Not related to music or Number Ones, but related to 9/11…

I just so happened to be staying at a hotel in Battery Park right across the street from the North Tower when it all went down. I was running a website called TheOpinion.com and posted my experience there a few days later:

https://web.archive.org/web/20020326051242/http://theopinion.com/engine/article.asp?id=1107

For what it’s worth, I was notified that my article was added to the Library of Congress as part of the historical record of that fateful day.

Postscript: My experience on 9/11 actually gave me PTSD which took years to diagnose, but also changed the trajectory of my career and what kind of contributions I wanted to make to the world.

My kid’s 1st grade spelling list from last week. I believe it came with Buffalo 66 on DVD.

Reading the title, I just got this song stuck in my head:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xag5RKD0VHk

No complaints, of course!

Hooray for dead artists’ estates! Always generous and eager to make a positive contribution to the music community.

That would brie so grating, my goudaness.

A Friday Sidebar:

Years ago, my father, a WWII vet and stereotypical Sinatra fan-type of guy, was watching one of those afternoon courtroom reality shows. In a bit of stunt casting, they had a popular rapper of the day come on the program. IIRC, he was a “defendant,” in “breach of contract,” in a silly and contrived beef with a faux “tour bus driver.” They even found a way to shoehorn in a tiny bit of the artist’s music during the segment.

Obviously: it was all “a big misunderstanding,” and he was found to be not at fault, whatsoever. The tour bus driver apologized for the mistaken accusation, and they all made up and shook hands.

My Dad was oddly bemused by the entire bit, and went on and on about how “that singer seems like a really nice kid. I like him.”

That turned out to be the day that my father amended his favorite running gag: For years, he would randomly drop the name “Bono” into conversations with random acquaintances, just to see the perplexed look on their faces as he explained who that was, and most importantly: how to properly pronounce the name. “It’s not Boe-no. It’s Bawn-oh.”

And just like that: Bono was cancelled. And for the duration, Dad now would extoll the virtues and coolness of Artis Leon Ivey, Jr.

It’s funny how something in the news can bring about a long-forgotten memory. I know that if my Dad were here today, he’d be the first to say:

“That’s a shame about that poor singer, Coolio.”

“He seemed like a really nice kid.”

bit of a quadruple own here

1. Clue implies that the album Beck won the Grammy for didn’t deserve the win.
2. Guy confuses Beck for Ed Sheeran (missing the category theme for the second time)
3. Neither of the other two contestants knows who Beck is
4. Ken Jennings calls Beck “Ed Sheeran-like”

Just an absolutely brutal 20 seconds for Beck, you hate to see it.

Fuck off and go away forever, Kanye.

Let this be a lesson to anyone with bipolar disorder. If you stop taking your meds, then Candace Owens shows up.

Prince was an indisputable genius.

Rosie Gaines is an astonishing singer.

The definitive version of “Nothing compares 2 u” is Sinéad O’Connor’s.

Grating cheeese
On their heaaaads
At the shoooow
That’s a sport!