Ross' Wacky-Ass Vinyl Find of the Week

I'm a guy who buys a lot of vinyl records. Old ones. Stuff that you can't find on CD... weird s**t... If I see it, I'll buy it. I could spend half the day at Goodwill and St. Vinnie's just going through their racks. Long story short, I have a lot of strange and wonderful vinyl gems. And now through the magic of the internet, I'm going to share them with you on a (hopefully) regular basis.

My aunt and uncle had this classic by music's equivalent of the Wonder Twins when they lived in the Madison area. My cousins and I made sure to listen to it whenever we came to visit. But I thought the wholesome goodness of this Donny and Marie release was lost forever until I found a copy at a resale store. Oh the joy of hearing "'A' Is For Alice" and "C'Mon Marianne" again in all its crackly glory. Marie's spoken lyrics during "Deep Purple" still melt my heart and you can never go wrong with "A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock 'N Roll". If you ever come across this little slice of heaven at a garage sale or church swap meet, grab it and run -- don't walk -- to the nearest cashier, throw a five-spot down and yell, "Quickly, before the Mormons find out!"

Car Wars

Could it be that the Hendrick Empire is crumbling?

After Sunday's race at Talladega there's no doubt that things between Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson ain't all sunshine and flowers.



Seeing as how Hendrick Motorsports rarely shows weakness within the organization, probably not the preferred response that Rick Hendrick would have liked to see. But what's said is said and brings up a lot of questions. Mainly, what the hell is going on with those two. Both have always maintained that even though they're teammates they are still going to race each other hard if they had to. But last Monday at Texas when Gordon got on the radio to complain about Jimmie's rough driving and now at Talladega when Johnson's block on Gordon started a chain of events that ended up taking Gordon out has now thrown a red flag that won't stop the rumor mill. And far be it from me to not add to it.

Honestly, it could be as simple as coincidence. Two separate incidents at two consecutive races that happened between two competitive drivers. Gordon may just be frustrated about his recent lack of success and took it out on his friend and teammate. Or it could be that Jimmie Johnson has finally convinced himself that he is the end-all and be-all of NASCAR and to hell with whoever gets in his way, not even his car part-owner. Who knows.

It should be noted that Johnson did apologize for the Talladega incident although he waited until hours later, long after he left the track. But I'm guessing that apology was expedited by Rick Hendrick as to lessen the distraction that Gordon's comments have started within the organization. Hendrick's next probable move (if it hasn't happened already) will most likely be to sit Gordon and Johnson down Cole Trickle-Rowdy Gaines style and tell them their on-track issues aren't good for business and -- for the sake of the media -- kiss and make up. How that plays out will tell the real story.

Until then, Richmond looks a lot more interesting, don't you think?

I Have a (Messed-Up) Dream

I don't dream that often but this one was an odd music-related one so I'll share it. I'm going to have to paraphrase a lot of the verbiage because I don't remember but I need to type this out now or I'll forget all of it. Think 60s psychedelic and the styles of fashion and music that came with it as I go into this.

Last night I dreamed that I was working for some record company in the mid-to-late 60s and there was this band who wanted our company to represent them, so they had to audition for my record company boss and I with one of their original songs. I remember there were at least three of them and the main guy had one of those Nehru jackets that was orange-gold in color and he wore a 4-inch medallion that looked like a mini-gong.

So the band starts playing. Musically, they sound like a 60s psychedelic rock band. As they get into the lyrics... well, let me put it this way. Remember when Ice-T and Body Count came out with their album in the 90s and the strong reaction it got? Think of this band's lyrics the same way only not quite as bad.

They get done playing and me and my record company boss go into another room and he asks me, "What do you think?" I say, "Well visually they look great. Musically they're just what we're looking for. But those lyrics. I mean, what the hell!? Singing about killing and murder!? I want to think they played that as some sort of joke but I don't know. If we do sign them we're going to have to have someone write all their songs for them 'cause there's just no way..." We go back out by the band and I say to them, "I want to ask you this as not to offend you but was that song some sort of a joke?" They didn't say much about it.

Then the dream continues and I tell the band that if we signed them we'd have to write all their songs and we'd have to change the name of the band (the band's name was never revealed) and the band's new name became... Bubble Puppy. For those who don't know, they are an actual psychedelic band from the 60s (you may remember "Hot Smoke and Sassafras") and as I type this I found this while looking for a Bubble Puppy link...



Note the guy at the bottom. Not the same type of medallion but the same size. And the guy in the orange is close to the color I saw in my dream. I should also point out that last night I dealt with the topic of puppies AND bubbles at separate times so I'm guessing that had something to do with the band's name showing up in my dream. Friggin' odd. I don't even know how to end this other than the fact that this will become a regular feature if I continue to eat weird crap before bed.

Be My Fan

In response to the other members of the airstaff setting up their own Facebook "fan pages", I started one for me, too. Not because I need to validate myself with a lot of fans. I just want more than the rest of the staff so I can rub their nose in it. And just on principle alone, the Illinois natives on staff shouldn't have more fans than any Wisconsinite. It's geography.

Learning The Hard Way

Learning The Hard Way

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Young Prince

He sure was skinny back then...



Thanks for finding this, Mak!