Here are the songs played on Monday, June 26

Dolores O’Riordan ” The Journey” album title No Baggage. This solo album from the former Cranberries singer will be available August 25

Ingrid Michaelson ” Maybe”  look for Ingrid’s new album Everybody to be released August 25

Mike Droho & Compass Rose ” Equilibrium” Pick up the album These Parts Unknown  from our Project M winner today.

Over the weekend, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs played each other.  I always love these games because I simply love hating the Cubs.  Milwaukee Brewers fans, I know you’re with me on this one.  You may be annoyed with my fondness for the Chicago Bears, but at least we can agree on the Cub hating issue.

I know I shouldn’t really have a problem with the Cubs.  After all, they haven’t won a World Series in 100 years.  It’s just the fans seem to be a little too faithful.  They should get angry at their team more often.   The fact that they love the Cubs no matter what irks me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m always a White Sox fan.  However, when the team is playing poorly I won’t go to the games as often.  It doesn’t mean I won’t follow the team, I just won’t give them my money for a poor product.  That’s not the case for Cubs fans.  They’ll go to Wrigley whenever.

I think Ozzie Guillen the White Sox managers expressed it best when asked why U.S. Cellular Field was sold out for the Cubs series but not completely full when the Los Angeles Dodgers were visiting just a few days before.  Here’s what Guillen had to say, “Because our fans are not stupid like Cubs fans,” Guillen said. “They know we’re [expletive].”  Guillen said Cubs fans will watch any game at Wrigley Field because “Wrigley Field is just a bar.”

I don’t know if he’s really serious or not,  but either way it’s still hysterical and I love the fact that Guillen does whatever he can to keep the rivalary between the two teams alive and well.

Sorry it’s a little late, but here is the link to see a final performance from each contestant and to see the announcement of the winner of Project M!

You can also hear audio interviews & live performances from the two runner’s-up and the winner here.

Thanks again to all the amazing talent we had this year, to everyone who supported this online and came out to the shows, and all the staff involved…we can’t WAIT to do this again next year!

The official Horribly Hilly Hundred (HHH) was on Saturday, June 20. A couple of teammates did the ride, 1 or 2 missed the ride in favor of Grandma’s Marathon up in Duluth, Mn and most of the rest of us were racing at High Cliff. So- since most of us missed the fun, a bunch of us got together yesterday and rode the Horribly Hilly course. And yes, it is HORRIBLY HILLY!

The day actually started on a really positive note. When I left home in the morning, I tried to figure out how long it would take me, so my wife had some idea when to expect me home. We were starting at 7am- I should be able to do 100 miles in about 5 hours, add an hour due to the fact that the course is “horribly hilly” – I should be done sometime between 1 & 1:30pm. I’ll be home around 2pm.

The really positive note that the day started on…when I got to the ride, I was told it’s 100k, not 100 miles! Oh, this should be a breeze- I’m ready for 100 miles and I only have to ride 100k!

I was only a few miles into the ride when I realized how happy I was that it was 100k and not 100 miles. That 5-6 hour estimate for 100 miles of this course would have been WAY off. In fact if it was 100 miles, I might still be out there. If took about 5 hours to do the 100k ride. Then I found out that there are some nuts who actually do a 200k route of the HHH! I think I saw some of them still out of the course a week later.

The ride itself is really beautiful. Tough climbs with some really fun downhill runs. We all gathered at about the half-way point of the ride for a short rest stop and a teammate had placed some water and muchies under a tarp in the ditch at about the 50 mile mark, so we we had another rest stop there. Time to bitch about the hills and at the same time congratulate each other.

Just after that rest stop, I saw a series of signs there had placed alongside the road for some other event. The signs simply read “FFF.” I thought about stealing one of the “Fs” and adding to the “HHH,” so it would read “HFHH.”

Figure it out for yourself.

Like the rest of the world, I was shocked to hear about Michael Jackson. Shocked, but not surprised. This is a story that was bound to end the way it did. What I’ve been reading today was major perscription drug abuse and anorexia. Not a healthy combination.

So who  is to blame?  Of course Michael, but he never had a chance at all.

The talent was obvious from the start. But supporting a large family is just too much for a little boy, a sad little boy who spent his formative years on stage and in the spotlight.  This is a man who never stopped being a child and now he won’t ever be an old man.

I have read stories of  emotional and physical abuse he suffered as a child and I think this led to his facial surgeries. I read somewhere that he started looking more and more like this father and didn’t want to see Joe Jackson’s face when he looked in the mirror.   So the surgeries began and kept coming.  Who knows what the future would have been like if he had been able to enjoy his childhood a little.

I have also been reading things people have saying about Michael being a pedophile. No one really knows what happened, but in my opinion, mentally he was still 10 years old and his time spent with children was a way to experience the childhood he never had.

Probably no one will ever know the real story, but it ends so sadly.

I can’t say that I loved all of Michael Jackson’s music.  I liked a lot of it, and own some of it, but I don’t regularly listen that much anymore.  However, I have paid close attention to Jackson as a person throughout the years.

I’ve always been fascinated with his strange habits, but also didn’t want to simply dismiss him as a freak.  Actually, he was a freak.  He became famous as a child and became bigger than life worldwide.  Sure, there are plenty of world famous people, but no one as big as him.

I can’t imagine what that would really be like.  Sting seems to have handled it.  So has Madonna.  Paul McCartney does just fine too.  Why was it different for Jackson?  Was it because he never really had a childhood?  Was it because he literally could not go in public without a complete mob scene taking place?

I remember seeing David Bowie once at a restaurant in Miami.  He was with Iman and they were eating at a table.  People were looking at them, but they were able to have a meal without the entire restaurant going crazy.  That was never a possibility for Jackson. 

What is it like to not be able to go outside by yourself in public…ever.  It might make you a little crazy.  By no means am I saying that makes it okay to take advantage of children.  However, I’m not really ever sure if Jackson really did horrible things to kids or if he really was just a kid trapped inside an adult and that the only people he felt comfortable around were children.

I’ll also never understand all the plastic surgery.  What was he running from?  Why was he so desperate to change his look?  We’ll probably never really know the answers to any of these questions. 

The only thing I do know is that you have to have been one talented person to be recognized around the world for good or bad like Michael Jackson was for the last 30 years.

Back in the 70’s, you put girls of my age into two groups. The ones who liked Donny Osmond (“he’s dreamy, and he wears purple socks!”) and the others who preferred Michael Jackson (“he’s super-cute and an excellent dancer”).

I was in the Michael Jackson camp. I always enjoyed watching him and the rest of the Jacksons on guest appearances on variety shows, and really got into the whole Jackson thing when they got their own cartoon show. (But I will admit I also liked Tito because he had those cool hats. I made my mom make me a “Tito” hat. It was groovy.) I didn’t have any Michael Jackson posters on my wall, but when forced to make a choice it was always Michael over Donnie.

For a few years Michael dropped off my radar, until the album “Off the Wall” came out. A couple of years after that, but before Thriller took off, I remember a DJ friend of mine predicting that Michael Jackson would be the biggest star of the 1980’s. I thought he was crazy.

And of course, I’ve been following all the bizarre Michael Jackson news over the last 15 years or so…it’s an occupational hazard. And apparently celebrity news is so ingrained in my subconscience…I actually had a very strange Michael Jackson dream several years ago that still haunts me to this day.

It started off with me being kidnapped by Michael Jackson and being taken to Trump Tower to live with him and Lisa Marie Presley. It ended with me taking him to meet my dad in Stevens Point and playing the song “Ben” for him on my family’s piano (the big note easy piano version, of course.)

I was never a huge fan of Michael Jackson’s music, but I always admired his talent, and was impressed with his astronomical impact on the world. I hope he can now find peace, and get to hang out in a real Neverland ranch that will never face foreclosure.

If you’re my age or thereabouts, I think this will take you back. It’s the intro to the Jackson 5 cartoon. Enjoy!

Here are the songs played on Thursday June 25

Luce “My Life Alone” album title Corner of the World…download NOW!

Great Lake Swimmers ” Pulling on a Line” album title Lost Channels, available now

Assembly of Dust/feat. Richie Havens ” All That I am Now”, album title Some Assembly Required, available June 21