Great Songs That Missed The Top 40 - 1972

How were these NOT hits??

• Elton John - Tiny Dancer (#41)
• Yes - And You And I  (#42)  [OK, I get this one.  A favorite of mine, but not exactly radio friendly]
• Led Zeppelin - Rock And Roll (#47)
• Eric Clapton - Let It Rain (*48)
• Jackson Browne - Rock Me On The Water (#48)
• Alice Cooper  -Be My Lover (#49)
• Black Sabbath - Iron Man (#52)
• Simon & Garfunkel - For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her (#53)
• Alice Cooper - Under My Wheels (#59)
• Stephen Stills - It Doesn't Matter (#61)
• ZZ Top - Francene (#69)
• David Bowie - The Jean Genie (#71)
• Allman Brothers Band - Ain't Wastin' Time No More (#77)
• Loggins & Messina - Vahevala (#84)
• Allman Brothers Band - Melissa (Sweet) (#86)
• Allman Brothers Band - One Way Out (#86)
• Janis Joplin - Down On Me (#88)
• John Denver Goodbye Again (#92)
• Stephen Stills Rock And Roll Crazies (#92)
• Traffic - Rock And Roll Stew (#93)
• Simon & Garfunkel - America (#97)

 Actually, that would make a right nice little playlist.  I think I will!

Heat Wave???

We're having an "unseasonably" warm spell this week, with temperatures in the 60s. It was 66 yesterday, one degree shy of the record for January 30th.  I was discussing the weather with one of my foreign born co-workers, who has only been in the area for a few years. He asked if this kind of warm spell was unheard of. I suggested that while 60's is certainly above average, I believe warm (or could) spells are actually quite normal, and to be expected. Further I suspected that there's been a day at least 60 in just about every January.

Well, my blanket statement got me thinking, and I decided to do some research. Looking at Climatological data for St. Louis, going back to 1874, the record high temperature for each day in January is 65 degrees or above. The year for when the record high occurred varies from 1876 through 2012, and the record highs vary between 65 degrees and 77 degrees.  Naturally, I put the data in a graph, covering the entire winter season (Dec 21 through March 20):

I find it interesting just how wide the range of actual measure temperatures is. In the context of a “normal” temperature of 41, yesterday’s 66 seems dramatic. But 66 degrees falls within the historic range, so it's not exactly stunning.  Over the past 138 years, the high temperature on January 30th has been between 67 and as 10 degrees.

But what of the original supposition? Looking at the data, January did not have a 60 degree day in either 2011 nor 2011. BUT, every year from 2001 through 2009 did. That’s 80% of the last 10 Januaries have seen temperatures above 60 degrees in January. Not every, but certainly most….

Slice Of Life #3984

This is the kind of thing that catches my eye:  An old power pole, with a couple of rusting transformers, in front of a stand of bare trees....  The woks of man contrasted with the works of nature.  Rigid straight lines versus bends and angles and variations....  The continually aging technology compared to the soon-to-be-vibrant trees.

I know, I know....  more pictures of the grandkid, less of the esoteric silliness....

Slice Of Life #3539 - Lake Zurich, IL

This is  the view from my hotel room window, at the Holiday Inn Express in Lake Zurich, IL.  Taken at 6:01pm on January 18, 2012.  And yes, the experience was every bit as exciting as it looks.  The lake is past that stand of trees, we glimpsed it through the van window driving in.  If this had been summer, I'd''ve wandered over.  But between cold and dark, I didn't really consider it. 

I used to travel a lot with my job, but not so much over the past several years.  I've kind-of gotten out of the habit, which is a good thing.  This recent trip was a quickie:  STL to KC, KC to Chicago (Lake Zurich), Chicago to STL.  48 hours and home. 

It's Not Only A Passion But An Addiction....

So, I googled myself today, for the first time in a rather long while.

Several years ago, it seemed that the majority of hits under my name were, in fact, related to me.  No more.  In fact, some pretender even has a web site registered at my-name.com!!  The audacity!  Here's a screen capture from his banner, maybe I should co-opt his slogan?

Anyway, googling my name brings up over 15,000 resuls.  The first one that is me is #3, which links to my LinkedIn page.  Only 4 of the page one results are me, including a technical paper I wrote a few years back and a stock-photo agency.  On the other hand, almost 40% of the first 50 responses do refer to me.  Most are related to some sort of photography, which isn't too surprising since that's probably my top on-line activity.

A couple of fun finds were examples of my photos being used, like here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Winter On The Way

As the weather is turning colder, I changed the image on my computer desktop. Here you go:

This was about 5 years ago, in the Land-Between-The-Lakes area of Kentucky.  Sadly, I cannot remember exactly where.  I've studies the satellite images from Google Earth and looked around on subsequent trips to the area.  No luck.  If it looks familiar to any of y'all, let me know.  We drove from Murray KY, across LBL to Lake Barkley Lodge. 

Record Review: The Neil Diamond Collection – Neil Diamond

Rank: 222 (Rolling Stone Magazine’s November 2003 ranking of the Top 500 Albums)
I own this on CD


It often seems like a cop-out to include a hits collection in a “greatest albums” listing, but in this case it fits. At his best, Neil Diamond was (is?) a hit-maker, and this set covers his most successful period. This disc does a pretty good job of covering Diamond’s output from 1968 through 1972, including 12 of his 13 Top 40 hits in that span. It also includes 2 singles that missed the Top 40, and a live version of a pre 1968 hit.

 Neil Diamond is a member of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (Class of '11), and deservedly so.

     1. Sweet Caroline – #4 in 1969
     2. Cracklin’ Rosie – #1 in 1970
     3. Song Sung Blue – #1 in 1972
     4. Play Me – #11 in 1972
     5. Brooklyn Roads –#58 in 1968
     6. Shiloh - #24 in 1970
     7. Crunchy Granola Suite – did not chart
     8. And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind – did not chart
     9. Holly Holy – #6 in 1969
     10. Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show – #22 in 1969
     11. Stones (live) - #14 in 1971 – #30 in 1970
     12. Soolaimon - #30 in 1970
     13. Walk On Water - #17 in 1972
     14. Cherry Cherry (live) – live version of hit from 1968
     15. I Am I Said - #4 in 1971
     16. Done Too Soon - #65 in 1971
     17. Morningside – did not chart
     18. He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother - #20 in 1970

Overall, this is a very strong collection from a specific window of Neil Diamond’s career. Personally I would’ve liked to have see 2 changes. Drop “And The Grass Won’t Mind” and “Morningside” in favor of 1970’s “Do It” (#36), and Diamond’s cover version of his own “I’m A Believer” (#51 in 1971). But it is still a worthy offering.

Gracie

Latest picture of my Granddaughter.  One of the many gifts for which I'm thankfull!

Take Your Pick

Songs starting with “pick”, from my iPod:

• Pick-Up – Brian Protheroe

• Pick ‘Em Up – Lynyrd Skynyrd (post-crash)

• Pick Me Up (Big Chicken) – John Entwistle

• Pick Up The Peace – The Who

• Pick Up The Pieces – Average White Band

• Pickin’ To Beat The Devil – Pure Prairie League

• Pickin’ Up The Pieces – Poco

For what it’s worth…

Fantasy Racing

Congratulations to Tony Stewart for winning the 2011 NASCAR Championship. Unfortunately, I didn’t do nearly that well in my fantasy league. 2011 was my 7th season playing fantasy racing (at Yahoo), and only the 2nd time I finished out of the top 10%. The other time was 2007, when I was changing jobs and basically quit mid-season. My scores, ranked:

• 2008 – 99th Percentile

• 2006 – 96th percentile

• 2010 – 95th percentile

• 2005 – 95th percentile

• 2009 – 94th percentile

• 2011 – 87th percentile

• 2007 - dnf

On the other hand, I paid less attention to NASCAR this year than I have for several years. So that’s my excuse, at least. Oh well, 3 months until Daytona…..

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

I was reading through a recent issue of Smithsonian magazine, and saw an article on Ralph Eugene Meatyard.  Who?  Turns out Meatyard was a "dedicated amateur" photographer from the 60's and early 70's.  I decided to check out my local library system, and found a book on Mr. Meatyard.  Very interesting stuff.  Most of his work is not my style, but it's all interesting, and some I quite like.  A couple examples hot-linked from the web:

Down On My Knees

So, yesterday was my Arthroscopy.  My first knee surgery since the late 80's.  Yee haw.  I guess it went OK, they were able to do some clean up of some of the issues.  Apparently there's some level of bone-on-bone, which can't be helped at this point.  PT starts tomorrow!

They gave us a couple sheets of images, here's one:

Not sure what it is, or if that's before, or after.  Or good or bad.......

The title refernces the song from Bread, btw.

Just What I Needed

Or should I say "Knee - did".  As in my knee did mess up.

So, I had an MRI last week, they actually gave me a CD with all the "stuff".  Not that it makes any sense to my eyes.  Bleow is series 5, image 5:

According to the report, "There is a radial tear of  the lateral meniscus posterior horn best seen on series 5, image 5; this is associated with a parameniscal cyst."

Antipodal

I saw something on the internet a while back about antipodal points, and finding the the region on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to wherever you live.  Then going and photographing the place.  Well, I thought that was a pretty cool concept (however impractical in my non-globe-trotting life).  So I went to the link, entered my location, and found that my antipodal point is in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

In fact, all of the USA is opposite the Indian Ocean.  Except for a couple of tiny islands that are mostly uninhabited, there's simply nothing there.

Bottom line?
                                Nevermind.

So Ladies, Fish, And Gentlemen, Here's My Angled Dream...

Just a little Blue Oyster Cult for a Tuesday.  The title is from the song Subhuman, off the album "Secret Treaties".  Back the days before they became huge (with the release of "Don't Fear The Reaper"), we'd listen to Blue Oyster Cult and try to figure out the lyrics.  Back then, if you sent an SASE, they'd send you a computer printout of the lyrics, on tractor-feed green-bar computer paper.  We're talking 70's hi-tech.  And yes, I had 'em.  Not that it helped make actual sense out of the songs.  I still have a page of them.  They'd probably fetch a fortune on eBay if they were in semi-decent shape.  But who thinks of these things when they're 18 and things like the internet don't exist?

And we'll top it off with a photo of me, from '77 / '78 time frame:  I was so young!