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Saturday Night Retro

Saturday August 28TH 2010
Volume 2 / Number 48 / Edition 97

I’ve got a lot of hobbies and skills that you may or may not be aware of. Some of them I think I’m pretty good at (of course others may disagree). Some of these hobbies and skills I wish I could be better at and spend more quality time with. Some hobbies consume a lot of time, and some just occur naturally without much effort at all. Some hobbies have developed over time – while others have faded (thankfully and regrettably). Hobbies come and hobbies go – as we grow.

One of my lesser-known hobbies over the past 25 years of my adult life that pretty much came out of nowhere but has developed quite nicely over the years is that of a personal historian. It goes along with my fascination with dates and numbers, and it fits right in with my organizational skills. Nowadays my blogs and my tweets serve as the public recorded history of this new Life of mine. Previously my web site fulfilled that role during the latter portion of the 1990s into the new millennium. Before the evolution of the web I recorded the significant events of my life via pen and paper. Now that’s what I call ‘Retro’ !

Because of this hobby I can tell you that on Friday June 30TH 1989 I was at the original Miami Arena in downtown Miami to see ‘Downtown’ Julie Brown host a LIVE concert featuring The Information Society, Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam, Milli Vanilli, Tone Loc, and Was (Not Was). They were some of the biggest hit music artists of that era. I can also tell you that 21 years ago this weekend on Sunday the 27TH of August of 1989 I was at the Sunrise Musical Theatre for 8 hours for Y-100‘s Sweet 16 Birthday Concert featuring all of the Y-100 deejays at the time and their musical artist guests Bandera, K.C. And The Sunshine Band, Roxette, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Damian, and Buster Poindexter.

Another HUGE pop artist at the time was Ms. Paula Abdul – back during her heyday. She stormed onto the pop culture scene with 5 HUGE smash hits and videos in a row in 1989. Here’s one of them – originally a miserable flop in 1988 before anyone knew who she was. It was reissued during her 1989 pop chart explosion, and it was MASSIVE the 2ND time around !

History – It’s always occurring, and it’s always expanding. Recording it some way some how allows you to look back at it fondly from a different era in the future. It’s your ‘Retro’. Treasure it.

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Animals Blogging Career Food Home Internet Life Money Music Travel Weather

The Major’s Weekend Blast-Off

WEEKEND GRAB BAG O’ THOUGHT:
The weekend has arrived, and for me it arrived 24 hours early this week due to Tropical Storm Bonnie. Looking ahead yesterday afternoon I had a feeling that this would be an unscheduled day off once the air base (where I work) drifted into panic mode. We always prepare for a worst case scenario on base, so if a Tropical Depression or a weak Tropical Storm is approaching our general region of the world then we prepare for a Category 1 Hurricane. If it’s a strong Tropical Storm then we react as if it’s a Category 2 Hurricane – and so forth – and so on. It may seem like overreacting – and it generally is – but we do so in a sincere effort to protect millions of dollars of military and government equipment and resources. We have an urgent responsibility to minimize any damage that Mother Nature could throw at us, and I think that we do a very good job at it.

BEST LUNCH OF THE WEEK AWARD:
Sometimes it’s not about the food. It’s about the company. This week my good friend Travis invited me out to Lunch at Chili’s, and I gladly accepted. We talked about a wide variety of great topics of interest big and small. I like hanging out with Trav. I also enjoyed my messy meal which consisted of – Bottomless Tostada Chips Served With House-Made Salsa, Shiner Bock BBQ Big Mouth Burger, Hot Homestyle Fries, Sprite. I dig.

15 WEEKEND MINI THOUGHTS:
– I’m really looking forward to this weekend safe and sound in my home.
– I hope to get a lot of work done – like filing piles of paperwork and such.
– I’m well known for my organizational skills, so I need to get there.
– Last weekend I was hidden in the woods and hills of Northwest Florida.
– I had to walk to the top of a hill just to get a hint of a data signal to my phone.
– I’m happy to be here at home where ‘3G’ and lightning fast wireless rules.
– It’s been a long time since I’ve been vacation-free in a single month.
– I have no plans to go anywhere exotic or otherwise during the month of Aug.
– 7 weeks – 49 days in a row of home life began last Sunday night.
– Last night I paid the first of my two annual home insurance premiums.
– It’s the one that covers everything except for wind.
– It went up 16% (outrageous) over the previous year.
– My other premium that covers everything for wind went up 4.4% (reasonable).
– Collectively I’ll be paying an average of $5.15 per day to insure my home.
– When I look at it that way it doesn’t look so bad at all.

THOSE CRAZY CRAZY CATS:

BLATANT PROMOTION:
It’s a full weekend of blogging for me. I’m kicking-off a former tradition from the massivesmash.com years this weekend on the ‘Saturday Night Retro’. That’s right – it’s ‘The Awesome ’80s In August International Dance Party’, and it all starts with an electronic dance smash that was the absolute biz while I was a Senior in High School in 1985. Then on Sunday join me as I share my Life with you on ‘My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics’. In the meantime enjoy your weekend, and play it safe my friends. Love one another.

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Animals Blogging Driving Food History Home Internet Life Money Shopping Travel Weather

The Major’s Weekend Blast-Off

WEEKEND GRAB BAG O’ THOUGHT:
Another weekend has arrived, and I’m so looking forward to this one. I haven’t had a normal weekend since the middle of June. Two weekends ago I worked all day on a Saturday, and then last weekend I was on vacation over in the Dallas Texas area. I’ll also be on vacation next weekend, so this is like the bit-in-the-middle. It’s my time to relax and do normal things at home – like blog – and prepare for my Sunday morning hosting duty at Life Pointe Church – and go grocery shopping at Publix – and do laundry. I live for the mundane. It’s truly great to be right here in my home sweet Homestead !

BEST LUNCH OF THE WEEK AWARD:
Longhorn Steakhouse – Parmesan Crusted Chicken, Seasoned French Fries, Mashed Potatoes, Bread, Coke. I dig.

15 WEEKEND MINI THOUGHTS:
– It’s still hot, humid, and dry here in South Florida while Texas is drenched.
– In a normal year it’s the other way around – a dry Texas and a wet Florida.
– Does everyone remember our record-shattering frigid cold winter season ?
– I just received the first of my two home insurance premiums.
– This one covers everything except for damage caused by wind.
– The premium for 12 months of coverage increased by over 16% from last year.
– That seems a bit steep for an annual increase, but it could be much worse.
– Next Thursday I embark on yet another vacation.
– I’ll be driving 600 miles in a single shot until I arrive at my destination.
– I’ll be at an undisclosed location in the northwest part of Florida.
– It’s very peaceful and quiet there.
– Internet connectivity will be extremely limited.
– There will be no new blog posts from me next weekend.
– I’ll be lucky to get out an occasional tweet.
– When I return from this short trip I have no plans to go anywhere until Sept.

THOSE CRAZY CRAZY CATS:

BLATANT PROMOTION:
Tomorrow on the ‘Retro’ I’m going back deep into my early childhood – all the way back to when I was 4-years-old during the Summer of 1971. Then on Sunday it’s a fresh new ‘My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics’. Be sure to check out those two new blog posts during this weekend. During the week when I’m not blogging I’m tweeting, so follow me if you wish at majorhitwaves. Have a great weekend my friends. Make it memorable. Be safe.

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Animals Blogging Computers History Internet Life Music News People Radio Television

Saturday Night Retro

Exactly 17 years ago yesterday morning on the 21ST of May of 1993 in the heart of Melbourne Florida ‘Captain Airwaves’ was officially born. He was my original pseudonym in cyberspace. Of course back in 1993 nobody knew what the World Wide Web was all about. After all Al Gore had just invented it, and he hadn’t yet explained it. Back then the most popular form of modern communications between personal computers across the free nation was via the telephone dial-up bulletin board system (BBS). Mine debuted real early on that morning 17 years ago, and it was named after my lovable childhood cat (still alive at the time) – Fluffy. She was a Manx, and the name of my first creation in cyberspace – ‘MANx CAT BBS’. That first bulletin board system lasted a little over four years, and it eventually spawned a spinoff site on the emerging web at the time – ‘MANx On The Net’. That web site eventually morphed into the ‘MASSIVESMASH.COM‘ hit music web site that survived and thrived for the better part of a decade during the late-1990s into the new millenium. It faded several years ago, but it inspired this personal blog that continues today.

‘Captain Airwaves’ was actually the pseudonym of the late great John Carmody – the famed daily television columnist of “The Washington Post” newspaper from 1977 to 1998. During my high school years in the early-1980s he inspired me to get in to the entertainment business somehow someway. The bulletin board, the web site, and the blog was as close as I got to that dream. I adopted the ‘Captain Airwaves’ pseudonym for the BBS, and then after a couple of years my followers at the time (known affectionately as ‘MANxsters’) promoted me to ‘Major’, so I became ‘Major Airwaves’. When the web site hit it big I took on the ‘Major Hitwaves’ name and persona to more accurately reflect my role at the time as a deejay on the web. Nowadays I’m still ‘Major Hitwaves’, but I’m more commonly known as simply ‘The Major’.

17 years ago this past week I was unemployed, living off of my savings, and having way too good of a time with all of my friends and neighbours in the Melbourne area. The 1400 block of South Oak Street rocked back then, and ‘Captain Airwaves’ was crankin’ out the hits from his second floor studio efficiency – and all up and down the U.S. 1 and the A1A.

Here’s one of those hits of the time – an obscure track that was a local smash on the radio and in the nightclubs of Melbourne. It’s His Boy Elroy – and a track about them “Chains”. As are most of the songs that I feature here on the ‘Saturday Night Retro’ it’s one of the greatest songs ever made according to me.