Sunday Random 10

Sorry this is late, just got back from a baseball banquet where Danny Gladden was telling some pretty good stories.

Let's...play...shuffle!

Fountains of Wayne - Hackensack
Fountains of Wayne - The Girl I Can't Forget
Old 97's - Friends Forever (Live)
The Beatles - Come Together (Anthology 3 version)
Allen Toussaint - Bright Mississippi
Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Care of Cell #44
Jonathan Rundman - Daylight Saving(s) Time
Wilco - You Never Know
Jonathan Rundman - Armyman
The Saw Doctors - I Useta Lover

Nice mix, including two songs from this year's edition of our annual faves compilation (Toussaint & Wilco), plus one from an earlier faves compilation (the second Fountains entry).

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Hot Stuff

We interrupt This Week's Discussion Question to say that Fred Clark has been on fire lately. And the footnote in this one is excellent, too.

Go forth and bookmark.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

It's Sunday and time once again to find out what surprises the little green Nano holds for this week. Ready? Let's...hit...shuffle!

The Wonders - That Thing You Do! (Live)
Neil Finn & Friends (Eddie Vedder, vocal) - Stuff and Nonsense
Talking Heads - Memories Can't Wait
U2 - Peace on Earth
Fountains of Wayne - Baby I've Changed
The Chantrellenes - Hold My Hand, Hold My Heart
Stevie Wonder - Jesus Children of America
U2 - Stand Up Comedy
Elvis Costello - New Amsterdam
Rickie Lee Jones - Road to Emmaus

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

It's Sunday again! We don't have a question again! (Well, we've got one but not enough time to write it up.)

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

The Beatles - This Boy
Nick Lowe - Man That I've Become
The Beatles - Roll Over Beethoven
The Beatles - What Goes On
Dusty Springfield - Stay Awhile
Girlyman - Joyful Sign
The Cure - Friday I'm in Love
The Rascals - I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore
Gear Daddies - Party Stomp
The Rascals - Love is a Beautiful Thing

3404 songs and we get three tunes from the Liverpool lads and a couple from Felix and the boys, but we aren't complaining.

Hey, number 11 just popped up the live version on Shawn Colvin's "Sunny Came Home", so here's a This Week's Discussion Question for ya:

Why wasn't "Get Out of This House" a monster hit?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Couldn't people just buy Shawn Colvin records and we could forget about finding another American Idol?"

Discuss.

Sunday Random 10

It's Sunday! Let's...hit...shuffle!!!

Todd Rundgren - You Cried Wolf
Crowded House - Private Universe
Stevie Wonder - Jesus Children of America
Rhett Miller - Haphazardly
Patty Griffin - Go Now
Wilco - Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again)
Marshall Crenshaw - Little Wild One (No. 5)
Dusty Springfield - Just a Little Lovin'
Jonathan Rundman - Sick of Eric Blues
Mark Mallman - The Fool on the Hill

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

That Toddlin' Town - 08 & 09-01-10

When in Rome, or Chicago...

08-01-10
1. Interstate highways between Columbia Heights and Chicago were way, way, WAY clearer than anticipated. Major props to DOT workers in all three states.
2. Pretzel buns on the burgers at Charlie's Ale House on Clark.
3. Discussing atonement theology on the El.
4. Finding Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren on vinyl at the Reckless Records outpost in the Loop! Also, EW&F on vinyl and Ivy, Kristina Train, XTC, and Beatles Anthologies 2 & 3 on CD.
5. A subdued hootenanny at Casa Oscar Romero.

09-01-10
1. Ann Sather cinnamon rolls.
2. Ann Sather cinnamon rolls.
3. Ann Sather cinnamon rolls.
4. Ann Sather cinnamon rolls.
5. Ann Sather cinnamon rolls.

Oops...

1. Ann Sather cinnamon rolls.
2. Leftover breakfast bruschetta at a beautiful rest stop near the Dells. (Complimented one of the workers on how great it'll look when it's done.)
3. See "Interstate Highways, Clear", above.
4. Turned off the Wild/Blackhawks tilt in disgust when the Hawks were up 4-1 and appeared to be simply toying with the locals. Later, down in the young man's place, he flipped the game on as the foghorn went off to signal the tying goal with about a minute and a half left in regulation. Watched the Wild steal a win in an eight round shootout.
5. Bed & pajamas.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

Happy New Year, faithful blogreaders! (Remember blogs? Back before Facebook?)

Let's see what the little green nano shuffled up this week:

Son Volt - When the Wheels Don't Move
Miles Davis - Freddie Freeloader
The Avett Brothers - Tin Man
Joe Henry - Stations
Jonathan Rundman - Gospel Verses
Jonathan Rundman - Second Language
7 Worlds Collide (John Stirratt, vocal)- Over and Done
Dana Thompson - Golden Nightlight Lullaby
Joshua James - Coal War
Marshall Crenshaw - Our Town

There were really 11 tracks this week because after the Son Volt tune, it ironically pulled up a track with Garrison Keillor chatting with his former Uncle Tupelo bandmate Jeff Tweedy of Wilco on A Prairie Home Companion on 10/03/2009.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

Hope you all had a great Christmas! Here are the ten the Nano shuffled up this week:

Van Morrison - I'm Confessin'
Nick Lowe - 14 Days
U2 - Get on Your Boots
Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over
Gear Daddies - Drank So Much (Live)
Nick Lowe - Indian Queens
Wilco - Comment (If All Men Are Truly Brothers) (Live)
The Hold Steady - Citrus (Live)
Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground
Van Morrison - Warm Love

New and old bookends from Van the Man, a pair of later Nick Lowe tunes, some fresh U2, one of the best songs of the 70s and what mightbe the best song from the 80s.

See you next year!

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

I bought a crap detector...

Had Meet the Press ("THE Place to Go to Get Your Message Out!") on this morning and as GOP shill Ed Gillespie opened his yap, the teevee started buzzing, Ed lips moved silently, and a green bar appeared at the top of the screen, scrolling white text and we thought we had been gifted with This Week's Discussion Question:

Hey, when did they implement the Early BS Warning System?!?!

Unfortunately, it was just a test of the Emergency Broadcast Warning System, so we'll have to go with the alternate question:

How great would an Early BS Warning System be?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Heh. Fox News Channel would only need to broadcast an audio signal for the commercials," or "Not that Glenn Beck has any advertisers left, mind you."

Discuss.

Sunday Random 10

It's Sunday again, so Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

Bob Dylan & The Band - Million Dollar Bash
Jonathan Rundman - Out Behind the Old Hotel
Todd Rundgren - I Went to the Mirror
Old 97's - Designs on You (live)
Jonathan Rundman - Every Town's the Same (live)
The Pogues - The Battle March Medley
Fountains of Wayne - The Senator's Daughter
This Train - A Million Years
Jonathan Rundman - Ambassadors
Los Straitjackets - Christmas Weekend

Couple of nice Christmas tunes in there. One's obvious, one not at all but it's one of our favorite Christmas songs. Plus, there are two, maybe three tracks from our list of Desert Island Albums.

Merry Christmas, faithful readers.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

It's Sunday again, so Let's... Hit... Shuffle!:

The Beatles - You're Gonna Lose That Girl
Fairground Attraction - A Smile in a Whisper
Son Volt - Atmosphere
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down
Aretha Franklin - Respect
Them - Gloria
The Suburbs - Monster Man (R.I.P. Bruce C. Allen)
Over the Rhine - Goodbye Charles
The Coasters - Bad Blood
Old 97's - The Other Shoe

Wow. Very, very cool mix today. As a bonus, we've linked to a great post on the craft of a Help! "throwaway" song and an obit for the 'Burbs guitarist who passed this week (he also designed the cover of this).

Also, the Over the Rhine track is from Snow Angels, their terrific Christmas album from a couple of years back, and if you shuffled that tune in with the rest of Vince Guaraldi's classic A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, not many people would notice.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

The Nano shuffled up a lot of the Fab Four this morning:

The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
The Temptations - Get Ready
Throw Me the Statue - Ancestors
The Beatles - Don't Bother Me
Bob Dylan - Shake Shake Mama
Stevie Wonder - All in Love is Fair
The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon
The Beatles - Dig a Pony
Sam & Dave - You Don't Know Like I Know
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Leave

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Sunday Random 10

Here's what the iPod shuffled out this week. Let's see if it grabs anything from this week's additions (Cachao, Peter Case, Fairground Attraction, Midnight Oil, and Van the Man from the Thanksgiving week pilgrimage to the amazing Reckless Records in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood; and Los Lobos, the spanking new Tom Waits live, the Dan Zanes and Friends Broadway album, and this month's Paste Magazine sampler that were in the mailbox when we got back into town):

The Rascals - See
State Radio - Calling All Crows
Elvis Presley - Kentucky Rain
Bruce Springsteen - Backstreets
Nick Lowe - High on a Hilltop
Jonathan Rundman - Calm the Storm
Los Lobos - Sabor A Mi
Crowded House - Private Universe
The Wild Tchoupitoulas - Indian Red
The Beatles - Birthday

None of the new stuff (the Lobos tune was from a different record), but that last one's really interesting because today's my brother's birthday! Hey Don, we really had a good time. I'm glad it's your birthday. Happy birthday to ya!

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Chapter and Verse(s)

Heard about these Psalm 109:8 bumperstickers the other day on the radio:

During the last few days, Psalm 109:8, a Bible verse in the form of a "prayer for Obama," has topped the Google trends chart: "May his days be few; may another take his office." Evidently, a bumper sticker emblazoned with this verse has popped up in various parts of the country. It is a sort of right-wing Christian equivalent to the old "01.20.09" stickers looking forward to the end of the Bush era.

It was, most likely, intended as a joke. But it isn't really very funny. Especially since the next verse reads, "May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow."

Rather than being horrified by the subsequent verse, they actually printed up bumperstickers and coffee mugs and whatever else Cafe Press prints junk on, so here's This Week's Discussion Question:

What the hell is wrong with these people?

Please keep the discussion civil and do feel free to wander off into "What the hell ever happened to context?" or "01.20.09 bumperstickers are most certainly not equivalent. Never, not for a nanosecond, did we wish President Bush or Vice President Cheney harm. Impeached? Absolutely. Hauled up on charges at the International Criminal Court? We'll buy their one-way tickets to The Hague. Shunned by decent society, ashamed to show their faces in public? You bet. But dead? No, not ever. Never. Also, 'it isn't really very funny', is an incredible understatement. It ought to earn someone a visit from the Secret Service."

Discuss.

Sunday Random 10

Greetings faithful readers! Thanks for getting off Facebook for a few minutes to read a blog, any blog!

TWDQ HQ was recently assimilated into the Apple Borg, and after years of railing against the silliness of the shuffle button on a CD player--Do you know how long the band spent sequencing that album so it flows properly?-- we're in love with shuffle on this device.

Sunday mornings are usually pretty quiet around TWDQ HQ, so we're proud to present the inaugural edition of Sunday Random 10.

To borrow a phrase from the gang down at the Xcel Center, "Let's hit SHUFFLE!":

Heartless Bastards - The Mountain
The Beatles - Martha, My Dear
Laura Nyro and Labelle - The Wind
St. Dominic's Trio - Home on the Range
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Adam Raised a Cain
Yonlu - I Know What It's Like
The Swell Season - This Low
Matthew Sweet - Sick of Myself
The Beatles - There's a Place
Wilco - We're Just Friends

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

Going, Going, Gone

We interrupt This Week's Discussion Question to acknowledge America's newest author (and boy, do we use that term loosely):

Rogue, schmogue, whatever. As long as you go.

Oh yeah, you're going.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.

This is Easy

This Week's Discussion Question comes from Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes Glenn Beck:

Can you imagine what America would be like if we didn't have Fox News?"

Glenn suggests that progressives would think it'd be utopia. (We'd settle for a populace that's better informed less disinformed and less afraid.)

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Holy crap, he's finally right! It would be utopia! "

Discuss.

It was twenty years ago today...

We interrupt This Week's Discussion Question (and will step out of the third person) for a bit of personal reflection.

A co-worker and I were chatting yesterday about The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", an album he'd just listened to for the first time in a long time while driving to his uncle's funeral. His uncle succumbed to cancer at 56 and it reminded me that it was 20 years ago today that my dad lost his battle with lung cancer at the much too young age of 58.

20 years. Twenty years! The then-youngest grandchild, who'd just turned two, graduated from college in May. The now-youngest grandchild, born nearly 10 years after his passing, just turned ten.

And I'm now six years shy of 58 and I am reminded of what a gift each day is. Recently, I asked a former pastor how she and her husband were enjoying retirement, she said simply, "We're doing the things we want to do and not doing the things we don't want to do."

Yeah. Do the things you want to do. Don't do the things you don't want to do. Savor each day. You never know how many you're gonna get.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress. Heck, we don't even remember what the current question is, but feel free to wander off into "Should I get the Stereo Box set, the Mono Box set, or the individual Beatle albums?"

Breakdown Dead Ahead

Look at this and when you're done shaking your head, take a whack at This Week's Discussion Question:

How long before Glenn Beck completely melts down?

Please keep the discussion civil and shame on you if you're watching Beck for the impending flameout. Also, shame on you if you're watching Beck thinking he's got some insight to share. To borrow a line from the great Fredonian philosopher Rufus T. Firefly, Beck "may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot."

Discuss.

School's Out

We interrupt This Week's Discussion Question to say that if you object to this, the only acceptable note that ought to be accepted to excuse your kid from watching it/coming to school that day (Who knew Fox News was pro-truancy?) would read:

Please excuse (kid's name here) from class today because her/his parents are morons.

Also, we'd like to remind you that even though Van Jones resigned, it doesn't mean that Republicans aren't assholes.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question, already in progress.