30 Seconds To Mars

           


30 SECONDS TO MARS was started in 1998 by actor Jared Leto and his brother Shannon. Matt Wachter later joined the band as bassist and keyboard player. After working with guitarists kevin Drake and Solon Bixler, Tomo Miličević eventually came in to be the fourth memeber.

A reader, Mike Driscoll, alerted us to info on Wikpedia about the band's name origin.

Former member Matt Wachter has said that the band's name "actually comes from a thesis that the band found online that was written by a former Harvard professor. And one of the subsections of the thesis was titled 'thirty seconds to mars' and he goes on to talk about the exponential growth of technology that relates to humans and saying that we are quite literally thirty seconds to mars. What it means to us is, we thought it best described our music, in short."

Then again, Jared Leto said in an interview that "the name 30 Seconds To Mars has little to do with space, the universe or anything like that. It is a name that works on several different levels. Most importantly, it is a good representation of our sound. It's a phrase that is lyrical, suggestive, cinematic, and filled with immediacy. It has some sense of otherness to it. The concept of space is so overwhelming and all encompassing I doubt there is a song written that doesn't fall within it."

To further clear (or muddy) the origin waters, Shannon Leto, supporting the Wachter explanation said that the name "represents a lot of things. This professor had a thesis. It was talking about where technology was going; the evolution of man and how that plays a role. A sub-category was 30 Seconds to Mars. It was like the exponential growth of humans. We are literally 30 seconds away from Mars. Everything is right here and right now; everything is just so crazy and fast."

As of this posting, the band has 14 albums available.

The E Street Band

In the good old Jersey shore town of Belmar...

E Street. Not far from where Bruce Springsteen and the band used to rehearse in the 70's (at original band member David Sancious' mom's house). Here we are at the crossroads with 10th Avenue, where the "freeze-out" occurred. (Bruce has said that he has no idea what a "freeze-out" would actually be.)

On Bruce's Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. in 1973, he didn't use many backup musicians, but on the next album, The Wild, the Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle, The E Street Band was important to the overall sound.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s there was a very active music scene in and around the City of Asbury Park. Not only Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny and other early members of the E Street Band (Clemons, Federici, Lopez, Sancious, Tallent and Van Zandt) played in bands there but also Little Melvin & the Invaders, the Downtown Tangiers Band, the Jaywalkers, Moment of Truth, Glory Road, Child, Steel Mill (an earlier Bruce band), Dr. Zoom & the Sonic Boom, the Sundance Blues Band, and the first incarnation of the Bruce Springsteen Band.

The single version,  B-side = She's The One

"Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" (from Born to Run) was often the first song in the band's set, and Bruce used this to introduce the band on the 1999 E Street Band Reunion tour, using it to explain what members brought to the group (Roy Bittan = Foundation, Little Steven = Soul...)

The "Bad Scooter" in the line, "Teardrops on the city Bad Scooter searching for his groove" is Springsteen (same initials) and the "Big Man" in the third verse is Clarence Clemons. Springsteen met Clemons when he came into a club in Asbury Park, where Bruce was playing. It was a stormy night, and the door actually flew off the hinges when Clemons opened it. Springsteen would talk about how he "Literally blew the door off the place."

Oh yeah - there is now an ice cream stand at 10th Avenue and the boardwalk in Belmar called 10th Avenue Freeze Out - in case you're there on a pilgrimage and need refreshment.

More on the E Street Band

PEZ

http://www.burlingamepezmuseum.com/pezexhibit.html

Pez (which is trademarked as PEZ in capital letters) is the brand name of an Austrian candy company. Of course, most of know them more for the dispensers than for the rather forgettable candy inside.

The mechanical PEZ pocket dispensers have been quite collectible. The candy is a small pressed block of sugar. PEZ dispensers hold 12 candies.

The name Pez comes from using the letters at the start, middle and end of the German word for peppermint, pfefferminz, which was the first Pez flavor.

The candy and dispenser was originally introduced in Austria, but went worldwide and is particularly popular in the U.S.

The logo is all-uppercase and in perspective and made from 44 Pez candies.

The company says over 3 billion candy bricks are consumed each year in the U.S. alone - though I suspect a lot of those candies that are sold are NEVER consumed!

Not every PEZ candy or dispenser has been a hit. Some failed PEZ flavors include coffee, eucalyptus, menthol, and flower. Flower?

The highest verifiable sale of a Pez dispenser was a private sale of a Mickey Mouse softhead at $7000 between an Austrian dealer and a California collector. This dispenser was never available for sale to the public, and was a factory prototype. The high prices which some Pez items fetch has led to the manufacturing of fake Pez items as well. The 2006 eBay sale of a clear 50s Space Gun for $11,000 took place but according to noted Pez author, David Welch, the dispenser was later proven by chemical testing to be a well-made fake. (Wikipedia)

www.PEZ.com

What better tribute to our distinguished Presidents this weekend than to push back their heads to get some sugar?

This is Volume 1 in a series.

Swan Song

Mute Swan

There's an old legend about the swan's song that stems from the notion that the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is completely mute during its lifetime until the moment just before it dies, when it sings one beautiful song.

It's a very Romantic notion. 

"Swan song" has become a metaphorical phrase in English for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement.

That ancient belief about the Mute Swan singing that final song is now known to be incorrect, but it was well known in Greece by the 3rd century BC. It has lived on in many references of Western poetry and art.

Actually, Mute Swans are not quite mute because they hiss. But, they do not sing as they die.

The earliest known reference to the idea of that final swan song is in Aeschylus' Agamemnon from 458 BC. In the play, Clytemnestra compares the dead Cassandra to a swan who has "sung her last final lament".

Plato's Phaedo records Socrates saying that, although swans sing in early life, they do not do so as beautifully as before they die.

In 77 AD, Pliny the Elder refuted the swan song idea in Natural History stating: "observation shows that the story that the dying swan sings is false." Nevertheless, by the third century BC the belief had become an established proverb.

The English phrase "swan song" or "swan-song" dates to the 19th century, and entered the language from the German Schwanen(ge)sang and Schwanenlied.

Aesop's fable of "The Swan Mistaken for a Goose" alludes to it: "The swan, who had been caught by mistake instead of the goose, began to sing as a prelude to its own demise. His voice was recognized and the song saved his life."

Ovid mentions it in "The Story of Picus and Canens":  "There, she poured out her words of grief, tearfully, in faint tones, in harmony with sadness, just as the swan sings once, in dying, its own funeral song."

An online search for swan song titles shows quite a list of books, plays, movies etc. that keep the idea alive.

So, feel free and clear to use it metaphorically - as in "The much anticipated Apple TV may turn out to be Steve Jobs' swan song" - and also give those people at that cocktail party the truth about Cygnus olor.

NY Giants and New England Patriots

With Super Bowl XLVI (#46) this weekend, I thought I'd post some team history today. Neither of these teams has a very unusual team name origin. The American football Giants are an old franchise. They were one of five teams that joined the NFL in 1925, but the only one admitted that year which still exists.

The team ranks third among all NFL franchises with seven NFL titles: four in the pre–Super Bowl era (1927, 1934, 1938, 1956) and three since the advent of the Super Bowl (Super Bowls XXI (1986), XXV (1990), and XLII (2007). Their championship tally is surpassed only by the Green Bay Packers (13) and Chicago Bears (9).

In order to distinguish themselves from the professional baseball Giants, the football team was incorporated as the "New York National League Football Company, Inc." in 1929 and changed to "New York Football Giants, Inc." in 1937. Although the baseball team moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, the football team continues to use "New York Football Giants, Inc." as its legal corporate name, and is often referred to by fans and sportscasters as the "New York Football Giants".

The team has also gained several nicknames, including "Big Blue", the "G-Men", and the "Jints", an intentionally mangled contraction seen frequently in the New York Post and New York Daily News, originating from the baseball team when they were based in New York. Additionally the team as a whole is occasionally referred to as the "Big Blue Wrecking Crew", even though this nickname really referred to the Giants defensive unit during the 80s and early 90s.

Although the Giants have a number of rivalries in their history (particularly with the Cowboys and the Eagles), any rivalry with the Patriots is relatively new.

The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats," are based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team changed its name from the original Boston Patriots after relocating to Foxborough in 1971. (New Jersey Giants fans often wish that the NY Giants would be known as the NJ Giants because they play in the Garden State.)

An original member of the American Football League (AFL), the Patriots joined the NFL in the 1970 merger of those leagues. The team advanced to the playoffs four times before appearing in Super Bowl XX in January 1986, losing to the Chicago Bears. The team also appeared in Super Bowl XXXI in January 1997, losing to the Green Bay Packers.