Wmcmanus

Frankie Ford, of "Sea Cruise" fame died today at age 76. Saw him along with Del Shannon and Cocktail Stevie & the Tablerockers in my home town of Oglesby, IL, back in the early 80s. We had some pretty cool old timer bands play at our annual summer Oglesby Celebration Days weekend drunk fest. (Sorry about the audio quality of this clip.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5tIHtbctFQ

Thanks again, everybody. At a certain age, I think we tend to become grateful just for the opportunity to experience another birthday and to still be healthy and content with life. It's all good, and I do appreciate the well wishes from all of you fuckers (meant in the nicest way possible, of course).

Happy birthday, birthday brother!

I know him, actually... can't think of his name right now, but he's one of my Santa friends on Facebook. That was awesome. Perfect music for a distorted boobies video. Thanks, everyone. I'm home in Illinois this week hanging out with family, then a high school reunion this coming weekend before heading back to Cayman for the Fall quarter and Santa season. Life is good.

Today, it finally is over... RIP Yogi Berra, a true legend of the game of baseball, and just a lot of fun, always. http://m.yankees.mlb.com/news/article/151137752/hall-of-famer-yogi-berra-passes-away-at-90

Don't mind being an old fart. Sure beats the alternative! Glad you had a happy b-day!

I think the best thing we did was after the first 15-20 minutes or so (after a bunch of emergency vehicles had arrived)... was a bunch of guys who happened to have the misfortune of being so close up near to the accident (including the three of us) stood around and essentially formed a human road block about 150 yards back. Or at least we tried the best we could to convince everyone who kept wandering up the road that they really didn't want to get any closer. It worked for about 80% of the people. Then people who insisted on seeing it for themselves would come back 5 minutes later wishing they had listened to us. So they started telling the new people who wandered up, "No, no, you don't want to see it..." (all dramatic, and insistent). Damn idiots! It was like they had to be macho and walk up there to earn a badge of honor or something, and then be the big man hero trying to spare someone else... whereas those of us who were up front to begin with were just trying not to think about anything, and were basically in shock. Then some new group of morons would wander up, and this kept going on for 2 hours. But you know, sitting in that line for so long, even as word of mouth reached back a mile (seemingly) or however long it was, some people still wanted to come up and gawk... and this was extremely high impact, so not much was left of either vehicle. So that got frustrating, the fact that we were right there and had to babysit and keep looking out for all of the idiots who kept coming and coming... But just all of those lights from such a variety of emergency vehicles flashing for so long, I think that's what I remember most. That, and the darkness and quietness of the night. Nowhere to go and nothing to do but wait with lights flashing and reflecting everywhere. (Anyway, enough about that.)

Saw REO in the summer of '79. They were the headliners for the Rockford Speedway Jam. They were quite good, but The Cars were simply incredible and Ian Hunter was really eye opening for me (it was just after the release of "You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic"). It was freaking hot as hell and of course you're standing on or near asphalt all day long with nothing to drink but buckets of beer! Amazing, long, long day... It was just myself, Dice, and Mince, my best two friends from high school. Then on the way back home at about midnight we were the 4th car back from a head on collision that killed 6 people on US-51 which really was the only (shitty 2-lane) road South at the time (this was much prior to I-39). There was blood, glass and car parts everywhere, with the last couple of victims who didn't die on impact still screaming. Everyone was scrambling to see if they could help and trying to pry one girl free but then there was silence. We couldn't do a thing to help these poor souls, the lone driver of the Northbound vehicle and 5 young people in the car that was heading South and tried to pass a long line of cars. They had also been at the show all day, and were probably just as drunk and high as we were. We all sat around for nearly 2 hours until they finally cleared the road. Some people were freaking out, others wandering from car to car just to have someone to chat with, but it was just so sad and eire. From life to death in just an instant. When we finally got moving again and down the road several miles, nothing was said for the longest time. It had to be 2am by then. Then all of sudden Dice, who was driving, cranked up The Doors for the rest of the way home. We never talked about it again. Could have been us just as easily, although thankfully he wasn't trying to pass anyone. Anyway, RIP Gary. Lots of good memories from that day too... Oh, and the Head East "Flat As a Pancake" album is loaded with really fun kick ass 70s rock ("Never Had Any Reason" being the hit, and rightfully so). Most of the REO guys were from Rockford, so they played there often, and Head East was from Pekin, IL near Peoria.

Gosh, now Moses Malone, another legendary basketball player. Just 60 years old... http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2565929-basketball-hall-of-famer-moses-malone-dies-at-60?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national

Happy birthday!

God works in mysterious ways...

This is why (shoot me if you disagree, as I'm sure nearly everyone will), I'm still stubbornly sticking with my (egad!) Blackberry and have yet to venture into the Smart* phone jungle. *Not so smart if you value human interaction, and are not capable (as I surely am not) of staying off of the internet for more than 5 minutes at a time whenever it is available to you. My Blackberry is perfect! It's ugly, it's boring, it's not very functional, but it rings when I get a phone call, gives me an email feed and the ability to reply to important messages that need my immediate attention, or to send texts, or to take an occasional low grade picture of some strange looking item that I'm about to go to Home Depot to replace and will need to see a picture of to ensure I'm buying the right thing. Totally utilitarian, and never tempting to use as a time waster... since I refuse to enable the browsing capabilities (and would obviously switch to an iPhone or the like if ever I give in to that temptation).

Happy birthday, Jimmy!

Great video! Congrats, Birgir... and famous you should be! Also, really really nice to see Tyll looking so spry and chipper. That part is way cool.

Really sorry to hear, Brent. My condolences. ...and RIP Chocolate Thunder, Darrly Dawkins, 58 is much too young. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/08/27/rip-chocolate-thunder-former-nba-star-darryl-dawkins-reportedly-dead-at-58/

Drove 4 hours each way from Tampa to Miami and back to see a baseball game. Might just be a bit of a zealot, especially when it comes to watching J.A. Happ pitch. He's from my home town and went to the same high school I did, and is now on the Pittsburgh Pirates who are in contention for the playoffs. 6 innings pitched, 4 hits, 0 runs, which was good for a win!

That's really rough, Larry... it's even hard to read, so I just can't imagine. Like everyone else, I really wish I knew what to say. Hope you get your pain meds sorted out soon.

Not sure, but I'll check with Matt's friend Jeremy to see if he knows.

I know, I know... sigh. I'm told that his folks sold their home in the Tampa area and moved to somewhere in Tennessee (I think it is) where his sister and thus their grandkids live. I meant to follow up with them just to stop for a visit, but never did. I still see a number of his friends every now and then. Nothing else was ever learned concerning the puzzling circumstances surrounding his death, not that it really matters because nothing can bring him back. But anyway... happy birthday, Matt!