DCV Top Bands of the 80's: 35-31

The countdown rolls on ... with the regularity of Billiken basketball victories.

35: INXS
Enjoyed them more in their early 80's days than in there bigger late 80's / early 90's days. The brilliantly titled "Shabooh Shoobah" probably contained their two best songs. I vaguely remember being at some SLU function and being the only one in the room who could identify the song title, album title, and country of origin of some song from this time period. Times like these ... it's good to be the countdown geek. I believe the female Dolberries saw them in concert one time. Anyway, INXS has a very interesting post-success period. The lead singer (Michael Hutchance) killed himself, though there's some debate as to whether he intended to. (U2's "Stuck in a Moment That You Can't Get Out Of" is about the foolishness of that episode.) Then, they rebounded in the reality show where they auditioned a new singer. The drama associated w/ their post 15 minutes seems out of proportion with their 15 minutes themselves.

Best songs: Don't Change, The One Thing, What You Need
Worst song: Never Tear Us Apart

34: The Cars
Another band that peaked early. Their best stuff was definitely in the late 70's but they rolled into the 80's w/ just enough momentum to manage some hummable tunes on the "Shake It Up" album (their fourth) which came out in 1981. I bought their 1984 "Heartbeat City" tape on the basis that I liked the video w/ that funny fly w/ the Ric Ocasek face that buzzed around the girl. Mistake. They had a left-handed guitarist. That's about all I have to say about them. When I made the countdown list, I thought that first album was released in the 80's. Tell you what ... replace them w/ whomever you like that's not already in the countdown.

Best Songs: Shake It Up, Since You're Gone, actually all the 70's songs
Worst song: Why Can't I Have You, Drive, pretty much that whole Heartbeat City album

33: Journey
Did I like Journey in the 80s? No. I pretty much loathed 'em in the 80's. The radio station in Louisville had a three artist loop of Heart, Journey, & Zeppelin. I assume you could turn on WQMF right now and have a 33% chance of guessing what artist is playing. Plus, one always heard scary stories about how so & so went to a Journey concert & now they're in a home for delinquent youth. And I like little people, but that Steve Perry seemed like an insufferable little twerp even to diminuitive Dolberry. In my opinion all the aforementioned shortcomings can be forgiven due to their songs amazing ability to be karaoke-d, badly, by Dolberry. Who can forget such favorites as "SO NOW I COME TO YOUUUU WITH OOOOOOPEN ARMS. FEELING YOU SAY. WANTING TO SE-HEAR" or "JUST A SMALL TOWN GIRRRL. LIVING IN A LONELY WORLD. SHE TOOK THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN GOING ANYWHEEERRRRREE."

Best Songs: Don't Stop Believin', Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin, Open Arms (Dolberry versions)
Worst Songs: Same as above (non-Dolberry version)

32: Styx
Wow. This stretch of the countdown is a slog. Anyway, some good memories about Styx. I remember listening to "Pieces of Eight" down in Roger Idstrom's basement while recounting recent beer can finds. Um, I think "Come Sail Away" was the closing song at a CCD retreat I went to (likely against my will) at that Abbey in Southern Indiana (St. Vimonts?). My memory is very hazy then, but that song was my favorite part of the whole retreat. Because the retreat was over & the song was decent. Styx's song "Mr. Roboto" perfectly captured the spirit of the 80's with lyrics such as "I'm Kilroy!" and "Domo arrigato, Mr. Roboto. Domo. Domo." I think someone once told me it's Japanese for something, but I enjoy Barenaked Ladies mocking of it far more. Anyway, according to Wikipedia, Styx is the 127th best selling act of all time, so there you have it.

Best songs: Too Much Time on My Hands, some of the 70's stuff - Come Sail Away & Renegade
Worst song: Babe

31: Midnight Oil:
Like their Austrailian counterparts (INXS), these guys were frequent listens at SLU. Nothing speaks to pre-med students and their odd meteorological student friend than a concept album about the Aborigines people. I think "Beds are Burning" has one of the best endings to any song, any where. And their 1990 release "Blue Sky Mining" is a classic. Dolberry is partial to the anthems & very few wrote 'em as well as the Oil. I think they have some of the best lyrics in two songs in particular: 1990's "Forgotten Years" and 1993's "In the Valley" (reprinted here)

My grandfather went down with the montevideo
The rising sun sent him floating to his rest
And his wife fled south to sydney seeking out safe harbour
A north shore matron she became with some paying guests

My father went down with the curse of big cities
Traffic tolls and deadlines took him to his peace
Now bob dyer glued us to our seats
And lawns were always victa neat
Whilst menzies fawned at royal fleet do you remember?

In the valley I walk, I took some comfort there
In the valley I walk, cold comfort I can hear you talk
In the valley I walk, who will take me there?

When my mother went down it was a stiff arm from hades
Life surprises and tears you like the southerly
She always welcomed the spring always welcomed the stranger
I dont see too many around like this
Oh no, thats what Im looking for, yeah, what were looking for

In the valley I walk - who will take me there
In the valley I walk - cold comfort I can hear you talk
In the valley I walk - I took some comfort there
In the valley I walk - oh rough justice I hear you talk
In the valley I walk - to meet my watershed

I hope virtue brings its own reward
And I hope the pen is mightier than any sword
I hope the kids will take it slow
I hope my country claims its own

In the valley I walk - I cried yes I cried I was down then I crawled
Mercys arms all around me when I was down there
In the valley I walk - do you read me they can hear me in the valley

2006 MLB: day games vs. night games

Here's another one. There were nearly twice as many night games as day games last year. The visiting team was more likely to win day games, outscoring the home team by 0.18 runs. The home team was more likely to win road games, winning on average by 0.16 runs. This breakout almost wholly due to the ineptitude of this team, who played a lot of home day games last year. The Cubbies were outscored by an entire run during their 54 home day games in 2006. If you take them out of the record the day vs. night, home vs. away, run differential stats are almost equal. Stupid Cubs.

Baseball as a function of day of week

I was bored this evening & decided to play around w/ 2006 MLB data from Retrosheet. One can download boxscore information for every game played last year (& other years). I decided to look at how baseball games differed by day of the week.

For instance, did you know that last year the best days for visitors to beat the home team was on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The hardest day for visitors to win was Fridays. See plot.

My theory would be that weeknight home games are less attended & maybe there's a little less excitement & maybe a letdown for the home team. Fridays are often the first game of a homestand & maybe the good feelings about returning home are enough to lead the home team to more than a half a run winning margin (on average). The attendance part of this is true. See plot.

Fascinating, fascinating stuff. Some additional factoids. Monday games are the shortest and are on average 6 minutes shorter than Saturday games which are the longest. Sunday games have the most runs scored and most HRs. The lowest scoring games are on Fridays (maybe because they're almost always night games). Monday is the day w/ the fewest SB attempts. Errors are pretty consistent from day to day.

Good news everybody!

I found my Top 40 of the 80s list. It wasn't on a sheet of paper at all ... paper for which I've been looking for over the past month. I did it in Excel. So, that will resume shortly, but I have something else for tonight.

DCV Presents: "Life Episodes" - The Oratorical Contest

Every once in a great while, Dolberry wishes he had access to a time machine so that he could journey back in time & do youthful things better. Not sure if this identifies my area of greatest regret, but inevitably it involves my senior year of cross country & getting some of those races over again. The daydreaming follows a predictable path. Armed w/ the maturity of an adult & the legs of a 17 year old, I'm able to break through barriers that existed back in 1983 and consistently turn in 5K times in the 16 minute zone. Trinity beats St. X for the State title and the hero's role is mine. As I revel in the spoils of X-C triumph (surprisingly substantial in a vibrant daydream), the flaw in the time machine plan slowly emerges from the background. And it is this. To go back in time, would mean reinterment into the tyranny that marked Dolberry's youth. The tyrant in question ... the terrible El Cuarta.

Probably I could do a whole year's worth of "Life Episode's" on El Cuarta's parental malfeasance, but one episode stands foremost in my mind, surpassing even the time he said turned off U2's Unforgettable Fire w/ the criticism "who can listen to that ... it's awful ... worst music I've ever heard". (To be fair it was Side B which after 'A Sort of Homecoming' is a little sparse in terms of melodiousness.) No. Worse than that. The Oratorical Contest. (shudder)

Now El Cuarta was always trying to get us to do stuff. Crazy stuff in most cases. Imagine days as boxes. Try out for drama. Try out for wrestling. Put sticky labels on forms. Roll your wrists when swinging a bat. Go to the prom. Engage the clutch when shifting gears. Listen to more Van Halen. About the only time he wasn't trying to get you to do crazy stuff was when he was trying to get you to stop doing sensible stuff; e.g., enjoying a good roast beef to its completion, strengthening your arm by tossing a ball against the side of the house, cleaning up after yourself before Midnight Mass, etc.. Seriously, from the time I was about 11 to when I left for Saint Louis, it was one insane idea after the next.

Looking back (as it the purpose of the DCV), it seems to me that the first & maybe most ludicrous notion of them all was El Cuerta's decision that Dolberry should enter an oratorical contest being sponsored by the Hikes Point Optimist Club. El Cuetra did a lot of good work for the Optimists and most of the time it involved pro-community activities such as selling Christmas trees while inebriated, or assembling out-of-control Little League coaches to curse at each other from opposing dugouts. But one year, for some evil reason which I cannot to this day devine the motive, they decided to sponsor an oratorical contest.

The downside of being 11 years old, I remember distinctly, is that there is no good way to talk a parent out of a bad idea. You can't reason with them. Plus, you're in a leveraged position of relying on them for food, lodging, attending to educational expenses, etc. However, any person of sound mind would have been able to see that placing young Dolberry into a contest against his will was as smart an idea as hiring a blogger to be on your campaign staff. You see, Dolberry was a late bloomer when it comes to the gift of gab in a public setting. Nowadays, I love public speaking, because it's the one place where I can get up and speak w/o anyone interrupting me. Come to think of it, I like blogging for similar reasons. You know I don't even read the comments section, so don't bother. Heh heh.

Our hero, Dolberry, though came up w/ an astoundingly, beyond-his-years, wise solution to extricate himself from this no win situation. On the day of the contest, which I remember was held in a building on Breckenridge Lane near Taylorsville Rd., I resolved a way in which I could avoid future El Cuarte - generated debacles.

I tanked it. Yep, I tanked it big time.

I gave a rambling presentation on something or another that certainly was an embarassment to me, but so much more so had to reflect even worse on anyone associated w/ me, in particular any Optimist members who were associated w/ me. And I did it up big time. Stammering, profuse sweating, 73 "ummms", & I even poured a little water on my pants under the podium in an misleadingly unfortunate place ... just for effect. It was a first-rate flop. Dolberry had prevailed.

On my way home, my 4th place (out of 4) green "honorable mention" ribbon draped over my still wet lap (incidentally, La Cuarta graciously hung up that ribbon along side all my "honorable mention" / last place swimming green ribbons), I remember El Cuarte looking back in the rearview mirror and saying ... "you know with a little more practice at public speaking I think you'll really have it." It was his attempt to salvage a tie, but I know this much, there never was a second oratorical contest mandated for Dolberry.

Update

Hey, sorry I haven't been posting much. It feels like you skip a couple days & then all of a sudden it's over a week later.

Spring training trip is less than 3 weeks away, so we're pumped about that.

Softball is probably about 6 weeks away & we're pumped about that too.

Kristy & I are helping w/ our church's youth group & they want to send me to a conference in Chicago. That'll be 2/28 - 3/2. Should be interesting & a little intimidating. Hoping to see C-Lo and company. So that's two weeks away & am pumped about that.

I'm planning to do this on this on 3/18. Am getting in decent shape & lost a few pounds but still a ways to go. But am pumped about that too.

Signed up to coach APD's baseball team again this year. Should also be fun. Tryouts/draft is 3/17.

Work has been going well lately, so that's good too.

Basically, that's it. I got no complaints.

Hope all is well w/ all you guys!

Jinx

All right. Talking assuredly of global warming earns you two weeks of cold crappy weather. Filing under lesson learned.

Christmas 2006 Pictures

Hey, I put some pictures from our Christmas trip online. Click here. I've seen more exciting pictures, & it was over a month ago, but what the hey.

Super Bowl Observations

It's kind of neat to watch your son go through experiences that you remember going through & seeing how he reacts. In the case of searing sporting disappointment, I'd say he's way ahead of Dolberry. Between school & church, he'd been touting & defending the Bears the better part of two months. He was so excited after Hester's runback. But when things went south, he didn't yell, didn't cry, only a few grumbles like: "the NFL should have a rule against squib kicks", "I hate holding penalties ... in Madden and in real life, & (after the game was decided) "Didn't the Bears used to have a better quarterback?" Good kid.

Good weather Super Bowl.

Prince rocked out at halftime. Well done, diminutive Purple one. You could've gotten 8500-1 that Prince would cover Foo Fighters in a 15 min concert, but he did it. Very cool. Is anyone else jazzed like me about the Police reunion at the Grammys? Didn't think so. It's about 20 years too late. Hey, speaking of Prince & the Police ... when is the DCV 80's countdown going to resume? Well, I lost my list ... so it may be a while longer.

The only Super Bowl commercial that stuck w/ me was the first Doritos one & only because it was filmed outside the place where APD buys his HeroClix.

Peyton Manning getting the MVP falls into the Lifetime Achievement category.

Here's a picture of APD in the Great Blizzard of 2007 (0.75" last Thursday).




Have a great week everyone.