Passion = Truth? How Jeffrey James Francis Ircink Sees The World? I love when people are passionate about something. That surging of emotion is the one honest measure of what truth is. It's a truthful display of how a person really feels about something or someone at that particular moment. That passion IS truth.



About me...

My photo
Greendale, Wisconsin, United States
Ex-producer of THE REALLY FUNNY HORNY GOAT INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL, playwright, actor, singer, outdoorsman, blogger, amateur photog, observer & bitcher, Beach Boys groupie, Brett Favre fanatic, lover of everything Celtic and forever a member in the Tribe of HAIR. Spent most of my life in the Village of Waterford, a small town just outside of the Milwaukee suburbs. After 12 years in North Hollywood, Bel Air and Culver City, Cali, I moved back to Wisconsin in September 2009. No regrets - of moving to LA OR moving back to WI. Have traveled to Belfast, Ireland, Dayton (OH), Manhattan, Seattle, Cedar Rapids, New York, Miami and Sydney, Australia with my plays. Moved back into the Village of Greendale where I was born. Life is good.

Celtic!

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

"Days of Future Passed". 45 years & still a classic.


November 2012 marks the 45th anniversary of the landmark album by The Moody Blues...Days of Future Passed. If you're not familiar with the album, you may recollect two songs - "Nights in White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon". "Satin" has reached #1 on Billboard on three separate occasions and most "Moody" fans consider it their greatest song.

My father, who played lead guitar and sang lead vocals in the Glen Lemar Trio from the late 1950's to the early 1960's, loved this album. When Brother Jason and I were very young, my dad used to make us listen to it WITH the stereo headphones on. "Listen to the album from start to finish," he'd say. "But we don't wanna listen to the whole album," we'd counter. "It's a concept album (like we knew what he was talking about!) You have to listen from start to finish! Now listen to it!".

Haha...I'm glad we did. Days of Future Passed is indeed a concept album. From the very first song, "The Day Begins" to the the last song, "Satin", the album depicts the day in the life of one man. And the album is peppered with drummer Graeme Edge's poetry, like "Late Lament":

Breathe deep the gathering gloom
Watch lights fade from every room
Bedsitter people look back and lament
Another day's useless energy spent.

Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young.

Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colors from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white,
But we decide which is right.
And which is an illusion?

 
Left to right:  Mike Pinder, Justin Hayward, Ray Thomas, Graeme Edge, John Lodge. Pinder left the band around 1978 and Thomas retired in 2002.
 
Catch up on the Moodies in this recent article. I'm now 48 and my brother is 46. The Moody Blues continue to be one of my favorite bands (Hayward, Edge and Lodge continue to perform), having seen them many times in concert (most recently at Summerfest in Milwaukee in 2011). I cherish the band love and their music. If you haven't heard the album (or want to refresh your memory), you can listen on Spotify here. Or just look for it on YouTube. And of course, you'll wanna listen from beginning to end, straight through.


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Friday, November 23, 2012

Cranberry relishit.



Thought I'd try it this year at Thanksgiving. I don't think I've tasted this since I was a kid. Hated it then and I still hate it.


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TGIF! presents....Chuck Kraemer's "Ode to Christmas"!



Or Ode to Black Friday, as this is the Friday after Thanksgiving - the biggest shopping day of the year. A day reserved, quite frankly, for the insane.


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Thursday, November 22, 2012

I hate cranberry sauce.

 
Be thankful....for the Wisconsin cranberries you're eating today.

"You might think that Massachussetts is the country’s primary producer of this native bog-growing berry — after all, it was one of the foods available to the Pilgrims — but you’d be wrong. Wisconsin grows more of the tart red berries than any other state in the nation." - from MSN



18,000 acres of these babies. I do like cranberry jelly. Brother Jason made some this year. 


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Monday, November 19, 2012

Nick & Ava.


My buddy Nick in Cedar Rapids & daughter, Ava, at a sophomore football game (he's coach) in Marion, IA. Great shot.


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Sunday, November 18, 2012

Be careful how you talk to little children...



i was scanning some pictures for my mother. i always get a bit nostalgic - perhaps maudlin - when i look at these. my one-year-old Cecil B. DeMille moment.

then i got to thinking...we've all had people who've made nasty, uncalled for comments about us - in person, on social media, or behind our backs. that's life. some of these people you know. some you know barely. and so for future reference, when you decide you wanna sling barbs in my direction (which i have no problems with), remember - you're talking to THIS little guy. his patience is saintesque - but if you push him to the limit, his wrath is limitless.

(i shoulda been a Gerber baby. sorry, but not all babies are cute. this kid is...)


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Saturday, November 17, 2012

Happy 74, Gordo!


Gordon Lightfoot - Canadian songwriter, musician, minstrel and poet. Can't figure for the life of me why he's not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I know he's "folk" and "adult contemporary". So what. Leonard Cohen isn't "rock and roll" and he was inducted. Hell...Gordon should get inducted solely on "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".

GORDO! Listen here.


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Friday, November 16, 2012

Happy Birthday, Aunt Ruthie!


My dad's middle sister. Aunt Ruth and I (above) at her retirement block party last weekend. Dr. Ruth ain't in the house no more!


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TGIF! presents...The Civil Wars' "Kingdom Come"!



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Sunday, November 11, 2012

Happy Veterans Day.


To my father - all those who have served - thank you. The poet Walt Whitman wrote extensively on the Civil War. Here is an excerpt:

"O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love."


from "Dirge for Two Veterans", Drumtaps, from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass


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Monday, November 5, 2012

Romney.


I'm not happy with the job performance of Barack Obama. I believe Mitt Romney can perform better. But vote - vote Tuesday for whomever you want. Just get out and VOTE!


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Friday, November 2, 2012

TGIF! presents...President Obama's latest campaign ad!


FAIL. Oddly, the video has been been pulled by Vimeo off of every website it was embedded just a few days ago. Watch this link.

Imagine an America
Where strip mines are fun and free
Where gays can be fixed
And sick people just die
And oil fills the sea

We don’t have to pay for freeways!
Our schools are good enough
Give us endless wars
On foreign shores
And lots of Chinese stuff

We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And we’re kinda blaming you

We haven’t killed all the polar bears
But it’s not for lack of trying
Big Bird is sacked
The Earth is cracked
And the atmosphere is frying

Congress went home early
They did their best we know
You can’t cut spending
With elections pending
Unless it’s welfare dough

We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And we’re kinda blaming you

Find a park that is still open
And take a breath of poison air
They foreclosed your place
To build a weapon in space
But you can write off your au pair

It’s a little awkward to tell you
But you left us holding the bag
When we look around
The place is all dumbed down
And the long term’s kind of a drag

We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And yeah, we’re blaming you

You did your best
You failed the test
Mom and Dad
We’re blaming you!


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