Month: November 2022

Lots of thoughts rolling around my coconut so let’s crack it open and let em out.

THE RECENT CMA AWARDS- This year’s show was a damn good one with a healthy return to more traditional twangy country songs led by up and coming star Lainey Wilson.  The Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award went to Alan Jackson with the musical medley well played.  Alan’s part of that stretch of songs was great and his acceptance speech was heartfelt and perfect. 

THE ROCK N ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY– That 4 hour commercial free event is running on HBO right now.  Lots to take in.  The influence of MTV was apparent with the inductions of early video stars Duran Duran, Pat Benatar & husband Neil Giraldo and Eurhythmics. Forget the pretty boy tag Duran squared got labeled with years ago, the music still holds up.  A personal favorite of mine would be their early 90’s comeback song “Ordinary World.” Benatar sings at a lower pitch nowadays but still sounded great.  Plus, she wears gray hair well. Giraldo’s acceptance speech was full of grace and great advice to young people.  Eurythmics (Annie Lennox & Dave Stewart) have not recorded or toured in over 20 years but they didn’t miss a beat.  Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp honored the late Jerry Lee Lewis with “Great Balls of Fire” which was well framed by E Street piano ace Roy Bittan shining bright on the keys.  “Great Balls” is a rowdy crowd pleaser but bear in mind John Lennon used to say the greatest rock n roll song of all time was Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On.”

ON THE SUBJECT OF AWARDS-  In the past week, two of my dear pals were nominated for special honors.  Jim Turano has been given a nom as Best Performer in a Play in the recent Invictus Theatre production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”  Voting for that honor closes out on 12/31/22.  You can cast a vote at this website. https://www.broadwayworld.com/chicago/voteregion.cfm

And my longtime US*99 compadre Trish Biondo has been nominated to become a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame!  This is due to Trish’s long years in the country genre and although she’s no longer on the radio, Trish remains a well respected and admired figure in country music.  We’ll find out if she gets in come next year.

GO DUKES!  The York High School varsity football Dukes deserve big props for their magical season of twelve wins and just one loss.  They fell one game short of going to the championship match-up but captured the hearts and attention of not only their classmates but alumni from years ago.  It was fun this year driving by York Stadium during home games and seeing the stands packed guts to butts with fans on hand to watch these young men play football.

LOSS AND NEAR LOSS– I was stunned to learn of the unexpected passing of my old college radio station manager and classmate Mark Gruhlke.  Mark died on October 31st from an undetected heart issue.  Strangely enough I was actually THINKING of Mark on Halloween this year as I recalled a fun time I had at a costume party he held at his parents house 40 years ago.  I’ll share more thoughts on Mark in a future blog. 

Former “Friends” star Matthew Perry was interviewed by Bill Maher this week as he talked up the best selling book about his years long and near fatal drug addiction.  The guy’s colon exploded and he was given less than a 5% chance to survive.  As Maher pointed out, it’s so easy to die and yet the human body can also show such remarkable resilience.  Thinking of Mark Gruhlke and Matthew Perry, that sure is true.

MISC. STUFF-

*I have a confession to make.  I cannot tell the difference between actresses Olivia Wilde, Olivia Munn and Olivia Culpo.   There, I feel better saying that.

**Season 2 of “The White Lotus” is fun to follow but something nutty better be happening in this social satire series between Harper played by Aubrey Plaza and Cameron played by Theo James. 

***The popularity of the Netflix series based on cannibal killer Jeffrey Dahmer makes perfect timing for the new film “Bones and All” which comes out this week.  This movie is about two cannibalistic lovers.  I’ll pass.  When it comes to humans eating humans, my plate is full.  Pun intended.

****One movie I am interested in is the reported comeback of actor Brendan Fraser in “The Whale.”  Fraser plays an obese and reclusive English teacher trying to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.  “The Whale” swims into theaters on December 9^th. 

Here’s a murky yet intriguing preview of that movie.

Here comes actor Brendan Fraser’s comeback movie.

NEXT BLOG– I’m not sure what’s next. Stay tuned.

“Operator, please connect me with 1982.”

That’s the opening line to a great old country song by Randy Travis.  It’s fitting.  Not too long ago, while having beers with my brother like pal Marko Vasko we got to talking about all the things we saw happen in 1982. Some of our milestones from that year matched up identically and others were of our own individual experiences.  1982 was FORTY years ago, and yet some of what went down seems like it happened just yesterday.

1982 is the year that brought us landmark movies like “E.T.”, the gender bending “Tootsie” and the teen horn-dog romp “Porky’s.”  This was also the year when the mysterious Tylenol murders were happening as random bottles of the pain reliever were laced with poison that killed several innocent people.  That still unsolved case led to safer ways to package not only over the counter medicines but thousands of food products as well.

Here are some of what was going on in my life from that year. The summer of 1982 is when a former high school classmate of mine, Lori Borowski was kidnapped as she tried to open the local real estate office where she worked.  Missing for several months, Lori’s body was eventually found.  Her twisted killers did some kind of satanic mutilation of her and they were all caught and brought to proper justice.  While I did not personally know Lori Borowski, I knew others who did and seeing a contemporary of ours murdered shook me to the core.

In more cheerful happenings, 1982 was the very first time I ever visited Poplar Creek Music Theater as me and Dave Potter enjoyed pavilion seats and rocked out to an Elton John concert with opening act Quarterflash. (Remember them?)  The Clash’s popular “Combat Rock” album hit stores that summer and me and several pals went to see the band play an incredibly intense concert at the Aragon Ballroom.  Joe Strummer, Mick Jones and company blew the roof off the joint that hot August night!

The Who brought us the “It’s Hard” album along with their first ever “farewell tour.” I was lucky enough to catch their three shows that fall at the Rosemont Horizon.  The last one happening near the tour’s end in December which was the best of the trio of gigs.

1982 also saw the release of REM’s debut record, a great EP titled “Chronic Town” which began my love for that band.  And I can’t forget Bruce Springsteen’s stark “Nebraska” record which remains my favorite Bruce album.  I love it because its raw, bare bones recording was as close as I’ll ever get to having Springsteen play a solo show in my living room.  The songs on “Nebraska” are dark but they tell true to life stories.

Earlier in 1982, I enjoyed a Spring Break trip to Daytona Beach with college classmates.  That wild party week saw me and some others run afoul of the law on a misdemeanor drinking on the beach issue.  The judge withheld adjudication of that charge which kept my criminal record clean.  That was also the week I first got to know a woman in the Biblical sense.  A lovely 30 something bartender named ‘Candy.’  My experience with Candy is best summed up by the 1986 BoDeans song “That’s All.”

In late June of 1982 my sister Marianne married her first husband Gary O’Brien.  Sadly, less than two years later Gary would succumb to a recurrence of cancer. This tragedy left my only sibling a widow at age 26.

In January of 1982 we adopted a rescue dog named Molly.  Molly was a dynamic Boston Terrier and helped cement the idea that Bostons are the best pure breed of dogs ever!  September of that year is when my dear pure white kitty Miss Priss died of old age. Not long after that, our house was recharged with a schnoodle puppy named Minnie who was the sweetest pooch we ever had.

That fall while attending Elmhurst College and thriving on the air at the school’s radio station WRSE, I began a side gig of D.J.-ing on campus weekend dances in the campus cafeteria.  Many of these were for the school fraternities and sororities. My rate of pay was 25 dollars cash for 3 hours of being the record spinning life of the party.  I also recall a couple of romantic hook-ups happening for me at those gigs and a year later my pal Jim Turano would join me for several years of doing dances all over the western suburbs.

Thanks to the urging of my high school friend Rob Dicker, I began writing a weekly local music column for Press Publications.  Rob was a photographer for that newspaper chain and he suggested the idea to his editor, who asked me for a sample writing and boom!  I was a local music columnist for the next three years before passing that writer’s pen on to Jim Turano.

Finally, I can’t let 1982’s happenings go without recalling the most significant occurrence I had that year.  It was meeting and being carefully mentored by Lee Swanson.  Lee was a former record store, rock club owner and rock band manager who was the western suburbs’ best known music and media mogul.  Lee was Yoda to my Luke Skywalker and over the next 12 years he taught me more than I could ever write down on a list.  To put it bluntly, without Lee’s tutelage, I NEVER would’ve landed at WLS am 89 as Larry Lujack’s producer at the age of 24.  Lee has been gone for 28 years now and he remains someone I’ll never forget and will always be grateful for his knowledge, guidance, kindness and friendship.  

There you have it.  1982 was an action and event packed year filled with some vital highs and a few lows.  

Forty years ago and I loved every minute of it…