Month: December 2009

Categories
History Holidays Home Life Music People Radio Travel

Saturday Night Retro

It was my 19TH Christmas on Earth back in 1985 – and my first away from home and away from my family. I was newly stationed in the USAF in the United Kingdom by 6½ weeks, so there was no chance at all that I could take leave and return back home stateside for the holidays.

While I have vivid memories of my two years spent living, working, and playing in the U.K. I don’t remember much from that Christmas of 1985 away from my loved ones. I don’t remember if I was invited out to a coworker’s home, or if I stayed at the dorm and walked to the chow hall for a very special dinner. It was obviously a cold and forgettable holiday season in my life back then.

Here’s a song that I actually do remember from that Christmas, for it was the coveted Christmas # 1 smash on the radio all across the British Isles. It’s from one of the biggest-selling male artists in British music history. He’s Shakin’ (‘Shaky’) Stevens, and THIS is “Merry Christmas Everyone” !

Categories
History Music People Radio Sports

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

Disco Ball

Last week at the ‘Disco Party’ I featured Tavares with their Bicentennial (Summer Of 1976) hit from up above – “Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel”. It’s 1 of about 20 TOP 40 hits since the rock era began (in the 1950s) that start with that very special word “Heaven”. You may also remember “Heaven” from Bryan Adams (and also DJ Sammy, Los Lonely Boys, and Warrant) – or how about Belinda Carlisle‘s # 1 smash from 1987 – “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”. There’s also Donna Summer‘s TOP 5 Disco smash “Heaven Knows”.

But this week I’ve got a Pointer Sister who branched out on her own during the late-1970s. She’s Bonnie Pointer, and she scored an incredible feat late in 1979. You see Disco allegedly died on a hot July night in 1979 at a Chicago White Sox baseball game. But a few leftover Disco songs on the charts never got the memo – including this one. Here’s Bonnie Pointer with “Heaven Must Have Sent You” – a TOP 15 Disco smash from the Autumn Of 1979 – several months after Disco allegedly died at Comiskey Park.

Categories
Blogging God History Holidays Home Life Music Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– It’s how these ‘Mini Thoughts’ roll.
– I wouldn’t think of doing it any other way.
– So this past Tuesday night I gave my first speech at Toastmasters.
– I essentially talked about myself for 6+ minutes.
– I got rave reviews.
– Is this the same Chris that used to be terrified of speaking in public ?
– Is this the same shy guy who had no friends all throughout high school ?
– Actually it’s not the same Chris.
– That Chris from yesteryear was from a different miserable life.
– This is the new and improved Chris that was reborn some 40 months ago.
– I’ve got a crammed and jammed weekend planned.
– I’ll probably run out of time before it’s all said and done.
– I need to work on my outgoing Christmas cards.
– I need to organize nearly 7 years of paperwork regarding my new home.
– This will be a stay-at-home-and-confine-myself-to-my-living-room weekend.
– Well except for Sunday morning when I’ll be at Life Pointe Church.
– I’m hosting the 9 AM service, and I dig that !
– Our Kids’ Life Kids are putting on a show for Christmas.
– It’s hard to believe that Christmas Eve is just two weeks from today.
– It’s even harder to believe that 2010 begins three weeks from tonight.
– We actually have a cold front slowly approaching us from Central Florida.
– It should reach us early tomorrow morning – and then stall out.
– Afternoon temperatures may be up to 10° cooler tomorrow – in the upper-70s.
– But the cooler air will only last for a single day.
– If you’re looking for much colder air then I’ve got a treat for you !
– It’s coming next weekend – a major continental shift in the jet stream.
– We may be talking about temperatures of 25 to 35 degrees colder than now.
– You have been warned – to break out your Christmas sweaters !
– Here on the blog Christmas starts this Saturday night on the ‘Retro’.
– I’ve also got a Disco smash for you tomorrow night from a Pointer Sister.
– Be sure not to miss another ‘Moldie-Oldie Music Weekend’.
– You won’t regret it pal.

Categories
God Music

My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics

This month I celebrate my 40TH month aboard this fantastic journey that was created especially for me by my Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ. He died on that bloody hunk of wood on that hill so that I could Live Again !  I am forever greatful to be given this second chance at Life !

Over the past 40 months of Living this new Life one of my favourite bands on the radio has been upstate South Carolina’s Eleventyseven. Their songs have been mostly pop and dance oriented with a little bit of punk thrown in for good measure, and their lyrics have been overwhelmingly positive and centered on the Glory Of God. Since 2006 they’ve hit it big with “More Than A Revolution”, “Myspace”, “Nostalgiatopia”, “Love In Your Arms”, “How It Feels (To Be With You)”, and their current smash “Trying”:

Life can feel like a red light screaming ‘Go !’
And everyday means an answer I don’t know.
This world can make you wanna fake it
And nobody wants to face it alone.
It’s hard to shake that feeling that your heart’s not home.

I’m trying to live
Trying to hope
Trying to love
Trying to cope
Life’s a war that few of us survive.
And I’m just trying to make it out alive.

Everyone has a story to be told
And every tongue has a lie it could expose.
This world describes all the treatments
To keep all the secrets you want
We’ve learned how to think
Without our minds turned on.

I’m trying to live
Trying to hope
Trying to love
Trying to cope
Life’s a war that few of us survive.
And I’m just trying to make it out alive.

The pain we go through is what makes us who we are.
And if we hold each other through
The deepest darkest parts.

Then we can live
Then we can hope
Then we can love
Then we can cope
Life is not a jump it’s all a head first dive !

I’m trying to live
Trying to hope
Trying to love
Trying to cope
Life’s a war that few of us survive
And I know we can make it out alive

It’s in the lyrics.

CRANK THIS UP LOUD !!!