The Explorers' Club, № MLXXXII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of the "April 5th Anamoly"
5 April 1975: CDR Vasily Lazarev & Flight Engineer Oleg Makarov lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz 7K-T capsule atop a Soyuz rocket; callsign Ural ("Ural"); the launch aborted when the third-stage engine ignited before separating from the second stage; the duo suffered twenty-one g's during the abort & landed in deep snow in Siberia near the Chinese border.

Commentary: Colonel Lazarev never fully recovered from his injuries & never flew in space again. The Soviets were unusually forthcoming with information—to N.A.S.A., not to the Soviet citizenry—due to the ongoing preparations for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

The twenty-one-minute suborbital flight is also known as Soyuz 18a or Soyuz 18-1, to differentiate it from the successful orbital flight Soyuz 18 later in 1975. The search for images is complicated by Lazarev & Makarov previously flying Soyuz 12 together in 1973.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: The "April 5th Anamoly"
Dennis McCarthy, "Out of Control/The Crash" from Star Trek Generations: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Friday, 5 April 2013
The Bruce Lee Band, "Running Out of Time" from the Beautiful World E.P. (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

"Slave to my lifestyle and I don't even know why,
(I hate my job, friend, the passion's over),
Ocean views on holidays,
(I hate my job, friend, I'm slowly dying,
I hate my job, friend, I'm running out of time)…"

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

Brad Pittance and the Pirates, "One Night Stand" from the Love, Lust and Skadust E.P. (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"This is ska!

"It's true I need a drink or two
To get the courage up and talk to you,
My clothes aren't special, but they are brand new,
Everybody's dancing and they're watching you.

"I don't mind the music, I don't mind the band,
I'm only here for a one night stand,
I don't mind the singer and I dont mind the band,
I'm only here for a one night stand!

Hey, you! This is ska!

"They kept that groove 'til she looked so fine,
I really want to make her mine,
I take her hand, she looked so good,
I take her home and I think I should.

"I quite like the music, I quite like the band,
I'm only here for a one night stand,
I quite like the singer and I quite like the band,
But I'm only here for a one night stand!

"Everybody's bustin' out their moves,
Everybody's gettin' into the groove!

"But something went wrong as I said hi,
She's gone off dancing with another guy,
He's looking smart in his boots and braces,
Looks like I was never really at the races.

"I like the music, I like the band,
I'm only here for a one night stand,
I like the singer and I like the band,
I was only here for a one night stand!

This is the sound of ska!

"So I start staring at my phone,
Looks like I'll be going home alone,
I get to talking to a guy at the bar,
'You just can't beat some reggae and ska!'…

"I love the music, I like the band,
I was here for a one night stand,
I like the singer and I love the band,
I was only here for a one night stand!"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Saturday, 4 April 2020
MU330, "Rocket Fuel" from MU330 (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

"That kid is rocket fuel (please please),
That kid is rocket fuel (go to sleep),
That kid is rocket fuel (please please),
That kid, he's rocket fuel!…"

Bonus! Fish Fry Song o' the Day

The Raymond Scott Quintette, "Powerhouse" from the Microphone Music compilation (Mike Papa Wreckfish)

Commentary: The normal weekly routine for running the Fish Fry is: Make coleslaw & prep potatos on Thursday afternoon, put out signage on Thursday evening to catch the Friday morning commuters, hold the fry on Friday, fetch the fish for the next Friday's fry on Saturday. Last Sunday (30 March), the entire Holy Redeemer campus lost electrical power due to a severe windstorm; power was not restored until Wednesday (3 April); power went out again for a while on Thursday. Due to the need to clean the building after the power outage, coleslaw & baked potato prep was moved from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning. No one was able to access the parish hall to check on the temperature of the thawing fish in the locked cooler (the building is accessed through electronic keycards, which obviously do not work absent electricity); so, I had to procure a whole new stock of fish, which began thawing at the fishmonger's market, because there was no point in acquiring new stock if I had no place to store it. With power finally restored & the hall cleaned, I picked up & put in the cooler the already thawing replacement fish (my Saturday job); then, I helped make the coleslaw & prep the potatoes (my Thursday job); then, the usual Friday Fish Fry. What a cartoonishly frenetic day!

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

RX Bandits, "Lost" from Halfway Between Here & There (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"…I'm not afraid anymore.

"There is a way for us all,
There is a way for my future,
Nothing left for me at all,
Nothing left, I can't find it,
I don't see any more,
How can I be so stupid?
Well, I don't know anymore,
Drop me now 'cause I'm so damn lost!"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Sunday, 3 April 2011
Less Than Jake, "Danny Says" from Hello Rockview (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. Your humble narrator was nineteen when Hello Rockview was released.

"He's only nineteen,
Burnt out on the scene,
Yeah, he's only nineteen…"

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

Less Than Jake, "Done and Dusted" from the Greetings & Salutations from Less Than Jake compilation (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"My vital signs are thick and grayed,
Must be why I'm still awake…"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Saturday, 2 April 2022
M.C. Lars featuring The M.C. Bat Commander & Suburban Legends, "This Gigantic Robot Kills" from the This Gigantic Robot Kills single (Captain Thumbs Up!)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. Ska bands namechecked in "This Gigantic Robot Kills:" Gwen Stefani (of No Doubt), Goldfinger, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, The Aquabats!, Save Ferris, Sublime, & The O.C. Supertones.

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Countdown to Resurrection

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

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)
Next weigh-in: ? lbs. (23 April 2025)
Difference: +/-? lbs.

Bonus! Lied von ÖSTERREICH
Operation Ivy, "Healthy Body" from the Operation Ivy compilation (Mike Papa Whale)

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

The Ska Flames, "Hot Sake" from Ska Fever (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: It might be too early for hot sake here in sacred Michigan, but Japan is thirteen hours ahead of us; so, it is already 8:37 P.M. there (2037 hours). A fine time for an adult beverage.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Reel Big Fish, "Don't Stop Skankin'" from Candy Coated Fury (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

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

Tobeadded, "Ska Sucks" from the Ska Sucks single (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Tobeadded, stylized as tobeadded or tba, are a small Austrian ska band, apparently active from 2010-2018. At least, nothing's been added to their YouTube page in seven years. There is a charming D.I.Y. quality to "Ska Sucks."

"You say, ska sucks in every way,
And I say, I think it is quite O.K.…"

Welcome to SKApril!