Peoria Illinoisan

A ‘reunion’ tour on the 30th anniversary of their debut album. Sound familiar? The similarly popular trio The Police are doing the same thing… except The Police’s chief singer/songwriter Sting will be joining them. Can you imagine The Police touring without Sting? Can you imagine The Doors touring without Jim Morrison? (oh yea, I forgot, they still do.)

What’s the point of The Jam touring without Paul Weller? If nothing else, it gives me an excuse to throw up some videos…

In The City, from their self-titled debut album - gotta love youthful angst:

A more matured and slick Jam with their closest thing to an American hit single, Town Called Malice:

How do I know?

* It broke 50 degrees today.

* Billy Dennis is posting about the Cubs again.

* The swimsuit edition came out (link for WHO fans that like body paint on a female that doesn’t look like a WHO fan.)

* Kerry Wood is injured.

* The Cubs are on the cover of Sports Illustrated (at least the midwest edition, and they are picked to maybe have a chance at contending if the rest of the division stinks it up as much as they’re supposed to.)

* Because Scott Janz says so.

* Tickets go on sale Friday.

We shop at Walmart; I should say my wife shops at Walmart and sometimes I tag along or am suggested (ordered) that I should join her.

I try to keep a positive attitude because I know what is coming…

After saying “Hi” to the ‘greeter’, reality sets in and I get a little anxious about finding our stuff and getting out as quickly as possible.

Around the 15 minute mark my eyes start to glass over…

After 30 minutes I become noticably AgItAtEd, at which point I pretend that I am an Army General shouting out orders for everyone to find their provisions before we make the great charge to the checkout lane.

You all know what the check-out lane is at Walmart… chaos… it ranges from horrible to unbearible, depending on what time you visit.

Thank goodness I wasn’t at Super Walmart on Allen Road Sunday when this happened:

“Shoppers at a Peoria Wal-Mart today browsed a little longer than they had planned on, as they were held inside the store for almost two hours. Police were called to the Allen Road store around 3:40 Sunday afternoon about a suspicious package in the parking lot.”

Stuck inside the Super Walmart for two hours? I guarantee I would’ve started bouncing off the walls like a chimpanzee at the Glen Oak Zoo.

More photos at NameThisPeoriaLandmark.

I’ve been reading different profiles of the 14 men and women running for the at-large seats, but I was curious as to how everyone stood on specific issues that were not so broad as “Crime”, “Neighborhoods”, etc, so I emailed all of them a small list of questions with the promise that I would publish all of their answers. I will reprint them in their entirety (unless it’s waaay too long), listed alphabetically, with no editorializing on my part, using each question as a separate post.

Argue amongst yourselves as to what questions I should’ve asked, but these are the ones that I did ask:

1. What is your position on the Keller Branch?
2. What is your position on the proposed Civic Center hotel?
3. What is your position on the Glen Oak School controversy?
4. How do you feel about Peoria’s bullet voting system?
5. What is Peoria’s greatest asset?
6. What is Peoria’s greatest drawback or obstacle that it faces?
7. What is your favorite Peoria landmark, building or feature?
8. What is your favorite band or musician?
9. Open ended- anything you’d like to say?

It should be interesting to see what kind of responses I receive.

I attended the John Mayer concert in Bloomington last night. He was exceptional, as would be expected. I am willing to defend my like of John Mayer, if needed, as I would expect some to be surprised that I would choose this to blow a good chunk of dough on. He should’ve played Peoria instead of Bloomington, but that’s another story all together.

The big news, at least where I was sitting, was Jessica Simpson. Remember her? Frankly, I didn’t recognize her, but I was assured by those more educated in things like this that it was indeed her. I suppose it was. She was dressed nicely with a pin-striped button down shirt and she casually watched her new boyfriend up on stage from the view of the soundboard area. I was seated on the floor right next to the soundboard. I have to admit, she’s quite attractive and has a nice smile, but she’s really short. I’m not going to take the time to look up how tall she actually is; maybe it’s one of those things that you expect a star to be larger than life, especially a pin-up girl such as her.

I didn’t get a picture. I had thoughts of recording some video of the concert, but being on the floor, I knew security would be fairly heavy and I didn’t want my camera confiscated- so I left it at home. I was apparently the only one with those thoughts because there were cameras everywhere. Security didn’t care; they were too preoccupied with making sure my daughter didn’t stand on her seat so she could see.

Lesson to be learned- if you are going to see a guitar wizard in concert who has a hot girl friend and you are sitting next to the sound-board… bring a camera.

I received a phone call tonight from “out of area”. As I’ve said before, I don’t usually answer these calls, but my wife was in a spirited mood and answered this one.

“Is this [insert male name here]?”

“No… who is calling?”

“This is Tasty Tina.”

Tasty Tina then hung-up.

All I have to say is that the 1-900 business must be getting desperate to start going through the phone book and cold calling men.

That’s a good chunk of money, don’t you think? Not much attention was given to it in the press, which is fine I guess. What’s there to say? Some super nice people just gave away over 1/4 Million dollars of their own money to a charity to help build a Children’s Museum in Peoria.

I didn’t give it much thought until I read what Merle Widmer had to say:

“I note the article about the generous donation of $300,000.00 made by Glen and Polly Barton to the Peoria PlayHouse appeared in a four inch column on the 3rd page of the “Bâ€? Section of the JS. By comparison, the $500,000.00 pledged by Ameren/Cilco made front page headlines.”

“Those giving their own money to worthy causes, should get a lot more praise than those who give away stockholder owned money and the money they collect from you thru increased user fees.”

Editorializing about greedy corporations aside, he is absolutely right. Equal, if not more recognition should be given to those who give away their own money than to corporations who give away a similar amount.

Press or no press, congratulations go out to the women of the Junior League and a big thanks to Glen & Polly Barton for their generous gift to Peoria.

Rock and Roll hall of famers Sam and Dave who recorded for the famed Stax Record label along side Otis Redding and Booker T & the MG’s in the 60’s. Most people know them for the song ‘Soul Man’.

Two of my favorite songs, both ballads:

When Something Is Wrong With My Baby

Sooth Me (one of two Sam and Dave songs used in the Blues Brothers movie; this was playing in their car before they smashed up the mall)

I love eBay, but there are tons of scams out there.  I generally ignore them, but this one caught my eye.  I suppose it’s not technically a ’scam’.  Opportunistic?  I’ll let you decide:

For $3.33 you can get the Presale Password for the upcoming Lynyrd Skynyrd / Hank Williams Jr. concert at the Peoria Civic Center.

Save your change.  The presale password is FREEBIRD.  It’s no secret.  I received it in my email a few days ago.  I must’ve bought tickets at some point in the past to something that put me on the civic center email list.

Click [here] and you too can be a Civic Center VIP and receive ’secret’ presale passwords.

Drive Safely.

Bob Dylan said that. At least he should’ve.

An old-school protest singer who never got past the shadow of Dylan (Joan Baez) introduced the Dixie Chicks by making a comparison to Woody Guthrie’s defiant song “This Land is Your Land”.

Here’s the part of the song that most people don’t know:

As I was walkin’ - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin’
But on the other side …. it didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.

To the point that the Dixie Chicks are protesting the administration is fine, but to invoke Woody in the name of the Dixie Chicks whose Grammy was politically motivated, not musically motivated, bothers me. Bring in commenter “Peoria Guy” from PeoriaPundit who said: “I am also willing to bet that those “rolling their eyesâ€? about a Woody Guthrie comparison cannot even name two Guthrie songs.”

I’m not about to argue how many people can or cannot name Woody Guthrie songs. Frankly it doesn’t matter. The comparison is completely misguided.

If Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, or even U2 were introduced with reference to Woody, I wouldn’t have a problem- because they not only play and sing music in the vein of Guthrie’s voice of protest and respect for the downtrodden, they understand the history and genealogy of the music. Bitching about President Bush doesn’t put you in Woody Guthrie’s league. Not even close.

Here’s Woody in a rare early video from 1945:

…and here’s early Dylan singing and talking about his mentor…

The year was 1986 - the Open Championship at Royal St. Georges. The Shark, as he is affectionately known, won his first Major by a cushy 5 strokes. I enjoyed watching the highlights last night and reliving the moment. I seemed like only yesterday. He would also win the Open Championship in 1993, but would never live up to his expectations, as the rest of his Major Championship career was beset by chokes and misfortune.

You’ve heard of the “Grand Slam” - where one person wins all four majors in a single year. Greg Norman introduced us to the “Norman Slam” - which is leading all four major championships going into the fourth round. This happened in ‘86; he only won the British.

…oh yea, the Grammys were on last night too…

PJStar: “Finding Creative Ways to Fund Downtown Museum“

A 25,000,000.00 federal tax credit based on a $100,000,000.00 museum to help finance a $65,000,000.00 museum located in the “low-income” area of downtown Peoria.

Whether this project is really in the spirit of the original bill which was “designed to spur [...] private investment in projects located in low-income areas” is questionable at best.

But is it creative? Definitely!

This is one of those days… you know the kind of day… where everyone complains, everyone is fighting with everyone else and not much really goes right. Pammy is in the Funkadelic mood. Eyebrows thinks it’s just too friggin’ cold. I feel their pain, but personally I think that if it were 1907, I would be thrown into the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane.

I’m hoping tomorrow will be more like Van Morrison’s “Days Like This” (just watching it lifts my mood a little!)

Anyone else looking forward to spring?