3 Chords & the Truth: 'Twas the night before COVID . . .

'Twas the night before omicron, and all through the house,

Not a body was sleeping, not even the mouse. . . .

That's because who's sleeping these days? On this, our second pandemic Christmas.

SUCH IS WHERE we find ourselves these days, and we're making do as best as we can . . . without ending up sick and quarantined, or sick and in the hospital, or sick and. . . . Well, you know.

Still, the show must go on, and for your listening enjoyment, your Mighty Favog presents the big 3 Chords & the Truth Christmas-music extravaganza -- 2 hours and 42 minutes of as much yuletide cheer as we can muster. Alas.

I would say more, but this year's sponsor for the Big Show blowout doesn't want me to step on the corporate message. And that, I must respect.

So I will take my literary leave -- allowing you to start your holiday listening -- with a simple message: Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. See you in '22.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Alo-ho-ho-ho-ha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Geeking out

Are you unpoopular? Do you pop out at parties, Poindexter?

Well, fret not -- 3 Chords & the Truth is here!

It will cure what ails you, because what ails you isn't an ailment. 

The ailment is all the Alpha Betas out there, who must be put in their place. Because Alpha Betas suck.

And while we're doing that on the Big Show this week, we'll also have the merriest, the wildest and the most happenin' holiday selections as part of the winning musical mix. It's another great program, and you're cordially invited to attend.

But not the Alpha Betas. Or the Omegas, for that matter.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: No old ladies were harmed

Let's be clear: Despite what you may have been told, no old ladies actually have been harmed by listening to 3 Chords & the Truth. 

There may have been a close call or three since 2008, however. 

Just wanted to clear that up straight away. 

That said, we have another stellar program for you this week on the Big Show. Really. That's no bull. Honestly, it's good. 

And we have a surprise for you during the course of the festivities. No, I won't tell you what it is. Then it wouldn't be a surprise for you, now, would it?

I am authorized to reveal that we are officially kicking off the Christmas season on 3 Chords & the Truth this week. That is quite musically tasty, too.

I think that ticks off all the boxes on the ol' checklist, so my promotional work here is done. And, again, no old ladies were harmed -- or institutionalized -- because of this program. Really. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Super!

Here I am, staring at a blank page on the computer. 

Well, crap. Now it's not blank anymore, because I just wrote about staring at a blank page on the computer. Which really doesn't merit a "Well, crap," because writing something on the computer screen was the point.

Right?

Of course, while writing this on the previously blank computer screen, I did totally manage not to mention 3 Chords & the Truth once. That's a fail. Then again, I just did mention the Big Show -- twice now in the same paragraph, so that's a win!

Right?

ON THE OTHER HAND, I did not mention any positive attributes of this week's show. Fail. Of which, there are many . . . positive attributes, not fails.

"Mention positive attributes." Check. 

"Mention good music from a wide variety of genres." Well, crap. 

Oh . . . and we have lots of good music this week, as usual, and it's typically eclectic. 

Check. Dodged a bullet there. 

Roger that, chief.

And look at that; the page ain't blank no more. Poor grammar notwithstanding. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: This 'n' that

I've been writing little descriptions to go with episodes of the Big Show for almost 14 years now.

And I think I'm officially to the homina homina homina stage of 3 Chords & the Truth literary development. Freeform . . . check. Good music . . . check. Eclectic . . . check. Yadda yadda yadda.

YET, I still need to say something about this week's show so you'll be inspired to give it a listen. Ain't that a kick in the head?

So, how about this?

This week, we'll cover Jesus, male prostitution, oral sex, drugs, mothers with the lust to f***, a victim of love, trouble, strange fruit and a banana republic where it snowed yesterday. Sparky, if that doesn't pique your interest, I got nothin'.

And that's all I have to say about that. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: So, where were we?

After a scheduled interruption for home-construction chaos and an unscheduled interruption for a sinus infection and panicked making sure it wasn't COVID, the 3 Chords & the Truth whatchamacallit is back.

So . . . where were we when we were interrupted?

Naw, I can't remember either. Crap. OK, let's just start here and go from there.

Actually, that's pretty much what we do every week on the Big Show. Umm hmm.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Still going

The world doesn't stop, and neither does the Big Show.

The latter is a good thing.

As to the former . . . well, at least you have 3 Chords & the Truth. And that's all I have to say about that.

Honestly, y'all. What the hell is there to say anymore? Just this: Listen to the Big Show. It's good.

Apart from that, I got nothin' these days. I will enter random characters here to full out the post: 

Wo;ijf;od oaifj;oiaefgj lmcklksfmo;wjf .ksvlnk,bfkjdf ';akf;ln lksrgfjhlkewfes;l. Urjo;jfij kfejhfkh ks oisejfeoii jfoijf pgkper qwihwo mlkjg ;osiefj ldldj oe aoiuoijc ldodnm kju d,dkd jdmdjdudb dhdiw ofod. Ejiehgieyn ieiufn q oefu wrejt fiur wihewojwpo -- iluherg kdfsisudh ayfd wkchs ruitivdij uaugd qwertyuiop. 

-- 30 --

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Hanging in there

Hanging in there?

Yeah, I know. 

Maybe this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth will help.

And you had hoped that 2021 would be better than 2020. Perhaps it is, but the progress has been decidedly incremental. 

Now here's where I tell you about how good the Big Show is this go 'round, but I'm guessing you know that already if you're a regular listener. If you aren't . . . what the hell is wrong with you? 

Time to get with the program. Get it? The program! That's a funny, I tell ya'. A joke! 

Aw, forget it. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all.  Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Words to the wise

Just a few things: 

Do listen to the Big Show. It's typically good this week.

Don't go around trying to "own" people on the Facebook, not during the show. I see you. You have better things to do -- at least when you should be listening to 3 Chords & the Truth.

Did I mention we have a really good show this week?

IF YOU'RE the kind who goes to school board meetings to scream about your "rights" when educators tell your kids to put on a damn mask and try not to be a Typhoid Billy or Susie . . . or avoid being infected by a Typhoid Billy or Susie, there's nothing for you here. Go away. And put on a damn mask.

It really is a good show this week. 

Everything sounds better on reel-to-reel audio tape. 

Audio tape is a description; Audiotape was a brand name.

The Big Show is still good. Really.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: The other Prozac

I held out some vanishingly small hope last week that this week would be a little better.

Apparently, that was because I'm an idiot. 

This week, we had a Category 4 hurricane in Louisiana, deadly monster floods in the Northeast from the former Cat 4 hurricane, the 'rona still running rampant and Texas being Texas -- this time with the most sinister abortion law ever devised by sinister people.

NOT THAT I'm all for abortion, I'm just against making life hell for women -- and everyone else -- by turning a bunch of Beckys into a surveilling, snitching Lone Star Stasi to sue everyone into the poorhouse as the gummint argues "It wadn't me what done it!" See Germany, East.

So it's in this continuing world of suck that we trepidatiously emerge from the 3 Chords & the Truth hidey hole to put another episode out there into a world of hurt.

Music -- it's the other Prozac.

And I prescribe a liberal dose of the Big Show as one way of helping yourself to get by the best way you can. I guess that pretty much sums things up and concludes what I have to say at this juncture.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Home is where the hurt is

This one minute of television from Baton Rouge covers a lot of ground.

The clip, from WAFB's hurricane coverage, also hints -- like after Katrina -- at the wrenching decisions about rebuilding or abandonment that will need to be made after Ida, like they had to be made after Katrina . . . and weren't. The Gulf won't stop rising, South Louisiana won't stop sinking, and hurricanes won't stop getting nastier and more frequent.

The heart says "home." The cold, hard facts of life ask you what will happen first -- that "home" bankrupts you, and everybody else, or that "home" kills you, because you've made your stand on ground that can't be defended, and which you have a hard time even calling "ground" anymore.

Nothing -- nothing -- will break your heart like home. That covers the increasingly untenable forces of climate and geology, and it covers all the myriad reasons those of us who left home behind had for leaving home behind. Because there's only one "home." Even when you barely recognize it anymore, or when the things you recognize the most are the reasons you had to go.

AND FOR so many of us in so many "homes," the last few years have been an apocalypse -- in the Greek sense of the word. An unveiling.

My new favorite Brit saying is "It's the hope that kills you." (Sorry, Ted Lasso.) Well, these are the times that it's the home that kills you.

My dread is that all my sane, non-MAGA Nebraska family and friends are, in these times, learning a bitter, bitter lesson that I received decades ago in my homeland. Hope often can't fix home. And that just fucking kills you.

3 Chords & the Truth: Bad week, good show

So, I take a week off for our 38th wedding anniversary . . . and I come back to this?

It's been an awful, horrible, crappy week in these United States: COVID still raging, blockheads refusing to do anything to slow it down -- not even something as simple as wearing a stupid face mask -- our continuing bug-out from Afghanistan, punctuated by a horrific terrorist attack.

And an old acquaintance from high school (and present Facebook friend) died.

Then there's this monster hurricane getting ready to hit my home state, poor, woebegone Louisiana. 

Great week. Not. 

THAT LEAVES this episode of 3 Chords & the Truth  as the last chance for something to go right during this steaming, stinking pile of week.

I think the Big Show has, but I guess you're the final word on that, aren't you?

We persist, despite everything. 

In what's shaping up to be as bad a year as 2020, I suppose that's what counts as a victory. I pray that you're persisting, too. 

You do what you can do, and I'm doing what I can do. That's all anyone can ask. 

So, I think it's a fine show, and with luck, you will also. So here it is. Enjoy. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: It's classic

American insanity, like the classics, never goes out of style. 

So, when we have anti-masker anti-vaxxers screaming at -- and threatening -- doctors guilty only of wanting these morons not to get sick and die in the middle of a pandemic . . . well, the classic music you'll find on 3 Chords & the Truth matters all the more. 

I suppose you want to know why that is. 

It's like this: We all need a mental and emotional refuge when the stupidity and the tragedy and the suck . . . Just. Will. Not. End. There's only so much people can take, lots are reaching their limit, and you can't live in a world without beauty. 

You can't live without hope, either, and hope's shaky right now. So bring on the music. And the Big Show. And a bit of France, too.

Please. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: The lost world

It's a terrible thing to die of spite. 

The virus does not care about your "freedom," which now truly is "just another word for nothing left to lose." 

At least we still have memories of a lost world here on the Big Show. They will have to suffice, to bring us the balm of nostalgia in a world where we seem to prefer death over life . . . and science. Bile over balm. 

Mad promotional skillz for this episode, right? Trust me, this week's music is a lot better than my state of mind here in Plagueland. Crank it up. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all.  Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Always darkest right before the show

Well, it was a nice two or three months. 

But all temporary reprieves from 'rona hell are just that -- temporary. Especially if you live in a state filled with people who don't do science but do politics. Which leaves you in deep doo. 

It's always amazing to contemplate how folks who accuse people of "living in fear" insist upon running around with firearms and are scared spitless of a simple vaccination. And as the sun sets on the Disunited States of America, there's one thing you can count on: It's always darkest before the Big Show. 

And it's dark indeed right about now. 

So rail against the dying of the light, then put on this episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. I figure we all need that about now. 

As usual, it's another good one. Hey! Like some don't do science, we don't do suck. 

That is all. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Any show for just . . . FREE!

You want a great musical deal? We'll give you a great musical deal. 

What would you think of 23 great songs -- all quality songs selected for your listening pleasure -- absolutely free! Well, your fondest desire is our stone-cold command here at 3 Chords & the Truth. 

This week, you'll get an insane number of songs for the low, low price of . . . absolutely nothing. And most every week, you'll get 90 minutes for the best listening your money can't buy for that same low, low non-price, downloaded to your digital device or conveniently streamed over the Interwebs. 

We here at Favog House call it the Big Show, and it's absolutely yours, absolutely all the time. 

HERE'S ALL you have to do, and the biggest thing you have to do, you've already done. You came here!

Now all you have to do is to click on the link, then download a carefully curated sonic cornucopia, or you can stream effortlessly by using the handy player right here at your fingertips. That's all! 

Really, how can you say no to the best bargain in music today? Forget the radio; we have radio done right, right here at 3 Chords & the Truth. And it costs you squat. That, my friend, is a deal that cannot be beaten. 

Ever. 

Are you ready for some entertainment? Some real mind-expanding stuff? 

We knew that you were. And you have to send in absolutely nothing to get what's yours. It's yours for a simple click. 

Right here, right now. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: As real as you can stand

It's a strange thing to try to talk -- via Facebook, alas -- someone through a horrible loss, telling him that what he could not control was not his fault. Me and more than a few others, actually. 

It's stranger yet -- sick-making, actually -- to learn the next week that this Facebook friend, someone who graduated from your high school a year or two after you did, was found dead in his house a few days ago. One's mind draws the logical conclusions.

And then you think, "Jesus, the abyss is so much nearer than we'd like to believe." 

And then you have to do another edition of 3 Chords & the Truth that night. I had figured the theme, such as it is, of the show would be all about "real." Little did I know. 

So, this edition of the Big Show is a strange agglomeration of "real" -- really real -- and fake it till you make it. You have to do what you do. One foot in front of the other and all that rot.

So there you go. Fittingly, it's pouring rain right now. How "real" of it. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Uhhhhhhhhh . . . .

I was working on putting together this week’s episode of the Big Show, last night and it was going just fine, but then something happened.

We had a bit of weather here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska.

By “weather,” I mean all hell broke loose. For about an hour, conditions varied between “strong tropical storm” and Category 1 hurricane. This, mind you, 1,000 miles from the nearest coastline. 

In the Midwest, we call that “a pretty good thunderstorm.” And some fallen limbs, a neighbor’s fallen tree, a blown-off downspout, no cable or Internet and a battered and blacked-out city later, we’re going to see how it goes trying to post 3 Chords & the Truth using the 4G connection from my iPhone.

WELL, at least the apocalypse bunker still has electricity, though there were doubts about that during the storm as the lights flickered and transformers blew up here and there in the night.

That said, it’s a pretty good edition of the Big Show. When everything is surveyed and considered, all you need is love . . . and electricity.

This week, there’s some of this and a bit of that, and it’s all primo stuff, man. If I were you, I’d give it a listen. After all, it took a little doing (and some duct tape and jury rigging) to get it to you.

C’mon. Show a little gratitude. Is what I’m sayin’.

It’s 3 Chords & the Truth, y’all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: It's 100% fun

The Big Show is 100 percent fun, once you get used to it.

And, if you ask me, it's nice to get used to not hearing the same 100 songs -- if you're lucky -- over and over and over again on the radio. Then again, some folks just can't handle expanding one's mind . . . or one's horizons. 

Thanks for not being one of those people. Because you're here at 3 Chords & the Truth and not there. And, boy, are you gonna get some variety today.

There's not really anything more to say, is there? So let's get on with the Big Show. 

 It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha. 

3 Chords & the Truth: You've gotta warm up to it

It could be that you're listening to the Big Show and thinking "What the f***???" 

If you are,  maybe you've gotta warm up to it. And -- maybe -- once you've warmed up to it, you'll be hooked. Maybe you'll look forward to not looking forward to what you figure will be playing next on the show. 

Maybe you'll be hooked on being surprised. A lot. 

Maybe you'll find that you're the type who likes shows like 3 Chords & the Truth, which is like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get next.

IN FACT, there's at least a couple of those moments on this very episode. Really, you'll be surprised -- pleasantly so, one hopes.

Like the time when I go from. . . . Hang on. If I give it away, you won't be surprised, now, will you?

That was close.

So I guess you'll have to just listen to yet another stellar installment of this here program and be waylaid all over again. Because that's what we do.

Yes, indeed.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there.  Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Well, I don't know about that

It's a colossal phantasmagoria this week, coming to you live -- recorded to hard drive -- from the www.revolution21.org apocalypse bunker here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. 

Well, I don't know about that. 

But this episode of 3 Chords & the Truth may be a colossal something. You be the judge.

I mean, there's some wild sh . . . uh, some wild things going on. Mushroom hunting is a tricky thing, and I may have picked the wrong batch. Is what I'm sayin'. 

And, well, I don't know about that. 

It's all this week on the Big Show. 

Teacher, does this have to be 500 words? Because I'm done.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Listen to the music

If you listen to the music this week on the 3 Chords & the Truth, I'll be your Dixie chicken. S'wonderful. 

We can go hear the Sultans of Swing, and we'll do the Tripe Face Boogie. I'll speak easy, and you'll be utterly bewitched. 

That's how it goes on the Big Show today. Heck, yesterday, too. I mean, life is just a bowl of cherries -- except when it's not. 

Does that sound good to you? C'mon, talk to me.

I'll be around, at least until the real thing comes along. Or until I head to Woodstock . . . or somewhere.

Well, I hear the trumpets blow, so it's time for me to fly. So listen. You'll love it. You may even get a bad case of the love-itis.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there.  Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Carried by the music

some days, you're chasing your morning coffee with a can of jolt cola. 

other days, you make jeb bush look high energy. 

this week on 3 Chords & the Truth, welcome your low-energy mighty favog. be thankful i could manage punctuation, at least. 

i was going to say something clever about this week's edition of the Big Show -- look, capital letters! and more punctuation! -- but i just spent the last on my energy on random capital letters and punctuation. 

well, crap. 

i suppose the music will have to suffice in the absence of my . . . personality. you buys your ticket; you gets the ride. and how.

this is e.e. favog, signing off. i'm gonna take a nap. 

it's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. be there. aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Operator, get me Internet

Listen, I'm trying to just phone in the program this week, but Ernestine kept wanting me to feed the pay phone with quarters. 

Wait. What's this "cell" thing you keep talking about? Smart what? I phone? 

No, I not a telephone. I am Mighty Favog. What the hell is wrong with y'all?

Anyway, you have Ernestine the Telephone Operator to thank for having a reasonably engaging and well curated edition of 3 Chords & the Truth this week. Otherwise. . . .

So. There's a pretty good show. 'Nuff said.

Hey, just because I couldn't phone in the Big Show this week, it doesn't mean I can't just phone in the description of it. Peace . . . out. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: It happens

We live in a world crumbling under the weight of "It happens." 

Case in point: COVID. Other case in point: Trump. 

And, like, when when you start to dig out from under "It happens" -- when you've finally gotten fully vaccinated against the 'rona, for example and you're ready to reengage with the world, such as it is . . . "It happens." Again. 

You find you've forgotten your social graces. This being around people thing is kind of awkward. 

It happens. 

Well, bucko, 3 Chords & the Truth happens, too. I guess that's something, right? 

I said "Right?" 

I mean, I didn't forget how to do the Big Show over the past year and change. At least, I don't think I did. 

I guess that's for you to judge. Right here, right now.

Just don't forget your social graces. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Those were the days

Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end.

But they did.

The virus saw to that -- the end of what passed for normal life. Of course, there have been those who think the virus didn't apply to them and insisted on normality. A certain percentage will not make that mistake again . . . or any other mistake, for that matter.

But what does that have to do with 3 Chords & the Truth? 

FOR ONE THING, it's sort of why there wasn't one last week. I got the second Moderna vaccine, and (at least for me) it's true what they say: It kicked my butt for a couple of days. And you know what? I've never felt so good about feeling bad. 

Now I'm counting down the last handful of days until peak immunity. And freedom, or what passes for freedom as the COVID pandemic endures, in large part because too many Americans refuse to get vaccinated.

We think we'll sing and dance forever and a day.

I don't know what to do with that. 

So, I guess all of that has influenced this week's edition of the Big Show. The lost past and an uncertain future. The relentless tick tock of racing to vaccinate an obstinate public as the virus continues to mutate. 

All this mess kinda does make you want to turn back that clock up on the wall, doesn't it? Turn it back to the day. 

Back when we could live the life we choose. When we could fight and never lose. 

Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.