A Barrel of Miscellany

The midwest's annual Fest for Beatles Fans was held this past weekend in suburban Chicago. My co-author Rob Rodriguez and I appeared on two discussion panels at the fest, promoting our new book Fab Four FAQ. Things went well; we sold out of all the copies that the Fest people ordered, and made some new friends.

Barry Bonds hit his 756th homer last night to pass Hank Aaron on the all-time list. I'm glad he did; Bonds may have taken steroids, but we don't know that for sure, and even if he did, he ain't alone. I've been through this before, but a huge number of athletes in all sports take 'roids, including major league pitchers (in fact, probably more pitchers than position players take them). Back in his day, Willie Mays and Willie Stargell , to name just two, not only took amphetamines, but distributed them to their teammates, so let's not get all weepy about the "good old days." Nobody's going to forget Hank Aaron because Bonds has hit more homers.

On the music tip, I'm going to start sharing a lot more things in the near future because I finally found a decent online music storage/playing solution.

Today's selection is a chunk of raw midwestern soul from Little Anne. "Lean Lanky Daddy" dates from the mid-sixties but wasn't released until a few years ago. It's a classic Detroit cut with a great bassline, cool backing vocals, and references to contemporary records by Edwin Starr, Aretha Franklin, and others. Fierce!





Enjoy.