A bunch of stuff

Okay, fifth of July afternoon, and now my "two week layoff" has become "normal weekend".  So while I have a chance, here's another "lotsa little bits/ news for the un-newsed/picture post".

ITEM:  One site I have been frequenting lately is Forgotten Hits , not surprising considering it's a little like Time Machine on a much larger scale.  The other day, the blogger raised the topic of "goosebump songs"- ones that gave you goose bumps the first time you heard it.  Here's the letter I sent in- and his response:

This is kind of a tough one, because there are songs that give me goosebumps now, that might not have at the first playing.  I tend to call them “stop-breathers” because the reaction for me is more of my breath stopping for the first few notes.  There are four, though, that might fit the category. 
Back in the day, I kept my own top ten- and do I wish I’d not let those notebooks go!  I always did mine on a Thursday, and then wait all weekend to hear Casey Casem on Sunday morning.  On one Tuesday night, I heard ELO’s Telephone Line.  Thursday it became the first (and one of two) song to ever hit #1 on my list as a debut.  Sunday, I owned the 45, which was quite a trick considering I wasn’t driving at the time.

In the early eighties, a girl got us all listening to country.  The first time I heard Roseanne Cash’s I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me, I knew it was her somehow in the first three notes.  Can’t explain it, but I remember it clearly.  Did the same with the next single, Never Be You, but it never had the same impact.

One of the first songs I ever loved was Merilee Rush’s Angel Of The Morning.  The first notes I heard of Juice Newton’s remake froze me in my tracks.  Still does.

And last, imagine a guy who grew up on the sixties, now living in a world where Pearl Jam was the coolest, and being dead drunk when you hear their remake of Last Kiss the first time.  Rotten rub of that was, I was in emergency need of the restroom and didn’t even get to hear the whole thing!

The only one of the three that really still gets me like that is Juice’s Angel.  Merilee’s does as well.  And maybe a dozen others, ranging from Bobby Helms’ My Special Angel to the Pretenders’ It’s a Thin Line Between Love And Hate.  And, of course, Percy Faith’s A Summer Place Theme.  And I’ll end here, before I end up writing you a book. 

CW Martin

Some GREAT choices on this list.  I absolutely loved Roseanne Cash's "I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me" and believe it should have been a HUGE cross-over hit.  To his day I can't believe it wasn't ... and still smile and sing along every time I hear it. 

Personally I prefer the Merilee Rush version of "Angel of the Morning" to Juice Newton's version ... but I will grant you that she did a pretty powerful reading.  The Pretenders' recording of "It's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate" ranks as one of my favorites by them ... and I totally agree with you on "A Theme from 'A Summer Place'" ... and have almost mentioned that one at least a dozen times since this topic started.  Thanks for sharing with us, CW!  (kk)

 

 

If you enjoy Time Machine, you'll love this place.  For example, if you go there today, his post is on the top 40 songs that peaked at #4 in the sixties!  Also there's an archive website with all manner of countdown stuff.  AND, unlike me, this dude has a lot of connections with actual sixties hit makers who bounce in from time to time.  Really cool stuff.  I'm jealous!

ITEM:  An interesting article in the Moscow Times (yes, I peruse that, too) today, led off with this:

As turmoil once again grips Egypt with the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi following days of mass protests in Cairo, one high-ranking Russian official has responded smugly: We told you this would happen.
"The Arab Spring has only led to chaos in Egypt and a bloody foreign-backed drama in Syria, war in Libya, mess in Tunisia and war in Mali," Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee, tweeted Thursday.


Can't really argue with this reasoning; in fact, we've heard a lot of it since the "Arab Spring" began over a year ago.  And the sage philosopher Vladimir Putin agrees:

"Look at the region as a whole. There is still unrest in Egypt. There is no stability in Iraq, and there is no certainty that it will stay united within its current borders in the future," the president said last month on RT television.
"In my opinion, this is happening because some people from the outside believe that if the region were to be brought in compliance with a certain idea — an idea that some call democracy — then peace and stability would ensue. That's not how it works," he said.

Of course, not everybody agrees with Putin's somewhat cynical view.  George Mirsky, a research fellow at a economics and international relations group, says that opinions like Putin's stem from the former Soviet government's disdain of popular opinion in most circumstances.

"That is why our government supports the nastiest rulers, such as Saddam Hussein," he said.  Ouch.

ITEM:  on the very same page, reactions continue to come in over the Duma's recent passage of the so-called Gay Propaganda and Blasphemy laws.  The first places hefty fines on the organizers of gay events and demonstrations.  The other, pushed through after the (alleged) music group Pussy Riot used a orthodox Christmas celebration to play an obnoxious, crude, and thankfully undecipherable protest song.  It will punish “public actions expressing obvious disrespect toward society and committed to abuse the religious feelings of believers...” Anyway, the article today focused on certain international reactions to the laws...particularly American groups such as the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute,  Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, and the World Congress On Families, all of whom had glowing words, such as this from the World Congress' Larry Jacobs:

“The Kremlin used to be a no-no for conservatives...We’re going to redeem that building.”
Now the article went on to give a balanced view of America, with sightings of several opposed groups.  It also pointed out that polls show that  "only 16 percent of Russians said homosexuality should be accepted by society, compared to 60 percent in the U.S., and 80 percent or higher in Canada, Spain and Germany. "But I would like to point one salient point out to Messers Jacobs, et al.  This is RUSSIA we are talking about.  Before you go celebrating them as a bastion of "a historic commitment to spirituality and morality" (as the WConF does on its website), perhaps y'all better backtrack a bit and think about the price of aligning yourselves with "the Devil you know".

As for, me, I wonder if maybe I might just move to Russia.  If it wasn't for the cold.  And the corruption.  And the planes that crash, the funny alphabet, and having to drink all that damn vodka.

ITEM: In looking for something else, I just saw a list of the ten "snobbiest" cities in the US of A, and I just have to share.

1. San Francisco
2. New York
3. Boston (I don't think this includes suburbs or outlying areas, Juli)
4. Minneapolis/St. Paul
5(tie).  Santa Fe
            Seattle
7. Chicago
8. Providence
9. Washington, DC
10. Charleston, SC

Okay, I'm not surprised with 80% of this list (and await the war of snubs between Santa Fe and Seattle), But Minneapolis?  Santa Fe?  Where do you guys get off being snobby?  Come back when you have more to offer than "it's a dry heat" and "it's a dry cold".

Okay, on to pictures!

Homer Bailey's no hitter! Only the second time in 45 years of watching baseball that I've got to actually watch a guy from a team I root for get a no-hitter- and both times it was Homer Bailey what got it!

 

From Wednesday:  When getting a picture of a frog is on your summer bucket list, every glob looks amphibious..





 When you're a dog, a wiener's as good as a radiator, I guess...

Just so peaceful..

 

So here we are, looking for frogs and turtles at the swamp, when all of a sudden, we had two big white drops of ... something... splash in the water near us.  Looking up....

...we quickly ascertained both substance and source.

Waking up the morning of the 4th, we saw this in the back yard...

Y'know, I didn't know that animals had so many cross-species characteristics.  I watched as the fawn looking our way scratched his head with a back hoof, then proceeded to sniff the hoof.  Moments later, he was chewing on the hoof, just like I've seen Scrappy do a million times.

Scrappy, meanwhile, had finally climbed out from under the covers to take a look.

Daddy, Daddy, save me!


We did get a few walks in, but not a lot to show for it...

...except this guy, who, unlike most blue jays, decided to scream (and I mean scream) at us the whole way past him.

We did go to the plex to watch the fireworks (as well as around the neighborhood to watch those who ignored the complex's orders against shooting them here).  But it was just me and Scrappy, unlike the whole pile of people we had last year, so I didn't bother to take pictures.

Today we went out into a partly sunny day that was much cooler when cloudy.  Within moments we were caught in a terrible rainstorm...

Note the drops on my shirt, if you can see 'em.  Later we went through the tall grass around the duck pond, only to stumble onto where all those big bad illegal mortars were being fired last night...

And when you see the small patch, hidden by tall grass, that SOMEONE mowed for the event... I'm guessing that this was an "unsponsored" IPFW event.

Three way conversation on the fence.

 

Found this at the new bridge.

 

At last, a FROG!  I am fulfilled!

It was hot when the "rain" went away so we rested by the river.  Then we got some more clouds, and we took off...

and moments later, it was raining again!

Here's Scrappy charging after a chipmunk who just ran in front of us...

The best part of getting this shot?  I was actually just trying to take another fungi shot when he popped up...