Tuesday, April 21, 2026
The Explorers' Club, № MCLI
Cheong Wa Dae (literally, the "Cyan-tile Pavilion," A.K.A. the Blue House), the residence & office of the president of the Republic of Korea (South Korea); a royal villa was constructed on the site as early as 1104; the current Main Building was built in 1991; former President Yoon turned the Blue House into a public park (2022-2025), but since late 2025 it has been restored as the presidential residence.
Semper exploro.
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives!
The Aquabats!, "Aquabat March!" from The Return of The Aquabats! (Captain Thumbs Up!)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine. Scroll down to find the R.B.D.S.O.T.D. Back then, I tried to jam as many topics as possible into every single post, the logic of which escapes me now.
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary:
"You're always on my mind and I thought I'd just let you know,
That I'm not crazy, but I'm crazy for you…"
Monday, April 20, 2026
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
Less Than Jake, "9th at Pine" from Losing Streak (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: Dan P. is Dan Potthast, front man of SKAll-Stars MU330. Apart from MU330, he has several solo albums, but Dan P. & the Bricks is the only other ska band of his of which I am aware. Hooray!
Sunday, April 19, 2026
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
Edna's Goldfish, "If You Want It" from Before You Knew Better… (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the III Sunday o' Easter
Duvall, "Jesus Never Leaves Me" from Volume & Density (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)
Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: YouTube-link. The N.Y. Citizens are making their SKApril debut courtesy of a nomination from online acquaintance & brother Knight of Columbus Bravo Charlie, who played in Cleveland-basd ska band The Assassinators back in the Nineties, before I had even discovered ska during the Summer of Ska (1997). The N.Y. Citizens, who disbanded in 1994, were pioneers of third-wave ska in New York City ska bands in the late Eighties & early Nineties, alongside The Toasters & The Scofflaws.
Saturday, April 18, 2026
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
Hepcat, "Hooligans" from Out of Nowhere (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: The Dance Hall Crashers are playing a show tonight in Chicago, with Fishbone at the House of Blues. I would have liked to have gone (I've never seen D.H.C. nor Fishbone in concert), but circumstances conspired against attending.
Friday, April 17, 2026
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
Big D and the Kids Table, "Steady Riot" from Strictly Rude (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine. "Steady Riot" was the first song selected from the SKArchives, because it's about what SKApril is all about.
"Music, a steady riot in my soul,
Music, a steady riot in my soul,
Always in me (always in me),
Always in me (always in me),
Always in me (always in me),
Always in me (always in me).
"Right, a steady, a steady riot!"
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: Mustard Plug are SKApril's homegrown SKAll-Stars, hailing from Grand Rapids, the metropolis of West Michigan. It is becoming a Christmas tradition to see Mustard Plug play a show in Detroit on 26 December, which I did with my pal Red Patton in both 2024 & 2025.
"Bang!" stands in the long tradition of ska songs calling for peace, for an end to the violence in our neighborhoods & on our streets.
"This hasn't happened here before…
"This wasn't going on before…"
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
Mustard Plug, "Miss Michigan" from Evildoers Beware! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: The Mad Caddies are beneficiaries of SKAffirmative Action. They enjoyed the SKApril limelight in 2012, only the second SKApril, & in subsequent years, but have not enjoyed that limelight since 2018. "Road Rash" is a worthy song—our charity does not extend so far as to inflict bad songs on our beloved readers—but I don't often listen to Duck and Cover, the only Mad Caddies album in my music library. SKAffirmative Action exists to help SKApril showcase the bredth of ska. Without it, & the other rules around SKApril,I would just replay my favorite songs by my favorite bands over & over again, & that's what the SKAfterParty & SKAugust are for.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: I'm grateful to the small community of rudies built up around SKApril who have helped me learn more about the East Coast's Third Wave ska scene of the late Eighties & Nineties, so very different from the West Coast ska that dominated my initial exposure to the genre.
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
Suburban Legends, "Bright Spring Morning" from Rump Shaker (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
Operation ÖSTERREICH: Easter Feaster Edition
Please Stand By | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!
Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)
Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
The Explorers' Club, № MCL
Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
7 April 1926: Italian Duce Benito Mussolini was shot in Rome by Violet Gibson, an Anglo-Irishwoman, the first of three assassination attempts in 1926; he had just addressed an international conference of surgeons; the bullet only grazed Mussolini's nose, & he was able to carry on with his itinerary; Italian police saved Gibson from being lynched & she spent the rest of her life in a British insane asylum.
Commentary: In 2022, Dublin, Ireland unveiled a plaque honoring Gibson as a "committed anti-fascist," brushing aside her own Unionist political convictions (born & raised in Dublin, she refused to hold Irish citizenship after the Anglo-Irish War) & the inconvenient fact that her failed assassination boosted Mussolini's popularity, thus aiding the Fascist consolidation of power in Italy.
Lest we forget.
7 April 1926: Italian Duce Benito Mussolini was shot in Rome by Violet Gibson, an Anglo-Irishwoman, the first of three assassination attempts in 1926; he had just addressed an international conference of surgeons; the bullet only grazed Mussolini's nose, & he was able to carry on with his itinerary; Italian police saved Gibson from being lynched & she spent the rest of her life in a British insane asylum.
Lest we forget.
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
The Chinkees, "Big World" from Peace through Music (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary:
"Get out, get out, get out of my head,
I can't take this pain…"
Monday, April 13, 2026
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
Ska Cubano, "Jezebel" from ¡Ay Caramba! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: Every year, I think The Hippos are through as SKAll-Stars—especially since the sixteen years of SKApril have featured every one of the ten songs on their only purely ska-punk album, Forget the World—& every year they manage to hang on. I admire their persistence, which is all the more remarkable since they started to abandon ska on the second of their three albums.
Sunday, April 12, 2026
Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Vostok 1
Public Service Broadcasting, "Gagarin" from The Race for Space (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)
Commentary: Happy Yuri's Night, space cadets! Hyperlinks: Cosmonautics Day, International Day of Human Space Flight, & Yuri's Night.
The Wayback Machine Tour of Vostok 1
№ DCCCX: The Sixtieth Anniversary of Vostok 1
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
The Rocksteady Conspiracy, "Jerk Chicken" from Rough & Sweet (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Divine Mercy Sunday
Mike Hilliker & Melanie Rea, "Lord, Have Mercy" from the Mercy: Songs for Holy Week (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)
Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: A ska-punk cover of the Donna Summer song "Hot Stuff." Skameleon are a cover band, musical chameleons who cover songs from across the spectrum of rock & roll, because ska makes everything better.
Saturday, April 11, 2026
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
Reel Big Fish, "Everything Sucks" from Turn the Radio Off (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
Bonus! Easter Octave Song o' the Day
Sarah Kroger, "O God Beyond All Praising" from Origin: A Beauty Initiative within F.O.C.U.S. (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)
The Explorers' Club Special: April 1916
In April 1916, the "world blood-pump" at Verdun continued & Irish nationalists rebelled against the British Empire; in the "Chemists' War," offense (poison gas) still held the advantage over defense (gas masks); & the Anglo-Indian force besieged at Kut surrendered to the Ottomans, who treated the defeated commander as a celebrity & let most of his men die of maltreatment.
The Wayback Machine Tour of the World War: April 1916
"The Explorers' Club," № CDXCII: The Battle of Verdun, Part III: "They shall not pass!" (10 April-31 May 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № CDXCIV: The Easter Rising (24-29 April 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № CDXCIII: Poison gas cloud attacks near Hulluch, France (27-29 April 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № CDXCV: The Siege of Kut, Part IV: The British surrendered (29 April 1916)
Lest we forget.
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: An instrumental piece.
Friday, April 10, 2026
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
Bombskare, "Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?" from The Day the Earth Stood Stupid (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine. "Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?" was my introduction to Bombskare. If I remember correctly, I found the video for "Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?" on the YouTubes.
Why are we highlighting the R.B.D.S.O.T.D. from 30 April 2019 on 10 April 2026? Because, attentive reader, in 2019 SKApril was postponed by my participation in the Exodus 90 exercise, the disciplines of which forbade listening to music. In subsequent years, the disciplines would be amended to permit music that "lifted the heart & mind to God." SKApril IX began on Easter Sunday, 21 April, & continued for thirty days into May. Even if the total prohibition on music had remained, I would not have obeyed it; I learned the bitter lesson in 2019 that ska lifts my heart & my mind. Curse me as a addict if you wish, but I believe man's musical talents are gifts from God meant to raise out minds, hearts, & spirits. I'm a more joyous, more charitable person when I listen to ska.
Bonus! Easter Octave Song o' the Day
O.C.P. Session Choir, "O God Beyond All Praising" from Glory & Praise: Third Edition, Vol. 27 (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: Usually, SKApril is planned out methodically, to avoid repeating bands & songs. Today, however, "Now or Never" has been running through my head like any normal R.B.D.S.O.T.D. Neat!
"I can't wait forever,
Maybe I can't wait all night,
Last time that she kissed me,
Her boyfriend blacked my eye…"
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Bonus! Song o' the Day: Go Blue!
N.C.A.A. Tournament, Frozen Four
(№ 1) Michigan v. Denver (№ 2)
31-7-1, B1G 20-6-1
The University of Michigan Marching Band, "The Victors" from Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue (Mike Papa Wolverine)
Commentary: I have not watched much of the valiant Wolverines of Team 104, in large measure because there's not much college hockey on television & I have not tried to attend a game at the venerable Yost Ice Arena. (I ought to do that next winter.) The valiant Wolverines are the № 1 overall seed, but have not been able to advance from the Frozen Four to the national championship game in quite a long time. Denver has overtaken Michigan as the most frequent National Champions (ten times); the valiant Wolverines have been stuck on nine since 1998, my freshman year.
Go Blue!
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
The Skatalites, "The James Bond Theme" from Ball of Fire (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
Bonus! Easter Octave Song o' the Day
Daniel Schmit, "Christ Is Risen" from Mercy: Songs for Holy Week (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones furnished the very first song for the very first SKApril, "The Impression That I Get" on 1 April 2011. They were a band from 1983-2004 & 2007-2022, & on hiatus 2004-2007, before they finally broke up in the beginning of 2022 over, of all the stupid things, pandemic politics. This past Christmas, at a Mustard Plug show in Detroit, I learned Dicky Barrett is trying to effect a reunion & had asked for patience. It's long past time for the living part of life to begin.
"She drew a war tribe skull with a Sharpie fine point marker
On the back of her army green Fred Perry parka,
Drove her Vespa motor scooter overnight right through the valley
To the Lake Geneva motor scooter rally,
Checked into the Château Royal Inn,
She had to let the living part of life begin…"
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI
Skammentary: The Abruptors made their SKApril debut in 2025 & in the year since "Don't Worry" has been the R.D.S.O.T.D. not once, not twice, but thrice—once during the SKAfter Party & twice during the ordinary course of events.
"Don't worry, it'll be all right,
Don't worry, I'll keep you safe at night,
Don't worry, I'll listen what you say,
Don't worry, yeah, there will come a day…"
Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives
Rancid, "Time Bomb" from …And Out Came the Wolves (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)
Skammentary: Wayback Machine.
Operation ÖSTERREICH: Easter Feaster Edition
Please Stand By | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!
Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)
Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)
Bonus! Easter Octave Song o' the Day
The Festival Choir and Hosanna Chorus, "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today" from 100 Church Classics (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)
Tuesday, April 7, 2026
The Explorers' Club, № MCXLIX
Operation AXIOM: The Space Age
The Halley Armada, an internationally coordinated series of space probes to study Halley's Comet: Vega 1 & Vega 2 (U.S.S.R. & France, launched 15 & 21 December 1984), Giotto (European Space Agency, launched 2 July 1985), & Sakigake & Suisei (Japan, launched 7 January & 18 August 1985); all five probes made their closest approaches to Halley's Comet between 6-14 March 1986.
Commentary: The American observatory Spartan Halley was destroyed in the Challenger disaster. The cancelled Space Shuttle mission S.T.S.-61-E (planned to launch 6 March 1986) was also scheduled to conduct observations of Halley's Comet using the ASTRO-1 payload.
An existing space probe, launched in 1978 as the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3, was retasked & renamed the International Cometary Explorer, passing through the tails of Comet Giacobini-Zinner in September 1985 & Comet Halley in March 1986.
Semper exploro.
The Halley Armada, an internationally coordinated series of space probes to study Halley's Comet: Vega 1 & Vega 2 (U.S.S.R. & France, launched 15 & 21 December 1984), Giotto (European Space Agency, launched 2 July 1985), & Sakigake & Suisei (Japan, launched 7 January & 18 August 1985); all five probes made their closest approaches to Halley's Comet between 6-14 March 1986.
An existing space probe, launched in 1978 as the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3, was retasked & renamed the International Cometary Explorer, passing through the tails of Comet Giacobini-Zinner in September 1985 & Comet Halley in March 1986.
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