On my iPod: Mad Season

Many who didn’t partake in the 90s “grunge” era probably have never heard of Mad Season. But there’s good chance you’ve heard of the bands Mad Season came from.
Vocalist Layne Staley, who died in 2002, came from Alice in Chains. Guitarist Mike McCready is one of the geniuses behind Pearl Jam. Drummer Barrett Martin and guest-vocalist Mark Lanegan came from Screaming Trees.
Together, this Seattle “super group” released one album, “Above,” in 1995, and the album went gold that same year. Unfortunately, drug problems with Staley and Mad Season’s bassist kept them from ever trying for a sophomore release. It’s a shame.
Mad Season had just the right blend of AIC’s somber lyrics and Pearl Jam’s strings (if you hear “Inside Job” on Pearl Jam’s latest CD, you’ll catch the similarity) … combined, it had a Queens of the Stone Age feel (well before QOTSA ever existed).
“Above” reminds me of college, of course, so it’ll always have a place in my heart. (awww). Since they had just one album, I won’t go into my Top 10 list, but I will provide a few links … The first song, “Long Gone Day,” is one of their lighter ones, almost jazzy in a way, but it shows off Staley’s vocals. The others have a little more edge to them.

Other favorites:
• River of Deceit: One of the few songs that was actually a “hit” on the radio. Lyrics are typical Staley, except with a twist of positive at the end.
• I don’t now anything: Catchy, very grunge.
• Lifeless Dead: This one show’s off McCready’s talents. Love this song.

Greatest play in Super Bowl history

Name me a better one.

Anonymous letter

It’s The Herald’s policy to not publish anonymous “Letters to the Editor,” and it’s a policy I wholeheartedly believe in. To me, if you have something to say, put your name on it. It prevents “drive-by” assaults on other people, because when there’s a name attached, people are less likely to just go off.

That said, I received a hand-written letter from a 10-year-old today. I don’t know if it’s from a boy or a girl, but they asked that they remain anonymous. Unfortunately, we can’t publish the letter, but since the kid is 10 and wanted to contribute to our newspaper, I thought I’d publish it here (besides, this one won’t hurt anybody).

Dear Editor,
You wouldn’t believe how much it means to me to get this published. This is really for all the litterers and woodsmen in the rainforest (no offense to anyone!).
The animals in the arctic regions are dying because of global warming, which is caused by littering and chopping down the rainforest trees anyway. If you chop down those trees, you are taking away an animal’s home.
If we stop doing those things (to the woodsmen, you can plant a tree after you cut one down), the global warming will decrease, and for one thing, it would stop being 80 degrees on Christmas, and we here in little North Carolina and the states around it might even get a little snow for once.
The last time I saw a real snow was when I was 3 (7 years ago). I know people in Colorado and those states take snow for granted, but we in N.C. don’t.
It actually is supposed to snow tonight, but I don’t expect more than a few flurries (by the way, it is Tuesday, January 16).
I wish to remain anonymous, but I wish this would be published as wide around as possible.

I think it’s a very well-written letter from somebody who just wanted a little snow. If he or she reads this online, I hope they let me use their name, because for a 10-year-old, this is written well. The only word her or she misspelled was anonymous (if there are other misspellings above, it was my fault).

I feel like Mr. Wilson

Dennis the Menace has been a thorn in my side the past few days.
The lovable little blonde terror was cut from our newspaper’s daily comic strips this week because of a placement problem we were having. You see, “They’ll do it every time” stopped production because of the December death of its author, so we were forced to go with something else.
We had run an online poll last fall asking people what comics they wanted and what they wanted to see gone. One of the ones people wanted was a comic called Zits. So we obliged.
Unfortunately, Zits is a three panel strip, and TDIET was a single panel strip. So in order to make it fit, we also had to replace TDIET’s neighbor, Dennis the Menace, with another three panel strip. I chose “Get Fuzzy,” as it’s a personal favorite of mine and some on my staff.
I’ve had a few people tell me they like the new comics (I don’t actually expect people to write me to say they like something), but I’ve had more than a handful of people threaten cancellation of their newspaper if we don’t bring back Dennis.
Cancel the newspaper? Is he really all that great?
Look, I have nothing against the tyke. I loved going to Dairy Queen and having Dennis appear on my blizzards. I liked the poorly illustrated but pretty clever cartoon from the 80s. I even kind of like the strip … but it’s nothing I’d cancel a newspaper over.
So, for those of you who want Dennis back … there’s good news. We’re looking for a way to make him “fit.” It may take a couple of days, but it will happen. I know many of the people who want Dennis don’t read this blog, so if you do, please pass this on.
I personally don’t think it’s an important part of the newspaper, but like I’ve said in the past, it doesn’t matter what I think. If somebody wants to cancel because of Dennis, that’s their choice, because they’re our customer.
Look out in the Herald for the big news on when Dennis will return.