Goodbye 2006

I'm not usually a resolutions person. Creating one momentous day each year to hang all of our hopes on for the next 364 seems a little unbalanced to me.  That said, I am going to make a few this year, and try a new technique.  I'm going to make my resolutions, then consciously re-make them every day.  Or, every day until I wake up too hungover to do it one day and stop the momentum.  Whichever. So, without further ado, my resolutions for 2007:

• Take my writing blog and writing forum into the top 50 writing blogs of 2007.
• Take my freelance career to a new level of financial stability that allows me to be completely debt free by December 2007.
• Attain a size 6 again.
• Live a non-smoking life.  I have been cutting back since before Thanksgiving with limited success.  We'll see if I can continue the trend.
• I helped a few writers get a start on a career this year, I hope to help more on their way this coming year.

That's about it.  I have a few very specific goals this year, and I'm quite focused on attaining them.  I plan to refocus my goal each day by repeating the list out loud when I wake up and visualizing the actual results before bed.  I know! How "new agey" of me!

Now Listening:  The Cure <b>Standing On A Beach</b>

Tags:   New Years Resolution

100 Things We Didn’t Know Last Year

Each year the BBC puts together facts and figures and random trivia on everything from science to entertainment.  At the end of the year they run an article on the top 100 things from the year that we didn't know before.

Some of my favorites from this year include: 

7. The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions.

17. Coco Chanel started the trend for sun tans in 1923 when she got accidentally burnt on a cruise.

28. More than 90% of plane crashes have survivors.

38. A common American poplar has twice as many genes as a human being.

40. The medical name for the part of the brain associated with teenage sulking is "superior temporal sulcus".

55. While 53% of households have access to a garage, only 24% use them for parking cars. 

69. Humans were first infected with the HIV virus in the 1930s. 

84. Thinking about your muscles can make you stronger. 

87. Goths, those pasty-faced teenagers who revel in black clothing, are likely to become doctors, lawyers and architects.  

Read the rest of the article here . 

Now Listening: King Diamond. meh. (honey's home, working out to it in bedroom)

Tags:   100 things trivia

More Fun With Music History

We enjoyed the guy who ripped apart pop music's famous four chords here .  Now we give you the Pachelbel Rant .  Enjoy! 

Now Listening: Punk Christmas Carols

Tags:  pachelbel rant

Tributes Usually Suck Wind

… but this one? Is so, so good.  Good like comfort food.  Good like fine whiskey. 

 Don't know who you are, but toosh, dude, toosh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg60×3MyNUI

Now Listening: Punk Rock Christmas Carols

Tags:   Ze Frank Tribute Video

Name That Album Cover

For the music buffs out there…

This is a neat little quiz I caught wind of through a little duckie in the pond.  Name the album covers and get entered to win a drawing from Rough Trade.  This is harder than it looks – I highly recommend clicking the little box to accept cookies from the site that will remember your choices.  Good luck! And let me know if you win…

The Rough Trade Quiz 

Oh! Before I forget, there is a little pop up ad from a random sponsor when you visit the site that goes away in a few moments.

Now Listening: The Cure Boys Don't Cry

Tags:  music quiz rough trade

History of Pop Music – Funny

This guy creates a great commentary on the suckfest that is mainstream pop music. He takes the four chords most often used in mainstream pop and some of their trite lyrics and creates one song out of it, which chronicles pop over the years. Awesome. In a slit your wrists kind of way.

Video Link

Now Listening: The Pogues Rum, Sodomy and The Lash

Tags: pop music parody

ZeFrank, his Duckies and the story of the Human Baton…

This is going ot be a multi-part post.  It's worth every minute of reading, though, I promise!  (This is Leslie speak for grab a cup of joe, we're going to be here a while.)

First I want to tell you all a little story.  It's about a guy named ZeFrank (originally infamous for his mad dance skillz through a video email… well, go to his site and read that story for yourself.) and his vlog, Ze Frank's The Show.  I've been meaning to share this with all of my readers for some time now, but I keep putting it off.  Suddenly, the end is near, and I'd better clue you all in before it's over so you can catch up.

Backstory and linky goodness:

His main web site was awesome to begin with (check out the games, puzzles, scribblers, gadgets, singing frogs and whatnot on the sidebar), and then he began doing The Show this past March.  I watch it every Monday through Friday.  You should too. After all: he's thinking, so you don't have to. 

Some highlights from the past few months to start you off:

Jon Benet ™

How Do You Work This Thing

Hindsight

Brain Crack

Hollywood

Ride The Fire Eagle

Love Letter To Condoleeza

Or, start from The Beginning and watch them all.

Even further back, before The Show…  highlights from his main page:

How To Dance Properly (the video that made him famous)

Frog

The Scribbler

His Old Band 

Throughout the history of The Show, it has been very interactive.  From the offbeat humor and political commentary, to the in jokes ("Who likes the little little duckies in the pond? I do, I do a chicka-quack quack!") Ze includes his viewers (the Sports Racers, and also Duckies) in every aspect.  It's one of the many things that I love about The Show, this feeling of participation.

Periodically the LOA (League of Awesomeness) gives Sports Racers interactive projects, and sometimes the Sports Racers challenge Ze in return to things like chess games online and Fabuloso Friday.  (Really, there are a lot of inside jokes Ze has created for his viewers, so just watch from the beginning and catch up.  It will eat a weekend, but it's worth it, and then you'll be all up to speed on the pupils, the not blinking, the duckies, the vacuum cleaners, Ray, and so much more.  Go! Do it now!) 

The most recent group project has become known as the Human Baton project.  It started off as a simple idea – RunningFool, one of the Sports Racers, wanted to get to California on Duckie power over his winter break.  It has snowballed into hundreds of Sports Racers putting aside their hardcharger ways and helping Runningfool go all the way across the country and back on the power of the internet and the kindness of strangers.  It's really quite cool, and extremely monumental in scope (he went from 10 volunteers for a OR to CA trip to over 300 for a round the US and parts of Canada trip). 

We're hoping to get Luke (that's RunningFool) enough buttons to make movement awkward, lots of friendliness and beer, and maybe some news coverage.  John and I are helping out in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, having volunteered to be his Emergency Rescue Service should anything happen to him or if one of his relay drivers or beds in the area backs out last minute.  John doesn't even watch The Show unless I make him watch an episode here and there, but he thought the idea of a human baton was so cool he was completely into helping out Luke.  Love that about him! 

If you want to know more about RunningFool and his journey through sports Racer land as a Human Baton, visit the links below:

The Human Baton Flickr Photo Album

The website AwedJob (a Sports Racer and all around awesomely ducky guy) created for the event, Human Baton .

The Running Fool interview on the ZeFrank wiki.

The Running Fool wiki page on the ZeFrank wiki.

The Running Fool group on MeetUp .

The Running Fool thread in the forum about The Show.

 Update 12/28/06: Luke Makes The News in KC !

Don't be a Hard Charger! Support RunningFool in his journey!  

•••

On a more personal note, please think happy and peaceful thoughts for my little grey cat Ethel . She and Lucy are sisters, and are 14 years old, and up until yesterday you would have pegged them at 2 years old, tops. then yesterday, Ethel started had a seizure so severe it sent her down a flight of 14 steps.  She seems to be relatively calm, and is mobile, but I am now worried sick about her, my bay-bee!  Even the rottweilers are worried about "their" cat and can't stop coming over to check on her and make sure she's ok.  We take her to the vet on Monday, so fingers crossed, etc. people, please. 

•••

Now Listening: The Cramps Stay Sick

Tags: ze frank running fool human baton

The Curse of the Stolen Meme

James at Aces Full of Links grabbed it from this blog: Staring at Empty Pages and I grabbed it from James. It has to do with what music you like from the year you turned 18.

Instructions:
Go to popculturemadness.com and select the year you became 18 [from the "Hits" list on the left]. Snip the top 50 songs from the list and paste it in your journal. Bold the ones you like and strike the ones you dislike, italic the ones you know but neither like nor dislike, and the ones you don’t know will stay in normal text.

•••

I included all 75 songs on the list, just because. I have a strange quirk – if I hear something set to music, I remember it always. I don’t know why that is, and thankfully that seems to be slowing down as I get older, but it means I “know” every song on the list. No, really. Every $^%& word. And I was a punker in high school and did not listen to pop radio! Needless to say none of my most favorite bands from 1989 are on here. This may inspire a list of the 75 songs I listened to all the time as a teenager in another blog entry (The Cramps, anyone? The Cure? Dead Kennedys? No? Just me? Alright then.).

Aanywaaaaay… back to the game. I know and remember all of the songs on the list below. Half of them are now stuck in my head for the day (thankyouverylittlejames). So the ones I did NOT like are in italics and the ones I DID like are in bold. Ready? And awaaaay we go…

1. Love Shack – B-52’s
2. Funky Cold Medina- Tone Loc (Now that I’m older I actually like this song better, don’t ask me why.)
3. Bust A Move – Young MC (same for this one)
4. Wind Beneath My Wings – Bette Midler (Is it odd that I hate this song with a fiery passion usually reserved for door to door salesmen and adulterers?)
5. Like A Prayer – Madonna (yeah. I like Madonna. shhhhh!)
6. Joy and Pain – Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock
7. Put A Little Love In Your Heart – Annie Lennox and Al Green (This did no justice to the original, which is too bad – Annie Lennox is usually pretty cool)
8. All I Want Is You – U2 (I never liked this song, which is odd because I like most older U2 stuff)
9. Patience – Guns N Roses (hell yes, I like GnR. Hair Metal? Of course!)
10. The Best – Tina Turner (I have a soft spot for Tina. I’m 5′2 and I want her legs. That’s not too stalker-esque of me is it?)
11. Paradise City – Guns N Roses (ok, now this booted Wind Beneath My Wings out of my hed, thank goodness)
12. Keep On Movin’ – Soul II Soul
13. Wild Thing – Tone Loc (another one I hated then and like now)
14. Every Little Step – Bobby Brown
15. I’ll Be There For You – Bon Jovi (see notes by GnR)
16. Another Day In Paradise – Phil Collins
17. Love In An Elevator – Aerosmith (my all time favorite rock band)
18. Kiss – Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones (I liked this song for about 5 minutes for the simple reason that is supplanted their terrible Max Headroom song on the radio and my ears loved the brief sweet feeling of relief.)
19. She Drives Me Crazy – Fine Young Cannibals
20. Lay Your Hands On Me – Bon Jovi (not my favorite Bon Jovi song)
21. Don’t Know Much – Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville (love Aaron Neville, hate Linda.)
22. Smooth Criminal – Michael Jackson (one of the few Michael songs I liked at the time – good groove. I like Alien Antfarm’s version even better.)
23. After All - Cher and Peter Cetera
24. Express Yourself – Madonna
25. Eternal Flame – the Bangles
26. Buffalo Stance – Nenah Cherry (This song is so bad I can’t even think of a snappy comment.)
27. Love Song – the Cure (I had his hair at one point – skeery, huh?)
28. Angel of Harlem – U2
29. So Alive – Love and Rockets (I liked them better when they were The Bauhaus, but I’ll take what I can get…)
30. Back To Life – Soul II Soul
31. Listen To Her Heart – Roxette
32. Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) – Enya
33. I Feel The Earth Move – Martika
34. Get On Your Feet – Gloria Estefan (Was this before the bus or after the bus? I can’t remember now.)
35. When I See You Smile – Bad English
36. Heaven Help Me – Deon Estus and George Micahel
37. Baby, Don’t Forget My Number – Milli Vanilli (And then they were busted for lip synching and all was right in the world again.)
38. Dr. Feelgood – Motley Crew
39. Heaven – Warrent (yeah, I know, but who doesn’t like a band whose biggest hit was Chery Pie and still took themselves this seriously?)
40. She Wants To Dance With Me – Rick Astley
41. Walk The Dinosaur – Was (Not Was) (Another in the like it better now than then category)
42. Once Bitten Twice Shy – Great White
43. Me, Myself and I – De la Soul
44. I Won’t Back Down – Tom Petty
45. On Our Own – Bobby Brown
46. A Little Respect – Erasure
47. Miss You Like Crazy – Natalie Cole
48. 18 and Life – Skid Row (yummmm, Sebaaaastiaaan. Oh, sorry, what was I doing again?)
49. You Got It (The Right Stuff) – New Kids On The Block (Dammit. “oh oh oh oh oh. oh oh oh oh. the rrrgihgt stuff. argh! Get out of my head!)
50. Me So Horny – 2 Live Crew (Of *course* I liked this song. I had the CD.)
51. Stand – R.E.M. (Not their best, but they are still my favorite whine rockers out there – the original emos.)
52. Soldier Of Love – Donny Osmond
53. The Look – Roxette
54. Birthday Suit – Johnny Kemp (This song took terrible to new lows.)
55. We Didn’t Start the Fire – Billy Joel (This is my least favorite Billy Joel song, but I have a soft spot for his music, so…)
56. Hey Ladies – Beastie Boys
57. The Living Years – Mike and the Mechanics
58. Trouble Me – 10,000 Maniacs
59. Don’t Wanna To Lose You – Gloria Estefan
60. Closer To Fine – Indigo Girls (I just learned something – I didn’t realize this song had charted.)
61. Forever Your Girl – Paula Abdul
62. My Fantasy – Teddy Riley Featuring Guy
63. Blame It On The Rain – Milli Vanilli
64. End Of The Line – Traveling Wilburys (Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan – what’s not to love?)
65. Two Hearts – Phil Collins
66. Anchorage – Michelle Shocked (I have this one on vinyl. If you have is on CD I would LOVE a copy. Let’s talk.)
67. Right Here Waiting – Richard Marx
68. Mayor Of Simpleton – Midge Ure
69. Straight Up – Paula Abdul
70. Pop Song 89 – R.E.M.
71. I’ll Be Loving You (Forever) – New Kids On The Block
72. Now You’re In Heaven – Julian Lennon (It’s too bad he tried his career so soon after his dad’s death. He’s not bad, but that shadow is hard to overcome.)
73. My Perogative – Bobby Brown
74. Dear God – XTC (another one I have on vinyl)
75. Hangin’ Tough- New Kids On The Block

That was fun! Thanks James! Anyone else have a massive case of ear worm now?
Now Listening: a cacaphony of bad 80s music running through my head

Tags: pop music meme