Could the Fourth of July weekend go by without your blogger Freebird commenting?  That would be unamerican!  The Shark mentioned that the Chevy Silverado made him, like Dead Confederate, patriotic.  I have to call bullshit on a Brooklyn boy knowing about pickup trucks.  And monster truck rallies are popular in all of the midwest?  I don’t know that they are that well attended in St. Paul, MN or Chicago, but they have them pretty frequently here in NYC.

Freebird here thinks that if you’re gonna love America, you gotta love all of it.  And that means not generalizing about the 95% of the country between New York City and Los Angeles.  Because in addition to waxing rhapsodic about the Chevy Silverado, Dead Confederate also has something to say about how generalizing about parts of the country (the South) you know nothing about is, well, by definition, ignorant:

So love America all you want this holiday, but love it purple, not just red or blue. Now, let’s go to the Monster Truck Show at Madison Square Garden!

I was driven into a frenzy the other day by The Shark’s flippant dismissal of Michael McDonald.  That won’t fly with me.  Since when are Satan and Communism not awesome and totally rock ‘n’ roll?!  The godfather of blue eyed soul is not to be trifled with.  You could call him a musical consultant to all the awesome smooth music of yesteryear.  Who else contributed to so many of the greatest hits of bands he was never even a member of?  Steely Dan, Kenny Loggins, The Doobie Brothers, Toto, AND Trey Parker of South Park.  Not to mention an astounding solo career.  Yes sir, Michael McDonald involved himself in just about every awesome but lowkey hit song of the 1980s.  I bet The Shark’s mom has had some good times to Michael McDonald.

Even more excitingly Michael McDonald has inspired perhaps the best television show of all time.  Oh, not on real tv.  On Channel 101, a film festival of independently produced short film series.  It’s been over for a while but you can see (What a Fool Believes) are the real stories behind all the smooth songs of the 80s.  It’s called Yacht Rock, and if you’re smooth enough, you can watch it here.  Just watch out for Hall & Oates–they’re the bad seeds in the series.

It also inspired a Yacht Rock style cover contest here.  My favorite is the Nirvana “Come as You Are” cover.  Check it out, and you’ll never hear a Peter Cetera song the same way.