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.

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.

My Ella story

ella

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.

It’s time for…

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Just as I decided I was really tired of being perpetually outraged, and that I could not bear any more social media time, any further discussion of Cruz/Trump/HB2, nor the grading of any additional badly written assignments, I discovered tonight that Animaniacs is now on Netflix. Suddenly, life is worth living again.

Don’t look for me on Facebook. No, I’ll be spending my time with the Warner brothers…and the Warner sister Dot. I will be much happier and will sleep much better. And there will be no idiotic comments to read.