Hey Chipper, back off ;-)

My wife and I are frequent contributors to Make-A-Wish Foundation driven by the fact that they were helpful to my wife and her family when her niece had inoperable surgery which eventually took her very short life.

Every time I make our annual donation I do use my wife's name as although we both believe in the incredible works they do, it impacted her the most.

This morning, we got a request to donate and the celebrity involved with that request was former Atlanta Braves star, Chipper Jones.

For those of us old enough to remember, in 1997/98, Chipper had some large personal issues involving substances and infidelity, the latter resulting in the birth of a child. He strayed with a Hooters waitress and the rest is history. He didn't have a great reputation when all of this happened and opposing and some home fans were merciless around the ballpark.

So my surprise this morning was a personalized email to my wife from Chipper (yes, it's just mail merge, but hey, my brain works in very different, ADHD ways).

If this were the late 90s, I'd be wondering what's going on here with this guy hitting on my wife who definitely didn't work at Hooters at that time. But it's a great lesson in that people get healthier, address their demons and move on with life. The fact that he's volunteering and providing his name, image and likeness to Make-A-Wish to help raise money is fantastic and a sign that he's in a good place.

But as someone in Market Research/Brand Equity, there's still a bunch of us out here who "remember when" (I know, that's Pepperidge Farms) Chipper wasn't a good guy.

Oh well, off to make a donation!!

The glass slipper has shattered, Cinderellas no more?

The Athletic's Jordan Brenner posted some nice thoughts about whether or not the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament's Cinderellas are dead.

In the end, I think Jordan is feeding us what the NCAA would love for us to feel but I think it misses the main point.

We LOVE Cinderellas because they, as a small or mid-market institution of higher learning find magic in a bottle for 1-3 weeks of play during March/April. Just plucking them from those "Davids" and inserting them into "Goliath" isn't the same at all.

I'm loving seeing Iowa make it through the first weekend in 27 years, not because I went there, but because I have so many close friends and family who have. But without NIL allowing Head Coach Ben McCollum to pluck most of his stars from Drake and move them 114 miles East is unheard of in recent history. Cinderella is having them all at Drake and making the magic.

I do not begrudge NCAA athletes now having the opportunity to earn money that their Universities made off of them for half a century. But we cannot just say it's now lift and place and voila, Iowa is a Cinderella.  Iowa, loaded and strapped with all kinds of NIL cash, still far less than many other Universities, will NEVER be a Cinderella when it comes from a Big 5 conference. It's the antithesis of Cinderella in all of its forms.

VCU, George Mason, Butler (who beat VCU), Davidson with Steph Curry, 2025 McNeese, Florida Gulf Coast, Loyola Chicago (in 2018 AND 1963) and St. Peters.  The casual fan has never heard of some of these places but Bracket-Heads all over definitely have. These are the schools that, when matched up against a 1-5 seed, you love to watch them get all scrappy and bring their brand of hoops that got them there, to the national stage.

Cinderellas literally prove that scene from Hoosiers where the rim is still 10 feet high and the free throw line is 15 feet from the basket and it doesn't matter how much "space" there is above and around that 4700 square feet of floor, it's the same as it is in your practice facility. Perspective.

I do think the era of NIL is pushing Cinderellas to the side line. Their slippers never to be returned by their March Madness Prince and cut-pasting a mid-major into an SEC, Big18, ACC, Big XII conference team will NOT suffice.

3rd to last quarterly delivery

Today starts my third to last quarterly delivery cycle for my large global client.

On the heels of a not-so-great Q4'25 delivery, we're under major scrutiny to deliver flawlessly for Q1'26. In most businesses, you're only as good as your last delivery, and we absolutely need to turn the corner.

The pressure is on for the next eight business days until dashboard and automated report release. We've added on to our internal QC efforts and I've spent a lot of extra time reviewing the status of every study so that data processing team knows exactly what they are supposed to do. We've added in an extra set of eyes to review some priority markets and some additional ones to ensure that everything comes out perfect.

Over the years, I have learned to not micromanage unless it's absolutely necessary. If you continue to micromanage everyone, they become completely dependent upon YOU for every single thing they do and that's just not sustainable.

This becomes even more important in the fact that after the next quarter, I'll be working with current staff to start transitioning some of my responsibilities during these high delivery periods so that by the time I DO sign off for the last time, everyone is fully trained and up to speed to carry on in my stead.

I've fallen behind on my 'historical documentation' document which is being created not only as a reference source but, by nature of where it will be eventually posted, completely CoPilot enabled and searchable. Other than changes in structure of the business and research methods, I'm hopefully capturing all of the mistakes we've made along the way to serve as warning signs along the highway of this program.

It's not all mistakes, it's also "things learned under the internal design structure" as well. Companies like ours will build largely automated ways to deliver research programs at scale and often times they rarely discuss the nuances of massive, global clients and don't "bake-in" critical items that are not just requirements but "mandatory features" that our clients have come to accept.

Fun times. Here's hoping that in a few weeks, there are minimal complaints or concerns from our clients on our delivery.

The Final Countdown

The final countdown is upon us, there are now 365 days left until retirement.

My hopes are that, although this blog has been mostly dead for many years now, I can journal my way through the highs and lows of winding down a full time career in the Market Research Industry. The need to continue to service clients external and internal. The need to cross-train someone new to lead the Operations on the global accounts. The emotional journey of goodbye and farewell to some who I've worked with my entire career, as well as those who I've grown close to in just 6-8 years most recently.

Aiming for a post a week, but depending on what's going on, maybe more or maybe less.

My wife retires in just 14 days!!!  She's beating me to the finish line but this has been our goal since we got married almost 21 years ago.

What lays ahead is definitely some massive research into health insurance (we'll have a gap until Medicare), financial discipline and seeing our spawn head off to college since he'll be graduating in just 60 days!!

And, although I may be retiring from the career that has defined my life, I still may dabble in something part-time to see if I can snag some insurance or just to keep myself active. Who knows.

We do have a cool vacation coming up in September to Grenada, and a couple months after my retirement next year, we're doing 2 luxury weeks in Jamaica to celebrate.

The clock is now ticking, but in a very positive way.

Update from previous post

Karma is a funny animal but it's real

Letting violent anger and frustration breathe for 24+ hours before moving forward is also a very good thing

Also, thank you to the fellow parent that spoke on the kid's behalf recently before I had a chance to. You beat me to the punch by a day or so as I was practicing the above sentence which has taken a lot of self-control as I was about to burn it all down

When Coaches lose the plot that kids baseball, even at 14 years old, is to be FUN and that it's to continue to build the love of the sport and the abilities in these young men as they enter High School, then they really shouldn't be in leadership positions.

Just after I posted below plus more "stuff" happened during a baseball weekend, I got a call from the owner of the organization asking me my thoughts and hearing out my complaints about how things had changed so suddenly with my son's baseball team and the coaches from hell.

I was losing some faith in the "travel baseball" world, and much of it has been restored.

19 months later, another mental health post

I worry a lot about my mental health.  As I've turned 56, I frequently meditate on the types of things that drive who I am and how i live.

There's lots of childhood scars, there's a lifetime of things that happened to me or that I caused myself that impact my life to this very day.

What I don't think anyone prepares you for is that you also take on these scars/issues that your children go through as well. You care so deeply for this human that you helped bring into this world, you raise them to be fearless, bold, brave, only to see that they are a pretty good carbon copy of you and they get hurt/suffer battle wounds in the very same way.

My son is one of the most loving, caring people in the world, it's how we've raised him. His ADHD however, will have him process things that happen to him very deeply and they affect him a lot more than it would for me.  But I can see that he's already built a shield around himself that I worry, just hides the much larger pain he's feeling inside.

After supposedly finding an ideal situation for him with a sports team, it has gone incredibly pear-shaped because the coaches have changed. One coach was kicked to the curb by the other 3 "buddies". How we approach games has now completely changed as well as, although completely within the rules, they decided they wouldn't communicate it to the parents of all the kids. Instead we found out after the game had started already.

It's the classic bully/hazing sort of behavior and it's come about because frankly, this team is NOT a good team.  But we were plugging along, having some success, but in general, 3-16 on the season is not a good feelings, especially for the amount of money everyone is paying for "travel" sports.

Other than the one coach who got booted, the other 3 rarely have a kind word for the kids. They don't build-break-build when errors happen, it's much easier to just yell at them, pull them from the game mid-inning and sit them to make them "think" about their error.

But now apparently they feel that there's 2-3 kids who just aren't able to perform. So they are now benched and we're playing by the rules that MLB plays by.  In order for you to go into the game (if you're on the bench), someone has to come out for the rest of the game.

Normally, I would accept these decisions as, it IS how High School ball is played and these kids are now HS aged. Its just that nothing was said and it looked like those 2-3 kids were targeted.  Again, if they actually WERE the 2-3 worse kids on the team, it would make sense, but these 3 bullies have decided that it's only their clique who gets to play.  Based on the actual performance data, there are 5-6 kids who are all about even at the bottom of the stats, based on batting average, pitching and fielding percentages.  But my son is one of the 2-3 who are now, showing up like good soldiers, expecting not to play each weekend.

2 of the bullies kids have all the tell-tale signs of, "I play because my Dad coaches".  1 never makes the weeknight practice for whatever reason and his "on field numbers" are not much better than my kid's. The other, makes many errors on the field (may lead our team in number of errors), kicks dirt, puts his head down and just doesn't give a crap. He can't catch a ball that bounces in front of him if his life depended on it. Last weekend, he hit a pop-up in fair territory and didn't even bother to run it out.

Last night, surprise, a new kid shows up who is now on our team for the rest of the season.  Apparently he was playing for another team in our club and they don't need him. Normally that wouldn't be weird except that we then find out that the kid lives by one of the 3 coaches so he was already "one of their clique".

This stuff stinks to high heaven and I can only imagine what our Coach is telling the management of our club as to my son's performance and how they desperately needed another body to help out.

My son is upset by this.  But he's being a young man about it. Shows up to practice, helps out during the game with warm-ups or whatever, cheers his teammates on.  But I'm saving all of my evidence.  Tryouts for next year are just over a week away.

My point to all of this is that my mental health is taking a hit here.  I can't sleep, I hurt FOR my son (who is hurting for sure as well), I talk to him daily about the right mindset to have even if these 3 "men" treat him unfairly and unevenly compared to all of the other kids. I'm training him how to cope but I'm positive that I'm not teaching him how to mentally cope because frankly, this has made me a wreck.  Kids are malleable and they DO process and manage these pains differently but I hurt SO MUCH for him right now and I am taking it personally.  It also means that I have to take my time to construct my arguments about the coaching style and actions and not take it out on the other kids who are not good players but are just playing a game and don't really have an impact on my son. It's their Dads who are horrible people and insensitive and frankly, massive bullies.

We'll see how this plays out. I am definitely going on the offensive soon though because I'm not going to spend money to go to Michigan and Indiana for tournaments to watch my kid sit on the bench for two solid weekends.

Mental Health is taking a hit with COVID

By no means am I a mental health expert, but I am a human being that, at times, struggles with my own brain.

For the most part, I think I've held up pretty well during this pandemic outbreak but with the resurgence and with people fairly close to me (not relatives, but living near our home) testing positive, the thoughts that "We're being surrounded" and "there's no escape, it's inevitable" IS taking its toll on my mental well-being.

For the last couple of nights, I have awoken from a nightmare of myself struggling to breathe.  It is frightening to say the least and I find myself drowsily checking to make sure I really can breathe and that my airway is clear.

In late March/start of April 2018, I was hospitalized with a double whack of pneumonia and an undetermined virus after traveling back from India via Dubai. It was scary. I could barely breathe, my legs had swollen up to enormous size as I was retaining all kinds of fluids and my immune system had been compromised.  

So, I know these feelings of which I dream and based on what folks are saying happens if you catch COVID and are high-risk, I am at risk for this happening if I catch it.

I rarely live my life in fear. It's not who I am. But the feeling of helplessness I had in 2018, of having to be in quarantine, keep distance from my family, including my 10 year old son at the time, was something that in NON-Pandemic times was something that could break a man.  Amplify that by the entire ICU wing of the hospital being overrun by cases like me and it escalates that feeling exponentially.

Even has COVID has been around, we are taking extra precautions but still not living like hermits.  We socialize at a distance, are very careful with who we let into our home and avoid all large events and traveling.

But as the Patriarch of this family, this shit is taking it's toll.  To the "fuck mask" people, why can't you just realize that this is how a decent majority of people feel? You can sit there and say it's no worse than the flu all you want but it IS worse than the flu. You have the right to be as free as you want but you cannot complain with businesses shutting down, schools going back to remote learning and restrictions being put in place all because your fee fees where hurt in the beginning and as a country we couldn't do what New Zealand did (and had to do again) to stamp this thing out.

But these seeds of distrust were sown at the highest levels of our Government. The same people who downplayed the severity of this are the same ones now attacking an election results that didn't fall their way.  If you're hitching your wagon to that train of idiots, well, when the "fuck your feelings" truck comes back around to run your ass over in the future, you can't complain.

History will show that the head idiot in charge right now truly was the worst ever. His inability to suck it up and deal with the truth and yet again, spin lies, falsehoods and misinformation have set back decent political discourse in this country for decades.  The genie is out of the bottle now, he's running rampant and fooling people. But hey, he tells it like it is, except that everything he tells is bold-faced lies.

Let's go to the data, Overtime in the NHL Playoffs

Mike Milbury and other pundits are all now wringing their hands about the 5OT game that happened yesterday between Colombus and Tampa Bay.

Let's go to the data, shall we?

According to Hockey-Reference.com (who literally updates stats within minutes of games ending), there have been 845 OT games in NHL Playoff History POST the 1937 season.

NOTE: From 1928-1937, the NHL played some "total goal" series. As a result, a game could go to OT if the total goals (aggregate) were tied, even if the individual game wasn't tied.

So excluding those, of the 845 OT games the distribution by number of OT is as follows:

• 1 OT - 679 (80.36%)
• 2 OT - 122 (14.44%)
• 3 OT - 33 (3.91%)
• 4 OT - 8 (0.95%)
• 5 OT - 3 (0.36%)

So across 82 YEARS, 94.5% of all OT are completed in 2 OTs or less. The 3+ are RARE as in 5.21% rare. The 80/20 rule is literally the 95/5 rule here.

Looking at the data further for those who want to pivot the argument to "what if it Series clinching game"

• 1 OT - 127 of 679 were series clinching games (18.70% of the 80.36%)
• 2 OT - 29 of 122 (23.77% of the 14.44%)
• 3 OT - 7 of 33 (21.21% of the 3.91%)
• 4 OT - 3 of 8 (37.50% of the 0.95%)
• 5 OT - never

This does tell a different story however, given you never know if the game will be the series clincher or a series extender, you can't deploy some special rules using this argument, it needs to be consistent across every game of the playoffs, no matter the point or moment of the post-season.

Lastly, there have been 77 OT games in the Stanley Cup Finals, of which, 15 were games where the Cup was won and that is 19.48%. (still fitting into the 80/20 rule here)

I'm not sure IF there's anything to be done about the overtime rules in the NHL, but clearly we're talking about a very small percentage that even go more than 2 OT and almost all cases can be argued that the 80/20 rule is more than sufficient here.

Take a look at the data yourself if you find a way to disagree with me, I'm always open to learning other opinions.

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen - F**k this virus

F**K this virus, really, man.

So although I've been very lucky to only receive a temporary reduction in pay during this crisis, others at my company haven't not been.

Part of that is two very special people in my work-life that have been made redundant (laid off) and today was their last day.

The problem with having to work from home is you don't get that last chance to say goodbye and although, with one of them, we have a friendship outside of work, with the other, I do not.

Trish leaves the firm after 45 years of service (we just celebrated this in late Feb) and although she DID plan on retiring at the end of the year, this pre-emptively moved that up.  What can I say about Trish?  She's the one that hired me 28+ years ago.  So if you're reading this and you work with me, well, she's the one to blame for the headaches I might cause you from day to day.  In spite of her being a bit of a dress-code Nazi in the first year (you know, back in the early 90s when you had to wear a tie every day and we didn't have 'casual Friday' where you could rock the jeans), she's become one of my dearest friends and essentially family.

Wendy was more of my first day-to-day mentor as I moved off of the phone center floor and into a Supervisor position.  She leaves after 29 years of service.  She taught me all the nuts and bolts of running the floor and making sure everyone was doing their job properly.  We weren't selling anything, we do market research surveys so you have to make sure that the interviewers aren't biasing or leading the consumers in their responses otherwise, the data ends up being suspect.  Wendy along with Trish, Sharon and Erin were female forces to reckon with.  I was so lucky to learn everything from them and there are skills I learned that I still put to use today.

Sharon left the company back in the mid 00's as did Erin but we lost Erin to domestic violence a few years ago. Rot in Hell, Lee!!

But today, I remember all the fun times we had late into the evenings, doing our tally sheets and organizing the sample baskets.  Of how, as telephone research started phasing out, we all found other opportunities within the company and always took the time to stop and chat if we were passing in the hallways.

From a relative small company to a global footprint of 54+ countries, it's always been about the people.  Former CEO, Eric Salama always said it and he always truly meant it.  It does make me wonder how that continues to erode slowly over time and although there will often be signposts reminding me that we're a business and you need to make money and be profitable, I worry that in tough times like these, if the "about the people" is more lip service than reality.  I get it, I really do.  If we don't perform, we perish. As I said at the top, I do feel lucky to only have a pay reduction when the alternative is much, much more painful.  But the brass ring is starting to become visible and I know if I keep up the hard work, I'll get there on my timeline and not anyone elses.

Gonna miss you Trish and Wendy and probably others who, didn't send out notices or reach out because they are upset, mad, hurt by these decisions. I'm here for you to chat with if you need it, no restrictions.

And so, here is some Tibetan throat singing group with Metal Queen Lzzy Hale with Song for Women.

Cough, cough, is this thing on?

Holy crap.  Where in the Sam Hill have you been?

Life.  Life in all of it's miserable, joyful, happy, agonizing splendor, that's where.

Five years.  Five relatively long years.  Just under 10% of my life.  Life gets in the way of having a really good fricking time, that's for sure.

So, we're all locked down in our bunkers.  Karens of the world, calling 9-1-1 on anyone having a walk down the street, riding a bike, heading out to the cul-de-sac to meet up with neighbors to have a drink (celebratory and otherwise), keeping our six-plus feet apart to break up the cabin fever.

Why the hell not get back to writing my thoughts, my fears, my struggle on a daily basis with life.

Where does one start when you've not posted in five-plus years?

Well, the Chicago Cubs finally won the damn World Series, now ain't that a pip?  Of course, living up to that magic year has been a Sisyphean task it seems.  Five generations of my family waiting for that moment, only 3 of the generations alive.  I thought I'd be a massive puddle of tears on that night, but no, it's was so joyful.  Irony of it all was that the game was on what would have been my Grandfather's 100th Birthday if he had still been alive.

Maybe that's what kept the tears from flowing?

Okay, enough for tonight.  I need to commit to this again, spill my brain out in digital "ink" and mostly because I do fight demons in my head.  Times like these aren't necessarily good if you have those passengers riding along every day and night.

Just need my sanity.  I have much to live for so don't think I'm teetering, I'm not.

American Sniper : my thoughts

I've had a few days to reflect on it and have watched all the bullcr@p flying back and forth from the right and left.

80% of the posts I see and the drivel I'm hearing are missing the damn point about American Sniper.

Maybe I'm lucky because I heard an hour long interview with Chris Kyle when the book came out (which made me buy the book) but his point of writing the book was to show the incredible toll military service and especially what he had to do as a sniper, took on his marriage, family and mental health.

I think Eastwood accurately captured a LOT of this when he was at home and was at a party in his own backyard and he zoned out and then went after the dog. The heartbreak of watching his little brother on the tarmac who he was really happy to see, but his brother just wanted the hell out of there. The inability to deal with "real life" upon his multiple returns until his shrink made him go talk to others who have lived, who had been "saved".

When I hear "right wing propoganda/nazi-like and immoral, egotistical, psychotic" references about the movie or the man or the equal "libtards hating on an American hero and yeah, kill shots on the muslims" it's driving me absolutely batsh!t crazy because you've all missed the damn point over and over again.

Yes, war is horrible, they happen and that's an ENTIRELY different debate about the real "psychopaths" who send our young men and women into harm's way but for those who dedicate their life to service, to protect us and our freedoms, a lot of irreparable damage happens to some of them.  That same damage is what ended up being the cause of Chris Kyle's death. He admitted in that interview that he wasn't back to normal but he was as healthy mentally as he could be at that point. He was helping a LOT of fellow veterans who were coming back with severe PTSD and issues. He was doing what a lot of other people should be doing and making sure there's funding for.

I see the elected officials from the RIGHT more than willing to send the troops but unable to pass funding for proper care and mental health when they return.  I see the same on the LEFT ALSO voting to send them and then deny funding to give them the right equipment to do their jobs when they are there.  And I see hundreds of thousands of bumper stickers saying to "support our troops" and scratch my head to wonder if that just means when they are out responding to conflicts around the world, when they come home to massive fan fare and celebrations or if it even includes those dark, desperate times when they are having issues adjusting back into civilian life.

THAT'S THE POINT OF AMERICAN SNIPER. It's what Kyle said it was in the interview I heard.  not the kill shots or his arrogance. Not Hollywood elites spouting off or other SEALs responding back.  It's the damage Kyle inflicted on others as well as what was inflicted on him.

Holy Crap, where they hell have YOU been?

So, 18 months since I've touched this.

No excuse other than work is crazy, life is crazy, world is crazy and frankly, this takes a lot of discipline to keep going and my borderline A-D-D self has two million other things to do.

That said, I need to get back to writing again.

It is a form of therapy, partly for my mind that has trouble resting and ultimately, as a way to stay sane in a world cluttered by bombardment of emails, issues and problems.

Shame on me but I control it.

Chicago Fire: On Location at Lottie's Pub

So Lottie's Pub in Chicago is the place they use for the bar that Mouch, Hermann and Dawson buy on Chicago Fire and call Molly's.

My Dad grew up in that neighborhood (lived in the 1800 block of Winchester) in the 50's and has told me a few stories about Walter "Lottie" Zagorski.

Most people don't know that she was actually a six-foot transvestite (some say hermaphrodite) whose basement of the bar was solely there for the mobsters and gangster of the late 20's, 30's and 40's and then dirty politicians from the 40's onward.  This link takes you to a bit more of the history and story of Lottie's.

But my Dad's recollections of Lottie was her running down Winchester in a flowered muu-muu and heels, lit cigarette in hand, after her little tiny dog, cussing up a blue streak to get back to her in a very deep manly voice. My Dad said that it was a true sight to see and that he learned quite a few words in those days as well as learning what a transvestite was.

In the 90's I went to Lottie's for my one and only time to see the band of a co-worker. It was in that very basement where all the gambling and numbers running took place. It was only a 7' ceiling so the sound was horrible and the cigarette smoke just hung there choking you out.  It was a hipster bar before hipsters even became a 'thing'. 

Now it will be one of those places that people come to Chicago to see because it's on t.v.

SMH: Welcome Class of 2027!

As I entered the doors of West Aurora High School Wednesday night with Mary Kay and Aidan at my side, we saw a simple sign on the table, "Welcome Class of 2027!".

Yep, as we prepared for a 75-minute winding path of Kindergarten registration, there it was, slapping me right in my big, fat face.

There's certain 'years' that I remember for some reason.

• As a 9-year old, figuring out that I was going to be 33 when the calendar turned over to 1/1/2000.
• The summer of 1976, the Bicentennial Celebration of the US and the July 4th Parade in Des Plaines, IL (as my Dad was on the Board of Directors of the Des Plaines Elks Lodge, 1526)
• My 29th birthday (1995 when I spotted my first grey hair)
• I remember Benet Academy's 1981 Frosh Fest (I was a Sophomore working it) and some Alum was there with a baby who had a t-shirt on that said Class of 2000

Although I think I've joked about it several times that when Aidan goes off to College that I'd be roughly 60 years old and probably ready to retire, it really hadn't hit me down deep in the dark, recesses of my stomach that it would be 2027.

Now, I know a lot of my friends have kids at a wide range of age, so for some of you, well, you're well past this part of your lives but this is both exciting and frightening at the same time.

Open House at Goodwin Elementary is April 10th and first day is August 21st.  This summer is going to FLY by far too fast.

Hold on Brian, hold on tight.

I Ran (So Far Away) - Flock of Seagulls

Okay, second post from the Oy! High School Years and because I was on vacation, didn't post one last week.

C'mon 40-somethings, you know you all loved this damn song!  If you say you didn't you're a damn liar!

As mentioned in my Big Country post, the 80s were the launch of MTV and the influx of everything not American and very funky looking was attractive.  We all heard it at every sock hop and turn-about dance we attended.

Flock of Seagulls was just something we weren't all exposed to.  The look, the hair, the big glasses, the full-on synthesizer music... we ate it up and yelled out the lyrics when they hit the chorus.

But probably what Flock are most known for is the hairstyle which, when you take a good look at it, looks like Donald Trump got caught in a Hurricane force wind storm.  They didn't exhibit this during the I Ran video but on their other big hit, "Space Age Love Song".

I never had the guts to try it.  I had the typical part down the middle, hair feathered back on the sides look during this time.  I'm not sure Mr. Brown (dean of students) or any of the good Benedictine Brothers, Priests and Nuns would have allowed it in the doors of good ol' Benet Academy if I had even tried.  Maybe as long as I had my tie on straight they would have?

In a Big Country - Big Country

Oy!  The High School Years.

Well, although I mostly tended towards hard rock, metal, classic rock during High School there was a time when, gasp, MTV and Friday Night Videos took a prominent place on my weekends.

Combine the fact that we could now see the artists performing along with the influx if much needed imported video with my oft-cited attraction to unique sounds et voila, Big Country, one of the biggest bands to come out of Scotland during that time other than The Signals ;-p (inside reference to someone who will know what it means)

The unique guitar sounds, often which were made to sound like bagpipes playing were constructed by lead guitarist and lead writer for the band, Stuart Adamson.  The songs were fun, invoked references to their love of their homeland and transported me to 80's Scotland as I would read the liner notes to their first albums.

The video below is from roughly their last performance with Stuart at the helm.  There may have been one or two performances after this but a year and a half later, he was found dead in a hotel in Hawaii having committed suicide.

I couldn't find the 'official' video that played in heavy rotation on MTV during that time but if I do ever find it, I'll post it.  It just made you want to get to the UK, which I did some 14 years later.

The Harder They Come - Jimmy Cliff

Well, since one of the big hub-bubs before yesterday's Superbowl commercial-o-rama was about the VW spot and a few mis-guided, talking-head race-baiters calling it racist (it WASN'T), I thought it was appropriate to choose a Jamaican artist for today.

Kudos to VW for still running the ad.  My wife had NOT seen it OR the 'outrage' and laughed through the whole thing.

As I mentioned in my previous OMM post, college was a GREAT time for me and my music tastes and experiences rapidly broadened further than I could have ever imagined.

There were a few Reggae/Ska bands in Milwaukee and somehow the Delta Chi boys attached ourselves to a band of WHITE guys called Those X-Cleavers who were sort of a punk/ska sort of group. (Note: I think the ONLY other group was Kojo at the time and then there was Tony Brown Band out of Madison).  But what came from that was the quick exposure to groups much more than just the Bob Marley stuff that was playing on ever jukebox in every campus bar and house party.

I'll feature a group of guys later in the year named Sly & Robbie but back to this post; Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Jimmy Cliff playing "The Harder They Come".

Now, this song came out in 1972 (or close to it) but I hadn't heard it, at least not consciously, until the mid-80's.  I ALSO was able to finally see the movie around that time as well.  Jimmy was the star of that movie and of course, as he mentions in the video, it really propelled him into at least US notariety.

During the mid 80's he also did a movie that I actually PAID to see called Club Paradise with Robin Williams.

Jimmy never really had a ton of commercial music hits, but amongst the Reggae community, he continued to represent the 'no problem mon' attitude that helped tourism to this very day.  Frankly, most of anything he had ever chart were covers of other songs but hearing his original "The Harder They Come" is one that left its mark on me.

I was fortunate to see him live and it was absolutely fantastic and I got that chance in the early 90's at Summerfest where the aforementioned Those X-Cleavers opened up for him (and not like the band that plays at 12:00, they were the band that played right before he took the stage).

Lastly, please notice that he plays guitar left-handed but doesn't re-string the guitar, he just plays it upside down.  I heard an interview with him (again on the Guitar Center Sessions on DirecTV) where he said that it was just cheaper to buy a right-handed guitar and play it upside down.  Hell it worked for Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix, why not him

Funny enough my son plunks around on a right-handed guitar but he too is a lefty.  Maybe if it gets really good at it, we'll have a star on our hands.

Why Old Music Monday?

Yes, I know that in my original post, I said I'm using Old Music Monday as a vehicle to ensure I write more but it's also to take time to express my creative side which sometimes is blunted by the day-to-day rigor of my day gig.  But every so often, it crosses my mind that by the time Aidan is eighteen years old, I'll be sixty.

As we get older it's inevitable that we ponder what life will be like without us.  I'm not fixating on that, but with all of the social media we're engaged in, and I, a heavy-user, there's going to be amazing catalogs of material on us that one could use in tribute when we finally pass.

For me it's more about sharing with Aidan things that I may not take the time to do as he continues to mature and grow into the wonderful, young man he's going to be.  I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it right now by ensuring his iPad is loaded with a good balance of current and older music.

I'm amazed at which songs he gravitates to and which ones he doesn't.  It's actually become a bit of a game by me changing songs on his playlist to see what he picks up on the most.

But since life can be short and sweet, I might as well document songs and artists I love, give a tiny bit of history on where I was in my life or what was going on when I embraced it and hope that he learns to do the same.

So bud-bud, this specific tag is for you.

Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads

OKAY, so this 'make up' Old Music Monday submission is actually a movie and album all in one kinda making this a Two-Fer-Tuesday (ha!).

I think, although I'm surely wrong, that this was the FIRST album (actually cassette, thank you) I bought upon my arrival at Marquette University in the Fall of 1984.

From top to bottom, I could sing the words to almost every song from the opening Psycho Killer to Burning Down the House, Once in a Lifetime (with many seizure-inducing actions straight out of the film) and finally, Take Me To The River.

Just classic songs to be hearing at the age of 18.  But what really happened with me here was that my music tastes were now being stretched.  Okay, it wasn't the FIRST time they were, but from this point on, I opened up to a lot more than Classic Rock & Roll, Metal, Hard Rock and AOR with a smidgen of Pop.

Not sure if we called this 'Alternative' back then, it was more New Wave.  Whatever, it got me listening to a hell of a lot more than I used to be.  Part performance art, part musical genius.  David Byrne really is something to behold.  Plus there was a Milwaukee link in that Jerry Harrison from the group was born and raised in the Brew City.

I never saw the movie until we decided to have a "Stop Making Sense" video/dance party at our Fraternity House maybe a year later, but that really didn't matter to me, I loved the sound, concept and performance.  I DO remember having to run over to some East Side shitty video store to get a VHS copy of the movie so we could play it on my stereo VHS player that I had bought the summer before.

"You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile.  You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife.  You may ask yourself, WELL, how did I get here?"

Funk #49/Life's Been Good - James Gang/Joe Walsh

First of all, Yes, I know I missed last Monday.  Okay, so I failed a bit on my New Year's Resolution but to make up for it, I'm doing TWO entries this week, watch for one tomorrow as well.

Little did I know as a young man, how much I would eventually love Joe Walsh.

Now, there's no way in hell I heard Funk #49 when it was first released (1970) and if I did, well, then it was burned so deeply into my subconscious that when I did realize what I was listening to sometime later in the 70's, it resounded nicely.

The combination of Walsh's funky Cleveland/Jersey accent sort of drunk-singing was something unique (remember, unique sounds pique my interest in almost any kind of music) but add to that the Fender Telecaster through the Fender amp and you had a sound that Joe still uses today on just about every song he writes/sings.

I like this particular performance of it from the December 2012 Guitar Center Sessions show which plays on the Audience channel (only on DirecTV).  It's really an interview show with some of the artists' hit songs smattered in between.  Enjoy, you can see how much fun he still has playing it and of course, now, being 17 years clean and sober!

Okay, Joe gets two songs, as a solo artist (of course there's Eagles' tunes forthcoming) and the second one is Life's Been Good (1978) which is, of course, a song about the life of a Rock & Roll star and his tales from the road basically.

As an 'almost' teenager, this really struck a chord as you're still in the untainted dream stage of what you want to do in your life and hell, a musician was still a possibility!  That sort of life sounded like a LOT of fun and well, we all know now how much fun Joe actually had back then.  The lovely thing about this song is that you are going to get TWO videos for it, both sort of long but then again, the song was long to begin with.  I think the WLS on-air staff probably did a lot of bathroom/smoke breaks during this one.

First you'll get Joe's performance of it from the OTHER music show I love, Live from Daryl's House which was originally only a web-only show (love it!!) but now plays on Palladia and the second one was from May 2012 where Joe sort of told a little story about how he wrote the song from an appearance at The Troubadour in West Hollywood.

I think my love for Joe was only deepened as in the mid-90's when he started sitting in with Steve Dahl on his shows and then sitting IN for Steve when he'd go on vacation for a week.  "Howya DOIN?" became a regular catch phrase for me and it gave some insight into who the heck this guy was, plus he was 'real' in the fact that he had new found sobriety which Steve had just sort of found as well.