smile’s Song Of The Day – smile

Go Green Ranger Go

smile from The Lower East Side — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 21:20:00 +0000

Over the weekend, it was reported that Jason David Frank, best known for playing Tommy Oliver in the Power Rangers franchise, passed away. He was an idol to a generation of kids (including mine) and he will be missed.

Winona

smile from The Lower East Side — Sat, 25 Aug 2018 20:20:51 +0000

Winona Ryder is back with a new movie, and in New York City two theaters are marking the occasion with events. The Quad is presenting a 16 film retrospective and Alamo Drafthouse is having a 4 film marathon. It seemed fitting to make this the Song Of The Day. Winona is a track from Matthew Sweet‘s 3rd studio album, Girlfriend. The performance presented here was recorded at City Winery in NYC in July, 2014.

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ONE ON ONE: Matthew Sweet – Winona July 18, 2014 City Winery New York at YouTube.}

Sorry

smile from The Lower East Side — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 09:24:39 +0000

My Song Of The Day subscribers may have inadvertently been sent one of my recent MoviePass posts because it was tagged incorrectly. Here’s a song to apologize.

Though Nerf Herder is probably best known for providing the theme music for the Buffy The Vampire Slayer television series, this was the song that initially blew them up (at least in California) and most likely got them the Buffy gig. This shit was all over the radio when I was on the West Coast back in late ’96 – early ’97, and it always stuck with me, because it’s genuinely funny. Happy Thanksgiving (if you’re in America, otherwise, Happy Thursday)!

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Nerf Herder – Sorry at YouTube.}

Take This Job and Shove It – Dedicated to Levi Duprey

smile from The Lower East Side — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 20:20:05 +0000

A lot of people think this song was written for that movie where Ted Striker drives Bigfoot through a brewery, but in fact the movie was inspired by the song, which was a thing they did in the 1970‘s, because a movie based on Pong would suck.

Today is Levi‘s birthday and I picked this song for him because when we last spoke a couple of weeks ago, he told me that he had to quit his fast food job because, long story short, the boss was hassling him over some bullshit. This week Levi started a culinary course, so I’m proud of him for having the confidence to stand up for himself, be who he is and move on to bigger and better things.

I don’t know what show the video embedded below was recorded for, but I love how Johnny Paycheck looks like The Southern Gandalf. Happy Birthday Levi!

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Johnny Paycheck – Take This Job and Shove It at YouTube.}

Walk In My Shoes – Dedicated to Brittany Duprey

smile from The Lower East Side — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 08:20:24 +0000

Last night was Brittany’s 20th Birthday. I got her a pair of sneakers, which she seemed to love. Shoes were a fitting gift, maybe more for me than Brittany, because she probably doesn’t remember this. Around her Sixth Birthday, I showed her how to tie her shoes; actually she pretty much had it figured out. She was going to start First Grade, and I was worried that she might not be able to tie her shoes because no one had ever shown me how to tie my shoes, and when I was expected to do it myself, I remember feeling a tremendous amount of pressure. Fortunately, I was able to do it, having learned without trying from watching others. I was confident Brittany would be able to do the same. I told her about my experience and asked her to try tying her shoes. She did with one minor mistake, which I corrected and with her 2nd try, she had it down pat. “I’m glad, because I can’t always be there to tie your shoes for you,” I told her.

The gift wasn’t exactly a surprise because I had to call her to find out her shoe size. You’d think I’d know these things, huh? Well, as it turned out, I wasn’t able to be there for a lot of things, too many in fact. I was proud of Brittany when she was six for being able to tie her shoes and I’m proud of her today for all of the other things she achieved in her life when I couldn’t be there. For these reasons and more, I dedicate this song to her with all my heart.

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Emily King – Walk In My Shoes at YouTube.}

Check your subscriptions

smile from The Lower East Side — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 20:20:23 +0000

Hey all, it’s been a while, I know. Going to have some new content up soon, but in the meantime, I’ve been overhauling the website a bit to get it to play nice with some other things around the web. It’s really more behind the scenes stuff, how the site’s organized on the back end, but you may have to update your RSS feeds/subscriptions in order to get the content you want.

Here are the two categories you can subscribe to:

Insomniac Non Sequitur (web | feed), my blog, where I provide humorous social commentary and media analysis
smile’s Song Of The Day (web | feed), which is a slight misnomer; lately it’s really more like smile’s Song Of Whenever He Gets Around To It

If you visit the website, the relevant sections should have the correct RSS/subscription links.

Fly Like An Eagle

smile from The Lower East Side — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:20:14 +0000

I’ve been having time management issues lately, which made the opening lyric of this classic by the Steve Miller Band pop into my head. Not to say that I’ve been wasting my time tripping balls, which seems to have been a prerequisite for any activity back in the old days. It’s like the opening of Boardwalk Empire, “Nah, I’m just innocently smoking this cigarette that I dipped in a solution of ether and opium earlier. Man, the sunrise looks awesome. It looks like it’s gonna rain, though. It might not rain, because that seagull is flying in slow motion… but the waves are at normal speed. Fuck, I should’ve brought an umbrella. No, wait! There’s the sun… behind me?!? How long have I been standing here?!? Holy shit! It’s like 3 in the afternoon, I gotta get to work!” Some of the more astute among you may have noticed that the video runs 4:20, and if you didn’t, I just pointed it out for you.

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Steve Miller Band – Fly Like An Eagle (1976) at YouTube.}

Friday I’m In Love

smile from The Lower East Side — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:40:52 +0000

Kind of half assed today; the main reason I posted this song is because it was the first one I thought of with Friday in the name. I like it, it’s a silly pop song with a wacky video, but it’s catchy as hell. Robert Smith doesn’t even consider it a real Cure song, and he may be on to something because according to the bass drum, it’s actually by The Cures.

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The Cure – Friday Im In Love at YouTube.}

Vegas Girl

smile from The Lower East Side — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 08:20:26 +0000

The moment when you realize that you’re not as up on the current music scene as you should be. I first heard of Conor Maynard a few months back when he dropped his first single, Can’t Say No. I hadn’t seen the video at that point, so I had no idea who he was or what he looked like; I just thought it was a dope song. The other day I’m watching TeenNick, and the video for his latest, Vegas Girl came on. I had thought Maynard was a grown man, at the very least, college age; so you can imagine my surprise to find out that he’s a Frodo looking teeny bopper dude (actually, he’s a couple of months shy of 20, according to AllMusic). I don’t like this one as much as Can’t Say No, but it’s still a good track. This video isn’t the most original, in fact, it’s a pretty blatant ripoff of the video for Have A Nice Day, but I decided to post this one because my hometown looks great in it. Some of the locations featured:

In front of The B Cup Cafe, where Maynard first meets Alaura.
Various spots around The Lower East Side, where the street team posts banners/stickers.
The artists’ workspace and graffiti covered rooftop where Maynard dances and has the party is 5 Pointz in Long Island City, Queens. The Twitter invite at 2:42 has the actual Google Map location. Billy Idol‘s Hot In The City was also shot near here.
The shots of Alaura leaving the subway and walking with the elevated subway tracks behind her are also in Long Island City.
The bridge with the red fences Maynard walks across is the Williamsburg Bridge. He’s walking toward The Lower East Side.

Okay, this isn’t a travelogue, so I’ll digress for now. Enjoy the video; I think this kid is going to be massive in the next couple of years.

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Conor Maynard – Vegas Girl at YouTube.}

Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)

smile from The Lower East Side — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 08:20:11 +0000

I remember when this shit first came out, it was all over the place. The way it exploded, you would think nobody had ever been boastful and narcissistic over some jazzy samples. It went to #15 on the Hot 100, #6 on the Rap chart, got a Grammy and everything. Yet, I’m sure that a lot of you who know this song probably didn’t know it was called Rebirth Of Slick, and I’m also pretty sure that a good number of you are wondering, “Who the fuck are Digable Planets?!” I think part of the reason a lot of people don’t remember this might be that a lot of people who enjoyed this song were smoking a lot of blunts, including the band. This shit is 4 minutes, 20 seconds long… coincidence?!? It probably is.

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Digable Planets – Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat) at YouTube.}