From the instructions, I guess I’ve fulfilled the first requirement.
Source: Giphy
So now I can just write about whatever, right? Cool…
I was led to believe that yesterday was the 57th anniversary of the first international television broadcast using the Telstar telecommunications satellite. I was going to play this, from 1962, the Tornados, “Telstar.”
Turns out that the anniversary is July 23. Oh well. I played it anyway.
And that’s all I’ve got except to say that a preposition is a bad word to end a sentence with…
Source: Giphy again
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to you each week by Linda Hill and this station. Now here’s Dick Van Dyke for the Kodak Instamatic movie camera. Kodak makes your pictures count!
Thirty years ago today, WLS celebrated its last day as a Top 40 station, moving to a news-talk format. I wanted to get a survey from that day, but unfortunately they stopped issuing a weekly survey at the end of 1982. I did the next best thing today: here is their survey from August 23, 1980.
Rocky Burnette, “Tired Of Toein’ The Line” Rocky is the son of Johnny (“You’re Sixteen, You’re Beautiful, and You’re Mine”) Burnette and nephew of Dorsey. This reached #8 on the Hot 100. After a very long hiatus, he’ll have a new album out this fall.
SOS Band, “Take Your Time (Do It Right)” Not exactly disco, but electro-funk, the SOS band is from Atlanta. This reached #3 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the R&B and Dance charts. They had several more R&B chart Top 10’s, but didn’t have any further Pop chart success.
Charlie Daniels Band, “In America” This patriotic number was the lead single off of Full Moon, and reached #11 on the Hot 100 and #13 on the Country chart. It experienced a revival after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Christopher Cross, “Sailing” I think anyone who’s read this blog knows how I feel about Christopher Cross in general and this song in particular. It was his second single in 1980 and it reached #1 in both the US and Canada.
Paul McCartney, “Coming Up” From Sir Paul’s 1980 album McCartney 2, on which he played all the instruments and harmonized with Linda. It reached #1 in the US and was #7 for the year.
Genesis, “Misunderstanding” Third single from their 1980 album Duke, it reached #1 in Canada and #14 in the US. Phil Collins hadoriginally written this for his first solo album, 1981’s Face Value, but ended up donating it to Genesis.
Blues Brothers, “Gimme Some Lovin'” Joliet Jake (Chicago’s own John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) Blues and their all-star band took this to #18 in the US and #22 in Canada. Home field advantage, I guess.
Rolling Stones, “Emotional Rescue” Title track from the Stones’ 1980 release. It reached #1 in Canada and #3 in the US.
Billy Joel, “It’s Still Rock ‘n’ Roll To Me” From Billy’s 1980 album Glass Houses, it spent 11 weeks in the Top 10 on the Hot 100, including two weeks at #1. It was the #7 record for the year.
Olivia Newton-John, “Magic” From the 1980 soundtrack for the film Xanadu, which didn’t do as well as the song did, reaching #1 on the Hot 100 and AC charts in the US and #1 in Canada. Maybe they should have just released the album and forgotten about the mobie. Just my opinion.
The “Candyman” battle between Christina Aguilera and the Mary Jane Girls was pretty much over before it got started.
Christina Aguilera: 9
Mary Jane Girls: 0
So, congratulations to Christina Aguilera, and Mary Jane Girls, I feel badly, but that happens sometimes. I have to ask, if anyone feels like answering: had these videos been pretty much only the songs (i.e. the song played behind a single image), would your choice have been any different?
Anyway, the next battle will be on Sunday, September 1. See you then!
I can’t swim. I have an excuse now, being disabled, though I have spent time in a pool recently for physical therapy, but as far as swimming is concerned, I can’t.
I sort of could when I was younger. I could get in the water and more or less propel myself through it, and I had no trouble playing in the water, but by the time I reached high school, forget it. We had swimming in sophomore year, and on the first day they asked us to jump into the deep end of the pool and swim to the other end. I didn’t make it; they had to pull me out, fortunately before I needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. At the end of that class, they split us into four groups: Dolphins, Sharks, Tunas, and my group, the Anchors.
I didn’t feel too bad about it: a few players from the football squad were Anchors as well. They’re good to know sometimes.
Fortunately, in junior and senior year, we got to choose what PE activity we wanted to do for two months, and any time swimming was offered, I didn’t take it. I usually took hiking with the head of the PE department, who looked a lot like Fred Flintstone.
One time, my family had a picnic at the home of one of my second cousins (or cousins once removed; I can never get that straight). They had a pool, which of course I didn’t go into. My grandfather, who was a fairly good athlete in his day, swam for a while, then got out and wouldn’t go back in. “All those kids have been in there all day, and not one has gotten out to go to the bathroom” was his explanation.
I’ve been in several pools since then, not so much to swim as to enjoy the water. My knees have been bad for a while, and walking around in a pool is good, because it takes some of the stress off of them. My company had one of their annual midterm meetings years ago. The first day was one of the typical boozefests, and naturally we were all feeling a little rough the next day. The facility where we had the meeting had a pool, though, and I found that standing neck-deep in the water was very good for a hangover.
Once when I was traveling, it was miserable, hot and humid, and I decided to take advantage of the pool at the hotel. Which reminds me of this….
One-Liner Wednesday is brought to you each week by Linda Hill and this station. Now this about the GI Joe Adventure Team Headquarters. GI Joe and ATV sold separately!
