Songs Stuck in My Head that Should Come with Bubblegum

The past several weekends, I have found myself doing one of two things. Either I end up watching some show my wife and I have recorded (most recently, Food Network Star and 500 Questions), or I end up sorting through my Brewers oddballs to get them put into a binder for proper storage rather than sitting in stacks on a table. 

My seemingly desired method of sorting and displaying is to put Topps parallels and non-food-issues in different binders from the true oddballs like the 1984 Ralston Purina set, which, though produced by Topps, came in boxes of Cookie Crisp and count as real oddballs. This is as opposed to the weird Topps issues such as the strange "rub-offs" that came out both in 1984 and 1985 with the exact same checklists.

Anyway, that's how I'm doing it. It's taking a while.

Thankfully, there are good folks in the Blog world who help me by breaking the sorting depression that sorting and bindering cards sometimes brings my way -- I get tired of sitting in one spot for too long and my mind wanders. One of those people who helped -- this time by sending a great PWE -- is Jeff over at Wish They Still Came with Bubblegum. 

Jeff and I have a bet going right now as to which team -- either his Atlanta Braves or my Milwaukee Brewers -- will finish with the better record. He took his Braves, amazingly enough.  While this has changed over the weekend, when the Brewers left Atlanta on Thursday of last week, the Brewers had more wins in Turner Field this year at three than the Braves did at the same point of the season -- two.  

The good news, Jeff, is that it's Not Your Fault that the Braves suck. And, may I say, I love that video -- Claymation FTW! That song has been stuck in my head for part of the day today due, I think, to hearing someone talking about "fault" in design on an NPR Ted Talks podcast I was listening to today.

So, Jeff sent me a PWE as a possible down payment on his debt that will come due at the end of the year to go shopping at his local card show for me.  Let's see the highlights:

The envelope started out well with these cigarette-card-sized Rickie Weeks and Robin Yount. Gotta love that Topps 205, except for the fact that it's one of 74 different parallels from that set. 

This song got stuck in my head today thanks to the fact that there were some storms that went through here. Some powerlines ended up coming down -- and my drive home got rerouted thanks to that -- so the song about "what we do when the power's out" came into my brain. 

Also, I'm getting depressed with the realization that the bands in both of these videos are almost certainly young enough to where I could have been their dad without having kids before graduating high school and probably college too.

Screw it. It's still good music to me.

 

Yes, as a matter of fact I am using the easy transition of, "Speaking of kids young enough for me to have been their dad without having kids before graduating from high school/college/almost law school" (Demi Orimoloye was born on January 6, 1997. I was 25 years old at that point but still a year-and-a-half from graduating law school) to bring out the prospect cards again. Two Cody Ponces -- a guy who is injured already, mind you -- means that, eventually, I might have a new PC guy down the road. Once again, I'm waiting until he gets to the majors to make any decisions.

The autograph is of Matt Clark, who played 16 games with the Brewers in 2014 and hit three homers. Clark is a baseball nomad. After being drafted out of LSU by San Diego, he started on a circuitous path in baseball. He got to Triple-A in the Padres system before going to Chunichi in the Japan Central League in 2013. He hit 25 HRs with Chunichi, so the Mets and, then, the Brewers gave him another shot. After spending all of 2015 in Colorado Springs in the Brewers organization, he was released. At the age of 29, he found himself first with Laguna in the Mexican League -- where he played four games -- before signing on May 17 with the Orix Buffaloes in the Japan Pacific League.

twenty one pilots is an interesting group to me. This song sounds like an outtake from a Ben Folds Five recording session. Other songs of theirs -- like "Stressed Out" -- are totally different and sound more like a laid back Jimmy Eat World or some kind of version of the Pixies on crack or something. Every song of theirs that I've heard, though, reminds me of some other band.

But the one thing I will say is that I used to get Ben Folds Five's "Song for the Dumped" stuck in my head all the time too.

Anyway, where was I? Hell I don't know. How about Drakes?

As a kid, I had no idea where to find Drake's. I don't think they ever got to the Midwest. And that upset me. It seemed unfair that I would be denied access to great baseball cards just because I lived in the Midwest.

That was, of course, while I ignored all the awesome police card variations.

Last one. It's a true throwback song to about 20 years ago to go with a throwback card that Jeff sent that is 37 years old.

This song by Eve 6 always got stuck in my head as "the big word song." It was always this song that got the radio play, but I tended to prefer "Open Road Song" over this one many times. Oddly enough, the lead singer of Eve 6 is just slightly older than the cards that Jeff sent. 

That panel from the 1979 Hostess box bottom that included Gary Carter is just beautiful. Why can't we have even an unlicensed set these days that includes just good, solid photos rather than the overly retouched nightmares that Panini puts out? 

Seriously, good photos -- ones where logos are not shown -- can be taken. They can be found. 

Of course, I repeat that refrain so frequently that my complaints are becoming an earworm, stuck in my head like so many catchy songs.

Jeff, many thanks to you for the great PWE. I'll have to hit you up with some cards soon.

Okay, one more earworm. I'm positive this video will get pulled eventually, but this song brings back great memories for me too.

Even this kind of upsets me...Fox is remaking Rocky Horror.

Thanks for reading and listening.

Rocked by the Suburbs

It's human nature to wonder from time to time what people think about you. Sure, psychologically speaking, you'll find more self-help websites preaching to you that you shouldn't care, but we all do it from time to time.

I'm lucky in the blogworld, though, that my reputation and personality is pretty clear: I'm the oddball guy. I love oddballs. Oddballs and the Brewers. I can say honestly that it has nearly always been in my nature to seek out things that are a bit different and to glom on to those things that I like while dispatching those I don't like. 

In card collecting, what that's meant is that I have a healthy appreciation for cards not issued by Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck, Score, or Pacific as part of their regular sets. If a card came from police officers, as a giveaway at a stadium, in a regular-issue book/magazine, from a cereal box, with potato chips, dog food, or a fast-food meal, I will probably like it just a little bit more than if it's just another of the four inserts per pack or some stickergraph.  

That's my nature.

Thankfully, all y'all seem to know that about me.

For instance, I received a PWE this week from Tony Burbs of Wrigley Roster Jenga. 

Yeah, not all that original to go to Ben Folds, but it's a great song. I mean, I can relate to being male, middle class, and white, and the lyrics give me a built in theme post musically! So let's rock the suburbs and go through the great cards -- and oddballs -- that Tony sent to me.

1.  Rockin' the suburbs just like Michael Jackson did

Let's be clear: this song is irony, and it is intended to make light of things that are definitely first world problems. Being clever is a skill, and it seems a number of reviewers weren't clever enough to figure out that Ben Folds was, indeed, employing irony when writing this song (real irony, not 10,000 spoons when you need a knife irony).

So, Michael Jackson rocking the suburbs? Sure -- back in the early 80s, what self-respecting 10-year-old didn't try to moonwalk?

Not that I could, but everyone who tried dancing ever in the early and mid-1980s had to try to throw a moonwalk into their repertoire. Michael Jackson in 1983 was a 100% badass. 

What cards did Tony send me that go with this?



Police cards from the late 1990s from Prairie du Chien -- in the western part of the state on the Mississippi RIver -- of course. I've never been to Prairie du Chien, so I've never had the pleasure of visiting PDC's third-best place to go: Valley Fish & Cheese.

By 1997, the Brewers or their baseball card sponsors had given up on the preachy, long-winded advice from the early 1980s to pithier, terser statements more easily remembered by a five-year-old.

For instance, here's the 1982 back of Robin Yount's card extolling the virtues of the buddy system when swimming.

By the time 1997 rolled around, kids apparently couldn't be arsed to read five sentences or draw parallels between turning double plays and swimming in pairs. Instead, we get the truncated version of the same advice on the back of Eddy Diaz's card:

It seems off that a card from a guy from Venezuela would feature advice about ice skating in pairs. Then again, by this point, the card makers had given up on the charade of having a player giving advice, and, instead, have an anthropomorphic ball with odd, soulless eyes and matchstick arms and legs advising kids not to swim or ice skate alone. 

And Brewers fans wonder why the team sucked in the late 1990s? Clearly, everyone had given up and said, "aw, to hell with it. No one will notice anyway."

2.  Rockin' the Suburbs just like Quiet Riot Did

Damn, Ben Folds nailed it with this song. An angry band to allow us white, middle-class kids (and those of us like myself who grew up as far less well off than middle class but lived in middle class worlds) to express our anger by singing along with a song.

It's a weird video with the padded cells and all with the late Kevin DuBrow behind the metal mask. Just remember to Bang Your Head!

Cards? Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We're talking about cards here.  Let's see...let's go with the four remaining weirder cards.

 

Darren Ford was drafted out of high school in the 18th round of the 2004 draft by the Brewers. He liked playing for the West Virginia Power, racking up a .299/.372/.424 line in 820 plate appearances there with 12 homers and 100 stolen bases in 176 games. Ford eventually was traded to the Giants with another minor leaguer for Ray Durham in 2008, and he made it to the majors for 16 total plate appearances (33 games) in 2010 and 2011. He is 30 now and he signed up to continue as organizational depth for the Giants on January 13, 2016.

Otherwise, we've got a 1990 Robin Yount Watertown Police Department card. I've been to Watertown in my life; when I was a little kid, my mom dated a guy who lived there. Strange place.

Then, we've got the King of Clubs, Cal Eldred. I'm not sure I'd want to be on the king of clubs playing card if I were a pitcher, but I'm guessing Cal didn't have much input into that decision.  

Finally, it's the weird one. The unnamed player -- clearly Robin Yount -- on a card with a half-empty beer stein as the team's logo with a fake interview on the back about how the team he's on is "flat and faceless, with no identity, no personality, and no pizazz." The "Confex Baseball Enquirer" tried hard to be funny, and that's probably why it is really not all that funny at all.

3.  Rockin' the Suburbs just like Jon Bon Jovi did

Jon Bon Jovi is okay. 





I liked Deadliest Catch for a while. What can I say.

I mean, Bon Jovi's songs are catchy -- whether solo or with the band that bears his revised last name -- but they are a lot like cotton candy...lots of sugar, sweet for a while, but in the end full of air and unsatisfying.  At least to me. Your mileage may vary. 

But, with that in mind, I'm grouping the last cards I scanned from the PWE together because, while they are cool and all, they are just "normal" cards from the big guys.



Don't misunderstand -- I like these cards. For the most part, our only option these days comes from Topps, and they put out some pretty good cards. Upper Deck may return to baseball some day, and that would be cool too because they had some nice designs in their time as well.

That said, 9 times out of 10, I'll take the weird.




And that, folks, is number 10.  To make the song better, I recommend playing the video at double speed and watching the badass dance moves that dude throws down.

Tony, thank you very much for the great PWE!