Tonight's theme comes to us courtesy of an idea from Michael Gisser of the Gargoyles in the MCHL's Bendis division (who sadly won't hear the set that he inspired). His idea was such a wonderful one that I couldn't exactly let it go with at least three major concerts in Raleigh this weekend... :)
You'd think that paying off a credit card balance on time and as promised would be considered a good thing to be rewarded by a bank. Enter another aspiring "Bank of Evil" in the form of Synchrony Bank which bought the Lowe's credit card portfolio and promptly pivoted to some of the most diabolical policies I've ever seen.
Just when you thought you'd seen it all from those wretched buggers who come round to disturb you so they can flog their scams or wares, the latest ding-dong of a door-to-door Bozo truly reached epic levels of stupidity!
Monkeying around with the version of PHP employed by this website sounded like such a good idea at the time. Ideas like that on only three hours sleep usually do. Ideas like that are also often catastrophically wrong like today's boo boo that delayed last night's MCHL track listing because the site's database was royally buggered to the point of having to engage technical support...
Just when you think you've got the theme that you know the Ironclad players will absolutely love, real life has a way of throwing a spanner in the works in a big way. Fortunately, the theme survived pretty much intact with a special tribute bookending the show! :)
"Tommy" was an amazing album from The Who and one could be forgiven for wondering if they'd ever top that achievement. On this date in 1971, The Who made it very clear that they definitely had accepted that challenge with the release of "Who's Next" which is arguably their best album if not one of the best albums of all time. Midway through the third period of game 2, all three ladies playing in the game had recorded an assist and Miss Kristina had an awesome idea to celebrate that achievement... :)
When today is the day that I'm officially sans teenaged children, there's really no choice at all when it comes to the theme of the night... ;)
Tonight's theme features Madison Square Garden's longest tenured resident and proud New Yorker from the Island as we celebrate his ninth studio album "An Innocent Man" which was released on 08 Aug 2026 with a wee bit of temporal stretching to avoid opening up the Mystery Crate! :)
This album knocked an iconic LP from it's perch at the top of the Billboard Hot 200 Albums chart in 1984. Then it stayed there for the next 24 weeks...
Several silly postal geese managed to collaborate in today's playing of America's favourite game when unsolicited goods arrives at your post box! :)
James Taylor and Carole King collaborated on so many songs but there is one that stands above them all and that's the one she wrote and both of them recorded for their respective albums in early 1971. That tune is "You've Got a Friend" and for James, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 on this date in 1971 and would eventually go on to win Grammys for both JT and Carole in 1972. :)
Just when you thought your days of mending a blown bulb by the stupidest route possible in the wheel well was over, the Camry had other ideas! Any engineer who thinks that is an acceptable way to mend bulbs needs to be drawn-and-quartered and his head put on a pike above the walls as a warning to others... :(
45 years ago yesterday, the most successful solo album by any member of Fleetwood Mac was released. That album was "Bella Donna" by Stevie Nicks (with some help from Tom Petty and Don Henley) and to say it's a legendary one is a grand understatement!
Tonight's showcase game between the MCHL and the NC Autism Hockey League bringing attention to adaptive hockey has a very special playlist...every song played from the Zamboni to the final horn is by an artist/member of band/composer/subject of song that is neurodivergent. That six hour playlist contains some very famous and successful artists that might well surprise even the most dedicated listeners! :)
Imagine you're given a deadline that you comply with about halfway through the time a bank graciously allotted you only to find some AI agent summarily dismissed the case literally hours after you put the "Dispute Form" in the post? Yeah, the evil that "Green Dot Bank" is capable of apparently knows no bounds... :(
It seems truly shocking that someone whose career started in the early 1960's had to wait until this date in 1976 before he finally scored a #1 single topping the UK charts in his home country. That'd be the story behind the 50th anniversary of Sir Elton John's track "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" in a delightful duet with Kiki Dee!
Sometimes the themes can be wildly divergent from one Zamboni to the next. This one was especially so... :)
Who knew paying the web hosting renewal bill from Quickbooks Checking would reveal a so-called "bank" behind it that even Gru's Bank of Evil would be like "dayum gurl...you're way too diabolical and nefarious even for us!" That would be "Green Dot Bank" which answers the question of what would be the result of NTL mating with a financial institution and producing unholy offspring!
Sometimes it takes a little longer than planned to try to work through one's feelings and find the way forward. Let's just say being able to choose and play the music helps more than most people will ever know... :)
Sometimes your head and your gut instinct know when the whistle for full time should blow but it'll take your heart a whole lot longer to catch up them. This is one of those sets of songs we've shared over 12 years together...
When it comes to negotiating for cars, you truly don’t need to be mad to truly enjoy it. I won’t say it doesn’t help to be a bit mad but being significantly Hungarian is often plenty to enjoy the give-and-take of coming to a deal… :)
You know when you have a task that goes amazingly well and then you have the feeling you're probably going to really pay for it the next time you're going to perform that task? Yeah, this story is one of those... :)
Having three great inspirations for the themes to kick off Season XIV in Ironclad only to end up winging it and a rookie mistake that made things really interesting in the second game just goes to show you that it's not necessarily how you start but how you weather the storm to finish strong that truly matters! :)
As the country rightly celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it's well past time people actually read the document and comprehend what the Founding Fathers were trying to tell us!
This is what it's all been building toward during an exciting 13th season of MCHL Ironclad as the season concludes with it all to play for with the Lunara and Solara Cups on the line!
