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handful_ofdustAccording to several sources, The Sentinel is finally coming to DVD. To which I say…Wow! At least that’ll keep it off the air.;)
I spent a surprising amount of time today trying to catch up on various emails, some from long, long ago. A woman who wants advice about getting published, who I know from Gangs fandom; two former students who wanted feedback on specs; another former student who’s written a Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode to show around to agents, and needs constructive criticism. The sad part vis a vis the latter is that even though she L-O-V-E-S this show and is practically in love with Bobby Goren, she nevertheless has him doing really odd, illogical, atypical things throughout. Then again, her premise also revolves around a pair of identical twins—one "good", one "bad"—and she has the "bad" one show up at Goren’s door in the middle of the night, wearing a trenchcoat with nothing but a sexy negligee on underneath it. But I did what I could, because even a soap-operaish script is better than no script at all, right? Or so I always say.
And then there’s the matter of my![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
oz_magi piece, which resolutely refuses to catch fire. Dead fandoms really can’t be resurrected, apparently…I’m reduced to trying to jumpstart or cobble together some of the stuff I already have hanging around, none of which actually shapes itself to the request I’ve opted for. Still, there’s that extension, so I have to keep on trying; maybe it’ll get better, somehow. And maybe lightning will strike the monkeys flying out of my butt, twice, or something similarly unlikely.
So, I started finally doing this meme: The Top 100 Songs of 1986. And oh, holy GOD these songs are (in the main) terrible. Some of them I can barely remember, while others have since made it onto my personal list of Things to Avoid if You Don’t Necessarily Feel Suicide is the Right Choice at this Very Moment. Few of them mean anything to me at all, beyond an instant cue to twist the dial. Blameagincourtgirl, if you must.
1. "That's What Friends Are For"...Dionne & Friends
What was the charity that went along with this? I’d like to know, so I can either make threatening phone-calls to them or maybe promise them a donation under a false name, and then laugh about it afterward.
2. "Walk Like An Egyptian"...Bangles
Looking back, I think the only two songs worth anything "by" the Bangles were both covers…okay, three, if you like "Manic Monday", which is also on the list. But this ain’t one of them.
3. "On My Own".....Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald
The sort of thing people get really drunk and sing at karaoke, thus clearing the room. Perhaps its fated function, in which case good, I guess.
4. "The Way It Is"...Bruce Hornsby & The Range
Steve likes this.
5. "You Give Love A Bad Name"...Bon Jovi
This too, probably. New Jersey has much to answer for.
6. "Greatest Love Of All"...Whitney Houston
Right, this was the first Year o’ Whitney, wasn’t it? Sadly, I can’t claim I didn’t listen to that album, but I can state honestly that it was my mother’s copy, not mine.
7. "There'll Be Sad Songs"...Billy Ocean
Can’t remember this AT ALL, thankfully. I lost track of how many Billy Ocean songs there are on this thing, but suffice it to say it’s definitely too many.
8. "How Will I Know"...Whitney Houston
And again…
9. "Kyrie"...Mr. Mister
"Carry a laser/Down this road that I must travel…"
10. "Kiss"...Prince & The Revolution
Okay, so this is a "classic". But somehow not quite as good as anything which would come off his Sign o’ the Times album.
11. "The Next Time I Fall"...Peter Cetera & Amy Grant
12. "Burning Heart"...Survivor
Two more I can’t even summon a shred of. Where do songs like that go? I mean, into people’s garage sales, obviously, but…hmmm, I wonder, I wonder. Or not.
13. "Stuck With You"...Huey Lewis & The News
The Patrick Bateman Top Ten begins right here, folks; "Hip To Be Square" appears somewhere in the 30s.
14. "When I Think Of You"...Janet Jackson
15. "Rock Me Amadeus"...Falco
16. "West End Girls"...Pet Shop Boys
These three at least had impact: Creepy and annoying for the first two, "daring" for the last. Back then, anyhow.
17. "Sledgehammer"...Peter Gabriel
Okay, and here, finally, we get something enduringly good. The lightest song of So, which (naturally) made it the biggest hit. If I was making a list of albums I was listening to this year which continue to mean something to me, So might be at the top of it.
And…I have to stop there, because ze pain, boss! Ze pain! But here are the recognizable-to-good(ish) songs on the rest of the list:
22. "Everybody Have Fun Tonight".....Wang Chung
24. "Conga".....Miami Sound Machine
26. "Live To Tell".....Madonna
27. "Addicted To Love".....Robert Palmer
29. "What Have You Done For Me Lately".....Janet Jackson
32. "Take My Breath Away".....Berlin
33. "These Dreams".....Heart
34. "Holding Back The Years".....Simply Red
38. "Papa Don't Preach".....Madonna
39. "True Colors".....Cyndi Lauper
42. "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)".....Glass Tiger
45. "Danger Zone".....Kenny Loggins
50. "If You Leave".....Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
52. "Invisible Touch".....Genesis
54. "To Be A Lover".....Billy Idol
58. "Let's Go All The Way".....Sly Fox
60. "Typical Male".....Tina Turner
61. "Nasty".....Janet Jackson
62. "R.O.C.K. In The USA".....John Cougar Mellencamp
63. "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On".....Robert Palmer
68. "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off".....Jermaine Stewart
74. "All I Need Is A Miracle".....Mike + The Mechanics
76. "Silent Running".....Mike + The Mechanics
78. "Don't Get Me Wrong".....Pretenders
81. "True Blue".....Madonna
82. "Living In America".....James Brown
83. "Take Me Home".....Phil Collins
86. "Heartbeat".....Don Johnson
87. "Nikita".....Elton John
93. "Sweet Love".....Anita Baker
94. "Your Wildest Dreams".....The Moody Blues
97. "Harlem Shuffle".....Rolling Stones
Plus the genuinely enduring ones, with commentary:
20. "Higher Love".....Steve Winwood
This is pretty much pure pleasure—Winwood’s arching, aching voice, the bongo-beats in the background. It doesn’t need to exist, but it’s very nice indeed that it does.
30. "Venus".....Bananarama
Oddly addictive, even now; maybe it’s hangover from the video, maybe not.
31. "What You Need".....INXS
How strange to think that this—even more so than "Original Sin"—was probably the song which singlevocally turned the most people onto Michael Hutchence’s growl/strut combo. I once had a student who was able to convince me he was too upset to take an exam because Hutchence had just died; that was back in Trebas, though, where I tended to be considerably more forgiving of people’s pop-culture foibles.
35. "Walk Of Life".....Dire Straits
"He’s got the action, he got the motion/Yeah the boy can play…"
51. "Word Up".....Cameo
Another big bag o’ freak, what with the guy and his crotch, and all. But never boring!
53. "No One Is To Blame".....Howard Jones
See Steve Winwood, except in that almost-Crowded House sort of way. The way his voice soars in that last chorus, like a strangled sob; the litany of familiar objects, suddenly unfamiliarized.
67. "Stand By Me".....Ben E. King
I grew to hate it later on, but this is actualy a nice little piece of all right.
71. "Walk This Way".....Run-D.M.C.
The team-up that busted a thousand stereotypes! From this to the Judgement Night soundtrack, it’s really not that far a slide at all. There should be more rap-metal, IMHO.
91. "Life In A Northern Town".....The Dream Academy
Unintelligible as it is, there’s something here; the weird resonance of "hey-ah, nah nah nah, hey-ah nah hey", if repeated long/enough, etc. A last blast of New Wave, as we reach the decade’s halfway mark.
98. "My Hometown".....Bruce Springsteen
Again, not the best song from this album—Born in the USA, fools!—but I can see its appeal in terms of an apparent hearkening back towards "simpler times". Reminds me of that Joe R. Lansdale short story "The Night They Missed The Picture Show" more than anything else, personally, but that is almost certainly just me.
So there we go. Cal is quite likely sick again, which means I have to go take some Ester-C. If I don’t see ya until after the holidays, a general Happy Merry.;)
I spent a surprising amount of time today trying to catch up on various emails, some from long, long ago. A woman who wants advice about getting published, who I know from Gangs fandom; two former students who wanted feedback on specs; another former student who’s written a Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode to show around to agents, and needs constructive criticism. The sad part vis a vis the latter is that even though she L-O-V-E-S this show and is practically in love with Bobby Goren, she nevertheless has him doing really odd, illogical, atypical things throughout. Then again, her premise also revolves around a pair of identical twins—one "good", one "bad"—and she has the "bad" one show up at Goren’s door in the middle of the night, wearing a trenchcoat with nothing but a sexy negligee on underneath it. But I did what I could, because even a soap-operaish script is better than no script at all, right? Or so I always say.
And then there’s the matter of my
oz_magi piece, which resolutely refuses to catch fire. Dead fandoms really can’t be resurrected, apparently…I’m reduced to trying to jumpstart or cobble together some of the stuff I already have hanging around, none of which actually shapes itself to the request I’ve opted for. Still, there’s that extension, so I have to keep on trying; maybe it’ll get better, somehow. And maybe lightning will strike the monkeys flying out of my butt, twice, or something similarly unlikely.So, I started finally doing this meme: The Top 100 Songs of 1986. And oh, holy GOD these songs are (in the main) terrible. Some of them I can barely remember, while others have since made it onto my personal list of Things to Avoid if You Don’t Necessarily Feel Suicide is the Right Choice at this Very Moment. Few of them mean anything to me at all, beyond an instant cue to twist the dial. Blame
agincourtgirl, if you must.1. "That's What Friends Are For"...Dionne & Friends
What was the charity that went along with this? I’d like to know, so I can either make threatening phone-calls to them or maybe promise them a donation under a false name, and then laugh about it afterward.
2. "Walk Like An Egyptian"...Bangles
Looking back, I think the only two songs worth anything "by" the Bangles were both covers…okay, three, if you like "Manic Monday", which is also on the list. But this ain’t one of them.
3. "On My Own".....Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald
The sort of thing people get really drunk and sing at karaoke, thus clearing the room. Perhaps its fated function, in which case good, I guess.
4. "The Way It Is"...Bruce Hornsby & The Range
Steve likes this.
5. "You Give Love A Bad Name"...Bon Jovi
This too, probably. New Jersey has much to answer for.
6. "Greatest Love Of All"...Whitney Houston
Right, this was the first Year o’ Whitney, wasn’t it? Sadly, I can’t claim I didn’t listen to that album, but I can state honestly that it was my mother’s copy, not mine.
7. "There'll Be Sad Songs"...Billy Ocean
Can’t remember this AT ALL, thankfully. I lost track of how many Billy Ocean songs there are on this thing, but suffice it to say it’s definitely too many.
8. "How Will I Know"...Whitney Houston
And again…
9. "Kyrie"...Mr. Mister
"Carry a laser/Down this road that I must travel…"
10. "Kiss"...Prince & The Revolution
Okay, so this is a "classic". But somehow not quite as good as anything which would come off his Sign o’ the Times album.
11. "The Next Time I Fall"...Peter Cetera & Amy Grant
12. "Burning Heart"...Survivor
Two more I can’t even summon a shred of. Where do songs like that go? I mean, into people’s garage sales, obviously, but…hmmm, I wonder, I wonder. Or not.
13. "Stuck With You"...Huey Lewis & The News
The Patrick Bateman Top Ten begins right here, folks; "Hip To Be Square" appears somewhere in the 30s.
14. "When I Think Of You"...Janet Jackson
15. "Rock Me Amadeus"...Falco
16. "West End Girls"...Pet Shop Boys
These three at least had impact: Creepy and annoying for the first two, "daring" for the last. Back then, anyhow.
17. "Sledgehammer"...Peter Gabriel
Okay, and here, finally, we get something enduringly good. The lightest song of So, which (naturally) made it the biggest hit. If I was making a list of albums I was listening to this year which continue to mean something to me, So might be at the top of it.
And…I have to stop there, because ze pain, boss! Ze pain! But here are the recognizable-to-good(ish) songs on the rest of the list:
22. "Everybody Have Fun Tonight".....Wang Chung
24. "Conga".....Miami Sound Machine
26. "Live To Tell".....Madonna
27. "Addicted To Love".....Robert Palmer
29. "What Have You Done For Me Lately".....Janet Jackson
32. "Take My Breath Away".....Berlin
33. "These Dreams".....Heart
34. "Holding Back The Years".....Simply Red
38. "Papa Don't Preach".....Madonna
39. "True Colors".....Cyndi Lauper
42. "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)".....Glass Tiger
45. "Danger Zone".....Kenny Loggins
50. "If You Leave".....Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
52. "Invisible Touch".....Genesis
54. "To Be A Lover".....Billy Idol
58. "Let's Go All The Way".....Sly Fox
60. "Typical Male".....Tina Turner
61. "Nasty".....Janet Jackson
62. "R.O.C.K. In The USA".....John Cougar Mellencamp
63. "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On".....Robert Palmer
68. "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off".....Jermaine Stewart
74. "All I Need Is A Miracle".....Mike + The Mechanics
76. "Silent Running".....Mike + The Mechanics
78. "Don't Get Me Wrong".....Pretenders
81. "True Blue".....Madonna
82. "Living In America".....James Brown
83. "Take Me Home".....Phil Collins
86. "Heartbeat".....Don Johnson
87. "Nikita".....Elton John
93. "Sweet Love".....Anita Baker
94. "Your Wildest Dreams".....The Moody Blues
97. "Harlem Shuffle".....Rolling Stones
Plus the genuinely enduring ones, with commentary:
20. "Higher Love".....Steve Winwood
This is pretty much pure pleasure—Winwood’s arching, aching voice, the bongo-beats in the background. It doesn’t need to exist, but it’s very nice indeed that it does.
30. "Venus".....Bananarama
Oddly addictive, even now; maybe it’s hangover from the video, maybe not.
31. "What You Need".....INXS
How strange to think that this—even more so than "Original Sin"—was probably the song which singlevocally turned the most people onto Michael Hutchence’s growl/strut combo. I once had a student who was able to convince me he was too upset to take an exam because Hutchence had just died; that was back in Trebas, though, where I tended to be considerably more forgiving of people’s pop-culture foibles.
35. "Walk Of Life".....Dire Straits
"He’s got the action, he got the motion/Yeah the boy can play…"
51. "Word Up".....Cameo
Another big bag o’ freak, what with the guy and his crotch, and all. But never boring!
53. "No One Is To Blame".....Howard Jones
See Steve Winwood, except in that almost-Crowded House sort of way. The way his voice soars in that last chorus, like a strangled sob; the litany of familiar objects, suddenly unfamiliarized.
67. "Stand By Me".....Ben E. King
I grew to hate it later on, but this is actualy a nice little piece of all right.
71. "Walk This Way".....Run-D.M.C.
The team-up that busted a thousand stereotypes! From this to the Judgement Night soundtrack, it’s really not that far a slide at all. There should be more rap-metal, IMHO.
91. "Life In A Northern Town".....The Dream Academy
Unintelligible as it is, there’s something here; the weird resonance of "hey-ah, nah nah nah, hey-ah nah hey", if repeated long/enough, etc. A last blast of New Wave, as we reach the decade’s halfway mark.
98. "My Hometown".....Bruce Springsteen
Again, not the best song from this album—Born in the USA, fools!—but I can see its appeal in terms of an apparent hearkening back towards "simpler times". Reminds me of that Joe R. Lansdale short story "The Night They Missed The Picture Show" more than anything else, personally, but that is almost certainly just me.
So there we go. Cal is quite likely sick again, which means I have to go take some Ester-C. If I don’t see ya until after the holidays, a general Happy Merry.;)
