Well…there were a couple of deaths in the news today that I wanted to talk about…Al Unser of the famous Unser racing family died yesterday at the age of 82….Al was one of the characters that was in racing when I first started to follow it, especially at Indy and for 30 years he was still part of the scene…a great driver that could race anything and won in Nascar, Indycar, USAC, and on dirt and pavement…very smooth style and a personality to go with it. The second one was a little surprising to me when I read that Mike Nesmith of the Monkees died today at the age of 78….I remember the Monkees fondly and his dry wit on the tv show was something that I liked even at 12 years old….born a rich kid and heir to the Liquid Paper fortune….okay most of you probably don’t even remember Liquid Paper but those of us that came of age when typewriters were the only way to do school papers sure do, you would never know that he was a rich kid and I think he was the only one of them who could actually play an instrument when the group was formed for tv….this is starting to happen much too often as I age….more and more people who have been fixtures in life are disappearing at an accelerated rate….not too cool…RIP guys….
Category Archives: Misc
Some movies…
Well…with so many new shows out there that I like, I very seldom remind myself to look at the movies section of plex to see if there are any that I have requested in there….and there have been a few…like the new James Bond movie that I thought was pretty good if a bit long…to Red Notice that was also an okay movie but Ryan Reynolds annoys the hell out of me….last night, I watched Shang Chi and the legend of the 10 rings…and that one kept me interested all through it with lots of martial arts fights and good special effects so I’ll call it a good movie…it’s supposed to be in the Marvel universe so there will probably be a sequel to some point and that would be cool….one that hasn’t shown up yet is the Eternals and I would really like to see that one….oh, and the new Beatles movie that I’m almost done with…and that is a fascinating look at the creative process they used to write their songs…it was so cool to see Paul go from a couple of notes to the finished version of Get Back and a lot of the songs on both Let It Be and Abbey Road…I was huge Beatle fan when I was young and even saw Let it Be at the Midtown theater in GR when it came out in 1969…and that entire concert is in the movie and the rest of the movie is about them writing the songs for it…pretty cool…think I’ll go there right now and see if anything hew has been added….
Just saw the best damn thing…
Well…okay, you know I’m a big music geek and love Neil Young and Led Zeppelin, and what I just saw surprised the hell out of me….when I was reading one of my news sites, I came across a video of Neil and Zeppelin doing a live version of “When the levee breaks” and it even had Robert Plant playing guitar…and it was just so cool to see these guys having so much fun and Neil being Neil…now, this is something I would pay big bucks to see…in the same article it alluded to a collaboration between Donald Fagen and David Crosby….now I need to go look for that…
Pretty sad…
Well…this is just a shorty on a sad bit of news that I read in the paper Sunday….Friday night, a young woman drowned in Lake Michigan right off the beach where I go swimming…she and some friends were night swimming….something I’ve done before…and she couldn’t get back through the nasty rip currents that occur off that beach…I’ve been knocked down trying to get back to the beach after swimming and I’ve never felt the currents as strong anywhere else in Lake Michigan….just a sad story that shouldn’t happen to any family….
Sailboats…
Well…damn, finally got the thumb to stop bleeding and that was almost a full day it continued to ooze blood, and now my left arm really hurts after getting two shots in it this morning…but, that’s not what this is about…every day, I ride past three marinas with the biggest one near Lake Michigan that has a lot of boat storage areas that must have at least a hundred boats in them…and one thing that I noticed a while back is how many of them have never moved over the summer and lots of them look like they haven’t moved in years…and that leaves me confused…I mean if you have over a hundred grand in a boat, why wouldn’t you use it? Some of them are owned by the boat broker I’m sure but a hundred of them? There are even a pair of them that are the same model that sit right next to each other but with a little different color combination and names on the back of them…they have to be close to 40 feet in length and that would surely make them cost 100K plus…who has that kind of money to just let it sit? I guess the old saying that a boat is a hole in the water that you pour money into really is true…I still am curious where they got this money they don’t need? Oh, well…it’s not the first thing I don’t understand….
Did they change the definition of affordable?
Well…yeah, I know, I’ve bitched about this before but reading about a new condo project that is going to go up on the lakefront in the area that they have been cleaning up all summer and that the bike trail I ride goes through, I just had to comment…and I have the question: “did they change the definition of affordable?” In the story there are a couple of things I have a problem with…first is the affordability of the 300 condos they plan on building on the site that will sell from 599,000 to 999,000 thousand dollars…now, is that affordable to you? My house is affordable…I only paid 90K for it…but 600K? I really don’t know many people who can afford a 600K condo and stats show that more than 60% of Americans can’t even absorb a surprise 400 dollar bill let alone a house or condo payment of 3,000 dollars a month…so I wonder who will buy these things? Oh, and the second part…the developers say they are going to keep the lakefront open to the public and I really don’t think that is going to happen…if these people have enough cash to pay 600K for a condo, they sure are going to want an exclusive use of the property and are not going to like the idea of having to mingle with the riff raff…and I’ll bet that my bike trail, that runs along the shoreline and that the developer has promised will stay where it is, is going to be closed as “under construction” for a few years until people just get used to it not being there and they will tear it out….I know, pretty cynical thinking but just looking around here on my rides, everything is behind fences and gates and rich people just love them some fences and gates to keep everyone away from them….so, I guess I’ll believe it when I see it…if I live that long…
I’ve lost respect for Eric Clapton…
Well…I know this story has been out there for a while and you may have already read about it but here goes…I have lost all of the respect I had for Eric Clapton with his just asinine statement that he won’t play any venue that requires proof of vaccination or for people to wear masks to attend his concerts….okay, so just cancel all of them venue owners….you can’t let a stupid entertainer dictate health policy and possibly kill people with this crap…this is just beyond selfishness, it is ignorant and shows he doesn’t care about anyone but himself and his grandiose sense of entitlement…okay, that’s about all I have to say about it…it’s a little deflating when someone you’ve looked up to and thought was a good person turns out to be a selfish jerk….
Let’s talk a little music…
Well…first, happy birthday to Ringo…while I was reading through one of the sites I do every morning, I came across an article that tried to rate the 50 best live rock albums of all time…and three of my favorites were in the top ten, and I agree with their pick as number one…Live at the Fillmore East by the Allman Brothers..or I should say I can live with that pick, but I would have put Four Way Street by CSNY at number 1 while this guy put it at number 7….where I have a bone to pick is that Alive in America by Steely Dan wasn’t even on the list or Twin Peaks by Mountain…I mean what’s not to like about the song Nantucket Sleighride that goes almost 31 minutes? The Eagle’s Hell Freezes Over wasn’t on the list either or Live Bullet by Bob Seger…..there were a lot of obscure bands that I’ve never heard of on the list but that’s not that unusual since I really have stopped paying attention to new music….anything newer than the 90′s has gone right over my head and I don’t care much about it…other than SD and Donald Fagen, that is….not sure why I always get sucked into these types of articles but it was a nice respite from the regular news for a few minutes….
I wonder if I’ll ever own an electric car?
Well…have been looking for a political one to do without much luck but a thought did just pop into my head after the searching…with the rapid electrification of transportation, I wonder if I’ll ever have an electric car? I would probably be a great candidate for one since I very seldom take trips of more than 50 miles but the ones that I could afford are all like appliances that aren’t really any fun to drive…and it would have to be used…very used, since there is no way I would ever spend 40K for a car….I wonder what the ramifications will be as more and more car companies have bet their futures on going all electric? Will those of us who can’t afford to drive one even be able to buy gas for our cars anymore? I wonder what the price of gas will be when the lower usage eliminates the economies of scale that keeps gasoline somewhat affordable? In that same vein, if half of the cars on the road are electric…there will only be need for half as many gas stations so will that look like electric charging stations do now where they are hard to find? At my advanced age, I’ll probably be able to drive gas powered cars the rest of my life but it could turn out to be a pain in the butt to do it…I’m not sure if I’ve ever gone through a transition like this in my lifetime…it’s going to be interesting to see it…
51 years ago today…
Well…just a short rememberence of the day….51 years ago today…about an hour ago… Ohio national guard soldiers murdered 4 students at Kent State University…some of them were protesting the Vietnam war and others were just on their way to class….I was 16 at the time and couldn’t understand how kids could be killed just being kids….and I still can’t…but it still goes on every damn day….think I’ll go listen to “Ohio” by Neil Young…peace…