Redo

 SO THE BLOG domain expired a few weeks ago. Not good timing, with all kinds of things going on.

It's been reset.

- First of all, congrats Linda Moore on becoming the first woman mayor in Quincy. She is all fired up and ready to get to work. 

- The Jeff Vankanegan celebration at the Dock Sunday was a roaring success. It was just like falling off a bike playing again with Cheeseburgers John Hodge, Burt Shackleton, Brad Fletcher and Kirk Gribbler. Little Sister was amazing and thank you Eric McKay for the music and putting things together with Rollo Sound. Jeff was and is loved and missed.

- The spring and summer is getting booked up. Saturday is a big night at The Club Tavern with Prospect Road. I'll update the gig calendar in a few days. Let's rock!

- Congrats to Dr. Emily Hart's Florida Gators, the NCAA men's basketball champs. Emily says the campus has been going crazy and I bet there are some groggy students this morning. Undoubtedly the reason the Gators won was because they hired Dr. Hart as a professor. She's planning on teaching again next year, so Florida will likely repeat.

- Hopefully I'll be a little better in doing this blog regularly. Among the adventures coming up are a family wedding, the 10-year men's health medical update (ugh) and how to be nice to difficult people who are idiots. That last one will write itself. Stay tuned!

 

The mayor and public safety

WE ARE EIGHT days away.

I'm all in for Linda Moore. I'm all out and against the current mayor, especially when it comes to public safety.

It started when Bernie Vahlkamp was selected chief of the Quincy Fire Department. This was at the beginning of the current mayor's term. The current mayor didn't like Vahlkamp getting the job, and wasn't afraid to say so in public.

The current mayor wanted somebody else. The three-person Police and Fire Commission uses an exhaustive and comprehensive system to hire chiefs. The commission did its job. Suddenly, the mayor was angry. Lo and behold, two of the commissioners were fired (one illegally), despite many years of good service. Kerry Anders and Steve Meckes deserved better.

The current mayor wanted to get rid of the other commissioner, Barry Cheyne. But Barry screwed up. He was named the citizen of the year by the Quincy Service Club, a prestigious honor. Our mayor had no choice. He kept Barry on the commission. Thankfully the three people have sailed along and have simply done their jobs - congrats, Steve Salrin, on becoming the new fire chief. It was well deserved and the commission got it right.

Then there's the whole police chief debacle. I gotta be careful here and it's no secret Adam Yates is one of my best friends. But that whole thing was a sham and disgusting and I'm amazed there wasn't more blowback, especially after the mayor decided a Springfield attorney conduct an "investigation" into the police chief hiring process. Maybe there was blowback after needlessly spending a lot of money. Maybe there were other issues like the police union contract and the city health insurance not working. Maybe City Council should have had enough and given the mayor a vote of no confidence.

Wait. That DID happen. I almost forgot, sorry.

Hey mayor - just because you hear something coming from around the corner at the barbershop doesn't mean it's true.

Our mayor rigged the system so he could get his guy in as police chief. Thankfully this man turned the job down. I would love to get some honest answers why.

All we know is Adam Yates eventually did get the title of Chief. The mayor himself says Adam has done the job well. Sometimes the good guys do win and things work out.

A good mayor works things out with department heads and works with city council. No doubt that will get a hair easier now with two new faces on City Council. A good mayor encourages debate and discussion on Monday nights, but a good mayor works hard at getting people onboard and moving forward with what's best for the city.

That will happen if Linda Moore is elected mayor in eight days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crank it up!

 EVERY YEAR IT seems there's an idea about slowing down, not playing so much.

PFFFFFFFFFFTTTTT.

Here it is, the spring and summer into fall schedule. It will get changed and updated. The highlight is Jersey Boys at the Quincy Community Theatre in July. Monica Scholz is assembling another killer band and I'm already ready!

All times are also scheduled to change - check with the venue before you head out to make sure. 

Date/Band/Venue

Saturday March 29: Prospect Road 2.0, Down On the Corner, Marceline, Ill., 8 p.m.

Sunday April 6: The Cheeseburgers, Jeff Vankanegan celebration of life, The Dock, Quincy, Noon-5 p.m. OG Burgers play approximately 3 ish.

Saturday April 12: Prospect Road 2.0, The Club Tavern, Quincy, 8 p.m.

Saturday April 26: Travis Hoffman and Rodney Hart, Quincy Brewing Company, 6-9 p.m.

Saturday May 3: Prospect Road 2.0, Shorteez, Clayton Ill., 7:30 p.m.

Saturday May 10: Second Stringers, Mayfest, Quincy, 1 p.m.

Saturday May 17: The Whatevers (Allison and Rodney), Quincy Brewing Company, 6 p.m.

Saturday June 28, Prospect Road, Sportsmen's, Mount Sterling Ill., 8 p.m.

Jersey Boys, Quincy Community Theater: July 10-13, 17-20

Saturday July 28: Prospect Road, 19th Hole, Augusta Ill, 2 p.m.

Saturday Aug. 9:  Travis Hoffman and Rodney Hart, Quincy Brewing Company, 6 p.m.

Saturday Aug 30: Prospect Road 2.0, Private Party, Quincy

Saturday Sept. 13: The Whatevers (Allison and Rodney),  Quincy Brewing Company, 6 p.m.

Saturday Sept. 27: The Whatevers, Private Party, Quincy

 

 

Barrie the bird and never getting lost

 I HAVE A habit of making wrong turns and getting lost. It's inherited from my late mother, God bless her. My internal GPS has wires plugged into wrong circuits. 

I'm trying to get better at not getting lost, thanks to a simple yet thoughtful gift from a Lab Brat. And it's already helping me with road rage. Win win!

Last Saturday I went to St. Louis with a couple of other Lab Brats and I turned east instead of west to get back on the highway. Then I turned off on the wrong exit near Troy. We ended up going around a brand new roundabout and careened back down the exit to the highway - it was amazing and you gotta look at the bright side of the directionally-challenged thing.

Monday, my friend Jennifer Henthorn, who works at the main 11th Street lab at Blessing, gave me a bird made out of paper. It's called origami, the Japanese art of folding a single piece of paper into an object. This thing is way cool and I've put it on the front dashboard of my work vehicle. There's no way I'll ever get lost and the bird, named Barrie, will guide me and keep me from losing my marbles when dealing with the usual crazies on the road.

Barrie is amazing. Jennifer shrugged it off by saying "I've made them since fourth grade and this is the only thing I know how to make." It's the simple things and gestures that count and this one is huge.

He is named Barrie in honor of the city north of Toronto where Canadian relatives live. They need to know we aren't all ignorant bullies.

Barrie just seems to be a calming influence. Yesterday I got cut off by a pickup truck on U.S. 61 near Palmyra. Normally I scream and curse and get bent. But with Barrie leading the way, I kept the cursing volume low and got over it quickly. See? I'm trying harder to be a light, and Barrie is helping.

With a new bridge by Mo. 6 being built and roads closing left and right in Quincy, I'm gonna need  patience. Now there are signs indicating construction on I-172 near the Hannibal exit, so Barrie will help me find the best way and deal with single highway lanes and semi-trucks changing lanes at will.

Thanks you Jenny! Barrie is a welcome addition to lab courier adventures and will help me keep it between the lines. Even when getting cut off.

All in for Linda

 I HATE POLITICS. Many politicians are blowhards who make promises they can't keep. I vote every election because it's a right and it's important. But I don't jump up and down when it comes to the way we govern ourselves and how we choose our representatives.

Except now.

I'm all in for Linda Moore, who is running for mayor. She isn't running as a Republican or Democrat - refreshing! The election is in less than a month. She's going up against an incumbent who is well-financed but has more issues with his own party than just Linda.

You know the old saying - "If you can't say something nice about somebody, don't say anything at all." So I'm not saying another word about the current mayor. You are welcome.

Don't underestimate Linda. She is tireless and has a lot of support. Can she win? I'd call her the underdog right now in a town that tends to vote 70 percent Republican.

This is my opinion. And only mine. And it's probably wrong, because I'm no good at political stuff and predicting things.

But ...

There is a Lab Brat at Blessing who is young, married, lives in her own house and has started a family. I asked her if she is voting in the mayoral election. She said, "I don't think it matters. It's already been decided."

Actually, SHE is the one who will decide it, her and not that many more just like her. It's all about getting the vote out. I am not afraid of telling people, especially young people, to get registered and to vote, because it matters. I don't tell them who to vote for. That's their decision and their right.

So I'm all in for Linda Moore. And I'm making a plea to you if you live in Quincy but are not registered to vote and don't plan on voting April 1.

Just. Vote. You might be surprised what a difference it makes.

 

Arizona, golf and … hockey?

 ON THE WAY to lovely Phoenix and stuck in the St. Louis airport on a two-hour flight delay, it seems there is only one thing as important as the annual Arizona Golf Bender - the 4 Nations game Thursday night between Canada and the USA.

This is a rematch of last Saturday’s game and it will be just as intense. But here’s the issue - who to root for?

My brother Steve lives in Chandler and hosts the Bender. My cousin Roland from Michigan will there. Steve and I have dual citizenship and I think Roland does too. We are all into it.

The game has additional meaning since the US President is a knucklehead and has stirred up the normally polite Canadians. I think we need to make Wisconsin a Canadian province and put tariffs on hockey pucks imported from Quebec. While we are at it maybe we can trade the guy who is President to Moose Jaw for a draft pick. A very low draft pick.

Anyway I’ve always cheered for both countries. I was born in the States but grew up in Canada and have a Canadian father. I have no desire to move back but you never know - maybe ICE will investigate to two illegal alien cats living in my garage and get me in trouble. 

I can still remember the Summit Series of 1972 when Canada played the Soviets in an epic 8-game series. We were still living in London, Ontario in 1980 during the Miracle On Ice and it was stirring to watch. It’s tough when the US plays Canada because there are allegiances to both. Canadian fans are booing the Star Spangled Banner (an awful song) and US fans are gloating about beating the Canadians at their national pastime. 

In the end, I’m leaning toward the Leaf because I like being a heal. The three Hosers in Chandler will be doing a lot of hooting and hollering Thursday night regardless, and the 4 Nations has been great for the game in general. If you’ve never watched hockey before … this would be a good one to start with!

May the best team win. Also, rooting during a hockey game when it’s 70 and sunny is NOT overrated.

Rubber bands, computer cables and happy cats

You pull it. I'll chase it!

 

 CATS HAVE IT figured out. Less is more, unless you are talking about sleep.

Coco spends her long winter days asleep in any number of places. If I leave a sweatshirt on the floor it becomes her mattress. Or she'll crawl onto the east-facing window ledge in the morning and warm up with the sun.

She is usually awake and going crazy when I get home from work. She likes the attention and loves to play. So we've acquired an impressive amount of cat toys. Most are stuffed birds, balls and things tied to a stick. There's a flopping fish which actually has a rechargeable battery - I somehow found a cable to charge it up and it's flopping again.

Coco is a playful cat but unless you put catnip on her toy, she is one and done. So I picked up a bunch of old and moldy cat toys recently and tossed them. Coco didn't mind. "It's kind of like after the Lions finish the season. You just throw it away and forget about it," she said.

The other night Coco was charging around the house with the zoomies. Then she jumped five feet in the air and batted at something. It took a second until I realized it was a rubber band. Yes. A STUPID rubber band. All these toys and this is what riles you up?

"Rubber bands are the best," Coco said. "You can pull them and smack them and try to break them but they just seem to bounce back. And they make funny noises if you pull them the right way."

That's been cat toy No. 1 lately, until she finally snapped it too hard and it broke. Coco was disconsolate. But, lo and behold, the computer cable I used to charge up the flopping fish was laying on the ground, and Coco attacked it with a vengeance. 

Now it's every morning. "You hold it up and I'll bat it and try to eat it," Coco says. 

Every. Morning.

Here's the moral of the story. You can have all the toys you want, the latest and greatest gear, the desensitizing video games, the stuff that makes Amazon and the world go around.

Or you can be happy with a rubber band and a computer cable that looks like a string.

As usual, Coco is the one making sense and teaching life lessons. It's her world. We are just the ones holding the computer cables so she can bat at them.

 

All trivia and no Lions

  COCO IS STILL very upset about the Lions losing Saturday night. She's also ticked off I didn't watch the game with her.

Coco, of course, thinks she's a Lion. And she's only become interested in the Lions since they started winning a few years ago. She's a bandwagon fan, like most of the Chiefs fans around here, but Coco doesn't sugarcoat it. "Look, I've only been alive a few years. I'm not bitter and old like you," she says.

A month or so ago I got invited to be on a music trivia team by Justin Sievert. It was the same time as the Lions playoff game. Oh well ... I left the game on for Coco and headed out.

Fellow Prospect Road member Alicia McCarl was also on our team. I learned a few things Saturday night - don't argue with Alicia about the name of the stupid Belinda Carlisle song, for starters. Also I actually knew the words to a Queen song but learned them wrong. And yes, I did know that Vixen sang "Edge of a Broken Heart" which is both gratifying and terrifying at the same time.

Anyway, Emily texted me from sunny Florida and let me know the Lions played badly and blew it. So my blood pressure stayed a lot lower by going to a music trivia contest instead of watching the game. Even Coco eventually agreed I was better off. She was depressed all day yesterday and is still in a funk. As usual something else made her finally boil over.

"What? You bought a heated cat bed for the garage alley cats? You ... you .... TRAITOR," she meowed.

Emily was born in Michigan and lived for many years in upstate New York, so she's also a Bills fan. A long time ago she said, "Dad, at tailgate parties these crazy Bills fans jump off of campers and into tables like wrestling!" That was enough to hook me and now I'm a Bills fan too.

Even Coco was glad the Bills won yesterday. We are both wondering if they will get flagged for breathing on the Chiefs quarterback this Sunday. "That KC quarterback flops like a fish," Coco said. She's right. All the time.

So we'll probably watch Sunday, and Coco will either feel better about it or really get ticked off. Cold January days and nights are tough enough to get through and I want Coco to be happy.

C'mon Bills! Beat the floppers. And make life a little easier around here for Coco. And me.

 

  

Tips for dancing with a local star

 The 15th Dancing With The Local Stars event is Feb. 7 at the Ambiance in Quincy. It's modeled after the TV show and is highly entertaining. Why would I know?

Well. I was in the first one, 14 years ago. My partner was Julie Venvertloh. We did a disco routine and our instructor was from Vancil Performing Arts. I met the late Frank Haxel for the first time at the Vancil studios when I wandered into the wrong building - there's something poetic about that - and he told me to go across the street, but not when there was traffic.

I can remember walking up and down a snowy 9th Street to attend practices, and how I felt like a massive klutz. This was the very first DWTLS event, and Cornerstone hit gold right away. It took place at the Holiday Inn on East Broadway and was sold out. It was also right before we opened Second String Music, so there was a lot going on.

Happy days, indeed.

The Mighty One, Adam Yates, is competing this year. He's dancing with Sam McKelvie, who is amazing. It's a bucket list item for me to attend one of her Zumba classes, but I'm afraid everybody else would be laughing too hard, or horrified, and I'd disrupt the class.

Strange how Adam and Sam haven't reached out to ask for advice or tips from an OG. Actually, it's not strange. I can't dance. But geesh, did Julie and I have fun.

Sheryl managed to find a gaudy disco outfit. I found the wig and sunglasses the other day while decluttering a junk room.I'm making an effort to toss stuff, but I don't have to heart to get rid of the disco outfit - yet.

Julie was sensational. I did not forget half the routine, I improvised half the routine. I believe there was a lot of beer involved. Chris Kelley was a judge and gave us high marks, but the other judges may have had too much beer and weren't as kind.

I was a judge the next year, to the best of my recollection, and that was fun as well. A couple of years later Kathleen Birsic and Kris Kutcher won it, and the next day they paraded around downtown with the trophy while making, uh, pit stops. They came into Second String Music very proud and very happy, with predictably hysterical results.

Sam and Adam have their work cut out for them this year. I've seen The Mighty One bust a move a time or two, and he has obvious rhythm skills being a drummer and all. But there are some formidable teams and some Quincy Community Theater veterans dancing, and they'll be good.

I look forward to being entertained! If Sam and Adam win, maybe we'll parade around town the next day too! Not.

 

Bands battling - good and bad

 HERE IS AN interesting event May 31 in Quincy - a battle of the bands, put on by Quincy Raceways.

Intriguing. There hasn't been a "battle of the bands" around here for a long time. When Second String Music started up we were involved in several of them, and while it was great to see local talent on the stage, the experiences weren't always the best for us.

For one thing you have to have judges, and judges are biased, no matter how experienced and fair they might seem. You would hope judges give each act a chance and decide how good they are by performance. 

And there's a telling statement in the Quincy Raceways promotion for people attending - "bring your best dance moves." Hmmm. Makes sense, because they want people to be entertained.

Right now there are not that many bands period, let alone younger bands, in the Quincy area. Twenty-five years ago when The Funions were around there were amazing younger bands like Fielder, SuperImposed, PreDawn Hour and many more. Now? I'm getting into trouble because I know there are younger bands out there, so my apologies are issued in advance.

This should be about bands, not people who play to tracks. There are performers out there who do this and are very good at it and that’s fine - but this for bands. There is something real about actual live performance. 

There is a thriving area metal scene and some seriously talented bands. They do what they do very well. But most local venues aren't going to pony up for that kind of scene. They. Just. Aren't. That's why you see great shows at places like The State Room, where five or six bands play on the bill. Those bands do it for the love of playing and I have a lot of respect for them.

Friends like Brad Fletcher and Ian Carlstrom are involved in such projects and they are incredible. They should be playing sold-out arena shows, not sharing the bill with five other bands in a cramped basement venue. Then again, bands like Continued Without A Finding love playing in cramped basement venues. Or Iceland at a death metal festival. It's who they are. Rock on!

Somewhere I hope there are younger people who want to play who are motivated by the Quincy Raceways event. Dreams, belief in what you do and the passion for playing are beautiful things. If it takes a battle of the bands and a $5,000 first place prize to stoke the fire, so be it. Do it!

Combat the cold by thinking Goony

Indian Mounds Park this morning.

 

  THERE IS SOMETHING lucid and searing about a cold and pristine winter morning. We just got back from an Indian Mounds Park walk - the dogs love careening through the snow and it's not bad if you keep moving.

But ... the snow and the cold can get you down. Do what I do if you want to combat the winter blues - think about a Lake Michigan beach and Goony Races!

 

Roland Hart, my cousin, sent the above photo from about 10 years ago. I think Sheryl may have taken it. Roland’s father, the late Peter Hart, is my uncle. Peter and Helen Hart lived on a wooded dune above Lake Michigan, and we spent countless sun-drenched days on his beach between Saugatuck and Holland.

You can see Peter's grandchildren and others lined up, ready do the Goony Race. I invented it, more than 20 years ago. Peter is just to the right, egging us all on. We all lined up and charged as fast as we could into the waves of Lake Michigan, acting as silly and "goony" as possible. At the end, the silliest person won. It was always me.

Uncle Peter could be a serious man who tackled serious issues, like world peace and conflict resolution. But he also delighted in the absurd and he took great joy in ... joy. So the Goony Race was right up his alley.

I'm feeling the warmth of the sun from this golden day a decade ago. It's probably on a Labor Day weekend. It looks to be early afternoon. The grandkids had been begging for a Goony Race for a while. When you are on the beach and listening to the waves and having good family conversation, you took your time before unleashing Goony.

Of course, the cold beverages ("rivers of beer" as Peter called them) didn't hurt either. And by late August or early September, Lake Michigan was warm enough to swim in and cool enough to take the sting out of the summer sun.

You can see Peter laughing as we all head to the water. He didn't go in, of course. It was his way of pranking us. But I also think we wanted to see all the silliness and sheer childish joy unfolding in front of him. Who can blame him?

I'm already feeling warmer while starting out the window at the winter landscape.

The snow will melt and the air will get warmer and soon I'll be making plans to go to that beach to help spread Peter's ashes. Maybe I'll be a little Goony when I do it.

Think warmer Goony thoughts and we will get through these cold winter days. In other words ... Just. Keep. Going.

Resolutions ... whatever

 NEW YEAR, NEW plans. Blah blah blah. I think New Year's resolutions are like Silly Putty - fun to play around with and stretch, but no practical application.

But ... I'm gonna try a few things. Why not? If you fail, you fail. Just. Keep. Going.

1. DRY JANUARY: Just got done with two awesome band gigs, at The Club Tavern on New Year's Eve and Jan. 1 afternoon show at Shorteez in Clayton. I had very little to drink NYE, and nothing to drink yesterday. I feel surprisingly good this morning. Hmmmm .... might be something to this whole not drinking thing. So, January is no booze month. We'll see how long it lasts.

2 LESS IS MORE: Santa brought me a Strymon Iridium pedal for Christmas. Actually, he made me pay for it and he charged me shipping, but that's another story. This thing is amazing, just a small box that replaces your amplifier. On stage, it means way less volume because you plug it right into the PA. I used it the past two gigs and it made a huge difference. How nice it is to not have your ears ringing for days! The moral of the story is that less is more. Musicians tend to get obsessed with gear. If you play in a band, nobody cares what kind of guitar or amp you have, they just want to hear good music.  I am a very average guitar players but the Iridium is helping me play better. So the less ends up being way more!

3. MORE, NOT LESS: I gotta do more of these blogs. I go long stretches where I'm struggling for ideas and unmotivated. That has to stop. The number of blog hits doesn't matter. I'm not great at it, but writing is therapeutic and rapidly becoming a lost art.

4. UNCLUTTER: I have a really nice Fender Blues Junior IV I don't use. I'm selling it. PM on Facebook if you want. I'm going to try and go upstairs into the junk room and slowly but surely get rid of stuff. 

5. EMBRACE IT: We have snow coming this weekend. Everybody around here is panicking already. Why? It's fun to play in and it's better than icy rain. When stuff comes up, you can bitch and moan, or face it and deal with it, even own it.

6. READ MORE BOOKS: Stop going down stupid social media rabbit holes less. And don't read the comments from the Web Warriors. Nuff said.

So there it is. 2025 - Just Keep Going. Here's to a better year.