Merry Kissmas, Everyone!

Still Sp-ACE-ing

Sweet.

I Said Baby, OH BABY, Can I Take Ya Home?

Jere and I attended the Brimfield Antique Show yesterday and in one of the tents, I saw a little crop of KISS stuff. There were several albums, including Hotter Than Hell. As a kid, I owned Double Platinum which was, essentially, a 2-album set of their greatest hits, up to the year 1978. It was my father's, actually, but he eventually gave it to me. He also owned both Alive! and Alive II on 8-track. Not really my favorite way to listen to KISS, but I am amused by some of the ridiculous things that Paul Stanley says live.

Anyway, since I've never actually owned Hotter than Hell, I never inspected the album cover. I studied it for the first time yesterday and learned that it has Japanese-inspired artwork and graphic design, including the text. At first, I thought this was some interesting version, meant to be sold and distributed in Japan, only. Not true. Since yesterday, I've learned the following (about the photography session for the album), from Wikipedia:

The album is also known for its striking cover: the front featured Japanese manga-influenced artwork, and the back cover showed individual band shots taken by Norman Seef at a wild party, and a composite of all four band members' makeup designs. Everyone present at the session (with the exception of Simmons) was drunk for the entire photography session. Stanley was so drunk he had to be locked in his car. Paul's drunken state can easily be seen on the album's front cover as it appears Peter Criss is holding him up while Paul holds onto Peter's leg.

I thought that Stanley and Gene were the reasonable, sober ones. This sort of shocked me a little. But, it is Wikipedia, which means that my grandmother could have written this for all anyone knows.

Rollins Update

I don't have IFC, but I get updates on Henry Rollins' show. He has redeemed himself with a recent guest.



Different subject. Age appropriateness. Is this even a word? Look, I'm a 35-year-old woman, and much like my late dad, I've got this whole "anti grown up" attitude toward life. I like silly things and toys and I enjoy starting projects I don't finish. Not "I'm going to build a deck." More like, "I'm going to make licorice soap." I take care of my adult responsibilities just fine, but when it comes to things like, say, home decor, I'm not where I am supposed to be, style-wise, for a 35-year-old woman. I tried the whole adult, classy furniture deal once. My ex-husband was into that West Elm sort of thing, and I don't think it's bad. It just isn't me. Recently, a co-worker was talking about a man she'd met and how "young" his apartment is. I immediately thought about the plastic skeleton I have dangling in my kitchen. I guess, in the end, it isn't about how old you are. It's really about being happy. Silly, fun things have always made me happy. I don't think this is going to change. And I'm certainly not going to change my apartment decor because *uh-oh* I'm in my 30's and it's time to coordinate!