Take Me Someplace

Here's my latest mix, which was inspired by yesterday's Top 5 On Friday! If you'd like any or all of the mix, let me know and I'll upload a zip file for you.

1 Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
2 The Beatles - Penny Lane
3 Counting Crows - Holiday In Spain
4 Elvis Costello - Chelsea (I Don't Want To Go)
5 Ivy - Ocean City Girl
6 Justin Hayward - Promised Land
7 Julia Fordham - Manhattan Skyline
8 Matchbox 20 - Rest Stop
9 Grey Eye Glances - The Lost Coast
10 Fountains of Wayne - Hackensack
11 Judith Owen - Train Out of Hollywood
12 The Wallflowers - Here in Pleasantville
13 Sarah Harmar - Silver Road
14 John Lodge - Natural Avenue
15 Vienna Teng - Mission Street
16 Cheap Trick - Ghost Town
17 The Mamas & the Papas - California Dreaming
18 Erasure - Solsbury Hill

I got my new camera!

Woot!

I'm so excited.

As I've said before, the camera has 10X zoom, 5 megapixels and many many fantastic settings to take even more beautiful pictures!

I'm going to be posting the first few shots from this camera over at my photoblog, so go over and check them out!

Peruse that blog and let me know if you see a difference in the picture quality.

Top 5 On Friday

Time for the 3rd of 3 Music Memoirs memes.

Top five songs with "places" in the title. (Cities, States, Countries etc..even if they don't exist)

1. Justin Hayward - London Is Behind Me

2. John Lodge - Natural Avenue (Shall we ask him were this avenue is? I think we should)

3. Adam Ant - Picadilly (I remember a day when Adam Ant was so incredibly hot. Age and drugs and depression have not made the antman age well)

4. David Bowie - Life On Mars

5. Julia Fordham - Manhattan Skyline

So many honorable mentions: Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom, Elvis Costello - New Amsterdam and Pony St and This Is Hell and Rocking Horse Road, The Monkees - Last Train to Clarksville. GAH! There are just way too many of these to pick just five!!

The Full Picture

I was going through my photos tonight and I realized that though I've often posted one particular photo of Justin Hayward over and over, I've never posted the full shot.

A shot that was taken by me in Nov of 2003, when Mr. Hayward called me darling...and I shortly thereafter, plowed headfirst into John Lodge.


Justin Hayward entering the Edward Powers Theater in Youngstown, OH. 

Sometimes disposable cameras kick butt. This was one of those times.

Getting There

Every so often I like to post a progress report on my seemingly never ending struggle to lose weight. Today is one of those days.

Starting weight: 155
Today's weight: 139

It's been quite awhile since I've been near the 135 range. In fact it's been about 3 years. Suddenly my goal seems obtainable. The first goal I have is to weigh 135 and that's only 4 small pounds away. I should hit that by the end of the month.

Who knows, maybe I'll weigh 125 for the trip to Atlantic City in July. It's looking more possible than it did last year. I'm determined to wear my little pink and black polka dot tankini this year, and what better place to wear it than the pool at the Borgata, right?

At this point life is looking better and at least my butt isn't nearly as large as it was last year. That's a huge plus for me. So it looks like I'm actually getting there!

Partying will occur when that scale does finally hit 135. In fact, I may do the happy dance to John Lodge's Words You Say! (And that's a hard song to do the happy dance to...but I figure...135 was hard to reach, so it's only fair. Right?)

Impulse Buy

OK, it's not really an impulse by, because I haven't bought it yet, but I've been coveting a new digital camera since last Saturday when I went to Best Buy.

Well it seems I get bonus Best Buy Rewards points for buying a digital camera this week. (Oye help rationalize that purchase for me) But wait there's more! Last night when I got home, there was a letter from Best Buy for me from the Rewards Program. It seems they decided to renew my membership for free and when I make my first purchase, they'll double the points of the purchase!

So guess who's going to Best Buy after work on Thursday to buy a new digital camera?

Yeah! You guessed it! ME!

Now here's hoping they have the camera I want when I get there.

Why do I want a new camera?

Well the one I want has 10X optical zoom and loads of other great features. But zoom is the feature I want, so I can take pictures of the

HUMP DAY HUNKS!

Like Elvis Costello



He's a recurring Hump Day Hunk!

Just like these guys


(special hugs go out to MoodyMistress for her Poughkeepsie picture)

Oh and this week, I'll add one more hunk to the Hump Day Hunk Harem

Simon Le Bon or as I like to call him, Sigh Moan.

Mmmm Nacho Night

Thanks to a decision to play latin music at work today, I was craving nachos and margaritas. Thankfully we have a sports bar near our Wal-Mart (aka Hell).

So off we went, in guise of buying "Smart Ones" breakfasts, but as soon as we bought those and some AAA batteries for my mp3 player, off we went to Red Dawgs.


A real margarita 


Yummy nachos! 

Now I have the strange desire to sing Livin' La Vida Loca. (Would someone please shoot me?)

Take Me Back Tuesday

Here's the 2nd of the 3 Music Memoirs memes for the week.

First recording artist you had a crush on.
Davy Jones from The Monkees

First band you obsessed over.
The Monkeees!



First song you wanted to forget
Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry, Be Happy
God I wanted to forget this song as well as go on a killing spree each and every time I heard the damn thing, which was like 5 times an hour, or so it seemed at the time!

Bonus First:

First song that you liked but none of your friends liked.
I'd have to say Culture Club's Karma Chameleon. No one I knew liked them, everyone was more into Michael Jackson and I couldn't stand him then, just as I can't stand him now.

Atlantic City Beauty

Is there any question as to my love for this fair New Jersey city? I didn't think so. I seriously hope next year I can go back when there isn't a concert to worry about. I just want to be able to enjoy the gorgeous sights of a beautiful city.

Now for those of you that haven't been to the wonderful shiny city, I'm going to post a link to some fantastic pictures.

Clicky here!

After seeing these I just want to go back even more. Take a look at the pictures of the Tropicana and the Borgata. The shots are fantastic, and I thought my shots from September were good.

Random 10

It's time to wrap up my weekend musically again and this weekend was pretty damn weird.

If you want to play along, just go over to Music Memoirs and leave a comment after you finish playing.

10 songs that sum up your weekend...or were on your weekend playlist...and one picture that relates back. (oh, and if you feel like it, tell us why you picked the songs you did)

The Moody Blues - Nervous - This has to do with buying those damn tickets)
Grey Eye Glances - Better Part Of Me - Part of my mp3 playlist
The Beatles - Rain - Because that's what it did most of the day on Saturday and it upset my car a great deal.
Duran Duran - One Of Those Days - This sums up Saturday to a tee and it's on my mp3 player too
Elvis Costello - Next Time Round
Elvis Costello - Crimes of Paris Both of these songs were on my mp3 playlist this weekend. Can you tell I like the album Blood and Chocolate?
Diana Krall - Narrow Daylight - This is my favorite Diana Krall song and it's been in my mp3 player for weeks now.
The Beatles - Your Mother Should Know - Got to have a song for mom!
Nick Lowe - The Rose of England - A great song to walk to and because I had Saturday off this week, my sister and I walked 2 miles each day.
The Wallflowers - One Headlight - I was pondering getting tickets to this concert that's at the Borgata on the 16th of July, but they were already pretty much sold out

And the image...ok images

This weekend was all about this guy



and this guy



Lodgey cleans up pretty nicely, doesn't he?

If you want any of the songs on the weekend playlist, just leave a comment with your email and I'll send them to you.

Atlantic City or bust

Hmmm I could have a bust? Maybe I should choose that?

Nevermind my ramblings, I have the room reservations made now. I'm happy as a clam. In two short (at least I hope short) months I'll be headed to Atlantic City, NJ to see The Moody Blues, prowl the boardwalk, and generally have as much fun as you can in about 72 hours.

Yay!

Now it's time to do a checklist for Atlantic City.

1. Lose another 10 - 15 lbs
2. Buy a few more clothes to take with me. (Bathing suit is bought, and it looks pretty darn good, if I do say so myself)
3. New digital camera (Oddly I want more pictures of Atlantic City than I do the band, assuming you can sneak a camera into the Event Center)
4. Trip tick from AAA from Atlantic City to Kennett Square, cos this girl is going to Longwood Gardens again.

You guys remember Longwood, right?


The Chime Tower 

Now I'm sure you do.

5. Buy SHOES!!!

OK, those are the major to do list items. I'm sure I'll come up with a zillion and one more before then. I think what I'm going to concentrate the most on is the lose 10 -15 more lbs thing.

Let the starvation begin!

I got my damn tickets!

We've got decent enough seats. On Mr Lodgey's (aka Brain's side), of course. I'm a happy enough camper at the moment, because our seats are conveniently on the aisle, so that we can possibly get pictures at the encore. (Assuming the venue isn't completely Nazi)

In celebration, I'm not going to talk about tickets anymore. I'm going to post a pretty picture of my Moody men and then pass out.

Let me up I've had enough

I'm already tired thinking about my day tomorrow. Concert ticket buying aside, I have so much stuff I have to do that I'm going to be dead to the world when I finish.

I have room reservations to make and shopping to be done.

Tomorrow is Best Buy and Target day. Just the thought of going to both of those places fills me with dread. Lots of dread. These places are zoos on Saturdays, but the way I work, makes it tricky to get there during the week, plus my nephews have gift cards they want to spend, so the weekend is the only time I can take them.

The fact that the Borgata and Ticketbastard are having issues with posting a sale date for the July 16th show is really annoying. That's the show I want to go to more than the July 15th show. Still there is no news on it. Perhaps they'll wait til the end of the month when I may have some more money for another ticket. HA! The date is confirmed with the venue, not Ticketbastard.

I would seriously like to have words with our esteemed monopoly on ticket sales agent.

Actually it feels more like both the venue and Ticketbastard have told me to and I'm generally sick of doing that.

The Elvis Costello tickets now don't go on sale to the general public until May 14, which is a Saturday, so if I want that extra ticket, my nephew has to be in charge of getting it.

By tomorrow at this time you'll be hoping this is what I'm saying

Top Five On Friday

I bet you're happy this isn't another post about concert tickets? Right? You know you are!

So here is this week's Friday meme by me and the other musical ladies at Music Memoirs

Top 5 songs you can't get out of your head (This could be catchy songs or just your top 5 songs of the moment)

1. Duran Duran - Bedroom Toys: I would just like to thank Simon Le Bon for this one. Once I started listening to Astronaut again, it stuck in my head and now it won't leave!

2. Amanda Marshall - Sunday Morning After: This song is hilarious. As proof, here are a few of the lyrics from the chorus.

"Oh my god, I woke up with a snake tattoo. Oh my god, and I think that my tongue's pierced too."

3. Billie Myers - Am I Here Yet (Return to Sender): This is an old favorite of mine.

4. The Moody Blues - Leave This Man Alone : This is one of my favorite pre - DOFP songs. Absolutely wonderful...and from the looks I see on this man's face at times, I'm thinking he still thinking that.

5. Justin Hayward - I'm Sorry: Possibly the worst song he ever recorded, but it's so damn bad it's good, just because I love hearing J'tin sing "Lopsided lovin' got me in the end!"

Note to Justin Hayward: Never ever accept a song written by Hall and Oates, m'kay!

Elvis Costello Tickets

Section 2, Row H, Seats 2 and 3

In other words 8th row center on the aisle.

I don't know if I'm spoiled or not, but I'm not in the least happy with these seats. In fact, I was tempted not to purchase them and wait for the actual sale next Friday. (I have to buy 1 more ticket that day anyway, because all the single seats were awful and I couldn't get 3 seats in a row that were good)

Now I have to go through ticketing buying hell another time.

I still have to buy the tickets for The Moody Blues on Saturday and then there's the amazing missing Moody Blues show which is still up in the air. Not to mention nothing has been decided about Duran Duran, who are coming in August, and who I would love to see. I wish they were a weekend show, but alas they aren't.

After these shows are over, I don't want to think about concerts for a long time. I just can't take the insanity anymore. I'm getting too old for this.

Tickets Tickets Tickets

And in honor of buying tickets for a certain Mr. Costello's Pittsburgh concert in a few short hours, I bring you a few of my favorite Costello songs.

What Do I Do Now

Tart

Blue Chair
(the downloads will be available for 7 days)

Deep Breaths

It's to a point where I've become obsessed with concert tickets. What? You haven't noticed? Between pre-sales and shows that may or may not exist, I'm going completely crazy.

Why you ask?

Because I'm building my summer around these two, possibly three events. Plus I've been spoiled lately by having seats within the first 15 rows of a concert. Plus..no, I don't think there's any other plus other than I just want to have my tickets so I can move on with my life until July.

I want to be able to relax without having dreams about concerts. OK, not dreams, nightmares! I had one last night and I blame that all on MoodyMistress, but that's ok, I forgive her for giving me one more set of concert palpitations!

Hey! My heart can take it! I think.

Until Saturday at sometime after 10 a.m. I will not be capable of doing much. I've got concerts on the brain....

Which brings me to the HUMP DAY HUNKS! Yes there's two!

Justin "Pinky" Hayward



Elvis Costello



Perhaps if I stare at these pictures long enough some of my anxiety over buying concert tickets will go away.

One Show Exists!

Today as I was perusing Ticketbastard, I finally got to see the "On Sale 5/7/05 at 10 a.m" for The Moody Blues in Atlantic City.

About damn time I say.

Most of their shows for the summer tour have been on sale already. There's only a few dates that didn't go on sale yet. (One of them is the second Atlantic City date which according to the venue is still TBA which kinda freaks me out)

On an even bigger plus note, the Elvis Costello show now doesn't go on sale now until the 13th of May which is a Friday (YAY) at 10 in the morning. Bless them.

Of course, this is cruel after they were giving me palpitations all weekend!

So at least I feel a little bit better now. Not much but a little.

Now if only I had a clue about that second Moody Blues show in Atlantic City, I'd be in good shape!

Let's just call them Ticketbastard, shall we?

All weekend I have been in a tizzy about the 3 major concerts I hope to attend this summer.

Why?

The tickets go on sale on the same day.

When?

Next Saturday, May 7.

Now let me continue my story. The Pittsburgh venue lists the time the tickets go on sale, which is nice and would be nicer if the ticketbastard site would list it too. I mean the tickets do go on sale in less than a week.

The Atlantic City venue is on as much crack as ticketbastard. They list only one of the two shows that The Moody Lunkheads..erm The Moody Blues are playing there. They list price, but nothing about the ticket sale time other than it's on ...yeah, May 7.

So it's quite possible that both shows are going on sale at the exact same moment.

Which is not a good thing in the eyes of this girl. It makes me have to choose between my two favorite artists. Which I don't want to do.

How can I choose between the Moody Blues and Elvis Costello?

Impossible!



I'm praying that there's an hour between the times that the three shows go on sale, because then I'll get my nephew to buy one set of tickets and I'll buy another and then take care of the later ticket sale as well.

But at this point, I don't have a clue of what I'm doing, because a certain ticket selling agent is not listing any of the concerts on their website yet!

Random 10

Time to wrap up my weekend, with the newest Music Memoirs Meme.

The idea is to list 10 songs that were on your weekend playlist or summed up your weekend and add one picture that relates back.

Erasure - A Little Respect (Some tuneage from Boston Beanery)
Nena - 99 Luft Balloons (Again the Beanery had some kick ass music)
Grey Eye Glances - Halfway Back (This song was on my mp3 player this weekend)
Gavin DeGraw - Chariot (Since hearing the song, I haven't been able to get it out of my head)
Justin Hayward - Forever Autumn N Trance Mix (Will someone please make me delete these? It feels sacriligious to be listening to remixes of this song, even if they are pretty)
Duran Duran - Bedroom Toys (This is my Duran Duran song of the moment and another tune that's on my mp3 player)
Rob Thomas - Lonely No More (OK, I love this song more than I should. It was on last week's playlist and it's still on this week's because it's so damn infectious!)
Elvis Costello - Blue Chair
Elvis Costello - My Blue Window (These two songs seem to tie into each other when played back to back. They even sound alike. Both were on my, Elvis tickets go onsale playlist of this weekend. Oh and did I mention his tickets go on sale at the same time as the Moody Blues tickets in Atlantic city?)
The Moody Blues - Talking Out of Turn (It's on my mp3 player, oddly it didn't come up while we we were driving to Uniontown or when we were coming back)


Where the food is good and the music is from the 80's!