Moves like whoever or whatever Jagger is

THE OTHER NIGHT at Blessing's 48th Street facility, a very young Lab Brat was singing a song. "Moves like Jagger!" she sang. 

Moves like Jagger? Hmmm. Do you have any idea who or what Jagger is?

"Nope," she said.

The next day I was in the Hannibal lab and another young Lab Brat, whose initials are Sadie, gave me further info.

No, she had no idea about Jagger. But she did have insight into more important matters.

"It's a song by Maroon 5. You know, Adam Levine and the four other guys," she said. "Adam Levine was with this super model but he cheated on her and they broke up."

So she knows the important stuff. I guess.

"I could ask my fiancee. He's really really old," Sadie said.

How old?

"He's 35," she said. With a straight face. I fell to the floor and covered my head with my hands. Another Lab Brat said, "Sadie just broke Rodney." 

Sadie also owns Def Leppard and Grateful Dead T-shirts. "And my mom went to an Air Supply concert once," she said. 

Sadie? You are OK. You might just make it in this wretched world.

NOTE: Sadie in Hannibal is not to be confused with Sadie from 48th in Quincy, who is amazing. She knows who Jagger is. We are besties. Obviously.

Back at Blessing's 9th Street location, a young Lab Brat said she would look it up when asked about Jagger. "Oh," she said, after a few clicks on her phone. "He's OLD."

A few minutes later, she said, "But not as old as his friend. Keith Richards? He wears makeup. Man, is he OLD."

Look. I'm not the biggest Rolling Stones fan around but this is an attack on my generation, my sensibilities, the days when I was in my prime. Well, it's not an attack, but it's just offensive that anybody wouldn't know about two of rock and roll's greatest figures.

Then again, I have never intentionally listened to a Billie Irish song, and apparently there was a woman named Aggy something who sang on Moves Like Jagger, and I have never listened to her either, though I recognized the name.

Leave it to Jody, one of the senior Lab Brats at 48th Street, to wisely sum it all up after I confessed to being upset about a lack of Jagger awareness.

"It just means we are old," she said.

We are the same age, actually. And she's right. 

Guess I'll just have to work on my Jagger moves. And hope I don't throw my back out.

New (old) musical adventures

 THE SUMMER ROCK and roll truck motors on! Saturday night at the Quincy Axe Company, Prospect Road 2.0 is playing and we are all kinds of excited. This event is open to the public, and there is a Class of 94 reunion taking place. That means learning songs from 1994 ... Pearl Jam, the Pretenders and a lot more!

I'll say one thing about Prospect Road - it's a fun band and I love just being a goofball and playing guitar. This band likes to practice too! The Axe Company has become a popular spot and we are all fired up about being there Saturday - note the special start time, 9 p.m.

It's also time to officially unveil a new project, a one-time only event for Saturday, July 27, 8 p.m. at The Club Tavern in Quincy. Here we come - Cheese Whuz, featuring former Cheeseburgers Kirk Gribbler on drums and bassist Jeff Van Kanegan, along with the amazing guitar player from Raised On Radio, Spencer Smith. 

This is not going to be a working band. We are only doing it this one time to scratch the rock and roll itch. We are doing a lot of the Cheesey gooey classic rock and country songs, plus some really different tunes you might not hear from a bar band.

And, to be honest, we are doing this for Koz, the Club owner, who has been so good to the local music scene. The Club is on North 10th between Chestnut and Cherry and is one of my favorite places to play, ever. The regulars love their live music and appreciate effort and the band having a good time. 

As always, get out and support live and local music when you can, and we will hopefully see you as the summer rolls on!

Updated gig list (all shows in Quincy unless noted)

Saturday, July 20 - Prospect Road, Quincy Axe Company, 9 p.m.

Saturday, July 27 - Cheese Whuz, Club Tavern, 8 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 3 - Private Party, Zeeland Mich.

Saturday, Aug 10 - Quincy Farmer's Market with Travis Hoffman, Washington Park, 10 a.m.

Saturday, Aug. 17 - The Whatevers (Allison and Rodney), Pour Haus, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 24 - The Whatevers (Allison and Rodney), Quincy Farmer's Market, 10 a.m.

Sunday, Aug. 25 - Prospect Road, Pop A Top, Plymouth, Ill, 1 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 30 - The Whatevers, private party, Quincy

Saturday, Aug. 31 - HartLess (Cori Powell-Green, Thomas G and Joe Desmond), 4 p.m. Tipsy Bricks shrimp boil, Hannibal Mo.

Saturday, Sept. 7 - HartLess, private party, Coatsburg Ill.

Saturday, Sept. 14 - The Whatevers, TBA

Saturday, Sept 21 - The Whatevers (Allison and Rodney), Great River Brewing Company, Hannibal, Mo, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 28 - Prospect Road, TBA.

 

Soccer with an Englishman

 I KNOW A little bit about soccer. I grew up playing it in Canada.I wrote about a lot of soccer games in my 10 years as a sports writer. My daughter played in her younger years and I helped coach her team. Actually I more or less coordinated who brought treats after the games. Who Brought Treats then became a famous Gus Macker team name. But I digress.

Soccer is actually called football in the rest of the world. I know we think the world  revolves around us, but it doesn't. But we are right to call it soccer. Even though it's not the right name.

There are several big soccer, er, football, games on Sunday. One is the finals of the Copa America, which I thought was a Barry Manilow song but is actually a tournament for all the countries on the left side of the world. The bigger tournament is called the Euros and it's in Germany. 

Canada is actually playing for third place in the Copa. Apparently they are playing the Urologists, who got beat the other night in the semifinals. Their players then climbed into the stands and brawled with fans from the other team. Copa! Excitement! I kind of understand it, because I certainly wouldn't want to upset my urologist, especially after the procedure he did on me about a month ago. 

Wait. I'm being told it's Uruguay. Whatever. It still sounds like something connected to the prostate. And if they brawl with fans in the stands, they deserve to be seen by a urologist every day. 

The Euros feature the best teams from, you guessed it, Europe. It is a huge deal over there. I watched a game last weekend and all I could hear was the crowd singing and chanting and banging drums. And it was 0-0, or nil-nil, as my football friends like to say.

England is playing Spain in the Euro finals. I know a guy from England. He works at Blessing's 48th facility. His name is Martin and he's a good guy. He's kind of obsessed with the Euros and his English team being in the finals.

I asked him if he was going to watch the game. Turns out he doesn't have the station that carries the games. 

"Well, we should invite ourselves to Avery's house Sunday. He's a big soccer oops football guy," I said. Avery used to work at 48th and knows the names of all the players on every team.

There was the minor issue of informing Avery's girlfriend Sadie, who also works at 48th and is amazing. I took care of that. "We are coming to your house to watch the game Sunday," I said.

"Oh," she said.

Anyway, we worked it out. Now there might be burgers and beverages involved. See? This soccer ooops football stuff is like the Super Bowl! Only you kick the ball most of the time, not pass it or run with it. And there are no commercials during the actual game. Hmmm. I'm liking this soccer oops football thing more and more.

So we are getting very excited about watching England play Spain and seeing if Martin has a stroke when it goes to penalty kicks. These football fans are really into it, you know.

It could be the greatest afternoon of our lives. If England wins.

Sweating is good

 I SWEAT. A lot. It's gross, I know. But sweat keeps us from overheating and killing ourselves. So it's gotta happen.

We've come off a spate of oppressively hot 90-90 days and nights. A few weeks ago I played three outside shows over the weekend and I went through seven T-shirts, three towels and massive amounts of water. What can you do? Somebody came up to give me a hug at one of the gigs and got a lot of .... me. In sweat. Ugh.

At work we've recently learned lab couriers can wear shorts. It makes a huge difference. Does it keep me from sweating and changing shirts two or three times in 8 1/2 hours? Noooooo! Of course not.

I just keep telling myself I'm "sweating out toxins" and it's good for me. Unfortunately, we don't sweat out toxins. Crap. I wanna believe it so bad.

On Saturday I played golf with some Lab Brats and it was humid. We walked. I was soaked after the first hole. I just focused on chipping for bogey and drinking water. Look at all these toxins I'm getting out! Wrong. I'm just sweating.

Bad golf in humid conditions is exhausting. I went home and took a long shower and had something to eat and I felt a lot better. Then I went over to the friend's house and smoked a very nice stogie and had a beer and more food and fortunately reversed all that sweating out of toxins thing. Wait. We DON'T sweat out toxins. So in the end it didn't matter. I think.

So if you see me at a show or at the golf course, and I look like I'm drenched, well .... I'm just getting it out of my system, toxins or otherwise.

 

Signs of life at 5th and Maine

 EVERY DAY AT about 4:30 p.m., I cross the Memorial Bridge into Quincy. Most people turn left at Third and head to Broadway. But I hate Broadway. So I go up Maine Street to Eighth or Ninth and then head north. That means I get to see former Second String Music location at Fifth and Maine, and it's bittersweet.

We closed almost two years ago to the day after 10 years at 100 North Fifth. It was a good decision and things have worked out. But I do miss certain things about the store, the building, the corner of Fifth and Maine. Man we had some good times there!

Malcolm liked hanging out in the back.

The space on the main floor was vacant and the music store signs in the windows stayed, but they were taken down a few weeks ago and there's activity inside. There's a logo on the front door and it appears to be some sort of thrift store.

Saturday I played at the MidSummer Arts Faire and I noticed somebody inside, behind the counter. I thought long and hard about checking it out. But there are no open signs or hours posted, so maybe they aren't open and just getting ready. 

And ... maybe I'm not ready to go back in there. 

Best of luck to the new business. It's a great space with a ton of history. Supposedly there's a coffee shop going in the 505 Maine space as well. It's an anchor location and downtown Quincy needs something there.

When the time comes, it will be cool to check it out.

 

The long and short of work clothes

 SUMMER IN ALL it's hot and sticky glory has descended on the Q. It's 90 90 time - 90-plus temps, 90 percent humidity. It's just the way it is, and we sort of get used to it.

Saturday we had two outdoor shows and I went through at least five shirts and three towels. It's OK. Sunday night I mowed my weeds and it wasn't horrendous, but it's a workout in the heat.

As a lab courier for Blessing, I'm expected to dress respectably. That means collared shirts (most of the time) and dress pants. Sometimes I'll even tuck my shirt in. We are visible so it's understandable.

Last summer I inquired about wearing shorts. We are in and out of air-conditioning all day and I sweat. A lot. I'm gross. It's not unusual for me to run home on my dinner break to change. There's nothing like cooling down by going inside, then getting back in the oven-like vehicle and driving for half an hour with the AC blasting in a futile attempt to keep me from looking like I've had water dumped on my head.

Couriers were under the Diagnostic Center at Blessing. My boss was awesome. But she said no to wearing shorts. Again, it's understandable - you put the Blessing tag on and you gotta represent. 

Last October we were switched to working for Purchasing. The new boss is a great guy and I like working for him. On Friday I was in Hannibal and the purchasing people said, "Lab couriers can wear shorts now. You didn't know that?"

Apparently we can. My boss is out of town this week on a well-deserved vacation so I can't ask him directly. But somebody said something to somebody who said the boss said it was OK to wear shorts when it was really hot. They can't be ratty and you still gotta tuck your shirt in, blah blah blah. 

So. Do I wait until he gets back, beg for permission to wear shorts and hope he says yes?

Nope.

Yesterday I went clothes shopping (ugh) and bought three pairs of nice shorts. And a couple of shirts with buttons. Yes, they were on sale. Yes, they are respectable. Yes, it will help me stay cooler and it won't keep me from sweating, but it will help.

So get ready for knobby knees and shorts that hit the knee for most humans, but are above the knee for a 5-foot-19 lab courier who wants to look his best. That's the long and short of it. 

I might tuck my shirt in, too.