The Musical Stylings Of John Erling

I never really developed a musical preference until I was in high school. It wasn't that I had no interest in music, I simply didn't have much exposure to music.

When I was growing up in Tulsa, OK my father would always listen to radio station KRMG as we had breakfast. KRMG is a news/talk station that had a couple of different morning personalities that I recall. (I would later work at that same radio station but that's a different story) The first morning personality was a guy named Watson Jelks. In the grand scheme of my life, he was not there very long. The one I recall most was a guy named John Erling (as far as I know he might still be there).

John Erling was like a cross between Johnny Carson and Rush Limbaugh. He liked to have fun with things such as encouraging everyone to ski the Tulsa mountains and he handled phone calls (which were often part of the show) with courtesy and professionalism. But he also liked to push buttons (thus the Rush Limbaugh reference).

To give Mr. Erling an occasional break that was longer than commercials could provide, KRMG would play a song, maybe two from time to time. The music they played could best be described as adult contemporary. Keep in mind this was 1973 to about 1980 so I grew up listening to such greats as Neil Diamond, Chuck Mangione and James Taylor. Not a bad lot but a little weak for a young boy trying to formulate his musical style.

By the time I got to high school the opinions of my peers were beginning to matter more and more and I started mimicking their listening habits. As such, I am a true child of the 80's. My musical preferences at that time switched to artists like Duran Duran, Rick Springfield, Tommy Tutone and The Thompson Twins.

I got into the "alternative" scene during the late 80's while I was in college. I listened to The Cure, R.E.M. and The Smiths. This was mostly because of the influence of certain members of the opposite sex. I was also cultivating an affinity for Jazz thanks to my Father and started becoming familiar with true classic rock. As we moved into the 90's I pretty much lost touch with the contemporary music scene. I just couldn't get into bands like Nirvana and some of the others.

I think in the last 5 years I have really hit my stride and found a preferred musical genre. Remember that classic rock I talked about? That's it. I really enjoy The Who, Eric Clapton, Boston, and a little bit of AC/DC. It only took me 35 years or so but I think I finally settled in to what I really like in music.

Milestones (Post Number 1,000)

I've been journaling, off and on, for a large portion of my life. Sometimes it has been an assignment for school, but mostly it has been for myself. To put my thoughts down in some sort of permanent fashion. The assignment books ended when the classes ended but I also have several journals with only a few pages filled and large gaps between the entry dates. For some reason, I never could consistently stick with it.

One theme that permeates my journal entries is that I write as if I am speaking to someone - telling a story. I want the words I write to be read and not just to myself. I want an audience for my writing. For classes, the audiences were the teachers and sometimes the other students. For the personal journals, it was no one in particular. My audience was some future person or persons with whom I would share my words or who might read them after I was gone to find out who I was.

I started this experiment that is The Internet Ate My Homework six and a half years ago after hearing Wil Wheaton speak about blogging at a Star Trek convention. He even read excerpts from a book published mostly from entries in his blog. He had an audience and it had just grown by one. (I no longer read his blog. It took a direction I didn't want to follow.)

When I got home I Googled blogging (there's a sentence we never could have said ten years ago) and stumbled upon Blogger. I typed up a mildly eloquent entry about how much it had surprised me that Wil Wheaton was so entertaining and how he and his blog had inspired me to start a blog myself. And because I didn't understand the interface well enough, and because the interface basically sucked 6.5 years ago, that wonderful entry went to that great bit bucket in the sky. Thus was born the title.

I have never kept a paper journal for this long (often because I've lost track of the actual journal). I think TIAMH has lasted this long because I finally have an audience. My audience is actual people named Mary and Ron and Brent and Carl and several others I don't know the names of but the audience is no longer a nameless, faceless future person who may or may not ever read my words.

Recent events in my life make me glad that I have done this. I have looked at photographs and heard stories from other people and I simply don't recall those events. With my blog I can go back and read about the things that were important in my life and understand the things that stood out to me as important at that time. I become my own audience. I can see how I've grown and I can see what I've learned.

For instance, with that "first" post, I learned not to judge public figures based on what you see on TV. I discovered I had some good stories in me and started to find a voice. Then, because of some stressful times (that ultimately ended in epic failure), I realized I'd lost that voice.

I have shared joy and sorrow and random thoughts and inner thoughts and fun stories from my childhood and things that are just weird. And I have found my voice again.

This experiment that is The Internet Ate My Homework has taken me places I never thought I would go. It has been part of my life longer than I thought it would be. It is an outlet. It is a comfort. It is a reflection. It is a catharsis. It is not something I will abandon for social networking. This is me.

I have thought about moving my blog to my own hosting service but I have been with blogger so long it's just so much easier to stay. And I hope you will stay with me (and recommend me to your friends) for the next 1,000 posts.

POPPIES Poppies poppies poppies

I've been having a lot of weird, existential thoughts lately. Did I use that right? Let's see... Existential - adj - pertaining to existence. Yeah, I think that's right.

Anyway, a few of the media outlets I read, listen to and watch have been talking about the end of the decade. It has hit me a little funny. It's been 20 years since the decade has been the big thing. I mean, at the end of the 90's we were all talking about the end of the century.

I've seen top lists of music, movies, and all manner of things. I've heard about things we're thankful about in the past decade and things we wish never happened (i.e. fashion disasters and fluff like that). I've given some transient thought to those sorts of things but nothing too profound.

I have been thinking a little more deeply about life - my life, specifically. (see, this is where the existential part comes in) I remember trying so hard to grow up and get to 21 when I was a full citizen and the state and government held no restrictions over me that they didn't hold over everybody else. 21 years later, I wonder what happened to the time between then and now. The first 21 years seemed to go so slow, the second 21 seemed to go so fast. Maybe that's because when you're less than a decade old (see how I tied that in?), a year seems so much longer because your entire existence only consists of ten of them.

I don't have a lot of regrets. I have had times when the rug has been pulled out from under me and times of great success. I wonder where I'm going from here and if I'm competent to make the journey. I fear the unknown but look forward to enjoying the next howerevermany decades I'll be sticking around.

I told you they were weird. So, what about those best of lists? Here's one for you.

Bubby's Top Ten Innovative (or just plain cool) Things From The Last Decade:

1. MP3 Players
2. DVRs (OK, they were introduced in the late 90's but they really took off in the last 5 years)
   
3. Abilify
4. Two words: Blu Ray
5. Affordable flat-screen TVs
6. Magnetic, clip-on sunglasses for prescription glasses (no more dork shades!)
7. S.A.M.E. weather alert radios (no more alerts for cities 150 miles away)
   
8. Social networking (I have [re]connected with so many people via Facebook)
9. Camera phones / smart phones
10. GPS
11. Text messaging
12. Wikipedia
13. Hybrid cars
    
14. Nintendo Wii

Okay, so there's 14 of them.

(33 1/3 bonus points if you know how the title relates to the post)

Ed, Farrah, and Michael

It's been a rough week in the celebrity world. First, on Tuesday, Ed McMahon passed away. This wasn't much of a surprise. After all, he was 86, Johnny Carson, the person to whom he was most closely associated, died a couple of years ago, and he'd disappeared from the public eye a long time ago. I figure Dick Clark isn't too far behind.

Yeasterday, we lost two of my generation's icons. Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Just last month, NBC ran a documentary Farrah had put together about her long battle with cancer. I didn't see the actual show but I did see some pre-show interviews with Ryan O'Neil, her long time partner (I don't believe they ever married). Ryan had said that they set out to film a survivor's story but that it wasn't looking like it was going to end that way.

I never had the Farrah Fawcett poster. Frankly, she just didn't do it for me for some reason. But it weas that poster that made her famous (oh, and that Charlie's Angels thing). I can't say that I'm torn up about her passing.

I'm not torn up about Michael Jackson, either, but that one did surprise me. I remember my first thought was, "Finally, that poor, tortured soul is at rest." Jackson was, without a doubt, a superstar. He rode a gigantic wave in the 80's (Thriller is still the best selling album of all time) but in his race to outdo himself his life kept taking major turns toward the weird. I get the nose job he had some time in the late 70's or early 80's that appeared on his album "The Wall" but in his mind, in his struggle for aesthetic perfection, he ceased to be black (I kinda get that one too), his nose became razor thin, his jaw line was a characature... in essesne, he ceased to look like himself... completely.

My prediction is that we'll start getting information that Jackson's death was more than the result of an illness or some congenital heart defect. The rumors have already started that it was linked to anorexia, Anna Nicole Smith had nothing on Michael Jackson, and I bet we hear news similar to when Elvis died.

Unlike some, I probably won't remember where I was, exactly, when I heard he died. In my world the children won't scream, the lovers won't cry and the poets won't dream. I'm just not that affected by it. I do, however, understand the significance.

Time Has Little To Do With Infinity And Jelly Doughnuts

I have been watching a few short segments about the election results and have had one or two interesting conversations in the past couple of days about it. I think my sister is right, there is a lot of ignorance (and misunderstanding and confusion and...) about this whole thing.

I was talking to someone this afternoon who was very obviously a staunch republican and doesn't care who knows it. She was proud that every county in Oklahoma voted in favor of McCain AND that Oklahoma overall had the highest percentage of votes for McCain of any state in the nation. I believe they called Oklahoma at 7:01pm central.

Anyway, I was trying to point out to her that I found it interesting that Wednesday morning saw almost every news outlet saying the United States had elected its first African-American president and this morning (Thursday) several of them had changed to referring to the first black president. I didn't even get through the first half of my observation before she started in on "If McCain had won, would they be saying we'd elected another white president?" I don't know... maybe... I think they'd be more focused on the first female vice president. But do you think maybe she's a little bitter that Obama won?

But I see it all differently. It really isn't about race, even though that's the catalyst of it all. I grew up attending magnet schools. What that means is that the Middle/Junior High school and High school I attended pulled students from all districts across the city and from a WIDE variety of racial backgrounds. I have an understanding, weak as it may be from my middle-class white perspective, that it isn't that Barack Obama is black. It is that black peolpe, as a race, have been persecuted, prosecuted, and beat down for so long in this country that the election of an African-American to the position of President of the United States is a symbol that some of those wounds are starting to heal. Barack Obama is a symbol that we can put aside our prejudices, that we can come together to support a person for who he is and not for what he looks like, and that we can remember the past but move beyond it.

This election was destined to be bigger than any one man or any one woman no matter who won the election. As Barack Obama was introduced for his victory speech, I could see in his eyes that he knew this. Not that he merely realized it but that he knew in his soul the basic truth of it.

I have high hopes for our new president-elect. I think it is time for our country to be led by someone who has a different view that looks beyond the way it has always been done and sees the way it should be done. No, he's not perfect. I am 100% positive that I will not agree with 100% of his policies and politics. But I welcome his perspective.

As another blogger put it, "I'm energized. I'm excited. And I'm terrified. So much can go right and so much can go wrong. But finally there is a new direction."