another word that's driving me crazy

"Linkage." As in "We want to create a strong linkage between the school and the community." What's wrong with plain old link?

hard rockin' goodness

Kick ass! I got back from lunch to find a box of CDs from my main homeslice lunchboxface! Can't wait to give them a listen -- thanks dude!

raised on the radio

I've always contended that the radio is for people who don't know what they want to listen to and are content to let some DJ decide for them. I still think that's largely true, but I must confess that I've been listening to the radio in the car a bit lately. There's one station in town -- I think it's the U. of New Haven station -- that plays some pretty good stuff. Today I heard them play Fugazi's "Merchandise" and the Misfits' "Where Eagles Dare" within twenty minutes of each other. I don't think I'd ever heard either of those two bands on the radio before, and I was utterly shocked to hear that Misfits song, because the chorus has the line "I ain't no goddamn son of a bitch." They don't play that kind of filth where I'm from, by god. The other day I heard them play some black-metal song followed by some death-metal song. I don't think I'd ever listened to a full song from either of those two genres. I was surprised to find that I strongly prefer black metal to death metal. It's infinitely more interesting. Who knew?

(fyi, Slayer is neither death metal nor black metal. Get your shit correct.)