Amazingly, Misty saw big ol' Mr Bunny first- and froze till I saw it
They get bluebirds in their bird mansion
I saw this bunny first- camera work a bit suspect, though
About this time, a disc golfer in the woods started yelling like he won a million bucks. Misty wanted to cut through the tall stuff. Sorry, not interested in 'seek and destroy' with ticks today
By the time we hit trail, my shoes started squishing with dew
Hard times befallen Scrappy's drinkin' hole
Some jacks starting to die off, others doing okay
Thought this was a cool spot. Plus, Misty was taking a dump.
Tiny chipmunk
That moment when you all come around the corner and meet, and everyone just stops and stares
Look out world, my sign got lost
South bridge was cool- Birds chirping, flowers blooming, bullfrogs having at it
I was going to say something about 'a herd of birds', but apparently I only got one
Doggie Puddle Draining, llc
Blooming, or flipping us off?
Never saw someone go wade-fishing out here before
"No, don't fly off, you idiot!" (See center of photo)
There, that's better
Now usually, the part where we re-enter the complex doesn't yield a lot of interesting stuff. But...
First, this goldfinch- it was just learning to fly, and wasn't very good at it- took about three laps around Misty before I convinced her not to go after it...
The proper solution to your friend taping his knocker so you'll go away is NOT kicking the door in...
So this week officially begins M10 Songs of Summer '22, and we have one debut to help us out. I...
Elvis: Boy, no enthusiasm here...
Been a bit of a bad week, and my eyes are way too blurry trying to type this. Plus, I have to put together a quick feature, and..
An' get food coming!
Yeah, that part's done... so here, whilst I do my research, put up our new debut!
Sure, this is a Scottish band- no kilts, sorry- that has been on a long lay-off, since 2013 (after the death of a band member in 2015, and then that COVID junk), but this is new stuff from a band called Camera Obscura, at #9...
*************************************
So this feature is gonna be shorter and sweeter than I thought! I decided that I would find out what songs Cashbox had at #1 on the lists that came out EXACTLY on Memorial Day. So I busily (and stupidly, as it turns) began looking for the #1s that hit on May 31st- only to think, "Wait a minute, I should be looking for the last Monday in May!" And when I did that, I realized that THAT wasn't always the case, either! In fact, during the Martin Era 2.0, the years 1956-1970 had Memorial Day on May 30th, NOT the 31st! And even in the years 1971-7, Memorial Day only landed on the 31st twice, so I would have been almost completely incorrect- two right out of the whole bunch!
On the other hand, the way it shakes down, I only found TWO songs that actually did land on Memorial Day! So I will be sharing with you the two that did- and also, the only two that would have had I stupidly done the 31st like I started out to! In between, my Big Buddy over there scarfing his calzone will give us the M10... Right?
Umph mffpth...
All right, so the two that were actually on the 31st were...
...the Jackson Five's Never Can Say Goodbye, which hit on MD 1971- and I woulda missed, since CB released on the 29th...
...and...
...Wings and Silly Love Songs from 1976- which of course, I also would have missed since they release on Friday.
Now further review shows that in the ME2.0, there were but three times that a song did hit #1 exactly on May 31st. Which means the incorrect list I WOULD have given you would be...
The Everly Brothers with All I Have To Do Is Dream in 1958...
The Beatles and Get Back with Billy Preston in 1968...
Malfsh tadbbbum Bffles...
(If his mouth hadn't been full, that would have been, "Always the dadgummed Beatles...")
And...
...Ace with How Long in 1976!
Now, is your mouth empty enough to do the M10?
Yeah, but mah belly sure ain't! Anyways...
10 was Melody's Echo Chamber, with Alma on the way down. She's also got #7, up 3 for Personal Message...
8 an' finally dropping, April March an' Rolla Rolla down 4...
Joy Downer an' Beck up one to 6 with Chain Reaction...
Kinda surprised here, Brooke Annibale's What If You falls 3 to #5...
Up 4, the Knocks an' the Cannons an' Real Life at #4...
The Four Tops edge up one to #3 with One Chain Don't Make No Prison...
In Flight by Sunflower Bean flies up 4 to #2...
An' still at the top is...
...the Jayhawks an' I'd Run Away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay boss, so what ARE the only two songs to hit #1 on Memorial Day?
I'm glad you asked! The only 2 times it happened were...
...in 1959, with Johnny Horton's Battle Of New Orleans- its first week of 9 at the top...
And...
...in 1964, with Mary Wells and My Guy for its only week on top!
All of you have a great weekend, and remember what they gave for you!
This week, I heard a message from Pastor Jack Hibbs in which he noted that Satan tries to project his greatest desire on everyone else- he believes that deep down everyone wants to "be as the Most High". You see it in everything he did, from Adam and Eve...
Gen 3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. Gen 3:5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
...to Jesus Himself...
Mat 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Mat 4:9 And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Mat 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'"
And one way or another, it's how he tempts us. Every little bit of pride is, boiled down, exactly this. Satan is unimaginative; it never changes.
The best way to recognize Satan's trap is to recognize God AS God. That is what the Disciples teach us in the next 2 questions. Jesus had just took the 'Big Three'- Peter, James, and John- up on the mountain and revealed Himself as God in the Transfiguration. They could no longer doubt He was God. The other nine, however...
Mat 17:14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, Mat 17:15 said, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. Mat 17:16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." Mat 17:17 And Jesus answered, "O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me."
Not a very kind and complimentary way to address them, right? But you see, the other nine didn't yet have the special revelation that the Big 3 did. Jesus sums up their problem quite clearly...
Mat 17:19 Then the disciples came to Jesus apart, and said, Why could we not cast him out? Mat 17:20 And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief. For truly I say to you, If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there. And it shall move. And nothing shall be impossible to you. Mat 17:21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
Two factors- faith and prayer. Faith? It was weak because, like Peter earlier when he was ordered to "get behind Me", they just hadn't gotten to the point that Jesus=God. Prayer? Because of the first thing, they assumed, "Anyone can cast it out, if they have the right attitude/words/tone", and it don't work that way. They thought that they could be 'Jesus'- in effect, God- just by believing it so.
And the contrast comes with the next question, when Jesus treats another Disciple a whole different way...
Mat 17:24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, "Does your teacher not pay the tax?" Mat 17:25 He said, "Yes." And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?" Mat 17:26 And when he said, "From others," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free. Mat 17:27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself."
Now there's the kind, compassionate Jesus we expected! Why the change? Because Peter's error did NOT involve himself thinking he was God, or equal to Jesus- it was just an error of being put on the spot, of not thinking through the answer. And where the miracle was too hard for the 'old-minded' Disciples, Jesus gave Peter- the 'new minded' Peter- a chance to participate IN the miracle, because Jesus had 'leveled him up.'
In a way, that is prayer in a nutshell. Once you recognize God for who He is, He allows you through prayer to participate in His Works. But if you put yourself up on the pedestal and deem to COMMAND God- or even Satan, as we see- it ain't gonna happen.
Saturday morning, Misty got me up for her "break of day" bathroom trip (saw a bunny in her "poop spot") at about 7 AM, and we go back to bed. About 8:30 we get woke up by rain. Looking out, our entertainment started out with a bunny sitting just outside our gate (Our bedroom overlooks the back porch and yard). With all the trees around, it was relatively dry, and bunny just sat there occasionally munching something in the rain. After a few minutes, bunny began to move off towards the woods behind us. About this time, bunny #2 comes running up from the "poop spot" (along the woods and off to the right of our line of sight). He stops some ten feet or so from bunny #1. I could just imagine the conversation:
Bunny #2 "Hey! (pant, pant) It's raining!"
Bunny #1 "Yeah, I know."
They stood staring at each other for a couple more minutes; then bunny #2 gets wet, shakes his ears, and returns whence he came. For the next few minutes, bunny #1 hops in circles, edging closer and closer to the woods. Finally, he has to shake his ears off, heads for the PS, make one last circle, and heads into the woods.
Sometime during all this, Misty gets bored, hops off the bed and sits by the door. I tell her that we aren't getting up yet, she comes back up and lays down, symbolically turning her back to the window.
Mr Squirrel now runs up the tree to our right that hangs branches over the porch. He goes out onto the lowest branch, just enough to remain under the thicker branch above him (presumably to get out of the diminishing rain), sits and practices parting his hair.
Just then, His Eminence (male cardinal) shows up on the fence, picks a feeder seed from the ledge (we put seed everywhere so as to give everyone a fair shot), looks around as if to say, "I declare the day begun," and takes off. Within moments, a couple members of the Sparrow Mafia come staggering in, seeming to say, "Well, as long as the rain woke us up, let's have at it." As more of them show up, most of them choosing the seed on the patio, I see Chipmunk #1 come running along the fence braces from the neighbors on the left and join the party. It wasn't long after that a second, gray chipmunk came up the same way, and they briefly jousted over the same spot, running under the gate after each other. Finally they both returned, #1 under the feeder where he started, the other hanging near the fence.
The squirrel, I saw out the corner of my eye, had dropped to the ground as all this went on; suddenly, another squirrel appeared from the neighbors on the left. For a moment they stared at each other, the first one (whose has a chewed-up tail) about halfway up the fence looking up, the new one at the top of the fence looking down. Then #2 charged down, they chased each other for a moment (scattering everyone else and briefly renewing Misty's interest), and soon settling down much as the chips did. Chew-tail went back up the tree, and soon disappeared; #2 joined the gang on the porch, kinda trailing one of the sparrows. Just then, our regular chipmunk (and 3rd of the morning) came charging over from the right corner, heading for his little entrance to the shed... when he stopped, sniffed, snuck around the corner and face timed with Chip #1.
While they ran each other around, the visiting Sparrow Mafia ascended to the fence where the late squirrel battle occurred, one of them ascending to get a few bites off the 'compressed fake corn ear' on the tractor-feeder on the right side of the shed. About this time, Misty got bored again and went to lay down on the floor.
Next thing I knew, the Mafia were back on the ground, the chips were getting along, and squirrel #2 was on the tractor munching greedily. Then Mrs Cowbird showed up, alighting to join the Mafia. The sparrows, however, decided they were too good to be seen with her, and got up on the left side of the fence. She didn't bother the chips, though, and soon enough the Mafia dropped their airs and joined her.
It was now about 5 till 9, and I was beginning to note that my back wasn't all that happy with my positioning. His Eminence returned, landing on the porch table (after several intermediate landing places), grabbed a couple more seeds, looked out as if to say, "I find it good" and left again. And then we got up, telling Laurie, "Animals are goofy."
Just for perspective here are some later in the day pics of the members of our cast:
Man, your gonna make my button-pushin' finger hurt...
And in honor of the new #1, I put together a feature for us!
Oboy, give the man a prize...
Wow, you're a bit mopey...
Well, it's like this, man... you celebrated your 60th birthday last week! 6-0! I only ever got to 42 of 'em before... you know...
Yeah, but you're done getting old... done hurting... you get to hang out once a week and play music! Not to mention all the people whose lives you made better, and the impersonators you made rich...
Ah know, I know... I just wonder what I'da done if I was 60...
It would stagger the mind, bud...
Ya think?
You had six songs chart in the United States AFTER you died... 9 on the country chart... and 16 in the UK, including hitting #1 in five countries with A Little More Action! Think if you'd have been putting out new stuff all that time!
Hmmm.... How many hits did the Beatles have after they split up?
It's always about the Beatles, isn't it?
Oh, c'mon... please?
Sigh... 7 here, 8 in the UK... and a #1 in Canada.
WHEE-WHOOO! I feel better now!
You might even say, "I Feel Fine..."
Ya hadda do that did ya?
Sure, to settle you down for our first new debut!
All right, then...at #10 here's some more Melody's Echo Chamber...
Let's go with, "no", and move on. So I was looking up, because our new #1 becomes the 22nd #1- out of a total of 182- in M10 history to be at least 5 years old when it first hit here. A variety of reasons for this- some were released after the fact, some I went digging for, or stumbled onto in looking for other things. So I got wondering if and how these songs did on the charts besides mine. A lot of them never did get released, at least here- Sweet's cover of Peppermint Twist was only released in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, for instance. Some were released, but never charted- like Flo and Eddie's Keep It Warm, like two of Melody's Echo Chamber's 3 #1s- I Follow You and Crystallized- or ELO's Buildings Have Eyes. One, at least, was released in a different version- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Walls #3.
However, at least 3 hit the UK charts, one was a big hit in Denmark (Agnes Obel's Riverside, big surprise there) 3 hit the lesser US chart categories, and 2- and only 2- actually hit the Billboard pop charts. And I'll tell you all about them- after the next debut...
Yessir, an' we're at #8 with an act that has a buncha M10 hits- just none in a while, though. With vocal helps from a band called Cannons, here's electronic production duo The Knocks-
So anyway, the very first M10 #1 was Status Quo's In The Army Now, which was a #2 UK hit in 1986. Tom Jones's version of Till from 1971 hit #2 as well there. And the other UK charter was the Jayhawks and Bad Time from 1995, which peaked- or peeked- at #70.
Weezer had a #11 hit on the Alt chart with Island In The Sun from 2001; Phoenix took Lisztomania to #5 on the Rock Chart in 2009; and Puddle Of Mudd's cover of Gimme Shelter made #26 on Mainstream Rock.
That reminds me- I ain't heard ya say if any of our songs're on the latest chart in a while...
Nope, just Elton and Dua's Cold Heart, still drifting along at #30 in week #36... So why don't we play the last of the 3 debuts, and then I'll let you in on which of the already-mentioned tunes actually made the Billboard Pop charts...
A lone man looking for means of expression in a tsunami of information. Seeking truth justice and the American way in the perspective of a Nixon conservative. And the Commissioner of the free world's smallest and best fantasy football league.
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