Tag / 9/11

by admin

30 For 30 – Take One Ultimate Road Trip

SheaBoardThe fine folks at away.com have come up with a list of 30 Things Every Traveler Must Do Before They’re 30.  Of those 30, I’ve managed to accomplish 12 of them, or roughly 40% of them, some of which was even before I turned 30.  Today we look at #12 on their list, take one Ultimate Road Trip.  In the year 2003, the Chicago Cubs were scheduled to open their season on Monday, March 31 in Queens against the New York Mets.  What better way to celebrate than with a road trip to New York to take in the festivities?

The trip sort of started out Friday afternoon with a quick jaunt out to the Budget rental facility near O’Hare airport.  They were the one rental agency that didn’t seem to mind that we were taking the car out of state.  It for real started the next morning at 2 AM as we headed out on I-80 heading east.  Very little of interest happened throughout Indiana and Ohio.  Eventually, we stopped for lunch at an Arbys in Pennsylvania.  This particular Arbys happened to have a breakfast buffet, which was weird.  The customers of this Arbys seemed to be more at home in the hills of Appalachia then in Pennsylvania.  One in particular was wearing overalls with no shirt underneath (at least that’s how I remember it) and was waiting patiently for a new batch of bacon to be brought out to the buffet.  Once it was, this hill person got up, emptied the whole tray onto his plate, and returned to his seat to chow down.

After finishing our processed meat sandwiches, we continued on to our final destination: a Howard Johnson hotel in Newark, New Jersey.  From my recollection, the whole trip lasted a little more than 12 hours.  After a brief nap and a few episodes of the Chappelle Show, our plans for the evening required a train ride to Manhattan, which should have been a piece of cake.  There was a train at the airport and an airport shuttle should have come to the hotel every 15-20 minutes.  After waiting for an hour, the shuttle finally showed up, taking us to the Newark airport where we were finally able to take the train into New York City!

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by admin

Mix Tape Monday – December 2001

After my tape deck crapped out in 1997, I was stuck listening to either the radio or full albums in whatever order the artist intended.  That all changed in 2001, when the new-fangled MP3 technology got combined with my new CD burner.

This is the first CD I burned in a post 9/11 world, and some of the songs on here were affected by the events of that fateful day.  This edition included new hits from Ozzy Osbourne, Bush, No Doubt, Pink, and Britney Spears.

Ozzy Osbourne – Gets Me Through

A few short months before the reality show that would change the world’s perception of him, Ozzy released this first track from his new album.

iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 3/29/2012

Bad Religion – Infected

I saw Bad Religion opening for Pearl Jam at Soldier Field back in 1995.

iTunes stats: 8 plays, most recently on 11/7/2012

Bush – Speed Kills

The comback attempt by Bush was retitled The People That We Love following 9/11, since the original title was deemed inappropriate.

iTunes stats: 3 plays, most recently on 8/29/2011

Garbage – Shut Your Mouth

The third release from Garbage’s third release.

iTunes stats: 10 plays, most recently on 8/10/2012

Blondie – One Way Or Another

The new wave hit from 1979 was used as the theme song for the television show Snoops.

iTunes stats: 2 plays, most recently on 6/21/2010

Remy Zero – Somebody Save Me

The theme song from Smallville is likely the only Remy Zero song anyone knows.

iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 8/1/2012

Atomic Kitten – Eternal Flame

The British girl group had a minor hit with this cover of the Bangles classic.

iTunes stats: 2 plays, most recently on 11/18/2012

Sixpence None The Richer – Kiss Me

The first hit from the band from Nashville via Texas.

iTunes stats: 6 plays, most recently on 11/17/2012

The Strokes – Last Night

The debut album from The Strokes was slated to be released on the Tuesday after 9/11 with a song featuring the lyric “New York City Cops, they ain’t too smart.”  The album was delayed and the song was removed from the American version of the album.

iTunes stats: 6 plays, most recently on 9/24/2012

Sublime – Date Rape

The hit that pushed the ska rockers out of LA and into the national consciousness.

iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 9/17/2011

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by jim

30 Day Picture Challenge Day 21 – A Picture Of Something You Wish You Could Forget

It was a normal Tuesday morning at work when the Consultant stopped by my desk to say that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and that we were under attack.  Little did I know that for once, Chicken Little was right and the sky really was falling.

Most of the morning was a blur.  Updates were hard to get through traditional sources and most of the news I was getting was from the old Warren Ellis forum on Delphi and whatever incarnation of the Bendis Board was up at the time.  I tried to go out to my car to get an update from the Howard Stern show, which at the time was on a one hour tape delay.  Unfortunately, Chicago was one of the few markets that cut away from the show in order to simulcast a news station.

We all know what happens next: the Pentagon gets hit, another flight crashes in Pennsylvania, and, eventually, the buildings fall.  It’s a day that, for a little while, unified the country, but at great cost.  A day we would all like to forget.  A day we never will.