Random Thoughts: TE Radio 13, Do It Yourself Social Media

It was a busy week, even as I was working both Saturday & Sunday, trying to earn back the money that was lost due to health care issues and car payments and basically missed out on the Sunday Rumors Popcorn Jam featuring Tiffany Z and the Acoustic Kitties hosting the jam.  Last time they did this, I was paired up with two of the finest musicians in town in Tommy Bruner and Jess Toomsen as Ross wailed away on Sitting On Dock Of The Bay.  One thing stood out, that I have been called the loudest drummer in jam sessions by a few of the faithful.  So I gave everybody's ears a rest while I worked the full weekend and the Acoustic Kats and Tiffany Z played to a packed house.  With all the songs that played by women singers the one that gets played most often is 4 Non Blondes What's Up, one of the worst one hit wonder songs of the 1990s.  Sure Linda Perry wrote and sang it but I have never a fan of that song then, nor now.  It's very screechy and mundane but in each jam session that one comes up.  Or somebody trying to sing Bobby McGee like Janis and sounding like a cat caught in a vacuum cleaner.  I still hold out hope that somebody will dust off Jennifer Trynin's Better Than Nothing in a future show, and if that woman is single and sings Better Than Nothing, I better marry her.

Most of the faithful did show up, except for the Starks who were playing a Sunday Afternoon gig in Walford as the Dunshee Moon and their shows are always fun to go.  Once the overtime at work winds down I'll be able to return to the Sunday Jams and perhaps the next time Julie Jules Gordon and company hosts it.

Football this season has been a tale of two different teams.  Arizona State which despite the return of Steve Bercovici has underachieved and Utah blew them out in a late game to which some grammar nazi was complaining about my use of words about the Utes being penciled in as champs of the Pac 12 South on a Twitter page.  Social media is a waste of time and carpel tunnel, even with 38,000 pointless tweets I don't have many followers outside of the robots that come in and out as followers.  I'm guessing BSB, whoever he is might be a Sun Devil fan or not,   After the third exchange I told him better write it in stone bud, the Utah running back just ran 62 yards for another TD in line that Utah came from a 18-14 deficient to score 20 unanswered points and a 34-18 going away victory.  Poor punts, fumbles and a lack of discipline turned out to be the Sun Devils fate.  Which means that Utah leads the division by 2 games and Arizona State, which got upstaged by USC and a drunk ex coach on national TV, can still play for a decent bowl but in any means winning the division is all but done.

The Iowa Hawkeyes are now 7-0 after taking it to Northwestern 40-10 and they continue to roll on despite key injuries and losing Drew Ott for the season.  Rick Canzeri, the hero of last week's win over Illinois got hurt in the first half and was replaced by Akrum Wadley, who rushed for 204 yards and four TDs and was named most valuable player by the big ten this weekend.  But of course, with the undefeated 7-0 comes out the know it alls at ESPN crying about the soft teams that Iowa is playing, nevermind that Baylor and TCU play in the big 12 and loaded up on cupcake teams as well. Which explains the high price of programming of cable, that you have to pay a washed out college sensation turned NFL flash in the pan crying about Iowa playing Cupcakes.  Illinois State is one of the best teams in the lesser division, and Pittsburgh who Iowa beat by Marshall (Can't make an extra point) Koehn's 57 yard field goal is 5-1 as well.  Being 7-0 at this time is a miracle upon itself by the Hawkeyes since they were picked to be in a rebuilding mode.  CJ Bethared continues to win games, even though he's been beaten up by the opposing team with a O line that are made up with makeshift players replacing injured starters, James Daniels a true freshman who got eaten up by Joe Shoebert in the Wisconsin win, came into his own as he moved Northwestern players out of the way for big gains by Wadley and the backup Derek Mitchell who ran into gaping holes in the Northwestern defense line for big yards.   While the snooty continues to be indifferent about the "soft" remaining teams Iowa has left, they are not as all cupcakes as they say, Minnesota still has Floyd of Rosedale, Indiana is still tough at home despite somehow blowing the game with Rutgers and Nebraska is still Nebraska.  With a much needed bye week to get C J some healing time, Iowa still remains in the driver's seat to get to the title game, to which ESPN announcers will jump on Ohio State or Michigan State or Michigan bandwagon without a second thought.  Even though Northwestern started out 5-0, major injuries has caused them to get shut out by Michigan last week and the defense had no answer for the Wadley running game.  Still, five games remain and despite the brain damaged ESPN flash in the pan college stars and NFL Failures of the past tell you, none are cupcakes, Minnesota still has Floyd, Indiana despite blowing the Rutgers game still hold their own at home and Nebraska always gives the Hawkeyes a game regardless. Going undefeated remains one of the hardest things to do in college football but the Hawks should at least win 10 games.  And they get this week off to heal up.  And they need some healing time.  Just don't listen to the ESPN hacks on your days off.

Of course the game of the week was seeing Michigan State win on the final play on a muffed punt snap and return for a TD to which Jalen Watts-Jackson  who ran it back is out the rest of the year getting hurt on that romp into the end zone.  But Social Media would like to kill the punter who muffed the ball. Blake O'Neill forever linked to Steve Bartman and whoever else got blamed for blowing ball games in the end. In fact the Michigan State equipment team already had the trophy to the locker room before the last play of the game.  While social media would like to hang the punter who dropped the ball, a finger should be pointed at the Michigan coach for not running the time out even with Michigan State with one time out remaining,  they should have ran it out, thus winning the game.  But strange things do happen in games, and some turn out to be star players of the moment in Watts-Jackson and some forever tainted in history by one play (O'Neill), and alas, Jim Harbargh who will somehow get out of this mess sooner than O'Neill later.  Beat Ohio State and Jim still be voted in as Governor.   That's football.

The social media outlets of Twitter, Instragram, Facebook and others is overrated in order to get the word out.   And in the 14 years of being on social outlets, the fan base and readership has never gotten over a a select few faithful readers and many spam artists and ghost followers who really don't bring anything to the table in comments.  But that's where I get the news from, social media outlets.  Corporate news stations like FOX or CNN is propaganda with five minute commercial breaks for Big Pharma and it's gotten to the point that it's not worth turning the TV on anymore.  To dedicate 14 years of my life to keep things from the past from going away completely and mentioning bands and 45s deserving of some recognition, this don't pay anything and sometimes I wonder if it's worth the effort.   The Singles Going Steady blogs, Forgotten Bands of yesterday and the My City Is Gone series are the ones that people seem to read more often than not.  Or maybe perhaps it's Blogspot way of saying that posting 155 views from Russia makes it worthwhile to continue.  Record World is me and nobody else and after posting a blog, I'm off to compile for the next and it's a hobby that I must love.  It certainly don't pay the bills.  It seems to me though, the major news I get from Facebook, is basically a lot of Left Vs Right clash of ideas, Trump Vs Bernie, Bernie Vs Hillary, Hillary Vs Trump etc etc etc. and even my left wing friends tend to get on my nerves as well.   Likewise, the ones who post Share If Your' Proud of Your Daughter, Son, Grand Daughter, Grand Son bla blah.  Or the threat of Share if you love Jesus/God, scroll/Ignore if you love the devil, bullshit like that.  Basically God and Jesus have other things to do than seeing if  5 billion people with facebook accounts scroll past such idiot memes and posters that somebody had nothing better to do than post idiot things such as Share or Scroll.  With wars going on, and Donald Trump still breathing there are more important things to worry about.  Or to have some grammar Nazi on Twitter saying you put the wrong word down on some pointless twitter tweet nobody gives a fuck about. If you have a good son and daughter so be it, we don't need to be reminded of it 24/7.   I do believe in a God, and he's a very patient and loving and forgiving God since he has to put up with my antics.  In the long run, it you get the same results if you post meme's saying share this pile of money and you'll get some soon.  Which is what we call around here pay day.  That would be this Friday.  It'd be nice to get that money that they posted in the memes but then again most of those pictures are total bullshit anyway. (see below)

The reality: (see below)

Still, the question remains if it's worth it to develop carpel tunnel to write weekly blogs and tweet and post nonsense on Facebook and thinking I'm making a difference.  The logical conclusion continues to be hit and miss and 99 percent of all blogs pass by without any comments.  Of course you can still post a comment here but the rules apply that no bashing or touting RayBeens or Porn sites. And that I take a look and approve them, well about 98 percent of them. It's fun to chat and talk music, not so much if you're dealing with a Trump fan or FGL/Bro Country fan.  Once in a while we'll strike a chord (Mom's Apple Pie, Swinging Steaks, Delta Moon/Brains) and the intention realized that somebody else cares about those bands or certain 45s and LPs.  So I keep plugging away, knowing that most blogs are a failed effort 99 percent of the time but that 1 percent of getting noticed is probably why I keep going. And fighting carpel tunnel and bad penmanship writing away from the keyboards.....

Georgia Van Berkum, one of our long time neighbors in Marion passed away, she was in Hospice after fighting cancer a while....James Benford passed away at age 91, he was a code breaker during the wars, I briefly dated his daughter Belinda a couple times in the mid 80s, thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family....And Jeanne Oldenburger, wife to Darrel of Darrell's TV in Marion and mother to the late Randy Oldenburger has gone to join her son into  the great beyond. She was 73....John Jennings, Nashville singer songwriter passed away from kidney cancer he was 61.

Cory Wells, one of the vocalists in Three Dog Night died Tuesday Night, the guess was a heart attack but if and when the updates come in, I'll post them.  He was 74

In 1920, Alberta Peat was born, later known as LaWanda Page.  Monday would have been her 95th birthday. One of my favorite comedians of all time, LaWanda when teamed up with Redd Foxx on Sanford and Sons would have a comedy war of jokes and barbs thrown at one another.  LaWanda is famous for recording some of the most X rated backroom comedy albums of the late 50s and early 60s and could rival Redd Foxx for most offensive.  But that's what I like about LaWanda Page.  Her albums could make Eddie Murphy look tame in comparison.

So much for the Chicago Cubs season as they once again got shut out of winning a game in the Championship Series and nobody could get Daniel Murphy out as he hit home runs in every fucking game.   The new Donn Clendenon so to speak.  Just like 1969 all over again.  Doesn't help the fact that The Mets lead in every game and scored in the first inning all four games. It shouldn't matter that the Cubs took out Pittsburgh and St Louis in the playoffs and nobody expected them to finish this far late in the year.  So with that, we'll remember the ultimate year that the Cubs had this year and hope they can build upon that.  And quit blaming goats, overzealous fans and other assorted bullshit that the media brings up.  Yet another team that was better to make it to the world series, been that way since 1945.

Hello Ivy Doomkitty ;-)

Choice Reviews:

The Chambers Brothers-The Time Has Come (Columbia 1968)

Probably their best album overall, The Chambers Brothers tended to add too much filler on their LPs and even their best ofs  tend to wear out their welcome but they ended up with a classic in Time Has Come Today and it's 11 minute glory.  Like the rest of the world I was brought up on the 4:45 edit that AM used to play late night.  However, remarkable B side People Get Ready is quite soulful and shows the Chambers' gospel roots.  Lesser known minor hit Uptown written by the future Mrs. Miles Davis is a pretty good James Brown sound.   I might be in the minority but I still love the two chord rump through In The Midnight Hour with the call and response the last couple minutes.  I have the original CD version, which leaves out the bonus tracks and you're probably better off to start there rather than the Best Of.  For Hippy Dippy Soul Music, you can't beat it.
Grade B+

The Dickies-The Incredible Shrinking Dickies (A&M 1979)

You heard of punk? This is Twit. So sez Robert Christgau in his brief and too the point seven word summary of this album.  And if you're not careful, this will grate on your nerves.  So, granted the twit punk explosion didn't take root in 1979 and even LA Punks didn't think highly of their sped up version of Paranoid by Black Sabbath and turn around and did speed punk versions of She and Eve Of Destruction. Not a lot of thought, just play fast and think of silly things to say I gather, and it's over in less than a half hour.  Best song is not You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla) but Waterslide, to which The Dickies become, for the first and only time, real punk rockers and not twits.  Overall a silly album.  As for The Fabulous Poodles and Christgau calling them twerps, that's another matter.
Grade B-

Townedger Radio Broadcast Show Number Lucky 13 (Broadcast 10/21/15) Lucky Star Radio.
https://www.mixcloud.com/LuckyStarRadio/townedger-radio-13/

Playlist:

Listen To Her Heart-Tom Petty
Hearts In Her Eyes-The Searchers
Shadow Boy-Scruffy The Cat
For What It's Worth-Dave Bonham
Let's Work Together-The Townedgers
I Know You Rider-The Grateful Dead
50 Foot Queenie-P J Harvey
I'd Rather You Didn't Love Me-Willie Nelson
Kansas City Southern-Dillard/Clark Exposition
Long Time Gone-The Townedgers
Once In A While-Rod Albaugh And The Fluid
Me And The Boys-NRBQ
Mona Lisa Overdrive-Head Candy
Coast To Coast-Ducks Deluxe
It's The Law-Social Distortion
Boobs A Lot-The Fugs
Oh Well-The Rockets
Love Struck Baby-Stevie Ray Vaughan/Double Trouble