As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Lyric Of The Day #3 (February 6, 2020)

Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
 
 
Normally I wouldn’t spotlight a lyric from a song that I had previously recognized. In this case, however, these two lines seemed to perfectly summarize the current state of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Lyric Of The Day #2 (February 4, 2020)

This ain't the same summer song that you used to know
'Cause Jack left Diane thirty years ago
 
 
Great song (written by Nate Blasdell / Evan Bogart / Andrew Goldstein / Emanuel Kiriakou / Lindy Robbins) that turned out to be a complete flop in the U.S., although a hit in New Zealand. Performed by a duo best known for its 2014 hit “Classic” (which gets bonus points for name-checking Donny Hathaway, along with the more obvious Michael Jackson, Prince, and Marvin Gaye), “American Dream” is much more of a downer, which probably explains why it didn’t even make Billboard’s Hot 100.

Big Brother is watching

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/28/off-facebook-activity-page/
 
He knows when you’ve been sleeping …
 
… Facebook and sister apps Instagram and Messenger don’t need a microphone to target you with those eerily specific ads and posts — they’re all up in your business countless other ways.
 
Even with Facebook closed on my phone, the social network gets notified when I use the Peet’s Coffee app. It knows when I read the website of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg or view articles from The Atlantic. Facebook knows when I click on my Home Depot shopping cart and when I open the Ring app to answer my video doorbell. It uses all this information from my not-on-Facebook, real-world life to shape the messages I see from businesses and politicians alike.