Lists

Right now I have more lists than I can stand. In my infinite boredom I started to write down the CDs that I really want to buy, making sure to put the new albums that I know are coming out in the next few months on the list as well.

Right now the list is made up of at least 30 CDs that I really want. I haven't put the 2 or 3 Elvis Costello reissues on the list. I have the discs already. Someday I'll get the newer versions, with the bonus discs. The sad part is that half this list is Cliff Richard. Damn him for being so prolific in the past 40 years. And while I'm at it, damn the Moody Blues for being such a bunch of lazy bums.

I wonder if I'll ever make a dent in this list.

I also have a "to do" list. At least one in my head, and I wish I hadn't started thinking about it, because there's a snowball's chance in hell of me ever getting more than one or two things on that mental list accomplished. Unless of course the days get longer by a few hours.

Why do I never put "Sleep 10 hours" on these lists? Because of all the things I need to get done this weekend, sleep is what I'd like to do the most.

Top 5 On Friday

One more meme by the ladies at Music Memoirs. (In this case, by me)

Top 5 "Pop" Songs

Cliff Richard - Living Doll
This song is so catchy and so typical of early rock n' roll.

The Beatles - Please Please Me
The Fab Four wrote the best pop music ever.

The Monkees - She Hangs Out
This one may not have made the top of the charts, but it's one of my favorite songs from Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones. There are several versions of this one too, but I like the album version best.

Elvis Costello - Everyday I Write The Book
This has always been one of my favorite Elvis Costello songs.

Erasure - Who Needs Love Like That
80's cheesy pop. It doesn't get much better than this.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about The Music Whore

1. I've met several celebrities in the last few years. The Moody Blues, Elvis Costello, Eddie Izzard and Malcolm Gets (from the 90's comedy Caroline In The City) And I have pictures to prove it too. (Elvis and John Lodge give wonderful hugs too)

2. The first album I was given was The Monkees Greatest Hits and the first album I stole (from my brother) was The Beatles 65.

3. When I was little my favorite shows were the Monkees and the Beatles Cartoons.

4. At one point I knew almost all of the dialogue in the movie Help!

5. The video for The Wild Boys by Duran Duran used to scare the hell out of me. (I was an easily frightened 11 year old)

6. Until 2003 the only Moody Blues CD I owned was The Greatest Hits Album from 1989.



And I only listened to two songs on it; Your Wildest Dreams and I Know You're Out There Somewhere

7. I caught Rick Nielson's guitar pick at the Cheap Trick concert I attended in Pittsburgh at Metropol in the 90's. I almost got mauled for it, because it literally landed on my head!

8. One of the best concerts I attended was by The Devlins, an Irish band made up of two adorable brothers. The show was at Rosebud and it only cost $5!! The Devlins were opening for Paula Cole and she got to do SNL and cancelled her Pittsburgh show to do that, leaving her opening act stranded.

9. In my high school years, musical theater was my favorite thing. I've seen Phantom Of The Opera, Cats, Les Miz, Aspects of Love, The Secret Garden, Tommy, Chess, The Music Man, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and 1776. If I had the money I'd go to see Phantom this month in Pittsburgh, but it's not gotten the best reviews this time, so I'll pass.

10. David Bowie moves around entirely too much to get good pictures of him when you are in a Security Nazi setting.



Damn Security Nazis.

11. I finally found my VHS copy of Xanadu. Needless to say it's a cheesy moviefest night. I don't know why, but this movie has always been a favorite of mine, along with the music.

12. Olivia Newton John was my idol in grade school.

13. I spent a lot of time today trying to decide what album I'm going to buy next. I'm not sure which one it's going to be yet, but I'm thinking it's either Grey Eye Glances - Songs Of Leaving or Cliff Richard - Wanted.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
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Emily
Jess
Harry
Kimmy
Karen
Mike
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Worries

My dad is going to have surgery on Monday. It's outpatient surgery for a skin cancer that's benign. Essentially it's nothing to worry about, but I am.

It's an all day thing from what we've been told and my brother's driving home from Canton to be able to take my dad, as I can't have the day off and someone has to be there to drive.

This whole situation is giving me a case of the nerves, and my nerves haven't really completely settled from past events. Surgeries and whatnot remind me of our mortality, specifically that of my parents. My dad will be 80 in April and my mum just turned 72 in December, and I'm just going to be 32 in July.

I hate it when my brain focuses on stuff like, how long will I have with them, or what will I do if something happens to either one of them, because truth be told, I don't know how I would cope without either of them. They both are such a huge part of my life.

Somehow I've got to focus on the fact that this is really a simple yet long procedure and likely by the time I'm home from work on Monday, he'll be home resting on the couch.

The Soundtrack Of My Life?

I did a long version of this meme/mix cd/playlist thing a long time ago. The CD came out quite nicely. The other day I saw another version of it posted on someone's livejournal, so I thought, "what the hell," I'll do it again.

Opening credits The Beatles - Nowhere Man (Hey, this is my theme song)
Waking up The Moody Blues - Dawning Is The Day
Average day Paul McCartney - Another Day
First date Keri Noble - Talk To Me
Falling in love Renee Olstead - A Love That Will Last
Love scene Nick Lowe - Let's Stay In And Make Love
Fight scene Elvis Costello - I Hope You're Happy Now
Breaking up Julia Fordham - Manhattan Skyline
Getting back together Lisa Stansfield - Somewhere My Baby Waits For Me
Secret love Duran Duran - Someone Else, Not Me
Life's okay Sarah Brightman - Mr. Monotony
Mental breakdown Danny Elfman - It Only Makes Me Laugh
Driving Cliff Richard - What Car?
Learning a lesson Bernie Barlow - Had Hard Times
Deep thought Justin Hayward - Shame
Flashback The Monkees - The Girl I Knew Somewhere
Partying Erasure - Love To Hate You
Happy dance ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me
Regreting Ray Thomas - Didn't I
Long night alone Annie Haslam - The Angels Cry
Death scene Art Garfunkel - Bright Eyes
Closing credits Midge Ure - I See Hope In The Morning Light

If you want any or all of these songs let me know and I'll upload them for ya.

Hump Day Hotties

Here come the hunks! I've been in such a funk for the last few months that I need the sillyness that posting pictures of my favorite men provides. All I can say is that the last job I had really took my sanity and I'm having a hard time regaining it.

I still need all the little things that can bring me some joy and those things are music and pictures of my hump day
OK, not just a hottie, hotties. Cos I wouldn't want any of my hunks to feel neglected!



John is such a shiny happy man!

Looks like Justin's still feeling squirrelly.


Elvis cleans up nicely, doesn't he?


I think I need a drool bucket now.

I Need A Monkees Fix!

Why can't they sell the DVDs to this show seperately? I used to have a zillion vhs tapes with the shows on them, from back in the day when they were on Mtv and Nick at Nite. Sadly those tapes are long gone. I have one tape that I nabbed from my sister and another one I bought ages ago. Neither have any of the episodes I want to see.

At this point though, I will just watch the episodes that I have. But it just won't be the same. Sadly the episodes I have don't even have many good songs in them. At least one has Daydream Believer, but it doesn't fit the episode well.

I love the second season episodes, especially the Christmas episode and The Devil and Peter Tork. One day I'll shell out the money for a VHS copy of the Christmas show, but to get the other episode I have to buy the 2nd season box set which costs around $60.

Why can't I be allowed to pick and choose which episodes I want! Why do I have to have all of them or none? This is a gross injustice!

And while I'm bitching, there isn't an album that has the 3 songs from the Then And Now Best of compilation anymore. Remember Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere, Kicks and That Was Then, This Is Now? That compilation is out of print and the Listen to the Band Box Set is out of print too. Thus making the only song of the three available That Was Then, This Is Now. (which is on most of the newer greatest compilations)

There should be more love for the Monkees, I tell you!

The World Is Made For Morning People

Of which I am not one, no matter how hard I try to be. My body does not enjoy going to bed before the 11 o'clock news is over, in fact it rebels against it. It also rebels against getting up at 5:30 a.m. so that I be coherent by 8 when I have to be at work.

I know some people just need a short period of time between wakeup and work. I'm not one of them. I need to be conscious or my day is thrown off kilter. So I have to be awake well over an hour before I get to work.

YUCK!

This is even worse on these chilly mornings we've been having lately.



Who wants to get out of bed then? Not I that's for sure. I'd rather be in bed having sweet dreams about these guys.







When is the world going to learn that the day should not begin until noon!

Something's Missing

Polly made an awesome set of Beatles solo mixes.

I did a compilation awhile back. My selections were here and here.

But seeing Polly's mixes, I started to think about mine again. Then I got to looking at my music files. For some reason I don't have nearly enough of John, and Ringo's stuff on my hard drive. Actually truth be told, I don't have alot of their stuff on CD. My Ringo Starr collection was mostly on vinyl and cassette, and John's stuff was almost all on vinyl. I never got around to buying the CDs. The same can be said for Paul, though I have a good portion of his material on CD. I was always better at getting Paul and George's material. (Simply cos I loved them best)

I have a feeling in the next few days I'm going to be making a new Beatley playlist, cos I'm feeling inspired now.

And So This Is Monday

I don't know where the weekends go anymore. I blink and it's Monday. Yuck! I'm not among the lucky ones that have today off, so I'm stuck getting ready to go to work on this very cold Monday morning.

I could have used some more sleeping time. But who doesn't need more sleep.

I think trying to get away from the football game really rushed yesterday along.

See, when it comes to football, I love the Steelers, but I'm a jinx if I watch them. The Colts scored most of their points while I was in TGIFridays having dinner. I couldn't not watch the game then, because I was surrounded by TVs and rabid drunk Steeler fans.

Thankfully we left in time for the Steelers to prevent the Colts from taking the game away from them. Now if I can only hide from the game next weekend long enough for them to beat Denver!

I did learn the best way to avoid a football game is to stay at home with the TV off, because everywhere we went had the game on.

Now I have to start a new week, while I'm still wondering what happened to the old one.

Random 10

This weekend was full of musical surprises. Thanks to Yvonne, who has one of the most wonderful Moody Blues video sites, I now have a great place to download mp3s cheaply.

Take that I-fucking-tunes.

For a little over $1.50 I purchased Cliff Richard's Wanted CD. Which will keep me going until I can buy a tangible copy. Cos I'm like that. I like to have stuff I can see as well as hear.

But enough with that...on with the music!

Sarah Brightman and Cliff Richard - Only You
(On Sarah's new CD Love Changes Everything...yes another Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection)

Elvis Costello - Battered Old Bird
(I'm still listening to that mix cd I made ages ago)

Erasure - Lie To Me
(A fantastic b-side to their single Don't Say You Love Me)

Keri Noble - Butterfly
(I wish her new CD would come out soon!)

The Moody Blues - Legend Of A Mind
(One of the many songs looping on my winamp this weekend)

Cheap Trick - If You Want My Love
(I really wish these guys would come back to the Pittsburgh area. OK, I want them to play the Mountaineer in WV, so I have an excuse to go. Plus I love Cheap Trick!)

Elvis Costello - Peace In Our Time
(Yes, I bought the expanded version of Goodbye Cruel World today!)

Michael Ball - Life On Mars
(Yes, that's the David Bowie song. I was traumatized and yet amused at the same time.)

Nick Lowe - Freezing
(Because it's so appropriate for the sudden change of weather)

Grey Eye Glances - Snow
(We had some flakes this weekend.)

And now for the picture



It's a pretty recent shot of Davy Jones that I found trolling the internet this past week. He looks rather lovely in red silk. Not bad for 60. If he asked, I'd still marry him.

As always if you want any of these songs, just ask and I'll upload them for ya.

Borders Here I Come

I can't remember when I was last in Borders. It's been a few years since I've been to the mall at South Hills. I just don't have a reason to drive that way.

Today I have a reason. I have a 25% off coupon for any cd and a 25% off coupon for any book. Plus I want to get away from the Steelers/Colts game. I'd rather be doing some mindless shopping as opposed to watching the home team face trouncing.

I have my lists of CDs that I'm looking for. I'm not holding out much hope for finding the Cliff Richard CDs I want, but I figure I'll at least find one of the Elvis Costello reissues I need. Borders is pretty good for having those, though none of the other music shops seem to, including Best Buy. In fact, I have to say, for Elvis Costello, Best Buy has the worst selection.

On a side note, I saw The Moody Blues - Sur La Mer at Walmart on Friday for a mere $6.99. Funny Walmart stocks a lot of their back catalog but they never sold December.

A rousing WTF for that.

It's going to be nice to have a day out. I haven't really been anywhere since long before Christmas. (Unless you count Walmart, which I don't) If I'm lucky, maybe I'll get to Applebee's or somewhere similar for dinner. Hmmm. Now I'm really looking forward to leaving.

Obsessing Again

Ok, it's a given I'm obsessing over this man right now.



When I start an obsession I have to have everying that the particular artist recorded, NOW!

Cliff is proving a challenge, considering that most people in the US don't seem to know that he exists let alone is a pretty darn good pop singer.

So far I own

Cliff Richard - The Album
Cliff At Christmas
Songs From Heathcliff
Something's Going On

I also have 2 best of collections that some lovely people sent me to keep me from going insane.

I need more Cliff! And I'm sick of waiting for it.

~pouts like a small child~

I particularly want a CD Single that has his version of ABBA's Lay All Your Love On Me. That has to be an amusing song. But now I'm waiting on one disc that should have arrived already and another that has to be refunded, since it never shipped. So I should actually have 6 Cliff CDs, but no! The CD gods are against me! I must suffer and wait for Cliff Goodness.

This is kinda like waiting for Moody Blues tickets to go on sale, only I don't get to go to Atlantic City once I finally acquire the goodness.

Saturday Laziness

This is my quasi-pj day. I'm not doing much today except laundry, church, and running off to the hairdresser to get my hair tamed. I had super short Annie Lennox style hair this summer and I'm growing it out now. It's not fun. I'm half tempted to tell her to cut it all off again. But that's neither here or there or anywhere.

I have nothing really important to do today, so I'm going to bask in my laziness and catch up on some reading, listen to music and work on a writing project that I've been neglecting for the last few months. If I get really industrious I might even take upon a cleaning project, but I'm not holding out any hopes for that.

I'm in the mood for lazy right now. Tomorrow I have plans to head out to Borders and pick up one of the CDs on my growing list, particularly the expanded edition of Elvis Costllo's Goodbye Cruel World.



Mostly because I want the demo versions of two songs on this CD; Peace In Our Time and Inch By Inch. I like to describe Inch By Inch as being as sexy as The Moody Blues - Deep. So now you know what kind of song that is, right?

I've been trying to avoid buying the reissues, because I have the albums when they were reissued by Rykodisc back in the early or mid 90's but Rhino's done such a great job with the bonus discs, well, I'm getting sucked into having multiple copies of most of his discs.

I can't hold out any hope that there would be a Cliff Richard CD at Borders to bring me joy. That man's music is difficult to come by and I've had 2 really bad experiences at Half.com over the holidays, which has left me feeling a bit weary of ordering anything right now.

~sigh~

For now, let the laziness commence!

Anyone Read This?

I belong to the Zooba book club. Every month I get a new hard back for $10.55. Not a bad deal.

This past month I got an Anne Rice novel that I had never heard of.



It's about the life of Christ before his ministry began.

Now I'm Catholic, so I'm sure the Church has probably said some things about this book, but I believe in freedom of thought. After all, though I love my church and I'm a fairly good Catholic, I don't always agree with the things that the Vatican has to say. But who agrees with anything 100%.

But regardless, I'm looking forward to reading this. Very little is known about the life Christ led before he began teaching. So this book is likely going to be interesting.

Quite a change of topics from the Vampire Chronicles, doncha think?

Top 5 On Friday

It's time for another Music Memoirs meme.

Top 5 "royal" songs. (songs with kings, queens etc in the title)

I'll start out with the obvious.

The Moody Blues - King and Queen.

Elvis Costello - Any King's Shilling

The Monkees - All The King's Horses
(This one is a huge favorite of mine)

XTC - King For A Day

David Bowie - Bring Me The Disco King
(This is from the awesome Reality disc)

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about The Music Whore

1. Music has played a huge part in my life starting when I was 5 and fell in love with the Monkees. I was a few years too late for the mayhem they caused in their heyday. I discovered them in 1979. Davy Jones was my first crush.

2. I saved for months and months to get a CD player when I was in grade school. I paid for most of it with quarters that I had rolled. My first CDs were Then And Now the Best of the Monkees and 2 of the Beatles CDs that had just started to be reissued on the new CD format. (Lordy I feel old now)

3. The video for Your Wildest Dreams by the Moody Blues has always made me cry. I also always wanted to be able to dance like they did in the video.

4. Duran Duran weren't favorites of mine until the recorded they Wedding Album in the early 90's. After that they became one of my biggest musical obsessions. I'm still very sad about missing their show in Pittsburgh last summer.

5. I've had two hugs from Elvis Costello and one hug from John Lodge and a few kisses from Graeme Edge. Now you know why they call me the Music Whore.

~wink wink --- nudge nudge~

6. The last CD I bought was Cliff Richard - The Album, because I wanted one song from the disc and there are no download sites in the US that supply his music.

7. My CD collection is so large it takes up most of the space in my computer room. There are over 3000 CDs. I haven't counted in such a long time, so I don't know where I stand now.

8. I've seen the Moody Blues in concert more than any other band; 6 times in the last 3 years. The next band in line is the Monkees. I've seen them four times.

9. I prefer to see concerts in venues that aren't around Pittsburgh. Atlantic City casinos seem to be the nicest places to see a show.

10. The only reason I even know who Elvis Costello is, is because he worked with Paul McCartney. I bought Spike because of the songs that Paul co/wrote with him, and my favorite song on Paul's Flower's In The Dirt CD is You Want Her Two, which is a great duet.

11. There are two bands that I desperately want to see in concert and my chances of seeing them are pretty dim; Erasure and Grey Eye Glances.

12. A vast majority of the stories/novels I've written have been inspired by songs.

13. My favorite movie of all time is The Beatles Help!
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. (leave your link in comments, I'll add you here!)
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Strange Morning

It started out with me waking up not knowing what day it was. I hate that. I've slept so poorly this week, that last night when I finally fell asleep it was a straight through the night sleep. I haven't had one of those in quite awhile. I usually wake up at least once about an hour or so before the alarm.

When my eyes popped open a few minutes before the alarm, I had no clue what day it was, I was really convinced it was Friday. I really wish it was Friday. I'm more than a bit ready for the weekend.

Worse still there's an ambulance down the block right now with it's lights flashing. I realize that whatever's going on has nothing to do with me, but ambulances make me nervous, especially since I've had to deal with them a few times with my mother.

This is so not the way I want to start the morning.

Can I go back to bed and start this day over?

Or better yet, can I go back to bed and wait til tomorrow to start another day?

A Few Things

~ If someone mentions my biological clock ticking one more time, I swear I'm going to do someone bodily harm. I don't have one. The Music Whore does not want to have children, now or ever. I am allergic to children, they make me break out in hives. Nor do I want a husband, unless he's fabulously wealthy, and since my hamlet of Charleroi on Mon is running short of those men and the fair city of Pittsburgh sandwiched between 3 Rivers is also running short, I think I'll pass on the marriage thing.

~ My Cliff Richard Together CD is on backorder. Since it's a Christmas CD I decided to cancel that order and wait til later in the year to get that one. Why is my Cliff Goodness being kept from me?

~ Grey Eye Glances are playing 2 more shows in PA. None of which are anywhere near me. It would be so grand if my favorite New Jersey band would cross that mountain range and come near Pittsburgh. Surely there must be someone in this area that's heard of them besides me. They are an excellent band and everyone should know and love them, damn it!

~ I bought the Zen Micro and I've not used it once. It's sitting in my drawer. I have nowhere to take it. This is a sad waste of nearly $200.

~ I found a PA tourism book at work. I now have a strong desire to get into a car and drive east! Specifically here. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll make it there this summer.

Bring Out The Dancing Hunks!

OK, the hunks aren't dancing. At least mine aren't. Most of my hunks are challenged when it comes to dancing. But it's Hump Day, so that doesn't make any difference. The week is officially at it's midpoint and the Hump Day Hunks must come out and play.


Simon Lebon is looking particularly hunky today.


Even though it's not cold in PA right now, I wouldn't mind snuggling up to Cliff Richard.




And it's impossible to forget these two lovely hunks.