I’ve never been all that big a fan of AC/DC, though I did see them at Sars-stock (AKA, The Rolling Stones and Friends benefit for Toronto). Still, they’re a bedrock Rock-n-Roll music making machine that deserves plenty of respect. Or at least, they used to. Now, they’re living in Wally World:

Report: New AC/DC Album To Be Wal-Mart Exclusive

AC/DC’s next studio album will be exclusively sold at Wal-Mart stores in the United States, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The as-yet-untitled Columbia album, which, as previously reported, was produced by Brendan O’Brien, is expected in the fall.

What does it say that the man who invented acid lives to be 102? Probably nothing, but I’m glad this man got to live a long, long life. He changed my life, like so many others, and I’ll never hear Yes Close to the Edge the same way again. Thanks, Al.

Father of LSD takes final trip - World - smh.com.au

The father of LSD and the first person to experience an “acid trip”, Albert Hoffman, has died aged 102.

Swiss-born Hoffman was renowned by chemists, pharmacists and hippies the world over for stumbling across the world’s first synthesised hallucinogen, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), in 1938.

My wife and I were trying to figure out something to do with our evening last night, and we settled on going to Starry Nights coffee house to watch the Squeaky Chair Band and enjoy some dessert.  What a great capper for a great day!

I really dig Starry Nights in the first place, having become a really great replacement for the old Moonbeans and even something a little better.  The Squeaky Chair Band reminds me of something you’re likely to hear on Prairie Home Companion, with a smooth jazz hollow body guitar backing up violin and upright base supporting the whole thing.  The lead singer’s voice was one of those classic reedy voices as he strolled through classics like All of Me and Summertime.

I had a nice latte and Sarah and I split a baklava cheesecake which was just ho-lee-shit good.

And that’s about all I have to say.

John Sacheli checks in with a post describing his growing ennui and why he’s sitting at home when Bruce Springsteen is playing.  I know how he feels, looking around and realizing none of the cool stuff you used to do as a kid applies to you now.  I think we both should probably make more of an effort; I know I’m getting a little antsy not playing music any more.

As for Bruce Springsteen, allow me to say that I think Bruce is kind of the Earnest Hemingway of rock-and-roll.  By this I mean:  I just don’t get it.  I know a lot of people whose musical and literary senses I admire - people whom I generally admire a great deal - who are just nuts about Bruce and/or Hemingway, and you would think that I would therefore have found the key to what they like, but nope.  Hemingway and Springsteen both embody something perhaps just a little too simplistically masculine for me to appreciate.

I’ve tried to understand.  I bought myself For Whom the Bell Tolls for my birthday once.  I don’t get it.  I’ve stopped trying.

For all of you who’ve been logging into my website to see the latest on the Wease situation, thank you! Interest in Wease has been really incredible, and the number of hits on this one little website alone has been awesome. I hope some of you stick around to see what else this site has to offer.

But apparently there is news in the wind about Wease, as reported on 13Wham.com, and there is to be an announcement at 3pm. You can be sure any news will also be posted here.

What does this mean? Doesn’t seem like he’ll be back on the morning show, since that wouldn’t have required his absence. I have absolutely no insight or insider information to go on, here, but somehow, I think this may have something to do with a launch of a new format on HD radio starring Wease. Pure conjecture, you understand, but that’s what I’ve been thinking.

Late Update: The 13Wham article changed to state that Wease will be moving to 95.1, The Fox, to host their new morning show.  Very odd, since this is simply a switch from one channel to another in Clear Channel’s harem of Rochester stations and because it puts him opposite his partner of several years, Tom Mule.  It’s also just fla-disconcerting to those of us who’ve grown up with the understanding that WCMF was the Wease channel and Wease was the WCMF DJ of record.  Time marches on. . .

But it’s good to have him back.  Welcome back on the air, Brother Wease!

A friend of mine hipped me to the newest Rochester social networking site, SouthWedge.org.  Go check it out, it’s kind of like a MySpace for the Wedge.

I know you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but what the hell goes on over there at Entercom?  First they fire Kane-O, then they hire him back, give him his old slot and. . .  make him the freakin’ program director?

I presume they’ll be hiring Wease back to become the GM of Entercom?

They gotta do something.  That freakin’ “Men’s Room” tripe is for shit, people.  I dig Tom Mule and all, but who came up with “The Men’s Room?”  There’s a lady in there, besides.

What a shame.  It’s all over the news that Brother Wease’s long-time run on WCMF is at a close.  This is but a scant few months after Dave Kane was also canned, so I guess the writing was on the wall from the beginning.  So much for local flavour, it’s been outsourced to India by Corporate America.

One commenter there says we should all switch to XM radio.  Well, the local scene is certainly depressing enough to make you consider it.  But are we just kissing the days of local free media goodbye, then?

Another h/t for Crooks and Liars today, and there’s lots more cool links in that post, so check it out. Apparently, white Southerners are using the word “Canadians” as a euphemism for “blacks,” or whatever racial epithet you prefer, in an attempt to slur blacks without too many people knowing what they mean. It was on Boing Boing, so I naturally thought it was a joke, but it’s not.

I’m a bit disappointed: whitey’s gone all pussy on us.

In the U.S. south, is Canadian a new racial slur?

Last August, a blogger in Cincinnati going by the name CincyBlurg reported that a black friend from the southeastern U.S. had recently discovered that she was being called a Canadian. “She told me a story of when she was working in a shop in the South and she overheard some of her customers complaining that they were always waited on by a Canadian at that place. She didn’t understand what they were talking about and assumed they must be talking about someone else,” the blogger wrote.”After this happened several times with different patrons, she mentioned it to one of her co-workers. He told her that ‘Canadian’ was the new derogatory term that racist Southerners were using to describe persons they would have previously referred to [with the N-word.]“

When we think of unions, we must remember that their purpose is to support the working men and women who make up the bodies of those unions. It’s about getting a fair deal for the work that you do. It’s about the boss man with his billions being forced, when necessary, to relinquish a few morsels for those on whose backs those billions were made.

Having said all that, unionism has come a long way from those old Wobbly days. Not all picket lines are populated by gruff longshoremen and work-weary steel men. That doesn’t make their cause any less legitimate, however silly it may occasionally look. I’ve never seen a picket line of pasty-white IT guys like myself, but I’m sure I will soon enough. Meanwhile, have a look at this free-for-all:

A Jovial Air on Picket Lines for Hollywood Writers - New York Times

There have been other attractions for striking writers. A special theme day, Picket With the Stars, drew celebrities like Ben Stiller, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Ray Romano in Los Angeles. Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams turned up in New York.. . . Pickets have been well fed. The longshoremen’s union sent turkey baskets, and stars have played caterer roles. Justine Bateman brought tacos, Jay Leno chipped in doughnuts, and Jimmy Kimmel contributed burritos. Eva Longoria handed out slices of pizza.