My Music Monday: Hootie & The Blowfish
Welcome to My Music Mondays. I haven’t done one of these in a while but the basic premise is that each week I will be delving into my music collection and looking at a new artist going somewhat randomly currently but eventually from A to Z. I’ll examine why I first started listening to them, my favorite album and my top 10 songs for the artist. As my music collection is pretty extensive and I have a lot of one offs, I have set a qualification to be featured here. That is that I have to have at least two albums of the artist’s music before they can be considered. This week I look at Hootie & The Blowfish.
It may come as a big surprise to those of you who have come to know my music tastes as 70s / 80s / 90s hard rock but one of my favorite bands is the Charleston based Hootie & The Blowfish. Like many people in 1994 I was swept up by Hootie & The Blowfish’s smash hit debut “Cracked Rear View”. By the time their sophomore album “Fairweather Johnson” was released many fans had moved onto other bands and by 1998s “Music Chairs” was released Hootie fans were few and far between. However Hootie continued to tour and release new music over the last ten years for those that stuck with them.
In mid 2008 the band took a break while lead singer / songwriter Darius Rucker embarked on a country career but everyone has promised that Hootie is not dead and will get back together in a few years to produce some new music and bring their music out on the road. Having seen them twice live, I can’t wait until they get back on the road.
Favorite Album: Cracked Rear View
Cracked Rear View is still one of the best debut albums ever produced. It is one of the few albums that I will listen to from top to bottom on a regular basis and holds three of my all time favorite songs, including one song whose video featured my favorite NFL player ever, Dan Marino.
10 Favorite Songs
10. Old Man & Me
9. I Will Wait
8. Innocence
7. Time
6. Space
5. Get Out of My Mind
4. One Love
3. Hold My Hand
2. Let Her Cry
1. Only Wanna Be With You
5×01: 2009 Summer Recap
Brady, Chris, Jay, and Nick sit down and talk about this year’s summer movie season. How did it turn out, did it meet expectations? That’s the first half hour. The second half hour trails into
I’m really happy for you—Imma let you finish—but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. Wonnada best videos a’all time!
anthropomorphic fighting panda bears to the definitive Joker to William Shatner, Firefly, Jon Bongiovi, October road trips and the Renaissance Faire, and then ends with Nicholas Cage, and Kevin Smith.
My Music Monday: The Outfield
Welcome to My Music Mondays. I haven’t done one of these in a while but the basic premise is that each week I will be delving into my music collection and looking at a new artist going somewhat randomly currently but eventually from A to Z. I’ll examine why I first started listening to them, my favorite album and my top 10 songs for the artist. As my music collection is pretty extensive and I have a lot of one offs, I have set a qualification to be featured here. That is that I have to have at least two albums of the artist’s music before they can be considered. This week I look at The Outfield.
A week ago, because of The Beatles: Rock Band, I was on a big Beatles kick. Sticking with the British themed pop/rock groups I unnaturally morphed into an Outfield kick. I can’t really explain it but at least it explains this post in some way.
While I am sure that I first heard The Outfield in the 1980s, most likely from their biggest hit “Your Love”, I don’t particularly remember buying anything by them until roughly 1993. In 1993, the Philadelphia Phillies made it to the World Series and a local news station used The Outfield’s song “Winning It All” as part of a highlight montage and shortly thereafter I bought their album Rockeye and have been a fan ever since.
Favorite Album: Rockeye
The album doesn’t contain my favorite song by them but it does contain the most I like by them and it is responsible for me owning their work outside of 80s compilation discs.
10 Favorite Songs
10. Give It All You Got
9. Tonight You’re Mine
8. Every Time You Cry
7. Say It Isn’t So
6. Take Me Home
5. Young Love
4. My Paradise
3. Closer to Me
2. Winning It All
1. Your Love
Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day
In honor of everyone’s favorite fake holiday that you use as an excuse to talk like a complete jackass to your friends, family and total strangers I beseech you to take a gander at the below video so as to know how to actually get the most out of today.
A big thanks to the Grahaminator on Twitter for pointing me in the direction of that one.
Now that you are completely prepared to talk like a pirate for the rest of the day, Telltale games is offering the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island for free for the remainder of the day, so hit it up or if you aren’t sure about it check out the Hooked Gamers review (not written by me though).
My Music Monday: The Beatles
Welcome to My Music Mondays. I haven’t done one of these in a while but the basic premise is that each week I will be delving into my music collection and looking at a new artist going somewhat randomly currently but eventually from A to Z. I’ll examine why I first started listening to them, my favorite album and my top 10 songs for the artist. As my music collection is pretty extensive and I have a lot of one offs, I have set a qualification to be featured here. That is that I have to have at least two albums of the artist’s music before they can be considered. This week I look at The Beatles.
I’m not going to beat around the bush here. I am not a Beatles fan (or at least I wasn’t but that is a story for another post), regardless despite admiring their contributions to the music industry, I’ve never really been big into them but due to my review of The Beatles: Rock Band for Hooked Gamers (which should go live in the next couple days), I’ve been thinking about the band a whole lot and ultimately decided I should at least share my 10 favorite Beatles songs with everyone.
10 Favorite Songs
10. Something
9. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
8. Can’t Buy Me Love
7. The Ballad of John and Yoko
6. Hey Jude
5. Back in the U.S.S.R.
4. Come Together
3. I Saw He Standing There
2. Here Comes the Sun
1. Let it Be
The Wonderful World of Stalin, Poop and Asian Sex Parks
Have you ever wanted to go to a theme park based named after and based on one of communism’s most notorious leaders? How about a theme park based on animal poop? Or maybe you are more inclined to take the one you loved to an South Korean theme park that revolves around sexual sculptures including ones called the nipple mountain and the penis fountain? If so Concierge.com has the hook-up for you with its look at The World’s Wackiest Theme Parks. For some reason Coney Island and South of the Border make their list but mostly its filled with some vacation destinations for the entire family.
4×07: Trending Topics and Guitar Heroes
Chris, Brady, and Jay get together for over 30 minutes of complete and utter randomness! Or so it appears from the beginning. Also, Nicholas pops in requiring you to buy something.
Topics covered this week:
- Bob Barker and Trending Topics
- Extract
- Gamer
- Jennifer’s Body in Jennifer’s Body
- Guitar Hero 5 andBeatles Rock Band
Netflix Review: Dead Silence [2007]
In the wake of his young bride’s mysterious death, grieving newlywed Jamie Ashen (Ryan Kwanten) is forced to return to his haunted hometown, where he butts heads with the ghost of a creepy ventriloquist who was infamously murdered years ago. Amber Valletta and Donnie Wahlberg co-star in this chilling horror offering from James Wan and Leigh Whannell, the same team that created the Saw trilogy.
“From the writers and director of Saw” begins the trailer (also, look closely at the DVD cover). Because apparently that’s the only way to get people to watch it, right? I mean, the main doll is named Billy, after the Jigsaw Killer’s tricycle-rider, and he appears in a cameo in the film’s third act. These two are signs of a classic.
Ryan Kwanten (True Blood’s Jason Stackhouse) stars in this thriller of a tale about a haunted dummy. It’s light on backstory and heavy on creepiness, as it plays with deviously creepy things in the fist place. Dolls. Ventriloquist dolls.
If you aren’t afraid of ventriloquist dolls, then this movie is just run-of-the-mill terror. Scares where they belong, a couple of weird characters, an estranged father, and of course, the scary old lady who is so good at her job that she can talk at the same time as the dummies.
Haha
Trying to figure out a neat new design for About 12 Minutes, keeping the same colour scheme, but not actually using the SplonView theme that we currently use. It’s much less colourful now, and is very bare. Honestly, I hope it turns out well, but knowing me, it will simply be one of those projects that gets done and then tossed aside. I think maybe one day the site will look completely different to you, only to revert back to its current way within a day.
