Author: John Holton

I'm a writer and blogger who writes and blogs about things that interest me.

Writer’s Workshop: Recent Faves

What I’ve been enjoying lately:

Country Time Lemonade: For the past year, I drink lemonade with dinner (and sometimes lunch). Mary’s been buying the premade stuff at the store, but hates lugging all the bottles around and having the empties about fill the recycling bin. She finally decided to get a can of Country Time mix and make it. And you know what? I like it better than any of the other stuff. Not too tart, not too sweet, as Grandpa used to say.

Yacht Rock Miami: The "yacht" brand of "soft rock" is music from my late teens and early twenties, so there are a lot of fond memories of the days when when I was a third of my age and half my weight. There have been a lot of music ads in my Instagram feed of late, most of which advertise playlists on Spotify, but the other day I found one for Yacht Rock Miami, and so far I really enjoy it. I’m hearing a lot of music I had forgotten I liked.

Podcasts: I’m probably getting to this later than just about anyone, but since discovering the If The Walls Could Talk podcast and really enjoying it, I’m taking another look at them. There are a lot of music ones and a few for sleep noise, and a couple of business oriented ones. One in particular, Business Movers, has been talking about Coca-Cola and the big boo-boo they made when they decided to reformulate it to taste more like Pepsi.

The Edge browser: When I read articles that said that Microsoft was going to build an entirely new browser, I figured it was only going to be good for downloading another browser, and besides, I had hopped off the Redmond Crazy Train almost 15 years ago. I read in a Mac group on Reddit that there was a version of Edge for the Mac, and I decided to give it a whirl. Surprisingly, it works better on a Mac than just about all the other alternatives I tried (including Safari, Mac’s browser), and I can easily configure it to work the way I want it to work, so I’m sticking with it for a while. (I change browsers fairly regularly, so in another six months I’ll probably be on to something different…)

"Quiet" Time: I use my sequential circulator a couple of times a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, to get the lymph out of my leg. I lie in bed, take my glasses off, and lie there in the semi-dark. Occsionally, I’ll drift off to sleep, but only briefly. When the session’s over, I feel refreshed and relaxed.

So, that’s what I’ve been enjoying lately. How about you?

Song(s) Of The Day: Happy Birthday, George Harrison!

Today would be George Harrison’s 78th birthday, so I built a short playlist (5 songs) to honor the occasion:

  1. "Something": George’s most famous song, from Abbey Road. It was one side of a double-A side single (with "Come Together"), and reached #1 in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. By the end of the ’70’s it had been covered oer 150 times.
  2. "Crackerbox Palace": A fun song (and even more fun video) from his 1976 album Thirty-Three & 1/3. It reached #19 on the Hot 100.
  3. "Blow Away": From his eponymous 1979 album. It was a song he wrote on a rainy day when the roof in his house was leaking. He realized that getting upset over it was just making it worse, and it reminded him that he loved everybody and he needed to be more optimistic. Reached #16 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the Adult Contemporary charts.
  4. "All Those Years Ago": From 1981’s Somewhere In England, this was George’s tribute to John Lennon. Ringo played drums, while Paul, Linda and Denny Laine sang backup, stoking rumors that the band was getting back together. Reached #2 in the US behind Kim Carnes’s "Bette Davis Eyes" and topped the Adult Contemporary chart as well as reaching #1 in Canada.
  5. "When We Was Fab": From 1987’s Cloud Nine, a fond look back at the days of Beatlemania. Co-written by Jeff Lynne, who produced the album, the song features Ringo on the drums and some elements of psychedelia and Indian music. The video is priceless. Reached #2 on the Mainstream Rock chart, #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and #7 on the Canadian Adult Contemporary chart.

Happy birthday, George!

Weekly Song Challenge, Week 8!

Time once again for Mary B’s Weekly Song Challenge! She gives us three prompts, we come up with a song to satisfy each of them.

A Body Part: The T-Bones, "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In)." Used in an Alka-Seltzer commercial in the ’60’s.

A Flower: Groucho Marx, "Show Me A Rose"

An Instrumental: Acoustic Alchemy, "Casino"

And that’s this week’s Weekly Song Challenge. Time to blow this popsicle stand!

Song of the Day: Dusty Springfield, “The Windmills of Your Mind”

Composer and pianist Michel Legrand would be 89 years young today. He wrote "The Windmills of Your Mind" for the 1967 film The Thomas Crown Affair with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and took home the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 1968. Noel Harrison sang it for the movie, but I’ve always liked Dusty Springfield’s cover, which reached #3 on the Easy Listening chart in 1969. (Sting sang the song for the 1999 remake starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo.)