Musical Monday - Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: May 15, 1982 through June 26, 1982.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: May 15, 1982 through June 19, 1982.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: April 24, 1982 through May 8, 1982.

Take two giants of the music industry and add a song that uses the black and white keys of a piano as a metaphor for racial harmony, and you get a titanic international hit that reached the top of every chart that I am tracking for the 1980s Project and several other music charts as well. For about two to three months in early 1982, this song was nigh-ubiquitous on the airwaves, dominating pop culture for that time period.

There is no denying that the song was a huge commercial success. Ebony and Ivory spent more time at the top of the charts than any of McCartney's other post-Beatles songs, and longer than any of his songs other than Hey Jude. It was ranked as the fourth largest hit of 1982 overall. This song spent more time at the top of the charts than any other Stevie Wonder song, and provided Wonder with a number one hit in a third consecutive decade.

This is also a kind of sappy, treacly, almost offensively simplistic song, and the reactions to it after the initial rush of enthusiasm reflect that fact. The video for the song beat the viewers across the head and shoulders with the metaphor, having McCartney and Wonder walking around on a giant set of piano keys. Just in case the viewers didn't get the message, McCartney is dressed in black and Wonder is dressed in white. Once people stepped back for a second, they noticed what a blunt force object the song actually was.

Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo had a famous Saturday Night Live spoof of this song in which they made fun of the adolescent metaphor for racial coexistence. Other people poked fun at the saccharine nature of the song in subsequent years. As time has gone by, the song has more or less faded from the forefront of popular consciousness, which is somewhat unusual for a song that flew so high on the charts when it was released. I can't remember the last time someone was talking about "great music from the 1980s" and thought to include Ebony and Ivory on the list. The lasting cultural footprint of this song is almost negligible, and that is remarkable.

Previous Musical Monday: My Camera Never Lies by Bucks Fizz

Subsequent Musical Monday: Chariots of Fire by Vangelis

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Chariots of Fire by Vangelis

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Don't You Want Me by the Human League

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Chariots of Fire by Vangelis

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Don't You Want Me by the Human League

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: My Camera Never Lies by Bucks Fizz

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: A Little Peace by Nicole

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Paul McCartney     Stevie Wonder     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for December 22, 2019 through December 28, 2019

Last Week's Mileage Goal: Not set
Actual Miles Last Week: 11 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 1.5 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 246 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: Not set
Current Weigh-In: Not done

This week was an entirely lost week. Things started out well enough. On Sunday I ran 8 miles, then we traveled on Monday and part of Tuesday. When we arrived at my mother-in-law's house on Tuesday, I went out for a three mile run, just to get the kinks out. While I was running, a dog bit me. I spent Christmas Eve in the ER, getting a tetanus shot and having the bite wounds cleaned out with a saline syringe. The doctor prescribed me an antibiotic and sent me on my way.

As a result, I didn't run again for the rest of the week. The bite wounds are still weeping blood, pretty much a week later. I figure I won't be back on the roads putting in miles until I stop bleeding, which will probably coincide with the end of the antibiotic regimen and my return to Virginia. Basically, I'm taking an enforced two week layoff from running as a result of a dog named Faith.

I'm not setting a weekly goal for this week, because I'm not sure when I will start running again. I also didn't do a weigh in, just because it would be pointless. I'll figure out where I am next Sunday and reevaluate.

Previous Weekly Running Log: December 15, 2019 through December 21, 2019
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: December 29, 2019 through January 4, 2020

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop December 27th - January 2nd: The Gibson ES-335 Was the World's First Commercial Thinline Archtop Semi-Acoustic Electric Guitar

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: What bookish goodies did you get for the holidays?

None. I got almost no bookish goodies for the holidays. I was trying to rectify this situation, but my communications with the small press publisher I was trying to get a price quote from seem to have been derailed.

I did get a belated gift of a book, but it was a book I already owned, so I'll have to find a use for the duplicate now.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: "334" Is a Nebula-Nominated Novel by Thomas M. Disch

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: The Video "3:36" by Poppy Is, Ironically, Only 40 Seconds Long

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - My Camera Never Lies by Bucks Fizz

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: The week of April 17, 1982.

This is really a pretty terrible song. I never thought I could long for the days of listening to Making Your Mind Up or The Land of Make Believe, but the ABBA knock-off that is Bucks Fizz managed to accomplish this with this number one hit. I decided to include the U.K. chart in my review of the top hits of the 1980s because I remembered a lot of really good music from there that never really made it over to the U.S. I forgot that there was so much crappy pseudo-disco like this in the mix as well.

I guess the highlights of the decade wouldn't be highlights without the lowlights to serve as contrast. So this week is providing contrast.

Previous Musical Monday: That Girl by Stevie Wonder

Subsequent Musical Monday: Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Seven Tears by the Goombay Dance Band

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Bucks Fizz     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for December 15, 2019 through December 21, 2019

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 40 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 21 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 235 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: Not set
Current Weigh-In: 200.2

I set an ambitious mileage goal last week, and a utterly failed to even come close to meeting it. Basically, a storm of events got in the way and knocked me out of my routine so badly that I never recovered. Monday was very cold and wet, so I took that day off as my planned rest day, and then I felt sick on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I wasn't able to run those days. I simply had too much stuff going on on Saturday to carve out the time I needed to run and then recover, so I missed that day as well. Despite all that, I still managed to run twenty-one miles even though I only ran three days last week. Some weeks are like that, and you just have to not worry about missing the running days.

I've decided that I am not even going to try to set a mileage goal for the upcoming week. Between traveling and the holidays, I just have no idea how much I'll be able to get out on the roads, so I'm considering any running this week to be a bonus. I've already put in eight miles today, so that's a start. I will tentatively say I'll probably get somewhere between thirty and thirty-five miles in, but I could get far fewer than that, so I'm just going to take whatever I can get.

Previous Weekly Running Log: December 8, 2019 through December 14, 2019
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: December 22, 2019 through December 28, 2019

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop December 20th - December 26th: "334" Is a Nebula-Nominated Novel by Thomas M. Disch

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: What is your favorite Christmas themed Fiction or Nonfiction book?

My favorite Christmas-themed book is J.R.R. Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas, which I have reviewed here. The book is a compilation of letters that Tolkien wrote to his children in response to their letters to Father Christmas. Tolkien took up the persona of Father Christmas to write letters back to his children filled with inventive stories, a cast of adorable characters, and illustrations of pretty much everything. All of these letters complete with context and background information are included in the book. Essentially, this book gives the reader a glimpse into how Tolkien expressed his playful and caring love for his children over the years of their childhood. I go back to this book pretty much every Christmas and read through it.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: 333 Is a Significant Number in Occultism (Where It Is Associated With the Demon Choronzon), Numerology, and Angelology

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: The Gibson ES-335 Was the World's First Commercial Thinline Archtop Semi-Acoustic Electric Guitar

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - That Girl by Stevie Wonder

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: The week of April 3, 1982.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

Okay, so this is a Stevie Wonder song. It sounds like a dozen other Stevie Wonder songs. This is not a criticism - pretty much all of Stevie's oeuvre is good, and a lot of it is great. This song falls into the good category, although it does have a fantastic harmonica solo.

That Girl does disappoint somewhat insofar as it seems to be Stevie just more or less rehashing the same sound that he worked through the 1970s with, a kind of pale imitation of some of his great songs of the previous decade. Even though this is not as top notch a song as he produced in his prime, he did have a long way to drop before his music could credibly be called anything less than excellent, so it really only suffers by comparison.

Previous Musical Monday: Seven Tears by the Goombay Dance Band

Subsequent Musical Monday: My Camera Never Lies by Bucks Fizz

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: I Love Rock n' Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Chariots of Fire by Vangelis

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Stevie Wonder     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for December 8, 2019 through December 14, 2019

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 28 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 28 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 214 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 40 miles
Current Weigh-In: 201.2

I met my mileage goal for this week, but did it in what might be the worst possible way. I missed three days of running for the week and only made the goal by grinding out a twelve mile run on the last day. That sort of asymmetrical week is probably counterproductive, although I haven't done the research to see if surging distance the way I did this week is actually harmful. It certainly wasn't how I wanted the week to go.

In any event, this upcoming week is my most ambitious to date in terms of mileage. I'm upping my weekday run distance by a bit to get to this mark, and I'm planning another twelve mile run to cap off the week. I'm hoping to not miss any days this week though, so the long run shouldn't be as big a shock to my system as it was this week though. We'll see how this goes.

Previous Weekly Running Log: December 1, 2019 through December 7, 2019
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: December 15, 2019 through December 21, 2019

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop December 13th - December 19th: 333 Is a Significant Number in Occultism (Where It Is Associated With the Demon Choronzon), Numerology, and Angelology

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: Is there a specific genre you like to read during the winter?

I prefer to read the same genres during the winter that I usually read: Science fiction and fantasy. I mean, sometimes I throw in some history or economics reading in there too, but the baseline is always science fiction and fantasy. I will never run out of science fiction and fantasy to read, so I will always choose those genres in preference to any other, regardless of the season.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: Alexander the Great Destroyed Tyre After a Seven Month Siege in 332 B.C.

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: "334" Is a Nebula-Nominated Novel by Thomas M. Disch

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Seven Tears by the Goombay Dance Band

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: March 27, 1982 through April 10, 1982.

This song makes me think that someone said "Let's do a copy of Boney M's Rivers of Babylon, but make it as bland and uninteresting as possible". There is almost nothing memorable about this song other than the fact that it is so very listlessly lifeless that the band itself seems bored by the performance. It is hard to reconcile the success of this song in the U.K. with the success of bands like the Specials, the Jam, and Kraftwerk. I guess the British public just got tired of innovative and creative music and decided to reward bland mediocrity for three weeks in the spring of 1982.

Previous Musical Monday: I Love Rock 'n Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Subsequent Musical Monday: That Girl by Stevie Wonder

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Tight Fit

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: My Camera Never Lies by Bucks Fizz

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Goombay Dance Band     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for December 1, 2019 through December 7, 2019

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 24 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 24 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 2.5 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 186 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 28 miles
Current Weigh-In: 202.0

A race always disrupts my training schedule. The day after a race is almost always a recovery day, and then I spend the rest of the week trying to play catch up. This is, ironically, one of the main reasons I stopped racing. It is odd that one of the reasons to train is to race, but racing interferes with training and becomes a distraction. One reason we train is to race, but for me, racing interferes with training, which is why I rarely do it. The redhead seems to think races are important, so I will probably end up doing them more often than I otherwise would.

On the whole, this should be a mostly uneventful training week, providing the weather doesn't get too bad to be on the roads.

Previous Weekly Running Log: November 24, 2019 through November 30, 2019
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: December 8, 2019 through December 14, 2019

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop December 6th - December 12th: Alexander the Great Destroyed Tyre After a Seven Month Siege in 332 B.C.

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: Do you keep your TBR stack on a separate shelf from your already read books or are they mixed?

My books are in such a jumble that it is almost impossible to describe them as having any sort of organization. I still don't have enough shelves to hold them all, and as a result, a large portion of my book collection is still boxed up, or stored on shelves that are double, triple, or even quadruple stacked. Keeping my TBR books physically separated from my other books is simply a lost cause right now, and likely will be for the foreseeable future. At this point I can barely manage to keep the unread ARCs I have separate from my other books. One of the reasons I use LibraryThing is that the catalog of my books is pretty much the only way to manage my TBR pile.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: xkcd 331 Is Titled "Photoshops"

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: 333 Ia a Significant Number in Occultism (Where It Is Associated With the Demon Choronzon), Numerology, and Angelology

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - I Love Rock n' Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: March 20, 1982 through May 1, 1982.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: March 20, 1982 through March 27, 1982 and April 10, 1982 through April 24, 1982.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

In 1982, Joan Jett exploded into popular consciousness with I Love Rock n' Roll, dressed like Leather Tuscadero and sporting a sneer and all the eyeliner in the world. This was her most commercially successful song. That said, I don't think this is her best song, I would contend that I Hate Myself for Loving You or Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) hold that distinction. This is, however, the song that she is most closely identified with, and the one that comes to mind when most people think of her.

One mildly interesting fact about this song is that even though it is closely associated with Joan Jett and is more or less her signature song, it was not original to her. Her version is a cover, with the song originally released by the Arrows in 1975. There have been a couple instances in which a cover version of a song has essentially obliterated the popular memory of the original, and this is probably one of them.

Previous Musical Monday: Open Arms by Journey

Subsequent Musical Monday: Seven Tears by the Goombay Dance Band

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Centerfold by the J. Geils Band

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Chariots of Fire by Vangelis

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Open Arms by Journey

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: That Girl by Stevie Wonder

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for November 24, 2019 through November 30, 2019

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 23 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 23 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 162 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 24 miles
Current Weigh-In: 202.8

Last week was a pretty bad week, but I kind of expected that. Any week with travel and a holiday in the middle of it is going to be rough. I did do the miles on the road that I had hoped to do, but they weren't really particularly good miles. I had hoped to get in a speed workout. I didn't. I had hoped to get in a long run. I didn't. I had hoped to run sub-40 in the 5K race. I didn't. Overall, I don't think I made much progress, but as a condolence, I think I mostly held my ground. Despite the abundance of food during Thanksgiving and the following days, I only seem to have gained one pound.

The 5K on Saturday was especially disappointing. I had hoped to be able to run it in under 40 minutes, but I struggled to maintain a pace that was just under 15 minutes a mile. I missed the 40 minute goal by more than 5 minutes, which is an eternity in 5K race terms. Not only that, I really had to grind to get even that result. Everything about Saturday's race was just discouraging.

Even so, the experience was valuable. I now know just how far away I am from even the relatively modest goals I have set for myself. I think that my training regimen is still in the embryonic phase, as opposed to the more mature stage I thought it was getting to. The conclusion I have come to is that it is still far to early to seriously begin doing regular speed workouts. Right now, my focus needs to be continuing to put a base of miles under my feet and building endurance.

The upshot of all this is that for the foreseeable future I am going to continue my plan of running four to five miles a day on workdays and eight to ten miles a day on non-work days. I am actually in a position at this point that I don't think I need to build rest days into my weekly training regimen unless other commitments require them.

I have a 5K time trial scheduled in a month. I'm going to just pile on miles until then, and I'll reevaluate my training regimen iin January after the time trial.

Previous Weekly Running Log: November 17, 2019 through November 23, 2019

Running     Home