Peoria Illinoisan

SunTimes: Cubs Sell Wrigley Bleachers’ Naming Rights The holy ground that is Wrigley Field has finally caved to corporate pressure, so this summer I will be cheering on my 3rd place Cubbies, drinking $4 Old Styles while sitting in the newly expanded and overpriced Bud Light Bleachers.

Crescent Sun reflected on a flower in Amman, Jordan during a partial eclipse.

I’m always amazed at how fanatical and obsessed Dylan fans can be (and with good reason). Three of the more unique fansites prove this:

1. www.expectingrain.com
Nothing but daily links to articles in the news about Bob.

2. The Dylan Pool
An absolutely insane web site. People actually bet on which songs that Bob will sing on any given night. Points are weighted based on how often the song is historically played in concert. Having penned over 500 songs, he’s got quite a catalog to choose from.

3. Top 100 Dylan Songs
Open voting. I and I, Idiot Wind, and Foot Of Pride are currently ranked the top three Dylan songs.

…feel free to add the obligatory “Dylan Can’t Sing” comment now…

Paste magazine is running an online survey of the “100 Best Living Songwriters,� with results to be published in the June/July issue. Take an enjoyable five minutes to scroll through the list and check the boxes of who you consider the best, then go to the Merguez Frites blog and post your picks.

I’ve posted mine there.

I got a nod from CP for the link, but the original Hat Tip goes to O’Brien’s Briar Patch.

I always keep my word, so I will award this $10,000 bill to C.J. Summers for having a keen eye on a tough ‘Peoria Landmark.’ The $10,000 bill features the portrait of Salmon B. Chase who was Secretary of Treasury during the Civil War. These bills were printed between the years of 1928 and 1945 until the federal government reversed course and began destroying them in 1969 in an effort to combat organized crime. There are approximately 350 still known to be in existance.

I know a lot of guys who don’t do laundry- call me a wuss, but I like doing the laundry. Not sorting. I’m not a sorting clothes kind of guy, but I’m all over the washing and drying aspects of it… especially my wife’s jeans. No, I don’t have a fetish, but I love finding money. It’s usually a mixture of small bills with an occasional $20 that she stuck in her pocket and forgot about.

We don’t subscribe to more and more common “separate bank accounts� way of managing money, so it’s not like I’m stealing, but it’s fun to find money that didn’t previously exist (at least in my mind.) Since she discovered (crap) that I take the money that she left in her jeans and put it in my own pocket, I seriously think that sometimes she plants money in the laundry for me to find as an incentive to keep at it!

I didn’t check my kids pants when I did tonight’s load, so as I was pulling out the clothes from the dryer, mixed in with dryer sheets I was oh so lucky to find 14 Pokemon cards (without a doubt the most powerful and rare of them all,) two pencil erasers, and a very nice but slightly used pink school eraser. Not quite as good as what my wife bribes me with, but they’re learning…

A little help here. I wanted to have a clever caption for this photo but my brain is blanking out, so I’ll let someone else come up with it.

$10,000.00 to anyone who can identify this photo:

http://namethispeorialandmark.blogspot.com

Music For Ants, possibly Peoria’s 2nd most prolific blogger behind the Peoria Pundit (with nearly the number of daily hits, albeit on completely different topics), has put up his Classic Album #4, which is Simon & Garfunkel’s masterpiece Bookends.

I don’t believe he means to nescessarily rank them, but the previous entries were:
#3: The Who – Who’s Next
#2: David Bowie – Hunky Dory
#1: The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

No arguments here.

Sunday’s Journal Star had several articles on area wind farms as alternative energy sources. (articles here, here, and here.)

I had an old post about the hotly contested Tiskilwa wind farm (just south of Princeton near I-80) with some “under-construction” photos (click me!). The next time I’m up there I’ll snap some new photos. Hopefully it will be a sunnier day!

Another XM Satellite discovery… The Little Willies (insert dirty joke here.) A shit kickin’ country/blues/jazz/rock swinging bar band in the whiskey drinking tradition of Willie Nelson with musical connections to The Band, Lyle Lovett, and Hank Williams… just happening to feature Norah Jones on Piano and sharing lead vocals on the well known label “Milking Bull Records.â€? It includes the songs “Love Me,â€? made famous by Elvis Presley, “I Gotta Get Drunkâ€? by Willie Nelson, the old standard Tennessee Stud, an odd tribute to “Lou Reed”, and what made me fall in love with the album, “No Place To Fall,â€? by Townes Van Zandt (Texas country rock icon who died young and is best known because of Willie Nelson’s cover of Pancho & Lefty.) Anyone who covers, or has even heard of Townes Van Zandt is cool with me! I’ve always liked her, but I’m now convinced that Norah Jones isn’t just a fluke. Don’t be shocked if you start hearing these songs on the radio, once people catch on. You can hear all of the songs in their entirety here: http://www.emimusic.ca/thelittlewillies/

During Thursday’s Markley & Luciano show, they played the soundbite of Jonathan Ahl asking Jim Ardis if painting a red stripe across Main Street was an appropriate use of city tax dollars.

Jamie Markley had no idea who Jonathan Ahl was or that Bradley even had a radio station. It took Phil Luciano to explain to him that, yes, Bradley has a radio station (they actually have two) and it’s a public radio station named WCBU. He further explained that Jonathan Ahl, among other things, covers the city council meetings, to which Jamie pretty much said yea, whatever…

1. If you live in Peoria, you should’ve at least heard of WCBU.

2. If you’ve been in radio all your life, you should’ve at least heard of WCBU.

3. If you’re going to be the program director of a “news & talk� station, you should know your competition.

4. If you are going to be a host of a radio show on a “news & talk� station, you should know of the only other channel that focuses on news.

5. If you are going to be a host of a radio show on a “news & talk� station, you shouldn’t roll your eyes when the word “city council meeting� is spoken.

I hate to be too hard on the guy… as annoying as Phil can be, I still like the show, but that was a horribly embarrasing moment.

To show support for Bradley, it’s neighbor St. Mark Grade School allowed the kids to wear red shirts for the minimal donation of $1 for St. Jude.

My daughter didn’t believe it, and not wanting to get in trouble at school, kept doubting me, until finally my son pipes up “The Mayor said we HAVE TO wear red today!�

I’m curious…

Is all the attention too much? Is this overhyped? Do you find it annoying that you went to every game and now the rest of us are paying attention and you don’t have a ticket to Oakland?

Conversely, does anyone just not care?

I consider myself to be a casual Bradley Basketball fan. I haven’t been to a game in years, and occasionally catch the play by play if I happen to be driving around in the car if for no other reason that to hear Dave Snell. I keep loose tabs on it in from the paper and the radio; enough to know what’s going on; enough to carry on a short conversation. I listened to most of Bradley’s valley tournament games, and had the dumb luck of being with a racaus crowd watching the NCAA tournament selection show after a round of golf. Like many people, I was absolutely GLUED to the tv for the last two games (with the volume down and the hometown radio cranked, of course). Those were some of the most dramatic and fantastic games that I’ve ever seen. On Thursday night, I’ll be glued to the TV again and my kids will once again go into hiding after wondering what demon has possessed my body. Enjoy the buzz and all the national attention. Be excited, not just for Bradley, but for all of Peoria, because this is bigger than just a basketball game, it’s a time for everyone to sit back and be proud of this silly little town of ours.