not one but two

The Bou' noticed that when Forbes released its crappiest cities in the United States of America list that not one but two California cities (surprisingly close to each other) made the list.

Well, congratulations are certainly in order for both Stockton (#1 baby!) and Modesto (will have to settle for #5, but did beat Flint Michigan fer chrissake), but the Bou' wonders if we shouldn't just consider the entire central valley one giant crapasaurus rex of a city, I mean it's only a matter of time before all the orchards are converted to track houses right?

van halen

I know I know I know. you're thinkin' Boutros, will we lose van halen if we get california kicked out of the union? I've wondered too.

In fact I've thought long and hard about it. here's what I've come up with:

1) Despite an awful lot of rocking, van halen sucks. No matter what anyone says, they haven't had a great album since 1979 and even that is a stretch by about a year. what really sucks about van halen is that they're like a soap opera instead of like a proper rock band where someone dies and it's over. kinda like cheap trick, except that I'm pretty sure cheap trick has always rocked, hasn't really kicked anyone out and back into the band multiple times, and no one has died (and they're from illinois, which is staying put).

2) Even despite 1) above, it's pretty clear that losing van halen is a real risk for kicking california out of the union - but then it dawned on me:

there are lots of great hard rockin' bands from outside of the united states.

iron maiden comes to mind. so do the scorpions. plus i'm pretty sure that sammy hagar lives in mexico most of the time already anyway.

so it's not all bad. that's all I'm saying. and on the plus side, well, eddie van halen could be denied a visa for the US during his coke binges.