Music Friday: "Look on Down from the Bridge"

Since there are no new episodes of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert happening because of the long writers' strike, I've been watching various streaming services. 

I discovered the HBO podcast/show Talking Sopranos that has the actors who played Christopher (Michael Imperioli) and Bobby (Steve Schirripa) in the series talk and reminisce about the episode after they had watched it again, I assume (it looks like Zoom), during the Covid lockdown. 

They often talk about how the writers and producers selected certain songs for certain specific reasons. 

At the end of "The Meadowlands" episode Imperioli points out what a great song ends the episode, and this one is it. 

I never bought the Mazzy Star album that gets a lot of critical attention, but I like their stuff. 

Here's the tune. 

Music Friday: "Longest Days" & "A Brand New Song"

I saw John Mellencamp has a new album out. For me, one of my favorite albums of his is Life, Death, Love & Freedom. 

Here are the opening and closing songs on that fine album. 

Musing of the Moment: Returning the Shopping Cart as "the Ultimate Litmus Test"

 First off, I got this from the InterWebs since I've seen if floating around social media before. 

One of my acquaintances on FB asked folks about whether they return shopping carts, and I shared this to her feed. 

Strangely enough, there are some unnecessary quotation marks around the dude's name, the lead singer of Danzig. 

Regardless, I am behind what he's stating here. I'm not going to go as far as stating that people are "animals" who don't return shopping carts to their appropriate places, but I consider not doing so to be a major dick move. 

Music Friday: "If She Could Only See Me Now"

Deer Tick came out with a new album this summer that is garnering a bit of attention from folks. 

The band has been around for a good while. I saw them play in St. Louis quite a long time ago. 

Hopefully the new album will expose folks to the band's earlier work, which is quite good.  

Musing of the Moment: Life after Kane

It finally happened. Harry Kane is departing Tottenham Hotspur for Bayern. 

It was iffy whether this move was actually going to happen, but at least Daniel Levy got the fee the club needed to depart with its greatest player in its history. 

I've watched the videos from the various YouTube pundits bemoaning the loss of Kane. 

It's a brutal loss, but I'd rather get money for him leaving now rather than him moving to Manchester United or, for God's sake, Chelsea after the season is over. I could not stomach seeing Kane in a Chelsea kit. That would be a major kick in the short and curlies. 

Not all is lost though. 

Richarlison will move to the position that he's actually best at playing--as a number 9. While he had an underwhelming campaign last season, I'm confident he'll be a positive force without now being under the shadow of Kane.

He's Brazil's no. 9. His performance last season was shite for the most part, but he didn't get regular playing time at all under Conte due to injuries and Conte being Conte. He was not able to establish any kind of rhythm as a player. 

The money from the sale of Kane to Bayern could help Spurs sign another center-back, which is sorely needed. I like Micky van de Ven, but we need another swift and strong center-back although I still have hope for Tanganga. 

In addition, part of the funds could go toward acquiring someone like Gift Orban and/or Brennan Johnson. 

If Spurs decide to sell Hojbjerg, they could also go shopping for another midfielder. 

It appears Tottenham is going through the rebuild that Pochettino called for years ago--just this time without Kane. 

Time to move on and trust the fun system that Ange has created. 

We aren't going to be a football club that relies so heavily on one player to score. I suspect the goals will be spread around. 

Apostrophe Abuse: Oakland As Cap and a Jesus Bumper Sticker

 

This is a new feature for this blog. There's an old blog that documented "apostrophe abuse" that is no longer available on the InterWebs. So I'm taking up that lost writer's mantle. 

And I'll have another feature that takes after another defunct blog titled The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. 

I care about the proper care of language. 

The first culprit of apostrophe abuse is the cap for the Oakland Athletics. There's not need for an apostrophe. 

It should be just like this: As

I actually kind of like the Athletics, but I can't stomach buying one of the team's caps with the unnecessary apostrophe. 

The other culprit I saw today when I was running errands. There was a mini-van ahead of me that had this bumper sticker: "Jesus loves you," but the "loves" was spelled with a heart image followed by an apostrophe and an "s." 

Music Friday: "Grey Street"

I've been on vacation all week in D.C. and now in Charlottesville, VA. 

When in Charlottesville, let's do a DMB song.