Can't get there from here

My musical tastes don't match up with others in my age group.

At all.

While most other 21 year-olds spend their time blasting Macklemore or Justin Timberlake or whatever the heck else is popular these days, I've chosen to relax with the soothing sounds of the Ramones or the  Clash throughout the course of my lifetime.

I've only struck common ground with a couple of my musical preferences. I know a few people who like the Beatles. I've certainly met my fair share of fellow Nirvana fans as well.

Thankfully, I have a few friends who happen to like one of my all-time favorite bands, R.E.M. If you like them, you're okay in my book.

That's why I was particularly excited when good buddy Mark from "This Way to the Clubhouse..." recently deemed Mr. Lombardozzi here as the "Orange Crush" card from 2013 Topps, in what I'm guessing was an homage to the R.E.M. song of the same name.

The only problem was that I hadn't yet tracked down a copy of this awesome celebration/interview combo.

Little did I know that another blogger was keeping an eye out for me. After leaving a comment on Mark's post saying how badly I wanted a copy of that Lombardozzi, one arrived in the mail.

Apparently, Jack of the terrific blog "Baseball Dad's All Tribe Baseball" saw that comment and happened to have an extra copy on hand.

He gratefully made it part of a recent PWE that landed on my doorstep last week.

Among its other contents were double play cards of "The Wizard" himself and an "Award Show" candidate with Miguel Tejada.

Another blogger recently sent me the base UD version of that Tejada as a part of "PWE Appreciation Week".

As usual, they'll look fantastic next to each other in my O's binder.

"Did you never call? I waited for your call..."

A rare example of a decipherable lyric from R.E.M.'s early days, this coming from the beautiful "So. Central Rain".

Jack's envelope held another gem with Mr. Harper here.

Ah, the nostalgic beauty of old cell phones.

As luck would have it, Jack's PWE arrived just before I was planning to write about another package he'd sent me a couple weeks prior.

Since I'm woefully behind in my trade post efforts, I'm just getting around to talking about it now.

As with the envelope, Jack managed to add a bunch of cool cardboard to my collection with this batch.

We'll start with this awesome "play at the plate" shot of former White Sox star Maggio Ordonez.

Stadium Club never fails to deliver on awesome photography, does it?

I don't think Studio's innovative credit card theme in '95 ever got its fair share of recognition.

It's actually a pretty revolutionary idea, if you stop and think about it. Especially given the time frame.

I mean, the hobby went from the awfulness of 1990 Donruss to quirky stuff like this in just five years.

I'm always up for cards of "Air Jordan" during his short-lived baseball career.

While I've certainly read a lot about it, I can't say I remember his minor league days with the White Sox. I was, after all, only two at the time.

From what I hear, though, it was certainly a carnival of sorts.

Hey, another one of my favorite R.E.M. songs!

I would like to personally thank whoever had the idea of featuring magazine covers on baseball cards.

It's an absolutely awesome idea. One of the best hobby history, I'd say. Just look at that "California Series" SI cover. Yeager, Fingers, Garvey...all on one card.

Another shocking development from my collection comes courtesy of Mr. Carter there. Apparently, I still need a few pieces from the massively-overproduced 1988 Donruss checklist.

I'm as shocked as you.

Taking a page from the the "Super Veteran" subset from '83 Topps, Pinnacle rolled this awesome "Now and Then" off the presses for their 1993 release.

These two shots were taken a whopping 26 years apart. I'm so used to seeing Nolan Ryan as the grizzled Rangers veteran from the '90s that I sometimes forget he was once a starry-eyed rookie like everyone else.

It's still odd seeing a 1966 version of the "Ryan Express", though.

While he sent over a bunch of awesome cardboard, this was undoubtedly the crown jewel of Jack's recent assortment.

I'd previously claimed this Dave Kingman Kellogg's oddball from Jack's blog as part of a giveaway. I can't tell you how appreciative I am that he actually gave away awesome cards like these for absolutely nothing.

Oddball, plus Cub, plus one of my favorite players of the '70s equals easily one of the greatest gifts I've received in a while.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to admire the beauty of this one little more.

And maybe listen to a little R.E.M., perhaps.

For some reason, I have a strange inkling to listen to a few their tunes right now.