Fred
Best : Music
Song - The Great Beyond by Puppy
Video - Arabella by Puppy
In the 1990’s, if Alternative Press Magazine told me to check out some music, I did it. Despite now being less young and impressionable, I still peek at altpress.com from time to time and came across this article: 10 Underground Metal Bands You Need to Check Out. From first listen, I fell in love with the song The Great Beyond by Puppy. It may be the first song I’ve out and out craved since the Austerity Program’s Song 26 (2010). Shortly thereafter I watched the Arabella video, and though it’s not a better song, it’s now one of my favorite videos of the past 20 years or so. Every time I watch it I laugh like it’s the first time I’ve ever seen it.
Pleasant Surprise - Me and Your Mama by Childish Gambino
A pure shot of adrenalized 70’s funk/soul from a 20-something year old rapper who is known for his role on sitcoms. Donald Glover is my new favorite musician of 2016.
Worst: This Goddamn Election
Probably half my time on the Beacon of Speech website was spent begging people not to vote for Clinton or Trump. The Democrats and Republicans need to merge and just become the Hypocritical Party. To me, this was supposed to be the year of the Third Party. Two thoroughly dislikable candidates, yet somehow, because Gary Johnson had a brain fart when naming cities in Syria, he’s not competent to be President. No matter which way you slice it, a choice between Clinton and Trump in a country of 300 MILLION shows you that your country is screwed.
Ted
Best: Cavs Championship and the Election of Trump
LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers lifted the Cleveland Curse and brought a championship to the city for the first time since the Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship in 1964. Before Ted or I were born.
Ted is a Trump supporter due to his belief that at this point, all politicians are corrupt and that the country needs a businessman to fix its problems. I don’t necessarily disagree with his premise, just the choice of the said businessman. (I have said on the webcast, at least a dozen times, if it was Clinton vs. Mark Cuban, I would have voted for Cuban in a heartbeat.)
Worst: (I think Ted is afraid to hurt someone’s feelings. He said he’s still thinking about the worst of 2016.)
Joe
Best: The Election of Trump and Cavs Championship
Joe is arguably the happiest person I know that Trump was elected (besides my in-laws and Trump himself).
Joe’s Cavs Championship moment was much more interesting than Ted’s. Let’s be honest here, Cleveland doesn’t have a lot of experience putting on Championship parades. So the unpublicized part of the Parade on the ground is that it was a clusterf-ck. Parade started late, parade route overrun, traffic problems, shootings… wait you didn’t hear about the shooting? Joe was stuck on a side alley away from the parade when he heard a <pop pop>. Next thing you know, people were running. Who knows, running from what happened, or where, just a running mob. Joe took off running down the alley with the crowd away from the sounds of the gunshots. As Joe ran, he looked at the guy running next to him and he had a gun in his hand. Before Joe realized what was going on, the gunman took a hard turn down the intersecting alley. Ted and I had a good laugh at Joe’s expense, seeing there were a million people in downtown Cleveland and he was probably the only one with a good look at the gunman. (Joe says not a clear look at the gunman's face, a clear look at his gun, which is scarier.) Literally a one in a million chance of seeing that gunman.
Worst: “My life.”
Let’s elaborate on Joe’s Statement. Joe works his ass off at his company. His reward? He doesn’t get ahead, he gets to keep his job. A nation of Joes is exactly how Trump got elected. A generation ago hard workers were rewarded. Today? Let’s keep it brief and simply say not so much.