ARoid and the Hall of Famers

Cheaters don't get in...period. That includes you, Mr. Bonds, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada (jeez, guy, you've been in this country for ten years, please speak english)anyone who cheated is out, I don't care what the circumstances were.

Bud Selig (the commissioner of baseball) makes 18 million a year...let's divide that by 52, shall we? That's $346,153.84 a week. What does he do? Stands by idly as the game gets trashed under his watch. Hey, I'd do it every year for what he makes in a week. I could, you know. Very easily...

Roger Goodell is the commisioner of the NFL and he has decided to take a pay cut. I would do his job for the pay cut, but at least he's doing something. Mr. Goodell, I hope you do something about the preening and grandstanding that happens in the NFL after every play, but I know these guys are mostly thugs and don't know better.

One last thing, calculus and alcohol do NOT mix...please don't drink and derive.. hey that's all I got, I'm here all week.

Randy's Top 100

Blondel...Amazing Blondel

This is another gem that I first heard at a "head shop" in the Quad Cities in 1973. The previous releases from these guys were very baroque and had a very comfortable madrigal feel, almost a middle ages quality. Blondel featured basically two guys....Eddie Baird on vocals and guitars and Terry Wincott on vocals, guitars, percussion, flute, recorders, pianos and something called a crumhorn. The manager of the band recruited some cat named Steve Winwood to play bass and another guy named Simon Kirke to play drums. That caused a certain musical change in the band and behold "Amazing Blondel" was born. This is some of the finest, most well played music I have ever heard. The songs are elegant, well crafted and the addition of Paul Rodgers on "Weaver's Market" rounds out this release that up until 1995 was unavailable on any format. I remember one time when my son, who was about 13 at the time heard this release and fell in love with it. At college, he played this for a music major and she said as far as a musical statement was concerned, it was as close to perfection as she had ever heard. I am not sure what that's about, but I know that when I die, if I have a few minutes to play whatever I want, I want this CD played. "The Leaving of The Country Lover", "Young Man's Fancy", "Easy Come, Easy Go", "Sailing", "Festival" and "Weaver's Market" make this CD in my top ten of ALL time. If I were to give this a ranking, it would nestle in at about number 7 all time on my list. That's how much it's affected me in my life...and see, you've never heard of them. Here's their website and you know if brother Randy says it's good...

If I could ever dedicate a song to my son, it would be this one...

Young Man's Fancy

Composed by Edward Baird

Here's to my acquaintance, and companion

Lift your glass

I love you, and leave you

I do, give you, all my best

Here's to lovely lasses

Who, by now, are sleeping sound

We miss you and kiss you

We will, until we can no longer hope

And I would spread the softest ground,

For you to walk around,

If I could be your right hand,

I'd bless the seed that I would sow,

And hope it would grow

Into a sight to hold you

And we could make the richest thing

To make your songbird sing

A tale to haunt the evening,

Then I would give you every note

Of every song I ever wrote

For you to ring forever.

...he knows it, that's all that counts. What a record, what an impact on my life. It's a top ten , kids, maybe one you should seek out.

Comedy Hall of Fame

Five charter members, thanks for your vote....

George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby.

The people have spoken, very cool, great choices.

Over Rated Part 4

Jefferson Airplane




Yeah, yeah, Grace was beautiful and all that, but I never got them. I actually liked the Jefferson Starship better, so call me weird. I thought Dragonfly, Red Octopus and Freedom at Point Zero were much better recordings than anything these guys came up with. "You and Me and Poniell" WTF? Marty Balin's voice is still electric but I guess I was behind the times and not really with it becasue outside of three songs "Go Ask Alice", "Pretty As You Feel"and "Somebody To Love", the rest was acid induced drivel. I remember when KSHE had a party for the release of "We Built This City"(ick)in 1985 and Grace was less than pleasant (much less, almost Rod Stewartish). Hey, you wanted me to post more about music than anything else, so be careful what you wish for. Meh, average band at best

Sony's Newest Piece of Shit

Probably not suitable for work, but indeed, very very funny and very true

From PostSecret

I've told my family this many times, how true this is...

You can go there here

Sunday Stuff

So, who was it that flew the helicopter over the one year anniversary service for the six dead in Kirkwood? On a beautiful, starlit night while the choir was singing, someone, somewhere had the absolute gall to fly a helicopter over the service, drowning out the choir and basically putting the kabosh on a thoughtful service. Many were pissed including myself. What news organization would be so thoughtless as to do something like that? Inconsiderate, reprehensible behaviour on a night where thousands came togther to remember those killed that surreal night 366 days ago. Yes, I knew everyone one of those people including the killer...

Mystery solved, it was the St. Louis County Police, hovering a helicopter in tribute of the fallen officers. All well and good, but there was nothing in the program, nothing noted and no one knew what was up. Not complaining but at least we should have been told

"A picture postcard
A folded stub
A program of the play
File away your photographs
Of your holiday

And your mementos
Will turn to dust
But that's the price you pay
For every year's a souvenir
That slowly fades away
Every year's a souvenir
That slowly fades away"- Billy Joel
**************************************************************************************************************************** I am getting to where I can not stand ESPN. During all of these steriod accusations, where have they been? Coming up with fancy names for themselves, reminding everyone that nothing happens west of Philadelphia and telling us over and over that the biggest basketball rivalry is between Duke and North Carolina ad nauseum. A friend of mine, who goes by the name of Sid Dithers and who writes for a local media website had this to say about the whole A-Fraud deal...and he says it SO much better than I can...
The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network...A PANTHEON of inconsequential blather and entertain-less entertainment, held to a journalistic standard of........well...........NOTHING!!! ESPN...ESPN II...ESPN Desportes...ESPN 360...ESPN News...And about 57 other incarnations of this sham-of-a-franchise that has added the sum total of NOTHING to the fleeting IDEA that IS "sports journalism", an oxymoronic phrase if there ever was one...While it has palpably worsened under the soul-less umbrella of Disney, ESPN has managed to peddle its "style over substance" presentation into a money-printing franchise...And rather than REPORT sports in a way that even approaches true journalism, ESPN has managed to CHANGE the way sports are played by the narcissistic athletes themselves...
***There were NO real, impactful football players like Terrell Owens and the like prior to ESPN...There were no basketball players who learned to do nothing but slam-dunk and chest-thump prior to ESPN...There were VERY FEW unsportsmanlike home run posers in baseball prior to ESPN...Or more specifically, THERE WERE NO ROID-HEADED, JACKED-UP CHEATERS CHEMICALLY-ENHANCED TO HIT NOTHING BUT 700 FOOT HOMERS PRIOR TO ESPN!!!*** Is 'The Sidster' BLAMING ESPN for the steroid scandal in baseball and other sports???...Not exactly, but their ridiculous coverage of the sensationalistic built ratings, increased revenues and allowed teams to spend money faster and with more selfish zeal than does Nancy Pelosi masturbating in the mirror...ALL while instigating the deterioration of sport fundamentals and the promotion of false hope to the disillusioned youth of today, ESPECIALLY the black athlete... But THAT is another thread...What THIS thread is specifically about is Alex Rodriguez and the whole steroid story...And HERE is the gist of Sid's angst...
***WHERE was ESPN in uncovering THIS story, even as far back as 1994???*** As far as I can determine, HERE is what these mindless vermin have "focused" on RATHER than to actually INVESTIGATE "ONE" alleged news story regarding steroids...
*Sitting for hours and days on end, thinking up nicknames for ONE ANOTHER!!!
*Sitting around for MONTHS on end developing NEW "promos", featuring the wacky ESPN "Boss Jocks" as the 'comic relief' they were TRULY hired as...In fact, THIS MONTH, ESPN produced a feature with NOTHING but old ESPN Promos...Does it get ANY BETTER than THAT???
*Hiring one empty-headed, bombshell female after another, to work the sidelines and stalk naked millionaire athletes in the shower after games, adding NOTHING to the broadcasts...Errr..I mean "BROAD"-casts...
***And best of ALL, assembling an ENTIRE staff of jug-headed siccophants who have MADE CAREERS out of MAKING FRIENDS and HANGING OUT WITH THE PLAYERS THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO OBJECTIVELY COVER!!!***
Case and Point...STEROIDS!!!
Over the last decade, as baseball players began to develop biceps larger than a normal baby's torso, NOT ONE investigative piece came from ESPN concerning ANY allegation of steroid use, EVEN BEFORE STEROIDS WERE BANNED!!!... I am NOT referring to QUESTION pieces where lame-*ss, lazy anchors generically pose hypotheticals about a player's size or productivity, but ACTUAL in-your-face reporting designed to uncover the totally naked emperor...I am referring to hounding, tenacious reporting and NOT taking the lies of "NO" for an answer, ruffling feathers in the process...
Are we to believe that the briantrust at ESPN did not SEE what was happening to the modern-day ball player???...Are we to believe that these fraudulent miscreants didnt "hear" things from their "boys" regarding WHO was juicing and who wasnt???...Are we to believe that NOT ONE REPORTER was leaked information about ANYTHING concerning this OBVIOUS and BLATANT story over the course of TEN FRIGGN' YEARS???...Are we to accept that NOT ONE producer or reporter decided to 'go after' just ONE of these New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox who attained sudden and magical home run power or age-defying success on the pitching mound???
WHAT a f*cking JOKE!!! When the A-Rod story broke yesterday, there was comical irony inherent in the announcement...A fat, dumpy woman (which means she's CLEARLY the smartest one in the bunch!) from Sports Illustrated actually followed up on a lead that turned into the confirmation on A-Rod, NOT any of the 'jesters-of-hijinks' from ESPN...In 2003, when he won the American League home run title and the AL Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop for the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids, four sources have independently told Sports Illustrated...ONLY FOUR (4) sources...No biggie...And it gets better because the ugly, chinless reporter actually hunted A-Rod down to get a quote, working at night yet!!! When approached by the reporter on Thursday at a gym in Miami, Rodriguez declined to discuss his 2003 test results... "You'll have to talk to the union," said Rodriguez, the Yankees' third baseman since his trade to New York in February 2004... When asked if there was an explanation for his positive test, he said, "I'm not saying anything."...No to overstate the obvious, but WHERE was ESPN???...I guess they were all in Hawaii "chillin" at the Pro Bowl...WHEN F*cking Katie Couric is HARDER in interviewing A-Rod than ANY POS at ESPN, you KNOW your department has issues...But they WILL have cool Hawaiin shirts for their overblown broadcast of a NOTHING sporting event...It is important to acknowledge that A-Rod on steroids is NOT NEW "news"...It WAS 'swept under the carpet' NEWS...But since it is NOW "fashionable" to jump on A-Rod because of Joe Torre's recent portrayal of him in his book, it was A-Rod's name being "leaked" as ONE of the 104 guys who tested positive for steroids in 2003...And you can BET that all the maggots at ESPN will LEAP at the opportunity to bury A-Rod now that THEY dont have to worry about breaking the "clubhouse code" of all their *sshole friends in the locker room...
WHAT a bunch of P*SSIES!!!
"Boo-Ya!"..."Scotty" van Pelt-meister!...Pete "I NEVER Criticize a Red Sock" Gammons...Buster "Nothing Exists in America west of NYC" Olney...
"Hey Sid, what about Outside The Lines?...Bob Ley is the "Morley Safer" of ESPN"...
PLEASE!!!...OTL, as well as ANY of the lame bullsh*t from Jeremy Schaap, are mostly puff pieces, a bunch of non-evasive pontificating...Journalism is NOT the rhetorical asking of questions without answers or a forum to opine ad nauseum in the popular, contemporary 'Cliffs Notes-ish One-Sentence Samba' that masquerades as "editorial"...
The bottom line is that the steroids story is the BIGGEST story in the history of sport---ANY sport!!!...And for an ENTIRE NETWORK, a network EXCLUSIVELY dedicated to SPORTS NEWS, to TOTALLY MISS what is essentially 11 or 12 "Watergates" in one place, is spectacularly incompetent and inexcusable...
And furthermore, to be "SCOOPED" by an unattractive female from a fading forum like 'the magazine' is even MORE embarrassing...I have another idea for SI...How's about a story on discriminating hiring practices at ESPN???...Its hard to believe that the females are as incompetent as the males, but they ARE...
But the GOOD news is that Stuey and Scotty and Buster and Pete and Chrissy and Karlster all the roid-headed ex-players who critique the nightly happenings will STILL be able to have cocktails with their "bro's"...And as we ALL know in "sports journalism", THAT is the most important thing!!!
Well done Disney!!!...And way to go ESPN!!!...You NEVER disappoint!!!!
************************************************************************************************************************** The Grammy's are tonight and I am rooting for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Coldplay ("Viva La Vida" is their "Dark Side of the Moon"), Burce Springsteen and Ne-Yo.
********************************************************************************************************************** Walter Milton Dwayne Midkiff died the other day. We knew him as Dewey Martin, drummer for The Standells "Dirty Water" and most notably the only drummer that Buffalo Springfield ever had. Martin worked as an itinerant drummer for many of country music's greatest artists, including Carl Perkins, The Everly Brothers, Patsy Cline, Charlie Rich, Faron Young and Roy Orbison among others. In 1963, he travelled to Las Vegas with Faron Young's band and then Los Angeles where he decided to stay. During late March/early April 1966, Martin was working with The Dillards at the Ice House in Pasadena when Doug Dillard told him that his services were no longer needed and gave him a telephone number for a new group that needed a drummer. The band was Buffalo Springfield. Martin became the last member to join the legendary group at its founding. Along with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, he was one of only three musicians to stay with the group from its inception in April 1966 to its disbandment on May 5, 1968. During his time with the group, Martin also did session work for The Monkees. In concert, he sang covers of Wilson Pickett's In The Midnight Hour and Richie Furay's "Nobody's Fool" and "Good Time Boy". The latter appeared on the band's second album, Buffalo Springfield Again. He also sang Neil Young's "Mr Soul" as the introduction to Young's "Broken Arrow" on the same album and backing vocals on the band's biggest hit, "For What It's Worth". In 2008, Dewey Martin joined the cast of Matt Alan's live Internet radio program, OUTLAW RADIO. His unique personality, fascinating stories and quirky wit soon endeared him to the show's worldwide audience. Martin apparently died on January 31, 2009, and was found dead the next day by a roommate in his Van Nuys apartment, longtime friend Lisa Lenes said. She said Martin had health problems in recent years and she believed he died of natural causes. He was 68. Martin and the groups bassist, Dewey Palmer, have both passed.

GTO Judge Commercial

My man Brian has a GREAT blog and on his latest post, he did a marvelous job chronicling his affection for Paul Revere and The Raiders. Another band that should be in the rock and roll hall of fame before RUN DMC but I digress...on his blog, he posted this TV commercial for a car that I actually owned...a 1970 GTO Judge.
Very cool commercials for this one of a kind car...



This is exactly what my car looked like...(and I did this frequently)

Song In My Head

One of the bad things about having an Ipod is the fact that every once in a while, I'll get a song in my head and it won't get out. Yes, I know they are called "earworms" but really, having this song in my head is a blessing and a curse.
The blessing is that it is a great song, dedicated to John Lennon when he was having his immigration troubles and a curse because IT WON'T GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

This was his follow up to "Laughter In The Rain" and I remember an interview where Neil Sedaka said he didn't care if it became a hit or not, he just wanted to weigh in on the subject with song. It wasn't a hit, it only reached number 22 in May of 1975.

Someone did a great job with putting together a video for it. Now, it's your earworm. No tag backs!