Top Five New Year’s Pop Culture Resolutions

By Less Lee Moore

1. Read more rock biographies: This spring, I read the entirety of the Iggy Pop bio Open Up and Bleed in one day. That should tell you something. Maybe I won’t find a copy of Cherie Currie’s long out-of-print Neon Angel for less than $50 anytime soon, but there are at least five Beatles books I’ve never read, not to mention the Brian Eno diary and the new Andy Summers memoir.
2. Delve more deeply into the CDs given to us by a friend: During the summer, Shaun’s co-worker gave him three burned CDs, with a total of about 2500 MP3s. I’ve never heard of most of the songs so it feels like I won a shopping spree at a great used record shop. There are hundreds of old funk, soul, and R&B tunes and enough Brazilian music to send David Byrne into a tizzy. So far my favorites are the reggae Beatles covers. . . and I don’t even like reggae!
3. Participate in more karaoke: When I first heard of the existence of Karaoke, it was akin to an eight-year-old finding out that the Emerald City was a real place you could visit. Several years would pass before I worked up the courage to go to a Karaoke bar and actually sing, and even then the music selection was less than spectacular. This year I’ve realized how incredibly happy I am when singing along to music. But it’s not enough to croon in my car; I need to wow the crowds with my stirring rendition of “The Windmills of Your Mind” or find someone else who knows all the words to “Paradise By The Dashboard Light.” In my perfect world, all Karaoke bars would have a hearty catalogue of 70s Sparks tunes.


Suspiria

4. Watch more horror movies: As a kid I was absolutely petrified of horror movies; even the TV previews for them paralyzed me with fright. This was due to three events: 1) watching a 1977 made-for-TV movie called Count Dracula which aired on PBS, 2) listening in terror to The Shining as my parents watched it from the den on a Saturday night, and 3) seeing the scene in Poltergeist when the puppet tries to kill Robbie. This fear did not prevent me from watching any horror movies ever again; in fact, I couldn’t sleep for a week after seeing Pet Sematary when I was 17. Eventually I developed a love/hate relationship with horror movies but there are still many I have not seen. It’s time to catch up.
5. Embrace my Goth past: Siouxsie Sioux was my fashion icon when I was a surly teen, causing my parents to teasingly compare me to Lydia in Beetlejuice. Eventually I grew out of that phase, but as of late, it seems incredibly appealing again. Perhaps it was the ridiculous amount of pleasure I took when I dressed as Triana Orpheus from The Venture Bros. for Halloween; perhaps it was all the J. G. Thirlwell I listened to this year. I don’t know for sure. But I recently colored my hair darker again and damn, if it doesn’t make me feel totally badass. Why should I only sport skulls on my clothing one month out of the year? Black is back, baby.

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