Author Archives: tony

who i would replace Brian Johnson with

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The-Darkness-Justin-HawkinsLong time AC/DC crooner, Brian Johnson, has been told by doctors that if he continues fronting the hard rock group he will go deaf.

Instead of retiring, now that his brother Malcolm Young is back home due to dementia, and his drummer Phil Rudd can’t leave Australia due to bizarre criminal allegations, lead guitarist/atraction Angus Young seemingly still wants to travel the world blowing the roof off the mother.

So here’s who I think should be the next singer of my favorite rock group

10. Glen Danzig – he’s probably a little too heavy for AC/DC but maybe that gruff could add a little edge to the aging group

9. Justin Hawkins (The Darkness) – this dude was born to front a real rock band. Don’t get me wrong, I think The Darkness is incredible. But because it’s sooooo derivative of 80s hair metal groups, many think they’re a joke. I believe. Justin is one of the few that could hit the high notes and the idea of a triple guitar attack on numbers like “Shoot to Thrill” or “Bad Boy Boogie” is fascinating.

2014-12-27-AndrewW.K.byJonathanThorpe2013APPROVED8. Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) – there aren’t many singers who could add even more power to AC/DC anthems. Bruce could. And he could fly the damn plane.

7. Kid Rock – If there is any complaint about the dynamics of AC/DC music it’s that it’s one dimensional. Kid Rock could add a layer of Southern rock and warmth that hasn’t been there since Bon Scott died in 1980. Imagine what he could add with piano on tunes like “Have A Drink On Me” and “The Jack”.  And what about harmonica on “It’s a Long Way to the Top” instead of bagpipe?

6. Andrew W.K. – The only downside of Andrew W.K. leading AC/DC is he’d be so great at it that kids would think that he wrote all the songs. And his energy might kill Angus.

5.  Ad Rock & Mike D. – Everyone loved the original mashup of Aerosmith and Run DMC. What if you were treated to a night led by the remaining members of Beastie Boys with the live accompaniment of AC/DC on songs that maybe might include some new freestyle verses.

4. Kim Gordon – Some say Joan Jett is the perfect female singer/guitarist to front AC/DC but I’d rather have Kim Gordon who would give a spookier take on “She’s Got Balls” and “Inject The Venom”.

3.  Jack Black – It would be the funniest AC/DC show you’ve ever seen, that’s for sure.

2.  Jack White – It would be the sexiest AC/DC show you’ve ever seen and the dual lead guitar duals would be legendary.

1. Zack de la Rocha (Rage Against the Machine) – hopefully they’d play a half hour of Rage tunes as an encore.

Zack de la Rocha

dear tony, what’s going on with Anna?

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anna kournikovaTony, 

Long time reader of the busblog. Going back, wow, 10 years now. I remember checking in and reading you talk about your then-girlfriend Anna Kournakova.

What’s happening these days with her?

Is she alive? I never see her in magazines or TV?

Curious George

Dear George,

they say our tastes change every seven years or so. there was a time i didnt like broccoli or blondes or russians or sassy babes but then those things changed.

now i actually pay real money for broccoli.

anna started dating a boybander about a decade ago and he never made an honest woman out of her and she never really transitioned into becoming a bigger celebrity after she retired from pro tennis, so would she have been better off with a blogger? duh.

because beauty starts with the heart she’s still a knockout who still loves short skirts and dresses and long boots and long hair and still sends me snaps from time to time because doesnt everyone?

do i miss her? no. do i wish her well? meh. im not sure our lives are meant to just be in someone else’s shadow all the time. i think that goes for our kids our bfs/gfs or our spouses. i think we can do it all and have it all. i think some of us are meant to shine – and not just in our 20s and 30s – but all the time.

anna is a jewel who is in a little box in florida. what good is that? what a waste if you ask me. jewels shouldnt be wasted. but we all knew this was gonna happen the minute she got serious with the pretty boy. oh well.

yes theres homelessness in LA

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silver lake

the other day someone took this picture of two young ladies taking a picture in front of dangerbird records

next to, what appears to be a homeless guy, sleeping on the street.

ive lived near this very spot for over 15 years and theres a few things about this picture

  1. even though there has been an influx of homeless encampments in East Hollywood / Silver Lake / Los Feliz over the last few years I have not seen many homeless ppl sleeping on Sunset in the middle of the day like this, which doesnt mean it doesn’t happen, i just havent seen it.
  2. i see people posing in front of that stupid sign all the time even though it doesnt make sense – it doesnt say pose for pictures it says think about them.
  3. yoga pants are amazing, thanks obama
  4. hats off to anyone who doesnt buy Nikes

LA has a bizarre relationship with homelessness. Santa Monica and DTLA pretty much let homeless people set up camp anywhere they want. Hollywood is doing the same. every now and then some muckity muck will raise an eyebrow and make a phone call and the people are shown the way out but theres an underpass on Alvarado beneath the 101, theres an underpass in Frog Town and there are overpasses overlooking the 110 where you see tents after tents after tents.

and yet when kind-hearted souls built little houses for the homeless to sleep in, the city took them away citing safety issues as a tent on top of a damn freeway isn’t unsafe.

i dont have any answers for homelessness in LA other than to put these people in abandoned buildings in downtown and provide job training, mental health support, food and love. if we can build billion dollar sports palaces we can buy unused buildings for americans who have fallen on hard times – many of whom are veterans.

but we can’t just shuffle our feet and hope someone else comes up with a better plan because they never do.

a to the z

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i drove all night through the desert.

IMG_9329it could be symbolic if you look at things that way.

it was too quick. was it even a vacation? a long weekend? a spiritual journey to find my Chi?

parts of arizona are beautiful and fantastic.

some of it is inauthentic and artificial.

and some of it is lost and forgotten.

my room was for a handicapable person. symbolic? the pool was fantastic but hardly anyone was in it.

kids went nuts because it was big and warm and it had a little waterfall.

but it had all seen better days. i got the room off Priceline name yr own price which is still my favorite way to book hotels.

i ate in as many crappy fast food establishments as i could.

sadly i had to go to walmart in the middle of the night for something that i now forget.

seeing the cubs was fantastic but the best part was when a native american man in a KC Royals shirt came up to me to ask me about the DH rule in NL parks in spring training.

we talked for a while complimenting each others teams.

baseball teams should do a Humans of New York style deal in their instagrams. this guy would have been superb.

drank an Old Style. ate a Portillos italian beef.

drove back through the desert to get home. where its cold and drizzly.

like an entirely different world.

try not to suck

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try not to suck

one reason the cubs will win the world series is because of their quirky but brilliant manager joe maddon

the other reason is because theyre stacked.

add that together along with being beloved around the world as the lovable losers

and youve got a pretty interesting unemotional journey to Destiny.

this is going to happen.

everything is fitting into place.

 

theres a couple things nice about arizona

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cubs

theres a lot of space and the weathers nice.

12821607_10153951176123057_3413603298478623251_nmaybe thats why they built a million baseball parks like it aint no thing.

today i took a dry run over to where the cubs play now in the spring.

no more HoHoKam Park, which is where i last saw the Cubs in spring training way back in the day.

now it’s Sloan Park named after the Chicago company Sloan Valve Co.

who?

actually Sloan Valve Co has been making something very important for over the last 100 years.

in 1905 they created the Royal Flushometer, it is the magic that makes a toilet or urinal flush.

for the first few years sales suffered because people were still using outhouses

but in 1908, yes THAT 1908, shit went down and Sloan took off and have never looked back.

so what about these new no-flush urinals, hows Sloan gonna compete against these newfangled environmentally safer piss pots? have no fear, Sloan makes waterless urinals too, so relax.

Sloan Park can accompany 15,000 fans which is the most of any spring training facility.

all i know is they sell Portillo’s Italian Beef sandwiches.  let’s see if they still serve Old Style there

im in mesa, arizona

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in n out

birthplace of the blues.

this is where the dreams start. the left side of the rainbow.

everyone comes to spring training with high hopes and visions of sparkly things.

except for the cubs.

i can’t remember one year when march rolled around and i was all

oh yeah

look out man

but this year everythings all butterflies and unicorns and gumdrop trees.

tomorrow im gonna eat from the gumdrop tree and tell you about it.

but first, a dip in the magic buttered hot tub.

Fine, I’ll go to Spring Training

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cubs

Munenori Kawasaki, recently acquired from Toronto seems to be doing his part of keeping the team loose. The light hitting IF led the Cubs into singing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” while the team wore headbands with Japanese sayings such as “Must Win” and “Fighting Spirit.”

Munenori Kawasaki sparked the Cubs’ morning stretch Friday by singing karaoke to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” and he inspired players to wear headbands with Japanese sayings such as “Must Win” and “Fighting Spirit.”

Watch this and tell me you’re not inspired to take a road trip to Mesa and see these dudes get ready to win the World Series.

Jeopardy accused of being sexist

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Jeopardy one of my favorite movie bloggers is ms. marya gates who until today was at Rotten Tomatoes but now shes heading over to TCM (congratulations!)

last year on her tumblr she focused some of her writing about films directed by women. i was definitely enlightened.

marya must be a big Jeopardy watcher too because today she wrote something fascinating today that only a real fan would have noticed:

I wrote to you guys about two weeks ago after tracking how often (and by often I mean how NOT OFTEN AT ALL) you mentioned women in your clues. I spent the last few weeks tallying it as well and it has remained horribly grim.

Tonight (3-4) for example you had BOOK SONGS, and all five songs were written by men. You also had NON FICTION, and all five books were written by men.

You did have an entire category on Scarlett Johansson Roles, but the last time you did Movie Roles literally the only woman you mentioned was also Scarlett Johansson. Thousands and thousands of actresses in the history of cinema and the only six questions you’ve done in the last three weeks about women movie roles are all about the same actress?!?!?!?!

I’ve been live-tweeting (@oldfilmsflicker) about this blatant sexism as I watch and I will continue to do so. I hope you improve soon, or this is looking to be a really bleak season for me and for all women and for all men, really. No one is done justice when you ignore the achievements of women.

Jeopardy, you of all shows should be doing better and the fact that you are not does not give me hope for the rest of our society.

something tells me something good will come from this

but i worry because this isn’t the first time the popular game show has been accused of sexism.

there was a time when i was cool

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xbi

that time is not now.

im not exactly sure when that time was, granted. i just know im not in it.

did i take full advantage of that era?

probably not.

im not one who often takes full advantage of anything.

most of the time i’m like this:

what the heck!

the rest of the time im like this:

holy hell!

when good things happen to me im surprised, when bad things happen to me im surprised.

im surprised during this period of time, which is the time when im not cool.

i feel like i have a cool job, i have a cool car, i have cool friends

arent those things that make someone cool?

maybe its my clothes. there was once a time when crappy clothes were cool.

maybe those days are over.

(those days will come back.)

cool.