London Olympics organisers hit dead note with opening ceremony plans

Posted on April 17, 2012 by AD

The London 2012 opening ceremony is going to be called Isles of Wonder, but there can be no wonderment more wonderful than the fact that Olympics organisers wanted Keith Moon to perform.

Moon has been dead for 34 years.

The drummer for the Who died in 1978 after ingesting 32 tablets of clomethiazole, a sedative he had taken for alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

The band’s manager, Bill Curbishley, told the Sunday Times he had been approached to see if Moon “would be available” to play with the surviving members this summer.

“I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to the Who’s anthemic line ‘I hope I die before I get old’,” came the excellent reply.

“If they have a round table, some glasses and candles, we might contact him.”

For its part, the staff of the Guardian is just really looking forward to seeing Jesse Owens compete.

They also could’ve gone with a “Pictures of Lily” reference (“[]he’s been dead since 19[78]”), but it wouldn’t have rhymed and seriously, how did the London Olympic Committee miss this one? Moon isn’t just the one-time drummer of a classic rock band. One could be forgiven for not knowing the life status of the drummer from Mot the Hoople. I’d even give you Faces or the one-armed guy from Def Leppard. But Moon is the famously dead drummer of one of the biggest British rock bands ever. I mean, there he is atop British Drummergod Mount Olympus alongside John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones), and Ginger Baker (Cream, Blind Faith, Ginger Baker’s Air Force). This would be like the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Committee inviting Duane Allman to perform or the 2096 Alanta Olympic Committee inviting Jerry Garcia.

Speaking of Atlanta and dead musicians, though, now that someone finally put CNN’s hologram technology to value-adding entertainment use, maybe Moon can make it after all.

A non-shampoo explanation for Troy Polamalu’s smoothness

Posted on April 16, 2012 by AD

(L-R:) Troy Polamalu's current http://www.thefacebook.com profile picture; A man never seen in the same room as Polamalu.

Many are surprised when they hear hard-hitting NFL defender Troy Polamalu’s voice for the first time. It certainly is higher in the register and more emotive than might expectedly befit a violent player of a violent sport. He really does emote the tenor of an alto saxophone not weakly reminiscent of his adult contemporary (and, as of this posting, alleged alter-ego), Kenneth Bruce Gorelick.

Remember This Friday Jam

Posted on April 13, 2012 by AD

I am not a fan of a capella music, but every rule has its exceptions, and I think this qualifies as grounds to make an exception. Here’s a late-breaking Jam that broke altogether too early:

(HT: Sally)

We Almost Lost This Jam

Posted on April 6, 2012 by AD

What’s that you want? Some new music in this spot with a sports connection and a socially conscious tilt? Fine. Here’s a brand-new video from a current act named after a NASCAR driver that’s hip to sports and modern rock.

Bdoyk turned me onto these guys, and I’m becoming a fan of their personality as much as their music. Their new video, which features scenes from the city they call home, actually is a reworking of a 1977 Gil Scott-Heron bit described as follows:

The most popular cut on the album, “We Almost Lost Detroit,” which shares its title with the John G. Fuller book published in 1975, recounts the story of the nuclear meltdown at the Fermi Atomic Power Plant near Monroe, MI, in 1966. This song was also contributed to the No Nukes concert and album in 1980.

The Tigers almost lost their season opener against Bdoyk’s Bosox yesterday when the perfect-in-2011 Jose Valverde blew his first save opportunity of the 2012 season and ensured that reigning MVP-Cy-Young-winner Justin Verlander didn’t get his first opening-day win in his fifth consecutive attempt, but the home team pulled out the victory in a Gamecast-hindered bottom of the ninth by scoring on the much-touted (be real: what in Boston sports isn’t “much-touted”?) Alfredo Aceves.

Paragraph-long sentences. Hyphens. The Jam:

Picking a Friday Jam

Posted on March 30, 2012 by AD

I woke up this morning without a Friday Jam in mind, but I was thinking about the fact that the Final Four gets underway tomorrow in New Orleans between two Midwest teams and two Kentucky teams, and then it come to me. It came like a flash; like a vision burnt across the clouds! I wrote it down, but I learnt right away that it wasn’t an Arlo Guthrie song.

What better than a newgrass tune from a Midwest band about Louisiana? And if you don’t like that, at least you can gawk at the people trying to figure out how to dance to it, or not, as the young gentleman’s preference may be:

Of course, what we really ought to have for you in this spot is a nod to the recently departed Earl Scruggs. Click here for a song and a brief tribute.

ATL Double Jam

Posted on March 23, 2012 by AD

Today excepted, things have been a little sparse around here lately– maybe it’s the grip of March Madness, or maybe we’re all a little busier working to keep the lights on around here. To make up for it, here’s a double scoop of Friday Jams, again posted from the road, though this week at a much lower elevation:

Dawg Gone Jam

Posted on March 16, 2012 by AD

Today’s Jam, filed from 6,200+ feet:

___________________________
Bonus March Madness vocal Jamz: The Six Best NCAA Tournament Calls of Gus Johnson

The Fire of the Soul Jam

Posted on March 9, 2012 by AD

From an episode of the esteemable The Johnny Cash Show, the qualities of which the founder of Epic Fades has long touted, comes the return of the Friday Jam after a one-week break:

(Via: Nashville Scene)
(HT: freeofthegoogle+)

Big Rain Fire: Matt Kenseth wins the 2012 Daytona 500

Posted on February 28, 2012 by AD

Originally scheduled to start on Sunday afternoon, the Daytona 500 eventually finished in the early morning hours Tuesday, when Matt Kenseth took the checkered flag. During that time, the Great American Race experienced a full rainout on Sunday, another rain delay on Monday, and a two-hour red flag on Monday night after Juan Pablo Montoya’s car locked up coming out of the pits on a caution necessitated by David Stremme’s engine blowup (his wasn’t the only one– Jeff Gordon’s blew up too) on about lap 157 and slid into one of the jet dryers that was cleaning the track during the caution. Montoya’s car tore a hole in the jet dryer’s fuel tank before bouncing to the infield and catching fire. As jet fuel poured out of the service vehicle, it too caught fire, and proved challenging to extinguish.

They eventually did, though, and Kenseth won the race when it restarted with forty laps to go, fending off Greg Biffle and a charging Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished second. If this race was any indication of what the 2012 season will be like, we’re in for a long and exciting one.

Potato Moon, “Big Rain Fire” – Carnival (2004)

Feel Good Friday Jam

Posted on February 24, 2012 by AD

Whipping through downtown Louisville on my way back from the Kentucky-Vanderbilt game, I hit scan on my radio, and my car immediately was filled with a digitonic breakdown the likes of which I had not heard since Eiffel 65 first struck my ears on a late-night walkman blast in 1999. The song soon faded out, and I scanned again, immediately hitting a much earlier point in the same song on the very next station. I only found it once more on my drive, but I got hooked, and now you can too:

* Apologies for the advertisement, which was necessary to bring you the highest available definition for this video, and the excessive shirt-waiving, which was not.

ALDLAND

the hits

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