posted 2007/07/13 at 15:53
Gerald Levert was born. Perhaps the best known of Eddie Levert's sons, he passed away this past November from a heart attack, and his loss was untimely to say the least. His body of work simply needs to be heard to be believed, but I must admit that my favourite performance of his will likely remain his guest vocals on Chris Rock's astoundingly funny parody of the "Wear Sunscreen" phenomenon, "No Sex (in the Champagne Room)." On that note, let's play the friday5.org Friday Five!
1. What’s a gross food you like anyway?
These days I don't think anything I eat could qualify as being gross, although there will always be those omnivores who think that the vegetarian meat substitutes I eat are disgusting. However, several years ago I seemed to be one of only four or five people on the face of the planet who loved Pepsi Blue, and I still wish Pepsi would re-release it (or that I could get one of the generic knock-offs still being produced around here).
2. Who’s an unlikeable person you like anyway?
As strange as thie sounds, I still have a soft spot in my heart for Mike Tyson. There's just something in me that believes that Tyson was a good man who was essentially ruined first by the death of Cus D'Amato and then getting himself mixed up with Don King. I don't say this to try to lessen the horrible things he's done since then, but even though my mind tells me that I should abhor Tyson, in my heart I just can't. (I don't even like boxing, although I think the sport does produce interesting characters like Tyson, Muhammad Ali, and George Foreman.)
3. What’s an unpleasant task you enjoy performing anyway?
I really enjoy getting the opportunity to move big stuff around the house or my room. I think I get more into the organizational side of it than the physical labour side, though. For that matter, I kind of need to switch a couple of bookcases' positions in my bedroom here soon to help me maximize my space. (I also need to buy and put together a new tower-style bookcase to help me with my overflow of books here.)
4. What’s a dumb song you enjoy anyway?
There are a good number of songs in the dance video games I play that I have the feeling I shouldn't enjoy because of inane lyrics or simplistic style or things like that, but that somehow manage to get a hook in me in some strange way. Since I've been playing In the Groove at home recently, I'll go with Missing Heart's "Charlene" for an answer; the lyrics are weak and the instrumentation isn't all that good, but I still kind of like the song as a whole for some strange reason. (For that matter, I feel that way about nearly all the Missing Heart songs I've heard.)
5. What’s a lousy restaurant you frequent anyway?
These days I don't frequent restaurants much at all, and when I do go out I tend to go to pretty good places. For lack of a better answer, I'll say Arby's here because I really like some of their stuff for reasons I don't really understand. (I haven't even been to Arby's once this calendar year, though.)
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon