Steven Flowe Is On His Way

Steven Flowe
The Superwrestlers (2024)
Last month, a Chicago based promotion that's billed as Earth's Strangest Pro Wrestling Show introduced the world to a new indy wrestling character that is pure genius.

Stephen Flowe is a 90's grunge rock character who comes to the ring carrying a guitar and wearing a flannel with another flannel tied around his waist.  If it isn't obvious enough that his name was inspired by the second track on Pearl Jam's debut album, his entrance theme will really drive it home.  It's a parody of Even Flow, but most of the lyrics are just his name being sung over and over again.

In an interview with Sean Ross Sapp, Stephen revealed that the Cokane from JCW came up with the idea for this gimmick while the two were traveling.  It started out as a joke a few years ago, and it has now come to life in the squared circle.

Canadian Cookies For Christmas

Oreo Maple Cream
Christie (2024)
These were given to me by a friend as a Christmas present, and I think they're my new favorite variant of Oreo Cookies.

Oreo Maple Cream are exclusively available in Canada, but they're worth going out of your way to get.

Thirty Years Of Hits On KROQ

Top 500 Songs Of The Last 30 Years
KROQ (2024)
I've been a fan of KROQ countdowns for a few years now since I stumbled across their Top 106 Songs of 1983 countdown that someone recorded on cassette tape on New Year's Eve 1983.  It was shared to archive.org and has become one of my favorite things to listen to.

Over the past few days, they've been playing a countdown of the Top 500 Songs of the Last 30 Years.  If I had to pick a span of years that covers my taste in music, it would probably be 1966 to 1996, which doesn't leave a whole lot of room for overlap with this list.  If I had to guess, I'd say that I'm not familiar with about 40% of the songs on this list, so I thought it might be interesting to listen to the whole thing from start to finish.  One thing is for sure; this is going to greatly expand my awareness of Linkin Park.  Whoever came up with this countdown included quite a few of their songs on here.  No judgment intended; I really don't have any opinion on the band one way or the other.

I wasn't able to find anything online that would allow me to stream all 500 songs in order, so I built the playlist myself in YouTube Music.  If this sounds like the kind of thing you might want to check out, feel free to save it and listen along.  The playlist that's embedded on this page shows only 200 songs, but if you continue playing after #200, it keeps going through the whole thing.  You can also open the list in YouTube or YouTube Music.

Here is the tracklist from the KROQ Instagram profile:

You can also click here to download the full list in a single image.

Maybe It's Only Yesterday

In The Year 2525
Zager and Evans (1969)
It's New Year's Day in the year 2025.  None of us are going to live for another 500 years, so I can think of no better time to listen to this one-hit wonder from the late 60's.  It's a song with an unusual structure that went to #1 in the charts in the US and UK as well as Canada, Ireland and New Zealand, and it tells a pretty frightening story of the fate of humankind.

Josh Caporale published an interesting essay about this song and its lyrics on Caponomics.  Click here to read it, and click play below to listen to the song that inspired it.

In The Year 2525
Zager and Evans (1969)

In the year 2525

If man is still alive

If woman can survive they may find

In the year 3535

Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lie

Everything you think, do and say

Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545

You ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes

You won't find a thing to chew

Nobody's gonna look at you

In the year 5555

Your arms hangin' limp at your sides

Your legs got nothin' to do

Some machine's doin' that for you

In the year 6565

You won't need no husband, won't need no wife

You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too

From the bottom of a long glass tube

In the year 7510

If god's coming he oughta make it by then

Maybe he'll look around himself and say

Guess it's time for the judgment day

In the year 8510

God is gonna shake his mighty head

He'll either say I'm pleased where man has been

Or tear it down, and start again

In the year 9595

I'm kinda wondering if man is gonna be alive

He's taken everything this old earth can give

And he ain't put back nothing

Now it's been ten thousand years

Man has cried a billion tears

For what, he never knew

Now man's reign is through

But through eternal night

The twinkling of starlight

So very far away

Maybe it's only yesterday