Mission Accomplished (part 1)

Greetings once again. Ever set out on a project that you had an idea of executing in your spare time, tweak some parameters of said project as necessary, and then accomplish said project? Well, that's what I have done over the course of at least the past decade. I may or may not have mentioned it on this blog before, but if I have, indulge me.

For as long as I can remember, which stretches back some 40+ years, I have had a fascination with the Top 40 charts and countdown shows; from "American Top 40" to "Countdown America" and later in my youth, the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40."  And as such, I would listen to these countdown shows whenever I had the opportunity; up until 2004 when Ryan Seacrest took over for Casey Kasem.

In the year 2000, I came across a website that's still in use today, which keeps tabs on every song that has ever charted on the old Radio and Records magazine, now MediaBase 24/7. What I wanted to at the time was attempt to recreate every R/R top 40 chart, but doing so using just that website would be impossible as they only gave the week a song debut and it's peak position at the time. Fortunately for me, I came across a web board would allow me to fill I those holes. By the end of that year, I had a new motivation; the top song of that year, "Everything You Want" by Vertical Horizon, didn't reach number 1 on a weekly survey. I thought to myself, "that doesn't make much sense." And so, I decided to come up with a points system based off those charts.

Tomorrow, I'll go into detail as to how I came up with my points system, and what I eventually learned from it. Stay tuned.

CT

My Endgame

Hello, I thought I would create this post as a roadmap of sorts to future dreams/aspirations. So I seem like I'm going somewhat over my head, indulge me.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you probably know by now that I am more than a little fed up with living in Florida, especially greater Tampa. Sure, the weather's nice in winter and the hockey team is good, but that's about it. #FloridaMan has made me lose almost what pride I had in this state. Combine the facts that our state is run by a Trump clone, a toxic at best radio scene (that I have refused to listened to since 2016), and general apathy about this region, and you can pretty much conclude that I want out.

Right now, I'm on disability because of my stroke two years ago, and other than somewhat regular visits to the VA clinic, I practically have zero life. I have been out on my own twice since my stroke; once to celebrate my birthday at Hooters, and the other occasion was to see "Avengers Endgame." I plan on taking a bus to St. Louis soon (I don't know when exactly), and I do have a few plans on carrying out while I'm there.

There is someone who I am talking to who I would love to see, but also I want to check out the area to see if I would like it. You see, the place where I was employed at, the Postal service, has their main facility right downtown; right across the street from Enterprise Center on one side, and Union station on the other. I want to investigate whether I can get back to working THERE (instead of Tampa; I have no car currently, and that place redefined toxic). If so, I could look at apartments in the area (looking around downtown or across the river in Illinois) and see if it could be possible to relocate there.

Of course, this is very preliminary and is speculative, nothing is being planned; yet. Just speaking about leaving Florida to existance...

CT

Food For Thought...

I was listening to my early 80s playlist on Spotify the other day, and "Human Touch" by Rick Springfield was starting to play. The opening lyrics go lie this.

    Everybody's talking to computers,
    They're all dancing to a drum machine...

The song came out in summer of 1983. I had just left Orlando Christian School and was going to attend a different elementary school for next year (I wasn't aware I was going to move to NC yet). Social media was eons away; we communicated through a land line telephone or via mail. We actually danced to live bands back then.

Look at us in 2019. Our primary form of communication is via computer (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Younger people dance to EDM (electronic/digital music), so essentially a drum machine. Could it be possible that Rick Springfield somehow could sense the future? Food for thought...

CT

Video for someone...

Looking at my pageviews, and I've noticed that over the frame of the past year or so, I've had hits from Germany. Now while I don't know exactly where in Germany, I know it's somewhere in the country.

That said, I thought I would post a video near and dear to someone in particular over there. If that person is seeing this, contact me at twitter.com/bonyscribe.

CT

Radio Daze

I was having a discussion on Twitter the other day with Diane, who lives in Central Florida, about how one particular radio station in Orlando used to play awesome music on the weekends, then suddenly stopped when their parent company, Clear Channel, thought it would be a better idea by axing their locally-produced programming with a cookie cutter default classic rock station from their iHeart Radio service sometime around 2010. Those in greater Orlando who listened to their "real music weekends" for the better part of about a decade or so I imagine were none too pleased with the decision; I know I wasn't.

Long story short, I stopped listening to that station (living in Tampa being a factor), and truth be told, I really haven't listened to radio in about three years. A big reason is because of Spotify and Pandora. Another reason is that radio in the Tampa market absolutely sucks. We have two pop stations, both of which suck to me. Both stations to my knowledge alter the pitch and speed of the music they play, I guess to make it sound fresher. No Bueno if you ask me. Another reason is the other genres of music on the radio aren't quite up my alley (especially country) and talk/sports radio is pretty much hot garbage, especially where I'm located. Oh, and don't get me started on that heaping pile of crap (in my opinion) known as BTLS.

Radio seeming to be substandard is something I've had to deal with for sometime now. Beginning in the 90's all the way up until present-day. Late 1993 was especially horrible for me from a listening standpoint; I had just transferred from Orlando to Goose Creek, SC (just outside Charleston) for Naval Nuclear Prototype School, and the station that was closest to XL 106.7 (which I listened to for about a couple of years, including high school) had just tweaked their format to a more AC-leaning. There were three Urban stations and three country stations there. And no dance songs at all. Plus I don't think any station there played either Casey Kasem, Shadoe Stevens, or Rick Dees' countdown shows (remember when those were a thing?). No thank you.

When I transferred to Norfolk six months later, it was more balanced at first. Z104 up there was akin to G105 in Raleigh or the aforementioned XL. You could practically listen to most of the top 40, as well as other hits, without changing the station. Then I was deployed for six months overseas; when I returned, the radio scene kinda shifted slightly. Of course, I had discovered sports talk radio at this point, so I didn't think it was a big deal. In 1996, it all changed. Z104 had gone from pop to rhythmic CHR. Plus WWDE (2WD) had become a pop lite station. Another station was pop-leaning rock. To put it bluntly, it was like segregation had come to music radio; if you wanted one particular song, it was on station A. If you wanted a different song, you had to switch to station B, and so forth. Oh, and one vivid memory was this hideous commercial, which is even lamer because the audio cuts out at the worst possible time:

Yes, they took off from "Friends." Pathetic.

Anyway, to get a sense of Norfolk radio at the time, here was a list of songs played on WNVZ, Z104  at this time 23 years ago this week:


 BRANDY /Sittig' Up In My...
MARY J. BLIGE/Not Gon' Cry
PLANET SOUL/Set U Free
TONY RICH PROJECT/Nobody Knows
3T /Anything
MARIAH CAREY /One Sweet Day
TONI BRAXTON /Let It Flow
DIANA KING/Ain't Nobody
 LA BOUCHE/Be My Lover
GROOVE THEORY /Keep Tryin
MONICA/Before You Walk_.
 DEBORAH COX/Who Do U Love
L.L. COOL J/Hey Lover
MAX -A- MILLION /Sexual Healing
EVERYTHING BUT... /Missing
SEAL/Don't Cry
SIMPLY RED/Fairground
WHITNEY HOUSTON /Exhale (Shoop...)
DEVONE' /Energy
J'SON/Take A Look
 SOPHIE B. HAWKINS/Only Love...
 INTRIGUE /Dance With Me
COOLIO/Fantastic Voyage-
COOLIO/Gangsta's Paradise
SA- DEUCE/Don't Waste My Time
LINA SANTIAGO/Feels So Good_.
MONTELL JORDAN/This Is How We Do It
TLC/Diggin On You
CRYSTAL WATERS/100% Pure Love
GROOVE THEORY/Tell Me
DENINE W /COLLAGE/AII Creed Out
ALL- 4- ONE/(She's Got) Shillz
SOUL FOR REAL/ Every Little Thing.
ADINA HOWARD/Freak Like Me
BLESSID UNION OF.. /0h Virginia
 REAL MCCOY /Another Night
2PAC F/DR. DRE/Califomia Love
 HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH/Time -
MARIAH CAREY /Always Be My Baby
JOE/All The Things...

Now compare that with the official Radio & Records chart that week (It's on Page 24, WNVZ's playlist is on page 28). Note that there's no Alanis on Z104, no Natalie Merchant and pretty much minimal Hootie, but Simply Red?!! I can't say "weird flex but okay" because that's more of a WTF than a flex. So, let's just say my memories of listening to the radio weren't very memorable, especially in Norfolk, Virginia.

But thank goodness for Spotify's existence; I can make up for lost time...


CT

Late Birthday Flashback

Hello and welcome again, albeit a little later than I wanted. Before I get to the flashback I wanted to write about last weekend, I have a couple off things to say.

First, Valentine's Day. Yes, the mother of all "Hallmark Holidays." Mine actually wasn't bad considering I didn't have a Valentine (which means I can get to wish as many "Happy Valentine's Days" as I want and not get in trouble for it). So I took my sisters out to Olive Garden. Not terribly satisfied with the location (US 19 in Pasco County, FL; a topic I'll write about in a later blog), but the food we got was more than worth it. Overall, I'd give it a solid B; I would have given it an A- had my sister not dropped the ball and left my bank card at the house, meaning all the birthday money from last weekend got spent. Thanks a lot, sis...

Second, this so-called "National Emergency" that our Dimwit In Chief earlier today declared a "national emergency" because he thinks there is too many immigrants at the southern border with Mexico and they must be stopped. Puh-leez… Yeah, we've had issues with illegal immigration the last 50 years, but a "national emergency?" Most of us literally saw two 110-story buildings crumble to the ground in a terrorist attack, and that wasn't called a national emergency.

You know what's a national emergency? Yellowstone erupting, being attacked by an alien force, Russian forces invading (remember the movie "Red Dawn?"). NOT whining that you're not getting an unnecessary border wall. That's like saying not having sex in eight years is a life or death crisis.

Anyway, enough about the DIC and onto a happier note. I turned 45 last weekend and on Twitter, I asked which year I should do my flashback on. There was a tie initially between 1985 and 2008 so I ran a second poll. 1985 won, so that year will be my focus. I turned 11 and it was memorable for all the wrong reasons; I contracted chicken pox and wound up missing a week of school. I don't have vivid memories of the music I listened to back then, because my family listened to country music (and while I didn't exactly love it, I at least tolerated it). Pop music was in its extended heyday, with artists like Madonna bursting onto the scene. Overall, the Radio and Records magazine chart for the week of February 8, 1985 was solid from top to bottom. Here below is said chart, from 40 to 1

40. Just Another Night	Mick Jagger
39. Somebody	Bryan Adams
38. One More Night	Phil Collins
37. I Wanna Hear It From Your       Lips	Eric Carmen
36. Ooh Ooh Song	Pat Benatar
35. Love Light In Flight	Stevie Wonder
34. Keeping The Faith	Billy Joel
33. Tragedy	John Hunter
32. Material Girl	Madonna
31. Like A Virgin	Madonna
30. Save A Prayer	Duran Duran
29. Naughty Naughty	John Parr
28. High On You	Survivor
27. Tenderness	General Public
26. Lovergirl	Teena Marie
25. Private Dancer	Tina Turner
24. Rockin' At Midnight	Honeydrippers
23. Relax	Frankie Goes To Hollywood
22. Only The Young	Journey
21. Too Late For Goodbyes	Julian Lennon
20. Solid	Ashford & Simpson
19. Operator	Midnight Star
18. Foolish Heart	Steve Perry
17. I Would Die 4 U	Prince
16. Jungle Love	Morris Day & The Time
15. Mr. Telephone Man	New Edition
14. You're The Inspiration	Chicago
13. Sugar Walls	Sheena Easton
12. Misled	Kool & The Gang
11. The Boys Of Summer	Don Henley
10. The Old Man Down The        Road	John Fogerty
9. California Girls	David Lee Roth
8. The Heat Is On	Glenn Frey
7. Can't Fight This Feeling	REO Speedwagon
6. Easy Lover	Phil Collins & Philip Bailey
5. Method Of Modern Love	Hall & Oates
4. Neutron Dance	Pointer Sisters
3. Loverboy	Billy Ocean
2. I Want To Know What Love       Is	Foreigner
1. Careless Whisper	Wham!

Hello again/ January 25, 1991 flashback

Hello again everyone. After a couple of months on hiatus, I have decided to dust off the old blog and write. Hope everyone had a good holiday season, but now it's back to life.

Tomorrow in Tampa is the annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest, or as I call it, DrunkFest 2019. It happens to fall on a significant date in Tampa history too; On January 26, 2003, hell froze over and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl. Yes, the Bucs actually won a Super Bowl. Which is something so unthought of it's like the Boston Red Sox reversing the curse of the Bambino and winning the World Series, or the Chicago Cubs doing the same, or me finding the love of my life...I guess I got carried away.

Also, next week sometime I want to write a blog regarding the ideal place that I want to live going forward. No, I'm not moving anytime soon, just putting it out there.

Anyway without further ado, I made a playlist last night on Spotify that recreates the Top 40 songs (per Radio & Records magazine) on this date in 1991. Personal anecdote here, I had just moved back to Orlando after spending the previous 7 and a half years in North Carolina, right as Desert Storm broke out. I was getting acclimated to my new (old) environment, but may things about Orlando itself had changed between 1983 and 1991, that some places had become unrecognizable. But here were the top 40 songs that week:


40. Does She Really Love That Man  by Breathe (their last top 40 hit)

39. Get Here by Oleta Adams (remember when Greyhound Bus Lines used this in their adverts I the late '90s?)

38. Hold You Tight by Tara Kemp (I had a crush on Tara, unfortunately, she would have one more hit and never to be heard from again)

37. Don't Hold Back Your Love by Hall & Oates (their last Top 40 hit)

36. Miles Away by Winger (power ballad by a hair band to get more album sales)

35. From A Distance by Bette Midler (thank u, next)

34. Love Makes Things Happen by Pebbles and Babyface (the next we'd hear from Pebbles, she tried to screw over TLC)

33. Candy by Iggy Pop (his only Top 40 hit; duet with Kate Pierson of B-52s. A personal favorite of mine)

32. Shelter Me by Cinderella

31. This House by Tracie Spencer (she was only 14 at the time!)

30. Coming Out Of The Dark by Gloria Estefan (her first single after her near-fatal tour bus accident in 1990)

29. Waiting For That Day by George Michael

28. Impulsive by Wilson Phillips

27. Waiting For Love by Alias

26. Moneytalks by AC/DC (Believe it or not, their only top 40 pop hit on R/R)

25. If You Needed Somebody by Bad Company (the new lineup that had a couple of hits in this time period, not the 70s lineup)

24. All This Time by Sting

23. Justify My Love by Madonna (other than the steamy video, did you know backing vocals were performed by Lenny Kravitz?)

22. Because I Love You by Stevie B

21. Wicked Game by Chris Isaak (speaking of steamy videos, holy cow! I almost fell in love with Helena Christiansen)

20. Show Me The Way by Styx

19. Heat of the Moment by After 7

18. One More Try by Timmy T (this actually hit No. 1 on Billboard, which to put it in a sports analogy, is like Loyola Chicago reaching the Final Four last year)

17. Rescue Me by Madonna (never saw the video for this song)

16. I Saw Red by Warrant

15. Do the Bartman by Bart Simpson (yes, from the cartoon. Remember their album "The Simpsons Sing The Blues?" Mind boggling when you think about their longevity)

14. I'll Give All My Love To You by Keith Sweat (I imagine this son closed out many a prom in 1991. I didn't know though because I couldn't go)

13. High Enough by Damn Yankees (their biggest hit by a mile)

12. Play That Funky Music by Vanilla Ice (so he followed up "Ice Ice Baby" who he ripped from Queen with a song he ripped from Wild Cherry. Got it)

11. Disappear by INXS

10. Where Does My Heart Beat Now by Celine Dion (her first of many hits)

 9. Someday by Mariah Carey (remember the kid who was famous for drumming on a bucket in a Levi's jeans ad back then? He was in the video for this song)

 8. Just Another Dream by Cathy Dennis (Rick Astley provided backing vocals for this track)

 7. All The Man That I Need by Whitney Houston (two days after this chart, Houston would perform her iconic version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Super Bowl XXV in Tampa.)

 6. Gonna Make You Sweat by C+C Music Factory (Everybody dance now! Now you have that song stuck in your head; you're welcome)

 5. After the Rain by Nelson (Funny story involving what I think was Nelson in Fort Lauderdale in 1997 while I was in the Navy. I'll tell you at a later time)

 4. I'm Not In Love by Will To Power

 3. Sensitivity by Ralph Tresvant (first solo effort since New Edition took a break in the late 80s)

 2. The First Time by Surface

 1. Love Will Never Do (Without You) by Janet Jackson

There they were. I'll spare you the Casey Kasem spiel at the end (God bless his soul). Now I'll put out playlist on Twitter.