Words, Words, Words, Words

Disco Sucks.

I don't remember the DJs or the record burnings; not really, but I remember the Death of Disco.

One year in grade school - I forget which one; 2nd or 3rd, maybe, we learned how to 'do the hustle' in gym class.

When I was in the 5th grade, my birthday party was a 'disco' party. This boy from down the street who knew how to dance came over and showed us how do do some moves.

I actually owned a read satin jacket in the 6th grade, and my class would spend rainy lunch hours dancing to Donna Summers.

In 7th grade, however, Disco was Persona Non Grata amongst those I thought of as the 'cool kids'.

Pink Floyd's The Wall was standard issue, I think, and 'Led Zepplin Rulz' was inked onto many a boy's binder, right next to the words 'Disco Sucks'.

I remember someone had 'disco thinks rock stinks, but rock knows disco blows' on his notebook.

Because I was rather obsessed with being a cool kid; something I was decidely not, I jumped on the 'Disco Sucks' bandwagon. Wasn't a big leap, actually. I was already sliding towards the love of all things Punk/New Wave anyway. And secretly preferred the Monkees.

However, when I hear those disco songs from the 70's today, they make me smile. They were a huge part of my childhood's soundtrack, after all. I'm not running out and downloading "Donna Summers' greatest hits, but I won't pretend I don't know at least some of the words to 'Bad Girls'.

As an aside, in 7th grade - 1979 - 80, when we were waiting for some rally or something to start this kid, Floyd, got in front of the microphone and started singing, or rather 'rapping' a song; although I don't think the term was coined then. I am totally blanking on the song right now, but it was really novel, and completely devoid of any kind of gang violence. Just sayin'...

Did you know if you type 'Neil' into Google - just Neil, the first three things that pop up are Neil Gaiman?

Mitch Benn pointed that out on his podcast, and I checked it out, and he was right.

Mitch Benn is awesome. Just saying. He has some brillant songs one can download from his website. My favorite is The Devil and a Hard Place, which is a song full of mixed metaphors. I find this amusing on many levels. better_wishes knows why. :)

I've been slowly rebuilding my music on my iPod. In many ways this was good, because there were tons of songs I never listened to, and tons of songs I'd like to listen to, but there were so many they hardly ever came up on the shuffle. But there are songs I miss, too, because I'd gotten them from someone, or I can't find my CD. There's some Fry and Laurie songs I don't have any more, and some John Barrowman songs. And others, but I'll survive.

Okay, help.

One of Charlie's friends, let's call him Bob, apparently has a stealing problem. This is according to the parents of another friend, people whom I have no reason to doubt, and there was a time when $4 went missing from Charlie's wallet when Bob was the only one around.

He's a nice kid, and I don't know if I should say something to Charlie, or if I should just discourage him from coming over, but, other than the money, I haven't seen anything else, and Charlie really likes him.

What should I do?

Today I bought one of those newfangled singing cards - you know, the ones that have a chip thingy that plays an actual MP3 (I guess) of a song in it.* With it, I got a coupon for 1 free song off of iTunes.

So, I thought it would be fun to get song recommendations from you all. What song would you suggest I buy?






*It is thanks to the adverts for these cards my son discovered the song U Can't Touch This

Can anyone think of good songs that have to do with someone loving someone who doesn't love them back?

I thought it would be fun to have these songs playing before our show since unrequited (and obesssive)love is the general theme of All's Well that Ends Well.

Naturally, having come up with this idea, I can't think of any good songs.

So, suggestions anyone?

Seriously. I have it turned off, with the little switch thingy that is supposed to lock the dial so it won't accidentlly turn on again, and suddenly I hear tinny music coming from my purse, and there's my iPod, singing along merrily, all of the sudden. It's not even like I was walking with my purse and something got jiggled. It happens almost every day.

And the weird thing is the song is almost always a Pat Benatar song. Except today it was a Bette Midler song.

Here's a receipe for giving yourself really freaky dreams: First, try in vain to fall asleep, give up and trot over to the computer to surf awhile on the interweb. Download the 2nd half of Lost, since you didn't watch it when it was on, (because 11pm is too late to be watching tv anymore) then watch the episode on your computer at midnight. Be hounded the entire time by a moth that has gotten into your house and seems to want to get intimate with the computer screen. Then try to go back to sleep and drift off sometime around 2am.

Can everyone chant or pray or do whatever works for you that it won't rain in Collingswood tomorrow? Thanks.

zambinigirl, through her niece, has discovered the joy* that are The Wiggles. This is for her.

Brief background. Back when Charlie was still a toddler, and hadn't gotten his PDD/NOS diagnosis, and was not talking and having all sorts of problems, his day care du jour had a tape of The Wiggles, and one day the teacher told me that he loved them. It was the one thing he responded to over just about everything else. "What are The Wiggles?" I wondered, "Some cartoon worms or something?"

So I did a search on the good old interweb and found out who, exactly, The Wiggles were. I was immediately smitten. They didn't talk down, they didn't use dorky voices, and the music was pure pop rock, and very reminicent of The Monkees, at least for me. What clinched it was when I discovered they actually sang a cover of "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" originally done in the 80's by Split Enz.

So, I set off to find a tape for Charlie. This, back in the early days of 1999, wasn't bloody easy. They were just starting to break into the US riding on the annoying purple tale of a certain dinosaur. Some Barney videos had a clip from the Wiggles on it, but finding the Wiggles videos was not easy. I did, eventually find Yummy Yummy and we proceeded to wear it out. Charlie really responded to it. You have to understand, he was completely non-verbal, would have horrible temper tantrums, and had only just started to walk. When the Wiggles were on, he would listen, and dance and smile and laugh. And sing. He actually started using words because of The Wiggles. His first word was a very Ozzie accented "Teddy Bear".

Anyway, a few years later, in 2002, I had the opportunity to write an article for a magazine called Autism Asberger's Digest about the Wiggles, and managed to get a hold of their Publicity Manager, who arranged for us to meet with The Wiggles at their show in Wilkes Barre, PA (two hour drive, by the way), so I could arrange an interview, and get some photos.

Here are the photos of Charlie with The Wiggles. (forgive the quality, I don't have a great scanner)

( Charlie and The Wiggles: )

Charlie was totally ahead of his time with The Wiggles, and now that he's just a bit too old for them, there are finally toys and videos and DVDs and CDs galore. Not to mention birthday stuff. His fifth birthday was a "Wiggles Party" but I had to make do with colored napkins and streamers. No Wiggles decorations for me.

*for a given value of joy, that is

Seriously. Monty on Lost is just cracking me up. The comic used to be "Robotman and Monty" but the creator lost the robot because it was attracting too young an audience, and it is really more satire along the lines of Bloom County or The Far Side than, say, Peanuts.

I signed up for the Lost podcasts, which is midly cool. I listened to it while exersising this morning, and that made the time go quickly. Have I mentioned I am loving my iPod? Cause I am. Although I feel a bit guilty, since my sisters bought me my shuffle, and it was a really sweet and expensive gift, and they got it engraved and everything. Well, not engraved, but there's a little message on it. But my big iPod is just so cool. I named it iCarol, because I'm a dork.

Although I'm wondering if I can change it to iHum.

I have this gift card my mother gave me that had a few dollars left on it, so I downloaded a couple of songs from iTunes. Sting has a new song out, it is a duet with Sheryl Crow. I am not a fan of hers at all, but it is a pretty song, and the presence of Sting more than makes up for the presence of Sheryl Crow. And I downloaded Cars by Gary Newman, and Howard Jones "What is Love" because I adored that song back in the day. Am actually tempted to download the new Pink song, because it makes me laugh, but I don't really know if I need to spend $.99 on it. Don't like it that much.

I've gotten suckered into hosting one of those 'at home' parties where people sell you things. I have a friend who, though we don't see each other very often, I've known since I was 5 years old, and she is selling this stuff, and, well, I just couldn't say no. It's called At Home America if you care.

Finally, one of the perks of working from home is I can watch The Dick Van Dyke Show as I eat my lunch. That is a really good show. Great actors, funny, funny scripts, and still holds up 40 years later, I think. Once, years ago, the Nick At Nite thing ran it in prime time, and my husband and I would watch it. We still have jokes we say to each other from it. For example, if one of us says 'Shoehorn' the other will laugh.

Gakked from liz_marcs




Okay, the fact that I found this extremely sexy when I was in high school probably tells you more about me then you care to know.

And I still know all the words to "Stand and Deliver". So there.

It's taking quite a bit of my willpower not to start spending money on iTunes. "It's only .99 cents!" my ego argues, "That's nothing!"

"But," says my brain, "It adds up quickly. I'm pretty sure you could live without Bowling for Soup's 1985 on your iPod."

"But I want it," whines the ego. "And I want other songs too. I'm bored of our CDs. I want new songs. I want Coldplay. I want to hear songs that were written in this century, for heaven's sake. And don't tell me we have Sting. He doesn't count."

"We can't afford to start buying stuff like that." says Brain, sensibly. "We'll lose track and before we know it, we'll have spent $20 on songs that we don't really need; money we don't really have."

Ego pouts, temporarily stymied. But browses iTunes anyway.

Charlie slept for 12 hours. That's pretty unusual for him. I think he was still a bit under the weather yesterday. At 8:30 last night he told me he wanted to go to bed. He's chipper now, though, bright as a penny. So that's good.

By the way, my brother in law lent me three books at Christmas, and I highly recommend them. They are Bubbles Unbound, Bubbles in Trouble, and Bubbles Ablaze Mystery stories along the same vein of the Stephanie Plum books, and as addictive as potato chips. I spent some of a gift card to get the fourth book, after reading the first three in as many days. I highly recommend them to anyone who enjoys a good mystery mixed with humor and great characters.

Must go start the day now.