Archives

Jan. 26, 2004

The weekend before last, I visited some old college friends in Arlington, Va., for a great mid-winter party replete with beer, mixed drinks, and delicious appetizers consisting largely of cheese.

While trading nostalgic stories about our respective hometown sports teams, my friend Tony’s cousin’s husband (got all that?), a Connecticut native, introduced us to “Brass Bonanza” — the fight song of the Hartford Whalers, who departed from the NHL in 1997.

I dare you to visit the Brass Bonanza site and download the full version (2:43 / 3,201 KB) of the song. It sounds more like a 1970s game show theme song than a hockey anthem, but the melody will remain lodged in your head for hours.

[ No. 78 ]

Jan. 21, 2004

Earlier this month, my favorite musician, Bob Mould, launched his own weblog, appropriately named Boblog. One of his first entries invited people to send him an e-mail with their Web site address, and he would post their URL on his site.

This sounded too good to be true — I can e-mail Bob directly? I’d met him after a few shows in the past and even got his autograph, but this was a pretty amazing offer nonetheless. So, I decided to send him a brief note, saying that I was enjoying his new site and that I’d posted a link to his weblog on my site.

Less than 30 minutes later, I received an e-mail from Bob Mould himself!

It wasn’t an automated message, either; I had mentioned looking forward to his next show in Philly, and he even made reference to that. Anyway, he thanked me for the kind words and said that a link to my site would appear on his weblog that evening.

Bob was true to his word, too — a link to monorailmike.com was included in his nightly roll call of referring sites. How cool is that?

[ No. 77 ]

Jan. 19, 2004

In the days leading up to last night’s NFC Championship game, most long-suffering Philadelphia Eagles fans weren’t saying, “I hope we win.” Instead, they just kept repeating, “I hope we don’t lose — again.”

That pessimism was confirmed by the Eagles’ third straight defeat in a conference title game, a miserable 14–3 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

But the outcome is not that surprising, really. The Eagles have made exactly one Super Bowl appearance and lost; their most recent championship dates back to 1960. By now, Philly football fans are practically accustomed to underachieving teams — no wonder they have a reputation for being a little cranky.

[ No. 76 ]

Jan. 17, 2004

If you live in the Philadelphia area and watch the local news, you might get the impression that no actual news has taken place during the last two weeks. Despite the upcoming presidential primaries and an ongoing war in Iraq, the nightly “big story” has focused squarely on sports (the Eagles’ playoff run) or weather (sub-zero wind chills and a mild snowfall earlier this week).

OK, I’ll admit that people are talking about little else around here. Considering their team narrowly missed a trip to the Super Bowl in 2002 and 2003, Eagles fans are understandably desperate for victory in the NFC title game on Sunday night. And yes, it’s been bitterly cold since last weekend. But can we dispense with the exclusive, in-depth football analysis, not to mention the ridiculous hand-wringing over a few inches of forecasted snow?

Believe it or not, there are more important events happening in the world these days — and I don’t mean Michael Jackson’s court hearings or Britney Spears’ short-lived marriage, either.

[ No. 75 ]

Jan. 1, 2004

Since I tend to rant and complain quite a bit on this site, I’ve decided to start off the new year on a positive note with a few genuine raves:

[ No. 74 ]