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Hello, friends, and welcome to Coach Cut's.

Corner.

Streaming bright from Michigan's capital city. This podcast is dedicated to helping you better understand the who, the what, and the why of mental performance, personal growth, and Lansing Stars baseball.

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And now, here's your host, Steven Cutter.

I'll be honest, this isn't the easiest episode to do. The season just ended, and there's a deep mix of anger, sadness, and frustration still sitting with me. We came up short, and for someone like myself, someone who puts a lot into the things that I do, coming up short just doesn't sit well. But I'm not here to fake it. I'm here to tell the truth. This episode isn't about sugarcoating anything. It's about owning the season for everything that it was. The highs, the heartbreak, the brotherhood, the lessons. Jeff's with me today, and we're gonna break it down not from a place of ego, but from a place of reflection. Because this team was special. And even though it didn't end quite the way we wanted it to, it left a mark that matters. Let's talk about the season that shaped us today. I want to start with a quote. Quote says, sometimes you do everything right and still fall short. That's not failure, that's life. And it's what you do next that defines you. I want to start by saying this. I'm still hurting. I feel like I let our team down. When you give everything, and I mean everything, and still fall short, it leaves you numb. But what hurts more is knowing how much they trusted us to lead them there. I've been blessed to have a large support circle and a coaching staff each year that pours their heart into the student athletes. We finished this season with a 4413 record, and we were conference champions in concluding with a final national ranking of number nine in the country. This wasn't just about baseball. It was about legacy. And when you don't finish, it feels unfinished. Jeff, from your seat as an assistant, you've seen every part of this season unfold. When you think back, what stands out to you the most?

You touched on it a little bit there, but definitely the brotherhood. The brotherhood stands out the most to me. These guys, I mean, they'd do anything for each other and for us, and it's just really. We talked about it in a few prior podcasts where, you know, those special teams, it's hard to explain that that thing that separates them from regular teams And I think that we really had it, you know, and we poured everything into it. And like you said, when you come up short and you're putting everything into it, it's like, it just kind of leaves a pit in your stomach where, you know, what. What did we do wrong? What could we have done differently? And I think that's the game of baseball in a nutshell. You know, like, it's. It's beautiful at times, and you love it, and then you kind of get kicked in the teeth and it hurts, and you don't know what to do next. But I think overall, I'm just super proud of the guys. There's so many accomplishments we could talk about throughout the season and an extreme amount of growth for all the players. Really a special season, and one that I think that will always stick with me throughout my coaching career. Kind of went into. You know, I was really, really going through some emotions after. After that loss, and we got on the bus and just thoughts are running rampant, and it's like, man, I got to write this down. And that's really what I wrote. What I wrote down is just like, this is an incredibly special group. And, you know, you grow these bonds with these guys when you're spending countless hours with them and spending countless hours on game planning and practice planning and, you know, just like a snap of a finger, it's done.

Yeah. You get into the post season, we got to a super regional championship game and lost, and just like you said, a snap of the fingers, and it's over. And we've been fortunate to make some college World Series and experience that, too, in a snap of a finger, and it's over and it's challenging. And I think that's stuff that we've talked about as a coaching staff and stuff that I've learned in my coaching journey that you try to get players to go all in and give full effort. And through that journey, you see some student athletes don't give full effort. And a lot of times I've labeled that is because they don't want to feel the pain. It hurts worse when you give full effort into whatever it is that you're doing and it doesn't quite work out the way that you thought it was gonna work out.

Oh, yeah.

So it hurts a lot worse. Got one foot in, one foot out. You kind of have these barricades around you. Doesn't hurt quite as bad.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I. The way that I always kind of look at stuff like that is like, if I'm gonna do Something I'm gonna put everything I have into it, you know, and if you fall short, then at least you know you did everything that you possibly could. So it's, it does hurt a little bit more, but it makes it even more rewarding when you do succeed. And you know, I'm sure that we're going to succeed. It's just not at this moment.

Yeah, I appreciate that mindset. I think I've taken the mindset of trying to have extreme ownership. It's, it's easy when things don't quite go the way that you thought they were going to go to point fingers. You know, I learned a lot of that in the business world as well. And just trying to take extreme ownership had definitely have a mindset of, yeah, you think that you gave a hundred percent, but could you have done more? Should you have done something different? You know, that kind of stuff. That's the hard part about winning is, you know, at one point you're sitting in a chair, you're feeling really comfortable, it's the best day ever. And then the next thing you know, those chair legs break know underneath you and you're on the floor again. And it's just one of those things where you're constantly trying to chase something special and you end up looking back, usually down the road and you realize that, you know, we may not have walked away with rings, but we walked away better men. And I like to believe that our, our players have done the same. And I know, I know, I know our coaching staff has and I know I have too.

Oh yeah.

I've had to kind of sit with the silence this week, you know, of being done. We lost on Saturday and we're recording this on Wednesday, so just a few days ago. And what's kind of clear to me is like there's no shortcuts. You have to try to do your absolute best. And you can work really hard and you can have the best laid plans and you can have the most talented team around you and you can have the biggest belief system and you can have the most love and you can have a lot of fun doing it and it still might not work out. And that's kind of where the saying hard work does not always equal success.

Yeah.

And so what's most important is enjoying the journey and hoping and expecting probably more than hoping, expecting to come out of it better than you were when you went into it.

Right.

Did you see a lot of growth out of players? Things that stand out to you when you think back?

Oh yeah. I mean, Top down, there's just countless cases of guys that, you know, they come in, might be a freshman, might not have really been in an environment that's super high growth like this. And, you know, it kind of scares guys at first, but the ones that really lean into it, you see just an immense amount of growth. Like, you'll have guys coming in, and we might ask them to play a position that they've never played before, and at first they're a little reluctant. You know, you're. You're going into college baseball and you're playing a position that you haven't played before, but as a coach, there's something there that, that we all see that could translate into that position. So we're not just throwing them into it randomly, and they, they respond to it. And there have been guys that have played different positions that really excelled at it. And I think that, you know, just. Just those small details of the moving parts and, you know, putting guys in the right places so that we see the most success on the field, that's part of the beauty of the game. So I think that that's where I've seen a lot of growth out of guys. And then also on another note, we have our leadership classes where we're working on developing those leadership skills and working on the mental performance game. And you see a ton of growth from guys with that. I mean, like, even how you respond to failure, that's one that really sticks out to me, is at the beginning of the season, you might not have guys that are all the way in on responding to failure in a positive way, but towards the end of the season, they start to realize, okay, well, this isn't helping me if I'm blowing up after I get out or I don't see success every time, it's a game opportunity, not a game of failure.

Yeah. How are you doing with everything? Talked about how I'm feeling, but how are you doing with everything?

I'm struggling a little bit. Honestly, it's. I think every year that the season comes to an end, you know, you're saying you're, You're. You're biased, everybody. And one thing that I've really been thinking about is, does it ever get any easier to. To say goodbye to these guys when you've, You've developed these bonds and relationships with them? And I don't know if it. Does it ever get easier for you or is it kind of the same?

I don't think so. I think anytime you see sadness and tears and, you know, that kind of Stuff. I don't, I don't think it ever gets easier. I think you do sometimes get a little more, maybe just a little bit more callous to it. Maybe just in the moment, though, but. But not when it's all over. It's hard. I mean, when seasons end, it doesn't matter what sport it is. When it ends. You. You're so used to the routines.

Yes.

You know, for, For a lot of coaches, it never really ends. There is not an off switch. There's recruiting, there's, you know, a lot of things happening. But when the season ends, the. A lot of those routines, from practices to, you know, know, leadership to weight room to preparation, mission preps, you know, different things. Those are all gone.

Yeah.

And you sit there, like, trying to figure out, you know, what, what, what.

Do I do now?

You know, and my wife's been incredible with this entire journey and, you know, she knows it's, you know, it takes a couple weeks before I can really acclimate back into the home and, and into our home and start fixing stuff and, you know, maybe mowing the lawn a little more occasionally, you know, being a little more consistent with that. It's just one of those things. It's. It's hard. And when you give a lot and you have it reciprocated by the players, it's just. It's just super hard. So I think that's probably the thing that I'm most proud of too, is because, like, this team worked incredibly hard. Oh, yeah, they were. They learned how to be selfless. They. They didn't. Did not come in being completely selfless. They. They came in, as we all do, very selfish, you know, protecting ourselves, trying to make things better for ourselves, trying to make sure our roads are paved for our feet, you know, that kind of stuff. And we saw 18 to 21 year olds learn how to be selfless, and we, we saw them learn how to pull on a rope and have some joy for other successes. And we saw them fail and we saw them respond. They had a superpower of resilience this season, and they responded all the time. And we saw them down 20 runs and keep responding. You know, it's just one of those things that there's so many things to be proud of, and when you have so many things to be proud of with a very transformational group, when it's done, that's the hard part. That's. That's where the missing and the sadness and all that comes in. So I just thought it was important that we kind of you know, wrapped up our season and at some point this comes out and, you know, everybody will hear it. And I really wanted to talk about, you know, that you have to reset and reload and this program is not done. But before we wrap this up, I want to say something to the guys who wore the jersey this year, especially the sophomores. You gave everything. You left it all on the field. And while it didn't end with the celebration we wanted, I'll carry this team with me for the rest of my life. This season wasn't a waste. It was a reminder that chasing greatness comes with pain, with sacrifice. End with moments like this, moments where you're forced to look in the mirror and decide who you're going to be moving forward. I know I am. I'm not done. I know you're not done, Jeff. And I know this program isn't done either. If you're listening to this and you're hurting, know this. We stack bricks in every season, even the ones that leave scars. And if you wore the uniform this year, you're part of something real, something that mattered and always will. Keep going, keep working and keep believing. Make winning in life your habit, not your goal. Excellence isn't an outcome, it's a daily standard. Until next time, keep stacking bricks and go stars. Coach Cutscorner is recorded live in the WLMZ studios with the Dalian Lowry providing engineering and production assistance. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today's podcast, please share it and follow us on all forms of social media. Our program has been built and maintained with the help of many great people. If you want to be part of our mission, you can donate using the link in the show notes below. You can learn more@coachcutter.com and more about our team@lccstars.com see you next time down.

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Welcome to Community Combos, a podcast and radio program from LCC. Connect with conversations about what's happening in Lansing and around mid Michigan.

Hello, this is Terry Denise. You might know me from Ripper. I am actually going to be conducting an interview. My first one for Community Convos, also called the Convo Now. And with me today I have Leonard Christian. Leonardo Christian. And I don't know why I wanted to call you Leonard. Did people ever call you Leonard?

No. Maybe a couple people. I take them back. Yes.

Okay.

So maybe I was grabbing onto something from the past of some sort. So Leonardo, you are from Lansing?

Yes, born and raised, west side of Lansing before they put in 496.

Oh my. Oh wow. Okay. Yes. And so Lansing is a part of what you do. You are a heart and soul and a personality in Lansing. And what I wanted to do was put a spotlight on some events that you are throwing, correct?

Yes, I'm helping organize.

All right.

And put on for people dealing with cancer.

Okay, so it looks like October 24th.

Yes. There will be a silent auction at the Michigan Institute for Contemporary Art in Old Town on Turner Street.

Okay. So the Mica Gallery.

Yes. Micah.

Yes. All right. And then. So that's a Friday.

Yes, that's on a Friday. It starts at 4pm 4 to 8. There's a QR code where a person can get tickets. Tickets are $60 to come in. And you come in and you check the merchandise that's going to be for auction. And you sit around and mingle and have a few cocktails. No hors D'. Oeuvres.

Okay.

100% financing is going to help people who is going through treatment for cancer. Because I was a patient of cancer.

Yes.

And I just did my last treatment August 27th. But while I was going through treatment, I met some really beautiful people.

Yes.

And I was listening to some of them share their stories amongst one another. How they barely could pay a cell phone bill and get food because the side effects from the radiation and chemo stopped them from going to work to some people can go to work. And I was talking to some other people about what can be done to help ease some of the burden.

Yes.

So the show that will be October 25, the day after the silent auction will benefit the people who are still going through that. The silent auction is going towards to the hospital for the Herbert Herman Cancer Center. But the show that's going on the 25th of October at Sir Petson will help some of the people that's going through treatment and still struggling.

Okay. So. And then you were. I'm so glad that you are doing well, doing better, hopefully.

Yes. I know what females go through now when it comes to the hot flashes. Oh. Because they had to lower my testosterone level to attack the cancer and that have to be lowered for another 18 months. So when I was going through these hot flashes or whatever I was, a person came up and said to me, now you know where those women go through.

So going through that experience and being a Lansing native is so inspiring and encouraging to hear that while you're going through what you're going through with the treatment, that you're also just thinking about other people as well and looking forward to helping to give back to others and just helping out in general.

Yes. I took down. I went down the wrong road in life.

There's many pathways and God gave me a second chance.

So I give back to the community as much as possible.

Excellent. And so. So there's these two different specific events. You said the 24th for the silent auction fundraiser.

Yes.

That's specifically for the Herbert Herman Cancer Center.

Yes.

And how. Okay, so those proceeds are going to be going specifically to Herbert Herman Cancer.

Center to help people who are going through cancer because they have grants for people that's going to cancer who can't have the finances to take care of things. You have to fill out the paperwork to do it. And I'm hoping this will also help people dealing with cancer, period.

Okay, so this is additional.

Yes.

Okay.

To help other persons who are struggling to make ends meet, basically.

So. And then. So this is also going to help out with transportation to and from treatments.

Yes.

For those.

Yes.

And then lodging during medical care.

Yeah. Because you'd be surprised. Some of people come from four hours away to go to treatment. And I'm like, I met some beautiful people. And one of the ladies is the reason why this is going on right now. Okay. You know, when she was sharing her story about how she was struggling, and I was talking to another lady who was finished her treatment because she came back down to see me ring the bell.

Oh, yes.

In some friends of hers who'd be performing in New York, they perform the Sanders Sisters, which they called the Sisters. They were performing in New York. They're coming here just to do this show for cancer.

So they will be. So the some of the patients that you met are coming back.

Yes.

To perform on the 25th.

No, one of the ladies who want the cancer is coming. But these are friends of hers.

Oh, they're friends. Okay.

Who side they do this for free now, mind you, they travel all over.

To I see shows. Okay. So one of the patients, their friends are perform as the sisters coming down.

To perform just to do this special.

Oh, my goodness. That is amazing. And then in addition to the lodging and transportation for help for that, you're also looking to help cover prescription and medical costs not covered by insurance, and then food and personal necessities. And then just to help overall with a feeling somebody cares. Yes. Because it's not only just the physical treatment. It is emotional and mental. And then so for the 25th, for the separate event that's happening the next day on Saturday. Saturday that will be at sir pizza in Oldtown, 201 East Caesar Chavez. And then we'll have more information about that up online that you can click on. But the doors open at 7:00pm and then the show starts at 8:00pm yes.

And we have some special surprises for you. I have somebody's coming to drop their new single. Ooh, what? Yes.

Wait, we going to debut as well?

Yes.

Okay.

And this is somebody who works here for lcc.

Really? Okay. But it's gotta be on a quiet. So you guys have to go then to find out who it is along with our LCC family here. So the show is called People Dealing with Cancer. And this is to help to support those that are dealing with the effects of patient treatment. And then this is also a Halloween show.

Yes.

All right. And then our special guest once again are Sisters from Inspiration. Inspired heavily from a hocus pocus. I believe the Sanders sisters Amok Amuck. Amok is one of my favorites. And then also featuring Denisha Gray.

Yes.

All right. And then the host for the evening will be Nestle Quick.

Okay.

Cover will be $15.

Yes.

All right. Anything else that you wanted to talk to about?

No, babe, just please come out and help support. They will also be selling food and stuff. The kitchen will be open and there's a cash bar. They will also donate a percentage to this. So please come out and support this cause.

Okay, Well, I cannot wait myself. And are you going to need volunteers for this event as well?

Some, yes.

Okay. So if you wanted to get in touch with Leonardo Christ Christian, is it okay if I. Okay, we've got the phone number of 517-885-55-412. And then you can also email@christianleonardo839mail.com I'll spell that out. C, H, R, I, S, T, I, A, N, L, E, O N, A, r, d, o numerical, 8, 3, 9. If you wanted to get in touch with Leonardo Christian and just wanted to even say words, kind words, or even if you wanted to donate to participate, if you can't make it to either of the events, I'm sure you have more in store coming up as well.

Oh, yes.

Okay, so we'll have you back in then.

Yes. We got a winter wonderland coming up.

Oh, my goodness. I cannot wait for the bell of the bowl.

Wait till you see the Sandy sisters do the winter wonderland.

Oh, my goodness.

We are looking forward to this big surprise.

Okay. My goodness. Well, I just. I am looking forward to this. Thank you so much for coming in today. We appreciate your time, Leonardo.

Thank you for having me.

No problem. All right, well, thank you so much for joining us on the convo. This is Terry Denise, and we hope to see you on October 24th at the Silent auction fundraiser at Mica Gallery and also at the Sir Pizza in old Town on October 25th that following Saturday for people dealing with cancer and support for that Halloween show. Thank you. Have a good day.

You've been listening to Community Combos, a program from LCC Connect with conversations on about what's happening in our community. To listen to this episode on Demand, Visit us@lccconnect.org or find us on your favorite podcast platform. If you or someone you know would like to be a guest on Community Convos, Email us LCC ConnectCC.edu and thanks for joining the convo featuring the faculty, staff, students and others that helped to make Lansing's premier college what it is today. LCC Connect Mid Michigan's connection to Lansing Community College. To find out more about our featured programs or to listen on demand, Visit us@lccconnect.org.

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Hello everyone and welcome to Now Spinning, the official podcast of the Lansing Community College Vinyl Record Club. We meet twice a month to listen to vinyl and talk about music. Stay tuned to learn about how you can get in touch with us and attend our meetings. Hello everybody. Welcome back to Now Spinning in the Room with Me today I have Noah Miller and I am still Simon Medina. As always, one Day, you're just not.

Gonna be Simon Medina.

And what are we gonna do then? Nobody knows.

We are on the weird disco segment of the last theme that we did.

So that was.

Yeah, that was our meeting on November 12th of last semester. And this was a very interesting theme. I think people kept to it this time. For the most part. Yeah.

It was a little scattered with some things not entirely fitting, but for the most part, we were pretty much in there. Everyone has a different sense of weird, but maybe some of these just weren't as weird as maybe we were thinking. But there's definitely still some weird stuff in there. And, I mean, all of it is just really enjoyable either way. And like we've mentioned on previous episodes, you don't have to stick to the theme. We throw those out there for people who are interested. But, yeah, I mean, all of it was pretty solid.

And to start our weird disco meeting off, of course, we have Simon and Garfunkel, famed disco duo, of course. And that song was a most peculiar man off of Sounds of Silence. Not at all disco. I'll be honest with you. I might have lied a little, but it's still an interesting song.

This was a most peculiar song in deed. It's about a guy just kind of taking his own life and just kind of acting sort of. I don't want to say, like pathetically, but he is just not a nice person to be around. And so he keeps everything or like, seals off his apartment and turns the stove on and basically just goes to sleep and doesn't wake up. So, yeah, there's that.

Yeah, that's a good, interesting start to the disco meeting for Simon and Garfunkel. I guess It's a good album. I like this album, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then it leads into the proper start of our disco session with I Feel Love by Donna Summer. Not really a whole lot to say for me personally on this track. I don't have much familiarity with Donna, really.

It's a good song, though. We love this song.

Yeah, no, we can dig it.

Fantastic. But following that one up, however, there is a song that I. I might have played this one, but it's a very good song. And that is Found a job by Talking Heads. I'm gonna try to keep this one brief since we did do a whole episode just about this band. But I tried to think about weird disco and Talking Heads is kind of disco adjacent at times. This song, I think, is definitely leans in towards it, just with the drum beat and everything.

Generally a lot of stuff that Talking Heads material kind of sticks to that Four on the floor. Very like, solid, danceable beat. Everything is just pretty consistent tempo wise.

Right. Even when you get into like their Stranger, like, Remain in Light stuff, there's not really a lot of like, time signature changes. It's really just Chris Franz, the drummer, my. My goat. I love that, man. Just playing the same drum beat the whole time. Well, there's a lot of really crazy percussion stuff happening around him, but he's keeping it going though. That's good.

Got that foundation in there.

And this song I like a lot because the. The story of this song is two people getting upset about what they see on television and just making their own show, which I thought was kind of fun. It's an interesting topic for a song. But, you know, Talking Heads, they do. They've done weirder stuff.

Fair enough. And then, yeah, we got some LCD sound system here with 45, 33.

Okay, so this song, I understand that this wasn't the intention of it, but it still fills me with visceral rage that the song is called 4533. But the runtime. The runtime for this song is in fact 4604. Now, I mean, I get that they were trying to do like, you know, 45 RPM, 33 RPM, like a record. You know, that's. That's fun, that's interesting. But you couldn't have shaved like 30 seconds off the song. Just fit it all in there, but.

Like, just make it work. Spotify, I don't know.

I can blame. I guess I blame LCD sound system.

Oh, you're blaming lcd?

I'll blame whoever put it on. Whoever's idea it was to be like, so how long's the song gonna be? 46 minutes.

Defeats the whole point.

I don't think we didn't play this whole song. I don't think we played three minutes of it, but it was a good three minutes. I do like this song a lot. I haven't listened to the whole thing, obviously, because, you know, 46 minutes long. But they're a band that I definitely want to get into.

I threw this playlist on in my car, and when this one came on, it just kind of kept going and going and going and going and I was like, man, this is a pretty long song. Oh, this is gonna take up the entire drive.

Yeah, right.

There might be other things I want to listen to, but no, this, this was cool. I, you know, as just kind of like a soundscape. Like a lot of Disco generally tends to be. I'm finding throughout this playlist is that it's more so just like a soundscape, something to kind of be in the background while you're just kind of dancing along. It's dance music essentially.

That's what it is. That's what it. That's the core.

But yeah. So then we go into Tell Me Lover by Wayne Zelinsky.

And that is a local band, I found out.

Yeah, they are from Lansing, Michigan. So Shout out. This was a pretty nice laid back, atmospheric, kind of spacey sort of track here.

And then following that one up, we have Black Sedan by Charlie Crockett. This one not. Not disco country rock, but we can, we can take it. We appreciate all kinds of music here.

Yeah.

Even on Weird Disco Day.

Yeah, no, this, this was one that I actually came back to a little bit.

Oh yeah, it's great.

Yeah, it's just kind of nice smooth, slick, but not like greasy slick.

Yeah, I get, I get that.

But yeah, no, it's, it's. It's cool.

I put this album on my list of albums I have to get to somewhere on there. So I will. I definitely want to check this guy out.

Yeah.

Moving on, we have Wide Awake by Parquet Courts. This is another band that I really, I'm really interested in because this is a great song. It's what they call dance punk, I think is like the genre for it, if that makes sense.

Right. Yeah.

There's like the pots and pans kind of sound of the percussion in the background kind of filling out the drum beat. The solid drum beat there.

Yeah.

I mean it's one of those songs where it's. It's not quite like a disco song because you know, disco has like this obviously it's very polished, very like. I don't want. I don't want to say, like, you know, just very clean. Like the dance punk stuff takes like the drumbeat of it, like the. Just like the whole danceability of it, but really it strips away all the polish and the production for it. And it's just.

Yeah, it takes the musicality of disco and like the compositional elements of it, but then applies this sort of like punk veneer to it.

Right.

To kind of adapt it to that good song.

You have to check this band out.

Yeah.

And then we have Divine with youh Think you're A Man. This is one that I kind of keep coming back to. The chorus is like super catchy. The really dramatic, like almost he man esque, like vocals in the background. That's just what it makes me think of. But, yeah, no, this is. This was a very fun one.

I like this one as well. It's a good song, you say. You said everything I wanted to say about it, though. It's a good one, though. Okay, fantastic. And then we're taking another disco detour with the who, cobwebs and strange. I'm not really sure what to make of this one.

Yeah, this is kind of a head scratcher.

I don't know if it's quite a. It's quite a song as much as it's just interesting sound effects.

It does have a melody to it.

It does. It's in there. Oh, God, yeah.

All on the recorders and stuff like that.

Yeah, it's extreme. Interesting experimental 60s stuff.

Yeah, that was certainly a detour there.

Not very disco Y, though. Moving on from that Black Page Number Two by Frank Zappa. I think you're familiar with this one.

Yeah, yeah. This is one that I brought in. I didn't end up playing it in the meeting there. But the intro part where he's kind of introducing the track, he's got this. Don't get on the bass there. And he's like. So we're setting this up with this disco type vamp here. So he. I mean, you know, I figured it was fairly appropriate. But this is an adaptation of an earlier piece of music. I mean, he goes through the whole story in the intro to the song before they actually start playing. But it was a drum solo and then he decided to add a melody to it. And the thing about this piece is that all of it is at a steady 4, 460 beats per minute. But the subdivisions between those beats, they're called tuplets. So those are usually like groups of 3, 5, 7. You know, any odd number of beats there or anything that's not really like a power of two, right? Like 2, 4, 6 or 2, 4, 8, 1632.

Like that.

And then there's also nested tuplets. So within a triplet, he might say that the second beat of this triplet is actually a group of five. So it'll be like da da da da da da da da da or something like that. You know, there's just weird rhythmic stuff all over. Like the drum solo, the part one and then part two. He is like, well, I wanted to make it a little bit more accessible to people who couldn't approach its statistical density. And so he creates this one. And there's still crazy tuplet stuff, but he kind of stretches some things out maybe compresses certain things and just overall rocks it out a little bit more. Adds a little bit more distortion to stuff and it's just crazy and just all over the place rhythmic wise. But everything is still kind of like. But yeah, it's just really off the wall.

Oh, yeah. One of these days we'll do like a Zappa deep dive that's like five episodes long, right?

Yeah, yeah.

The.

Whatever, like 60 albums that he produced.

Something like that.

And like the 50 posthumous ones.

Right. And I've listened to like five of them.

Right. Some of the Possumus ones are actually pretty cool. The Transfusion one was really cool. It's all instrumental stuff of solos from around his career. Yeah, that was really cool. Back onto the weird disco playlist, here we have youe Are Smart by Katamari Damasi or the sound team for that one. Is this a game soundtrack?

Yeah, that's the game soundtrack for that. Okay. I haven't played it very much, but I've listened to the soundtrack a couple times. It's. It's very interesting. It's very fascinating. Yeah. Aesthetically speaking, I think the soundtrack for this game is as perfect as you can get.

Yeah.

To, you know, relating to the content of the game itself. That's all I have to say about it.

Okay.

It's very good. Fun game too, if I've laid it over the little bit I played it, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Nice.

Yeah, it's kind of like, you know, the background music for. Yeah. Like a video game there.

Yeah.

Moving on to another disco song, we have the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Our favorite disco song by Gordon Lightfoot.

Rest in peace.

Rest in peace. Gordon Lightfoot.

He's my coat. I love this, man. Yeah.

And then it was also. This meeting took place two days after the anniversary of the wreck of the Inman Fitzgerald.

Right. Which is. That's why I brought it in. I figured, you know, we have to commemorate somehow. Yeah.

What was weird is that I hadn't really had much of a connection to this song when, you know, I was first listening to it. But then, like, coming back to it, it's like, oh, man, I'm actually getting like heavy chested here. It's like it's about to make me tear up, dude.

Yeah. I mean, like, you know, if you grow up in Michigan, you're gonna hear this song every year of your entire life. And at some point, you know, a lot of people get tired of it. That's not me. I can't get tired of this. Song. It's such a beautiful piece of music. It's meaningful. You know, people don't make songs about. Are just like a retelling of, like, horrific events that happened as much as they used to. You know, this was like.

Right.

And like the tradition of, like, folk like that. This is like, you know, kind of. I don't want to say it's not modern, obviously, but it's like I'm one of the more recent versions of that where it's.

Right. Yeah.

Going in detail about this kind of thing, but. And like, that's the thing about the song. Like, it's just. It's just retelling this like a horrible story. But, like, it's like, musically, it's so good. It's such a good song.

It's the. The orchestration, instrumentation, the arrangement of it.

Right.

Like when they bring in, like, the arpeggiated synths and stuff in the background and, you know, the drums and just. It just. Everything about it just like sends chills. It just builds it up so nicely. Just execution is amazing.

That steel guitar also, I love that a lot.

Yeah, yeah.

Like that. Not like it's a solo, but, like the riff. I don't know what they call it. I'm not a music theory person. You could.

The episode.

Help me out with this.

The slide up there.

The br. Yeah, that.

That.

This is a great song, but I also have to shout out the whole album, which is called Summertime Dream. If you like this song or if you're just like, a fan of, like, folk in general, like folk rock, you will definitely get a lot out of this album. It's very. Every song is good. I think there's not a skip on here.

Gordon Lightfoot is a good place to start for. Yeah, the folk, like, kind of more modern. Not modern, but semi modern, 70s folks.

Like rock. Anyway. Yeah. This album. And then I think there's another one by him. It's one that has Sundown on it. I do not remember the name of it. I think it might just be called Sundown. But that is also a really good album.

Yeah.

So Gordon Lightfoot, Deep Dive. Coming soon, don't you worry.

And then we have the Kills with Last Day of Magic. Again, not necessarily disco, but kind of like a garage. Garage rock, garage punk kind of thing. There's. And just very catchy, the guitar riff chorus there. Yeah, Just super cool production on it too.

That's a good song.

And then we have I am a Disco Dancer by Vijay Benedict.

Yeah. This was off of a compilation of Bollywood Disco from like I think the 70s and 80s, obviously. I have been trying to track down where this album came from on like streaming or anything. It's kind of a miracle that I was even able to find the song at all to put on the playlist here. But it's a interesting song, interesting place in history, I think, you know. Yeah, I think this one at least some of the songs were like, you know, from like the early 80s, which was kind of like the post disco here. But I'm not sure how prolific it was outside of America. I'm not really sure if that lasted any longer overseas or something.

Yeah, as far as overseas, I'm not entirely sure. But yeah, there was like the whole revolt in like the 70s and the whole like there was like a baseball game where. Or like some kind of like. Yeah, sporting event where people like threw a bunch of records onto the field or something like that.

Yeah, they had a big, just. I don't want to say like cult meeting, but that's kind of the vibes it gives me where they all took all their disco records and they just burned them in the middle of the.

Field, something like that.

And like, you know, that's just. That's just all about the. The backlash to disco back then. You know, looking back on it now, it just seems.

Sir, it just is so overreaction. Just a big overreaction on that.

It's just, you know, it's like the stigma that disco had with it back then, you know, that like. Like part of like gay culture and that kind of thing. People. I feel like that's definitely part of why they really. Yeah, part of why they were upset about it. It's just.

I haven't looked into it enough to really comment on that, but I can, I can definitely see that. But I, you know, I don't want to like, like say that that's it.

But yeah, I mean, it was just generally middle class Americans, I guess, did not enjoy disco as much as people, you know, wanted to get rid of it. But you look at now and you see how much how many like new artists are like heavily influenced by like, you know, 70s disco stuff. And you have to think like who won in the end there, you know. Right.

Yeah, yeah. There's like just kind of the smoother, like R B stuff. That's kind of. That's like kind of downstream of disco and stuff like that. And I mean, Vulfpeck, they are bringing that back especially. And they literally have a track called Disco Ulysses and it's just super funky. Super catchy. Just. Yeah, it's just great.

That's a good band. I like Vulfpeck a lot. Yeah.

And.

Yeah.

Viva la disco.

Viva la disco.

So we have Take a chance by Mr. Flaggio again. More of kind of like a background disco track. Not a whole lot going on, but still enjoyable nonetheless.

I mean, I don't think there was a bad song played at this meeting.

No, there was not.

Usually, like, obviously, any. Any record club meeting, it's very rare where someone plays, like, a song that, like, it's, like, everybody agrees is awful. Like, I don't think there's a single song that I've heard played that I'm not, like, I can't get some kind of enjoyment out of, you know, we welcome everybody who has. Anybody, you know, like I said, anybody who has a interest in music at all, you know, you're welcome to come in and share that with us. You know, we don't judge at all. And, like, there's not much to judge anyway, because people here have really good music taste. Yeah, yeah.

And you get to mingle with people who. I mean. I mean, there was a recent one where someone was like, right after my song, and I was like, oh, yes, dude. Like, oh, dude, we're playing this. Yes.

I think I missed that meeting. But, you know.

Yeah, this last one.

We'll talk about that sometime. Don't you worry. Yeah, don't you worry. But anyway, after I said that, there's no songs that I think are bad. Here's a song that I don't think it's bad. It's just unfortunate. We have unfortunate. Here Comes the New Night by the Beach Boys. And this was a 1979 disco remake of a 1967 R&B track they did, which is also called Here Comes the Night. I don't know where to. I don't know where to start with this song, this band. One recurring theme, if you have any knowledge about this band's history, is that they are very good at making really bad decisions, financially and musically. Like, they have a giant vault of unreleased music that's better than the stuff they put out. For some reason, they decided a little bit late in the game that they were gonna try and get on the disco trend. And this was in their very. Like, late in their career when they were kind of falling off again after they had kind of had a brief comeback in the late 70s, and they still weren't really.

Did they like each other at that point?

Oh, they hated it. They all hated each other, but they were Related. So they couldn't break the band up, essentially. And they decided that this would be the way forward, would be to make a disco song. But nobody could really come up with a new disco song. So they decided to go back to their 1967 Wild Honey album, which shout out to the Wild Honey album. Great record. Great. Like R and B soul kind of thing. Very laid back. Anyway, they took a song from that album called Here Comes the Night and stretched it out for 10 minutes and basically edit every single cheesy disco effect you could imagine onto this. There's, like monkey noises in here for some reason, like, halfway through. And there's. I don't even know where to start with this track. There's just so much going on. But, like, it's just a chaotic. I mean, it's obviously like it's a disco song. So, like, you can put it on in the background and dance to it, but you'll just kind of stop sometimes and be like, was that like a. Why are they putting sound effects in this? What's the goal here?

What am I hearing right?

And then I listened to concert recordings from around this time, and they. They announced, like, we're gonna play a song off our new album, Everybody. And they start playing the disco beat. And, like, the one concert recording I listen to, this guy just starts screaming, booing really loudly next to the cameraman, and he's like, all right. And like, Mike Love, obviously, you know, the frontman, he's like, all right, guys, settle down. We're just gonna play this one and then we'll get right back to the other music. The worst thing about this. The song's fine. It's disco. The worst thing about is just the timing is this came out in 1979, which was, like, right at the peak of the disco backlash.

Yeah.

And of course, the Beach Boys decided that was the perfect time to hop on the disco train. Bless their hearts, man.

The stars really aligned to create this track, didn't they?

They do. The stars usually align to screw the Beach Boys over in some way or another. That's just how it goes. I could talk more about this, but I don't think that anybody needs to hear that.

Yeah, we have a couple songs, a couple more songs here. We've got Disco baby by Van McCoy. I'm not entirely familiar with this one. I think I was probably talking to someone else while I was. While this was in.

Yeah, this is a good song. This one, Dan McCoy, he's obviously like. The song everybody knows him for is the Hustle and That song, you know, that's one of the biggest disco songs ever. Like, everybody's heard the Hustle. Even if you haven't. Even if you think you haven't heard it, if somebody played it for you, you'd probably be like, oh, no. Yeah, I've heard that one before. But I'm beyond is one hit. This is actually, like, I listened to this song and I actually really liked it. Like, this guy is a very talented, like a ranger musician in general. Like, he made a couple other albums. I think he, like, I think he might have. I don't know if it was jazz, but I think he did like a kind of like a world music album at one point where he was kind of like getting influences from. Yeah, the albums just called the rhythms of the World. There's like a lot of. Just like Africa and India and all kinds of stuff. He was getting music from everywhere for that one, but.

Okay, nice.

I do want to read into this guy more. He seems like an interesting character. A lot of those, like, one hit wonder people definitely like fascinating stories behind them once you get into it.

Yeah. I didn't do a super deep dive into them, but with Lover Boy working for the weekend, I. I looked at the other songs on that album and it was like, oh, no, I can see why this one was the hit.

Oh, yeah, that happens. Yeah, that happens a lot, actually.

But I mean, no shame to Lover Boy.

You know, they.

You know, they. They were doing great stuff, but yeah.

A lot of bands are interesting. Like, the one hit they have is like, they're like a really weird. Like a lot of really weird bands were like, accidentally make like a really popular commercial single.

Right?

Yeah.

And they just got to live with that. But I feel like this is all this guy's music is. I think it's. I don't say it's like there's nothing really weird, but there's. It's not. That's not a bad thing. That's not a dig or anything right now, but. And then of course, our last song.

The grand finale, Sesame Street Fever.

Oh, boy.

This was actually a really fun closer. I forget the guy's name who brought it in, but no, I saw that and I was like, oh, okay. We're getting down right.

The Sesame Street Fever album. This is one of those Dollar Bin greatest hits where, like, you go to, like any record store and you go into like their dollar bin or their free bin, you're gonna find this one floating around in there. I think everybody's grandma if they have a Record collection. This thing's lurking around in there somewhere. Either this or just Saturday Night Fever. Or both of them.

Or like a Disney vinyl. Like Jacob, another member of the. The group has. He's got, like, a Disney disco thing that he. He brought in. He didn't play anything off of it, but he showed it to me at his place one time.

But, no, I remember. I know what you're talking about. I've seen that.

It was like. This is surprisingly good. This is actually, like, really cool.

He did play a little. I remember he played a little bit for. I don't. I think I was there as well. But, yeah, it was interesting. That was an interesting time for music like that one. That big, brief period where, like, disco was, like, the biggest genre. So everybody was kind of jumping on it. Even. Even the Muppets, it would appear.

Yeah.

And then this album.

No, the Muppets are different from Sesame Street.

I'm sorry, I don't. Forgive me. This isn't the sec. Muppet podcast. That's not. That's not my area. I'm very sorry to the Muppets. I apologize. And this song is interesting because on it is also Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. So you get the real disco experience from an expert.

The strings and everything.

Oh, yeah.

The chord progression. When I. Dude, when I heard this, it was like, this is such an authentic representation of disco.

This is really cool disco in its purest form. Sesame Street Fever. If there's one album you listen to today, after listening to this, make it Sesame Street Fever. That.

That's your. That's your recommendation?

My recommendation. I'm surprised nobody brought in Saturday Night Fever. That's a. I felt like that was gonna be, like, a given because that one's. Everybody's got that one. Like I said, it's one. If your grandma has records, if your grandparents, they have that one that's in there somewhere. I know that mine did. That's when I got my grandma's, you know, old records. Saturday Night Fever was hanging out in there. You know, it's. Everybody's got one, I swear. Nice. That does about. Wrap it up for today. Closing out with Sesame Street. It's probably the best ending we've had for an episode so far. But indeed, if you're interested at all in coming to any of our meetings and, you know, maybe we'll play more weird disco, maybe not. We'll see. Everybody is welcome, whether you're a student, staff or a member of the community, you know. Well, you're welcome to come on in and share your music with us. Whether you've been collecting for your entire life and you have like, you know, a thousand records in your collection or you have never bought one before, but you're just curious about, you know, expanding your musical tastes and, you know, hanging out with other people who, you know, music appreciators. There is no better place for it. I think it's a great group of people, very welcoming, very friendly.

I agree.

All kinds of music are welcome. No matter how, no matter how weird you think it is, there's going to be somebody in the club, I think, who will appreciate it no matter how.

On topic you are.

Exactly. Thank you for tuning in and now spinning. We'll see you next time. Thank you very much.

This has been a presentation of LCC Connect, a weekly program that features the voices, vibes and vision of Lansing Community College. All shows featured on LCC Connect are recorded at the WLNZ studio located on LCC's downtown campus. Each program is podcast based and can be heard anytime at LCC Connect. If you or someone you know would like to be a guest on one of our shows, connect with us by emailing LCC ConnectCC.

Eduard.