Cedar Rapids is a stinky town for sure. Out by highway 30 you have the sewage treatment plant, in town you have Quaker Oats, Penford Products and Cedar River Paper and perhaps the biggest stink place of all is PMX Industries. Driving by there on the way to Taco Time, the smell is damn gastly that I just about lost my lunch. It makes anyplace else smell like roses. Anyway, here's a link about our distinction. Or Dis Stink Tion ;-)
http://petergreenberg.com/2008/11/17/dont-go-there-5-stinky-places/
1. Right Place, Wrong Time-Dr John 1973 Thought I start you out with a modern day classic rock song from the good doctor. Recorded with the glorious Meters.
2. Atomic Hearts-Secret Machines 2008 Contrary to rumour, I'm playing the new Secret Machines album and think it's a improvement over Ten Silver Drops. Critics don't seem to like them since they sound too progressive rock and have plenty of Hawkwind influence. What do they know? Despite it being a digipak I did picked it up and am grooving to it.
3. Ain't No Fun Waiting Around To Be A Millionare- AC DC 1976 From Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, this shows more boogie from Bon and the boys than usually considered. Hard to figure that Bon was only with the band for seven years while Brian Johnson has been there for 28.
4. Lightning Strikes/Can I/Face To Face-Yes 1999 The Ladder is one of the best later day Yes albums that came out that nobody heard much, although Beaker Street plays this medley from time to time. Hearing the live House Of Yes made me go back to pull out The Ladder and hear it again. For a prog rock band Yes could sound pop at times.
5. I Wonder-The Townedgers 2008 Probaly one of the more unfriendler TE albums out there, I did listen to it on the way to work yesterday and still think it's one of the best albums that they put out. But only a select few of you know that.
6. Legend Of The USS Titantic-Jamie Brockett 1969 Too bad Celine Dion never did a cover of this song. ;-)
7. Come Back June-Pussy 1969 That's right kiddies, there was a band called Pussy that made a import only album that only a few diehard Prog Rock fans knew about and made enough waves for it to be issued on CD. Certainly you're not going to see this come from Rhino or Hip O Select, hell the Hip O folks don't seem to think The Brains are worthy of reissue so what makes you think they're going to reissue Pussy? This band sounded like a cross between Uriah Heep and Pink Floyd via Piper at The Gates Of Dawn. If you're looking for the album it's called Pussy Plays and it was the only album that they ever released in their short career. Starman sent me a copy of this album since I have to hear it and knew if I wanted it from Amazon I'd have to pay thirty bucks for it. (now kiddies, this is where you insert funny punch line here.........)
8. Perfectly Good Guitar-John Hiatt 1993 Probaly the only time John beat Neil Young in this Crazy Horse sounding number which got some airplay on worthless real rock station KRNA back around the early 90s. Don't get me started on KRNA, for more about that you can read the blog Dammed By The Radio at rscrabb.multiply.com. (Patronizing promo there folks)
9. Midnight Mary-Joey Powers 1966 Little known top forty number from somebody that you could hear on the better oldies radio stations out there. I like to sing along with the chorus sometimes.
10. Whatever You Decide-Randy Van Warmer 1980 Best known as Just When I Needed You Most, the late RVW had this followup hit that didn't chart but it's a nice forgotten power pop classic from a 45 that I got cheap at the old Marion TV and Records store. Collector's Choice Music reissued Randy's albums on 2 on 1 CDs last year. Go out and discover it. ;-)
And congratulations to the Marion Girls Volleyball Team for beating Mount Vernon to win the 3A Title. If I was in high school 30 years ago, I'd have been down at the five seasons center to root them on. Go Indians!
Results for the great chili cookoff at Pearson 2008
Interesting to be name judge of the Pearson annual Chili Cookoff this month. I got a chance to test four different kinds of chili and have to say that it was very hard to pick a winner but the winner will be announced on Monday. Of course Steve, our senior at work, found out about my judging and told me which one was his (the spicy one). One had chicken and corn bits to it, the other my boss cooked up and it was kind of a mild flavor and easy on the guts. The Chicken Chili wasn't too bad but the one I picked had enough onions and tomato to make it pretty tasty, but everything tasted better when I combined all four of the chilis into one bowl. Yum. The biggest complaint was that the crackers were stale. Yuk.
Again thanks be to the kind folk for letting me judge a bit and getting a good meal out of it (although I did kick in another two bucks for seconds) ;-)
And the winners are.
Dan Moyer-1st place
Steve Rasmussen-2nd place
John Allen-3rd place
