The King of Pop

When I first heard the news that Michael Jackson died the other day, my first reaction was slight shock – but I realized that there is no way I could mourn for the person he had become. Regardless if he was guilty or not, he had become a caricature and there is an entire generation out there that only knows of him because of his legal troubles. This was until last night….

The bar was slow as could be last night to start and we found out that VH1 Classic was playing MJ videos non-stop throughout the night. The more people come into the bar, the more we all got into it – including getting a “Hands Across America” like circle around the bar and a few of the girls dancing to “Thriller” in-sync with the video. We continued to watch the videos and sing along well after we closed the bar down and started to clean up. That’s when it hit me….

I was heartbroken. I started to realize that no matter what the man had become – when he was on top of his game (especially when I was growing up) he was UNTOUCHABLE. There was no one like him. His videos and concerts were worldwide events that had to be seen. His dancing, the outfits, and the glove – everything he did was iconic. Thanks to last night I started to remember him like I should have been all along – The one and only, The King of Pop.

Michael. Rest in Peace. You will be missed.

This might be one of the greatest videos ever – And my favorite MJ song.

But none of that is ever gonna mean as much to me again

Wake up we’re here
It’s so much worse than we feared
There’s nothing left here
The country has disappeared
If the winter trees bleeding, leave red blood
The summer sweet dreaming, april blush.

Hold out your hand,
there’s so much you don’t understand
So stick as close as you can,
all of the best laid plans
You’ve got the white clouds hanging so high above you
You’ve got the helicopters dangling angling to shoot,
the shots to feed the hungry weekend news crew anchorman.

So every evening we can watch from above,
crushed cities like a bug
Fold ourselves into each others guts,
and turn our faces up to the sun.

I won’t take no
I won’t let you go
All by yourself
Oh no you need my help
When the cold night shakes you like a chandelier
The snowflakes break through the atmosphere,
and melt on the blue breath of the auctioneers and disappear.

Every evening we can watch from above,
crushed cities like a bug
Fold ourselves into each others blood,
and turn our faces up to the sun.

Well

I’ll be back soon enough.

Thank you Curt!

From: http://bugsandcranks.com/38pitches/

“Turn out the lights, the party’s over”

I used to wait with bated breath for Don Meredith to start singing that on “Monday Night Football.” Normally, it was sweet music if the Steelers were playing.

If I could get him to sing it again, I would. This party has officially ended. After being blessed to experience 23 years of playing professional baseball in front of the world’s best fans in so many different places, it is with zero regrets that I am making my retirement official.

Curt Schilling

All my lies are always wishes

I just pre-ordered the new Wilco DVD. April 15th can’t come soon enough.

Someone Else’s Song

I had posted my top 25 albums of all time on facebook a while back and someone made a comment that they would love to see what my list of favorite songs would be. I thought about it for awhile and made a few different lists and promptly scraped each one, but I think I came out with a final (for the most part) list.

I present to you my top 25 songs off all time. The numbering is not going to be 100% accurate because as soon as I hit “publish” I am going to want to change something…

I’ll try not to.

25. – “Somewhere Across Forever”, Stellastarr*
24. – “Wonderwall”, Oasis
23. – “Crow Jane”, The Derek Trucks Band
22. – “The Underdog”, Spoon
21. – “Yellow Ledbetter”, Pearl Jam
20. – “Girlfriend”, Matthew Sweet
19. – “Clavicle”, Alkaline Trio
18. – “Believe In What You Want”, Jimmy Eat World
17. – “Love Of The Loveless”, Eels
16. – “The Weight”, The Band
15. – “Monkey Gone To Heaven”, The Pixies
14. – “Space Oddity”, David Bowie
13. – “Radio, Radio”, Elvis Costello
12. – “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant”, Billy Joel
11. – “Fuck and Run”, Liz Phair
10. – “Avenues”, Whiskeytown
9. – “One”, U2
8. – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, Nirvana
7. – “High and Dry”, Radiohead
6. – “Mayonaise”, Smashing Pumpkins
5. – “Dear Mr. Fantasy”, Traffic
4. – “Layla”, Derek and the Dominos
3. – “Satisfaction”, The Rolling Stones
2. – “A Day in the Life”, The Beatles
1. – “Via Chicago”, Wilco

I’ll repost my top 25 albums at some point.

Oh what could have been…

Mickey Rourke at the Independent Spirit Awards. NSFW.

Yum!

Pepsi Throwback

Dear Mr. Fantasy

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood just announced a 14 city mini-tour for this summer and they will play Chicago on June 17th (United Center).

I wonder if I’ll be gone by then. That would be a great going away gift.

For a taste of how they sound together after all these years, check this out:

A-Roid

“My cousin would administer it to me. But neither of us knew what we were doing.”
– 2.17.09, Alex Rodriguez

He trying to have us believe that he used a substance two or three times a month for three years but he doesn’t know what it was or what it did. You actually believe that crap? If he was so mature at the age of 18 when he says he had his best year in Seattle, how did he end up “young and stupid” by the age of 25? Is he the baseball equivalent of Benjamin Button?

He gave that interview with Peter Gammons on ESPN and claimed that he didn’t know where the stuff he took came from but now he says that someone was running them from the DR. And does saying that his cousin injected him make him less guilty?

This story is full of holes and I’m sure that more will come out in the future. And I am glad that the first question he took was “If it wasn’t for the SI article that was released, would you have come out on your own with this?”

He had no answer for that.

The other great question he was asked was: “If you didn’t think you did anything wrong why were so secretive and didn’t ask for help?”

He couldn’t answer that one either.

A cheater is a cheater is a cheater. And cheaters don’t get into the Hall of Fame.