Happy Mother's Day

 

"I.O.U." Jimmy Dean (1976)

Sean Prince and his Sunny 107.9

I was going through the latest comments on my blog and I was intrigued to find a commercial pop radio station trying to spam me.

The spam reads like this:

"Being an ardent fan of Pop and Adult Contemporary music, Sunny 107.9 is always my first choice for non-stop entertainment. Whether in my car or at home I’m always tuned in and kept entertained by the stations great music....."

"Adult Contemporary music" Three words that strike instant terror into most active, fun loving people.

The person who sent this was someone by the name of Sean Prince. And from his copy (and it is copy....)

....this radio station was enough to completely change his, Sean Prince's very own life around. So much so, he has to tell every pop culture blog on Blogspot about it.

Forget sobriety, religion, marriage, kids or any other life changing things that happen to the rest of us. Forget the dizzying selection of entertainment options at our fingertips here in 2014. In his car or at home, for Sean Prince, it was an Adult Contemporary radio station that finally completed him.

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for Sean Prince and we all wish him all the best for whatever makes him happy.

We just feel sorry for his girlfriend ("Honey, PLEASE turn off the radio....It's ruining The Moment.....") Or his boss ("Hey Sean....We notice you've been looking pale and unproductive lately. We also notice you've been coming in late out of your car during breaks. And we wish you wouldn't mess with the radio in the office and turning it off the thrash metal station we normally listen to here at work.....So if you'll kindly pee in this cup and give it to our lady from HR with the latex gloves ....")

But regardless, I'm a sport about these things. And if Sunny 107.9's better mix of Sara Bareilles/Katy Perry/Lorde hits is even better than that other radio station's crummy mix of Sara Bareilles/Katy Perry/Lorde hits, I'll take the challenge.

So I listened for a few hours.

Sunny 107.9 is pretty much your typical Adult Contemporary radio station of today, with a carefully researched playlist and programmed for your typical suburban soccer mom who grew up with '80s and '90s pop hits. But doesn't want to appear like some throwback to her kids or their friends (until she reminisces about Milli Vanilli. Or New Kids On The Block.)

There is an "'80s At 8" hour on weekday nights. Oh goodie! Every burnt-to-a- crisp '80s song millions of us already have on our iPods, in our CD collections or branded permanently into our brains being played back to us! Ahhh....Memories!

But this of course isn't your AVERAGE '80s music hour. What? No Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, S.O.D. or Sigue Sigue Sputnik....WHAT kind of '80s hour is THIS? Even Seattle's Star 101.5 gave in and played the ULTIMATE '80s song, "Eighties" Killing Joke? Where's the Dead Kennedys?

And then it's back to Bruno Mars, Jewel, Faith Hill, Uncle Kracker, etc. on 107.9 MHz somewhere.

Sunny 107.9 is in my opinion, actually a good station. It tries it's best, as a independent, locally owned commercial FM radio station. But by playing the same songs and the format as all the corporate conglomerate Four C's stations do (Clear Channel/CBS/Cumulus stations), how does this station actually STAND OUT?

Please Sean, if you want to thrill us (and I know you're trying.) DO NOT DO IT WITH A FUCKING RADIO STATION CALLED "SUNNY (Insert FM Frequency Here)" Because THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME.

Thank you......  

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Ahhh...Cinco de Mayo. The day we Americans celebrate Mexican Independence Day by throwing parties, quaffing margaritas, tequila or Modelo beer and enjoying a fun super tasty South of The Border feast.

But that's not entirely correct. There's lots of fun parties and the alcohol does flow freely. The food is always marvelous and super tasty.

Yet Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican independence day. That's September 16th. Cinco de Mayo is in fact, more of an American holiday than a Mexican one. And one that deserves more recognition than it gets.

Cinco de Mayo's roots begin during the French occupation of Mexico. Mexico at the time was in a real mess. They had 15 years of wars (The Mexican-American War, The Mexican Civil War and The Reform War) and everybody was getting tired of it. Finally in 1861, Mexican President Benito Juarez told Britain, Spain and France to hold off on their debt collection for these wars for two years until they can financially reorganize and get the country back on track.

They sent armies to confront Mexico and collect their debts regardless. Britain and Spain negotiated and backed off. But the French, under the rule of Napoleon III would not hear of it and another war began. Napoleon III wanted to turn Mexico into a French territory and since the Americans at the time were in an ugly civil war, he thought he could establish a strong enough foothold in Mexico, which he could then use to invade America (which was still a very small, very rural country at the time.) By using the Confederate South as proxies.

Napoleon sent 8,000 troops to attack Mexico's 4,500 troops at Veracruz. But on May 5, 1862, the much smaller Mexican army sent the French into retreat. The news reached the border communities of America where people celebrated the news.

While there would be more fighting, a major turning point had begun. Had Napoleon III defeated the Mexicans at Veracruz, the Civil War could have ended very differently.

So Cinco de Mayo is very much an American holiday. (More on Cinco de Mayo)

It was the expanding Latino communities that brought the holiday across America. But it was beer companies in the '80s that helped bring Cinco de Mayo into the American mainstream.

Because if there's one thing everyone LOVES, it's to party.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

8-Track Tapes From The '80s

Contrary to popular legend, the 8-Track wasn't quite dead in the 1980s. It was dying and on life support. They were phased out by the major labels for retail sale by 1983. But not truly dead until 1988 when the very last licensed manufacturer of new commercial 8-Track music tapes, the RCA Music Club quietly discontinued them.

Remember May Day Baskets?

Remember when we used to make May Day Baskets out of brightly coloured construction paper and our crayons?

It was a lot more fun than getting decked upside the head by some dreadlocked anarchy dude from down in Eugene, OR who came up to pick a fight in Seattle on you because you LOOK like a capitalist (and sometimes, LESS than they do) on an otherwise perfectly good Thursday night when you actually kinda felt for them and would love to help them figure things out if they would just CALM DOWN!

Good times.....