Happy 76th birthday to George Thorogood!

George and his Destroyers have released 20 albums and sold over 15 million records. At 76, he is still out touring. 2026 marks his 52nd anniversary with the band.

He is known for Bad to the Bone and I Drink Alone, which were originals by George. He was also known for some great covers of One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer and Who Do You Love.

If I had to pick my favorite cover of Thorogood it would be his version of Hank Williams’ Move It On Over.

Hank recorded his version back in 1947. Some folks consider this to be the first Rock and Roll song. It is really a twelve bar blues song and Thorogood’s version is fantastic.

When referring to his music, some have labeled it “High Energy Boogie-Blues.” I can’t argue with that description. I think today’s tune fits that perfectly.

Happy Birthday, George!!

In was on this day in 1991 that The Doors premiered in Los Angeles. The film starred Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison.

The film was directed by Oliver Stone. Val Kilmer’s portrayal of Morrison, including his singing, received a lot of praise. The surviving members of the Doors were extremely impressed by Kilmer’s uncanny resemblance to Morrison (though they really weren’t happy with the Final Cut of the film).

In a 1994 interview, Robby Krieger said that the film does not give the viewer “any kind of understanding of what made Jim Morrison tick”. Krieger added, “They left a lot of stuff out. Some of it was overblown, but a lot of the stuff was very well done, I thought.”

The Doors had plenty of hits including Love Me Two Times, Hello I Love You, LA Woman, Touch Me, Riders on the Storm, People Are Strange, Love Her Madly, and Light My Fire. Sadly, not all of these songs made the soundtrack of the film.

Break on Through (To the Other Side) was the first song on The Doors first album, and also their first single. It went to #66 in the UK, It didn’t really do much in the US. It got some airplay on Los Angeles radio stations after their friends and fans kept requesting it.

Songfacts.com quoted a 1966 interview with Morrison and his thoughts on the song:

“I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that seems to have no meaning.”

Songfacts also points out:

In The Doors box set, Ray Manzarek said this was the last song they played live. It was during the Isle of the Wight Festival in the summer of 1970. The festival occurred while Morrison was on trial in Miami faced with charges of indecent exposure, and the band got a special five days of recess to be in England and get back to US. “This was to be the first gig of an European tour just as Miami was to be the first gig of a 20-city US tour. We never got beyond the first date of either one.”

Here is the original from The Doors

The kids were off school this week, so we’ve been enjoying some family time. Wednesday we decided to do an overnight stay about an hour away. We had no schedule, a few ideas of where to go, and time together.

When we arrived in town, we were about an hour early for check-in. We decided to park and walk the downtown area. We saw a cute bookstore and we went in and checked it out. They had a huge selection of kid books, and we ended up walking out with $100+ worth of books.

We checked into the hotel and the kids wanted to head to the pool. We had the entire pool to ourselves.

We stayed at the pool for a bit before we grabbed a bite to eat. There was a coney place across the road from our hotel. After dinner the kids got dessert.

We took another dip in the pool before heading to bed. Sam and I both had trouble sleeping. I’m not sure if it was the fluctuating temperature in the room or just an uncomfortable bed, but neither one of us woke up rested.

There was a STEM museum close by that we thought about heading to, but changed our minds. We had a nice breakfast and went to a play place/bounce house/laser tag place. The kids made friends and ran around most of the afternoon.

They went through a few bucks at the arcade, bounced, and and more!

After lunch we stopped by the Brighton library. I was blown away at this place. It was built in 1906 and the inside makes you wonder if it’s a library at all.

There was plenty of stuff for them to do.

They were busy for well over an hour and didn’t want to leave. They probably could have spent the whole day there.

We still have the weekend together and I’m looking forward to a few more days before going back to work.

The 2026 Winter Olympics have been very exciting to watch. My home state of Michigan has been well represented.

A great example of this is Megan Keller. She scored on a backhand 4:07 into overtime, giving the United States a 2-1 victory against Canada. She’s from Farmington Hills, MI. Kirstin Simms was also on that team and she is from Plymouth/Livonia.

Iron Mountain, Michigan was represented by Nick Baumgartner who won a gold medal in the snowboarding mixed team event. Elizabeth Lemley also has a Michigan connection and she won gold in women’s freestyle skiing.

What you may not know is that because the Olympics are in Italy, some of the events might be a tad bit different. Not to worry though, I have trained, competed and did extremely well.

I took the gold in the downhill lasagna run. It’s not easy skiing on ricotta…

Of course, because the games are in Italy, curling wasn’t as difficult as I thought. You just gotta get used to the change in weight…

Ice Hockey is also a little different, and messy. It’s important to use a frozen meatball!

USA! USA!!

On this day in 1968, Peter Falk brought Columbo to life on television for the first time. The debut episode was called Prescription Murder. Gene Barry was the guest murderer.

A few years ago I participated in a “TV Show Draft” and one of my choices was Columbo. In honor of the anniversary, you can read that blog here:

TV Show Draft – Round 4 – Columbo

Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville debuted on this day in the 1816 in Rome. The debut, however, was a disappointment. During the performance the audience hissed and jeered throughout, and to make matters worse, several on-stage accidents occurred. Today, the piece is considered to be one of the great masterpieces of comedy within music.

The piece is one of many that was introduced to kids on an average Saturday morning thanks to a rascally rabbit – Bugs Bunny. In 1950, The Rabbit of Seville was released and the action of the cartoon is in synch with Rossini’s music.

I cannot listen to the actual music because I will always picture Bugs.

People often joke about getting their classical music knowledge from cartoons. It’s no joke. Whether it was Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry, that’s how I was introduced to many classical pieces.

How about you??

The Apostle Paul states in 2 Timothy 4:8 (KJV):

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

I would rather have that crown than the one I got yesterday.

I suppose I have been putting it off for over a year now. Every time I get my teeth cleaned that talk about this tooth. It was filled years ago, so it had that silver stuff in it. Apparently that doesn’t last. They have been telling me that we need to get that filling out and put a crown on it.

Up until recently, I always spent a ton of cash at the dentist. I always had to pay something. So I kept avoiding it. This year, however, I have a secondary insurance and all I owed for the crown was $25. That was for the nitrous oxide.

My lips were still numb at 2:30pm. As soon as they started to get feeling, my tooth started throbbing. I popped ibuprofen, but it took forever for it to kick in.

My appointment was at 10am and I didn’t get out until after noon. I left with a temporary crown until the permanent one goes in a week or so from now.

I am off work this week, so I’m hoping that the pain doesn’t put a damper on the time with the family.