'Best of Southside Adventures' Part 2

Originally posted March 6 2006

I was reading on Stosh's blog about his encounter on a bus last week with the Mekons Sally Timms, and got to thinking about the Mekons, and how, despite growing up a huge music fan in the 1980s, I've never heard any of the Mekons records. It did, however, remind me of that great song "If I Was A Mekon" by Too Much Joy from their oft overlooked "Son of Sam I Am" album. So, whist drinkin a bit (the MILF is out seeing fuckin 'Brokeback'), here is a short list of some great 80s albums you've never heard, but were staples of my adolesense:

Too Much Joy - Son of Sam I Am
The Pursuit of Happiness - Love Junk
Georgia Satellites - In The Land Of Salvation and Sin
Little Steven - Voice of America
Replacements - Hootenanny
Replacements - When The Shit Hits The Fans
Husker Du - Flip Your Wig
The Ravyns - self titled debut on MCA
Fear - The Record The Kings - The Kings Are Here!
The Young Fresh Fellows - The Men Who Loved Music

I wanted to add the Minutemen's Double Nickels On the Dime to this list. But if you've never heard that album, you have no fuckin business being here in the first place (kidding of course).

Speaking of which, I'm desperately trying to find this t-shirt for the MILF for her b-day in May. She'll be the talk of the burbs pickin up the kiddies from the school in that number. If that doesn't work out, maybe I'll just get myself a 'Metal Circus' coffee mug. I hope they ship to the USA!

Tubin

I've been playing with YouTube a bit.

Its nice to see that 30 years after its relase, The Kings have finally releaed a video for 'Beat Goes On/Switchin To Glide'. It gets moving about 3:13 in...

Also available are lost hits from the likes of Martin Briley and the Michael Stanley Band.

Then there's the early MTV classic from Bryan Adams (before he sucked) - 'Cuts Like A knife'. Sure, thew chick in this video is hot, but the freaky part comes when she dives into the empty pool and comes out soaking wet. Check out the bass palyer - he looks like he having sex with himself.

Then there is the greatest video ever.

and an a fantastic MTV news piece from 1991 with Tabitha Soren reporting on the Replacements. As one fan says - 'if they break-up if now, they'll be legends.'

Best of 'Southside Adventures' Part1

By popluar request - and with nothing else to post, here is a 'best of' originally posted on Dec 21st 2005.


'End of a great era in music'

(AP) - Toyko - EasyW's iPod was found dead today at an upscale Toyko hotel. He was 3 years old. Japanese officials gave no cause of death, but foul play is not suspected. "The premature expiration appears to be lifestyle related," said one anomyous Japanese official thru a translator.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs could not be reached for comment. But an Apple spokesperson denied rumors of a suicide. "This is a tragic event, and those close to the iPod would like to request privacy from fans and the media in order to properly grieve." said the spokesperson.

Sympathy poured in from musicians around the world."This is the end of a great era in music," said U2 frontman Bono when informed of the news as he fed children at a UN refugee camp in Southern Sudan, "But we've got to keep going, and move forward, and take the lessons learned from this great machine and apply them towards a brighter global future."

"We had a lot of good times together, crazy wild times." said rapper Chuck D. "Its a shame, too. I hear he was about to get into some Podcasting."

Even the usually reclusive Axl Rose emerged from his Malibu compound to express sadness. "I was really looking forward to working with the iPod on 'Chinese Democracy'," said Rose.

GOOD BEGINNINGS

iPod began his life at a bacteria and germ-free assembly plant near Hong Kong, and was shipped to North America as part of the iPod "Second Generation" invasion in early 2003. Landing at a Best Buy location in Bolingbrook, Illinois. iPod's original owner purchased the sleek device in June 2003. During the short 5-month ownership, the original owner loaded iPod with an ecclectic mix of music. But ultimately, 15 GB proved to be too small for such a big music fan, and iPod was quickly put on the block as his owner moved onto to a 20 GB model.

The iPod was resold to EasyW for $300 in November 2003. At the time, that was a substatial savings over the $350 list price. Once initial interface issues were resolved, the iPod was quickly up and running with a variety of new rockin tunes.

DOWNWARD SPIRAL

The iPod's finest moments came during the summer of 2004, when 15 GB of new music was rotated on an almost daily basis. Exciting and unique playlists were created weekly and touched on such influences as Hawaiian surf music, fat Minneapolis gay thrash punk of the 1980s and the nostalagic 'junior high memories'. Shortly thereafter, a bug in the Dell PC related to a driver recoginition issue with the remote storage device inabled the iPod to be updated with iTunes. As a result, since November 2005, the iPod shuffled along with its 15 GB of music unchanged. A downward spiral quickly followed. Just last month it was learned that, as a child, its previous owner may have overcharged the young battery, thereby significantly reducing the iPod's lifespan. Additionally, iPod's earlist years may have been characterize by other forms of sonic abuse. "Good Charlotte, Nickleback, Whitney Houston.. shallow music of that nature," said one anomyous source.

Fellow Apple device Black Nano recalled a recent disturbing incident at his Silicon Valley home. "It was real late, like 4 in the morning, and he had been out at some mp3 party in the Valley, doing a lot of coke with Pink Mini. I could tell because they both had white rings around their input jacks. Anyways, she gave him a ride over to my place. iPod came in, his protective case was all frayed, and the snaps were broken. He pushed his way past me, went right for my Gateway mainframe, plugged in and starting downloading stuff like Led Zepplin... it was real disturbing. Then he snagged my new Bose headphones and ran out the front door."

Actor Nick Cage recalled a similiar incident that occurred just a few weeks ago, at a party for music industry executive Jimmy Iovine at his Beverly Hills mansion. "Springsteen was there and was trying to talk some sense into him.. talking about Roy Orbison, Dylan, that sort of stuff.. but the iPod was having none of it. You could tell by the look on his backlight that he just wasn't there. Later that night, I saw him disappear into a room with two groupies carrying some really big headphones.. it was the last I ever saw him."

In recent days, rumors had also circulated in the entertainment world that iPod had been banned from the Playboy mansion after allegedy giving a mild electric shock to a group of party goers in a hot tub. Actor Corey Feldman, who witnessed the incident said, "The media has blown the incident at the Mansion way out of proportion. It was not a big deal. It wasn't nearly as crazy as that time Fred Durst threw one of Hef's flamingos into the grotto."

In recent weeks, the iPod had gone to a repair center on the Hawaiian island of Molokai in attempt to get well, but wound up missing just a few days after its arrival. The iPod apparently went home to Japan and was last seen backstage at a concert on saturday with Ashlee Simpson moments before she collasped on stage from "exhaustion".

THE FUTURE LOOKED BRIGHT

The iPod was a fixture on the Hollywood and fashion circuits, and was often found accompying various starlets on mundane errands. Among those linked with the iPod in recent months were actresses Natalie Portman, who was often seen in iPod's company on the set of her latest film, and Jessica Alba, who often had iPod accompy her when she worked out and went to the grocery store. For a brief period, iPod was also socialite Paris Hilton's traveling companion. Around this time, however, those closest to iPod began to notice some performance issues, most notably, a reduced battery life and occassional, unexplained shut-offs. "It would just shut down completely," said EasyW, but come right back a few seconds later. It was a warning sign I should've picked up on."

Just six months ago, the future looked limitless, as iPod had signed a development deal with Miramax and was set to star as the lead opposite Tei Leoni in the forthcoming Jerry Bruckheimer film "Love Among The Pod People". Shooting was schedule to begin in Chicago this spring. In an effort to cheer up the iPod, EasyW had recently downloaded iTunes 6.1 and was making an effort to finally fix the long-standing driver recoginition issue, going so far as to inquire about contacting a repair person. "I was really looking forward to adding some new Modest Mouse.. and I recently discovered an old Police disc I had meant to upload. I know it was looking forward to that new Strokes album as well... I guess its too late for that now." Thru tears, EasyW further lamented, "And I had all this christmas music on there, and had planned to take it back to the beach next summer..." his voice trailing off. While an autopsy is expected, one person close to the iPod indicated the premature death was not caused by poor musical taste. "Sure, there was some Michael Stanley on it, but only a few songs. Mostly, the iPod will be remembered for having more rock in it than a quarry."

Opportunity Rocks!

'Its not what you know, its who you know'.

A very true statement. As proof, I called in a favor to a good old friend, and it now appears that I have an opportunity to get my foot in the door of the world of professional baseball. I can't discuss specifics, but suffice to say its unpaid, but not low-level grunt (or PR) work. I'll know more this spring. If this works out you never know - I do have a contact with a direct line to one of the big GMs.

Just wanted to share that exciting news. More later...

Ten years burnin

My it has been a while since my last post. Happy thanksgiving to those here in America.. and Merry Christmas to all those in Canada (a place where football is already over for the year, as BC has defeated Montreal at a downright freezing stadium in Winnipeg in the 94th Grey Cup). The frost WAS on the pumpkin last week, but this week its sunny and 60 degrees - thank you very much Henry Ford. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I still have fond memories of family gatherings at thanksgiving. When I was going to college in Ohio, after finals (we were on the wonderful quarter system) I'd catch the bus or hop a ride with a fraternity brother north to Cleveland. At least once I beat my folks, who were driving from Chicago, to my Grandma and Aunt's apratment in Berea. Exhausted, I'd crash. After the meal, and the drive home on I-90, I'd spend the next month working on the trucks at UPS... But it was 10 years ago this fall/winter that I was wandering through Europe and North Africa, and have great memories of the Thanksgiving I spent on a ferry in the Adratic Sea, returning to southern Italy from Greece. Actually, American Thanksgiving just happened to fall right in the middle of a 'plans, trains, and automobiles' like trek I was making from Crete to the Alps. Broke and unable to afford airfare, it took me 3 days of non stop travel - walking to the ferry in Reythemon, the 12-hour ferry ride to Pireaus, the subway during morning rush hour to Athens, the walk to the train station, the train to Petras, the aforementioned horrific 24-hour Thanksgiving ferry ride in rough seas to Brindisi, where I shared a pizza dinner with other Western backpackers (then an all night train journey to Asti).

Since I last posted, the St Louis Cardinals became surprise victors in the World Series, beating the heavily favored Detroit Tigers. I was rooting for the Tigers, but not at all surprised St Louis won - back at the beginning of the year I did pick them as National League Champions (though I had them losing to the Yankess in the Series).

State of the Sox

Baseball news on the Southside. There was some problem down in Venezuela, where about 6 Sox players had gone to play Winter ball on Ozzie's old team - the La Guaira Sharks. The trouble began after coach Razor Shines was dismissed. Brian Anderson caught some nasty bug and lost a lot of weight, and Boone Logan returned with a sore arm, That said, Josh Fields got some time in left field, as the Sox maybe aim to convert him from a thridbaseman, as Joe Crede stands in his way of moving up from Charlotte to Chicago.

By now you've also heard the Sox traded lefty set-up man Neal Cotts to northside Cubs for two ptichers. One of them - David Ardsma- looks decent, a project for Coop, just like Thornton was... The Cubs also signed one of the most sought after free agents in Alfonso Soriano, to some crazy ass 8-year, $136 skazillion dollar deal. These long term ,big money deal almost never work out well for teams (they work out great for the players), and the Cub will be paying Soriano about $17 million a year as he approaches age 40. Dumb fucking move. And just when you thought they couldn't get any stoopider, they re-sign the perpetually injuried Kerry Wood, a guy who is finished - FINISHED - in the bigs.

As bad as that is, the idiotic Boston Red Sox paid $51 million just for the right to sign Japanese phenom pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.. Keep in mind IF they sign him, it will cost them an additional $50million or so...

Probably the most exicitng POSITIVE news to come out of baseball is the new stadium being built in Fremont, California for the Oakland A's. take a look here at this park - maybe the most beauitiful, well-done of all the new stadiums built in the frenzy since Camden Yards went up in 1992. But like everything in crazy cali, nothing is easy. Even though the land is being traded to the team for naming rights - at a cost of $0 to the taxpayers - the people of the Bay Area are not happy. Just a read of few A's blogs out there - Like this one, this one and this one - reveals that the fans and citizens seem more concerned with adjacent wetlands - wetlands that, I should note, are protected and have already been preserved - than the benefits this stadium will bring to the community. They're worried about traffic (even though the stadium will be served by the subway) and the proximity of a fire department (why?). If this were being built on the southside of Chicago, you'd hear none of that - it would be all positive praise.... Still I'm getting an A's cap for Xmas from my cousin - a southside transplant - who resides out there, and am now swearing that the A's are just maybe my 2nd favorite team in the American League (sorry Detroit, and Baltimore).

HOT STOVE

Last week, reclusive stat guru Bill James joined my ol pal Mike Murphy on The Score (670 AM in chicago) to talk stats. It was a great interview. I just ordered the new 2007 Handbook, as well as Baseball Between The Numbers... I'm always skeptical of such stats, but want to review and examine them on my own. There's got to be something to them...

My good college radio buddy - Doc Scott- has a great new address for his Cincinnati Reds blog - Red and Blues, so I recommend you take a gander at it.

Jerry Cohen and the fine folks at Ebbets Field Flannels have some impressive new items out for winter. Whist seaching around the web, I also came across two other decent retro baseball apparel sites - Distant Replays, which has a great selection and some sales, and Throwback Max, which has a ton of moderately priced merchandise. Add these to the list along with Stall and Dean and you've got plently of places to get that cool gift for the baseball nerd in your life. All of these much better than the overpriced Moonlight Graham.

How bout that Ohio State-Michigan game last weekend? Could it have been any more dramatic? Memorable, truly. The other big college football game in Ohio last week was down the road from Columus in Athens, where my beloved Bobcats defeated the Akron Zips 17-7 and won their first ever MAC East Division title. At 8-3, Ohio U now gets to meet Central Michigan in MAC championship game at Ford Field in Detroit. Likely, OU will wind up in Alabama at the GMAC Bowl, while Central stays in Detroit for the Motor City Bowl. Whatever. With 3 games left in their season, OU has already won more game this year than in all 4 years COMBINED during my college days (7 wins - 1987 to 1991, 4 of which came in 1988). This will be only the 3rd bowl appearance in OU's history, and the first in nearly 40 years- the last being at 49-42 loss to Richmond - yes, the Richmond Spiders- in the 1968 Tangerine Bowl, (the first being a 15-14 loss to West Texas State in the 1962 Sun Bowl). Stranger still, OU is about to break into the Top 30 in the polls. Great, but inaccurate, as there are plently of teams ranked below OU that are better (UCLA and Penn St - to name two) and one that's already kicked Bobcat ass this year (Mizzou, at #40, beat OU 31-6 back on Sept 23rd). Still ,its nice...

Oh, and the Chicago Bears are not just 9-1, they are the best team in the NFC by a full 3 games, and clinch a playoff spot with a win this weekend at New England.

I've been reading a lot. After reading a glowing review, I blew thru a great love story called The Translation of Dr Apelles. It was deep, emotional and very worthwhile. I think its only a matter of time before Oprah picks up on this one. I've also started in on Ernie Pyle's Brave Men - his first hand account of World War II.

I saw Borat the night it came out, having never seen Da Ali G Show, so I went into this blind and thought was OK - some great laughs, and some, not so much....

My days are filled with the downtempo and chill tunes of www.live365.com. Traditional radio is so dead- and Live365 is an example of why... Among the great tunes I've discovered on one of the stations (either 'After Hours Cafe' or 'Loungemaster London') is Kool and the Gang's wonderful instrumental 'Summer Madness' - sounds like it could've been recorded yesterday, not 30 years ago. Now, I hear it being sampled all over the place, and its in the new LeBron James shoe commercial as well.

The MILF and I have had a couple of nice, memorable sessions. And when I saw this, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.