Monkees and PERT Charts #socs

First, I want to take a moment to note the passing of Peter Tork, a singer, guitarist and bassist for The Monkees, both during the TV series and after. The Monkees were the bane of music critics everywhere, who thought they were merely four guys thrown together to make a TV show. Only in retrospect have the critics decided that hey, they weren’t bad at all. Here’s my favorite Peter Tork song, “Your Auntie Grizelda.”

In college, I took a class in Operations Management (which was my major) where we learned a project management technique called the Critical Path Method. You make a list of all the tasks needed to do a project, decide how long each task will take and the dependencies (which tasks have to be completed before others), and decide the longest path between tasks from one end of the project to the other. This process is generally facilitated by drawing a PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) chart that displays the tasks and their dependencies. It’s also a lot more fun doing it that way.

Wikipedia tells us this is a “PERT network chart for a seven-month project with five milestones (10 through 50) and six activities (A through F).”

You might think I’m going to launch into a discussion of how this works. And you’d be wrong.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to you eah week by Linda Hill and this station. Now this word from Old Milwaukee beer. The beer that tastes as great as its name!

The Friday 5×2: WSAI (Cincinnati, OH), 1967

Normally, I’d feature a survey that was issued on February 22, but this one spoke to me, so I hope you don’t mind me using a survey from February 25, 1967. It would be the last survey in February, so I think I’m in the clear. WSAI is now an affiliate of the Fox Sports Radio Network and airs all their programs as well as Cleveland Cavaliers basketball games, but they were a Top 40 station in 1967. Here, then, is their Top 10 (I’ll explain why there are 11 songs in a minute).

The Seekers, “Georgy Girl” This was the Australian folk quartet’s highest-charting single in the US, peaking at #2. Their previous hit was “I’ll Know I’ll Never Find Another You,” which you know if you’ve done a Marriage Encounter…
The Left Banke, “Pretty Ballerina” Their follow-up single to “Walk Away Renee” didn’t do as well as that did, peaking at #15 on the Hot 100 and #12 on the Cash Box chart, as well as #4 in Canada. This was the last charting single for this “baroque pop” quintet.
The Supremes, “Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone” Their third of four straight #1 singles. Later in ’67, they changed their name to “Diana Ross & The Supremes.”
The Beatles, “Strawberry Fields Forever”/”Penny Lane” This single was issued as having two A sides, as oppoesd to an A and a B side, where the B side is just along for the ride. In Chicago, WLS and WCFL both decided that “Penny Lane” would be the A side, but evidently WSAI went along with the “two A sides” approach.
Spencer Davis Group, “Gimme Some Lovin'” Shortly after releasing this, Stevie Winwood left to form the band Traffic, and later Blind Faith.
Gary & The Hornets, “There’s A Kind Of Hush” Cincinnati-based Gary and the Hornets were apparently an early “boy band” who had a bigger hit with this song than Herman’s Hermits did. The flip side of HH’s version of “Hush,” “No Milk Today,” was on the chart at #22.
The Rolling Stones, “Ruby Tuesday” Another double A side record with “Let’s Spend The Night Together” on the flip side, this was the hit in the US, peaking at #1.
The Royal Guardsmen, “The Return Of The Red Baron” The listening public hadn’t quite gotten tired of The Royal Guardsmen’s songs about Charlie Brown’s dog, although this only made it to #15 nationally.
Tommy James & The Shondells, “I Think We’re Alone Now” Title track from their 1967 album, it wasn’t the hit “Hanky Panky” was, but still reached #4 nationally. This was later a #1 hit for singer/mall rat Tiffany in 1988.
Ed Ames, “My Cup Runneth Over” Former lead singer of The Ames Brothers and expert tomahawk thrower Ed Ames reached #8 nationally but #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart with this. It’s arguably a beautiful song, which makes it seem a little out-of-place here.

And that’s The Friday 5×2 for February 22, 2019.

BATTLE OF THE BANDS: “Apache” Results

I’m getting really good at this Battle of the Bands thing: this is the second time in a row this has happened.

The Shadows: 6

Jørgen Ingmann: 6

Well, congratulations, then, to both contestants. I know I can cast a deciding vote, but I usually don’t do that, and if I did, I’d have to split it, because both versions are excellent.

Anyway, our next battle will be next Friday, March 1, so be sure and join us then!

Writer’s Workshop: Challenges and Crushes

I was going to do the “write a blog post inspired by the word: challenge” this week, because next Friday is the beginning of signups for the Blogging From A To Z April Challenge. You’ll note that the badge for this year’s challenge has replaced the QR code I had up there (they wanted me to pay to keep it there, can you believe it?), where Olaf is pointing…

I realized that I’ve already written about the Challenge for the Writer’s Workshop, though, so you can just go over and read it there. Seriously, it’s a lot of fun, you get to meet some other bloggers and read some pretty dynamite blogs, so I hope you’ll consider it.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I figured I should pick another prompt. It came down to a choice between “list your top 8 favorite candies,” which I’ve done already, twice in fact, and “tell us about a crush you had in high school.” So, I guess I’ll do the second. Promise you won’t laugh…

I didn’t date much in high school, so I spent a lot of time at home watching TV, especially on Friday nights. I think, besides In Concert and The Midnight Special, my favorite show was The Brady Bunch, for one reason…

Maureen McCormick as Marcia, Marcia, Marcia Brady (source: Express.co.uk)

Of course I had a crush on Marcia Brady. I think every guy around my age did. The ones who didn’t had a crush on her younger sister, Jan.

Jan Brady (Eve Plumb) (source: Newsmov.biz)

In fact, as Jan got older it became almost a “Ginger vs. Mary Ann” thing.

Dawn Wells and Tina Louise as Mary Ann and Ginger on *Gilligan’s Island* (source: The Age of Volcanoes)

So, if I wasn’t doing something else, which was most Friday nights, I’d sit and watch The Brady Bunch, really just to see her. I mean, she was everything: cute, dressed nicely, probably smelled good, and seemed like she was friendly, at least friendlier than the girls I was in school with. Marcia was supposed to be my age, meaning that, if the stars had lined up just right, she’d have been a classmate, and we could have commiserated over geometry. Or not. Probably not. Still, it was fun to imagine.

Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia, wrote a book, Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice, a few years ago, in which she said that Marcia was a pretty tough standard to live up to. In the book, she answers the burning question “Did Marcia and Greg ever…?” Guess I’ll have to read it to find out.

#1LinerWeds From Deputy Barney Fife

It’s my opinion that Don Knotts, who played Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show and Ralph Furley on Three’s Company (not to mention hundreds of other roles in movies and on TV), is the funniest man God ever put on Earth. We’ve been watching reruns of Andy every weeknight, and despite the shows being over 50 years old and the fact that we’ve seen them hundreds of times before, they’re still hilarious, and Knotts’ “Barney” is a huge reason for that. Here’s a montage of him using one of his favorite catchphrases…

One-Liner Wednesday is brought to you each week by Linda Hill and this station. And, as luck would have it, here’s Andy Griffith for Post Toasties cereal! (Seriously, it was the next commercial on the reel…)