I spend too much time on the internet and social media. I tend to use the Record World for news and updates and forty fives found but the since the return of Beaker Street, this has been used for their playlist as well as KCCK's and our very own John Heim keeping that tribute to B.S. alive. I also have The Townedgers' site for documenting the bands that I have been playing in as well as my own adventures. It's a hobby to document the songs that I play as well and take notes of what happen on that day of the open mic or paying gig. Record World started out as a music page on the old Mining Company site and later, moved over to MSN Groups, to which survived for about five years before MSN pulled the plug. And then over to My Space, more blogging that most got deleted after My Space ended blogging there. Blogspot was the last resort although this site has continued to keep the archives alive. I started this in 2001 and to think I wasted almost 20 years of my life trying to keep the memory alive of forgotten music and bands and in the end, all I got out was carpel tunnel and 200 views. It wasn't all a washout, The Brains and Swinging Steaks paid attention and for a short time, they managed to add me to their website in celebrating their music.
In the course of that 20 years, I have witnessed the end of Tower Records, Wherehouse Music, Disc Go Round, Music Go Round, Relics Records, Rock n Bach Records, The Virgin Music Mart and most of all, Hastings Entertainment, which expanded my music collection by about a 1000 CDs in various bargain hunts in Arizona and for a short time, in Kirksville Missouri and Ames Iowa, to which the latter shut their doors ten years ago. FYE still is around but has been on life support and the nearest one is in Illinois and about two and half hours away. A long trek just to waste 20 minutes tops at one in a dying mall. I have seen the vinyl revival and the demise of the CD, like FYE, CDs are still around but are on life support. I have managed to resist temptation and order from Amazon since Moondog Music is close by and Madison's music stores 2 and half hours away, but most of my time I been hitting the junk and thrift stores and still finding great music at cheap prices. The kindness of strangers who donations I have given a new home and perhaps I am waiting till Cds are back in style so I can open my own junk shop in the near future.
2020 has been the year of the COVID, which killed off the music scene, closed the bars down and kept people at home. If there were open mics and jams, the most diehard ventured out and supported them. We wore a mask, we washed our hands and we tried to do our best to keep the music alive. But on the other hand, I ventured out much to the displeasure of my girlfriend, who couldn't stay well enough to venture out. How we managed to stay together is the best of miracles. You'd think after three years she would have given up on me and moved on. Time will tell but we have defied the odds. A miracle in a year of shit.
But the main story here was the Shitstorm of August 10th that changed the face of Cedar Rapids and places west and south. A category 4 land hurricane that destroyed houses, buildings, and 80 percent of the trees, this shit storm was worse than the COVID epidemic. And it ruined my GF's former place and new place. I've never seen anybody go through the ringer that she has the past five years and how she managed to get through her trial and tribulations, that she will earn her angel wings to the great beyond. Five months later, Cedar Rapids is still in tatters but has improved each and every day. But it will be a long time before things will return back to they once was. But my GF is a miracle, she has persevered and fought on, even if her significant other was in the corner pulling for her. To be honest, I did thought she gave up on me and moved on when we didn't speak or see each other for four months.
In that time, I ended up striking up a conversation with a woman who wanted to sing in front of people again and I thought I would encourage her by helping her overcome her fear. I even managed to give her a couple boxes of albums that I was going to donate to Goodwill but she wanted them. It turned out she wanted more than just albums, she got obsessive, to which I finally have to boot her out of my life in October. She couldn't accept the fact that I had a GF and not about to break up. I haven't seen that woman since October and hopefully never will.
Another crisis was that my Sony Discman player died after 15 years of non stop playing it in the the car on bargain hunts. The car CD player always marked the CDs up and I wanted something that didn't do that. I tried about three or four used players till i found a Phillips CD player in August that did the trick and last month another Sony Car discman as well. So I have now a back up player. It's a shame that Sony decided to quit making Discman players. Who knows that 10 years from now the CD might make a comeback and Sony will make cd players again? As much as I like vinyl, I'm not a fan of paying 20 to 30 dollars on what I could have gotten for 8 or 9 dollars 40 years ago. I have noticed that I have been finding more 45s of late. Which is fine by me for it seems I'm returning back to the days that 45s were the only thing that I played before I could afford Lps.
Bargain hunting this year was one of the weirdest that I ever seen. I had to postpone one Madison bargain hunt due to the unrest and protests when George Floyd was shot and killed by a Minneapolis police man and riots broke out on State St in May. The World Naked Bike Ride was postponed due to COVID but the Floyd riots turn State St. in Madison into a war zone. I did make two trips tho, one in June, to which I got to Mad City Music X too late (they closed at 4 instead of 7) and a return trip a month later. The second time I could take a bike to State St, but it looked like a war zone with boarded up wndows and half the businesses closed. After a run in with some white trumper peacenik, I decided I had my fill of the Mad City bargain hunts and called it a day. Trips were limited to Quad Cities, Iowa City and Dubuque to which I was shocked how many 45s I did find and were in good shape.
What defined 2020 was the bitterness of the POTUS election and even worse, the Iowa Senate races, to which the rural farmers decided that having do nothings like Phony Joni Ernst and No Show Ashley Hinson should be in office. While Abby Finkenhauer got raked over the coals by the GOP Pacs and outside lobbyists, Abby did her best getting the information out during the August Shitstorm, while Joni and especially Ashley hid in their own bunker, only to appear when the POTUS made a 15 minute bathroom break in August. And somehow bullshitted enough people to elect her. Which made no sense whatsoever. Even Mariette Miller-Meeks, who couldn't defeat Dave Lobseck, managed to eek out a 9 vote victory over Rita Hart. So that's all we have in our part of the state, worthless GOP women who will do nothing for the common voter. Maybe MMM might be the best of the three stoogettes, but I doubt it. Somehow the ignorant or the Russians (or both) managed to get Moscow Mitch McConnell, Wafflehead Lindsay Graham and a few other GOP do nothings reelected this year.
If 2016 revealed the lack of voters going to the polls and having Donald Trump sneaked in there, with the help of the electorial college, 2020 got everybody off their collected asses and while Trump got 71 million votes, Joe Biden got 77 million at least, to which Trump retreated to the bathroom to complain about the fake voters and fake news on Twitter, or off to play golf every Saturday afternoon, and pardoning just about everybody connected to him or his family. Long before he decided on a whim to run for POTUS, I never liked the guy and even in 2002 I didn't care for the guy. And then the shock of the world as he became POTUS, but he serves the honor of being a two time loser in the President race. The Electorial College got him in the first time, the second time the states he won, he lost. To this day, he continue to sue and deny that he lost. We have less than a month left to put up with his rhetoric, and his nonsense on Twitter. Not that Biden was a better choice, but rather a vote against Trump and his family and friends. Trump got very few of the urban vote but most of the rural vote. Tho, I did give Trump kudos for suggesting that Americans should get 2000 a month (rather than the paultry 600 dollar that McConnell prefer) he continues to pardon the liar and sabotages antics of Paul Manfort, Flynn, Roger Stone and the rest of the money grubbing fucks. He didn't drain the cesspool, he flooded the whole lot.
2020 was the year of death. Matt Blair, Paul Horuning, Gayle Sears, Kevin Greene, Ron Rigby, Don Shula and many others of the NFL, The Cardinals lost not only Bob Gibson but also Lou Brock. And let us not forget the musicians that left this world in 2020: Leslie West, Little Richard, Eddie Van Halen, Jeffrey Jeff Walker, John Prine, Billy Jo Shaver, K T Ostin, Peter Green, Emmit Rhodes, Jamie Ordanker, Neil Peart, just to name a few of many. Granted they were in the 60s, 70s and even 80s but death never takes a day off. Our heroes of the past are now that and it's a sad reminder we all grow old. But never in a year that I have ever seen that so many that I knew would pass on. For myself we lost Aunt Joyce (on my dad's side), Tommy Patterson, (bass player who I would jam on his final appearance at Rumors, and then he passed away in his sleep after getting home), T Ray Robertson, the first jam buddy that I jammed with when I came out of retirement in 2015, to which our final send off to him ended up being poorly attended due to COVID issues and angry ex still pissed at him. He deserved a better tribute. And Irene Leeson, a good neighbor that helped me through my teen years and for her reward got to hear my crappy echophonic tapes when I could barely play. But she supported my music and finally got to hear a decent cassette of Town's Edge Rock, to which she played at my former first love's wedding. The tape was ripped to shreds but Irene made it clear that in the long run, the former first love lost a good guy. To which I owe Irene, my gratitude and a place in my heart. Plus she managed to give me the dollars to buy that Orbit beer can that I wanted during the big beer can craze of 1976.
In sports The Iowa Hawkeyes finished 6-2 after a slow 0-2 start to which they could have played Ohio State for big ten championship had they beat NW. Not playing both halves against NW and Purdue skunked any hopes for a title but Davyon Nixon became a beast at Linebacker. COVID canceled their last two games but Iowa did brighten up the fall with some good football. Next year Nixon will try his hand at NFL football.
As for the Chicago Cubs......Theo Epstein retired, Jeb Hoyer replaced him and started up a fire sale, getting rid of ace pitcher Yu Durvish an Vic Canatini to San Diego for Zac Davies and four prospects which won't turn out to be worth a shit. David Ross became manager and got some mileage out of the Cubs as they had a great April, but in usual fashion, The Cubs quit hitting and even after winning the Division, got shut out in the playoffs to the below 500 Miani Marlins. The typical story of this team since 2015. Sure they won the WS in 2016, but years afterwards, the power lineup of Kyle Schwarber, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Jason Heyward, Ian Happ, either hit home runs by the score, or they didn't score at all. The 2018 Cubs had just about more one run or less games than the Pathethic Orioles. And the power outage always seem to happen during the playoffs, to which last year Joe Maddon was let go and now this season Yu Darvish was shipped off against his wishes. Perhaps leaving WGN (Chicago, not the fucked up Superstation that showed COPS reruns) was a jinx, but the Marquee Network (in conjure with the Sinclair network, in the same league as One America News Network) turned out to be a bust as well. With Albert Amora Jr, John Lester and Schwarber gone, it looks to be 2021 is the beginning the rebuilding era again and nightmares of being a last place team forthcoming. Who would have thought that Owner Ricketts would be the new PK Wrigley. But in the case of Yu Darvish, he'll get to be on a team that will challenge the LA Dodgers, which did rebuild and got stronger whereas the Cubs got weaker. Look for the fire sale to continue in Cubs land.
So basically with another snowstorm to fuck up the rest of 2020, the weather sucked from the extreme storms that we received. The hope is that 2021 will be a much better year. The world needs it and my girlfriend needs it.
PS. as of 12/30. I have heard that Alto Reed, passed away from cancer at age 74. Reed was the sax player for the Silver Bullet Band. And you already know, Lesley West checked out last Saturday from a heart attack. He's now jamming with Felix Papparlardi once again.
While we were stuck at home, with another shit storm, a foot of fucking white snow Tuesday, Jordan Bohannon showed up to knock down 6 3 point baskets to help Iowa blow out the up and coming Northwestern Wildcats 87-72 Luka Garza only had 18 points but the other hawkeyes stepped up. Best of all, both Bohannon and Garza made all their FTs. Hawks are off to Rutgers on Saturday.
