I am pleased to announce that the Monkey With a Gun Blog, which previously only wrote about gambling, and then only occasionally a few years ago, has now expanded into ACTUAL gambling in the MONKEY WITH A GUN CARD ROOM, now live on the Poker Mavens website. To get there, click on the link below, enter the password ComplicatedShirts (caps matter, you guys), set up your account, and get ready to play poker for real cash dollars.
When you set up your account, you will immediately be credited with $1,000, but that is only temporary my friend. Use that fake money to play some games, and test out the site. Invite your friends to play some games, and test everything to make sure everything is working right.
In a few days, we will erase that fake cash and start over with real money. If you want to keep playing after the restart, Venmo some real money to me, I will load up your account and we will be playing for real. More news to come, but give the site a tryout for now, and let me know if you want in for the real games.
SeaDick is back bitches! I of course say that with nothing but affection. I see my brother Pipes has published a few of his “premier” blog postings to keep you entertained in my lengthy absence. As for my absence, all I can say is I’ve been a little busy and “priorities.” But never mind, I’m back and I promise to try to provide you (all 11 of you) with my scintillating insight about the important stuff we follow here on the MWTGB. To that end, as is my habit, with the turning of the calendar to 2019, I’ve spent some time thinking about the great things that came our way in 2018, especially music. I was further inspired by the receipt of this in the mail:
I know what you are saying: “What the fuck is that?” Well, its “Spargs Best of 2018” in CD form of course. The obvious follow up question is “what the fuck is a CD?” It’s an outdated format for recording and listening to music. Then again, when I received it in the mail from my good friend and fellow music lover Spargs, the first reaction I had was “how the hell am I going to listen to this?” So the side story is that Spargs likes to take a stack of these anytime he goes out to a bar and pass out a few of these as conversation openers. I’ll let you guess who gets the lion share of these things and it’s not middle-aged dudes. But I digress. As it turns out, Spargs isn’t a complete Luddite so he also makes his best of available on Spotify. Here ya go:
Spargs knows his tunes, so give it a listen. While there is usually a good deal of overlap between Spargs and me, our tastes do diverge a bit and, as stated at the outset, I am a on my annual Sisyphean task (look it up Gnoob), trying to get Pipes to listen to some music created after 1998. Now he will tell you that this isn’t a fair comment, that in fact that he does listen to new music and he will undoubtedly point to Greta Van Fleet. My obvious response will be that he gets no new music credit for listening to a Led Zeppelin cover band.
In an effort to avoid getting into that debate again however, I’m just going to throw some music from 2018 out there in the hopes that he will give it a listen and up his game. I’m going to start with something that ought to get his attention as well. A great musician who has a social conscience and isn’t afraid to let the world know it. I may not always agree with Pipes on the political issues of the day (what he won’t admit is that I agree with more of them than he is willing to acknowledge), but I can’t argue with most of the messages that Will Hoge includes in his latest album, My American Dream. I’m pretty sure that Pipes will agree with all of them. Will Hoge is hard to classify — Americana, country, country rock, singer-songwriter — labels always seem problematic to me. What I will say about him is that he’s a helluva musician. If you like Mellencamp (that’s to pique Pipes interest) or Isbell (one of my all time favs), you will like Will Hoge. Give it a listen.
More to follow of course as 2018 was a pretty good year in music, but fair warning Pipes, I’m not ranking them. Deal with it.
We are getting near the end, but still in that worst time of the year–after the Super Bowl when there are no good sports to watch and there is nothing to do except not get invited to a fancy cotillion where all your friends have a choice between beef and chicken and can spend $200 on a basket of tomatoes that isn’t even full of tomatoes because the bottom was fraudulently stuffed with paper. No worries, because I certainly have better things to do, like clean and wax the basement floor, which is oddly satisfying to me in ways that no one will ever understand. And having time to find that document that just might be worth millions, or maybe even hundreds of millions. Whatever. Life is good!
No better time than this to turn to the Blonde Tracks. So how about another tune from the goddess Dido. Great song here, and I don’t think she has ever been more smoking hot than in this video.
Alotta guys have texted me saying that Dido isn’t that hot, that her face is asymmetrical, and calling her a “Pipes 6.” Well, that is just mean, to both me and her. Fuck those guys. Team Dido all the way.
While we all have been distracted by tax cuts and pedophiles, the Los Angeles city counsel is trying to ban house parties. Well, not on this bro’s watch. A fella by the name of Chad Kroeger, at least that’s the handle his lovin’ parents gave him, is taking a stand against the ban. I won’t say Chad is a hero, because what’s a hero, but sometimes there’s a man for his time and place, and that’s Chad Kroeger, in Los Angeles.
Chad Kroeger the house party enthusiast makes some great points. How else can a young man gain confidence if he doesn’t have the opportunity to shotgun a tall can of Bud Light in front of the whole squad at a house party? That’s what house parties do! What up counsel.
It’s Labor Day and I hope all you working stiffs are getting a little rest, spending time with your family, eating some BBQ and drinking a few of your favorite adult beverages. To celebrate the day, here’s a Labor Day playlist from Spargs. About the only thing missing is Dirty Work by Steely Dan.
As reported previously, IJ and our much better halves took in the Jason Isbell/Frank Turner show. Scroll down for the Frank Turner set list. Here’s my report and set list for Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.
I don’t want to be one of those guys, but Jason Isbell is, in my humble opinion, the best songwriter on the planet today. Oh I can hear ya — “But SeaDick, Bob Dylan is still on the planet, Paul McCartney is still on the planet, that is a very bold statement.” Yeah, well I’m sticking with it. Present day, new music, Isbell is the man in the song writing department. Pretty damn good from a live performance standpoint too. If you like rock and roll, Isbell and his team are all you need. The show was pretty spectacular. The band was clearly on its A game and the set list, as you will see below, gave us just about everything we could want from an Isbell standpoint, old, new, ballads, rock anthems. Just a flat out great performance. The only very minor complaint is that his wife, Amanda Shires Isbell, who has been playing fiddle on this tour wasn’t there. (She’s great too so give her a listen as well.). I understand from the interwebs that she jumped off the tour bus on Thursday to do a couple of solo shows on the east coast. The fact that the Isbell’s daughter turned 2 on Friday may have also had something to do with it. The band seemed to fill the missing fiddle parts with some electric guitar and that turned out just fine.
Here are some links to Mr. Isbell for Spotify and iTunes. If it turns out that you like what you hear, then you should check out this album from the Drive By Truckers. That’s where he got his start.
That’s right, it’s been awhile, but SeaDick is back in the blogging game. I know what you are sayin — “who gives a shit?” But as with most things with this blog, its not about you dear readers, it’s about me. (Well, me and Pipes, as he does have a hankering for the blogging as well.) Now I know that you are also saying, “enough of the blah, blah, blah, if you are going to blog then at least entertain us.” Fair enough, premier blogs coming in 3 . . . 2 . . .1.
You never know what you are going to get when you are listening to the Cranberries channel on Pandora. Actually, you know exactly what you are going to get, which is why I listen to it. Whatever.
Monkey With A Gun 