LIVIN' ON THE EDGE~!

YEOWWWWWWWWWWW!

What's up rock n' rollers?

Well this week is crazy. It's my last week as a page, my last week working on the NBC lot, my last week at my assignment in Primetime Development, and my last week before I start the new gig over at Universal. Craziness!

But before I talk about all that ...

Wednesday evening is going to be off the chain, as three of my pals and I head to the Staples Center for an evening of AEROSMITH, live in concert!

So yeah, it's no big secret that Aerosmith is pretty much my favorite band of all time. I mean hey, my IM name IS Aerokid17, afterall. How did it all start?

Well, it was the early 90's - I was a kid in grade school, just at the right age where music starts to hit you and take hold. I was glued to MTV, and I couldn't get enough of the music videos of bands like Pearl Jam, Guns N' Roses, Tom Petty, Green Day, and yes, of course - Aerosmith. The band was in the midst of a miraculous comeback. After nearly disappearing in the late 1980's after their brief, Walk This Way-infused comeback with Run DMC, Aerosmith exploded onto the MTV scene, with an epic trilogy of awesome music videos - Cryin', Amazing, and Crazy. Sure, these were preceded by a few other big hits like Living on the Edge, and in years prior, Janie's Got a Gun, but the Trilogy reintroduced Aerosmith (not to mention Alicia Silverstone) to my generation and completely defined what I thought of as real Rock N' Roll. One of the first rock albums I ever bought was Get A Grip, and I listened to it non-stop. When the greatest hits compilation, Big Ones, came out, I was all over it, and I added songs like Angel, Deuces Are Wild, Blindman, and Love In An Elevator to my Aerosmith listenin' repetoire. Soon I bought their Greatest Hits, and suddenly became aware of the the old-school, classic rock stuff like Sweet Emotion, Walk this Way, Back In the Saddle, and of course, Dream On. I remember hearing Dream On for the first time ever, and something just clicked for me, and I remember thinking "ah yes, THIS is rock n' roll." I continued to love Aerosmith, and looked forward to their videos, and was a big fan of their Get A Grip follow-up, Nine Lives, even though many dismissed it. Even though I was very disappointed with Just Push Play, and the overhyped Don't Want To Miss A Thing, I continued to have a nearly unwavering love for all things Aero. During college, I was supposed to have seen Aerosmith, in their hometown of Boston no less, but to my absolute horror, they cancelled the show mere days beforehand due to a throat ailment affecting Steven Tyler. Finally, during a break in my senior year, my brother (a fellow Aero-Head) and I saw our favorite band for the first time ever, live, in Harford, CT, along with another classic rock favorite, KISS. While Kiss's crazy theatrics kinda stole the spotlight away from the Bad Boys from Boston, it was still a great show, and it was awesome to see my fav band in concert, even if they avoided many of their hits in favor of new stuff from the as-of-then unreleased Honkin' On Bobo (which turned out to be a decent, though not great, album).

But now, as Aerosmith has kinda faded from my musical playlist in recent years, they are finally back on heavy rotation, baby. Just this weekend, I went out and re-purchased my old school favorite album, Big Ones. Why? Because my old copy was a worn out CASSETTE tape, purchased sometime in grade school, before I even owned a CD player. I hadn't listened to that album in YEARS.But within minutes, I was belting out the lyrics to EAT THE RICH, BLIND MAN, and WALK ON WATER like it was 1995, and we hadn't lost a beat. At one time, that final verse from Eat The Rich was THE coolest, most badass thing EVER. "So take that grey poupon my friend and SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS!" And you know what? I still let a huge kick out of that song. And I still remember the lyrics to Amazing, Cryin' and Crazy. And hearing Love In An Elevator still makes me want to stand up, kcik down the door, and rock it.

So yes, I am PSYCHED for the big concert tommorow. Lenny Kravitz will be there too, but make no mistake, this is about one band - AEROSMITH - America's Greatest Rock N' Roll Band. Sure, I may cringe when they feature such songs as Jaded and I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing in their set list. But then I'll hear Sweet Emotion and I'll remember that THIS, this is the definition of HARD ROCK. You can toss out all the alternative, emo, nu-metal, whatever. This is timeless. This is primal. This is the inner teenager that will not die. This is gonna rock our socks off.

DANNY's TOP 20 AEROSMITH SONGS EVER:

1. Dream On
2. Sweet Emotion
3. Amazing
4. Love In An Elevator
5. Walk This Way
6. Angel
7. What It Takes
8. Janie's Got A Gun
9. Kings and Queens
10. Eat The Rich
11. Back In the Saddle
12. Cryin'
13. Crazy
14. Taste of India
15. Deuces Are Wild
16. Blind Man
17. Livin' On the Edge
18. Dude (Looks Like A Lady)
19. Seasons of Wither
20. Ragdoll

Most Underrated:

- Blind Man, Angel, Falling in Love (Is So Hard on the Knees), Hole In My Soul, Kings and Queens, Girls of Summer, Taste of India, The Farm, Back Back Train, Kiss Your Past Goodbye, entire Nine Lives album

Most Overrated:

- Draw The Line, Big Ten Inch, I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing, Jaded, Get A Grip, Just Push Play

Rated About Right:

- Mama Kin, Pink, The Other Side, cover of Come Together

Alright, enough about Aerosmith, except to say expect a full, post concert review ...

@ WORK

So today began my last week ever as a page! Holy crap! I know, it's pretty unbelievable. And very surreal to see other pages coming in today to interview for my assignment. But also very frustrating. Because you may know that I am a completist. I am always actively trying to fit in everything I possibly can into a small amount of time, and I can't stand to see things unfinished. So it is kind of driving me crazy that my last day is Thursday, and yet a new page likely won't start until Friday or next week sometime. So I won't be around to train them, and that is really frustrating for me. As someone who spent many years as a teacher and counsellor, I always look forward to any chance to pass on my accumulated wisdom to someone else, so I was looking forward to the day when I, the learned, wisened page would have a chance to take a new page under my wing and say "look kid, this is how it's done." Thanks to lacadaisical scheduling however, I am not going to get that chance. And as someone who knows firsthand what it was like to get thrown to the wolves in this very challenging and demanding assignment, I don't envy the next page who is going to have to do the same, though I will do my best to help them out from afar.

Otherwise, I am really excited for my new job, though still kinda unsure of what to expect. More on that later, suffice to say it's kinda cool that this internet and Ipod stuff is ALL OVER the news. Just today NBC announced that the pilot for Dick Wolf's new series, Conviction, is going to be available on Itunes a full week before it airs on TV. Cool stuff is going down, and I'm going to be a part of it.

QUICK TV REVIEWS:

Since I'm short on time, I'm gonna review each show in three phrases, Rorsharch-style.

LOST: Same old frustration. Nothing cool happened. Nice acting though from Naveen Andrews as Sayid. My grade: C+

SMALLVILLE: Gotta love CYBORG. EVIL Lex! Still cheesy plotting though. My grade: B+

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE: Still funny. Gotta love CRAZY Hal! Watch it while you can. My grade: A-

24: Big improvement over last week. Great action sequences set to some surprisingly kickass music. Where are they going with the overall plot? My grade: A-

NBA All Star Saturday: Nate Robinson Over Spudd Webb! AI's behind the backboard dunk was still the best though. Team San Antonio dominates! Thunder Dan! Clyde The Glyde! Magic! Dirk for Three!

NBA All-Star Game: Boring game this year, no hype, no enthusiasm, didn't feel "bigtime." LeBron was due for a big one. T-Mac is having a tough year, can't even win an all-star game in his hometown. Kobe is annoying. Does Paul Pierce even care anymore? What about KG - PLEASE trade him. So many good players on crappy teams - the NBA is so diluted it's ridiculous. All these players wasted going nowhere, two best teams are also two most boring to watch. Losing interest in NBA. Long for the days when All-Star games had Jordan, Barkley, Malone, Reggie, etc. Too bad those days are long gone.

Alright.

Tommorow night: AEROSMITH!
THURSDAY - MONDAY: Baram family reunion ...
THURSDAY: Last day as an NBC Page ...
MONDAY: New Job!
2nd Week of March: PIRATE dinner adventure!
2018 - The Island of New York becomes a state-funded detainment center for criminals where only the vile, the venal, and the insane dare to tread!

Um, nevermind.

But it's all
In the past
Like the
Check that's
In the mail
She was a tall
Whiskey Glass
I was an Old Hound Dog
Who Just Loved To
Chase His Tail ...


ROCK N' ROLL, SUCKA!