It’s that time of the year that warms the hearts of many of person as spring training camps open up for baseball teams. Last year’s 90 games lost season is a thing of the past…everyone is healthy….the ball pops into the catcher’s mitt….and every team starts all over again with hope of winning it all. The video of players running on green grass, wearing short sleeve shirts and sun glasses just make you feel better. Some will say the baseball season is too long…others will say it’s tough to watch on television…finally there is the “They Are Overpaid” fans out there. All of those statements are partly true, but right now its something to enjoy. As a long time Mets fan, I can’t write this without telling all you Phils fans watch out this year, I have a feeling…..

The reviews are in and they are not good. The Who halftime show did not set the world on it’s collective ear, in fact some people were left wishing they could have pulled their ears off. Now don’t get me wrong, playing in an outdoor setting can’t be easy especially in front of 100,000 people. Throw in the television audience of half the world and I would have to say even the most seasoned a performer would have a case of the jitters. I didn’t get to see The Who as I was driving home from a party, perhaps I was lucky! What I did see were several very cleaver commercials this year. Can’t go wrong with Betty White playing football, a guy in a dog collar fighting over snacks in the park  and a street tough 5 year old putting his Mom’s boyfriend in his place. So I will say four stars out of four on the game, three stars for the commercials and for The Who, I was on the road.

I was walking through the living room the other night as my wife was watching the Golden Globes and I stopped dead in my tracks as I heard….Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome Paul McCartney. Wow Paul was at the Golden Globes, I have to watch this. With a driest of wit, Sir Paul introduces himself as Paul McCartney better known these days at the guy from Rock Band, which got a lot of laughs and got me thinking. You know he is right….to an entire generation Paul is “that guy from Rock Band”, not a member of the Beatles, not the lead of Wings, not one of the best writers of music the world has even seen…he is some guy on a video game. For some reason this triggered a memory for me of the 80’s when Julian Lennon produced a couple of hits and I remember listening to a group of teens talking about Julian and his music, when one of the said…”And did you know his dad was in some band back in the 60’s?”  Life, its all about perspective, the glass is half empty or half full…Paul and John are the song writing duo from The Beatles….or a couple of guys on Rock Band.

PS: Thanks Drew

I went looking for my stash the other weekend, no not that one, my stash of cassette tapes that I listened to growing up. You know that collection we all built using the Columbia House Record Club, when you would buy one album or tape and they would give you ten free! So I am digging around in the closet looking for that leather bound box that contains my childhood musical memories. Yes, there they were…BTO 1 and 2, Band on the Run, Dust in the Wind, Piano Man, Dreamboat Annie, I Robot, The Best of Bread…no really I did have that one mostly for the girls. But where is Machine Head? I need my Smoke on the Water, where the hell is my Deep Purple cassette? Answer: In my Son’s room. Seems like he has been listening to that and others from the 70’s and beyond and as I go to reclaim that which was once mine, he informs me…well Dad I love the song but the tape is a little worn out. That and its 40 years old….

Grammy nominations are out and I am glad to see that Green Day, U2 and Dave Mathews and Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood all picked up nods this year. But there are a couple of things that I do have to wonder about. For examples can someone please explain to me the difference between Song of the Year and Record of the Year? Aren’t they the same thing? Since when is a song not a record? And what about CD of the year? And in case you missed it, former President Jimmy Carter was nominated in the spoken word category. If he wins I might be the only person in the world with a Nobel Peace Prize and a Grammy?

Billboard recently named Daniel Powter’s Bad Day as the One Hit Wonder of the Decade which got me to thinking about some of the other great one hit wonders in music history, some of which we play on the Mountain, others that I just have always liked. On the Mountain you will hear The Standells with Dirty Water, Amboy Dukes and Journey to the Center of the Mind, Thunderclap Newman and Something in the Air all from the 60’s. Jumping ahead and not necessarily on the Mountain but one’s I have always like Hot Butter with Popcorn, Mungo Jerry and In the Summertime, Billy Swan’s I Can Help, Paper Lace The Night Chicago Died and who can forget The Hustle by Van McCoy. Now that you have that song stuck in your mind….do you know who Daniel Powter is?

I caught a promo the other night for a holiday show and yelled out to my 7 year old that Rudolph would be on Wednesday night. In a strange twist of reality it seemed I was more excited about the show than he was as he kept on playing the Xbox 360. It seems everyone has a Christmas special these days but the old ones still stand the test of time. I am sure Jim Carey was a fine Grinch but Boris Karloff will always be the best Grinch in my mind and who can forget that awful tree that Charlie Brown finds for the school play. I think people, including adults, find comfort in these old holiday shows as they reconnect us to a simpler time and place. One of my biggest childhood thrills was getting to meet Burl Ives and I remember saying to him….you made a great snowman. All together now, Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold…..

There is a liner on the Mountain that goes something like “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Funny how those things we thought were tough become the good old days with the passage of time. Case in point, the other day I had a chance to see a former co-worker, Dave Jones, who I spent 8 years with at WYOU back in the 80’s. That was when WYOU had a news department and we were fighting to crawl out of last place in the ratings. At the time we thought it was tough, doing battle with the mighty WNEP who had twice the staff, all the cool news toys and was number one in news. We tried our best, invested in expanding the news, building bureaus in Wilkes Barre and Williamsport, doing the High School Football Game of the Week, a lot of hard work that never really paid off in the ratings. At the time we all thought it was hell trying to knock WNEP off that ratings perch. But the other day, with the passage of two decades, David and I agreed they were the good old days in the news business.

I remember when I was 18 that 25 seemed old, 35 was middle aged and 50 was just a couple of steps from retirement. Well its time for a re-think on this age thing as I approach my 49th birthday shortly. I don’t feel old, nothing hurts yet and even more important I haven’t lost anything yet, like hair, hearing….sure I need glasses to read small print but that’s because the print is smaller these days, not because of my eyes.

I have heard it said today’s 50 is yesterday’s 35, I can live. I remember once asking Bill Cosby how he was doing and he responded “I woke up on the right side of the grass, so it’s a good day.” Here’s to more good days ahead in my 30’s the second time around.