(Click here to read Part I of Janos’s quest to party in all fifty states)
The drive from Biloxi to New Orleans on I-10 has long been my second favorite stretch highway, after the other-worldly Denver-Las Vegas connection. It is fast, swampy, and free of state patrol monitoring. Theoretically you can take I-10 all the way from California to Florida, but today I was taking it a mere 50 miles from Biloxi to Mobile, Alabama, the location of the 41st state I was going to party in, and the last Confederate state left on the list (post-Wheeling Convention, of course).
I had driven through Alabama many times, usually at night, when it feels particularly ominous, but this morning drive was pleasant as I tuned into the Spud Show, broadcast from New Orleans. Today’s topics were Drew Brees (great athlete, classy gentleman) and gun control (it’s complicated). Spud had riled up his listenership by finding a particularly anti-Breesy article posted the day after he broke the passing record, and the soft chatter of talk radio filled the air as I drove the long elevated highways that traverse the marshlands of western Alabama.
That afternoon I explored downtown Mobile and liked what I saw. Dauphin Street, two blocks from my hotel, was the only game in town, and it was lined with bars. (Southern Alabama colonized by the French, and it boasts other indicative street names like Royal, Conti and Clairborne.) Dauphin Street reminded me of Saginaw, where I’d been sent to help promote a mall store opening for the since-bankrupted Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear. I had not relished that assignment, but once in downtown Saginaw I saw the appeal of a city where every dive bar and live music joint is a hop, skip and a jump away. One bar even had a jukebox that played music videos through a video projector (“Rock the Casbah”, naturally). Small cities laid out like this are perfect for the one night layover on any road trip. Continue reading
#6 “Rush” by Big Audio Dynamite: Some might consider this a strange Mick Jones representative, but one of my rules for creating this CD was that the lead vocalist had to be Jewish. So with Michael Geoffrey Jones’ Clash discography, that leaves you with “Should I Stay Or Should I Go,” “Lost In The Supermarket,” a few others I wasn’t too thrilled about. However, I can 100% get behind “Rush;” 
Alright, I realized that if I let too much time pass between continuing this series I am going to lose readership. So moving on to numbers 12 to 7 in my Jewish rock star compilation CD:
I’m involved in this Secret Snowman thing at work. It’s what we call Secret Santa to make sure we aren’t alienating the one participant that is of the Judaic persuasion. But how excited was I to pick from this hat and discover that low and behold, it was my responsibility to purchase this person secret Hanukkah gifts? Very excited. Why? Because that meant that for one of my mini-presents I could put together a CD that started with Sandler’s Hanukkah song, and proceeded to only play songs by artists who were Jewish. This involved a night of research, some trial and error, some tough decisions, but in the end produced a pretty kick-ass set and some new insight into the number of great rockers/musicians that lit the menorah once upon a time. I’m almost positive my Secret Snowman never visits this site, so without further ado, Part 1 of 3 of the 17 tracks making it onto this CD, each from a different Jewish musician, in a countdown ordered by my own assessment of awesomeness.
Living the Dream 