Today Jennifer saw Dr. Sugimoto for the first time since her cancer surgery. He walked in, and said, “I don’t want to beat around the bush. All of your test results came back negative.” Just to make sure, Jen asked, “That’s good right?”
“Yes, that’s very good,” said Dr. Sugimoto.
They found no more traces of cancer in Jen. The tumour was relatively small. At this point, she has a very small chance of recurrence: a mere 5%. No chemotherapy, no radiation necessary.
We are both tremendously relieved although I don’t think it has really sunk in yet. I ordered some sushi to celebrate.
Because we got this good news today, I can announce that I will be going live on the radio tonight to talk about music!
LeBrain will be LIVE at 12:30 AM (ET) Saturday morning with Robert Daniels on VISIONS IN SOUND. Tune in on your dial to 98.5 or internet to CKWR! You folks in the UK can tune in as you enjoy some morning java! Join Us THIS Saturday 12:30-2:30am (ET).
This week’s show: Star Trek: Discovery. Per Rob: “As we head in to the first major show of 2018. This week we look at the music to the latest Star Trek TV show, Discovery. Featured will be music from the TV series by Jeff Russo (of the rock band Tonic) and I’ll have special guests that will bring their opinions on the new show as well.”
I’m a special guest!
It’s exciting to get behind the microphone again. Due to the stress of Jen’s cancer, I wasn’t able to make it to Visions in Sound for Rob’s Star Wars specials in December. And here’s a crazy coincidence. Rob’s wife Dorothea battled and defeated cancer too…and her doctor was also Dr. Sugimoto. Small world, and great support to have!
Hope you tune in tonight. I know I’m in a great mood for celebrating music, and life!
I will be going LIVE at 12:30 AM (ET) Saturday morning with Robert Daniels on VISIONS IN SOUND. Tune in on your dial to 98.5 or internet toCKWR! You folks in the UK can tune in as you enjoy some morning java!
Rob says: “May is Star Wars month on Visions In Sound and we will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary with a slew of special shows. Joining me this week will be special guests Jason Drury, Michael Ladano & Erik Woods to help with the celebration. Featured music will be from the original Star Wars trilogy (John Williams). Join Us THIS Saturday 12:30-2:30am (ET)”
GETTING MORE TALE (Retro) #469: Stump LeBrain Week, by Aaron!
“Getting More Retro” is a sub-series of my music stories Getting More Tale. I posted this back in March in 2012, when nobody was reading except Aaron and my old boss from the Record Store. Before that, Aaron posted it on the KeepsMeAlive (Feb. 19). And now, for the third time, here’s Stump LeBrain Week!
I had become such a dominating force on the 4 O’Clock 4-Play, my favourite music contest on 107.5 Dave Rocks, that listeners were now writing in 4-Play quizzes specifically to stump me! For a while there it seemed everybody wanted to be the one to put an end to LeBrain’s reign!
Craig had me in the studio for the contest, live on the Craig Fee show, during what he dubbed “Stump LeBrain Week”. Each day that week, I came in at 4 o’clock in order to play the contest on the air. Craig selected five 4-Plays, one for each day. If I answered correctly, I won the prize (I Mother Earth tickets). If I was stumped, the person who wrote the 4-Play question would win the prize.
At the end of the week, I sent Aaron audio CDs of all my appearances minus commercials. He was kind enough to document it in the written word for history. Since very few saw this when I re-posted it at the launch of this site, I’m re-posting it once again for you! Re-use and recycle, baby!
Big thanks to Aaron for listening to all five shows and writing it down, and of course thanks to Craig for giving me the opportunity! Here we go. Ready?
Four-Play #1 (submitted by Chris Cottingham)
01 Motley Crue – Shout At The Devil
01 Mike’s Guess: ‘tracks that were not singles’ (no)
02 Rolling Stones – Brown Sugar
02 Mike’s Guess: ‘bands that have toured with guns ‘n roses’ (no)
* at this point, before Mike’s last guess, it was exposed that the Motley Crue song was supposed to have been Live Wire, which changed everything, and he got it from there.
Comment: He still got it, even with a wrong song played. Improbable? Never! The man is a machine.
Comment: He nailed this one before the first song was even over. Jeez.
Score: Mike is 2/2.
Four-Play #3 (submitted by Kathryn Ladano, Mike’s sister)
01 Rush – Subdivisions
01 Mike’s Guess: ‘album covers with dogs on them’ (no)
02 Neil Young – Rockin’ In The Free World
02 Mike’s Guess: ‘all Canadian artists’ (no)
03 Guess Who – Runnin’ Back To Saskatoon
03 Mike’s Guess: ‘songs about Canadian cities’ (no)
04 Loverboy – Turn Me Loose
04 Mike’s Guess: ‘all artists who sang on Tears Are Not Enough’ (yes!)
Comment:
Broadcasted live from Chicopee ski resort. This was not the Four Play that Kathryn had wanted played, so her confidence at being able to stump her brother was pretty low, at the outset. It shocked me that Mike had never heard the Guess Who song before. I thought everybody knew that song.
03 Mike’s Guess: ‘bands that opened for Sabbath’ (no)
04 Dio – Rainbow In The Dark
04 Mike’s Guess: ‘all four albums covers were paintings with mascots’ (yes!)
Comment: Definitely a HEAVY set, which I thoroughly enjoyed. And Mike nails it. So cool.
Score: Mike is 4/4.
Four-Play #5 (submitted by Nick Byerjean sp?)
01 KISS – Beth
01 Mike’s Guess: ‘songs that originated as b-sides’ (no)
01 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘no members of the band played on the track’ (no)
01 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘crappy songs from great albums’ (no)
02 Guns ‘N Roses – Used To Love Her
02 Mike’s Guess: ‘single monikered album titles’ (no)
02 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘songs with unusual percussion’ (no)
02 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘songs people think is about one thing, but it’s about something else” (no)
02 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘acoustic ballads’ (no)
03 Aerosmith – Angel
03 Mike’s Guess: ‘bands led by duos’ (no)
03 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘bands who shortened their name from something longer (no)
03 Mike’s Extra Guess ‘all are bands from America’ (no)
04 Slash with Andrew Stockdale – By The Sword
04 Mike’s Guess: ‘songs released in even numbered years’ (no)
04 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘all albums released in leap years’ (no)
04 Mike’s Extra Guess: ‘songs released in Canadian-hosted Olympic years’ (yes!)
Comment: OK, that was RIDICULOUS. Hearing him work through that last one was incredible. Even with all the extra guesses, that answer was from so far out of left field. Wow.
My favourite half-hour of every day used to be 4 PM, on 107.5 Dave Rocks. The Craig Fee Show. Craig’s still slinging the rock, but the contest came to an end on April 27, 2012. It was a fun challenge and since I dominated the contest so much, I earned the nickname “LeBrain”. Craig would play four songs with a common thread. The thread could be absolutely anything. I won more times and more quickly than anyone else, including two first-song-guesses. I also contributed dozens of 4-Plays of my own construction.
Back then, when nobody was reading, I posted a week’s worth of 4-play quizzes “live”, so to speak. Craig featured a week of my own custom made quizzes, (following LeBrainuary and a few prior LeBrain weeks) just before they put the contest on ice. From April 16-19 2012, I updated the site with the quiz and that day’s results. Since my only readers back then were stalkers from the old Record Store, I thought it would be fun to re-post these!
Here are my daily update posts from that week — a week’s worth of 4-Play quizzes written by yours truly. Could you have been a winner?
April 16, 2012
Woah Nelly!
Tune in ALL WEEK to the Craig Fee Show on 107.5 Dave FM, at 4 pm!!
IT’S LeBRAIN WEEK! The 4 O’clock 4-Play! And it was off to a KICKING start this week!
Song #1: Skid Row – 18 & Life
Song #2: Twisted Sister – The Price
Song #3: U2 – Bullet The Blue Sky
Song #4: Kiss – I Was Made For Loving You
Answer (highlight to view): All artists have done MUSICALS (Jeckyl & Hyde, Rock of Ages, Spiderman, Phantom!)
CAN YOU OUT-BRAIN LeBRAIN?
April 17, 2012
Tune in ALL WEEK to the Craig Fee Show on 107.5 Dave FM, at 4 pm!! It’s LeBRAIN WEEK all week!
Today’s 4-play:
Song #1: Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water
Song #2: Rainbow – Stone Cold
Song #3: Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer
Song #4: Journey – Separate Ways
Answer (highlight to view): All five piece bands (on these recordings, anyway) of the v/g/b/d/k configuration!
Incidentally, two of those bands spent some time as four pieces.
Bon Jovi has been a four piece since 1994 when original bassist Alec John Such left. He was unofficially replaced by Hugh McDonald, but McDonald remains a side musician even after 18 years with the band! Journey was a four piece for a short while, on the second and third albums.
CAN YOU OUT-BRAIN LeBRAIN?
April 18, 2012
Tune in ALL WEEK to the Craig Fee Show on 107.5 Dave FM, at 4 pm!! It’s LeBRAIN WEEK all week!
Today’s 4-play:
Song #1: Bon Jovi – Runaway
Song #2: The Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue
Song #3: Kiss – Magic Touch
Song #4: The Darkness – I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Answer (highlight to view): All songs featuring falsetto vocals!
Note: I have never heard Magic Touch on the radio before today!
April 19, 2012
Tune in ALL WEEK to the Craig Fee Show on 107.5 Dave FM, at 4 pm!! It’s LeBRAIN WEEK all week!
Today’s 4-play:
Song #1: The Beatles – A Day in the Life
Song #2: Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
Song #3: Kiss – Shout It Out Loud
Song #4: Kiss – Black Diamond
Answer (highlight to view): Each song features performances by two lead vocalists singing different parts!
Lennon sings the start, and Paul sings the finish on A Day in the Life. Roger sings the verses, with David on the choruses. Gene and Paul trade off some lines. Paul sings the intro, Peter sings the body of Black Diamond.
Incidentally, Black Diamond is one I have never heard on the radio before.
April 20, 2012
I want to say a big THANK YOU to Craig at 107.5 Dave FM, for yet another fantastic LeBrain week. I think this is the third LeBrain week, and of course all of February was LeBrainuary!
To cap it off for me, Craig picked my favourite 4-play. Would you have solved it?
Today’s 4-play:
Song #1: Guns N’ Roses – You Could Be Mine
Song #2: Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home
Song #3: Motley Crue – Girls, Girls, Girls
Song #4: Hanoi Rocks – Boulevard of Broken Dreams
ANSWER (highlight to view): Vince Neil is a Douche!
1. Guns N’ Roses – You Could Be Mine (Vince and Izzy got into a backstage scuffle with led to a longstanding rivalry with Axl Rose.) 2. Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home (Vince started a feud with the “Mama” of this song – Sharon Osbourne which basically makes it a feud with Ozzy too. He trashed her in his book. And you know Sharon doesn’t back down.) 3. Motley Crue – Girls Girls Girls (What Vince, where? FIRED that’s where! And let’s not forget the MTV interview with the Crue where they mocked Vince Neil for hitting a coral reef while surfing.) 4. Hanoi Rocks – Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Vince killed their friggin’ drummer!)
That last one is still one of my all-time favourites! I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane and some killer tunes.
Tonight at midnight, you can catch me LIVE on Robert Daniels’ radio program VISIONS IN SOUND. Tune in locally on your FM dial to CKWR 98.5, or even easier, just click “listen live” via their website! The show runs from midnight to 2 am (ET). Needless to say I’ll be fueling myself up on coffee.
The subject: STAR WARS! The soundtracks specifically. Last week, Rob covered the music from the prequel trilogy composed by John Williams. Tonight is the original classic trilogy, also composed by Williams, so you don’t want to miss this. And if you do, it should be available online for streaming later on. Rob and I have been excitedly discussing the upcoming film The Force Awakens (only a week away!) and I can’t think of a better way to get ready.
I hope you’re able to tune in and catch some incredible music. I’ve reviewed all the classic trilogy soundtracks already, and you know you’ll be in for a treat.
Here’s the same boring blah blah that everybody is posting — site stats! The best part of site stats are the Top Commenters of 2014, so I’ve saved them for last. There are also the Top Search Terms of 2014, which hold a few real WTFs…
The busiest day of 2014 at mikeladano.com was July 16th with 1,490 views. The most popular post that day was GUEST CONCERT REVIEW: Queen + Adam Lambert 7/13/2014 (by Boppin).
In 2014, there were 430 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1,344 posts.
Regardless, all five readers have excellent sites that have supported me, and I support in turn. I recommend that you check each one of them out. Aaron and James at keepsmealive write mostly about music, and music related anecdotes. Their site goes back to 2007 and there is plenty of content there. Scott, our Heavy Metal OverloRd, always has something interesting to check out in his Buying Round-Ups and reviews. If you like music, books, video games and coffee (who doesn’t), then you need to check out Sarca at Caught Me Gaming. She is also the founder of the #cupfacecrew. If you like quirky music reviews with Lego re-enactments, then the fine 1537 is the site for you. Joe’s photography is just as interesting as his writing. Then for everything in the Swedish and world hard rock scenes, Jon Wilmenius runs e-tainment news and reviews. I swear to God, I had no idea Sweden had so many rock bands! His annual Sweden Rock Festival reviews are always a treat.
Happy New Year to you, and keep on rockin’ in the free world!
Thank you Uncle Gar and Grampa Winter. Wish you were here to thank in person. I was too young to really know what you did. I thought it must be like the movies. I think I was a lucky kid to know you, just wish I had the chance to know you now I’m older.
Yes it’s that time again folks. For the third year in a row, Aaron and myself will be venturing to Toronto…the T-Dot…Hogtown, the Big Smoke! Once again we will be going looking for music and other sundry scores. Aaron will be bringing the KMA community “Holy Grail List” of rarities, so we can hunt for YOUR music, too!
Admittedly though, my goals focus on me, myself, and I. There are several items I’d like to bring home with me, including the new Flying Colors album. I’m also going to look for some cheap, used Helix CDs for my friends overseas who don’t have easy access to such things. Other than that, my own plan is simply to see what I can find and make my purchasing decisions accordingly! We did very, very well last year, as you can see by the videos below.
Oh! The videos. Yes, I also plan to make another video, this year. However I won’t be rushing myself, so don’t expect it right away. It’s hard work!
Wish us luck. Tomorrow is a day I look forward to every year, and I expect many treasures to be found!
RECORD STORE TALES Part 320: End of the Line #6: The Birth of LeBrain
I discovered quickly that listening to rock radio in an office was much better than listening to CDs in the Record Store. They really hounded me about my in-store music selections. With the radio, nobody yells at me about the music. I could just enjoy it as I worked, and the music has not been lame! Just this week, I rocked out to Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” and Savatage’s “Hall of the Mountain King” at work on the radio. Last week it was Slayer. I doubt I ever played any of those songs in the Record Store. Traffic reports are an added bonus.
Our office has its radio set to 107.5 Dave FM, and it is through them that I met new friends such as Marko Fox, Craig Fee, Simon McGhee, Patrick Dynamite, and more. It is there that I became “LeBrain”. There was a daily contest…a near legendary contest…called the 4 O’Clock 4-Play. Every day at 4:00, Craig would play four songs with a common theme. Guess the theme, win the prize. I started winning frequently, and had started submitting my own 4-Play quizzes for the show. They numbered in the hundreds, I am certain. Some have never been used. Craig told me he had an email folder filled with my 4-Plays that hadn’t been used yet.
Craig Fee with some beard douchebag.
This led to features on the station such as “Stump LeBrain Week”, where I was in the studio every day for a week as listeners tried to stump me. (The only day I was not in the studio was the Wednesday, where I was live on air with Marko at Chicopee ski club.) Other listeners sent in their own 4-Plays specifically to stump me, and Craig picked his five favourites. That was followed by LeBrainuary – an entire month of my own musical 4-Plays. They also did a final LeBrain Week before they finally shut the contest down.
I still hear about that contest. Every once in a while I meet someone new who knows me only as “LeBrain” from the radio. There was one at Sausagefest this year. I always get asked, “When are they bringing that contest back? It was awesome.” I wish I knew! I’ve bugged Craig about it too.
While it lasted, it was awesome. I became a D-grade local celebrity! But I wanted more. I pestered and bugged Craig Fee daily. I sent him my reviews, early chapters of the Record Store Tales, rock news, rants, anything and everything!
You know what happened next. It was the “lightbulb moment”. Craig said the magic words: “You need to start your own blog.”
And so I did, and that’s why you’re reading this today.
I knew immediately I wanted to finally publish the Record Store Tales. I started writing them over 10 years ago. I originally envisioned a book version of Record Store Tales. I started writing it with that in mind, but most of it hasn’t been used, because I felt some chapters were a little too off-topic. Instead I mined my extensive journals to create new content. It took about 2 1/2 years to post all of the Record Store Tales, at an average of one every three days.
So here we are, at the end. I knew this day would come eventually. I thought at most I’d come up with 100 installments, tops. Having said that, the number of stories that I chose not to tell exceeds this body of work greatly. Believe it or not, I decided to be nice. There are many things done and many things said that have been left out. I’ve tried to be candid and maintain my own integrity, and just tell the story of a very cool time in my life. Not everybody gets to work in a record store.
Positives and negatives aside, the writing experience for me has been mostly healthy, sometimes cathartic, and immensely fun. I hope you have had fun too.
Thank you for your support, inspiration, kind words and contributions: Mrs. LeBrain, Craig, Marko, Aaron, Uncle Meat, Iron Tom Sharpe (Meaford’s greatest athlete), T-Rev, Lemon Kurri, my parents, and everyone else who has ever contributed or told me not to stop.
A huge thanks to the owner at the old Record Store. You gave me a chance and taught me so much. You have my number.
Sincerest apologies to those I have hurt or offended.
Finally, thanks to YOU – the people who have read this stuff, whether you were a one-timer or a regular. I thrive on feedback and you made this a very rewarding experience.
I hope you’ll stick around, as we launch the Post-Record Store Tales (official title to be announced soon) and continue on with the awesome reviews! Live long…and prosper.
As you are aware, the original Record Store Tales are almost done. There are only a few sub-chapters left in Part 320: End of the Line. I believe that, taken as a body of work and not cherry-picking bits and pieces, that it is a story of human frailty but also human strength and survival. There are laughs, and there are tunes. Lots and lots of good tunes.
Even though the entire story is almost told, I will continue telling tales of life’s absurdities. These Post-Record Store Tales (if you will) are already being written and are ready to be rolled out! The title, as suggested by you, will be revealed soon.
I just needed a new mascot. I felt that the old GI Joe LeBrain had run his course. Finding a new mascot, a new LeBrain, was a bit of a quest but I’ve finally settled on one. May I present to you:
mikeladano.com 