Tuesday, February 13, 2007

SHUFFLING THROUGH THE TUNES

Burning discs for the wife and downloading the Indiana/Syracuse national championship game from 1987 off iTunes...thought I'd use the free time to randomly shuffle through the iPod and see what pops up (idea, as always, shamelessly ripped off from my best man).

Do You Love Me Now? (The Breeders) - haven't the faintest idea, I copied one of Meg's CDs for her and I've got my iPod set to default and it uploads everything...it will be deleted soon.

Heart of Glass (Blondie) - In the late 70's, a couple of years before they broke into the big time with this song, Debbie Harry was without question one of the all-time hottest singers ever. Wow. Maybe Stevie Nicks pre-Fleetwood Mac tops her, maybe not. This song was a huge hit, not quite disco, not quite techno, just catchy. Took years before I heard the non-radio edit and hurt that sweet voice utter curse words.

The Bomber (James Gang) - Sounds like a bad early-70's Zeppelin ripoff.

Love Is A Wonderful Thing (Michael Bolton) - Seriously, search the web for a video clip for the brief earlier incarnation of Bolton, with his very minor hit "Fools Game." Good stuff. But not successful enough to keep him from doing cotton candy fluff like this one.

Road Runner (The Gants) - This came from an album with the word "Bubblegum" in the title, and is based entirely on the cartoon character...up to and including his signature "beep beep" sound. It's shocking The Gants didn't establish themselves as bigger stars.

Could You Dig It (Brian Hyland) - My dad was talking to me a few weeks back about Brian Hyland having some success with songs done by Jay & The Americans, or maybe it was vice versa. Either way, I went out and picked up the greatest hits for both acts. Can't say that I recognize this at all.

Just Like Jesse James (Cher) - I mean, seriously, I have so much stuff in my collection that 30% of the time I've never heard the songs. Not a huge Cher fan as it is, and certainly not of anything she's put out the last fifteen years. This isn't particularly noteworthy stuff.

Hungry Like The Wolf (Duran Duran) - It's easy to dismiss them as fluff and all image because they were probably right there with Michael Jackson in the early 80's as exploiting the new medium of music video. But I think music history will give these guys a little more credit than they get. Very catchy stuff, a great drive to most of their music...they're no U2 or even INXS, but this is one of the great bands of the decade, and this is probably their signature song.

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind (The Five Keys) - It was only 1956, less than a year into the rock and roll era, and a lot of the music still carried elements of the big band feel. This is one of them.

For Love's Sake (Jody Watley) - Too lazy to check off the stuff I didn't want added, so I downloaded the entire album. At some point I'll delete the nine songs that weren't hits--including this one--and it will never appear in my shuffle again. This is truly bland.

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Sunday, February 11, 2007

REVIVING DOWNTOWN NEW ALBANY, ONE STEP AT A TIME

Meg and I moved two doors down from the Culbertson Mansion last summer. In between us was Culbertson West, previously occupied by the Redmen (who make the best chicken 'n' dumplins at Harvest Homecoming, I might add). We immediately started noticing on Friday and Saturday nights a ton of activity there. Turns out there's an extremely impressive reception hall, very recently renovated, in the back portion of the building.

As it turns out, the two gentlemen that have assumed control of Culbertson West also have bought up four other properties in a five block stretch of Main Street heading out of downtown. That includes two bed and breakfasts (the former Widows Home and the Box Tree Inn) and another reception hall, The Parthenon.

The name of their business is Third Century Services and from everything I've seen and heard, they run a first class organization at very competitive prices. I would highly recommend them to anyone getting married, organizing a class reunion, or throwing any other similar bash. With New Albany's downtown set for a revitalization, these fellows are ahead of the curve and setting the pace.

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