Category: Music

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History Life Music Travel

Saturday Night Retro

The month of November is chock-full of anniversaries for me. 28 years ago in 1980 me and my family moved from one side of Washington D.C. (Maryland) to the other side (Virginia). Our lives changed for the better on the opposite side of the Potomac River. 23 years ago in 1985 I moved out of the country for the first time ever courtesy of the USAF. That anniversary was actually last weekend. I flew from D.C. to London England, and then I took British Rail westward from London to Swindon. I took a taxi from Swindon to my new home at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. I did all of that just 5 months removed from my 18TH birthday.

I lived in the U.K. for some 105 fun-filled weeks. In fact this weekend is the 21ST anniversary of my departure from the U.K. – and U.S. homecoming. I would eventually arrive at – Homestead Florida !

I haven’t been back to the U.K. ever since I left, but you can bet that I will return some day for a visit. I enjoyed the time of my young life for two years over there, and I surely did ‘Live It Up’.

Here’s Australian super group Mental As Anything. They’ve been together for the past 32 years, and in 1985, 1986, and 1987 they scored the biggest worldwide pop smash of their entire career with this uplifting track that you may just remember from the ‘Crocodile Dundee’ movie. Check it out:  

Categories
History Music

Saturday Night Retro

Exactly 22 years ago in October and November of 1986 I was a young and crazy 19-year-old USAF Airman serving my country overseas in a foreign country. I was in the United Kingdom, and I was having the time of my life back then – livin’ it up in the London and Oxford pop music concert scene. During one particular 3-month time-span from October 1986 through January 1987 I attended 7 LIVE concerts featuring such diverse acts as Huey Lewis And The News, Bruce Hornsby And The Range, Ultravox, The Communards, The Eurythmics, The Human League, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and Berlin.

Oh yeah – I missed one – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD). They are one of my all-time favourite music acts in history, and their 1986 album “The Pacific Age” is one of the greatest ever made as far as I’m concerned.

"The Pacific Age" - OMD (1986)

I saw OMD LIVE in concert at the Oxford Apollo on the night of the 28TH of October in 1986. Check out their big hit below – “We Love You” – from the album above from exactly 22 years ago in November of 1986. The concert that I attended – it looked just like this:

See if you can find me. I’m the one that’s dancing new wave style like a zombie.

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Animals Food God Health Home Life Music Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

It’s the 2ND Season Premiere of your favourite Saturday morning series on the blogosphere !

1.  This morning at almost precisely 6 AM I awoke and I declared ‘I Want To Go To Denny’s !’ – and so I did a half an hour later. I enjoyed the Moons Over My Hammy®. Dude – It’s a ham and scrambled egg sandwich with Swiss and American cheese on grilled sourdough. It’s outrageous. SHYEAHZZZ !

2.  Once I got back home at 7:30 AM I decided that it would be the perfect time to kick-off ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ after a 6-month hiatus. The last time I walked around my neighbourhood of the past 13½-years was back on Saturday May 03RD 2008. Check out what I had to say back then.

Sky: Mostly Cloudy
Temperature: 69°F
Dewpoint: 64°F
Relative Humidity: 83%
Winds: ENE 7 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 30.17 Rising

3.  I’ve been waiting for weather like this since last April. It’s been a long hot Summer – a long hot Summer of not walking. Then again I’ve always wondered how much walking I actually do in a typical day during my Monday to Friday job at the air base. This morning I walked about 2 miles for 36 minutes and 35 seconds. I could’ve ended the walk shorter and earlier than that, but I was just having so much fun walking the walk while listening to my def tunes via my iPod Shuffle. I decided to keep on walking until I could actually feel a hint of mild pain in my legs. No Pain – No Gain !

4.  Cats adore me. One gray and white cat saw me and thought to himself – ‘He’s a friend of felines. I can walk right beside him with no fears and he won’t bother me.’ And so he did. That was on the south side of the MASSIVE lake that’s located within my neighbourhood. Later in the walk on the north side of the MASSIVE lake the cat greeted me again. He took the shortcut right alongside the lake. I took the scenic route following the roads.

5.  For the first time in ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ history I touched all of the roads. I walked them all – even the cul-de-sacs. This weekly walk is symbolic of my spiritual walk with my closest friends who are on this fantastic journey alongside me as we all follow and love Jesus Christ. I constantly thank my Lord and Saviour for giving me a second chance – a second Life to get it right this time. I shall continue to face toward and proceed into the daylight.

Categories
God Life Movies Music

Saturday Night Retro

It’s an extra early edition of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’ this week because I’ll be livin’ it up out on the town until late tonight. No worries though. I’ll be hangin’ out with my Life Group at the mall.

So check this out. In 2003 I was livin’ it up. It was just 5 years ago, but it seems like a lifetime ago – literally. I was 35 and 36 years old – going on 22 years old. The U.S. economy was booming thanks to President George W. Bush and the Republican-dominated House and Senate. I was financially successful but emotionally unhappy. I was miserable at work, but I did a pretty good of hiding it (most of the time). I was happy at home because I had my little feline buddy Boots to hang out with. I spent a lot of time at the malls – and the movie theatres where I saw a whopping 30 movies at the box office during the course of the year. On the radio Party-93.1 was ‘South Florida’s Pure Dance Channel’, and I listened to it day and night. My life had the frenetic beat of an underground European techno track, but it had the soul of a cheap green glow stick.

Watch this 2003 music video from Aquagen. It’s a German techno remake of the Chicago classic “Hard To Say I’m Sorry”. It was my running theme song that year.

It’s all about moving forward in Life, but sometimes ya gotta look back in time to see the growth that’s been made from then to now. I thank God for rescuing me from the dying darkness, saving me, and placing me on His journey especially selected for me into the living daylight.