You've Got To Live and Learn

I love 90s music. The 90s were when I graduated from high school and college and became a young professional. I also went to concerts by myself for the first time (not counting seeing Debbie Gibson in the late 80s).This was a foundational part of my life.

Over the weekend, while flipping around stations on SiriusXM, I came across a 90s "Back in the Day Replay" where they played the top 30 songs from this week in 1992. While I'm not sure if the songs in the countdown are the same as the Billboard chart, they seemed to be similar. Let's take a look at the top 30 songs according to Billboard (since I have this and not the SiriusXM list).

1. Save the Best for Last - Vanessa Williams

2. Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton

3. Remember the Time - Michael Jackson

4. Masterpiece - Atlantic Starr

5. To Be With You - Mr. Big

Is this an adult contemporary countdown? These are all slow songs that might be played at the end of a high school dance. Well, no one is playing Tears in Heaven, the song based on Clapton's 4 year old son tragically dying from falling out of a window at prom or homecoming. Not a romantic song for teenagers (or anyone else). Of the other songs, I barely remember Masterpiece. All five of these songs are okay at best. In any event, these were your top 5 songs in the first week of April 1992? Yikes!

6. I'm Too Sexy - Right Said Fred

7. Breakin' My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes) - Mint Condition

8  Make It Happen - Mariah Carey

9. I Can't Dance - Genesis

10. Beauty and the Beast - Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson

I'll admit that I'm a fan of I'm Too Sexy. It's just fun. And after seeing this, I know you want to tell your significant other that you're too sexy for your shirt or your hat or your car. Otherwise, we have more adult contemporary hits. We have early Mariah, and the absolute worst Genesis song. I also have no recollection of Breakin' My Heart or Mint Condition. Don't remember them getting airplay on B-94.

11. Justified and Ancient - The KLF featuring Tammy Wynette

12. Good For Me - Amy Grant

13. I Love Your Smile - Shanice

14. Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg  TLC

15. Hazard - Richard Marx

The KLF had a great song called 3AM Eternal. They followed it up with a similar sounding song and an extremely odd pairing with Tammy Wynette in Justified and Ancient. Even at the time, I remember being confused about what was happening. Good For Me is fine though the video is um, not good, and makes me dizzy. I Love Your Smile is a happy song, and TLC is just great. Even though my 14 year-old did not like Hazard, I think it's a fantastic song and has been the one stuck in the my head since I decided to create this post.

16. Thinkin' Back - Color Me Badd
17. Human Touch/Better Days - Bruce Springsteen

18. Everything Changes - Kathy Troccoli

19. Missing You Now - Michael Bolton

20. We Got a Love Thang - CeCe Peniston

All five of these songs are completely forgettable. I have no recollection of Color Me Badd having a second song. Human Touch probably doesn't make one of Springsteen's top 75 songs. I really hope that Kathy's last name rhymes with Broccoli. I also remember music videos being better than what I'm sharing in this post. 

21. If You Go Away - NKOTB

22. One - U2

23. Tell Me What You Want Me To Do - Tevin Campbell

24. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

25. Oochie Coochie - M.C. Brains

How about this for a group of five songs? You have two absolute classics by Queen and U2. Tevin Campbell always amazed me since it seemed like he was putting out hits at the age of 10. I'll give New Kids on the Block credit for having massive and catchy songs with You Got It (The Right Stuff) and Step by Step. If You Go Away is not one of these songs. Adding M.C. Brains here reminds me of the part of the movie A League of Their Own where the league makes a reel of its players. And how 'bout M.C. Brains? What a hitter.

26. Live and Learn - Joe Public

27. Romeo & Juliet - Stacy Earl featuring The Wild Pair

28. My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It) - En Vogue

29. Uhh Ahh - Boyz II Men

30. I'm the One You Need - Jody Watley

I thought Live and Learn was an awesome song in 1992. Not sure if it still holds up today. Now My Lovin' absolutely holds up. Just as good as 33 years ago. 

Overall, this is not a very good group of songs. In the top 20, you have some of the greatest selling artists of all-time, but these aren't close to the best songs by Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Springsteen, Celine Dion, and even Michael Bolton. So many ballads. Without looking, I'm just going to hope that the charts later that year were much better!

In case you're wondering, there are some amazing and memorable songs beyond the top 30. Prince's Diamonds and Pearls was #31, Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit was #32, and the one song I remember by Color Me Badd, All 4 Love, was #34 after reaching the top of the chart weeks earlier. Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me by George Michael and Elton John was just outside the top 40. Two other notable songs that debuted in the top 100 that week: Jump by Kris Kross and Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Sheffield Wednesday & Random Ramblings

This will be an odd blog post. I'm going to start by discussing Saturday's Sheffield Wednesday-Birmingham City game (including some random thoughts that have nothing to do with the game) and finish with some random ramblings. So if you're not interested in Sheffield Wednesday, scroll down. If you're not interested in my other ramblings, I'll let you know when to stop.

Sheffield Wednesday moved closer towards 0 and getting out of last place on Saturday by earning 3 points in a 1-0 win at Birmingham City. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Wednesday started the season with a 12-point deduction for breaking spending rules. After five matches in the English League Championship, they are now at -4 which continues to look extremely odd.

Just a few days ago, Wednesday signed Aden Flint on a loan from Cardiff City and Jack Marriott on a loan from Derby County. Despite not knowing their way around Wednesday's facilities yet, they both played on Saturday. Flint was pressed into service thanks to several injuries on the team's back line. Marriott also came in late in the second half. Both are experienced players, particularly with Flint's nearly 400 appearances, and they seem excited to join Wednesday. This gives the team even more depth. At the very least, the team should be able to get some good hotel rates thanks to the Jack's connection with Marriott.

Wednesday has now faced two music superstars over the past month. While they didn't fare well against Chris Martin and Bristol City, U2's Adam Clayton tripped Wednesday's Callum Paterson in the box, and Barry Bannon converted the penalty kick for the only goal of the game. Yes, Adam Clayton was stuck in a moment and couldn't get out of it.

There have been so many matches over the last few years where Wednesday had the lead only to concede a late goal. Birmingham City came close, but for once, Wednesday held on. That's nice to type.

I'm sharing this post-match video of Birmingham City defender George Friend, not for anything that he said (though he thought his team deserved a better result), but for him being a professional. When someone with a lawnmower or a leaf blower walks by around the 2:00 minute mark, Friend just talks louder. I'm guessing this isn't the first time this has happened to Friend in the middle of an interview. True professional!

Here are the match highlights:

And now for the non-Sheffield Wednesday portion of this blog post.

On Saturday night, we let three year old Luigi move from a crib to a big boy bed. It didn't go well as it took him nearly two hours to go to sleep. I think this deserves a separate blog post.

Broadway actor Aaron Tveit and I have a lot in common. We both did theater in high school, and we both graduated from Ithaca College. I'm sure there are other things too. The main difference between us though is that Tveit is probably going to be a Tony-award winning actor after being the only nominee in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical category. The key word here is probably. Despite being the only nominee, he's not guaranteed to win the award. Tveit still needs to earn 60% of the vote. I really hope he wins, and it would be insulting and sad if he doesn't.

Random question. Do you put a dryer sheet in the dryer before you put the clothes in or after you put the clothes in the dryer?

I may be the only person born in Pittsburgh never to have seen the movie Sudden Death. That's going to change soon.

Finally, I'm really amused that someone in the Burning Bush neighborhood posted this on Nextdoor.

The Ultimate 2018 World Cup Preview

Welcome to the greatest World Cup preview you will read anywhere...as long as you're not looking for a breakdown of each individual team. Or any other analysis. Instead, this post contains random information about players and teams. For example, do you want to know what team has the most players with tattoos? I mean, I don't have the answer, but I'd like to know. Watch the 2018 World Cup over the next month, and together, we'll find out. In the meantime, enjoy all the random information you didn't know you wanted to know.

With the United States failing to qualify for the World Cup, many Americans are looking for teams to support. The answer is probably Iceland because they are the smallest country to ever reach the World Cup with a population of about 335,000 (or slightly more than Corpus Christi, Texas and Lexington, Kentucky) and are coached by a dentist. I highly recommend reading this Sports Illustrated article about Iceland and their coach/practicing dentist Heimir Hallgrímsson.

There are other options too. Costa Rica features Rodney Wallace, who grew up in Rockville, Maryland, attended the University of Maryland, and plays for New York FC. Costa Rica and Panama both have 6 players on their rosters that play in the MLS. Then there's Gotoku Sakai who was born in the tiny Japanese village of (double-checks Wikipedia) New York City, so if you want a team with an American-born player, Japan is your pick.

Maybe you want to root for the biggest stars of the sport. Well, this World Cup certainly has star power. Lionel Messi for Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal, and Bono for Morocco. You thought Bono was touring with The Edge and company didn't you? Bono can do it all!

Let's take a closer look at some individual players.

- The oldest player in this year's World Cup is Egyptian goalie, Essam El Hadary born on ‎January‎ ‎15‎, ‎1973.

- The youngest player is Australian forward Daniel Arzani born on January 4, 1999. France's Mbappe born on December 20, 1998 and Moroccan defender Achraf Hakimi born on November 4, 1998 are close behind.

- The tallest player is 6' 7" Lovre Kalinic of Croatia. Little known fact: Lovre changed his first name from Louvre so that he wouldn't be confused with the world's largest art museum in Paris.

- The shortest player is 5' 5" Yahia Al Shehri of Saudi Arabia.

- Unofficially, the lightest players are Fabian Delph of England and the aforementioned Yahia Al Shehri at 132 pounds.

- Unofficially, the heaviest player is Harry Maguire, Delph's English teammate, at 220 pounds.

- While Saudi Arabia features 9 players from Al-Hilal FC and 7 players from Al-Ahli Saudi FC, Germany has 7 players from Bayern Munich, and Spain's roster includes 6 players from Real Madrid, there is only one country with its entire roster playing in its domestic league: England.

- Speaking of England, I enjoyed mixing the worlds of sports and music together thanks to the marriage of David Beckham and Victoria Beckham of the Spice Girls. It's too bad none of the current players are married to or dating members of Little Mix or One Direction or something.

- Fortunately, Spain is here to fill the void with Gerard Pique and his partner Shakira. Unfortunately, their house got robbed recently.

- The winner for the club team with the most World Cup players in Manchester City with 16. Real Madrid is next with 15. Here are the other top teams:

Man City - 16
Real Madrid - 15
Barcelona - 14
Paris Saint-Germain - 12
Chelsea - 12
Tottenham -12
Manchester United - 11
Juventus - 11
Bayern Munich - 11
Minnesota United - 1 (Francisco Calvo of Costa Rica)

- I added Minnesota United here since the team only started playing in 2017. When I interviewed CEO Chris Wright last summer, he was still President of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx.

- Morocco has a very interesting team composition. The 23-man roster includes a total of only 6 players born in Morocco along with 8 in France, 5 born in the Netherlands, 2 in Spain, 1 in Belgium, and 1 from the soccer hotbed of, um, Montreal, Canada. And that Canadian is Bono. Again, Bono is everywhere!

- Peru is a country of 31.7 million people. Lima, the country's capital and largest city, has about 9 million people. However, of the 23 players on the Peru roster, an amazing 18 were born in Lima. That seems quite disproportionate. Meanwhile, it appears that the city with the second most World Cup players born there is Reykjavík, Iceland with 13.

- Speaking (well writing) about Iceland, everyone on its World Cup roster has a last name ending in N...except for Frederik Schram. How did that guy make the team?

- Everyone on Serbia has a last name ending in "ic" except Aleksandar Kolarov and Antonio Rukavina. New Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Jon Bostic fits in perfectly here.

- We interrupt this fascinating look at the World Cup rosters with the all food team.

* Nacho Monreal of Spain
* Ruben Dias of Portugal
* Kahraba (possibly inspired by Carrabba's Italina Grill) of Egypt
* Aziz Bouhaddouz of Morocco. You're probably wondering why I'm including Bouhaddouz. This last name isn't that close to baklava or baba ganoush. Bouhaddouz is here since he plays for the Hamburg, Germany team FC St. Pauli. Hey, you need something to drink down your nachos, Reuben, and Italian food!

Back to your regularly scheduled blog post already in progress.

- Saudi Arabia has three midfielders with the last name Hawsawi: Motaz, Osama, and Omari. That won't be confusing.

- Portugal has three players with the last name of Silva: Andre, Bernardo, and Adrien.

- South Korea has five players named Kim and three named Lee.

- If your name is Jonathan Matías Urretaviscaya da Luz, you have to have a nickname. Good move by this Uruguay player to go by Urreta.

- Urreta's teammate Gastón Silva had a prominent role in Beauty & the Beast.

- The nickname of Denmark's Mathias Jørgensen is Zanka. Apparently, Zanka's nickname is from the movie Cool Runnings, where one of the main characters is named Sanka. You didn't expect a reference to Cool Runnings here, did you?

- Croatia has 5 players born in Yugoslavia. That just looks odd to read since Yugoslavia broke up in the early 90s.

- Belgium features brothers Thorgan & Eden Hazard. Since Belgium has a monarchy, it's possible that if Belgium wins the World Cup, they could become the Dukes of Hazard.

- When not writing the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, the apparently resurrected Sebastian Larsson is on the Swedish national team.

- Willian plays for Brazil while also being part of The Black Eyed Peas and appearing as a hologram during the 2008 CNN election coverage.

- Panama gets the prize for the most multi-sport athletes. Eric Davis is a defender for Panama and was all All-Star outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds. Jose Calderon is fresh off his NBA Finals loss with the Cleveland Cavaliers and future Hall-of-Famer Alex Rodriguez is taking a break from his work as a baseball analyst to play in Russia.

- Tunisia's Saber Khalifa may or may not be related famous Pittsburghers: rapper Wiz Khalifa and Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Sammy Khalifa.

- Despite being in a fairly weak group, the host Russian team isn't expected to go very far in the tournament. Therefore, don't be surprised to Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin as two late additions to the roster since they've both won Stanley Cups in the last three years. Success breeds success or winning begets winning, right?

Enjoy the games!


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Photos by Getty Images, The Paris Pass, Shakira's Twitter account, and RussianMachineNeverBreaks

U2 Concert Review

While I don't necessarily have a bucket list of bands/performers I want to see live in concert, if I did, U2 would be on this list. U2 is currently on a tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of The Joshua Tree, so despite the fact that I vowed never go to FedEx Field again, I traveled there to see U2 in June. (For the record, I said I would never see a Redskins game at FedEx again. It's extremely inconvenient to get there, parking and refreshments are extraordinarily high, and it's owned by Dan Snyder. Also for the record, for the U2 concert, it was still extremely inconvenient to get there, but I parked in a non-FedEx Field lot and didn't buy any food or drink at the stadium.)

* There were two songs that I wanted to see U2 perform live more than any others: Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year's Day. U2 opened with these two songs, so I decided that it was time to leave on a high note.



* I'm sure that you're shocked that I didn't actually leave after two songs. U2 performed four songs on the "small" stage and then transitioned to a gigantic stage to play The Joshua Tree album in its entirety.

* Hot take: Side A of The Joshua Tree album (cassette!) with Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, With or Without You, and Bullet the Blue Sky is great. Side B is meh. From top to bottom, the All That You Can't Leave Behind album with Beautiful Day, Elevation, Walk On, and Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of is better than The Joshua Tree. Hot take complete.

* I saw The Rolling Stones in San Diego in 1998 and remember thinking that they were old (yet were still amazing live). At the time of that show, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were 54, Ronnie Wood was 50, and Charlie Watts was 56. Meanwhile, U2 is actually older now than The Stones were then as Bono and Adam Clayton are 57 and The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. are 55.

* Does The Edge ever not wear a hat? Does he sleep in one and shower with a hat too?

* So despite leaving more than two hours before the start of the concert, we didn't make it to our seats until part-way through The Lumineers set. Therefore, I never saw The Lumineers perform Ho Hey, also known as the only song that I know by them. I did hear Ho Hey twice on the radio the day after the concert, so I'll call it even.

* I'm not taking credit for this observation, but Adam Clayton has an Anthony Bourdain look to him.

* U2 has such a deep catalog. I was (and am) happy that they played Elevation, Beautiful Day, One, Vertigo, and Pride (In the Name of Love) but it would have been cool if they also played Mysterious Ways and Desire. Again, really, really deep catalog.

* Overall, I really enjoyed the show. Yes, Bono talks a lot between songs about a wide variety of topics, but you know that coming in.

* Here's The Washington Post's review of the show. A lot of people didn't like it along with a few songs. The Baltimore Sun reviewed the show too.

* Oh, I was able to take this picture at FedEx Field for free. Thanks, Dan Snyder!

Finally, here are some videos from the show:

Sunday Bloody Sunday


(Another view of Sunday Bloody Sunday)


New Year's Day


Where the Streets Have No Name