Friday Random Ten: Christmas Shouldn't Start in November Edition

Seriously. I spent yesterday and today, and will likely spend Sunday, decorating the store* for Christmas. (Well, I spent yesterday and this morning decorating, and this afternoon helping someone else change everything to the way she wanted it (which is fine, I just wish I'd known she had strong opinions before I started), but same thing.)

*yes, right now I work in a store. I'm on leave from the IT job, just so you know I'm actually trying and not giving up and settling for a life in retail.

1. Offspring - Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
2. Weird Al - Weird Al Show Theme
3. The Coral - Dreaming of You
4. Shocking Blue - Venus
5. Weird Al - I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead
6. Neil Diamond - Cracklin' Rosie
7. Killers - Somebody Told Me
8. Doors - Touch Me
9. Rolling Stones - Shattered
10. Soulja Boy - Crank That (only because Jon was going to do the Soulja Boy dance for me)

Friday Random Ten on Saturday: Missing the Point Edition

So I love the concept of the FRT, but since I rarely listen to music during the week, and usually carry around a limited playlist that I listen to obsessively until I scrap the whole thing and start fresh, it's hard. But in the spirit of the FRT, instead this week I give you:

The best concerts that never happened....

1. Earth, Wind & Fire, Aqua, and Heart - the Captain Planet tour
2. Snoop Dogg, Lil' Bow Wow, Bow Wow Wow, and Seal - the Things that Bark tour
3. Grand Funk Railroad, Chicago, Jefferson Airplane, and the Cars - the Transportation tour (Chicago started out as The Chicago Transit Authority)
4. Fountains of Wayne and Garth Brooks - the Schwing! tour
5. Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Molly Hatchet, and Alice Cooper (though he has to open, since he doesn't quite fit anymore) - the No Such Person tour (alternatively, if you want to get obscure, the Gravy Train tour - "And by the way, which one's Pink?")

OK, that's a good start. Share yours, and let me know if you've heard of any band/musician with the name Anne/Ann or Emily in their name, because I want to put them with Good Charlotte as the Bronte Sisters tour.

Friday Random Ten: Fergalicious Edition

What the hell is "floxy"? I know I'm not the only one who hears it.



Is it this?





Or this?





Or this?







Or maybe even this?





Anyway, the ten:

1. Ben Folds - Rent-a-Cop
2. Neil Young - Heart of Gold
3. Beatles - Hey Bulldog
4. Paul McCartney and Wings - Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
5. Donovan - Sunshine Superman
6. Led Zeppelin - Misty Mountain Hop
7. Ringo Starr - Back Off Boogaloo
8. George Harrison - When We Was Fab
9. Who - Join Together
10. Peter, Paul, & Mary - If I Had a Hammer

Bonus of Bob Dylan - Positively 4th Street. I didn't actually listen to this, but I talked about it with my boss today.

Friday Random Ten: Eating Waffles Edition

1. Bangles - Different Light
2. Fatboy Slim - Praise You
3. Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
4. Rob Paravonian - Pachelbel
5. Ben Folds - Underground
6. U2 - Discotheque
7. White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
8. Alice Cooper - School's Out
9. Timbuk 3 - My Future's So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)
10. Escape Club - Wild Wild West
11. Ben Folds - Rockin' the Suburbs - Shake your booty while the band complains...... - yes, I loves me some Ben Folds. I got to see him in concert. That was a fun 2 days - I drove 2 1/2 hours after work to see him at a college and got back home at god-knows-when in the morning to get up the next day at 7:30 to go to work, then that night saw Eric Clapton - fortunately he was playing 5 minutes from my house.

Friday Random Ten: A Week Behind Edition

I totally wish I could use moving as an excuse for missing last week, especially since I had my list all ready and just didn't take the time to post it, but that's this week. Here's what I heard on the radio last week:

1. Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane
2. Patty Smyth - Goodbye to You (I think.)
3. Van Halen - Beautiful Girls
4. Black Crowes - Hard To Handle
5. Gwen Stefani - Wind it Up
6. Van Halen - Dance the Night Away
7. Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar on Me
8. THE COOG! - Jack and Diane
9. INXS - New Sensation
10. BTO - Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

So the odd one out is Gwen. I was in Old Navy, and I realized two things. One, Gwen's latest work and Fergie's stuff are the Pixi Sticks of music - tasty, but without substance, not very good for you, and some people are allergic to them.

Two, what the hell, Old Navy? Who told you you were allowed to do that to fashion?! I had a gift certificate, and I used it on the one sweater that wasn't either expensive, god-awful, or both, and some plain socks. Formal capris, '70s upholstery prints, and maternity-looking tunics are Not. Ok. Just no.

Friday Random Ten: Working Ahead Edition

Wednesday's driving all over town list (yes, I kept track, so I'd be prepared for today's post!):

1. Outkast - Hey Ya
2. Bowling for Soup - 1985
3. Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl
4. Golden Earring - Twilight Zone
5. Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax
6. Collective Soul - Shine
7. Genesis - I Can't Dance
8. Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
9. Heart - Barracuda
10. Jethro Tull - Aqualung
11. Killers - Somebody Told Me
12. ELO - Don't Bring Me Down
13. Haddaway - What Is Love?
14. Gerry Rafferty - Right Down the Line

I also listened to, among other things, Rock Flock of Five[edited to add, apparently it's the George Baker Selection?] - Little Green Bag from the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack, today.

And I was listening to 311 today, and it maked me think of my first CD purchases.

My first CD (not album - I owned some cassettes, naturally, I'm not that young) was Ace of Base "The Sign".

You may boo me now.

I still own it, and listen to it on driving trips.

I kind of made up for it as my next two were Sgt. Pepper and the Magical Mystery Tour, bought at the same time. After that, it was 311, Garbage, and Soundgarden (all self-titled).

How about you, my three readers? What were the first music purchases you made? I'm also curious about, specifically, the first thing you bought when you switched over to the 'new technology', whatever that was in your youth. (i.e., I switched to CDs in middle school with Ace of Base, my brother went over to mp3s in high school, my mom and dad went from records to cassettes in college.)

Ooh, and what was the first mp3 you remember searching for? I seem to think mine might have been Genesis - I Can't Dance, since I could only find the live version on albums at the time.

Addendum to FRT: Alligator Edition

I realized I never actually explained I Write Puns Not Alligators. So mentally add this on after the last sentence of that post (I don't like editing after this long, and besides, postwhoring.)

So that kid would make lists of not-actually-synonyms, right? And one day we were talking about him and Tom (who was his editor at the paper) says, during an imitation of him, "See, it's a pun! A funny play on words! An alligator!"



....Maybe you had to be there, but if you know Tom (go read him, he's in my sidebar at the Fortress), you should be able to picture the hilarity.

Friday Random Ten: How can a 30-hour work week feel like too much? Edition

And the sad thing is, I love my work.

I seriously need to start posting all the stuff I think about posting. Dang. And get that HUHO post out of draft.

This list is mostly populated by the stuff that played on the radio at the client I was working on today.

1. Guns 'n Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine
2. Genesis - Tonight
3. INXS - What You Need
4. Divinyls - I Touch Myself (in techno!)
5. Grateful Dead - Truckin'
6. Human League - Don't You Want Me?
7. David Bowie and Mick Jagger - Dancing in the Street
8. Chipmunks - P.S. I Love You (Jon is a sick individual and has been playing Chipmunks Sing the Beatles in the car.)
   
9. Some girls at Applebee's - Video Killed the Radio Star (they were singing along with the ipod they were sharing the headphones to - all of a sudden I hear "Oh, oh!" in the middle of lunch.)
10. Panic at the Disco - I Write Sins Not Allegories .....

At my house, this is called I Write Puns Not Alligators because of a horrible emo-y writer we know. He had a tendency to put together lists of things that were all supposed to be synonymous and, well, weren't. (Example being putting "making out" as a synonym for "going all the way" and [ugh] "proving our love".) He also was a hateful man who hated fun. And despite the awesome name, Panic at the Disco, especially this song, sounds exactly like him.

And I don't like all this responsibility stuff. Working, keeping up with even a weekly post (though I do struggle with the FRT because even when I do listen to music, it tends to be the same things over and over for quite a while, then I scrap the whole list after a few weeks or months and start again, so I have to scrounge for things to put on my list.)

God, loser!

But Loki is chasing a toymouse around like mad, and that's cheering me up.

Friday Random Ten: Dead Saddam Edition

The list this week doesn't actually have anything to do with him, but I'm watching the coverage as I write this, and felt like I should at least mention such a piece of news, even though I don't really have much to say. I feel weird about the fact that he's dead. I don't really have an opinion on the death penalty as a policy issue, but it makes me feel weird, because it's the ultimate premeditated killing. Somehow, it's strange to be notified in advance that at X time, a person will be dead. Especially when it's someone who is such a cultural figure like Saddam. He's a kind of celebrity, and he was publically, openly put to death.

It's weird. That's all I know to say about it.

Anyway, the list, which I started making in my head this morning, is themed "songs with weird time signatures", because rock (which is what I listen to almost exclusively) is heavily skewed toward 4/4 with a steady tempo. With help from Wikipedia:

1. Pink Floyd - Money: in 7/4. Conducted as pairs of 3/4, 4/4 measures, at least the way I always heard it with the triplets, and that's what the sheet music says, although David Gilmour calls it 7/8, and according to music scholars, it's technically in 21/8!
   
2. Blood, Sweat, and Tears - And When I Die: I can't find anything on it, but it sounds like a mix of 4/4 and 3/4 to me, changing with the different tempos. (tempi.)
   
3. Jesus Christ Superstar - Everything's Alright: one of my favorite 5/4s.
4. Mission: Impossible Theme - not the modern version: also a 5/4, we did it in band and it was pretty nifty.
5. Jethro Tull - Living In The Past: 5/4.
   
6. Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick: 6/8. Crazy fluteman is all about the fun time sigs. The article calls it as partially in 10/8, but doesn't say if I'm right on the 6/8 for the rest. But damnit, I can hear it! It sounds medieval.
   
7. John Carpenter - Theme from Halloween: 5/4. I heard this thing way too much when I worked at Six Flags during Fright Fest. A fun change from the usual location music, which I heard so much of that I'd hear it in my dreams.
8. Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill: 7/4.
9. Styx - Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man): 7/4 in some of the keyboard solos. I also think some of the opening keyboard work is either in 6/8 or heavy on triplets.
   
10. Beatles - All You Need Is Love: the verses are in 7/4.

Bonus America from West Side story: split 6/8, 3/4.

Friday Random Ten: Leaving On a Jet Plane Edition

Early, since my interwebbing will be iffy this weekend.

1. Prince - 1999 - because as long as it's not, in fact, 1999, I decided that you can legitimately party like it's 1999
2. Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon - Plastic Jesus - Martha, if you ever see this, it's for you.
3. Violent Femmes - American Music
4. Miami Sound Machine - Turn the Beat Around
5. Killers - Somebody Told Me
6. O-Zone - Dragostea din tei - in Hungarian
   
7. Sean Paul - Get Busy - might as well be in Hungarian
8. Presidents of the USA - (twofer) Lump and Peaches - Lookout! (ninjas appear)
9. Jason Mraz - Curbside Prophet - I never noticed before, but he mentions SpaceGhost!
10. Fergie - Fergalicious - she's expanding the reach of her fascist Fergtatorship

Bonus track: Jimi Mistry - Chori Chori Gori Se - I swear this man is the Venga Boys of Bollywood. Seriously, listen to it, and tell me that doesn't sound like the same semi-truck horn accent. Plus, it's got steeldrums!

Friday Random Ten Not On Friday: Middle of the Night Edition

I never remember about this until I read everyone else's the next day.

1. Disturbed - Land of Confusion
2. Kelis - Milkshake
3. Outkast - Hey Ya
4. Miami Sound Machine - Turn the Beat Around
5. Beatles - Helter Skelter
6. Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
7. Peter Gabriel - Big Time
8. Cranberries - Zombie
9. Eve 6 - Inside Out
10. Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil

And Jon and cat pic: Jon communes with The Loki.

FRT: I don't understand 'Friday' edition

Seriously, self, wtf?

1. Fergie - Fergalicious
2. Electric Six - Gay Bar
3. Beatles - Baby You're A Rich Man
4. Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny
5. Genesis - Land of Confusion
6. Boston - Peace of Mind
7. U2 - With or Without You
8. Jim Carrey as The Mask - Cuban Pete
9. John Mayer - Waiting On The World To Change
10. America - Horse With No Name

And in lieu of catblogging, bunnyblogging, from my visit to BunTown! (a family farm in my area lets you visit with the pet rabbits they raise.)

Friday Random Ten: A Capella Edition

Shower singing and car cd player dying singing made this list, as noted. Yes, I know it's Saturday night. I have trouble keeping track of what day it is.

1. Rush - Closer to the Heart (stereo died)
   
2. Jesus Christ Superstar - Everything's All Right (in the shower)
   
3. They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
4. Seekers - Love Potion #9
5. Chi-Lites - Are You My Woman
6. Joe Walsh - Life's Been Good
7. Rob Paravonian - Pachelbel
8. Peter, Paul, and Mary - If I Had A Hammer
9. Yes - Your Move/I've Seen All Good People
10. and this time it's actually relevant instead of a running joke - Don Quixote - Man of La Mancha (not Scott Bakula this time; I just got 'Don Quixote' as an e-book from Project Gutenberg, and though I haven't started it yet, the song got stuck in my head)

Friday Random Ten: Found my Classic Rock MP3 CD Edition

I thought I'd lost the cd I put all of my classic rock mp3s on. Again. Nicely enough, I found it in my mp3-cd enabled portable, and it was even labeled!

1. Ohio Players - Love Rollercoaster
2. Kinks - Lola
3. Led Zeppelin - Misty Mountain Hop
4. Billy Joel - A Matter of Trust
5. Guess Who - No Sugar/Mother Nature
6. Blood, Sweat, and Tears - Go Down Gamblin'
7. Mason Williams - Classical Gas
8. Fifth Dimension - Age of Aquarius
9. Who - Happy Jack
10. Wings - Jet

And cat pic:
He's currently taking up my whole lap, napping.

Friday Random Ten: Awesomely Bad Edition

As posted in comments at Feministe:

This Random Ten is composed solely of vh1’s awesomely bad songs (from here), numbered by their rankings, with commentary:

39. Informer - Snow
The moral of the story, based on what we deciphered on a long car trip: never bring your Atari to summer stock theater or Lou Diamond Phillips will slap you in the face and take all your Gak.

29. I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) - Meat Loaf
What is ‘that’? We think it might be ‘lose weight’. I've seen Meatloaf skinny. It’s bad news.

23. Thong Song - Sisqó
I just like to say thong th-th-thong thong.

20. Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American) - Toby Keith
Why does he want to sodomize people with boots, anyway?

19. You’re the Inspiration - Chicago
You know your relationship’s in bad shape when ‘your song’ is Chicago’s “Hard For Me to Say I’m Sorry”. Which has very little to do with this song, but it’s a funny story.

17. I’m Too Sexy - Right Said Fred
I’m always in favor of absurd satire in song form.

10. The Heart of Rock & Roll - Huey Lewis
If Sir Mix-a-lot can have a traveling shoutout song, who’s to criticize the News?

7. Party All the Time - Eddie Murphy
For the love of god, Eddie, why?

5. Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice
Because anything less than the best is a felony.

3. Everybody Have Fun Tonight - Wang Chung
I know what a Wang Chung is!

and bonus: 1. We Built This City - Starship. All humor aside, this is one of my favorite songs.

and cat in shower pic:

Friday Random Ten: I don't recognize anyone else's music

I wanted to play too, after seeing the Feministe and Pandagon kidz doing it.
So, my horribly out-of-touch list:

1. Reel Big Fish - Beer
2. Reel Big Fish - Hungry Like the Wolf
3. Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
4. Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice
5. Chemical Brothers - Rockefeller Skank
6. The Who - Baba O'Riley
7. The Venga Boys - Venga Bus (or whatever the hell it's called)
8. SR-71 - Right Now
9. Sir Mix-a-lot - Big Butts
10. PDQ Bach - Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion (5 parts)

and of course, as always, the bonus track is Scott Bakula's Man of La Mancha!

and here is a cat pic.

EXTREME CLOSEUP LOKI!