Tag: music

#1 Alternative Rock Hits for 1996

**** Surfers

These are the Alternative Rock Hits for 1996 that reached #1. This is the second of three Rock Charts; this one started in September 1988. The distinctions are fuzzy to me.

Swallowed – Bush, seven weeks at  #1; also #2 on the mainstream rock charts (M) for two weeks, and #27 as an album cut on the pop charts

Standing Outside A Phone Booth with Money in My Hand – Primitive Radio Gods, six weeks at #1. Also, #32 M, and #10 as an album cut on the pop charts.  I was largely unfamiliar with it. I love the sample from the 1964 B.B. King song “How Blue Can You Get

Champagne Supernova – Oasis, five weeks at #1. Also, #8 M, and #20 as an album cut on the pop charts. My working theory is that a number of folks own one Oasis album, and that it’s  (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? It is true of me.

Salvation – The Cranberries, four weeks at #1. Also #25 M and #21 as an album cut on the pop charts. Some folks thought the song was too preachy. I own the first three Cranberries albums. This song is from the third one, To the Faithful Departed.

Ironic – Alanis Morissette, three weeks at #1. Also #18 M and #4 pop.

Mother Mother – Tracy Bonham, three weeks at #1. Also #18 M and #32 as an album cut on the pop charts.

Pepper – Butthole Surfers, three weeks at #1. Also #19 M, and #26 as an album cut on the pop charts. The group has existed since 1981?  I continue to be mildly amused that, when I read aloud the word Butthole, my Microsoft Surface Laptop changes it to ****

What I Got – Sublime, three weeks at #1. Also #11 M and #29 as an album cut on the pop charts. 

The rest are #1 for one week

1979 – Smashing Pumpkins. Also #1 for two weeks M, and #12 pop.

Counting Blue Cars – Dishwalla. Also #2 M for four weeks and #15 pop. 

Who You Are– Pearl Jam. Also #5 M and #31 pop.

Doing it twice or more

Sometimes you feel like you have to do it twice or more

ITEM: Last Tuesday evening, my wife, daughter, and I went to a Moth-type event at Cindy B’s. It is a new cafe on the former campus of the College of  St. Rose. We had a nice time.

A few days later, my wife said we should go back for breakfast on Friday morning, and I agreed. But a bit later, she said she couldn’t because she had to pick up some shoes for her mother at the podiatrist’s office. I felt a bit melancholy that we weren’t going on a date. We don’t do that that often enough.

But a little while later, she said she couldn’t figure out which of the doctor’s offices she was supposed to pick up the shoes from. Apparently, the doctor’s office couldn’t give her the info either, so she canceled that, and we rescheduled our date.

We had a nice sandwich. As we walked back home, I noticed it was kind of chilly.  A couple hours later, one of the organizers of the Moth talk, who I had known for years, said Cindy B. texted her to ask whether I had left my coat; sure enough, it was me.

Later on that day, I had to go back and get the coat.

ITEM: I had an oral surgery in mid-October, and then on Thursday the 29th, I went back to the surgeon’s office. They looked at the fixture, and it seemed fine.

When I went out to lunch with my wife on Sunday afternoon, the piece came out. I’ll have to go back there. Oy. Oh, and though it wasn’t immediate, the pain turned out to be quite exhausting. 

It’s a gas, gas, gas

ITEM: Our First Presbyterian church choir was starting our regular Thursday night rehearsal on October 29. The choir director wasn’t there because he was working on casting a musical for next semester at the University of Albany. So the organist was going to run the rehearsal, which had happened before.

When we entered the church, we heard a beeping noise, but it wasn’t loud or annoying, and one couldn’t hear it in the sanctuary. We completed our warm-ups and then were going to go to the music for Sunday. About 7:15 p.m., a couple of people from the fire department came in and said we had to evacuate the building. After a time, the building was deemed likely safe, but the FD was waiting for the power company, National Grid, to give the all-clear.

A couple of us had a nice chat in the church parking lot with a neighbor who wondered what was going on; we really didn’t know. We encouraged one of the neighbors who had been curious about the goings-on to attend the First Friday events this week and in December, the latter, the Benjamin Britten Ceremony of Carols. At this point, about 7:45, the organist decided (correctly) that we would cancel rehearsal.

Change music

On Saturday, the choir director explained that the CO2 issue on Thursday was due to an external piece of equipment being used by the folks working on the building (see Updates). We’re in the midst of some renovation. Everything was checked thoroughly on Friday and is back to normal for Sunday. The choir director swapped out the most difficult piece for a simpler one; we got a music track to listen to and a copy of the music.

But on Sunday, the cello accompanist brought their instrument. So we went back to plan A. It seemed to have worked well enough.

Songs:

Do It Again – Steely Dan

Do It Again – The Beach Boys

September rambling: ‘Subsidizing Suicide’

Rebecca Jade in London


CDC Issues Emergency Response for Florida Dengue Outbreak.

Ahead of Biodiversity Summit, UN Chief Warns Countries Are ‘Subsidizing Suicide’ by Backing Fossil Fuels. “I urge governments everywhere to end these handouts once and for all, and to use the savings for people and planet instead,” said António Guterres.

Voters in Oil-Rich Alberta Strongly Reject Leaving Canada.

In Virginia, Racism and Redlining Are Fueling a Flock Camera Backlash.

Expedia amazoned hotel rooms. 

Smart Answers to Stupid Comments About Slavery – Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie.
Dolores Huerta, Labor Leader and Force for Civil Rights, Has Died. She co- founded the United Farm Workers.

Tom Skerritt has died at age 93. I watched him in many movies and TV shows, but my favorite was his run on Picket Fences.

Walter Koenig, Chekov From ‘Star Trek,’ Has Died. As the Russian navigator of the U.S.S. Enterprise, he was a mainstay of the original television series and seven films. He was 90.

Christiane Amanpour Says She Is Leaving CNN After 43 Years.

The Dominican Baseball Factory – A teenage prospect’s family was promised $1.8 million, and most of it was gone within a few years thanks to the moneylenders who circle young players.

A Final Scream at the End of the Movie. Not quite an end credits scene, but worth the wait. 

Churn and Burn

140 Horror Scripts to Download and Study – Share.

What does it mean when someone says, “Roger that”? Incidentally, as of this writing, ROGER is still available for Wordle. 

LOWER AND LOWER

‘I don’t ramble,’ as he sinks to new levels of delusion.

Ohio’s Republican Governor Calls on Vivek Ramaswamy to Take Down Attack Ad. It features the estranged mother of Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, and has drawn widespread criticism, though FOTUS strongly defended it.
Could House Republicans refuse to seat Democrats? FOTUS might try
FOTUS Signs Order Exempting Russia From Sanctionss Law. The sanctions were part of a measure that was named after Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died in July.
“I’d Like to Report a Theft”: Bernie Mocks FOTUS’s  Anti-Fraud Tipline. “A man inside our government illegally spent nearly $22 million in taxpayer dollars on bogus campaign ads praising himself. He now resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

902 pregnancy-related prosecutions in three years after Dobbs. Pregnancy Justice found that most cases involved child neglect or endangerment charges

FEMA tells states to handle disasters on their own

Women are disappearing from top roles in the regime

CMS rescinds nursing home voting guidance

Musk chose to restrict Ukraine’s access to SpaceX satellite network
Most of Ken Paxton’s Money Can Be Traced to Elon Musk. The world’s richest person, who has become the biggest known midterm donor, gave $158 million to a group that quickly spent that much to help Mr. Paxton’s Senate bid in Texas.
MUSIC

The Smooth Jazz Show on The Soul Of London Radio– Thursday 15th October 2026. The “Album Of The Week” is the latest from vocalist Rebecca Jade. Released in 2022 and entitled “A Shade Of Jade”, Paul Russell features several tracks from the Album on the show. The interview came ahead of her LIVE performance at The Indigo @ The O2 on Friday, 16th October.

The RFK Jr. Lament – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Symphony No.10 in F minor “In Autumn” by Joachim Raff

Coverville 1597: The Chuck Berry 100th Birthday Cover Story and 1598: The Hall & Oates Cover Story IV

Favorite Songs by Favorite Artists (Series Four) #12: The Smiths and  #13: Moxy Früvous 

expectations – Olivia Rodrigo (feat. Chappell Roan); video appearance by David Byrne

Bette Davis Eyes – Kim Carnes

Show Me– Pretenders

Ingrid Bergman – Billy Bragg and Wilco

It Never Entered My Mind – Dawn Upshaw

Cinnamon Girl – Los Lobos

Nicole Kidman – ADÉLA

Burning House – Cam 

When I Think Of You – Janet Jackson

From Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot – the title song and If Ever I Would Leave You

Fiddler: A Miracle Of Miracles | Documentary, which I saw at the Spectrum Theatre in 2019; recommended. 

K-Chuck Radio: When it was more than tainted love

How Bernie Taupin and Elton John Became The Greatest Songwriting Duo – Rick Beato interviews Taupin

Nine albums

11 songs or 14?


I decided to do the Nine Albums thing that I saw on Facebook. You can do this for yourself by going to my9albums.com.

In fact, I could have picked 99 albums, but that wasn’t the assignment. I considered Blue by Miles Davis, Led Zeppelin’s first album, Who’s Next, Carole King’s Tapestry, Sweet Baby James by JT, The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland, and Aja by Steely Dan.

I know most people just show the covers without comment. Maybe I’m just contrarian, but if I’m going to put thought into the selections, I need to explain myself.

Revolver: It had to be a chronologically middle Beatles album. Revolver won because the American album was good with 11 songs, but the UK version with those three Lennon songs is great. (They had been excised to prop up the US-only Yesterday and Today.) I was particularly fond of the last two songs back to back, played as loudly as possible when my parents weren’t home: Got To Get You Into My Life and Tomorrow Never Knows; For No One.

The Band: I heard the second album first. In my high school yearbook, alongside our high school band, was a pic of the four Canadians and the American because one of my best friends was the editor of said document. Up On Cripple Creek; Look Out Cleveland; King Harvest (Has Surely Come)

Saw Live!

Speaking In Tongues. I bought the Talking Heads’ album shortly before I saw the band at SPAC during the transformative Stop Making Sense tour. (I’ve since seen Lynn Mabry, who was backup singer for TH, sing backup for Sheila E,. along side of my niece Rebecca Jade.)  I may have had one other TH album, but I filled in the gaps after that. I also have a few David Byrne solo albums. Burning Down The House; Making Flippy Floppy; This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody), which recalls a specific trip to Cooperstown in the 1990s.

Talking Book: It’s not my favorite Stevie album, but it is the beginning of an incredible run that culminated in Songs In The Key of Life. This is when Berry Gordy, out of necessity, started loosening the reins on some of Motown’s top artists. You Are the Sunshine of My Life; Superstition;  I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)

Still Crazy After All These Years: This Paul Simon collection became my college relationship breakup album, not just when it came out in 1975, but afterward. The title song represents 1981, when the ex and I saw Joni Mitchell in Philadelphia, a much better experience than seeing Joni in 1974 at SPAC, which was the beginning of our breakup. My Little Town is me retreating to Binghamton after that. I Do It for Our Love, specifically “the orange bled the blue,” is our first dreadful apartment. And it goes on from there.

Formerly of Genesis

(Melt): Peter Gabriel’s third album might be my island album. I got it in German for Christmas in 1980, in a cleverly packaged group of six albums that felt like an empty box.  I Don’t Remember – oh, I remember a lot. Biko, which was the first time I really knew who the murdered South African activist was.  Games Without Frontiers does NOT have the lyrics, “She’s so funky, yeah.”

Court and Spark. This Joni Mitchell album came out in 1974, which I’ve already alluded to. After that, I bought a lot of earlier Joni, including my favorite, Blue. Help Me reminds me of a 1975 rebound relationship that did not last. The Same Situation; Raised on Robbery.

We Shall Overcome: this live Pete Seeger album, recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1963, was actually my father’s album, but I played it a lot. It helped inform my social activism.  I’ve seen Pete perform over two dozen times and met him once. Much later, I bought the CD, and I discovered the LP was about half the length. Keep Your Eyes on the Prize; Who Killed Norma Jean?; Tshotsholosa

Pet Sounds: I got this Beach Boys album from the Capitol Record Club because I didn’t opt out. I knew the band, of course, from the radio, songs full of references to surfing and cars; I didn’t relate. But I GOT this album. Interestingly, in the 1970s, I bought a retrospective Beach Boys album and decided I liked it. Now I have a 5-CD set of the band that I gave to a friend of mine, Donna, but got back after she died. Wouldn’t It Be Nice; Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder); God Only Knows.

Sept. rambling: end of the American age?

Songs In The Key Of Life: The EP

AI Giants Probe ‘Tens of Thousands’ of Security Incidents—Some Involving Government Sites

At the End of the American Age

Jon Stewart: The City Began Covering Their A**es Three Weeks After 9/11

The Nerd Reich

Amazon drones are overwhelming a Texas suburb

UnitedHealthcare & UnitedHealth Group, and Brazil Elections 2026: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver;  John Oliver is a Lawsuit Gremlin, and LegalEagle loves it

The High Crime of ‘LMAO’: Cops Are Treating Flock Mass Surveillance Like a Joke

The great American road trip is in peril

Nik Durga: In defense of Mississippi, the place where I became a writer, which has a poignant mention of Emmett Till

They Kept Outsiders Away for 500 Years. Their World Is About to Change.

Meet the First Brand-New Cat Species Identified in More Than a Century

Peter Max, Trippy Artist of Counterculture Era and Beyond, Dies at 88

In Memoriam – 78th Emmy Awards

Taylor Swift joins Mariska Hargitay for a very special episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Bob Pettit, who was the N.B.A.’s first M.V.P., dies at 93

From MLB.com: Looking at the 2026 playoff teams, you might notice something: Three of them have never won a World Series. That’d be the Brewers, Rays, and Padres, who are three of the five teams that have never won it all. (To the other two, the Rockies and Mariners: There’s always next year.)

How One Trick Play Tells The History Of Football

Getting Rich and Going Broke, One Pack of Sports Cards at a Time

When First Comes in Third and Free Money’s Fine Print

Everything is better when you add Godzilla to it

Oy

U.S. rejects U.N. declaration on preparing for pandemics

A quiet ICE surge that unfolded “everywhere all at once” this summer

Supreme Court lets regime use flawed database for voter purges

EPA says repealing power plant emissions rules will save billions – but its estimate leaves out health and climate costs

Officials eject 750,000 people from Obamacare, claiming fraud

RFK Jr Assures Vaccine Skeptics That They Have a ‘Friend at the White House’

Kennedy Center delayed the repairs it now cites for its closure

FBI blindsided as hackers claim to steal data on ‘all employees’

Snipers and drones on his giant arch?

Who’s A ‘Communist’? Trump TV State News Channel

Unprecedented: Most Supreme Court Decisions Issued On ‘Shadow Docket’ 

Call for action on the Census 2030 plan

You may all have heard about a Federal Register Notice changing rules for the 2030 Census.

The proposed rules and a Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis can be found in the documents section of https://www.regulations.gov/document/USBC-2026-0628-0001

This is also where you can submit your comments and read others’ comments.

The biggest changes that might impact us all are:

  • Many residents are excluded from the count. The proposal only counts US citizens and Legal Permanent Residents
  • The proposal suggests that people should be counted where they spent most of the winter months
  • The proposal suggests not asking about race/ethnicity, but asks for comments on including a citizenship/legal status question

 Some of the potential impacts:

  • Funding inequities because of a mismatch between Census counts and numbers of people present
  • No census data on communities of color
  • Limited data for smaller communities (especially combined with the plans for a new disclosure avoidance system)
  • Lower quality population estimates and downstream impacts for survey controls, funding distributions, denominators for all kinds of rates, etc.
  • Loss of seats in the House of Representatives

A group of expert stakeholders created a website: Hands Off Our Census

There you can read all about the proposal, how you can comment, and many other resources.

MUSIC

Songs In The Key Of Life: The EP – Stevie Wonder

Dummy with a Wig on Top – Randy Rainbow

In An Autumn Garden by Toru Takemitsu 

The 1999 London West End production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! starring Hugh Jackman

The musical Annie in Korean

Come From Away: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert (2019)

You’ll Be Back from Hamilton –  Lemon Squeezy

Coverville 1594: The Chrissie Hynde/Pretenders Cover Story IV and 1595: Tributes for Duncan Sheik, Tim Curry, and Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory

Typewriter – Brandenburger Symphoniker

Rocket “88” – Jackie Brenston, sometimes cited as the ‘first’ rock ‘n roll record, from 1951, 75 years ago

Birdland – Quarantine Big Band Helsinki 

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Four) #9: The Pogues 

Autumn Leaves – Nat King Cole

Peter Sprague Plays Good Vibrations featuring Leonard Patton

A Town With An Ocean View by Joe Hisaishi, a cue from Kiki’s Delivery Service

Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana, in honor of the 35th anniversary of the album Nevermind; also Smells Like Nirvana – Weird Al Yankovic

Footloose (dancing in the movies)

Songs Mark Evanier’s mom sang to him

Take My Breath Away – Berlin

K-Chuck Radio: What happened to Timothy?

Stuck With You – Huey Lewis and the News 

Rick Beato Finally Defeated Every Copyright Claim on His Channel (ft. LegalEagle

The Beatles UK vs. US Albums: The Compleat Chart