Tune of the Week for 02/23/09 -- Megadeth, High Speed Dirt

Yeah, so we're busy. And we're moving. And we're broke. But all is good. I'm more and more gladdened by life itself and grateful to just be part of the whole thing.

I'm posting another Megadeth song off the Countdown to Extinction album. If you are anything whatsoever of a Megadeth fan, you've got this CD. It's probably one of their most well-known and certainly has a number of radio favorites on it. The tune I've chosen is "High Speed Dirt". The reason is mainly the ending. There've been a few times that I've played those last few seconds about a dozen times in a row just to do it. The whole recording is good, though, so I can afford to choose this one based on the last few moments.

I like Megadeth. I'm not an enormous fan, but I do like them. I've only got a couple CDs to my name, but I'm well-acquainted with all of their albums as the result of using a couple of online music websites over the last several years (and because of MTV and even FM radio way back in the day).

Dave Mustaine's the main dude. In fact, he's the only original left. The rest of the band turns over pretty regularly. All I can figure is that he's not that easy to work with. Maybe I'm totally wrong about the guy, but I gather he's something of a perfectionist with his music. I'm listening to Megadeth's cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" as I write this. It ends with the drummer continuing while the rest of the band has ended and Mustaine yelling, "Nick, Nick" through clenched teeth. A total joke? I don't know. Maybe more like making fun of himself because of what he is, in my estimation. Not unlike Don Dokken's cursing to himself over the wrong pizza at the tail end of his latest CD (Dokken isn't known as being the easiest guy to please).

Mustaine was the first lead guitarist for Metallica, if you didn't know that already. I've read more than once that he has over the years compared his career with theirs as a sort of success guage. That's understandable, but maybe a little pathetic. He's far too talented to compare himself to anybody.

This is sort of odd, or maybe it's cool, I don't know: not too long ago, Mustaine made his cell number public on Megadeth's MySpace page. He encouraged anyone and everyone to call him.

I hope you enjoy this selection. Don't forget, the ending is the best part!

Tune of the Week for 02/16/09 -- Radiohead, Pyramid Song

Okay, so I'm already breaking my rule here of only playing really heavy stuff on this new blog.

But this tune is certainly well worth watching. I found it moving. Heather did, as well. I hope you get something out of it, too.

Tune of the Week for 02/02/09 -- Megadeth, Symphony of Destruction

This post's about the whole Illinois governor mess.

I could say a whole lot about Blogagagoyuck. I could talk about the nefarious way he got into politics to begin with (yeah, we in Illinois had to watch this dork go from "husband of woman whose daddy was important" to frickin' governor of our fine state). I could talk about watching him go from bad, to worse, to criminal. I could talk about how he totally snubbed Pat Quinn, then lieutenant governor, and was never even seen with him in public.

But instead, I'm going to talk about our new governor, Mr. Pat Quinn. The dude is awesome. I can actually say that, were I to telephone him and say, "Mr. Governor, this is Dave Snyder," he would know me. We worked in the same building for a couple of years, and I sometimes found myself in his neat office-the-size-of-a-closet, asking him for advice on a property tax appeal. He did the same kind of work I did and was as approachable as anyone I've ever known.

In fact, the very day after he lost his run for U.S. Senate and lost to Dick Durbin (in an insanely unfair, underfunded, and misrepresented election), Pat was back to work. I ran into him on the way out of the bathroom, and he was his same old self. I asked him how he was feeling after the loss, and he said, "No big deal. I've got work to do."

Mr. Quinn, among other things, is the founder of the Citizen's Utility Board (CUB), an agency that protects Illinois consumers from corporate greed (it forced AT&T, for example, to offer a low-cost plan that didn't require customers to sign up for services they didn't want). At a casual luncheon I once attended with him, he said to me with mouth half-full of hot dog, "Dave, we've gotta go after these utility companies. They're getting out of control." That was when he had just started CUB, and it's amazing what has happened since then because of his vision.

If Pat runs for governor after this term, I am seriously thinking about working for his campaign (if our online business has become successful by then), and I've never worked for such a thing before. But I believe in him that much. I mean, the guy drove a frickin' VW Rabbit to work! And it certainly wasn't new.

This tune is for the now, outgoing XXX-governor, with high hopes following closely behind for our state and also for our country. God bless Pat Quinn and the few other men and women like him!