Here are the non-crossover #1s, the hits for 1994 in adult contemporary and rhythm and blues.
Adult contemporary, besides the Celine Dion and Boyz II Men crossovers:
Now and Forever – Richard Marx, 11 weeks at #1. I have but a vague recollection of this song.
Can You Feel The Love Tonight – Elton John, eight weeks at #1. I’ve seen at least five productions of The Lion King, including one in which my daughter appeared. I saw Elton perform in Albany in 1998.
Wild Night – John Mellencamp/ Me’shell Ndegeocello, eight weeks at #1. I remember this mostly because it reminded me of the Van Morrison original.
All I Wanna Do – Sheryl Crow, eight weeks at #1, from an album I actually own.
I’ll Remember – Madonna, four weeks at #1. It is from the soundtrack to the motion picture With Honors, a film I do not recall. While I’ve owned earlier Madonna music, I wasn’t familiar with this song.
There are only seven AC #1 songs in total for 1994.
Another tidy list
Hot R&B singles, besides R. Kelly and Boyz II Men crossovers:
Any Time, Any Place – Janet Jackson, ten weeks at #1. When I saw her at SPAC in 2018, this song was on the setlist, but I wasn’t familiar with it.
Creep – TLC, nine weeks at #1, gold record. The post title is a bit of a misnomer for this song. Creep did go to #1 pop for four weeks, but not until January 1995.
Seven Whole Days – Toni Braxton, five weeks at #1. I own this album as well.
A couple of weeks ago, the knee faileth, the left one, and I think I know why. On Thursday, I took an Amtrak train from Albany/Rensselaer to Rhinecliff, about 45 minutes south, down the Hudson River.
The train stop isn’t flush with the station platform. You take a couple of steps down, and then you have to extend your leg down to land on a stool that’s only about a foot cubed. I don’t know how other people got off of that thing, but I was having a terrible time, feeling like I’m going to fall.
I’m pretty sure I must have hyperextended my knee. On the return trip later that day, it wasn’t so bad. It was the same little stool I had to stand on, but at least I was pulling up, and I didn’t feel as though I was going to tumble and hurt myself.
My knee was achy on Friday, but it was awful on Saturday. I couldn’t even get out of bed without excruciating discomfort, and getting dressed without bending my knee can be an involved process.
Walking down the stairs was treacherous as I couldn’t put any weight on that leg. Even getting off of the sofa was a challenge.
So I went to a restaurant only a block and a half away with an old college friend, walked back after lunch, returned to my house, and sat on the sofa to rest.
APL
Then it was time to see the Albany Gay Men’s Chorus at the Pine Hills branch of the Albany Public Library. I was so physically distressed that it took me much longer to walk the block and a half to the library, and I missed the first song. I know a couple of guys in the group, one of whom had a nice solo.
When I hobbled back home, I needed to talk with our contractor. Then I went to bed and took a nap for a long time before my wife came home from a church-related event.
I was supposed to attend the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library gala as I’d already bought my ticket. But I didn’t know how I’d feel. The nap did help somewhat. But I had nothing to wear suit/jacket-wise, so I found an African garb I had purchased from a guy in Washington Park at least three decades ago and wore it over my shirts and pants. It was a conversation piece at the event, again a block and a half away. I’m glad I went.
The next day, my knee was just a little less achy. It didn’t feel great, but it didn’t feel like it was eight on a scale of 10 in pain—back to the usual four or five.
State Street in ALB between Lark and Willett, 20 Oct 2024
Of course, we can tax billionaires. They disguise their demands (“don’t tax billionaires”) as observations (“it is technically impossible to tax billionaires”).
The Trouble With Tradwives. TikTok’s old-school housewives paint a rosy picture of their lives. Ex-tradwives and Influencer moms tell a vastly different story.
Teri Garr died at 79. I saw her in Tootsie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Oh God! and many TV appearances. Oh, and Young Frankenstein (1974) – Put the candle back!
Tim Urban: Why I Brought My Toddler to Watch SpaceX’s Flying Skyscraper. I can’t shield my daughter from negativity. But I can continually redirect her attention to the rocket—showing her all the ways our species is incredible.
Now I Know: The Identity Theft That Went Backward and Is It Illegal To Not Wish Someone Farewell? and Where Everybody Knows Your 6E 61 6D 65 and The Fish That Glow… As a Warning?
Security Updates for the Internet Archive
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Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean performed at the World Figure Skating Competition with a routine set to the Entr’acte of the original Broadway production of Mack and Mabel.
Before the New York State Writers Institute brought him to UAlbany’s Page Hall on October 7, I was unfamiliar with John Elder Robison, “a world-recognized authority on life with autism [and] a New York Times bestselling author of thoughtful and humorous books about his experiences living on the autism spectrum.”
Robison received his autism diagnosis at the age of 40. His child, a second-grader, had also been similarly diagnosed.
So here’s the dichotomy. John Elder Robison is a “photographer, educator, neurodiversity advocate, automobile aficionado, and designer of special effects guitars for the rock band KISS.” He is “a world-recognized authority on life with autism, a New York Times bestselling author of thoughtful and humorous books about his experiences living on the autism spectrum.”
But before that, he was considered a “social deviant” because of “his tendency to blurt non-sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes.” His workplace encounters early on were challenging. Even now, he’ll chastise someone with a YouTube how-to video if thewe
His designs require advanced calculus, yet he failed basic high school algebra. He acknowledged that he still has no idea of the difference between adjectives and adverbs, and he did poorly in classroom English. Yet, because he loved reading, he would absorb the pages vociferously enough to model his writing based on his reading, writing lucidly and powerfully.
Books
Robison has written four well-regarded books – Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s (2007), a memoir about growing up with Asperger’s syndrome; Be Different (2011), Raising Cubby: A Father and Son’s Adventures with Asperger’s (2013), and Switched On: A Memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening (2016).
Here’s a pull quote from Look Me in the Eye: “Child psychologists who said ‘John prefers to play by himself’ were dead wrong. I played by myself because I was a failure at playing with others. I was alone as a result of my own limitations, and being alone was one of the bitterest disappointments of my young life.”
Fast forward. “Amid the blaze of publicity that followed [Look Me in the Eye], he received a unique invitation: Would John like to take part in a study led by one of the world’s foremost neuroscientists, who would use an experimental new brain therapy known as TMS, or transcranial magnetic stimulation, in an effort to understand and then address the issues at the heart of autism? Switched On is the extraordinary story of what happened next.”
Here’s a review of Switched On by an old friend, who he referred to, along with himself, as part of the OG (old guard): “A mind-blowing book that will force you to ask deep questions about what is important in life. Would normalizing the brains of those who think differently reduce their motivation for great achievement?”—Temple Grandin, author of The Autistic Brain.
Check out the interview, Neurodiversity in the Real World. The obvious takeaway is that we all learn differently and that we need to make space for people to take in information in varied ways, but that is probably difficult in the standard classroom setting.
Another advocate
Other members of the neurodivergent community attended the event and spoke briefly. Angelo Santabarbara is a New York State legislator who went into public service largely because he has a neurodivergent child. (Santabarbara was a victim of his current opponent’s recent sloppy election interference ploy.)
Robison, the neurodiversity scholar in residence at the College of William & Mary, commended Santabarbara directly from the stage—the Assemblyperson was sitting in the front row. Indeed, he champions all who advocate. The speaker noted that he serves on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, which produces the U.S. government’s strategic plan for autism spectrum disorder research.
I was happy to see my old buddy Michael Huber, who used to wrangle the Times Union bloggers. He’s the Writers Institute’s communications specialist and was instrumental in pulling off the event.
On Thursday, September 19, my wife and I went to Proctors Theatre to see the national touring company production of Some Like It Hot. A couple of seasons ago, it was a smash on Broadway.
It was very useful that we saw the 1959 movie at a cinema in 2023, which starred Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe.
The interesting thing about the musical is that they took the bones of the fairly absurd storyline from the film and made a not-quite-as-absurd tale. It’s about two musicians in 1933 Chicago. Saxophonist Joe (Matt Loehr) and his best friend and bass player Jerry (Tavis Kordell) need a gig. But they are forced to “flee the Windy City after witnessing a mob hit.”
Meanwhile, in another speakeasy, performer Sweet Sue (Tarra Conner Jones) is arrested in a raid. After exiting jail, she forms an all-girl band and heads to California. Sugar (Leandra Ellis-Gaston) is the fine vocalist in the girl band. With gangsters hot on their heels, Joe becomes Josephine, Jerry becomes Geraldine – no, Daphne! – and they join the band on its cross-country train “for the life-chasing, life-changing trip of a lifetime.”
The show was great and occasionally exhausting. I expect that the chase scene near the movie’s end was edited together. The musical has a similar scene, but it’s astonishing in real-time.
All the performers are tremendous, including Edward Juvier as Osgood Fielding III, the multimillionaire who falls in love with Jerry/Daphne. His character is much more fleshed out than his cinematic predecessor.
“The Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin book with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman is a thrill for all the senses. Scott Pask’s scene design and Natasha Katz’s lighting package create a beautiful world for the cast to inhabit. Gregg Barnes has put together a magnificent array of costumes… Broadway director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw does a wonderful job filling both roles… [He] works every ounce he can from the 25-member cast.”
Since it was a Thursday matinee, we watched a talkback session. Devon Goffman, who played the mobster Spats, and two dancers responded to questions.
The tour dates for Some Like It Hot run through at least August 2025. You should see it if it comes to your town.
The restaurant life
My wife saw the play Seared at Capital Rep in Albany on Saturday, October 5, the penultimate day of the run. The Rep’s page notes:
“Brilliant, hot-headed chef Harry Caesar Samayoa] scores a mention in a food magazine with his signature dish, and his business partner Mike [Kyle Cameron] finally sees profits within reach. The only problem? Harry refuses to recreate his masterpiece for the masses. Mix in a shrewd restaurant consultant [Rin Allen as Emily] and a waiter with dreams of his own, and it all goes to hell in this hilarious and insightful new play that asks us to consider where art ends and commerce begins.”
That’s pretty accurate. What you DON’T tend to get is this:
ALLERGY NOTICE: Seafood is cooked on stage during “Seared.” NO SHELLFISH. The following foods are also used in “Seared”—
asparagus, bacon, broccoli and broccolini, butter, cabbage, fennel, garlic, gnocchi, lemon, lettuce, mushrooms, oil, onions, pasta, pesto, salmon, some spices (cumin, paprika, mustard seeds, cinnamon, salt), spinach and white fish.
There was actual cooking onstage, and it smelled delicious! Seriously.
As for the play itself, Theresa Rebeck’s mostly comedy was off-Broadway five years ago. I liked the play more than the Berkshire Eagle and WAMC reviewers did. I’ve seen Harry’s ego in artists and other creatives. But it may have been overly long and a tad too shrill.
Still, the Times Union’s dining critic, Susie Powell Davidson, said the food side was correct. : “‘Seared’ taps into sizzles and scent, visuals in precise knife cuts and blaring music to convey escalating tension. This in contrast to the calm collegiality of coffee and doughnuts shared during prep and the cost-of-living issues discussed, from the high price of a Brooklyn doughnut ($3.50 for one) to the post-pandemic topic of equitably split tips.”
The linchpin of the production is the character of Rodney, the waiter (Jovan Davis, who was great in Sweat in March 2024).
Here are the non-crossover #1s, the hits for 1994 in adult contemporary and rhythm and blues.
A couple of weeks ago, the knee faileth, the left one, and I think I know why. On Thursday, I took an Amtrak train from Albany/Rensselaer to Rhinecliff, about 45 minutes south, down the Hudson River.
Before the New York State 
On Thursday, September 19, my wife and I went to Proctors Theatre to see the national touring company production of Some Like It Hot. A couple of seasons ago, it was a smash on Broadway.