Everyone loves this song. Everyone wants to hear it. So I thought I’d do my good deed for the day and give you the music video for Cavo’s “Champagne.” Enjoy.

– F ‘Em Up

Have you seen the rundown of the new 2010 HD pieces of metal? They’re gorgeous, as if there would be any question. CLICK HERE to check ‘em out!

– F ‘Em Up

I was trying my hardest not to write about him, but I can’t help it. I know Moose, Paul and Ryan have ranted about it, and I guess now it’s my turn to throw my two cents in. I really thought this would have blown over by now.

This past weekend, I got my new issue of Rolling Stone. On the cover is none other than Michael Jackson. To be absolutely honest, I was somewhat surprised, since the last issue was a commemorative issue based solely around the “king of pop.” A commemorative issue followed by a cover issue? To me, that’s a little too much. As if my opinion of Rolling Stone couldn’t be any lower, this seemed to help drive it through the floor. This is the same magazine that once compared Green Day’s “21st Century Breakdown” to the ‘what-if’ possibility of AC/DC replacing Bon Scott with Joe Strummer.

Rolling Stone isn’t the only media outlet milking this situation. A couple days ago, I was flipping through the news programs after the show…you know, Good Morning America, The Today Show, etc…At that moment I was flipping through them, every single show was talking about Michael Jackson. I mean, this is a month after the guy died!

It seems to me that there’s too much going on in the world for every media outlet to still be beating the death of Michael Jackson like a dead pony. I get it, he was a big deal. But does that mean he deserves this sort of unprecedented media attention? I don’t think so.

– F ‘Em Up

By now, I’m sure you know that Creed is rolling through town in October with Staind. I’m also sure many of you have heard people crack jokes about Creed and how much they suck and blah, blah, blah.

I’m no huge Creed fan. But am I excited about the concert at Sprint Center? Hell yes I am! I think the band leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths because of one person…say it with me: Scott Stapp. Love him or hate him, he is the reason why people crack jokes about Creed. When you dissect the band, though, and you take Stapp out of the equation, what do you have? Alter Bridge. And I LOVE Alter Bridge, as I’m sure many of you do. So, swap out the lead singer, and the band is somewhat interchangeable…not completely: obviously there are key differences between the songs/lyrics/music style of each band. But isn’t it safe to say that the bands are very similar, too?

So, lay off Creed. Crack as many jokes about Stapp as you want, I don’t mind. I mean, just look at his solo record…OK, OK, I know his album went Platinum, but seriously, did you like it?

I remember walking through a Sam Goody about 4 years ago. The store was going out of business, and they were selling Stapp’s solo album for fifty cents a pop. At that price, I decided to buy one.

OK. So, what have we learned? The Creed concert is going to be fun. It’s going to be a hell of a show. Not because of Stapp, but because of the band as  a whole. And, seeing Staind is going to be fun. The last time I saw Staind was at Rockfest in 2001, when Live headlined. I’m not big on Staind’s most recent stuff, but give me tracks off of Tormented and Dysfunction, and I’ll headbang till my neck breaks.

See you there.

– F ‘Em Up

Well here we are about two and a half days from vacation.
Not that I’m counting or anything…
Getting the bike all ready to head out West.
Not really sure where maybe Mt. Rushmore and Yellow stone.
Might do a quick run down to Colorado.
Just ready to get out and log a few miles!
Have noticed that the week before vacation is the LONGEST week in the history of ever.
Weeks usually just fly by for me but for as long as I can remember the week before vacation always takes forever!
Maybe its just me.
Have a great week while I’m out and I will miss you!
See you one August 3rd.
M

First off, let me just say I have absolutely nothing against people who drink bottled water. Seriously. I think it’s funny that we spend money on bottled water, but I’ve been in the situation on a motorcycle run before where a nice, cool bottle of water makes the ride a little easier.

That being said, I’ve never been one who thinks bottled water is the best thing to drink. I mean, if I’m going to be spending the money, I’d much rather buy a Coke or something. And I’m perfectly fine putting my cup under the faucet and drinking water straight from the tap.

I came across an article today and it said that some bottle water, like Dasani, is just purified tap water. I couldn’t help but laugh. And from now on, when I head out on the sled, I’ll be packing my own bottles of water. At least then I know it came from my faucet!

I can’t help but think of Jim Gaffigan and what he has to say about bottled water…Enjoy!

Recently we lost, what I consider to be, an American Icon.  Walter Cronkite was born in St. Joe and, I’m pround to say, worked right here in our town at the Kansas City Star as he began his rise to becoming a household name.  He is synonymous with several key moments in history as he broke and covered stories that affected all of America like the JFK assassination and the Apollo 11 moon landing, just to name a couple.  He even flew in bombing missions during WWII.  After I heard of his death, I started thinking back to those memorable broadcasts (not that I was alive during those times but we’ve all seen the footage) and compared not only the way he delivered the news but also his content with the news of today.  I understand that we live in a 24 news cycle but one would think that would allow MORE news to be delivered to us and not just ramming the same stories down our throats unless that story has something uncovered that’s worth following up on (I promise I do have a point with all this so bare with me).  I saw a tribute montage the other day for Walter Cronkite and in that montage he spoke about the future of American Journalism.  He said, “The profession of Journalism ought to be about telling people what they NEED to know, not what they want to know.  It must be responsible if we’re going to have the informed public that we need to have to make this democracy work.”  Shortly there after, I got an e-mail from one of my co-workers here at Entercom that really drove this all home for me.  The e-mail reads as follows:

Ed Freeman

You’re a 19 year old kid. You’re critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Na Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 – 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you’re not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you’ll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn’t seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it…

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He’s not Medi-Vac, so it’s not his job, but he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.

He’s coming anyway.

And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.

Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses. And, he kept coming back…. 13 more times…… And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID …….
May God rest his soul……
I bet you didn’t hear about this hero’s passing, but we sure were told a whole bunch about Michael Jackson.

Medal of Honor Winner
Ed Freeman!

Don’t get me wrong, Michael Jackson was an icon as well and the stamp he left in the music industry will be felt forever, probably, and his death was tragic, but there has been other news going on, like Ed Freeman, that gets swept under the rug because the media follows a story too far when there’s nothing new to report.  There are others out there who have made ENORMOUS contributions who don’t even get a single mention and their stories go unheard while we and the media obsess with stories about celebrities.  Should celebrities get covered in the news?, sure they should.  Their stories are interesting and many times news worthy, but so are the stories of ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things…like Ed Freeman who was a true American war hero.  Had I not received that e-mail, I would have never known Ed Freeman’s story which would have been a tragedy in and of itself.

I’m not trying to be funny when I say this, but there was a great line in Spiderman that I think applies here…”With great power comes great responsibilty.”  The news media HAS great power with the ability to deliver information to us; however great responsibilty seems to be lacking.  It would be nice for more of the media to pick up the torch that was lit by the late, great Walter Cronkite…”And that’s the way it is.”

If you’ve been listening to The Rock lately, you’ve probably heard the brand new Alice in Chains song, “A Looking in View.” The band is set to release their latest album, Black Gives Way to Blue, on September 29th. It’s weird to think that this will be the band’s first studio album in 14 years. The album (and the song) feature the vocals of William DuVall, the man who has replaced the late Layne Staley as frontman of the band. For better or worse, I think DuVall does a great job on “A Looking in View,” and personally, I think the band has nailed it.

But who cares what I think?! What do you think? Do you like the new single? Do you think it’s about time the band releases something, or should they have not gotten back into the studio and tried to replace Staley?

Ponder that for a moment, and take some time to check out the music video for the new single…

– F ‘Em Up

Sorry I have slacked off this for a while.
No excuses just been lazy?
So over the 4th after more than my fair share of blowing stuff up made it out to Sandstone for the Kid Rock Skynyrd show.
All I can say to that show is wow!
I was really on the fence as far as going, but I can say now that I made the right choice.
I have seen Kid many times but this was by far the best show I have seen yet from him and to see Free Bird live on the 4th of July.
Cant put it into words.
Here is to a summer of many great shows!
See you out there!
M

So here is the deal for about 3 weeks we have been hearing about Michael Jacksons death.

I get it, I’m not ashamed that back in the day I thought he was cool as hell.
But the years passed and I discovered Motley, AC/DC, Metallica, GNR, and the list goes on.
I chose those bands and styles to embrace rather than the pop side.

Still for the past few weeks all I see online and on TV is MJ this MJ that.

Yeah, Thriller, Bad, Smooth Criminal, and the many other hits were awesome and still are.
But has he really done anything for years.
Should I still be obsessed?
Don’t get me wrong I would have loved to had the chance to see him in concert but that cant happen now.
Just like I can never see Elvis, Floyd, or The Grateful Dead.

Lets move on now please.

Sorry about the rant.
I’m just tired of it.

M