Late night open thread

Did you know then, the tallest kind of grass is bamboo.

Time for Oscoda, After Dark

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE CLASH!

Today is Johnny's birthday and since it is he can do anything he wants tonight. All rules are out the window. So, for the first time ever on a Music Series, it's entire albums night! Three great albums in their entirety just for you the Oscoda City Desk reader. We're starting off tonight with Johnny's second favorite album of all-time and an album many critics have in their top five, 'London Calling' a transformative album for young Johnny. 

He hopes you enjoy album night.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with NEKO CASE!

Oh, the Neko Case album Blacklisted is all that and a bag of chips. After hearing some of her earlier rockabilly and country music Johnny downloaded this one and his life hasn't been the same since. Just an incredible album with sooooo much good in it.  Not many better than this one.

Push play, sit back, enjoy brilliant music and lyrics, easy.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE WHO!

If you're asking Johnny, then yes, this IS the best album of all time. While Johnny is quite a music historian and he feels his opinion on music falls into the "considered" category, such a proclamation is wholly subjective. You have your choice and Johnny would love to know what it is in comments.

Until then, here's Quadrophenia

Late night open thread

Take Johnny's word on this, this is as accurate as it looks.

Time for Oscoda, After Dark

Well this is nothing but a BIG disappointment

The highly touted and highly-ranked Oscoda girls basketball team, 17-1 and North Star League champs (again) will have to sit out the MHSAA Girl's Basketball Tournament because a team member has tested positive for COVID-19.

“The girls are just crushed” Oscoda coach Mark Toppi said, no doubt expressing the feeling not just for the team but for our whole community. This is a team that were heavy favorites to win their third district title in a row and now, it's just over. After the boys football undefeated and untied season stretched so long due to state officials erring on the side of safety and caution (And Johnny has no issues with this, they are simply doing their jobs) the team just couldn't participate any longer. COVID-19 has been a real teacher of lessons for kids and hopes and how things can change in life overnight around these parts.

If you see one of our girl's team members, tell 'em you're sorry but tell them you're also quite proud.

Late night open thread

"One if by land and two if by sea." The famous words spoken by American patriots to alert the Minutemen which way the British would come. Two lanterns were hung in the Old North Church that night. This is one of those lanterns. The other is lost to history but this one, it warned Americans the British were coming.

Time for Oscoda, After Dark

Two undefeated regular seasons in three years for the Oscoda boys hoops team!

Our Oscoda Owls have finished yet another undefeated regular season (ho-hum), at 17-0. If you follow this link here you can go to the bottom of the page as for some reason the Oscoda game is the last one listed. There's a very nice picture of the team with a nice banner after the game. Rock on guys.

Also, the Oscoda girls basketball team, they have but one loss but all of the league-title hardware the boys got. It truly is something to have two teams that play so well and represent Oscoda in such a fine fashion beyond just winning just basketball games.

Keep an eye on this space for MHSAA playoff updates. Go Owls!

Late night open thread

Time for Oscoda, After Dark

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with BJORK!

Long before Iceland became the hep travel destination it is now, long before Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson started squishing heads on Game of Thrones and before the Iceland soccer team took Europe by storm, there were simply The Sugarcubes and Bjork as far as the popular face of the volcanic island (Johnny has a glass jar filled with Iceland's volcanic black sand). We'll get things started tonight with the powerhouse track 'Army of Me' off the Post album.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with KANSAS!

The Music Series has never had a song by Kansas. It's a fact. Not that Johnny doesn't like them or the three or fours song anyone ever heard on the radio are of poor quality. Not at all. If Johnny has any issue with the band Kansas it's the spelling of "Know" in this song and album 'Point of Know Return'

Don't do that.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE TEMPTATIONS!

How can you not love this song? The harmonies, the smooth flavor, the soul, the strings, it's all there. Just a masterpiece of a song. Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) taking us out into the chilly night air. 

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Finally on St. Patrick's Day 2021 another grand tradition. The Dubliners and The Pogues singing 'The Irish Rover'

Time for Oscoda, After Dark

As night falls let's have some more Irish-type fun

The Chieftains and Alison Krauss with the old Irish lament 'Molly Ban' is a standard 'round these here parts. Fear not long-time readers, another will be along before midnight.

Whiskey in the Jar? Sounds like a well-balanced breakfast

The Dubliners with the classic. Whiskey in the Jar'

Johnny (as you know) loves his jigs and reels

So then, a quick jig thrown in for fun this morning. Katy Adelson favors us with the 'Swallowtail Jig'

If it's March 17, Johnny is all about the St. Patrick's Day music!

Long-time followers of the City Desks knows that St. Patrick's Day is always a fun one on the blog with some very fine Irish music. Speaking of fine Irish music, let's get St. Patrick's 2021 started right. The High Kings with 'The Rocky Road to Dublin'

Late night open thread

Time for Oscoda, After Dark

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE BEATLES!

'I Saw Her Standing There' truly channels Chuck Berry which both The Beatles and Stones learned early could put some scratch in your pockets. 

Now, Johnny is going to need five minutes or so to get outside and listen for all your sing-along Wooooooooo-ing to this song because he knows you'll have your music turned up because Friday.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with WEEZER!

Fun fact, Unless you're Johnny, Johnny wasn't allowed to watch Happy Days growing up because it was too subversive. His parents weren't religious and weren't bandwagon PTAers who heard their positions from other parents things were this or that and passed judgement. No, just it didn't pass muster. 

Johnny's all but forgotten it. 'Buddy Holly' up next on the Music Series.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE YARDBIRDS!

Maybe it was fate that Johnny become a fan of The Yardbirds. For instance, this song here, 'Over Under Sideways Round' is off the album Roger the Engineer. Johnny's best friend growing up was named Roger who then (are you sitting down) went on to become an engineer. 

Kismet.

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Quisp, filled with literally scads of vitamins and minerals and goodness to get your day started right.

Quisp, because sugar.

Time for Oscoda, After Dark

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with TORI AMOS!

Johnny doesn't discriminate. If Tori Amos is a 'Cornflake Girl' Johnny harbors no ill will just because his tastes run to the oat side of the cereal aisle. Johnny on piano trying to craft a song named 'Cheerios Boy' would be doomed to failure however. 

We'll go with Tori Amos on the Music Series any day...

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with BERLIN!

No, you kids get enough of that sexy talk and pictures and videos on the FacePlace and InstaTube so NO, you're not getting the sexy version of 'Sex (I'm A...), you'll get a fantabulous song in 'The Metro' which was probably written about the Oscoda mass transit system back in the 1980's.

What?

FYI, Terri Nunn, when that douche slapped you, you had a gun you stole in the previous scene, just saying. Some people need killing. He deserved it for the makeup alone.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA!

Or as the cool kids called them, ELO. Johnny would be wasting your time to go on and on about how amazing this band is at doing, well, everything so let's get to it, 'Livin' Thing' taking us out tonight with one of the all-time great starts to any song.

Late night open thread

Time for Oscoda, After Dark

Now that Northern Roots is selling recreationally, a few things...

Now that Northern Roots Provisioning Center in AuSable Township has added a recreational option to their sales, Johnny has a few thoughts. First off, it has long been mentioned, yes even among shoppers at other dispensaries, Northern Roots needs to up it's flower game. The strains they have, in the words of Don DeLuise in History of the World Part I as Caesar while looking upon treasure brought to him replies, "Nice. Not thrilling, but nice." That's the NR menu in a sentence. They have some ok stuff, they just don't have THE stuff. Northern Roots needs some kind of flagship product to keep people from heading down US-23 to East Tawas. High Level Health has Bio Star, the king of weed. Some batches top out at 34% THC. NR's choices are much lower in THC. The Botanical Co. carries all the best concentrates. Their product popularity listing shows their Redemption diamonds (concentrated THC you sprinkle upon your flower for a higher high that look like tiny diamonds and diamond-dust) sell themselves. They are the only ones around selling diamonds. This is where Northern Roots needs to find their niche. They carry a huge amount of pre-rolls but again, see the first problem, the pre-rolls are just good to pretty good. The one thing Northern Roots does have the others don't are Moonrocks, concentrated buds of marijuana soaked in THC oil and dipped in kief powder. Talk about a hemp bomb. However, the Moonrocks are still only being sold medically so there is no reason for anyone buying recreationally to pop in to try this rare treat and shop around. Northern Roots is also cash only which is no big deal, so is High Level health in East Tawas. Sure Johnny would love it of they began taking ATM/debit cards like Botanical Co. but it's nothing too problematic. Both HLH and NR have ATM's on site.

So, up your weed game and sell some of those Moonrocks to the people, these would be a good place to start Johnny thinks. Find something you do better and run with it. A word to the wise would be to do it quickly as well, another dispensary nearby, Top Tree, will soon be opening on F-41 in Oscoda.