Flip, Blog & Fly

...I don't care if I die!  Great drinking song, btw...

WEATHER OR NOT
Okay, they had a massive ice storm in New England that put millions in the dark this week, it snowed in New Orleans and we're getting January weather here already and winter doesn't even start officially for another week.  A nice little cold front is supposed to charge through here tomorrow afternoon and drop the temps. about 40 degrees by tomorrow night and it's not even going to get out of the teens on Monday.  Time to recite my annual refrain:  Global Warming, my ass!!

CAN YOU SAY "SNAKEBIT"?
For the fourth straight year, the Northwest Missouri State Univ. Bearcats lost in the Division II championship game today in Florence, Alabama, this time to Minnesota-Duluth, 21-14.  Unlike the first three times, however, this game wasn't a heartbreaker that got away from them late—NWMS struggled all day long on offense and turned the ball over way too often.  Now the Bearcats will go down in infamy with the Buffalo Bills for reaching the title game four straight times and losing it.

DENNIS YOST, 1943-2008
Here's a name that might've slipped through the cracks for you in the news this week, but sadly, singer Dennis Yost of the Classics IV passed away this week at age 65 of respiratory failure in Cincinnati.  He'd been in nursing homes since a 2005 fall left him with brain damage.  Yost had such a smooth voice on those Classics IV classics "Spooky", "Stormy" and "Every Day With You, Girl", among others, in the late '60s.  Unfortunately, his career stalled out when the group broke up.  Rest in peace, Dennis.

END OF AN ERA—I GUESS...
It was announced this week that 2008 will be the final year for the TD Pack Band, the Kansas City Chefs' in-house stadium band that originated in 1963 when the team moved here from Dallas.  The band is being disbanded mostly because the team decided not to include a space for them to play in the remodeling plans for Arrowhead Stadium.  The band was originally led by 96-year-old trumpeter Tony DiPardo, who has been one of the team's most beloved and ardent boosters, throughout good times and bad, and his daughter Patti now leads the group after Tony's retirement some years ago.  Sadly, the quality of the music has declined since he stepped aside, and about all they play now is "Duh-duh-da-dut-da-DAHHH!"

Meantime, one of our local TV stations broke this story at 5AM the other morning after it snowed here the night before and I tuned in to get the latest road conditions.  These fools actually sent one of their reporters out to Arrowhead to deliver to us this "Breaking News", never mind that it was pitch-black outside and you couldn't even see the bloody stadium in the background!  Yeah, that really enhances your credibility there...

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO "HUH?!?"—PART I
During a visit to Border's books the other night, in the CD section I came across one of those "20 Century Masters" best-of CDs for Swing Out Sister.  The "Breakout" group?!?  They had one lousy hit (and it most definitely was lousy!) and they rate a greatest-hits package?  Oh-bee, kay-bee...

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO "HUH?!?"—PART II
During that same visit to Border's the other night, in the DVD section, there was one shelf labeled "Cult Classics", and on that shelf was that legendary Danny Bonaduce flick, H.O.T.S.!  Cult classic?  Which cult is this, the cult of people that need two hours to watch "60 Minutes"?

CLASSIC MISHEARD LYRIC #103
"Can I Put You On"—ELTON JOHN (1970)  "And the van that comes around weekends, selling fancy city things..."  This one's a bit obscure, but a great old song—I thought Elton was singing about "selling facts instead of things."  My brain isn't always wired too tight...

"OVERRATED" REDUX
I want to acknowledge Dr. Sardonicus and Randy Raley for their fine responses to my "Overrated" list a couple posts back.  For the good Dr., I want to clarify what I meant by the term "White Trash noise" in regards to the MC5 and the Black Crowes—I'll paraphrase what a critic once said about another band:  "Rock 'N' Roll can be mindless fun, but it shouldn't be this empty-headed..."

For Brother Randy regarding The Boss:  I, too, have been greatly touched by his music.  Back in 1999, I had a little rendez-vous with a female friend whom I'd become friends with on-line and we met for the first time in person about a year-and-a-half later in Denver and wound up having the mutual hots for each other that weekend.  While concerned about the effect "going all the way" would have on our existing friendship, I told her, "You know that Bruce Springsteen song 'Human Touch'?  That's what this weekend means to me."  Next morning, while at a grocery store shopping for some protection, who should I hear playing overhead, but The Boss himself singing "Human Touch"!  That "voice from above" told me that what we were about to do that night was okay, and I'll take that weekend to the grave with me.  And, oh by the way, she and I remain friends to this day.  Still and all, I think Springsteen gets a tad too much praise for practically everything he's done—as if he can do no wrong.  Let us not forget that even The Beatles put out a few clunkers (found mostly on the White Album and Let It Be) too.

In both your cases, I look forward to reading whatever you plan to post on your blogs in the future on this subject, which is certainly a fun one for debate.  Meantime, I'd forgotten one on my list:  Van Morrison.  His voice always sounds so bland to me, and he's about as dynamic a live performer as the great Roger Whittaker!  In the words of Airman Adrian Cronauer, "Boring as whale shit..."