Black Friday Roundup

The beginnings of Black Friday began with another Thanksgiving affair with the Bickerson family to which every year the same thing happens.  Nothing works, the old man complained about the pie and the turkey was dry as a fart and the promise of next year it will be Perkins.

When I was a teenager long time ago, this was a fun and exciting time but as I gotten older the Friday after Thanksgiving turned out to be an exercise in not trying to get into a fist fight with pushy other people trying to get the latest Made In China crap at Wally World,  in fact when it all started late Thanksgiving evening, there was no single parking spot to be found there, not that I didn't venture there, I just saw it from afar.  Black Friday is another corporate attempt to take more $$$ from the working folk and make them think they're saving something.

I went out Friday Night instead and basically it was like any other night, unless your going to the mall or Wally World or Best Buy which the parking spots were filled to capacity.  I managed to stop at Half Priced Books to drop off some unwanted Cds and get 20 dollars for my trouble.  Tomorrow I plan to get rid of more undesirables at the Goodwill.  I met up with Tim at HP Books and we chatted a bit and then I found him REO Speedwagon's Lost In A Dream for 2 dollars that he picked up along with a Redd Foxx comedy cd and Hawaii Five O DVD to which I gave him my coupon for 15 percent off since I didn't find anything of note.  Half Priced Books was so so, not that busy but not too dead either.  Going to Audi's was even more quieter, not that I don't complain about that, I welcomed it myself.  Fun to get in and then out.

As you can tell I have been pretty busy this month blogging a lot more than usual and the ratings seem to be coming through better than last month, there's a good chance of going over 2,000 views.  Last month we actually did clear 1,900 views although the initial count was 1,899 which made me decide that the world had enough of blogs and top tens and other territorial pissings.  And guest bloggers to boot, the Kid Rock review did average but apparently you readers don't think much of country since the top ten dedicated to all country got single digit viewings.  Anyway we're busy doing next week's top ten and it will be back to a little bit of everything.

With Thanksgiving weekend upon us, it also is the start of the winter driving season.  Which means we get heavy fog one night, a blizzard next and the usual dumbfuck drivers all year around but also the GD horny assed deer which tries to get you to buy a new car.  On the way home last night, I not only had one doe pulling out in front of me, a half block down the road from my place a fucking 8 point buck also killed the purple piece of shit once and for all.  To which I thanked God for the guardian angels but also mentioned that next time keep the fucking deer off my way home.  I don't use a gun to haunt deer, just get in a car on a pizza run.  They seem to come out.

The Iowa City bargain hunt is the last of the bargain hunts for this year. Once the snow flies I usually stay close to home and mail order things or EBAY.  But for the first time in a long while I haven't been too gung ho on hitting the road to frequent the music stores, there's simply not much turnaround in used CDs unless it's Half Priced books and although Ragged Records made me happy in finding the hard to find Chicago Line, I wasn't too happy paying 10 bucks for a scratched up Sparks cd.  But I think they'll continue to do well in the future, even after when I finally say that I have it all and don't need to drive so far to get so few.  As long as Davenport has a Big Lots still open, rest assured I'll be around from time to time.  It was suggested I should do St Louis but it's too late in the year and when I did that back in 2000, I had to high tail home before a 12 inch blizzard would bury us till April. 

With this, the Iowa football season mercifully ended with another subpar performance and a 13-7 loss to Nebraska to which the defense finally showed up but the offense didn't.  This will be the last time we will see Jimmy Vandenberg who simply looked lost and didn't arise to expectations.  At least Arizona State did a better job and did beat Arizona to keep the cup for another year.

I have one or two other albums to review before doing a end of year review and the best of 2012 to which won't be read but the 2009 or 2010 version will.  Some people say I take too much stock in the ratings that they don't amount to much and they might be right.

If you looking for a good Christmas gift to give, give them the Led Zeppelin Celebration Day CD or DVD of the legendary and perhaps final get together of Led Zeppelin ever, which was almost five years ago.  I also got the new Dave Matthews Band album but let's face it, I don't think he rocks all that much.  He tends to bore me more often than not.  But surprise surprise, Best Buy had a bunch of the last Frank Zappa remasters, which included for the first time on CD, Mothermania, FZ's reaction album to the half assed one that MGM put out called The Worst Of The Mothers and the infamous Mystery Disc which features the original Mothers Of Invention as they work out songs and skits to put to better use on later efforts.  I'm still trying to make sense of the Frank Zappa discography and may never will before the year is out.

Till then, I'll be a busy boy trying to record it all before the year is out and deciding what fork in the road will I be taking.  Guess you'll have to check back to see where it leads.