I don't normally taut "The Roanoke Times" unless it pertains to a column by my good friend Tom Angleberger or a well-written crime story by my fellow NoShamer Mike Allen. It is not so much that I am a bitter ex-journalist (however true that might be), but rather because much like the "The (Greesnboro) News-Record" or the infamous Media General (an awful company I used to work for) paper "The Richmond Times-Disptach," once a proponent of segregation, the Roanoke paper has become too corporate for words.
But, I was very amused by today's column by Ralph Berrier Jr., who once worked at "The Radford News-Journal" (as did I). Berrier was 'promoting' tonight's concert performance at the Jefferson Center in downtown Roanoke by the pop-rock band Chicago.
I loved Berrier's quips about how former lead singer Peter Cetera left the band in the 1980s following a string of ballad hits because 'he became full of himself.' Berrier also rightly stated that during the 1990s, my beloved Chicago Cubs actually experienced more success than these dorks.
And, Berrier said that the band's latest record "Chicago XXX" is supposedly available on the net, but 'that rumor has not been confirmed.'
I personally think one of those sappy Cetera-voiced ballads "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" should be used as a method of torture for both terrorist suspects and Lewis Libby ("What did you tell Tim Russert? Spit it out!).
Amazingly enough, the concert by this has-been (make that HAS-BEEN) band actually costs more tonight (tickets range from 42 to 69 bucks before handling fees- what???!!!!) than it would have in 1984 when those ballads were being played on Roanoke top 40 station K-92 every 24 minutes. I wish I could profess that only my high school friend Brian Woodward of Richmond, Va., who later worked at K-92, was the only person who liked those songs but alas I was seduced by them as well. And, today, they make me scream as if I am withdrawing from Lexapro!
To check out Berrirer's column, go to:
http://www.roanoke.com/extra/wb/xp_107369
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I agree on your impressions of Cetera, He has recently found it necessary to bad mouth my friends at disney who work in an autograph store. Considering there is no who would want his pathetic autograph, he has nothing better to do than go after a small buisness. By the way they verify all their signatures so he should just shut up and go away. Maybe during one of his drug induced flashbacks he forgot what he signed!
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