Peoria Illinoisan

Would you like to visit the iTunes store to view the updates?

Of course I would. I’d hate to have my new iPod not be current with the latest updates … So what were the updates available from the iTunes store? Video games like Tetris and Pacman available for purchase for only $4.99 ea.

It’s not like I wouldn’t like to have Tetris on my iPod, and even though I think it’s overpriced, that didn’t especially bother me, but scamming me into visiting the iTunes store for a false update really peeves me off!

Nice first impression, Apple.

I admit I was a latecomer to Springsteen and my wife to this day questions why I like him, but at some point I got past my preconceived notions and began to check him out.

It should come as no surprise that I prefer his earlier catalog, and I was going to list my top 10 Springsteen songs, but after looking over the track listings I have to say that the entire albums of Greetings From Asbury Park, The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, Born To Run, and Darkness At The Edge Of Town are all essential.

For the sake of argument I will pull out a few favorites- For You, Spirits In The Night, Kitty’s Back, Thunder Road, Meeting Across The River, Jungleland, Candy’s Room, Independence Day, and The River.

BUT this one is special. Maybe I just haven’t overplayed it yet…

I have a bootleg of a Springsteen concert where he says his next was written just after the recording for “Darkness At The Edge Of Town” was finished. He introduced it as the story of a family of which both the Mother and Father are working two jobs trying to hang on while the bank is foreclosing on their house and the world seems to be caving in on them even as much as they struggle to stay on top. It was officially released on the album The River, but I especially enjoy the earlier, more raw concert version.

It’s sad, dark and certainly one of his best. I never get tired of it.

Update: This video is from Passaic, NJ recorded on Sept 19, 1978. The audio version I speak of is from July 7, 1978 at the Roxy in L.A.

Bruce introduces the song as follows: “This next song is a new song. This is a song I wrote that didn’t make it on Darkness. I wrote it right after I finished that album. This is a song about… it’s called Point Blank… it’s a song about being trapped… some friends of mine working two jobs a day, and the husbands working two jobs a day and they’re trying to take her house away. It’s a song about being trapped and not being able to get out.”

Ever since I was a child I knew I shared a birthday with the King of Rock & Roll, but I just recently learned that I also share a birthday with Davy Jones. No, not the guy from the Monkees; the wonderfully freaky one who changed his name to David Bowie. I think my parents tried to shield me from finding that out.

Today is also Bob Eubank’s birthday. The dirty old fart just turned 70!

While I was away from my computer, my brain cells apparently unionized and decided to strike. Talks have been open and ongoing but I can see that we’re headed to a standstill. My lawyer made a few initial suggestions…

Post the best Cub’s radio bumper song including the word “YO”

Put up another shameless plug to Name This Peoria Landmark.

Publish that silly photo I took last winter near the Tiskilwa Windfarm of the useless sign which says “wind farm viewing area”

I didn’t like any of those suggestions, so I was then advised to either…

Give in to the brain cell’s demands and resume my blog.

Hire scabs to write my posts.

Cross the picket line and write my own posts.

My lawyer and I are continuing to study our options and I am optimistic that a compromise can be found, but as of yet, no time line has been agreed to.

Our family did a bit of traveling between Christmas and New Years to visit relatives in Missouri. It was mostly uneventful, though I did notice the Payday Loan stores have infected St.Joe, the town where “the Pony Express began and Jesse James ended,” like a plague since the last time I visited.

Driving east on I-70 out of Kansas City it seemed every other exit had an adult book store, with some being more risque than others. In the interest of time we decided to pass on the best pizza this side of Italy, Shakespeares, and opted for a Dairy Queen off the side of the interstate… of course, it was across the street from the “Adult Mega-Store.” At least this one didn’t advertise having a video arcade, so I didn’t have to explain that one to the kids.

…and the trip continued to Kingdom City and onto route 54 where some restless jackass in a beemer with Illinois plates thought it was a good idea to pass three cars straight on a busy two lane highway just before the town of Curryville. Unfortunately Barney Fife didn’t have his usual speed trap set up at the edge of town or that guy would’ve been thrown in the pokey- no questions asked.

Our final stop is always the the quaint little town of Louisiana on the banks of the Mississippi for a potty break and some cheap Missouri gas. I used the restroom immediately after my son and saw “call 1-866… for clean gay sex” scribed into the stall door. After washing my hands turned to the paper towel dispenser next to the condom display which sold $.75 XL Magnums in addition to other ribbed and lubed varieties.

Just when I was about to write off Missouri as officially going into the crapper, a nicely dressed man in suit and tie overheard my wife asking the teenage girl behind the counter if they sold Dramamine. They didn’t, and girl behind the counter wasn’t exactly nice, but the strange man made up for it by calling his wife who quickly delivered a Dramamine pill to help out a traveling family with a young girl who was car-sick. As he shook my hand, he introduced himself as a minister at a local church and wished us luck on the rest of the drive home.

Missouri’s not so bad after all… it just depends on who you meet.