Time Machine week 47

We just miss Halloween in 1975 this trip, and a look at what's happening brought up another plane crash, two famous murders- one a famous celebrity relative was the murderer (Ethel Kennedy's nephew) and the other the start of a serial spree (the Yorkshire Ripper).  But the most noteworthy thing for me was an image in the news I've remembered down the ages:

New York was headed for bankruptcy, and Gerald Ford told them to heal themselves.  And they did, a lesson that GW Bush and Obama might well have learned during their bailout debacles.  Always did like Jerry Baby!


And that brings us to the reason you are here:  Damn Bing misdirected me again for the latest installment of Time Machine! And as I mentioned here before, we are visiting my wheelhouse year of 1975.  And what does that mean?  Well, how about that 10 songs from my top 300 of the seventies (previously featured in the Time Machine "Great 70's Countdown" posts) got votes from this week's panel?  Also this week, the single best- and toughest to pick- Martin Ten thus far, and the murder of a beloved animal leads off the six degrees!  No need to call PETA on me, just sit back and enjoy!


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The panel this week brings us WCOL Columbus, WABC New York, WHEX (on Halloween eve, why not?) Lancaster PA, WIRB Enterprise AL (just a row up from the gulf), KISN Vancouver WA, CLKW Detroit, WKY Oklahoma City, WDRC Hartford, KTKT Tuscon, WHB Kansas City, KELP El Paso, and WKDA Nashville.  They teamed up for 24 tunes this week, including David Bowie's Fame, which got the #1 vote from Hartford (and that's all), and The Spinners with Games People Play (sometimes changed to They Just Can't Stop It to avoid confusion with the Joe South tune of a couple years back) which was tops in New York. 10 of those 24 appeared on that Martin top 300 of the seventies I mentioned before- and oddly enough, the three of those that made the panel four are the lowest on the M300.  And odder still, the member of the panel four that got the #1 spot was the one that DIDN'T make the M300!  So, who got votes from the M300?

The aforementioned Games People Play, which missed the panel four by 2 points with 14, was #75.

Getting 13 points from the panel was the #63 on the M300, The Four Seasons and Who Loves You.

A 7-pointer on the panel was the #41 on the M300, Morris Albert's Feelings.

Two songs got 4 panel points.  One was Orleans' Dance With Me, at #30.

The other, the Bee Gees' Nights On Broadway at #12, the highest on the M300.

Helen Reddy got 2 points with No Way To Treat A Lady, the #90 on the M300.

Simon and Garfunkel got just one panel point with My Little Town, #15 on the M300.

So who did the panel have?

At their #4, with 16 points and the #1 votes from Vancouver and KC, Elton John's Island Girl- sitting at #2 on Cashbox this week and 125 on the M300.

At the panel 2 and three slots we have a dead tie with 23 points- 9 back of our leader- and 2 number one votes each!  The one is Lyin' Eyes by the Eagles, who were #4 on CB, 150 on the M300, and had the number one love of Oklahoma City and Nashville.

Our other #2 is Jefferson Starship with Miracles, who were #5 on CB, 291 on the M300, and had the top spot in Alabama and Tuscon.

And at number one- also #1 nationally- but not on the M300?  I will admit it was a song I absolutely hated way back in '75, but actually kinda like now.  Stay tuned...

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I have enough new songs I like floating in my Martin Ten basket, I could easily do a top twenty.  And FOUR of them will debut this week!  But here, I'd like to intro you to a song that hit the countdown last week, and has a special significance for this program.  I give you DA Wallach:





You'll see if and where Wallach's broken Tardis lands in a little bit.


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Cue the baby...

Yes, yes, "It's Bottoms Up time!"  Can't you get someone else to do this? Or do I work too cheap?

I don't know why little Skeezix is so grumpy, he's got a nice little BU to intro this week!

If you were there for my special Beatles' covers program (which you can see here ), you might have heard of a band called Katfish, whose Beatles cover Dear Prudence was at 69 this week, its 7th on the charts.

Our #9 is Hot Chocolate (always a plus on cold days like this) with You Sexy Thing at #75 after 3 weeks.

Another song featured on a past TM trip (which got mentioned three different times, most notably here )was the group with the unsavory name the Road Apples with Let's Live Together, at #79 in week #5.

The O'Jays take the seventh slot here with I Love Music, 82 in its second week.

Wings take the #6 with their Venus And Mars/Rock Show, debuting at 84.

Diana Ross's beautiful Theme From Mahogany takes our 5th spot by debuting at 88.

Head East is next, with their song Never Been Any Reason in its second week at 91.

A song discussed not long ago, Al Martino's discoed-up Volare is at 92 in its debut week.

The runner-up here is Ambrosia's Nice Nice Very Nice, at 96 in week #2.

And the top bottom?

...the Marshall Tucker Band with Fire On The Mountain, at 100 in its first week!!!!!!!!!!!!

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On February 13, 1982, Tom Tom, the Lincoln Mercury cougar was killed when a 9-year old ran past him at a show and bumped the cat.  The cat attacked, and the trainer was forced to shoot him. (The cat, not the kid!)  Thank goodness that wasn't the fate of unruly Cougar Girls, who posed with him in commercials.  One such was a young Rachel Ward, before she moved on to bigger and better things such as starring in the film Against All Odds.  Session man and arranger Rob Mounsey played all the keyboards and piano on Phil Collins' #1 theme to that movie.  He also scored Carly Simon's music on the soundtrack of Working Girl.  Working Girl was turned into a TV show for a brief time- viewers didn't know what they were missing (I certainly didn't, as I have no memory of watching it) as it starred pre-big-name Melanie Griffith and Sandra Bullock.  Is this coming back to music anytime soon, you ask?  Be patient!  So years later, Sandra B.  became concerned, like a good liberal, over the lack of Hispanic shows on TV, so she recruited George Lopez to do a show.  According to Wiki it wasn't a big hit- I certainly remember differently, it was usually a riot!  And unless you never saw it, you prolly know that the song that charted the highest with no love from the panel this week was the nation's #6 song (and the show's theme song), War with Low Rider.

"I thought it was a pretty good show..."

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And now, the Martin Ten, in its tenth week!


We have a whopping four songs debuting this week!  One of them belongs to a group I found on my weekly "discover" list on Spotify.  It was an English act who never charted here called the Housemartins.  Their song from 1986 was a number #3 hit there, and we'll likely hear it here soon.  It's called Happy Hour, and it debuts in the 10 hole.

This next song I had the hardest time placing, up and down and back and forth until I finally stuck it at #9, up one from last week.  That would be the song you listened to a while back, DA Wallach's Time Machine.

Another one on my "discover" list came out just this last June, but sounds like it came hot off the Motown racks in 1967!  The singer is "retro-soul" act Leon Bridges, sounding as our friend Shady suggested like a young Marvin Gaye, with a tune called Coming Home.

Next up is our second act to put a third song in the countdown.  The act is Family Of The Year, with another song from their self-titled latest lp:






Our final debut is at #6.  It actually hit #1 alternative last year, but since Fort Wayne has only had a alternative station again for about the last two months, it is new to me.  It is from a band called Cage The Elephant, and the song is called Cigarette Daydreams.

Hunker down folks, the Dynamic Duo are on the way down!  Our three-time #1 from last week, Phoenix's Lisztomania, drops from the top to #5.  I told Laurie that a sign that this M10 thing is working (at least for me) is when you drop a favorite song and it makes you feel like it did when Casey Kasem dropped it on American Top 40 back in the day.

The second half of the DD, Beach House's Space Song, drops a pair to #4.  But it did that once before....

Replacing the DD are the Titanic Three.  And the first member of that club roars up from #8 to #3- WILSN with Unmeet You.

The second member edges up a notch to #2- Jana Kramer with Boomerang.

And at the top of the pops?  Survey says...

...Neil Sedaka (with a little help from Elton John) and Bad Blood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And on the M10...

The first act to have a second #1- Beach House with Traveller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Tune in next week, one year from now, where we hit the hits of 1976!  Be there or be square!

Martin World News, sponsored by Kimberly Clark

ITEM:  We start today's fun with Tuesday's company meeting at work.  They are informative sessions on what the company accomplished over the last quarter, punctuated at the end with announcement of the company bonus.  Well, this quarter, the new guy in charge of our Powersports end of things (I work on the marine side) shared perhaps a tad too much information.  Out of a meeting that is supposed to fit into an hour and maybe change for EVERYONE to talk, this gentleman spent a half-hour telling us JUST about his family, his likes and dislikes (Florida State alum, Packer fan), chapter and verse on his former position at Kimberly-Clark, maker of lovely paper products like Kleenex, Kotex, and Depends, complete with pretty little pictures floating across the Powerpoint being broadcast to all four plants (The floating roll of toilet paper woke us all up about minute 25).  Without going into the shenanigans going on behind our muted projector, I'll go on to let you know that he then got onto the BUSINESS of his presentation- which took another fifteen minutes and as he admitted, "Means little to those of you in Minnesota, Missouri, and Indiana".  He concluded with his "early takes" (he's been on the job like 2 months), packed full of "back at Kimberly-Clark, we did thus-and-so" stories that likely have little connection to motorcycle covers and saddle bags.  All told, he spent from 1:45 to 2:40 telling us what I told Laurie in about 30 seconds:  "Hi, I'm (name redacted), our power sports division tanked this quarter for two reasons- motorcycle sales are tanking and motorcycles are 98% of our PS business; and our biggest customer is getting out of motorcycles.  We are planning on revitalizing the division by enticing new customers with free anti-viral toilet paper embossed with Florida State logos."

Imagine it on your TP- a little Seminole ready to eat you clean!

ITEM:  A hearse was pulled over for speeding in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk (home of the KHL's Amur team, currently languishing in 11th place in their conference).  The driver insisted he was hurrying to get the dearly departed to the funeral home.  But when the officers searched the car (Russia, right?) they didn't find a dearly departed.  They did find $156,000 worth of canned caviar- just over half a ton.  No word on whether the officers remarked, "There's something fishy here."

ITEM:  More people than necessary were killed in 2009 L'Aquila earthquake in Italy, and the public school system is doing it's best to prevent it from happening again.  They have declared that wedges, flip-flops, and heels higher than 1.6 inches are now banned in their secondary schools, as they are not conducive to escaping damage from a quake.  Hopefully, yoga pants still made the cut.

ITEM:  The state of Texas has just discovered that Norway uses the name of their state as a synonym for crazy:

The Norwegian use of "Texas" as a slang term -- most often in the phrase "det var helt texas," which Texas Monthly roughly translated as "it was totally/absolutely/completely bonkers."

Apparently this has been going on since the fifties, when Norwegian movie goers got the impression that a) all cowboys are from Texas, and b) since it was the "Wild wild west", it must also be the "wild and crazy west".

ITEM:  Hot on the heels of a story I shared on Facebook about how the city of Odessa, Ukraine, refurbished a statue of Lenin into Darth Vader...

...Chewbacca was arrested for campaigning for Darth Vader on election day...

You see, as I have reported before on MWN (Here, scroll down just past Neil DeGrasse Tyson), "political" candidates in Ukraine like to run as Vader, Chewy, even Yoda.  And in Odessa, you can't campaign for a candidate on election day.  Even if your campaign speech is "HRRRRRGH..."

ITEM: Twenty-one miles from "Fortress Martin", an amusing incident occurred.  Now, the amusing part wasn't that a woman hunter got shot in the foot.  Or even that the woman was shot by her dog, who picked up her rifle in anger knocked his mistress's 12-gauge over and shot her.  No the funny part...

Dog's name was Trigger.  No lie.

ITEM:  China's government, rocked by corruption of late, has introduced "a moral ethical code that (Communist Party) members must abide by".  Among the list of banned practices and items are:

- "extravagant eating and drinking"  (usually called gluttony)

- "Sexual relationships outside of marriage", a stiffer rule than the previous "keeping paramours and conducting adultery" 

- forming cliques within the party.  Good luck with that...

- Nepotism

- and of course, the heinous crime of playing golf.  Because it's what rich people do.

ITEM:  Finally you've heard many stories about the "Ugly American"... Now meet Dragon In Dream Company from Hong Kong- the "Ugly Chinese":

Bastian Schweinsteiger is considering taking legal action against a Hong Kong company making Nazi dolls that bear a striking resemblance to him.

The Manchester United midfielder's management company put the matter into the hands of their German-based lawyers earlier this week.

The dolls, named 'World War II Army Supply Duty - Bastian', are made in China by Dragon in Dream.

The company told German paper Bild any resemblance was "purely coincidental".

"We don't sell any figures which resemble footballers. It is a complete coincidence that the figure 'Bastian' looks like Schweinsteiger," a spokesman added.

"We thought that all Germans look like that. Bastian is also a very common name in Germany."

Mondays suck, but...

...fortunately we have pictures of a good weekend to fall back on.  KC treated us to a hockey game Saturday night- Komets vs Indy.

Jessica took this snap of herself, KC, and an unidentified Time Lord.  However, when I tried using my pitiful camera phone for a shot...

...approximately 7 seconds after, Indy scored.  I won't bore you with a ton of hockey stuff, but let me hit some highlights:

- Indy is the best passing time I have ever seen in person.  The Komets, however, need to work on passing.

- That didn't matter, as Indy didn't have heart when it counted.  Komets tied the game with 55 seconds left in the game, and won it with 38 seconds left in overtime.

- Coliseum renos are in a word impressive.  It truly looks like an NHL arena now.

- A lot of expensive food, but $5.50 for a pizza slice roughly the size of Rhode Island was well worth it.  I hadda fold it in two to get it to my mouth!


Sunday, after kicking the crap out of KC on Draft Kings, we took a walk.

No critter pictures with these two along, lol!

Somebody lost some nice shades...

Apologies for the overexcited sonic...

Can't we ditch these bozos, Dad?

KC read the "Will you marry me" tree out loud.  Almost a big mistake.

I was thinking of asking them for a portrait style picture... then I turn around and saw this.  Maybe not.

Everyone saw him but Mr. nose to the ground.

I think they closed the dam this weekend...

Finally, Sunday night afforded Laurie the opportunity to catch Scrappy in a compromising position...

...and since she was taking them on her Kindle, to make them yet more embarrassing...

I think she'll be getting his treats tonight...

Sunday message- Twitter, Hurricanes, and The Doctor

In case you have never noticed it, the phrase "be careful what you ask for" seems not to be any truer than when applied to what you ask of God.  And the harder you fight not to get the answer, the harder getting the answer becomes.  Let me do a "for example" here.

Earlier in the week, I wondered to myself if I love God enough.  I suppose that I'm not alone in that the whole "with all your mind, all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength" is a bit of a reach to love anyone or anything.  And it made me think whether I am- or can- do my part.

So Saturday I had to work some OT.  My particular task leaves me a lot of time for "deep thoughts" as the day goes on, and I was mulling over something from the night before.  I had been on twitter following the hurricane hitting Mexico on the "PrayforMexico" hashtag when I happened upon what I took to be your typical atheist.  "Why bother with praying to your God for Mexico", he said, "when according to you, he unleashed the storm in the first place?"  I responded with, "You come to a prayer hashtag to say this?  Quit trolling."  And a few hours later, much to my surprise, he answered, "That's actually a pretty good cop.  Sorry if I offended."

Having never had an atheist apologize for pimping his agenda, I was taken aback.  But I had one more layer to the story, which was the usual 10AM-11 AM run of stupid annoying bad crap happen on the job.  So I whined, and whining led to "yeah, you've got it so much worse than the poor souls in Mexico", which led to the twitter topic coming up, which led to my questioning God on how in the world we are supposed to REALLY answer the fellow's question- the whole "why God allows bad things" conversation yet again.  And I thought about the answer Job got when he questioned God in anger- basically, "Who are you to question ME"- along with the perception that if I wasn't going to calm down, that was all the answer I was going to get.

So I tried to calm down.  And the discussion from there went sorta like this:

Me:  I understand that You are perfect, and your will is perfect.  There are things I don't know- why You allow the things You allow- that none of us will ever quite get.  So how AM I supposed to answer an atheist?  How do I make him believe?

God:  I make him believe, if he chooses to.  You just lead Him to me.

Me:  The way the Great Commission is phrased makes a person think otherwise, but let that go.  How can I lead such a person to You, when I can't answer these questions?

God:  When he comes to me, I will give him answers to ease his mind.  You just point him in my direction.

Me: Okay, I get that.  But how do I bring him to that point?  I look at where I was when You saved me.  It was easy then, I had no questions.  I don't know that it would have happened 30 years down the road, that it would happen now.


God:  Then I chose the perfect time to call you, didn't I?

At that, I threw in the towel.  But more than that:  I realized a lot of things in that little moment.  That a lot of us get the Great Commission backwards.  That God HAD given me more than "Job answers" once I calmed down.  That God DID have a perfect plan for all those who will answer the call as I had.  And that I loved Him more than I realized for it.


Saturday night I watched the new episode of Doctor Who which in large part revolved around a girl who'd been given immortality questioning why she couldn't travel with the Doctor.  Her heart had grown cold in self-defense over "800 years of memories, trying to hold them in a normal human brain".  In the end, she herself discovered the reason he wouldn't take her or tell her- that he travels with companions who live a fraction of his life because for them life is fleeting, and precious still.  And as we get older, I thought, we all need that.  We get tired, we break down, we tell ourselves we've seen it all.  Then we watch a little child, and share the joy of them learning the wonderful things of life for the first time- and isn't that the same joy God takes in us?

And that is why, perhaps, that God doesn't share all the answers with us.  That is why, no matter how far we bring someone into faith, it is the one-on-one with God that they TRULY learn from.  Sometimes, if the person is stubborn like me, He has to lead them around the barn the long way.  But in the end, you get to that place where you just smile and put it into His hands.  After all, He's been at this a long time, He should know better than me.

Time Machine week 46

Unless you want a digest of sporting events and obits, the best I can do you for as we land in October 23, 1965, was a proclamation by LBJ naming two peaks on the now-former Mount McKinley after Winston Churchill (wonder if they got changed by Obama as well), and the release of the classic Byrds song Turn! Turn! Turn!.  On the bright side, no planes crashed... but as they say on the Liberty Mutual ad, there will still be pain.

And we'll deal with that in just a minute.  But first, welcome to an unconventional Time Machine, as here at the start, I wanna talk Martin Ten.  This is week 9 of the M10, and I am very happy with how it has went.  Sometimes, though, you get surprised, and this week is one of those times.  Last week two songs in particular debuted, and I want to address what happened to them.

The one was the latest hit by the young lady from Australia calling herself WILSN.  When I researched the tune, called Walking For Days, I discovered, as I mentioned, that it was the second single for her.  So I went back to hear this first single- and it replaces Walking in the M10!  And the other story, which Bobby G got a sneak peak of on Saturday, involves the second song from Beach House on the M10.  The day after I did the post, Beach House released their second lp in just TWO MONTHS.  And the song I fell for on the new lp, which is called Thank Your Lucky Stars, roars- and I mean ROARS- into the M10 this week!  On top of that, thew M10 hit Space Song is not going quietly into that good night- I have already accepted the fact that this has become one of my all-timers, and when you reflect on my musical era, that is really saying something!  But with WILSN, the new Beach House single, and Jana Kramer charging up the charts, does Space Song- or Lisztomania- stand a chance?  Read on to find out!


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Tuesday we lost Corey Wells, one-third of the three headed music hydra we knew as Three Dog Night.  Corey was the lead singer on 8 of their 21 T40 hits, including 4 top tens- #1 Mama Told Me (Not To Come), #3 Shambala, #5 Never Been To Spain, and #10 Eli's Coming.  Chuck Negron had more of the top tens, including One, Easy To Be Hard, the decade's #1 Joy To The World, Old Fashioned Love Song, and The Show Must Go On, while Danny Hutton had the #1 Black And White and Liar.  Since the mid eighties, it's been just Wells and Hutton in official 3DN, after Negron was fired because of a drug problem he finally licked in 1991.   Corey was 74 years young.

That night just got a little colder.


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And we move on to our panel this week, which includes WIBG Philadelphia, KQV Pittsburgh, KFWB Los Angeles, WSAI Cincinnati, WKNR Detroit Rock City, WDRC Hartford, KYA San Francisco, WNVY Pensacola FL, WMCA New York, WHB Kansas City, WLS Chicago, and WOKY Milwaukee.  The magic dozen rolled up only 18 different songs, but gave us not only a tighter battle for  the top than we've seen in a while, but the very FIRST time we've had all the number one votes make the top four!  In fact all the number one votes made the TOP THREE!  So since I can't have some fun listing the other number one votes as I usually do, here's the list of Beatles songs that are on the national chart this week:

Kansas City debuts at #81;
Boys debuts at 75;
Act Naturally , the flip side of the panel's top pick (SHHH!), is at #36 after 6 weeks;
Help! is on it's way down, at #32 after 13 weeks;

And quite obviously, I've allowed the cat to get a whisker or two out of the bag.  But anyhow, here's the panel four:

The only one out of the running, and only one not to get a #1 vote, was the national #7, the Gentrys' Keep On Dancing.  It racked up 12 points to come in fourth.

At panel #3 with 30 points and the #1s of Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and Detroit, the national #3 as well, the Stones and Get Off My Cloud.

At the runner up spot with 32 points- 9 behind the winner- and the top dog votes of Pittsburgh, Pensacola, New York, and Milwaukee, the national #1, the Toys and A Lover's Concerto (My favorite horse in the race).

And which Beatles tune is at #1?  If you are a music freak to the point of knowing b-sides, you already know.  For the rest of humanity, stay tuned.


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Just to break up the videos a bit, here is the M10's debut at #8- WILSN with Unmeet You:






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This week, a truncated Bottom's Up!

"Truncated"?  What the heck are you doing to me THIS time???

Well, I have made an executive decision (sokay, it's constitutional here) that henceforth, a requirement of BU is you CANNOT be in the top forty at the time!  Thus, we have a BU 8 this week!


The Turtles are slipping down the chart, hitting #43 in week #13 with It Ain't Me, Babe.

A song I know, not particularly in love with but I did burn it to CD once (SHHH!), The Sunrays' I Live For The Sun is at 45 after 12 weeks.

The Supremes vol. I debut all the way up at 59 with I Hear A Symphony.

A song I first learned when I did my Beatles Covers post back on TM vol. I week 64 (AKA April 19, 2013), the Silkie with You've Got To Hide Your Love Away is at 71 after 3 weeks.

Debuting at 74 this week, Little Jimmy Dickens with May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose.  Nuff said.

The Walker Brothers are at the #3 spot this week on BU, at 84 after 3 weeks with Make It Easy On Yourself.

Eddie Arnold's crossover Make The World Go Away is our runner up, sitting at 85 in its debut week.

And the top bottom?

Why its that song that just got released today... The Byrds with Turn! Turn! Turn!, debuting at #88!!!!!!!

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And speaking of the Byrds, Bob Dylan once said to Roger McGuinn, "Man, they beat you!"  Why?  Because Cher's cover of Dylan's All I Really Want To Do clobbered the Byrds cover on the charts, going top 20 while the Byrds barely sniffed top 40.  As Sonny and Cher, it was the fourth name under which Cher would record a single, along with Cherilyn, Cesar and Cleo ( with Sonny) and her first single as Barbara Jo Mason. She recorded that one under the guiding hand of Phil Spector, who used her also as background vocals on a number of his famous tunes, including the Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Loving Feeling.  A quick bunny trail here-  Bobby Hatfield was a bit cheesed that Spector didn't want him to harmonize until the chorus, leaving him just standing there much of the song.  "What am I supposed to do?  " he sniped at Spector, and with true Spector charm, Phil answered, "You can go straight to the f***ing bank."  Which, of course, he eventually did.  Now that song was arranged by Gene Page, whose brother Billy was a co-writer on the song that ranked highest nationally, without any love from the panel, this week- the Ramsey Lewis Trio's cover of The In Crowd at #8.

The ever lovely Phil Spector...

And now, the rest of the Martin Ten...

D.A Wallach is the "artist in residence" at Spotify, and he's more than just the token musical act/administrator.  He has a new single called (appropriately enough) Time Machine, and it comes in at #10.

Jeff Lynne's ELO slips from 5 to 9 with When I Was A Boy.

Having listened to #8 (you did listen, right?), we move to #7, which is another dropper- Family Of The Year's Make You Mine, falling three to the spot.

The Knocks keep sneaking up, with I Wish (My Taylor Swift) up a notch to #6.

And now, one week old, a song that may well shake the foundations of my personal all time list- I give you the debut of Beach House's newest:

When I come home

You're just lying there

Face against the wall

Never had a care

I am just a traveller

There's no light in this room

And the body's aching at night

Would I be acting up

If i said it's not enough

Who knows who else who is with

No one is with the traveller

There's a light in my eyes

And a future invisible now

Heard it's your birthday

Candles in a row

Better blow them quick

Before they're melting on the floor

You were never a traveller

There's no light in your room

And the bodies don't ache in the night

Would I be acting up

If i said not that much

Who else would do anything for the traveller

There's a light in her eyes

And a future visible touch

I was looking out of the window at the sky

Starless vigil of a life that has gone by

Saturn turning and I feel there's not much more

For a vision of the night turn off your light

Duran Duran falls a pair to #4 with Pressure Off.

And as promised, Jana Kramer slams up 3 to #3 with Boomerang.

Two weeks ago, Space Song fell from the top spot to #4.  Since then, it's been back up a notch a week, and it spends a third week at #2 this time, moving up the spot for Beach House.

And at #1?  M10 says....

...hanging by a thread, Phoenix with a third week at the top for Lisztomania!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And which Beatles tune did the panel have at #1 this week?  Why, it was....

...Yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to the mighty Martin wheelhouse year of 1975 next time!  Be there or be square!

Martin World News

This week, a small mixed bag of fun and op/ed items That make me shake my head and wonder just what this world will be like when it gets really bad...


ITEM:  First off, many of you have heard the story of the San Francisco middle school whose principal, one Lena Van Horn, has refused to release the results of student council elections.  Rather than fan the flames by regurgitating what I heard, I dug into the story.

Fact:  Van Horn was disturbed by the fact that a predominantly white student council was elected.  Her quote describes the student body as "really, really diverse"- and I have to slap Todd Starnes on the hand for not going on in his storyline to explain that "really really diverse", besides being a grammatical fail for teachers, translates to 20% white and 80% "students of color".  So does she have a reason to act?  Maybe- but not like this.

Her solution is to keep a lid on the results, and calling a meeting of parents, administrators, and students to discuss "moving forward."  Some people involved are saying she has created a "teachable moment"- but what is she teaching?  As the one 7th grade candidate said, "The system wasn't rigged before the election- but it seems like it's kind of a little rigged now."  This might be a great way to teach Hilary Clinton politics, but certainly not a way to help students build a healthy government.

If she had truly been taught to be a real leader at UC-Berkeley rather than a vindictive leftist, she might have tried this:  Assign the student council the job of finding out why 80% of the student body couldn't generate 80% of the candidates; or why it was that those who did vote preferred the candidates they did.  Have them look for ways to get the 80% more involved- after all, isn't that how our CURRENT President got elected?  Make the teachable moment one that takes up with the hand dealt and says, "How do we improve this?"  Having read more of the story, I think perhaps Todd showed his bias on his piece, BUT- the only lesson Van Horn is teaching THIS way, the Russian people learned in 1905.


ITEM-  The Polar Park Zoo near Narvik, Norway (Where?  Far enough north that the sun goes on vacation from late November to mid January) believes in making their enclosures as realistic as possible.  And they may have succeeded too well, as a pair of hunters gunned down two of the park's moose (well, over there they call them elk) after their dogs managed to penetrate the enclosure.


“I reacted with disbelief, and the first few seconds afterwards were pretty unreal,” Heinz Strathmann, the chief executive of Polar Park zoo (said).

“I think this is very sad, and it’s not OK. We had five elks, now we have only three.” 

The hunters themselves rang the zoo to inform them of what had happened, explaining that their elk hounds had managed to get inside the elks enclosure, and then given chase, preventing the hunters from realising that they were shooting into a zoo. 

Arne Nysted, chairman of the wildlife tribunal in Troms County, said that there was no need to punish the men. 

“This is a regrettable mistake made in connection with lawful hunting on the outside of the park,” he said. “It was a fatal error, but everyone understands that it was not done at all on purpose.” 


However, the zoo intends to seek compensation.  A quick search finds that London's The Guardian claims the zoo is saying that will run $3,500 each for two.

Winner, most tasteless meme on this post

ITEM:  Now, let me go back to the more serious.  On October 9th, for the third time in as many weeks, a Muslim man was killed in India.  His crime?  A bloodthirsty mob thought the 18-year-old truck driver was hauling slaughtered beef.  Not content to be the world capital of raping infants and toddlers, the Land of the Sacred Cow is now targeting those of us that realize our ancestors do not say moo and give milk.  The first case was a mob of 8 who broke into a Muslim home in the middle of the night to drag out a man they suspected of EATING beef.  Excuse me, but if he's not a Hindu, WHY DO YOU CARE?  Just assume he'll come back as a turd, and flush it.  The second vic was lynched by a "radical group" because he allegedly smuggled cattle from one state to another.  Then, yesterday a lawmaker was attacked with ink for serving beef at a party.  "They reportedly shouted, "India will not tolerate any disrespect to cows."  "  Kinda puts you in mind of a Planned Parenthood administrator at a PETA rally, don't it?

And the kid that died?  Hauling coal, which looks a lot like slaughtered beef.


ITEM:  A headline on news aggregator Newser tells us, "Facebook will let you know if Kim Jong Un hacks your page."

Chances are slim that North Korea's operatives are trying to hack a peek into your Facebook photos, but if they were, the site would let you know ASAP, Ars Technica reports. "Starting today, we will notify you if we believe your account has been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state," the social network posted Friday, explaining that even though it works diligently to keep possibly compromised accounts safe, it's decided to add the extra warning if it suspects a hack attack could be a "more advanced and dangerous" government-sponsored one.

I know I'll sleep better now.


ITEM:  If you need any more reason to want the UN the hell out of the United States:


A paper from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been withdrawn after pressure from at least one country.
The document, which was leaked, recommends that UN members consider "decriminalising drug and possession for personal consumption".
It argued "arrest and incarceration are disproportionate measures".
The document was drawn up by Dr Monica Beg, chief of the HIV/AIDs section of the UNODC in Vienna. It was prepared for an international harm reduction conference currently being held in Kuala Lumpur.

The UN is quickly backpedalling, explaining that Dr Beg is a "middle ranking official" offering her "professional opinion."

And where do you acquire such an opinion?  "A medical doctor and public health specialist by training, also completed a NIDA research fellowship and a Hubert Humphrey fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University focusing on HIV program evaluation, public policy, leadership and drug dependence management."

I would like to think HHH is turning over in his grave, but who knows?  He was a figure from my childhood, when I knew nothing and could still root for guys like Humphrey and Edmund Muskie.

Yeah, Bob thought we took him on a walk...

...but the real MAN's walk (lol) came Monday, as Scrappy and I ventured to Shoaff Park!

 Now, for the non-locals, Shoaff is our closest major park, and it takes a while to get there.  Above is the view just before you take the walkway under St Joe Center Road...

 And that one is from the street bridge that you have to cross after you go under the road.

Just before you get on the 1st boardwalk...

...and after that boardwalk, and a 1/8th mile of actual neighborhood street, the next phase begins.

 There's a mix of boardwalk and asphalt from here to the actual entrance into the park from our house.

And if you are adventurous, just before you emerge from the shady trail, there are side trails you can take into the park border.

It is a bit steep in places, but you get good views!

We came out just shy of the back way in (another hiker was taking advantage of a secluded spot to meditext) and came out at the back "door".  Time from front door to "back door", 33 minutes.

This is the bridge that leads you into the main park- as usual, we met some dogs there, but they were shy.

And into the main park we go!  The biggest feature on this side is the pond that sits near the event building...

(Not this!  These guys were on the river itself...)

Where we found many of our Mexican neighbors fishing.  I asked if the "fishing was bien", and was told, "Oh, no..."

Scrappy had no luck, either...

So we said goodbye to the pond, and after a quick stop at the ball diamonds for a taste of the water fountains, we went to the boat landing.

 And in goes Scrappy, while we took a fifteen minute break.  We are now around an hour in.

But as peaceful as it is, SOMEBODY was soon complaining we should move on...

"Damn it, I said, let's go!"

And so we began the seldom taken (by us) long loop around the golf course.

A small row of trees is all that separates us from the River for part of the way...  And just before we left it, we found a trail.  It started off easy enough...

...but then we hit this rise, where tree roots equalled steps....

...and then it got a bit hairy.  After this, the trail merged into a large patch of "where the heck do we go now?"  Scrappy actually went into "lost dog" mode, but I spied the golf course a way off, and after dodging, ducking, and stepping over...

...we exited the woods here.  You can see the exit, right?

A little bit later we hit a bigger trail and I could see a stairway.  I was curious to see where it led, but had no further interest in trail exploring.  And the stairway?

...uh, that would be a "no."  So back out around the course we went...

"I HATE the 12th hole!  Take that!"

Oh, BTW Bobby, no more Scruffy!

I was surprised that we didn't see more golfers, but it was VERY windy...

Finally we were closing in on where we came in at.  But instead of taking the bridge, we took what the bridge bridged...

At this point, Scrappy said, the heck with this ravine, and led us up to the trail.

I called another five-minute rest.  Amazingly, someone was STILL not happy...

(But he still snaps a mean picture!)

We were exactly 2 hours out at this point.  The walk home was pleasant if uneventful- except when we took the footbridge across the feeder on the way home.  I said, "Scrappy, a snake!"  He ignored it, the snake tried to flee, Scrappy stepped on it, detaining it for a half-second, and we all moved on.

At home time, 2 1/2 hours.  Distance, 4.75 miles- not quite 2 miles more than the Saturday walk.  Ready, guys?