I'll admit that I didn't know anything about him when he was in his prime, but I have now seen and heard enough to know what a waste it was to lose him 15 years ago when he was only 32. We could really use him right now.
Here's a nice little passionate meltdown as he deals with a heckler. This pre-dates the Michael Richards incident at the Laugh Factory by several years. And although Hicks never uses any racial slurs, this to me is far more terrifying than anything I saw in the Richards meltdown. And way funnier. *CAUTION: Contains extreme potty-mouth.
The Melvins are, in my opinion, one of the greatest "hard rock" bands out there (or whatever label they could be given). Although they might not consider themselves grunge, they have a lot of street cred for playing a huge part in the grunge scene, largely because Kurt Cobain went to high school with them, was basically their roadie, wanted nothing more than to join the band, and cited them as a huge influence when Nirvana started to become a household name. That might be the closest brush the Melvins ever got to any real fame or stardom. They've always fallen just a bit under the radar, and probably always will. I'm sure they like it fine that way. I know I do.
Anyway, one of my favorite stunts or "artistic statements" the Melvins ever made was recording a faithful cover of the tired, overplayed "Smells Like Teen Spirit", getting Leif Garrett, a has-been 1970s pop idol, on vocals.
I lost a lot of respect for this guy about 4 years ago when he became the first and only famous person to deny me an autograph (and I was only one of three people standing there). He was in town for the filming of the Prairie Home Companion movie. I always had a lot of luck in the past meeting famous people, so when I found out he was in town I thought it would be great if I could get him to sign my Natural Born Killers record store promo flat that I had been holding onto for a good decade. Juliette Lewis was nice enough to sign it a few months prior, and was quite the sweetheart about it.
When I kindly asked him, he glared with his intimidating little beady eyes and responded with a simple, "I don't think so, dude." I was stupefied. At first I wondered if I should be satisfied enough that Woody Harrelson called me "dude". I was at a loss for words and finally said, "Okay, fair enough." He kept staring and nodded. Who would have thought that mister liberal pot smoker would be against taking 2 seconds to sign something for the only person asking? It was thanks to Woody that I left Mickey Rourke alone when I spotted him at a SoHo neighborhood diner in New York the following year. I didn't want to find out he was the same way.
All that aside, I am still very much looking forward to this film:
If you've never given Strangers With Candy a chance, you're really cheating yourself. I never watched it when it originally aired, because I remember the commercials being more than enough for me to take. Several years later after borrowing all the DVDs from a friend, I finally realized how much I had deprived myself of a really good thing.
The premise of the show was about a 46 year old ex-junkie and ex-convict who wanted to start her life over, and starts by going back to high school. One of the funniest things was that no matter how often other students would pick on her and ridicule her, nobody ever acknowledges her age. And Stephen Colbert was one of the head writers and a regular character on the show, so that's always a plus.
2nd Packer birthday this month. There might just be one more, if you're lucky.
