Chris Schuette – Indiebear Music
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  • January29th

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    Things are really hopping around our house lately as we prepare for Baby Schuette (pretty sure we’ll come up with a better name.)  The reality of eventual parenthood is setting in and I couldn’t be happier.  I know, I know; it’s going to hit me like a ton of Legos, but I’m still getting ready.  I even have my diaper bag.  After careful research, I chose the brown diaper bag from Diaperdude.com (Oh, for the love of God, make sure you type that address correctly!)  It’s a comfortable, over-the-shoulder design and there’s even a pocket for my cell phone right on the strap!  Oh, and it also holds baby-related stuff better than any other bag I looked at.

    Patty has also given me permission to tell you that she is starting to show.    In other words, if you were making a movie, and you needed to cast “Bubbly Pregnant Lady #1,”  Patty is the one you would call.  Of course, she’s not in the Screen Actors Guild, and she can’t really fly to L.A. right now, so we’d have work around that. I might be over-thinking this entire paragraph.  My point is, Patty looks great…even when she doesn’t think so.

    We’ve also tragically magically transformed my super secret 70’s/80’s lair into a slightly less-super secret baby room.  My Mannequin movie poster has replaced by pictures of Teddy Bears, my copies of Dynamite Magazine have been supplanted by Dr. Seuss, and my Atari 2600 has been replaced by nothing…just, nothing, not even a freakin’ Playstation.  The room has never looked better, though; even without the inspirational picture of Dolph Sweet.

    Patty & I will be also be joining a new church very soon.  And by “new church,” I mean, “church.”  We’re not currently members of a particular church yet.  To be honest, I learned most of what I know about religion from watching George Burns movies.  According to Hollywood, God smokes cigars, has bad writers, and was a lot funnier in the 1940s.  Seriously though, I know our family will benefit from it, and that’s good enough for me.  Who knows, maybe they need a rockin’ church organist.  I assume I could do that.

    We’re also working on getting a new car to replace the aging Jeep Grand Cherokee.  It’s becoming increasingly unreliable, and I’m fairly certain the transmission is being held together with duct tape and Gummi-Bears.  It’s been a good vehicle, though.  That Jeep got me home safely from every gig, every time.  Since we have another mini-SUV to haul around the impending torrent of child-related accoutrements, we are going to replace the Jeep with a smaller sedan.  Also, I’m not domestic enough, and I strongly believe a Ford Taurus can fix that.  Perhaps beige? You kids love beige.

    I’ll continue to let you know how the preparations are going.  I’m pretty sure it’ll be uneventful.

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  • October26th

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    I love the month of October, mainly because I love Halloween and the accompanying sugar rush.  I was thinking about some of the scariest movies I saw as a kid.  Since I was born in 1970, most of these movies are from roughly 1975-1980. This begs the obvious question: where were my parents when I was watching these??  If my memory is accurate, I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad were out disco dancing with Antonio Fargas and Shelly Hack.  Admittedly, I saw some of these films several years after they were released, but you get the idea.

    The following ten films are listed in no particular order and I’ve avoided spoilers. Of course, I posess only a vague awareness of what a “spoiler” is, so this oughtta be good.

    10. The Sentinel (1977):  A young fashion model (hey, it was the 1970s) learns that her New York City apartment building is harboring a terrible non-plumbing-related secret.  Hilarity ensues, of course. 

     

    9. Burnt Offerings (1976):  Oh Man.  This is probably the scariest haunted house movie I have ever seen.  Perfectly cast with the über-creepy Karen Black and an equally frightening Oliver Reed (his character wasn’t scary; I’m just very frightened of Oliver Reed.)  Oh, and don’t forget that grinning evil chauffeur.  And get this, Bette Davis is in this movie!  THE Bette Davis!  This is a great movie to watch with the lights off and it has held up surprisingly well.

    8. The Changeling (1980):  This film starred George C. Scott, but surprisingly was NOT a comedy!  I don’t remember much about the plot, but I recall a scary old-timey wheelchair and a creepy kid.  That’s good enough for me.

    7. The Shining (1980):  I know everyone cites this movie with Jack Nicholson playing the role of axe aficionado, Jack Torrance, but I first became aware of this movie via the film trailer while sitting in a darkened theater.  You know, the simple shot of the elevator doors with the eerie music.  All of a sudden a literal torrent of blood comes pouring from the elevators and toward the camera.  Pretty freaky, especially for a little kid.  Wait a minute, “torrent of blood”…”Jack Torrance.”  Hey, that’s weird.

     

    6. Suspiria (1977):  OK, I actually saw this film several years after it was released, but seriously, there is absolutely no reason that a kid should watch this movie.  It is a brutal, moody, suspenseful and incredibly disturbing film about a coven of witches who run a ballet school in Germany.  Known for it’s use of very bright colors (yes, they used a LOT of red,) but if you ask me, the striking soundtrack by Goblin totally made the film.  Oh, and the US trailer for this film is incredibly lame, but here you go.

     

    5. The Spell (1977):  I didn’t actually see this made-for-TV movie which aired on ABC in its entirety.  It is probably best remembered for starring a very young Helen Hunt. Apparently, she’s an actress, or something.  Oh, and Lee Grant was in it!  You kids loves the Lee Grant!  The one scene I remember seeing was with this woman walking down the stairs when all of a sudden she starts shaking, her eyes start bulging and smoke comes out of her ears.  Yeah, I didn’t sleep for two weeks after seeing this.  I don’t have a clip, but special thanks to Kindertrauma.com for the freaky pic.

    spell1

    4. Phantasm (1979):  This is the one with the spooky undertaker known only as “The Tall Man,” who was played very effectively by Angus Scrimm.  It also had these deadly flying silver balls.  There were also scary little jawa-looking guys who would just as soon kill you as sell you an R2 unit with a bad motivator.  The plot of the movie didn’t make any sense to me, but that didn’t matter.  I actually saw this film recently, but it wasn’t nearly as scary as I remembered.

     

    3. Race With The Devil (1975):  In hindsight, not all that scary, but it spooked me back in the day.  This film is about two couples in a large RV who stumble upon a Satanic ritual and wind up being chased across the Southwestern US by the cultists. Geez, what was with all of the Satanic cult movies back then?

     

    2. Tourist Trap (1979):  At the time, this movie was overshadowed by films like Halloween and Friday the 13th.  But is you ask me this film is scarier for one simple reason:  creepy mannequins.  Oh and the movie also features (gasp!) Chuck Connors!  Chhhuuuuccckkk Connnnneeeeerrrrs!  (Sorry, that sounded scarier in my head.)

     

    1. Friday The 13th:  This is the original slasher flick…as long as you don’t count all the ones that came before it.  OK, maybe it wasn’t that original, but it was still the prototypical scary movie to us pasty suburban kids for years.  Well, to those of us who used words like “prototypical” anyway.

     

    How about you guys?  No matter when you were born; what were the earliest scary movies you all remember?  Anyone?

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  • November14th

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    Now that the election is over, I’ve been able to get around to more important things, like dreading the onslaught of another Minnesota winter.  We’ve already had our first snowfall and I’m starting to feel like Minnesota isn’t the paradise I thought it was.  At least I have more time to follow that exciting William Shatner/George Takei feud.  ‘Cause with all of the challenges facing our country at this time, the juvenile bickering of two washed-up and slightly creepy old guys is more important than ever.

    I recorded this piece a while back, but I somehow forgot to post it.  It’s called FatCatWalk and it runs 0:51m.  It’s my attempt at cartoonish incidental music; the kind of background music you hear in a show while someone is sneaking around.  Share the warmth.

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  • July10th

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    Yeah, so I dialed the wrong number yesterday and left a voicemail for someone. Not deliberately, mind you. I didn’t know it was the wrong number until I received a voicemail from the woman I had mis-dialed, informing me that I dialed the wrong number. Normally, I would think it was very thoughtful of this woman (I’ll call her “Gertie”) to let me know I had mis-dialed; however, she seemed rather snippy about it. She sounded like an older woman, and somewhat cranky. In short, she sounded like a character from Mama’s Family, but not as eloquent and well-spoken.

    In the voicemail, she stated that I dialed the wrong number and that I should be more careful when dialing the telephone. Um, I couldn’t agree more.

    About an hour later I received another call from Gertie. I let it go to voicemail, because dammit, I’m busy. Her voicemail stated that she was calling again to tell me that I dialed the wrong number and that I NEED to be careful when using the telephone machine. This fact was becoming more obvious to me.

    Two more hours went by and Gertie called me yet again. This time I answered the phone:

    Me: Internal Revenue Service

    Gertie:(oblivious, dang) I received a call from this number but you dialed the wrong number and I want to know why.

    (Her voice seemed more shrill than her voicemails let on.)

    Me: Yes, Ma’am. Thank you for letting me know. I’m sorry to have bothered you.

    (Apparently, my snide, dismissive attitude comes through even when I’m being polite.)

    Gertie: Are you being a smart-ass?

    Me: Not yet, Ma’am.

    Gertie: Well, you need to be more careful when using the telephone. I don’t know why you can’t understand that.

    Me: Ma’am, what YOU don’t know could fill a warehouse. (God, I love that line.)

    Gertie: What?

    Me: I said, “I’m sorry I mis-dialed your house.” Good-bye.

    Gertie: I don’t like your atti-

    I hung up. Haven’t heard back from her, but just to be safe, I’m gonna stay outta Compton for awhile.

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  • June24th

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    It takes a lot to shock me these days.  With everything that goes on in the world, and how quickly we hear about it, I am rarely surprised by anything.  Unfortunately, I was shocked yesterday morning when I went to CNN.com and saw that George Carlin had died.  It still seems weird.

    I first saw George Carlin on “The Tonight Show” in the early 80’s.  He was doing his bit about “a place for my stuff.”  I had never seen anyone so manic and funny at the same time.  Like most people, I immediately became a fan.  The main thing I liked about George Carlin was his authenticity.  He was never phoney and he was never “cute.”  I’m sure gonna miss that.

    Here is a clip of George Carlin on “The Tonight Show” in 1972.  Nobody could interview like Johnny Carson.

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  • May30th

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    I just learned the sad news that Harvey Korman passed away yesterday. He was 81 years old; it only seems like he was funny for a lot longer than that.

    Some of my earliest memories from the 1970s were hearing my dad laughing while watching Harvey Korman and Tim Conway on The Carol Burnett Show. Later, I saw him in movies like High Anxiety, and my personal favorite of his, Blazing Saddles. He wasn’t the star of these movies, but as this clip shows, they wouldn’t have been the same without him.

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  • May7th

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    Someone from Minnesota won the $180 Million Powerball thingie last week. I love it when Minnesotans win the lottery. Most of them plan to pay off their boat and maybe fix up their cabin if they can get time off from work. They look like nice people though.

    Lottery Winners

     

    Good news: You have more money than you’ll ever need. Bad News: you kinda look like Les Nessman

    Les Nessman

    Speaking of my unhealthy obsession with old TV shows, I should probably admit that I used to rot my brain watching Gilligan’s Island. Hey, it was the 70’s and I was into some weird stuff, OK? Well, The Professor was played by an actor named Russell Johnson, who was also in like, EVERY Twilight Zone episode (OK, just two.) My cursory review of Mr. Johnson’s Wikipedia entry revealed the words no one wants to see in their bio:Russell Johnson
    On the one hand, you’re famous enough to have a Wikipedia entry. Unfortunately, some people were really hoping that you were slightly more homicidal. That has to be tough at parties; “Oh, you’re the actor, NOT the killer? Well, I knew I recognized you from somewhere. Yeah, I gotta go.”

    I’m fortunate enough to have one of those names that is shared by relatively few people. A Google search reveals that my vaguely humorous name is shared by an actor, an attorney, a High School track star, and a whole mess o’ Germans. I’ve never heard from any of these people, but I bet we all hope that each of us behaves ourselves.

    So far, so good, but I’m keeping an eye on that attorney.

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  • May6th

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    Sometimes Patty and I like to refer to the dogs as “Pooch #1″ and “Pooch #2;” just to let them know who REALLY assigns the names around here. Lately, Bear has been acting a lot like #2. He was playing with a piece of string this past weekend while Patty & I looked on with resigned boredom or unbridled enthusiasm. (We’re Minnesotans and we frequently mistake the two emotions.) We turned away for exactly one minute and he actually swallowed the string. We know this because after I turned off my stopwatch, the string was gone.

    Bear2.jpg Well, I had no intention of removing string from an utterly horrible location at a future time…possibly while neighbor children looked on. So we figured it was time yet again to make a dog barf. I’ve had to do this once before with Indie, but Bear is a bigger dog. I led him outside and gave him several squirts of hydrogen peroxide to swallow. Quoting one of my favorite Futurama characters, I implored that he “barf like a freshman.” (Patty stares at me blankly when I say stuff like that; it’s a thing we have.) Soon enough, the string re-appeared and I performed the invigorating task of clearing away the awful barful remnants. Bear is fine, but still a little dumb.

    We had another little animal-related incident in the house. Our cat, Jackson, who is the size of several old Volkswagens and twice as smelly, managed to do a little kitty demolition. The cat-room is a small closet underneath the stairs. There is a cat-door in the drywall which we typically lock at night to keep them from messing with our copies of the “Old West” series of books from Time-Life. (Did you know that John Wesley Hardin was so mean, he once shot a man just for snoring too loud?) Well, Jackson actually managed to push the cat door out of the wall. I’ll say that again ’cause it’s creepy: Jackson.jpg “he pushed the cat-door out of the wall!” I’m sorry, but if we have cats that can burst through walls, we’re screwed! In his defense, I pretty much had the door connected with duct tape and spit, so I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. I’ve reinstalled the cat door and reinforced the frame so Jackson the Wonder Manatee should stay where he belongs.

    Some people would say I should keep a better eye on my pets. I still don’t know where the hell they get these ideas.

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  • April11th

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    Well, no one ever accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of keeping up with the times. According to a recent article from Fox News (I couldn’t find anything in the non-fascist media,) Mr. Chavez has banned The Simpsons from being broadcast in his country, stating that it is a “bad influence.” I guess we should congratulate him. By finally reaching a 1990 level of cultural awareness, he has managed to achieve what all the clucking Midwestern busybodies of Pre-Clinton America could not. Hopefully, he can also ban all of those Bart Simpson T-Shirts and Hammer Pants that are all the rage right now.

    The Simpsons

    Apparently, this is the family being referred to…

    Oh, and you want to know which show has replaced The Simpsons on Venezuelan television? Baywatch Hawaii.

    I swear, sometimes this crap writes itself.

     

     

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  • April7th

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    I started my new job last Thursday after taking some much needed time off. I say “time off” and not “vacation” because I basically remained in the same zip code and I wasn’t able to avoid yard clean-up. Believe me, I tried. It was great. I got to play more with Indie & Bear, who were mildly surprised, since they usually think of me as “Slightly Taller Foodbringer Who Is Rarely Around.”

    Patty was kind enough to compile a list of chores for me. Yes, I said “chores,” because apparently we live on a farm now. I took a look at the list, and I gotta tell you, she was WAY off. Most of the items on the list seem to require some type of home improvement skill…and what the hell is a “broom?” Seriously, I did a few of the chores before tedium edged out boredom. Didn’t take long, though.

    Patty & I also did something a little revolutionary…well, its revolutionary for us. We actually canceled our cable. Honestly, we don’t watch much except for That’s My Mama and that episode of The Brady Bunch where Greg is kinda high. It’s a weird experience when you tell the Comcast Rep you want to cancel cable; they never seem to hear you correctly the first time. “You want to do what with the what now?” And I get the sneaking suspicion that every time someone cancels cable, some sales rep gets smacked around a bit. I can’t help but feel somewhat responsible.

    I also managed to do a little more recording in my home studio. I plan to have some new music up soon. As soon as I can get everything to stop sounding like Kraftwerk, I’ll let you know.

    This could take awhile.

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