My Music Journal 2025: November 30, 2025

 

Sunday, November 30, 2025

 

Time: 12:37 PM
Song: Overkill
Artist: Men At Work
Mode of Consumption: Listening to the radio while sweeping kitchen floor. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/3iA4foXIFpekwHyma7pRs1?si=bb89bc5b93a444ba

 

Today marks the ten-year anniversary of my first day at ASE. I don’t remember much about it, other than my direct superior thought it was another week before I was coming in. 

 

That first year was difficult for a wide variety of reasons, some of which I’ve detailed before on here. 

 

I find the implications of work interesting. On a national scale, the labor force and the unemployment rate are buzz words for politicians. I’ve yet to determine if anything any politician does has that much effect on the work force and/or the unemployment rate. These things rise and fall over time, of course, but the factors for which probably are numerous and probably have less to do with politicians and more to do with shifts in industry. 

 

I remember flipping through those career books they give you when you’re a senior in high school and finding things that interested me some, but nothing that I could peg as that’s what I want to do five days a week for the next forty years or so. Hell, I couldn’t do that now. 

 

I’d like to think that I am where I am going to be until I retire, and I hope that retirement is sooner rather than later. 

 

I can say that I’ve held a healthy number of gigs, and it’s always been something that I wanted to write about. I’ve just never found the right entry point or voice for the topic. 

 

Here’s the cliff notes of the gigs I’ve held. 

 

1. Farm laborer – mostly this was just baling hay in the summers.  
2. Factory summer worker – I did a little bit of line work, but mostly my time was spent in the shipping department on third shift during the summers in college. A better, more motivated, college person would have lined up an internship
3. Huskie Telefund Caller – Cold calling alumni to suck more money from them. I gained one good donation (I don’t remember how much, maybe $100) and never went back.
4. Writing Center Tutor – There was a different name for my position, but I don’t remember it now. Maybe mentor, but that doesn’t hit right. Basically, I’d listen to other student’s papers and give them hints on how their work could make more sense. 
5. Day Program Teaching Assistant – Pushing challenging kids to do remedial course work and, at times, physically restraining them to keep them from hurting themselves or others. 
6. Sports Journalist – Held positions as reporter and editor over an 11-year period. Won some awards. Watched a lot of high school sports. Drank numerous beers after deadline. 
7. Proposal Manager – Write proposals. Read emails. Juggle personalities. Some days are very busy, some days I don’t do much, but it looks like I am working. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 29, 2025

 

Saturday, November 29, 2025

 

Time: 1:29 PM 
Song: Broccoli 
Artist: The Association
Mode of Consumption: Listening to the vinyl album “The Association” while working in the basement. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4UKbeHiZoFfw9zWIbnW3Rc?si=106b842b4409422d

 

Last spring, we went to the Sterling Library when it was having a free activity night. The activity was an art project where the challenge was to create a picture by cutting strips of paper out of magazines and then rolling them in tight cylinders. 

 

It was a simple process to try and create something that would ultimately feel complex and look good. 

 

The allotted time didn’t allow Jodi or me finish our projects, so we brought them home, where they have spent the last six months or so occupying space in each of our areas. About a week ago, I finally worked some on mine, trying to figure out how to get it to a point of feeling complete. 

 

Today, with the snow falling at about an inch an hour outside, I finished it. 

 

My picture has what looks like three waves across the bottom. The top I’ve created a thick grouping of clouds. To finish it off, I cut strips of text from the magazine pages and glued them in diagonal, parallel lines, giving the appearance of rain. 

 

My hope is that people read the random sentence fragments and wonder if there is some sort of hidden meaning. One article in the random magazine pages had a breakout with different dollar values like $14 billion and $421 billon. So, I put those between the waves, hopefully adding to the mystery of the piece. 

 

That’s part of the fun of art, right? Guessing what the artist is trying to say. 

 

I mean, is this song really just about broccoli? 

My Music Journal 2025: November 28, 2025

 

Friday, November 28, 2025

 

Time: 1:40 PM 
Song: I’ll Be Your Mirror
Artist: The Velvet Underground
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle while installing Christmas lights

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4PINSJIlBWsnVeveicq1S8?si=73647f1dcb7a407f

 

My late father-in-law Lee is always on my mind when I putting up our outside Christmas lights display. Lee always had a nice display at his house, and he always had a saying that he wouldn’t put them up until it was cold enough out to keep his beer cold. I suspect when he was younger maybe he was serious about that, but over the last decade or so of his life, I doubt he even drank one. 

 

Still, I like to repeat that line when people ask while I always wait until after Thanksgiving to put up our light. The last few weeks were unseasonable warm, so a lot of displays have been blaring in the evenings.

 

Today was my day (although I did put a few up yesterday morning before the Thanksgiving festivities set in), and I was outside by 7:30. Temperatures were in the 20s, but there was little wind and sunshine. Not a bad day, and it would have kept my beer cold, had. I chose to drink any. 

 

This year’s display is a little bigger than previous years thanks in part to Lee. His wife, Kathy, found tubs of lights above their garage filled with boxes of unopened lights. There was also a tub of extension cords, which came in handy. 

 

I also picked up two blow-mold snowmen and a pair of candles from my parents. They didn’t use them anymore, so I found places to add them to my layout. I thought about waiting until tomorrow to get those, but the weather was nice, and there are reports that we could get a snowstorm tomorrow. 

 

Now, I am just waiting until it gets dark enough to turn the lights on. I will think of Lee. I will think of my parents. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 27, 2025

 

Thursday, November 27, 2025

 

Time: 4:50 PM 
Song: Today
Artist: The Smashing Pumpkins
Mode of Consumption: Listening to radio while driving to my parents.

Link to song:  https://open.spotify.com/track/0GRxGPPrL61m6sl14h9a7Z?si=51768db510204484

 

For the last several years on Thanksgiving, Jodi and I have watched the 1990s Pauley Shore movie “Son in Law.” The basic plot is that the looney “Crawl,” who was raised in Las Vegas and is in his sixth year of college in California, travels to South Dakota with his new friend for Thanksgiving break. 

 

It’s a light, goofy movie to finish off the holiday fun. 

 

There are a few things we are starting to think about more as we see this movie every year. 

 

First, this is supposed to be South Dakota in late November, but in various scenes people are dressed like it is mid-Summer. I’m not saying you can’t get warm days in November, but it’s not likely. In fact, you’re just as likely to get inches of snow. 

 

Second, there’s a scene where Crawl is awakened at 5 AM to start his first day of farm experience and it’s clear they are showing the sun rising. Well, the sun doesn’t come up Midwest in November until about seven. Plus, it’s gets dark by 5 PM. 

 

Third, the famous scene where Crawl takes the combine for a joyride. The combine is covered by a tarp, as if it’s been cleaned and is ready for storage for winter. But, when the tarp comes off, he finds a field nearby (with green still in it even though it’s very late in the year) and writes his name with the combine. It’s a funny scene, but if there was still a field needing harvested, the combine wouldn’t have been covered, and getting the crop in would have been the priority at this point of the year.

 

These are small things, and probably most people don’t think about these things on one viewing. Frankly, it’s not important to the story. 

 

Jodi put it best. 

 

“Well, someone from California probably wrote it.” 

My Music Journal 2025: November 26, 2025

 

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

 

Time: 6:19 PM 
Song: Spooky
Artist: Dennis Yost & the Classic IV
Mode of Consumption: Listening to vinyl “Golden Greats Volume I” 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5YHRfi7m8pSFQw29APsRFh?si=53b91b91baaa49f2

 

It’s not often that I run into a band where I immediately know several of their songs but have never heard their name before. 

Enter Dennis Yost & The Classic IV and the hits album we spun tonight while eating supper. Songs like “Spooky” and “Stormy” and “Traces,” all one-word title hits by the same band. A band I couldn’t have named an hour ago. 

 

It’s bizarre, as Jodi didn’t know them either, and we both were raised on music from the 1960s and 1970s. These were songs played often, but never do I remember a DJ waxing about the Dennis Yost. 

 

Heck, I had to look back to remember his name, because I kept confusing it with Ned Yost, the former manager of the Brewers and Royals. 

 

So, who are these cats? 

 

Well, they were formed in Jacksonville in 1964. They started out as an instrumental cover band, and when people began requesting vocals, Yost, the drummer, volunteered. That changed things and they had their string of hits. Eventually another drummer was brought in so that Yost could come out front to sing. 

 

Eventually three of the members left and became members of what would become known as the Atlanta Rhythm Section. 

 

Yost remained the only original member of the group, and different incarnations toured with him as the leader until his death from respiratory failure in 2008. Before dying, he had appointed a man named Tom Garrett as his successor as leader of the Classic IV, and that version of the band still tours. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 25, 2025

 

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

 

Time: 6:33 PM 
Song: Call Me the Breeze
Artist: J.J. Cale
Mode of Consumption: Listening to the radio in the garage while grilling burgers

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5AQpbyFoQmkOVwmlhKN4ii?si=a529dd3f770c453f

 

For the duration of our 17-year marriage, we have received a quarter beef every fall from my father. I picked up this year’s before coming home, realizing it would be the last quarter beef raised by my father that I would ever get. 

 

The cost of cattle and the fact that’s he’s reached the tender age of 82 has led my Dad to decide to not get any calves next spring. 

 

Anyways, I was a little later getting home, and then had to unload the beef from our Jeep, haul it to the basement, and load it into our freezer. 

 

After that, I changed out of my office clothes and then was jettisoned to the garage to grill some hamburger patties (these are still from last year’s beef). 

 

It’s November in Illinois, so it’s dark by 5 PM, and tonight it’s beginning to rain as the burgers sizzle on the grates. 

 

I have the big garage door open with the grill positioned on the edge of the garage’s cement floor. I can see the wind sock on a pole next to our barn flapping in a breeze from the west. 

 

The radio does a trivia question, the answer is the movie “Airplane.” The radio man gives the weather – we could get 35 mile-per-hour winds tonight with temps falling into the 30s. That’s where the temperature is going to stay the next few days before the chance of a big snow storm over the weekend. 

 

I slide the burgers onto a plate and take them to the house. A few minutes later, a gust of wind rattles the windows. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 24, 2025

 

Monday, November 24, 2025

 

Time: 4:35 PM 
Song: Seventeen Going Under
Artist: Sam Fender
Mode of Consumption: Listening to songs from 2021 on Spotify.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5rF6YUIlgiat22OT1lWspJ?si=41227887784e461a

 

My Facebook memories reminded me today that my final day at the newspaper was exactly ten years ago. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I remember. 

 

I had stayed on to finish the high school preseason basketball tabloid, so that it wouldn’t get dumped on a department struggling to keep up a person short until they found my replacement. 

 

That night was an early deadline because the ad gurus at the paper wanted the section printed early so that the Black Friday ads could be inserted and then delivered on time. 

 

An early deadline in the sports world means a bad section, which I imagine was true. I can’t tell you for sure, I have no memory of the regular section, and in a rare sign of efficiency, they didn’t deliver my paper that day, the first day that I wouldn’t have received it for free.

 

Anyways, Facebook tells me that the festivities started at 7 PM at a local drinking hole. I remember maybe a dozen of my ink-stained wretch colleagues gathered around a table to begin the night, eating pizza and sharing laughs. 

 

From there it devolves into a blur of drinks and faces and loudly shared memories. I think we played darts. Maybe played pool. People came, people left. Some of whom I am not sure I’ve seen since. 

 

I crashed on one of my colleague’s couch sometime in the wee hours of the morning, waking at mid-morning and driving home hungover. 

 

It was an appropriate end to a decade’s long run as a newspaper scribe and editor. It was also the last time that I can say that I was drunk. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 23, 2025

 

Sunday, November 23, 2025

 

Time: 10:47 AM 
Song: The Roads
Artist: Jonah Kagen
Mode of Consumption: Listening to radio on the way to lunch.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1z8cabK9f2r2pXWx30ErUW?si=1ea37dd400214e2a 

“The days seem to be going fast,” my Dad said. We were in what is referred to as the north Sunday School room at church, even though there hasn’t been any sort of Sunday School at our church in nearly twenty years ago.

 

My Sunday School class was held in here during our junior high and high school years. For some of those years, we would have church and then Sunday School and then an hour of confirmation class. 

 

It was a determined effort to burn the youth of our congregation out of the church. I’m kidding, but someone probably should have taken a step back and considered the long-term effects of putting kids through three consecutive hours of church activities. 

 

We were a tight-knit group ranging in numbers from five to eight or nine. That was a bonus for the church that we all got along. It kept us from complaining too much. 

 

The downside was that we were more prone to goofing off. I remember doing plenty of video watching. I remember playing football in the cemetery during our short breaks. I remember finding any and every reason to have snacks and Kool-Aid. 

 

I remember a lot of it like it was yesterday, but it wasn’t.

 

It was almost thirty years ago. 

 

“The days seem to be going fast.” 

 

You can say that again. 

My Music Journal 2025; November 22, 2025

 

Saturday, November 22, 2025

 

Time: 4:42 AM 
Song: Here to Forever
Artist: Death Cab for Cutie
Mode of Consumption: Looking up songs from 2022 for next week’s Mixtape Challenge. 

Links to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7Cva2EgJougx6O6M5xgWAq?si=d895a0aae8654aa2

 

Once a month on the Pandemonium, I provide a Mixtape Challenge for any playlister willing to take the challenge. I post the list of challenges at the beginning of the year, and playlisters sign up for the ones they want to do.

 

This year all the challenges related to the last twenty-five years, as we celebrated the first quarter of this century.  

 

Inevitably, there are some challenges that don’t get answered. Most of the time, I take those on. 

 

That’s the case for next week’s list which will be a mix of songs from 2020-2024. 

 

I have pretty full lists of songs to pick from for 2023 and 2024, as I started saving new songs I liked throughout those years. As for 2020 to 2022, I have fewer songs saved in my liked playlist. 

 

So, I go through various sources online to see what was released in those years, and gradually build my list. Spotify also suggests songs similar to what I have already played in each year’s playlist. 

 

That’s the case for this Death Cab for Cutie song. The band I know. I was a big fan of their album “Plans” that came out in the early 2000s. 

 

I also weirdly know that the name of their band comes from a fictional band in the Beatles movie “The Magical Mystery Tour.” 

 

Once I get a good sampling for each year, I will then create one playlist with the songs I like best and the songs I think fit the best together. 

 

That’s the fun part of the challenge, making a list that draws others in and maybe introduces them to tunes they haven’t heard before or perhaps haven’t thought about for a while. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 21, 2025

 

Friday, November 21, 2025

Time: 7:52 AM
Song: AM Radio
Artist: Everclear
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on the way home from work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/03gsb1WnVQUuLqChBvzmoo?si=e5406cd0b7234761

I remember really liking the song “Walls” by Tom Petty when it came out sometime when I was in high school, but the only time I could hear it was if it was played on the radio.

That was the rub. While it received some radio play, it never became one of those songs that was in the hourly rotation. You had to be lucky. It might only get played once that day.

I wonder if kids can even fathom that experience now?

There was just something about the song you really liked at the time coming on the radio unexpectedly. Naturally, your hand jerked to the volume knob, you probably gave a death look to anyone around not to talk for the next three and a half minutes so that you could thoroughly enjoy this one tune, and, at minimum you hummed along, if not sang it, once you heard it enough times to get the words mostly right.

It’s also part of what is special about having physical copies of albums or even mixtapes. That song was there, at your fingertips, ready to play when needed. It was now a semi-permanent part of your existence.

It’s not quite the same now with streaming, or even with downloading songs and saving them as MP3s. The process is almost too easy, maybe too impersonal.

That’s not to say I don’t like when I add an elusive song or artist to my MP3 collection, but it will probably never compare to the feeling of buying a CD back in the day. I didn’t have money for a lot of CDs, so if I did pay for one, it meant that I was committing to the long haul with that music.

And mixtapes – especially those taped from the radio. That meant waiting and listening and being ready to hit record at just the right time. It was capturing that moment and trying our best to make it last.

My Music Journal 2025: November 20, 2025

 

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Time: 4:45 PM
Song: Always
Artist: Bon Jovi
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on the way home from work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/2RChe0r2cMoyOvuKobZy44?si=88f21e4fdb344b16

My first thought when hearing this song is that I remember being at a roller-skating party in junior high and I held the hand of a girl while spinning around the rink. I think that was probably my first such experience. I can’t even say how that happened. I’d like to say I was romantic from the start, but most of my early brushes with the opposite sex were generally haphazard, awkward, and spontaneous.

My second thought is that Bon Jovi really leaned heavy into the sappy rock ballads in the early 90s after living on the pop side of the hair-band experience in the 80s. Songs like this and “Bed of Roses” were the norm for Mr. Jovi at the time. It wasn’t until the end of the 90s with “It’s My Life” that his music returned with a little more pep.

My third thought really has nothing to do with the song. Our plan for Thursday night was to attend a showing of “Predator: Badlands.”

First, I have always been a sucker for this franchise and “The Alien” franchise. I guess as a male child of the 80s, this just hit the right chords with me.

I do find it interesting that in so many of these instances that the creatures that began their fictional lives as the antagonist have evolved into the protagonist over the last 40 years. “Badlands” took that tact, at least with the Dek, the main Predator character.

Some did it quickly. Arnold in Terminator went from the bad guy in the original to the hero in the second movie a few years later.

We seem to be obsessed with the villain. I mean, how many Joker movies have there been? I am not sure, as I haven’t watched them. I assume there have been other instances in the Marvel cinema universe.

Maybe the modern world simply identifies with the motivation of the villain more with the hero.

My Music Journal 2025: November 19, 2025

 

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

 

Time: 4:50 PM
Song: All You Need Is Love
Artist: The Beatles
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on the way home from Springfield

Link to songs: https://open.spotify.com/track/68BTFws92cRztMS1oQ7Ewj?si=ef3971d98b124b0d

 

A bulk of the three-hour ride home from Springfield was spent listening to songs with titles that begin with the word “All.” Looking at my phone now, I see that there are 39 songs in it that fit that criteria. 

 

I had dropped Ty off at his house in Dixon as I entered the last four songs of that stretch. Those were: 

1. All Things Must Pass by George Harrison

 

The title track from Harrison’s epic first post-Beatles album, it’s both a spiritual anthem and a not-so-subtle statement that even bands end.

2. All Those Years Ago by George Harrison

 

A song clearly dedicated to John Lennon after Lennon’s assassination. It talks about Lennon being Harrison’s idol when they were young, all those years ago, and then alludes to songs like “Imagine,” “God,” and “All You Need is Love.” 

 

3. All You Need is Love by the Beatles

 

To tie a nice bow on this run of songs, it’s Lennon’s message from a global live broadcast that the group did. 

 

The last “All” song was “All Your Favorite Bands,” a song about growing up, friends, and hoping your favorite bands stick together. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 18, 2025

 

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Time: 10:55 AM
Song: Ain’t Even Done With the Night
Artist: John Mellencamp
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on way to ACEC Conference in Springfield.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7CN7AfQnKOpGHivXhk8vwT?si=778ba2bfb2914caa

We were nearing our exit from 155 to US 55 that would take us to Springfield when “Ain’t Even Done with the Night,” by John Mellencamp came on.

“Ah, this is one of my lowkey favorite Mellencamp songs,” my co-worker Ty said.

I had hit a song accidently the day before on the MP3 player so instead of it being on shuffle, it was playing through my songs alphabetically. We decided to keep it that way.

I used to do this more when I used an actual MP3 player rather than a mini-SD card in phone. I always liked seeing how long it would take me to get through one letter of the alphabet or another.

This song started an unexpected run of songs that begin with the word “Ain’t.” As I write that, I think of all the times growing up when someone would say “Ain’t,  ain’t a word.”

In all, I had ten songs on my phone that began with “Ain’t.” We heard them all. The others were:

• Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up) by Garth Brooks
• Ain’t Gonna Be Treated That Way by Woody Guthrie
• Ain’t Love A Lot Like That by George Jones
• Ain’t No Grave by Johnny Cash
• Ain’ t No Man by The Avett Brothers
• Ain’t No Reason by Brett Dennen
• Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love by Van Halen
• Ain’t That A Shame by Fats Domino
• Ain’t that Peculiar by Marvin Gaye

My Music Journal 2025: November 17, 2025

 

Monday, November 17, 2025

 

Time: 6:05 PM
Song: Six Hours Ahead of the Sun
Artist: Steve Goodman
Mode of Consumption: Listening to vinyl album “Somebody Else’s Troubles” by Steve Goodman

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1hP9Le8T55KUBue9aoMi8V?si=7ceb8abb7f524732

 

Jodi points to the second man from the left on the album cover for “Somebody Else’s Troubles” by Steve Goodman. 

 

“That’s John Prine,” she said. 

 

“Hmm.” 

 

It’s not surprising because I knew they were friends. I have heard Prine tell the story more than once that it was Goodman who brought Kris Kristofferson over to a club in Chicago to hear Prine play, I believe after the club had closed. A few days later, Prine had his first record deal.

 

The interesting part is that per the liner notes, it doesn’t appear that Prine played on any of the songs on this album. 

 

It makes me wonder if he just happened to be hanging around the day they were shooting the picture and they told him to get in it. 

 

“How did he die, again?” Jodi asks. “Was it cancer?” 

 

“I think it might have been leukemia.” I say, although I couldn’t say that for sure. 

 

According to the Google machine, Goodman died at the age of 36, having suffered from leukemia most of his adult life and then dying of complications from a bone marrow transplant in 1984. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 16, 2025

 

Sunday, November 16, 2025

Time: 1:40 PM
Song: Metal Health (Bang Your Head)
Artist: Quiet Riot
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle while driving home.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/28clONjZmul6FjfO6tZQDE?si=3f344441c2614d37

Whenever the Bears play at noon on Sundays, I record the game and watch it later in the afternoon. There are three main reasons for this:

Usually, we have lunch with our parents on Sundays, so this way I don’t miss the first quarter.

With it getting dark early this time of year, it’s nice having the early afternoon to accomplish anything I might need to do outside.

I can fast forward through commercials so I can cut down the watch time.

Anyone following this Bears season knows that the outcome usually isn’t decided until the last few moments of the fourth quarter. Unlike past years, they have found a way to win most of those games.

The strange thing is that I find myself more anxious this season than in the past (or it’s possible I just forget this part of the viewing experience).

Today’s game, the Bears led by as much as thirteen points in the second half, but I knew if they didn’t add on, it wouldn’t be enough.

They missed a field goal midway through the fourth quarter, and that was the turning point. Minnesota scored two touchdowns and took the lead with less than a minute left.

Why do I do this to myself?

Well, a long kickoff return and a Cairo Santos field goal, and once again, the Bears survived what probably should have been a loss.

My Music Journal 2025: November 15, 2025

 

Saturday, November 15, 2025

 

Time: 1:17 PM
Song: Money (That’s What I Want)
Artist: The Supremes
Mode of Consumption: Listening to album “Supremes A Go Go” while having garage sale.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0LyGaBZa7OhgtJMJ8wHgp7?si=e5602d3980ca4e87

 

I spent the morning feeling like I had made a mistake having a garage sale in Illinois in November, even with the temperatures reaching into the sixties. I think I had one customer in the first two hours. 

 

Then sometime around 10:30 I had my first real catch, they bought $50 worth of records and a couple other items. 

 

At lunch, we debated whether I should leave stuff setup and open up tomorrow morning for a while in hopes of making the hauling of all these records worthwhile. 

 

After lunch I had a surge. Three cars pulled up at the same time. Two of the customers didn’t buy anything, but the third just dropped a hundred bucks mostly on records, and pushed my total number of records sold to 27. I had hoped I’d sell at least 25 with 50 being the goal I doubted that I would achieve. 

 

So, now as I tick closer to closing time at 2 PM, I have to decide if I should be happy with what I’ve sold, or spend part of my Sunday doing this also. 

 

I like the idea of selling more records, plus we’d like to move a few pieces of furniture, but Sundays are notorious for being slow in the garage sale business. I also know with the records it’s generally not about how many customers you get, it’s about getting one or two really good ones. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 14, 2025

 

Friday, November 14, 2025

 

Time: 9:15 AM
Song: Lawyers, Guns and Money
Artist: Warren Zevon
Mode of Consumption: Listening to album “Excitable Boy” on Spotify while at work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/64dHj8ZxaI2Wj0brEehVMN?si=497696392ffa4487

 

Warren Zevon was inducted into the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame earlier this week. David Letterman, who was champion of Zevon’s music, did the inducting. Zevon filled in numerous times over the years for Paul Schaeffer as the band leader for the Letterman show.

 

Zevon also appeared on the Letterman show about a year before his death to talk about his cancer diagnosis and perform songs from his final album along with a few of his standards. 

 

Zevon told Letterman that night that the terminal prognosis hadn’t really changed his perspective other than to “enjoy every sandwich.” 

 

After Letterman’s induction speech and as video package, the Killers performed “Lawyers, Guns and Money.” They did an admirable job. 

 

This week on the Pandemonium, the theme was to provide three songs from one of your favorite albums from the 1970s. Since I had just watched the Zevon induction on YouTube, I decided I would include song from the 1978 album “Excitable Boy.”

 

The album features Zevon’s most successful single “Werewolves of London.” I like that song, but thought I’d go with “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” “Roland the Headless Gunner,” and “Excitable Boy.” The song “Veracruz” was also in the running. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 13, 2025

 

Thursday, November 13, 2025

Time: 6:07 AM
Song: Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It
Artist: Will Smith
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle while working out.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0weAUscowxeqDtpCgtbpgp?si=83e80953fccc4c3d

I used to think that no matter how big Will Smith got in the acting industry or the music industry, everyone would always think of him as “The Fresh Prince.”

It’s how we were introduced to Smith, a family-friendly young man with bright clothes and a cute rap jingle.

Then he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, and it’s like, hmmm, is that the Will Smith we will remember now?

That’s what’s going through my mind. For that matter, I wonder if that’s what we will remember most about Chris Rock. Two guys with heydays in the 1990s, souring their legacies with a skirmish in the 2020s.

I am struggling through exercises after spending Wednesday night hauling records up the basement steps. I didn’t count the number of crates or trips up the stairs; my physical fitness heyday was about the same time that Smith was releasing “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.”

In those crates are hundreds of artists, whose heydays range from the 1930s to the 1980s, mostly. Some of those artists still maintain a fair share of fame. Bruce Springsteen still tours, filling arenas. Elvis still gets sightings nearly fifty years after his death. Johnny Cash is probably my best seller.

Other artists are remembered by the oldest members of the world, but most of those aging folks aren’t looking to add to their music collections. In fact, most of them probably snicker while thinking about who is going to sort through all their stuff that they will relatively soon leave behind.

Some artists in these crates no longer have much identity left at all among the current living. Their legacies are lost to only those that really study music or crave random vinyl.

Some probably had exploits that their souls are glad are forgotten. None of them probably slapped someone on the stage of any awards show.

My Music Journal 2025: November 12, 2025

 

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Time: 9:05 PM
Song: Stand Back
Artist: Stevie Nicks
Mode of Consumption: Watching Vevo’s 80s channel’s “Totally Hits” show.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/6sleEAnBH0sZMe0pOQNidG?si=234e7af346a541ea

 We watched about a half dozen music videos from the 80s after an evening of setting up a garage sale (yes, that meant hauling about a thousand records up from the basement).

This one was the first. It’s primarily Stevie Nicks, dressed in a black gown, dancing and singing to the camera with a dark background. Nicks looks pale, and we both wonder if this is during the height of her drug era. A few times, I notice she looks down, as if she’s reading something. I don’t think she is, but there are just a few instances where it appears she’s lost focus on her persona and the video.

The music video would have been still a new medium at this point, and each video sort of shows that. Most of them are performance-based. The artist sings, either on stage or in some empty room, or something similar.

There are intercut images of male dancers in the Nicks video. In Glen Frey’s video for “The Heat is On,” a stubbly Frey sings with intercutting scenes from “Beverly Hills Cop.” The best of the bunch and likely the one with the most production value is ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’.”

The last one we watch is Bon Jovi’s “Bad Medicine,” which opens with late comedian Sam Kinison riling up a group of video extra’s by proclaiming they wouldn’t be making the usual music video. The big change: the extras would be holding cameras on stage, filming the band. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 11, 2025

 

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

 

Time: 5:47 PM
Song: Cover Me
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Mode of Consumption: Listening to vinyl collection of singles from “Born in the U.S.A.” 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4U7NhC2rQTAhH7dw7H0goB?si=4758e3976f5d43d2

 

Will people come to a garage sale in November in Illinois? 

 

I have been considering this for a few weeks. My initial thought was to do it the Saturday after Thanksgiving. You know, get the shop local crowd after the Black Friday sales. 

 

Of course, that means spending Thanksgiving week getting ready for a sale around the holiday festivities. Plus, maybe we want to do something fun one of those days. 

 

Now, I have a free Saturday this weekend, and the forecast is calling for temperatures maybe reaching into the 70s. That’s hard to pass up. 

 

This week we have the Festival of Trees. For me, that’s really only going to the Festival on Thursday and Friday evening. That means I probably will need to do a lot of setup tomorrow night. 

 

So, do I go with that? 

 

I’d like to get one more sale in for the year, and then put some different lots on Facebook Marketplace afterward to reduce the overall inventory (basically because I have a collection I might buy, so I’d like to clear some room). 

 

This is the thing going through my mind tonight. I’ll have to decide by tomorrow afternoon. 

My Music Journal 2025: November 10, 2025

 

Monday, November 10, 2025

 

Time: 8:28 PM
Song: Night Woman
Artist: Nazareth
Mode of Consumption: Listening to vinyl album “RazamaNaz” by Nazareth while pricing records.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0OqEkpFg7uGL294cbWvuHV?si=cf08d6fe869e438b

 

Over a year ago, I bought two interesting collections of records in a relatively short period of time. One was a collection with a lot of 70s and 80s guitar rock, and the other had some of that and wider range of bands and genres from the 60s, 70s and 80s. 

 

That second collection had some deeper cut albums, so I am always curious what the value is for some of them. 

 

Tonight, I put “Rings Around the Moon” by Carillo on while pricing records for my next sale (which could be as soon as this weekend, but likely not until the Saturday of Thanksgiving). 

 

There were reasons to get excited. First, I liked the record despite not having heard the songs before. They were solid rock songs. Second, the jacket had a promotional copy sticker on the front along with a stamp in the top right corner, actually stamped over the first word of the title. 

 

So, after finishing my pricing and doing a quick reorganizing of my priced rock and pop records, I looked the album up on Discogs.

 

This is probably the first time that I’ve seen that promotional copy is worth less than the regular release, and neither has a ton of value. The median value falling at the three-dollar range. That’s my cutoff usually, so Carillo will be a dollar at the next sale. Hopefully, it’s the kind of record that a collector will grab for a dollar. 

 

Heck, I am almost tempted to keep it. 

 

I was also going to use one of the songs for this blog, but Spotify doesn’t appear to have Carillo in its catalog. So, here’s a song from the Nazareth album I put in after Carillo. 

 

The Nazareth album has a median value of six dollars.