Month: June 2024

Come 3 p.m. this Friday, my summer break begins.  It’s been another fun and challenging school year and our fantastic staff has more than earned our 6 ½ week  vacation… 

Can’t wait for more long days in my local pool, can you blame me?

The cicadas’ once every 17 years concert of sound is fading out so here are a few random thoughts:

Last week I re-watched the late 90’s mystery thriller “The Sixth Sense” and found it to actually be quite dull.  Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan has had an interesting and much talked about career, but for my money, his best film was “Unbreakable.”  His next film “Trap” comes out on August 2^nd and is a reported psychological thriller as a father and daughter attend a concert while the dad is being watched and hunted by authorities.  Sounds intriguing.  There really aren’t many other new movies to look forward to this summer, unlike last year when we had the whole “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” thing happening.

The Sixth Sense wasn’t as good as I remembered it to be.

With the warm and steamy weather here, I’m spending a great deal of time at East End Pool and that will go full blast starting June 29^th.  It’s so good to reunite with my ‘Summer Family.’  I know I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. There are few things more appealing than seeing a woman in a tasteful one-piece swimsuit. Some bikinis are O.K. but ladies, ditch the thongs. They smack of desperation and look unsanitary.

The one piece swimsuit attracts without being a crude distraction.

While the Cubs and White Sox have been disappointing so far this season, I have a new set of score sheets printed and will be doing some at home score card tracking for various ballgames. (Holy crap, am I nerdy!)

Baseball nerds unite. Time to keep score of some ballgames on TV.

HOME WORK-

My home chores will include re-painting the trim on the front of my garage, water sealing the back steps and raking out the leaves, dust and assorted garbage out of my garage which luckily is not jammed up with much junk.  I also need to trim back some bushes and other growth in the yard. Our wet and warm spring has really made stuff overgrow.

I have a sleep study set for July (my first in 12 years) and need to look into buying a new set of tires for my car.

Other than these things, I need to get more research done to self-publish my memoir “Raised on the Radio” which I REALLY want to get out to the public next spring.  This past year flew by and I want to set up that book publishing and promotion the proper way.

I’ll be taking a break from blogging with the next post coming sometime in mid to late August.  Til then, it’s flip flops, t-shirts, swimming, sunning and living life without a set schedule.  I look forward to all of it!

Happy Summer to everyone!

I was a major REM fan since their debut release of the “Chronic Town” EP back in August of 1982.  I was in the midst of my college radio career at WRSE FM 88.7, based in the student union building at Elmhurst College. (Now called Elmhurst University) Few people knew who these guys were and their fandom slowly but steadily grew over the next several years.

I was way into REM ever since they released their debut music, an EP titled “Chronic Town.”

In the summer of 1983, I saw REM in concert for the first time during their tour to support the “Murmur” album.  Get this, it was a WXRT budget show at the Park West with opening act Let’s Active. Tickets cost me and my pals 4 bucks apiece! If you think that’s sweet, my close friends Marko and Bobbo saw the quartet from Athens Georgia the previous year in the student cafeteria at S.I.U. for two dollars! 

For me, of course it was the band’s songs that hooked me.  They were different and hard to put into a specific genre of musical style. You also were never sure of the meaning behind the songs. With Peter Buck’s jangling guitars and the often hard to decipher lyrics from lead singer Michael Stipe’s each of REM’s songs required close and repeated listening and I was fine with that.  Bill Berry’s drumming was a great compliment to each tune and bassist Mike Mills was a fine vocalist in his right. 

Thanks to my first career as a radio producer, I had the opportunity to meet the band members twice.  In person, these guys were just normal dudes with no pretense or attitude, in spite of their musical skills and accomplishments.  REM was cool because they didn’t TRY to be cool.  These guys just went about their craft without falling into typical rock or pop star cliches. 

An early pic of the group from Athens, Georgia.

REM’s music kind of lost me after 1994’s “Monster Album” but that record and the previous releases were enough to garner my lifetime admiration.   As far as my song favorites; I’d go with “Radio Free Europe”, “Talk About the Passion”, and the entire “Reckoning” album .  After that, each disc added more forever loves for me including my all-time favorite REM song, “Driver 8.” 

I bring up all this REM nostalgia (and I could list many more tunes I love and concerts of theirs I saw) because last week the band was enshrined into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.  A well-deserved and overdue honor that includes all four members because they all shared EQUALLY in songwriting credit and yes, the money earned from every track they ever recorded.  More of this can be learned in the two links I’m posting at the bottom of this blog as CBS journalist Anthony  Mason interviewed REM in well covered segments.

REM performs live for the very last time as they played the hit “Losing My Religion” at the Songwriters Hall of Fame event.

You’ll also see that REM will never play as a band again.  Their reasons for this reticence is honorable and accurate.  Don’t get me wrong, I like that The Who, Eagles and Rolling Stones continue to tour but for the quartet from Athens, Georgia, they’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt and are gone for good. Once again, cool without trying to be cool.

Here are those 2 links to check out.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/r-e-m-discusses-bands-breakup-songwriters-hall-of-fame-honor-and-more

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/r-e-m-discusses-surprise-reunion-at-songwriters-hall-of-fame-reveals-why-there-wont-be-another

Next Blog: A last post before my summer break!

I have a few things on my mind.  I apologize in advance because most of what I’ve got to post is pointing towards women in a less than positive light.  Hopefully what I state is constructive.

J-Lo’s Woes- Jennifer Lopez is not having a good year.  Tickets to her upcoming concert tour were not selling and she just canceled the whole three- month summer road run. She claims dropping the tour was because she wants to spend more time with her family.  Granted, Lopez’s marriage (her 4^th) to Ben Affleck is all but over but trust me folks, had ticket sales been going great, J—Lo would’ve put the  tour before anything else.  Add to this, Jennifer Lopez’s latest movie “Atlas” got brutal reviews and minimal views.

My advice for J—Lo would be to first settle her marital issues with Affleck.  Next, I think she would benefit by hiring a new management team who could better guide her to more worthy film projects. Finally, it would be smart to slip away from the public eye for several months, maybe longer.  Bad publicity on Jennifer Lopez’s woes isn’t helping matters.

MY ADVICE TO J-LO: LAY LOW, GET NEW MANAGEMENT AND CLEAR THE DECK ON YOUR 4TH MARRIAGE. SPEND TIME WITH YOUR KIDDOS AND PUT ROMANCE ON THE BACK BURNER.

Chicago Sky star Angel Reese is on a bad run.  Two weeks ago, she posted a jab at Indiana Fever and WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark on social media.  The gist of Reese’s words was how the Sky was winning because of team efforts and that Clark alone can’t win it all for the Fever.  It was a mocking and totally unnecessary slam at a fellow female athlete. Caitlin Clark’s popularity is helping benefit the ENTIRE league of women’s hoopsters, Angel Reese included, and Reese is throwing shit on her?  Angel, a rising tide lifts all ships. 

Then last weekend when Reese’s Chicago Sky team played Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever, Sky player Chennedy Carter drew a flagrant foul for hip checking Clark to the floor when she didn’t even have the ball.  Angel Reese was seen cheering that foul from her seat on the bench. 

Carter refused to answer press questions and Chicago Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon defended the physical hit claiming her players are just competing. I’m not saying Caitlin Clark should be babied or treated with kid gloves, but for a league trying to grow in popularity, I’d hate to see them damage the star who  helps them all!

NOT SO ANGELIC ANGEL REESE. TIME TO WISE UP AND GROW UP.

Have you heard about Ozempic Face?  It’s the result of women who are using the diabetes drug to quickly lose weight.  Turns out, that kind of rapid weight loss causes many to develop sunken eyes and drooping skin on their face.  So, these weight losers might be thinner but they’ve got a hanging look to their faces.  Yikes!  I know there’s all sorts of plastic surgery fixes to aid any failing physical feature but think of the wise words of one of the most beautiful women of all time, Catherine Deneuve: “After a certain age, a woman has to choose between her fanny and her face.”  In other words, if you want a skinny body and a trim tush, you may end up with a face that resembles the cartoon character Droopy Dog.  If I were a woman, I’d opt for the more attractive face than the smaller backside.

OZEMPIC USE CAN LEAVE WOMEN WITH SAGGY FACIAL FEATURES, MUCH LIKE DROOPY DOG.

I watch a lot of TV news, sports and interview shows. A couple weeks back, I  slammed the men on screen for wearing suits with gym shoes on their feet.  Now for the women on TV, I see the new trend: White nail polish.  Ugh.  Now while finely manicured white nails are a better choice than the past fad of black nails, this still isn’t a good look.  I keep thinking these women have had their fingernails and toenails done over with Liquid Paper. 

I DON’T CARE HOW WELL DONE THE MANICURE MIGHT BE, WHITE NAIL POLISH IS NOT A GOOD LOOK.

Finally, one of the bright stars on local TV can be found on the WGN Morning News.  Bhrett Vickery has been doing traffic reports and fill in news spots for the weekday show since last December and her youth and newness has been well received.  So, you guessed it, me and Al Flash had to put together a parody song for her.  Al had the idea to twist Paul McCartney’s 1970’s hit “Jet” and that’s what I put together.  (We actually have another song for Ms. Vickery ready to record as well.”

NEXT BLOG: When I know, you’ll know.

June 4th, 1984 is when Bruce Springsteen’s monster album “Born in the USA” hit record stores.  The lead single “Dancing in the Dark” came out on May 9th and radio stations were all over that track. I have to admit I was dubious about the album but that was judging on this opening single which sounded pretty popish to me. It sure wasn’t stark and gritty like Bruce’s most recent release, 1982’s “Nebraska” album was.

THE PICTURE SLEEVE FOR THE ‘DANCING IN THE DARK’ SINGLE. I WAS MORE PARTIAL TO THE FLIP SIDE, ‘PINK CADILLAC.’

Still, I was ready to hear more from “B.I.T.U.S.A” and the weekend before I could buy it, my buddy Dave Ross called me from the WMET FM studios in Chicago.  Dave worked in promotions there and had his hands on the new album.  He was raving about the songs and needle dropped snippets of each track over the phone to me.  The music sounded big and fascinating.  I remember clips of “Cover Me” blew my ears off.

That week, like many fans of Springsteen, I rushed out to a record store and secured my copy of “Born in the USA” with Bruce’s blue jeaned ass on the cover.  Needless to say, that slice of vinyl remained on my turntable for most of that summer and beyond.

YEAH, THAT’S BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S ASS ON THE COVER OF HIS ALBUM.

I first saw Springsteen in concert three years earlier when going to school in Carbondale. I got to meet Bruce as he arrived for his soundcheck that afternoon and scored his autograph too.  Me, my buddies Marko, Bobbo and other guys from my dorm floor all sat together for our virginal night with the Boss at the S.I.U. arena. 

During Bruce’s intermission that night, I saw a woman in the concourse with vomit all over her top.  Not sure whose puke it was but she ducked into a restroom and came out a few minutes later with a vomit free but soaking wet blouse.  That’s how dedicated some Springsteen fans are!

Walking back to the dorm after the show, my college pals and I just kept looking at each other in amazement at the high energy killer night of music we’d just witnessed.   It was like nothing we’d ever seen or heard before. Or since.

In 1984 the Born in the USA tour kicked off in St. Paul, Minnesota. That’s where Bruce filmed the infamous “Dancing in the Dark” video, directed by Brian DePalma and featuring the stage dancing of a barely known actress named Courtney Cox.  It was comedian Bobcat Goldthwait who commented that in the video, Springsteen looked like he’d joined “Up with People.”  No matter, millions of fans ate it up and everything else that was on “Born in the USA.”

SPRINGSTEEN DANCING IN THE DARK WITH LITTLE KNOWN ACTRESS COURTNEY COX.

The Boss’ tour hit the Rosemont Horizon for three shows in mid-July.  I had tickets to the third night but after hearing the buzz of his opening show on July 15th, I went down to the venue to buy tickets off anyone who was selling for concert number two on July 17th.  Me and a former park district co-worker landed two seats in the upper level, 2 rows up and right behind Bruce and the band.  The tickets sold for $15 bucks, we paid five dollars above face value and it was damn worth it.

That night, Springsteen took the stage and in the dark, he called off “One, two, one two three four!” and launched into ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ I thought a bomb had gone off in the Horizon.  It was insane! Just a wild ride of hot music played with relentless energy.  Bruce and the band were still doing two sets back then.  Play about an hour, take a twenty- minute break then roll out two hours or more of rock and roll.

THIS WASN’T MY TICKET BUT THIS IS WHAT SEEING BRUCE IN CONCERT IN 1984 COST YOU.

Springsteen played several of the new songs plus he and the band handled some of my favorites from “Nebraska.”  Then there were rockers from “The River’, “Darkness on the Edge of Town”, “Born to Run” and all.  But the star of the night was the fever pitch that the new tracks from “Born in the USA” was bringing to the crowd.  Nils Lofgren replaced Little Steven Van Zandt who went out to do his own solo tour.  And there was a chick back-up singer named Patty Scialfa who a few years later would become Bruce’s second wife.

When the show ended, my friend and I walked back to my car drenched in sweat and exhausted from this crazy frenzied night of amazing music.  I turned to him and said, “Bruce’s life will never be the same.”  He agreed.  And it wasn’t. 

HIS BODY BULKED UP, AND AN ALBUM FULL OF HIT SINGLES. BRUCE’S “BORN IN THE USA” TOUR WAS A HUGE DEAL.

It didn’t take long for Springsteen’s mega-stardom forced him to play football stadiums across the country and the globe.  I next saw the Boss in concert in August of 1985 at Soldier Field.  At the time, I was producing the Larry Lujack morning show on WLS AM & FM.  Larry wondered aloud to his newscasters Jeff Hendrix and Catherine Johns what was so great about a Springsteen concert.  I buzzed in from my producer’s desk and shared my view of what a special thing an evening with Bruce was.  They took my word for it when I said, “You have to see him to believe him.”

So, here we are.  Forty years down the road from “Born in the USA” and still rocking to those songs.  As Springsteen sang on that record, “Glory Days, yeah they’ll pass you by, glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye, glory days!”  

NEXT BLOG- J-Lo’s woes, A not so angelic Angel, Ozempic Face, White Nail Polish and more.