Going top 40
It was terribly difficult to wake up and contemplate taking on Runyon Canyon, but I did it, and I was so glad that I did. Unlike other "first days" of boot camp, we didn't go up to the top of "Big Mama," the notoriously steep highest peak of the entire park. Instead, we did the stairs on the east side, which while not the easiest route is one that I'm so used to that it doesn't bother me too much. I was discouraged by how difficult it was for me, having done boot camp so many times before here I was thinking it would get easier. But Robin does always say, no matter how many times you do Runyon, it never gets easy.
After that I had to hurry up and get to work because I had a 9am appointment with a guy who is working with property owners on LaBrea who are interested in starting up a BID. He was a nice guy and he had quite a few questions for me about the Media District and how we had been able to do what we've done, how we got started, and what our biggest issues are.
Brad turned me on to this awesome Blog, Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the 80's, where the author (Dave Steed) is a collector of records who has managed to obtain every Billboard Hot 100 charting single of the entire 1980's. In this blog, he lists all the singles that reached the chart but never cracked the top 40 (so, anything that peaked between #41 and #100). It goes in alphabetical order from A to Z by artist name, and he comments on each one; sometimes just a brief snip or explanation of who the artist was, sometimes a detailed personal account which the song is part of or reminds him of, or a more in-depth biography of the artist. It's completely fascinating, to someone like me who is a lover of 80's pop music. I was never too into the Billboard charts (I remember my mom and I had a laugh when the manager of a record store in Hays, KS showed us the Billboard Charts and said it was his "bible") but like any music fan coming of age in the 80's, I often perused them to see how my favorite artists were doing and what were considered the "most popular" songs. When I was in grade school and first started listening to the radio, I would listen to the top 40 countdown often because then I really would know what was going to be popular before my classmates would know (apparently not many of them listened to the top 40, especially not the lower echelons which is what I liked most). Also, on Friday nights our High School had football or basketball games which were often out of town, and on the way home from those there was often a countdown on the radio.
After work, I had to go to a C-PAB Meeting which is the Community Police Advisory Board. As Operations Manager for the BID, I am on this Board which usually meets the last Tuesday of the month and serves as a conduit between the community and LAPD. It's a great meeting but this time it ran a little long and people started leaving before it was over. Finally, they decided to carry over the presentation about iWatch, a neighborhood terrorism watch program for the entire city, for the next meeting.
I was driving to the grocery store and I noticed a car with the license plate 5URIAH5 in front of me. I swore that I had seen another car earlier in the day that also had URIAH in the tag, but maybe it was the same one. I remember because the first time I saw the tag I thought of the band Uriah Heep, which I don't know at all other than seeing their name in record stores or catalogs. It had reminded me about that blog I've been reading, Bottom Feeders, and how there are just so many bands that have made their own little marks in the world but that I have never and will never probably hear their music.
I stopped at the grocery store to get dinner for Dylan; they had an entire roasted turkey breast already cooked and warm for $8.99 that looked delicious, so I got that and some salad. I also made some white beans with rosemary (my latest cooking friend) and garlic.
Dylan ended up going out to Mr. Black with Marc and Robert (who was spinning as DJ Raw-Burt there that night) so I went to bed after watching some Golden Girls, with every intention of getting up for boot camp in the morning.
Hello 2010, goodbye junk!
NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 26
It seems that it's becoming my trend now to wait until the weekend to attend to this project, when I can actually dig deep and get rid of stuff that's been tucked away in the nooks and crannies of Dylan and I's apartment...
OK so in keeping with this 80's music theme, I am getting rid of a bunch of records and so I thought I would write about some of them, because writing about each one - while would make my mission easier - would maybe get boring. So I picked out a few with stories behind them.
First up is a 12" single of "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles. I was never a huge fan of this song but it was a huge part of the 80's, and I did love the Bangles. I had their cassette tape "Everything" and I knew "Eternal Flame" would be a hit before it was released as a single. I listened to that tape and played hours of Super Mario Bros. 2 on Brandon's nintendo in junior high. After I had lived in LA for awhile and Dylan and I moved to our current apartment in West Hollywood, I had gotten an electric piano which is full sized and looks, feels and sounds like a real piano for the most part. So I wanted to immerse myself in some more music projects and, after seeing an ad on Craiglist, teamed up with this really cool gay rocker guy, Michael Van London, for a Bangles tribute band. Unfortunately it was very short lived, as Michael and I only got together 2 or 3 times but it was fun while it lasted. Maybe we'll pick it back up again someday. However, I won't be needing this vinyl as I already have the album, and I really don't think anyone needs to hear "Walk Like An Egyptian" again.
After that I had to hurry up and get to work because I had a 9am appointment with a guy who is working with property owners on LaBrea who are interested in starting up a BID. He was a nice guy and he had quite a few questions for me about the Media District and how we had been able to do what we've done, how we got started, and what our biggest issues are.
Brad turned me on to this awesome Blog, Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the 80's, where the author (Dave Steed) is a collector of records who has managed to obtain every Billboard Hot 100 charting single of the entire 1980's. In this blog, he lists all the singles that reached the chart but never cracked the top 40 (so, anything that peaked between #41 and #100). It goes in alphabetical order from A to Z by artist name, and he comments on each one; sometimes just a brief snip or explanation of who the artist was, sometimes a detailed personal account which the song is part of or reminds him of, or a more in-depth biography of the artist. It's completely fascinating, to someone like me who is a lover of 80's pop music. I was never too into the Billboard charts (I remember my mom and I had a laugh when the manager of a record store in Hays, KS showed us the Billboard Charts and said it was his "bible") but like any music fan coming of age in the 80's, I often perused them to see how my favorite artists were doing and what were considered the "most popular" songs. When I was in grade school and first started listening to the radio, I would listen to the top 40 countdown often because then I really would know what was going to be popular before my classmates would know (apparently not many of them listened to the top 40, especially not the lower echelons which is what I liked most). Also, on Friday nights our High School had football or basketball games which were often out of town, and on the way home from those there was often a countdown on the radio.
After work, I had to go to a C-PAB Meeting which is the Community Police Advisory Board. As Operations Manager for the BID, I am on this Board which usually meets the last Tuesday of the month and serves as a conduit between the community and LAPD. It's a great meeting but this time it ran a little long and people started leaving before it was over. Finally, they decided to carry over the presentation about iWatch, a neighborhood terrorism watch program for the entire city, for the next meeting.
I was driving to the grocery store and I noticed a car with the license plate 5URIAH5 in front of me. I swore that I had seen another car earlier in the day that also had URIAH in the tag, but maybe it was the same one. I remember because the first time I saw the tag I thought of the band Uriah Heep, which I don't know at all other than seeing their name in record stores or catalogs. It had reminded me about that blog I've been reading, Bottom Feeders, and how there are just so many bands that have made their own little marks in the world but that I have never and will never probably hear their music.
I stopped at the grocery store to get dinner for Dylan; they had an entire roasted turkey breast already cooked and warm for $8.99 that looked delicious, so I got that and some salad. I also made some white beans with rosemary (my latest cooking friend) and garlic.
Dylan ended up going out to Mr. Black with Marc and Robert (who was spinning as DJ Raw-Burt there that night) so I went to bed after watching some Golden Girls, with every intention of getting up for boot camp in the morning.
Hello 2010, goodbye junk!
NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 26
It seems that it's becoming my trend now to wait until the weekend to attend to this project, when I can actually dig deep and get rid of stuff that's been tucked away in the nooks and crannies of Dylan and I's apartment...
OK so in keeping with this 80's music theme, I am getting rid of a bunch of records and so I thought I would write about some of them, because writing about each one - while would make my mission easier - would maybe get boring. So I picked out a few with stories behind them.
First up is a 12" single of "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles. I was never a huge fan of this song but it was a huge part of the 80's, and I did love the Bangles. I had their cassette tape "Everything" and I knew "Eternal Flame" would be a hit before it was released as a single. I listened to that tape and played hours of Super Mario Bros. 2 on Brandon's nintendo in junior high. After I had lived in LA for awhile and Dylan and I moved to our current apartment in West Hollywood, I had gotten an electric piano which is full sized and looks, feels and sounds like a real piano for the most part. So I wanted to immerse myself in some more music projects and, after seeing an ad on Craiglist, teamed up with this really cool gay rocker guy, Michael Van London, for a Bangles tribute band. Unfortunately it was very short lived, as Michael and I only got together 2 or 3 times but it was fun while it lasted. Maybe we'll pick it back up again someday. However, I won't be needing this vinyl as I already have the album, and I really don't think anyone needs to hear "Walk Like An Egyptian" again.
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