Baking with the Ramones

I had to bake some cookies for my son's teachers and folks at school, so we put on some Ramones, a live show they did, not sure what period of time. It was inspiring, and suddenly I was in my 20s again, seeing them for the first of several times. The songs sounded so good, too. Not quite Christmas music, but it was fun. (also listened to some old Stones and a bit of Patty Smith's remixed Horses.)

Bums me out that I won't be able to see Joey et al again. But they sure left plenty of music to listen to!

You wouldn't happen to have their album, Brain Drain, would ya? There is a Christmas song on it called "Merry Christmas ( I don't Want to Fight Tonight. )" It's classic Ramones.

I too miss Joey. I always looked forward to any interviews he gave. His wisdom and insight were practically sacred to me. I love their music.

I always assumed they would be there. And they toured so much that most of my friends saw them multiple times. They were my favorite band in my college and post college years (well, after The Clash).

I have the Joey RIP t-shirt, and I keep meaning to get a Joey bumpersticker. I really need one though, that says RIP Joe (Strummer) and Joey. When I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last summer, one of the cool things was seeing the Ramones display. ( complete with leather jackets)

I don't know if I have Brain Drain - I have a number of the other ones. I have heard that X-mas song. :hi:

My mother was watching that Antiques Roadshow one night and called me to turn it over there. They were pricing a Joey Ramone jacket, worn by him. I can't remember the value they said it was worth, but it came complete with some of his cat's hair still on it. I thought that was priceless. Oh, Joey, why'd ya have to go? :loveya:

I look a lot like Joey.

Just sayin'.

I always said if I was ever going to have children, I wanted them to be his.

But I can sing Ramones' tunes.



Gaba gaba HEY!

:headbang:

Ramones forever. :D

I'll bring over my 12-string and sing "Needles and Pins." That's sweet. :7



Then we'll switch to the Les Paul copy and...

HEY! HO! LET'S GO!

:headbang:



(Y'gotta figure all the GMs in all the ballparks where "Blitzkrieg Bop" is played have no idea what the lyrics are.)

but apparently not fond of ablutions... so my gf's said when we were ogling him in the bar before a show one time.

:P

Sometimes when I cook/bake with music, I find myself doing things with the beat. LOL!

YES, I love Blondie. That song has a very deep and, shall I say, personal meaning to me. :evilgrin:

So glad they are performing again. I was sad when they stopped for such a long time. Debbie Harry still rocks!

She can sing jazz too. I am amazed at her vocal range time and time again. Everytime I think I have heard a new high note or low note, her voice does something that awes me again. I'm glad they are back together too. I would never have gotten to meet Deborah Harry if they hadn't gotten back together.

How very cool! How'd that happen? If I may ask, of course...

I've had her jazz cd on my wish list for sometime. When I get an ipod next year, I will put that on for sure! I adore her voice and her range--She's an amazing talent. She even cracks me up playing a bigoted, freeper in Hairspray!

I begged and pleaded for years that Blondie come play close enough that I could see them perform live. I even sent emails to Chris Stein telling him of my life long wish to meet Deborah Harry. Well, the day finally came when I found out they would be playing down at House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Of course, I got tickets early and almost worked up an excitement nose bleed on the way to the show. Luckily, I have some medicine to keep me from going overboard when I get excited.

When we got there, oh this was amazing. I don't know if you have ever seen the HoB in Myrtle Beach, but it looks like a giant shack made out of tin roof parts. There is an area in the back right above the equipment docking area with a balcony. I asked some of the road crew if they knew if she would sign autographs after the show. They said maybe. It would depend on how she felt after performing. I still stood around and drooling. Btw, my friend Ted and I got there like 11:00 a.m for a night time show. I think they were supposed to go on at like 10:00 p.m. but I can't remember that part.

All I remember is standing around drooling before the show and then I happened to take a look at the building again. I wanted to soak up the excitement for happy memories later. I started trying to memorize some little pretty details about the building itself beforehand to keep my nerves calm. I happened to look up and sure as the world, Deborah Harry was standing there laughing and waving. Yes, I saw an "Angel on the Balcony" that day. I am sure she was amused at how excited a grown woman was over the thought of seeing her perform. She really did look like an Angel on a Balcony with her platinum blondie hair and the light was shining on her just right. It looked like she had a halo. Oh that was sweet.

The show went great. I had been emailing Chris Stein almost weekly begging that they play here sometime. The night before the show, I had emailed him and asked him if he and Debbie would look at me at least, so I would know they saw me. I even posted him a link to my picture. God, I'm a silly girl, sometimes. It paid off though. When the show started, the music started before the lights went on. Right when the lights came on both Chris Stein and Deborah Harry were looking right at me. I grinned like a kid in a candy store. I was so happy.

After the show, I begged my friend Ted to wait around so she could maybe sign our tickets if she decided to do autographs that night. He was tired and really wanted to go home. He had to get up at 6:00 a.m. and it was already 11:00 that night. I begged and pleaded and offered him all the money I had in my pocket. I ended up paying him $20 just to stay for 30 more minutes. Sure as the world, a line was forming and I wanted to see her some more. I just wanted to hop on the bus and go with them to be honest, but I knew I had to control myself. She came out and signed autographs and my knees got weaker and weaker as she inched her way toward our spot in line. When she got to me, gone were all those dreamy stupid things I wanted to say to her. All my nerves would let me blurt out was "Will you write Happy Birthday on my ticket when you sign it?" She said the ticket was too small for the whole word, so she would write Happy B'Day if I wanted and asked if that was ok. :rofl: Of course, it was okay. I was meeting Deborah Harry. OMG, She was so nice. I had heard all these horror stories, but none of them turned out to be true. She was just as nice as Joan Jett if not nicer.

When I got home, my aunt said I spent the next week walking around with this shit eating happy little grin on my face. She said I missed entire conversations. I've been pretty much like that ever since. It's like I literally lost my mind from happiness that night. I still have these warm fuzzies thinking about it. I was the happiest I had ever been in my life.

I emailed Chris and thanked him. He actually emailed me back and told me he could tell I was listening to the band very closely. Hearing back from him was just the icing on the cake. Oh man, I'll never forget that. It was my 32nd birthday, August 7, 2002. I still find myself saying wow, just fucking wow.

My birthday is August 5th!! Hey Soul Sister! LOL!

THAT was an amazing story, and I sat here grinning the entire time I read it! Seriously, I'm still grinning--that is such a cool story! I could see it all as I was reading...just amazing!

Ok, now how the heck did you meet Ms. Jett? And did you see the story of the Runaways on Showtime? Very interesting--I enjoyed it, but it made me kind of sad--what they went through.

The funny this is that I met her in a club. I was 16 years old and still in high school too. It all started out when I went to school wearing my leather jacket as usual. I had gotten it when I was ten years old but had to wait a few years to grow into it. My mother and my aunt worked that out specifically to work that way. My mother had taught me that if you keep leather oiled and clean, it'll last forever. She wanted me to have it for years to come, so growing into it bonded me to it in a way.

Anyhow, that day at school, a girl told me Joan Jett would be playing Cheers in Raleigh, NC the next Thursday night. It was a Joan Jett concert on Martin Luther King Day. A double special treat if I got to go. I was worried about the fact that it was on a school night, so I started thinking of ways to ask my mother and my aunt if they'd let me go. I asked if I could go and had to wait until the next day while they huddled and came up with an answer. The deal they offered me was that I could go on one condition. I had to go to school that next day no matter how sleepy or tired I would be from the late night out over 100 miles from home. I said, "Deal." Lke I wouldn't agree to anything after waiting all night for an answer hoping like crazy that the answer would be yes. Of course, I promised to go to school the next day.

Well, we called about ticket information and got the phone number for the club. The deal there was that you didn't buy tickets. You paid for a membership $20 and you could bring a guest for free to see the concert. There was a major major obstacle though. You had to be 21 years old to enter the club. I was doomed. My aunt saw how let down I was and called Cheers again. She asked to speak to the club manager. He told about a state law and about alcohol, yadda yadda yadda. Someone my aunt knew at work told her about how they really enforce that state law about clubs for underage people. The drinking is what is illegal, not being there.

My aunt called the club back and asked for the manager again. She told him what she had heard and made him an offer that she would sign a contract stating that she would accompany me to the concert to make sure I didn't drink. Plus she would buy two memberships and promised not to sue him if something happened to me. She was protective enough that there was a safe bet I wouldn't get hurt.

Well, he thought about it and told us he would see what he could do. I listened as my aunt told him that even if he said no, we were driving up there that day anyhow, just to see the bus. Well, it turned out that he called back when I wasn't around and told her yes. She didn't tell me. Neither did my mother. I thought I was going to look at Joan Jett's bus and "hope" to see her at all that night. My aunt told me if nothing else we could sit in the car with the windows rolled down in 32 degree temperatures and listen from outside the club. I was still excited about getting to do that much. I was bummed about the 21 or older thing though.

The day of the concert, we left right after my mother and my aunt picked me up at school. I had taken my Joan Jett albums with me and guarded them all day long. Most of the other students were telling me I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell to meet her or even see here. The girl who originally told me about the concert said not to let them get to me. Dreams can only come true if you take the steps that make them possible to come true.

We arrived several hours before the 10:00 p.m. show. We learned that Joan Jett was OPENING for a local band called PG-13. Joan Jett was opening for a local Raleigh band? That did not compute. To this day, that does not compute. Usually the major act goes last and the local band opens the show. Weird.

When we got there, we noticed there was no line forming yet, which meant we would have time to eat. There was a little restaurant called Tippy’s Mexican Food beside the club. My mother decided we needed to eat then so I would have time before the concert to get my nerves under control. When we went into the restaurant, the host who barely spoke English thought we were with the band. Even after trying to make it clear we were not with the band, he still insisted we sit with the band to eat. We followed the host through a dark hallway into a softly lit room in the back of the restaurant. There, the Blackhearts and their crew, minus Joan Jett, sat quietly eating dinner. They looked up and smiled at us as we came through the door. They did not seem to mind our intrusion. They heartily greeted us and invited us to sit with them and order whatever we wanted. We ate our dinner while introducing ourselves and lavishly praising the music of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Ricky Byrd, the lead guitarist of the band offered to sign one of my album covers after dinner and to introduce me to Joan Jett personally. She was doing an interview on the local radio station and would be around later. After dinner, we thanked the band and crew, and then excused ourselves to go back to the club and get in line.
After a great concert, Ricky Byrd kept his promise to me. He sent the band’s manager, Elliot Saltzman, to the crowd to call us backstage. He found us and said Ricky had sent for us. Ricky Byrd signed my album, misspelling my name at first and then apologizing and correcting it. He took me back to meet Joan Jett. I was very nervous, but she soothed me by pointing out the fact that she remembered having the same feelings for her heroes growing up. She pointed out that, with punk rock music, there was no pecking order and that she and I were equal human beings. We talked about how much music and musicians mean to people and shook hands.
I beamed all the way home. I could not seem to make myself not smile that evening. She was so polite and down to earth. She was everything I could have hoped for and more. Somehow, for the first time in my life I felt like I belonged and that I was welcomed. The entire band and crew showed my family and me the kind of hospitality you normally only see in television movies about small towns. It was an unreal experience. I could not believe how lucky I was.

It totally rocks when you find out your idols are just reg'lar folks.



How come that didn't happen with me and Ronnie Montrose? :grr:

it WAS more amazing!!! You've shown me with your stories tonight that dreams do come true--thanks so much for being so candid and open and sharing these tonight! Just amazing!

:yourock:

I have had a lot of amazing non music related things happen too. I still can't believe some of the things I have seen that have been mind blowing. I've seen some weird stuff too. Like kittens that couldn't walk, but they hopped around like rabbits, a cousin that didn't know she was pregnant until late one night when she thought she had to go to the bathroom, surviving a hurricane after a night of my grandmother singing in Cherokee after putting me to bed. A huge oak split in half at the fork of the tree. There were limbs piled up all across the front yard 10 feet high and 15 feet deep. Not one single twig on the porch or the house itself. We both slept through it. Some really wild, amazing things have happened in my lifetime. It amazes me how things work out sometimes.

I saw her play a free show in our nowheresville town and she absolutely brought down the house! There are few artists in RnR that I admire more than Joan. Your description of her pretty much matches how I thought she would be. Awesome!

I've seen her several times and when she signs autographs she is always very nice to her fans. I have always like listening to what she has to say in interviews too.

we have choc. chips with and without walnuts, cinnamon bread, and lemon poppy bread. Or were you looking for a Heart of Glass? ;)

I recently heard Rip Her to Shreds on the radio. That was a great song, one you don't hear often any more. It was fun to hear Debbie snarling through it.

It's available through itunes UK right now, but if you're patient, there's supposed to be a new Blondie Collection that contains a mashup of Rapture and the Doors' Riders on the Storm.

It's done by the guy behind www.gohomeproductions.co.uk (check the link for news), and when members of Blondie and the Doors heard it they were all blown away enough to get it released commercially.

If you haven't heard it yet, you'll want to. It's amazing.

Having gone through a hard time recently combined with the fact that Louis moved the DHBIS from daemon/Yahoo to the tikilab web site, I haven't been able to keep up with much Blondie news like I used to. Other than going to the Blondie web site on the weekends and looking for the latest live gallery additions and catching up on Chris' posts to the fans, I hardly ever get to obsess over Blondie any more. I miss doing that. Recently, I found out he's having a second kid.

I will definitely want to get a copy of the Doors/Blondie mix. I love both bands.

I have noticed that listening to them helps me with my nervous energy big time. I sure miss getting new Ramones albums. Long live the Ramones' music.

Rock and Roll Hall a guy saw my Joey shirt and just said, "Mones" as he walked by. That was cool. The Ramones seem to be one thing (besides politics/) that old school punks like me and the younger ones seem to agree on.

most listened to band among punk rock fans. And there is something special about being a Ramones fan. It's something that goes beyond what other fans of other bands feel. It's hard to explain.

That's so fuckin' cool!

I don't know about you, buy my husband gets REALLY upset when he sees anyone under 30-35 wearing a Ramones shirt. Especially if it looks like a brand new shirt they got at Hot Topic, or something. He gets so insulted, like they wore it to piss him off, and then goes into this rant about how 'those kids' don't know anything about 'The Ramones' and how dare they 'just wear the shirt.' Blah, blah, blah...

For a kid that grew up miles and miles away from any sort of legitimate punk scene, he gets very testy about his bands.
:scared:

Don't get him going on the Clash...

Ramones, probably because they were more likely to hear their music (not on the radio, though, sadly) than some of the other punk stalwarts of the old days. I always get drooled on by the younger music folks when I tell them that I actually saw the Ramones; most of them were too young to have done so. And they don't realize that everyone saw The Ramones in their long touring period, they were ubiquitous, touring incessantly.

I think it's cool, many of the younger punks really respect them, so it's not so bad.

if my dh bothered to talk to them, he'd find that out.

But it's usually only the kids he sees that look like they aren't even punk fans, and it's just a 'fashion shirt.' Some girls with 'gucci or prada bags' and a blazer over the shirt. kwim?

When he sees a tall kid, dressed in black with docs and a mohawk--doesn't bother him at all. ;)LOL!

I grew up probably a thousand miles away from any punk scene of any sort, except Atlanta and D.C., but I'm super protective. Like if I hear some kid say the Sex Pistols came along before the Ramones, I have to calm myself before I point out that the Sex Pistols were inspired by seeing the Ramones as fans first.

Your description of calming yourself first... so funny. You sound a lot like my husband. I think you're right in that when you are farther away from the scene, you may get even more protective. You really bonded with the music, as it's all you had in a way--unless they came to town.

I tease him, and give him a hard time about it but I really think it's cute!

Don't you just love the 'internet' punks? They got all their information and history from the web, and think they know it better than you?

I only 'lose my mind' when I hear someone refer to 'Good Charlotte' as punk. That is insult to any and every self respecting punk fan! Those whiny, little pishers are NOT in my definition of punk!

I remember being a little thing when I read, "Making Tracks: The Rise of Blondie" and "I Don't Want To Live This Life." I fell in love with the scene through Making Tracks. I fell in love with the story of Sid & Nancy through her mother's book. I remember reading about all the crazy things that happened during that magical special time in New York in the early days. I might as well have been reading about far off adventures in far off lands (Treasure Island comes to mind). I was transfixed. I was obsessed. I had to have any Ramones albums I could find. Record, cassettes, and later I got a few of my most favorites on CD's. I had to have more more more. It's almost like a religion in some way. It's the closest thing I probably have to a spiritual experience. So I guess it does seem to kind of bother me when someone misrepresents what punk means to people who bond with it in such a personal way.

it wasn't just fast chords, by any means. A lot of the bands were very political and people tend to forget that.

and sometimes it was quite arty, too.

"I was there. Don't tell me what it was like." ( usually I don't do that, but in this case, it's true.) :)

slam dancing cats!

I cried after the most recent Ramone death. Still can't believe he's gone...

I had read where Joey had broken his hip not long before he died, but then I was never able to confirm it. Later, there was a story going around that he had broken his foot. Still never found out, but then the fan club online sent an email saying to pray for him. I was devastated. He was one of my "musician gods" on my short list of those I wanted to meet. First, I wanted to meet Deborah Harry, then Joey Ramone, then Joan Jett. I ended up meeting Joan Jett a bunch of times and then I met Deborah Harry. I never got to meet Joey. I pine for the moment I dreamed of meeting him. I'm really still in shock that I finally got to meet Deborah Harry. She doesn't play down here often.

One thing is for sure. The passion and the love of the music that Ramones fans have will never die. In that, the Ramones will live forever.

It was great, though a little sad.

Is that through the fan club? It has been so long since I have had the chance to catch up on my music cravings. I desperately need to.

I do have Lifestyles of the Ramones and Ramones Around the World though. They had some great footage of the Ramones including one scene with Dee Dee sitting in bed talking. I bet they were the coolest to hang around with.

I think you can get the DVD now.

So sad.

I always get their names confused with their faces..don't know why. Shame on me. :spank:

Which one was the republican? I know that was rough on the other... lol. Doesn't matter, as I heard he was a nice guy despite his political affiliations.

from all published accounts I have read or heard. He was a repub, but he did allow the anti-Reagan song "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down(Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)" to be recorded. He didn't seem to be all that bad from what I heard and read through his interviews. It was fun to pick on the Republican Ramone though. I hate he died too. He might have been a republican, but he was still a Ramone.

For matching the names and faces, here are a few of my personal observations.
Joey, tall, glasses, usually had long hair, beautiful man.
Dee Dee, the cute one. He was the bass player. Either had his hair spiked or short. I don't remember seeing him in any pictures with really long hair, to be honest.

Johnny, had shoulder length hair and his hair was cut in a way that sort of rounded itself around his face.

Marky, wears sunglasses a lot and had the short black bangs in the front a lot of time.

Tommy looked like he was balding in some pictures.

Clem Burke played one gig with them once.

C.J. had short hair at first then after the Ramones (his solo projects) grew his hair long. They said he was AWOL from the Marines. I wondered how he could be famous and get by with that. :evilgrin:

I hope that helps with the names/faces thing.

I could totally see them all in my head based on your descriptions--thanks so much for that! :thumbsup:

without him there would not have been that fast drumming style! He is quite interesting.

it made me a bit more hyper.. I started bouncing up and down, remembering the pogo days. That was cool.

we tried to do that in the 80's (jr hi/high school). Admin. always thought it looked 'dangerous.' LOL!

it was mostly silly, in a way. That was before slam dancing. Nobody I knew spit ( gob?), either. The only person I saw spit was Patti Smith, and that was way, way after it was the thing to do.

anyway, I'm getting dopey, good night to all you lovers ( well, not literally, in my case) of The Ramones.

Sleep well--nice talking with you! :hi:

Don't forget to lock the Basement door. There's something down there, ya know. I don't wanna go down to the basement. :D

i think i own about 4 or 5 different live Ramones recordings, yet i've never seen them live myself.

It was one of those snowball's chance in hell things that happens very rarely in my hometown. We have only ever had three concerts here. The last one before that was in 1972. I got to see them play when they extended their farewell farewell tour and played on the Lollapooza tour. I left right after they performed, because they were the reason I went to Lollapalooza that year. I missed Rage Against the Machine and Metallica to protest the fact that the Ramones weren't the headlining act. I thought they should have been considering the history.

at one point, I thought, the shows started to sound the same, but hearing that live album ( that's what G had), there was actually a lot of variety in tempo and it had more of a 50s/60s sound than I remember. I got a flush of that old excitement of seeing them the first time and how wild and fast it was. Very exciting.

I wish you could have seen them! That would have been really cool. When did they stop touring... the early/ mid 80s? I don't remember.

1974 at a New York studio on until Aug 6th 1996.


Monte Melnick's (tour manager) book is a terrific read of Ramones during those days.

On The Road With The Ramones....by Monte Melnick and Frank Meyer



Tikki

I have one of the bios... I'm not sure that's the one. Fascinating.

I mostly saw them in the last 70s and early 80s - once in NYC, in the years that we went to CBGB's. That was very cool. I would have liked to have taken my kid to see them, but I suspect he would have thought it was too loud! ;) :hi:

so what do I do but ask when their last show was just below... :silly:

why did I think it was earlier than that? Well, how did you manage to not see them? When did you start going to punk shows?

According to an FAQ I just looked at, The Ramones played their last show together on August 6, 1996, in Los Angeles, CA. I wish I could remember when I last saw them, I was so busy with a million things like work, school and becoming a parent in the early and mid 90s that I really didn't pay much attention. And then it was too late. I would have liked to have seen them one last time.

hey, are you done with your term yet?

two more days and i would've killed myself probably. it was hell. 4 finals, 2 papers, 3 essays arrghh...

i've never drank so much tea in my life.

gotta remember to thank beware the beastman for his recipe for instant all nighter...

yeah, I remember a few pre-Christmases like that, when all my friends were watching movies and I was chained to the desk/pencil/typewriter, that was before PC's.

What was BTBM's recipe... I'm scared to ask. ;)

Are you going to the Irish C. Christmas party tonight?... We just got the X-mas tree in, so I don't know if we are going to go or not - maybe if kid has some energy left.

bastards :-)

mostly little kids. Ben kept whining to me about leaving cuz he was bored. The food was good, except that we had already had Thai for dinner. I probably got an invite since I helped out at the Feis in the fall. It was folks over 40 and under 5 mostly. ;) They did build a cool new library room, though.

i was really impressed by some of the books they had kept in the old "library" if you'd even call it that.

it looks really cool, the front of it actually looks like the front of a house, with windows, etc. It's right by the main door.

from england? i recently put that on my ipod. i saw them a number of times while in college and then many times after. i got thrown over a table at one of their shows. hurt my back and my cousin got married the next morning. great shows and i still love their music. my oldest son also loves to listen to their stuff.

what a treat. They originally had Bad Religion scheduled to open, but the concert got delayed for 6 months and Bad Religion couldnt do it. We had no idea the Ramones were hired to fill in until we got to the concert. What a treat!!!!

...one or the other or both of our boys to see the Ramones at three of those shows.

We got the idea of bringing the boys because when we went to our first Ramones show there
were families there...every Ramones show we attended had families, there.

Ramones will always be part of our "Family History" and they rock our home, constantly.




Tikki

PS Beautiful Deborah Harry and Blondie will be inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in a
few months...very deservingly so.

in the early days, I don't remember kids being there, but it would make a lot of sense, they were fun, fast, and not really violent or offensive ( well, other than the glue stuff ;)) and quite reasonable for kids. My kid likes them too!

They are the greatest f$%&ing rock band ever IMO. My kids are young now (9 and 5) but they love the Ramones. It is a Friday night tradition to rock to at least one Ramones tune at our house.

It would have been awesome to be able to take the kids to a show.

You are my hero for the day!

called Haymakers in about '83. The ceiling was so low Joey had to stoop. When he swung a baseball bat around duringf Beat on the Brat, he hit a low hanging light. It was so loud, and so fast, and so fucking awesome!

RL

:hi:

:rofl:

I felt like I should have! I did pogo around the kitchen for old times sake. I kept picturing the cretin running around. Ah, nostalgia.

I was 21 and had been to concerts before; some of them very rowdy and much larger.

But I didn't know what the Ramones crowd were doing when they deliberately ran into each other. Also though I guess it's common now, they passed people across the crowd over their heads. :wtf: After I loosened up I found it alot of fun. And since the Ramones played Bowdoin College which is small and exclusive there was a sort of an intimacy w/the band that I don't think you'd find very easily elsewhere.

for my girl to be big enough so that we can bake cookies together and listen to the Ramones. Them and the Dead Milkmen.

Sounds like you had fun!

Geez, what on earth could I have been thinking of? :grin:

Would you like to hear it?