Time Machine co-ordinates VICXXXI61121459

You know, I'm thinking that going to Valentines' day 1959, I might get a sappy love story or a celebrity marriage or something.  What did I get?  A $3.6 million heroin seizure in New York, and a German-born PhD at the National Weather Service noticed a warming trend that may have been the start of "global warming".  However, Dr Helmut Landsberg did go on to say in 1970 that he "was skeptical of the risks of man-made global warming, arguing that computer models were unreliable and that the impacts of projected warming would be minor." (from Wiki, in an article in Science magazine).

"Vas, you don't tink global varming is romantic? You must be French."

Anyway, welcome to this week's Time Machine, with Rick Lewis and Bill Horton from the Silhouettes, two new debuts- one a band's first original single, the other a two-time number one lady, how to get from Tommy James to Mitch Miller in our 6D, and all the usual fun and games.  Bundle up, kids, spring ain't here yet!


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That first debut I mentioned was at #10, and is a new stand-alone from the owner of the biggest hit in M10 history- here's Mo Kenney...




So for those as unenlightened (as I was), Cat Power is a female singer in much the same vein as this song, from what I can tell, and Willie Deadwilder is an 18 minute-and-change song by Cat Power, which I might listen to a bit later, but I do want to get the post done sometime tonight.

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So welcome to Rick and Bill from the Silhouettes!

R:  Good day, nice to meet you!

You guys became a big touring act, despite what becomes basically a one-hit-wonder status...

B:  That's all we get?  But we toured with all the stars!

R:  Yeah!  With  Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, the Royal Teens, Paul Anka, Lavern Baker, Jimmy Reed, the Everly Brothers, Roy Hamilton, Frankie Avalon, the Crescendos...

I know, but the story goes that you guys kinda got done out of an even bigger chance by your manager...

B:  You got that right!

R:  Yeah, our manager got us scheduled to sing it on “Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beechnut Show” and, at the same time, receive a gold record award for “Get A Job.” Unfortunately, right before the show, Kae Williams got into some kind of fight with Dick Clark and that, as they say, was the end of that! (Modified from Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebook)

Dick was certainly a kingmaker back then... fortunately, he had a good ear for music, somewhat unlike our 6D victim coming up.

R:  Mitch really wasn't much our thing.

B:  Yeah, little kiddie stuff an' all.  

Well, anyway, your list is 10 songs from 21 stations, and it ended up being a tight two-way race.  And there was some pretty big one vote wonders on the list.

B:  You got The Coasters on that one-vote list with Charlie Brown?

R:  Yeah, but look here, they got the Big Move- they went from 62 to #19- 43 spots!

B:  An' the Platters with Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, too!

Number 2 and number three- The Platters, along with the Crests and 16 Candles- were both classics. Just not their week.

B:  So if the vote was a two song race, why come you got 4 songs in the final?

R:  To drum up suspense, Bill... right, Chris?

You bet, give the masses a little more to guess about.

B:  Okay, Rick, here, you give the finalists.  I'm gonna hit the BUH-fay!

R:  I hear that they got some kinda good casserole down there, get me a plate!

Ummm...

R: So here are your final four this week!  Choose from...

Richie Valens and Donna at #4...
Lloyd Price and good ol' Stagger Lee at the top...
Bill Parsons and All American Boy at #10...
An Petite Fleur, the Little Flower, by Chris Barber at #9.

A note here I WAS gonna have Bill read, on that song at #10... it was co-wrote and performed by Parsons and Bobby Bare... but when the label put the packaging together, they somehow credited it to Parsons when it was actually Bobby's single!  Anyway, thanks, Rick, and thank Bill for me... but you might want to think twice about that casserole...

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That there is known as an Ondioline, and it was basically a sort-of 'moog before the moog', and made the surreal keyboard sounds on songs like Tommy James and the Shondells' I Think We're Alone Now ( and the reversed track Mirage).  It was invented by one Georges Jenny, and was perfected in the later fifties.  He was doing a radio interview about it one day when an aspiring keyboardist named Jean-Jacques Perrey heard it and pretty much begged for Jenny's phone number.  He offered to be Jenny's 'demonstrater' for the machine in return for it's free use (as it was a bit expensive even then).  Perrey wowed the inventor so much, he became Jenny's 'presenter' at trade shows and the like- as well as becoming a star session man on records that featured it.

One such tune is one of my all time favorite instrumentals- Kai Winding's More (from Mondo Cane).  Which is where our story goes to Sesame Street...

Bob from Sesame Street was Bob McGrath, and back before Big Bird, he was an aspiring 'teen idol' who was tremendously popular... in Japan.  While much of what he did in Japan were traditional Japanese tunes- in Japanese, including a command performance in front of the Prime Minister, Eisaku Satō, and his daughter, accompanied only by a bamboo flute!  There were even fan clubs, known as “Bobu Magulas”!  And he enters OUR story because his boss and mentor helped him put out an lp in which he sang More (yes, there were lyrics), along with a lot of other tracks.



Awesome job, Bob!


The name of the lp gives away the name of that boss- Mitch Miller Presents Bob McGrath.  And it was Mitch Miller and his Gang- with Bob McGrath in the chorus- that was at #5 without a Panel vote, with The Children's Marching Song- better known as Knick Knack Paddy Whack.

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The other debut on the M10 belongs to a west coast, formerly 12 man- now down to 8- ensemble calling themselves Fertile Crescent.  Their very first original song comes in at #9...







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So this week we did a three headed Crazy Cover, featuring a current week hit, along with a version from 18 years before, and one from 6 years later!  The original belonged to the Andrews Sisters...

...who took their Apple Blossom Time to #5 in 1941.  Competing with them is recent POTM Battle of the Century Year Week contestant, Tab Hunter...

...who sat at #41 this week on his way to #31.  And finally, with a performance of #52 in 1965, our own... Wayne Newton!

"YAY, It's ME!  I'm back and... wait?  Only #52??"

Sorry about it, buddy, let's see what our expert panel says...

Laurie:  I have to go with Tab, because of the tempo.  The girls were too slow for me.

Chris:  C'mon, you gotta ask?  Of course the Andrews, but I will say that Tab did a FAR FAR FAR better job on this than on Young Love, IMHO.

W:  Hey, what about me!  My tempo was up, just like Tab's!

L:  Yes, his tempo WAS fast...

C:  Truth is, buddy, the recording we heard, you were kinda slurring your words...  every time I tried to get into it, I'd hear, "I'll Be WISHH you..." and I couldn't do it.

"I told you, ya gotta lay off that sauce, man..."

W:  Just a doggone minute!  I was NOT slurring my words!  That's called stylizing, it was my style...

E:  Well, you learned that style from Foster Brooks...

Okay, guys, let me get in the only other two notes I have before we hit the rest of the M10.  One of them you'll like, King- your One Night/I Got Stung two sider was #1 in the UK...

E:  That's burnt, man!  LOVE YOU, ENGLAND...

And the other is that, despite it being Valentine's day, two Christmas songs were still charting!  David Seville and his little rodents with The Chipmunk Song were still at #32, and the Harry Simeon Chorale's The Little Drummer Boy was at #80, though each took sizable falls this week (Seville 13, the Chorale 34).

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The rest of the M10:

Nada Surf slips another spot to #8 with So Much Love.
Eleven weeks now for Tennis, as Runner drops from 4 to 7, putting the duo now at a tie for 5th all time in the M10...
Huey Lewis spends week #8 at the 6 spot, down one with While We're Young.
Ozzy and Elton move up 4 to #5 with Ordinary Man.
The Pet Shop Boys are up 2 to #4 with i don't wanna...
Agnes Obel slips from the top to #3 with Broken Sleep...
Up one to runner-up for White Reaper's Might Be Right...

And the new #1- her third...

...Caroline Rose with Feel The Way I Want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And the Panel pick?

Well, 9.5% each for the designated cannon fodder, Bill Parsons and Chris Bender...

23.8% for the runner up, Lloyd Price...

And winning with 28.6%...

....Richie Valens and Donna!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So tune in next time to see Richie Valens do something he's never done before... make it to 1960!  Be there!

Wednesday Bible Study- the end of all things-Amos

So this week I look at the end of Amos- chapter 9- but a bit of backstory is required.

Timeline- Amos is preaching in Israel, the northern kingdom, around 760-754 BC, or around 35 years before Israel is wiped off the map by Assyria.  Israel has become for the most part pagan, as they have no access to the Temple in Jerusalem.  Not one of the kings of Israel, starting with the first Jereboam, has followed the commands of God, and the current king Jereboam II was no better.  The rub was, God actually had a little mercy on Israel at this point, and had made them a power once again; and that would become their downfall.  It had two disastrous effects- it made them proud, and it made them a target for recovering Assyria.  But the problem wasn't political, it was spiritual.


I love the book of Amos, because it starts out with poetic curses based on the formula, "For three transgressions, and for four", effecting everyone in Israel's radius.  First, her neighbors:  Damascus (Syria), Gaza (Phillistia), and Tyre;  then her relatives: Moab, Ammon (the children of Lot's daughters way back when), and Edom (descendants of Esau); then her sister Judah; and finally coming to Israel itself.  And what were Israel's crimes?

Amo 2:6  Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals-- 
Amo 2:7  those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; 
Amo 2:8  they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. 

Four sins:  Greed after money, abuse of the poor, sexual immorality (profaning the Name of God in its commission, note), and taking their comfort in idolatry.  That word 'fined' at the end is elsewhere translated 'condemned'.  So now the stage is set.

Amos 9 starts out with the wrath of God being fully poured out on the sinners of Israel.  And God means to destroy ALL the sinners:

Amo 9:10  All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, those who say, The evil shall not draw near or confront us. 

Get this part?  The biggest sin here is their thought process that GOD DOESN'T MATTER, we can do what we want.  And like I said, 35 years later, Israel would be destroyed.  But was this the fulfillment of the prophecy?  Yes- and no.

God's Word, we are told, is sharper than a two edged sword (Heb 4:12).  So think about this: if you are run through by such a weapon, it enters at a single point, BUT IT MAKES TWO DIFFERENT CUTS.  Israel's destruction by Assyria was one such cut; but we can see from the chapter that it wasn't a COMPLETE fulfillment.  Watch here:

First, in the destruction...

Amo 9:9  For, behold, I will command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations, as one shakes with a sieve; yet not a grain shall fall to the ground. 

If you know your Bible history, the part about "not a grain falling" strikes you.  Because, if a grain strikes the ground, it will grow anew.  There was a remnant in Israel, brought there because the Assyrians left them to "placate the local gods" after they began to have natural disasters that the Assyrian gods couldn't handle (2 Kings 17).  These intermixed with the peoples that Assyria colonized the land with, and eventually became the Samaritans the Jews so hated.    So this would indicate at least part of this prophecy involves a future date.

Secondly, in the aftermath...

The back half of this chapter begins with the idea that God was going to re-establish "the tabernacle of David" (v11), and the richer times that God promised the faithful way back in Moses' day would come to pass...

Amo 9:13  Behold, the days are coming, declares Jehovah, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who draws along seed. And the mountains shall drop new must, and all the hills will be dissolved. 

Amo 9:14  And I will bring back the captivity of My people Israel. And they shall build the waste cities, and live in them. And they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them. They shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 

Now, the captivity of Israel has been brought back to an extent.  But are they at a point where "the plowman overtakes the reaper"?  A quick look up of "growing conditions in Israel" shows that the reaper of grain finishes in 'the fourth month' (June and July), but the plowing doesn't start until the 'seventh month' (September and October).  So, no, we haven't quite hit this yet.  Why?  Look at Ezekiel 37:

37 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Back in Israel, but with no breath- no Spirit of God- in them.  Again, this indicates a time AFTER the Lord Jesus returns at the Second Coming, when " they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn" (Zech. 12:10).  Armageddon, as we call it, will weed out the children of Israel who refuse to believe once and for all, leaving no evil seed to fall- and then Israel shall be blessed again.

So what does that mean for us in the meantime?  Look at our attitude.

How much more importance do we put on money than people?

Do we share what we have?

Do we revere the Name of the Lord by keeping His rules, particularly on immorality?

Do we take comfort in God, or things?

Now to connect:  "Four three transgressions, and for four, I WILL NOT TURN BACK FROM IT, says the Lord".  Turn back from what?  At the very beginning of chapter nine, it describes God as "standing beside the altar".  Schofield's reference notes point out:

The position of the Lord (Adonai) is significant. The altar speaks properly of mercy because of judgement executed upon an interposed sacrifice, but when altar and sacrifice are despised the altar becomes a place of judgment. 

So, 'it' is judgment.  And that judgment CAN be yours...

Politics blows

Once upon a time, I loved debating politics.  Like, when I was a kid and Richard Lugar and Birch Bayh were running against each other, and I was 'debating' a friend who countered my "Richard Loser" with "Bitch Bayh"... when it was fun to see which of the seven million seeming candidates would win the next primary (Seven million might be high, but in 1976, there were 15 Dems against Reagan and Ford). 6 of them won primaries... 4 of them, including the winner, Mr Carter, are still alive.

I had this Newsweek cover on my bedroom wall...

  Now, it's all about hate.  Donald Trump is the biggest monster the world has ever seen...  Nancy Pelosi is drunk all the time... he's a traitor, she's a traitor, you're a traitor.  It hasn't been like this since... well, since 1856, when " Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts, in retaliation for a speech given by Sumner two days earlier in which he fiercely criticized slaveholders, including a relative of Brooks. " Thanks, wiki, for helping the lazy.  And everytime I feel like speaking MY mind, I either think of Proverbs 26:4-5...

Pro 26:4  Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. 
Pro 26:5  Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. 

...or I end up wishing I had.

So I try to spend my time just praying for their souls, praying for God to raise up some good men, praying that someone might look in the fricking mirror and really see themselves before all there is is hate.  And praying for myself, because I would really love to call some of these spades, spades.

The bad thing is, I can't disagree with anyone without being a monster.  If I dislike Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus, or Lou Grant, I'm a bigot.  If I choose to believe that Israel in Palestine is the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37, I'm an anti-Semite.  If I think Greta Thuneburg ought to be given a chance to figure things out on her own, I'm a science-denier.  And if I say I think our President has done a great job on delivering what he promised, I'm either a Nazi Fascist or a blind worshipper of the man.

Once upon a time, I could do a caricature of Obama with exaggerated big ears because he has big ears and it's what you do in a caricature.  Now if I do that, I am saying that all African Americans are monkeys.  God help me if I walk away giving the ok sign...

Hell, I only got Misty "because white people miss having slaves".

I would love to debate the pros and cons of the latest budget, explain why I support a border wall, ask someone just what it was that the President did that left poor Dorothy from South Carolina without proper medical care.

No one can do that.  At least, not many.  And one friend I have that can, got me annoyed the other day because he still calls out Republicans on crap mainly because it's useless to call out Democrats on anything anymore.  And I shouldn't have gotten annoyed, because he's right.  Proverbs 26:4 tells me that.

I was thinking today about one of my earliest posts, in which I told the story of a liberal I was acquainted with that said that the government was to give the minority not protection, but POWER.  Being an LGBTQ SJW, I can see why he would have HOPED that was right, but it isn't.  But I shouldn't have expected him to; despite being someone who clearly thought himself more intellectual than myself, he couldn't even set his self-protecting atheism aside long enough to answer the question: "Suppose for a minute, the Bible IS true.  Would not Satan, in order to attack people, use the very arguments you use?" (Reply,"This is pointless, God is no more real than the Easter Bunny, and I refuse to give even that much thought to it."  -not exact quote, BTW, but captures the essence.)

Point being, you cannot argue with those who will dismiss whatever they disagree with out of hand.  It's never a debate anymore.  You'll never see battles at the convention over each plank of the platform anymore, because the candidate is already selected long ago and the platform was set in concrete years back.  You'll never see Nelson Rockefeller hoisting up that disconnected phone receiver again, never hear of the deal making at the convention backrooms, never see Sarge Shriver's psychoanalysis notes on the convention floor.

The teams are all divided up.  Just another game of Red Rover left to play.  

by Dennis Brack

Time Machine co-ordinates VICXXX6102759

Today we go to February 7th, 1958... and right to another couple of plane crashes, one literal, one figurative.  The literal one killed 8 members of the Manchester United soccer team on their way home from a tourney in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.  The second was the formation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), to develop the tech we needed to go into space more rapidly.  Though it is called a 'direct result of the launching of Sputnik by the Soviets', it took 4 months and 3 days from liftoff to come up with it...

Welcome to this week's fun with music known as Time Machine, where we will sit down (in our imaginations, of course) with Sonny James, and a crazy M10 that includes, as I have just reconnoitered, two bands who haven't had a hot 100 single since 1991, one act that has had just one since 1991, and one who hasn't been in the top 40 since 1991- and that includes two M10 debuts!  Along with that, a runaway Panel winner, and quite possibly one of my 'live' 6Ds!   Prepare for launch!


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Let's kick things off with this 1991 thing, shall we?  In addition to the Pet Shop Boys, whose i don't wanna is at #6 (up one spot) and haven't had a US chart hit since 1991, the last hot 100 appearance for the band debuting at #10 was also back in 1991!  This band is Yes, who in 2011 recorded an lp they weren't real happy with, called Fly From Here.  This past year, they decided to 'do it right', and the result came out right around Christmas, Fly From Here: Return Trip.  All that time, this one has lazily drifted along in my shuffle, and this week I finally give it a peak inside...





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Hey, Sonny, how ya doing?

I'm doing just fine, yourself?

Good, good.  I was just reading your bio, and I see you were playing the mandolin at three years old?

Well,  I used to play around on a broom.  That’s when Pop decided, ‘Well, I’ll give him something that he can at least play around on.’ That’s when he cut the molasses bucket in half and used the bottom of it and put a neck on it and then reversed it. It became the top of a little banjo, but it was tuned like a mandolin- So then I graduated to a mandolin and long about that time -I must have been about three or something – I began singing.    (***From an interview with Dave Samuelsson on Sonny's website***)

Wow, that's pretty incredible.  But you were from a musical family.

Yeah, we played all over the south for years, until Thelma and Ruby- my sisters- got hitched in a double wedding, around Christmas back in '49.  Then I got hooked up with Slim Whitman for a while, and it just kinda went from there.

Last week, Dean Martin kinda razzed you for not being a huge crossover act.  But on the country charts, from 1964-72, you had 21 #1 country songs and nothing lower than a #3 the whole time!

I did?  I mean, I do?

Oops, kinda left the cat outta the bag there... someone will be hitting the memory station on the way out..

Nice job, boss!  Looks like someone needs to hit the memory-FIXING station..

S: Well, hello, Elvis, How's your ma doing?

E:  Well, that's kind of a funny question, seein's as I work here an' all...

S:  Yeah, I know what you mean... I think.  This time-travel stuff kind of addles the brain...

E:  Why ya think Chris is the way he is?

S:  Why, how IS Chris?

OKAY, time to move right along to the Panel picks.  14 contestants from 26 stations, so we're growing bit by bit...

S: I see Elvis has THREE songs on the list...

E: Yeah, but all of 'em are one-vote wonders- Baby I Don't Care, Don't, and I Beg Of You...

Well, nine out of 14 WERE one-voters- our winner this week got almost 38.5%...

E: Son, you're about set to give everything away this week, ain't ya?

Sigh, yeah, I better just let Sonny get on with the finalists...

S:  All right, then, here are your finalists...

Perry Como's Catch A Falling Star was #22 in the Cashbox chart...
Danny and the Juniors have been #1 ALL year so far with At The Hop...
The Silhouettes are at #3 with Get A Job...
...and the Royal Teens were at #24 with Short Shorts.

E:  Kinda makes ya think it was a two-horse race, eh, Sonny?

Looks can be deceiving though... so we'll revisit this at the end.  Good to have you on board, Sonny!

Thanks for having me.  Say... you don't suppose I could get a peek at what else happened to me, music wise...

E: Sonny, c'mon with me.  You don't wanna know no more, it just makes it harder to erase...

S:  ERASE???

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Let me cue up our second debut.  This act has charted as late as 2007... but only twice in 1991 before that, everything else earlier... it's his first lp in 10 years, and he has a boatload of guests on the upcoming disc, including Elton John on this one!  At #9... Ozzy Osbourne...








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Well, we didn't have so much crazy covers as a lot of songs that would be covered famously (or not) later.  So Laurie and I got out the thumbs for a few of them...

Roy Hamilton's version of Don't Let Go, #14 on this week's chart, was covered by Isaac Hayes in 1979, where it made top 20 in a disco-esque version.

L: Roy wins this.  I can't understand Hayes.
C:  Yeah, Isaac mumbles it.  Roy for me.
 Moments later, we stumbled on to the fact that the Manhattan Transfer did a cover of it as well.  So...
L:  Still Roy.  I don't like the vocals.
C: I thought it was the best of both worlds, fast paced without mumbling.  But Roy by a whisker yet.

Billy Vaughn did an orchestral of Sail Along Silvery Moon at #7 this week.  The original recording was by Bing Crosby with Lani McIntyre and the Hawaiians as the orchestra.  He did his version way back in 1937.

L: Once again, singing versus orchestral is apples to oranges.  Might have been better if there was a better recording of Bing's.
C: Well, it was a 33 1/3rd, so... Anyway, I liked Bing, but I thought the Hawaiians sucked weren't the best choice for the song.  Billy easily for me...

The Rays were dropping at #54 with Silhouettes.  I played it for Laurie, who of course said, "Wasn't this done more recently?", which of course it was by Herman's Hermits in '65.

L:  The Hermits, better singing.
C: I started to go Silhouettes, since I love old Doo Wop, but the Hermits are so good, I have to give my first sideways thumb.

Finally, one of my all time favorite songs, My Special Angel.  Bobby Helms was falling out of the survey this week; the Vogues would do it 9 years later.  One was my #1 song of the 50's; the other was a top ten in the 60's list I did.  Both peaked at #7 on Billboard.

L: The Vogues.  The vocals were better.
C:  Bobby.  What the Vogues did with 4 voices, he did with ONE.

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The 6D victim would have been the Diamonds with The Stroll.  It was at #2 on Cashbox's chart without a Panel vote.
 Elvis dominated the Big Mover category this week.  His Don't went from 36 to 8 this week, a 24 spot rise.  However, the b-side, I Beg Of You, went up 26, from 41 to 15...

Kinda makes up for the one-vote wonder thing, dontcha think?

Sure does, bud!  Not to mention, you also had the top of the UK charts this week, with Jailhouse Rock!

Wee-hoo!  And the Beatles are nowhere to be seen...

Well, at this point in time, the "Beatles" are a couple of 16-year olds, and George Harrison is waiting on a second audition...

Why you gotta pee in my corn flakes like that?

UGGH!  on that note....


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The remaining 1991 story on the M10 is Huey Lewis and the News, who last hit the top 40 in- you guessed it, 1991!  They sit at #5 for a second week with While We're Young.  And now that the chart is totally perforated, here's the rest of the list:

In The Afternoon by MGMT slides from 4 to 8 in week #8.
Nada Surf and Pet Shop Boys actually flipped positions, with So Much Love moving down one to #7. 
Our three week #1- Tennis with Runner- slips to #4.

And the big surprise is, that White Reaper, after three weeks stuck at #8, moves up to #3 with Might Be Right.  I see that it is also #2 on this week's Billboard Alternative chart.  I also see that money-grubbing Billboard is now putting their charts behind a paywall, not just their archives.  Well, that much less press for you here, fellas...

Caroline Rose moves up into the #2 slot with Feel The Way I Want, which means that, claiming her third M10 #1 is...

....Agnes Obel and Broken Sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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And that brings us to the Panel pick.  And unless you are the winner, you got 7.6% of the vote.  So step aside, Perry, Danny, and Teens, the winner is....

...The Silhouettes and Get A Job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next week, God willing, 1959- and no more plane crashes!

Wednesday Bible study- The end of all things- Acts

 This week I begin the journey through the last chapters of each book of the Bible, going alphabetically.  Why alphabetically?  Because my 'in order memory is great until you hit the minor prophets, where I only know them alphabetically.  It picks back up in the New Testament, but is a bit iffy in Paul's epistles and really shaggy between Hebrews and Jude.  And, this way mixes things up.  So we start this new journey in Acts, chapter 28.


The first thing I notice is three 'gods' who get mention before OUR God.  The first is in vv 3 and 4...

Act 28:3  And Paul gathering a bunch of sticks, and putting them on the fire, a snake coming out from the heat fastened on his hand. 
Act 28:4  And when the foreigners saw the beast hanging from his hand, they said to one another, By all means this man is a murderer, whom being saved out of the sea, Justice did not permit to live. 

There is your first one, the personification of Justice.  Now, while the Greeks had long worshiped Themis in this capacity, it was a new thing with the Romans- Augustus launched her worship during his reign (think the years just prior to Jesus' birth on earth) and got her first temple from Tiberias about 75 years ago at this point (around 60 AD).  But when Paul survived the bite of the snake...

Act 28:6  But they expected him to be about to become inflamed, or suddenly to fall down dead. But over much time, they expecting and seeing nothing amiss happening to him, changing their minds, they said him to be a god. 

This is now the second time Paul was mistaken for a god- once for his healing a lame man and now for his imagined immortality.  But his own people knew it was just the fulfillment of a prophecy of Christ:

Mar 16:15  And He said to them, Going into all the world, preach the gospel to all the creation. 

Mar 16:16  The one believing and being baptized will be saved. And the one not believing will be condemned. 

Mar 16:17  And miraculous signs will follow to those believing these things: they will cast out demons in My name; they will speak new languages; 

Mar 16:18  they will take up snakes; and if they drink anything deadly, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will be well. 

It should be noted that the LAST time Paul got this 'promotion', 5 verses later the same crowd was convinced to attempt stoning him and Barnabas...  This time the hospitality of the Maltese continued, though, right up to the time they had to board a new ship for Rome, one marked by our third god- or set of gods...

Act 28:11  And after three months we sailed in a ship which had wintered in the island, an Alexandrian with an ensign, Twin Brothers. 

The Twin Brothers, better known to us as Gemini, were actually...

Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri) are figures from Greek and Roman mythology considered the twin sons of Zeus or Jupiter. Semi-divine figures, they were credited with the role of saving those in trouble at sea or in grave danger in war and were particularly associated with horses and sports.

Which is kinda odd to look for THAT kind of protection when they had Paul.  For their crash on the island was even a protection from God...

Act 27:23  For tonight stood by me an angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, 

Act 27:24  saying, Do not fear, Paul, You must stand before Caesar. And, behold, God has granted to you all those sailing with you. 

So Paul really defeated three false gods:  One by not dying as superstition would have had it, one by explaining where his own miracle originated, and one by proving more of a protection than the gods installed for it!

Now once in Rome, he was able to meet with fellow believers in Rome, who met him just outside of town.  Once settled in, he took three days off- or did he?  His first assignment was to talk to the Jews of Rome about Christ- even though he had already 'sworn off' talking to the Jews by then (upon first coming to Corinth some ten years (or 10 chapters, as it turns out) before.  And like with the Jews in Corinth, some listened (kinda), some didn't; and he pretty much did the same thing as he did ten years before in Corinth- with one exception.

Here's where I tuck in those three days.  Having fought this battle before, he had to realize that a Jew in Rome was a Jew in Corinth was a Jew in Jerusalem.  They would be under the same binding influence that kept them from hearing Paul the other times- the one that Paul eventually quoted them:

Act 28:25  And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: "The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet: 

Act 28:26  "'Go to this people, and say, You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. 

Act 28:27  For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.' 

Act 28:28  Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen." 

Which quoted both Isaiah chapter 6 and Psalms 67, unlike the last time where, from Luke's version, he just got mad.  I believe he spent those three days praying for a different result.  He did have a different result with another three days earlier in the chapter:

Act 28:7  And in the parts about that place were lands to the chief of the island, Publius by name. Welcoming us, he housed us three days in a friendly way. 

Act 28:8  And it happened the father of Publius was lying down, suffering from fevers and dysentery; to whom Paul, entering and praying, laying on his hands, cured him. 

Act 28:9  Then, this taking place, the ones in the island having infirmities also came up, and they were healed. 

Gentiles being preached to, being healed.  So why did Paul pray to try again, most likely knowing the result would be the same?  Let's ask Ezekiel, or rather, see how God explained it to Ezekiel:

Eze 3:17  Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. And hear the Word of My mouth, and warn them from Me. 

Eze 3:18  In My saying to the wicked, Dying you shall die; and you do not warn him, and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, he, the wicked, shall die in his iniquity. But I will require his blood at your hand. 

Eze 3:19  And you, because you have warned the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his way, he, the wicked, shall die in his iniquity. But you have delivered your soul. 

Which is why I am here- to encourage you, to help you understand, but also to warn you.  I can't make your decision or your change.  But I can deliver HIS message.

Your first... beer?

Borrowed from Punchdrink blog

So a couple nights ago I was perusing what was up on the forums of BeerAdvocate, the beer rating place I hang at electronically on the weekend.  And a mention of some old, not-made anymore made me ask a question, thereby starting my very first thread...

I was just swinging through the Beer Talk and saw a conversation about the old Piels beer. Made me curious: What is the first beer you had? Don't think, "Well, the night I turned 21", but, "When I was a toddler, Grandpa gave me a sip of..."! For me, it may well have been Black Label, as I had a picture of my Dad holding me in one hand as a baby, and one of those in the other. In living memory though, he had changed over to (original) PBR by then, so that would be mine. How about you?


I figured, watch a month or more go by before anyone notices.  Then it started to trickle, and I tried to reply to each one... soon, it became a torrent!  So many people wanted to play the game for the good memories (most of them childhood), of fathers giving a reward for going out to the garage and fetching a round, grandpas wanting to teach 'responsible drinking', parties that allowed for "empty cans" to be tested, and just plain thievery and other forms of adventure.  There are currently 152 posts including my responses; I also put it on Facebook and Twitter Sunday.  And while the response on FB has been a little underwhelming, I had @ed BeerAdvocate's page on Twitter, and have a couple dozen entries from there.

A lot of people were understandably a little fuzzy on what that magic first beer was, and made guesses based on "what the folks usually had in the fridge".  One guy loved that he didn't remember because it involved learning scuba diving with his dad and a kegerator at the instructor's back room.  Only three people so far have thrown up their hands in defeat.

The stories have brought on a lot of big discussions, notably on Black Label, Ballantines, and a mention (but not a 'vote') for Mickey's Malt Liquor- when I mentioned I remembered Mickeys best because half of every set of bottles were skunky.  One guy said something like, that's not skunky, that's how Mickey's tastes.  Before I could formulate an answer, another guy came in right after him and said, "ONLY half?"

So I thought I would let you in on the fun.  If you REALLY wanna go in depth on this, it's in the forums under "Your First Beer".  If not, well, here's some stats from the whole deal.

Keeping in mind that even if they said, "It might have been (names 4 or 5 beers)..."  I counted ALL mentions.

Total mentions so far: 108
Different beers mentioned: 53
How many of them I have tried: 22 to my knowledge, IDK if I ever had Schlitz or not

The big vote getters:

3 votes:  Heineken, Michelob, Hamms, Strohs, and Rolling Rock

4 votes: Schaefer, Old Style, Olympia, Black Label

5 votes:  Miller High Life, Schlitz

And the top vote getters right now, with 7 each...

Pabst Blue Ribbon

...and Budweiser!

As I was getting the pictures above, I just got a second vote for Texas Pride... the votes keep coming in!

So if you like, vote here and I'll count them too!  It's gotta be better entertainment than the Iowa Caucases...

Misty's first deer 'hunt'

Today we were planning a 'leisurely' (relative term with Misty) walk around the woods and such, and we ran into some deer.  Boy, did we!  Let me bring in a handy dandy map as I tell the story...

Now the brown line is the outline of the woods, the blue lines are the main trail  (as distinguished from the paths torn into the woods by the o-so-necessary golf course), and our path today is in purple.  Nothing out of the ordinary until we saw her first two deer (not from a bedroom window), indicated by their position (red star#1) and our position at the time, a good distance away (purple star #1).  Of course, Misty's first reaction was to take off after them at top speed, which meant that .35 seconds later she came to a full stop (end of leash) with her butt sliding until she was in a straight-up position.

I tried to get a shot of them, but my camera doesn't like cold weather (or warm, a story for another day), and when I turned it on it basically cycled through about fifteen settings I never asked for, took a picture that well might have been titled, "psychedelic in gray", and finally stopped after a good hard slap to the side.

I did get a nice shot of Misty after she caught her breath back up...

We continued down the side of the wood, as I tested the camera out to see if its psychosis had abated...

As the trail re-enters the woods, I had thought to veer off on one of the golf trails when we saw ahead of  us, not just 2, but a whole herd of deer (the #2 stars).  From where we were, there was a rise between us (not to mention a lot of trees), and as they were headed north (top of map), I figured our best bet would be to get to the "lower soccer field" to get a look at them.

Two notes of explanation.  The "upper soccer fields" were built later on the corpse of what was a lovely meadow and is raised about 10 feet or so higher than the lower.  Also, where a smart man (me) would have cut straight across, a not-as-smart dog (Misty) decided she HAD to follow the golf trail to get there, so as the map shows, we exited the woods somewhat more south than I had intended.

But when we got out on to the field- for perspective we we now about a field and a half away from the tree line on the map- the deer were at the tree line.  And, they were playing, running back and forth and chasing each other around!

Between distance, less than cooperative camera, and a dog joyfully running circles around me, I took a million dozen pictures to get the handful of half-assed ones I will show you now...

At a guess, there was a dozen deer in the herd.  Some of them were just south of the line chasing each other like mad men (note the one in the foreground of picture 3), while others were keeping an eye on us and going up and down the incline...

I tried to creep closer, but each time I did, I had to spin two or three times to get out of Misty's leash.  And, like I said, they were watching us, so they were starting to go back into the woods before we got very close- and of course, a jogger had to come down from the north to finish them off.

While we're here, I got some other Misty pics to share as well from a few days ago...

We were down by the Duck Bar, which was frozen over, but down the way it was open and she got her first view of ducks.  These were neighborhood ducks, used to Scrappy, and couldn't have cared less- and so neither did she.  But about 100 yards down was a set of non-hood ducks.  They saw us coming and started to quack and take off.  So Misty went to check them out, and when the rest of 'em saw her and split, boy did she jump!

Farther down, we saw what had to be the biggest collection of geese in one place I've seen in the 11 years we've been here!  Misty thought about checking them out, but got distracted by noisy doggies at the complex that were checking her out...