State of the Ramblings: Edge of Seventeen

Sean's Ramblings is officially 17 years old. I think that's about 214 in blog years! It's been an odd year. When I wrote the State of Ramblings in January 2021, my kids were still attending school from home virtually, vaccines were only beginning to roll out, and my work-life balance of working from home with everyone here was a disaster. I mean, although everything got done, it came at the expense of sleep and my writing. The beginning of the year on the blog focused on things at home. I watched the Biden inauguration, played Just Dance with my kids, and attempted to potty train Luigi.

Then, things started to open up. The older two kids went back to school and all of the kids went to camp this summer. We drove thousands of miles on I-95 for vacation, everyone returned to school/preschool and work this fall, and the kids played organized baseball and soccer. I also went to Nashville where I shared an elevator with Robert Plant and visited the Grand Ole Opry.

I wrote a lot about anniversaries this past year. The 20th anniversary of 9/11, the 20th anniversary of my less than 24-hour trip to see the Pittsburgh Penguins face the Buffalo Sabres in a game 7 playoff game, and the one-year anniversary of my dad's passing.

I started a brand new series called "Hills I'm willing to die on." I wrote two whole posts, so apparently there aren't many hills that I'm willing to die on. Hopefully, I'll find more hills in 2022.  

I still like pretending that I'm a sports blogger sometimes. My 2021 Pirates predections post was quite thorough and included a fantastic group of contributors. I also continued to write draft recaps of the Pirates and Steelers, which are always fun.

My favorite posts may have been the ultimate list of famous Ithaca College grads and an interview with Jake Rosenberg of the Israeli national baseball team.

Overall, I wrote 100 posts in 2021. That's the first time I've reached triple digits in blog posts since 2016. For 2022, I want to do something big. I don't know what that is yet. I've talked about covering the Oscars or Emmys or even a sporting event but that seems unlikely thanks to COVID. (And the fact that the Academy Awards people have not sent me an acceptance or denial response for this year's ceremonies. When I applied, they said I would receive a reply in 2 business days. It's now been almost two months. Maybe they're waiting to give me the VIP media credential!)  Anyway, I have an idea for a huge interview which probably has a 2% chance of happening. That might be high. We'll see.

Thanks to all of you for reading my blog and for your support over the years. I have no idea how I've written this for 17 years!

Midnight Sky

Miley Cyrus and I have an odd relationship. Maybe I should start again. I believe that Miley's "Party In The USA" is one of the best pop songs over the last 15 years. You can fight me on this. She probably knew that she would never have a song as good as this, yet, it's not like she was going to retire from the music industry before turning 18. Back to me and Miley, I also admitted to liking the song "See You Again" in the early days of my blog. However, I selected her "Dooo It!" as the worst song of 2015. It's like the opposite of "Party In The USA" in how terrible it is. See, we have an odd relationship. Fine, I have an weird relationship with her music. And I really like her latest song "Midnight Sky."

By the way, the "oooh" said by Miley several times during the song (the first at the 1:05 mark) sounds a lot like Stevie Nicks in "Edge of Seventeen."

Fleetwood Mac Concert Review

To quote Mick Fleetwood from Tuesday night’s concert at the Verizon Center in Washington, "The Mac is back!" While I agree with him, he or Lindsey Buckingham could have said this at the beginning of the show instead of when they exited the stage. Before I write about the concert, I want to start with the fact that Fleetwood Mac is a fascinating group. There’s the Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green from the late 60s/early 70s and then the one with huge mainstream success with Stevie Nicks and Buckingham. Between Nicks, Buckingham and Christine McVie, who unfortunately is not on the tour, I can’t think of another band with three different lead singers and songwriters. (I’m not counting a group like Destiny’s Child where all three singers have their own verse of a song. A Christine McVie song is completely different than a Stevie Nicks song which is completely different than a Lindsey Buckingham song.) Plus there have been some relationship issues between the band members over the years.

Anyway, the concert was awesome. To paraphrase Buckingham, the band isn’t promoting a new album; they are just playing their hits. And play their hits they did. The Chain, Rhiannon, Landslide, Go Your Own Way, Silver Springs, Don’t Stop, Gold Dust Woman and more. Excuse me as I go into notes format:

- Who do you put in the Pantheon of great guitarists? Hendrix, Clapton, Van Halen, Santana, King, Berry, and Slash could all be candidates. After seeing Fleetwood Mac live, I think Buckingham deserves some consideration.

- Nicks performed her trademark twirl during Stand Back. While she was great all night, I think Nicks may have lost a step on her twirl. (Of course, it could also have been the shoes she was wearing.)

- The Post-Gazette’s review of Fleetwood Mac’s concert in Pittsburgh included the set list. The list didn’t change between the Pittsburgh and Washington shows.

- If anyone reading this was at the DC show, can you please translate what Fleetwood said during the encore of World Turning? I couldn’t understand a word coming out of his mouth.

- The last concert I saw before Fleetwood Mac was Neil Diamond. There's probably about a 10-year age difference between Neil (late 60s) and most of Fleetwood Mac (around 60). What 50 year-old performer can I see next?

- I was tempted to buy a $45 Rock On Gold Dust Woman T-shirt but decided against it. (The shirt sells for only $34.95 on the Fleetwood Mac website store although I don't know the cost of tax and shipping.) I feel like I bought a Dave Matthews Band T-shirt for only $15. Of course, that was also 15 years ago.



The Washington Times and The Washington Post reviewed the show, but the Post included a picture (from 2004 accorinding to the comments) that wasn’t taken during the concert. In addition, you can read more about the show from local bloggers Jason’s View from DC (plus a video) and The Pink Cheeseburger.