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Blogging History Life Music People Radio

Saturday Night Retro

It’s time to kick it with a fresh new year of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’. It’s a weekend tradition that I’ve been enjoying for a long time now via different mediums, formats, and names. 2010 actually marks the 25TH anniversary of the ‘Retro’ and all of its various predecessors.

It’s hard to believe that the entire decade of the 2000s is now officially ‘Retro’. 2000 seems so long ago now. 1990 was 20 years ago. That gives me the chills just thinking about it. The 1980s began 30 years ago. Now I’m sweating. I feel so old now !

Here on ‘Saturday Night Retro’ I’ll alternate between the decades from the 1970s through the 2000s with a few extra surprises thrown in for good times.

Tonight flashback with me over 35 years ago to the Autumn of 1974. I was entering the 2ND grade back then at St. Matthias Apostle Catholic School in Lanham / Seabrook Maryland. I remember my teachers as Sister Mary Laura (the mean one) and Sister Mary Josephine (the funny one). This was the start of my 2ND and final year in Catholic school. The following year I was pulled out of it, and sent walking to the county’s public school system.

On the radio Linda Kelly was on in the middle of the afternoon on WPGC AM & FM Morningside out of Washington D.C., and this was the rockin’ # 1 smash all across the free nation. It’s Canadian / Lebanese teen pop idol (at the time) Andy Kim, and this may have been one of the cheesiest bubblegum pop nuggets of its time. You’re gonna get a sugar rush just listening to this one !

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History Life Music Radio

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

The 1970s just got another decade further away. Now that the first decade of the 21ST Century is complete we can theoretically state that the 1970s was four decades ago. It’s the decade that I entered as a 2½-year-old toddler, and exited as a 12½-year-old 7TH grader in Junior High School. For me it was the ‘TOP 40 Music’ decade, as it was the running soundtrack of my active childhood years. Whatever was hot on AM and FM pop radio was playing everywhere I went. Whenever I hear the music again from those times I frequently remember what I was doing at the time – good or bad – all of these years and decades later. It’s the music of my life.

This weekend on my ‘Disco Party’ I present to you a local homegrown Cuban / Miami disco act known as Foxy. Their single “Get Off” was their biggest hit – and a 1978 Disco Smash !

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Blogging Driving God History Holidays Life Music Travel Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– It’s New Year’s Eve y’all !
– At 6 AM here on the U.S. East Coast New Zealanders were ushering in 2010.
– As I type this ‘Mini Thought’ at 4 PM Saudi Arabians are celebrating 2010.
– I arrived in Saudi Arabia 19 years ago this week for the first Gulf War.
– I was over there for 9 weeks through the conclusion of Desert Storm.
– That was my most memorable New Year’s Eve / Day.
– 2009 was a success story for me both personally and professionally.
– Every year since 2006 has been an overwhelming success story for me.
– That’s because I have been reborn.
– I totally expect 2010 to be the brightest year yet for me.
– I’ve decided that I will always pronounce the new year as ‘twenty ten’.
– It just sounds so right to say ‘twenty ten’.
– Last Feb. 28TH I thought that I had seen the last of the Jacksonville area.
– That’s when I drove from there for the very last time (as I thought).
– I had just finished moving my parents over to the Dallas Texas area.
– I no longer have any family members living up there.
– Next weekend I’m driving back up there to my parent’s old neighbourhood.
– I’ll be up there for one full day and two nights.
– I now own their former home.
– It’s all mine – debt and all !
– I’ll be talking face to face with the management company that’s renting it out.
– I’ll be getting a lot of answers for a lot of questions.
– The answers will assist me in making decisions and taking actions.
– Get ready for a cold month of January South Floridians.
– It’s the extended period of colder weather I’ve been shouting about.
– It all starts on New Year’s Day when temperatures drop like a rock.
– We’ll go from heat indices in the lower-80s to wind chills in the mid-40s !
– We’ll be stuck in the 60s for daytime highs for at least 5 days in a row.
– We’ll have nighttime wind chills in the 30s for at least 4 nights in a row.
– This extended cold snap is the first of several during the month of January.
– Our chances of experiencing a hard freeze later in January are quite high.
– If you dig cold weather then you’ll dig January here in America’s Riviera.
– After three weeks of Christmas music on the ‘Retro’ we’re goin’ back to basics.
– We’re gonna spin up the ‘Wheel Of Cheese’ this Saturday night.
– It’s a cheesy gold-certified # 1 smash from over 35 years ago.
– It comes complete with an antique music video you’ve gotta see to believe.
– But before that it’s another Disco smash tomorrow night on the ‘Disco Party’.
– And the hits don’t stop ’til we reach the top !
– Have a safe and festive New Year my friends !
– Peace be with you.
– And also with you.

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God Music

My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics

Tonight and tomorrow I wrap-up the 4TH glorious calendar year for me on this fantastic journey following, believing, trusting, loving, and thanking God. It’s a journey that unexpectedly started on a random August morning in 2006, and it just keeps getting more exciting as time goes on. I’m truly looking forward to what 2010 holds forth for me and those closest to me on this journey.

After more than 40 months one song on the vast soundtrack of this journey stands out a bit above the rest. It’s a bold and energetic song with a steady beat that calls on God by name no less than three times. It plays out like a passionate prayer with powerful words directed straight to our Lord Almighty:

I need You here with me to face the world outside
‘Cause I’m tired of “Sleeping In”

Open up my eyes, I’m tired of “Sleeping In”
In a world that’s dying to wake up
And it’s got me “Sleeping In”

It’s in the lyrics: