A to Z Music Challenge

Inspired by this post, I wanted to see if I can come up with a list of bands / artists I like - I  get self-conscious about listening to the same things over and over, where most of what I like to listen to has been preprogrammed over the past 5 decades. 

It's pretty clear where I stand as far as dating myself, but for the most part these are probably my 'ride or die' music artists / bands with a few exceptions - where I've listed artist / band with a random 'ride or die' song I come back to even though I won't dig for any other songs by the same artists / bands.  

A - AC/DC, Aerosmith - AC/DC was all about the hard hitting arena rock that gets the blood flowing, that teased all sort of trouble and mayhem, while the Aerosmith I followed through the early 1990s starred in a run of great music videos that really made think long and hard.   

B - Bon Jovi, Beastie Boys - no one has to know I still seek out Bon Jovi songs and rock out to the  classics like Wanted Dead or Alive or Livin' on a Prayer, Blaze of Glory. 

C - Coldplay - I have never really embraced them, but through the course of the 2000s, these guys set the tone as far as what I listened to.  

D - Daft Punk, Darude - I was into Daft Punk because the electronic music beats kept me on my feet as something a little different. Darude = Sandstorm.

E - Eminem - I never really embraced him as an artist, but Higher and Till I Collapse are on list of pump me up songs. 

F - Foo Fighters, Fleetwood Mac, Fun - through the course of the late 1990s onward, Foo Fighters set the tone as far as what I listened to as far as mainstream rock band.

I like to imagine myself back in the late 1970s, listening to some Fleetwood Mac but in the here and now want to be like that guy on a skateboard - who got his 15 minutes of fame in 2020 chilling to Dreams with his cranberry drink.   

G - Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, Guns N'Roses, Genesis - I've thought about at least a couple of crushes in my life listening to Goo Goo Dolls; I swear Green Day's 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours was all about my high school crush. 

Guns N' Roses was the mainstream super rock band of the early 1990s and hard to ignore at their peak. 

I think when referring to Genesis, I think mostly about Phil Collins.  

"Take the lyrics to 'Land of Confusion", in this song Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority .. "In Too Deep", is the most moving pop song of the 1980s about monogamy and commitment .. the song is extremely uplifting, the lyrics are as positive and affirmative as, uh, anything I've heard in rock .. "

H - Hall & Oates - I grew up on listening pop, soft rock stations playing mid 1980s songs.  

I - Ice Cube - for the most part I fit into the stereotype of someone from suburbia trying to latch onto a little hip hop as some kind of edgy thing. 

J - John Mayer - there might have been a time, where I turned into mush listening to some of his songs.  

K - Killswitch Engage - The End of Heartache - I only know of this one song, because it was the entrance music of one time Angels reliever Brian Fuentes during the 2009 season.

L - Linkin Park - through the course of 2000s through 2010s, didn't realize these guys would set the tone as far as what I listened to, for better or for worse. I once found them loud and abrasive but I find them inspirational now, even with the passing of the lead vocalist Chester Bennington in 2017.   

M - Michael Jackson - my childhood GOAT. 

N - Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana - with the music I listened to, there might have an been an edgy phase that revolved being a wannabe, angsty teen where I wanted to listen to loud, unconventional industrial music or at times depressing themes that Kurt Cobain [R.I.P.] pushed. 

O - The Offspring, Oasis - The Offspring was a punk band that found mainstream success so I maybe  latched through them through early 1990s as the new, coolest thing where I'd gone from pop music, rock, grunge and then punk. Oasis probably hit my consciousness through the mid 1990s as an import from England and looking past their popular hit songs, Acquiesce still lingers.  

P - Pearl Jam

Q - Queen

R - R.E.M. - a girl I had a crush on in the early 1990s had a R.E.M. t-shirt and as a joke, I remember mimicking the lead singer Michael Stipe in that Losing My Religion video. Maybe a couple of songs I liked was Everybody Hurts and Man on the Moon. 

S - Staind, Sylvester, Social Distortion, Stone Temple Pilots - Staind lead singer Aaron Lewis really had a nice little run of some really heartfelt songs [It's Been Awhile, So Far Away, For You] that just hit a little different back in the early 2000s. 

T - Third Eye Blind, Tears for Fears, Toad the Wet Sprocket - go figure, crushes play a big part of music I listen to and 3EB's first album [titled Third Eye Blind] is always going to be about that certain college crush. 

Tears for Fears, Everybody Wants to Rule the World symbolizes the decade of the 1980s for me. 

Toad the Wet Sprocket might not have ever reached true mainstream success but for me, past all bands that were at their peak commercially - listening to Toad the Wet Sprocket songs [Walk On the Ocean, Fall Down] always gets me nostalgic for the early part of the 1990s. 

U - U2 - through the course of the early 1990s onward, these guys set the tone as far as what I end up listening to through the here and now. They end up probably my No. 1 group of all time, though I keep going back to mostly their older catalog than any of the 'here and now' songs.  

V - The Verve - Lucky Man

W - Weezer

X - X Ambassadors - Renegades

Y - Young the Giant - My Body

Z - Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 - this and Darude's Sandstorm end up probably the most well known 'jock jams' songs played at stadiums during the past 15-20 years. 

Baseball video games

I still play the occasional baseball video game, which means a used MLB 2K10 I bought three or four years ago for $3 and change - I play the game on an XBox 360 console from 2006 that I treat like a video game console from 1990, which means it's just me against the computer.

Even thought MLB 2K10 is at least five years old - the graphics are so much better than when I was really into video games 25-30 years ago.

I do get bored however, because maybe baseball doesn't really lend itself to the excitement of non-sport games [which I don't play at all] - the baseball games on the MLB 2K10 plays more like a simulation and I wish it had the following, which I swear I've seen randomly in the various low bit baseball video games of my youth:

1.) An arcade game mode - exaggerated sound effects, animation effects that are combined with whatever 'realism' is injected into the games over the last five years.

2.) More player animations - players adjusting their cups, pitchers on the mound tiring, players spitting seeds, batters admiring home runs, player close ups with seemingly realistic mannerisms.

3.) Beanball brawls, ejections - it's probably not politically correct for games licensed by Major League Baseball, but it would be a fun add to see something where the a beaned batter would get angry and charge the mound; maybe the benches empty and relievers are storming out of the bullpen in anticipation of a fight.

4.) Fully developed postseason scenarios - maybe have a celebration montage if you win the World Series, maybe have several different ones or even one for each team, so there would be something to play for as opposed to the merely season ending and rolling over to the next.

5.) Broadcast crews - they sort of add realism to the games, but they can only say so much; they probably shouldn't mention anything that can be outdated like names of the managers in the dugout.

When it was apparent what was going on before my very eyes

I had to see if I could get some footage of some poor schlub getting gang tackled by Angel Stadium security - for jumping into the field during the last moments of an Angels game back on July 24.

Featured food - a Halo Dog

Despite the number of food choices at Angel Stadium [my regular haunting grounds as a baseball fan] - whenever I go to a game, I usually don't buy anything to eat inside the stadium, preferring to walk to get something to eat at a McDonald's, Carl's Jr. or a Mexican place near the stadium.

During last Saturday's game against the Baltimore Orioles, the hot dog stand in the courtyard where the Gene Autry statue is located [on the Field Level] called out to me - I really didn't want to go out and walk across the street to likely go to Carl's Jr. again.

I think I had enough money and was either going to get the 'specialty' nachos [don't remember what they were called] or a random hot dog - topped with different things, each hot dog sold is supposed to represent a different MLB ballpark.

I scrounged enough change and bought a 'Halo Dog,' for $7.50 - which featured a bacon wrapped hot dog topped with jack cheese, charro beans and chili pepper relish.

I lugged my hot dog [and a bottle of water I found along the way] all the way out to the picnic tables out behind centerfield - the bun had gotten a little soggy and I had to eat the hot dog with a fork and pick at the toppings, instead of eating the hot dog with my bare hands.

The relish was sweet, tangy and spicy while the bacon added some more flavor / saltiness to the already sodium laden hot dog - I don't know if the hot dog hit the spot, but I wouldn't mind missing a Carls Jr. meal for this, even there was really no drink to go with the hot dog.

If I get the hot dog the next time, I might save time, energy and maybe a buck - during the game I saw the hot dogs were $6.50 by the concession stands on the Terrace Level concourse in left field.

I took a picture of the menu to remember what the name of the hot dog was and what the toppings were - it was similar to ones sold at the courtyard on the Field Level.

If your 'home team' Angels are really not doing so well and are about to miss the playoffs for the first time in more than several years - you don't avoid talking about the 'bad things,' you just find other things to talk about while still 'keeping the faith.'

Taking account of it all with some perspective

I live in Orange County, California but was about 90 miles away in El Cajon - to attend one of baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn's public appearances at a car dealership on Nov. 15.

I was pretty much isolated from the fires that burned through parts of Riveride/Los Angeles County and Orange County - the Triangle Complex; Brea, Anaheim Hills, Yorba Linda, Chino Hills, Corona, Diamond Bar.

I visited a baseball card shop down south to stock up on some 'goodies' from their commons bins - spending the afternoon there with a friend immersed in digging up cards the store was selling for a dime each.

I finally called back my mother, who had called me about five times intermittently during the afternoon - she said a neighborhood park burned down along with a singular house close to ours.

Going back to Orange County, there is a surreal feeling because you know there is supposedly a fire threatening your home - but life is still going on. You realize something is going on that maybe bugging you, but then it isn't affecting others at all. There is supposed to be this fire, but how can it be, that everyone is not stopping in their tracks?

I was kind of stunned on my way to Uncle's house, where it was somewhat safer [though I didn't honestly know how much] - I was seeing glimpses of the fires blazing, blowing for the first time. There were fires at several different areas and I'm thinking this wasn't just some isolated incident. I was sort of scared at the implication of these fires burning.

I tried to keep it as real as possible for me - knowing I was safe and really wasn't exposed to what I consider a tragedy. If I'd stayed the whole day at home, then go through the motions of having to be evaculated 'on the go,' I might have lost my cool.

I was worried about my inanimate, sentimental stuff however like keepsakes and collectibles - I wish my brother didn't patronize and mock me about not being able to save my 'stuff' since I didn't want to be reminded that a fire might wipe out 'stuff' I thought I cared enough about to build up.

What is the stuff I'll take a chance on burning without really crying over it [?] - I may need to have the cavalier attitude for most things, that they can either burn and/or you can replace them one way or the other [no matter how much they cost in the first place].

It doesn't mean certain things may not mean as much, but only serve as distractions - by keeping you from actually saving some one-of-a-kind items or stuff that may actually be crucial. Of course, you don't have a choice at times to even save the truly special stuff.

You amass and accumulate - but find it is a mess to realistically take all your 'stuff' where you know you aren't worrying about one more thing. It becomes a doomsday scenario, where you must decide what to grab, on the run.

What are the must grabs [?] - it really is difficult to think about; maybe my little thumb drive, since it has become sort of your storage area for journals, database information, maybe passwords, et al. You don't do a single thing on the computer, without opening a file on your thumb drive.

I was able to take refuge at my Uncle's home - good thing no one forgot the family dog.