the thumb of a ruthless drug kingpin, I'll rewatch Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Life is short and my media bucket list is long. I want the new. Give me the new.

I've replaced it with a sci-fi series called Travelers. I'm about to watch the first episode of that. Later tonight: family dinner, then the casino.

Travellers is great! Pretty dark but great.

Ahhh. They're playing hard to get. Smart 🦉

IMO Ozark is much more than the first episode, recommend giving it a couple more and reassessing. to me the show was very much about the characters and their interactions, not so much the plot.
can also understand if it's just not your cuppa

They didn't pull many punches. Looks like it's going to be good.

There is a precedent for me pulling something off the dustbinned list. I did it with Bottom, which I had given up on after an episode. So there's always a chance.

Rolling Stone's 462nd Greatest Album of All Time: The Gilded Palace of Sin by The Flying Burrito Brothers (1969)

Here's another band whose name rings a bell, though I'd never heard any of their songs before this review. It's a fun band name; could it be considered nowadays as offensive to Latinos? I doubt it. Would Austrians find The Flying Weiner Schnitzel Brothers offensive?

Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman of the Byrds founded the band in the late 60s. Parsons had recently been fired by the Byrds for refusing to tour South Africa due to their apartheid oppression, though Hillman contended that Parsons just wanted to hang out in England with his new buddies from the Rolling Stones.

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In 1969 The Flying Burrito Brothers released their debut album, The Gilded Palace of Sin, the title of which could have easily found itself on the most ornate and proggy of King Crimson records, but this was not progressive rock; this was country music of a sort.

Parson's idea was to mix psychedelic rock into old-school country, thus preceding the alt-country music movement by a generation. One can recognize his efforts in the first song, "Christine's Tune."

I'm not sure why they went with a surly, aggrieved Everly Brothers vibe in the rhythm and verses, but I hear it. The fuzzy guitar solo is psychedelic, to be sure, but it seems rather short and perfunctory, like it's checking off a box.

The next few songs play it fairly straightforward with the country tropes, and "Dark End of the Street" features some enjoyable slide guitar work. I'm indifferent about the singing and piano playing on most of the album, and the drumming was laid down by session players after their first drummer bowed out with a drug habit, but the slide guitar is first rate throughout.

"My Uncle" is the Brothers' war protest song, and they dial down the psychedelia in favor of a traditional country sound. It's an interesting choice, although I don't care for it.

Overall I don't love The Gilded Palace of Sin, but I don't dislike it much either. It's well produced and laid down by talented musicians (except for the drummer), but there's something about it that seems contrived and gimmicky—not that art with these adjectives can't be thoroughly entertaining, it just wasn't that to me.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a professional reviewer, and my opinions are entirely subjective. As an example, the fact that the band sounds a lot like the Everly Brothers—whom I don't care for—may have lost them a star or two on my rating.

Rolling Stone Says:

The Burritos put their poetic twist on hillbilly twang, proudly wearing Nudie suits and bringing in the pedal steel guitar of Sneaky Pete Kleinow. “Boy, I love them,” Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone. “Their record instantly knocked me out.”

High praise from Dylan.

I activated GIS Safe Search and looked up Nudie suit.

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I suppose I could have just looked at their album cover, but I wanted to be sure.

So close...

Try crowns - tater rounds - they're called different things, but they're essentially Dunk's hash browns. And give them a five minute head start on the pizza so they get a little crisp.

They don't roll off the pizza so easily either!

A+ first post, even if it's a tater-tot AI spam bot, which I sorta hope it is.

Sorry to disappoint - real human, and and steak-fry lover! But those crowns are a close second, and go perfectly with pizza!

Just yesterday, I was thinking it had been a long time since we've had an sj album review.

Agreed. Thank you, ScallyWagers for an excellent first post! I'm honored to have it in this thread. I had thought about cross-sectioning the tater tots so they wouldn't roll, but the crowns are a better idea.

Me too, golddog. Based on the review, I challenged myself to come up with three works that are contrived and gimmicky that I enjoy a lot.

(1) Mystery Science Theater 3000
(2) Pee-Wee's Playhouse
(3) My Brother, My Brother and Me (podcast).

I shortchanged myself upthread on my JCVD-like split progress when I wrote that my crotch was still 2 feet (61 cm) away from the ground at full stretch.

That didn't sit right with me, so today I made a rough measurement and found that I'm within 15" (38 cm) of the ground...still a long way to go.

So your penis was touching the ground?

It gets very close

2 minutes+ of planks is impressive I do a pair of planks per training, usually a minute, and even that gets me sweating balls!!!

The hardest part is talking myself into doing it every time. It hasn't gotten any easier after a year. Lately I've tried enthusiastic self-talk; fake it til I make it, like "Woo-hoo! I finally get to do some pushups! Let's go!" But I can't seem to purge the sarcastic tone from my mental voice.

Diligence is a huge amount of success in most of life. Just keep it going, sj!

I must of had at least one Flying Burrito Brothers CDs in the late 90s. I was into all that sort of country early 70s rock. Neil Young, The Band, even New Riders Of The Purple Sage.

I must of been only person to ever rock Panama Red and didn’t smoke pot.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uFdkR5xcDo...

I always placed New Riders above the Burrito Bros. I thought the Dead were the best Country Rockers of that era, but people wouldn't hear of it.

Yes obviously a ton of Grateful Dead.

I'd like to say that when I was young I liked Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings and Willie, but I didn't. I had no taste when I was a boy.

Unless you count Lynyrd Skynyrd (when spelling, just remember that the only vowel is a Y) as country, the only country acts with any talent that I liked were John Denver and Charlie Daniels.

Denver, of course, had his famous "Take me Home, Country Roads" hit, but he also had "Sunshine on My Shoulders," "Rocky Mountain High," and this little ditty:

Charlie Daniels had three hits that I loved when I was young. Most folks know "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," but he also had "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" and "Still in Saigon."

I didn't agree with Daniels politically late in his life—he was one of those Boomers who transitioned from longhaired freak to hardcore Tea Party—but I always appreciated and admired his ability to capture a mood and spin a yarn.

Finally, as a boy I liked a Kenny Rogers song. You might think that it was "The Gambler," but I thought that song was just okay. Nope, I liked "Coward of the County," which is melodramatic treacle at its most cloying, and I'm not going to subject you to it.

Wise words, golddog. Thanks!

Oh man I kinda of consider Kenny Rogers a guilty pleasure. It’s so bad but fun and catchy.

Kenny best song tues in a lot more with the Flying Burrito Brothers.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AULOC--qUO...

My favorite I supposed real country act is Steve Earle. If he comes back to Paris I’ll go see him.

That song is iconic enough to be used in a number of movie soundtracks to tell the audience, "Hey, we're in the late-60s here, in case you didn't notice by the clothes and the set dressing and the vintage filters."

My dad has the big C, stage 4. I'm meeting with the family and the doctors in a few hours to find out how much more time he's going to be with us.

There's no need for folks to post sympathies here; I don't need it, and I know you're good people and you don't have to prove it.

The fact is: he's 87 and he smoked from age 12 to 85—the entire Parker Brothers board game range. He was playing bad hands for decades and decades. I myself smoked from 14 to 43, and I know how hard it is to quit—harder than meth, harder than alcohol.

I will give my dad a proper write-up in this thread at the appropriate time. For now, we're going to try to enjoy the time we have left with him.