Paul's Boutique - Beastie Boys

This? Is just the rat's ass. The cat's meow ... I freakin' love it. By far my favorite of the Beastie Boys' albums. Highly explicit, immature, misogynistic, and just plain ridiculously awesome ... I'm almost positive nothing like this could ever be made again; the sampling alone would break the bank.

Lyrically impressive, musically universal (from a sampling perspective) ... you've heard from it ... you're familiar with at least part of it. Some of the rumoured samples include:

• to all the girls (a shout out to all the ladies) - idris muhammad.
• shake your rump (the boys introducing themselves) - afrika bambaataa, car wash, foxy, funky 4+1, james brown, ronnie laws, sugar hill gang.
• johnny ryall (that bum used to be somebody) - donnie hathaway, jean knight, kurtis blow, paul mccartney, pink floyd.
• egg man (all about egging) - cape fear, cheech & chong, curtis mayfield, funkadelic, kool & the gang, lightning rod, public enemy, sly & the family stone, tower of power.
• high plains drifter (the story of a petty criminal) - eagles, fatback band, loggins & messina, ramones, zz top.
• sounds of science (hey, it takes brains to be this good) - boogie down productions, beatles, isaac hayes', james brown, pato banton.
• three minute rule (they are badass emcees) - fancy, manfred mann, sly & the family stone.
• hey ladies (they are irresistible ladies men) - afrika bambaataa, cameo, commodores, davey dmx, deep purple, edwin starr, fab-5 freddy, james brown, kool & the gang, kurtis blow, p-funk all stars, sweet, world famous supreme team, zapp.
• five piece chicken dinner (goofy “yeehaw!” rebel fun) - earl scruggs.
• looking down the barrel of a gun (just expressing their baditude) - incredible bongo band, mountain, ocean, pink floyd.
• car thief (they are so misunderstood) - donovan leitch, funkadelic, funk factory, woodstock.
• what comes around (that karma? she a bitch, man) - alice cooper, gene harris & the three sounds, led zeppelin.
• shadrach (the three of them? they freakin’ ROCK!) - ballin’ jack, bar-kays, black oak arkansas, fatback band, funky 4+1, james brown, rose royce, sly & the family stone, sugar hill gang, trouble funk.
• ask for Janice (complete fakery)
• b boy bouillabaisse - all the people, boogie down productions, bob marley, cerrone, chic, crusaders, fab-5 freddy, isley brothers, jimmy hendrix, johnny cash, joni mitchell, kool & the gang, led zeppelin, lloyd lindsey, lovebug starski, meters, run dmc, scotty, sweet, tiny bradshaw, tower of power, trouble funky, world famous supreme team.

And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the seemingly endless pop-culture references (many of them timeless) sprinkled heavily throughout the album. There are simply far too many to mention, from Hollywood to politics to literature to the Arts … have I mentioned that I love this thing? Because I do.

Dig me, mid-forties, fairly conservative, tooling around Kansas City blasting Paul’s Boutique. Somebody has to bring it, no?

Emergency!

Pretty much my all-time favorite television program growing up was Emergency!, starring Randy Mantooth and Kevin Tighe as L.A. Paramedics Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto, who manned Squad 51, the rescue wagon based out of Station 51.

While in retrospect I'm sure the program was originally intended to showcase more of the goings-on at Rampart Hospital, apparently these guys were the early 70's version of breakout stars, because I seem to recall Emergency! as being mostly about the guys of Station 51:

• Capt. Hank Stanley (Michael Norell) - ultimate cool/kind/level-headed dad figure
• Eng. Mike Stoker (Mike Stoker) - got to drive the big rig, played himself (e.g., actual firefighter)
• Fftr. Chet Kelly (Tim Donnelly) - Johnny's goofball nemesis in the way of practical jokes and general buffoonery
• Fftr. Marco Lopez (Marco Lopez) - played himself (also actual firefighter)
• PM. Roy DeSoto
• PM. Johnny Gage

Although there were a few main Rampart personnel as well:

• Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller) - king of the concerned scowl while concentrating really, really hard to come up with some way to save the day
• Dr. Joe Early (Bobby Troup) - gruff, lovable mentor doc
• Dixie McCall (Julie London) - nurse smart enough to be a doctor in her own right
• Dr. Mike Morton (Ron Pinkard) - young hot-headed doc learning the ropes

While mostly about Johnny's and Roy's adventures, there was usually one big rescue per episode, where they had to pull out all the stops and get everyone involved, whether it be a fire, building collapse, kid in well, accident, etc. This way all the guys from the station house and all the hospital personnel could interact.

There was a lot of humor involved, and a surprising amount of suspense ... and good looking guys ... and I learned that D5W and Lactated Ringer's could save almost anyone from almost anything ... and that it is imperative to "transport as soon as possible" if I want to ensure proper medical care ... but I still have no idea what "KMG365" means! Oh, yeah - and that a firestation without a pole is a poseur.

The really cool fact of Emergency! is that it brought attention to the need for emergent medical care outside a hospital. By the time the series ended most of the country either had or was in the midst of organizing some type of Paramedic program (keep in mind that back then ambulance attendents simply transported the patient ... nowadays EMTs and EMS provide critical care before the patient even boards the "bus"). In fact, some of the original props are now in the Smithsonian. Way cool.

The Stand - Stephen King

My all time favorite book. Both versions. I read it pretty much once a year. It is the tippity top of good. I have absolutely nothing even remotely negative to say about it.

Stephen King is one of the most lyrically descriptive authors I've had the extreme pleasure to read. He ranks right up there with James Lee Burke, Larry McMurtry, and Pat Conroy in his ability to suck the reader into the very fiber of the tale, so that instead of merely reading it, we experience and observe it. Wonderfully talented man, with this simply incredible imagination that I both love and covet.

The Stand is, briefly, a tale of the battle between Good and Evil at pretty much the end (or is it the new beginning?) of humankind. Filled with immediately accessible characters and places (some places being actual characters themselves). I fell in love with Stu when I was 13 and he's pretty much ruined me for any other man since.