Friday and the Random 10 (Almost Forgot Edition)

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Friday and the Random 10 (Hot Seat Edition)

Wow, that was a quick week. I have a schedule I try to keep up with during the week so I know which shows are on and what posts to write (you know, to develop that cult following). It has been a lot easier since I switched to morning shifts and can watch prime time shows. I'm also trying to find a sponsor. I'm looking at you Chek and all your delicious flavors! At some point maybe someone will pay me money to NOT use their product.

So anyway, back to the matters at hand. Looking back at last week, some people should just buy a permanent home on Exile Island. 

Maybe I should do something like Monopoly and the number of times you get exiled you get island credit to build a house or hotel or something. Hmm, see this is how I get my dumb ideas for stuff. My brain is exploding right now...

As usual the rules and whatnot are up there ↑ at the top. I still feel like a badass knowing how to do arrows. Hey sometimes it's the small victories in life.

Shut up and play your music Von!

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1) Jon Anderson/Flowers of the Morning - This is from his Celtic album "The Promise Ring". He sounds like an elf anyway and belongs in the shire.

2) Alabama/Old Flame - This is how I like my country music. That, and the name obviously.

3) Journey/Open the Door - Great old school stuff. How's this for an album cover:

4) Rick Wakeman/Men in Suits - Viggle has no idea and neither did I.

5) Rush/High Water - Intelligent rock from the masters. We are from the water and wish to return there.

6) Jimmy Buffett/Volcano - Well the IQ level just dropped from that last song, but hey sometimes we need to grab a cocktail and head to the beach. It's just a different way of heading to the water.

7) Emerson, Lake and Palmer/Change - Never heard this song before or even this album. Most appropriate album cover for my life though. Train!

8) Nektar/Away from Asgard - They show up a lot and Viggle still has no clue. Maybe because they're European or something. I know they aren't British. Wiki says German. Okay then.

9) Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Soundtrack)/Mean Mr Mustard - From one of my guilty pleasures. I love this movie with Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees and do not care who knows it.

10) Snow Patrol/Open Your Eyes - Wait, that's after 1986! I do try to be somewhat contemporary. I just don't find much that I like. Always open to suggestions.

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Well that wraps it up. I will say that at this point at least one act is making it off the island! I didn't want to jinx it by saying anything before, but since we are down to the STCS I feel that the odds are pretty good.

Here we go. Deep breath. The STCS is The Beatles/Piggies. Dammit, so close. I shouldn't have said anything. One more try: The Commodores/Sail On. Oh yeah, the pride of Tuskegee, Alabama. This song hits me inside so I'm going to let it play us out.

Friday and the Random 10 (Pi Day Edition)

Happy Pi Day! Say what? You don't know what that is? It's March 14th! You know 3/14...3.14...get it? It's a nerd thing. Before we get to the music here's my favorite pie chart:

Looking back at last week, I see that The Beatles are not an option this time around. Whatever will Yoko do? As usual the rules and whatnot are up there ↑ on the top of the page.

And now for your non-repeating, non-terminating countdown...

My Home's In Alabama

In 1984, I was 16 years old. It was probably the greatest year of my life. And my life back then centered on one thing: baseball. While everyone else ran around playing basketball and football, to me there were only two parts of the year: baseball season, and waiting for baseball season.

PAC Introductions

For the non-Disney people out there, here is some inside info on some of the little things that go on behind the scenes. The first time you work a PAC (parade audience control) shift, or if you're wearing a red "earning your ears" tag, you have to stand up in the pre-parade meeting and tell the group three things: your name, where you're from, and your favorite Disney character. I'm sure all of my friends remember the first time they had to stand up.

Now I've worked for the Mouse two different times, about 15 years apart. So I thought I would have a little fun this time. By time they got to me most people weren't paying attention anymore so I stood up in the meeting and said:

"Hi, I'm Von. I live in a van down by the river and my favorite Disney character is Scooby Doo". Then I sat down really fast while the fake claps started and then stopped quickly. Wait, what? The ones who knew me already were expecting something like that so they made me do it again. This time I embellished it.

"Hi, my name is Larry "The Von" Blocker. I come from a small hamlet in Alabama on the western bank of the Chattahoochee River named Phenix City. The spelling on my name tag is correct. We do not use the "O" because we believe it symbolizes nothingness. My favorite Disney character, and my future wife, is the beautiful, the sexy, Maleficent."

I wasn't allowed to talk at any meetings after that...

 

P.S. And do not forget to recommend this blog continues.

Friday and the Random Ten

Well here we go with another week of randomness. Same rules as always: set it to random and list the first ten songs that pop up.

1) Trans-Siberian Orchestra/The Moment - the have a couple of non-Christmas albums. This is from Beethoven's Last Night

2) The Moody Blues/Your Wildest Dreams - cool 80's song

3) Thomas Dolby/Urges - I still love his stuff

4) Styx/Show Me the Way - remember when they did this song with a mash up from clips about the Gulf War? Styx was relevant again...for awhile...

5) Yes/Five Percent For Nothing - this is a small 35 second instrumental piece from Fragile (album cover winner!). It was named after the band giving 5% of the profits to the record company to pay for some equipment. They felt it was a waste, obviously.

6) The Beatles/If I Needed Someone - some oldie stuff before they got really interesting

7) Casting Crowns/Glory - my fave Christian group

8) Alabama/She Can - I just cant get into country. I just keep them because of the name.

9) Dennis DeYoung/Desert Moon - probably the best solo song from any of the Styx members. I so wanted to be just like DDY in the 80's. Easy video winner.

10) Rush/The Pass - not one of their better songs or albums

Well there we go. The STCS for this week is Chicago/Must Have Been Crazy. Weird album by them trying to survive the disco era.

Play us out quickly Bill Bruford!

Friday and the Random 10

Well once again it's Friday so you know what that means! Valentine's Day is finally over? No, not that. I'm gonna hit random on my entire music collection and list the first ten songs that pop up. I mean really, you should know how it works by now. If not, get with the program! Let's see what 1/2 price chocolate day has in store for me:

1) Foreigner/Night to Remember - actually I don't remember anything from last night. I don't even remember this song

2) Alabama/I Ain't Got No Business Doin' Business Today - Not my style. As the Cybermen say: Delete! Delete!.

3) Rush/Roll The Bones - finally a good song. It's a parallax you dig? Video winner because hey, a rapping skeleton.

4) Across the Universe soundtrack/Let It Be - great song from a good movie

5) Styx/Pieces of Eight - title track and album cover winner

6) Rush/Prime Mover - back when Rush did music I could actually listen to

7) Genesis/Second Home by the Sea - back when Genesis was tha bomb!

8) Asia/The Smile Has Left Your Eyes - cant let this album cover go unnoticed either

9) Shaw-Blades/For What It's Worth - Tommy Shaw of Styx and Jack Blades of Night Ranger were in Damn Yankees with Ted Nugent. Got that straight? Ok, well they did an album together of song that influenced them growing up with the clever title of Influences. It's a great album though.

10) AC/DC/Rock And Roll Aint Noise Pollution - no, no it's not

Well there ya go.That seems to be a good mix of 70's - 90's (with no RW again I might add!). The STCS for this week is Korn/Seen It All.

Play us out boys:

The Random 10: Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick

Well I know I'm a day late with this but I'm sure my 3 fans will get over it. Work has rudely intruded into my life once more and my timing from here on out might be a little hit and miss. But anyway, it looks like all my issues from last week have been resolved so now we can get down to business. Let's get random!

1) Saga/The Writing - dont know this song but love these Canadian rockers!

2) Trans-Siberian Orchestra/The Moment - from their non-Christmas CD Beethoven's Last Night...good stuff

3) Rick Wakeman/The Glade - dont get me started...but have you noticed every song so far is "The" something? Kinda cool...

4) Ian Dury & the Blockheads/Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick - wow, from some weird 80's CD I have

5) AC/DC/House of Jazz - not quite jazz...lol...this was when it seemed like they put out a CD every other month

6) YES/Whitefish - from 9021Live: The Solos...this was Alan White on drums and Chris Squire (the fish) on bass...hence the name white and fish

7) YES/New Languages - awesome song...give a listen:

8) ELO/The Diary of Horace Wimp - album cover winner

9) Alabama/I'm Not That Way Anymore - an actual good song that I kept in my library

10) Bow Wow Wow/I Want Candy - this is one of the first songs I ever remember on MTV (you know, when they actually played music and didn't suck balls)..and it's still a classic.

So that does it for another week. The Spinal Tap Commemorative Song this week is Styx/Too Much Time on My Hands...whuh? I had that last week right? Anyway, tomorrow is Easter so enjoy your candy...

Friday and the Random 10 (Tempus Fugit Edition)

Well another Friday is upon us and you know what that means! No, Von sitting at home without a date is not the answer (though sadly true). This is Spring Break week for me and my girls, but they've had more free time than I have. So I've taken some time away from our movie marathons and hours of Kingdom Hearts to spread a little randomness into everyone's week. I hope it doesn't suck like last week...

1) Genesis/It's Gonna Get Better - they cranked out some awesome music for awhile there back in the 80's until Phil went all solo

2) Alabama/Moonlight Lounge - I deleted alot of their stuff after last week but it looks like some of it is still trying to break through

3) The Beatles/Dizzy Miss Lizzie - way way old stuff from them...back when they sounded like everybody else...not impressed

4) ABWH/Themes - easy album cover winner here...this hangs over the couch in my living room

5) YES/Tempus Fugit - wow, back to back "alternate" YES bands...this was the first album without Jon Anderson...RW was also gone, but sadly not for the first time...all this mess is what started the dominoes falling which eventually led to ABWH...people wanted out, people wanted to move forward, enter The Buggles, and so on and so forth...this is also where the idea from the 2011 YES album Fly From Here originated all those years ago...yes, how time flies...

6) Alabama/Gonna Have a Party - again?...what the hell?... I've got more deleting to do...

7) Camel/Survival - I really need to listen to these guys more...very very nice smooth sounding music

8) Styx/Golden Lark - a really nice DDY song from Man of Miracles..at least it's not a love song

9) Led Zeppelin/The Rain Song - I still cant get into Zep that much...some of it rocks but I don't like the bluesy whiny stuff

10) YES/Yours is No Disgrace - Epic song. Epic album. Epic lyrics.

Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face.

Caesar's palace, morning glory, silly human race,

On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place,

If the summer change to winter, yours is no disgrace.

Battleships confide in me and tell me where you are,

Shining, flying, purple wolfhound, show me where you are,

Lost in summer, morning, winter, travel very far,

Lost in musing circumstances, that's just where you are. 

Well there goes another week, but I know I have one less reader from now on (RIP Donna). The Spinal Tap Commemorative Song for this week is Casting Crowns/Stained Glass Masquerade. Good song but I'm gonna let ABWH play it out...

Friday Night and the Random 10

You know, I've really got stop doing these so late at night. Well, at least they're getting done. The way it works is this: set your Ipod or mp3 player or media player on random and list the first 10 songs that pop up, no matter how embarrassing...

Another week, another 10!

1) Extreme/Little Girls - this is from their 1st cd before they hit it (kinda) big

2) Dennis DeYoung/This I Pray - from his The Hunchback of Notre Dame musical that he wrote...it's ok I guess

3) Deep Purple/Smoke on the Water - wow, how can you get more classic than this?...the holy trinity of rock!

4) Styx/Lonely Child - hey DDY shows up again (you know, before they kicked him out)...classic album cover

5) YES/Roundabout (single edit) - this was a bonus track on the remastered Fragile cd....and it's kind of a bad edit anyway...just doesnt flow for me

6) Alabama/When We Make Love - yeah, weak....

7) The Human League/Heart Like a Wheel - the 80's called and they want this song back, and as far as I'm concerned they can have it

8) Alabama/If You're Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band) - you know, I actually deleted alot of the Alabama that I had just a few days ago so it's kinda weird that they've shown up twice so far....karma? Payback?

9) The Beatles/Please Please Me - see, I do have good taste!

10) The Beatles/Eleanor Rigby - awesome song, but i'm feeling my random 10 isn't very random tonite

And the Spinal Tap salute this week is Rush/New World Man. I really hope someone is getting that reference... Anyway, there it is, I'll let DP play us out!

Friday Night and the Random 10

I've been meaning to get back into the flow of things and start doing these things again since I've actually had some extra time for a change. I probably have alot of newbies that will see this for the first time (hey facebook peeps!) so these are the dadgum rules: set your Ipod or Mp3 player or media player on random and list the first 10 songs that pop up, no matter how embarrassing. I usually have a video, album cover, and/or lyrics winner for mine. Either way, it lets you see into my musical tastes some and you can maybe see the stuff that makes me tick.

Enough chat...away we go!

1) Styx/Fallen Angel - the last time Dennis DeYoung was actually allowed to participate in the band

2) Thomas Dolby/ N.E.O - some weird electronic stuff he did...but at least it sounds cool

3) Alabama/She's Got That Look in Her Eye - my only country stuff and I dont even like it that much but their name is slightly awesome

4) The Beatles/Fixing a Hole - classic stuff from Sgt Pepper's...got to be an album cover winner here:

5) The Beatles/Got to Get You into My Life - wow, back to back Beatles!

6) Jon Anderson/Latino - one of his "world music" solo craptastic albums...yeah it sucks

7) YES/Then - some very very early stuff from them...and a classic

8) Faith No More/Falling to Pieces - hell yeah, these guys were so funky weird and cool....here's another video if you dont believe me:

9) Rush/In The Mood - very early stuff from them too

10) YES/Golden Age - another one of their 1000 demo's that only made it onto an album as a bonus track... and for good reason because of the suckage...

Well nothing earth shattering there (except maybe Faith No More) and just out of curiosity and for the sake of Spinal Tap, #11 would have been Camel/Dunkirk...eh, maybe next time will be better (thats what she said...)

Friday and the Random 10 + 10

Well lookie here! Yeah I was so busy working last week that I totally forgot about doing my Top 10. Some of ya'll were upset I know. Maybe this week I can dig a little deeper and roll out 20 songs to make up for it! Enough talk...on with the show!

1) Lady Gaga/Monster - wow, ummm, ok...the first new music I downloaded in awhile to sample and it shows up first...I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about

2) Styx/One Way Out - a re-make of some old song I dont know who from

3) Bob Seger/Roll Me Away - Bob gets me! This is my divorce CD unfortunately

4)  Camel/Rhayader - didnt I have this exact one a few weeks ago?

5) Rick Wakeman/A Castle of Dreams - RW in da house!

6) Van Halen/The Full Bug - old school with David Lee Roth

7) Enigma/Mea Culpa - classically smooth and sexy...here's the video

8) Led Zeppelin/Good Times Bad Times - oh yeah now we're finding some good stuff!

9) Kansas/Angels Have Fallen - "Save me for now, save me forever"

10) Camel/Tell Me - more smooth sounds...

11) Tommy Shaw/Dangerous Game - from one of his early solo albums

12) Alabama/Anytime - I've really got to start deleting some of this...

13) The Beatles/Eleanor Rigby - one of my most favorite Beatles songs

14) Kansas/Andi - once Walsh left them they just werent quite the same...nice song though

15) U2/Gone - I still dont see what all the fuss is about

16) YES/Dear Father - decent song by them that kind of bounced around during the early years and never really ended up on an album until some re-masters were done

17) Third Day/Innocent - getting into them more and more

18) YES(west)/The More We Live Let Go - weird time period for YES...the band was split into 2 versions (YESwest and ABWH) that all came together for the Union album (pic below)...unfortunately it ensured that ABWH II would never happen...sigh

19) ELO/Evil Woman - wow, some good classic stuff today!

20) Tommy Shaw - Ever Since The World Began...play us out Tommy!

Friday and the Random 10 (Until the Whole World Reads)

Well I finally got to sleep in today and get some well needed rest. I still have to work tonite but I feel refreshed! And now for this week's Random 10. Put that mp3 player or Ipod on random and list the first 10 songs that pop up, no matter how embarrassing (at least in my respect). And away we go...

1) Van Halen/Spanked - when Sammy was still in the band

2) RHCP/Freaky Styley Jam - donwnloaded their whole catalog and need to get rid of these "live" performances, which I've never been a fan of anyway...even for YES (gasp!)

3) Steve Howe/The Go Between - this is from one of his "Homebrew" cd's that had alot of his demos from his home studio that eventually ended up part of ABWH/YES songs...this became the guitar part for the beginning of "Quartet" from ABWH and also parts sound like "New State of Mind" from Yes's Open Your Eyes

4) Velvet Revolver/Just Sixteen - havent listened to this much

5) Casting Crowns/Until the Whole World Hears - love me some CC! Video winner:

6) Esquire/Sunshine - great voice but overdoes it I think

7) Dennis DeYoung/Beneath the Moon - another love song but damn that man can sing

8) Alabama/I'll Be There Call on Me - about the only country I like but this one just plain sounds weird

9) Camel/Rhayader - more smooth jazz

10) YES/Rhythm of Love (remix) - another one of those bonus dance remixes from Big Generator (mandatory album cover below)

Friday and the Random 10

Yes, you've waited all week for it, and now its back! Take a look into my musical world as I set my media player on random and see what pops up. Enjoy!

1) Alabama/Pass It On Down - a southern country environmental song...ummm, k

2) Thomas Dolby/Quantum Mechanic - some spacey, electronic music...this guy was awesome during the 80's

3) Van Halen/Spanish Fly - a little acoustic piece by Eddie

4) Shaw-Blades/For What It's Worth - Tommy Shaw (Styx) and Jack Blades (Night Ranger) doing old stuff on their Influences CD....if you dont have it, get it NOW

5) Billy Joel/A Matter of Trust

6) Red Hot Chili Peppers/Catholic School Girls Rule - never heard this one, but its kinda funny

7) AC/DC/Deep in the Hole - these guys are sooo subtle with their titles sometimes

8) Foreigner/Out of the Blue - this sounds like it was during the pussification period when all 70's and 80's bands became wimpy love song acts...i'm still looking at you Journey...and Chicago...

9) Chicago/Nothin's Gonna Stop Us Now - wow, speak of the wimps devil...this album cover even sucked

10) Chicago/Better - again?...at least this one sounds jazzy

Well that was all a boatload full of suck. My apologies for subjecting you to all this garbage this week. Play us out Billy!

Friday and the Random 10

Well here we go again! Another week gone by and time for another popular mostly ignored Random Top 10 blog post. Dosnt matter to me...I like doing them. Gonna skip the rules and get right into it!

1) AC/DC/Beating Around the Bush - I'm thinking I should start every morning with some AC/DC...what a great way to start the day and get you going!

2) The Beatles/Yellow Submarine - wow, this is gonna be stuck in my head all day now...maybe something will come along and knock it out...but at least it gives me the album cover winner

3) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers/I Won't Back Down - good ole southern boy

4) Red Hot Chili Peppers/My Friends - ok, now I'm kinda getting tired of them since they show up so much

5) Aerosmith/Livin on the Edge - this is the live version but who cares, you get a video

6) Camel/Wait -this is a cool jazzy kinda band

7) Esquire/To The Rescue - great voice but i think she way over-sings sometimes...bonus video

8) Rick Wakeman/The Colossus of Rhodes - now my week is complete...lol, old joke but RW shows up again!

9) Alabama/Is the Magic Still There? - the only country I own and only because of their name

10) Third Day/Thief - still building up my collection of Christian music...this is an awesome song! New category for today: lyrics winner.

I am a thief, I am a murderer, walking up this lonely hill.
What have I done? I don't remember. No one knows just how I feel; 
And I know that my time is coming soon.

It's been so long, oh, such a long time, since I've lived with peace and rest.
Now I am here, in my destination, I guess things work for the best;
And I know that my time is coming soon.

Who is this man? This man beside me, That they call the King of the Jews.
No, they don't believe, that He's the Messiah, But, somehow I know that it's true.

They laugh at Him in mockery, They beat Him till he bleeds,
They nail Him to the rugged cross, And they raise Him, yeah, they raise Him up next to me.

My time has come, and I'm slowly fading, But I deserve what I receive.
Jesus, when You are in Your kingdom, Could You please, please remember me.
Well He looks at me still holding on, And the tears fall from His eyes,
And He says I tell the truth, Today, yeah, you will live with Me in paradise, woah yeah.

And I know that my time, yes my time, is coming soon, woah yeah.
And I know that my time, yes my time, is coming soon, woah yeah, yeah
And I know that paradise, paradise is coming soon.

Friday and the Random 10

It's that time again folks! Set that Ipod (if you have one that wasn't stolen Scott..sorry), mp3 player or media player to random and list the first 10 songs that pop up, no matter how embarrassing. Sometimes theres a theme...sometimes theres a pattern....other times it makes no sense. At the very least it can give you an insight into what kind of music I like.

And away we go...

1) The Mars Volta/Aberinkula - this music was recommended to me but I just cant seem to get into it

2) YES/We Can Fly From Here - this is actually the 1980 version (basically a Buggles song) that the new CD is based on. This was a weird time period for YES: no Jon Anderson singing, no Wakeman on keyboards...you know, kinda like right now...

3) AC/DC/What Do You Do For Money Honey - classic album cover here

4) The Beatles/I've Just Seen a Face - yes I have taste

5) Red Hot Chili Peppers/Skinny Sweaty Man - man they seem to show up alot compared to how little of their music I actually have

6) Third Day/Creed - getting into them more and more

7) Alabama/Gulf of Mexico - about the only country music I have but it's Alabama...nuff said

8) AC/DC/Got You by the Balls - Again!

9) Alabama/40 Hour Week - again?...how bout this for the video winner?

10) Cyndi Lauper/Hole in my Heart (All the way the China) - I was a child of the 80's ya know...play us out Cyndi!

Friday and the Random 10

Another week, another Friday, another chance to be embarrassed by randomness. The way it works is, put your media player (or Ipod/mp3 player) on random and list the first 10 songs that pop up. I usually try to have a winner for video and album cover.

And away we go...

1) YES/Shock the the System - great one to start off...and any YES song gets an automatic album cover simply because theyre just so cool!

2) Jon Anderson/For You - not the country singer but the lead singer of YES (or at least used to be since they replaced him with someone from a tribute band -HERESY!) This is one of his gay solo albums with the musicians from Toto


3) Alabama/Music Loves Me - ok, I'm a southern boy from Bama...I have to have some Alabama in my repertoire (hey did you know you can type that word with just the top row of the keyboard?) 


4) Apollo 440/Tears of the Gods - I have loved these guys since they did the theme song for the Lost in Space movie


5) Tears for Fears/Standing on the Corner of the Third World - yeah I aint ever heard of this one either


6) Thomas Dolby/Airwaves -kinda a futuristic emo


7) Don MClean/American Pie - didnt even know i had this classic. Go here for an interesting explanation of all verses of the song


8) King Crimson/Sailor's Tale - kinda like YES...wildly experimental but too jazzy for me most of the time...Bill Bruford left YES for them and never came back like some of the others except for the ABWH album...he was the "B" obviously


9) Red Hot Chili Peppers/Higher Ground - i like their sound


10) Jane Child/Welcome to the Real World - OMG, I so used to have the hots for her! And crap! I cant find the video anywhere. I'm sure Ive seen it somewhere before. I guess i'll have to let Dolby play us out...

Video Winner:

And RW hasnt shown up yet!