This post is late in arriving. I thought I'd read just a few blogs to see what was out there and now it's several hours later. You guys had a lot to say today.
Turns out that Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh is close to reaching 2,000 followers. Can you believe that? 2,000! I remember that I had 9 followers for the longest time when I started this blogging thing. And I nearly fainted when I topped 100. I can't imagine what 2,000 feels like. Of course, I also can't imagine responding to all of those comments, reading all of the blogs, and generally just DOING everything he does in the blog community. And that is why he is famous for having clones. How else could he possibly manage it???? If you're not following the guy who started the IWSG (a bloghop that posts the first Wednesday of every month) and one of the founders of the IWSG website, then check him out by clicking HERE. There will be prizes when he hits the 2,000 follower mark. You don't want to miss out on THAT.
I am still posting Love Is In The Air clips until Valentine's Day. Yep. If you're new to this business, let me tell you how it all started...
Charity Bradford, one of the contributors to the blog Unicorn Bell, posted THIS
asking for people to contribute their favorite romantic scenes from
movies and TV. You simply shouldn't challenge a YouTube junkie to come
up with this
sort of stuff. I spent the next few HOURS looking for footage. Yes, you
read that right. Hours.
I am tagging all of these Love Is In The Air and you can go back to my January 18 post to watch any that you missed.
I was unsure of how to proceed today, but once I knew I was showcasing Alex, it all became clear.
Joss Whedon, in my humble opinion, is amazing. I loved all seven seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and all five of its spin-off, Angel. I will pretty much watch anything he puts on the big or small screen. (His current TV show is Marvel's Agents of SHIELD... just FYI.) Anyway, back to Buffy and Angel... my all-time favorite episode from both shows is called "I Will Remember You." It was a cross-over episode. That means that Buffy crossed into Angel after it spun off. So many of these scenes are about the hugging, kissing, or that I Love You moment. Sometimes, love is about sacrifice. Haul out your hankies...
Here is a snippet from that show...
Joss Whedon also created the spectacular show, Firefly. It ran on the Science Fiction cable channel for all of one season before the execs pulled the plug. What were they thinking???? Anyway, the fan outcry was so long and loud that Joss Whedon wrapped up that story on the big screen with the movie Serenity. Sometimes love means putting up a fight.
I have been doing some thinking and re-thinking about how to do more writing. As in blogging. As in more often. I actually have several ideas on this subject. Now that my vestibular therapy has been put on hold that I am not going twice a week my doctor appt load feels much lighter. For a while there, I was just so tired from going to a doctor of some kind every day. As in literally every day.
When I think about that it sounds ridiculous. I used to work every day. Once upon a time. Now, doctors appts four days a week just takes it out of me. I am completely wiped. And that may be just one appt or stacked appts. It doesn't matter. However, I used to fit those things in around my work day. It is nuts.
Anyway, I am back to thinking that I need to try and blog more often. So, even though it might not seem like it from where you are reading, I am actively working on ideas. For instance, one of those ideas is reworking the letter meme that I did a while back. The 30 Day Letters. Remember those? I have been tossing around ideas about starting another blog entirely calling it "The Letters I Only Write In My Head." Believe it or not, there are TONS of those. And I can date them, more or less, back to when I wrote them... the significant ones anyway. And then there are the ones I am still writing... lol. Or not writing. Since they are in my head. Or I could just turn it into a 30 Day meme adjusting it around the one I already did changing the recipients. I could leave some the same since the letters would now be different. Strange how that works... You can give me whatever feedback you have on this. I will probably go with my gut, but I am interested in your opinion anyway.
Well, that is just one of my ideas. I have others. I just wanted you to know I was actively thinking about it and not just SAYING I was.
In other news, for those of you who like Young Adult books, CJ Redwine is giving away two copies of her newest book before it hits the shelves. The book is called DEFIANCE and she has set it up that you have to come up with your own review blurb based upon the synopsis of the storyline. She kindly gave us some of the blurbs already out there. Some of them were very funny. This is my contribution as a blurb:
"Any girl who deftly wields a sword has my undivided attention. The fact that she also kicks butt in hand-to-hand combat only seals the deal. This book is a must read." ~Your Daily Dose
I think that they did a nice job with the cover. Makes me want to dig out all of my episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and start over again. Although, I am fairly certain there are no vampires in this book. Just a lot of fighting with swords and stuff like that. Still pretty awesome.
In totally non-related news, since my botox injection procedure for my migraines I have had one day that my migraine was mild enough that I took absolutely no pain medication. That is a first in ten years. It actually made me wonder what a no headache day would feel like, AND to think it might be within my grasp. That thought made me so happy that I thought I might actually burst with it. The truth is that I haven't had a no headache day in so long that I have forgotten what that feels like. I really look forward to remembering.
Today is that magical music Saturday I promised. Yeah, we ride this merry-go-round every Saturday just because. Just because it's fun. I have a few newbies for this Saturday, so this is the dish on this event: every Saturday I pick one 80s artist who impacted MTV. That means they rode MTV or MTV rode them to success. MTV was this magnificent vehicle for the artists who figured out how to harness it. As a teenager when MTV came out, I can attest that it was very much like crack cocaine to the teenage brain. I can't tell you how many hours I spent glued to the set watching video after video. So, it is safe to say that MTV in its heyday was a success. Music Television. MTV has forgotten its roots and has taken the M out of the TV, so we are reliving its glory days here.
The other part of what happens today is that I pick a song that speaks to me today. I usually end up picking said song today. I picked a song by Cher about a month ago, and said something like you should never count Cher out of The Game. As soon as you do, she is back In. I recently went to see The Easy A (hilarious movie if you are going to just zone out and laugh), and there was a preview for the movie Burlesque.... starring Cher and Christina Aguilera. I did an internal high five with myself. Yep. She's back and hotter than ever. So, prepare yourself for some Cher awesomeness because she is about to blast us into space again. This woman just gets better all of the time. When I decided I wanted to be Cher when I was seven, at least I chose well. She has got it all. So, here she is with one of my favorites. It is designed to get all of your senses heightened so that you are fully prepared for the onslaught of magnificence headed your way. Okay, hit it...
Okay, so on the days that I don't want to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I still want to be Cher. Man, she can SING. I can't wait for her new movie because she can also ACT like nobody's business. And DANCE. The woman is a triple threat. The trifecta. She probably really is a vampire slayer in her free time. Okay, got to move on...
Well, there are always so many artists to choose from that I have trouble narrowing the field. I decided on (drumroll please) Bryan Adams. I almost went with John Cougar Mellencamp. That might be next week. The only thing that prevented that this week was my including one of his videos in my Thursday lineup. It just gave me a taste for some John Mellencamp. And then last night we went to the local pizza joint for dinner and they had karaoke in there. OMG. I couldn't believe it. I hadn't done any karaoke in forever. So... I took the plunge again and again and again. I even sang a John Mellencamp song. Yeah, it was on the brain. But, it made me think about Bryan Adams. They all came out about the same time. And then I remembered the video for this song, which is one of my favorites...
Which made me think of this video. Anyone look familiar?
Now that is exactly the sort of deliciousness that made teenagers want to just jump up and down and scream for more. What happened next? Well, my fellow youtube addicts... I am not telling. You will have to go searching yourself to see if they ever answered that story, or if it all just disappeared into the mist. However, the strategy was brilliant. Everyone was waiting for the next Bryan Adams video. It was better than a soap opera. And it was this sort of brilliance that shot Bryan Adams to the top of the music charts. Not saying he isn't a great singer, or that the songs weren't awesome, but just that he is the whole package. People who are smart enough to use everything that they have and make it all work for them deserve to come out on top. They are THINKING. Rolling concert footage of yourself is just lazy. Gimme some genius. Thank you Bryan Adams for that blast to the past. And thank you MTV for the good ole days. You might think about revisiting them in the present and cut out the reality crap. Everyone has enough reality in their actual life. It is called MTV for a reason. Just sayin'.
Saturday has rolled around once more. Amazing how that happens. Like clockwork. For those of you new to the blogging world, this is the day where more people are actually doing something. They are not writing blogs and/or reading them. That opens up all sorts of freedom to those who choose to write blogs over the weekend. Your audience is fairly limited, so you can really go for it. Speak your mind. Say what you need to say. Go ahead... unburden yourself.
As for me, today is the day where I share music with the masses that hop, skip, jump, or accidentally fall down the rabbit hole, and end up at this blog. Wheeee. I even have some vague format for this day. However, I can and do break my own rules. Nothing is written in stone here. Here's the overall deal: I choose one song that is inspirational to me right now in this moment. Then, I choose one artist or band from the 80s that rocked MTV. I find it disturbing that MTV really doesn't play music anymore. The M in the TV is for Music. It is not for reality TV or anything else. That is just dumb. Back in the 80s, it was pretty much all videos all the time. It was awesome. So, we are time traveling to revisit some of that incredible amazingness, just to see what these groundbreaking artists did with this new form of musical expression. Some of them just used vids of themselves in concert. For the most part, we won't be looking at that. That is not a creative form of expression peeps!
Now, that we have the whole "what this thing is about" ironed out, let's move on to my inspirational song for today. This is gonna be a strange one. Usually the song just comes to me. In this case, it was a feeling. I have been feeling lousy and that ticks me off, so I wanted a kick some butt sort of song. Mostly I wanted to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I go through these phases. No, I pretty much always want to be Buffy. I just don't talk about it. So, I cruised through youtube watching Buffy videos until I found one that was sufficiently down and dirty that it worked for me. So, here we go... Don't forget to turn off my music player at the botttom of the page.
Okay, now that I am all warm and gooey from the inside out, we can move on to the rest of our Inspirational Music Marathon. Let me just towel off. That was quite a workout. And I need a drink. Be right back and then we can proceed. Is anyone else sweating? It is HOT in here.
Okay, I am back. It didn't occur to me until last night that I had not even thought about the 80s artist that I was going to feature today. Rutro. That is bad. I usually have a handle on this much sooner. However, there are so many to choose from that it really is not tough. My friend Megan came to mind ~ again ~ once I decided on... wait for it... INXS. I will take this moment to strongly encourage new readers, or old readers who missed the blog on Megan, and her stellar musical knowledge, to go back to this blog and read it. In addition to being informative, it cracks me up.
Megan was the first person to introduce me to INXS. We listened to Shabooh Shoobah and Listen Like Thieves regularly as we drove around town. She might have had some of their other records, too, but those are the ones that come to mind. At the time, that was considered to be somewhat alternative or new wave. It wasn't getting any radio play in the US. I still don't know how Megan ran them down. However, she listened to a LOT of music that was foreign to my ears, but was always super cool.
The first song that introduced most people to INXS (here in the US) was What You Need. They followed that up with what has to be one of the best records of all time, in my opinion: KICK. I confess I did do some reading about this, but only because I was curious! I normally do no research on these things and rely strictly on my memory. If I am wrong, I really don't care. I am not declaring myself to be an expert on this subject. Apparently the record label didn't want to release KICK and fought them all the way down the line. The plan with KICK was to have every song on it be so good that it could be released as a single. In my opinion, they succeeded. However, Atlantic Records had other ideas...
They hated it, absolutely hated it. They said there was no way they could get this music on rock radio. They said it was suited for black radio, but they didn't want to promote it that way. The president of the label told me that he'd give us $1 million to go back to Australia and make another album.
—Chris Murphy, manager
Well, the album got made despite Atlantic's idiocy. I am sure that they claimed all the glory after it was such a resounding success. Ah well. That is just the way it goes. I played KICK so often that I think I wore the music right off of the tape. It was a freaking awesome record. I call them all records, no matter what form you buy them in. They are still records. Saves confusion. In this case, it was a cassette.
KICK was such an amazing record that the next one must have felt overwhelming. INXS went on to release four more records before lead singer, Michael Hutchence died. None of the records reached the level of success that KICK garnered. The last was aptly titled ELEGANTLY WASTED. It was how I felt about Michael's death when I heard about it: all of that talent and charisma just gone. Poof.
I had a very difficult time just choosing one video from KICK. It was so much fun just watching them. However, I wanted you to see one of the videos pre-KICK, so that you could see the difference. And I do take a bit of divine pleasure, once again, in saying to those of you who missed MTV when it was actually good, you really missed something GOOD. Thank the powers at be for youtube. Where would we be without youtube???? I really do think that they have laced youtube with crack. I am becoming more certain by the day...
This is Need You Tonight. It was one of SEVEN songs that charted on this amazing album... KICK.
Well, that was all kinds of fun for me, and brought back lots of really great memories. I hope that you enjoyed a similar walk down memory lane, or found a brand new path full of musical joy!
