Video Of The Week: The Cars

Let's take a short break from hockey predictions to acknowledge one of the best songwriting talents in 20th Century Rock, Ric Ocasek, who was found dead earlier at the age of 75. He was inducted along with his other The Cars bandmates into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2018 (I sure as fuck voted for them, yes).

He also put out some terrific solo albums, my favourite being 1997's Troublizing, which included bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur (Tinker, Hole, The Smashing Pumpkins, a great solo career in stoner rock), drummer Matt Walker (Filter, Garbage, The Smashing Pumpkins, Morrissey) and Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins) on guitar, keyboards and backing vocals.

But I wanted to focus on The Cars for the moment, seeing as that's what Ocasek was most known for. My favourite Cars song is My Best Friend's Girl, with Just What I Needed ranking a close second:

I'm still looking for additional information pertaining to the video, including who directed it. When I find out, I'll update this paragraph.

Okasek also produced a ton of records for other artists, including Suicide, Bad Brains, Bad Religion, Nada Surf, Le Tigre, No Doubt, and, most recently, Weezer. He just may be the king of Power Pop.

Trick's Daddy

I don't know what I find odder in this USA Today story (from a while back) - that NFL football player Bryant McKinnie ran a $375K tab at a strip club, or that said strip club belongs to rapper Trick Daddy's... daddy. Or that it'll likely end up in court.

It used to be in sports that NBA players were the bad boys, sleeping with tons of women in different cities, smoking weed, taking cocaine, some of them catching HIV, others getting sued for rape. But 80-game seasons require something to change one's mind...

But football players took it up a notch, what with their huge salaries for 16 games of work and a growing feeling of entitlement turned into sexcapade boat trips with hookers and strippers (in which McKinnie was involved, come to think of it...), domestic violence, armed robbery, shooting oneself in the leg while carrying a gun in their trousers, and so much more.

And somehow, knowing at least one rapper was raised with money coming from women getting paid to follow orders and remove clothing makes a little more sense. As Jay-Z and DMX said, for some of them, it's ''Money Cash, Hoes''...

Only In (Miss) America

You lose some, you win some.

As Aaron Rodgers was eliminated from the NFL playoff picture, he was asked out by Miss America herself, Laura Kaeppeler.

Less than three months later, they were at the same NBA game, where he looked like a dweeb:

 Coincidence? I hope not... Wouldn't want this lady to be sad: