Category: Music

Tough Guys

I’ve been watching movies featuring Hollywood tough guy Lawrence Tierney.

Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney (1919-2002)

Tierney reminds me of a guy I knew in college, named Tom, who was a year ahead of me during my freshman year. Tom and his roommate were in the dorm room directly above myself and my two roommates.

We were a nerdy trio, while Tom was a tough guy majoring in Criminal Justice. He was also a major pain in the butt, taking delight in giving us a hard time. When I’d finally had enough of him harassing us, my roommates literally had to hold me back from taking him on. Tom seemed content that I would dare to challenge him, and from then on we were okay.

Tom is introduced a few moments into this video, and you will hear how he put his Criminal Justice degree to good use.

https://youtu.be/cpnU1tKpTKU?t=4336

One of the last screen appearances of Lawrence Tierney was in Quentin Tarantino’s first movie, Reservoir Dogs.

Jump to the left, turn to the right!

Stuck on the Ceiling

In an elementary school class we discussed this song.

The teacher encouraged questions about its possible meaning. Was it about growing up and leaving childhood behind? Much later, kids speculated that Puff was a reference to being high on marijuana.

The question I didn’t ask, for fear of sounding stupid was, what is ceiling wax? The question soon came to mind again, with this record.

This confused me for a long time, until eventually I saw something on TV that made me realize it was sealing, not ceiling, wax.