Musical Monday - Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: November 6, 1982 through November 20, 1982.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: November 6, 1982 through November 20, 1982

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

Before there was Top Gun, there was An Officer and A Gentleman to fulfill all your fantasies about joining the Navy to fly jets and romance the hot woman who falls for you for no real discernible reason. In both of the stories, an iconoclastic guy heads for navy training and has to learn to turn his incredible talents away from attempts at self-aggrandizement and instead work for the benefit of the team as a whole. Along the way, they find romance with women who become interested in them after some of the clumsiest and most unconvincing wooing scenes ever put on film. The two movies even share the death of the main character's best friend to serve as a pivotal event in the narrative.

Okay, all that aside, the reality is that an Officer and a Gentleman is a much better story and a much better film than Top Gun. The real point here is that the association with the movie is part of what launched this song to the top spot on the charts in 1982, although it is a good enough song that it might have gotten there without the boost. This song's success does, however, continue to demonstrate the heavy influence that filmed media has upon popular music. I still haven't decided if that has any larger significance other than the fact that being associated with a popular film or television show appears to be a big help in getting a song to sell a lot of copies, but maybe some cultural point will reveal itself as I continue to work through the top songs of the 1980s.

On a final note, apparently Deborah Winger hated the movie An Officer and a Gentleman, and didn't like her costar Richard Gere either.You'd never know that from what is on screen, which is a fair testament to her acting talent.

Previous Musical Monday: Who Can It be Now? by Men at Work

Subsequent Musical Monday: I Don't Wanna Dance by Eddy Grant

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Who Can It be Now? by Men at Work

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Truly by Lionel Richie

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Who Can It be Now? by Men at Work

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Gloria by Laura Branigan

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

Joe Cocker     Jennifer Warnes     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for April 19, 2020 through April 25, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 7 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 7.5 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 464.5 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 12 miles
Current Weigh-In: 195.2

So, I made my relatively modest weekly mileage goal this week, which feels like a bigger deal than it really should, since I haven't met even my very small running goals for the last several weeks. I am optimistically upping my mileage goal for this week, and we will see if it works out that I can actually meet it. I did a weigh-in for the first time in several weeks, and it looks like I am still dropping modest amounts of weight, which is a good sign. I am hoping that as I get back to running more miles per week that will continue. Other than that, I am planning on going out and running when there are few people on the streets and continuing to put in miles on the road.

Previous Weekly Running Log: April 12, 2020 through April 18, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: April 26, 2020 through May 2, 2020

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop April 24th - April 30th: 350.org Is an International Organization Dedicated to Addressing Climate Change

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 the star ratings a book receives on Goodreads or retail sites affect whether you buy the book or not?

I want to say "not really", because I mostly don't pay attention to star ratings for books, especially on Goodreads since I am rarely on that site. However, I always make such statements with the caveat that we don't really know what affects our decision making. Research has shown that people's preferences can be changed by the addition of information in a subtle enough way that they don't even really notice. There is, in fact, an entire industry built around the idea that your preferences can be changed. It seems to be a fairly popular opinion that one is simply unaffected by things like advertising and other attempts to sway one to a particular product, but that assertion is simply implausible. We know from studies done on this topic that people are affected by these things in ways that they don't realize. To claim one is not is to ignore pretty much everything we've learned from decades of research by economists and psychologists.

The most I can really say is that I am not consciously affected by things like star ratings for books. The reality is that I can't really say one way or the other.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: The $349 Billion Paycheck Protection Program Was Passed in March 2020 and Ran Out of Money Before the End of April

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: Transfers Under 26 U.S.C. § 351 Are a Primary Means of Transferring Property to Businesses

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Who Can It Be Now? by Men at Work

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: The week of October 30, 1982.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: October 23, 1982 through October 30, 1982.

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

This song seems eerily appropriate for the era of social distancing. Although the intent of the song is to portray paranoia and possibly actual mental illness, given current events, the signer simply seems prudent.

But enough about current events. In the 1980s, I was a huge fan of Men at Work, and this song was a major reason why. I don't know what it is about bands from Australia, but there seems to be a pipeline of such performers from down under to the American pop culture mainstream, and I estimate that I've liked about half of them. Men at Work is in the half I liked, and they were the fuel for many of the junior high school dances I attended in this era.

Previous Musical Monday: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? by Culture Club

Subsequent Musical Monday: Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Jack and Diane by John Mellencamp

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Jack and Diane by John Mellencamp

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes

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

Men at Work     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for April 12, 2020 through April 18, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 5 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 4 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 457.0 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 7 miles
Current Weigh-In: Not done

Like the rest of the world, my life seems to be stuck in suspended animation. That said, I did make some progress on the running front this week, and although I didn't reach my mileage goal, I was able to get out on the roads more days that I didn't. This week, I should be able to have a full running week, although I won't be putting in too many miles per day. I've been intentionally running later at night, when there are fewer people out, so I figure that I am engaged in successful social distancing, although it does make for a dark, chilly, lonely run.

Previous Weekly Running Log: April 5, 2020 through April 11, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: April 19, 2020 through April 25, 2020

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop - April 17th - April 23rd: The $349 Billion Paycheck Protection Program Was Passed in March 2020 and Ran Out of Money Before the End of April

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: How do you decide the order of reading your books?

I have rough guidelines for what I am going to read, but don't have any real hard or fast rules. Basically, I have a stack of books that I intend to read "soon", and then another stack that I intend to read "shortly after that", and then books that I have that I intend to read "a bit later than that", and then the rest of my unread books which I intend to read "at some point in the future". The trouble is that the groupings are not stable. I regularly leapfrog books from that last group to the front of the line, or drop books from the "soon" pile into the great morass of "someday". I don't really have a plan, and to the extent that I have any kind of priority order set up, I am constantly revising it based on little more than the whimsy of the moment.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: The Ferrari 348 Was Manufactured Between 1989 and 1995

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: 350.org Is an International Organization Dedicated to Addressing Climate Change

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? by Culture Club

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: February 2. 1983 through March 5, 1983.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: October 23, 1982 through November 6, 1982.

I was not much of a Culture Club fan in the 1980s. I'm still not. Their brand of soft rock was just never to my tastes. They are definitely skilled musicians, and Boy George has an .excellent tenor, but I just wasn't really a fan of the early-1980s trend of making what amounted to easy-listening music. They are good at it, but their music just never was my cup of tea.

However, this particular video deserves some derision. Even in 1982, a scene in which a bunch of characters appear in blackface was problematic. Now, after the passage of time, the scene just looks extra bad. What were they thinking and why did no one stop them and tell them this was a very bad idea? How did everyone just ignore this and let them get away with it? Were we all that clueless in the 1980s?

Previous Musical Monday: Pass the Dutchie by Musical Youth

Subsequent Musical Monday: Who Can It Be Now? by Men at Work

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Down Under by Men at Work

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Billie Jean by Michael Jackson

Previous #1 on the UK Chart: Pass the Dutchie by Musical Youth

Subsequent #1 on the UK Chart: I Don't Wanna Dance by Eddy Grant

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

Culture Club     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Running - Weekly Log for April 5, 2020 through April 11, 2020

Last Week's Mileage Goal: 10 miles
Actual Miles Last Week: 2.5 miles
Run/Walk Miles: 0 miles
Cumulative Mileage: 453.0 miles.
This Week's Mileage Goal: 5 miles
Current Weigh-In: Not done

The past two weeks have been rough. I tried to restart a regular running schedule, but unrelated issues have kept me off the roads. I think I am going to simply have to accept that I am back to square one and make my weekly running goals very modest for the next several weeks. I am not going to give up, but I think I have to start with one mile a day again, and slowly build up my stamina again. This is disappointing, but it is what it is.

Previous Weekly Running Log: March 22, 2020 through March 28, 2020
Subsequent Weekly Running Log: April 12, 2020 through April 18, 2020

Running     Home

Book Blogger Hop April 10th - April 16th: The Ferrari 348 Was Manufactured Between 1989 and 1995

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 a book that has helped you get through your lowest point in life?

There are three sets of books that I always go back to whenever I need a boost: The Lord of the Rings, The Earthsea Trilogy, and The Chronicles of Prydain. These are the books that I am likely to turn to when I want something to pick me up. That said, I am at the point now where I rarely reread books, since I have so many new volumes available to read, so I probably won't be going back to those much, even if I do get to a low point again.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: Plato Died in 347 B.C.

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: The $349 Billion Paycheck Protection Program Was Passed in March 2020 and Ran Out of Money Before the End of April

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Pass the Dutchie by Musical Youth

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: October 2, 1982 through October 16, 1982.

Sometimes a song pops into the charts that is kind of an outlier. This song, a reggae song originally about smoking marijuana with its lyrics cleaned up to be about cooking with a dutch oven and sung by a quintet of teenagers, is certainly an outlier. If you had asked pretty much anyone in, say, August of 1982 what kind of song would be number one on the U.K. Charts in October of 1982, I seriously doubt if anyone would have predicted this.

The odd thing about this song is that the attempt to clean up the original lyrics didn't work at all. The song originally was titled "Pass the kouchie" and had lyrics that made direct drug references like 'How does it feel when you have no herb". To put the into the mouths of a group of teens in a palatable way, the title was changed to refer to a "Dutchie" or dutch oven, and lines referring to herb were changed to "food". The thing is, this didn't work - "dutchie" was almost immediately adopted as a slang term for a cannabis pipe, transforming the song back into one laden with drug references.

Oh well, sometimes the best efforts of gods and men all come to naught.

Previous Musical Monday: Jack and Diane by John Cougar

Subsequent Musical Monday: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? by Culture Club

Previous #1 on the UK Chart: Eye of the Tiger by Survivor

Subsequent #1 on the UK Chart: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? by Culture Club

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

Musical Youth     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Book Blogger Hop April 3rd - April 9th: Plato Died in 347 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 have more photos of books you saw in a bookstore or elsewhere or family photos on your phone?

I have no pictures of books in bookstores, and a lot of pictures of my wife and youngest daughter on my phone, and a handful of my son, so family photos wins. I have a couple of pictures of books, but they are all books I own, and when I say a couple, I mean two. A cursory glance through shows that I have at least a couple dozen pictures of family, so they vastly outnumber the pictures of books. I guess my position is that books aren't really something you take pictures of, they are something you read.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: DC Bar Ethics Opinion 346 Clarifies What Elements Are Required to Trigger Confidentiality With a Client

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: The Ferrari 348 Was Manufactured Between 1989 and 1995

Book Blogger Hop     Home