Saturday, March 01, 2008

Saturday Night

I try to write something here as much as I can. I have been so busy at work, it's been hard lately to put much thought into a well crafted post. I'm not sure tonight is the one that will reverse the trend. I have a number of things on my mind and tomorrow I hope to post a few. I appreciate the ever steady increase in hits on the website.

When I grew up in the middle of nowhere, I wanted to escape as quickly as possible. I am not sure where I escaped to, but at least it was somewhere that had something within five miles. It had highways, stores that stayed open past six oclock, and a place where you could eat 24 hours a day. As I get older, I think I would now like to escape back to nowhere. I'd like to spend my final days in a place that requires a four wheel drive to get to.

I am a fan of Jesse Colin-Young. He had the coolest hair back then. He and his band the Youngbloods had the big song "Come Together". He had a few really tasty songs afterward, one being "Ridgetop", the story of just the place where I could call my home. Maybe someday...

Here's Jesse singing the song from a few years ago..


Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people. He said, 'My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all.One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.'The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: 'Which wolf wins?'The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.'

Friday, February 29, 2008

Why Obama is Winning

This is something I noticed in Iowa that caught my ear. Ms. Huffington can explain what I saw and heard beter than I can...


From the blog of Arianna Huffington...

"Hillary Clinton's campaign model," David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist told me this morning in Chicago, "is a very tired Washington model: 'I'll do these things for you.' Barack's model is 'Let's do these things together.' This has been the premise of Barack's politics all his life, going back to his days as a community organizer. He has really lived and breathed it, which is why it comes across so authentically."Of course, the time also has to be right for the man and the moment to come together. And, after all the country has been through over the last seven years, the times are definitely right for the message that the only way to get real change is to activate the American people to demand it." Based on the way the '08 campaign has played out, Democratic voters are showing signs of deep fox fatigue -- sick and tired of foxy triangulating, foxy slicing-and-dicing of the message, and foxy shifts in presentation. Voters want real change -- not daily changes in approach and messaging. "Small is the new big," (Mark Penn wrote). "Many of the biggest movements in America today are small."Except when they are very big, and getting bigger by the day. And you've missed them.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Top 100 Continues

You know the drill, we are counting down the top 100 from back to front, I started with ZZ Top's Tres Hombres. Our last stop was Gino Vanelli's "Brother to Brother". So, up the alphabet we go, passing...



These albums cancelled each other out. If there was a "bubbling under the top 100", these would be about 101, 109, 112. My favorite was "Fair Warning", but it was only 32 minutes long. "Diver Down" would be next. "Little Guitars" is THE best VH song ever (with "Mean Streets") a close second. Third would be "Dreams". 5150 was a 180 turn for VH and it was the soundtrack to the summer of 1986. Great records all, close but no cigar.







So, away we go, past Uriah Heep; "Demons and Wizards" is another honorable mention, past "Lights Out","Force It and "Phenomenon" by UFO, landing on.....




Achtung Baby- U2

I was programing a station in Lincoln, Nebraska when this came out. I got a promotional copy from the record guy and for the next thirty days, I didn't listen to anything else. I immediately added about 6 songs to our playlist. Not long after that, my consultant's head exploded. Every song on here is an absolute treat. "One" is one here, so is "Zoo Stations" and "Even Better Than The Real Thing". To show you what I think of this CD, I downloaded every song from it to my Ipod. Very few releases meet that test. This one would probably check in at about number 68 or so.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

RIP Buddy Miles

Buddy Miles died yesterday at the age of 60. He was a child prodigy, starting his career as the drummer for his father's group. In 1967, he formed The Electric Flag with Mike Bloomfield and left after the second album. He was also Jimi Hendrix's drummer in Band of Gypsies and gave my band it's opening number. Whenever we played "Them Changes" it always kicked the show off right. His recording with Carlos Santana remains a classic jazz/funk album. I always thought his version of "Down By The River" was the absolute best. Kids may know him as the voice of The California Raisins. He probably made more from that gig than he did anywhere else. I learned a lot about drumming with passion and emotion from Buddy. Details of the cause of death were not disclosed.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Can't Sleep



Congrats to a fine basketball team in Vanderbilt. There is a party at Dr. Sardonicus' crib. BYOB. Tennessee has been involved with two of the most intense performances in the last three days that I have ever seen. How cool that basketball has finally arrived in Tennessee. Memphis, Vandy and UT should all be in the top ten next week. That reminds me of when I lived in KC (1980 I think ) that Mizzou was ranked number one and KU was second. If I am not mistaken, I think they were both unbeaten. I was in the Vanderbilt gym last year when they lost to Furman. That's right Furman. Now, they beat the number one team in the country. Nice work, great game, high drama.

I was talking to our sports guy Kevin Wheeler about the lack of free throw shooting in college basket ball. He said that the percentages haven't changed in the past forty years. We notice it now because we see more games. I can remember when I was a kid how thrilled I was to see UCLA play Houston featuring Elvin Hayes locking up with Lew Alcindor from the Houstin Astrodome.

There might have been one more game on that week, maybe in Saturday. but where I came from, I got a lot of Colorado basketball and I'm not sure why, living in southern Missouri. The coach had the wierdest name: Sox Walseth.

Longtime head basketball coach at the University of Colorado, who during his tenure as men's coach from 1956 to 1976, won 261 games, the most in school history, who came out of retirement in 1980 to coach the women's team until 1983 (he is believed to be the only person ever to coach the men's and women's basketball teams at the same NCAA school) , and for whom the basketball floor at the university's Coors Events/Conference Center is named, died Jan. 28 of cancer at his home in Boulder, Colorado at the age of 77. (uh...261 wins divided by 20 means he won roughly 13 games a year...not good)

When I get some time, I'll look up his claim. Although, I am sure he knows way more about this than I do.

I think tonight was game... set... match for Obama. I think this may be our next president.

I fear for his safety.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Jimmy's Revenge



Most of the time, I can take or leave Jimmy Kimmel, but this is a very funny come back to the previous Sarah Silverman video.

Another One Hit Wonder

I can't find anything on these guys, if you know, send it to me. I remember that I played this song on KY 102 in the spring of 1979. They had a kindof Queenish sound. Is that a word? No video (or anything else) available from these guys, but I have certainly heard worse stuff. Catchy song, actually. It was one of those that I never minded to play. Cool spring song. I think we played it for three weeks or something.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Sunday Morning

I don't work on Sunday. It's not a totally religious thing but, having to put my time in six days a week, this is the day for taking a bath (with my jukebox on the website playing), not answering my phone and only checking my email once. It's just nice to take care of the mental state one day a week. If I have to, sure I'll work but my week is so jammed (I am thankful to be working), that I must have some down time. Oh let's hold a pity party for me, huh?
Doing an airshift once a week is a bitch. I can't get into much of a rhythm, but I do the best I can. Last night's show was subpar, just couldn't get the whole thing to flow. That follows last week's show which I thought was one of the better ones. Being on air is something that needs to be done every day, but I ain't complainin' just trying to understand how the weekend guys do it. It's hard to get better doing ANYTHING once a week. Side note...if an engineer saw you with a Coke that close to the control board, he would shove it somewhere that the sun doesn't shine. (I ain't talking about your closet either.)
As I was walking from my car to the station the other day (about three blocks) I smelled something so uniquely wonderful that it just about knocked me over (and something different than the usual urine smell). I can only describe it as "burgers and fries". There is a certain smell of cooking burgers and fries that takes me back to working for my mom at the diner in downtown Moline. Isn't it wierd how smelling something can just ship you immediately back in time? I swear I heard "Everybody Plays The Fool" in the distance.
We are reaching a point in the college basketball season that I just love. The big boys are getting knocked off left and right and we're getting down to crunch time. I have two favorite teams this year, one being Drake. Who? The school from Des Moines hasn't really had much exposure, but this is an excellent team (they beat another excellent team in Butler at Butler). They are coached by Tom Davis' son, who used to coach at Iowa and seem to play very hard all of the time. I am also rooting for Tennessee and Vanderbilt. I love Tennessee's coach and they are about to be number one for the first time in school history. Bruce Pearl looks like someone you can sit and have a cold one with. John Calipari on the other hand, looks like he wouldn't give you the time of day. Vanderbilt just because I drove by the school everyday on my way to work in Nashville.

One year ago, I was in Nashville and had just about realized that the station I was working at had no clue what to do to win. It was about this time that I was exploring how to get out, through the grace of God, I found it. Now, I am so busy at KMOX I can't go to lunch (not a complaint). Speaking of Nashville, my oldest daughter may have a chance to move there if things work out. It would be great from them to go, I am not sure what future possibilities the Quad Cities may have to offer.

Sometimes, I let my nostalgia get the best of me, I seem to look back with rose colored glasses. Oh, our lives were so so much better back then, huh? I was watching "CBS Sunday Morning" and they had an interview with Jessica Lange who grew up in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota. She talked about how isolated, lonely and alone she felt growing up so far out of reach. That got me thinking about my 14th year on the planet. Absolute brutality. I had acne so bad that sometimes, the pimples would get raw and explode on my pock marked face. I had just received my first pair of glasses, and was starting to notice girls who at that time thought I was "gross". All I had was basketball and the songs on the radio. My brother was in VietNam, my father wasn't there, my mother (God love her) was drunk and my sister was too young. I did the best I could and just hung on for dear life. I remember those times as me desparately trying to escape, and be a part of all the things I heard that were happening all over the country. Unfortunately, all I could do was read about it. Thank God I had these songs which helped the pain of being 14.
"Whole Lotta Love","Eli's Coming","No Time","Rainy Night In Georgia","Thank You(Falettin Me Be Mice Elf)","Leaving On A Jet Plane","Shilo","Bridge Over Troubled Waters","Travellin Band","Spirit In The Sky","Celebrate","Question","Let It Be", "Closer To Home" "Into The Mystic","Ohio", "25 or 6to4","Make It With You"etc etc. Thanks to all of those composers who kept me from killing myself.

This is So Wrong On So Many Levels


The Sponge Bob Square Pants Rectal Thermometer

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