Goodwill Finds Of The Day-Leave The Brat At Home Version

What was found;

The Bluerunners (Island 1991) 

Portishead-Roseland NYC Live (Go Beat/London 1998) 

Grateful Dead-Dozing At The Knick (Grateful Dead 1990)

Mekons-So Good It Hurts (Twin Tone 1988) 

Hoarding can be an art.  Among the Hootie and Blowfish, among the sacred music and gospel artists, among the forgotten rappers and the usual Billy Joel and Elton John Greatest Hits 1 and 2, sometimes I get lucky and find off the wall stuff.  Even tho, the Goodwill didn't have much to offer one week, come back the next and you are rewarded with good music.

I wasn't pleased of finding Roky Erickson The Evil One with the CD missing, but somebody gave away some choice blues from the likes of Robert Cray, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and the 2 CD Lightning Hopkins collection on EMI that the CDs were in great shape, but I didn't really need that.  Dozing At The Knick was the surprise find, 3 CDs for a 1.88 and everything in tact.  There was also music from the Silos, a rare find of Worlds In Collusion by Pere Ubu (but I had that one), Pavement Wowie Zowie and two of the 3 CD Bob Dylan Biograph album.  Like the last Goodwill hunt on the other side of town that gave us the classic rock of Beatles, Seals And Crofts and Simon Garfunkel, this one was more alternative rock.  At least somebody was listening to Tommy Keene.

For a Saturday afternoon find, that had me running to the toilet after too many pizza slices, I had to deal with somebody's brat riding around Goodwill on a two wheeler, while their dumb fuck parents, mom with the grotesque blue hair and bad tattoos and the ignorant beer belly husband with another screaming kid, I guess I was rewarded with good music to put up with the Stupids.   I never seen So Good It Hurts in the bargain bins anywhere.  

The Bluerunners album is a Cajun answer to Los Lobos, tho if Dash Rip Rock had a accordion and listened to zydeco than rock is a better term.  Not sure why Island would give a contract to a band like Bluerunners but perhaps it's Chris Blackwell's last gasp of keeping the label as eclectic before Polygram bought him out and got swallowed up by Universal.  For a cult album, it's fun, not essential but perhaps had I got the Wowie Zowie Pavement album and played that back to back it would make more sense.

The all star break is here and  The Cubs got a much needed rained out to rest up.  The team has been beat up and with lack of starting pitching (only Kyle Hendricks has been the best starter that could last more than 5 innings) has started to catch up on a overused bullpen that was once the best in the MLB.  The Cubs fire sale hasn't started yet.  The Good:  Hendricks (who started out poorly in April and now has won 11 straight decisions)  Craig Kimbrel (0,57 ERA, the best stopper in baseball) and Andrew Chapin (the self proclaimed best failed starting pitcher but lights out in middle relief) are the three pitchers that have kept the Cubs away from the crapper basement.  The bad:  a starting lineup that either hit solo shot home runs or strike out with runners on bases and the most erratic ways of scoring that makes the dreaded 2019 Cubs look better., 32 games this season the Cubs have scored 2 or fewer runs, with 8 shutouts to boot.   The remaining core of the 2016 Cubs WS team continue to swing for the fences but only strike out more than they connect.  Wilson Conteras, the only Cubs catcher that can hit, is worn out, striking out 3 times in another shutout.  Leave it to the brains of the team dealing Canatini with Yu Darvish away for unproven prospects and the catcher backups striking out more than the pitchers on the staff.   The shuttle to Des Moines  from Chicago is 24/7, Kohl Stewart, picking up frequent flyer miles on U Turns.   The Ugly:  Jake Arrieta, who had a hamstring problem that has hampered him since May but the glaring fact is that he simply doesn't have it any more, after blowing a 7-0 lead to Milwaukee and then former team Philadelphia lit him up for another 7 runs in another blowout.   That might have seal his release from the Cubs but they placed him on IR.   Hapless Ian Happ who strikes out more than El K, Baez and frustrated Cubs fans booing him and wonder why he didn't get let go but Kyle Schwarber did, (kyle was on a hot HR streak before he got injured). Anthony Rizzo's cranky back and Kris Bryant who got hurt too and hasn't been the same.    And the on and off Patrick Wisdom and Joc Pederson, who will be sent somewhere before play starts up after the All Star break.   There has been comparisons with the 1973 Cubs, a team that started out hot and then fell apart in July and having the hated Mets come up from last place to win the division before losing to Oakland in the WS.  The 73 Cubs were like the 69 team, a roster of beloved faves that all of sudden got older and couldn't hit or pitch anymore.  The 2021 Cubs are beginning to look a lot like them. 

A year after they painted the mural to George Floyd, A lightning strike took out the Floyd's face but left Gil Scott Heron's in tact.  This was in Toledo.  The building remained in tact but the owner will tear the whole mural down.