I admit to hero worship. I am a big fan of a lot of musicians and I do have favorites: Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, The Who, U2, James Brown, George Clinton and Bootsy Collins, and many more. One of my favorites is Bruce Springsteen, and last night, I received in the mail a copy of the Blu-ray of “Springsteen & I,” a film that had a one-day theatrical run in movie theaters that I was forced to miss. I saw that the movie was being released on video, so I purchased it.
Like most of my purchases, it was destined to go unwatched while I await the Indignant Daughters growing up a little more so that they will no longer have an interest in what Daddy’s watching. But last night, with the Indignant Wife ill and in bed, and the Daughters in bed also, I was still wired, so I started channel surfing, and what was on Showtime – you guessed it “Springsteen & I.” As advertized, it was a film mostly populated by Springsteen fans telling stories about their concert experiences, and in a few cases, actual contact with Bruce.
While there was a lot of myth-making, it was heartening to hear other people with similar stories and feelings as I have. I was a borderline fan when “Born to Run” came out (I was 15 and it had “too many words” for my adolescent liking). Big on the East and West Coasts but not so much in the Midwest, Springsteen did a tour that included all of the Big Ten schools, and he played at Northwestern’s McGaw Hall (now Welsh-Ryan Arena). People from the East camped out to get tickets, there were tickets remaining later and I bought one.
Needless to say, it was a defining experience. The E Street Band played for over 3 hours and at the end, Bruce was tired, and so was the audience, but in a rapturous, exhilarated way. That began my “fandom.” I’ve seen Springsteen over 20 times (not as many as folks who follow him from city to city, but still, a respectable number) and each time has been great.
Why am I writing this, you ask? All of my heroes are rich, famous, and get idolatry all the time (maybe not GP, but we’re working on that). It’s because, like the people were saying in the film, these artists’ music has meant a lot to so many of us. They have related what I feel, what I’m experiencing or have experienced. They have brought me joy and happiness. In this life, we need that (more than ever).
So thanks Bruce. Elvis Costello – I am continuing to enjoy your investigation of different types of music. To Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, thank you so much. To U2, you have brought me so much over the years. To Graham Parker, I can’t thank you enough for your music and more important, for your friendship.
To so many other artists in music, comics, and so many fields, thank you. You have all helped make life worth living.

I know that some people will look at this post as another knock on my least favorite university, Notre Dame, and they’d be right, but only a little (5%). There are bigger questions to this that makes this relevant for all of college athletics.
Last year, redshirt freshman Everett Golson started at quarterback last year for the Irish and his arm and athleticism made the offense very potent, and the Irish went on to an undefeated regular season in 2012 before losing to Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game. Golson finished the season with 2,703 total yards and 12 passing touchdowns along with 298 rushing yards and 6 rushing touchdowns..
Expectations were high for the 2013 season, but ND’s were dashed quite a bit when the university suspended Golson in May for the Fall semester, making him ineligible to play football this season. At the time, the QB was vague about his suspension telling ESPN.com. “I have been informed by the University of Notre Dame that due to my poor academic judgment that I have been suspended from the University for the 2013 Fall Term. I take full responsibility for my poor choices and will do all that is asked of me to regain the trust of my family, friends, teammates, coaches and the entire Notre Dame community.”
The latest issue of Sports Illustrated has an interview with Golson conducted by reporter Andy Staples in which Golson pretty much admitted to cheating on an exam. He intends on returning to ND rather than transferring to a junior college or another university. In his extra time, he has spent the fall working with QB guru George Whitfield, who has helped him alter some throwing mechanics
Notre Dame stands at 6-2 under quarterback Tommy Rees, but the Irish faithful must wonder what might have been if Golson had been under center. The big question to me is, if it had been another player, would he have been expelled instead of suspended? I admit that Notre Dame showed integrity by suspending Golson when many other schools would have tried to sweep it under the rug, or just suspended him for a couple of games.
For a university with high academic standards, Notre Dame did what it had to, but as a football program, did Golson get a break? Admittedly, Golson is African-American, so I appreciate his getting a second chance at a quality education. The young man says that he has learned from his “lack of judgment,” but still, if he had been a third string guard, would he have been forced to transfer to another school?

Somehow something in me never thought there were be a world without Lou Reed. He was too stubborn, too cool, too cantankerous to die. He was the voice of the streets, hustlers and hookers mixed with the artists. In some ways, he was the American version of Keith Richards – yes, we had drug issues, but we’re tougher than anyone else to have survived them. Of course, I was wrong. The Grim Reaper comes for us all, and yesterday, he took Lou. Reed was 71 and had undergone a liver transplant over the summer and complications from that surgery took the rock and roll poet.
Like so many others, it took me decades to catch up to the Velvet Underground. Their music was too dark and scary for a seven-year-old me in 1967. There was the Summer Of Love music, The Beatles, flower power, James Brown was putting the final touches on funk. The darkest my mind could handle was the Stones, who were the Yin to the Beatles Yang, but nowhere near as dark as the Velvets. I lived in a lower income neighborhood, and stories of hookers and junkies was probably too close to home for me to be interested at the time. I was looking for release.
Of course, over time I discovered the Velvet Underground through Lou’s solo work. Of course everyone knew “Walk on the Wild Side” and “Rock and Roll” and “Satellite of Love.” I appreciated his music, but really didn’t immerse myself until the 1980s. “Mistrial,” New Sensations” and especially “New York” opened Reed’s music to me fully. Then I reached back and REALLY understood the VU and his early solo work. The VU box set is absolutely required for anyone who is a fan of rock and roll.
I first saw Lou at the Amnesty International show in 1986 where he ripped through a short set. I was mesmerized. I saw his again on the “New York” and “Magic and Loss” tours. Wonderful shows – fine musicianship, no BS. I saw him last on the “Set The Twilight Reeling” tour (hard to believe that was 1996). I had one ticket to the show at the Rosemont Theater, and was happy to see some of my old Andy Frain friends from the Horizon (now Allstate Arena). Michael Bajda (thanks again Mike) got me into the orchestra pit, where I was no more than 10 feet from the man himself. It was an electrifying experience (and I even got Lou’s copy of the set list from a roadie which I still have).
I was hanging around with the Indignant Children yesterday morning on Facebook when I saw The Who’s post on Reed’s death, even before Rolling Stone reported it. It was sudden and sad. So, I’ve been listening to a lot of Reed’s music since then. We have lost a truly original voice in the arts.

One thing about today’s political climate that bores me to tears is something happens and then everyone outraged and starts posting things on websites and social media engines. To my chagrin, my liberal brethren have jumped on this bandwagon if only to counter the lies of the Fox News media machine.
The latest outrage is the “War on Thanksgiving” being waged by various big department stores like Kohl’s by opening their stores at 8:00 PM on Thanksgiving Day. Other stores are expected to follow suit.
Most left wingers are aghast – the poor workers don’t get a day off with their families; the stores are ruining the holiday – they can’t wait until the traditional “Black Friday” sales which would start at 6:00 AM or earlier on the day after Thanksgiving.
Now, before you starting questioning my liberal bona fides, I do find the prospect of Thanksgiving shopping deplorable for all the reason noted above. My problem is with all of the bluster. The solution is simple – instead of yelling and screaming, DON”T SHOP on Thanksgiving. Talk to your friends, neighbors and relatives and get them to do the same thing. Trust me, the CEO’s listen to only one thing: money. If they open the stores and nobody shows up (or at least so few people shop that the Thanksgiving opening lose money), they won’t do it again.
So, resist the Thanksgiving sales. Don’t go. Don’t go online. Do what people have done for decades on Thanksgiving, spend the evening trying to stay awake after the massive meal. The people who have to work this year – we’re sorry, but we’ll make it a very quiet night – you’ll be making money doing very little. If we succeed, you’ll be home for Thanksgiving in 2014.
That’s how we will get this stopped.

I don’t know about other Chicagoans, but this has been a non-existent baseball season. The Cubs still suck, which is normal, but with management telling the fans not to expect playoff caliber baseball until 2015 at earliest, even the most diehard fans started to finally rethink the exorbitant prices being spent for basically, a day in the sun. Lots of beaches and parks provide the same sun for a lot less money.
The South Side was not any better. White Sox fans (like myself) are a wait-and-see bunch in general and despite a high payroll and the fact that the team was in first place for most of 2012 until fading at the end, the Pale Hose got off to a stinker of a start and never recovered. Which meant people stayed away, revenues plummeted and once it was obvious that the team would suck, the front office moved as many big money players as they could.
Besides the 195 combined baseball losses this year, it certainly didn’t help interest in baseball that due to the NHL Lockout, the season didn’t end until late June, and of course, the Blackhawks winning Lord Stanley’s Cup took everyone’s attention away from the crappy baseball teams. By the time hockey was over, the baseball season has essentially ended.
But there is still baseball being played, in fact the World Series starts Wednesday, but to many, this will be a World Series to hold one’s nose at. The American League sends the Red Sox, making their 4th appearance in 10 seasons. The Red Sox Nation is arrogant and obnoxious, but it really makes New Yorkers pissed off, and since they are more obnoxious than the Red Sox fans, I can live with them. Plus, it has to gall Cub fans and Cub President Theo Epstein to see Epstein’s former employer in the Fall Classic while their former architect makes excuses.
I have always despised this year’s National League representative – the St. Louis Cardinals. Ever since I had to put up with the country rubes when they came into Wrigley Field and would be obnoxious, starting fights every season, I’ve just hated them. Still, one has to marvel at them – their long time manager, Tony LaRussa retires; they lose the best slugger of this generation, Albert Pujols, and they are not only still competitive, they are four wins away from another title.
I don’t know if I will actually watch any of the World Series this year, something that I admit is something I’ve never confessed before. I will probably watch a little bit, but it’s certainly not like previous years.

The NCAA announced that the University of Miami football team will be docked three scholarships in each of the next three seasons as punishment for past rules violations. No further bowl ban will be enforced on the school as part of the sanctions.
This brings to an end an investigation that has dragged on for two and a half years. In many ways, Miami the penalty is an afterthought; the investigation has been a pall over the school for three years and has probably caused many athletes to go elsewhere. And, one has to ask whether Miami is paying for its outlaw reputation of the 1970s and 1980s when it was a powerhouse of college football?
So, the university can finally move on from this, but instead of this being another instance of a university getting caught in wrongdoing, the NCAA comes out of this looking like a vindictive, ineffectual body.

When you look up the work “lousy” in the dictionary, you get three meanings: 1) infested with lice; 2) a. mean or contemptible, and 2) b. wretchedly bad; miserable. The first definition is also used to describe something that is “unclean” or “disease-ridden.” Seldom are the terms used at the same time (in fact the original lice definition has fallen on disuse over the years), but perhaps the term has dual meaning for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Buccaneers, reeling in last place in the NFC South, have been Team Turmoil with Head Coach Gary Schiavo running players out of town with his “my way or the highway” philosophy, most recently releasing quarterback Josh Freeman (who will be starting for the Vikings tonight against the Giants). Yesterday, the team gave a valiant attempt to beat Atlanta on the road, but they fell short 31-23. So, on the field, one can say that this team is indeed lousy (as in wretchedly bad).
The Falcons have, in effect, considered the Buccaneers lousy in the older meaning. According to a report from a television station in Tampa Bay, a cleaning crew entered the visiting locker room after the Falcons’ 31-23 victory on Sunday in an attempt to scrub any possible traces of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from the Georgia Dome. Like in a Hollywood movie, the workers were clad in hazmat suits to clean up because the Falcons were worried that Tampa Bay players could be carrying the very antibiotic-resistant infection.
Did the Falcons do this haphazardly? No, the team took precautions because three Buccaneers players have been diagnosed with MRSA this season. Guard Carl Nicks and kicker Lawrence Tynes were diagnosed in August. Tynes has been inactive throughout 2013, while Nicks missed the entire preseason and the first two games of the regular season.
Further concern arose when Nicks’ condition recurred and cornerback Johnthan Banks was diagnosed before last week’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Banks, whose condition was contained, was cleared to play by independent doctors and has not missed any time.
This is a nasty bug, one that has been reported on in the press over the past couple of years. According to the Mayo Clinic: “Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection is caused by a strain of staph bacteria that’s become resistant to the antibiotics commonly used to treat ordinary staph infections. Most MRSA infections occur in people who’ve been in hospitals or other health care settings, such as nursing homes and dialysis centers. These infections typically are associated with invasive procedures or devices, such as surgeries, intravenous tubing or artificial joints.”
The Buccaneers have twice cleaned their facilities as a precautionary measure, and the league even briefly considered postponing or moving Tampa Bay’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles last week before Raymond James Stadium was independently cleared.