Ten For Tuesday Episode 104

Continuing on from the musical direction of episode 103 comes ten more great songs from my favorite era of music to listen to, 1977-1983-ish. So much amazing music was created so be sure to check back often, more episodes to come, especially if I can get my laptop fixed and recover a ton of music. I can only hope.



The Go-Go's - Get Up And Go
Surf Punks - My Beach
X - The Have Nots
Sex Pistols - Holiday In The Sun
Elvis Costello - Radio Radio
The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
The English Beat - Stand Down Margaret
The Police - Canary In A Coalmine
The Jam - Going Underground

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter:@notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Ten For Tuesday Episode 103: Back Again

Sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to. I had an episode almost ready and intended to upload it while I was on vacation in Peru but that didn't happen. First of all I got sick and then the wifi available to me was spotty at best. Even so I figured I'd just finish it once I returned home. That didn't happen either because shortly after coming home my laptop died and I haven't had the funds to try and get it fixed. Right now I have to beg time from my wife to use her laptop. Hopefully in the near future my situation will improve but if not, well, I'll just keep on going until it does. Income tax return days aren't too far off now are they? Enough of that, I've been a mood for music from a certain period of time, probably my favorite time of all, from around 1977 to 1982 or 1983 give or take. There was some great raw music created in that era. Sit back and enjoy because the next two episodes are almost done as well and there will be more of this to come.



Adam & The Ants - Desperate But Not Serious
Devo - Girl U Want
Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone
The English Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
U2 - I Will Follow
The Police - So Lonely
The Cars - Let's Go
The Go-Go's - Turn To You

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter:@notmovingpics 
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Ten For Tuesday Episode 098

Like I said last time, I'm getting tired of naming the episodes so I won't until I feel like it's appropriate. This weeks features even more of the music and bands from last week. Basically it's a lot of 80s rock, roots and more. Just call it good and enjoy.



Beat Farmers - There She Goes
The Replacements - Left Of The Dial
The Call - Let The Day Begin
Miki Gonzales - Vamos A Tocache
Bodeans - Closer To Free
Phantom, Rocker and Slick - My Mistake
Brian Setzer - The Knife Feels Like Justice
Los Lobos - One Time One Night
The Del Fuegos - I Still Want You
Green On Red - Time Ain't Nothing

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter:@notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Ten For Tuesday Epidode 097: I'm Growing Tired Of Naming The Episodes

I don't think the last episode tore up the airwaves so I'm going in a different direction while staying in the same decade. Number 96 was alright but this one, this one means a lot to me, so many good bands, so many good tunes, so many good memories listening to them.



X - Your Phones Off The Hook But You're Not
Jason & The Scorchers - White Lies
The Blasters - Marie Marie
The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Wrap It Up
Jim Carroll Band - Wicked Gravity
Dancing Hoods - Torn Away
Cruzados - Motorcycle Girl
The Romantics - One In A Million
The Long Ryders - You Don't Know What's Right, You Don't Know What's Wrong
Rank And File - Rank And File

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter:@notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday.

Written and published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Ten For Tuesday Episode 090: Old School Metal Roadtrip

It's another road trip episode. Since we are in Denver to see Megadeth and Suicidal Tendencies and will see Iron Maiden back in Tulsa on Friday I decided to do an early to mid 80s heavy metal/hard rock episode. The 2nd set of songs all feature Jimmy Bain and the last........well the band names all begin with A. So it adds up to a rather cool group of songs and that's alright with me.



Megadeth - Killing Is My Business And Business Is Good
Suicidal Tendencies - I Saw Your Mommy
Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes To Midnight
Dio - We Rock
Gary Moore - Hiroshima
Hear N' Aid - Stars
Wild Horses - Face Down
Alcatraz - Island In The Sun
Armored Saint - Can U Deliver
Accept - Fast As A Shark

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter:@notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

11/27/97 Tape WMUL 88.1 Marshall University Fill In Slot

This is a strange one. Once again I filled in for a missing dj at WMUL, this time on 11/27/97 but I didn't talk at all. More than likely I simply queued up the cd In Their Eyes: '90s Teen Bands Vs. 80s Teen Movies and put it on auto play while I did something else. Anything to keep the station on the air. So at least you don't have to listen to me blabbing on and on this time. So click on the link here and surf on over if 90s teen bands covering songs from 80s teen movies is your thing.

The Grown Ups - Pretty In Pink
The Gadjits - Don't You Forget About Me
Dyslexic Crush - A Million Miles Away
Phantom Planet - Somebody's Baby
Ben Lee and Spitoon - If You Were Here
Round House - Bring On The Dancing Horses
Crazy Glue - Oh Yeah
F.O.N. - You Might Think
The Rondelles - I Melt With You (tape switches)
Stinky Puffs - In Your Eyes
Marigold - If You Leave
English League - Weird Science
Slimer - Raised On Raydio
The Knock-Ups - Johnny Are You Queer?
Schools Out - The Donnas

This audio comes from an old cassette tape recorded at WMUL, Marshall University in Huntington and may suffer from the effects of time. I have done nothing special to enhance the sound or fix any bugs suffered by the equipment of the radio station. I have also chosen to keep everything including station i.d.s and PSAs. It is what it is.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Ten For Tuesday Episode 082: This One Is For Carol Jannsen

Yes I know it's not Tuesday but I couldn't hold back any longer on this episode. If you are asking yourself who is Carol Janssen and why does she rate an episode dedicated to her well the answer is easy. Carol is a listener and sometimes guest host on the Stuck In The 80s podcast that I hold so dear in my heart. A few episodes back she wrote in explaining that she had been working a massive bunch of hours and wanted some suggestions for music to help her pick her energy level up on those rare occasions when work was finished. I might be paraphrasing here and adding my own details but I can do that, it's my blog. At any rate of course I was inspired to write a few song titles down but not enough to actually send them in. The more I thought about it though the more I felt the need to turn it into my own podcast episode so here we go. Nine slices of energy building 80s classics (and one from the late 70s) guaranteed to get your feet moving so long as you're not dead. Wow, did I use the word episode enough this time? Be forewarned, there's lots of ska here.



Madness - One Step Beyond
The English Beat - Ranking Full Stop
Romeo Void - Never Say Never
Fishbone - Party At Ground Zero
The Skids - Into The Valley
The Vapors - Turning Japanese
The Special AKA - Free Nelson Mandela
Oingo Boingo - Who Do You Want To Be
The Selector - On My Radio
Bad Manners - Lip Up Fatty

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com
Twitter:@notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Ten For Tuesday Episode 080: 80s Metal Kind Of Mood

So last week I got into a mood at work and started jumping from video to video, listening along as I worked. It wasn't just any mood mind you, it was an 80s metal mood. Not hair metal, real metal from the earlier part of the decade for the most part. That's where this playlist came from. If you don't like 80s metal then it sucks being you, don't listen unless you do. I saw two of these groups back in the day and four within the past ten years. Care to guess which is which?



Scorpions - Can't Live Without You
Quiet Riot - Come On Feel The Noize
Accept - Balls To The Wall
Dio - Rainbow In The Dark
Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Coming
Iron Maiden - The Trooper
Anthrax - Indians
AC/DC - Shake Your Foundations
Fastway - Easy Livin'
Motorhead - Ace Of Spades

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com
Twitter:@notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

notmovingpictures Episode 19: A Journey Revisted

Its been a long, long time but I have finally gotten back to my other podcast, notmovingpictures. The last episode was way back in October and actually this one was recorded before that one. The file has sat around on my laptop ever since until this past week when I got off my lazy butt and edited it. Be forewarned, it was recorded in a noisy diner so the sound quality isn't great but beggars can't be choosers.

So what is this episode about? In 1983 four guys went to see Journey with Bryan Adams opening in Norman, Oklahoma. Since that date all four had never been in the same room again at the same time. Up to three, yes but never all four again until you flash forward thirty years and they get together and talk about the old days, food, eating establishments (hey, we're old), Northeastern State University and what they've been doing in life. Strangely, about the only thing we didn't talk about was the Journey/Bryan Adams concert. I guess there's always next time, huh? 

Opening Music: Alloy - Live To See The Day
Closing Music: Journey - Stone In Love

Email: notmovingpictures@gmail.com Twitter: @notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

New Podcast Episode - Ten For Tuesday: 80s Metal Rules

Today's episode is in honor of my road trip from this past weekend to go to Kansas City and see Iron Maiden and Megadeth in concert. I had the idea for these bands in an 80s metal themed episode many months back but the time never seemed right. That is until the date of the concert approached and I knew there was no better time to do it. If the ten groups I have seen three of them in concert although only one took place in the 80s. That one would be Judas Priest whom I saw in Boeblingen, Germany at the end of the 80s while serving in the Army. While there I should have also seen Ozzy but for some unknown reason I didn't go and seemingly was on post by myself that night. Such is the stupidity of youth.

Iron Maiden - Wasted Years
Accept - Balls To The Wall
Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Dio - We Rock
Badlands - Highwire
Ozzy Osbourne - Miracle Man
Scorpions - Blackout
Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Going
The Cult - Wildflower
Jetboy - Feel The Shake

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Podcast Alert: Ten For Tuesday Episode 16 Is Ready

Episode 16 of my amazing musical podcast is now ready. Go to www.tenfortuesday.podomatic.com to download, subscribe, etc or just click on the player below. This episodes playlist is:

The Jam - Modern World
Violent Femmes - Gone Daddy Gone
Husker Du - Makes No Sense At All
Nine Below Zero - 11 + 11
The Slackers - Cooking For Tommy (live)
Sugar - Changes
The Beatdown - It's Alright
Chuck Prophet - Love Won't Keep Us Apart
Satelite Kingston - La Ultima Carta
The Dualers - I Won't Let You Go



Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Episode 13 of Ten For Tuesday Podcast Is Ready

Lucky episode 13 of the best music podcast that I do, Ten For Tuesday, is now ready. Go to http://www.tenfortuesday.podomatic.com/ to listen, download or subscribe to via Itunes. Or just click on the player below. Don't I make it easy for you? After three weeks off I'm back for a musical attack that features music from the U.S., Australia, Italy and Canada. There's lot's of ska, music from the 80s, music from this year and music from somewhere in between. I put all of the songs on a playlist for my Ipod and then just hit shuffle. This is the way it came out:

The Snails - Young At Heart
Alejandro Escovedo - Man Of The World
Banda Bassotti - Guantanamera
The Expos - Dying Too Long
The Resignators - Offbeat Feeling
The Call - The Walls Came Down
Dear Enemy - Restless
Jesse Malin - All The Way From Moscow
The Jayhawks - Bad Time
Drivin' N' Cryin' - Whisper Tames The Lion



Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Frat Life 101, Night Of The Dunking Pledges, Part 3

The next plan came together quite simply. Somebody had some balloons. A few other people had some shoe polish. The rest of our supplies were inadvertently "donated" by the university as we went through our dorms and gathered every single roll of toilet paper that we could find. The only toilet paper left in the entire dorm was the rolls on the floors where our rooms were. All else were taken and thus properly armed we made our way to the fraternity house for what would be our final showdown. We quietly left our vehicles and stationed a few pledges at the front door armed with the balloons that were now filled with water. The rest of us started applying shoe polish to car windshields and toilet paper to the cars and the trees on the property. The wind was blowing slightly and it was a magnificent sight to behold.

We were unsure of how many, if any, members were inside the house and eventually I guess we made enough noise for one of them to open the front door. As he did so several water balloons flew at him and he quickly slammed the door shut and locked it. We gave up on the rest of our work and decided that now we had to get into the house and get someone else to take a trip to the river. The siege on the house had begun and would not be halted for any man or reason. As we were looking for a way in we found that those inside had quickly procured their own water balloons and a brief firefight broke out. At some point I came up with the idea that the lock on the small bathroom window was broken and that if we were quiet enough we could sneak inside.


Thankfully I had remembered correctly and the lock was indeed broken. Somehow about five or six of us managed to climb through the window without making too much noise. We waited a few moments and then burst through the door. This is where with age my memory has started to get cloudy. I don't recall if Chris was inside and had made it into his room but I know for a fact that Gary and Spazz were. Someone was tasked to unlock the front door and the rest went after whoever they could find. Remarkably Gary made it past everyone and locked himself in his room that was right next to the bathroom but Spazz wasn't that lucky. I found him face down on his bed with Terry on top pinning his arms behind him. He couldn't move and was captured and knew that since no mercy would be given he wouldn't even bother asking for it. The handcuffs were thrown on him quickly and we took him outside and started loading him in a vehicle.

If you can believe it that's when things got really crazy. Gary climbed out of his window onto the porch wearing camouflage pants, no shirt and a Spiderman mask while carrying a boat oar. He screamed something like "I'm coming for you Spazz!" and ran at us swinging the oar. Swiftly he was disarmed and taken to the ground but he was fighting fiercely. A decision was made to send the vehicle ahead with Spazz and then we addressed our predicament. We chose to try and get away from Gary to another vehicle but he was holding onto someone so we ran back to help. Then as everyone let go he got ahold of my arm and I swear he was trying to bite me so everyone else came back and this time we held him up in the air by his limbs and at the count of three dropped him and ran to the waiting truck and dove in as it raced off. Once again another pair of handcuffs would have come in handy although I don't think that anyone involved would have relished the thought of what would happen once those handcuffs came off.

A quick stop was in order so that we could fulfill our part of the bargain and we found that we barely could scrape together any money so we were forced to purchase a single, generic cigarette and a single, warm, generic beer. Seriously, that's all we could afford. This was in the days before there were ATMs on every street corner and in every convenience store. Thus armed with our provisions we continued on to the river where Spazz chose to go in practically undressed but he was very cross with us when he found out what we had for him afterwards. Since he was an avid smoker and drinker he was offended by our offerings and perhaps thought that we didn't like him. Nothing could be further from the truth for we liked him very much but unfortunately, we were just broke college kids trying to get by on an amazing night.

We returned Spazz to the house and after this night of infamy I think we gained a great deal of respect in the eyes of the members and the alumni. They now knew that we had the right spirit and the cojones to go all out in the pursuit of fun and brotherhood. This knowledge however didn't cease to make us hesitant the next few days as we were on the lookout for some good natured retaliation. It didn't turn out to be necessary at that time but in an odd way I myself would suffer a form of payback a few years later when a very different pledge class did the same to me at the very same site where we had dunked those three members. The kick of it is that I wasn't even in school at the time. More on that story soon.

Published by Don Leach

Frat Life 101: Night Of The Dunking Pledges, Part 2

We chose Jay and Keith who lived in a house just off one of the busiest four lane streets in town with their girlfriends, Kim and Kim, to be our next victims. Again the plan was simple. Terry was to go inside and tell them that his motorcycle had broken down at the river and that he needed help loading it onto his truck. The rest of us took up positions on both sides of the house in bushes, behind trees and so forth. Once they came outside all we had to do was pounce on them and choose which one we would take to the river. It would be easy and nothing could go wrong right? Wrong, so very wrong. Both Kim and Kim told Jay and Keith that they shouldn't go because they had already heard that we had gotten Mark and it had to be a trap but they ignored this very wise advice. They just didn't believe that Terry would try anything like this with them. They should have listened.



As they came down the front steps Terry made sure he was behind them but someone must have moved too early because both of them took off immediately. They ran straight toward the street and then split into two different directions. Keith went straight across all four lanes and then onto a side street and quickly outpaced his pursuers. Jay on the other hand ran out into the middle of the street and then turned left. Several pledges followed him and I paced him horizontally on the sidewalk. Perhaps he thought that he could easily get past all one hundred and thirty pounds of me and make it back to the safety of his house but it didn't turn out that way.

As he reversed direction and ran onto the sidewalk I was able to grab the back of his shirt and hold on for dear life, slowing him down until my brothers could get there and take him down. Jay was a tough guy and he fought and scratched every inch of the way. Once his arms were handcuffed behind him and the truck was brought over we started loading him in when we suddenly got very scared. Pulling in behind the truck was a Tahlequah City police cruiser and they were known for not playing games with anyone. I think that we all must have had visions of a Tahlequah jail cell running through our brains when our trusty pledge trainer Mark (whom we had earlier thrown in the river) said he would take care of this. Mark approached the cruiser and merely uttered the words "fraternity prank" to which the officer looked over the scene in front of him and merely told him to "get him off of the streets." That's it, nothing more was required. A motley bunch of young punks were loading a struggling, handcuffed guy into a truck and all he does it say make it go away and we happily did.

Once we arrived at the river we discovered that our battle was only half over. Jay made it very clear that he was not going to go quietly into the night, or should I say the river. He choose to take nothing off and fight his way through this. Now it would have been easier if we could have left the handcuffs on but we couldn't. It wouldn't do very well to have a member drown just for some fun so they had to come off. As soon as one handcuff was undone the struggle was on and Jay put up a heck of a fight. The details are pretty murky to me now but I know he took one and possibly two pledges into the water with him. Once it was all over everything was fine and many laughs were shared by all. Only, we still didn't want the night to be over, we didn't want to quit. So we didn't.

To be continued.......................
Published by Don Leach

The Cars "Sad Song" From New Album

This is the second video released from The Cars forthcoming album Move Like This which is due out in May. I can't say enough how much I like what I've heard so far from them, let's hope that the rest is just as good and that they tour. Please guys, I need this!

Published by Don Leach

Drifting In And Out Of Our Lives

It's strange how people drift in and out of our lives in patterns of randomness. One moment they appear, a part of your everyday existence and the next they're gone. Then you have to start adjusting your habits and routines as if they never were there in the first place. Of course when you're very young it's easier to make changes and then for in the grade school range it can be really difficult until you reach a certain age where it's almost expected and you don't even notice.

When I was in college people came and went with regularity. Some would hang around my group of friends for a time and then drift away or sometimes even leave school. I did that myself more than once. Often we would leave for the summer and then come back after having worked jobs and presumably saved some money to help offset the extreme poverty of being a student that we would soon have. Some of our friends would be gone with little to no explanation and inevitably there would be new ones to take their places. I'm still looking for some of those friends.

For me right now it's also an issue of family. Neither my wife nor myself have any family even close to this area which can make it rough. My family has only seen my son twice. My mother in law has seen him three or four times and my wife's brother and father who are in Peru only once. So we are drifting in and out of their lives as we are able to and the same applies to them. Because everyone lives so far away and the fact that we don't have a large amount of disposable income that makes it difficult to stay close and see each other.

Thankfully we have the use if the internet which makes it easier to post pictures and videos on my blog so that all of our family can keep up with us. There's also programs like Skype (if only I could get them to use it) or other video messenger programs available. More often than not though it's the cellphone that gets used the most. Luckily now my wife can call as much as she wants whenever she wants, even to Peru. I wish we had found this phone plan out before getting the large bills for going over our minutes.

The internet has also been resourceful in finding some of those old friends from the old days but still, as I said before, there are some that remain lost, stuck back in the old days of my memories. One way they can drift back into my life is by writing about them on my blog, looking at pictures and making them available to other old friends so that they can also let us all drift back into our old lives. Regrettably, we can't all remain together for the rest of our lives no matter how much we wish it could be sometimes. It's just not possible so we continue to drift and perhaps if we're lucky we can make it happen more frequently. At least I have some very good memories of times with family and friends to carry me through. Right now that has to be enough.

Published by Don Leach

Frat Life 101: Continued

There we were, a bunch of young guys fresh out of high school, trying to take advantage of what we perceived as our new found freedom, no matter how immature we really were. We were just attempting to have fun now that we didn't have to listen to anyone telling us what time to go to bed or what music we could listen to or anything as banal as that. So we went to that fraternity party at Sigma Tau Gamma and met another group of new people. Some of them turned out to also be future pledges although at that time I thought that they were already members.

It didn't take long for us to decide that we would all pledge but I for one did briefly entertain the idea that I would wait a semester so that I could concentrate on my grades. One look at my transcript and you would be able to see that I should have done that however, it was mentioned to me that I probably wouldn't want to pledge under my new found friends when they were members and basically they were right. That could have been hell. Sig Tau was different from any other fraternity on campus. There was one that was business majors, one that was for preppy rich kids and even one for redneck jocks (at least they were when they were still in high school). Then there was Sig Tau. They didn't care what kind of clothes you wore, what kind of money your family had, what your major was and they certainly didn't care what color your skin was.


The only thing that Sig Tau cared about was brotherhood. If you were out at the river at 3am and your car wouldn't start you knew that someone would come and get you. They might give you an untold amount of grief over it but they would come and get you. They wanted people who wanted to hang out together and be friends because life could suck pretty badly at times and is was better to be surrounded by like minded people who wanted to enjoy life in their own way. I'm not going to pretend that everything was always perfect and there were never any problems because there were, but the bottom line was that we took care of each other.

As pledges we were expected to learn about each others lives, your hometown, your major (if you had one which I did off and on), how many siblings you had and so forth. You also were required to learn about the members. Each pledge was assigned a member to be their big brother. This was the guy you would go to when you had problems, the one who would take care of you and make sure you were doing everything you were supposed to. At least that was the working theory.

One thing that was different about Sig Tau was that we had what no other fraternity or sorority at NSU could offer, we had a house. It was a rundown, beat up shack of a house but it was ours and we reveled in it. Parties were frequent occurrences and we did them well. The house sat on a rounded curve (instead of a regular corner) just off of the main thoroughfare and was a choice spot for us. It wasn't technically on campus but was just off of it and there was a convenience store about a block away which was, well, in a word extremely convenient. Okay that was two words. Plus the football stadium was very close and as pledges we were required to go early when there were home football games so that we could save seats for the members and any alumni who was coming to the game.


We were also required to learn about the history of the fraternity and once we did we were in for a surprise. Zeta chapter was significant in that history because we were the fifth chapter and it takes five chapters to become a national fraternity. This was great except that somewhere along the way Zeta had become the red headed, bastard, step child of the national fraternity. We were known for doing things our way no matter what nationals told us and we didn't care what the consequences were. During my second semester Zeta was chosen as the host chapter for the annual national meeting that most every chapter sent representatives to. Normally the host chapter is very involved in what goes on during the conference. Notice I said normally. A few members went out to the conference on the first day to touch base with the national leadership and to see what was going to be required of us. They came back and informed us basically that they were snubbed and our participation was not something that was being looked favorably on.

We did the only mature, well thought out thing that this slap in the face deserved. We said to hell with them and went on with business as usual ignoring the fact that the conference was even close by. Was it productive or smart to be this way? No, not even close but honestly we didn't care. That's just the way we were. We even pronounced the name of the fraternity different that any other chapter. Go figure. Despite all of this we soldiered on and wore this status (or lack of) like a badge of honor.

Towards the end of the semester a few pledges had quit and then another quit halfway through Hell Week (the final week of pledgeship) and yet another was blackballed. This is a process where the membership votes and if they don't want you in you are considered blackballed or dismissed. It's extremely rare to go into Hell Week with a pledge that gets blackballed as they are normally gotten rid of before then and the only pledges that go into the final week are the ones that you unequivocally want. There was some grumbling when this happened and some talk of demanding that this dishonored pledge be brought back or else all of us would quit but that nonsense was quickly squashed and soon the remaining pledges who had suffered through so much blood, sweat, tears and a lot of sleepless nights got our just reward. We became neophyte members.


Next time I will talk about the time honored tradition of throwing members into the river which we did as pledges and I also had done to me by later pledges.

Frat Life 101: The Beginning or Were You One Of Those Frat Dudes?

Whenever I tell people that I was in a fraternity while I attended college off and on back in the 80s they normally get a mental picture of a bunch of rich, smarmy jerks wearing Izod shirts and plaid shorts sitting around being pretentious, anal douche bags. Then I have to take the time to explain to them that no, we weren't like that and in actuality if you had to compare us to anybody we were much closer to Delta house from the film Animal House. Okay when I say "closer to" I really mean almost identical. Probably as close in real life to what came across the screen as you can get.

Here's how my personal story goes. I had met Henry during the summer through my best friend Tommy. We found out that we would be staying in the same dorm at Northeastern State University (NSU) in quaint, bucolic Tahlequah, Ok and made loose plans to look each other up once we got there. It can never hurt to have someone you know to hang out with even of you're not lifelong friends or anything. When I found Henry he had already made friends with a pretty large group of guys in the dorm and I joined in with them. What was significant for me was that my early life was marred by a severe inferiority complex and a total lack of self confidence so the fact that suddenly I had a group of 10 or so immediate friends was incredible for me.

Basically I think we all had decided that now that we were out of our parents homes and away at college that whatever we were in our previous lives didn't matter. Now we could remake those things about ourselves that we didn't like and try to become cooler versions of what we thought we wanted to be. Or maybe it was just me who thought that way. Some of us were tall and some short, some skinny and some fat. Some were good looking and some were not, some of us knew somebody else in the group previously but most did not. I myself fit into several of those categories. What we all shared was a sudden realization that we were now free (or so we thought) in society's eyes and we could be as wild, crazy and as stupid as we wanted to be. And believe me, we did just that.




At some point or another one of the guys mentioned to the rest that he knew about a fraternity party on Friday night and since we were all young and free we should go. So we did. After all, isn't that what you were supposed to do in college? Attend as many parties as you could, drink as much free beer as was available and if possible convince some poor besotted lass to take pity on you and perhaps throw some loving your way? Well, that's not always the way it works out. In this case we attended the party, drank the free beer and had zero luck with the ladies in attendance, mostly due to the fact that they were almost all girlfriends of fraternity members or alumni. At least that's the story we stuck with.

Every single one of us ended up pledging and we ended up becoming part of an unusually large group of new recruits for the fraternity, although not all of us made it for varying reasons. Still, it was a banner semester for Sigma Tau Gamma and as it turned out a perfect fit for those of us who stuck with it and made it all the way through. You see we weren't looking to be the most popular nor the most athletic or even the smartest. No, what we and countless others before and after us were interested in was true brotherhood and friendship. We found that and much more in Zeta Chapter at little old NSU.




To Be Continued....................

The Cars - Blue Tip Video

The Cars have now released the full video for their song "Blue Tip" off of their forthcoming album now entitled Move Like This. The album is expected to be released on May 10th and is their first album released in 24 years. The band is playing it coy so far with any news about a tour accompanying the albums release but at least I can dream. I never got to see them back in the day and they occupy the top spot on my concert wish list so maybe with a bit of luck (and a lot of money) I'll be able to check them off the list. Stranger things have happened.

101 T-Shirts To Help You Relive The 1980’s

http://www.cotygonzales.com/2010/09/14/101-t-shirts-to-help-you-relive-the-1980s/

I came across this website article about 80s t-shirts so I thought I'd post the link to it here. I mean, why not? I'm obviously lazy, and eternally stuck in the 80s so what's the harm in getting an easy post in? Plus if it helps at least one person find their way to buying one of these shirts then it's been time well spent. My favorites are in numerical order: 9, 16, 26, 33, 43, 51, 59, 62, 97, 98. Now if only my mother would get serious and win the lottery so that she could give me some cash, then I'd actually be able to buy them. We can dream, can't we?