When You're Feeling Sad And Lonely...

No I'm not going to start singing Astrud Gilberto, but I was feeling a little down, and I found the perfect free and fast remedy.

Of course, it's Huey Lewis and the News.

Honestly, from the hilarious premise of six men singing to a sleeping (and I'm assuming naked) woman, to Huey's jerky movement singing into the camera, to fact that he's got a nice color of blush on his cheeks, you'll find something about this supreme 80's hit that will cheer you up.

This Is Getting Ridiculous

So, after much testing, I've come to realize that Pandora Radio slows my computer down too much for me to play it while I'm working at school. I usually have AutoCAD, Photoshop and 3DSMax open at the same time, so I'm sure you can understand why the computer practically keels over everytime I try to change windows.

So instead of Pandora, I've taken to listening to the only radio station that works without downloading some weird program, and plays songs that I either like or are entertained by. Granted, sometimes I actually have to take the earphones off because the song is simply too corny to listen to, i.e. "I just died in your arms tonight..."

But the "this" that I'm referring to in my blog title is how enamored I am with some of the songs I hear on this radio station. Of course if I bring up how much I like certain songs, I either get the cock-head "baroo?" expression of those who have as much knowledge about 60's, 70's and 80's hits as I did pre-semester. OR I get the totally bewildered "Why are you listening to that crap"-look. The main ones that I've been singing constantly are...

Hey Jude by The Beatles c. 1968
(which totally brings tears to my eyes when everyone chimes in)


If This Is It by Huey Lewis & The News c. 1984


Fooled Around And Fell In Love by Elvin Bishop c. 1976


Baby Come Back by Player c. 1977

Funk City!

Once I get started, I just can't stop...

Remy Shand, more funk, more awesomeness. First song I heard was "Take A Message" that played pretty often on what is now VH1 on UBC in Thailand in 2001. He released a few since, but not much after that.

Remy Shand "Take A Message"



Nikka Costa, all I saw was this music video in 2001 (guess 2001 was a big year for me musically) and except for the screeching, it was pretty interesting, I mostly the clapping.

Nikka Costa "Like A Feather"



Okay, okay, I'm done for the day.

Compact Disc-Mania

One Christmas present I got last week was the Curious George soundtrack by Jack Johnson (and friends), which was a wonderful gift, except I already had it. So I had to take the task of going to Borders to exchange it. All I can say is, music has gotten hard to buy in CD format for me. I'm used to gettings songs one by one, so having to buy a whole 12-16 songs at a time is alot harder than I thought it would be, it took all of an hour.

So what did I end up getting instead? After much perusing, picking up and putting down of CD's I found two that I thought I might dig for a while before I got sick of them, the first one being:

Gin Blossoms "Major Lodge Victory"

Did you ever watch Empire Records with Liv Tyler and other assorted actors that played constantly on UBC HBO in Thailand seven or eight years ago? It was about the people working at this record store, drama, funny and a classic pop/rock song that was sweet, kind of happy and had a sad tinge on it called "Til I Hear It From You". This is a CD with basically that kind of music. More pop than emo, but still good to have a sad little croon to.

Gin Blossoms: Til I Hear It From You

Robin Thicke "The Evolution of Robin Thicke"

Did you watch Growing Pains? This is the (real) son of father (Alan Thicke) in the show. Now that we've got that out of the way, I like this CD, one because it was $10 for 16 songs, and two because it's got nice funk, r'n'b and he's talented. When I listen, do think Justin Timberlake once in a while, but at least I can listen to Thicke without cringing, not so much for former N'Sync-er. The reason I looked at this CD was because I loved a song from a while ago by him, "When I Get You Alone" which samples (let me quote some Amazon.com reviewer) "classical disco instrumental "Fifth Of Beethoven"..." That song was really cool, the music video got me going and I still listen and want to bike all over the city. The first song I actually skip becuase I can't be bothered to listen to it, but after that, it's so smooth and easy to sing along to. I haven't actually gotten through all of it yet, it's sitting in the rental car.

Track 4: Lost Without You


When I Get You Alone

Mission Accomplished

Okay. So when I lived in Fresno, I never really played CD's in my car, it was mostly the radio, because 1. I didn't have a CD player and 2. I didn't have many cassette tapes, and the ones I had sucked because they were free.

So I used to listen to the Fresno State radio station KFSR (FM 90.7), classic American music station KJEWL (FM 99.3) and oldies station KMGV (FM 97.9). Well, there was this instrumental song that they played on KJEWL practically daily, and I absolutely loved the steel guitar on it, but I never ever caught the name of the song, since they usually play three or more in a row and I have a very short attention span. Well, I was watching Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle yesterday and what comes on when Dylan walks into the bar in Mexico? THE SONG! So I wait until the credits, go through and note down songs that it could be and run to the computer to investigate. I go through each one on Amazon.com so I can listen to preview and I still can't find it. Go to imdb.com and look through soundtrack listings and keep trying and finally, I find Sleepwalk by Santo & Johnny, look them up in wikipedia.com and they have a video. Sweetness.



And since then I've been searching for better versions of the song, even the original recording, and the best I could find is a Final Fantasy video with two animated people making out and falling love in water. Kind of weird when its out of context, but don't let that affect your opinion of the song.



And then, there's this guy with a ukelele that's just cool.

Jack Johnson

I don't know when this song came out, I'm so not with the times, I assume it was sometime recently since it was on the MSN front page, but here's Jack Johnson with Matt Costa and Zach Gill "Let It Be Sung" from "A Brokedown Melody"



So dug the Hawaiianess in the beginning.

Even though it doesn't appear in this song, I though it might be notable that I LOVE the sound of a steel guitar, especially in this song that I kept hearing on the oldies station in Fresno, but I never got the name and since it has no lyrics it's even harder to find. FOILED AGAIN!

Funny what you can do with 8 treadmills...

"Here It Goes Again" by OK Go

So simple, so wonderful, so entertaining.