Thank God It's Over

I love college basketball. We are getting to the most exciting part of it. "Rivalry Week" or whatever, we are witnessing the trimming of the herd, keeping the contenders, losing the pretenders. One of my top three teams to root for (other than Iowa and SLU) is Mizzou. The Mizzou basketball heritage has been ruined by Quin Snyder. He had two good years with Norm's talent and then lost it. It got to the point of boycotting games in my household. Lose to Baylor by a gazillion? Unheard of. It was rumoured that Quin had problems personally (alleged drug use and a tryst with golden girl that messed up his marriage), but he just seemed aloof, arrogant and above the rest of the state. Who's the next guy to take his place? What about Kevin Stallings of Vanderbilt? Or Mark McDermott of Northern Iowa? UNI has gained a place in my basketball vision, becuase my daughter goes there and the fact they are 21-5 and ranked nationally. Hey! Can we bring back Norm?

The "Pointy House"

#20 Clayton Terrace. The family rented this house for one year before they tore it down. The rent was cheap and the house was a blast. There were actually wings for bedrooms. There would be a sitting room before each bedroom in that particular kids "wing". The parents "wing" would be on the left and the kids "wing" on the right. We knew they were going to tear it down and it kind of fell in before that happened. But for about 9 months, a very cool place to live. My daughter still calls it "the pointy house". The only time I have even had the word "luxury" in my vocabulary. A short time but a fun time.

"I'm Never Going Back To My Old Schooooolll..."

In Ava, from the hotel (one side of town) to the Pizza Hut (the other side of town), it's about 1.8 miles. Easy walk. On the way back to the hotel, I noticed a girls basketball game was in progress. I used to love to be in that gym. I ruled in 1971. It was a game against arch rival Thayer. Ava lost 43-39. It was weird. I remember it as being much brighter than that. And let me tell ya...if the 3 point line would have been in play back then...

Random thoughts...

If the Kansas City Chiefs would have won their game against Buffalo (Buffalo?),instead of gagging..(Chiefs lost 14-3), Pitsburgh would have never made it to the playoffs. That could have been Dick Vermeil holding that trophy again.

How can U2 win the Grammy for song of the year, when the album it cames from "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" was released in 2004?. Same thing for Green Day. I think these are two of the most talented bands out there but wha?


This is one of the greatest rock instruments ever. I know that Jimmy Smith is credited as the master of the Hammond B3(you should go get any Jimmy Smith CD you can find), but there were some mighty fine Hammond players in rock. Here are five songs that make the hammond B3 impossible to ignore:
"Gimme Some Lovin'"-Spencer Davis Group- 15 year old Steve Winwood makes the Hammond sound like a frigging freight train
"Love The One Your With"-Stephen Stills-Mike Finnigan's solo in the middle makes this whole song.
"Looking for Love"-The J. Giels Band-23 seconds of the best Hammond riff ever.
"Roundabout"-Yes-Rick Wakeman's solo here is pure genius
"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"-The Allman Brothers- hell' it's Gregg Allman, nuff said.
"Time of the Season"-Zombies Good God, what a solo at the end. Rod Argent was a master keyboardsman. "Hold Your Head Up" wasn't a fluke either

A Guy I Have Known Forever

Well, there's Beauregard, Hildegard and Mabel (left to right) along with Mrs and Mr Tom Gunter. Hard to believe that I have known this guy since I was 10! Really hard to believe. Very wonderful people, filled with love and I really enjoy seeing them. Ya done good,son (soon to be grandad for the 17th time) Just kidding. Great times in Ava!

Brush with Greatness Part Four (I think)

In 1982, KY 102 in Kansas City hosted the "Rock Awards" with different categories voted on by the public. Best band (Journey), best new group (Saga). Saga was from Canada and apparently liked their LaBatts. They performed a live show at the Hyatt where the awards were held and seemed to be decent dudes. Everytime I hear "On The Loose" (great song) or "Wind Him Up" I think of this evening. After the show, we all got together and quaffed to the God of Molson.
Back row...Joe MacCabe (PD of KY), Jon Hart (still, to this day, one of my best friends), Vaughan Mac (overnite dude and mysterious human being), Saga guy, Saga guy, Katie McGuckin (who now does the oldies thing every morning on KCMO FM), Saga dude, Lynn Dean (Jon's old girl). Front row...Paul Fredrics (Fredrocks!), me (come on, I was 26) and a very young Skid Roadie.

A bit of a pickle...

...that we found ourselves in. Didn't we learn in 1973? 1979? President Bush says we are addicted to oil. No shit? Really? Since he and Dick Cheney are oil guys, aren't they partially responsible for this? In the presidential campaign of 1980, John Andersen said that he would raise the gas tax by $.50 a gallon with all of the money going to research alternative fuels. Oh, the horror! What a bad, bad man. How dare he to raise our taxes? I wonder where we would be now if we would have had 25 years of federally funded research to kick our addiction to oil behind us. Instead, we went back to sleep and let Congress and the White House, fueled by lobbyists money, succumb to the oil industry and the carmakers. Fuel economy? What? How dare the government tell the carmakers what to do. Now, Iran hates us, Venezuela hates us and the Saudis are getting impatient. The next oil "crisis" will shake us to our foundation. Meanwhile, we drive our hummers and gas guzzlers and continue to sleep. Exxon made more money in the last quarter of last year than ANY OTHER COMPANY EVER. I would almost believe that this a one big conspiracy, but I am not sure our leaders are that smart. And the band plays on...

Cool lists...

Wikipedia's list of songs that feature a cowbell.
Wikipedia's list of Seinfeld references to real people