Ballet

At work, our favorite radio station is 104.1 - "Voodoo 104.1 ... New Orleans". Because of the station, I'm able to kick ass in the Current Pop Music category in the Song Pop games I play with my friends.

One of the songs in current rotation on the station is The Script's song Hall of Fame. Here are the lyrics. The video is below the lyrics.

 Yeah, you can be the greatest
You can be the best
You can be the King Kong banging on your chest

You could beat the world
You could beat the war
You could talk to God, go banging on his door

You can throw your hands up
You can beat the clock (yeah)
You can move a mountain
You can break rocks
You can be a master
Don't wait for luck
Dedicate yourself and you gon' find yourself

Standing in the hall of fame (yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah)
'Cause you burn with the brightest flame (yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah)
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

You can go the distance
You can run the mile
You can walk straight through hell with a smile

You could be the hero
You could get the gold
Breaking all the records they thought never could be broke

Yeah, do it for your people
Do it for your pride
How you ever gonna know if you never even try?

Do it for your country
Do it for your name
'Cause there's gonna be a day...

When you're standing in the hall of fame (yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah)
'Cause you burn with the brightest flame (yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah)
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

Be a champion, be a champion, be a champion, be a champion
On the walls of the hall of fame

Be students
Be teachers
Be politicians
Be preachers
(Yeah)

Be believers
Be leaders
Be astronauts
Be champions
Be truth seekers

Be students
Be teachers
Be politicians
Be preachers

Be believers
Be leaders
Be astronauts
Be champions

Standing in the hall of fame (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah, yeah, yeah)
'Cause you burn with the brightest flame (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And the world's gonna know your name (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

(You can be a champion)
You could be the greatest
(You can be a champion)
You can be the best
(You can be a champion)
You can be the King Kong banging on your chest

(You can be a champion)
You could beat the world
(You can be a champion)
You could beat the war
(You can be a champion)
You could talk to God, go banging on his door

(You can be a champion)
You can throw your hands up
(You can be a champion)
You can beat the clock(yeah)
(You can be a champion)
You can move a mountain
(You can be a champion)
You can break rocks

(You can be a champion)
You can be a master
(You can be a champion)
Don't wait for luck
(You can be a champion)
Dedicate yourself and you gonna find yourself
(You can be a champion)

Standing in the hall of fame

And here's the video...



I'm going through some trying times at work right now and am looking for any kind of inspiration to help me work through this time. One of my philosophies in life is: when I'm not sure how to proceed, throw enough darts at the dartboard and some of them will stick. That is, try enough methods to work myself out of a situation and some of them will work.

Here is where I want to link to the tag of the past times I've discussed some of my other life philosophies, but I see that I have not previously created that link. In the future, I will come back to this post and rectify that. I'll leave this tag for now.

The Script's lyrics and especially the video reminded me of a 1982 Rush song called Losing It. Both songs involve ballerinas - and making a live change. In the Rush song, the ballerina is defeated. In the Script's song, she is not.

The lyrics to Rush's Losing It (with the video following)...

The dancer slows her frantic pace
In pain and desperation
Her aching limbs and downcast face
Aglow with perspiration

Stiff as wire, her lungs on fire
With just the briefest pause
The flooding through her memory
The echoes of old applause

She limps across the floor
And closes her bedroom door...

The writer stare with glassy eyes
Defies the empty page
His beard is white, his face is lined

And streaked with tears of rage

Thirty years ago, how the words would flow
With passion and precision
But now his mind is dark and dulled
By sickness and indecision

And he stares out the kitchen door
Where the sun will rise no more...

Some are born to move the world
To live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about
The things we'd like to be
Sadder still to watch it die
Than never to have known it
For you, the blind who once could see
The bell tolls for thee... 

And the most representative video...



My point is that adversity is universal. By zeroing in on one example - the life of a ballet dancer shown in two different songs - we see that there is potential for different outcomes.

We make the decisions. We make the choices. We rule our life.

I read Marc and Angel Hack Life regularly. Their post entitled 5 False Beliefs That Are Holding You Back works with my theme, especially their retort #3 (I am stuck in my current life situation.) and #4 (It's too late to start anything.)

Bruno Mars

Bruno Mars is one of those artists who - like Katy Perry or Pink (who I'll discuss one day soon) - are on the charts today that you wouldn't normally think I'd like. But I do.

I especially like his latest single Locked Out of Heaven:




It reminds me a lot of early Police songs, around their Outlandos d'Amour and to a lesser extent Reggatta de Blanc phase. As I did with the song Strawberry Letter 23, before I worked up a whole compare and contrast post, I Googled to see if someone else had already done the work. Sure enough, someone had!

First,  here are the three Police songs that I think Bruno Mars took inspiration from.

#1 - Can't Stand Losing You (from Outlandos d'Amour):




#2 - Roxanne (from Outlandos d'Amour):




#3 - Message in a Bottle - especially the chorus (from Reggatta de Blanc):




Here is the mash up of Bruno Mars's Locked Out of Heaven with The Police's Can't Stand Losing You - Can't Stand Locked Out of Heaven:




Here's an article entitled "Does Bruno Mars Think 'Heaven' Sounds Like A Police Song? 'Hell Yeah!''

Full article here.


Finally, here is the cast of Glee performing the song on their January 24, 2013 episode:

Boy Bands

So I was driving down Airline Drive on my way home from work today, blasting this song...

One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful

...when I came to a stop light. The passenger in the large red truck on my left side gave me a strange look. I rocked on.

That got me thinking...

One of my hobbies is trading shirtless photos of celebrities. I guess it's the modern day, gay version of baseball cards.

I run three fairly successful Yahoo groups - 

Male Stars Shirtless

Male Stars Undressed

Male Stars Update

I also frequent and contribute to a message board called Famous Males Forum. Because it's based in the UK, I find out about many stars that never cross over to here in the US.

Even though I have over 100 shirtless photos of, for example, Lee Ryan...

until last week I had never heard a note of his band Blue. That is, until I started compiling my list of...

Top Ten Boy Band Songs of All Time

Or at least that was the original idea of this post. I quickly realized that I liked looking at the members of the boy bands much more than actually listening to their music. Even with 89 listed American Boy Bands -- and 58 listed English Boy Bands - plus the 50+ ones from the rest of the world, this is the best list I could assemble.

Once I assemble a Top Ten Boy Band Members for my other blog, I'll post a link here.

Starting off our countdown is One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful at #7. You saw that video above.

Here's how to correctly remake a song - with style, humor, and a wink to the original version...

#6 - Westlife - Uptown Girl

Bonus points for the best looking member being the one who came out (and the fan base didn't care)...

Here is Billy Joel's original version...

Billy Joel - Uptown Girl

The aforementioned boy band Blue has done both a classy remake...

#5 - Blue featuring Elton John - Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

...and a fumbled attempt...

Blue (featuring Kool & the Gang and Lil' Kim) - Get Down On It

Here is Kool & The Gang's original version...

Kool & The Gang - Get Down On It

Of the Disney-Channel-spawned band The Jonas Brothers, this is their best song (though they actually do have some other good ones)...

#4 - The Jonas Brothers - Year 3000

The youngest brother Nick is especially talented. I've heard his solo album - and it's quite good.

Going back to 1996, I still sneak this song onto mixed CD's that I create...

#3 - Hanson - MMMBop

Zac Hanson, the 10-year-old drummer in the video, is now 27 years old, and married with two kids. Taylor Hanson, the lead singer, is now 29, married with five kids. Don't you feel old now?

Interestingly, my top two songs both have the same title..

#2 - The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back

The top of my chart of Top Ten Seven Boy Band Songs of All Time was always going to be this one...

#1 - NSYNC - I Want You Back

What are your favorite boy band songs?

Happy Thanksgiving

Back in 2010, I wrote about one aspect of my days as a college radio DJ. Here's another story.

Thanksgiving coming up later this week reminded me of a set of radio shows I did back in college: Back then, I had a Monday noon until 3 pm solo radio show and another one with a partner Tuesday from 9 pm until 1 am.

Each year, right before our break for Thanksgiving, during my Monday show, I would ask my listeners to call me with ideas for music that got them in the mood for the holiday. I would then find the songs in our music library or in my personal collections, and play four hours of Songs About Food during our Tuesday night show.

FOUR HOURS! It was quite a challenge!

The lists of songs that we played during those shows are long gone, but I do remember one favorite...



Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Here is the NPR story that reminded me of my story.