$30 A Week? If I Could Keep to *that* Budget...

I love getting mail from Robért from $30 A Week Habit. Mailers from him often are small but pack quite the punch.

I mean, usually, it's enough of a punch to make LL Cool J jealous. This most recent one was no different.

I'm in a musical mood today too -- I think it was playing an 80s lyrics game on Sporcle during my 20 minute lunch break (it was a busy day...) that got me there. It got that horrible Aerosmith song "Angel" -- horrible because it's an earworm that reminds me of high school -- stuck in my head until I passed it along to my paralegal by telling her about it. For some reason, that worked.

To introduce each card, let's look at some songs that Robért has posted on his blog!

Payola$ -- Eyes of The Stranger

That's a very 80s sound coming off that vinyl. One of the coolest things I noted about that record is that it was produced by the legendary Mick Ronson. Mick was one of David Bowie's backing band members that became The Spiders from Mars, but he worked with Bowie on The Man Who Sold The World and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, among other albums. Then, as a producer, he worked on and arranged John Cougar Mellancamp's first massive hit -- "Jack & Diane."

And, let's also not forget that Ronson also worked with the legendary Morrissey as a musician, songwriter, and record producer. 

Basically, music in the 1980s is nothing without Mick Ronson...

...just like the Brewers of the 1980s were nowhere without Paul Molitor. The worst season that Milwaukee had in the 1980s was 1984. The team finished 67-94, dead last and 36-1/2 games out of first place. Molitor missed most of 1984 thanks to Tommy John surgery. The team only won 71 games the next year, but that year was the year that Robin Yount missed forty games due to back surgery that forced his move to the outfield. The next time the team won fewer than 70 games? 1993, when Molitor left for Toronto.

By the way, a good trivia question is to name the first Tommy John survivor to make baseball's Hall of Fame. You're looking at him (and the only other one as of 2016 is John Smoltz).

Hall & Oates: "Out of Touch"

I don't remember that weird introduction, for some reason. I watched the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction for the band. In retrospect, it's easy to see them as "blue-eyed soul," but at the time, I just thought of them as, well, music. 

Parallels are sometimes like "blue-eyed soul." They purport to be something special -- different, even. In reality, they are just, well, cards.

Golden Earring: Radar Love

In the 1980s, Golden Earring had a pretty big hit with "Twilight Zone." I liked that song a lot. But, when I heard "Radar Love," it really hit me in a more visceral way. "Radar Love" seemed more original -- almost dangerous, at times, with its driving bass line and minimal guitars. Yes, there are plenty of guitars, but the song is really the bass line, along with the drums.

However, the lead singer's attire in this video is positively embarrassing for future generations to see. And, the crowd here looks bored to death. Some even look pissed off. What's all that about?

Because I barely pay attention these days to any checklists -- especially checklists for retail exclusives -- I sometimes miss out on things like parallels of retail exclusives. Like those "First Home Run" cards last year, for example -- I don't think I could tell you what the parallels were or who had them or whether I have any parallels or not. So, when I saw this card, I thought, "dang, I just got that card from The Card Chop!"

Then I looked at them side by side and realized that the one from Idaho is either a gold or bronze parallel (don't know which, to be honest) and this one is the silver version. So, there we go.

The Who: Won't Get Fooled Again

A few weeks ago, I saw that The Who's concert from Hyde Park from last summer was on some random TV station that appears on my cable listings.  The Who played -- okay, definitely Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend played. Townshend still windmilled a bit, and Daltrey swayed around some on stage. 

I suppose I'd like to see them in concert, if only to say that I have. The show was decent, but it was a little sad to see the now 70-year-old Pete Townshend giving little hops on stage as a sort of homage to his more acrobatic past.

A straight-forward homage to the past from Topps here. The great thing about baseball cards is that though they get older, the faces of the men on the front are almost always between the ages of 18 to 43. In other words, these are guys in their prime, for the most part, and our mind's eye remembers their prime as opposed to what happens as they age.

Though it might be fun to revive the Senior Baseball League and allow everyone to take as many drugs as they want.

Billy Joel: New York State of Mind

I have times when I really like Billy Joel, and other times when he just gets on my nerves. Getting a video of Joel with Tony Bennett playing "New York State of Mind" at Shea Stadium, though, is never a bad thing.

Just like getting a new Ryan Braun card is never a bad thing for me either.

And, finally:

Triumph: Magic Power

Robért mentioned this song in a text-only post in 2011. The blogosphere must have changed in the past five years; these days, the only way you get away with a text-only post is either when you are quitting as a blogger or when you are pimping someone's contest.

My best segue here is to say simply that it is always a triumph for me to get a card package from Robért. To get a nice blue swatch of Prince Fielder from Allen & Ginter is especially cool.

Thank you very much, Robért -- your generosity is greatly appreciated, and I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for 1959 cards for your set at my next card show that I attend!