(Z) Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction

I first discovered Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction in 1987.  They played a song called "Prime Mover" on the radio.  Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction are a British Rock band that had their first hit "Wild Child" in 1986.


Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction play a sleazy style of commercial hard rock.  The camp lyrics are intended as self-parody, and can be seen as either humorous by those who "get the joke", or offensive by those who think they are serious.  Often they have a lascivious and misogynistic tone.

Here are some lyrics to Prime Mover.


Well I'm Christ In Shades, I'm A Napalm God
Your lipstick flickers round my lightning rod
Your fever pitch bitch, you love to tease
Well I'm a hot dog daddy, up on your knees
Sex Fuhrer baby I'm a Love Dictator
Blitzkrieg romance I'm a living detonator


...OK so you get the gist of the groups humor.  For those who are not prudish and love a good 'inside joke'.

(Y) Yellow

Yellow is my favorite color.  I wish everything in my house could be this color but it isn't.  I can't wear this color, it doesn't look good on me.  But it doesn't stop me from loving it.

Yellow things I love:

Daffodils
Lemons
Yellow Roses
Fall Trees

Yellow things I don't love:

Bumble Bees

I am waiting for my son to move out. I still have a few years yet.  But I am planning on switching rooms with my daughter and I will redo that room with a yellow shabby chic theme.  Hey let me dream, I have about 3 or 4 more years before my son graduates, finds a job and moves out.

(X) Xenophobia in Literature

X another impossible letter.  I am doing a take of what I did last year.  Last year I did Xenophobia in Film.  This year I tackle books.

One book that deals with Xenophobia is "New York: A Novel" by Edward Rutherfurd.  This book spans the birth of New York (17th century) until 2009.  There is a lot of subtle Xenophobia in this book.  The sufferes were the immigrants (Irish and Italian).  Another book that deals with Italian immagrants is "Elizabeth Street" by Laurie Fabiano.  I started reading "The Immigrants" by Howard Fast.  From what I was able to tell, this book deals with all types of Immigrants during the early part of the 20th century.

xenophobia (plural xenophobias)

1. A fear of strangers or foreigners.
2. A strong antipathy or aversion to strangers or foreigners.

Xenophobia  is still alive and well. Most people I know have the fear of people from the Middle East. It is understandable but unfair.  It is unfair to group a peoples because of what a few do or have done.    

One would think living in the United States and a place like New York City would jade a person of foreigners because we are the Melting Pot.  Fear is a hard thing to overcome.

(W) Wreck This Jornal

From Amazon:
For anyone who's ever wished to, but had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book that features a subversive collection of prompts, asking readers to muster up their best mistake- and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them). Acclaimed illustrator Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in "destructive" acts-poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting with coffee, and more-in order to experience the true creative process. Readers discover a new way of art and journal making-and new ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.


Here are some of my "wrecking"

 The Cover (objective was to doodle over it)

Add Your Own Page Numbers

 Doodle over the Instruction Page

Tear Strips rip it up!

(V) Violin

I learned to play the viola when I was 10. I was pretty good. Then by the time I was 15 I had stopped. Other things got in the way (i.e. boys).

As an adult I thought I would take it up again. However, I switched to the violin. I was able to play the violin, the viola and the cello when I was younger.  The violin and viola are similar except the viola is bigger and has lower notes.

I was about 39 when I took it up again. Boy was I BAD!  The screeching had the dogs crying.  I stuck with it for a while and I practiced, but I finally realized I no longer had the touch.  The violin was no longer for me.  I moved to my current stringed instrument...the guitar. Which by the way, I can play to some degree of proficiency.

(U) Urban Legends

U is always a hard letter to do. Last year I did Urban Fiction, so this year I thought I'd do Urban Legends.

Here is a list of FALSE Urban Legends

Coca-Cola is an effective contraceptive

Donald Duck shouts racial epithet at Daffy Duck

Vitamin C users who eat shrimp risk death from arsenic poising

Microwaving foods in plastic containers releases cancer causing agents into food

NASA scientist discovered a lost day in time

A curse doomed the cast of bewitched to early deaths

Charles Manson auditioned for The Monkees

(T) Tenement Museum New York City

This summer I plan to visit some museums I've not visited before.  New York City is filled with many museums.  One of the ones I want to visit this summer is the Tenement Museum.  This is located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.


There is a Walking Tour:  The Museum's walking tours explore the Lower East Side and the American immigrant experience.  Featured walking tour is currently "Foods of the Lower East Side".

There is a Building Tour:  The Museum tells the story of immigrant families and visitors view restored apartments of past residents from different time periods.  Featured Building Tour is  "Irish Outsiders".


There is interaction:  Visit with a costumed interpreter playing one of the residents of 97 Orchard Street.


Tenement:  A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard mult-family dwelling in the urban core, usually old and occupied by the poor.


New York City didn't invent the Tenement, they exist all over the world.


In Buenos Aires the tenements, call conventillos.
In Germany, the term corresponding to tenements is Miet(s)kaserne.


Germany Mietskaserne in 1959