May 30, 2023
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If “Music Defines a Generation”, I might be a generational orphan. I grew up in a home where “music” was simply not a factor. It simply wasn’t. We weren’t Amish or Druids or anything. Neither of my parents played an instrument nor had a “favorite song”, nor did we own a stereo “HiFi”.
My mother expressed an intense dislike for the songs “On The Road To Mandalay” and “Swing Low Sweet Chariots” … along with her well-know aversion for roast beef and string beans ??
As I stride boldly down Life’s Back Nine, I have wished I could pull out a harmonica and knock out “Turkey In The Straw” or “Oh Susannah”.
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That sets that scene for today’s title … I MIGHT have attended a dozen “concerts” in my life but likely closer to only 6-8. The last one, I think, was working security for Paul McCartney & WINGS at Carter Finley about 20 years ago. Just not in my DNA. That said …
If I had a “I wish I coulda seen ….” Bucket List for concerts / entertainers I wish I coulda seen perform LIVE in their prime, it would be – in no order – Tina Turner, Elvis, and Frank Sinatra.
That is simply a “My List” and not THE List nor should it be Your List. I believe all “best” lists should be personal … be it entertainers, barbecue joints, Bond Girls, or pizza toppings.
My Three were consummate “performers” totally committed to putting on THE best possible show Every Night … night after night. Determined no one would EVER leave one of their performances feeling they did not get their $$$$’s worth and then some.
Tina singing “Proud Mary” ….. Elvis “In The Ghetto” …. Frank “My Way”. YOWSA …
I’m told Taylor Swift is cut from the same cloth as a performer.
Feel free to offer “Your List”. But don’t try to change my mind on “mine”.
If yours include “Pink Floyd” … “Led Zeppelin” … or ANY from that genre expect a blank stare from me. I might recognize a George Strait – Garth Brooks – Alabama – Brooks & Dunne – The Statler Brothers …
To a list of consummate performers totally committed to giving his audience 110% Every Show year after year, I must include my late friend Rush Limbaugh.
Unlike with Tina, Elvis and Frank, I actually had the opportunity to “know Rush” and how he viewed his responsibility to his fans and how sincerely he appreciated them.
1,000s of concerts … 1,000s of performances of Cats, Phantom, Lion King … or 1,000s of EIB shows … maintaining a level of excellence over many years is how Legends become Legends.
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A Body Count in the Trillions …
I am in the process of altering my sleeping patterns. Specifically by not going to bed before 9:30-10. I am, by choice, an early riser – 5:30 – but dealing with a prostate as old as I am and being wide awake at 3 AM is not my choice. Anyhoooo …
So I decided to “watch a movie” each night starting at 7:30 that would get me to my target of 9:30. My choices my first two nights of this Grand Experiment were John Wick 4 … and the Magnificent Seven remake w/ Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt. I have seen the first three “Wicks” so I knew what to expect.
The “body count” of each of these as a stand alone was in the “many 100s” …. watch them back-to-back over two nights and the total body counts exceeded the populations of “both Dakotas” North & South and the UP of Michigan.
A John Wick movie is ten minutes of garbled dialogue and 110 minutes of a continuous running gun battle between Keanu Reeves and 1,000s of Croatian super-thugs. “John Wick” movies are an acquired taste. I like’em.
This version of Magnificent Seven with Denzel as “the Yul Brynner character” was waaaay bloodier than the original. One of “The Seven” is a mute Indian with a longbow and an unlimited supply of arrows … and, of course, the ubiquitous “guy with a really scary knife”.
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Remember Chancellor Chihuahua ?
Surely you recall UNCCH’s notorious “Chancellor Chihuahua FROM DARTMOUTH” and her rainbow collection of “cause ribbons”. You probably know that following her abrupt skedaddle out of Chapel Hill … “don’t let the screen door hit ya ….” blah blah … she resurfaced as Carol of Troy – The Dwarf Queen of USC – Southern Cal.
One of her first pratfalls in her new gig at USC was hiring a new Athletics Director. She quickly hired Mike Bohn from Univ Cincinnati. An admin nomad with not-well concealed “baggage” which Chihuahua managed to totally overlook.
Introducing Bohn to USC in 2029, “Chihuahua” stressed he is “a man of character” …. “he has run class acts and done it real well under difficult situations …” Uh Oh ….
3 1/2 years later a mountain of evidence surfaced that Bohn was doing at USC exactly what he had done at Cincinnati and his previous stops. He is a poster boy for overtly crude sexual harassment to his subordinates and doing / saying incredibly stoopid crap.
Comparing Bohn to a Petrino, a Pitino, a Huggins, or a Jimmy The Greek and Mike Bohn might say “Hold my beer.”
Sports administration 2023 is a minefield of GOTCHAs for the slightest hint of sexual harassment. A post in a high school annual from the 90s telling a girl “I think you are pretty” can resurface 30 years later to get a top official FIRED. …
What Bohn was doing at USC was not that sort of trivial silly crap. His overt crudeness would not have been tolerated 50 years ago … but “Chihuahua” was clueless. Bless her heart.
“Chihuahua” was SHOCKED but no one who had followed Bohn for the past 20 years was. Wonder what the folks AT DARTMOUTH thought?
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Coping like our parents did …
As I note occasionally, I wage two simultaneous campaigns.
#1: To live long enough to see the last “board monkey” eradicated from the planet … watching the last of that horrid species sink into history’s tar pit … gurgle, gurgle. I measure my progress in baby steps.
#2: To Save Western Civilization from metaphorically “shooting its eye out with a BB gun”.
Neither of these two daunting challenges is anywhere near complete. Assuring me of plenty to do in the years ahead … assuming we have “years ahead” to keep doing it.
I really do try to keep these campaigns separate for silly reasons that make less sense by the hour.
Earlier today, I posted the following to my 5,000+ Facebook community of like-minded, salt-of-the-earth Americans none of whom, coincidentally, are drinking Bud LIght … shopping at Target … visiting or watching “Disney” … or having issues with their “pronouns”.
IOW … they are just like 97% of “you people” reading this here now … I do tend to seek out and prefer the company of a certain socio-cultural demographic.
Maybe this will resonate with you … it did with them.
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