Beware The Sinister Cabal of Liberal Rock Musicians

With all the attention that the conservative talking heads at places like FOX News have been giving the so-called "Liberal Hollywood Elite" in recent years...you know, the usual suspects like George Clooney, Sean Penn, Alex Baldwin and the like...the rock music world has got to be feeling just a little ignored lately.

Oh sure, you still get your occassional rock and roll blip on the right wing radar. An Eminem lyric here...A Janet Jackson nipple there. But it just isn't the same anymore.

It's hard to believe that not all that long ago, rock music was considered nothing less than the demon scourge of American society by a great deal of the conservative world. Those were the days when guys like Bob Dylan and John Lennon were routinely shadowed (and in Lennon's case, harrassed to the point of being kept out of the country for many years) by various government spooks.

These days even guys like the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne...a guy whose albums we're once routinely used by guys like the Reverend Pat Robertson to cite evidence of the impending fall of civilization itself...are considered respectable enough to show up at Republican functions.

Former "Cop Killer" Ice T is the star of one of those "Law and Order" shows on NBC now for crying out loud...

Of course it isn't like today's musicians are writing incendiary lyrics the likes of "Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers," as the Jefferson Airplane once did on the album they originally wanted to call "Volunteers of Amerika".

So the question is...how does your everyday commie pinko liberal rock star get some respect from guys like Hannity or O'Reilly these days?

The answer is simple. As Bill Clinton might say...It's Protest Music, stupid.

The good news is...protest music may be making a comeback. It's something I first noticed back in 2004 when Bush was running for re-election against Kerry. Back then, a bunch of good old liberal guys headed by Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., and the Dixie Chicks organized the "Vote For Change" tour in support of the Kerry campaign.

The thing is...those shows were occuring at exactly the same time as a number of long standing annual benefit concerts...shows like Willie Nelson's Farm Aid and Neil Young's Bridge School benefit. It almost seemed like an old time sort of "liberal benefit curcuit" with many of the same names...John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, and Pearl Jam among them...showing up sometimes at all of these liberal benefit shows criss crossing the country at the same time.

The latest albums by Springsteen and Neil Young are further indicators of an impending full scale revival of protest music. Springsteen's "Seeger Sessions" is a somewhat reverent revival of protest music of the good old fashioned variety, while Neil Young's "Living With War" is an all out, cranked to eleven sonic assault against the policies of our beloved President Bush.

So as a public service to our Republican defenders of all that is decent and righteous in American society, allow me to identify a few of your next targets. Gentlemen, get those bows and arrows ready.

Bruce Springsteen: "The Boss" has had a long standing policy of not speaking out directly on political issues, but rather of letting his music do the talking for him. Springsteen's songs of working class struggle should never have been misunderstood by anyone who was really listening. But when Born In The USA was co-opted by the presidential campaigns of both Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale in 1984, it was clear that the message underlying the American flag images of that album's cover art had been lost. By supporting John Kerry on the Vote For Change tour of 2004, Springsteen left no such room for ambiguity. His current release is an album of songs inspired by none other than original commie pinko folkie Pete Seeger. Hey I know conservative commentator George Will has a soft spot for "The Boss", but this is war dammit.

Neil Young: Speaking of "war", let's talk about Neil Young's "Living With War" shall we?





Where Bruce's message...at least as far as the music is concerned...has been pretty consistent over the years, Neil has been a man of mixed messages. No doubt about it. Goofy as Neil can be though, I think that his heart has pretty much been always in the right place. You can't really fault the guy who once wrote about the "tin soldiers and Nixon coming" of "Ohio" for also writing "Lets Roll" about the passengers who stood up to the terrorists on United Flight 93 on September 11. Neil's upcoming "Living With War" is a sonic protest assault that blasts the Bush presidency with all of the subtlety of a flying mallet in songs like "Lets Impeach The President". And isn't this guy Canadian anyway? Well, let that no good sumbitch eat backbacon then is what I say.

Pearl Jam: Since Eddie Vedder and the boys hail from Seattle...which last I read was the heroin, suicide, and serial killer capitol of the known liberal universe...it should be no problem hanging a baby killer tag or worse on them. PJ are relative newcomers to the bleeding heart brigade, but their pedigree is a strong one. Early in their career, they basically forfeited their right to be the biggest rock band on Earth by choosing instead to take on the price gouging monopoly of Ticketmaster. More recently they participated in the Vote For Change tour and even hooked up with that scum sucking liberal do-do head Micheal Moore for an anti-Bush rally in Seattle. PJ's own little anti-Bush ditty "Bushlicker" was pretty light weight stuff, but the newer "World Wide Suicide" shows the fire is back in their eyes. They also do a mean version of Dylan's "Masters of War". Did I mention that Pearl Jam are from Seattle?

John Fogerty: Fogerty, the guy behind all of those great Creedence Clearwater Revival hits of the sixties...you know, "Proud Mary", "Green River", and the like...has only in recent years begun playing those hits again. What a lot of people forget is that in between his great run of late sixties hit singles he was also writing some damn fine protest music like "Fortunate Son" and "Who'll Stop the Rain?".

He showed up on the Vote For Change tour in 2004 to do a few songs with Springsteen and the E Street Band, including a fiery version of "Fortunate Son"...and did an entire tour the next year with likewise noted pinko John Mellencamp. His most recent hit was an antiwar song called "Deja Vu All Over Again", which is basically a rewrite of "Who'll Stop the Rain". Fogerty got into the habit of rewriting his old songs when he was battling against his former producer Saul Zaentz for the rights to those songs. John, you need to break that habit.

Dave Matthews: Now here lies what may be the most sinister of all evil, liberal rock musicians.
"Dave", as his ever adoring fans refer to him, may be the most diabolically deceptive liberal rock musician of them all. Why do I say deceptive? Well that is simply because his actual music is so dreadfully boring. And on the surface at least, it doesn't seem to say much of anything. Dave is rather the king of the "jam band" curcuit...his yearly summer concerts draw a cult following quite similiar to that of those other notorious hippies The Grateful Dead. His band actually veers far closer to the jazzy slickness of someone like Steely Dan than to the acid induced psychedelic jamming of the Dead...a simple fact notably lost on his ever rabid fanbase, who consistently make his annual tours among the highest grossing of the year. For the past couple of years Matthews...while not making political statements directly through his music...has quietly gotten involved with things like Willie Nelson's Farm Aid shows and the notorious Vote For Change tour.

Which makes him one hundred percent suspect. Absolutely.

So theres your basic top five targets for the next inquistion. I would also throw into the mix some secondary targets like Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and the Dixie Chicks. Oh, and lets not forget that bitch Barbra Streisand...it just doesn't feel right not including her in the mix.

Gentlemen, start your engines. And sharpen your knives.

Dylan: Rolling Thunder and The Gospel Years 1975-1981

So let's talk about Mr. Bob Dylan for a minute.

I have always found Dylan's so called "Jesus Years"...the period from 1979 to 1981 when he did his so-called "Born Again" album trilogy...to be one of the most fascinating of his career. And I could never figure out just exactly why it upset so many people at the time.

Well at least apart from the obvious anyway.

Dylan was (and of course still is) Jewish. His audience was largely made up of hippies and other counter culture types who had come up with Dylan through the sixties as pretty much the poster boy for everything "anti-establishment" during those turbulent years. These we're folks who weren't necessarily ready for a new "700 Club" model Bob Dylan...particularly at a time coinciding with the dawn of the Reagan era.

Fine. I can accept that.

But what always bothered me about that was simply that Dylan at the time was simply doing what Dylan as an artist had always done. He was speaking what he saw to be the truth at the time, and doing so in a particularly forceful fashion.

Once you get past the actual subject matter, how different...at least in terms of the delivery...is something like say, "When You Gonna Wake Up?" from Slow Train Coming, from something like "Idiot Wind" from Blood On The Tracks or "Ballad of a Thin Man" from Highway 61?

How different was "The Gospel Show" Dylan toured in 1979, from the way he horrified the folkie purists at Newport in 1965 by strapping on an electric guitar?

The answer is it wasn't any different at all. Dylan was simply doing what he always has done. Dylan was following his heart through his art. He was being consistent. And, bottom line, he was being Dylan...which meant, once again, pretty much putting his career on the line at the time. Despite the suspicions and generally prevailing anti-Christian biases (and lets call a spade a spade here) of the day, Dylan chose to put his personal and artistic integrity first...at considerable risk.

That, at least to me, is one of the things that makes Bob Dylan such a special artist. It is what makes Dylan...well, Dylan. And personally, I find those so-called "Jesus Years" to be one of the most fascinating periods of his career.

And there is now finally a DVD out which chronicles this most fascinating period...along with the equally interesting "Rolling Thunder" period which immediately preceded it.

So lets get the flaws out of the way first. "Bob Dylan: Rolling Thunder and the Gospel Years", clocking in at some four hours in length...is just way too long to hold the interest of anyone but the most ardent, hardcore "Dylanologist".

Being an unauthorized documentary which includes absolutely no Dylan music doesn't help matters either.

It does however offer fascinating new insights into this most fascinating phase of Dylan's career.

The filmaker is a guy named Joel Gilbert who, in his day job, fronts a Dylan tribute band called Highway 61 Revisited. The guy is an obvious fan...which makes for some borderline humorous moments as he goes from Dylan's hometown in Hibbing, Minnesota to Muscle Shoals to New York and California dressed and couiffed as pretty much a late seventies Dylan clone to get his interviews with the people who were actually there.

But the interviews themselves are quite revealing. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter talks about his prison visits with Dylan and the legendary song Dylan recorded on the "Desire" album which eventually helped him earn his freedom from a bogus murder conviction.

Pastor Bill Dwyer from the Vineyard Christian Church in California speaks candidly for the first time about Dylan's Christian conversion. Legendary record producer Jerry Wexler talks about the recording sessions for both the "Slow Train Coming" and "Saved" albums. And San Francisco critic Joel Selvin talks openly about the "God Awful Gospel" review he gave Dylan's shows at The Warfield Theatre on the infamous "Gospel Tour" ("I gave him "short shrift", he now admits in retrospect).

For the hardcore Dylan fan, much is revealed here. Rambling Jack Elliott talks about the "carnival atmosphere" of the Rolling Thunder Tour...and later reveals his hurt at not being asked out again for the tours second leg. Violinist Scarlett Rivera talks about her chance meeting with Dylan on a New York Street and how it led to her being invited to be on the sessions for "Desire", and eventually to be part of his touring band for "Rolling Thunder".

And then there's the clips from that "Born Again" tour. When a fan yells "rock and roll", Dylan replies "if you want rock and roll you can go see Kiss...and let them carry you down into the pit". Priceless.

In retrospect, Dylan's so called Gospel period produced one classic album, "Slow Train Coming". It's followup, "Saved"...which was basioally a recording of the fire and brimstone material he had been doing on the "Slow Train" tour...is, sadly, a largely forgotten album that still has at least one side of great songs. "Shot of Love", the final album of the "Gospel Trilogy" is remembered mainly for one great song...the lovely "Every Grain Of Sand".

This DVD is not for everybody. But for the hardcore Dylan fan looking to gain new insights into one of the strangest periods of his career, it answers a ton of questions.

Finding A New Job? Now That Would Be...
Comcastic!

Okay, bare with me. Because this is going to be a little bit unorthodox.

I'm not normally one to beg publically for the whole world to see on the Internet.

But you know what? Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. So here goes...

Consider this my "Job Wanted" ad.

My "very public", posted all over the Internet for all the world to see, "Job Wanted" Ad.

Now, I'm no stranger to getting "dismissed" from a few of the various places I've worked over the years. You don't live to be my age without having made a few mistakes along the way.

As I've documented numerous times on this blog, in a previous life long ago and far away, I had a relatively successful career in the music business. Towards the end of that career, I was working in L.A. at a record label with big artists like The Black Crowes, Johnny Cash, and Sir Mix A Lot.

But the truth at the time...good as I was (and I was quite good at what I did)...is that I was also far less mature in a lot of ways than I am now. And I was also very clearly in over my head.

Finally, after two and a half years of constantly trying to fly under the radar (that, when I wasn't just as busy covering my ass), the simple fact that I really just wasn't prepared to play ball with the big boys on the national stage caught up to me.

This was also helped along considerably by a certain exec at the label who made it very clear from day one that I was most definitely on his own personal radar screen. But that's another story...and, like I said, you learn from your mistakes.

So that was some twelve years ago. Funny how time flies when your having fun huh?


In the record business, as you'd probably expect, they have a very rock and roll way of letting a person know when their services will no longer be required. It's very simple, and very direct.

And it goes something like "You're Fired!"

Consider it the Vince McMahon approach.

The point is my track record for the last several years had been pretty good. At least until earlier this week. That's when I was "dismissed" from my job at the Cable Company.

Now I'm not going to split hairs, or otherwise speculate just why they did what they did here. Needless to say, I have my opinions on that and they no doubt have theirs as well.

To the best I can figure out, I was apparently let go because I transferred a call (I worked in an inbound sales call center) from a customer wanting to downgrade his cable to our retention department...the guys that handle downgrades in service. I had no currently active verbal or written warnings.

So yeah, I can't figure it out either.

Now unlike my friends in the record business, I found out that in the big corporate world they handle these things a little differently. At the record company the whole thing took like two seconds.

Here, it took two days. And I never once heard the dreaded words "You're Fired".

Rather, I was sent home on "administrative leave" for two days while an "investigation" was conducted, then called back in to sign some paperwork finalizing the deed I already knew was done. Despite what you see on TV with Donald Trump, this is apparently how it's done in corporate America these days.

Call it the "kinder, gentler" termination.

So here's the deal.

I'm just going to be flat out honest here and say that I'm not really going to miss my job at the Cable Company. It was basically one great big stressbox there. One where there was virtually no chance of moving anywhere but sideways anyway. I'd been unhappy there for some time.

And it probably showed.

The truth is I was overqualified for the job anyway. So am I going miss being relentlessly screamed at by angry customers all day? Or trying to make sales metrics that run in diametric opposition to the products and services the Cable Company chooses to aggressively market?

No. I am not.

But, obviously I am going to miss having a job. Which is something I want to rectify as quickly as possible.

I've already made the trip to the unemployment office (did that the same day). I fully expect my former employers to fight me tooth and nail on this, so I'm prepared for that. When you get right down to it, the Cable Company is not the most "labor friendly" one I've ever worked for.

But the bottom line, is filing for unemployment benefits is strictly a stop-gap measure anyway. The real plan is get back to work as soon as possible. Which is not going to be easy.

Are you kidding me?

For one thing, I will be fifty years old next month. And the job market these days, as fragile as it is under the current administration (don't get me started), is a youth driven one. This is especially true in my former line of work in the music business...which is probably as it should be since the music business has always been one driven by youth culture.

So I am at something of a crossroads here.

And I wont lie to you, it's a little scary.

But it's also exciting.

That's right, I said exciting.

It's exciting because this represents an opportunity to do something I could truly love again. It represents an opportunity to apply both my intellect and my passion into something one hundred percent...rather than just punching a corporate clock for a faceless organization that at the end of the day cares more about it's profits than about it's people.

Personally I would love to do something involved with music again...and as anyone who knows me or reads this blog already knows...I'm something of a walking encyclopedia on the subject.

However, I realize that as a fifty year old white guy, representing gangsta rappers or even the latest American Idol probably requires a little more "street cred" than I can offer. Fair enough.

But is a gig at a Classic Rock station or magazine too much of a stretch?

Speaking of magazines and writing...

I know from experience that the publishing world is largely one of freelancing...which is a nice way of saying feast or famine. But I think it's fair to say I'm not a half bad writer. My stuff is appparently good enough that just last week Blogcritics named one of my stories an editor's pick of the week.

Is there is an agency or a Public Relations firm out there looking for a guy with both credentials and passion? Well I'll tell you what. My chops are as sharp (thanks to this blogging thing), as they have ever been. At least, if I do say so myself.

When I was working at those record labels I mentioned earlier?

My specialty was retail. Going out to the stores, building relationships with managers and buyers at all levels of the game, getting the product into the stores and supporting the retailers in every way I could once I did. And like I said, I was very good at it.

So this is something of a fork in the road. And I have no illusions about that. Likewise, I'm not entirely sure, that this is the best forum to make my case for a career restart.

But as I said above, desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.


What I offer is my intellect, my passion, my honesty, and my integrity. I've learned from past mistakes and I promise that I will not let you down.

So wish me luck.

Because finding that new job...but more importantly...embarking on a new career journey...

Now that would be

Neil Young's New "Folk Metal Protest" Record


You've got to hand it to Neil Young. The man definitely defies convention.

For some four decades now, Neil Young has made a career of doing the unexpected.

Where many other artists...especially those of Young's generation who have endured the way he has...often have chosen the path of least commercial resistance, Neil Young has consistently followed his artistic instincts.

Never one to simply settle for "whatever works", Neil Young more often opts for what feels right in an artistic sense. As a result, his career has been one of alternating commercial peaks and valleys.

Neil Young's artistic muse has led him to create a body of work over the years that stands out as much for it's often bizarre turns of style as it does for the great songs...from "Heart of Gold" to "Rockin In The Free World"...he is best known for.

In the seventies, this meant following up his "commercial breakthrough" album Harvest, with the darkness and desolation which permeates such personal work as On The Beach, and the only much later to be appreciated Tonights the Night.

In the eighties, it meant releasing a series of albums so stylistically schizophrenic...from syntho pop to rockabilly...that his label at the time, Geffen Records, first begged the artist to make a "Neil Young" album. Then they finally sued him for breach of contract, citing failure to deliver a commercial release.

Neil countersued and eventually returned to his original label, Reprise Records.

Now it appears Neil Young is preparing once again to throw one of his trademark artistic curveballs.

Where, on Harvest Moon, Neil Young sang "No one wins, it's a "War of Man," on the upcoming Living With War, he directs his anger at the "Man of War."

Less than a year after the release of the quiet, reflective songs of his most recent album Prairie Wind...an album released in the wake of both his father's passing and his own brush with death after a brain aneurysm...Neil Young is about to release a heavy metal protest record.

Say what?



The news, first reported early Friday morning on numerous Internet blogs (most notably by our good friends over at Thrasher's Wheat http://www.thrasherswheat.org/wheatfield.html ) ...and since confirmed by Neil Young's official site http://www.neilyoung.com/ ...is that Neil's new album, is being described this way:

"A power trio with trumpet and 100 voices...A metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan..."folk metal protest".

This comes from the artist himself.

What seems to be sure is that the upcoming (no confirmed release date yet) Living With War is very loud, very anti-war, and very anti-Bush.

The album is said to have been recorded earlier this month over a three day period with a core group of musicians consisting of Young himself on guitar and vocals; Rick Rosas on bass; and Chad Cromwell on drums.

And, as noted above, this is a power trio with both a trumpet player and a 100 voice choir.

The early reports about the album are intriguing to say the least.

One track, rumored to be titled "Impeach The President" is said to feature the aforementioned 100 voice choir...who sing "let's impeach the president for lyin"... as well as a rap featuring Bush's voice in front of the same choir chanting "Flip/Flop".

Film Maker Jonathan Demme, who most recently directed Neil Young's Heart of Gold documentary movie, describing the track to Harp Magazine said:

“It is a brilliant electric assault, accompanied by a 100-voice choir, on Bush and the war in Iraq…Truly mind blowing. Will be in stores soon.”

Here is a sample of the lyrics being scrolled on Neil Young's website:

"I join the multitudes,
I raise my hand In peace,
I will never bow to the laws,
Of The Thought Police"

"I'm living with WAR everyday
I'm living with WAR in my heart everyday,
I'm living with WAR right now."

Neil Young has often followed his louder records with quiet ones, and vice versa. Comes A Time was followed by Rust Never Sleeps; Ragged Glory by Harvest Moon.

Young himself recently hinted that his next direction may be a loud one when he recently keynoted the South by Southwest (SXSW) music conclave in Austin, Texas.

Hopefully this one will be heard clear to the White Noise.

One thing is for sure...Ol' Black is back...and this is going to get good.

















The preceding article was named an "Editors Pick" at http://blogcritics.org for the week ending April 18, 2006

Living With War is streaming in it's entirety right now at http://www.neilyoung.com


To listen to Living With War in it's entirety, go directly here:
http://www.hyfntrak.com/neilyoung2/AFF23772/

Updated 4/28/06:

Based on two initial listens to the stream at http://www.neilyoung.com

I'm a little disapointed.

Here's a quick synopsis of what I wrote at Blogcritics this morning:

I like what he's saying...and posters like Rubberneck may disagree...but I think at a time when our country is as divided as it is, the time is ripe for protest music.

But I expected a lot more musically speaking.

This is kind of like "Mirror Ball" without the great guitar solos. I'm listening to the "Impeach The President" song right now...and the Bush sound bites are pretty cool. But I'm waiting for that great screaming guitar noise to punctuate it...So far it aint there.

Seven songs in. This is more like a Greendale sound. The idea is there. The songs aint.

Personally, my expectations have been turned kind of upside down here. I expected this to be really powerful, where I expected Springsteen's Seeger Sessions to be a disapointment.

So far the opposite is true. "Looking For A Leader" is playing now, and I'm still looking for a great song."O Mary Don't You Weep" from Springsteen's "Seeger Sessions" release says everything Neil's album tries to say without hitting you over the head with it.

And Bruce didn't even write it.

April 28, 2006 6:14 AM

Yup. Definitely a disapointment.

At least on my first official listen, streamed through my computer speakers.

I still applaud Neil for bringing "protest music" back...God knows we need it now like we have at no time since the Nixon years.

But the thing is, for protest music to be truly effective, you need a memorable melody to go with the message. And for the life of me, I can't remember a thing I've just heard. No "Ohio"; No "Southern Man"; hell, no "For What its Worth" (and yes, I know Stephen Stills wrote that one).

Musically this is a slightly louder Greendale.

And again, though I had much lower expectations for it...Springsteen's "Seeger Sessions" hits the mark in all of the ways this tries to without trying nearly as hard.

Veteran Wise Guy Actor Frank Vincent Says "Man Up!"


Okay guys, listen up.

Because it's time to Man Up.

And who better to teach the finer points -- the ins and outs if you will -- of being a "man's man" than veteran mob guy character actor Frank Vincent?

You may not know the name Frank Vincent, but you'll know the face the second you see him smoking a cigar on the cover of his new book.

You see, Frank Vincent has played more wise guys in mob movies than you can shake a loaded gun at.

As Billy Batts in Martin Scorsese's mob classic Goodfellas, Vincent infamously tells fellow wise guy Joe Pesci's character to "Go home and get your shinebox."

More recently as Johnny Sack's captain Phil Leotardo on HBO's The Sopranos, Vincent is the perennial thorn in Tony Soprano's ass.

Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini, repays the favor to Vincent here by writing the introduction to Vincent's book, the ultimate how to guide to achieving true manliness in an Alan Alda world.

There are also some great interviews here with Vincent's "man's man" pals like Steven Van Zandt, James Caan, and Vincent "Big Pussy" Pastore. Frank Vincent doesn't just "talk the talk," he "walks the walk" - both on and off screen.

Here he schools you in all aspects of being a "Man's Man." Now if you are already a graduate of "Man's Man 101" (and what real man would admit otherwise?), not to worry: A Guy's Guide To Being A Man's Man, at 250 pages, is also a very quick and often hilarious read.

It's all here. Like the right movies for a "man's man" to watch, including lists on the best westerns, war, sports, and of course, gangster flicks. There's even a section on "chick flicks." It simply reads, "I don't think so."

From winning big in Vegas to getting past the Velvet Rope of "King" the Doorman at that exclusive New York nightclub, Frank Vincent reveals that being a "man's man" is all in the attitude.

In the section on music, Vincent rates a top 15 "man's man" musicians which include the usual suspects like Sinatra and Tony Bennett, as well as such unlikely inclusions as Bruce Springsteen and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler. ("His lips have been a helipad for some of the most beautiful women in the world.")

Vincent also rates the best driving songs, the best drinking songs, and -- of course -- the best (Chris Issak's "Wicked Game") and worst (Jimmy Buffet's "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw") songs to make love by.

Frank Vincent doesn't miss a trick here.

From what a "man's man" eats, smokes, and drinks (real men prefer martinis and only imported beer) to the way he dresses, accessorizes, and grooms himself. (Be sure to get those nails clipped and manicured fellas.)

He covers all of the bases in A Guy's Guide To Being A Man's Man. And speaking of bases, you'll never make it past the first one without reading the essential advice here on how to get her digits. For instance, when approaching a group of girls in a club, a man's man will never say "You should tell me your girlfriend's name before we have the threesome." Even if that's what he is thinking.

Oh, and guys, here's another piece of advice: If you do get that "special someone" home after a night of partying at the nightclub, don't leave this book out on the coffee table. Probably better to hide it in a safe place.

Like right next to that secret porn stash of yours.

Seriously though, A Guy's Guide To Being A Man's Man is a great and very fun read. Now go home and get your shinebox.

The preceding article was published at Blogcritics.org on Monday. Check it out here: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/04/10/144824.php

Since then it has been made a Spotlight article at Blogcritics and put into syndication by advance.net.

Check out our first syndicated link here:

http://www.cleveland.com/newslogs/bookreviews/

We also got a very nice email from co-author Steven Prigge. It reads as follows:


Hi Glen,

I am the co-author of Frank Vincent's book. Thanks for the kind and well-written review of our book A Guy's Guide to Being a Man's Man.You really explain the book well!!! Thanks again...glad u enjoyed reading it. You're definitely a man's man!!!!!!!!

Best
Steven

Wrestlemania 22:
The Grandaddy of Em' All Delivers Again

I've been a professional wrestling fan since I was a kid, when my old man used to take me to matches in Hawaii, featuring guys like Ripper Collins, Tex MacKenzie, and Curtis "the Bull" Iaukea.

As a thirteen year old boy, I was hooked instantly. And it is something I carried into my adult life.

But it's been pretty tough being a wrestling fan the past few years.

You see, professional wrestling is a cyclical business.

And the cycle has been decidedly on the "down side" for the past couple of years...ever since Vince McMahon and the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) basically won the interpromotional wars of the nineties (the last time professional wrestling was really hot) and absorbed all of the competition.

Back then...at least for a time when wrestling was at it's peak...there would be competing pay per views nearly every week between the three major players in the game:

Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (or WWF); Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW); and Paul Heyman's revolutionary upstart group, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).

Like I said, it was a great time to be a wrestling fan.

And it all came together each and every Monday night...when WWE's "Monday Night Raw" would square off with WCW's "Nitro" on cable, in what came to be known as "The Monday Night Wars".

Since those glory days, Monday Night Wrestling has been in a steady, undeniable creative decline for at least a couple of years now. Oh sure, there are the occassional weeks when you get a decent show, but nothing compared to the shock a minute thrills of the original "Monday Night Wars" of the nineties.

That was when the big boys of the then WWF and WCW went head to head in a constant battle of oneupmanship for wrestling supremacy...and of course for ratings.

Meanwhile, the upstart Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) kept the heat turned way up (literally) on the big boys with it's own mix of edgy storylines, (catfighting lesbian vixens we're a regular fixture) and staged ultra violence (things like barbed wire and flaming table matches...with lots of blood).

As a reference point, I highly recommend checking out the recently released DVD "Bloodsport: ECW's Most Violent Matches".

Vince McMahon's WWE eventually won the Monday Night War, largely by duplicating the ECW formula and bringing it to the mass cable audience via it's Monday Night Raw flagship show on USA.

While the competition over at WCW was chugging along on the carcasses of it's aging stars Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, WWE was introducing it's then hot new made for prime time properties The Rock, Mick Foley, and Stone Cold Steve Austin (a WCW castaway who found new life in McMahonland) to the world.

Me and my buddies would watch those shows absolutely transfixed on Monday Nights.

We would also burn up the phone lines during commercials calling each other to compare notes ("did you see what Austin just did to McMahon?)".

And on Sunday's we would always get together for the Pay Per Views.

There was no bigger event on the wrestling Pay Per View map than Wrestlemania.

The Grandaddy of Em' All...Wrestlemania...at least for diehards like us...was the World Series, the Superbowl, and Christmas all rolled into one.

Back in the day, we would have like twenty guys gathered round the tube. There was plenty of cold beer, bad pizza, and abundant testosterone in the room back then. We'd also defend our own championship belt...based on our predictions on the PPV results.

This weekend that tradition continued for Wrestlemania. But there we're just six of us.

Like I said, times change.

I am myself a two time ("Thats Two Time! Brrrutha!") champion. Tonight, my good buddy Wendall Rose (pictured above in his moment of victory) regained the belt, correctly calling nine of the eleven Wrestlemania matches.

On paper, this year's Wrestlemania did not look good.

But in spite of all odds, it delivered.

Mick Foley and Edge had a hardcore match that tore the house down, climaxed by a great "holy shit!" moment...Edge spearing Foley through a flaming table.

Trish Stratus and Mickie James had what is probably the best women's match I've ever seen...despite a botched finish.

Rey Misterio became WWE champion in a spot fest that probably could have gone a bit longer...but was still memorable for both the high spots and the backstory of being a tribute to the late, great Eddie Guerrero.

The Great Ric Flair got what may be legit injured in a "Money In The Bank" ladder match. Flair really had no business being in the match at all. Pushing 60, the once great "Nature Boy" has definitely seen better days. The long deserving Rob Van Dam eventually won the match.

And Triple H, the self proclaimed "King of Kings"...considered by most wrestling insiders to be the most selfish, self serving wrestler this side of Hulk Hogan himself...tapped out to John Cena in the night's biggest surprise. Cena by the way, is quite possibly the most unpopular "babyface" (that's insider wrestling vernacular for "good guy") of all time.

And the hot (and quite vocal) Chicago Wrestlemania live crowd let him know it in no uncertain terms.

This wasn't the best Wrestlemania...and I've seen em' all. Not by any means.

But it was far better than it had any right to be, judging it by what they had on paper going in at least.

Can you say "Whoo"?

Wrestlemania 22 Match Results:

World Champion John Cena defeated Triple H by submssion

Rey Misterio won the WWE Championship over Kurt Angle and Randy Orton in a three way dance

Shawn Micheals defeated Vince McMahon in a "No Holds Barred Match"

Rob Van Dam won the "Money In The Bank" ladder match over Ric Flair; Shelton Benjamin; Lashley; Fit Findlay; and Matt Hardy

Undertaker defeated Mark Henry in a "Casket Match"

Edge defeated Mick Foley in a Hardcore Match

JBL defeated Chris Benoit to win the United States Championship

Big Show & Kane defeated Carlito and Chris Masters to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship

Mickie James defeated Trish Stratus to win the WWE Womens Championship

Boogeyman defeated Booker T and Sharmell

Torrie Wilson defeated Candace Michelle in a Playboy Pillowfight