RIP Christine McVie

That's about all I have to say tonight. 

October 2022 Song of the Day

 It was little more of a normal month for me October, finally being home from the hospital and the rehab.

For new readers, this blog entry refers to the monthly Song of the Day list on the Sputnik Music website. Each month, one User hosts the list and names a theme. Everyone then recommends songs in line with this theme, and people rate the various song recommendations. The list of October songs can be found at Sputnik Music Song of the Day October 2022.

1. The theme of the month was to pick a song that would be good as part of a horror film soundtrack.

2. Participation for the month was pretty good, although I actually got to make three different recommendations. The first of these was Gerard McMann's "Cry Little Sister" which actually was the main theme song from the soundtrack of the 1980s horror flick the lost boys The Lost Boys. The second was a track by 1970s folk/prog rockers Strawbs, "Witchwood". The third was "Alison Gross", from 1960s folk rockers Steeleye Span. Gerard McMann - Cry Little Sister; Strawbs - Witchwood; Steeleye Span - Alison Gross.

3. I didn't have a great month listening wise. The average rating I gave was only 2.73 out of 5. My highest rated song was "The Serpent" by Myrkur. Myrkur - The Serpent.

4. However, the highest rated song by the group in general was "Vitamin C' by the 1970s German experimental band Can. Can - Vitamin C.

And that's that.

Alrighty then - hope to see you all next month.

My Favorite Artists, Part 16: About Rush

Unfortunately, I think this is going to be the last post in the My Favorite Artists series, at least the last solo entry. I'll try to do an abbreviated list to at least address the other 14 artists and bands.

Rush released their first album, an eponymous one, in 1974. However, it wasn't until their seventh release, 1980's Permanent Waves, that I really took notice of them. The track that first drew my attention was "The Spirit of Radio". I didn't know what to make of them at first - I was used to high-voiced rock vocalists like Robert Plant, Steven Tyler and Peppi Marchello, but Geddy Lee was like one of those guys on helium. Before long, I decided I liked it, though.

The next year, they released what I still consider to be the ultimate Rush LP, Moving Pictures. This one contained a number of their greatest hits, including "Tom Sawyer" (probably their most popular song), "Red Barchetta", and my personal favorite, "Limelight". At this point, I clearly knew I liked this band. They rocked like a mutha*****, and they obviously knew how to write a song. I didn't actually add them to the My Favorite Artists list until the end of the decade, though, with the release of 1989's Presto and 1991's Roll the Bones.  This is kind of ironic, as many Rush fans consider these two the band's weaker albums (as assessment I don't entirely disagree with - although there's a lot I enjoy about them, these are two LPs that haven't aged as well as many of their others). But nevertheless, they were just enough to make me say, "Yes, this band deserves to be called one of my favorite artists.

But why Rush, and not, for example, Led Zeppelin? I certainly love a lot of Zeppelin songs, maybe even more than I do of Rush's. I think it's a combination of Rush's musical acumen and something else, some hard-to-define quality that makes me identify with them. Because as formidable as they are, Rush is also kind of nerdy. Zeppelin was one of the most popular bands in the world. They had gorgeous groupies at their beck and call every night. With Rush (as with my beloved Good Rats), this was not the case. Rush was a trio of geeky guys. One look at Geddy Lee's long nose and stringy hair or Neil Peart's reading list told you these weren't guys who were bowling over the ladies. (Dude based his epic "2112" on Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead!) 

I've also always found Rush admirable, especially when they decided to risk their career after 1975's Caress of Steel to expressly go against the record label's demand for more singles to create an LP like 1976's 2112. They bet it all on themselves, and in the end, they won big time.

So yeah, there's something both heroic and likable about these guys. I also loved that Geddy would do a joke song like "Take Off" with the fictional hosts of SCTV's The Great White North show, Bob and Doug McKenzie. And I was intrigued and touched by Peart's reaction to the tragic deaths of first his daughter and then his wife - he basically took to his motorcycle and just drove his way through the various stages of his grief, as detailed in his book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road. That the band was able to come back after this and make three subsequent (and substantial) LPs and an EP was eminently admirable to me.

And no, it certainly didn't hurt that all three members were masters of their various instruments and could write the hell out of a song. Some of my favorites, other than the ones I've already listed, include "Free Will", "Subdivisions", "Red Sector A", "Time Stand Still" and "Fly By Night".

Although Lee and Lifeson declared that Rush was finished after Neil Peart's passing from brain cancer in 2020, this past summer, the duo reunited at the South Park 25th Anniversary Concert (with Matt Stone of South Park on drums). And they immediately stated that they'd like to play together again, although it will never be Rush without Peart.

This gladdened my heart. I hope they follow through.

September 2022 Song of the Day - Correction

I totally screwed this up. I did a full write-up on September a week ago. Then, a surge of late voting changed the final results. And instead of creating an update as a second post, I accidentally wrote over the first one. So let's try this again.

For new readers, this blog entry refers to the monthly Song of the Day list on the Sputnik Music website. Each month, one User hosts the list and names a theme. Everyone then recommends songs in line with this theme, and people rate the various song recommendations. The list of August songs can be found at Sputnik Music Song of the Day September 2022.

1. The theme of the month was Songs About Nature.

2. Participation for the month was a little lacking. But because I was in the hospital/rehab all month and wasn't able to rate everybody else's songs, I chose to only offer up one rec. It was "Carpet of the Sun" by the impeccable Renaissance. Renaissance - Carpet of the Sun. It was pretty well received.

3. As I said, I didn't get to listen to any of the songs for the month, because I was in the hospital for two weeks and physical rehab for three, without access to much internet.

4. Guess I wasn't patient enough. There was a bunch of late voting, so the winning song was neither by The Hu nor by Revel, as I had originally announced. Instead, it was "Lamp" by Haruka Nakamure. Haruka Nakamura - Lamp.

Well excuuuuuuuuuse me!

August 2022 Song of the Day

I was just about to do a writeup on the September 2022 Song of the Day when I noticed I'd never written up the August one. At first I was confused by this and wasn't sure if this was because I hadn't participated in it. Then I realized it was because I went into the hospital on either August 31 or September 1, so while I'm sure I participated in the month, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to write it up. So let's start with August, shall we?

For new readers, this blog entry refers to the monthly Song of the Day list on the Sputnik Music website. Each month, one User hosts the list and names a theme. Everyone then recommends songs in line with this theme, and people rate the various song recommendations. The list of August songs can be found at Sputnik Music Song of the Day August 2022. 

1. The theme for the month was "Duets", loosely defined as songs with two vocalists.

2. Participation for the month was slow-to-average. As a result, I got to make three picks for the month. The first was "When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves" by Paul Kantner and Grace Slick, from their excellent Sunfighter LP. It scored pretty well with the other Users, at a little over 3.34 out of 5. The second was "Working Class Jacket" by My Favorite from their Love at Absolute Zero album, which scored even better at 3.48. The last was "How Not to Drown" by Chvrches with Robert Smith of The Cure, from the Screen Violence album. This last pick was not popular, scoring only a 2.8, but I suspected it wouldn't be - modern alternative pop rock is not a popular genre with this group. Paul Kantner & Grace Slick - When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves; My Favorite - Working Class Jacket; Chvrches and Robert Smith - How Not to Drown.

3. I had an enjoyable month listening-wise - my average score was 3.16. My highest rated song for August was a cover of the George Gershwin song "Summertime" from the opera Porgy and Bess by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (although being a child of the '60s and '70s, I've always been partial to the Janis Joplin version of this one). Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Summertime.

4. However, the highest rated song of the month was "Marble House" by The Knife, featuring Jay-Jay Johnson, which I also liked. The Knife, featuring Jay-Jay Johnson - Marble House.

OK, glad I got that updated. I'll try to do the write up for September over the weekend. 

Be well, folks. 

Catching Up Quickly

Been in the hospital/rehab for the last 5 weeks. Just got home today. I will try to update you on the September SOTD list within the next day or two.

Dorothy was right. There IS no place like home.

My Favorite Songs of 2022 So Far

Most years, it's just around this time of the year that I start organizing my favorite songs. This year, I'm going to let you in on the process.

I usually keep a playlist of potentials that consists of my favorite song (or sometimes two songs) from each album I've listened to for the year. Around halfway through the year, I start organizing that list into five categories (in relation to the my Favorite Songs of the Year) list: Definite, Probable, Possible, Maybe, and No. As I listen to my playlist over the course of the year (constantly adding new songs to it), I shuffle songs in and out of the various categories.

Right now, I've got 69 songs in the overall 2022 Potentials list, including four each in the Definite and Probable categories. I think those are the only ones I'm going to describe for you here. So here are those eight songs, in alphabetical order by artist:

Alexia Avina - I Am Opening - A slow, quiet, ethereal song that almost floats away on its own.

Barrie - Dig - Quirky but pretty little alt-pop love song.

Beach House - Over and Over - Dream pop at its finest by this Baltimore, MD duo.

The Birthday Massacre - One More Time - Hook laden alternative rock.

Graveyard Club - Broken Wide Open - '80s influenced alternate pop rock with male and female vocals.

Matisyahu - Lonely Day - Just another heartfelt, well-written Matisyahu song.

The Monochrome Set - My Deep Shoreline - Slighty sarcastic but lovely track from this veteran '80s indie pop band.

Nocturna - The Trickster - Bombastic ballad from this Italian gothic symphonic rock band.

And here, without descriptions, are the 21 songs in my Possible category:

Antigone Rising - Badlands

Bastille - Shut Off the Lights

Big Thief - Spud Infinity

Broods - Piece of My Mind

Calexico - Cumbia Peninsula

Chaos Magic - Garden of Winter

Darkher - Immortals

Envy of None - Never Said I Love You

Faun - Innisfree

Graveyard Club - Rose Wine

Lights - Easy Money

Johnny Marr - Night and Day

Moonlight Haze - It's Insane

The Ninth Wave - Maybe You Didn't Know

Peregrine - The Awful Things

Placebo - Chemtrails

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Not the One

Royksopp (with Alison Goldfrapp) - Impossible

Say Sue Me - No Real Place

SheWolf - Lone Wolf

Visions of Atlantis - Legions of the Sea

My Favorite Local Albums of 2022 So Far

You guys know my rules for what constitutes a local album. If an artist has ever had more than a cup of coffee in the Tr--State area, their album basically qualifies.

Here are the Top Ten I've heard so far this year.

1. Matisyahu - Matisyahu - 7th LP from this American Hasidic Jewish hip-hop/reggae artist. He's back living in New York, in Rockland County, with a newborn infant daughter born during the pandemic. Album was produced by the Columbian musical duo Salt Cathedral.

2. Alexia Avina - A Little Older - Ethereal acoustic artist who was born in Southeast Asia and currently lives in Queens, NY. This is her 4th full-length album.

3. Pete Mancini - Killing the Old Ways - Long Island Americana artist who really comes into his on this, his 3rd solo LP. He's the former lead singer of the band Butchers Blind. A smooth and mature effort.

4. Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You - New double album by this indie folk/rock band from Brooklyn. This is their 5th LP.

5. Titanosaur - Absence - Solo metal/punk project from upstate resident (and former Long Islander) Geoff Saavedra. This is his 3rd LP under the Titansoaur banner. His other projects have included The Raygun Girls and The Orgasmobots.

6. Barrie - Barbara - Brooklyn-based American indie pop band. This is their 3rd LP.

7. Christine Sweeney - Heart in a Hurry - Debut studio LP from this Long Island bluesy pop/folk singer. She is also known from Christine Sweeney and the Dirty Stayouts.

8. Moontooth - Phototroph - Long Island "aggressive progressive" rock band. This is their 3rd LP. They remind me some of Incubus, especially vocally.

9. Steve Vai - Inviolate - 19th LP from Long Island hard rock guitarist Steve Vai.

10. Joe Satriani - The Elephants of Mars - 18th LP from Long Island hard rock guitarist Joe Satriani.

I've also got a number of other albums that I haven't heard yet either here or on the way from artists who qualify as local under my rules, including new projects from Vexes, Soccer Mommy, Regina Spektor, Mothica, Interpol, Florist and Tara Drouin. I suspect that the current Top 6 above are safe, barring another unexpected "local" release or two between now and the end of the year. I think numbers 8-10 are in serious danger of dropping off of this list. Number 7 is in a maybe-yes/maybe no spot - what's there is pretty solid, but it's as much an EP as not - there are only 7 tracks on the album.

So that's how 2022 is shaping up for me a little more than halfway through the year.

 

My Favorite Albums of 2022 So Far

I don't usually name the albums in contention for my yearly My Favorite Albums list in advance. Unfortunately, this time out, I'm not sure what kind of shape I'm going to be in to write about it by the end of the year.

So these are the LPs that I have rated at least 3.5 out of 5 so far in 2022. They're roughly in the order I like them in now, except for the last one, which I haven't officially ranked yet. And certainly, the order could change a lot.

Faun - Pagan - 11th LP from this German neo-Pagan folk band from Munich.

Matisyahu - Matisyahu - 7th LP from this American Hasidic Jewish hip-hop/reggae artist. He's back living in New York, in Rockland County, with a newborn infant daughter born during the pandemic. Album was produced by the Columbian musical duo Salt Cathedral.

Johnny Marr - Fever Dreams Parts I-IV - Former lead guitarist of The Smiths with a collection of his four most recent solo EPs. It's his 4th solo LP.

Avril Lavigne - Love Sux - 7th LP from this Canadian pop rock star. This is her most scorching LP in years.

Nocturna - Daughters of the Night - Debut album from a Italian gothic symphonic metal band with two female vocalists.

Royksopp - Profound Mysteries - 6th LP from this Norwegian electronic music duo. Album features several guest vocalists.

Visions of Atlantis - Pirates - 8th LP from this Austrian female-fronted bombastic symphonic metal band.

Beach House - Once Twice Melody - American dream pop duo from Baltimore, MD with a collection of their four most recent EPs. This is their 8th LP.

The Monochrome Set - Allhallowtide - 16th LP from this British post punk new wave band.

Chaos Magic - Emerge - 3rd LP from this Finnish symphonic metal band fronted by Chilean singer Caterina Nix.

Alexia Avina - A Little Older - Ethereal acoustic artist who was born in Southeast Asia and currently lives in Queens, NY. This is her 4th full-length album.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Unlimited Love - 13th LP by this world-famed alternative rock/funk band from Los Angeles, CA.

Hallas - Isle of Wisdom - Swedish progressive rock/hard rock band. This is their 3rd full-length album.

Calexico - El Mirador - 12th LP by this Tucson, AZ-based Tex-Mex indie rock band.

Darkher - The Buried Storm - 2nd LP from this West Yorkshire, UK-based doom metal/folk musician.

The Birthday Massacre - Fascination - 9th LP from this gothic alternative rock band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Moonlight Haze - Animus - 3rd LP from this Italian symphonic power metal band.

Graveyard Club - Moonflower - 2nd LP from this American synth rock band from Minneapolis, MN.

Those are my highlights of 2022 so far.

Adding to the My Favorite Artists List

Yesterday I posted a bit about my My Favorite Artists list - the history of it, some playlists I made for myself, etc. I also posted just a little about what it takes to make that list - an artist doesn't need to have an extensive discography, but they do need to have music that I love, and I also need to have an emotional link to them. I not only love their music, but in some way, they represent me.

On yesterday's post, I named the first 25 of those bands (and thirteen playlists I made for them as well). The list included:

1. Jethro Tull

2. The Who

3. Pink Floyd

4. Yes

5. The Good Rats

6. Procol Harum

7. Bruce Springsteen

8. Joni Mitchell

9. The Cars

10. The Police

11. Blondie

12. Eurythmics

13. The Smiths

14. The Go-Go's

15. Fleetwood Mac

16. Rush

17. 'Til Tuesday

18. The Cranberries

19. Nirvana

20. The Slant

My original list of 20 ended with Denise's band The Slant. A few years later, I added five other bands that had become very important to me.

21. Future Bible Heroes

22. Paramore

23. Bayside

24. Black 47

25. Blackmore's Night

What I didn't tell you (because they were added too late to be included in those thirteen playlists) was that at some time over the course of the pandemic, I added two other more modern bands over the course of the pandemic that have become important to me through the last few years. They were:

26. Nightwish

27. Mostly Autumn

Nightwish started a new passion for me, that of symphonic metal (and I've been exploring a variety of bands in that genre over the last three years). Mostly Autumn, on the other hand, proved to be something I didn't think existed anymore - a modern-day prog rock band in the vein of bands like Pink Floyd, Renaissance and even The Who.

But as I'm faced now with possibly the end of my life, I thought it might be time to look back and add a few more artists to this list to bring it back to an even number. Just as I had originally overlooked bands like Fleetwood Mac and Rush, who else might there be that I'd missed initially, but really deserved to be here?

First, let me say that I've decided for now, at least, to keep with my original principal of letting The Slant be the only local band without a national following to hold a place on this list. I could immediately add a bunch of Long Island artists from the mid-1990's through early 2000's who absolutely deserve to be here, and they'll always hold a special place in my heart. But none of them included my life partner. So although I'd love to someday write about some of those others, it won't be now.

Instead, I looked back over the various decades and found one band each from the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's, each of whom clearly deserves to be here, to round my list out to an even thirty.

1. The first, when I think about it, really should have always been here. They might not have the sophistication of most of the rest of these artists, and for years, many treated them as a joke. But they were the first musical love of 9-year-old LIMusicGuy, and although they were drafted together by the producers of a television show and initially many of them couldn't play their own instruments, they always had top-flight songwriters to help them and individual charisma to help them through. I'm talking, of course, about The Monkees.

I guess I never officially added them before because there was a part of me that was embarrassed, given that The Monkees have always been treated as if they weren't legitimate, But there's a reason that even today, after the death of Mike Nesmith, the public will still spend good money to see the last living member of the band, Mickey Dolenz, go out on tour an play there tunes. And grammar-school me never had a purer love for any band. When I got my first transistor radio for Christmas of 1996, the #1 song on WABC (my first radio station of choice) was their single "I'm a Believer" (written by Neil Diamond, btw, a not-too-shabby songwriter). It was the biggest selling single of all of 1967. And it was the first single I ever owned.

It's time to embrace 9-year-old me and his biggest musical love. #28 on my list of My Favorite Artists goes to The Monkees.

2. The second addition is a band that began in the '60s, but for all practical intents and purposes, they're a '70s band - that's when they had their period of greatest success.

I'm talking about Strawbs. In a lot of ways, I always had them grouped in my head with Renaissance and the Peter Gabriel version of Genesis. But in recent years, I think the band they most closely resemble, at least thematically, is Procol Harum. The biggest difference is Procol found me earlier in life. But from the moment I heard Dave Cousins barking, "May you ROT in your grave!" they were really one of my bands.

Strawbs has everything - a vocalist with a distinct but attractive voice, good keyboards (Rick Wakeman even played with them prior to his Yes days), unusual lyrics that told a story ("Witchwood"), some positive, Buddhist-like lyrics ("Benedictus", "Blue Angel"). And not only did I get to know one of their former members, John Ford, after he moved to Long Island, he even backed me one time at the Brookhaven Lab when I sang my classic hit single, "Alien Anal-Probe Blues". Let's face it, these guys are an absolute natural to make the My Favorite Artists list.

3. The third really became clear to me when I took the '80s Cruise last March. I know I posted here than at some point in the early '80s, I wrote about six bands that I expected would lead music through the 1980s. Before now, the only one of those six who made the My Favorite Artists list was Eurythmics. But no more! I'm proud to name A Flock of Seagulls to the My Favorite Artists list.

I really loved Flock's first three albums. I think one of the things that stopped me from naming them to this list was how much I hated their fourth one. But they did eventually put out a fifth LP almost a decade later that had some things going for it. And they've just always been a band that made me smile - even their various remix comps, or their two recent orchestral albums.

So there we have it. Henceforth, My Favorite Artists consist of the following thirty artists:

1. Jethro Tull

2. The Who

3. Pink Floyd

4. Yes

5. The Good Rats

6. Procol Harum

7. Bruce Springsteen

8. Joni Mitchell

9. The Cars

10. The Police

11. Blondie

12. Eurythmics

13. The Smiths

14. The Go-Go's

15. Fleetwood Mac

16. Rush

17. 'Til Tuesday

18. The Cranberries

19. Nirvana

20. The Slant

21. Future Bible Heroes

22. Paramore

23. Bayside

24. Black 47

25. Blackmore's Night

26. Nightwish

27. Mostly Autumn

28. The Monkees

29. Strawbs

30. A Flock of Seagulls

About My Favorite Artists List (and some playlists for your enjoyment)

The other day as I started my listening for Rush, a question occurred to me. Early Rush (especially that first LP) was considered to be pretty derivative of Led Zeppelin. Why did Rush make my Favorite Artists list and not Zeppelin? I certainly respect Zeppelin's work a lot - hell, almost everything on their third and forth LP is a classic. Even with a smaller discography, Zeppelin might even have more songs that I love than Rush does. (I haven't tried counting them up for both bands, but it's definitely possible.) So why Rush and not Zeppelin?

I think it has something to do with a special closeness I feel with the band or artist. It's like not only do I love this artist's music, but I feel a special relationship with them in some way. And of course, I also stand behind, their music and their overall output.

I'm kind of a list guy (aka, an obsessive-compulsive nut). And my original list of My Favorite Artists was probably written more than a decade ago. It consisted of 20 artists, naturally ending with The Slant (Denise's band).

They were:

1. Jethro Tull

2. The Who

3. Pink Floyd

4. Yes

5. The Good Rats

6. Procol Harum

7. Bruce Springsteen

8. Joni Mitchell

9. The Cars

10. The Police

11. Blondie

12. Eurythmics

13. The Smiths

14. The Go-Go's

15. Fleetwood Mac

16. Rush

17. 'Til Tuesday

18. The Cranberries

19. Nirvana

20. The Slant

Note that The Slant was the only local band without a national following. I reserved that honor for them, although at some point, I may decide to change that. (More on that in my next post).

I don't remember how long it took, but before long (probably around the time I started on Sputnik Music), I added another five artists from more modern times:

21. Future Bible Heroes

22. Paramore

23. Bayside

24. Black 47

25. Blackmore's Night

Now in my weird little mind, each of these entries is kind of all-inclusive. What I mean by this is, for example, by including Future Bible Heroes, I automatically include The Magnetic Fields and all of the various Stephin Merritt projects; along with 'Til Tuesday, I get Aimee Mann; along with The Slant, I get Killer Kelp, etc. I also get the projects by the various solo members of the band, e.g. all of the Pete Townshend solo albums, all of the various offshoots of Yes, etc.

In my next blog post, I'm going to talk about some possible new additions to this list. But I'm going to close this post out (and also make it very long) by telling you that at this point, when I had twenty-five artists, I made myself a series of thirteen playlists for my MP3 player. Each included one song from each artist, in this original numbering of 1 though 25. This means each list has 25 songs in it, approximately the size of a strong double-album (and long enough to take a really nice nap to). I've listened to these lists extensively over the years, and now that I'm sick and I can't do a whole lot more than listen to music, I'm using them again.

You'll notice they're kind of quirky - they very much reflect my own taste. And while it's not exactly true that the first list contains my favorite song by each artist, the second my second favorite, etc., it's a little bit true.

Why 13 lists? Simple. The Slant only ever recorded one album other than their Christmas LP, so one one list for each of the 13 songs on that album.

Don't care at all about any of this? I don't blame you. Feel free to move on to the next post. But if you're up for it, here are the 13 playlists for my Favorite Bands of All Time:

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 01

1. Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses

2. The Who - Behind Blue Eyes

3. Pink Floyd - Welcome to the Machine

4. Yes - Turn of the Century

5. The Good Rats - Songwriter

6. Procol Harum - A Salty Dog

7. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road

8. Joni Mitchell - Chelsea Morning

9. The Cars - Just What I Needed

10. The Police - Don't Stand So Close to Me

11. Blondie - 11:59

12. Eurythmics - Doubleplusgood

13. The Smiths - There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

14. The Go-Go's - Head Over Heels

15. Fleetwood Mac - Landslide

16. Rush - Limelight

17. 'Til Tuesday - Voices Carry

18. The Cranberries - Linger

19. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

20. The Slant - Call You on the Phone

21. Future Bible Heroes - She-Devils of the Deep

22. Paramore - Brick By Boring Brick

23. Bayside - Existing in Crisis (Evelyn)

24. Black 47 - Funky Ceili (Bridie's Song)

25. Blackmore's Night - Renaissance Fair

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 02

1. Jethro Tull - Life Is a Long Song

2. The Who - Amazing Journey/Sparks

3. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb

4. Yes - And You and I

5. The Good Rats - Ashes to Ashes

6. Procol Harum - As Strong as Samson

7. Bruce Springsteen - Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

8. Joni Mitchell - Conversation

9. The Cars - It's All I Can Do

10. The Police - King of Pain

11. Blondie - Denis

12. Eurythmics - Love Is a Stranger

13. The Smiths - This Charming Man

14. The Go-Go's - We Got the Beat

15. Fleetwood Mac - Dreams

16. Rush - The Spirit of Radio

17. 'Til Tuesday - You Know the Rest

18. The Cranberries - Salvation

19. Nirvana - All Apologies

20. The Slant - Simple

21. Future Bible Heroes - I'm a Vampire

22. Paramore - Hallelujah

23. Bayside - Stuttering

24. Black 47 - Voodoo City

25. Blackmore's Night - Past Time With Good Company

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 03

1. Jethro Tull - Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day

2. The Who - You Better You Bet

3. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

4. Yes - Wondrous Stories

5. The Good Rats - Injun Joe

6. Procol Harum - Pandora's Box

7. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

8. Joni Mitchell - Free Man in Paris

9. The Cars - Drive

10. The Police - Wrapped Around Your Finger

11. Blondie - Sunday Girl

12. Eurythmics - Julia

13. The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again

14. The Go-Go's - I'm With You

15. Fleetwood Mac - Say You Love Me

16. Rush - Red Barchetta

17. 'Til Tuesday - What About Love

18. The Cranberries - Zombie

19. Nirvana - Polly

20. The Slant - Outside My Dreams

21. Future Bible Heroes - Memories of Love

22. Paramore - Misery Business

23. Bayside - Sick, Sick, Sick

24. Black 47 - Big Fellah

25. Blackmore's Night - Under a Violet Moon

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 04

1. Jethro Tull - Too Old to Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young to Die

2. The Who - Sea and Sand

3. Pink Floyd - Us and Them

4. Yes - I've Seen All Good People

5. The Good Rats - Cover of the Night

6. Procol Harum - Barnyard Story

7. Bruce Springsteen - 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

8. Joni Mitchell - That Song About the Midway

9. The Cars - Let's Go

10. The Police - Synchronicity II

11. Blondie - Contact in Red Square

12. Eurythmics - Here Comes the Rain Again

13. The Smiths - Girlfriend in a Coma

14. The Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed

15. Fleetwood Mac - Gold Dust Woman

16. Rush - Freewill

17. 'Til Tuesday - Love in a Vacuum

18. The Cranberries - Dreams

19. Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box

20. The Slant - Since I Met You

21. Future Bible Heroes - Hopeless

22. Paramore - All I Wanted

23. Bayside - Choice Hops and Bottled Self Esteem

24. Black 47 - Livin' in America 

25. Blackmore's Night - Loreley

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 05

1. Jethro Tull - Black Sunday

2. The Who - Don't Let Go the Coat

3. Pink Floyd - Hey You

4. Yes - Into the Lens

5. The Good Rats - Cherry River

6. Procol Harum - Shine on Brightly

7. Bruce Springsteen - Racing in the Street

8. Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark

9. The Cars - Touch and Go

10. The Police - Message in a Bottle

11. Blondie - Call Me (Theme From American Gigolo)

12. Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

13. The Smiths - Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

14. The Go-Go's - Beneath the Blue Sky

15. Fleetwood Mac - Gypsy

16. Rush - Red Sector 'A'

17. 'Til Tuesday - Maybe Monday

18. The Cranberries - Promises

19. Nirvana - Come As You Are

20. The Slant - Game Player

21. Future Bible Heroes - Death Opened a Boutique

22. Paramore - We Are Broken

23. Bayside - The Ghost of St. Valentine

24. Black 47 - Izzy's Irish Rose

25. Blackmore's Night - The Dancer and the Moon

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 06

1. Jethro Tull - Cross-Eyed Mary

2. The Who - Dig

3. Pink Floyd - Mother

4. Yes - Heart of the Sunrise

5. The Good Rats - Papa Poppa

6. Procol Harum - Homburg

7. Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the Dark

8. Joni Mitchell - The Gallery

9. The Cars - Shake It Up

10. The Police - Roxanne

11. Blondie - (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear

12. Eurythmics - There Must Be an Angel (Playing With My Heart)

13. The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

14. The Go-Go's - Lust to Love

15. Fleetwood Mac - You Make Loving Fun

16. Rush - Roll the Bones

17. 'Til Tuesday - Limits to Love

18. The Cranberries - The Icycle Melts

19. Nirvana - The Man Who Sold the World

20. The Slant - Sell Me

21. Future Bible Heroes - Keep Your Children in a Coma

22. Paramore - When It Rains

23. Bayside - Devotion and Desire

24. Black 47 - Maria's Wedding

25. Blackmore's Night - Shadow of the Moon

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 07

1. Jethro Tull - Velvet Green

2. The Who - Pinball Wizard

3. Pink Floyd - Learning to Fly

4. Yes - Starship Trooper

5. The Good Rats - Back to My Music

6. Procol Harum - Still There'll Be More

7. Bruce Springsteen - Drive All Night

8. Joni Mitchell - Cactus Tree

9. The Cars - Candy-O

10. The Police - Can't Stand Losing You

11. Blondie - Dreaming

12. Eurythmics - This City Never Sleeps

13. The Smiths - Panic

14. The Go-Go's - Vacation

15. Fleetwood Mac - Sara

16. Rush - Presto

17. 'Til Tuesday - David Denies

18. The Cranberries - Ode to My Family

19. Nirvana - About a Girl

20. The Slant - Nuclear Age

21. Future Bible Heroes - But You're So Beautiful

22. Paramore - Crushcrushcrush

23. Bayside - Boy

24. Black 47 - Bodhrans on the Brain

25. Blackmore's Night - Fires at Midnight

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 08

1. Jethro Tull - Clasp

2. The Who - Cut My Hair

3. Pink Floyd - One of These Days

4. Yes - Parallels

5. The Good Rats - Dear Sir

6. Procol Harum - All This and More

7. Bruce Springsteen - Point Blank

8. Joni Mitchell - For Free

9. The Cars - You're All I've Got Tonight

10. The Police - Walking on the Moon

11. Blondie - Danceway

12. Eurythmics - Thorn in My Side

13. The Smiths - Vicar in a Tutu

14. The Go-Go's - This Town

15. Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon

16. Rush - Fly By Night

17. 'Til Tuesday - Coming Up Close

18. The Cranberries - Roses

19. Nirvana - Lithium

20. The Slant - Morse Code

21. Future Bible Heroes - Doris Daytheearthstoodstill

22. Paramore - Where the Lines Overlap

23. Bayside - Transitive Property

24. Black 47 - The Day They Set Jim Larkin Free

25. Blackmore's Night - Ocean Gypsy

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 09

1. Jethro Tull - Dun Ringill

2. The Who - It's Hard

3. Pink Floyd - Dogs

4. Yes - Run Through the Light

5. The Good Rats - Boardwalk Slasher

6. Procol Harum - Fires (Which Burn Brightly)

7. Bruce Springsteen - Spirit in the Night

8. Joni Mitchell - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

9. The Cars - You Might Think

10. The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

11. Blondie - Love Doesn't Frighten Me

12. Eurythmics - Right By Your Side

13. The Smiths - Is It Really So Strange?

14. The Go-Go's - Turn to You

15. Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies

16. Rush - Subdivisions

17. 'Til Tuesday - Maybe Monday

18. The Cranberries - Electric Blue

19. Nirvana - Rape Me

20. The Slant - Slipping Away

21. Future Bible Heroes - I'm Lonely (And I Love It)

22. Paramore - Fast in My Car

23. Bayside - I Can't Go On

24. Black 47 - 40 Shades of Blue

25. Blackmore's Night - Sister Gypsy

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 10

1. Jethro Tull - Under Wraps #2

2. The Who - Love, Reign O'er Me

3. Pink Floyd - Brain Damage - Eclipse

4. Yes - Long Distance Run-around 

5. The Good Rats - Victory in Space

6. Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale

7. Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love

8. Joni Mitchell - Carey

9. The Cars - Tonight She Comes

10. The Police - De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

11. Blondie - Under the Gun

12. Eurythmics - No Fear (No Hate, No Pain, No Broken Heart)

13. The Smiths - Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

14. The Go-Go's - Yes or No

15. Fleetwood Mac - Big Love

16. Rush - Show Don't Tell me

17. 'Til Tuesday- Don't Watch Me Bleed

18. The Cranberries - Pretty

19. Nirvana - Dumb

20. The Slant - Junk Mail

21. Future Bible Heroes - Living, Loving, Partygoing

22. Paramore - Decode

23. Bayside - Winter

24. Black 47 - Forty Deuce

25. Blackmore's Night - Streets of London

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 11

1. Jethro Tull - Jack-A-Lynn

2. The Who - Pure and Easy

3. Pink Floyd - Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)

4. Yes - Children of Light

5. The Good Rats - Great American Music Halls

6. Procol Harum - Broken Barricades

7. Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City

8. Joni Mitchell - Tin Angel 

9. The Cars - Dangerous Type

10. The Police - Reggatta De Blanc

11. Blondie - Island of Lost Souls

12. Eurythmics - Who's That Girl?

13. The Smiths - The Boy With the Thorn in His Side

14. The Go-Go's - The Whole World Lost Its Head

15. Fleetwood Mac - The Chain

16. Rush - Tom Sawyer

17. 'Til Tuesday - I Could Get Used to This

18. The Cranberries - Schizophrenic Playboys

19. Nirvana - Sliver

20. The Slant - Rubber Ducky

21. Future Bible Heroes - Cafe Hong Kong

22. Paramore - (One of Those) Crazy Girls

23. Bayside - Moceanu

24. Black 47 - Blood Wedding

25. Blackmore's Night - Way to Mandalay

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 12

1. Jethro Tull - Songs From the Wood

2. The Who - Substitute

3. Pink Floyd - Run Like Hell

4. Yes - Awaken

5. The Good Rats - Taking It to Detroit

6. Procol Harum - About to Die

7. Bruce Springsteen - The Promised Land

8. Joni Mitchell - Blue Boy

9. The Cars - Panorama

10. The Police - Secret Journey

11. Blondie - A Rose By Any Other Name

12. Eurythmics - Missionary Man

13. The Smiths - Cemetery Gates

14. The Go-Go's - Skidmarks on My Heart

15. Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way

16. Rush - Vapor Trail

17. 'Til Tuesday - Will She Just Fall Down

18. The Cranberries - Animal Instinct

19. Nirvana - Pennyroyal Tea

20. The Slant - Diane

21. Future Bible Heroes - Lonely Days

22. Paramore - That's What You Get

23. Bayside - Mona Lisa

24. Black 47 - Long Lost Tapes

25. Blackmore's Night - The Circle

My Favorite Bands of All Time # 13

1. Jethro Tull - With You There to Help Me

2. The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

3. Pink Floyd - Pigs (Three Different Ones)

4. Yes - Yours Is No Disgrace

5. The Good Rats - Gino

6. Procol Harum - Wreck of the Hesperus

7. Bruce Springsteen - Prove It All Night

8. Joni Mitchell - People's Parties

9. The Cars - Since You're Gone

10. The Police - The Bed's Too Big Without You

11. Blondie - The Tide Is High

12. Eurythmics - Would I Lie to You?

13. The Smiths - Frankly, Mr. Shankly 

14. The Go-Go's - Can't Stop the World

15. Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

16. Rush - Closer to the Heart

17. 'Til Tuesday - Everything's Different Now

18. The Cranberries - Never Grow Old

19. Nirvana - In Bloom

20. The Slant - Blue-Eyed Gypsy

21. Future Bible Heroes - How Very Strange

22. Paramore - Emergency

23. Bayside - We'll Be O.K.

24. Black 47 - Paul Robeson (Born to Be Free)

25. Blackmore's Night - Sake of the Song

Note that I did this without the use of mega-songs, like "Thick As A Brick" by Tull or "In Held 'Twas in I" by Procol. Note too that I came up with 13 playlists without using derivative versions of the band (e.g. The Magnetic Fields instead of FBH or Aimee Mann instead of 'Til Tuesday). Pretty impressive, eh? (No? Whatever.)

I'm out. Next post will be about possible additions to the My Favorite Artists list.

My Favorite Artists/Future Blog Posts/Med Updates/Upcoming LP

I've actually started the listening for the next article in the My Favorites Artists Series, Rush. They have an extensive discography, so it's going to take awhile, but I think I can get through. I might have a little free time coming.

Might even use some time to pound out a few more album reviews I had wanted to get to but haven't been able to. And SOTD looks to be back at full strength, so we'll see if we can keep that going (and if I can keep from getting too crazed by it if we do).

As for the med stuff, I had the port surgically placed into me last Thursday, and had my first chemo treatment that afternoon. They changed the chemo plan at the last minute, based on the fact that a second biopsy has determined a point of origin for the cancer - it started in the bioducts in the area between my liver and gall bladder.

The treatment itself was, dare I say, almost pleasant. They gave me nice nurses who put me in a comfy recliner and gave me a blanket. After the first one gave me some extensive education on this protocol and what to expect, I mostly listened to my MP3 player for the next 3 hours (which gave me a chance to start re-listening to my potential Album-of-the-Year stuff).

One thing I've learned quickly is that when people in your life who have gone through chemo or helped a loved one to go through it try to tell you about it, they often can't, because there isn't really just one chemo - everyone's plans get individually tailored with different chemicals and time periods, based on where the doctors believe the point of origin is, what stage you're in, etc. I was literally in surgery to get the port put in when the doctor called Denise about the results of the redone biopsy. This changed which chemicals they used, how often they want to give it to me, etc., on the spot, so when I went in for the chemo an hour later, I was getting a different treatment than had been planned just earlier that day.

I felt pretty strong Thursday night, the night of the chemo, and when I got up Friday, I felt like I could wrestle a tiger.

Then, the combination of chemo/cancer did something cruel and unexpected. Throughout the course of this experience, because the majority of the cancer has settled into the lining of my stomach, sitting has been hard. Almost anything I sit on puts pressure on my stomach, which makes it very uncomfortable to sit anywhere for more than a few minutes at a time. The only two places I was comfortable were in my nice, high bed with a firm mattress (and that was for laying, not sitting) and my comfy old recliner chair.

This chair was long past its shelf life, but it was huge, and soft, even though its days of moving as a recliner were long gone. (It was originally an electric recliner. When she was younger, my daughter used to delight in occasionally unplugging it on me when I was reclining in it, leaving me helpless like a turtle on its shell while she would laugh at me.)

But these days, it listed seriously to the right, and was stuck in a position with the footrest partway up. And as I've gotten noticeably weaker over the last few months, it was getting harder and harder to get out of. It required a sort of one-hand push off from my right hand, which was getting harder and harder to do. And Thursday night was the night I suddenly couldn't do it anymore. The arm was strong, but the legs weren't fully strong enough to push off and take my weight.

It took both my son and my daughter's boyfriend, two of the strongest young men I know, more than 15 minutes working together to get me out of that chair without hurting me. It was both a frightening and humiliating experience.

So we had to finally get rid off my wonderful, comfy old chair. And so far, although I'm starting to learn to some workarounds for this old hospital recliner my sister-in-law lent us, it's been hard to stay in the family room for any significant length of time.

Then, on Saturday morning, the second day after the chemo, the effects hit, and I felt like I'd been run over by a Mac truck. I slept for almost all of Saturday and Sunday, and half of Monday. I couldn't hold much food down, and I didn't feel like eating. It felt like the end.

By Monday night, I started to come out of, and by Tuesday I felt better - good enough to at least organize my work mailbox and start trying to figure out some temporary work arounds to work in the living room. (We ordered me a new chair, which my mother-in-law is giving us as a gift, bless her loving heart. But it probably won't arrive for another week or two).

So that's where I'm at today - trying to get a sense of the cycle of my reactions to the chemo. I'm scheduled for a week off from chemo next week, and then back in the saddle the week after.

So here's my hope. Right now, it's still mid-August, and my doctor is hoping this treatment will improve how I'm feeling in a few months. The last set of unused concert tickets that I bought are for Annie Haslam's 75th birthday tour with Renaissance, playing right here at the Patchogue Theater in November. We've got fifth row seats. That gives me three months to maybe feel a bit better, gain some strength back and maybe actually make this concert.

Wish me luck with that, gang!

*******************

Here's one local music nugget that I'm excited about. I got an email last week letting me know that Tara Drouin (nee Tara Eberle) of Iridesense, is releasing her first solo album on Paradiddle Records on August 23. It seems to be called Silver Linings. (I'm not 100% sure on that, though.) In any event, Tara has always been one of my favorite vocalists, so I'm definitely psyched for this LP.

July 2022 Song of the Day Update

Technically a late rating came in that tied the Kate Bush song "Sunset" with the Portishead song "Silence". The host for the month awarded the win to Portishead, since it was own rating (which came in a few days after the first of the month) that brought Kate Bush up for the tie. So I guess the winner is Portishead with an asterisk. But if you're a completist, you'll maybe want to listen to the Kate Bush song as well, which is readily available on YouTube.

July 2022 Song of the Day - SOTD Lives! (And Medical Update)

Yeah, I'm a sucker. But after a one-month hiatus, the Song of the Day feature has returned to the Spunik  Music website, and I'm involved again. Here's how it happened.

One of our regular Users, Pangea, decided to revive Song of the Day after it took the month of June off. Given my love/hate relationship with SOTD (I love it, but it makes me crazy when Users give absolute insane ratings, like scoring Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain" and Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" 0.5 out of 5). But I liked the theme Pangea chose for the newly revived July SOTD. I told them I would give a song rec, if that was alright, but I didn't feel up to rating all the songs. (And honestly, at that point, I wasn't 100% sure I'd still be alive at the end of the month.)

Anyway, for new readers, this blog entry refers to the monthly Song of the Day list on the Sputnik Music website. Each month (except for last month), one User hosts the list and names a theme. Everyone then recommends songs in line with this theme, and people rate the various song recommendations. The list of July songs can be found at Sputnik Music Song of the Day July 2022. 

1. The theme for the month was "Comeback songs", which was defined as "a song that was part of an artist's comeback."

2. Participation was very good this month in comparison with the last couple of months where the SOTD existed, in terms of people listening to and voting on the songs. Nevertheless, most of us still got to make two recs during the month. My first rec, and the one that inspired me to get involved again, was Blondie's "Under the Gun", my favorite song from their 1999 comeback album (which had been their first LP in 17 years.) It was written as a tribute to their fallen friend Jeffrey Lee Pierce. It scored a little over a 3 out of 5 with the others, which was fine with me - some Users brushed it off, but others certainly enjoyed it. At the point I decided to make a second rec, in all fairness, I decided it would be taking advantage if I didn't also take part in the scoring process. So I went back to the beginning and scored all of the songs for the month. My second rec was Psychotic Waltz's "Devils and Angels", the opening track from their 2020 album The God-Shaped Void, their first LP after a 24-year hiatus. I didn't really think it would go over well, but it scored an average of 2.93, so more people enjoyed it than I'd thought might. Blondie - Under the Gun; Psychotic Waltz - Devils and Angels.

3. I had a fairly decent month listening-wise, with a average rating of just slightly under 3. I was pretty happy with that. My highest rated song of the month was Fairport Convention's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" with a lovely vocal by Sandy Denny. (Although I think I still prefer the Judy Collins cover of this song). Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where the Time Goes.

4. I might be calling this a little early, but I don't think so. The highest overall group rating for the month went to Portishead's "Silence" (not one of my favorites, but whatever), although it was somewhat closely trailed by D'Angelo's "Really Love" (which I liked better) and that brand new 2022 pop icon Kate Bush (Stranger Things fans will get it) with "Sunset". Portishead - Silence.

I know I used to make a YouTube playlist for the month, but I didn't do that this month, and I don't think I'm going to do it anymore. However, if you go the list itself (at the end of paragraph 3 above), there's a link for every song, and all of them were available on YouTube this month.

As for the promised health update, it's this. I've moved my care to Sloan-Kettering in Commack, NY. They have a planned treatment course of chemotherapy for me, which they seem to think will help me feel better, at least for awhile. The doctor thinks she can give me a year and a half or so (which is more than the other place seemed to think was realistic). Personally, I feel like that's a little optimistic. But then again, I also know that when you're feeling lousy, whether your back is out or you have cancer, while you're feeling that way, it seems like you'll never feel good again. So that could be coloring my assessment.

In any event, I have my cardiac clearance for surgery, and they plan to put a metal port in me to make the chemo easier to administer. I'm not looking forward to any of it, but we'll see how it goes. You know I'll be leaning heavily on music to see me through it. And if I can see my daughter's birthday, my wife's birthday, our Anniversary and maybe even the holidays this year, that would be great.

That's all for now, my friends. Stay healthy and safe.

I missed Howard Jones and Midge Ure/Long Island Doctor Guy (*Trigger Warning)

Denise and I had tickets to see Midge Ure opening for Howard Jones last night at the Patchogue Theater last night. (We're also supposed to see both of them on the '80s Cruise next March). Unfortunately, due to health issues and other considerations, I decided it was wiser for me to stay home. Especially because my understanding was that Midge Ure would be unable to play due to COVID.

Now I like Howard Jones, but I've seen him six times over the years, going back to what was one of my favorite concerts ever, M+M (aka Martha and the Muffins), Howard Jones (playing solo with only a mime to support him) and Eurythmics at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in 1984. But I only ever saw Midge Ure once, solo acoustic at the new (but already old now) My Father's Place in Roslyn in September of 2019. And I've always loved Ultravox (who I never saw live at all).

Anyway, health stuff has had me feeling pretty weak lately (more on that in a bit), so I figured I'd hold off until the last minute on deciding whether to go to this show. I learned last week that Midge has been off the tour for a little, due to having COVID, and that Howard has been covering by playing a short solo acoustic set prior to his regular set. At first, I heard that Midge would be back and playing at the show they had scheduled in New Jersey on Saturday night, July 16.

To be totally honest, I went with Denise to a doctor's appointment on Friday afternoon, and at that point, I pretty much decided I probably wouldn't go to the show. On top of everything else, in my less-than-100% current state, I decided that even if I was physically up for it somehow, it would be reckless to go to the show and risk catching COVID in my current weakened state. But I still held a little place open in my heart that said "maybe". Then, on Saturday night, we got the word from some of Denise's friends who went to that Jersey show that Midge hadn't played, and that it looked like he wouldn't be rejoining the tour until Tuesday. 

Oh well. I figured it was probably for the best. (And I still believe that.) But I definitely had a tinge of regret when Denise texted me from the show Sunday night that Midge had played after all, and that he'd been great. And he'd even had a keyboard player playing with him, which made it easier for him to play almost all Ultravox material in his 10-song set. (He closed, appropriately, with "Dancing With Tears in My Eyes").

I texted her back "Nice!" followed immediately by, "The bastard."

But you can you do? Because I learned today that it's unlikely I'm going to catch him on that '80s Cruise next year, either.

This year's two cruises were great, but they took a lot out of me. The trip to Florida and back for the 2022 '80s Cruise in March was a really strenuous one, and we had lots of extra stress because of Denise's back problems. It took me weeks to recover and start feeling like myself afterwards.

Then, even before the Celebrity Summit Cruise in May, I wasn't feeling great. I put it down to blood sugar issues, and really concentrated on eating well for the first few days of the cruise. Sure enough, I did feel significantly better for most of the rest of voyage.

But as soon as I got home, something wasn't right with my stomach and my digestion. At first, I thought it was a diverticulitis issue. (I have history of that). I did what I always do in that situation, and increased my fluid intake like crazy to wash whatever might have been stuck in there away. But this time, it didn't work.

I went to see my doctor, who sent me for an Ultrasound and an X-Ray, and the Ultrasound showed a cyst on my liver. She referred me to my gastroenterologist, who sent me for a CT-Scan and scheduled me for a few other tests. That didn't show much more about the thing on my liver. However, it did show a nodule on one of my lungs and fluid on both lungs (which is what had me hospitalized last summer). Swell. So they referred me back to my pulmonologist.

Next up was another CT-Scan of my lungs requested by my pulmonologist. This didn't show anymore about my lungs. Unfortunately, it did find a mass in the lining of my stomach. At this point, I started to realize I was screwed. (Especially given that this was exactly the sort of the course my mother had followed before passing away in 1999.)

I was referred to a surgeon to schedule a biopsy. He respected my wishes to try to keep me out of the hospital. So this led to two weeks of jumping through the hoops of getting three different medical clearances and doing all of the necessary pre-testing at the hospital to do the procedure on an outpatient basis. He did the biopsy on Thursday, July 7, and was immediately able to tell me that although they needed a few days for the pathologist to a complete analysis of the sample he took, a quick test had definitely showed the presence of cancer.

I saw an oncologist the next day, and a PT-Scan, the biopsy and some bloodwork eventually led to the conclusion that what I've got is a Stage 4 cancer that has already spread through my body to such a point that whatever treatment (likely some form of chemotherapy) they devise, we're really only talking about managing the disease rather than curing it. And although he couldn't really give me a timeframe, because they can't really tell the point of origin (since it's already so widespread), it's sounding to me like we're talking months and not years.

As I was writing this, I got a call from Sloan-Kettering in Commack, where I'll be going next week for an independent analysis and a second opinion. But truth is, it's not looking good.

So Midge and Howard last night might have been my last shot at seeing one more concert, and it sounded like it was a good one. But again, if I'm honest with myself, I don't think I'd have felt good enough to enjoy it. 

What that means for this blog is that I don't think I'm likely to get that next My Favorite Artist article about Rush written - I like to listen to a an artist's full discography and some of their solo offshoots before writing one of those. (And lately, it's been about six or seven months to do that for each artist.) But maybe I'll do an abbreviated write-up of Rush and the other artists on my list if I get the chance. Let me mull it over for a bit.

The other thing it means here is that I might be posting my 2022 Best Of lists a little early this year. I've done a lot of listening so far, and it would be a shame to see it go to waste.

Hopefully, this entry hasn't been too depressing for you, dear reader. I'm not depressed myself - I've had a wonderful life full of music and laughter and love. And miracles have been known to happen, so who knows? But if I leave off suddenly at some point, I wanted you to understand why.

Not sure what I'll post next here, but I think I'll be thinking about those abbreviated My Favorite Artist write-ups and see what I can do.  

 

Favorite Artists, Part 15: About Fleetwood Mac

"Whoa, wait a minute, I'm confused," you're thinking. "We had already worked our way through the '70s and into the '80s with this series. Why are we backtracking?"

That's a good question, and it has a simple answer. The truth is, while Fleetwood Mac started in the '60s and hit their full stride in the '70s with the beginning of the Buckingham-Nicks era, it wasn't until the 1980's that it really hit me that they were, in fact, one of My Favorite Artists. As much as I loved the self-titled LP (1975) and especially Rumours (1977), it took the release of the Mirage album, and particularly the song "Gypsy", in 1982, to cement Mac's place in my pantheon of favorites.

Fleetwood Mac has a weird history. They began their days as a British blues band, founded by guitarist Peter Green. Green left the acclaimed group John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers to form his own band. When he left, he took drummer Mick Fleetwood with him, and tried to entice their bass player, John McVie, to come along as well, by naming the new band Fleetwood Mac. They added guitarist Jeremy Spencer, and a few weeks later, McVie did move over to Fleetwood Mac. 

Eventually, starting with their second LP, they added a a keyboard player, Christine Perfect (who later married McVie, but wouldn't become an official member of the band until their fifth LP, 1971's Future Games). 

Green, unfortunately, had a mental breakdown, partially fueled by a lot of LSD. Spencer ran off and joined a religious cult, and was replaced with guitarist Danny Kirwan. Kirwan lasted for awhile, and at some point, was joined on guitar by Bob Welch. When Kirwan left after something of an alcohol-fueled mental breakdown (are you seeing a pattern here?), he was replaced by Bob Weston. 

I was aware of Fleetwood Mac from early on in their career. Probably the first recording of theirs I ever heard was the non-album single "Oh Well." (The first song would have been Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman", but of course what I heard was the much more famous Santana version. I wasn't aware that it was originally a Fleetwood Mac song until decades later.) But I was never a big blues guy, so I didn't pay FM a whole lot of attention.

I eventually went back and picked up all of those early Fleetwood Mac albums. But while there was some good stuff here and there, I can't say I ever rated any of their pre-1975 albums more than a 2.5 out of 5.

By the early-to-mid 70's, they had morphed from being a blues band into more of a pop rock band, and you would have thought that the songwriting contributions of Christine McVie and Bob Welch would have made them a reasonably strong one. But Welch did his best work as a solo artist (especially on his 1977 LP French Kiss), and McVie didn't really hit her stride until the next rendition of the band.

After the recording of the unsuccessful 1974 album Heroes Are Hard to Find, the band began to suspect that Welch was going to leave, and started casting about to replace him. (Weston had already left an album earlier after starting a secret affair with Fleetwood's wife Jenny - which began another dysfunctional band pattern for Fleetwood Mac.) They became aware of Lindsey Buckingham after hearing the Buckingham Nicks LP, and asked him if he was interested in joining. Buckingham told them he would, but he and his musical/romantic partner Stevie nicks were a package deal. Fleetwood and the McVie's probably figured, "Fine. We'll stick her in the corner of the stage with a tambourine. How much harm can she do?" and agreed. And thus, the classic lineup of Fleetwood Mac.

The new lineup came out firing on all cylinders with their self-titled 1975 album, which was their first to hit (or come anywhere near, for that matter) # 1 on the US charts. 

I was aware of this album right away, although for some weird reason, I didn't buy a copy until years later. But "Rhiannon" hit me immediately, and the presence of Nicks and Buckingham inspired Christine to take her game to a whole new level, with songs like "Say You Love Me" and "Over My Head". And somewhere along the way, I became of aware of "Landslide". These days, if I had to choose the greatest and most most beautiful song of all time, I think "Landslide" would be my choice.

Some thoughts about this lineup. I made a (partially) facetious comment one time, calling Lindsey Buckingham the third best songwriter in the band. I actually believe that, but it's not as insulting as it sounds. Yes, I know that he was the guy who organized and arranged everything, and that (especially with Stevie) he helped the others with their songs.

But let's face it, Stevie's songs in this era, especially the ones she wrote for FM, but also those in her solo career, were just ridiculous. "Rhiannon", "Landslide", "Dreams", "Gold Dust Woman", "Sara", "Sisters of the Moon", "Edge of Seventeen", "Gypsy" - this was an insanely good output. And clearly, Stevie has had the most successful solo career of any of the members of the band.

As for Christine, as I said earlier, she really hit her stride during this period, with contributions like "Say You Love Me", "You Make Lovin' Fun", "Songbird" and "Little Lies".

In contrast, for me, with the exception of "The Chain", which is a great song (and although it's credited to the whole band, my guess is Lindsey was the biggest contributor), I feel like a lot of Lindsey's songs enhanced the albums, but wouldn't have carried them by themselves. (I will admit to a special love for his solo track "Holiday Road" from the the Vacation movies, though.)

Rumours was released in 1977, and of course, was legendary. It was the first Fleetwood Mac album I ever bought (initially on the strength of "Dreams"), and I played it to death. It's one of those albums where practically every track is a winner. (In retrospect, that's also true of the self-titled album, and it might very well be just as good an LP. As often happens in music, though, Fleetwood Mac let the world know that this new lineup for the band was a great one, and set the stage for Rumours to be the massive multi-platinum hit that it was.)

Meanwhile, the turmoil going on within the band when they were making Rumours is also legendary. John and Christine were basically broken up (and Christine was sleeping with the band's lighting director), Lindsey and Stevie were in process of breaking up, Mick was going through a divorce, and at one point, disastrously enough, Stevie and Mick even had an affair with one another.

I remember seeing a concert clip of a show on the Rumours tour where the band was playing "The Chain", and Stevie and Lindsey were just barking the chorus into one another's faces like the musical equivalent of a hatefuck. It was intense, but totally riveting - you couldn't look away from it.

For me, this two-album streak was flat out the highlight of Fleetwood Mac's career. There are some who hold that Tusk is their (or Lindsey Buckingham's, at least) masterpiece, but I've never been able to see it. I liked the two Stevie songs I named earlier ("Sara" and "Sisters of the Moon"), and I sort of liked the title track, weird as it was, but a lot of the rest of it just sort of bounced off of me.

They released Mirage in 1982. I don't really feel this was a great album, but "Gypsy" was certainly a great song, and Christine's "Hold Me" was pretty strong too. And it was around this point where Mac crossed the threshold into my list of My Favorite Artists.

It was another five years before they released Tango in the Night, which was the last LP with all five members of the classic lineup on it. They added a lot more to their legacy with this album, which featured classics such as Christine's "Little Lie's" and "Everywhere", Lindsey's "Big Love", Stevie's "Seven Wonders".

Of their last three studio albums, Behind the Mask (1990) featured Stevie and Christine (but no Lindsey), Time (1995, their least successful LP) had Christine, but neither Lindsey nor Stevie, and Say You Will (2003) featured Stevie and Lindsey (with just a few sparse musical contributions, but no songs, from Christine). They also released a 4-song EP, appropriately entitled Extended Play in 2013, which again had contributions from Lindsey and Stevie, but none from Christine. Mick and John, of course, played on all of these, making them the only two band members to play on every album in the entire Fleetwood Mac discography. There were some decent songs scattered among these offerings, but I think it would be fair to say nothing on par with their best material from Fleetwood Mac through Tango in the Night.

If you've been following this Favorite Artists series, I think it's pretty obvious why Fleetwood Mac eventually made my top bands list. It's all about the hooks. You had a great songwriter in Stevie Nicks, and two very good songwriters in Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham. All three were respectable vocalists, (although yes, I thought it was funny when South Park had the American GI's in Iraq getting Stevie mixed up with a goat). The band was certainly always instrumentally proficient. And while my interest in Fleetwood Mac was primarily in the classic lineup, I respect their blues history, and the fact that they were actually the first band to record Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman" and Bob Welch's "Sentimental Lady."

I've seen Fleetwood Mac live in concert twice, both times in Madison Square Garden. The first was in 2009, on a tour where the band wasn't accompanied by Christine McVie, and the second in 2019, on a tour where Lindsey Buckingham had been replace by Neil Finn of Crowded House and Mike Campbell from Tom Petty's band. So obviously, I never got to see the full classic lineup together, and both times, it would be fair to say that the band was past its prime. Nevertheless, I treasure the fact that I got to see them live in whatever form I did, and that over the course of the two shows, I got to see all five members of the classic lineup, even if it was never all of them at the same time.

I think that's all I have to say right now about Fleetwood Mac.

The next article in this series is scheduled to be about yet another band that started in the 1970's but didn't make the My Favorite Artists until a decade later: Rush.

Unfortunately, as some of you aware, I have something of a serious health scare going on now, and while I hope to live long enough to write that for you (and for me), it's a little iffy right now. (Truth be told, I had to really buckle down over these last few weeks to make sure I got this one written and posted.)

So let's hope I get that Rush write-up done someday. But if I don't, it's been fun writing these first fifteen articles, as well as the rest of the reviews, etc., on this blog.

Ciao! (For now?)

 

 

Long Island Musical Theater 2022/2023

Now that life seems to be getting back to some form of normal post-COVID, the Island's concert venues and musical theaters have started reopening. I held off for a little on publishing this to give the last few theaters a chance to post their schedules for the upcoming season, and I think we've got most of them (the main exceptions being the Argyle Theater in Babylon and the Smithtown Performing Arts Center in Smithtown). Unfortunately, the pandemic caused the closing of The Broadhollow Theaters in East Islip and Elmont, although Studio Theatres has taken over the location in East Islip (and also has a new non-musical theater season in Lindenhurst). Some of the theaters have shorter schedules than in previous years, but at least they're back in action. So here goes.

For the three Actor's Equity Theaters:

The Gateway Playhouse, Bellport: (Note: As usual, they split their shows between the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport and the Patchogue Theatre in Patchogue. See below.)

Head Over Heels - June 8-June 26, 2022 (Bellport)

The Little Mermaid - July 15-August 7, 2022 (Bellport)

The Cher Show - August 26 - September 11, 2022 (Patchogue)

A Christmas Carol: The Musical - December 16-December 28, 2022 (Patchogue)

The Wedding Singer - January 27-February 26, 2023 (Bellport)

Clue - March 17-April 16, 2023 (Bellport)

The John Engemann Theater, Northport: (Note: The first two shows listed below are technically part of their 2021-2022 Season*.)

Kinky Boots* - May 19-July 3, 2022

On Your Feet!* - July 14-August 28, 2022

Mystic Pizza - September 15-October 30, 2022

A Christmas Story - November 17, 2022-January 1, 2023

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - January 19-March 5, 2023

The Scarlet Pimpernel - March 16-April 30, 2023

The Sound of Music - May 18-July 3, 2023

Escape to Margaritaville - July 13-August 27, 2023

The Argyle Theater, Babylon: (Note: These three shows are the end part of the 2021-2022 Season. They haven't announced their 2022-2023 Season yet.*)

BUDDY: The Buddy Holly Story* - May 19-June 26, 2022

Footloose* - July 14-August 28, 2022

An American in Paris* - September 15-October 23, 2022

For the Regional Theaters:

Noel S. Ruiz Playhouse at the CM Performing Arts Center, Oakdale:

Bye Bye Birdie - August 6-August 20, 2022

Cabaret - September 17-October 1, 2022

Matilda: The Musical - October 15-November 5, 2022

The Wizard of Oz - November 19- December 18, 2022

Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts, Smithtown:

Schedule to Come

Cultural Arts Playhouse, Syosset:

School of Rock: The Musical - June 25-July 17, 2022

Newsies - July 23-August 21, 2022

Studio Theatre's Bayway Arts Center, East Islip: (Note*: Lost in Yonkers is not a musical.)

Something Rotten - July 8-July 24, 2022

Lost in Yonkers* - August 5-August 21, 2022

Avenue Q - September 9-September 26, 2022

The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 - October 7-October 23, 2022

The Addams Family - November 4-November 20, 2022

Theater Three, Port Jefferson: (Note: The first production listed below is technically a part of the 2021-2022 Season*.)

Mama Mia!* - May 21-June 25, 2022

Guys & Dolls - September 17-October 22, 2022

Something Rotten - May 20-June 24, 2023

Merrick Theater and Center for the Arts, Merrick:

Matilda - September 9-September 25, 2022

Right now, an ongoing health issue makes me hesitant to buy any tickets to upcoming shows. But I think the one I'm most tempted by and hope to catch is Engemann Theater's production of The Scarlet Pimpernel. I love the cast album for that one, and it's rarely performed. And if I'm feeling better by then, I might check out Theater Three in Port Jefferson for the first time. I'm always down to see Guys & Dolls.

I'll try to update this list as the theaters update their schedules. But I've got to say, it's great to see musical theater returning to Long Island.

Song of the Day Postscript

So the last time I mentioned Sputnik Music's monthly Song of the Day list was in early April, when I left the list after some (idiot) fine-but-misguided User awarded a 1 out of 5 score to Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine." For me, it was like the time Married With Children's Al Bundy had a mental breakdown at his all night Shoe-a-Thon after he accidentally looked up while trying to sell women's shoes and saw underwear that said "Saturday". Only today was Wednesday! In his immortal words, "Next thing I knew, I was insane!"

What I didn't tell you, though, was ironically enough, after I left, my rec for the month of April came in first and won the month. (If you recall, the theme was "Songs That You Hate That You Think Your Fellow Users Will Love".) I won the month with the revered (but kind of crappy) "Let's Go Crazy" by the very-revered but completely ridiculous artist formerly known as Squiggle (aka Prince). It was only the second time my rec had ever scored highest in SOTD, the first being during one of the first month's I participated when I won with My Favorite's "Burning Hearts".

I had no intention of participating again anytime soon, but in May, a friend of mine was hosting it and asked me if I would contribute a rec (even though I was no longer participating in rating the songs). The theme for May was "Live Recordings", and I went with a classic, Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain". (I'm pretty sure he never actually made a studio recording of that one.)

For a good part of the month, it looked like I was going to win for the second month in a row. (And I won't lie, I would have loved that.) Unfortunately, the next couple of ratings knocked my score down significantly. When the month ended, my score was no longer the highest. And sadly, even if I had ended up with the highest rated song, I don't know if I technically could have claimed the win, because somewhere near the end of the month, the whole SOTD just petered out and died.

What I mean by that is it just never ended. It was left incomplete. My friend got busy elsewhere, so there were only 29 songs nominated for a 31-day month. And at the end of it, the handful of Users who were still participating decided that since the participation had gone down so much, it might be a good time to put the whole thing on hiatus.

So for now, Song of the Day is like Snow White waiting for her prince (or her squiggle) to come. It's not exactly dead, but it's in a coma until someone revives it. So for those of you who enjoyed the feature, and my writings (and rantings) about it, sorry about that.

(Singing: "After midnight, we gonna sell a lot of shooooeeees!")

Long Island Cruise Guy? Part 4

I just wanted to do one more entry in this series to talk about some of the odds and ends from my recent Celebrity Cruise that I left out of the first three parts.

1. At the Movies

I'd like to add one big thing that I forgot about the Celebrity Summit vs. Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas comparison that goes in Mariner's favor (and another small advantage for the Summit).

One tiny, but much appreciated thing, in the Summit's favor was the availability of Truvia on the ship. I tend to use artificial sweeteners in coffee, iced tea, etc., and Truvia is the one I use at home. It seems to me to be healthier than both Sweet & Low or Splenda, and it certainly tastes better than Sweet & Low, especially in iced tea. Truvia is rarely available in restaurants, etc., so I appreciated its presence on the Summit.

But here's one big  thing in the Mariner's favor. I didn't watch any movies on the big screen on Mariner, partially because we were too busy, and partially because in keeping with the 80's Cruise theme, it was screening all 1980's films that I've seen a million times that week. But presumably on a typical cruise, Mariner shows more recent films, and according to the deck plans, their big screen is right out on the pool deck (as it is on most cruise ships).

But the Summit is a pretty old ship, so when they decided to add a big screen, they took a novel approach - they put it up on the very top deck, Deck 12.

Now when I started to get the Summit's entertainment itinerary in dribs and drabs on their app, one of the things I was excited about was that they were planning to show the most recent Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home. I didn't catch it in the theaters, and I have no idea when or if it will show up for free on a home streaming channel (or even which channel it might pop up on). So I definitely planned to catch it while I was on the ship.

Unfortunately, one of the few annoying things on the Summit was that the schedule on the app wasn't always accurate. The app claimed that the film was going to be showing on the big screen on Day 5 (I think) at like 5PM. However, when we got the paper schedule for that day, it claimed that the big screen was actually going to be showing Mamma Mia! at that time instead. Now Mamma Mia! is from frigging 2008 - it's more than 10 years old. So why some genius would decide to replace the new Spider-Man film with Mamma Mia! is beyond me.

I had a feeling that the paper schedule was probably the more recent (and more accurate) one. Nevertheless, I figured that I'd head up there on Day 5, see for sure which of the two films was playing, and if nothing else, I'd at least scope out what the situation was on the movie deck. So a little before 5PM, I headed up there.

There was no way to get up there by the internal elevators, so instead, I went up to Deck 11. I had my cane with me, and a canvas bag that had my sunglasses, my distance glasses and a baseball cap in it (in case I was stuck out in the sun).

I walked around on the port side, and discovered to my chagrin a daunting outdoor metal staircase up to Deck 12, one of those where the stairs aren't even solid - you can see through the back of each step. Not great if you're afraid of heights, like I am. There was also a sign that said "Elevator up to Deck 12 is on the starboard side of the ship." Crap. So I had to either hobble around to the other side of the ship, or I sort of had to be Spider-Man and climb up those stairs to get up there.

I decided that instead of ambling over to other side, I'd try the staircase. This turned out not to be fun, especially because I was carrying both my cane and my canvas bag. But I took it slow, and terrifying as it was, eventually I made it up there.

I wandered around the aft of the ship, and discovered that the chairs were all those kind of outdoor fabric ones some people have for lawn furniture. They were all a bit damp, as it had rained on and off for the whole cruise. And all the ones out of the sun were already taken.

I found the least damp seat I could that had at least a little shade and sat down. Needless to say, a few minutes later, the opening credits for Mamma Mia! started rolling. 

Shit!

"Well, at least I can take the elevator going back down," I told myself. I gimped my way around to the starboard side of the ship and found the "elevator". It was actually a glorified wheelchair lift. It was nothing but an exposed outdoor platform that had a rail around it that was about up to my waist. I took one look at it and decided there was no way. God forbid the stupid thing stalled and I'd be stuck halfway between Decks 12 and 11 in an exposed situation that would totally set off my acrophobia. (And it didn't look all that reliable.)

So I took my canvas bag and cane in my left hand and grabbed the staircase railing in a death grip in with my right one, and slowly, terrifyingly made my way back down the exposed metal staircase. (I almost kissed Deck 11 when I finally got down there.)

Two days later, the paper schedule showed that Spider-Man: No Way Home was playing that night at 5:30. Thanks for nothing, Celebrity. I passed.

Mariner of the Seas has it all over the Celebrity Summit when it comes to their big outdoor movie screen.

2. Does Bermuda Come Up Short(s)?

I'll tell you truth, originally I totally intended to trash Bermuda in this blog. They were the ones who pushed the special health regulations that eventually caused Celebrity to rearrange the order of their itinerary, and ultimately caused us to miss the port of Newport, Rhode Island entirely. And since I'd sailed to Bermuda before, and was most looking forward to the Charleston and Newport ports, I was not amused. (A lot of people were also a little ticked that we all had to shell out an extra 40 bucks for the privilege of Bermuda processing the extra health questionnaire that none of us wanted to do in the first place. F U, Bermuda.)

I can also say that the one lunkhead I experienced all cruise was the clown who was working the terminal in Bermuda. We were told by the ship we'd have to wear masks in the Bermuda terminal, and possibly outdoors on land as well. However, Denise and I had a night excursion the first night we got there, so when we went through the terminal (which was about ten steps wide), it was a ghost town. And the few people who were around weren't wearing masks. So we didn't either.

However, after the excursion was over, when we were about to go back through the terminal, there was a guy there to take our I.D. And as I was fumbling with my wallet to find mine, he told me somewhat rudely that I needed to put my mask on. Really, pal? For the privilege of walking ten steps through an empty terminal? Asshole.

The saving grace, however, was the two women who actually worked our excursion, the late night glass bottom boat into the Bermuda Triangle, Captain Zoey and her helper, Triana.

When Denise and I were in Bermuda 20 years ago on a Royal Caribbean ship, we'd taken essentially the same excursion. And part of the fun is going out into the Bermuda Triangle at night and hearing the stories of all the ships that had disappeared there. Unfortunately, that time, after the captain told like one scary story, some idiot woman who apparently hadn't read the excursion description, piped in and said, "Excuse me, but you're scaring my children. Can you not tell these stories, please?"

What?!!!! Why did you bring children on an excursion like this? So of course, that was all we got in the way of stories about ship disappearances.

Anyway, Captain Zoey and Triana were very nice and entertaining. And as I'm quite a bit less spry than I was twenty years ago, I appreciated their help in getting from the top of the boat to the bottom while we were still moving. And while they told us the story of the ship disappearances, they also spoke with obvious pride about their lives in Bermuda (both had been born there), and what it was like there. 

So Bermuda, I'm letting you off easy, thanks solely to Captain Zoey and Triana. Next time, you won't be so lucky!

3. Charleston, SC and the Cancellation of our Plantation Excursion.

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, the change in the schedule totally screwed up our scheduled excursions in Charleston. We were supposed to do an excursion to a plantation on one day, and a city tour the next. Unfortunately, after the change in itinerary, we eventually wound up with two excursions that were booked at overlapping times. There was also conflicting information on the plantation excursion. The description Denise had found listed it as having a "mild" activity level, but when we got on the ship, the paper description of tour listed the activity level as "moderate". 

Now even under normal circumstances, I sometimes find even the ones they list as "mild" a little challenging. I didn't feel up to a "moderate" one. In fact, the truth was that for the first half of this cruise, I often felt pretty lousy physically. I think my blood sugar was all out of whack, and the stress of doing all the things necessary to prepare for the cruise didn't help. I also had a variety of mild ailments going on, including an ear that stuffed up from the moment we got on the ship, some arthritis issues, etc. So I didn't want to push myself too hard.

When we went to the excursion desk, they asked if we wanted to do both excursions on the same day, but I had to tell them no. There was no way I felt I was up for it. So we cancelled the plantation excursion, which I felt bad about, because it was the one that Denise really wanted to do. I told her it was OK with me if she went on that one and left me to do the bus tour, but she decided against it.

As it turned out, thanks to the later change in itinerary (where we lost Newport but were given an extra day in Charleston), it could have worked out if we'd have moved the city tour to the third day in Charleston and rebooked the plantation excursion for the second one. (The plantation one wasn't offered on the third day.) But at that point, I really didn't want to go changing things around again. (Nor did I want to reward Celebrity for all the confusion by buying an extra excursion from them.)

4. Captain Kate vs. Captain Nicklaus

Odds are if you're not a cruise junkie and don't watch all of the cruise vlogs, etc., you've never heard of Captain Kate, aka Kate McCue. But she's the superstar captain for Celebrity Cruise lines. In an industry where most of the cruise ship captains are aging Greek or Italian guys, Captain Kate is a relatively young, photogenic, American woman who was the first American female to be named captain of a large cruise ship. And in today's world, where old white dudes are out of style, as you can imagine, Celebrity has done everything possible to wring the maximum amount of publicity (and the maximum amount of virtue-signaling points) out of Captain Kate. She gets to captain Celebrity's newest ships, and she has essentially become the face of the cruise line. And all of my favorite cruise vloggers sing her praises, name-drop how friendly they are with her, etc. (Don from Don's Family Vacations even made a video last week were he talked about sending her a special package of the kinds of snacks she loves but can't always get when she's at sea.)

Now I'm not trying to poop on Captain Kate's parade. I have no reason to believe that she's anything other than an excellent captain who has worked hard to attain her position.

Nevertheless, I'm sure that all of the (relatively anonymous) male captains of the fleet must hate her guts and want her dead. And one day, at some company function or other, the lights will go out briefly, and when they come back on, they'll find her body has been stabbed, shot and hacked to bits in a total Murder on the Orient Express scenario.

So when the captain of the Celebrity Summit came on the ship's  speaker as I was making my way down from my Spider-Man debacle, and announced that we wouldn't be going to Newport after all because of inclement weather, I was less than pleased. And when our (excellent) cruise director Sarah explained at the show that night that what Captain Nicklaus had meant by "inclement weather" was we'd be sailing through 25-foot high waves, I understood. But what I really wanted to do was track Sarah down, and tell her, "Please give Captain Nicklaus a message for me. Tell him Captain Kate would have gotten us to Rhode Island."

But Denise wouldn't let me.

I think that about wraps it up for my Celebrity Summit cruise summary.

On a sad note (but it's probably for the best) we've worked out that extra cruise we were hoping to slip in in July on the Carnival Magic just isn't going to happen. We have house guests coming that month, and the dates that they'll be here overlap both of the possible cruises we were looking at. So unless something totally unexpected happens, we'll be landlocked until the 80's Cruise next March. Oh well. It was a thought.

Prog Contest 2022: The Final Round - Results

OK, as I guess I've made obvious, for me, this was a brutal contest. My rec, Frogg Cafe's Bateless Edge, was the first one knocked out of tournament. Of the ten first round matches, my pick lost eight of them. And the later rounds weren't any better. 

The two albums vying for the championship, Circus's Movin' and Pekka Pohjola's Visitation, were my 17th and 16th choices respectively out of the 20 albums that started this journey. I voted for the Pekka Pohjola LP. Unsurprisingly, Circus won it all.

It was yet another crazy close contest, ending in a 10-10 vote yesterday. One of the Sputnik Users who had participated in previous tournaments and who voted in this one a couple of times along the way, was invited to give the tiebreaker vote. He voted for Circus.

Final Results: Circus 11 votes, Pekka Pohjola 10 votes.

Thanks to Jethro, who did a fine job taking over for Friday13th as the tournament organizer.

But I need to go cry now. See y'all soon.