#my2cents – The Boring Old Man

Short-sighted Buffoonery

Today I saw an article stating “several artists” have pulled out of performing at America’s 250th celebration, and I gotta say that news just bummed me out.

I’m not bummed because I was going to attend said celebration. Honestly, I don’t even know where it’s being held, or when. I’d imagine it’s on Independence Day somewhere in D.C., but I haven’t looked into it. The artists mentioned by name – Morris Day and the Time and Young MC – aren’t anyone I’d go to see anyway. (I do actually really like MD and the Time’s music, but I’m in the wrong demographic to attend one of their shows I’m afraid). And with this news I’m sure there will be more jumping on (or off, as the case may be) the bandwagon due to some sort of imagined “protest”. I don’t know who is on the lineup, and that’s not what this is about anyway.

No, what steams my beans is that a lot of people these days equate America to Donald Trump, and that if you support America, you are thereby a Trump supporter and therefore you are a Nazi or a fascist or a pedo-apologist or whatever slur these half-wits are slinging these days.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I do not like Donald Trump. I did not ever vote for Donald Trump. I will, quite frankly, be glad when he’s served his term and we no longer have to live in the shadow of “orange man bad”. But here’s the thing – every single president we’ve had in my lifetime has been a disappointment at the very least. They’ve all done questionable things, some very shady and/or outright illegal and in some instances unconstitutional things. This is in no way unique to Trump. But never before have the masses, and especially not the privileged class, essentially turned their backs on our country due to whomever was sitting in the Oval Office. As a teen, I hated Ronald Reagan and his cozy relationship with the “Moral Majority” kooks, not to mention his outright, blatant lies about the whole Iran/Contra crimes. Then his successor GHW Bush came along, and he was worse. I thought Clinton was gonna be great, but it turned out he was a lying degenerate AND he unleashed that harpie Hillary on us, to add insult to injury. Bush Jr. was an imbecile with daddy issues, whose lies led us into a 2 DECADE war, for no justifiable reason, and cost thousands upon thousands of lives, untold billions in treasure, and left lasting wounds upon thousands of service personnel and their families. I personally know a few of those soldiers, and their lives were torn to SHREDS over that middle east bullshizz, and for what?!? Then along comes Obama. I will freely, and regretfully admit, that I bought Obama’s schtick, hook, line and sinker. The first time around. As much as ol’ Billy Clinton disappointed me, I felt utterly betrayed by Obama and could not in good conscience vote for him in his second term. My list of grievances toward him is long and quite frankly I do firmly believe he and his wife set back racial relations in this country by decades. When Trump got elected the first time, I generally thought the American public had lost their flippin’ minds. (Though, in full transparency, even though I didn’t vote for him, I did appreciate the “thumb in the eye” his election gave to “The Establishment”. It was LONG overdue.) He came across as a clown, and a charlatan. Then the wheels really came off with the ascension of Sleepy Joe Biden. His residency was an absolute embarrassment to the office, which undoubtedly set the stage for Trump 2.0. And we can all see how that’s going… And let’s be honest, the players on deck for the next round??? May God have mercy on us…

To be perfectly clear, I have nothing but scorn and loathing for our administrative state, but I love America. I love the American people. I’m proud of many things we’ve done as a nation, despite some of the ugly things done along the way. I do believe the good outweighs the bad. I still believe in the promise of America, what our founding fathers envisioned for their descendants. I also believe we’ve lost our way. But no philanderers, no charlatans, no two-faced, war mongering bastards are going to make me hate my home. I may not respect the man in the office, but I will alway respect the office. A country is its people, its culture, its values. Not its politicians. Politicians, by and large, are narcissistic parasites and should be treated as such.

I can distinctly remember our country’s Bicentennial in 1976. It was very young, and it was a long time ago, but it left a lasting impression on me. It brought our country together. It was a time of celebration and pride in what our forefathers had built. It didn’t matter what color your skin was, it didn’t matter where you or your parents had come from, it didn’t matter WHO WAS PRESIDENT at the time! No, ALL that mattered was that we were Americans in America celebrating 200 years of our homeland’s existence.

Oh, how all that promise, all that hope and determination for a better life has deteriorated in the last 50 years! This, my friends, is what the whole “diversity is our strength” yahoos have wrought upon our country. Are we stronger as a country now than we were 50 years ago? No, no we are not. Has the plethora of hyphens forced upon our people made us more united as a people? No, they have divided us, further and further away from United, with each passing year. Growing up in California, I had friends from all over the world, in every size, shape, color and denomination you can imagine, but you know what we ALL were? American. Not African-American, not Japanese-American, not Mexican-American or Filipino/ Greek/Tongan/Irish/English-American, just American. And even as kids, we knew, KNEW that we were lucky to be here. That our founding was special, it was different. It was unlike anything the world had ever seen, and there was no other country in the world that had what we had. We were GRATEFUL to be in America. And it showed. It felt good. We were all rooting for the same team. We were brethren.

So for me, hearing that some fortunate souls, who have been blessed with fortune and fame, who have achieved their lofty, special station in life, right here in the good ol’ USA are turning their backs to the same country that GAVE them that status, that gave them the opportunity to grab that brass ring, well…it makes me more than a little angry, and very, very sad.

Yes, life in America can be hard. It can be unfair. It can seem like the odds are stacked against you sometimes. But it also holds immense beauty. There are opportunities for anyone that has the guts to step up to the plate and take a swing. There is kindness and empathy and a neverending desire to innovate and to make the world a better place. Our country, our beloved America, is a bountiful place, and should be revered and cherished.

If you turn your back on all that because you don’t like the guy currently sitting in the big chair, or worse, because you are afraid of what the Internet might have to say about you supporting and celebrating your own country, then I’m sorry for you. That is a sad, pathetic excuse for an American.

This coming Independence Day marks 250 years of the greatest experiment in human civilization ever seen, and you are fortunate to be part of it. Show some respect for your ancestors, show some appreciation for the opportunity you have, show some gratitude. If you can’t find something to be proud of as an American, then you aren’t truly an American. I’ve had enough of the celebrity pouting and hissy fits. They should be thanking their lucky stars they get to perform or make art for a living, rather than working double shifts at the local factory, or waiting tables or worse. You were given an opportunity to celebrate your COUNTRY you morons, you weren’t asked to celebrate a single man you most likely disagree with.

For the screeching weasels out there, yes I am proud to be an American and feel extraordinarily lucky to have this country as my home. Nothing you say or do will ever convince me otherwise. If you and your ilk would shut yer yaps for a minute, maybe try to be a productive citizen instead of tearing down everything that hurts your feelings, you might come to find there is plenty to celebrate in our lands.

Ok, that’s enough for tonight. I really try to not rant and rave here, but I’m just sick to death of all the anti-American nonsense being spewed at us left and right, . We will survive Trump. We will survive the next idiot that takes his place. We’re American, that’s what we do. Against all odds, we prevail. Stand up and be proud, your future will be better for it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wait…Good news? Nowadays?

This past Sunday, Mother’s Day for us folks here Stateside (I don’t know about other countries, but every one SHOULD celebrate mothers!), our daughter cooked up a little Mother’s Day adventure for us and treated the Mrs. and I to a “Brunch on the Bay” cruise up in San Francisco.

Now, my initial reaction to this news (internally of course, you don’t want to be a wet blanket, especially on Mother’s Day!) was ewww. As mentioned in several other posts on this blog, I’ve come to loathe San Francisco over the last several years. But, I’m a fan of boats, I LOVE the water, and it was a day out of the house with the Mrs. and our kid, so I put on a happy face and decided to just roll with it.

As a kid and well into my 20s, I loved San Francisco. I spent a lot of time there as a youth with my family and have a lot of fond memories of those days. In high school when I was doing my best to be a ne’er-do-well, I used to ditch school and head up to the city just to hang out. When my band started getting gigs up there, we thought we were on top of the world – it was a vastly different scene to the one in San Jose we came up in. We had a number of friends that lived up there and visited often. At one point I even wanted to move there.

Then, sometime around the early 00’s, most likely after the Dot-com Bubble burst, the city went into decline. After the financial crisis of ’06-’08, it got worse. By the time the Plague rolled around in 2020, the city was unrecognizable. And it just kept getting worse from there. To the point of my family deciding a year or so back, that unless there were very critical reasons for traveling to SF, we just weren’t going to anymore. It was vile. All the stories you see about the rampant homeless population, the feces strewn sidewalks, the full throttle degenerate behavior out in the open, the crime, the shockingly crazy people screaming at nothing in the middle of the street… ALL of it was true. Heartbreaking, but true. I remember thinking, they just need to burn this entire city to the ground, it’s beyond hope.

So you can imagine my surprise, my utter SHOCK, when we rolled into the city and it was as if the clock had been rolled back 20 years. Now, granted we were down at the water’s edge in a very tourist-centric area, but a year ago that wouldn’t have made a difference. We had to walk maybe 6 blocks from where we parked to the pier, and I didn’t see a single person sleeping on the sidewalk, much less any shantytowns along the way. I didn’t have to dodge any poop on the sidewalk. I didn’t see a single needle. Nobody asked us for money. I was in utter shock to be honest.

Even after the event on our way back to the highway, there was a noticeable lack of blight. Yes, many, many vacant storefronts – business is still very clearly down – but overall I was very pleasantly surprised at how different the city looked overall. Between the ousting of the loathsome District Attorney, Chesa Boudin a few years ago and that clown of a mayor, London Breed, getting kicked to the curb last year, San Francisco seems to have turned a corner, and I’m really glad to see it.

Of course, there are a lot of areas in the city we didn’t see that day. Some neighborhoods were extremely dingy and dangerous long before the decline that started 20 years ago, and I’m sure they are still as bad if not worse. But a year ago I couldn’t go ANYWHERE in San Francisco without seeing the despair and the filth and the decrepit nature of the place, so I consider it a win for the city.

Now the next time a great band or comic comes through San Francisco I won’t be so reluctant to make the trip. Whatever you’re doing San Francisco, keep up the good work!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Class Act…

Ok, right off the bat I will freely admit, this content is “stolen” from the interwebs. The term “class act” caught my eye, so I had to check it out. That was a common phrase “back in my day”, but I cannot recall the last time I ever heard it. Maybe because nowadays our society celebrates “CRASS acts”, and not CLASS acts. I’m looking at you Kardashians and “Real Housewives”… Anyhow, I think this list below is a good primer, a blueprint if you will, to direct us to be generally better people. Just imagine what our world would look like if HALF the people did even HALF the things on this list?!?In these days of everyone being out for themselves, a little decency, decorum and yes, class, would go a long way. I wish I could say that I do all these things, but like most of us, I am a work in progress. There are certainly several of these things that are ingrained in me, that I do without even thinking about it, but a number of them I do not, or have not done in a while. Anyhow, without further delay here is a brilliant instructional to being a Class Act. (I give credit to Budget Savvy Travelers @thebstravelers for this content – I don’t know if it is their original work or not, but that is who I lifted it from)

Want to be remembered as a classy SOB? Here are 25 ways to elevate everyday life:

1️⃣ Say hello first – Brighten someone’s day with a warm greeting.

2️⃣ Use and remember names – It shows respect and attentiveness.

3️⃣ Hold doors – Small gestures leave a big impact.

4️⃣ Let people merge in traffic – Courtesy goes a long way. Don’t stress over a few seconds.

5️⃣ Write thank-you notes – Handwritten is classy and memorable.

6️⃣ Don’t bad-mouth others – Integrity speaks louder than gossip.

7️⃣ Compliment behind backs – Spread goodwill silently.

8️⃣ Pick up trash – Leave every space better than you found it.

9️⃣ Dress appropriately – Context matters more than style.

🔟 Be on time – Respect others’ time as much as your own.

1️⃣1️⃣ Be a generous listener – Let others shine in conversation.

1️⃣2️⃣ Return things better than you received them – Small acts of care matter.

1️⃣3️⃣ Say “excuse me” & “sorry” sincerely – Without excuses.

1️⃣4️⃣ Tip generously – Show appreciation for service.

1️⃣5️⃣ Put your phone away – Give full attention in conversations.

1️⃣6️⃣ Keep your word – Reliability builds trust.

1️⃣7️⃣ Don’t overshare – Practice discretion.

1️⃣8️⃣ Give credit freely – Let others take the spotlight when deserved.

1️⃣9️⃣ Act with dignity in loss – Grace under pressure is unforgettable.

2️⃣0️⃣ Give people an out – Let others save face.

2️⃣1️⃣ Acknowledge service workers – See their humanity, not just the job.

2️⃣2️⃣ Keep complaints private & proportionate – Handle issues calmly.

2️⃣3️⃣ Don’t correct unnecessarily – Preserve dignity over ego.

2️⃣4️⃣ Don’t brag – Confidence doesn’t need showboating.

2️⃣5️⃣ Act like a host everywhere – Make people feel welcome and at ease.

Thanks for stopping by!

GDMFSOB!!!

Rough start this morning… The Mrs and our daughter are out of town, and per usual when the Mrs is away, I did not sleep well. Nonetheless, I was up at 5am and out the door around 5:40, cuz it’s a “gym day”. M,W,F I hit the gym before work, but I digress …

As I’m about to leave, I’m wrangling the house rabbit back into his pen and I notice the little bugger had chomped through a nearly new charger cable. Chewed that sucker into 3 pieces. In about 2 unsupervised minutes. That makes about 10 cables he’s destroyed over the last few months, and this particular one was only a week or two old. So, naturally I’m irritated, but such is life and I had bigger fish to fry -primarily getting to the gym and then to work by 8am.

Then I get to my truck and go to throw my bags in the passenger door, when I see the cab of my truck is in total disarray. Uh oh… That’s not a good sign, but it’s still pitch dark and I can’t really see what all is missing, so I figure I’ll go work out and then deal with it. Only trouble is, when I go to put the key in the ignition I discover some piece of human refuse tried to STEAL the entire truck – the steering column is all busted up and the ignition switch is broken, wires pulled out, just completely inoperable.

Capital F to the You See Kay!!!

So now instead of going to the gym and work, I’m calling the boys in blue at 5:45am, filing a police report, then dealing with insurance, getting a tow truck, arranging for a rental car…all that “fun” stuff.

Aside from the broken column and ignition switch, they also broke the exterior door handle on the passenger side. And, to add insult to injury, they also stole about $1,000 worth of tools and personal items like sunglasses and such that was inside the cab.

Yes, I know it’s only “stuff” and I’m lucky they DIDN’T get the whole truck. But I’d be lying if I told you I haven’t been in a murderous rage all day, nonetheless.

So happy I pay a generous premium to live in the “nice” neighborhood…/s

No moral to the story here kids. Just me “ranting” cuz I feel a burning desire to load a scum bag into a wood chipper, feet first, Which in my not so humble option is what ALL thieves deserve.

I guess I should consider myself lucky. I went through a rash of burglaries about 25 years ago – my car was broken into 3 times and my storage unit twice. (That one HURT!! All my drums and music gear were wiped out with NO insurance.) All that happened in the span of about 3 years. But things on the crime front have been good for a long time. Be that as it may however, I have a deep, brutal loathing for thieves. I guess it’s good that I didn’t hear the commotion as I would have, likely as not, answered that call with Mr. Nineteen-eleven for backup and ventilated some POS in my carport. I can only imagine (being in California) the day that followed that kind of scene would certainly be worse than the one I actually had. I’ve had copious amounts of rage bottled up for several decades, it’s best that I didn’t intervene. I was looking forward to a great week, not catching felony charges.

Anyhow, it’s been an absolute shit day. I hope yours was better…

Serenity now, serenity now, serenity now…

Tomorrow is a new day.

Thanks for stopping by.

Well, That Was Weird…

Today I had an unusual experience. Not unusual like an alien abduction or a religious experience or anything fun like that. No, just a wave of nostalgia combined with a shock to the system based on current data and a tinge of a glimpse of a bizzaro world future dystopia.

Where, you might ask, did this odd interconnected experience happen? Why, “The Mall” of course!

As it happened on this fine Saturday, I was running around taking care of various odds and ends, and I happened to have about an hour to kill before my next engagement. It was hot, I needed to take a leak and I just happened to be a few blocks away from a shopping mall, so I figured I’d make a pit stop there rather than find some grody gas station bathroom and sit in my hot (black) pickup for an hour. And who knows, maybe treat myself to an Orange Julius drink – it’s been years!

Now this particular mall, now called “Westfield Valley Fair” has been around a long time. In fact, my personal history with the place goes back to some of my earliest memories as a child, when it was two separate shopping centers (Valley Fair and Stevens Creek Plaza) across the street from each other. The fondest memories of the place were going to the book store there – the book store had TWO floors – and when you’re 4/5 years old, that just seems to be an astounding amount of books! Both my parents read a lot, and often gifted books as presents, so that was a place we frequented. Though to be honest I was so young when we started going there I don’t even know what the name of the place was, we just called it “the bookstore”. The other very vivid memory I have from way back, is taking my paper route earnings, riding my bike the 4 miles or so down to the Macy’s at that mall and buying Levi’s 501 jeans and some store-brand knock-off “Polo” shirts, as it was my intention to re-invent myself as a “preppy” kid going into my Freshman year of High School. Yeah, that didn’t exactly work out for me, turns out lower-middle class kids from the “wrong side of the tracks” don’t exactly fit in that world. But that is a story for another day… I can still remember the 501’s were $12.50 then. The shirts were about 10 bucks. 3 pair of pants and two shirts – one red, one blue – cost me about $60, which is just a little less than I made in a month of schlepping newpapers. It’s weird how things like that stick in your mind. I guess when you’re 14, buying your back-to-school clothes with money you had to earn yourself, you pay more attention to what things cost. This would be the summer of 1982.

Fast forward a couple years and both those shopping centers were bought out by a big company and the place was “re-developed” into one, continuous, two story indoor mall now simply called Valley Fair. It re-opened in 1986 and it was the quintessential 80’s mall. Back then in my general area, which was essentially what we could reach on our bicycles, we had three malls. The one right down the street from my house – Westgate – was known amongst my cohorts as the “dirt mall”. Across town we had Valco, which was the “nice mall”, they had a McDonald’s AND an ice skating rink – the perfect place for kids to hang out back then. (And secretly, I LOVED to go into the Sears there and check out all the Craftsman tools!) But when Valley Fair reopened, it was quickly and decisively known as the “rich mall”. Naturally myself and my friends couldn’t BUY anything there, but we loved to hang out there, ‘cuz that’s where all the cute, rich girls hung out! Later, my bandmates and I would go down there and pass out fliers for our shows and bumper stickers to pretty girls that had “the look” of the type that might like our music… But I digress. I guess what I’m trying to say is I have some really fond memories of the place, going back to maybe 1972 or so.

Then from say 1988 until 2018 I only stepped foot in the place a handful of times, when I was after something very specific from a particular store. Usually a gift of some sort. Around 2020 I was driving by the place and noticed that once again they were doing a massive remodel of the mall, from one end to the other. The construction went on for I’d say at least 3 years. It was a massive undertaking. I hadn’t been there from at least 2018 until this past April, when once again I visited Macy’s to buy a suit for my daughter’s wedding. But at that time, I didn’t actually go in the mall, just Macy’s – in and out. That pretty much covers the nostalgia part of the tale.

Well today since I had an hour to kill, I decided to walk around just to see what the “new” mall is about. Holy. Crap.

As you might have guessed, I’m not exactly the mall type. Other than concerts, for which I will gladly suck it up, I am NOT a “crowds” kinda guy. They set me on edge, big time. And let me tell you this place was PACKED. Like, it’s 12 hours til Christmas morning, packed. It was unreal. And it was literally just a Saturday afternoon in August! I cannot imagine what that place would be like in a holiday shopping rush, but I don’t want to be within 5 miles of there from Thanksgiving til Valentines day!! It was beyond shocking, the sheer volume of people.

And the people? Look, I recognize my hometown (sadly) turned into Ground Zero of Silicon Valley and it’s always been “diverse”, but I’d be grossly exaggerating if I told you 10% of the people there were Anglo. My rough, purely non-scientific, off-the-cuff estimates based on my own observations – keeping in mind I didn’t venture into a single store or restaurant – would say the clientele was 70% Asian of one faction or another (I’m including Indian here), 15% Middle Eastern, 10% Hispanic, 4% Anglo and 1% black. It was wild. I’ve never seen such lopsided “diversity” in one place. And again, not being a mall kinda guy, I was really taken aback by the frenetic pace at which everything was moving. We used to go the the mall to hang out, to chill. There is NO chill left in the place. It reminded me of those crazy scenes you see in the movies of some bazaar in Calcutta or something. Everyone scurrying around, bumping into each other. Security guards evetywhere. And the din? Goodness gracious! It was SOOO flippin’ LOUD in there. The cacophony of dozens of different languages, each trying to be heard over rhe other, was dizzying. Like a mild roar, never ceasing, in the background. It was unsettling to say the least.

But the thing that really blew my mind was the stores in there nowadays. Like I said earlier, it was the “rich mall” even back in the day cuz they had a Macy’s and Nordstroms as opposed to the Sears at the nice mall or JC Penny at the dirt mall, but now it’s become some grotesque monument to consumption that honestly made me wonder if I’d slipped into another dimension. Every name-dropped brand name from every hip hop record in the last decade had a storefront. Gucci, Fendi, Balenciaga, Bvlgari, Burberry, Rolex, Cartier, Prada…the list goes on and on. All kinds of brands and stores I’ve never even heard of. Additionally there were a bunch of clearly Asian stores with names I couldn’t pronounce. I don’t know what to make of a place like that. This is flippin’ San Jose, not Beverly Hills or Manhattan. It was so alien and frankly grotesque to me. That kind of crass consumerism really gives me the creeps. And what really hit me was that earlier that day, less than a mile down the road from all this excess, I’d stopped at a 7-11 for a cup of coffee and had to dodge a homeless dude sleeping on the sidewalk while also being accosted by another for some money to “get something to eat”.

I’ll be the first to admit that I do not “fit in”, I’m one of the least tendy people you’ll ever meet, and not only do I not care about “name brands”, I’ll generally cut the labels off of everything (a holdover from my early punk rock days surely). I simply cannot understand the appeal of this type of “culture”. That so many people are drawn to this spectacle that absolutely repels me just boggles my mind. Hence, the shock to the system.

As for the dystopia? Aa I mentioned, the sheer volume of people and the frenetic pace was almost too much for this boring old man the bear…but what really troubles me is that within a couple miles if this place, in every direction, enormous, soulless housing developments are popping up. I don’t get to this part of town often, and driving around today I was really overwhelmed by how many of these monstrosities were under construction. Traffic around here has been absurd for a long time, wait times for everything from medical appointments to a haircut get worse year after year, the job market is BRUTAL, everywhere is just crowded, the homeless shanty towns are all over the place…and “they” are building thousands of new housing units and packing them in like sardines. I moved to this area just before my 5th birthday and spent my youth running around the orchards and open fields, which were around every corner. Even as things slowly developed, it was still a great place to live and we still had a sense of community. But the last 10 years have been like a runaway train and all this “progress” has turned my hometown into an overcrowded, disjointed, ugly mess with greater and greater disparity between the haves and have-nots, and I fear they’re just getting started. I’m reminded of the old song lyrics “We gotta get outta this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do!”.

And to add insult to injury, the mall doesn’t even have an Orange Julius anymore!

Thanks for stopping by.

This “Green Thing”

Found this on the interwebs and it’s too good not to share:

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment,.
The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, “We didn’t have this ‘green thing’ back in my earlier days.”
The young clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”
The older lady said that she was right our generation didn’t have the “green thing” in its day. The older lady went on to explain: Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
But we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day. Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.
But, too bad we didn’t do the “green thing” back then. We walked up stairs because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the “green thing” in our day.
Back then we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days.
Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day.
Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.
In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.
When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power.
We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the “green thing” back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family’s $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the “green thing.”
We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.
But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the “green thing” back then?

-borrowed

Now, as a Gen X person, I cannot say ALL these things were still around in my youth, but a lot of them were. We still had a ‘milk man’ that delivered milk, and the used glass bottles were returned for re-use with every delivery. I can remember taking soda bottles back to the store for money, with which I’d usually get enough for an ice cream cone, which was 15 cents at Thrifty’s. Can you imagine a 10 year old kid walking 10 blocks, pulling a wagon of glass bottles, for 15 cents nowadays? Can you imagine buying a single scoop of ice cream ANYWHERE for 15 cents? I was in high school before my family got a second car (and my mother got a driver’s license). I cannot recall a single time from elementary school through my Junior year of high school (where I ALWAYS used brown paper grocery bags to fabricate book covers!) where I was driven to school. In my senior year my Pops got a company truck, so I inherited his 12 year old International Scout and would drive myself. For a few years in elementary school I did take a school bus, but I walked a few blocks to the bus stop and then home again after drop off. When I needed to go somewhere as a kid, it was on two feet or later, on a bicycle – and of all the bikes I had growing up, only one of them were new, all the others were second-hand. And I used those second-hand bikes to deliver newspapers and to ride out to my Grandmother’s house to mow her lawn… In fact, pretty much every “recreational” thing I had growing up was second-hand. And it was not uncommon to wear hand-me-down clothes either. I didn’t have older siblings, but I got a lot of things passed on from my next door neighbor that was like an older brother to me. And when summer came around we didn’t go out and buy shorts, we cut the pant legs off last year’s school clothes and that was that. Once a month my Boy Scout troop would go door-to-door throughout the neighborhood collecting newspapers to be recycled into – you guessed it – newspaper for printing. We had one TV in the house until my high school days, and it wasn’t until then we had Cable TV. I don’t think my parents had a VCR until after I’d moved out at 19… I used “Thomas Guide” map books as a teenager delivering Pizzas and later as a legal courier. No cell phones, no GPS, just some paper (that never lost signal or ran out of power) and a little common sense.

I consider myself a nature lover and an old school “environmentalist” – as in, don’t litter, leave nothing but footprints, etc. – but this whole “green thing” is mostly hogwash. While some of it may be well intentioned, it is chock full of unintended consequences. As someone much smarter than me once opined – “when factories producing solar panels can run 100% of their production from solar power, I’ll believe it’s a viable, long term solution at scale.” Or something along those lines, that was years ago and Im paraphrasing. And as I far as I know, that has not come anywhere near a reality. Most of the physical waste comes from corporations trying to maximize profits (plastic vs. glass is a prime example) and most of the ‘solutions’ come from government trying to ‘create jobs’ and maximize revenues. After all, providing a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, or more likely was CREATED by government, is what government does best.

By all means, re-using and re-purposing are fantastic and I think everyone should do this. Walk more, drive less? Absolutely. And reusable grocery bags over plastic? Yeah, I don’t have a problem with that. I just think it would be swell if today’s “greenies” would get off their high horses and recognize that they don’t have all the answers either. In 25 years they will be getting slammed for all the toxic waste from lithium EV batteries, dead and depleted solar panels, poisoned water tables and the fact that our most fertile, food producing land was paved over for “multi-use commercial/residential buildings” in the name of “progress”. We all do the best we can with what we have to work with. Not all ideas are bad just because they’re old, and not all ideas are good just because they are new. In general, I think it’s a good idea to be less wateful and to take care of your things so you maximize their lifespan. Less consumption overall. Simple, right?

Ok, that’s enough of my blathering…

Thanks for stopping by.

Even Better Than The Real Thing?

It’s been a while now since I’ve written about any music stuff, but I wasn’t feeling terribly inspired for a particular “Flashback Friday” installment. Then out if the blue I heard a cover song done by a band – out of Romania of all places – that was pretty great, and it got me to thinking about some of the great cover songs that have been done over the years.

I’m case you’re not familiar with the term, a “cover” is a re-make of a song done by somebody else. You’ll often find cover bands in bars and at wedding receptions and such, where the paying customer wants the band playing music most everyone is familiar with. A true cover band will play all kinds of things, from a variety of artists, as opposed to a “tribute” band that will play only the songs of ONE artist, often dressing the part and doing their best to mimic the original band. From what I understand, tribute bands are where the money is at, but as a musician I can’t imagine doing such a thing. But I digress…

Now, I’ve been in cover bands and I’ve also been in bands that played 99% original music, with a cover or two thrown in the live set just for fun. In my case it was always a song from the past, something we as a group were inspired by, or just a song we really loved, not just some Top 40 hit for the sake of playing a hit song for an audience. And we always tried to put our own spin on it, it was never a straight up imitation. Did any of those bands play a cover that was better than the original? I couldn’t say. But for us it was just for fun and the love of a particular song.

All that being said, every now and again a known band will release a cover song that in my opinion outshines the original. The songs listed below meet that criteria, again in MY opinion.

Born to Run- Frankie Goes To Hollywood

I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years these guys would play a Bruce Springsteen song, but they did and it’s an awesome rendition!

Stop Your Sobbing – Pretenders

Originally released by the Kinks – another band I always loved – and produced by Nick Lowe, the Pretenders put their spin on it and knocked it out of the park!

Higher Ground – RHCP

It takes a lot of guts to cover a legendary musican like Stevie Wonder, but in my opinion the Peppers took a great song and made it 10x greater!

I’ve Done Everything For You – Rick Springfield

Written and originally recorded by Sammy Hagar, this version by Rick Springfield leaves Sammy’s version in the dust. Even Sammy himself liked Rick’s version better!

Only The Young – Scandal

I LOVED this song when it was released, it wasn’t until a few years later I learned it was actually written and released by Journey. I like the Journey version, but Patty and the boys took it to another level!

Sorry – the Three O’clock

I’ve been a fan of the Three O’clock since about 1982, and this was one of my favorite songs of theirs and it took me FOREVER to find a copy back in the day! Imagine my chagrin when I learned only ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO that it was a cover! Originally written and performed by Australian band the Easybeats, featuring George Young, older brother of Malcom and Angus Young of AC/DC

HONORABLE MENTION:

Wasted Years – Damone

Damone is (was?) a GREAT band and their debut album floored me. This wasn’t my favorite track on the album, but I liked it a lot. I later learned from a friend of mine more familiar with Heavy Metal that this was an Iron Maiden song! I can’t say Damone’s is better, it doesn’t really resemble the Maiden version at all. They certainly put their own spin on it and did a fantastic job of it.

Got the Time – Anthrax

I really, really like this version of the Joe Jackson classic. But is it BETTER than Joe’s version? Absolutely not. Just different and fun.

I think it’s a big deal to record a cover as opposed to recording a song simply written by someone else that’s never been out for public consumption. It’s a risky endeavor, especially if the song being covered was a hit when originally released. It takes an exceptional talent to take an already great song, and make it sound like your band rather than the band that originally wrote the song. No small feat! And don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of straight up CRINGE covers out there, but if you look and listen every once in a while a diamond shines through!

I could have easily added another half dozen covers to this list, if not more, I think are better than the original versions, but I’d love to hear from my readers. Tell me a song you think is better than the original version, I’m all ears.

Thanks for stopping by!

This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things…

As a lifelong Californian I am no stranger to living amongst the homeless. For a number of years I lived in both Downtown San Jose and East San Jose, both areas habitually populated by the down and out, going back to the early 1980’s. Quite possibly longer, but that is when I personally became aware of it…

When I lived downtown I had a 10 block walk to work. Every day I was accosted by transients asking for money. Every. Single. Day. It was exhausting. I was poor, very poor, at the time. Like 5 people in a 2 bedroom apartment poor, no insurance – health or otherwise – poor. I looked at these folks as in desperate need and tried not to have my heart hardened towards them. I took to carrying food in my pack and when I was asked for money, I would say no and then offer them whatever food I was carrying – maybe a granola bar or a little bag of chips or whatever…simple grab and munch stuff. More often than not the offer of food was refused. That told me a lot about these people. It was an eye opener to say the least.

Fast forward 35 years or so, and the problem is 100x times worse. San Jose has shanty towns (aka “encampments”) all over the place now. Events they used to have, like the annual Music in the Park events, went down the tubes because they were becoming overrun by the derelict mob. San Francisco, a mere hour north of San Jose is infinitely worse. It is a sad state of affairs State-wide.

Year after year we’re told we need to spend MORE money to combat homelessness, despite having spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the last 20 years on the problem and the problem getting bigger and more pronounced everywhere you go in “The Golden State”.

As if the whole situation weren’t enough to make your blood boil, then you come across stories like this…

https://news.yahoo.com/sacramento-county-clears-way-200-215626445.html

Our glorious “leaders” devise this super-genius plan to spend EIGHTEEN MILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS to supply between 175 and 200 “tiny homes” for the homeless as “transitional” housing.

$18,000,000 ÷ 200 = $90,000

If you click the link and see the pics, you’ll note that these “tiny homes” are essentially garden sheds that cost between $2-3k each at your local Home Depot or Lowes… Add some insulation and an AC unit, you might spend 5 grand. So where does the other $85k per unit go?

Most of the $17.7 million grant will go to operations and administration: Up to $14.6 million is slated for First Step Communities, which will operate the site, and $842,000 will go to county administrative services. The county is also paying WellSpace $2.2 million for a three-year lease of the lot.

I’m sorry, but this is simply disgraceful. They’d be better off putting $85k in a trust for each of the 200 people and pay a single trust administrator to dole it out responsibly. That could get a person into actual housing. Get them into a treatment center. Allow them to find a job… But no, instead we’ll spend millions to “help” and NOTHING will change for the better. In fact, I’d bet hard money that within 3 years our homeless population will be double what it is now, we’ll be “on the hook” for ever more taxes and our quality of life will be further degraded. For starters.

The most current estimate I could find puts the Californian homeless population at just under 172,000. Extrapolate the math above – 172,000 x $90,000 each for “help” and you’ve got a price tag of 15.48 BILLION DOLLARS. Putting it into a different perspective, that $18 million “investment” in Sacramento will impact less than 0.12% of our CURRENT homeless population in the state.

I expect there are going to be a lot of people getting big paychecks over this, and subsequently more than a few politicians getting some really juicy donations to their reelection coffers, but for the taxpayers, we’ll just keep getting the shaft and the homeless will get more lip service and empty promises.

This is a hopeless situation given the current crop of bureaucrats. Don’t get your hopes up for clean streets and safe neighborhoods. So long as the grift carries on like this, things are only going to get worse. After all, our “ruling class” has a ton of money to make off our collective misery!

We’re gonna need a lot of tar and feathers, folks!

Sorry for the crabby rant, but thanks for stopping by!

Gosh, what a surprise…

So Guvner Gruesome has repeatedly said that he is NOT running for prez. Since anyone that knows anything about him knows he’s a pathological liar, his constant denials have put many of us on edge. And now this in today’s news:

“President Biden told a group of world leaders that California Gov. Gavin Newsom “could have the job I’m looking for” if he wanted, amid a low approval rating and discontent within his own party.

“I want to talk about Governor Newsom. I want to thank him. He’s been one hell of a governor, man,” Biden said Wednesday during a welcome reception for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders in San Francisco. “Matter of fact, he could be anything he wants. He could have the job I’m looking for.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-reveals-who-thinks-have-job-running-for-2024-shadow-campaign-rumors-swirl

I think old slow Joe got his sentence jumbled up again – it should have been ” Life’s been hell with him as governor, man”

Good grief. Let me just say, as a life-long Californian and former Democrat, as bad as Joe has been, and let’s face it, NOTHING has been getting better since his (s)election, Gruesome would be 100x WORSE.

He is the epitome of the entitled, self righteous, “connected” class. He DOES. NOT. CARE. ABOUT. YOU. OR. OUR. COUNTRY. His concerns are money, power, and control for him and his cronies. PERIOD. He and his ilk are a cancer on this country.

You’ve been warned. Don’t fall for his greasy grift. He lies, lies about lying and lies some more. Unless you’re a donor of course, then I’m sure he’s a swell guy…

My apologies for ranting. I simply loathe this guy and I seriously fear for our country with him at the helm.

It is my most sincere wish that the rest of the country sees through his tired shtick and sends him packing. Seriously, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT let this tyrant anywhere near the Oval Office.

Our nation is in horrible shape, and headed down a very dangerous path. We are divided as a people more now than any time in our history and we need someone that can mend fences and bring some brightness back to our lands. A ham-fisted charlatan with illusions of grandeur is absolutely the last thing we need.

Ok, I’m going to take a walk now and try to get the old blood pressure to recede…

Thanks for stopping by!

Unearthing Treasure…

Lately I’ve been on a bit of a trip down Memory Lane musically, rediscovering a lot of music from my youth. The stuff I was into before I discovered college radio and got weird in the early 80’s. The staples of FM rock radio, what would be deemed “classic rock” these days.

My very first album as a kid was Aerosmith’s “Toys in the Attic”, followed up by Cheap Trick, Boston, Foreigner, Styx and the like and for the past few weeks I’ve been digging back into those oldies but goodies.

In the course of doing this I got to thinking about how amazing it is these days that you can hear a new song or read about a new band and within minutes (seconds?!?!) have their entire catalog of work at your fingertips. It is phenomenal when you stop to think about it.

For any youngsters out there reading this, you may not know, but up until 25 years ago music acquisition was a LOT different!

Every mall had one, or one just like it!

Up through the 1980s, pretty much the only way to hear new music was either on the radio or weekly TV shows like American Bandstand or Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, maybe Saturday Night Live. MTV was around, but not everyone had it (nor cable TV!) and they were terribly guilty of HEAVY ROTATION, so it was like the same 8 -10 songs on repeat, for weeks on end. Radio was not quite as bad but new music was slow to break and you might only hear a song you were interested in once a week, if that. From time to time you’d hear a song that grabbed you, but have no idea who it was or what it was called unless the DJ happened to come on and announce the song, which was hit or miss. I probably heard “Walk on the Wild Side” 20 times before I ever heard the name Lou Reed. Which reminds me of another thing about the “old days”…

Every once in a while you’d hear a song that just knocked you out, and you’d save up your money and head down to the record store in hopes they’d have the record. If you were lucky, they would have it and you’d plunk down your hard earned cash and rush home to the turntable to listen to the album. If you weren’t so lucky, you might have to hit 2 or 3 different shops to find it. (No small feat when you’re a kid on a bicycle and the shops are miles away from each other!) Then you’d make the horrible discovery that while the ONE song was great, the rest of the album was trash. THAT was a heartbreaker! Especially if there were two records you wanted, but could only afford one! If you picked the dud it might be a couple weeks before you could scratch together enough coin for the other one.

Between the ages of 10 and say, 23 or so I surely spent in excess of a thousand hours in record stores, pouring through the stacks, trying to whittle it down to which few records I could actually purchase at any given time. And unless you’d already heard the entire record through a friend, every single time it was a crap shoot! Sometimes you get burned – like with that Lou Reed album I mentioned, sometimes you strike solid gold, say London Calling by the Clash.

Now, thanks to the wonders of technology, you can overhear a snippet of a tune, whip out the Shazam app and know what the song is and who’s doing it within about 10 seconds, click a link to Spotify and have their entire catalog right there. Then head over to YouTube and see every video they’ve ever done. Then hit Wikipedia and learn all the details and history of the artist. Nothing could be easier. It really is like having the entire world of music at your fingertips, practically for free!

Now of course, all this awesomeness is a double edged sword. For one thing, it has basically destroyed the music industry. Ironic but true. Unfettered access and free music everywhere has made it so musicians can’t actually make any money with record sales. Well, a few still do I suppose, but most bands these days make more money from t-shirt sales than records. It still costs money to make a record – studio time, engineers and producers, art work and pressing costs for physical product all get paid up front before a band sees a penny. And of course the musicians still need a roof over their heads and a meal every now and again, but I digress.

I might also add that frankly it takes a bit of the mystery out if it all, which was also part of the fun.

But what really inspired me to write all this in the first place was the discovery aspect. While hearing new bands or songs that turn you on is fantastic, recently I’ve been doing that with OLD stuff and that never would have happened without access to all this technology. Even a dinosaur such as myself that still listens to terrestrial radio from time to time will only hear so much “classic rock” – basically every hit song from 1964 to 1990 on an endless loop. There are no more “deep cuts” picked out by DJs, no full side plays like they used to do on Sunday nights (for the kids – late Sunday nights my local station would play Side A of an album straight through, do a commercial break and a station ID, then play Side B of the record all the way through),there is no discovery. Lately, I’ll read an article about somebody Im interested in and they’ll mention an influential musician they grew up with and I’ll go head down that rabbit hole. Or maybe someone will mention someone I’ve heard of, but have never heard. It’s been really cool to learn of new music, even if it’s 30-40 years old. If I’ve never heard it, it’s good as new to me! Just in the last few month I’ve “discovered” half a dozen artists that have been making records nearly my entire life that I’d never laid ears on, it’s been spectacular!

I’ve been lamenting these last few years on the sad state of music and how you must wade through mountains of garbage to find a gem these days, but recognizing that there is a boatload of as yet unheard music waiting for me has been invigorating! Not that I’ll ever stop looking for new, new stuff (honestly there have been a few “new” artists that have given me some hope for the future of music – looking at you Magic City Hippies, Qveen Herby, DesRocs, KFlay and others!) but discovering something 20, 30, 40 years old that resonates with your soul? That is treasure my friends. Go out and find some for yourself!

Thanks for stopping by!