Lately, the wise words of '80s metal prophet, Ronnie James Dio, have been informing my F train commute into Stinky Town proper. As a teenager I was an avid fan of Dio and the usual musical suspects of any rural New England delinquent (Sabbath, Rainbow, Maiden, Preist, AC/DC, Metallica, etc.) Reclaiming these old, often embarrassing tracks of my youth has taken time - but now they're mine again... although I'm not exactly sure what to do with them. "Got shiny diamonds like the eyes of a cat and they're black and blue, something is coming for you - Look out!" Hhmmmm... still not sure what that means, but it's sort of fun to listen to it now -- especially when all the straphanger hipsters assume everyone else is also listening to Death Cab or Joanna Newsom on their iPods. Trying to figure out what the appeal was/is to Mr. Dio and his rainbow-magic-castle-unicorny lyrics. The research continues...
