Category: Driving

Saturday Night Retro

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 18, 2009

Back during the Spring of 1996 I visited my Mom, Dad, Brother, and two cats in the Washington D.C. area for the final time. (About 6 months later that year they all moved southward to Jacksonville Florida.) It marked the end of a 27-year homestead (1969-1996) within the D.C. area for my family (55 years for my Dad going back to his birth).

During that final visit my Brother and I drove down I-95 early one chilly foggy drizzly morning to spend the day at Kings Dominion. We had free tickets to the amusement park because my brother won a prize package on DC-101 (heritage rock radio station) related to the world premiere of the first “Mission: Impossible” movie that was a week or two away.

This song in history – although it reminds my brother of a particularly bad relationship with a former girlfriend at the time – reminds me of those good times that we shared when we went on that short road trip for a day to have some fun.

Here’s the MTV award-winning music video for “Glycerine” from Bush. It’s one of my favourite songs of all-time:

Tags 1996

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 30, 2009
2 Comments on Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

It’s Tuesday night, so you know what that means. Here’s what I’m thinking:

1. I got home from work just a few minutes before 4 PM this afternoon. It was an extra treacherous drive home. If I wasn’t such a superiour driver then I would’ve been involved in at least a half a dozen collisions and in a hospital bed by now. This afternoon’s drive had it all – out-of-control speeders, people stopping all of a sudden with no turn signal, tailgaters replacing tailgaters, slowpokes replacing slowpokes, and even several dozen police cars speeding eastbound on SW 288TH Street with lights and sirens on (heading to a funeral – I’m guessing). I’m glad that I’m off the streets now. It’s MURDER out there ! 😯

2. It’s hard to believe that this wild and crazy year known as 2009 is officially half over tonight. We’ll be celebrating New Year’s Eve 2010 in exactly 6 months. If the second half of the year is as rambunctious as the first half was then hold on to your wigs and your keys because it’s gonna be a rollercoaster ride !

3. Dude I totally dig this billboard alongside the Federal Highway:

Life Pointe Church Billboard

4. We lost television legend Ed McMahon last Tuesday morning. Ed was the epitome of loyalty to Johnny Carson – his TV boss of 35 years and personal friend of nearly 50 years. I watched Ed on TV for virtually all of my life. One of my favourite shows that he hosted during much of the 1980s with one of his other legendary TV sidekicks – Dick Clark – was NBC’s “TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes”. It was one of the funniest hours on television back in its day. Thank You Ed for all of the laughs.

5. We also lost Billy Mays early on Sunday morning at the age of 50. He’s known as television’s greatest pitchman. Infomercials will never be the same again without him. I would occasionally watch his infomercials and standard-length commercials on TV just to watch him perform his skill. He was the best at his trade.

6. We also lost Gale Storm this past weekend at the age of 87. She was a very popular movie actress during much of the 1940s, and then she moved on over to television during the 1950s to star in back-to-back sitcoms “My Little Margie” and “The Gale Storm Show”. Am I the only one who remembers her ?

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Saturday Night Retro

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 27, 2009

I had advance-planned a totally different edition of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’ for this weekend to commemorate the 23RD anniversary of my very first LIVE concert event that I attended in my life, but due to the sudden deaths this past week of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson I decided to back-up, regroup, and try something different here that wasn’t so planned.

I haven’t decided yet how I wish to handle the great Ed McMahon, and I’ll address Michael Jackson on a very special edition of the ‘Monday Night Countdown’ in just a couple of days.

As for Farrah Fawcett I found something very unique over on the You Tube. It’s one of my favourite songs while growing up as a kid, and it’s set to the opening credits and various clips of the “Charlie’s Angels” television show of the late-1970s (featuring Farrah Fawcett). The song itself is from Alan O’Day (no relation to me), and it’s his U.S. # 1 gold pop radio smash from exactly 32 years ago – right around the 4TH of July weekend in 1977. It’s a memorable singalong pop nugget that reminds me of our family’s frequent summertime road trips from Suburban Washington D.C. across the MAMMOTH Chesapeake Bay Bridge and over onto the quaint beach resorts and long boardwalks of Ocean City Maryland.

FARRAH FAWCETT – 1947-2009

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Saturday Night Retro

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 20, 2009

I’m coming up on the 6TH anniversary of my current car – a 2003 Saturn Ion Quad Coupe 3. It’s all paid off now (as of a year ago), and it’s the first time that I’ve actually paid off a car of mine in over 15 years. I’ve owned this 3RD Saturn of mine almost as long as I owned my first two Saturns combined during the immediate 6 years and 2 months before I bought this current Saturn.

–> 6 years ago this June the average cost per gallon of gas was less than $1.50.

A lot has occurred and evolved in my life over the past 6 years. Back in June of 2003 I was working in a job that I didn’t really like with people that I didn’t really care for. All I really wanted was a way out of that bad situation, but I kept getting offered more money to stay.

I was heavily into the European trance, techno, and house music scene. If you couldn’t find me on a random Friday or Saturday night at home then perhaps I was 260 miles away up in the Orlando area partying on the dancefloors with crowds of fellow touristas. 6 years ago this June I was still more than 3 years away from the light of the day that God led me to. God knew me, but I didn’t know Him yet.

–> 6 years ago in 2003 my favourite radio station was WPYM Party-93.1 Miami.

Here’s one of the European trance jams that I was dancing in the dark to back then. It’s DJ Valentin and Vocalist Kristine Hendricks – better known collectively as the duo of QED. This is their # 1 club dance smash from exactly 6 years ago – a modern remake of Def Leppard‘s 1988 power-rock ballad “Love Bites”. Enjoy: