My Music Journal 2025: June 30, 2025

 

Monday, June 30, 2025

Time: 3:29 PM
Song: Pyramid Scheme
Artist: Hurray for the Riff Raff
Mode of Consumption: Listening to playlist of song released in 2025 that I’ve made on Spotify.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1j43NtqRUKUTWSiFflguz8?si=b10150af82b84f2f

 So, I started this song-a-day music journal for a few reasons:

• I wanted a reason to focus for a few minutes each day and write something. It didn’t matter what, just something.
•  I wanted to practice different writing devices. I wanted to work on telling little stories in short spaces.
•  I wanted to see if I could do it. Write something for each day of the year.
•  I wanted to get a better idea on the music that I listen to, and how it impacts my thought process every day.
•  I wanted to grow my blog’s audience.

 This week we have reached the halfway point, and I’ve had a surge in blog views. I suspect that there is some sort of bot or something targeting my site.

 Let’s look at the numbers.

 Since January, I’ve had 7,700 visitors to my blog, according to the metrics it provides. In all, I have had 11,209 views of the site since starting it several years ago.

 Bingo – this exercise is bringing more.

 Most days, I have somewhere between 20 and 60 views. Friday, I had 739 views, Saturday, 329, and Sunday 607. I’d like to think my posts that day were that good, but as I said, I suspect that AI or some sort of bot is behind that surge.

I share most of my posts on Twitter. I have interacted with a few different people, mostly online promoters looking to sell me something. There have been some fellow writers and editors who have mentioned my blog. I appreciate that.

I think it has increased my presence, a bit.

So, we’ll keep this going six more months, and maybe I’ll try something different next year.

My Music Journal 2025: June 29, 2025

 

Sunday, June 29, 2025

 

Time: 12:32 PM

Song: After Midnight

Artist: Eric Clapton

Mode of Consumption: Listening to quiz question on 94.3 FM while running errands. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/27mdmXNcO0gNpXlrWi9DPZ?si=bc0139e0719e4acd

 

The question was what artists were famous for recording the J.J. Cale songs “After Midnight,” “Cocaine,” and “Call Me the Breeze.” 

 

I thought the harder question would have been who penned those three songs. 

 

Eric Clapton had popular versions of “After Midnight” and “Cocaine.” Lynyrd Skynyrd did “Call Me the Breeze.” 

 

We were driving around so I wasn’t really researching Cale. In my head, I had him confused with John Cale, who was part of the Velvet Underground. I thought it strange he went on to write such standard Pop-Rock songs after being such an underground, alternative rock group. 

 

Looking it up now, I find that I have it wrong. J.J. Cale and John Cale are two different people. In fact, J.J. Cale’s first name is also John, but he went by J.J. to avoid confusion. I guess it didn’t work in my case. 

 

I didn’t know that Clapton and Skynyrd hadn’t penned any of these songs. Then again, I don’t think I had ever looked. 

 

It’s not that rare of a thing though. The music industry is built on great songwriters, many of whom never are heard from on their own. It’s not a bad life I suppose. They might not get the big money of the artists, but they probably do OK, and can still live a pretty normal life. 

 

We just saw one perform a month ago or so in Don Schlitz at the Grand Ole Opry. He did a great job, and while having great success as a songwriter, he joked that at least he could still go to a grocery store. 

 

Other songwriters started behind the scenes, but eventually take the lead and become stars themselves. Think Willie Nelson or Carole King. 

 

My Music Journal 2025: June 28, 2025

 

Saturday, June 28, 2025

 

Time: 1:17 PM

Song: Chevrolet  

Artist: Jelly Roll, Dustin Lynch

Mode of Consumption: Playing at Happy Joes in Morrison while we were having an anniversary lunch. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7FKAVg9SA7QYLxdVRLnKjd?si=b0c0f78791ab4b06

 

The music was playing just loud enough to hear it, and we were talking, so it took me a minute to figure out what I was hearing. 

 

A commercial. 

 

I’m kidding. Sort of. 

 

“Isn’t this the tune to Drift Away,” I ask? 

 

“Yeah.” 

 

“Is he saying ‘Chevrolet? ‘” 

 

“Yeah, I think I remember hearing this a few times the last couple years.” 

 

We didn’t discuss it any further, and did not even discuss who was singing. Looking it up now, I see that its Jelly Roll and Dustin Lynch. Well, now I have heard a Jelly Roll song, and I knew the Dustin Lynch name only because he played at the Carroll County Fair a few years ago. 

 

“Drift Away,” of course, was a hit for Dobie Gray in 1973. Uncle Kracker released a cover in 2003, notable for doing little notably to make the song his own. It was basically a tribute cover. Fine, it paid Uncle Kracker’s bills for a bit. 

 

This “Chevrolet” deal though was to my mind a classic example of a country song designed for someone playing country song cliché bingo. 

 

Pretty girl. Check. 

 

Dirt road: Check.

 

Windows rolled down: Check. 

 

Reference to some other country act. Brooks & Dunn. Check. 

 

Oh yea, and don’t forget to mention the brand of truck: Check. 

 

I don’t like to dump on any music, and certainly other genres have their clichés, but this one caught my ear. There’s much better country music being released out there. Songs where some of the clichés sneak in, but usually are met with stark realism and reflection. Try Jason Isbell for starters. 

 

This tune was made to pay bills and push vehicles. All it was missing was a mention of taking a big gulp of bear. 

 

Don’t worry, it didn’t ruin our meal. We’re two actual country kids. We spent the morning of our anniversary constructing a temporary fence for a calf, attending an auction, and then celebrated our anniversary by ordering enough pizza to fill our lunches for most of the week. 

 

Oh, but we drove a Ford. 

My Music Journal: June 27, 2025

 

Friday, June 27, 2025

 

Time: 3:10 PM

Song: Scenes from an Italian Restaurant 

Artist: Billy Joel

Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s at Hole No. 11 at PrairieView Golf Course in Byron.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/3utq2FgD1pkmIoaWfjXWAU?si=3db8978c54c145d4

 

The golf carts at PrairieView have Bluetooth, so I sync my phone and start playing music lowly on Hole No. 11. We are the IAHE Golf outing and play has come to a standstill. 

 

The delay was to be expected, as all but one hole began the day with two groups of four assigned to it. We started on Hole No. 4. By “we,” I mean myself and co-workers Ty, Dave and Craig. 

 

Dave bowed out after six holes, he resides in Michigan, so he had a long drive home. It always befuddles me why he travels so far for so little. 

 

At Hole No. 11, there are three groups waiting to hit. Why play has jammed up here is unclear. 

 

Craig, who lives in the suburbs, swings his cart around and calls it a day. 

 

That leaves Ty and I as we watch the group ahead of us finally approach the tee box. 

 

“Is this the second Billy Joel song in a row?” I ask. I hadn’t been playing that close of attention. 

 

“Nope,” Ty answers. “This one is just three songs in one seven-minute song.”

 

Eventually it’s our turn to play. By the way, I am a terrible golfer. This event is the one round I play a year, and that’s about to be cut short. 

 

Three holes later, Ty has to go. He has a cat to get to a vet appointment in Dixon. We ride to the parking lot and I drop him off at his car before going to mine. 

 

I intend to stick around for the post round dinner, but as the afternoon lingers on, it’s clear that the meal isn’t going to happen anytime soon. So, I hit the road and pick up a sandwich on the way.  

 

My Music Journal 2025: June 26, 2025

 

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Song: You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me
Artist: Dusty Springfield
Mode of Consumption: Playing on Sirius radio on way home from Jodi’s mom’s house.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0q8nQ0H4ad4KYcZdrTZPux?si=9a35d93ab2784db8

We picked up Jodi’s mom’s Edge after working at the fair tonight because Jodi is going to drop it off for an oil change tomorrow. It’s a nifty little car shuffle we do a few times a year.

We’re cruising on Coleta Road on a balmy summer night. It’s been a week of steamy days and balmy nights. There’s supposed to be a cool front rolling in overnight. Hope that happens.

“Doesn’t someone else do this song?” I ask, as Dusty Springfield belt out the chorus.

“Hmmm, I think this is the version that I know.” Jodi answers.

“I just seem to remember a male voice doing this, maybe even a duet.”

“I don’t know, you can look on my phone.”

I don’t. I wait until I am writing, still sure I remember a male-female duet on some compilation album from my youth.

Looking on Spotify now, I see Cher has a version. Elvis. Brenda Lee. None of these are the versions I remember.

Is this a false memory?

Did I encounter some obscure version and assume it to be the standard?

Maybe one day I’ll know for sure.

My Music Journal 2025: June 25, 2025

 

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

 

Time: 8 AM and 5 PM

Song: Impossible Germany

Artist: Wilco

Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on the way to work and home from work. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/6L0BBPYeWnaQJeDa0ox0IA?si=f8d1e8015cd545fa

 

This was the bookend song of my day. It started as I turned onto Graham Street, the last little jog of my morning drive before reaching Galena Avenue and the office, and then the song finished as I pulled from our parking lot onto Galena Avenue this afternoon.

 

I bought the “Sky Blue Sky” CD sometime in the mid-to-late 2000s, and I always think about It as the album that was playing during the early parts of our marriage. I have a distinct memory of sitting in our old living room with this on, I might have been playing PlayStation, maybe just hanging out and reading, mainly I was still learning about what it meant to be a husband. 

 

I didn’t know Wilco when I bought this CD, and don’t think I knew any of the songs on it. I had just heard the name Wilco a lot, and thought I should give it a try. I was starting a new phase of my life, why not do it with a new sounding music?

 

I wouldn’t say that I fell in love with Wilco with this album. I liked it, but love would have been a stronger word than I would have used then. Same could go with this song. 

 

Yet, there was something there. So, it made it into my rotation. 

 

The music is bit understated at times. Other times I don’t really understand it. I mean, I really like “Impossible Germany” but I still don’t “get” the lyrics fully. I always want to assume it’s something with the World War II, but there’s little context for that. Maybe something with the two Axis powers now being two strongholds of democracy. That seems like it could feel impossible. 

 

Yet, I like this song. I like the long guitar solo at the end. The words get in my head, the tone resides there, echoing softly. 

 

It’s a slow burning love for this song and band. One that conjures memories of an important time in my life. 

My Music Blog 2025: June 24, 2025

 

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

 

Time: 7:44 AM

Song: Shut Up Train

Artist: Little Big Town

Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on the way to work. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5QlO3Nz5cPK9MUMcVAzxeE?si=23ca316693cc4fc6

 

This is the only song I can instantly recall hearing today without looking it up. It was on the way to work. 

 

After that, it was blur. 

 

I had music on at different times while I wrapped up the final touches on a proposal. It was a statement of interest for an Item on the latest Tollway Bulletin. So, lots of forms. Lots of “t’s” to cross, lots of “I’s” to dot. 

 

Then there was an hour-long Teams meeting. 

 

Just stay focused. 

 

Oh, here’s a prime agreement for another contract. Let’s pow-wow on the agreements for our subconsultants. 

 

An email here, a phone call there. 

 

Did I see there’s another Addendum? Shoot, does that change anything? If so, there goes the last two hours of form completing. Most of them will need changed. 

 

There’s music on, but I don’t hear it. 

 

There are thoughts out there, but I don’t follow them. 

 

It’s 5 PM, and there’s music on again, but my mind is on a break. The little power it has left is focused on the road, the car behind me, the one coming at the intersection. 

 

I have to blog. I look over the “recently played” songs in my phone apps. Boy, I don’t remember those playing today. 

 

The Cubs just gave up another home run. Shut up train. 

My Music Journal 2025: June 23, 2025

 

Monday, June 23, 2025

Time: 7:15 PM
Song: Dreams
Artist: The Cranberries
Mode of Consumption: Listening to the radio at Jodi’s Mom’s house. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4JGKZS7h4Qa16gOU3oNETV?si=25b1dd44341a4887

Jodi had a story to share today.

Her co-worker’s daughter is a Travelling CN and has spent the last 13 weeks in Arizona. She completed that stint last week, and her boyfriend then flew from Chicago to help her pack up stuff and drive back across the country.

In Colorado, he broke up with her. She called her parents after dropping him off at an airport in Nebraska.

It’s quite a story.

My writer’s mind sees it as one of those Indy film plots. Maybe even filmed in black-and-white.

Guy breaks up with girl on a cross-country trip.

She pulls over and leaves him beside the road in some desolate part of Colorado or Nebraska.

We follow him. Maybe discover why he decided to break up. Maybe her absence had made him realize that he liked having her away. Maybe he was tired of her always being away. Maybe he was cheating on her. Maybe he was recognizing homosexual urges within himself. Could be a lot of things.

He ambles into some dusty town. Befriends a stranger. Maybe a down-on-her luck waitress. Or some wild western ranch hand. Something like that.

Maybe we cut to her, crossing the country distraught. She picks up a hitchhiker and has an ill-advised encounter with this person. Maybe she lands in some dingy hotel unable to make herself continue the drive. Losses her purse, her phone. You know, sort of symbolically wiping her former identity clean. Does she rise like the Phoenix?

It’s a treasure trove of plot ideas. What do they learn? Where do they end? Back together? Farther apart? Both alone?

My Music Journal 2025: June 22, 2025

 

Sunday, June 22, 2025

 

Time: 7:06 PM

Song: Margaritaville 

Artist: Jimmy Buffett

Mode of Consumption: Listening to radio while cutting a watermelon. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4EEjMyQub6tgFVshlM9j1M?si=6e15b80a20c54b7c

 

In August of 1996, my parents packed our van and we went south to Atlanta to visit my brother, Matt. 

 

I have a couple memories about this trip. 

 

The first was that because they didn’t want to travel around Atlanta while the Olympics were going on, we put off the vacation until August. So, I missed the first full week of practice for the freshman football team. I was not a happy camper. 

 

Sterling had a pretty strong program, and there were nearly sixty freshmen vying for 22 starting spots. Missing that developmental week put me behind for that season. I don’t know if I ever really felt like I caught up as I didn’t get that starting spot until my sophomore year, and that was at center, a position I had never previously played. 

 

The second was that my brother had a small CD collection that he hadn’t had when he still lived at home. He had moved to Atlanta after graduating from the University of Illinois the spring before to work as an engineer for a pipeline company. 

 

He was the oldest, the first to leave the nest, and he had flown a long way from Northern Illinois. 

 

I think I was a little in awe. 

 

I recall he had a small apartment. I remember watching Sportscenter on his TV while he grilled us dinner one night. 

 

I remember his CDs. Jimmy Buffett’s Greatest hits. Bob Seger’s Greatest Hits. There might have been a Heart CD, certainly some Beatles. Steve Miller. Fleetwood Mac. A bevy of classic rock, and my own interest in music was growing. 

 

Many of the same CDs made their way into my collection over the next few years. I told you, that trip made an impact on me. 

My Music Journal: June 21, 2025

 

Saturday, June 21, 2025

 

Time: 7:06 PM

Song: Rooster

Artist: Alice in Chains

Mode of Consumption: Closing number played by Justin Jones at Gary Lenhart/Pete Raum Garden Party.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0wvIGFIgbyz4JNwQhZgTv2?si=9f3132a4227d4b6c

 

“So, what do you guys want for the last song?” Justin Jones asked. “Country. Pop. Rock.” 

 

Jones was a one-man show with an acoustic guitar and a microphone (clearly some auto-tune technology also in use). He had played for three hours straight under a tent in the 90-degree heat with a warm breeze blowing crossways.

 

There had been rumor he was going to take a break about 5:30, but he had plowed through that, seemingly blending the three genres mentioned together. All sorts of songs were played. 

 

Rock was the unanimous call of the crowd of about thirty for the closer. 

 

He flipped through a songbook, and then declared. “Well, this might be one you don’t expect.” 

 

His choice was “Rooster” by Alice in Chains. 

 

We had been invited by a cousin of my mother to the party, and other than him and his husband, we didn’t really know anybody. Still the food was good. There were plenty of cold drinks and shade to make the hot, humid afternoon comfortable. 

 

I watched the people, most in small groups of six or eight, as they mingled. I got to thinking about when was the last time we had been to a party that wasn’t hosted by immediate family. Nothing sprang immediately to mind.

 

Jodi and I have evolved into hermits, of sorts, over the years. We’re not unfriendly, we just don’t mind spending our evenings and weekends together at our home. 

 

I think we were both tempted to skip the party, as it came on the heels of a busy week. But much like our entertainer, we did the unexpected. We went to the party and had a nice time.  

My Music Journal 2025: June 20, 2025

 

Friday, June 20, 2025

 

Time: 10:00 PM

Song: Don’t Stop Believin’

Artist: Journey

Mode of Consumption: Closing number for production of “Rock of Ages” at Timber Lake Playhouse

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/77NNZQSqzLNqh2A9JhLRkg?si=17620abdb9f24ff5

 

“Rock of Ages” is a play built around the hair/glam band music of the 1980s. It follows the lives of Rock Star wannabe/night club busboy Drew Boley and recent midwestern transplant Sherrie Christian, as they chase stardom and love on the Sunset Strip. 

 

It’s fun. It’s hokey. It plays into every stereotype of the 80s music scene that you can name.

 

As it turns out, Boley is from Detroit, Sherrie from a small town, so the show closes with “Don’t Stop Believin’.” I imagine the writer planned it that way. 

 

Jodi’s cousin, Abbie, and her two kids went to the show with us. Her son, who is entering seventh grade next fall, talked about how he knew most of the songs because he listens to the classic rock station when he is mowing the lawn. Sounds like he only he has one choice. 

 

“The other station you lose as soon as you change directions.” 

 

We find out that he has had issues with a chorus teacher at school, and this divide has been linked to this song. That’s too bad. 

 

This song always makes me think about the 2005 White Sox as they and their fanbase adopted this song as anthem during their season and eventual World Series win. 

 

As a Cubs fan, maybe it burns me that I am reminded of the White Sox when I hear this song. Even so, I don’t fail to see the song for what it is, a fun little rocker. 

 

That’s why it has lasted for the last 40 years. 

My Music Journal 2025: June 19, 2025

 

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Time: 7:45 PM
Song: We Didn’t Start the Fire
Artist: Fall Out Boy
Mode of Consumption: Listening to the radio on the way home from work night at fairgrounds.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/60glT2wsoSHV3B8yCRSB8v?si=2a14c11013594680

When Billy Joel released the original version of this song in the late 1980s, I remember people talking about all the history in the lyrics. I was like six, so while some of the names I likely had heard, I certainly didn’t comprehend each reference. Heck, I might not yet if I were to comb through the lyrics.

I don’t know if I missed this Fallout Boy cover in 2023, or I simply didn’t pay any attention to it. I see on Spotify that it covers the news items between 1989 and 2023.

If I were to read the lyrics, my sense is that I have more connection with the things from the 1990s and maybe early 2000s than the last decade or so.

The news cycle is so rapid these days that I am not sure how much the average person will retain. I mean there are those keyboard warriors on social media that can recite every political transgression of the opposite party that they support and hit every talking point of their party.

Even those shift so quickly that I can’t keep up. Or even want to.

I’d like to wake up in the 1990s where avoiding news was pretty easy, and unless you sought out someone’s opinion on the politics of the country, you likely didn’t know them. Now it’s like team sport, people must wear their politics on their sleeves or caps.

I understand that active citizenship is important to democracy. I just wish more people took that energy to their local governmental units and found a way to contribute. Who knows, maybe even encounter the issues that are impacting the people next door and then work with the people around them to fix that problem.

It probably wouldn’t stop the fire, but maybe it’d cool things down a bit.

 

My Music Journal 2025: June 18, 2025

 

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

 

Time: 6:15 PM

Song: The Train Kept-A-Rollin’

Artist: The Yardbirds

Mode of Consumption: Listening to the Yardbirds Featuring Performances by Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page on Vinyl.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/6pW2lKORQaIC6JR4qBNG9e?si=58463d6a9bda47ff

 

“So, is there a bird called a yardbird, or is it some sort of slang?” Jodi asks. 

 

“I don’t know?” I answer.

 

The Yardbirds are a band that I always have a confused memory about. I remember that Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were all members, but not all at the same time. I can never remember who came first or how much overlap there was. 

 

I know that when Page left, it basically ended the group, and there are those who resent the formation of Led Zeppelin by Page and Robert Plant. I’ve never quite remember or grasp that connection, and even when I look it up, I usually forget pretty quickly. 

 

But back to the real question: What is a Yardbird?

 

The lazy search to Wiki reveals two possibilities. One might be from Jack Kerouac’s novel “On the Road,” where he refers to railroad yard hobos as yardbirds. They may also have borrowed it from jazz saxophonist, Charlie Parker, who was nicknamed “Yardbird.” 

 

Other slang meanings for Yardbird: 

 

• In the military, a yardbird is a recruit assigned to tasks like cleaning the grounds or other menial jobs, often as punishment or due to inexperience. 
• In a prison context, it can refer to a prisoner or convict. 
• In the American South, it is common slang term for a chicken, especially one that is free ranging.

My Music Journal 2025: June 17, 2025

 

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Time: 6:00 PM
Song: Sun King
Artist: The Beatles
Mode of Consumption: Listening to Abbey Road on Vinyl.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4nwKdZID1ht0lDBJ5h2p87?si=b0f5a4aa678d44bd

During our Write On meeting, we each attempted a Huitain poem. These poems have eight lines with eight to ten syllables per line. The idea is to have a consistent amount of syllables throughout the poem. It has an ababbcbc rhyme scheme.

The first line came into my head immediately, but I didn’t have an idea of where it would go.

Here is what I came up with:

That’s Why He’s King

Something peculiar arrived today
It darted into frame, awkward and mean
With little fanfare or warning per se
A cackle, a grunt, a torso built lean
All near screamed at such a ghastly scene
One standout stayed true, approaching this thing
No bluster, no glory, nothing obscene
But bravery and courage, that’s why he’s king.

 

My Music Journal 2025: June 16, 2025

 

Monday, June 16, 2025

 

Time: 7:32 PM

Song: Black 

Artist: Pearl Jam

Mode of Consumption: Listening to the radio while completing bookwork for church. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5Xak5fmy089t0FYmh3VJiY?si=7402d137e7a04aeb

 

We made hay today. Forty-seven bales to be exact. That’s less than half of what we usually get off our hayfield on the first cutting of the season. 

 

“It’s been like that everywhere,” Ken said. Ken brought his tractor and baler this afternoon. Jodi and I managed on the rack, stacking the bales four high, two columns parallel to the standard, and one in the middle perpendicular.

“A husband and wife making hay together, that’s just asking for trouble,” Ken joked. 

 

“It’s worked out so far,” Jodi answered. 

 

“It’s not our first rodeo,” I added. 

 

There are fewer bales this season because we had a dry fall, followed by a dry winter, followed by a dry spring. Just not great conditions for growing grass and alfalfa. 

 

It’s hard not to feel a little let down. The hay field was one of the domains of Jodi’s father, Lee. This is the second season that we’ve managed the field since his passing. 

 

It was the first where we had our own tractor (also formerly Lee’s), and Jodi learned how to mow the hay and to rake it. 

 

I prefer to be the guy on the rack, although my duties have increased. I pulled the elevator over to the barn to unload, and then lined up the rack next to it. Then put all the equipment away afterward.

 

I’m alone in the mow now, back in the old days, Lee would have started on the rack with Jodi and then moved up to the mow with me. It was an event. Usually, Jodi’s Aunt Betty would be around to help where she could, and her mom, Kathy, would stop by near the end with a box of pizza. 

 

After Ken left, it was just Jodi and me. I drank a beer, something Lee liked to do after finishing. 

 

We warmed up some leftover tacos, cleaned up the dishes and went about our evening. 

My Music Journal 2025: June 15, 2025

 

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Time: 8:10 PM
Song: It’s All Right
Artist: The Impressions
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle between Freeport and Sterling, IL.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/62PQXBFeAgS3iUseNRVPpF?si=f27be872190d44d3

 We are riding back from our niece’s high school graduation party in Eagle, Wisconsin. It’s about a 2 ½ hour trip from Sterling to Eagle, when skipping around Rockford. We are carpooling with my parents.

“You know this was probably the last party,” Jodi says. “We are going to have to find a reason to go up to Matt’s now.”

She’s right. Our niece is the youngest of two children of my brother, Matt. We’ve been heading north for the better part of twenty years, usually twice a year for birthday parties.

His son, Logan, just graduated from college and is starting a career. The high school graduate, Haley, is heading to the UP for college in the fall.

It’s the end of an era.

I hadn’t thought of it that way until then.

In the coming years, there will probably be weddings and college graduations and other things, but the regular trips are over. Certainly, a new phase of life for my brother and his family. Also, a change for us.

I think about how my own relationships with extended family changed as we aged, got married, had children, moved around and away.

I think about how my grandmother used to ride with us up to parties, and that it’s been ten years since she passed away.

It’s heady. Maybe even sad. Bittersweet.

It’s also all right. We’ve had a good time.

 

My Music Journal 2025: June 14, 2025

 

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Time: 11: 45 AM
Song: Burning Heart
Artist: Survivor
Mode of Consumption: Eating at Burger King in Rock Falls 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/2VN7uPrbryJ7nE2MXX3f9a?si=1c5cb0c34e1c457f

“You know I don’t really get the deal with McDonalds. They are always busy.” I say, biting into a Whopper.

“I think they put something in the food,” Jodi said. “Drugs or something. Makes people crave it.”

There is one other table occupied at Burger King nearing the lunch hour. Maybe people are eating healthier, but I can’t quite figure out the dedication to the golden arches. I realize that some of it has to do with the way McDonalds has marketed toward children in the last fifty years. Families will go there to please the kiddies even if they don’t like the food too much.

I think there is more to it, but I don’t know what.

The last time I ate McDonalds I thought the quality of the food had changed, and not for the better. It also took a few minutes before we received our order, and it’s clear they are pushing for people to use their self-service kiosk rather than ordering from the human standing two feet away.

At Burger King, we ordered from a human. I paid her, and before I could put my change in my wallet, our tray of food was placed on the counter.

“I think Burger is becoming my favorite fast-food restaurant.” I study the fresh lettuce and tomato on my Whopper. The burger is warm and doesn’t take like it’s been sitting in a drawer for an hour to be served. Maybe it has been, but it doesn’t taste like it.

“They are fast.”

Will Burger King or any other chain ever break the stranglehold McDonalds has on the fast-food industry. Maybe, but I doubt it will be in my lifetime. That battle, much like the Cold War, was lost sometime in the 1980s.

My Music Journal 2025: June 13, 2025

 

Friday, June 13, 2025

Time: 1:43 PM
Song: Love and Affection
Artist: Nelson
Mode of Consumption: Listening to the Playlist Pandemonium Playlist “Famous Dads” on Spotify.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/3JjY2L2bqql54j1SjnjQ23?si=fc1edbd98b8a4747

A couple days ago I mentioned that I didn’t think that Jakob Dylan had ever recorded one of his father’s songs. Today, I am listening to the playlist generated by our Facebook group and this Nelson hit came on.

I remembered that sometime in the mid-90s I saw Nelson perform in Rockford. They opened for either America or Three Dog Night. I can’t remember which group. I am pretty sure I went to the Metrocenter twice with my parents and saw concerts.

What I do remember is that by this time, it had to be 1994 or 1995, the Nelson boys had cut the long blond locks that was their staple when this song was a hit in 1990. It’s kind of amazing to think that in a few short years they had gone from having a hit song to opening for bands from the 1960s and 1970s.

This post isn’t to rag on Nelson. On the contrary, I seem to remember enjoying their set.

Unlike Dylan, the Nelson boys had no qualms playing their father’s hits. In fact, the set was filled with Ricky Nelson hits. While I am sure they played some of their other originals, “Love and Affection” is the only one I remember. It made sense as the opener for an older band for them to play a playlist of their father’s songs. It fit the crowd.

The other difference being that Ricky Nelson had died in an airplane crash in 1985. Undoubtedly performing his songs was one of the ways that the Nelson twins were still healing from the loss of their father. Bob Dylan is still touring, so it might not hit quite the same for Jakob Dylan to drop a setlist with “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Lay Lady Lay,” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”