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Giddy Up America

A blog by Ryan O'Connell

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Popular culture. Music. Sports. Television. Good Times

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So Whatcha Want: Every Beastie Boys Album Ranked

So Whatcha Want: Every Beastie Boys Album Ranked

I’m jealous of people out there who have yet to experience the Beastie Boys, to be able to take a fresh-faced dive into their discography and fully appreciate all of its splendor for the first time. Listening to the Beastie Boys for the first time is like thumbing your nose at gravity or any number of other tenants of polite society. It’s an unforgettable experience. For folks of a certain age (i.e. those getting a little long in the tooth,) we were blessed to be in the catbird seat as the group

November 21, 2021

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Ghost Tours And Ghost Hunts? You Can't Go Wrong With Either One

Ghost Tours And Ghost Hunts? You Can't Go Wrong With Either One

If asked, I would generally recommend both a ghost tour and a ghost hunt. They are the same, but different. In the end, it comes down to what you want to get out of it. You want an experience, you want some history, you want a little bit of both, possibly with a drink in hand? Now, I’m able to speak with some semblance of authority on this matter because I’ve been fortunate enough to have participated in both a ghost hunt and a ghost tour. What can I say? I’m down for such things once October ro

October 31, 2021

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Let's Be Honest With Ourselves About Corn Mazes

Let's Be Honest With Ourselves About Corn Mazes

Corn mazes. They have become an integral part of any good old-fashioned festive fall weekend, right up there with pumpkin and apple picking, hayrides (both traditional and haunted), and devouring anything pumpkin-spiced. If you’ve embarked on a day trip to a local farm during the pleasant, but flawed fall season then there’s a good chance that the farm has some sort of corn maze. And with that most likely being the case, there’s an even better chance you’ve either dove right in and attempte

October 22, 2021

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Red Hot Chili Peppers Albums Ranked

Red Hot Chili Peppers Albums Ranked

It doesn’t feel as if history has been all that kind to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and while they’re reportedly working on a new album, it remains to be seen if anyone is reportedly waiting to hear it. I mean, I am, but I might be in the minority there. But such is life for a band once they close in on nearly four decades together. At a certain point, an act faces a fork in the road. One path consists of playing the hits and keeping things going, while the other path is made up of new material an

September 26, 2021

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How Is There Not A Quint Origin Story Out There?

How Is There Not A Quint Origin Story Out There?

Recently I watched Jaws. I love Jaws and rarely need an excuse to watch it. It might be one of my favorite movies and for the most part, I don’t really care about sharks. Jaws is fun to watch in the summer because it’s essentially a summer movie and you know, when in Rome. But it’s great to watch any other time of year also because if nothing else, it makes you think about summer, and studies have shown that thinking about summer is never a bad thing. For the record, I have never seen any o

September 15, 2021

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Five Takeaways From The First Leg Of Phish's Summer 2021 Tour

Five Takeaways From The First Leg Of Phish's Summer 2021 Tour

Well, friends, it’s been almost two weeks since Phish wrapped up the first little jaunt of their summer tour. We’ve had some time to decompress, reflect, possibly decompress some more, do some homework, and when all is said and done, report back our findings to, I don’t know, Twitter. The bottom line is that hey, Phish is back! That’s pretty sweet. But beyond the sweet, sweet pleasure of the boys getting back out there are some tasty little nuggets of Phish-related wisdom we took from the s

August 28, 2021

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The 12 Song Album Challenge

The 12 Song Album Challenge

Back in the day, we had greatest hits albums. Although they were better suited if you were just getting into a band that had a fairly extensive catalog. What usually happened was that after you had collected a handful of CDs by a particular artist, your next get at your favorite record store was a block of blank cassette tapes because it was time for a mixtape. But even then, a lot of mixtapes were comprised of a variety of artists. Either way, a mixtape was made up of a lot of songs. If me

July 14, 2021

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You Got Soul? The Commitments Always Will

You Got Soul? The Commitments Always Will

It’s a movie about a soul band. They’re from Ireland. When it comes to describing the movie The Commitments, that’s a good place to start. The 1991 film is about a young Irishman’s dream of forming the best band soul band to ever come out of Ireland. An Irish soul band might not sound right, but in young Jimmy Rabbitte’s eyes, it makes perfect sense. If soul music is a product of the disenfranchised, then who better than the Irish to take a crack at it. Or in his words: With

June 30, 2021

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Here Are Eight Songs To Check Out From Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real

Here Are Eight Songs To Check Out From Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real

Did you know that Lukas Nelson is Willie Nelson’s kid? Yeah, you probably did. Did you know that Nelson worked with Bradley Cooper on songs for A Star Is Born and Nelson and his band Promise Of The Real played Cooper’s backing band in the film? You might have known that. Or you didn’t know either of those things and in all honesty, hadn’t really heard of Nelson and his band. And that’s fine. There’s a lot of music out there. An act or 500 are bound to slip through the cracks. You are not al

June 19, 2021

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Hey, Maroon 5's First Album Was Really Good

Hey, Maroon 5's First Album Was Really Good

Maroon 5 are set to release their seventh album on Friday. It’s called Jordi. The album features Megan Thee Stallion, the late Nipsey Hustle, Stevie Nicks, and a couple other people. Wonderful. I couldn't care less. However, there was a time, a long, long time ago, back when George W. Bush was president, the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry was must-see TV, and CD books were a thing when I actually cared quite a bit about Maroon 5. It seems borderline nuts now, but the passage of time is n

June 12, 2021

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Sublime's Legacy Shouldn't Be Taken For Granted

Sublime's Legacy Shouldn't Be Taken For Granted

May 25, 2021 is the 25th anniversary of Sublime frontman Bradley Nowell’s death. This piece was originally written in 2013 but has since been updated. Optional music accompaniment can be found here. Up-strokes on the guitar, but not as slow as reggae and not as fast as ska. A bass line that had tinges of funk and hip hop in it. The bassist was usually the talented one. Drums held together by sixteen notes on the high hat and high-pitched snare drum hits. It’s the sound of Sub

May 31, 2021

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Press Space Bar To Continue

Press Space Bar To Continue

There is today, a today where computers are not only everywhere, but borderline mandatory. And today, these computers are capable of amazing things. Things like Facebook and watching Netflix and designing Power Point presentations and watching YouTube. These computers I’m assuming have games on them, or the ability to have games loaded onto them. I only say assume because I don’t play computer games. I don’t consider taking a Buzzfeed quiz to determine which character from Dazed and Confused I a

May 16, 2021

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Low Calorie Beers Are What's Up

Low Calorie Beers Are What's Up

One of the ways to help survive quarantine (which is still kind of thing but not totally a thing like it was a few months ago) was finding little things to look forward to. Walks, TV shows, watching the sprinkler run. These were just a couple of the ways in which a person could at least temporarily escape the seemingly endless doldrums of the hum dumness of quarantine life. When the tools we have in our lives to mark the passing of time began to fade, we needed something to help get us through a

April 30, 2021

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The Ten Best Moments From "Game Of Thrones"

The Ten Best Moments From "Game Of Thrones"

As we sit here, ten years removed from the premiere of Game of Thrones and nearly two years since the show ended, it’s easy to think back to the show and the massive set pieces and battles, shocking deaths, and breath-taking episodes. The big stuff is largely what separated Game of Thrones from everything else on television. The show just felt so enormous, certainly more massive than anything you’d have expected to see on television and anything we had seen up until that point. To this day

April 17, 2021

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Holy Rankings, Batman!

Holy Rankings, Batman!

Batman entered our lives all the way back in May of 1939, created in response to the overwhelming popularity of Superman, who came around a year earlier. Since then, we’ve born witness to several different versions of the Caped Crusader, whether it’s in print, on the small screen either in live-action or as a cartoon, and on the big screen. The first Batman movie came out in 1943 with a plot that revolved around Batman acting as a government agent, helping to stop World War II. Twenty-odd y

April 10, 2021

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I Can Admit That I Was ( Mostly ) Wrong About The Snyder Cut

I Can Admit That I Was ( Mostly ) Wrong About The Snyder Cut

You need to be able to admit when you’re wrong in this life of ours. Own your mistakes, kid. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people don’t do this, when they duck, dodge, and dive the things they’ve done and the statements they’ve made. Come on now. That’s bush league. I am, therefore, here to admit that after watching Zack Synder’s Justice League, I was wrong. In a BroBible piece that went up before the release of the movie, I said that essentially, fans should prepare for the worst. T

March 30, 2021

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The End Is Near

The End Is Near

For me personally, quarantine began on St. Patrick’s Day 2020. I remember because I spent the day teaching our daughter how to draw leprechauns and unless I’m mistaken, I’m hard-pressed to think of another reason why I would be teaching a four-year-old how to draw leprechauns. Well, I guess if we were big Notre Dame fans but no, that is not the case. So it was St. Patrick’s Day and now it’s almost another St. Patrick’s Day and this has lasted a year. The four-year-old is now a five-year-old

March 16, 2021

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I’ll Be Here With The Pigeons: A Parking Garage, A Pandemic & A Pregnancy

I’ll Be Here With The Pigeons: A Parking Garage, A Pandemic & A Pregnancy

Our flight from Philadelphia was at around 11 in the morning on Saturday. My wife and I said goodbye to our daughter and to our dog and also to my sister and our niece. They had come up the night before to watch over our daughter and pup. Then we hit the road, knots in both of our stomachs. This was not a normal trip. This was not a vacation and this was not for a wedding. This was a mission; a mission to get our daughter, who was currently resting comfortably in the womb of our surrogate,

February 14, 2021

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When The Local Record Store Closes Its Doors

When The Local Record Store Closes Its Doors

In the summer of 2010, my lady friend (who would go on to become my wife) and I took a trip up to Maine, back to my hometown of Portland. She had been to Maine before but I don’t think she had ever been to Portland and I was excited to show her around. We checked out the waterfront, the boats I used to work on, my high school, a couple of my favorite bars, the pizza place my buddies and I went to all the time in high school, and Bull Moose Music, a local record store in town. Putting into w

January 26, 2021

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With Me And Phish, Everything Is Right Again

With Me And Phish, Everything Is Right Again

Quarantine started around St. Patrick’s Day. The sequel to quarantine, Quarantine 2: The Pseudo Quarantine began a few months later; I don’t remember exactly when but we’re still there now. A third installment of the series is still in development as the writers can’t decide what direction to send the plot in. Over the course of both versions of quarantine, I’ve learned some things about myself. I learned that I can get past the itchy phase of growing a beard but ultimately, I’m not into ha

January 8, 2021

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Hey! Let's Focus On Some Of The Good Things That Happened In 2020

Hey! Let's Focus On Some Of The Good Things That Happened In 2020

2020 has been a pretty massive bummer. Yes, it’s true. However, saying it over and over again isn’t going to make it any worse or any better, nor is continuing to focus on all of the reasons (all 5,479 of them) why 2020 has been so bad. We need to focus on the positives, kid and yes, even in this God-awful flaming pile of dog feces that has been 2020 there are positives. Here are 20 good things that happened this year. 1. We Took So Many Walks Around Our Neighborhood So many walks

December 29, 2020

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25 Questions About "Christmas With The Kranks"

25 Questions About "Christmas With The Kranks"

We’ll start here. Christmas With the Kranks is a terrible movie. It’s bad, really bad. As a movie, it should be relieved that it’s a Christmas movie because that’s the only reason why it still gets play. Well, unless you’re a hardcore Tim Allen head or gear your movie-watching towards those that only include a scene in which Jamie Lee Curtis barely has any clothes on. I mean if that’s the case, you’re basically watching Christmas With the Kranks and True Lies on a loop. That’s a weird way to liv

December 11, 2020

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