Classic Rock Casualty

For the last couple of weeks, I have been on a really hard J. Geils Band kick. Not the Freeze Frame / Centerfold J. Geils, but the really heavy duty R & B early years J. Geils. The band that unleashed Full House Live and Bloodshot and Nightmares ...and Other Tales from the Vinyl Jungle. Not to knock the boys success with Love Stinks and Freeze Frame, but sometimes you need a shot of Peter Wolf's unbelievably quick DJ jive and a quick hit from Magic Dick on the licking stick and they just throw it into a groove like Pack Fair and Square or Wait or Homework or First I Look at the Purse and man, you're just blown away! How about the version of John Lee Hooker's Serves You Right to Suffer from Full House? Magical!

It got so bad, I even ordered an album I sold a few years back. I was watching SCTV Season 1 [the NBC seasons anyway} and the musical guest was Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes! Man they laid down the groove on All I want Is Everything [so that makes that 1979/80] and the Springsteen written The Fever and I was just on the floor! So I had to get Havin' A Party with Southside Johnny again. Yeah, I have I Don't Want to Go Home on vinyl, but it doesn't have Love on the Wrong Side of Town, This Time It's for Real or Havin' A Party. Why the clowns at CBS/ SONy Legacy haven't remastered this gem yet is beyond me. But it was only 6.99 on Barnes and Noble.com. And it still sounds pretty damn good.

As a side note, another reason to hate... I mean be jealous of ol' Uncle J. Michael Leone:

My friend Rusty and I went to see the J. Geils Band in January 1979 … the warm up band was Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes with a special guest guitarist named Bruce Springsteen … Peter Wolf of J Geil’s at the end of the concert and all of the bands were on stage … this included Bruce … (by the way this was at the Stanley Theater a 3,000 seater) … Wolf started waving the terrible towel because the Steelers were going to their 4^th Super Bowl … needless to say it was one of the best concerts I have ever experienced and will experience … absolutely beautiful … there was damn near a riot and people when leaving the Stanley Theater were chanting Steelers, Steelers, it was an excellent rush!

Anyway, I told you all that to tell you this. After two weeks, I finally had to take the Geils out. Too many hours in the car with it. So I had to put in some Led Zeppelin.

When you don't listen to the radio and you're not having things forced at you all the time, you can enjoy a lot of musical artists a lot more. Putting things away again makes them fresh for you again, right? Well I got to John Bonham on How Many More Times and The Ocean and I was just floored again! Yeah I've been pulling myself up off the floor a lot. Anybody know what time signature Poor Tom and Gallows Pole are?

Anyway, hope everyone out there is enjoying something fresh.

I don't mean to get all political, but...

I saw this headline on Yahoo News and I just had to say something: "Unbowed, Politicians Vow to Execute Child Rapists."

Look folks, it's like this: The Supreme Court ruled that the Death Penalty for raping a child is a violation of cruel and unusual punishment. End of story, right?

But no, the crackers in Louisiana [Gov. Bobby Jindall - R] and Texas [Atty Gen. David Dewhurst] are squawking that "It is a fair punishment for child rape - let's protect the children."

Yeah, these are some sick, twisted people who get their jollies by plugging it to 'persons under the age of consent,' but let's get real. Ending a person's life for this is not... it's a momentary satisfaction of the "Do Good/ Vindicate" part of the brain.

We as a Society know that these are the lowest of the low life, so low they look up to see the bottom of Pond Scum. However, these people are not taking physical lives. Yes, the kids are damaged and will need thousands of hours of therapy to help them learn to trust and love in a semi-normal way again. But they're not dead.

The Supreme Court is right here. Take the anger, disgust and emotional element out of the criminal system and apply the appropriate punishment. Someone on CBS This Morning had it right. To paraphrase:

They're not killing the victims now. If they know they're going to die for getting caught, they might start saying 'I'm going to die anyway' and start killing their victims.

While I'm on a roll

Lets talk about opening offshore and ANWR drilling. How come no one has popped up with the best reason I can think of - JOBS! We're going to need oilmen to drill and search for oil reserves, people to fly them to offshore and far northern extreme, shippers to send the equipment out into the sea and bring the crude into the refineries, riggers to set up the rigs and platforms and lots of people to build the tools of the trade. How ABOUT building a couple modern refineries so some of the older units can be taken offline for a good retrofit and improve efficiency?

Okay, if we opened up these areas today, it takes 8 - 10 years to get the oil in. It's called forward thinking. If we stuck to the old ideas and ways of thinking, we'd never be tapping into the natural gas in the shale like we are today.And while we're at it, let's get some gas fired electric plants online. We seem to have plenty of natural gas.

And my wacky idea for the day: Let;s offer the oil companies a TAX BREAK for research and development of fuel from coal. We have a stockpile of coal, but no cost effective way to turn it into liquid fuel. Let's give the oil companies a break to get some scientists off their ass and figure a way to manipulate those carbon strings around!

And finally, a way to get me to occasionally eat broccoli

I took myself out Tuesday for lunch. About every 6 months I take a day off to do nothing - not see people, prepare my house, etc. A day to have a leisurely and hot lunch and run some errands for myself. [Word of warning, baby sister - I found a ton of 40 birthday cards and hopefully I will remember where they are next year!]

So, I took myself to the sushi place my brother in law has been raving about - Sushi Axiom of Hulen and 30 in Fort Worth. And it was worth every penny! But I like tempura, so I ordered the shrimp and veggie tempura appetizer, which is usually a couple shrimp, a sweet potato slice, and onion and a pepper ring... but they brought a piece of broccoli also.

Like Bush 41, I don't like broccoli. I just don't. But I'll say this: IF more moms took the time to fry it in tempura and offered a little wasabi and soy on the side, I'd certainly be inclined to have a couple pieces here and there.

I wonder - Brussels Sprouts tempura...

An American Voice Silenced

This weekend we lost a uniquely American voice with the passing of George Carlin.

Forever linked to the famous 7 Words You Can't Say on Television Carlin's own fascination with language made his humor a study of doublespeak. Who else would notice [on A Place for Your Stuff] that when you're staying in someone's house that "their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff."

In the late 70s/ early 80s when I was getting into comedy, Carlin was the comedian we listened to where my parents couldn't hear. Of course they knew I had the Steve Martin albums all full of 'shit's' and the 'best pussy' joke - but still, Carlin's liberal use of the word 'fuck' was sure to bring the wrath of parents. Then Clint got those Eddie Murphy albums from Columbia House...

Carlin and Gallagher I could relate to. I didn't have the experiences to relate to Richard Pryor. Nor did I have access to his albums. I didn't get all the drug humor of Cheech and Chong. But a guy talking about the absurdities of everyday life? Yeah, I can dig that.

So long, George.

Priceless! Brilliant!

You know, there's a lot of things to NOT like about television these days. Crawlers across the bottom of the screen, or worse, little commercials going on the the bottom left third of the screen -especially on TNT and TBS. It's so bad I actually was watching Family Guy on TBS about a week ago and in one of these little corner screwups, Bill Engvall PAUSES the Family Guy show, makes his little 15 second announcement for his show, then restarts FG right into commercial.

HOWEVER: Whoever over at Mastercard decided to bring Mr. Bill back to the airwaves deserves a MEDAL. No, a promotion, a raise, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom! WAY TO GO!!!!

Roger, Wilco, Over and Out

Well, the Pens came up short - maybe about three seconds short - in their bid for the Stanley Cup.

I'll say again, this team can hold their heads high. Detroit was just too strong in the end. The veteran leadership, the 5 "Three time Cup Winners" {Lidstrom, Draper, Maltby, Holmstrom and Darren McCartey - Brian Rafalski also won two with New Jersey in the 2000s} came through. There were no ups and downs with this team. They played their game, even when the bounces were going for the other team. It's still boring ass-shit to watch, though. And I am sure it stings like the Kinks watching the Rolling Stones win the New Music Express "Best New Group" two years in a row.

Henrik Zetterberg as Conn Smythe [playoff MVP] winner I don't have a problem with. One could again make a case for the unflappable Nick Listrom, but I think Lidstrom will win his 6th Norris and the league's best defenseman next week.

I am off anti-biotics now and will enjoy a couple of very big vodka & 7 Ups now.

Bleary Eyed, Bruised, Aching and Tired but Still Alive

For those who didn't watch any NBC Monday night - all 1 hr 45 minutes after your 'late local news followed by the Tonight Show" was supposed to start, you missed one heck of a ride.

Down 3 - 2 in the last minute, Pittsburgh pulled the goalie and scored to tie the game with 34 seconds remaining. They then played those 34 seconds - then 20 minutes overtime [with only one timeout to scrape the snow off the ice first whistle after the halfway point - man can overtime fly by!] - then 20 more minutes of sudden death. Detroit scores and they win the Stanley Cup. Pittsburgh scores and it's back to Pa. for one more try.

Petr Sykora scored on the power play at the 9:57 mark in the third overtime, sending the teams back to Pittsburgh.

It's still a long row to hoe for the Pens. The red Wings are still the best team in the NHL over the last year. But they found a way, down one of their best defensemen for the last 96 minutes of the game after Sergei Gonchar crashed awkwardly into the boards and giving himself back spasms. Still, for 49+ minutes of overtime, they hung on and willed themselves to keep skating.

In the end, the goats of the series finally gets off the snide - Evgani "Geno" Malkin made the pass from behind the net to Petr Sykora and Sykors buries it just under the arm of Chris Osgood.

Pack up the Cup, boys, it's back to Steel Town for one more!

I am sure a lot of people in Detroit are very frustrated - HEY! Ozzy should have held the post! But I think this allows Pittsburgh to keep their heads high now. They played three [well, almost 4 really] great games and showed some spirit after getting totally whitewashed and overmatched in the first two games.

I admit, I was totally down, but okay with Detroit winning after they went up 3 - 2. Sad, but I would be okay. I am still not 100% pumped - I've seen this in the Dallas series from Detroit. They looked like crap in game 5, but came out and made the Stars look like boys against men in game 6.

One of my hockey buddies at work was lamenting the Detroit loss - "If Pittsburgh can win game 6, you know that ANYTHING can happen in a game 7." Which is true. Unlikely heroes like Stephan Matteau and Ruslan Fedotenko and Michael Rupp and Cam Ward and Frank Kaberle [to name a few from the last decade or so] emerge to bring the Cup home. To odd places like Anaheim, CA and Tampa, FL and Raleigh, NC and to end 54 years of frustration in NYC.

See you at 7:15 tonight.

Wellllll... Crap

I guess last night's game was a good indication of how good Detroit really is. They made the adjustments and forced Pittsburgh to try and do what they could not. Although they got some chances late.

Good grief, that defensive hockey is boring to watch, though.

I thought after the lack of fire on the 5 on 3 and the way he kept coughing up the puck, Malkin should have been off the 1st power play unit. And maybe rode the pine for the last 20 minutes. He's just not effective out there.

It's not fair to put that all on him - Peter Sykora and his speed and shot have disappeared, too. Jordan Staal has had some good shifts but is largely in a defensive role, not an offensive one. It would be nice to see him chip in like he did in the Rangers and Flyers series, though.

This probably and mercifully ends Monday. I said when it started Detroit was the better team and I would not be shocked if they won - even though I WANT Pittsburgh to win. At least the Pens came back and showed some fight after two AWFUL games at "The Joe." But the Red Wings WERE the best team in the NHL this year and Pittsburgh is taking the "boring ass defensive hockey that WINS" camp right now.

It's still way to early to talk about next year, but the Pends have a good core of young talent that just learned the next lesson. They should compete again for the Cup - soon!