Musical Three-Minute Eggs

Lately I've been listening to, as much as I can, all the songs in my iTunes library that I haven't played all year. (Oh, good lord, another year is almost down the tubes...) In order to get as many as I can out of the way, I put them all in a playlist and then put it in order of time (length of the track). That meant a lot of very quick tracks, such as those little interludes (musical, spoken word, whatever) that artists like Janet Jackson put in between songs, or old WAV files such as lines from cartoons, went first, in very rapid order.

The other day I got to the 3:00 mark -- all the songs that, according to the mp3 info, are exactly three minutes long. (We interrupt this story for a DISCLAIMER! With mp3s sometimes being obtained from various sources, there can be a bit of blank space before or after a song, so you may not hear exactly three minutes of music. We now return you to our previously scheduled programming.) This reminded me of something my former boyfriend used to do. He told me that, in order to make soft-boiled eggs, they had to boil for three minutes. So he would play the song "When Will I See You Again" by the Three Degrees, because it was exactly three minutes long. That gave me the idea for this post: the list of 3:00 songs in my iTunes library. And while I don't have that Three Degrees song, I do have a cover, as you can see...

When Will I See You Again - Erasure
You've Really Got A Hold On Me - The Miracles
Children Of The Revolution - Bono, Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer
Hello - Kelly Clarkson
Sing - Kristin Chenoweth
The Way You Look Tonight - Olivia Newton-John
Dance To The Music - Sly & The Family Stone
Every Little Bit Hurts - Brenda Holloway
She Tracks My Tears (mashup) Smokey Robinson & The Miracles/The La's
Darts Of Pleasure - Franz Ferdinand
Christmas in Hollis - Run-D.M.C.
Paid To Smile - The Lemonheads
Burning Man - Third Eye Blind
The Fool On The Hill - The Beatles
Shoplifters Of The World Unite - The Smiths
Do You Know The Way To San Jose - Dionne Warwick
Shiver - Maroon 5
Your Wonderful, Sweet, Sweet Love - The Supremes
The Right Thing To Do - Carly Simon
Vacation - The Go-Go's
The Ballad Of John & Yoko - The Beatles
Now That You Got It - Gwen Stefani
Promises, Promises - Dionne Warwick
The Christmas Waltz - Kristin Chenoweth
Favorite T - The Lemonheads
Candyman - Jason Nevins feat. Greg Nice
The Christmas Song - Ella Fitzgerald
It Takes Two - Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston
Kill The Pain - INXS
Liar Liar - Debbie Harry
For One Night Only - Bodyrockers
Everything Is Everything - Phoenix
Rushing - Moby
Gimme Some Lovin' - The Spencer Davis Group
Give A Little More - Maroon 5
Never Can Say Goodbye - Gloria Gaynor
Airplanes - B.o.B (feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore)
Santa Stole My Lady - Fitz & The Tantrums
Somewhere Along The Way - Nat King Cole
Give Love On Christmas Day - The Jackson 5
Little Of Your Time (Of Montreal Remix) - Maroon 5
Sleigh Ride - Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra
Somebody To Love - Jefferson Airplane
Baby Come Home - Scissor Sisters

#EverySimpsonsEver -- Day Two

Continuing with my daily summary of what to watch -- or skip -- during the twelve-day Simpsons marathon on FXX...and believe me, at this point the must-see episodes I'm leaving out are killing me!

MUST-SEE!

8/22 1:00 AM ET “Brush with Greatness” -- After seeing some old paintings by Marge (of Ringo Starr, her favorite Beatle, who provides guest vocals) in the attic, Lisa encourages her to take art classes. This leads to Marge's being commissioned to paint a portrait of Mr. Burns for the Springfield Art Gallery.

8/22 3:30 AM ET “Stark Raving Dad” -- Homer is temporarily admitted to a mental hospital because he wore a pink shirt to work. Really. There, he shares a room with a guy who thinks he's Michael Jackson. He doesn't remotely look like MJ (heavyset, white, shaved head) but he sure sounds like the real deal...which he should, since Jackson did the vocals (under an assumed name). However, it seems he used a sound-alike to sing. He only did the speaking parts.

8/22 8:00 AM ET “Flaming Moe’s” -- Moe's bar becomes a huge success after he takes credit for a drink invented by Homer. Speaking of huge, in Bart's prank call to Moe he asked for Hugh Jass. (Get it?) To Bart's shock, Hugh answers.

8/22 9:30 AM ET “Radio Bart” -- Bart plays pranks with a "Mr. Microphone"-type toy, and ends up falling down an abandoned well. A "We Are The World" parody features guest vocals by Sting.

8/22 11:00 AM ET “Bart the Lover” -- One of the best. As revenge for a month's detention, Bart answers Edna Krabappel's personal ad, at one point sending her "his" picture -- a picture of Gordie Howe from a book.

8/22 11:30 AM ET “Homer at the Bat” -- The one with all the MLB stars playing on Mr. Burns' power plant softball team so he can win a bet against Shelbyville's power plant owner. Darrrrrylllll... Darrrrrylllll... And I just read the Wikipedia entry for this episode, which states that one of their first choices for the ballplayers turned them down: one Ryne Sandberg, now Phillies manager. Fire him now.

8/22 4:00 PM ET “A Streetcar Named Marge” -- Marge and Ned Flanders starring in a musical production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

8/22 7:30 PM ET “Mr. Plow” -- "Call Mr. Plow, that's my name, that name again is Mr. Plow." Homer's simple jingle for his snowplow business. Then his competitor, Barney, calls on Linda Ronstadt for his jingle.

8/22 8:00 PM ET “Lisa’s First Word” -- One of the many episodes which flash back to the family's past; of course, that past shifts because the Simpsons never age. This went back to the 1980s. Guest starring Elizabeth Taylor, speaking one word. Wonder how much they paid her?

8/22 9:00 PM ET “Marge vs. the Monorail” -- The episode title kind of explains it all. The late Phil Hartman as Lyle Lanley is brilliant. Then again, he was always excellent. Lionel Hutz, Troy McClure...

8/22 10:30 PM ET “I Love Lisa” -- Ralph Wiggum loves Lisa after she gives him a pity card on Valentine's Day. "So...do you...like...stuff?"

MEH. M-E-H, MEH.

8/22 7:30 AM ET – “Saturdays of Thunder”
8/22 2:00 PM ET – “The Otto Show”

Again, not that these are necessarily bad. And even the worst episodes have at least some moments of humor.

Another Summer Playlist Update

I don't know if I should just re-post my entire summer playlist in one new post, but until I get to that point, you'll just have to click on this link, which leads to the most recent update, and then keep following links until you get back to the original posts. At any rate, thanks to this recent article, which provided a list of hits from June through August each year going back to the 1960s, I decided on a number of additions to my list that are already in my iTunes library. Also, Amazon has had two mp3 sales recently -- one was for a summer playlist of their own, 25 songs for a quarter each -- yes, $0.25 -- and just in the last 24 hours, recent hit albums for $0.99, and these sales provided some more tracks for the list.

The entire list is now up to 153 songs, although I'm kind of wavering on a few that originally were on the list. I'm leaving them, at least for now. Anyway, briefly, my criteria are: hits during the summer, song titles/lyrics  about summer, sunshine, heat, etc., and a few songs that either made an impression on me personally during summer or just have a summery feel to them, so the list is (as many lists are) a bit subjective. Here are the additions:


Wild Ones (Feat. Sia) - Flo Rida
Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
Nothin' On You [Feat. Bruno Mars] - B.o.B
Hot In Herre - Nelly
In The Summertime -Mungo Jerry
Sunshine - Matisyahu
Everybody Loves The Sunshine - Roy Ayers Ubiquity
Blister In The Sun - Violent Femmes
Dynamite - Taio Cruz
Viva La Vida - Coldplay
It's Gonna Be Me - 'N Sync
We Like To Party - Vengaboys
MmmBop - Hanson (if I recall, I kept this off the list originally)
Kiss From A Rose - Seal
Whoomp! (There It Is) - Tag Team
Can't Help Falling In Love - UB40
End Of The Road - Boyz II Men
Alone - Heart
With Or Without You - U2
Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain & Tennille
Touch Me In The Morning - Diana Ross
Lean On Me - Bill Withers
Lovely Day - Bill Withers
It's Too Late - Carole King
The Love You Save - The Jackson 5
War - Edwin Starr
Get Back - The Beatles
Honky Tonk Women - The Rolling Stones
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Help! - The Beatles
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
California Gurls (Feat. Snoop Dogg) - Katy Perry
Firework - Katy Perry
Chasing The Sun - The Wanted

Mom's Music

A few years ago my mom received an mp3 player as a gift, so she wrote out a list of songs and asked if I could put them on the player. So here's a list of 200 of her favorites. This is just the collection that made it onto the player. Looking at the worksheet which I created, there are some songs that didn't make it for some reason. Either they weren't online at all for me to download, or the quality was poor, or she wasn't sure of the song title or artist and I couldn't figure out exactly which song she wanted.

Also, I should point out that she adored Rod Stewart, but she had many CDs with his music so she didn't bother to have any of it put onto the mp3 player.

The list begins after the jump...

My Week In Culture

Before we get to my main topic, I just noticed...well, actually, I noticed it yesterday...that my last post was number 777. I do like the number 7, as you can guess from various email/screen names of mine. I'd like it to live up to its reputation and actually be lucky, though.

So this week I ventured away from my usual movies/sports/TV show morass. Twice. But hey, I have a good excuse: I was supporting my friends.

First up was a visit to the Shubin Theater, a very intimate -- okay, small: it seats just over 40 people -- venue around the corner from 4th and South Streets, for "All in the Timing" by David Ives. It's the inaugural production of the new WAG Theater Company, and the company's founder Brian Sell is on my softball team, so a bunch of us took in the show. "All in the Timing" is actually six short plays, very loosely connected by a theme of communication (and miscommunication) and its effect on the lives of people -- and, in one play, chimpanzees. (No actual chimps were harmed in this production.) One or two of the six plays were, for me, a little off-target, but overall the show was quite witty and at times hilarious.The actors (including Brian, who played one of the chimps) did very well. And the good news is, you can still see it, with three more shows June 23, 24 and 25. (Read more about the show and the company here and here.)

Then, tonight, it was time for "Mmm Bop: Best of the Boy Bands," the season-ending concert by the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus, at the Temple Performing Arts Center (formerly called the Baptist Temple) on the Temple campus. The entire show consisted of medleys of songs made famous by "boy bands." They use that term a little loosely, in my opinion, but it's technically accurate. Every song was by a duo or group consisting of males only. So while there was

Revolutionary T-Shirt...

You can buy this...for yourself, or for me, if you're so inclined. I first saw it a while back in a PhillyChitChat.com tweet that said it's on sale at the City Hall gift shop, and I've been meaning to look for it. I found it available at the Independence Visitors Center online gift store (probably can be bought in person at the center as well).

And in case you don't know what this t-shirt is paying homage to...

They Say It's My Birthday!

It's after midnight, so...happy birthday to me!



And don't forget this, for those in the Philadelphia area...or wanting to take a last-second trip. ;-)