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Scranton – Page 2 – Chris Flannery

Scranton Gangster – Revisited

It has come to my attention that the original Scranton Gangster (sometimes known as “Scranton Anthem” or “Steamtown”) is no longer available at its original site…

So I have decided to host it honor of the original by MO7s, who were made up by Mike Beberich, Kevin O’Boyle, with John Siddons.

[audio:https://www.chrisflannery.com/music/scranton%20anthem.mp3]
The Scranton Anthem (mp3)

Lyrics as transcribed by me:

Ya’ll listen up to my man Mike Beberich… comin’ live atchoo! Holla at me son!
Once upon a time there was a ravin’ and rantin’
Boy form the itty-bitty shitty City of Scranton
Who had a tendency for leavin’ emcees pantin’
With the quickness, witness the reckless abandon
Nobody ever knows what the fuck I’m sayin’
And my flows…
{incoherent}
Hey Kevin, yo
Lay the synth line down
Because hate it or love it, man, this is my hometown
From up the Eynon to down by the U
The place where good times are far between and few
But we do what we can with a bowl in our hand [inhaling]
God damn – feels good to be back, man
In a city of empty minds and trains that just don’t run
But oh what fun
Just driving past all these dead buildings
Drinkin’, smokin’, brain cell killin’, just chillin’
Even though there ain’t no hot spot
No-one’s got money
Our city was the bomb back in 1920
Now the heroin and pot rules[?] are exquisite
Scranton: you wouldn’t want to live here or visit

But I’m a Scranton gangsta
I can’t afford a gun, but I’ll still shank ya’
My words will fuck you up much quicker than the {?} can
24’s spinnin’ on a busted-ass mini-van
Yeah, I’m a Scranton gangsta
I can’t afford a knife, but I’ll still try to shank ya’
My words will fuck you up much quicker than the {?} can
24’s spinnin’ on a busted-ass mini-van

I’m back and I’m rappin’ like my ass is on crack
Can escape to New York City but they keep holding me back
And while I’m here I might as well write my city an anthem
It’s not pronounced Scran-TON, bitch, this is Scrant-UN
The motherfuckin’ place that made me
Memories of gettin’ fucked up on Parade Day
{?} I’ll flow about it until my brains is empty
The first two initials of my name is M.C.
The envy of absolutely no one
It’s no fun chillin’ in Pine Brook with single moms
And chillin’ in the hills making a swag weed purchase
Drug…{?} Minooka…
Where there’s twice as many bars as there are churches
To Green Ridge, where you any got no business if you ain’t rich
Down to Lackawanna Avenue, pick up a bitch [hey baby]
90% of our citizens are 90 years or older
We got a nine month wind that keeps getting colder
So much to say, nothing to do at all except for chillin’ our 15 year old new mall
[?]So that’s all I gotta say Fuck L.A. and BeanTown, this here is my dream town Bitch, Welcome to Steamtown!

But I’m a Scranton gangsta
I can’t afford a gun, but I’ll still shank ya’
My words will fuck you up much quicker than the {?} can
24’s spinnin’ on a busted-ass mini-van
Yeah, I’m a Scranton gangsta
I can’t afford a knife, but I’ll still try to shank ya’
My words will fuck you up much quicker than the {?} can
24’s spinnin’ on a busted-ass mini-van

yo… G.R.P.(Green Ridge Pizza)…T.B.N.T.

word up at Tink’s, Cafe Del Sol… and all the other places that got shut down, or burned down… we love you.

[tags]scranton, anthem, Minooka, Green Ridge, Tink’s, Steamtown[/tags]

Read more

How Scranton are you?

You are 96% Scranton!

A true Scarantonian! You know how to count to tree, been to a “beer garden,” and watched high school football on T.V. You drink cah-fee, and know where to get a good Texas Wiener. Congratulations, I think.

how Scranton are you?
Quizzes for MySpace

I will never be 100%. I hate the yankees and my Grandmother was know as ‘Gramma.’

Unlike other Scrantonians I do not buy my wieners under the bridge.

[tags]scranton, quiz, eynon[/tags]

my wish for the Scranton Red Barons

At the end of this season of AAA baseball Red Barons will be without and affiliation to MLB. Currently the Barons are affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies – which has always been especially great for the area because I’d guesstimate 50% of the Area’s fans are Phillies fans. (The other 48% are probably Yankees Fans.) With the promise of Allentown building a AAA baseball franchise – the Phillies look to have an agreement to farm with them. With the outward expansion away from Philadelphia – Allentown and the rest of the Lehigh Valley are now by many considered suburbs of Philadlephia. The commute is about an hour. I’m guessing the populations of the Lehigh Valley surely can susatin a AAA franchise as it well exceeds Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metro.

So without a stadium… and without a team… Philadelphia and Allentown will look to persuade a cheap and lackluster team to hijack. Odds are looking like it will be you Ottawa. This is where I get happy.

Ottawa is currently the affiliate for the Baltimore Orioles. I am an Orioles fan. Perhaps if the cards are dealt right – the Phillies will affilaitre with Ottawa and eventually bring them to Allentown… leaving the Orioles to affiliate with the Scranton. This would be anytime I go home to visit my family I could scout the minors to see whats working up the ranks to the O’s.

Another consideration is that the Washington Nationals may try and affiliate with Scranton. I don’t hate this idea – but from a Scrantonian standpoint – how good do we feel about the longevity of the Nationals on the east coast?

divorce american style

i found another scranton song, and its been on my hard drive for over 2 years!
scranton + fears of your wife leaving you for another woman = couldnt be happier

divorce american style
by johnny dowd
lyrics transcribed by me

sorrow and pity
misery and gloom
met in april
got married in june

a wedding of body
a marriage of mind
two hearts afire
four eyes gone blind

home in the suburbs of scranton, p.a.
both sets of in-laws not far away
a couple of kids: a boy and a girl
i was sitting on top of the world

nose to the grindstone six days a week
church on sunday to hear the preacher preach
i built my faith in jesus, was that a mistake?
my wife’s betrayal was hard to take

i found out the obvious way
i came home sick on a work day
she was in bed with my best friend’s wife
no bigger surprise have i had in my life

i stood and stared my mouth was open
i was dreaming this was what i was hoping
i started to holler
and my voice got hoarse
praise god almighty
i want a divorce

she said i’m sorry
i know how you feel
but my love for you was never real
you’re sweet and your gentle
you’re honest and true
but its boring as hell
living hear with you

i barely exist on an emotional plane
i’m one step away from going insane
she kept the children, i got the house
what the hell is it all about?

a responsible citizen i cease to be
i loved domesticity now look at me
the say its the children who suffer most
but they seem happy, its me thats lost

i sleep on the couch with the tv on
my life has gone terrible wrong
pornographic fantasies infect my brain
filling me up with guilt and shame

guilt, shame, sorrow, and gloom
met in april
married in june

a wedding of body
a marriage of mind
two hearts afire
four eyes gone blind

[tags]scranton, johnny, dowd, divorce, lyrics[/tags]

lackawanna valley – george inness


George Inness
American, 1825 – 1894
The Lackawanna Valley, c. 1856
oil on canvas, 86 x 127.5 cm (33 7/8 x 50 3/16 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Huttleston Rogers
1945.4.1
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Rather than celebrating nature in the tradition of the Hudson River School, George Inness’ Lackawanna Valley seems to commemorate the onset of America’s industrial age. While documenting the achievements of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, Inness has also created a topographically convincing view of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The artist took relatively few liberties with his composition, but in compliance with the wishes of his corporate patron, he intentionally exaggerated the prominence of the railroad’s yet-to-be-completed roundhouse. His inclusion of numerous tree stumps in the picture’s foreground, although accurate, lends an important note of ambiguity to the work.

Whether it is read as an enthusiastic affirmation of technology or as a belated lament for a rapidly vanishing wilderness, this painting exemplifies a crucial philosophical dilemma that confronted many Americans in the 1850s; expansion inevitably necessitated the widespread destruction of unspoiled nature, itself a still-powerful symbol of the nation’s greatness. Although it was initially commissioned as an homage to the machine, Inness’ Lackawanna Valley nevertheless serves as a poignant pictorial reminder of the ephemeral nature of the American Dream.

[tags]scranton[/tags]