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Fifty Years Of Music – 2013

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 2013, the year I celebrated my 39th birthday.  A mere seven of these songs remain familiar to me today, with just three of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#73: Ylvis – The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)
iTunes stats: N/A

A novelty song by a Norwegian comedy duo, it spent three weeks at #3.

#71: Taylor Swift – 22
iTunes stats: 4 plays

The sixth track from her fourth studio album to hit the Top 20, it reached #20.

#55: Psy – Gangham Style
iTunes stats: N/A

Only the second K-Pop song to chart on the Hot 100, it spent seven weeks at #2.

#28: Icona Pop featuring Charli XCX – I Love It
iTunes stats: 143 plays

The first US hit for both artists, it went all the way to #7.

#27: Rihanna – Diamonds
iTunes stats: N/A

The twelfth #1 hit of Rihanna’s career, it spent three weeks atop the Hot 100.

#18: Miley Cyrus – Wrecking Ball
iTunes stats: N/A

Spending three non-consecutive weeks at #1, it became her first chart-topping hit.

#16: Taylor Swift – I Knew You Were Trouble
iTunes stats: 3 plays

The second single from her fourth studio album, it peaked at #2.

#15: Lorde – Royals
iTunes stats: N/A

Spending nine weeks at #1, Lorde became the youngest female artist in 26 years, since Tiffany in 1987, to top the Hot 100.

#11: Bruno Mars – Locked Out of Heaven
iTunes stats: N/A

The lead single from his sophomore effort, it spent six weeks at #1 across 2012 and 2013.

#10: Katy Perry – Roar
iTunes stats: 2 plays

Nominated for two Grammy awards, it spent two weeks atop the Hot 100.

#2: Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell – Blurred Lines
iTunes stats: N/A

The longest-running #1 single of 2013, it topped the charts for twelve weeks.

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Ballpark Tour: Pirates

With the 2024 World Series in full swing, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we head to the steel city of Pittsburgh for a look at the Pittsburgh Pirates. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my history with PNC Park.

Stadium Name: PNC Park

Years in Service: 2001 – Present

Visits: 1

After 30 1/2 seasons at Three Rivers Stadium, the Pittsburgh Pirates moved into their new home for the 2001 season, starting with an 8-2 loss against the Reds on April 9th. Since then, the stadium has placed at or near the top of most rankings, with the only drawback being the woeful state of its main occupant.

I made my one trip to PNC Park on May 15, 2005 to see the Cubs defeat the Pirates 3-2. Southwest Airlines was introducing service from Chicago to Pittsburgh and was offering fares for $30 each way, so plans were made for a daytrip out to Pittsburgh. We arrived in town and took a bus from the airport to the stadium, where we ate a pregame meal of ribs at the in-stadium Outback Steakhouse. Yeah, you read that right. There was an Outback Steakhouse in the stadium. After the game, there was another bus trip back to the airport for the flight back to Chicago, which seemed to be made up strictly of people who were at the game, as a rousing rendition of Take Me Out to the Ballgame broke out mid-flight.

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FB10: Week 39

Still another disappointing week, but I continue to slowly trend in the right direction.  The week got off to a slow start on Sunday, as a trip to the hospital for one last look at Aunt Anna led to 3500 steps.  Monday saw a nice improvement, going up to 4700 steps.  A small drop on Tuesday left me with 3900 steps.  Another small decrease on Wednesday dropped me back down to 3500 steps.  Thursday saw a small boost, going back up to 3700 steps.  A trip to get my haircut on Friday helped push me back up to 4200 steps.  Another 6 steps on Saturday would have gotten me to 4000.

Total steps: 27,655

Daily average: 3950.7

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Fifty Years Of Music – 2012

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 2012, the year I celebrated my 38th birthday.  A mere ten of these songs remain familiar to me today, with just two of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#71: Adele – Rolling in the Deep
iTunes stats: N/A

Winner of three Grammy awards, it was ranked the 82nd best song of all time by Rolling Stone in 2021.

#47: Psy – Gangham Style
iTunes stats: N/A

Peaking at #2, it was the highest charting song by a South Korean artist up to that point.

#36: Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera – Moves like Jagger
iTunes stats: N/A

The collaboration spent three weeks at #1.

#33: Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
iTunes stats: 2 plays

Jumping from #72 to #1 in its second week of release, it was her first chart topper on the Hot 100 and tied her with Kenny Rogers for the most Top Ten entries by a country artist with eleven.

#29: LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock – Party Rock Anthem
iTunes stats: N/A

Featured in 21 Jump Street, which won the MTV Movie Award for Best Music.

#13: LMFAO – Sexy and I Know It
iTunes stats: N/A

The first #1 on the year, it spent two weeks atop the Hot 100.

#7: Kelly Clarkson – Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)
iTunes stats: N/A

Clarkson’s third #1 hit, it spent three non-consecutive weeks atop the Hot 100.

#3: Fun featuring Janelle Monae – We Are Young
iTunes stats: N/A

The lead single from the group’s sophomore album, it spent six weeks at #1.

#2: Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
iTunes stats: 25 plays

Spending nine weeks atop the Hot 100, it was the first #1 by a female Canadian artist since 2007.

#1: Gotye featuring Kimbra – Somebody That I Used to Know
iTunes stats: N/A

The track, which won two Grammy awards, spent eight weeks at #1.

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Book 46 (of 52) – Middle Of The Night

Middle of the Night – Riley Sager

When his best friend Billy mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night during a backyard campout, it changes Ethan’s life in ways he cannot begin to describe.  Thirty years later, he’s back living in his childhood home and, while having trouble sleeping, he feels a presence that he thinks may be Billy, followed by a clue in his backyard pointing towards Billy.  When Billy’s remains are found soon after, showing he died that night 30 years earlier, Ethan goes through many steps trying to figure out what happened that night, no matter the cost to him or his friends.

Middle of the Night, the latest offering from Riley Sager, continues to tease with the supernatural before explaining away most everything by the end.  I had pegged who was “haunting” Ethan early on, but didn’t key in on who the actual killer was.  With eight books in as many years for Sager, he shows no signs of slowing down.

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Ballpark Tour: Red Sox

With the offseason underway, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we look at the Boston Red Sox, owners of the oldest stadium in Major League Baseball. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my one game history with Fenway Park.

Stadium Name: Fenway Park

Years in Service: 1912 – Present

Visits: 1

In 1911, Red Sox owner John I. Taylor purchased the land bordered by Brookline Avenue, Jersey Street, Van Ness Street and Lansdowne Street and developed it into a larger baseball stadium, which he named after the Fenway neighborhood where it was located.  The first game was played April 20, 1912, as the Red Sox defeated the New York Highlanders, who would become the Yankees the following year, 7-6 in 11 innings.

I attended my first (and, so far, only) game at Fenway Park in August of 2017, cashing in my birthday gift from the year before.  The hope was that Angelina would be moving into Boston University around that time, but her gap year put a kibosh on that.  The ballpark was… a little underwhelming.  From the outside, you could barely tell that it was a stadium.  Michael even asked where it was as we were standing outside it.

The game went about as you would expect.  With James Shields on the mound, the White Sox did not put up much of a fight.  We were sitting down the left field line, with a good view of the Green Monster.  The seats, which may or may not date back to the stadium’s opening in 1912, were not really designed for people well over 6 feet tall, so there was a lot of uncomfortable shifting as Danny and my knees were smooshed into the seats in front of us.

I would have added an additional game or two in 2020, as the plan was to take Michael to Boston for his birthday and enjoy the monster seats, but a little global pandemic got in that way of that.  Now that Angelina is done with school and working full time in Boston, there is still an opportunity to increase my number of visits in the years to come.

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FB10: Week 38

Another disappointing week, but at least I continued to trend in the right direction.  The week got off to a slow start on Sunday, falling 7 steps shy of 2500.  Monday saw a slight improvement, going up to 3100 steps.  Tuesday was the best day of the week, thanks to an after-work trip to visit my dying aunt in the hospital which put me just 21 steps away from 5500.  Wednesday dropped back down again, putting me 30 steps short of 4000.  Another big drop on Thursday left me with 3100 steps.  Friday saw a big increase, jumping up to 4100 steps.  Another trip to the hospital on Saturday to see Aunt Anna left me 32 steps away from 4200.

Total steps: 26,499

Daily average: 3785.6

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Book 45 (of 52) – The Sugar House

The Sugar House – Laura Lippman

When her father introduces her to an old friend who needs help, Tess Monaghan takes on the case to try and identify the dead young woman her brother was accused of murdering.  She quickly finds out that the case is more than she bargained for, as she inadvertently puts herself and her loved ones in harm’s way.  When she tries to bow out, she accidentally starts putting the pieces together that wouldn’t fit previously and upsets the political landscape in Baltimore.

In The Sugar House, the fifth entry in Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series, the action moves back to Baltimore, taking on the inner workings of political favors and how deep those ties may go.  The ending sets Tess up for a new status quo to continue her adventures, which I’m sure I will be reading about soon.

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Fifty Years Of Music – 2011

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 2011, the year I celebrated my 37th birthday.  A mere eoght of these songs remain familiar to me today, with only two of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#57: LMFAO – Sexy and I Know It
iTunes stats: N/A

The group’s final Top 40 hit, it spent six weeks at #1 in the summer of 2011.

#29: Lady Gaga – The Edge of Glory
iTunes stats: N/A

The third single from her second studio album, it peaked at #3.

#18: Lady Gaga – Born This Way
iTunes stats: N/A

The title track from her second studio album, it became the 19th song to debut at #1, where it stayed for six weeks.

#9: Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera – Moves like Jagger
iTunes stats: N/A

Spending a single week at #1, making Aguilera the fourth woman to have a chart-topping hit in three different decades.

#7: CeeLo Green – Fuck You
iTunes stats: 51 plays

Originally peaking at #9 in 2010, the song rebounded following a live performance at the Grammys and reached #2 in its 26th week on the chart.

#3: Katy Perry – Firework
iTunes stats: 1 play

Spending two non-consecutive weeks atop the Hot 100, it earned Perry two Grammy nominations.

#2: LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock – Party Rock Anthem
iTunes stats: N/A

The lead single from the group’s second and final album, it spent six weeks at #1 in the summer of 2011.

#1: Adele – Rolling in the Deep
iTunes stats: N/A

Spending seven weeks atop the Hot 100, it was the singer’s first US #1 hit.