Tag / HBO

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Fifty Years Of Music – 1985

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 1985, the year I wrapped up fifth grade, moved to sixth grade, did the Super Bowl Shuffle, and turned 11.  31 songs of the Hot 100 are familiar to me now, with only fifteen of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#97: Don Henley – All She Wants to Do Is Dance
iTunes stats: N/A

The sixth solo single from the Eagles drummer peaked at #9 on the Hot 100.

#92: Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA
iTunes stats: 15 plays

Ranked as the 275th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone, the track broke the top ten, hitting #9 in January of 1985.

#88: David Lee Roth – California Girls
iTunes stats: 22 plays

Roth’s first solo single after leaving Van Halen, this version matched the original by the Beach Boys, topping out at #3.

#75: Katrina and the Waves – Walking on Sunshine
iTunes stats: 14 plays

Hitting #9 on the Hot 100 in 1985, the song was briefly banned in the southern US after Hurrican Katrina in 2005.

#74: Bryan Adams – Summer of ’69
iTunes stats: N/A

Peaking at #5 on the charts, the song was ranked at #70 on Blender’s list “The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born” in 2005

#67: Bruce Springsteen – Glory Days
iTunes stats: 14 plays

The fifth of a record-tying seven singles from the Born in the USA album to hit the top five, it stalled out at #5 in the summer of 1985.

#61: Harold Faltermeyer – Axel F
iTunes stats: 18 plays

The instrumental theme to Beverly Hills Cop, the track reached #3 on the Hot 100.

#58: Madonna – Material Girl
iTunes stats: N/A

Spending two weeks at #2, the second single from Like a Virgin gave Madonna two simultaneous top five hits.

#57: Tina Turner – We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)
iTunes stats: N/A

Turner peaked at #2 with this hit from the soundtrack to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, which also earned her a Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.

#56: Animotion – Obsession
iTunes stats: 16 plays

The band’s first single reached #6 on the Hot 100.

#53: Don Henley – The Boys of Summer
iTunes stats: N/A

The track, which earned Henley a Grammy in 1986, hit #5 on the Hot 100 and topped the Top Rock Tracks chart for five weeks.

#51: Prince & the Revolution – Raspberry Beret
iTunes stats: 5 plays

Peaking at #2 in 1985, the song re-entered the Hot 100 at #33 in 2016 following Prince’s death.

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2023: The Year In Television

With less and less good productions airing on network and cable and moving to the various streaming platforms, that seems to have taken over as my main form of television watching. Now that I work from home full time, I have plenty of time to take in whatever they have to offer. Since we cover the network and cable shows that I watch elsewhere, let’s take a look at the 23 seasons of shows I streamed on eight different platforms this year.

Black Mirror Season Six (Netflix)
The British anthology returns with a five-episode season that started strong, with one of the best episodes of the show’s run, but ended poorly.

Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 16 (Paramount+)
The BAU returns, minus a few key resources, to hunt down the most prolific serial killer they’ve ever faced.

Daisy Jones & The Six (Amazon Prime)
Based on the book by Taylor Jenkins Reid, it is the tale of how a garage band from Pittsburgh morphed into the biggest band in the world, and then how it all blew up.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Seasons 6-7 (Netflix)
The Legends see their travels through time and space come to an end.

Dead to Me Season Three (Netflix)
Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini return for one last go-around.

Doctor Who Specials (Disney+)
David Tennant returns and helps Ncuti Gatwa usher in a new era for Doctor Who.

The Flash Season Nine (Netflix)
The show, and the CW’s Arrowverse, winds down with one final go-around.

The Flight Attendant Season Two (HBO Max)
Kaley Cuoco returns for another go-around as the alcoholic flight attendant who also works for the CIA.

Ginny & Georgia Seasons 1-2 (Netflix)
Imagine Gilmore Girls if Lorelai came from nothing and was somewhat amoral and Rory was bi-racial.

How I Met Your Father Season 2 (Hulu)
The second and final season leaves us hanging as to who the father would have been.

The Last Thing He Told Me (Apple TV+)
Jennifer Garner stars in the adaptation of the Laura Dave novel. Continue reading →

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Prolific Authors – 14 Books

4Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, since I’ve far surpassed my reading output of any year on record, I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through October. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 118 books, so there could be some movement over the past two years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  We continue today with the author I’ve read 14 times, down one from two years ago.

Erle Stanley Gardner

I’ve been aware of Gardner as the creator of Perry Mason for years but had never read any of his work until 2015, when Hard Case Crime released the first of their republishing of his Cool and Lam series, written under the penname A.A. Fair.  Since that time, six entries of the series have been released.

Fools Die On Friday – Erle Stanley Gardner

Thanks to the new HBO interpretation of Perry Mason, six of those books have also been republished, all of which I read between 2020 and 2022.  In addition to those, I’ve stumbled across a few other editions over the years, including the most recent book of his I’ve read, The Case of the Howling Dog.

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Book 49 (of 52) – The Outsider

The Outsider – Stephen King

When a young boy is brutally murdered, the police and the district attorney think they have an impeachable case, with DNA and fingerprint evidence matching their chief suspect.  After they arrest him, though, they find out he has an iron-clad alibi, allowing bits of doubt to creep in.  When he is killed on the way to his arraignment, more mysterious happenings start to occur, leading a group of interested parties to hire an investigator who has previous experience with the strange and unexplainable.  When the natural world does not have an explanation for what is happening, will a police officer be able to expand his thinking to include the supernatural as a possibility?  And can they stop the supernatural creature before it attacks again?

Stephen King’s The Outsider, released in 2018, first made my acquaintance in 2020, when the adaptation aired on HBO.  I watched the first episode and meant to go back for the rest, but never did.  At some point, I picked up a copy of the eBook on the Kindle app and, being the Halloween season, this seemed like a good time to dive in.  It took a while for King to get to the “Stephen King” part of the tale, but once it did, it was an enjoyable ride.  Some of the characters from this book appear in other King works, so I feel like I now have a nice springboard back into his more recent output.

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Book 36 (of 52) – The Case Of The Howling Dog

The Case of the Howling Dog – Erle Stanley Gardner

When a man visits Perry Mason to help with both a will and a howling dog, it turns in to a murder trial, with a wife accused of murdering her husband, who had run off with the original man’s wife.  Perry skirts the line of legality while trying to determine what actually happened but uses the results to try and get vindication for his client.

Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Howling Dog, originally published in 1934, is just the fourth entry in his Perry Mason series.  Being that early, the characters of Perry Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake are a little rougher around the edges than they would eventually become.  This case, though heavily modified, was featured as the 23rd episode of season two in the Raymond Burr version of the show.  With the HBO version of the show cancelled, there’s no push to continue to re-publish these old novels, so they will continue to become hard to come across, but when I do, I’ll be sure to add them to my collection.

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Midseason Review – Mondays

We continue our annual look back at my thoughts from the beginning of the season and look ahead at what’s to come for Monday nights, which looked a little barren in the fall, leaving me with nothing to watch.

Now, let’s see what is coming to the airwaves this spring:

Fantasy Island – FOX’s update of the old classic returns for a second season.

Perry Mason – The HBO version of the legendary lawyer returns for a second season.

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Top 200 Albums: #1 – 10

itunes_imageWe last counted down the Top 200 albums in my iTunes library four years ago. Since that time, the world has literally changed, and my commute has decreased from 1+ hours each way to 25 steps. So, despite the decrease in potential listening time, I figured it was time to take another look, based on number of plays from late 2007 through the morning of January 1, 2022.

Well, it all comes down to this: the top ten.  We finish things off today with the ten albums I have listened to the most over the last 15 years. including three comedy albums, three compilations, two soundtracks, one greatest hits package, and one bootleg live performance.

#10: Various Artists – Television’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 (70’s & 80’s)
iTunes stats: 378 plays
Previous Ranking: 13

Another collection of TV theme songs, this time covering the late 70s and the early 80s, uses 32 songs, from shows such as The Facts of Life, Inspector Gadget, and Barney Miller, sees an 85% increase over the past four years.

#9: Garbage – One Mile High… Live
iTunes stats: 378 plays
Previous Ranking: 17

The audio rip of the band’s live video release, featuring 21 different tracks, jumps up eight spots after more than doubling its number of plays in the past four years.

#8: George Carlin – It’s Bad For Ya
iTunes stats: 391 plays
Previous Ranking: 24

The final album from George Carlin, released just over a month after his death, increases its total by over 144%, thanks in part to being used as a sleeping aid when I’m away from home.

#7: Patton Oswalt – Werewolves and Lollipops
iTunes stats: 395 plays
Previous Ranking: 10

An 85% increase for Patton Oswalt’s second comedy album, which would be significantly higher if I were to ever sync my old iPhone 4s, which I use to lull myself to sleep at home, again.

#6: Various Artists – Living in the 90’s
iTunes stats: 396 plays
Previous Ranking: 8

A whopping 22 songs, from bands like The Proclaimers, EMF, and Roxette, racked up an additional 172 new listens for this compilation of early 90s hits.

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Top 200 Albums: #41 – 50

We last counted down the Top 200 albums in my iTunes library four years ago. Since that time, the world has literally changed, and my commute has decreased from 1+ hours each way to 25 steps. So, despite the decrease in potential listening time, I figured it was time to take another look, based on number of plays from late 2007 through the morning of January 1, 2022.

Today, we kick off the final quarter of our countdown with the next batch of ten albums that I have listened to the most over the last 15 years, breaking the triple digit total play plateau with three compilations, and music from the 60s, 80s, 90s, and beyond.

#50: The Beatles – The Beatles
iTunes stats: 182 plays
Previous Ranking: 48

Colloquially known as The White Album, the band’s ninth studio album, released in 1968, garnered a nearly 52% increase in plays.

#48: George Carlin – You Are All Diseased
iTunes stats: 183 plays
Previous Ranking: 79

The comedian’s eleventh HBO special, recorded in 1999, added 102 listens to jump 31 spots in the rankings.

#48: Various Artists – Monster Ballads
iTunes stats: 183 plays
Previous Ranking: 55

This compilation of love songs from hair bands, featuring artists such as Warrant and Cinderella, added 74 new plays to the five different tracks in my collection.

#47: Garfunkel and Oates – Secretions
iTunes stats: 188 plays
Previous Ranking: 79

The latest offering from musical comedians Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci saw a 132% increase in listens.

#46: Van Halen – The Best of Both Worlds
iTunes stats: 190 plays
Previous Ranking: 56

This greatest hits compilation saw an increase of 83 listens thanks to eight tracks, split between David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar.

Continue reading →

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Top 200 Albums: #61 – 69

We last counted down the Top 200 albums in my iTunes library four years ago. Since that time, the world has literally changed, and my commute has decreased from 1+ hours each way to 25 steps. So, despite the decrease in potential listening time, I figured it was time to take another look, based on number of plays from late 2007 through the morning of January 1, 2022.

Today, we continue our countdown with the next batch of ten albums that I have listened to the most over the last 15 years with three compilations, two comedy albums, and a heavy dose of 90s alternative favorites.

#69: Various Artists – The TransFormers: The Movie
iTunes stats: 149 plays
Previous Ranking: 60

A 46% increase in plays for the six tunes, from the likes of Stan Bush and Weird Al Yankovic, from this soundtrack from the animated TransFormers film from the mid-80s.

#69: George Carlin – Life is Worth Losing
iTunes stats: 149 plays
Previous Ranking: 85

The comedian’s 18th album, and 13th HBO special, added 70 new listens while rising 16 spots in the rankings.

#68: Various Artists – ’90s Style
iTunes stats: 155 plays
Previous Ranking: 64

A 56% increase in plays over the past four years for the nine tracks from exciting 90s artists, like Jill Sobule, Green Jelly, and MC Hammer, from this compilation album.

#67: Various Artists – Millennium Hip-Hop Party Vol. 2
iTunes stats: 158 plays
Previous Ranking: 66

This turn-of-the-century compilation added 60 new listens to seven tracks, from artists like Coolio, Naughty By Nature, and Paperboy.

#65: Poison – Swallow This Live
iTunes stats: 160 plays
Previous Ranking: 58

A 52% increase for the eight tracks from this double album, the first CD I ever owned after receiving it for Christmas in 1991.

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Book 8 (of 52) – The Case Of The Green-Eyed Sister

The Case of the Green-Eyed Sister – Erle Stanley Gardner

Catching up on the books I read while in Hawaii while on vacation.

When a blackmailer comes after the Bain family, threatening to implicate them in a crime if they don’t pay, a daughter hires Perry Mason to negotiate the deal.  When the blackmailer is found dead and his client is arrested for murder, Perry, along with Della Street and Paul Drake, have to get to the bottom of the case.

Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Green-Eyed Sister, originally published in 1953, is the 42nd entry in his Perry Mason series, the fourth of six novels re-released two years ago in conjunction with the new adaptation on HBO, and the sixth that I’ve read.  This entry spent more time in the courtroom than some of the others and felt more in-line with the classic television show we all know and love.  I look forward to seeing the TV adaptation from the Raymond Burr version of the show, the 21st episode of its first season, so I can compare the filmed version with the original.

This was the last Perry Mason novel I had waiting to be read.  A second season of the HBO program should be released later this year, so hopefully they re-release another batch of novels along with it.