This was one of my favorite 45s as a kid, so it was cool to unearth this ancient clip from a TV show called Happening. Everything was lip-synched then, but ya think they could've at least ponied up a mic stand. And yes, the band was really called the Bob Seger System. 

More about that

Sheboygan, Wisconsin native Bob Mueller is a whip-cracking, mad scientist drummer who also writes killer tunes full of quirky, literate lyrics and fun rhythmic twists. I met him while editing my college newspaper (he was our staff artist) and he later drafted me to be the sound man in his band Mr. Rogerz. When they broke up, he talked me into starting a new trio we called Your Missing Socks. As we started writing songs for our shows, we found we shared an eye for the absurd lyric as well as a reckless, mix-and-match attitude for musical styles.

A couple of those Socks songs have survived the test of time and made the set lists of various bands over the years. Heileman's appears on the Bean Hoy CD Boys Can't Be Trusted, and California’s Gonna Sink was updated and re-recorded for the Get Lost: The Studio J Sessions album. Get Lost also features the first commercially-released recording of Bob's Latin-flavored surf-rocker El Chupacabra, and he plays drums on the entire record. You can also hear Bob's stick work on my song Winter.

For a full slate of his original tunes, though, the ticket is his own Dime Novel CD, released in 1991, featuring fun rhythm-driven ditties like Hot Seat and Guerrilla Girl as well as memorably melodic introspective ballads like Another Year on the Planet. Fast-forwarding to 2009, Bob has just finished building a new recording space called Studio B in Port Washington, and I can't wait to hear what new material he conjures up there. Stay tuned to the Journeys in Sight & Sound blog for updates.

A new short short story by my friend and creative co-conspirator Jeff Winke has just been published by Mad Swirl. Don't read it unless you think you'd dig something written by "a recent victim of the global economic recession who supplements his unemployment check with odd jobs that include paid participation in medical experiments and being a doorman for a jazz club located in a dark corner of the city."

Read it, baby!
More Shots from the Road

Cafe Brucke is one of my all-time favorite spots on Milwaukee's east side. Relaxed Euro vibe (no TV, no smoking!), super import beer list (beware the liter!) and lots of yummy food specials (don't miss their deep dark chocolate cake). Mostly though, I just go for the atmosphere. This is one of those rare local insider secret spots that's regular-friendly while also inviting to new patrons. Plus, they bought a print of my Greek Street Musician photo (left) for their permanent art collection. So stop by and say hi!

Directions, menu, etc. at the cafe's official website

Songs are like children. Sometimes you set out to make ’em, other times they just happen. And no matter how you try to steer and guide ’em, they end up taking on a life of their own.

Winter! is a perfect example. I wrote it in 1986, sitting on the couch of Garrett Whatley's bat-in-the-belfry apartment in an old painted lady Victorian mansion in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Garrett was writing album reviews for me for a local music mag, and we had started getting together to jam on acoustic guitars. That eventually led us to start a band called the Mall Weirdos. But that night I remember being a little bored as Garrett was doing something with his girlfriend at the time (a very young Paula O’Rourke, who went on to her own career in music), and the song just came out. Paula liked it, I remember, but Garrett never thought much of it so we never played it in the Mall Weirdos. 

I made a demo of the song in 1987 with my drummer friend Bob Mueller at this old farmhouse where we were living in Oshkosh, Wis. Never did a thing with it. Thirteen years later, I started playing a weekly live gig in Milwaukee with Bob and bassist Jared Drake, and Winter! resurfaced. It turns out Bob had played our demo for a band he was in called the Lost Pioneers, and they were doing their own cool version of the song. It didn’t get recorded for the one CD the band made before breaking up, though I think some live recordings exist somewhere. But I always liked playing the song, and in 2006, I updated the original demo (replacing my vocal and rhythm guitar tracks, while leaving my original bassline, guitar solo and Bob’s drums) for release on Cool Music for a Big Dumb World, the second Bean Hoy CD.  

The tune is built on a standard country/folk G-C-D chord progression, but with a strong backbeat to make it rock. It’s a story song with personal anecdotes illustrating my native Wisconsinite love (kind of) for the season. It’s a bit unusual as I alter the “response” wording in each of the three call-and-response choruses, but it all serves to build tension and momentum for the final refrain: “All right! It’s 20 below!” 

Full lyrics and link to free song sample

Two of my photos have been selected for the 3rd Annual Coalition of Photographic Arts Juried Show. Chosen images: The Jazz Estate(above) and Indigo Freeway (detail shown in the top header).

The exhibition opens Dec. 4 at the Walker's Point Center for the Arts and runs through Jan. 16, 2010. 

Complete list of photographers in the show

Sometimes you gotta post something just for fun. Like the Draw A Pig Personality Test. Take it and see if it's accurate about (among other things) how stubborn you are, or how active your sex life is.

This has absolutely no redeeming value of any kind whatsoever.

I've always wanted to see the "last continent." For now, I have to settle for secondhand reports. Which is why I was so happy to see my CoPA colleague Betsy Hern's photo blog on her trip to Antarctica. 

Be an armchair traveler with Betsy's Antarctica blog