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Driving History Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

I’ve owned 4 cars over the past 25 years of driving. My very first car was a beige 1980 Chevy Citation. I bought it in 1984 with my paper route money. I was supposed to have it for at least several years, but as it turns out I only had it for a single year. I had to sell it fast just before I got shipped off to the U.K. to move to my first duty station within the USAF.

I returned back home stateside in November 1987, but it wasn’t until a year and two months later that I bought my second car – and my first brand new car. It was a red 1989 Geo Spectrum. To this day it’s the longest-running car that I’ve ever owned. I put 96,745 miles on that car over the course of eight years. That was eight turbulent years in my life in which I lived in seven different homes in less than three years due to the effects of Hurricane Andrew.

My 3RD car overall was a dark green 1997 Saturn SL1. That was the first of my three Saturns that I’ve owned over the past dozen years. I replaced that first Saturn with a gold 2001 Saturn SC2, and that Saturn was subsequently replaced by my current silver 2003 Saturn Ion Quad Coupe 3. I’ve owned my current Saturn a few months shy of the combined time that I owned my first two Saturns. I thought about buying a new car last year (a Honda), but I ultimately decided to enjoy the fact that my current car is totally paid off. It’s the first time that I’ve owned a car long enough to actually pay it off since that red 1989 Geo Spectrum was paid off in full during the early-1990s.

I can see myself still driving my current car for at least a couple more years. I’m in no rush to replace it with something new (and the new car payments that would go along with that). I’m content with what I have.

And so that’s a little history of all of my cars through the years.

The theme is “Cars”, and so this weekend for your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review I present to you this 1979 / 1980 pop smash from Gary Numan. The now 51-year-old musician is still very much active. He’s still recording new music and touring all around the world. It’s hard to believe that when this song was an International pop smash the kid was just 21-years-old. Check it out, and feel free to get up and dance like a robot can’t dance no more !   

Categories
Animals Blogging Food Health Music Travel

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– As I begin typing this blog entry it’s 10:12 PM CDT in North Texas.
– That makes it 11:12 PM EDT back home in America’s Riviera.
– I got in to DFW just before 5:30 PM CDT.
– The airport has more germs per square foot than any other place in the world.
– It doesn’t really matter what airport I’m talking about.
– I take that back because airplanes are even more germ-infested.
– Cough. Sneeze. Cough. Sneeze. Cough. Sneeze. It’s the soundtrack of my flight.
– Backpacks and suitcases of all shapes and sizes should be banned as carry-on.
– Those should be mandatory check-in items.
– I listened to my hits on my iPod Shuffle while inflight 7 miles above the ground.
– I even took a short cat nap.
– My brother and his wife picked me up, and we went directly to Fuddruckers.
– I haven’t eaten there since – the last time that I was here in the Dallas area.
– I had a half-pound bacon swiss cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles.
– That’s shredded lettuce, two tomato slices, and a mound of pickles.
– I don’t add any ketchup or mustard to Fuddruckers burgers.
– Tomorrow morning me and my brother are headed to the Dallas Zoo.
– Both of us plan to take a lot of pictures of us with the animals.
– I plan to pull a Kelly J. by posting an all-picture blog entry to mark the event.
– Tomorrow night is ‘Blogroll Review’ night.
– You’ve gotta be in it to win it.
– Make sure that you get your blogs updated between now and then.
– One of you reading this will win this week’s covetted ‘Major Bloggie Award’.
– Will it be you ?
– Well I’ve had a real long day today.
– I woke up shortly after 5 AM EDT this morning.
– That was nearly 19 hours ago.
– I’m ready to call it a day.
– Until we blog again peace be with you.
– And also with you.

Categories
Music Television

Saturday Night Retro

2009 marks the 40TH anniversary of “Sesame Street” on PBS. Over the past 40 seasons over 4,000 one-hour episodes have been produced for kids all around the world. I probably saw a couple hundred of those episodes back in the very early-1970s when it was a brand new innovative show. I watched it on WETA Channel 26 (Washington D.C.) and WMPT Channel 22 (Maryland Public Television).

Picking up those UHF channels was rather tough at times back then (before cable and remotes existed). You had to point that loop antenna atop the TV set in the right direction (towards the big city). You also had to make sure that the circular knob was tuned in just perfectly to the correct channel, and hopefully that knob wouldn’t fall off of the TV set or else you would have to use a pair of pliers to turn the dial. Am I right middle-aged people ?  😆

In honour of “Sesame Street” I present to you for your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review this unusual treat – “Sesame’s Treet” – a 1992 breakbeat techno version of the show’s classic opening theme song. Get up and dance like a freak !

Categories
History Music

Saturday Night Retro

1988 was my first full year of livin’ large here in the land of the ‘305’. (I actually arrived on the First of December in 1987.)

In 1988 I was a 20-year-old that became a 21-year-old – without a car. I was either gonna be stuck in the dorm (at the Air Force Base), or I was gonna bum a ride with a buddy to see any other part of Miami. Luckily I got to see a lot of Miami during that first year. I also partied a lot within the Miami club scene. I considered myself a Y-100 groupie at the time – following them along as they broadcast LIVE from a different nightclub around town on 4 or 5 nights per week.

It was a lot of fun – although admittingly I don’t remember much from the times. After all it was 21 years ago – a half a lifetime ago for me.

Here’s a song that literally brought chills to me last night as it got cranked up at Splitsville (which incidentally has its own dance floor with deejay and lights and such). There may even be raw video footage of me acting like a dancin’ moron at our dinner table as this song progressed. (I’m not sure if Venus was recording at the time.)  Yep – I still got mad skillz at the age of 42. 🙄

This jam totally defined the land of the ‘305’ in 1988. It was the absolute biz out on the streets and up on the dance floors all across the ‘MIA’.

I present to you for your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review – MC Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock with “It Takes Two” !

LET’S KICK IT HOMIES !