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The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

In June of 1980 I became a teenager – 13-years-old. I successfully completed the 7TH grade at Robert Goddard Junior High School in Lanham Maryland, and I was also actively involved in the Boy Scouts. We used to go on regular hiking and camping trips up in the mountains along the Appalachian Trail in Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. I remember hiking through the small town of Harpers Ferry West Virginia on many occasions. It was one of the few portions of the trail that actually went right through the heart of a town. Although I don’t miss the hiking with heavy backpacks and rugged shoes I do miss the scenery. While we have a nice subtropical landscape here in America’s Riviera nothing can beat the beautiful views that I remember from high atop the A.T.

On the radio during that memorable time of my life was this funky jam. It’s often referred to as ‘Disco’s Last Dance’, as it wasn’t even released here in the States until January of 1980 – some six months after Disco allegedly died at a Chicago White Sox baseball game. It took another 5 months after that to reach # 1 on the U.S. pop chart where it stayed for the entire month of June of 1980.

Here’s Lipps Inc. with their unexpected and untimely # 1 Disco smash – a year after Disco died. Welcome to “Funkytown”. Population – You !

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  It’s approaching 4:30 PM EST on this Tuesday night as I begin compiling these ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’, so that means that in roughly 71 hours my vacation from work begins – and in roughly 92 hours my Carnival cruise vacation begins (the precise moment that I step foot on that gorgeous and spacious luxury cruise ship). Besides sailing away from Port Everglades I’m also looking forward to losing my cell phone signal for more than a week out at sea and out of the country. No cell phones. No telephones at all. No computers. No Internet. No blogging. No radio. Limited television. Now THAT’S what I call paradise !

II.  I’ll also be escaping more chilly El Niño weather aqui a America’s Riviera. Get ready for 2 rather cool days and 2 real cold nights on Wednesday and Thursday with maximum temperatures in the afternoon struggling to reach the mid-60s, and minimum temperatures early in the morning (Thu. and Fri.) dropping all the way down into the lower-40s with wind chills as low as the mid-30s !  Below normal temperatures (day and night) will probably stick around here for at least the next 7 to 10 days. I’ll be venturing out of continental wintertime and straight into the tropical mid-to-upper-80s of Central America next week. DIG !

III.  Super Bowl XLIV is now history (as is the 2009 NFL season), and the New Orleans Saints SHOCKED the Indianapolis Colts in a surprisingly close (and low-scoring) defensive game. There were a lot of offensive yards (as expected), but I was looking for at least 80 points combined. That didn’t happen, but it was still a good game. I think that the NFC has turned the tide and will soon dominate the AFC just like they did during much of the 1980s and 1990s when an NFC team won 15 out of 16 Super Bowls. As for all of the expensive commercials not too many of them stood out as brilliant or even memorable. The most talked-about, most shocking, and certainly most memorable was actually absolutely free. It was the stunning 15-second CBS promo of “The Late Show With David Letterman” featuring Dave, Oprah, and Jay Leno. I couldn’t believe my own four eyes when I saw that one, and I even watched it a few times over and over again via my DVR to see if I could detect any camera trickery involved. It was all for real. That simple 15-second promo made all three talk show titans look great, and it may have just ended a highly-visible and personal 18-year feud.

Be sure to check out my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in less than 48 hours !

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Saturday Night Retro

In 1997 Bill Clinton began his 2ND 4-year term as President Of The United States, the Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots 35-21 in Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans, the Dow Jones Industrials rose above 7,000 and 8,000 for the first time, Tony Blair became the new Prime Minister of The United Kingdom, Hong Kong transferred over from British to Chinese rule, Diana – Princess Of Wales – died, Mother Theresa died, The Florida Marlins won The World Series, and everyone was discovering the World Wide Web on their fast new Pentium II / 266 MHz desktop computer systems running Windows 95.

I turned 30-years-old in 1997, and I mostly hung out at home with my little buddy Boots of the feline species. My Mom, Dad, and Brother lived up near the Intracoastal Waterway on the far-east side of Jacksonville Florida with our aging childhood cats Fluffy and Barney. On selected weekends throughout the year my 22-year-old brother and I would meet halfway in the state – Orlando – for a few days and nights of fun at the amusement parks, nightclubs, and shopping and restaurant meccas. One of the great techno songs that we used to dance to on the nightly countdown to Midnight celebration at Downtown Disney Pleasure Island was this rockin’ jam of the time:

This concludes another fun week of blogging for me from Tuesday night through Saturday night. 6 blog posts. 5 days. All good. I’ll do it all over again next week from Tuesday night through Friday night before I take a 10-day hiatus from the blog. In fact next week’s ‘Saturday Night Retro’ will occur on Friday night, and it’ll be a song straight out of 1985. Have a great weekend my friends, and I’ll catch ya back here on Tuesday night for my ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’.

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Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– Can we talk here ?
– My work weekend has arrived – 24 hours early.
– That’s because I’m taking the day off tomorrow.
– But it will be a super busy day off.
– First up on the agenda – Starbucks.
– Then after that I’m gettin’ a haircut at the legendary Woody’s Barber Shop.
– I’m starting to look like this mad crazy nerd again:

Albert Einstein

– I can’t have that on my upcoming Carnival cruise.
– My hair is gonna be blowin’ in the sea wind, so it needs to be real short.
– After I get my ‘hair done’ it’s off to to see my Doctor for a follow-up.
– Then it’s off to the upper-middle-class Miami suburb of Doral.
– I’ve got an appointment with a mortgage loan specialist up there.
– It’s time to sign my name at least a dozen times for my 2ND home.
– Hopefully everything goes just fine with that.
– I think that I’m bringing more than enough paperwork with me.
– Memo To Self: Bring my checkbook with me.
– After all of that I plan to eat Lu-Dinner at Fuddruckers in Doral.
– I was a regular at Fuddruckers in Kendall for nearly 20 years.
– I was shocked when they went out of business a couple of years ago.
– But now there’s a Fuddies on SW 107TH Ave. near the Dolphin Mall.
– I’ve never been there before, so I can’t wait to check out the joint.
– After a long and busy day out and about I’ll be heading back home.
– It’s another ‘Moldie-Oldie Music Weekend’ here on the groovy blog.
– Tomorrow’s Disco smash is “Fly, Robin, Fly” from Silver Convention.
– On the ‘Retro’ this Sat. night it’s a 1997 Techno smash from Fatboy Slim.
– This weekend I start major league packing for my upcoming vacation.
– It’ll take me the next 8 days to pack up for it.
– Get ready for two cold mornings in a row on Sunday and Monday.
– We’ll have wind chills deep down into the 40s on both mornings.
– For the Super Bowl it’ll be chilly with temps. dropping fast into the 50s.
– One thing is certain – there will be absolutely no rain in sight for the game.
– Enjoy your weekend my friends, and make it a very special one.
– I’ll see you back here on Friday and Saturday for ‘Disco’ and ‘Retro’.