What Comets, Stars, and Moons are all about

Almost 1 a.m. as I begin to fill this box with words.  The album “Skylarking” by XTC is playing. According to pitchforkmedia.com it is the 15th greatest album of the 80s. This is my first time listening to it. I have to say it is pretty damn good. In an attempt to fill in the holes in my CD collection I gave my sister the Pitchfork Top 100 list with all of the albums I already own crossed out. She was good to me this year picking up…in addition to Skylarking…”Sister” by Sonic Youth (this almost completes my Sonic Youth collection…all I need now is the new one and the artsy experiemntal jazz side project albums) and “The Queen is Dead” by the Smiths. Yes…I am absolutely ashamed that I never owned a single Smiths album until eight days ago. One has to understand my musical development. I began seriously listening and exploring music in 1988…the Jesus and Mary Chain were my Smiths. Possibly because JMC was…at the time…a sonic modern version of the Beach Boys and much of my musical exploration prior to that dealt with my mother’s album collection. A collection that consisted of a lot of surf and Beach Boys.
On Friday I filled in my dead pool for the year. My picks are as follows:
1. Strom Thurmond-Senator—this is an obvious and easy pick
2. Michael Jackson- King of Pop, I’m betting on suicide…as morbid as that is
3. Dick Cheney- VP of US—he has it coming to him, that ticker can’t hold for ever
4. The Pope- God can’t keep the hand up his ass much longer
5. Sharon Osbourne- Ozzy’s wife…yes, yes…I know the cancer is supposed to be in regression…
6. Bob Hope- He has to give it up sometime
7. King Fahad- King of Saudi Arabia…just a feeling
8. Fred Rogers- Mr. Rogers…morbid…ain’t I?
9. Ray Bradbury- Author…love the man, but have you heard from him in a while?
10. J.D. Salinger- Author…speaking of have you heard from…Salinger is probably already dead but nobody knows
11. Jonathan Richman- Lead Singer of the Modern Lovers…just seeems like he is healthy and touring
12. Les Paul- Guitar designer…time to go, Les
13. Michael J. Fox- Actor…I hated making this pick…maybe Doc Brown can go into the future and find the cure.
If you want to watch how I do I use the Old Blue Eyes Memorial Death Watch list.  My team is Mr. Pants.  I’m a team of one…kind of like the Army…except without the guns.  http://www.webspan.net/~pokey