Columbus Day 2016

Not Too Shabby

My beloved Kansas City Chiefs didn't play yesterday, and are still licking their wounds after their woeful showing against the Steelers on October 2.

Nevertheless, yesterday was about as good a bye week Sunday as the team could have hoped for. The Broncos lost at home to the Falcons, and among the AFC playoff hopefuls the Ravens lost, as did the Texans, and the Bengals as well.

My best friend Skip's beloved Steelers crushed the Jets, but his Eagles lost for the first time. And in the day's most disappointing result for Chiefs fans, the Chargers found yet another creative way to lose a game they had led most of the way, blowing a win against the Raiders (whom the Chiefs play next Sunday).

"It's RAIDER WEEK!"

It is, but they're not as hapless as they have been in recent years...it is going to be very tough to win there...

Feast Day

Today is the feast day of St. Francis Borgia,
a 16th century Spanish Jesuit priest who eventually became the Superior General of that order and helped to greatly increase its influence within the Church. He is considered to be the second-greatest Superior General of the storied order, only after
St. Ignatius of Loyola.

He was beatified in 1624 by Pope Gregory XV, and canonized in 1670 by Pope Clement X. Until 1969 his feast day was October 3, but was moved to October 10 as part of the changes to the church calendar instituted by Pope Paul VI.

Francis Borgia is the patron saint of Portugal, and of protection from earthquakes.

Happy Birthday!

Headstock for a Gibson L-5

On October 10, 1902 Orville Gibson founded The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co., Ltd. in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The new company was intended to be a much larger enterprise than the company Gibson had begun in 1896, with an emphasis on being able to produce instruments in greater quantities than Gibson himself could manage in his one-man shop.

The company would go on to become one
of the most successful of its kind in the world, and to this day produces some of
the most sought-after stringed instruments among musicians. And even though I'm only a recreational player, I still hope to
own a Gibson myself some day.

"They've done a few 'Signature' models with your buddy Joe Bonamassa, haven't they?"

Yes, yes they have...

My Kind of Art Museum

From the indispensable comic strip Non Sequitur, by Wiley Miller, which you should read every day, as I do (even though Wiley is a squishy liberal).

Until Next Time...

One of the most difficult things to do in the music business is follow up on a tremendous success. In early 1991 R.E.M., one of my all-time favorite bands, released Out of Time, an album which went on to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart, driven in no small part by the popularity of the Grammy-winning "Losing My Religion," by far the band's biggest hit single ever and its signature song.

Having exploded into prominence as a result of that album, the band felt some pressure during the production of its next effort. Although I'm not one of them, many fans of the band consider that follow-up, 1992's Automatic for the People, to be the group's greatest album. With more than 18 million copies sold, it was one of the best-selling albums of the '90s.

On October 10, 1992 Automatic for the People reached No. 1 on the U.K. album charts, the second of the band's seven No. 1 albums there.
It would eventually reach No. 2 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart as well, and it received four platinum certifications from RIAA.

The album produced a handful of songs that became concert staples for the rest of the band's career, including "Everybody Hurts,"
"Man On the Moon," and "Nightswimming."


They played all three of those songs at their September 17, 2003 concert at Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, the only time I ever saw them play live.

That night they also played the song that did the best of the album's six single releases. "Drive" reached No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, No. 2 on their Mainstream Rock chart, and No. 1 on the Alternative Songs chart.

Today's send-off is the official music video of "Drive," from the band's YouTube channel. The usual '90s music video disclaimers apply, although this one is less "artsy" than many of the group's efforts. Enjoy...