Okay, I'll admit it--albeit in hushed tones and with eyes averted: One of my guilty pleasures is arena rock from "back in the day." (Please forgive my transgression, Submersed and Shinedown! It didn't mean anything. Really.)

Venus' Vexation: Bad Boys & Hair-Band Reunion Tours

 Must be that my generation is waxing musically nostalgic at the moment, and yearning to recapture (if only for a few hedonistic hours) the feeling of when we were merely quasi-adults, and being responsible was mostly...uh, optional.

The Motley Crue tour came through last month. By some quirk of divinely stoned intervention from the Rock Gods, I actually met the notorious Tommy Lee in person, on the streets of this Mayberry-By-The-Sea. Damn, was he tall! (Hooray for me, the Six Foot Blonde!) As Tommy so graciously accommodated my star-struck request to shake his hand, I found I was still enchanted by that bad-boy smile, and still mesmerized by those bad-boy tattoos...

Now where was I?

Oh yeah. "Mr. Mayhem" we're the same age now. Let's talk about that 80's "Too Fast For Love" ditty of yours which seems to remain the underlying relationship anthem of most men I know in 2005...

With a sigh, I note Def Leppard was here in concert a couple days ago. I couldn't help but belt out an impassioned, retaliatory anthem of my own: "Love bites, love bleeds, it's bringin' me to my knees...."

...for all the men I've loved before.