Things I'm Thankful, And Not Thankful For...

 Hello, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Since the Holiday season is here at last, I'd thought I would share some things I am thankful, and not thankful for, this year. So, before everyone munches down on their turkeys later today, here's my two cents, which I don't think even covers a morsel of turkey dinner in today's economy.

First and foremost, I'm thankful to be spending another Thanksgiving on this Earth, and in fairly good health. Plus, I get to spend it with family, which is an improvement over last year since eldest sister was in the hospital. I'm thankful for the friends I have made this year, and I hope to see one of them in the coming week (with presents in tow). I'm not thankful that the friendship didn't wind up into something more, then again, I'm sort of a unicorn when it comes to relationships, apparently, I deserve someone ultra-special. I'm thankful that I live in Florida, where the temperature for Thanksgiving will be in the low 80's. I'm also, not thankful that I'm living in Florida, where we have to endure at least two more years of a facist, bum-ass governor.

I'm thankful as a wrestling fan that we have a new AEW Champion. I'm not necessarily thankful that we didn't get to see said champion tonight, and that the lead-off segment of tonight's episode of Dynamite was kind of a dud. I'm thankful that I can write on this blog, I'm not thankful that I most of the time use an eight-year-old laptop that's on its last legs and shuts downs unexpectedly every ten minutes or so. No, I can't get a top of the line one either because 1) my eldest sister is a petty witch and 2) I have to wait until Christmas to get her hand me downs. She's also a big reason why I'm still single, because in HER eyes, nobody is good enough for her and that every woman in the area wants to do nothing but take advantage of me. I hope that changes next year, unless a Christmas miracle comes along.

I'm thankful for NFL football tomorrow, and even MORE thankful that Bebe Rexha is performing. I'm also not thankful for global football tomorrow, for I dislike where the World Cup is taking place this year. I think I've only seen about fifteen minutes of this year's tournament, because my aforementioned sister was hell-bent on me climbing my somewhat crippled ass in the attic to help haul down Christmas ornaments. I swear, she ruins everything. But seriously, have you heard what officials in Qatar have gotten away with this week? First, you can't drink alcohol. Second, you can't wear certain clothing, third, you can't even say the word "love." I mean how draconian and silly is that. If I were czar of all sports, I would never allow any nation from that part of the world to ever host any major international sporting event again. Kind of reminds me of my upbringing, no fun or no sin, go to church whenever possible or pay the consequences. Geez, even nowadays, I'm not supposed to have a life; it's almost cost me certain friendships, on a side note, none of my sister's "friends" come around to visit. Gee, I wonder why?

(too bad she isn't available) 

Finally, I'm glad I was able to get this entry in tonight. I wanted to do some writing earlier this week, but just wasn't feeling it for a variety of reasons. Nothing really good happened to me over the weekend; but it felt like I was expecting something to happen. On the flip side, nothing bad happened either. Second, I my sleep schedule has been all over the place this month, and for the better part of this year. Having not one, but two heartbreaks this year has really set me back a little bit. Nonetheless, I have persevered. I really think that the entirety of this year has been one of the worst in my memory. At least since I was in the Navy. I'm hard pressed to think of a more disastrous year in my lifetime, maybe 2017, when I lost virtually everything and had a stroke on top of that; at least I survived. If not for this blog to be honest I don't know how I would have coped with this year. Maybe I should listen to "A Long December" by Counting Crows. Hope things can turn around quick if not this month, next year.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

CT

Flashback: November 17, 1995

 Hello everyone, except for you, Ticketmaster. I see you're up to your old tricks again; remember what they did to Pearl Jam years ago? Well, in case you've been living under a rock this week, the outfit decided to shake down fans of Taylor Swift in anticipation of her "Eras" tour that's set to kickoff next year. I hear that LiveNation, a subsidiary of iHeart (iHate) Media, now owns them. I already have beef with that outfit for ruining music on the radio, but that's for another entry in this blog, if I haven't covered it already. 

Anyway, for this flashback we're going back to the year that the linked Pearl Jam story was written, 1995. If my memory served me correct, that month was rather special, as all my brothers and sisters traveled from Florida to North Carolina (I was on liberty from my ship at that time) for my father's 75th birthday. At the time, I thought it was the first time since my dad married my stepmom in 1982, just two months after my mom passed, that all my siblings had been together for an occasion. I apparently couldn't remember by high school graduation just three years beforehand, then again, my brain was kinda mush with depression and anxiety back then; no wonder I my memory was rather spotty back then. Enough of my flapping my gums about my memories though, here were the Top 40 songs (kinda*) according to Radio & Records Magazine for November 17, 1995.

(*note: this is a modified top forty, as R/R Magazine back in 1995 did not have a recurrent rule, so I retroactively created a 20/20 rule for that period of time; any songs that fell below #20 with more than 20 weeks in top 40 were eliminated)

40. You Are Not Alone by Michael Jackson. Cringe-worthy video with then-wife Lisa Marie Presley. Incidentally, "Thriller 40" comes came out today to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the greatest selling album of all time.

39. I Wish You Well by Tom Cochrane

38. Hook by Blues Traveler. This was the follow-up to "Run Around," which I think was the basis for R/R eventually enacting a recurrent rule for their charts, as it wound up on the official chart for nearly a year, which was insane for that time. By the way, Paul Schaffer made a cameo in the video to this song.

37. Missing by Everything But The Girl. Kind of a microcosm of my love life, I have everything but the girl, because some people think I'm missing (and no, my siblings don't help me at all. They think I should just be retired instead of dating).

36. A Girl Like You by Edwyn Collins. Oe of my favorites, and no, I haven't met one like that...yet.

35. When Love And Hate Collide by Def Leppard. This was their last top-25 hit. They had a minor hit in 1999 and that was it for them.

34. One Of Us by Joan Osborne. Listen to the spoken word verse at the very beginning of the long version of this song. I swear the mother of someone I used to know from Lake County, FL sang that part.

33. Tell Me by Groove Theory

32. We've Got It Goin' On by Backstreet Boys. Yes, this was the Orlando-based outfit's first chart single, though I don't remember it getting any airplay in Norfolk, but I do remember hearing it when I traveled to Florida for Christmas leave.

31. Ants Marching by Dave Matthews Band. In Virginia of course, they were the greatest thing ever (because they started at UVa). In Chicago, not so much...

30. Pretty Girl by Jon B.

29. Dreaming Of You by Selena. I wonder how bright her star would have shone in the US had the president of her fan club not murdered her just as her debut album was about to come out.

28. I Wanna Be With U by Fun Factory. They had a hit called "Close To U" earlier that year that got tons of airplay in Norfolk, but apparently nowhere else.

27. Lump by Presidents of the United States of America. I've had several lumps of that variety in my head, some for decades.

26. Solitude by Edwin McCain. Before he hijacked the top 40 in 1998, with "I'll Be," he had this song which prevents him from being a one-hit wonder.

25. Time by Hootie & the Blowfish. Time, why DO you punish me?

24. Your Little Secret by Melissa Etheridge. I wouldn't mind being someone's little secret. 

23. Let Me Be The One by Blessid Union of Souls

22. Do You Sleep by Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories. Actually Lisa, not really. Not this whole year at least.

21. Exhale (Shoop Shoop) By Whitney Houston

20. Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio. From the movie "Dangerous Minds" starring Michelle Pfiffer. We of course lost Coolio this year. Rest In Peace.

19. You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette. So let me get this straight, supposedly she was fuming over Dave Coulier of "Full House" fame and that's what led to this song? Cut. It. Out!

18. I'd Lie For You (And That's The Truth) by Meat Loaf. Another artist we lost this year, and interestingly enough, this song could be used for Donald Trump's upcoming presidential campaign. Good luck with that, Donald!

17. Good Intentions by Toad The Wet Sprocket

16. Roll To Me by Del Amitri. A band that I thought would have had more staying power instead of the mid-to-late 90s

15. Kiss From A Rose by Seal. I don't care what anyone says, to me, the BAtman franchise peaked with this movie. Too bad Val Kilmer didn't do another Batman movie, but at least we got Alicia Silverstone for the next one, forgettable as that one was.

14. One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. My friend Sarah in Oklahoma started belting out THAT DAMNED SONG (not "One Sweet Day," that other one) last night on TikTok and now I have a headache.

13. You'll See by Madonna. Why has Madonna gone weird the past few years???

12. Hand In My Pocket by Alanis Morissette. I have one hand in my pocket, and the other one is typing this blog post...wait, what?

11. Diggin' On You by TLC. A shipmate of mine from the Eisenhower mentioned one day about the absolutely atrocious deal that TLC made with LA Reid and Pebbles in the early 90s, and I didn't believe him back then. Turns out he was right after all; I saw the "Behind The Music" episode when VH-1 was still relevant and not all crappy reality TV.

10. Beautiful Life by Ace of Base. Another artist that I thought would last longer than they did. I remember when the then-Florida Marlins won their first World Series, they played that song as they were celebrating. I still don't know how they won that series, let alone the one in 2003.

  9. Back For Good by Take That. Britian's most notable entry in the global worldwide "boy band" crisis of the late 90s.

  8. I Only Wanna Be With You by Hootie & the Blowfish. Suddenly I have flashbacks to that commercial that aired on TV in Norfolk at the time, which I spoke about here a few years ago.

  7. Breakfast At Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something. No, I haven't seen that film. I've only seen a gif of Aubrey Hepburn peering over her sunglasses.

  6. As I Lay Me Down by Sophie B. Hawkins. I preferred the "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" Sophie.

  5. Carnival by Natalie Merchant. Whatever happened to her? She had one album after "Tigerlily" then faded into Bolivia as Mike Tyson once siad.

  4. Til I Hear It From You by The Gin Blossoms. And when I do, is it going to truthful or just an excuse to get more money from me?

  3. Name by Goo Goo Dolls. Little did we know that they would eventually have arguably the biggest hit of the decade two years later.

  2. Runaway by Janet Jackson. You know there were THREE songs named "Runaway" in 1995? This one, one by the Irish group The Corrs that was on the chart the week before, and "Run Away" by Real McCoy, which peaked at #4 in the spring.

and the number one song the week of November 17, 1995 was

  1. Fantasy by Mariah Carey. The melody of this song is almost ancient, this smash used the melody from Tom Tom Club's 1981 song "Genius Of Love," and lately, Latto has used it in her song "Big Energy." Speaking of which, another friend of mine in Washington state plays the heck out of this on TikTok, but she has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. Hmmm.

UPDATE: She's back after being away for thirty days.

Well that's this week's flashback. I hope to have more writing this weekend, that is if I don't wind up with the flu bug my eldest has gotten and I don't have to drag Christmas decorations out from our attic. Until the next time be well.

CT

Election Night Review & Is Twitter Burning Down?

 Hello again, everyone. And to Ron DeSantis and Eel-lawn Musk, a very hearty bleep you. I was going to publish this on Wednesday upon the aftermath of election day 2022, however 1) election day has turned into election week and 2) we here in Florida were a little preoccupied this week, so I had to wait until this evening to create this post. 

As for Eel-lawn, I'll get to him in a jiffy. But first, what went down Tuesday night. Unfortunately for me and many mutuals I follow on Twitter, Ron DeSanctimonious won a second term as Governor, which means we have four more years of a B.A.G. in Tallahassee. Not only did he win, but he won by a substantial margin. In Florida, it was a bad night for Dems, Val Demings (former Orange County Sheriff) lost her race to Marco Rubio for US Senate, and Democrats lost a seat in the House, with Republicans winning 20 of the 28 races, including alleged pedophile extraordinaire Matt Gaetz.

(not a good night for Florida Dems...again)

Now normally, I would rip the voters of Flori-DUH a new one, in fact earlier this week on Twitter I did. But then I looked at the big picture. While there may have been a red wave in Florida, it wasn't the case across most of the rest of the nation. But there was no blue wave either. In fact, the only waves making headlines this week were washing onto the East coast of Florida, but that's a different story. There was a big victory in Pennsylvania, as John "can't find a" Fetterman defeated Mehmet O'Quacken for US Senate. Wisconsin re-elected their Democratic governor, Michigan re-elected their governor as well. However Ohio elected a Republican election-denier as Senator, and Lauren Boebert appears to have a close US House victory in western Colorado. So, pretty much a stalemate? Even though NBC (surprisingly) projects that the GOP will gain the House, while CNN hasn't made projections about the races that haven't been called yet.

You know who is big(ly) mad about Tuesday's results? Dumb Donald. In fact, looking at press clippings about Trump and these midterms, he's pretty much the Ti-D-Bowl man sinking down the commode and struggling to hold onto the toilet lever. Trump even doubled down on his threats of dragging DeSantis' name through the mud...BUT, a bipartisan group from Broward County shot those allegations down. Sorry Donald, but once again, you're full of shit.

Now, on to the South African muskrat who's trying to take down Twitter. I'm sure most of you have already heard of Musk's, ahem, exploits after taking the platform over. This week, it got weird. Very weird. Instead of leaving well enough alone, Musk stated that ANYONE could be "verified" by paying first $20/month, then lowering it to $8/month. The results of which were hilarious. Allow me to post a few examples:

"Bitch, I'm a cow." And there's this:

Yes, the Lakers are struggling, but Lebron isn't going anywhere. Oh, and there's gem:

No, that's not really Ben Shapiro or Cancun Cruz, who was busy dodging beer cans at the Astros World Series parade. Then there's this tweet from who we thought was diabetic medicine manufacturer Eli Lilly, but in actuality wasn't:

And the above tweet had some serious consequences:

That's just some of the tweets that made their way onto twitter this week, and there are even more if you know where to look. Remember the saying that Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned? Well, I guess you can say that Elon's fiddling while Twitter burns:

ANNOUNCEMENT: I'm unsure of Twitter's fate over the remainder of this year, so I may have to find another platform to chat my head off, whether it be tumblr or otherwise. I have a Mastodon account, but very little idea on how exactly to work it because most of the folks I follopw on Twitter are on different servers. But rest assured, I'll continue this blog in one form or another. Also potentially coming soon, I may have a twitch channel. So stay tuned. In the meantime, have a great weekend and I hope to return during this weekend

CT

Speaking of twitch, my friend Samantha wants to get the word out, so check this channel as well as this channel! Later!

Flashback: 11/4/1983 With Random Thoughts

 Hello everyone, except you Elon. Seriously, he hasn't even taken over Twitter for a day and he's more worried about revenue and "free speech" than anything else. Look, free speech is fine and important, but when includes people saying nothing but n-bombs and promoting Anti-Semetic behavior (right, Kyrie Irving?), you have to draw the line somewhere. Free speech shouldn't include hate speech. Period.

Anyway, on to what I wanted to focus on tonight, and that's the top 40 from this date in 1983. 1983 was probably the year that influenced popular music for the rest of the decade and even a small part of the 90's. Of course, we have Michael Jackson and his classic album Thriller to thank for that. It also marked a major change in my life, as I of course moved to North Carolina from Orlando, so I had to adjust from going from a soon to be sprawling metropolis to podunkville. Anyway, these were the Top 40 songs on November 4, 1983, according to Radio & Records Magazine. And as earlier this week, I'm going to add some random thoughts along with the countdown. Here we go...

40. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues by Elton John. You know what's the blues for me? Not being able to talk to you-know-who on a regular basis. I'm sure she knows that. She also knows hoow I feel about her. I am thankful that we can be friends at least. But I want more...

39. Twist Of Fate by Olivia Newton-John. You know, this past week-plus has been really odd, and not just because of blankety-blank trying to ruin my favorite social media platform. There were other events that took place that had me scratching my head or saying, "wow."

38. Union Of The Snake by Duran Duran. Let's start with Taylor Swift. You know, I almost had the urge to do a flashback to this week in 2008, because she sang the National Anthem before Game 3 of the 2008 World Series (I'd rather not remember that series, the Rays made their first appearance in the Fall Classic and lost), and today is a rather noteworthy day in US history.

37. Invisible Hands by Kim Carnes. But I instead rolled my D20 die, and it landed on 4, which means it's 1983. Plus, I saw a TikTok video this week (I'm at @bonyscribe1 there by the way) that went over the Top Ten songs for that year, and I found out some tidbits about the songs listed that I hadn't heard about before, such as Janet Jackson appearing in the video for "Thriller" as a zombie.

36. Synchronicity II by The Police. Anyway, back to Taylor. Last week she accomplished something no other music act had ever achieved before; she swept the top ten spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Now, I know we are in a much different era of music than before the turn of the millennium. Still, that's an amazing accomplishment!

35. In A Big Country by Big Country. On top of that, Taylor announced that for the first time in five years, she's launching a tour. The ONLY Florida date by the way? Raymond James Stadium in Tampa for two nights, April 14 and 15, 2023.

34. Major Tom (Coming Home) by Peter Schilling. Since this song is an answer to David Bowie's 1969 classic "A Space Oddity," I thought I would give you some rocket news that broke this morning. 

33. How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye by Dionne Warwick w/Luther Vandross. This morning, another out of control Chinese rocket booster crashed to Earth, fortunately crashing into the South Pacific. This rocket was of some concern to me especially since I saw on TikTok that one potential path of said rocket was over Florida, near the Tampa Bay region, where I of course live. 

32. Just Got Lucky by Joboxers. Of course, this was ridiculed by space agencies in Europe and NASA, but that isn't the only thing I heard about the Chinese government this week that piqued my interest.

31. Queen Of The Broken Hearts by Loverboy. Now the following is purely based on speculation, so please take this with a grain of salt. I had also heard on TikTok this week that China isn't potentially going to invade Taiwan, and instead set their sights on...Russia. Particularly the Russian far East. In fact, there is a printed source that describes this possible event happening, however that source happens to be a pro-Trump outlet, and if you know anything from what I've tweeted about in the past regarding Trump, whatever they're printing shouldn't be believed, so I won't hyperlink the story on here.

30. Souls by Rick Springfield. Had a brief exchange on Twitter earlier tonight from a Lightning fan mutual from Oregon about Michael Damian returning to Young and the Restless. I only retweeted it because as a teenager, one of my favorite songs was his remake of "Rock On," which hit number one in 1989. I only knew he played on the soap opera because of the song. I also know Rick Springfield was the OG when it came to soap stars suddenly becoming rock stars, and wouldn't you know he's on this countdown?

29. My Town by Michael Stanley Band. I mentioned earlier in this entry my move to North Carolina during this year. Well North Carolina is considered the home of NASCAR, and man was there something that occurred at the end of the race last weekend in Martinsville, Virginia that people are STILL talking about to this day.

28. Automatic Man by Michael Sembello. In case you have not heard about what happened, allow me to explain the best I can. Last week was the penultimate race of the NASCAR season, which in recent years is the final "playoff" race before the championship race in Phoenix (used to be Homestead-Miami).

27. Why Me by Irene Cara. The NASCAR playoffs work like this: the sixteen drivers with the highest point total at the end of the regular season (after about 22 races, sometime around August) compete in the NASCAR playoffs. It was a way of NASCAR a few years ago to try to boost viewership amongst casual fans who likely tune out to auto racing around the time football season starts.

26. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes by Asia. They then race the next three weeks, to whittle the playoff field to twelve drivers, then another three to whittle the field to eight, then again until they reach the "Championship 4," which the race in Martinsville determined.

25. Mirror Man by Human League. Long story short, entering the final lap at Martinsville, driver Ross Chastain was sitting in fifth place in the standings and needed to pass Denny Hamlin (who was in fourth place in the standings) to grab the final championship spot. What happened after that was nothing short of remarkable.

24. Church Of The Poison Mind by Culture Club. In what was called a "video game move" according to the Motor Racing Network, Chastain went full throttle down the backstretch, rode the wall at full speed around the corner, and beat Hamlin to the checkered flag and in doing so, captured the final playoff spot from Hamlin.

23. Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair) by Sheena Easton. I've been watching auto racing ever since I was a little kid, and in all my forty-eight years I had NEVER seen anything like this. Of course, had this been a decade or so earlier there was no way he could have pulled this off.

22. Tender Is The Night by Jackson Browne. In years past, the walls around various circuits where NASCAR races weren't equipped with SAFER barriers. They were only developed at the turn of the century, and after the unfortunate death of Dale Earnhardt at the 2001 Daytona 500, they started to be implemented across racetracks across America. 

21. Love Is A Stranger by Eurythmics. Also, in certain short tracks, there were crossover gates, which if hit at just the right angle could cause catastrophic damage to a race car. Just ask Michael Waltrip (who won that 2001 Daytona 500). 

20. True by Spandau Ballet. One other thing that blew my mind this week was what happened in World Series between the Houston Astors and the Philadelphia Phillies.

19. Tonight I Celebrate My Love by Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson. The Astros became the second team to throw a no-hitter (and first combined no-hitter), and the first since Don Larsen's perfect game way back in 1956, in the World Series. It was also just the third no-hitter in postseason play, the other interestingly enough was achieved by the Phillies (with the late Roy Halladay in 2010).

18. Total Eclipse Of The Heart by Bonnie Tyler. The next night however, was one of the more thrilling games in recent history. The Astors won a nail-biter 3-2 to take a series lead of three games to two. But during the game, some people were spotted on the roof of Citizen's Bank Park.

17. Say It Isn't So by Hall & Oates. Of course, I first read about it on Twitter. According to some commentators on social media according to the above linked story, they were part of the pyrotechnics crew. However, no official word from the Phillies was made.

16. Send Her My Love by Journey. In a matter of hours, WWE will hold its annual circle jerk to the Saudi royal family, as they will hold the "Crown Jewel" premium live event from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

15. PYT (Pretty Young Thing) by Michael Jackson. Usually, I make it a point not to watch events from Saudi Arabia for a litany of reasons. KSA's deplorable human rights record being amongst them. Oh, and there's that issue with an American-based Saudi journalist being murdered there in 2018. 

14. Crumblin' Down by John Mellencamp. There is also the potential of Iran threatening an attack on targets within the Kingdom, according to the Wall Steet Journal. Of course, if it were up to me, I would have cancelled the event altogether, but WWE has too much money tied up in Saudi (thanks Vince!) to turn their backs, in fact I think doing so would be a breach of contract or something, so they're stuck there, like it or not.

Since it's getting absurdly late, I'm going to breeze through the last 13 songs on this countdown.

13. If Anyone Falls by Stevie Nicks

12. Modern Love by David Bowie

11. King Of Pain by The Police

10. Cum On Feel The Noize by Quiet Riot

  9. Delirious by Prince

  8. Heart & Soul by Huey Lewis & The News

  7. Love Is A Battlefield by Pat Benatar

  6. One Thing Leads To Another by The Fixx

  5. Suddenly Last Summer by The Motels

  4. Islands In The Stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton

  3. Say Say Say by Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson  

  2. Uptown Girl by Billy Joel

and the number one song on this date 39 years ago was...

  1. All Night Long (All Night) by Lionel Richie. Kind of fitting because I stayed up all night doing this, lol.

Well, that's my spiel for now. Think I'll try to get some sleep, that is if I don't wind up looking at YouTube videos or TikToks the rest of this late night. I should have more sometime this weekend, until then follow me on twitter. For now, be well.

BS

I think I need to ask my favorite bartender to make me a double, unfortunately it's past last call...

 

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