Anger

Last Thursday night I found out that a good blog friend had passed away.  And I tried to get through, answering blog comments and reading, but it was just too much.  I laid on the floor and let Scrappy come over to console me.  Which he did a very good job of.


Next day at work I was a hot mess.  Not from grief, but from anger.  An anger I would imagine we all go through in various ways with a loved one's passing.

You see, my friend had been betrayed by her body.  It threw every kind of painful condition it could think of at her.  It reacted to medicines by giving her bloody scream-dreams.  At one point a few months back, she asked if I could imagine a pain bad enough that you want to take hold of the nearest door and slam it so hard that the frame rips out of the wall.  She had that from brushing against the wrong thing.

But for 95% of the time I knew her over the internet, she tried to show nothing but joy and encouragement.  She lived her life for her husband- a stronger man than I'll ever be- and her two daughters, one in college and one fresh off her prom.  We didn't agree on a lot of things- she was a bit, shall we say, liberal-  but she was full of love and it reflected out in everything she did.

And for that love, for that courage, she got a miserable, painful life and death.

Now let me preface the rest by saying I wasn't mad at God- not quite.  I had a severe problem with the way He did things.  And not just her- how many good people have died grisly deaths over the millennia?  How many have had to die in pain, unloved, alone?  So my question was, if nothing on earth happens lest God allows it, why does He allow this?

And in the face of such questions, one always goes back to the holiest, most obedient-to-God man of all time- Job.  And even when Job was finally pushed to the brink and he stood up and questioned the fairness of the way things are, the answer he got- on surface reflection- was pretty much, "Who are you to question me?"

And I considered to myself, that there are a lot of subtler shades to what God said to Job, and it was enough.  Job repented in sackcloth and ashes.  Now, me, had I been Job, I woulda stood up and said, "That's a BS answer!  We deserve more!"  And likely would have resembled one of Lot's neighbors shortly thereafter.

Now, the anger didn't resolve itself- it just burned out.  I was exhausted fighting the battle, mentally and emotionally.  But as the anger began to subside since, I got three answers- one then, one that night- and one this afternoon.

The first one, once I let go of the debate in my mind, was along the lines of, "You have been given the answer you can understand."  Which really didn't help much at the time, because:  God is the Creator, He set the distance between Creator and Creation.  Why couldn't He- with an infinity of wiggle room- set our comprehension high enough to allow us a better answer?  Why just leave us so stupid that "cuzIsedso" is all we can figure out?

At this point, the anger had sublimated into a typical Martin argue-fest, and all the intangibles came to the table.  But as I was not "yelling" any more, but trying to understand, I got another answer:  "You know she's in paradise now.  No pain.  If she is now so happy, does the rest really matter?"

Now this satisfied me- for a little while.  And I was willing to let it go at that for a time, until I got selfish.  I thought to myself, that's fine for her, but what about us still stuck on earth, in the cycle of pain and despair?  And a part of me was still like, "No, it's not enough if I'm still here and I still have to make a sense of it!"  But most of me was happy with the conclusion and I tried to let it go at that.

But there's still that nagging part, and truth be told, I wasn't sure if it was the need to know or the need to be "let in on the secret".  But I didn't realize that at the time.  Instead, I started hearing this song- a song that I knew well, but as you might guess if you read last week's Time Machine, I didn't have a firm grasp on all the words.  So I came home and played it, and I get the impression from three things I found in the song that my subconscious had a better handle on the lyrics than I did.

First thing was the opening word, the name of the girl being sung about, Jan.  My friend's name was Janine.

Second was this line, that would soon become the most important:

We sit outside and argue all night long
About a god we've never seen
But never fails to side with me...

And then, towards the end...

A life is time, they teach us growing up
The seconds ticking killed us all
A million years before the fall
You ride the waves and don't ask where they go...







So now this song has an eerie connection to the whole thing.  But I didn't really pay it much mind until this afternoon, when I asked myself the question:  "Is this what I'm doing?  Is it that I am mad at God, not for the lack of an answer, but that He isn't siding with me on this?"


And with that thought, I got the third answer:

"Think of how much more than you, she will appreciate My Heaven now.  She received a gift on earth, a gift not everyone can take.  As special as she was on earth, how much more so in heaven..."


And I have to admit, at this point, I probably have the best answer I'll get on this side.  Good enough?  I don't really know.  I'm awfully stubborn, and my acceptance of this answer might only last until the next really close death.  But for now, I am content.  And all it took- at each stage of the battle- was to be willing to admit that it was my willingness that was the problem.

So, my friend, I am letting go of your death.  Your life, though, I believe I shall hold on to...

Time Machine week 48

Today we hit November 6th of 1976- and nothing happens today.  Ah, but tomorrow- tomorrow, nothing happens.  Yesterday, though, the Oakland A's became only the second team to trade a manager.  They sent manager Chuck Tanner, fresh off an 87-74 campaign, to the Pirates for $100,000 and Manny Sanguillen.  Two seasons later, Sanguillen would be back in Pittsburgh.  And in three years, Tanner would lead the "We are family" Pirates to a World Series championship.

"I was the best you could find?  Really?"

  Even a Tardis can't produce miracles!  Welcome to this week's Time Machine, and this week:  A commentary on what Laurie and I like and don't like in music;  who is Jim Burton- and not the retired NASCAR driver; a tight two-way battle for the panel's top spot; and the songs that hang around... and hang around.  Not to mention, the toughest-to-decide Martin Ten to date!  Batter up, let's go!

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Our panel this week includes KCPX Salt Lake City, WHHO Hornell, NY (Dead south of Rochester), WYSL Buffalo (yeah I know, kinda close), WLS Chicago, KYNO Fresno, WDRC Hartford, CHUM Toronto, KEBQ Kansas City, KILT Houston (prolly a lot of bagpipes there), WINX Rockville MD (home of McGruff the Crime Dog), KTKT Tucson, and WRKO Boston.  The group gave us 21 different songs in their top 5s, including four #1s that didn't make the panel four:  Engelbert Humperdinck's After The Loving (Buffalo), Rick Dees' Disco Duck (Oh, nice job Chicago), ABBA's Fernando (Rockville), and the Bee Gees with Love So Right (Boston).  They did give us a 30-27 finish for their top spot, so let's get right to the panel four:

At #4 with 17 points and the number one of Toronto- the nation's #4, Chicago with If You Leave Me Now.

At #3, with 18 points and the #1s of Houston and Fresno, the nation's #14, if you can believe that, Rod Stewart's Tonight's The Night.

At #2- and I can feel Shady cringing already, and I'm sure he's not alone-  with 27 points and the #1s of Tucson and Kansas City, the national # 5... The Captain and Tennille's Muskrat Love.

And at #1... stay tuned.


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Doing things a little different, I'm going to roll right to the six degrees where we ask:  If not the retired NASCAR guy, who IS Jim Burton?

Yep, if you heard Elvis live and heard the phrase, "Play it, James", he was talking about Jim Burton.  Longtime member of the TCB band that backed the King, He was also Rick Nelson's guitarist in the fifties.  A fellow fifties musician, Glen Hardin- a member of the Crickets- joined Burton in the mid seventies in Emmylou Harris's Hot Band (a record exec said he'd sign her if she put together a "hot band").  Emmylou later played herself in the semi-biographical Willie Nelson movie Honeysuckle Rose.  The theme- which Willie composed on a plane, written on a barf bag- was covered on a covers lp (cleverly titled Undercover) in 2001 by of all acts Big Country.  They covered a variety of acts, from Neil Young (Hey Hey My My), to Black Sabbath (Paranoid), to old Fleetwood Mac (Oh Well).  And they also covered the song that charted the highest nationally without any love from this week's panel- sitting at #7, Blue Oyster Cult and Don't Fear The Reaper.


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Now let's take a fragment of the final verse of that song:

Love of two is one
Here but now they're gone

Came the last night of sadness
And it was clear she couldn't go on

Okay, so how many of you knew that's what was said there?  I won't raise my hand; I knew "blah blah blah they're gone/ blah blah blah and it was clear she couldn't go on."  Laurie and I were talking about why or why not she liked or not so much certain members and prospective members of the Martin Ten.  And one of those things she said was:

1- Clear, easy to understand lyrics.

In a test just now, with concentration she was able to guess fairly well what was said there, but didn't know for sure.  To be sure, this rule alone applied hard and fast would knock out half the M10 this week- along with the Elton John catalogue.  So it's not a hard and fast thing for her, obviously.  The thing is, Laurie is a lyrics important listener, where me, not so much.

So Laurie is going to like this one on the M10- the #8 debut last week from Leon Bridges:







before she likes, say Pearl Jam's Even Flow.


2- Vocals thus are important


The next thing we talked about was her statement:  "I don't like songs where the vocal is more like the background than the music."  This is definitely not a problem for me.  I can literally go years without knowing the words, as long as the singing plays in AS IF another instrument.  Thus, I am much bigger on REM than Laurie is.

And that brings us to a new to me act called Pure Bathing Culture.  They released a new lp last week of which I saved a song to the M10 pickin' list.  And she liked that new song better than an older one I also saved- which I looked into because the reviews said it "sounded like Fleetwood Mac."  Which, without the "in the background vocals", it does.  And though Laurie liked the new song because of the up-front vocals, this one makes the M10:





You'll find out where these two show up in the M10 in a bit.

And the third part of our story that got brought up last night:

3- Repetition of the wrong thing.

Last night, another of the candidates Laurie termed, "If you take the vocals out, it sounds like background noise for Halloween."  A thumping slow beat and eerie electronics. Those of you here from the start of the M10 remember me having a song at #10 for a couple weeks by a girl named Angel Deradoorian.  Her song had a lot of repeating layers in different arrangements.  Laurie didn't dislike it, but wasn't real thrilled.  There have been other examples (notably Beach House's Sparks) that she went on record against a certain melodic part that not only kept repeating, but was enough in the foreground to be annoying.   One of the last things added to Don't Fear The Reaper was a cowbell track, which at the right mix "pulled the song together".  A lot of you might not have even registered that's what that was.  And I, the guy who is constantly pulling out things like the bell in How Can You Mend A Broken Heart as something that "made the song", shot right past the cowbell.

I guess it depends on how you perceive the repeating entity.  One example is Laurie having just a slight problem with all the "I know"s in Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine, where I see it is the most powerful part of the song- and, of course, Bill only did it that way because he forgot his line and threw that in to be redubbed later, and the backing band talked him into keeping it.  Or another story- a different Deradoorian song has a chorus of one line repeated several times.  When I played it for KC, his response at this point was, "We get the fricking point!"  And yet, he will turn up the stereo and sing along with Local H's Born To Be Down....



So what are your opinions?  What are your dislikes in a song- and what'll make you compromise them?

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Quickly, baby...

"Yeah, yeah, Bottom's Up, blah blah blah..."

This BU brings up an anomaly I wish to address afterwards, so let's hurry...


10- The Sylvers with Hot Line, 60 after 2 weeks.

9- Brick with Dazz, 61 in week #3.

8- Tavares with Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel sits at 63 after a whopping 23 weeks, and not only that but..

7- Lou Rawls' You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine, at 67 after 24 weeks, and...

6- Peter Frampton's Baby I Love Your Way at 68 after 21 weeks.  More on this in a bit.

5- Eric Clapton's Hello Old Friend is at 71 in it's second week.

4- James Taylor Showers the People he loves with love, and they are right there at 72 after a fifteen week tour of duty,

3- Three debuts top the BU, and the first of them is Rose Royce's Car Wash at 94.

2- See if you remember this one- Daryl Hall and John Oates' Do What You Want, Be Who You Are is at 96.

And the top bottom?

Styx at #100 with the first week of Mademoiselle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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The 3 twenty-plus weekers on the BU were not a rarity for this week.  In fact, they were joined by:

Hall and Oates with She's Gone at 27 weeks (though in it's second tour of duty)
Walter Murphy's A Fifth Of Beethoven, 25 weeks
Cliff Richards' Devil Woman, 20 weeks
Dr Hook's A Little Bit More, 21 weeks
Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music, 22 weeks
England Dan and John Ford Coley's Really Love To See You Tonight, 22 weeks
 and the real surprise, Silver's Wham Bam Shang A Lang at 20 weeks

-for a total of ten tunes with twenty weeks on the chart.  The next week it was even more:  the first ten all stayed in, and they were joined by:

Boz Scaggs' Lowdown
Fleetwood Mac's Say You Love Me
Elton John and Kiki Dee's Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Annnd the Bee Gees' You Should Be Dancing.

A total of 14 twenty-genarians.  To contrast this, five years before- 1971- the hot hundred would have 0 zip nada 20-somethings, and five years later- 1981- there would be only five.

Contrast that to the current hot 100 on Billboard, where there are currently 15 JUST in the top forty, with one tune at 55 weeks and another pair at 50.  Music sure has changed.

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 And now, the Martin Ten!

10- You heard (?) this one a bit ago- from 2013, Pure Bathing Culture with Pendulum, debuting on the M10.

9- World Party, who had the big hit in the 90's Ship Of Fools, had this one show up on my discover list.  It hit #5 alternative in 1993, and it debuts here at #9- it's called Is It Like Today?

Many years ago
He 
Looked out through a glassless window
All that he could see
Was Babylon
Beautiful green fields
and dreams
and learned to measure the stars
but there was a worry in his heart

He said
How could it come to this?
We're really worried about living
How could it come to this?
Yeah we really wanna know about this

Is it like today?
Oh-oh-oh

Then there followed days of kings, empires and revolutions
Blood just looks the same
When you open the veins
And sometimes it was faith, power or reason as the cornerstone
but the furrowed brow has never left his face

He said
How could it come to this?
We're really living in a landslide
How could it come to this?
Yeah we really wanna know about this

Is it like today?
Oh-oh-oh

Then there came a day 
Man, packed up, flew off from the planet
He went to the moon, to the moon
To, to the moon, the moon
now he's out in space
Hey, fixing all the problems
He comes face to face with God

He say
How could it come to this
I'm really worried about my creation
How did it come to this
You're really killing me you know

It isn't just a day
Oh-oh-oh
Is it like today?
Eh-oh-oh
Is it like today?
Oh Bang!


Leon Bridges held at #8 for a second week with Coming Home.

The song that refuses to go quietly into any spot I try to put it in ends up moving up a pair to #7- DA Wallach and Time Machine.

Family Of The Year moves up one to #6 with Carry Me.

Surprising even to me, the Housemartins move up five spots to #5 with Happy Hour.

Cage The Elephant moves up a pair to #4 with Cigarette Daydreams.

And the Titanic Three:

Jana Kramer gets pushed out of the way to #3 with Boomerang.

Barging in to the runner up spot is WILSN's Unmeet You.


And our number ones this week? Survey says:

...the Steve Miller Band with Rock'n Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And on top of the M10...

...Beach House (big surprise there) with Traveller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please, please let's have some input on the likes and dislikes thing, and tune in next week when we go to... 1968!

Things you see after voting- and during

Ah, yes, election night as I type here in Fort Wayne, where once again the supposedly solid Republican county's liberal eyesore tries to get shed of King, er, Mayor Tom Henry.  Not meaning to sound sexist- my tongue firmly in my cheek- after women failed twice to unseat him, we'll let a man do the job.  (Don't yell at me, I voted for the women!)  As I type, it appears unlikely;  King Tom has a sizable early lead, and in the more controversial City Clerk's race the Democrat is trailing but not badly.  For you out-of towners, the incumbent clerk was exposed on video just weeks ago for manhandling staffers to do election work for her hand-picked successor.  Soon later, she resigned the rest of her term for "health reasons."  Then a second video came out showing that the "hand picked successor" was a) unable to print a document without two people helping her, and b) was using a police database to find prospective "contributors" for her campaign.  She then resigned (this was LAST WEEK), but left her name on the ballot, where at this moment she trails by a mere 54-46% margin.  Thus proving that the sheeple in the city limits will ignore anything short of murder of a family member in order to vote for anything with a "-D" after their name.


Me?  I am not an idiot, and voted against both King Tom and the "hand picked" city crook, er clerk.  But am I an empty headed Republican sheeple myself?  No, there were two GOP candidates I bombed on.  One is dear ol' John Crawford.  He's the name behind the movement that put Fort Wayne's anti-smoking laws on the books a couple cycles back.  Now me, I'm no smoker, and really don't mind coming home from a night out not smelling like someone's ashtray.  I am just against the totalitarian way it was accomplished, and Crawford was the head of that list.  So that means I voted Democrat, right?  NO!  At the bottom of the list was a Libertarian, of all things!  So, I says to myself, what better way to d**k things up, yes?  And when I saw the last name of the candidate-  "Dyck"- it had to be done.

Currently, Tabitha Dyck has 760 of the 31,000-odd votes cast- 2%.  In contrast, the other 6 contenders (vote for three) have 800 votes between first and sixth.


And the one actual Democrat I did vote for is currently trailing 53-47%.

Thus, my candidate is trailing in all but one of six races.


But why should I be surprised?  After all, I was against Obamacare, and look how great it is?  Never mind that the first news story I saw when I got home was Congress demanding action from our esteemed President now that out of the 23 federally bankrolled, state run insurance co-ops set up under Obamacare, just under half (Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, Nevada, Tennessee, Oregon, South Carolina and Utah ) have collapsed, ultimately pissing 24 billion bucks of federal taxes down the drain.  I was just wrong there, huh?


Or how about the second story I heard.  I don't believe such a thing as man-caused global warming.  But surely those "97% of scientists" (see the truth about that story in this MWN post) have to be telling the truth, right?  But the second story I saw was a NASA study that concluded that the Antarctic ice cap is growing, and making NEW ice...


“We’re essentially in agreement with other studies that show an increase in ice discharge in the Antarctic Peninsula and the Thwaites and Pine Island region of West Antarctica,” Jay Zwally, a glaciologist with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and lead author of the study, which was published on Oct. 30 in the Journal of Glaciology, said in a statement.


“Our main disagreement is for East Antarctica and the interior of West Antarctica – there, we see an ice gain that exceeds the losses in the other areas.”  Zwally said, adding that his team “measured small height changes over large areas, as well as the large changes observed over smaller areas.”

According to the new analysis of satellite data, the Antarctic ice sheet showed a net gain of 112 billion tons of ice a year from 1992 to 2001. That net gain slowed to 82 billion tons of ice per year between 2003 and 2008. The mass gain from the thickening of East Antarctica remained steady from 1992 to 2008 at 200 billion tons per year, while the ice losses from the coastal regions of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula increased by 65 billion tons per year.


Wow, one would almost conclude from that data that the planet has coping mechanisms far beyond the power of man to screw up forever.  But I'm probably just looking at that wrong.


So, go ahead, Ft Wayne!  Re-elect the guy who is pissing away hundreds of thousands of your bucks to out of state consultants when he could be farming such things out to businesses right here, not to mention the UNIVERSITIES that are supposed to be so much of Fort Wayne's future.  Put in a city clerk who will have to fill at least two staff positions to run the copying machine in her office.

MAYBE it doesn't make a difference.  Maybe, the ones I voted for are just as crooked as the ratbags winning.  But at least I voted for change- and not for the letter at the end of their name.


And as I finish, at least I have three winners now.

Taking a walk or two...

The story begins Sunday, after the winds from Patricia finally ran their course.  About half of the outside edge of the woods was cleared by the winds, but inside the woods there were more leaves still on the tree....

And our big friend here is still pretty green!  Most of the woods is yellow now, though...

Then we hit a cleared spot that was worth checking out.  Why?

...because it was crawling with chipmunks feasting on... something...

"Nothing I'd eat, though."

Some idiot thought it would be a good idea to take a sneeze-selfie...

And Monday, we went to Appleseed....

"Oh, crap!  It's that damn dumb dog..."

5 minutes later, we arrive and Lt Columbo examines the scene.

The picture above is the spanking-new Bark Park at Appleseed.  Costs $70 per annum to get a "pooch pass".  Scrappy was mighty mad he couldn't join the fun, but I explained to him that it was for rich Democrat dogs and he was a poor Republican.

"BABY BEL!!!! YUMMM!"

We chilled to Baby Bels at a spot just down from the boat ramp.

"Damn it, Daddy, look how much climbing we gotta do to get outta here!"

On the way home, he had to explore the base of the Coliseum Blvd bridge for some reason.

Then we headed home along the south end of the IPFW tree walk.  If you click on the pic, you'll see that this black tupelo has "lovely fall colors".

Daddy, is "nothing" a color?

At this point, Scrappy started doodling around, digging at mole tracks, anything he could think of to avoid crossing the bridge back for home.  Until a pretty young lady and her Lab ran past, and over the bridge.  Then it was a different story...

"C'mon, Daddy, run!  We're losing them!"

"Not gonna happen.  She's too young and I'm waaaay too old."

A flock of kildeer taking advantage of the low water to have a river party.

And on the way home, I spotted a plane pulling a banner.  Kinda unusual, so I had to take a picture to see what it was advertising:

Oh, yeah.  Election day is tomorrow.

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...