Minnesota Golden Gopher Vern Gagne won four Big Ten and two NCAA heavyweight wrestling championships in the 1940s. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears to play football, but Gagne chose a different direction. Gagne decided to pursue professional wrasslin’. He ultimately became owner of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), based in Minnesota, which appeared …
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Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was a leader of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He would have turned 90 years ago the other day had he not been assassinated. A Baptist minister, Dr. King championed nonviolence and civil disobedience as means to make society welcome …
With all the hoopla surrounding the Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, I decided to post about songs I adore that I find extraordinarily unusual and weird, yet rawk. I have always thought of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the song, as a bewildering masterpiece, despite not having a clue what the lyrics meant. About two months ago I heard …
Rookie Bear GM Ryan Pace decided against resigning placekicker Robbie Gould who at the time was da Bears all-time leading scorer and had a FG kicking success rate that exceeded the “legendary” Kevin Butler by over 10 percentage points. (Butler kicked for da Bears around their Super Bowl season and finished his career as the …
Beneath the Hollow is a four piece metal animal from Chicago, IL. With their sophomore album Nihilist, the band offers a dark, agressive and hauntingly melodic sonic landscape. I’d go see this band. The vocals on “Nihilist” and “Omens” from the new album sound similar to Corey Taylor of Slipknot, and that is a compliment. …
Last week I vacationed alone in Utah, visiting, hiking, and taking pictures at two national parks – Zion and Bryce. Simply put, awesome!! Bryce is known for its odd rock formations called “hoo doos.*” The parks lacked the usual throngs of tourists that naturally visit when the kids are not in school, which enabled me …
In Paris, at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, aggressor Germany waived the white flag to end the Great War. The Treaty of Versailles would be signed months later. Over 16 million soldiers and civilians were killed in the first war that relied on modern technology such as …
I heard this composition on wnur.org @ 89.3fm while driving home after visiting my parents last weekend. There are several passages that I like…always trying to expand my musical horizon! Ciao ciao for now. – Mark Erickson
Nine Inch Nails (NIN) has been recording industrial and rock music for nearly 30 years. Its architect, Trent Reznor (53 y/o), has said he left a “little, shitty town, a small-aspiration environment” between Cleveland and Pittsburgh for Chicago when he started working for Chicago-based WaxTrax! Records (Front 242, KMFDM, Revolting Cocks, Mussolini Headkick, among many …
The slate for the 2018 inductee class into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been announced. I have winced over the years regarding artists who have been inducted; Joan Jet and Green Day come to mind. I cannot find the criteria for induction on the HOF’s website. Longevity, influence, or an ongoing successful …
My Alma Mater, North Park University (Chicago, IL), used to be a national powerhouse in Division III (non-scholarship) men’s basketball. North Park won national championships in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1985, and 1987. The hoops’ team fell on very hard times after the release of the head coach who guided the Viking ship to the last …
The Minnesota State Fair is a gathering of all souls – the quintessential merging of country, suburban, and city folk – over the course of 12 days, ending on Labor Day. Affectionately known as the “Great Minnesota Get-Together”, it is situated on permanent grounds in St. Paul. My parents took the family to the State …
When my kids were active members with our church’s youth groups I got to know a man named Nabil as he had daughters very close in age to my sons. I learned that Nabil’s parents and grandparents owned two farms in Palestine that bore oranges, lemons, and limes. Then the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and …
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” ― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities My wife and I recently spent some time in California. I was disturbed at the human conditions in San Francisco. I wrote to the San Francisco Chronicle (below) and even though my letter to the …
On Father’s Day in America, The Guardian (London) newspaper ran a story called, “Separation at the border: children wait in cages at South Texas warehouse.” Former First Lady Laura Bush wrote an op-ed piece the day after Father’s Day, decrying the “mass detention” of children who have been separated from their parents. https://www.twincities.com/2018/06/18/laura-bush-separating-children-from-their-parents-at-the-border-breaks-my-heart/ Mr. Orwell, …
Well, the next shoe has dropped in the MSU/USA gymnastics sexual molestation scandal. Dr. William Strampel, 70 y/o, the MSU supervisor of serial molester Dr. Larry Nassar, has been arrested. Strampel came under scrutiny earlier this month, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on 3.20.18. The Journal noted that Stampel, MSU’s Dean of Osteopathic …
On March 6, 2018, Chicago’s fabled classic rock station, WLUP (97.9), announced it was being acquired by Educational Media Foundation (EMF). Since 2014 “The Loop” has been operated under a local agreement with Cumulus Media. However, as part of a bankruptcy filing last month, Cumulus withdrew plans to buy the station, and so the search …
In these four high-profile cases, adults covered up sexual crimes. The Catholic Church moved priests. The Boy Scouts kept their Perversion Papers secret. Penn State preferred profits over boys. As the gymnastics’ story has already unfolded at Molestation State University against female gymnasts, there will be an expansion to female co-eds, making the travesty more …
I have been tending lately to fixate on artists for a while, given the wealth of video on YouTube. I have spent time looking for new, i.e., old, material from Alice in Chains, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, Don Rickles, Sam Kinison and others. Recently, I researched the early 1970’s video catalog of Joe Walsh. …
On the eve of when we celebrate a national holiday, I would like to pass along a poem by William Burroughs called “Thanksgiving Prayer” that Ministry included during the first part of “Thankx but no Thanx” on 2013’s From Beer to Eternity. Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
After a gambler saw his losing streak continue, he then used multiple, modified assault weapons to kill 58 people and wound 546 in Las Vegas on October 1st. The Orange President of the United States of America (OPOTUS) president reacted by saying the issue should not be framed in political terms. I do not recall …
I came across this passage last night while reading Tim Weiner’s book, One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon. The next paragraph is verbatim (page 68). “We tried every operational approach in the book, and committed our most experienced field operatives to the effort to get inside the government in Hanoi,” CIA …
Forty years ago the #4 ranked Oklahoma Sooners traveled to Ohio to play the #3 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. I was home alone when I sat in my living room in Minnesota to watch the football game. This represented the first time I ever saw the exciting wishbone offense, which Oklahoma ran with QB Thomas …
Two weeks ago the Wall Street Journal featured an article in its Life and Arts section called, “What Happened to the Negative Review?” Writer Neil Shah posited that critics these days are less able to interview musical artists; instead, they rely on self-promotion in this digital era. Shah also wrote that critics are more likely …
Last weekend my wife and I went to Northwestern University to attend the musical, Tommy, by The Who. Undergraduate students performed with a nine piece band, including a french horn. I retrieved my Tommy album upon return to the abode to check the liner notes. John Entwistle is credited with the horn playing. And then …
President Trump unveiled his budget in May. As a candidate, Mr. Trump promised to protect entitlement programs, claiming he has a “big heart.” Guess what? Trump’s budget is irresponsible and unethical by putting the most vulnerable at risk of significant health and financial problems for the benefit of putting more money into the pockets of …
In the months prior to America’s illegal invasion into Iraq on March 20, 2003, Americans were told by 43 that the war was necessary to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Hussein was a threat to the U.S, and 43 implied that Mr. Hussein was responsible for the September 11, 2001, attack on America. Shortly …
My favorite rock vocalist is Freddie Mercury of Queen. Also in my top five are Randy Blythe of Burn the Priest/Lamb of God, Michael Akerfeldt of Opeth, pre-cape Elvis Presley, and Bon Scott from AC/DC. (James Brown “ranks” #2 if the category expands beyond rock.) Regarding the last front man, I cranked Back in Black …
On March 13, 2017, two former administrators from Pedophilia State University pled guilty to child endangerment after years of maintaining their innocence. Tim Curley, the former athletic director, and Gary Schultz, a former vice president, apparently thought the plea deal and their testimony at the upcoming trial of their former supervisor, former PSU President Graham …
#45 announced his nomination for the Supreme Court earlier this week. From what I’ve heard, Neil Gorsuch is Antonin Scalia 2.0. If confirmed, Gorsuch will be the youngest (49) Court Justice, seven years younger than Justice Elena Kagan. On November 13, 2016, I went to my local library to hear The Fat Babies, a jazz …