Top 5 On Friday

The last of the Music Memoirs memes of the week!

Top five songs to get you heated up.

Peggy Lee - Fever

Arcadia - The Flame

Erasure - Too Darn Hot

Paul McCartney - Your Loving Flame

Cheap Trick - The Flame (Not to be confused with the Arcadia song)

Downloads are available for 7 days, so go ahead, snatch the songs, you know you want to!

Now it's time to ramble

~ I forgot to watch Hit Me Baby One More Time tonight. Shoot me. The Knack were on and I really wanted to see them more than anything else. Why oh why, can I not remember when my shows are on?

~ I'm completely addicted to the Janet Evanovich books. I don't really need an author addiction to go with my reading habit, but sadly I've gotten one. Buy all the Stephanie Plum series now! You won't regret it.

~ I finally get on a roll with a story that I'm working on and guess what? The computer's crap-o-meter kicks on. Two pages, poof! Can I just say ARGH! Please? This was the first time I thought the pages that the computer swallowed were actually good too! Which makes that a big bold ARGH!

~ I'm going to be gone most of the day on Saturday, because of the Stevie Nicks show, but my friend has roped me into a few other things, including, believe it or not, going to church to see a priest that once had a parish in our town. (A priest we've all remained friends with over the years)

What the heck am I going to wear that's comfortable but can go to mass and a concert. A concert outside, mind you. Post Gazette Pavilion. Yuck, but you go where you have to go for concerts these days.

~ Job number 2 is becoming more stressful, which is not something I find enjoyable. This job should not have stress. It's an easy, fun job most of the time. Right now, it's anything but.

I have to constantly remind myself that it's not polite to kill people, which I haven't had to do since I got out of retail.

I think that's enough rambling for now, don't you? No, don't answer that!

In PA we are supposed to have 4 seasons

I don't believe that anymore, unless you go by that joke that says we have these four seasons

Almost Winter
Winter
Still Winter
Summer.

That seems to be the case this year, since we even had some snow at the end of April and now it's June and we're up in the 90's. What happened to spring? Why did it pass us by?

This is southwestern Pennsylvania, I demand all four seasons! At least a little bit of four seasons even.

Because I'm really hot right right now and its not even 7:30 in the morning. The highs for the next 5 days are all in the mid 80's.

YUCK!

I want some relief and I want it now!

It's Hump Day!

Can I get a Squee out of the peanut gallery for the week being halfway over? My god, where is time going? Where is my life going?

Oh who cares really?

I get up. I go to job number 1. I come home and eat and possibly change clothes. Then I go to job number 2. That's my life right now.

Blech!

On a happy note this hump day means I'm halfway to the Stevie Nicks/Don Henley show on Saturday. From what my friend told me, I'm not going to be around much at all on Saturday. He's making the concert a whole day event. So my tiredness will extend into the weekend! Can I get a yee haa for that?

But I've still got three days to go until that show.

~big sigh~

But again to keep me going, I bring you some pictures of my hump day hunks.



Why has he never been on a merry go round when I was at an amusement park?



Aren't they precious? Now if Justin and John would just bring me some posies.

~even bigger sigh~

Happy Hump Day, all!

Take Me Back Tuesday

Here's the 2nd of 3 memes from Music Memoirs

1. Name three songs with the word 'time' in them.
Elvis Costello - Next Time Round
The Moody Blues - Strange Times
The Zombies - Time of The Season


2. Name three artists with time related words in their name.
The Time
Three Dog Night
Strawberry Alarm Clock

3. Name three albums with time related words in the name.
The Moody Blues - Strange Times
Justin Hayward - Night Flight
Elvis Costello - Punch The Clock

If anyone wants any of the songs, let me know and I'll upload them!

What keeps me going?

I keep asking myself that, especially now at about quarter after six in the morning, when I'm facing another very long day.

It's the little things that make me happy and keep me moving.

1. The tanning bed at work. (I go in for 15 minutes at the end of the day, it eases the mind)
2. My music. At least I know between jobs I can listen to my own mix CDs, and let me tell you that's a welcome thing. At the first job I have no radio at all and at the second job the music is all specially done (read killed) for the franchise. Yes, we have special CDs of songs covered badly by people that shouldn't be in the recording industry at all.
3. Books for when the world gets to be too much and I need an escape. Thank god for smut novels!
4. Thoughts of my vacation. I keep telling myself in a little over a month I will be in Atlantic City watching the Moody Blues perform the same 20 songs 2 nights in a row. (Life will be good then. Of course, I may not come back!)

See I need these things to keep me plugging along. 10 hours of work keeps me from writing and so much that I really want to do. The lack of writing is what depresses me the most. I have a story/novel that's very nearly completed and for the last two weeks I just haven't been able to write more than a few lines a day. That just makes me very sad. Which is why I need reminders of why I should keep plugging on no matter how tired I am.

Any other suggestions?

I Don't Like Mondays

But who really does?

Mondays mean the return to the 10 hour work day that I'm not too keen to start on. They also mean going to bed before 11, another thing I'm not too keen on.

Hmmm, from the sounds of things I'm not too keen on a lot of things.

But mostly, I'm not too keen on Mondays.

Now if John Lodge were around on Mondays...well, maybe I'd like them a bit more.



That is the only thing I like about this Monday. Nice thing to find in your inbox, right?

Random 10

It was an odd weekend. The weather was suddenly very warm and sunny. My brother visited from Canton, OH with his wife. I went to Wheeling Island, AGAIN!

What combination of tunes could possibly have made up my weekend?

Here they are:

The Moody Blues - Don't Need A Reindeer (It would probably be best not to ask why this song was on my playlist, but I'll explain anyway. I had a choice between 3 Moody Blues CDs to listen to on the drive from Wheeling back to Charleroi, and frankly I've heard enough of Long Distance Voyager and the Millenium Collection that I had to pick December! Yeah it's Christmas music. No, I didn't care)

Stereophonics - Have A Nice Day: I love this song. There are actually a few songs I like by these guys, which I find a bit odd, because they aren't the kind of rock music I usually listen to. This song however has been a favorite of mine since I saw them open for David Bowie last May and it sums up how my weekend turned out, 2 very nice days.

The Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday: I was having a lot of Monkee moments this weekend, as most of you saw in my last post. I've always loved this song.

The Beatles - I'm a Loser: That pretty much sums up me at Wheeling Island

Davy Jones - I'll Love You Forever: I found the demo version here on the mp3 page. Not the best quality, but still pretty. There are lots of other great Monkees tunes there too.

Justin Hayward/John Lodge - My Brother: The reason is obvious, my brother was home

Duran Duran - Bedroom Toys (Smoking Weed Remix): I downloaded this one recently and was playing it over and over. It's quite good, though they took out Simon's Oh my God, what's this? from the mix. Sad. Sad. Sad.

The Monkees - Listen To The Band: One of Mike Nesmith's best songs for the band.

The Drifters - Under The Boardwalk: Cos that's where I want to be!

Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love: Downloaded this one this weekend, possibly for the Summer Mix.

Now it's time for the picture!


Cos I'm going to see them in July!!!

If you'd like any or all of the songs in this Random 10, just give me a shout and I'll upload them for you.

A Monkee Moment

For some reason in the last few days I've been in the mood for The Monkees. I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with the summer. I don't really know. I have a mix CD in my car that has a pretty Monkees song on it. One of the bonus tracks from the Rhino reissues from years back.

Today I came across a great website.

There are some great pictures and video clips there.

~sigh~

I remember sitting for hours and hours watching the TV shows when I was in school. I remember going to countless concerts, 4 or 5, I think all throughout my life.

Why are my guys getting old?

WHY!!!!!

This cannot be.

I have Davy's official site linked here, and each time I click over, I get depressed. Davy Jones was my first crush, when I was five years old. I wanted nothing more than to walk down the aisle with him. He's not aging well. At least not in my opinion. (Not when compared to Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Paul McCartney etc.)



This is the Davy Jones I want to remember always.

Not this one



And this is one of the better shots I've found. It's from the Vh-1 Thanksgiving Special.

Dear God, don't let J'tiny Poo or Lodgey start looking like old men yet....PLEASE!!!

And I don't want to hear that all of them are nearing or our in their 60's yet!

~plugs ears~

My men are eternal I tell you.

Spring cleaning the computer

I'm trying to get my computer all cleaned up. I can't believe all the stuff I have on this thing.

OK, if some of you have seen my winamp playlist, you know how many mp3s are on this machine. Right now there are 4180 files. Eeep! It's time to make some room on the hard drive.

Then there's the matter of cleaning up the picture folders! ARGH! Because if you think I have a lot of mp3s, you should see my pictures folder! God, I've kept almost every photo I've taken with my digital cameras on my hard drive. I'm a daft fool, I know. I think it's probably time to move some of them to CDs and delete the stuff I'm not going to use. But how do you decide? Of course, how many pictures of baby birds can I take. (Ok, it's best not to ask, but I will say that I'm fast becoming a bird photographer extraordinaire)

This project is going to take forever.

SQUEE!!!

10th Row!

John's Side

The Happy Dance of Joy will now begin!

More Shopping

Oye! I think I spent my limit last night again. Bad me! Very bad me.

Last night was Walmart night.

Oh yeah, I like to live large!

Well, there were some good sales at Wally World so I ended up coming home with a cute black skirt, two pairs of pants, two t-shirts and a rather sexy tank top.

Oddly, my sister and I bought the same thing.

Erm..

So yeah, we may not be twins, but we're sure going to look like it in Atlantic City. Especially since she said she was going to get her hair cut before we leave.

Weirdness.

Now I have one last bit of shopping to do, and that's to buy my Moody Blues tickets today.

Now if we can have some positive vibes that I get better seats for this long awaited show, I would greatly appreciate it!

Top Five On Friday

It's the last Music Memoirs Meme of the week!

Top 5 Male Vocalists
(For each vocalist list one song or album that you feel is their best)

I don't think you'll find any surprises here.

1. Justin Hayward



Best song: Shame
Best album: The View From A Hill

(I didn't do The Moody Blues, because well, everyone is kind of a vocalist in their own right there)

2. Elvis Costello



Best Song: Crimes Of Paris
Best Album: Blood & Chocolate

3. Simon Le Bon



Best Song: Ordinary World
Best Album: The Wedding Album

4. John Lodge



Best Song: Talking Out Of Turn
Best Album: Long Distance Voyager (For his Moody Stuff, it's really a tie between this one and Strange Times)

5. Andy Bell




Best Song: I Love Saturday
Best Album: I Say I Say I Say

Songs of Summer

It's that time of year again where I sit down and try to come up with a good mix for the summer months.

You know, bouncy, catchy tunes that make you want to move or toss into your car cd player and turn it up full blast.

Yesterday, I found one such mix on my travels throughout the blogosphere, and frankly I was jealous of it. It had everything from Bananarama's Cruel Summer to the rather awesome cover by The Ataris of Don Henley's Boys Of Summer.

I have a few ideas, but I'm not sure.

I really loved the mix I made last year for summer.

Click here to view the tracks. And while you do that, I'm going to try to figure out what I'm going to put on this years mix. And even better still, I'm going to try not to use any of the songs from that mix I found yesterday. (Which will make this just a little bit harder for me)

Waiting For The Weekend

My brother is coming home this weekend, which is nice. I always enjoy visiting with the family. Plus he can usually sort out any computer issues I might have, or pass along any new programs I might find useful, but that's not the real reason I'm waiting for this weekend.

The July 16th Moody Blues show at the Borgata will finally go on sale this Saturday at 10 a.m.

I'm prepared to suffer the Slings and Arrows of ticket buying again.

I'm also prepared to get less than stellar tickets. It seems the Borgata doesn't like to sell those 85 dollar seats that are in the first few rows. They either pass them on to ticket brokers i.e. scalpers/bastards or save them for the high rollers, who have never heard of the Moody Blues.

Yay!

~cough~

But you know what. I've decided. This trip is going to be more about being in Atlantic City than the Moody Blues. I want to be there and enjoy myself. Not that I wouldn't mind being close enough to see the beautiful gleam in Lodgey's eyes or Justin's for that matter, but I want this to be a real vacation.

Of course, this real vacation is going to involve seeing the Moody Blues twice. Now if only the ticketbastard fairy would smile on me on Saturday I'd be ever so happy.

Cos I miss these guys

I'm so sleepy

Working a 50 hour work week is very tiring and after only a week, I'm feeling it. I was in bed at 10 o'clock last night! 10 o'clock! I don't go to bed that early, ever!

This was me last night

What's worse is it's 6 a.m. and I'm still sleepy. I'm awake but sleepy!

There's something really wrong with that. I did get 8 hours of sleep. It just doesn't feel like it was enough, and I'm not the type of person that lingers in bed either.

Unless of course these guys are with me.



Did you think I'd forget my hump day hunks?

Nah!

Even as tired as I am, I can't forget them. Though if I had them here right now, I might just use them both as body pillows and snuggle right up.

Take Me Back Tuesday

1. List your three favourite american artists, with songs by each.
Matchbox Twenty - All I Need
Cheap Trick - Tonight It's You
Keri Noble - I Won't

2. List three songs with the word America or American in them.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - American Girl
Duran Duran - American Science
Elvis Costello - American Without Tears

3. List three influential American songwriters.
Bob Dylan
Cole Porter
Woody Guthrie

So do you want to play along? Great! Go to Music Memoirs and leave a comment after you've posted your answers on your blog, or just go and post your answers in the comments on that site!

Can't Hit Next

Rob posted a list of songs a few weeks back of songs he has to play through every time he hears them. You just can't hit "next" or "forward" when these songs come on.

I was going through my mp3s and I've come up with my own mix of songs that I just have to listen to when they come on. Mind you, there are more than just these, but I think the songs I chose pretty much some up my very favorites.

Nick Lowe - Cruel to Be Kind: From the moment I heard this one, I was in love with it. It's just so damn catchy that you have to love it.

The Monkees - Daydream Believer: What can I say, I was going to marry Davy Jones when I was 5! This is his song, and hey, he's single-ish and living in PA these days. Maybe I have a chance now.

The Moody Blues - Your Wildest Dreams: The first Moody Blues song I ever heard and the video that helped my obsession with the 60's along. Thanks guys! I will stop in the middle of the street when I hear this song.

Three Dog Night - Joy To The World: It's fun! It's poppy! I love it!

The Beatles - No Reply: Basically I could list any of the songs prior to 1967 here. I love the early Beatles tunes and I can listen to those albums over and over, but this is one of my favorites from Beatles 65 (if you're in the US) or Beatles For Sale.

George Harrison - Dream Away: The theme from Time Bandits and just a beautiful, fun song. 3 words for you, I Love George

The Wallflowers - Three Marlenas: Can't explain why I love this one, but I do.

Justin Hayward - The Way Of The World: Gorgeous Man. Gorgeous Video. Gorgeous Song.

Duran Duran - Ordinary World: Best Duran Duran song ever. I don't care if all the Taylors weren't in the group when it came out. This is Simon's best.

The Hollies - Look Through Any Window: The British are coming! I love 60's Britpop, in case you hadn't noticed

Paul McCartney - Listen To What The Man Said: It's the wonder of it all baby...yeah yeah yeah.

Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me: Whine Robin whine! No one does it quite like Mr. Zander.

Erasure - Reunion: One of my best friend's gave me a copy of Wonderland back in the early 90's, and this was the song that I played over and over until the cassette was ready to die. It doesn't really fit with the rest of the tracks, but I can't deny my love for Erasure.

Rod Stewart - Downtown Train: I almost bought the Storyteller boxset because of this song. Thank god for highlights discs!

John Lennon - Nobody Told Me: John returning to his snarky best. Mark Chapman be damned for taking away the man when he was returning to top form! I hope he never sees parole!

John Lodge - Street Cafe: Nope it doesn't make any sense, but it's a Lodgey song and one I absolutely adore. When it comes on, I bop along to the music and wish I were in the video with the sexy beast known as John Lodge.

Herman's Hermits - Just A Little Bit Better: Did I mention loving 60's britpop? I think so.

And here's a zip file of all the songs

clicky here
(download will be available for 7 days)

The Piggy Bank Is Broke

Woah! I did some spending this weekend. More spending than I had planned on doing, but oh were the sales good everywhere!

Here's the damage:

Dots

One pair brown wide legged pants
One brown and gold low necked tank
new wallet
2 pairs of earrings

Kaufmann's

Black and white initial purse (Finally a purse with an "A" on it)
Sexy little mini skirt and white tank
Matte jersey print skirt and matching top and also an extra black top to give me an extra outfit

JC Penney's

3 pairs of shorts (short shorts...khaki, demin and green)
2 white t - shirts and a peach t - shirt
3 funky print tanks
1 gorgeous lime green studded t - shirt
3 other fancy t's

Yeah, it was a great sale weekend! I think I have my wardrobe ready for Atlantic City! Can I go now? I don't want to wait. Get my Moody Men together...bring them to the shore and I'll be there!

Random 10

Here's my weird wacky playlist for the weekend.

Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight
George Harrison - Bangladesh
The Moody Blues - Ride My See Saw
Nick Lowe - The Rose Of England
The Beatles - The Night Before
The Moody Blues - Never Comes The Day (France 1969) You wouldn't believe how many times I've listened to this song
Duran Duran - Bedroom Toys (demo) The demo is better than the version that appears on the album Astronaut
Matchbox Twenty - Last Beautiful Girl I love this song more than I should
Counting Crows - Accidently In Love This song is too catchy!
The Moody Blues - Higher and Higher

Before I post a picture, let me tell you, after spending an evening at Wheeling Island I do not want to have dreams where I'm in Atlantic City hunting down the Moody Blues only to find the wrong band member.

Yeah, I had a dream about Graeme Edge last night! Not exactly my kind of dream. But oh well. That's why I included his song on the playlist.

Most everything else on this list came from the music we heard at various times during our outings. I only wish I could have included this one song in the playlist. All I know is it was 60's britpop and gorgeous. Almost sounded like Herman's Hermits. Sadly, I didn't know the song at all.

Now for the picture


Wheeling Island at night 

I was trying to see how well my camera took pictures at night. I'm still not good with that "Night" setting.