Sadly, unfortunately my sister lost her dog/best friend Ali this week. Shortly before Ali passed, Kathryn was give another little puppy, an energetic ball of fur named Daisi (with an “i”).
It is my understanding that Daisi, while at my parents’ place, “piss and shit” all over the carpet. Hey, it’s what puppies do. But according to my dad:
“Little Shit is what I’ve named that dog. Because it pisses and shits all over the house!”
Please welcome to our family, Little Shit!
Happy birthday Dad!!
We were in Kincardine, Ontario, on Queen street, or “the main drag” as my dad calls it. We were in this crappy clothing store called Sandy’s that’s not there anymore. But this time, they had a Kiss T-shirt for sale! I never saw any cool band shirts in Kincardine before. We spent much of each summer there, and when I was younger the place seemed kind of dull. Finding a Kiss shirt there, well obviously I had to get it. It was 1992, a Revenge shirt.
My dad asked, “Did you find a shirt, son?”
“Yep,” I answered. “This one is cool, because it has the new Kiss member on it.” [Eric Singer]
“Yeah,” my dad said with a disapproving smirk. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that bearded guy before…”
Shit LeBrain’s Dad Says: “Beach Creature”
I remember one night at the cottage, I had my ghetto blaster with me, and my sister and I were listening to Kiss Alive II. Cassette, of course. This would have been summer of 1986. Track #3 was “Ladies Room”, sung by Gene Simmons:
I’ll meet meet you in the ladies room
I’ll meet you greet you in the ladies room
For my money
You can’t be too soon
My dad did that thing that dads sometimes do. He stood there with a strained look on his face, trying to figure out the words. Struggling to hear what Gene was singing, my days said:
“A ‘beach creature in the ladies room‘? Is that what that man is singing?”
One day in the winter, I was getting up for another day at the record store. My dad was already up obsessing about the Weather Network.
“Are you going to work today?”
“Yeah dad…why wouldn’t I? It’s Thursday.”
“Well you better be careful, it’s a howlin’ banshee out there today!”
I look out the window, and saw literally two snowflakes floating through the air.
Sheesh!
By my sister. 
Good day all,
As you may have read in a previous story, I recently had a significant birthday. One of the nice things I received was a brand-new camera. (Thanks mom & dad!) Up until now, I’ve been taking pictures of all the albums and collectibles with my Nokia c3 cell phone. (If this were a techie blog I couldn’t give that phone a glowing review, but as you can see it helped me get through the first few months of this.)
So this means, after I’m done posting all the old photos in upcoming entries, I can finally bring you better quality photos and videos. I know a lot of you love checking out the rare discs and collectibles. I never liked the photo quality on my blog, so I’m stoked to have a camera.
Here’s a bunch of photos with the old Nokia that I never got around to using.
I know some of you are following the Kiss reviews. We’re done the makeup years! Coming up, I will be covering the rest of the studio & live albums, and as many box sets and compilations as I have access to.
And, some of you follow the Record Store Tales. Coming up, you’ll read more classic quotes, hear about a lot more annoying customers, get the feel for what it’s like behind the counter, and discover more fantastic musical finds.
For now I’ll leave you with a fresh S*** LeBrain’s Dad Says, from today.
Today was the day we decided to hold the official birthday party. As mentioned my parents bought me the new camera. As I opened it, my dad said:
“Wow, that looks like a nice camera there. Who’d you get that from?”
By popular demand: Another quote from my dad!
While watching country music on TV:
“Is that Shania Twain? And her brother, Choo-Choo?”
1. “This is going to be worth a lot of money, one day.” Said in regards to Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind” remake single. Yeah. He sold about a zillion of them, which people bought multiple copies of (one to play and one to keep sealed!) and now are in every bargain bin across the continent…usually at 99 cents.
2. Phil Lynott proclaimed that “Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak, somewhere in this town.” One day while listening to this track at work, Neil retorted: “Somewhere in this town? Maybe they should start by checking at the jail.”
3. A wave of the hand. “You don’t need to see my identification.” This Jedi mind trick was cast upon me (jokingly, I assure you) by a witty young man after I asked him for ID while selling CDs. Fortunately, I am a Headbanger. Mind tricks do not work on me!
4. “I’m buying two CD’s. Do I get a discount?” Two discs? Really?
5. I came home from work one day with a CD sized bag in my hand. My very frugal father said to me (in “that tone”), “What did you go and waste your money on this time?” I said, “Dad, it’s the new album by Kiss!” His classic response: “Kiss? Don’t you already have them?”
I don’t know why he’s flapping his arms
6. While we’re on my dad. During the Pepsi Power Hour, he used to like to stroll into the living room, heads clasped to his ears in mock agony, and say, “What’s wrong with that man on the TV? He’s screaming like he’s in pain! Does he have appendicitis?”
7. Finally, my dad has a penchant for mispronouncing the names of things he dislikes. For example, “Who is this Lady Googoo person I see on TV?”
8. A guy in a green suit carrying a briefcase walked up to the counter. “I have to go to court tomorrow and I want some music to get me psyched up. Do you have the Clockwork Orange soundtrack?” (Same guy who, another time, asked us, “Do you like the drugs?”)
9. Some questions don’t bug you so much, unless the same person asks the same question over and over again. One guy kept asking me, “Do you have Black Sabbath, 1991?” I’d tell him that there is no such album. In fact 1991 was the first year in several that Sabbath failed to release an album. “Do you have Black Sabbath, 1991?” No! Nobody has it, because that’s a made up name!
10. “Hello, it’s Matt’s mother, would Matt be available?” This perfectly innocent question was asked of one of our new guys, Chris. Chris responded, “Yeah, he’s outside having a smoke, I’ll go get him.” Problem: Matt’s mother did not know he smoked!
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