Mel Washington's Beautiful Voice

 Before my son died last year, when we'd talk on the phone, he would often mentioned his friend Mel Washington to me.  I had the opportunity to meet Mel at my son's wake, and I've listened to many of his songs on the youtubes.  He has a beautiful voice, makes excellent music, and (as my son had told me in great depth) is a wonderful person.   My son Christopher was a good judge of character and didn't tolerate fools and miscreants.  He was friends with artists, craftsmen, chefs, business owners, tons of service industry workers, and myriad good human beings.  

If you've not heard Mel's work, you should take some time out of your evening or weekend, and enjoy his music online; get to know him.  If you live in or near the Holy City, you should see him live.  I don't think you'll regret it.  

We miss our son very much, every day, and some days are better than others... some harder than others. But talking to, interacting with, listening to, and appreciating the multitudes of excellent people who knew and loved our son is one positive way to keep him in our thoughts as we continue to do our best, each day.

Signal Boost:

https://www.facebook.com/melwashingtonmusic

https://www.youtube.com/user/melwashington

https://soundcloud.com/mel-washington

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1adYfKybPGfYhTFbxnGCIX

https://www.instagram.com/melwashington/

and to see him live, while you wear a mask, and socially distance...

https://www.bandsintown.com/a/156628-mel-washington

What Makes a Good Man - 2021 Edition

 Eight years ago, I created my first iMovie that included both John Goodman and the band The Heavy.  It also had references to Goodman diagrams, Benny Goodman, and other tangents.

https://justjoep.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-makes-goodman.html

Today, there was a wonderful story about Eugene Goodman, (link here) the Capitol policeman who lured away rabid insurrectionists from the House Chamber, up flights of stairs as the racist mob pursued him.  He's now deputy sergeant at Arms for the House, and escorted our 46th President, Joe Biden, and VP Kamala Harris to the inauguration today.  I love it when someone is good at their job, and they help others.  We need more Eugene Goodmans.  Less shamans, and less angry old guys sitting at folding tables with sad drumpf flags.  

Today was also a Fantastic Day, as Haircut 100 would say, much like it was in October 2008 when I made this post while living in Phoenix:

https://justjoep.blogspot.com/2008/10/fantastic-day.html

So this is somewhat of a recycled post of two old videos, combined with one new story, that are all part of the greater big picture.

If you're a "Q anon" supporter / enthusiast / believer, and you still don't think Joe Biden is legitimately elected, you need to DO YOUR HOMEWORK (as Q adherents LOVE to shout).  No, there's no lizard people running nations.  No, the election was not stolen just because a pathological liar repeatedly tweeted and shouted that it was - observers from Both Parties, as well as neutral and international observers all agreed, and re-counts verified, that the election was not stolen and there was no wide-spread fraud.  In the very few cases of individual voter fraud uncovered, there were mostly pathetic maga adherents who voted republican twice or voted for a dead relative.  And if you don't think Covid is real, please go out and get it to "prove everyone wrong", right after you get a legal medical directive to Not Treat You for anything resembling Covid.  You WON'T be missed.

Comin Down The Mountain - Monday Morning Edition

 When my son was very little, a new band called Jane's Addiction started putting out amazing albums.  I consumed the recordings voraciously.  When we drove around in the 1975 Plymouth Valiant with more than 200K miles on it, we had a small boom box stereo on the front seat that played tapes and FM radio, since the '75's AM radio was broken.  Jane's Addiction was frequently in that boom box.  When we took our 1988 Honda Civic EX on road trips from South Carolina to OH and IN to meet relatives at holidays and vacations, Jane's was a mainstay in the tape deck (the '88 had no CD player) as well.  

Our little boy sat in his car seat in the middle of the back seat  - safest place in the car statistically - and absorbed every bit of music we played for him.  As I played drums on the steering wheel, he'd play drums on his brown car seat, and I'd smile as I'd catch a glance of him doing so in the rear view mirror.  We exposed him to a vast variety of music: hard rock, punk, classical (Chopin, Dvorak, Mozart), classical (Who, Led Z, Stones, Beatles), progressive, 70s, 80s, metal, grunge, goth, dark wave... if it was fun to dance to or had a difficult drum part or just touched the soul (as Chopin always does to me) then it got played, and Christopher drank it in, deeply.

Mountain Song, by Janes Addiction, was one of our favorites to play while driving on I-26, I-40 and I-75 through the NC, TN and KY mountains.  The '88 Honda Civic had a speedometer that went to 120 mph.  Christopher and I hit 115 going down the I-275 descent to cross the Ohio River from KY to IN while singing and drumming to this song when he about 5 yrs old.  We coasted down to 80mph as we crossed the river, protected by the bridge's steel super structure.  Unfortunately, a dozen Indiana State Troopers and a spotter aircraft saw us emerge from the bridge, and wrote us a ticket for 72 in a 65 mph zone before we could cross back into Ohio.  After the ticket, Black Flag was put into the Civic's stereo.  

Jane's Addiction "Mountain Song" from Andrew Doucette on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy this song as much as my son and I did, whether we were in the car, or drumming with two sets in the bonus room above the garage in South Carolina, or just hanging out in the living room.

I'm also attempting to use this song as a way to Jump Start my Monday morning... which appears to be suffering from significantly lethargic inertia.

It's OK, Had a Bad Day...

 

This has been running through my head a lot lately... and it's quite fun to play on my new massively expanded drum set.   Christopher, RIP.   I miss you son.

Red Tiger Striped Ludwig Standard Drum Set

 The Foo Fighter's RUN video has a red tiger striped Ludwig Standard drum set that looks like my kit, made in the early 60s in the US by Ludwig.  I'd never seen this set before...  

Taylor's normal set is a Gretsch ... so the old Ludwig was probably just what they had on the video recording set.  And for the record, Dave is and has always been a better drummer than Taylor.  Taylor is not bad, but Dave is a monster on the kit.  I thoroughly enjoy trying to emulate Dave Grohl's work, and work up quite a sweat when I do.

I Feel the Pain

 Dinosaur Jr - live.  https://vimeo.com/9771951

Dinosaur Jr: Feel The Pain - Live at The Bowery Ballroom 1/16/2010 from Edwin Samuelson on Vimeo.

The lighting for this show is really poor.  My son Christopher and Get Rigged / Pulse would have done so much better of a job.

Put on your red shoes...

 I was on my way home from getting some pet food on Wednesday night, when Sirius XM played David Bowie's Let's Dance on my car stereo.   It was the first time I sang along to any song with any amount of joy since Sunday morning, August 16th, when the coroner called me to tell me my son had died.  Put on your red shoes and dance the blues... 

I Shake Like an Incurable...

 It was 95F here in Carlsbad today.  Dr Desert Flower and I floated in the pool in the late afternoon.  It's rarely over 80 or 85F here.  I asked her to put on The Police...  just not Synchronicity, as that's my least favorite album of their 5.  She put on Reggata de Blanc, and Outlandos d'Amour.  We have Bose speakers that point at the pool and backyard.   Then this came on the stereo system:

... and I kinda lost it.    Between my son's death and my dad being diagnosed with colon cancer this week, August and September 2020 have been the worst months of my entire life.  

I miss my son, more than words in English can express.

Rage, Against Vanessa Carlton

 My buddy Joe M sent me this link this morning, and it really brightened an otherwise depressing start to my day.  First day back to work following my son's death, funeral, wake, cremation, flight home, and zoom wake for relatives yesterday.  I listened to this, and thought several things simultaneously:

- It is brilliantly done

- It's perfect for introducing Rage Against The Machine to generations of people who may have never heard them before, or think they're too hard to listen to, or that "rock is roll is not my kind of music" listeners

- It can be listened to by teenage tik-tok trolls who love music like Vanessa Carlton, and perhaps it can open their eyes and ears and hearts to the message within

- My son would have enjoyed this

- I need to share this with a wide-of-an-audience as possible

I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did, wether you live in Kenosha, Portland, Washington DC, Charlottesville, Charleston, San Diego, Orange County, or wherever closed minded, anachronistic, 1950s-nostalgic, Confederate apologists, Nationalists, Alt Right, Q-anon, pathetic nazis, and white supremacists keep raising their ugly, delusional filled, willfully ignorant little heads.

Link: https://youtu.be/6kYco2Zt-cM

Talking NIN Heads, Only Blind

For about a week now, two songs have been running through my head, mashed together rather seamlessly, and blending into each other smoothly.  Talking Heads, "Blind" and Trent Reznor's NIN "Only", are not yet in a published Mash-up, but in my head they are already merged.  Several of my close friends and my son have been asked about this via text message, and most of have responded that they hear the similarities.  My buddy Rick even stated that it makes perfect sense because not only the 2 and 4 hi-hat, but the basic "Da-Da, da-Dah, da-da-da, dah-duh-da-da..." repeats merge nicely.


And Reznor's "Only":



Two very different songs, that came out many years apart.  I might be only of the few Americans who enjoy both bands passionately... but maybe there's more people out there with excellent musical taste.  =P   Being a father, (and Father's Day is approaching) I am delighted I could positively affect my son's musical repertoire and appreciation in exposing him to some of the Best music from the 80s and 90s as he grew up, both of these bands inclusive.

It's a fun blending of tunes in my head.   I hope you enjoy it as well.

An Empty LA

The new video by Maynard of Tool, on his side project Puscifer, published Apocalyptical yesterday.  (thanks to my buddy Ryan for the head's up).  It shows a completely empty Los Angeles.  I've been to the Staples Center.  It's in a very busy section of the city.   https://youtu.be/Hj_bTbfAEsc


A skateboarder in a level 4 haz mat suit, drone footage of streets, parking lots, beaches, all devoid of human life in frame after frame.  Granted, these might have been taken near dawn on a cloudy day (so you can't see shadows) but it is eerie how empty the streets are in America's 2nd largest city.

Those Southern states who are opening back up with little or no restrictions, I wish your health care systems and morticians all the best, as your elderly, cancer patients, diabetics, hypertensives, morbidly obese, immuno-compromised, the weakest of "the herd" say their good byes to their families (if they still have any) through FaceTime or panes of glass before they expire.  No, Covid-19 is not a hoax.  It's not some conspiracy created by hospitals to get more Medicare money. It's a global pandemic.

If you read this, and can't help yourself in angrily (or snarkily) responding to me, your comments will be published and mocked.

Top 22 Drummers 2019 Update

Eleven years ago, I created a post about my favorite top 22 drummers.  I tried updating it recently, and apparently Google Blogger doesn't want anything older than a few years to be updated, because all I get is "sign in" when I try to edit it, regardless of how many times I am already signed in.  So it's time to update it.

Removed is Carl Palmer...  since he was very sloppy, and not a role model for precision drumming.  Also removed is Alex Van Halen, since he's part of a family that are rather douchey to anyone who are not Van Halens by birth.  Added are my childhood drum teacher Larry Mysliwiec and Vinnie Paul (RIP) from Pantera who played millions of beats every week faster and more precise than I could ever hope to play.  Also, swapped are Neil Peart and Danny Carey, since Neil's more recent work is not 1/2 as good as his 70s and 80s work, and Danny... well... Danny is precise, mic'ed well, appropriate, intense, creative, and one of the hardest drummers to imitate / replicate.

Joe's Top 22 Drummers

1. Danny Carey
2. Stewart Copeland
3. John Bonham
4. Neil Peart 
5. Bill Bruford
6. Mike Giles
7. Gene Krupa (...and he was Polish!)
8. Terry Bozzio
9. Chad Sexton
10. Larry Mysliwiec
11. John Dolmayan
12. Tim Alexander
13. Alan White
14. John Densmore
15. Stephen Perkins
16. Keith Moon
17. Anton Fig
18. Tre Cool
19. Dave Hartman
20. Dave Grohl
21. Matt Cameron
22. Vinnie Paul

And almost made the list:
Chic Corea but he's a Scientologist, so he falls off.
Buddy Rich, because he personally was an asshole to me at River Oaks in 1985 when he played a free concert there
Aynsley Dunbar; yes he played for Zappa, but he also played for Whitesnake, Hagar, and others of less than stellar repute.

I've amended the list, due to vocal criticism, but I shall have to endure the fatwa.

The Balkun Brothers' Beautifully Blended Devil on TV

Dr Desert Flower and I recently visited our son in beautiful Charleston South Carolina.  While we there, my son gave me a CD by the Balkun Brothers Devil on TV.  Our son's company had helped facilitate a recent live show by the Balkun Brothers, and he was impressed by their music that he snapped up a CD for his old father who is not on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, or any other platform that monitors what a human listens to and then tries to market to them; my son knows his father.  He also knows great music when he hears it, as he's a remarkable drummer in his own right (with a faster bass drum foot and more speed metal stamina than his dad, but I've still got him on the 26 standard NARD rudiments. ... and I do miss having bonus-room-over-the-garage drum set duels with him, as we used to do when we lived in South Carolina).

As I was installing window blinds this morning here in California in our new house, I put the Devil on TV CD into the home sound system's CD player, not knowing WHAT to expect.  It might be good, it might not be my thing, but keeping an open mind.  I was blown away.

If you wanted to create the Balkun Brothers music in a laboratory, this might be one recipe that would approximate their sound:
- Start with The Heavy, used as the base stock, but remove the UK and make it home grown American (open track "Don't Be Afraid" is VERY The Heavy like in many ways, as is So Hi, So Lo)
- Add in the following bands in different amounts, based upon your own palate:  RHCP (Flea and Chad), Rollins Band, a healthy dose of Muddy Waters, Lenny from Motorhead, old Yes, a teaspoon of Primus, a few drops of Morphine, an extract of the Black Keys without the mainstream commercialization, essence of Rob Zombie without the shock value, a touch of Mike Giles from King Crimson crossed with John Dolmayan from SOAD mixed with Matt Cameron from Soundgarden, steamed and condensed STP without the heroine, and the soul of Chris Cornell's voice.
- Then, and this is the truly amazing part that I still cannot understand... remove ALL the band members except for the two brothers, Steve and Nick, since they produce all the sound.

I'm impressed, and hooked (listening the the CD on repeat for the 4th time as I write this).  I will seek out the other works as well.  The Balkun Brothers are currently playing in New England and will be headed to Europe at the end of the month.  You would not be wasting your time nor money to go see them.  Highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blakun+brothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xnLNTlhRcU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRZmXKhUzSk

Scots, Casbah, Nov 18th

Dr Desert Flower and I have tickets to the SCOTS show at the Casbah in Downtown San Diego on November 18th.  If you have not seen SCOTS live, you've been missing an awesome show.  They're fun, talented, high energy, eclectic, surf-punk-rockabililly-country-party fun.  The first time I saw them was at Dawg Gone in Spartanburg SC back in the late 80s, and they were a hoot!  I've mentioned them here before many times:
here: http://justjoep.blogspot.com/2012/03/scots-on-folly-beach.html
here: https://justjoep.blogspot.com/2010/09/scots-rhythm-room-16-sept-2010.html
here: https://justjoep.blogspot.com/2009/09/los-straightjackets-scots-in-reno.html
here: https://justjoep.blogspot.com/2009/08/camel-walk.html
here: https://justjoep.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-only-crap-has-been-produced-after.html
and here: http://justjoep.blogspot.com/2011/07/40-miles-to-vegas.html

I've since seen them in AZ, NV, SC, CA (both north and south), IL, and NC multiple times... more than 20 times, with DDF, my son, my buddy Joe, my buddy Matt, and sometimes by myself (though SCOTS is more fun with friends than it is alone).  Our son, Nathan Jr has lit their shows in Charleston more at least 4 times.  You should go see them while they tour the West Coast.  You won't regret that you did.

Enjoy

Stay Human, What's In A Name

Dr Desert Flower and I are big fans of Stephen Colbert.  We DVR his show each night, and enjoy watching it the next evening after dinner.  National ratings have shown that DDF and I are not alone, and Late Night with Stephen Colbert is now the highest rated late night show. Not all of Stephen's guests are interesting to us, but the monologue is always great.

Stephen was smart enough to ally himself with the musical genius and genuinely nice person Jon Batiste as his band leader, at the head of Stay Human.  From the very first time I saw the band name Stay Human, I started thinking about its origins, etymology and implications.  The First thing that came to mind, is the obvious concept "remain a human, a nice person, don't become a mean jerk".  And that Might have been what Jon Batiste had meant to imply.

But a single interpretation is kinda boring... so I thought of several other meanings:

Stay, human!  - as spoken by an alien, who has a human as a pet, who is trying to train the human to behave when the alien goes to work.  Stay, sit, fetch, shake... all commands that an obedient human pet could obey, as long as they are smarter than the average alt-right voter.  The Porno For Pyros song Pets made me think of this concept.  (imperative)

Stay, human... Stay, human.... - the heart-felt wish of a werewolf during a full moon who may be visiting his fiancee's parent's home, and who doesn't want to change into a werewolf and kill his new family. (futile)

Stay human - a strategy move, proposed by a D&D player, to move one of his other pieces and leave his human character alone; the human stays still while the halfling or the elf moves forward.  (strategic)

Stay human - when Han Solo and Chewbacca show up at a cantina where they are not welcome, and the owner discriminates against Wookies whom he refuses to serve.  (discriminatory)

Stay Human - an intergalactic B&B where various species from different worlds who are traveling through want to rest.  At Stay Human, they cater to the needs of homo sapiens, and they've earned a 3 nebula rating.  = )  (recreational rental)

Stay, Human - a decision by a Federation of Planets Appellate Court Judge to prevent the Humans from doing something really stupid (again)... similar to how the 9th Federal Circuit Court here on Earth keeps stopping Drumpf's bigoted, misguided, xenophobic and illegal executive orders, declaring a stay on implementation of such idiotic and mean-spirited policies. (legal)

Stay, human? - an incredulous and disappointed trans-species cyborg response who was trying to become more machine like, when his friends and relatives implore him to stop the transformation and remain as a human... even though he was very determined to go through the full transformation to 100% machine.  (incredulous)

Stay human - as nations and political parties become increasingly tribal, isolationist, and hateful towards one another, unable to communicate or find common ground... perhaps through music, Jon Batiste believes he can bring such opposite polarized parties together, keeping everyone as "human" as possible  (aspirational)

Stay Human - the decision of the galactic leader of the sea otters from South Park, to prevent the humans from expanding and propagating throughout the galaxy, and containing them to a smaller sphere of influence.   (societal)

Run Like Hell

Not only is Run Like Hell a great Pink Floyd song from their amazing album The Wall, it is also what Tormund Giantsbane shouted to all of his comrades at East Watch on top of The Wall that had guarded Westeros from the dangers of the north for more than eight thousand years, in that fictional world.
(again, spoiler alert... if you have not seen the season finale of Game of Thrones, season 7, read this post after you've seen it)

The season finale was epic, dark, beautifully done.  I won't go through everything here scene by scene, but it IS Worth watching, for all of the ends it ties up, and the new circumstances it presents to the viewer.  Jaime does the right thing. Daenerys still knows how to make a Grand entrance.  Cersie remains one of the largest forces of selfish evil in the world, perhaps equalled by The Night King?  The Hound becomes more likable.  Arya is lethal with her blade. Sansa embraces her family before sycophants.  Sam enlightens the all-seeing three-eyed raven, who needs to get better at predicting things and warning his family about them, instead of just looking all white-eyed in his wheel chair.  The door was held closed for you, FFS!  Do something useful with your new super power Bran flake!

Now, in a physics based world, The Wall was made out of indestructonium since it stuck out into the Narrow Sea at East Watch, and yet after 8000 years of the sea water buffeting against it, The Wall  Never eroded.  Therefore, indestructonium must be one of The Hardest, Most Erosion Resistant, Most Corrosion Resistant, Most Crack Resistant initiating & propagating substances to ever be written about, in any book.  Indestructonium has to be magic... created by magic... shaped by it... maintained by it... However, with such formidable strength and durable properties, there comes a price.  Action / reaction.  If a magic dragon, hatched from an egg that had turned to stone long ago, but when that stone egg was heated in a funeral pyre back in the season 1 finale... and then that magic dragon gets killed by a magic ice javelin... and the thrower os said javelin then resurrects the dead dragon as an undead dragon...  then the magical power of that weapon of mass destruction apparently can over-power 8000 years of ice masonry and indestructonium's use as a long-standing barrier.

As I watched what remained of Viserion repeatedly blast the architectural marvel that was The Wall on Sunday night, I thought to myself:

- is this hot blue fire?
- is this ice coming out of the dragon (like a Gygax dragon)
- is it some kind of psionic blast or energy beam?
- perhaps it is plasma, like that of a white dwarf star?  (but then the undead Viserion would have its own gravitational pull, since it would be far too dense)
... and it wasn't until I talked to my buddy Ryan when he explained to me that it was "magic" and that only magic could defeat magic...  um... ok.  Sure.  I won't think this through any deeper than I already have.

If it is magic breath from a magic beast that was impossibly hauled out of a semi-frozen lake north of the wall by the magical ruler of the magically animated and magically commanded undead, then why not let all that magical confluence take out a long-standing 8000 year old wall?  Sure. Indestructonium be damned!  There's magic at work here!

In that case, Daeneryrs and Jon Targaryen (yeah, He's not a Snow nor a Sand) and their remaining two dragons will likely / should likely be magically destroyed by the Night King and his undead Viserion WMD, and all the steel wielding soldier of Westeros be swarmed by the +100,000 horde of white walkers heading South.  Cersie and all of King's Landing should be wiped out by the undead horde, and all of Westerosy civilization should end as we know it.  I know that doesn't make for a good story or series finale... but if an undead Viserion can destroy an 8000 year old formidable piece of magical creation in less than 1 minute, then it won't take that much longer to kill both siblings, their riders, and let the ground army swarm anything that is still warm-blooded.  I am 99% certain that season 8 and all of GoT won't end that way... but if I was writing it, and I included The Wall coming down as it just did... then that's how I would end the series next season.  3 episodes at best... and then everyone is now part of The Walking Dead.

He's Got the Fire & the Fury

Back on July 2nd, while on a flight from LAX to Covington Kentucky, I jammed my elbow tween the arm rest and the fuselage in a Delta coach flight (link here) and through the rest of July and the beginning of August, my left arm (elbow, bicep, triceps) has been fairly useless.  I've been icing it, elevating it, trying to stretch it.  Physical therapy began this week, and today was my 2nd PT session, and there's been some increase in mobility, decrease in pain, and I can almost use the left arm for things like shampooing my hair, driving a car and turning a steering wheel, etc... all good things, all good progress.

While icing my arm and keeping my elbow elevated higher than my shoulder, for several hours each day, I caught up on most all of my DVR recordings, and I set out determinedly to watch the entire HBO series The Wire, on my legal HBO To GO account (since Amazon wanted to charge me to watch season 5, after letting me watch seasons 1-4 for "free" with my Amazon Prime account.  Netflix recommended Luther... which I may watch in August, as I still have 2 or 3 more weeks, at least, of PT & icing ahead of me.

When I heard the farsical child who is the 45th President say that the DPRK will face "Fire & Fury", I thought of the opening music for The Wire.  Each season had a different artist (or set of artists) perform their version of the 1990 Tom Waits song Down In A Hole:
Season 1 - The Blind Boys of Alabama (Spirit of the Century, 2001)
Season 2 - Tom Waits (Franks Wild Years 1990)
Season 3 - The Neville Brothers (...and all the pieces matter, 5 years of Music from The Wire)
Season 4 - DoMaJe (Beyond Hamsterdam, 2008)
Season 5 - Steve Earle (Washington Square, 2007)
Season 5, last episode, finale recap - The Blind Boys of Alabama (...and all the pieces matter, 5 years of Music from The Wire)

I like Tom Waits original the best, I think.  They're all good, in their own interpretations.  "He's got the fire and the fury, at his command".  Full set of Waits lyrics here: link


I certainly hope the know-nothing, impetuous, 2-minute-attention-span, Obama-obsessed spoiled child who never got his Daddy's approval doesn't cause massive fissile fallout to rain down over the Western Pacific, and in the process, kill millions of Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese, while taking the US economy, stock market, and West Coast real estate prices; il faut voir.

Cumbersome, again

For the last week, Seven Mary 3's Cumbersome has been running through my head.  I can't seem to get it out of my brain.

7 years ago, I posted this here on JustJoeP... but due to its persistence in my consciousness, I am posting it again.  This time, the live version from David Letterman, 21 years ago.  (things live forever, sometimes, on the internet)

108 Year Drought Is Over

2 minutes ago, the Wall Street Journal stole my blog post headline... but that's OK WSJ.
Link here:  http://www.wsj.com/articles/chicago-cubs-win-the-world-series-ending-108-year-drought-1478149589

A 10th inning rain delay last night didn't dampen my spirits, as I watched in disbelief that the Chicago Cubs finally won a world series, after enduring a 108 year drought.  It was a great game, and a great series.  Sure, Cleveland has waited 68 years since they last won a world series... but I hope they win again in the next 40 years so that the Cub's epic loss record can remain.  I only wish my Dzia Dzia who died almost 30 years ago didn't have a chance to see his beloved Cubs win a world series before he left this mortal coil (he was alive for the 1908 win, as a very young child).

The videos at this early hour are not the most comprehensive or captivating, but I am sure better ones will be posted later today and this week.



Cleveland fought a good series, with very talented players.  I won't say anything disparaging here, though I often shouted less than positive comments at my television over the last week and a 1/2.  While Akron and Canton are two of my least favorite places neighboring Cleveland, where I have spent far too much time for work purposes, Cleveland itself is not a bad place, and Clevelanders (or Clevelandites?) are generally nice people, from the dozen or so who I have met.

PUSA Lump Cover

This has been out for 10 months..  and I just heard it today.  Too damn funny!


This is really quite genius!  =)

DDF and I saw The Presidents of the United States back in Indianapolis in the mid 90s, at The Egyptian Room...  awesome show.