Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

MU330, "Kong" from Press (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: MU330 are the first SKAll-Stars to enjoy this year's SKApril limelight. SKAll-Stars are those bands that have furnished a song for every SKApril, going all the way back to 2011. Every SKApril, I expect one or two bands to drop out, but we've been pretty stable at seven SKAll-Stars for more than half a decade.

MU330 are one of the more socially conscious ska-punks bands; so, I suspect "Kong" is about more than just King Kong—which is is—but also about those cowardly men who are violent towards women.

"Hey, you big dummy,
Pick on someone your own size…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday
Matt Maher, "The Waiting" from Saints and Sinners (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Monday, 3 April 2023
Melbourne Ska Orchestra, "Get Smart" from Melbourne Ska Orchestra (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Good Friday

The Friday of the Passion of the Lord (Good Friday)
Daniel Schmit & Mike Hilliker, "Were You There" from Mercy Songs for Holy Week (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: An instrumental rendition of the spiritual, highlighting the violin, which to my ears is the most emotionally affective musical instrument.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Club Sandinista!, "Yeah Yeah Yeah" from the Punky Ska Music E.P. (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Club Sandinista! made their SKApril debut during SKApril XV in 2025 after I discovered them in 2024. Punky Ska Music is well-named, as they would fit right in with the ska-punk of the Turn of the Millennium. Club Sandinista! is a contemporary Japanese band, highlighting the global appeal of ska.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Monday, 2 April 2012
Nothing for Something, "Ska Kids" courtesy Sergeant Ska (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. Scroll down to find the R.B.D.S.O.T.D. The Secret Base was stylistically quite different a decade & a half hence.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Holy Thursday

The Thursday of Holy Week (Holy Thursday)
Jim Cowan & Tony Melendez, "This Is Jesus" from The Cup of Life (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Be Like Max, "Lovely Day" from Against All Odds (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: The above bumper sticker was spotted in the wild by REDACTED & transmitted to me in preparation for SKApril. Be Like Max return to the SKApril limelight for the first time since 2020; the band broke up in 2021.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Wednesday, 1 April 2020
Reel Big Fish, "Ska Show" from Life Sucks… Let's Dance! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. A cry of the heart from the dark days of the misguided pandemic lockdowns.

"If we don't have fun, then what are we living for?
If we don't have fun, why are we here?
If we don't have fun, then what are we living for?
I don't want to take the chance that there's anything more,
Have a good time all the time and you'll be fine…"

Bonus! Moonshot Song o' the Day: Artemis II

Destination Moon
Republica,"Ready to Go" from Republica (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commenatry: At 6:35:12 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time (5:35:12 P.M. Central Daylight Time at Mission Control), Artemis II lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center with Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist 1 Christina Koch, & Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen aboard the Orion C.M. Integrity atop a Space Launch System (S.L.S.) rocket. Godspeed, Artemis II!

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Blondie, "The Tide Is High" from the The Tide Is High single (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Welcome to SKApril, an April tradition since 2011!

I first heard "The Tide Is High" last summer, & immediately recognized it merited the SKApril limelight. If I ever heard "The Tide Is High" prior to last summer, it left no impression. We have always taken a very liberal view of ska in SKApril: "The Tide Is High" was originally recorded by The Paragons in 1966 as a rocksteady song, rocksteady being the intermediate stage between original roots ska & reggae.

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Holy Week | Please Stand By

Please Stand By | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)

Bonus! Holy Week Song o' the Day

The Wednesday of Holy Week
John Williams, "Anakin's Betrayal" from Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Explorers' Club, № MCXLVIII

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of Luna 10
31 March-30 May 1966: The Luna 10 probe (A.K.A. Lunik 10) lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Molniya-M rocket; Luna 10 entered lunar orbit (3 April), the first artificial satellite of the Moon & the first probe to encounter mass concentrations & the resultant gravity anomalies that perturbed its orbit; radio communications was terminated after 460 orbits (30 May).

Commentary: It is unknown precisely when Luna 10's orbit decayed & it crashed into the Moon, nor where.

Ex Luna, scientia.

Bonus! Holy Week Song o' the Day

The Tuesday of Holy Week
Mike Hilliker & Melanie Rea, "Lord Have Mercy" from Mercy: Songs for Holy Week (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Great Big Sea, "It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" from Play (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: 'Twas specifically the Great Big Sea cover of "It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)," not the R.E.M. original, that ran through my head this morning.

"Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives,
And I decline…"

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"Assignment: Earth" (season two, episode twenty-six; production code: 055; 29 March 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: In "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" (season one, episode nineteen; January 1967), the Enterprise is accidentally thrown back in time to July 1969 & very nearly changes history. Yet here in "Assignment: Earth," the Enterprise intentionally uses the same time-travel technique to voyage to a slightly earlier time, 1968, to conduct "historical research." The recklessness is breathtaking.

"Assignment: Earth" is a backdoor pilot for a show of the same name. When no network was interested in buying the show, it was decided to rework the pilot as an episode of Star Trek. The plot involves our heroes' encounter with a man code named "Gary Seven," an agent of hidden alien benefactors. Seven insists that he belongs in this era (1968), while Captain Kirk & Mister Spock are interlopers, despite the fact that Seven also plainly identifies himself as the descendant of humans who were taken from the Earth six thousand years ealier by the hidden aliens & trained to the limits of human ability. Gary Seven (Robert Lansing, who is credited immediately after the episode title, before the writing & directing credits) is assisted by a contemporary woman, Roberta Lincoln (the break-through role for a young Teri Garr, six years before Young Frankenstein.)

The most irksome part of the episode is Gary Seven's mission: to prevent the United States from launching an orbital nuclear weapons platform. It is explicitly stated that the U.S. is launching the platform in response to another power (never named as the Soviet Union, but they were the only other nation with heavy launch capability in 1968) have already launched such an orbital weapons platform. Why wasn't Seven tasked with preventing the Soviets from launching their platform in the first place? Why is is moral & safe for the world for the Soviet Union to hang a nuclear Sword of Damocles over the world? The inescapable conclusion is that his alien masters wish the totalitarian Soviet Union to dominate the Earth. Gary Seven is at worst an intentional Communist spy & saboteur or at best a "useful idiot," inadvertantly advancing Communist aims. What a terrible idea for a show!

"Assignment: Earth" has some charm, but overall is a weak conclusion to Star Trek's second season.

Bonus! Holy Week Song o' the Day

The Monday of Holy Week
Mike Hilliker, "Father, I Put My Life in Your Hands (Psalm 31)" from Mercy: Songs for Holy Week (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Lit, "My Own Worst Enemy" from A Place in the Sun (Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
The Daughters of Mary, "O Sacred Head Surrounded" from De Profundis (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"The Omega Glory" (season two, episode twenty-three; production code: 053; 1 March 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: "The Omega Glory" was one of the three outlines submitted for Star Trek's rare second pilot episode. The outline selected & produced was "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Had "The Omega Glory" been the second pilot (after "The Cage"), I think that would have been the end of Star Trek. This is a really bad episode.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Yesterday

Samstag, 28. März
Mad Caddies, "Road Rash" from Duck and Cover (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Yesterday was "Play-in-Traffic Day," when my Knights of Columbus council mans the intersection of Bristol Road & Saginaw Street in Burton, Michigan, a block east of Holy Redeemer parish, as part of the Michigan State Council's M.I. Drive, collecting donations & distributing Tootsie Rolls to support the mentally impaired. It is important to note that we are not selling Tootsie Rolls, that might entail a different set of licenses; we are collecting free-will donations & passing out Tootsie Rolls. Some drivers who donate decline to take a Tootsie Roll & if a driver apologies for not having any cash or only a few coins, I always give them a Tootsie Roll. If there are children in the automobile, each child gets a Tootsie Roll. We conduct the M.I. Drive twice a year, on Palm Sunday weekend in the spring & Columbus Day weekend in the autumn. "Play-in-Traffic Days" are my two favorite days of the year to be a Knight of Columbus.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Ereyesterday

Freitag, 27. März
Skameleon, "Intro Sandman" from Ska Makes Everything Better (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: While running an errand for the Fish Fry, I turned on the Shuttlecraft Odysseus's radio. I enjoy the "local" classical music station (broadcasting from East Lansing), but tune to anything else when they switch from Western art music to the Woke leftist propaganda of N.P.R. I heard the recognizable introductory strains of Metallica's "Enter Sandman." As Skameleon reminds us, ska makes everything better.

Bonus! Fish Fry Song o' the Day

Semisonic, "Closing Time" from Feeling Strangely Fine (Mike Papa Whale Shark)

Skammentary: I love that "Closing Time" is about human birth, but as with everyone else who missed that meaning when the song was first released, I find it applicable to numerous other instances.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Queen & David Bowie, "Under Pressure" from the Classic Queen compilation (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"The Ultimate Computer" (season two, episode twenty-four; production code: 053; 8 March 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Is one of the truly great episodes of The Original Series, & still relevent for us today amidst the peril & promise of "A.I." (Artificial Intelligence is a true misnomer, as there is no operative intelligence, these programs—fie on "agents," as there is no agency—are simply souped-up search engines & faster aggregators). The M-5 computer is supposed to be able to replace a starship's crew; the M-5's creator, renowned computer scientist Richard Daystrom, seeks to replace starship crews so that humans need not die in outer space. Like the latter-day robotics advocates who cheer for mass unemployment, Daystrom believes that humans with purposeless lives devoid of challenge or adventure will somehow (?) be happier. Of course, Daystrom's pet computer ends up killing hundreds of Starfleet officers & crew when it opens fire with full-power phasers on starships that thought they were participating in a harmless war game. Kirk is able to convince the M-5 that it has violated its own purpose—preserving human life—by murdering numerous humans, the umpteenth time Kirk has talked a villainous supercomputer to death.

"The Ultimate Computer" is also notable for featuring five different Federation starships: the familiar U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 & newcomers the Lexington, the Potemkin, the Hood,& the Excalibur. Five different ships, but all Constitution-class, the same as the Enterprise. (So was the Constellation in "The Doomsday Machine" [season two, episode six] & so will be the Exeter in "The Omega Glory" [season two, episode twenty-three].) A different class of Federation starship would not be seen until the Miranda-class U.S.S. Reliant NCC-1864 in 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. (The Reliant was designed specifically to be instantly distinguishable from the refit Enterprise.)

The Explorers' Club, № MCXLVII

The Space Race: The 60th Anniversaries of Project Gemini
The Agena Target Vehicle (A.T.V.)—A rocket, a modification of the RM-81 Agena-D upper stage fitted with a docking adaptor, the Agena Target Vehicle was used to develop & practice orbital rendezvous & docking maneuvers; Gemini VIII, Gemini X, Gemini XI, & Gemini XII rendezvoused & docked with A.T.V.; Gemini X & Gemini XI were boosted by their respective Agenas to successive altitude records.

Commentary: The A.T.V. for Gemini VI exploded during ascent not long after separating from its Atlas booster, prompting the revision of Gemini VI as Gemini VI-A, which rendezvoused, but obviously could not dock, with Gemini VII. The A.T.V. for Gemini IX was destroyed when its Atlas booster failed during ascent, prompting the revision of Gemini IX as Gemini IX-A, which rendezvoused with the Augmented Target Docking Adapter (a device devised for precisely this contingency), but was unable to dock due to a comedy of errors by the ground crews prior to launch.

Tom Stafford flew on both Gemini VI-A (Pilot) & Gemini IX-A (Command Pilot). Due to the above described Altas-Agena failures & a pair of scrubs caused by the primary Titan II Gemini Launch Vehicle, Stafford was strapped into his Gemini capsules six times for only two launches, earning him the nickname, the "Mayor of Pad 19."

Semper exploro.

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Lent | Please Stand By

Please Stand By | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

The Abruptors, "Waiting Forever" from Noticeably Cheerless (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"Patterns of Force" (season two, episode twenty-one; production code: 052; 16 February 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: I've kept up with my rewatch of Star Trek somewhat better than I have with my blogging about that rewatch.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Yesterday

Dientag, 24. März
Quincy Jones, "Soul Bossa Nova" from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery—Original Soundtrack (Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Ereyesterday

Montag, 23. März
Johhnyswim, "Diamonds" from Diamonds (Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the V Sunday o' Lent

Sontag, 22. März
The Fifth Sunday of Lent
Less Than Jake, "The Rest of My Life" from In with the Out Crowd (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Last Saturday

Samstag, 21. März
Seatbelts, "Tank!" from Cowboy Bebop: Original Soundtrack (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Fish Fry Song o' the Day

Reel Big Fish, "G.D. Beautiful Day" from Life Sucks… Let's Dance! (Mike Papa Whitefish)

Skammentary: What a beautiful day! The Sun shone & the breeze was gentle, quite the opposite of the previous week's wind storm.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the First Day o' Spring

"The cruel, hot summer
led into the long, hard fall,
becoming the dark, killing winter
until spring replenished us all."
—Bill Willingham, Fables

Freitag, 20. März
The Vernal Equinox
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, "A Touch of Spring" from Ska=Almighty (Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Last Thursday

Donnerstag, 19. März
MxPx, "Sad Sad Song" from Secret Weapon (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: I'm publishing this post on 25 March, the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. I fell behind because I did not make the time. Yes, I've been overly busy, but I could have made the time, e.g., I found plenty of time to doomscroll on Twitter. This formatting is experimental for the long road back.

"You got a sad, sad song,
So sing it without me.
You got a sad, sad song,
So sing it without me…

"You get a good thing going, then you turn it around,
I'm beginning to think you went nuts,
To tell you the truth, I don't really care,
Okay, I really hate your guts…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

"Weird Al" Yankovic, "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long" from Even Worse (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: The title of "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long" is just six words long thanks to the contraction "song's," for "song is." Yet, during "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long," "Weird Al" distinctly sings:

"This song is just six words long…"

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Lent | Please Stand By

Please Stand By | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)

The Explorers' Club Special: Gemini VIII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 60th Anniversary of Gemini VIII
16-17 March 1966: Gemini VIII lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, carrying Command Pilot Neil Armstrong & Pilot Dave Scott aboard a Gemini spacecraft atop a Titan II G.L.V. rocket; they achieved the first docking in space, with an Agena; a thruster malfunction caused the spacecraft to tumble rapidly & triggered an emergency reentry; they splashed down in the Pacific.

Commentary: Gemini VIII was originally scheduled to splash down in the Atlantic on 20 March. The emergency reentry necessitated a splash down in the Pacific. U.S. Air Force Pararescue Jumpers were the first to reach the capsule, which was later recovered by the U.S.S. Leonard F. Mason.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Gemini VIII
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCIV: The 55th Anniversary of Gemini VIII

Semper exploro.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Saint Patrick's Day

The Optional Memorial of Saint Patrick, Bishop
Johnny Cash, "Danny Boy" from American IV: The Man Comes Around (Mike Papa Irish Whiskey)

Commentary:

"But if you come, and all the flowers are dying,
And I am dead, as dead I may well be,
You'll come and find the place where I am lying,
And kneel and say an Ave there for me…"

The Explorers' Club, № MCXLVI

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
16 March 1926: Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket from his aunt's farm in Auburn, Massachusetts; the rocket, Nell, rose forty-one feet vertically & traveled one hundred eighty-four feet horizontally; liquid propellants are tricker to handle than solid propellants, but yield a higher specific impulse, the amount of thrust produced per unit weight of fuel, & can be throttleable.

Bonus! Song o' the Day
MU330, "Rocket Fuel" from MU330 (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: "Rocket Fuel" isn't about rocketry, but parenting, yet the title was too on the nose to resist.

Semper exploro.