DOG: Who's Next?

First Ed Mcmahon. Then Farah Fawcett. And Michael Jackson.

Now Billy "Oxi Clean" Mays. All in less than one week.

Must be a bitch to be a "celebrity." Who is next?

WAYLT #8 - The Dog Returns... finally.

Due to a blown Operating System and some time in Europe I haven't posted for over a month. The exception being the few comments to Fan's posts when I could sneak on to someone else's computer. But it looks like the patient will live. A few apps need to be resuscitated yet but the good stuff is all restored and working. So what y'all been listenin' to since I been gone?

Since my whole music collection is pretty much dependent upon a functioning hard drive I had to do some exploring on the iPod for much of my absence. Perhaps a mistake when I burst out laughing on an airplane listening to the Butthole Surfers sing "Julio Eglasias jacked-off in outer-spac-ias." Yeah, I got stuff on my iPod I haven't ever listened to all the way through yet.

So here's what has been flowing through the Dog's Bose Quiet Comfort 2s these days:

7. Billy Flynn - Chicago Blues Mandolin - Nice to hear some different instrumentation sometimes.

6. "Little Smokey" Smothers - Bossman! - Finally got my first "Little Smokey" album. Very good.

5. Ike Turner - Risin' With The Blues - Ike's final album. Returning to his roots. Surprisingly entertaining.

4. Big Daddy Kinsey and Sons - Can't Let Go - One of Big Daddy's best albums in my opinion.

3. Omar Kent Dykes - Big Town Playboy - A new release with Omar leaving the Howlers behind.

2. Duke Robillard - Stomp! The Blues Tonight - Duke returns to the horn arrangements on an album of mostly jump blues and swing which is strongly reminiscent of the original Roomful of Blues.

1. Rod Piazza & The Might Flyer Blues Quartet - Soul Monster - This MF (Mighty Flyer) kicks serious ass! This is by far the best Rod Piazza album with which I am familiar. It's a brand new release. In addition to leading a top notch band, Rod is lucky enough to be married to his keyboard player, Honey. Honey Piazza is unquestionably the nicest person you will ever meet in the blues and one hell of a musician as well. This one comes highly recommended by the Dog!

On an ironic note, it is Omar Kent Dykes who sings, " Better hear me baby, better believe what I said. If you don't quit now baby, honey I'm goin' upside yo' head" and not Ike Turner.

So I have returned basically to my bread & butter, blues, blues, blues.

FAN: Birthday Trip

Avast....on the 25th of October in the year 2009 Still A Fan and Stilladog will emerge from a car in a beat up factory lot after overpaying severely for parking to drink beer and eat with Genco employees and then watch the Stillers slowly take apart Brett Favre and the Vikings. There will be drinking of the ale and eating of the burnt flesh. Speaking of the burnt flesh...Still A Dad should on the 24th of October go to said local butcher in Listie and buy thee some local T-Bones about one inch thick (and some more ale). Also, Still A While should agree to meet us in said parking lot to tailgate with the Still A's and see two of her favorite people in Fan and W and meet The Dog for the first time ever.

FAN: BIH Michael Jackson

While RIP suffices for Rest In Peace, has anyone ever considered using BIH for Burn In Hell? Crimes against children are bad enough before you have one, but after being a parent, it takes on a whole new meaning. A business associate I had lunch with today said she cried when she heard about MJ. Cried? I felt nothing. Was I a super fan? No. Did I own Thriller? Yes. You'd be hard pressed to find somebody my age who didn't. I had that on wax! I have 3 Jackson 5 songs on my iPod as well as Don't Stop Till You Get Enough which predates Thriller. I think it was on "Off The Wall" but I'm not sure. Anyway, when I said "the world is free of one less child predator today" she took offense. Oooops. I'm sorry. Did I say something inappropriate? ME?? C'mon. She then said he was sick and we should just imagine instead of his predisposition for children we should just pretend he had cancer. Hmmmm. Interesting. If he never hurt a fly in his life and committed suicicde, I could equate it to thinking he had cancer. But he didn't. If three kids (or however many) came forward with allegations, doesn't that mean 12-15 had Jesus Juice and had to pet the magic spitting puppet? I don't know. When you pay millions to make the court cases go away you do nothing to clear your name in my mind. If most people are going to think you did it anyway - fight the case to prove your innocence - don't pay to make it go away. In the end, if you want to talk about Karma, which is something I could subscribe to, you know he was guilty. He hurt those kids, maybe ruined them for life...maybe they are currently molesting children or addicted to drugs or beating their wives or something because they can't deal with what happened to them...shit, he could be at the top of a very tall pyramid of abuse that could last for generations.....and he paid for it. He lost his musical edge to write relevant material. He lost his money. He lost his nose....well, his face. He lost it all. He went from being a person who could change the world to being a person who changed the world for a lot of innocent kids. Did he change his appearance because of self loathing over his love for little boys? Dunno. Somethng to think about though, right? Karma. He couldn't Beat It.

FAN: RIP Farrah

Guilty. I had the poster hanging on my bedroom wall. What guy my age didn't? I don't know if any of you guys did this or not - but when I was 10-16 and went to the mall - I would go in any store that sold posters and browse through them one at a time. I had every poster memorized for years. When a new one came out, you knew it was new just because you had never seen it before. Whether it was Murphy's, McCrory's, National Record Mart, Hills or Gee-Bee's - I headed straight to the music and posters section. Do kids still do that? I don't think so. Mine doesn't. She has a 4x6 foot cork bulletin board that I made her covered with pullouts from tweener magazines - but not a single poster. Even when I got to college, my roommate and I had a decent collection of babe posters, the best being a door size poster of Brandi Brandt that was on the ceiling above my top bunk parallel and centered on the bed. Sweet. Is it true Ryan O'Neal is trying to get Cheryl Ladd to replace her? Sorry....couldn't resist.

FAN: Steel Resolve

I was recently trolling Craigslist looking at the gigs link for potential web consulting deals. One caught my eye: an Eagles writer for a new national sports website. Feeling lucky I went to the Pittsburgh link and the same ad was there for the Steelers. I sent an iquiry and was given a faux assignment to write. I shot them this link, but all they found out from it was that I like torture and revenge movies. Actually he said there was was decent stuff here but wanted to see a more realistic article. So, it's been a day or two and I haven't heard back so I thought I'd post it here. The task was to describe the deciding factor in the Steelers repeating or not repeating next year. Hope you enjoy. It had to be 400-600 words so I hope it's not too wordy. I think I've written 2,000 word diatribes about air travel.



Steel Resolve by Still A. Fan


On January 20, 1980, the Pittsburgh Steelers added a fourth Lombardi trophy to their case before any other team even added a third. Quite an accomplishment was that, as was winning all four titles within a span of six years. In February of 2010, should the Steelers find themselves on the friendly side of the Super Bowl scoreboard one more time, they will again own two more trophies (seven) than the next closest collectors – Dallas and San Francisco.

Ask twenty different towel-waving, sandwich-eating diehards of Steeler Nation what they think the odds of that happening are and you will no doubt get 20 different answers. Follow that question up with an innocent “Why?” and watch Mr. Eleven Letters ending in “ski” and his lunch buddies get animated very quickly. “If the O-Line can keep Ben healthy, it’s seven.” “They didn’t go O-Line in round one, they’re done.” “Parker’s health – write it down.” “Ben finds a way to win no matter what – they repeat.” “If Ward or Holmes goes down the season is over. O-V-E-R.” “Remember 2005. They stunk it up the following year. No chance.”

All reasonable assessments coming from some of the most, if not the most, passionate and knowledgeable football fans in the country. One response was both close and yet far away from what I profess to be the main factor in this equation. My black and gold brethren, the deciding factor in the quest for seven is….Mike Tomlin. Why do I say that? Come along for the ride. Short of banging coconuts together on the sidelines and offering shrubberies to referees as bribes - Bill Cowher found his Holy Grail in winning Super Bowl XL. After all the failures to win it all (or even get there) - it is my opinion that the 2006 season was nothing more than a collective sigh of relief. He lost his hunger. He was losing it prior to 2005. In earlier years he could will that team to win in tough spots. Like he did before in his coaching career, I feel that he got too friendly with his key players the following year and it showed. He became one of the boys and he loved his vets to the point of it hurting the team.

The sheer amount of talent on the current team is enough to get them to the Super Bowl every year for the next 3-4 years. To keep the team focused and hungry though is an entirely different story. Mike Tomlin is Bill Cowher in 1994. He’s still hungry. You can hear it in his voice and see it in his actions. The 2009 Steelers will not go “Hollywood”. They aren’t going to pat themselves on the back all through training camp and be media darlings. I have a feeling Tomlin has already delivered a “last year is over” type speech. They are 0-0. True, they’re the defending champions of the world – but anybody who put money on them in Vegas in the 2006 preseason would like to kneecap anyone who suggests doing that this year. The obstacles are focus, determination, hunger and mostly pride. Who is driving the vehicle that will steer them through the emotional obstacle course, knowing when to praise and when to pounce? Mike Tomlin. It is my humble opinion that Mike Tomlin will do in 2009 what Bill Cowher failed to do in 2006 - refocus the team in camp. Yup, it’s as simple as that.

Keep‘em wavin’.

FAN: Father's Day

I've had a whirlwind 24 hours with Steel A Stroke. Last night we went to her school's carnival for 3.5 hours. Ate well, gambled a little and won a lot of stuffed animals. I won two decent sized offerings on my first two games....even dunked a girl at the dunk tank.....twice in six throws. This morning, I woke up at 5:30, decided the weather wasn't good enough for my normal Sunday run at the lake so I was getting in some good web time until breakfast. Mrs. Fan and Stroke made me stuffed French toast. It was two slices with cream cheese and blackberry jam on the inside with whipped cream, blackberries and raspberries on top. Wow, was it good! Since it was overcast with no sun beating down Stroke and I went to the kind of local outdoor farmer's / flea market. She added a nutcracker to her collection and I picked up several cds - nothing for more than $3 and 2 of them were only $1 each. We also bought fresh candy and caramel apples for lunch dessert. New to the music collection thanks to 4 different vendors are: Frank Sinatra 1953-1960, KISS my ASS (KISS Tribute cd), Rod Stewart Unplugged and Seated, Sarah McLauchlan Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (more for Mrs. Fan), The Clash The Singles ($1), Pearl Jam Live On Two Legs and The Who Quadrophenia. Not a bad day and it's only 11 AM. Next we brought burgers and fries home for lunch as we were gone longer than expected. After watching a movie together (and falling asleep for the last 20 minutes) we decided to go work out together. Stroke and I ran two miles and then did some plyometrics. Came home, took a shower and was then treated to one of my favorite meals....ribs, coleslaw, mac-n-cheese and watermellon. Later tonight after a few lazy hours we had dessert which was a cream pie with blueberries and blackberries in it. Talked to Still A Dad a while and buried myself on the couch to watch True Blood. The day kind of revolved around food but I've been dropping pounds like crazy. After weighing in at 201 on New Years Day, I'm now down to 184. Can't think of anything that could of made the day better...unless that's waiting for me upstairs.

FAN: Torture, Death and Revenge

Any Dad with a bit of an angry streak should check this movie out. The plot is simple. Girl is kidnapped, Dad seeks revenge. If you want to scare your teenage girl from trusting anyone, let her watch this. I personally loved it that Dad showed no mercy while tracking her down. He got what info he needed and killed anyone who got in his way. He even left an Albanian dude hooked up to electricity and walked away after getting the information he needed. Superb. The writer also took a shot at France for allowing sex slave traders to operate within France's borders. The torture scene may have been a political statement as well. It answers the question "When is it OK to torture to somebody?". The answer is obviously whenever you take away a Dad's little girl.

FAN: More Cheap Music

Still A Stroke and I got up early on Saturday AM and went to some local yard sales, a Strawberry Festival slash flea market and a used book and music shop. I added five more disks to my collection and was extremely happy with my haul. Picked up at a really crappy yard sale were three AC-DCs that I never owned. High voltage, Let There Be Rock and BallBreaker were all picked up for $1 each. At the used store I added two Cure cds for $5 each....Wild Mood Swings and the UK compilation Japanese Whispers. Then, to my pleasant surprise, I noticed all were worth $3 on secondspin.com so I paid $13, ripped them all, then sold them to secondspin for $15 minus whatever they might deduct. Sweet deal.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

FAN: Pens Win Third Cup

Apparently this other sport, hockey, had it's playoffs recently and Pittsburgh's team is pretty good at it too. I watched a lot of hockey back in the Lemieux, Jagr, Stevens, Francis, Trots, Mullen days but haven't watch a whole lot recently. In fact, I didn't make it through the second intermission last night without falling asleep. I woke up just in time to see the celebration.

FAN: Brady Flips Kayak

Darn. Somebody was there to help him.

FAN: New (Old) Music

Something that is highly unusual of me lately is buying CDs. I haven't bought any in a long time. Until last week. While in Portsmouth NH at a used shop - I picked up Snooky Pryor's Shake My Hand from 1999. As it turns out, Stilladog already owned it so I could have "borrowed" it and accidentally put it on my iPod, but that's ok. Sometimes finding something used feels good. Anyway, I've listened to the disc front to back about 10 times already and I really like it. Alot. I ripped it, put it on my iPod and now I'll throw it in the yardsale pile. Feeling good abuot the find, at the mall the following weekend our local FYE had a $1.97 bin. Hmmmm, I'll take a look. I ended up buying another 4 discs. The first was George Thorogood and the Destroyer's Bad To The Bone from 1982. I had it on cassette but haven't seen it since about 1989 when I bought my first CD player. I love BTTB the single, but the rest of the CD is not the kind blues I like. I'll be surprised if I listen to it in it's entirity again after moving off BTTB t omy party mix. Next was something I really wanted and it sucks. It's a Ray Charles compilation called Essentially Ray Charles. It's not even listed on Wikipedia's discography so I'm assuming it's posthumus and a money grab. It's live and the damn cover doesn't even say it's live or I would have never bought it. Also, no cover art was found to be associated with it after I ripped it. The sound quality is a step above using a tin pie pan as a speaker. I wasted $1.97. David Lee Roth's Your Filthy Little Mouth 1994 came out of the bin as well. It has a few songs that are in the spirit of Eat 'em and Smile's Tobacco Road cover which I love. Again, for $1.97 you can't go too wrong and Dave at the very least usually puts tight bands together. Eat 'Em continues to be one of my most listened to "go to" cds. Being a huge fan of VH's original lineup, I thought E'EAS destroyed Van Hagar's first offering. The last bin find was Howlin' Wolf. It ended up being a compilation cd as well, but at least it was full of songs I didn't own. So the next morning, I go to a neighbor's yardsale and pick up 3 more discs for $0.50 each! Jay-Z something or other that contains Big Pimpin' which I like. Classical compilation of Mahler which is really good. Madonna's something or other that I knew Mrs. Fan didn't own but would want for half a dollar. I think it's the disc right before Ray of Light also from mid 90's. All in all I picked up 8 cds for less than $20. Heck, I think I got $20 worth of enjoyment out of the Snooky Pryor cd. It really reminds me of a Jimmy Witherspoon cd "Live at the Mint".