10.26: On this day in 1993, Catholic churches in San Juan, Puerto Rico urged parishioners to come and tie black ribbons on trees in protest of an upcoming Madonna concert. Her S&M-flavored, burlesquey, cirque du Madonna show (The Girlie Show World Tour) came on the heels of Erotica, her best-selling album from the previous year, and her children's picture book, Sex, which teenage boys everywhere, for some reason, couldn't wait to get their hands on. Adding gallons of gasoline to the fire, during her show in Puerto Rico, Madonna rubbed the commonwealth's flag between her legs. Wow, we've never wished we were a flag before, but that show changed everything as far as that's concerned.
10.27: On this day in 1967, Scott Weiland was born. Oh, Scotty, Scotty, Scotty. What's up, man? We remember when Stone Temple Pilot's first video, "Sex Type Thing," hit the MTV at the height of grunge, and everyone thought it was grunge, but it wasn't grunge. It was you, Scotty. You, your tortured soul, and your bandmates, channeling equal parts Mistfits and Led Zeppelin and Danzig, joining the rock frenzy of those heady days, not really caring in which sub-genre you were lumped. Ah, it was a good time to be a rocker. What happened, Scotty? We think you have an epic rock voice, that you definitely look and act like a rock guy, and that your predilection for different types of music only add to your oeuvre, but we haven't again felt that rush we felt all the way back in '92, when our eyes gazed upon the MTV, and we whispered to ourselves, "Wow, this band's got it going on." We know you still got it in you, Scotty, and we'll wait patiently for the day it finally re-emerges.
10.31: Robert Matthew Van Winkle joined us this day in 1968. Wait, what? You've never heard of Robert Matthew Van Winkle? Well, when you tell you the name that most of us know him by, you'll wish we hadn't. Still want to know? Vanilla Ice. There, we said it. Vanilla Ice. Man, we feel so dirty. The simple fact that more people know "Ice Ice Baby" than know the immaculate, incredible, indelible Queen and David Bowie collaboration of "Under Pressure" (from whence Ice's "song" sampled its amazing riffs and beats) makes us cringe, cry, and scream in anger, all at the same time. Ice's thankfully short-lived chart and cultural popularity will forever be one of those things (like "Disco Duck" and Ashley Simpson and '80s hairstyles) that everyone collectively looks back on and hates themselves for having taken part in, if only by way of know what and who they are.
11.01: On this day in 1962, F.I.S.T. star and Red Hot Chili Peppers singer, Anthony Kiedis, was born. Though the Chili Peppers have been around since the mid-'80s, they didn't really show up on the "mainstream" radar until their Mother's Milk album in 1989, with its killer cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground." The next album, however, is the one that launched them into superstardom, when they released Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 1991. Selling more than 13 million copies, this album melded their signature sound with a collection of vivid and memorable videos for the songs "Give It Away", "Under The Bridge", and "Suck My Kiss". As well, Mr. Kiedis' hybrid of singing and rapping heralded the emergence an entirely new subgenre within rock, built from funk, hip-hop, and hard rock, for better and worse. From this new sound emerged both the greatness of Rage Against The Machine and the dregs of the Kottonmouth Kings. A two-edged sword, indeed, but we wouldn't have it any other way. Happy birthday, Mr. Kiedis!