Talking Sports With Leftover Chinese



I woke up at 5am this morning for no reason in particular. I couldn't quite trace the source of it. I had trouble falling back asleep so I got out of bed and went hunting for the Huey Lewis and the News album titled Sports before finally falling back asleep.



I've been meaning to teach myself song structure for a while and for some reason I decided today would be the day I begin charting random albums from the library; Verse/Break/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Chorus sort of stuff.



Huey Lewis's inoffensive brand of popular music stays pretty consistent. I charted the entire album and I think I'm done listening to this one for a while. I'll just show you "If this is It."

Intro - 8 Bars/Measues/etc.
Verse I - 8
Pre-Chorus - 8
Chorus - 8
Verse II - 8
Pre-Chorus - 8
Chorus - 8
Guitar Solo - 8
Chorus (2x) - 16

Eight seems to be the magic number on this song. It's one of four Top 10 hits on the album. That's some sports Voodoo.

. . [~] . 2 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese's Saturday of Liesure

This is the first do-nothing Saturday afternoon in ages...

- Somewhere on the internets, somebody is sharing 9 Billy Squier albums.
- Jason Hervey is still alive. He's one of Scott Baio's buddies on that VH-1 reality show. Quinn told me he and Graham went to a mall about 17 years ago to see him.
- The dog whisperer isn't so much a "whisperer" as he is an effective human programmer.

Yep. That's about it.

. . [~] . 1 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese's Amalgam of Bad Musical Elements

...and no, I'm not talking about looking over somebody's shoulder on the train to see that they're listening to Abba thus releasing an audible chuckle...not that "take a chance" is a bad song, but it's not something you'd expect to see from a heavyset man wearing a lavender t-shir...heh...nevermind.

Long story short: Disco + Prog + Overt Lyrics = ugh...maybe.

The other day, Graham Smith (the real one, not the one from Thunder in the Valley) sent me a track from a prog band called The Tangent and it was good. The track lacked a few elements that people hate about prog: falestto singing and an overabundance of guitar shredding (Modern example: Dream Theater).

Curious, I went looking around the internets to find more of the album and what did it find? The requisite 20 minute opus? Check. Bass solos? Check. Story arc? Hrm.

The album is largely auto-biographical and not in the sense that the lyricist has deep seated issues about being a musician. It doesn't take much imagination to see what they're talking about and that takes the fun out of it. Most songs basically convey the message : "It's hard out there for a Yorkshire Prog Rock Band trying to make it big in London, give us a chance!" Summarized in this IM exchnage:

me: never thought I'd hear an autobiographical prog song
Graham: that's one of the signs of an impending apocalypse

Today's track: The Sun in My Eyes.

. . [~] . 1 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese Had All These Plans for the 5 Year Chicago Commemoration

Then life got busy. Oh well. I guess it's a good thing that I'm out doing stuff rather than breaking down the minutiae of my day-to-day life (see 2003 archives). I was going to post pictures of people and what not but whatever. Anyway, this blog is getting old in years and I will re-up my server space for one more year. This begs the question: Where do I go from here?

[ ] Photoblog
[ ] More Day to Day stuff
[ ] Bad MP3 Blog
[ ] Travelogue
[ ] You the reader submit ideas for theme weeks or months and I act upon them
[ ] Status quo / all of the above

. . [~] . 1 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Five Years of Leftover Chinese in Chicago: America

Life in Chicago isn't all high-rise apartments and mundane tasks at work (I moved out in 2004 but kept the same job).

I promised myself to try to see the country. I was finally out of Wisconsin and had the means to look around once in a while. Having friends in different places definitely helped.


Bay Area California - 2003.


Mississippi Delta (Louisiana) - 2004.


Western Michigan - 2004.


Austin Texas - 2004.


Marshall, MN - 2004.


Las Vegas, NV - 2006

Circumstances eventually lead me to joining two bands.


Washington, DC - 2005


New York City - 2005


Pennsylvania - 2006


Portland, OR - 2007

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Five Years of Leftover Chinese in Chicago: The Big Bad City


I made the big move to this fair city in July of 2002.

I set up camp with nothing more than a college degree, one friend, and a rare corporate skill set that made it hard to find a job in the post 9/11 economy. I found myself in Chicago not by choice. It was all necessity. Growing up I loathed this place. It was nothing more than tortured visits to shopping districts. Everything seemed dirty and dangerous. Boy was I wrong. I grew up around a lot of people who fear the big city. It's not that bad...


After unpacking my things, I took a look around my apartment, looked out the window and thought to myself: holy shit.

I had no idea what I was getting into.

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Ain't No Need to Worry About Leftover Chinese

I'm alright...

So after a rousing evening of karaoke the other night, I got to thinking about the song I considered butchering. I'm talking about "I'm Alright" by Kenny Loggins. It was mentioned that the song was sampled on a hip hop track called 'Brains Party'. Curious, I ambled around the internet archives and didn't find much Kenny Loggins. Not even a greatest hits. Eventually, I found my way to the Caddyshack original soundtrack.


I nominate this for Best Soundtrack Artwork with a featured artist.

The soundtrack opens with the big single followed by a sappy love song. I don't even remember where it appears during the film. The third track makes you forget about what you just heard because Mr. Loggins reprises the bridge (which is the actual sample for the hip-hop song) of "I'm Alright" and transitions into a similar sounding, but completely different song. It's called "Make the Move" and has a lot of slap bass.

I get the sense Kenny hired a songwriter to make one of his songs generic (like on TV when they can't secure the rights to the actual song, so you hear an inverse version of Axel F)...then played it himself. I'm definitely curious now as to how the two songs came about. Which idea came first? At one point did Kenny say "fuck it, I'm going to use the same idea twice because I'm Kenny Loggins?"

As for the rest of the soundtrack. The Kenny Loggins portion concludes with the song played during the Caddy Day scene, then goes into the Journey song. The rest is all score. This was definitely worth the time finding it.

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese Salutes America


I think this was taken over seven years ago.

Thanks for placing this year's holiday on a Wednesday, America. I blame the Conservative leanings of the current Supreme Court. Working the next two days will sure be peachy.

. . [~] . 1 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese Standings Update



Brewers still in first place.

(picture taken Friday afternoon)

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .