Category: Pop Culture
Two turntables and…
Thirty-eight years ago tonight: my first airshift on @WUAG was heard by maybe six people, starting as it did after a baseball game that ran way overtime. HIghlights included “Mesopotamia” by the B-52s, “From the Air” by Laurie Anderson, and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by the Beatles.
I was all of 17 years old.
The number one record in the county that week was “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. I sometimes feel like my whole adult life has been a reaction to that unfortunate fact.
What June 2019 looked like
Happiness is…
Making me happy this week:
- St. Elsewhere reruns on Hulu.
- OpenRefine and Oxygen.
- This article that references some weirdo who’s obsessed with supermarket history.
- Apple fritters from Aldi.
- The potential for three consecutive days of sleep (or at least a reasonable proportion of those three days).
- Cleveland and Detroit in April, with maybe a side detour through Southern Ontario.
And you?
What’s up doc?
Strange work dream:
Mel Blanc was mad at us because we wouldn’t include something he donated in a digital collection. I observed that I was pretty sure it had to be Mel Blanc‘s son who made the complaint, because Mel Blanc himself was dead.
Just as I was about to look it up and see when he died, I woke up. Of course, I immediately went for my phone and looked it up anyway.
Mel Blanc died in 1989.
I may not know that much about art, but…
It disturbs me…
…that there seem to be only three options under “what are you mailing?”:
My Ella story
One night in 1996, I picked up a very adorable boy at a bar in Sacramento (the Wreck Room, I believe) and we went back to his flat a few blocks away. All night long, we made out to the sounds of Ella Fitzgerald, which made me like that adorable boy even more.
The next morning, as I was driving back to my room at the Motel 6 or wherever, I heard on the radio that Ella had died the previous night while we were curled up in bed listening to her. It made me very sad. I never heard from the boy again either, which also made me sad.
I loved Ella even as a child, and I have very sketchy memories of seeing her on the Ed Sullivan Show when I was really young (maybe this one?). In that proverbial game of dead celebrities you’d like to have at a dinner party, she makes my list every time.
Happy 100 and rest in peace, Ella.
Love isn’t…
I’d think this was pretty cool, but:
- I’m no longer in my 40s.
- I no longer live in Winston-Salem.
- I’m so very not looking for love.
That said, it ties in with something I was thinking about this morning. I could never love anyone who:
- Makes a line of cars wait while he backs his monster SUV into a small space in the parking garage.
- Shoots video using his phone in the vertical (portrait) mode.
- Could ever justify supporting the Trump regime for any reason whatsoever.
- Does not understand when to use “your” rather than “you’re” or vice versa.
- Owns no books.
- Thinks he has the right to listen to the Eagles (or Nickelback, or Twenty One Pilots) in my presence.
I think this will be enough bullet lists for one Wednesday.
I guess it’s time…
This seems like the day to finally confess after all those years that the song (both times) was Careless Whisper.
I was not a big George Michael fan, but dang, that song sure did surface at some pivotal points for me.