Music Friday: "Pop Song 89"

I was talking with a friend yesterday about the few times I've been on the U of Iowa's campus. 

The last time I was on that campus was the Green tour of R.E.M. They played at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. 

My high school girlfriend and I went to the rock show. 

Here's the opening track on the Green album.

Musing of the Moment: My First Car

Below is an image of my first car. 

It's a 1978 Buick Regal, aka "Old Blue." I got it when I was 16. That was the color of my car too. When I left for college in 1989, I sold it and didn't have my own car until my senior year when I bought a 1988 Chevy Astrovan, aka the "UAV," from my parents. 

Music Friday: "Love Is Alive"

Over Thanksgiving week, I did a lot of driving. One of the stations I listen to from time to time on SiriusXM radio is "The Bridge," which is mainly a collection of pop hits and folk-like music from the 70s. 

The channel reminds me of the radio station my mom would tune into when we ate breakfast when I was a kid. That station in Waterloo, Iowa, whatever channel it was it was certainly on the am dial, offered similar songs as to what you hear on The Bridge. Well, to be more accurate, the offerings were more like a mix of The Bridge and Soul Town because that station occasionally mixed in some funk and older R&B. 

Anyway, when listening to The Bridge on the trip to and from Philadelphia from central Illinois, I heard this song a couple of times. I dig it. 

Music Friday: "Friday I'm in Love"

I heard this song today as we were coming back from Effingham for my son's travel baseball game. 

This song was played loudly on many a Friday at the Gin Mill in Kirksville, MO. 

Smooth move Coleman. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In a recent visit to my local CVS, I scanned the clearance liquor/wine rack. To my surprise, I found bottles of Manischewitz Blackberry wine for $2.77. It's a sweet, kosher wine that I sold at my dad's liquor store way back when. In fact, if I remember right, a Lutheran church bought cases of the Concord grape variety for communion wine. 

I'm a sucker for clearance booze racks, which reminds me of Colonial Party Mart. 

Colonial Party Mart was a liquor store back in my undergraduate college town of Kirksville, Missouri. They went out of business sometime in my junior or senior year. They were selling booze cheap as hell, probably at cost, and boozehounds  descended upon that establishment and got lots of good stuff at great prices. Unfortunately, when my friends and I got there, all that was left was mixing liquor and off brand stuff. I do think we bought some Ouzo though. I can't remember if it was the cheap stuff or one of the good Greek brands.

!Opa!

Figuring out how to spell that exclamation above led me to this interesting article: "What Does the Word Opa Mean Exactly?"

And that expression reminds me of the Norwegian expression of "Uffda." My mom had a plaque of that expression hanging on our back door. I need to use that expression more often. 

Stay Positive: Wine without Arsenic

There's a disturbing article out about a lawsuit about a great many California wines that have high arsenic levels. Check out "List of Wines Cited in Lawsuit as Having High Arsenic Levels." 

Thankfully the only brand of those wines I've had are dark wines put out by Menage A Trois  and Corbett Canyon. 

Wild Irish Rose is no surprise. That crap is horrible. I used to sell that stuff all the time to winos when I worked at my dad's liquor store. The list also reminded me of one night my fraternity brothers had a "Cisco Night" that turned out horribly for them. 

The Urban Dictionary definition of Cisco is worth a read. Here are two of my favorite lines: 

• "It is in the family with the common street wine Wild Irish Rose - except WIR would be a newborn baby and Cisco is the abusive step-father with boundary issues. "
• "The hangover that can result from Cisco is the equivalent of sticking your head up the ass of a Kentucky Derby horse in full sprint and being ejected into a brick wall all while undergoing Chemotherapy treatments that could kill an elephant."

And bumwine.com has some fine description about that "liquid crack":

• "Often, people on a Cisco binge end up curled into a fetal ball, shuddering and muttering paranoid rants.  Nudity and violence may well be involved too."  
• "Our research shows that Cisco is actually the second best tasting of the five great bum wines, especially if you're having one of those hankerings for cheap Vodka, Jello and Robitussin."  
• "A test subject reports, 'Strawberry Cisco has a bouquet similar to that of Frankenberry cereal fermented in wine cooler with added sprinkle of brandy for presentation.'"

So here's to enjoying wine without arsenic. Let's stay positive folks. 

Random Notes from a Crank

With college football on Saturday and us doing stuff on Sunday, I forgot that Luke Cage was available on Netflix this past Friday. I'm only a few episodes in, but I like it a lot. 

One of my favorite classes I had as an undergrad was Mythology. I stumbled across this article via Scientific American the other day: "Scientists Trace Society's Myths to Primordial Origins." I like the research this person is doing, but you can see these patterns just by studying world mythologies. There are four types of creation myths and two types of fertility myths. Reading Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Frazier's The Golden Bough, and Mencken's Treatise on the Gods can do everyone a lot of good. Reading those could certainly help people from saying their religion/mythology is the "right" one. 

One of my dad's stories that he has related over the years is that when he was in Iowa and went to bar and asked the waitress for a Griesedieck, he got slapped. The company is apparently going to open a brewery sometime soon. 

I read recently that ABC is reviving The Gong Show. I look forward to that. In that same article, the author relates that both the 20,000 Pyramid and The Match Game were aired this summer, and they'll be back. How the hell did I miss those? 

A listicle about the "20 Saddest Cities" came across my FB feed, so I figured to click away. Some of my quick takeaways are the following:

• Don't move to Ohio.
• I'm surprised St. Louis and Indy are on it.
• Knoxville is supposed to be great, I'm told.
• Detroit and Buffalo are not surprising.
• Same goes for Birmingham.
• I like Louisville, and how can it be sad with easy access to such a diversity of bourbon?  
• Memphis has the second-highest violent crime rate in the nation? Wow.

Random Notes from a Crank

Austin City Limits hasn't been doing much for me lately, but the latest episode introduced me to a band I had never heard before, White Denim. It's like Southern-tinged prog rock. Me like. 

Lately I've been thinking about either-or decisions/dilemmas:

• Cleaning the bathroom vs. cleaning out the garage
• Explosive diarrhea vs. talking about religion with your mother-in-law
• Explaining what an agnostic is vs. explaining the Gospel of Thomas and why it didn't get into the Bible to a conservative Christian
• Vodka vs. Rum (both are really poor choices)
• Keg stand vs. beer bong
• Donald Trump vs. Ross Perot
• The tax-exempt status of churches vs. corporate welfare
• Listening to someone talk about his or her love for Wilco vs. Listening to someone talk about his or her love for Taylor Swift 
• Someone making comments about teachers getting the summer "off" vs. someone making comments that it's the teacher's fault, not the student's
• Calling someone out on their underlying racist comments vs. calling someone out on their underlying sexist comments

Election season is fast upon us. My fantasy is that Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders runs as an independent, Donald Trump runs as an independent, and whichever clown they choose wins the Republican nomination. I don't know who I would bet on if I had money to bet. 

I belong to a mass group on Facebook called "You Might Be From Waterloo/Cedar Falls Iowa If Your Remember..." A recent post talked about Bishop's Buffet at Crossroads Mall. My parents and I ate at that place all the time. We were regulars. It was one of those old style cafeterias. You'd slide along your tray and pick out what you want. The line would begin with salads. Then it would be desserts and breads. Then you'd turn, and next were entrees followed by sides and drinks. It was a good place to get my pie fix taken care of. Below is a three-part photo array of the place. 

This photo below is from after they renovated, maybe sometime in the late 90s. 

Random Notes from a Crank

If recent hiring practices in MLB are any indication, in the distant future maybe I can become a major league baseball manager. Good luck Marlins. 

This week I planted a number of plants that repel mosquitoes. On the back patio I have a little garden that has rosemary, lemon thyme, mint, and basil. Then in a couple of medium-size pots, I have some lavender. In the big pot right now I only have rosemary, but I'm waiting for when the citronella plants hit the stores. The bonus of the little garden spot is that I can use those herbs in dishes. Might have to try my hand making a mint julep. 

Tonight when I was driving IL backroads I got nostalgic about the old foot clicker that cars used to have for turning on and off the brights. I'd pay extra for that feature on a new car. 

Minor league baseball put on a "Clash of the Caps." The El Paso Chihuahuas won, but I'm partial to the Montgomery Biscuits, Orem Owlz, Chattanooga Lookouts, Hillsboro Hops, and Lansing Lugnuts. 

Stay Positive: The Bookmobile

I belong to a group on FB called "You Might Be From Waterloo/Cedar Falls If You Remember." Today someone had a post about remembering the library's Bookmobile. 

That photo is an older one, but I fondly remember the Bookmobile. One day a week it would park at a strip mall a block from my house, and my mom or dad would take me to it. 

I thought it was so great -- a bus full of books that traveled around the city delivering knowledge. From my perspective now, I really admire how my mom got me hooked on reading at an early age and supported me. Not enough kids have parents who do that kind of work. 

And I'm trying to pass on my mom's practices to my kids. 

Random Notes from a Crank

A) As I write this portion of the post, I'm sitting here at gate B14 as I wait for my plane to arrive to take me to Charlotte and then Greenville, SC for a conference. 

I suspect the flight will be delayed some because of the weather in NC. 

I haven't been in a book store in a while, so went into an airport bookstore and discovered Neil Gaiman has a book of short fiction out and David O. Stewart has a new book published called Madison's Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America. I really enjoyed Stewart's American Emperor: Aaron's Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America. I suspect I'll be picking up those books soon but probably after I at least finish Wendell Berry's Our Only World.

B) It's been over a decade since I've been in the Charlotte airport back when I was routed through there for various job interviews in '02. I had forgotten how big the airport is. And hot. They have the heat turned up way too high. And it's full of slow walkers. As usual, the airport's white rocking chairs were fully used in the atriums. 

C) I'm here in Greenville, and it's snowing like hell. 

Stay Positive: NYPD Blue

I have DirectTV, and one of the channels I've been wandering into is channel 500, the Audience channel. 

This past weekend the channel was playing a strong loop of NYPD Blue episodes. Now I'm taping it as a series. 

Of the cop shows out there, I have a top two: Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. I'm throwing out The Wire, which was outstanding, because it's a HBO show. The other two are non-cable channel offerings, a different category in my mind. 

I picked up watching NYPD Blue when Sipowicz's partner was Bobby Simone played by Jimmy Smits. I think I only caught a couple of episodes of the first two seasons when David Caruso played John Kelly. 

Right now the channel is in the part of the series where the main characters are Sipowicz, Simone, Russell (who just turned down Simone on a marriage offer), Martinez, and Fancy. 

I look forward to watching more episodes as the weeks and months churn along. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Maybe it's just me, but often when I sit and watch my son do taekwondo, I want to yell out, "Sweep the leg." 

The other week I got a new book: Zen Pencils. If you like comics and inspirational quotations, you should check it out. 

I think we all should try to dance like the kids in A Charlie Brown Christmas. 



Of all of the fictional characters out there, Snoopy has to be in the top twenty. 

As college newspaper editorials go, this is one I enjoyed reading even though Inhofe and a like-minded cohort of idiots make me angry and frustrated: "It's Time We Call the Science Deniers What They Are." 

Music Friday: "Green Machine"

This week I've been playing the heck out of an old album, Kyuss's Blues for the Red Sun circa 1992. 

Back in the 90s, my buddy Roy and I went to a show in Columbia, MO and saw a triple bill of these bands: Kyuss, Biohazard, and Fishbone. It was excellent, and as much as I'm a huge fan of Fishbone, Kyuss was the band that really impressed both Roy and me. 

So today I offer up "Green Machine." Listen to it, and you can thank me later. 

Music Friday: "Elvis Went to Hollywood," "John Appleseed's Lament," & "Raining in Baltimore"

This week I stumbled upon the fact that the Counting Crows have a new album, Somewhere Under Wonderland. It came out this month. 

I snapped it up. It's a pretty darn good if you like the Counting Crows, which I always have. 

August and Everything After is one of those albums that brings me back to a certain time and place in my life. I heard "Mr. Jones" played a lot at my fraternity house. I might have even danced to it while cavorting with women and buzzed by Schlitz, which is a key to getting me to dance. 

The final song is from the their first major release. I remember my friend and brother Roy telling me that "Raining in Baltimore" was his favorite song on that album. When that song played at his funeral, I broke down crying. I miss that ginger-haired, music-trivia-knowin', goofy-ass, argumentative, loquacious bastard. 

And I say "bastard" with love. 

Random Notes from a Crank

It's come to that time of the year when I'm so desperate for college football that I'm watching a NFL preseason game. I feel so pathetic. 

On Tuesday, the OED Online Word of the Day was "monkey parade." It's a noun, and here's the definition: "An evening promenade of young people, esp. for the purpose of meeting members of the opposite sex." Because I've lived in college towns for good portion of my life ~ Kirksville, MO; Tuscaloosa, AL; and Charleston, IL ~ I recognize these parades. Monkey parades are especially prominent in small towns when college kids travel on foot to a keg parties. I've observed many of them. 

I've been making pickles close to every day since my pickling cucumbers have been producing, which is three weeks or so now. I've been experimenting with different ratios of types of vinegar (hint: go heavy on the cider vinegar and light on the white vinegar) and experimenting with hot peppers in the mix. I did one jar with a serrano pepper and a couple others with jalapenos. Mrs. Nasty tried the serrano-infused pickles the other day. She hung in there, but she said they were pretty hot. I tried them too. They're hot, but serranos impart wicked good flavor. I've also thought about making a jar with three peppers marinating the cucumbers ~ a serrano, a jalapeno, and cayenne. I think I'll call it my "walk into a bar..." recipe. You see, a serrano, a jalapeno, and a cayenne walk into a bar, and... [you fill in the blank]. 

In October, we head up to Iowa to see my parents for their celebration of their 65th wedding anniversary. I hope Mrs. Nasty and I stick around long enough to have a 65th wedding anniversary. 

While I enjoyed The Wolverine movie, reading the comic books series from 1982 was quite a treat. I was somewhat right on what they kept from the comic book for the movie. Regardless, I'm a bit of purist, so I prefer the original comic book storyline, especially because it brings in the rest of the X-Men at the end (for a wedding that goes wrong). With all that said though, the movie reinterprets the Logan/Wolverine character in a thoughtful way. 

After reading the full series of The Northlanders by Brian Wood, I got into his most recent work, The Massive. It's good. I'm looking forward to the second volume. 

Stay Positive: Old Advertising

What you see above is my recent purchase from eBay. For over a decade, I've had a couple of framed Schlitz magazine ads from 1951, but I finally got around to getting a beer sign for downstairs. 

The ad on the left is a locker room scene that depicts a victorious golfer pouring "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous" since he's the "Club Champion" of 1951. 

Here's the text of the ad: "Best round I've had all day!" [at the top of the copy] There's no more rewarding beer than Schlitz, and that's not merely a professional opinion. It's the verdict of the people we make Schlitz for--people, like you, who buy the beer that tastes best to them. More people like Schlitz than any other beer. So it's not surprising that  today Schlitz is... The Largest-selling Beer in America 

The one to the right is hilarious. A little cub stole a six pack of Schlitz from a fellow on picnic with his significant other. She's behind a tree in the background with a "Oh my gosh" look on her face.

Here's the copy of the ad: "You may be cute, but I'm thirsty!" [at the top of the text box] If the cub should happen to open one of those cans, he would know why that two-legged creature is growling about losing his package of Schlitz! Once you've enjoyed the special taste of Schlitz--the taste no other beer can match--you'll know why no beer lover likes to lose a single swallow of the Schlitz he has set his heart on. So many people feel this way about Schlitz that it's... The Largest-selling Beer in America

The Plight of the Connected

As many of my readers might know or might have noticed, I work in higher education. I'm around 18-2osome-year-olds every day. Well, not every day now since this week is finals, but you get the drift: I have contact with the "next generation" of America on a cyclical basis. 

And I'm tired of seeing them so fucking connected. 

Last week I was walking down the hall in the academic building I work in. It was right before the 8:00 a.m. class, and I walked right by a classroom with college students waiting for their instructor to open up it for class.

There were probably at least a dozen students waiting there. Every single one of them was looking at their damn smart phones -- texting, surfing, checking out statuses, whatever. 

It's not that I hate smart phones. I don't. Mrs. Nasty has an iPhone, and she uses it all the time to help us out -- looking up stuff, getting directions, etc. 

However, the plight of the connected is that they're constantly tied to and looking at their phones at the expense of other endeavors. 

Take the example I used above -- and it's a real-life one, not a hypothetical. It's close to 8 a.m. in the morning, and they're looking at their phones. Even at that time of the morning, I have better suggestions for college students' time as they wait in the hallway: daydreaming, "resting their eyes," chatting with a classmate, reviewing notes, flirting with someone, rereading material because there might be a quiz, checking out someone's ass, et al.

But no, they're tied to their phones, like the devices are electronic newborns/kids that always have to be checked on, cradled, and helicoptered. 

Meanwhile back in the other tactile world, less face-to-face conversation is happening. 

I, like some others, agree with the solution Sherry Turkle relates at the end of "The Flight from Conversation": "look up, look at one another, and let’s start the conversation."

Her argument and what she relates in her book reminds me of Robert Putnam's points in Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. 

Yes, technology can help community-building initiatives and spur civic engagement. I think that's hard to deny, and I know people could trot out copious examples of how online systems and smart phones have aided and abetted good (and bad) things happening for a community and for individuals. 

However, I am troubled by people being so tied to their phones that they don't notice what's around them, whether it's people, birds, trees, their own reflections, and other aspects of the "environment."

Look up and notice what's happening around you. 

Or just think about something -- reflect and ponder -- instead of being hyper-connected to your phones. Practice mindfulness. 

Wake up from your technological blinders. 

Music Friday: "Lillian, Egypt," "To the Dogs or Whoever," "Change of Time," & "New Lover"

As already noted, I'm all geeked up for the new Son Volt album, but an album I'm also looking forward to that's coming out the same day (this coming Tuesday) is Josh Ritter's The Beast in Its Tracks. 

For today's post, I'm going with one song from each of the Josh Ritter albums I own, with the last one a song from the new album.

To start, below is a fun rendering of "Lillian, Egypt" from The Animal Years. 




And here's Ritter and his band doing their thing on Letterman with "To the Dogs or Whoever" from The Historical Conquests...




The third is a hypnotic tune from So Runs the World Away. 




Finally, here's a song from the new album. It gets me all nostalgic about typewriters because I learned how to type on an IBM Selectric. I'm also a connoisseur of typefaces. Nothing says old school like the font that is Courier. Huzzah for old technology. 

Random Notes from a Crank

The other day I met our new neighbor who moved in across the street. Their family moved to East Central Illinois from Baltimore. And not the suburbs mind you, the city of Baltimore. My neighbor related that she was having a hard time adjusting to our neighborhood being so quiet because they lived in the city where it's noisy all the time. Her kids have also found that they can play on our street instead of only being able to go to public parks out of safety concerns. Later that night I read "Where Are You From?", which was reprinted in Utne. The new neighbor had asked if I'm originally from the town where I now live. However, my answer was that I'm from "Waterloo, Iowa, a city in northern Iowa." I've lived in a number of different places, but I'll always be an Iowan.  

Regardless, these words from Willis seem pertinent: "If we bring ourselves to attend to the place we inhabit now, we can at least say 'I am here,' and treat that hereness with particular humility and alertness to cues we might not otherwise recognize." 

And speaking of the importance of place, this week in a bout of nostalgia, I posted on Facebook about remembering tunes on the jukebox at The Flamingo in Kirksville, MO, a fine establishment some of my readers spent a lot of time at. Or maybe not - I don't remember. 

The post, as I expected, garnered its fair share of replies, with my friends relating their favorite tunes from the tavern. I thought I'd share the ones people posted and ones I remember, some of which I downloaded recently. I could make a mixed tape or something. Here are notable tunes from The Flamingo's jukebox:

• "The Stroke," Clarence Carter
• "The Rodeo Song," Garry Lee
• "John Deere Green," Joe Diffie
• "Crazy," Patsy Cline
• "Convoy," C.W. McCall
• "Ring of Fire," Johnny Cash
• "If That Ain't Country," David Allan Coe
• "Suspicious Minds," Dwight Yoakam
• "Trashy Women," Confederate Railroad