Tag / YouTube

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2025: The Year In Movies Part 2

Over 100 different actors starred in the 55 movies I saw last year (starring in being the first two named stars, a tradition dating back to the old Chicago Tribune TV guide which populated the early days of my database), and seven of them were in more than one film. Those seven thespians are:

Films Per Actor Per Year

Actor Name Films
Emma Stone 3
Julia Garner 2
Anne Hathaway 2
Jesse Plemons 2
Florence Pugh 2
Margaret Qualley 2
Aaron Taylor-Johnson 2

Now let’s take a look at the remaining movies that I saw in 2025, following up on last week’s post.

Death of a Unicorn (2025)
Billionaires try to exploit the magical properties of unicorns, but the unicorns have other ideas.

Bugonia (2025)
A conspiracy theorist kidnaps a CEO, convinced that she is an alien.

American Sweatshop (2025)
A content approver for a website that definitely isn’t YouTube tries to identify a man in an abhorrent video.

The Girl Who Got Away (2021)
A serial killer escapes and goes after her one victim who got away.

Another Simple Favor (2025)
Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively return for a sequel to their 2018 hit.

by admin

iTunes Top 200: #4

Music.  It is a powerful thing that brings people together, creates memories, and evokes emotions.  It is the universal language that speaks to the soul.  It forms the soundtrack of our lives.

It has now been five years since we last counted down the Top 200 songs in my iTunes library, featuring he songs I have listened to the most since 2007.  It is time to do so again, seeing which older songs still resonate and if any newer ones have joined the fray.  So, without further ado, here are my most listened to songs, based on number of plays as of January 1, 2025.

We continue this week with the fourth highest ranked song, a sing-a-long classic and the oldest composition on this list which has notched 242 plays since my stats began in late 2007.

#3: Harry Caray – Take Me Out To The Ballgame
iTunes stats: 242 plays, most recently on 9/27/2024
Previous ranking: #5

First written in 1908, Take Me Out to the Ball Game was popularized through many vaudeville acts and is considered one of the three-most recognizable songs in the country, although most people today have only heard the chorus.  It is thought to have first been played at a ballpark in 1934 and made an appearance later that year in Game 4 of the World Series.

Harry Caray joined the White Sox broadcast booth in 1971, becoming popular with the South Side faithful and enjoying a reputation for joviality and public carousing.  Returning owner Bill Veeck, knowing that Caray would sing along to Take Me Out To The Ballgame in the broadcast booth during the Seventh Inning Stretch, wanted Caray to lead the crowd in stadium-wide event.  Early in the 1976 season, Veeck secretly installed a public address microphone into the broadcast booth and turned it on once organist Nancy Faust started playing the song.  Caray initially did not want to do it, but, as Veeck explained, “Anybody in the ballpark hearing you sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game knows that he can sing as well as you can. Probably better than you can. So he or she sings along. Hell, if you had a good singing voice, you’d intimidate them, and nobody would join in.”  Caray finally agreed to sing it live, accompanied by Faust on the organ, and went on to become famous for singing the tune.

This version features Caray and Faust and comes from a YouTube video compilation of Caray’s performances from the late 1970s.  While Caray left the White Sox following the 1981 season and passed away in 1998, I still include the song on my White Sox victory playlists, attributing to its high play total.

by admin

Fifty Years Of Music – 2019

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 2019, the year I celebrated my 45th birthday.  Only four of these songs are familiar to me today, with just half of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#75: Pinkfong – Baby Shark
iTunes stats: N/A

The most-viewed YouTube video of all time, it peaked at #32 on the Hot 100.

#43: Taylor Swift featuring Brendan Urie – Me!
iTunes stats: 8 plays

The lead track from Swift’s seventh studio album, it jumped 98 spots in a single week, from #100 to #2, the largest such rise in Hot 100 history.

#39: Taylor Swift – You Need to Calm Down
iTunes stats: 9 plays

Debuting at, and peaking at, #2, it tied Swift with Madonna for the most #2 hits in Hot 100 history.

#1: Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus – Old Town Road
iTunes stats: N/A

Spending 19 weeks at #1, it is the longest run atop the Hot 100 in chart history, surpassing the previous record by three weeks.

by admin

Yet Another Mix Tape Monday – Volume 1

33 years ago, during my sophomore year of high school, I put together the first of what would eventually become a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD.  Today, we revisit those mix tapes for the fourth time and see how, or if, the soundtrack of my youth still resonates in today’s digital world and how much has changed over the past 3 years.

Bon Jovi should have been my first concert.  Their fourth studio album, New Jersey, was released in September of 1988 with a supporting tour starting soon after.  My sister, a big Bon Jovi fan, had convinced my mom to get us tickets, either to the March 24, 1989, show at the Rosemont Horizon or later that summer, August 4, at Alpine Valley.  I remember watching my mom make the phone call to get to tickets and then… nothing.

No tickets ever came in the mail and the show went on without us.  Now, it is entirely possible that this was an early introduction of the ineptitude of Ticketmaster, but knowing what I know now, more likely it was a sham.  A fake phone call or a real phone call made but a credit card that had no chance of the transaction going through.  We were not in the position to just shrug if something we ordered and paid for just didn’t show up and, to my recollection, there was no fuss made about the missing tickets.

Four years later, Bon Jovi, who placed three tracks on this first volume of hits that I started in 1989 during my sophomore year of high school, became both my second and third concerts.  This turned into one of the more disjointed volumes in the collection, with the hits of the day combined with older tracks, a morning zoo radio bit, and an album track thrown in for good measure.

Side A

Warrant – Heaven
iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 11/27/2021

The biggest hit from Warrant, which I most likely originally recorded from Z95, peaked at #2 on the Billboard charts.  It has added a mere three plays over the last three years, the most recent coming more than a year ago.

Young MC – Bust A Move
iTunes stats: 33 plays, most recently on 9/1/2022

One of the first tunes I bought on cassingle, this one hit wonder, which featured Flea on bass, won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance in 1990.  It had another impressive increase, gaining seven plays since 2019.

New Kids Got Run Over By A Reindeer

Thanks to YouTube, I am finally able to confirm that this parody song that I originally heard on the Welch & Woody morning show on Z95 actually existed.  I have yet to add it to my collection.

Bon Jovi – You Give Love A Bad Name
iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 2/15/2022

Originally written by Desmond Child for Bonnie Tyler, the song was rewritten and became the first single from Bon Jovi’s third album in 1986.  After a big jump between 2015 and 2019, it has been heard only twice in the three years since.

B-52s – Love Shack
iTunes stats: 18 plays, most recently on 10/5/2022

I’m still hoping to acquire the album version of the song on MP3, which I had originally taped off the radio.   In spite of that, I’ve managed to add five listens over the last three years.

Paula Abdul – The Way That You Love Me
iTunes stats: 14 plays, most recently on 5/18/2021

After stalling out on the Billboard charts on its original release in 1988, the song, along with a video by future Academy Award nominee David Fincher, was re-released the following year, making it up to #3.  Despite having not heard the song for the past year and a half, it nearly doubled its plays in these past three years.

Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting
iTunes stats: 14 plays, most recently on 3/16/2022

The #1 hit, the third consecutive for Marx, was the second single from his second album.  After a big showing between 2015 and 2019, it has slowed down, with only four new plays in the three years since.

Side B

Continue reading →

by admin

Book 30 – The Misadventures Of Awkward Black Girl

The Misadventures Of Awkward Black Girl – Issa Rae

Issa Rae, a writer, actress, and producer, tells of her years growing up as the awkward black girl.  Born in Los Angeles, Rae spent time growing up in Senegal, her father’s homeland, and Maryland before returning to LA in the sixth grade.  This led to her being the odd-fitting one wherever she was, either the American in Africa or the black girl in a predominately white Maryland neighborhood, which fed into her storytelling style, leading to the web series Awkward Black Girl and, subsequently, this book.

To be honest, my interest in Rae’s work is more recent and this book, released in 2015, predates any of the things I am familiar with.  That must be why I didn’t really connect with this.  Not saying it was bad in any way, but I wasn’t as hooked as I have been by other memoirs from her peers.  Maybe there will be a follow up one day, with tales of her move from YouTube to Showtime and the big screen.

by admin

iTunes Top 200: #5

itunes_image4 years ago, we last counted down the Top 200 songs in my iTunes library. Since my iTunes stats are still intact, across multiple PCs, iPods, iPads, and iPhones, I figured it was time to take another look at my most listened to songs, based on number of plays as of January 1, 2020.

Today, we enter the top 5, where we will go more in depth into each song.  The fifth most listened to song in my library, with 168 plays since my stats began in late 2007, is a traditional favorite and a live performance from the late 1970s.

#5: Harry Caray – Take Me Out To The Ballgame
iTunes stats: 168 plays, most recently on 11/20/2019
Previous ranking: #10

Harry Caray joined the White Sox broadcast booth in 1971, becoming popular with the South Side faithful and enjoying a reputation for joviality and public carousing.  Returning owner Bill Veeck, knowing that Caray would sing along to Take Me Out To The Ballgame in the broadcast booth during the Seventh Inning Stretch, wanted Caray to lead the crowd in stadium-wide event.  Early in the 1976 season, Veeck secretly installed a public address microphone into the broadcast booth and turned it on once organist Nancy Faust started playing the song.  Caray initially did not want to do it, but, as Veeck explained, “Anybody in the ballpark hearing you sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game knows that he can sing as well as you can. Probably better than you can. So he or she sings along. Hell, if you had a good singing voice, you’d intimidate them, and nobody would join in.”  Caray finally agreed to sing it live, accompanied by Faust on the organ, and went on to become famous for singing the tune.

This version features Caray and Faust and comes from a YouTube video compilation of Caray’s performances from the late 1970s.  While Caray left the White Sox following the 1981 season and passed away in 1998, I still include the song on my White Sox victory playlists, attributing to its high play total.

by admin

Book 1 (of 52) – You Deserve A Drink

You Deserve A Drink: Boozy Misadventures And Tales Of Debauchery – Mamrie Hart

We begin 2018 with the first memoir from YouTube star Mamrie Hart.  You Deserve A Drink pairs drink recipes, a staple of her YouTube show, with stories from her life.

Hart brings us along for the ride of her childhood, through her college years at North Carolina, and to her 20s in New York.  Her tales are interesting and well worth the small amount of money I paid for them.  She recently released a follow up and, should I come across a good deal, I’ll gladly pick it up.

 

by jim

Book 20 (of 52) – You’re Never Weird On The Internet (Almost)

You're Never Weird On The Internet (Almost) - Felicia Day

You’re Never Weird On The Internet (Almost) – Felicia Day

Last December, Felicia Day announced that she was writing a book and I went ahead a pre-ordered it on Amazon.  9 months later, her memoir has finally come out and, while I certainly enjoyed it, I’m left feeling a bit underwhelmed.

Day covers her unconventional upbringing, having been home-schooled from an early age and starting college as a 16 year old without a high school diploma, before moving on to her attempts to make it as an actor and, eventually, becoming a pioneer in creating original content for the web.  She details the struggle of trying to keep control of her creations as they became more successful, and the trouble it caused her, both physically and emotionally.

I consider myself a fan of Felicia Day, from her work as a potential in the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to her starring role in the web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.  But, there are some gaps.  I’ve never seen her defining web series The Guild.  I subscribe to her YouTube channel, Geek & Sundry, but have never really watched any of her videos.  Reading her book didn’t really make me want to run out and change any of that either.  And maybe that’s OK.

by admin

Book 17 (of 52) – We Appreciate Your Enthusiasm

We Appreciate Your Enthusiasm: The Oral History Of Q101 - James VanOsdol

We Appreciate Your Enthusiasm: The Oral History Of Q101 – James VanOsdol

In 1992, Q101 flipped their format from adult contemporary to alternative rock, starting a 19 year journey that took them to both the top and bottom of Chicago’s radio rankings.  James VanOsdol, one of the jocks from the station’s mid-90s heyday, put together this history of the station, starting with it’s switch from Murphy in the Morning to the Cure in 1992 to the station’s swansong in 2011, ending as they started with Friday, I’m In Love.

I started listening to Q101 probably soon after they became Chicago’s New Rock Alternative, which coincided with the end of my senior year of high school.  Despite going to college 120 miles away, in Backwater, Indiana, it would not be an understatement to say that the station, and the music it played, was the soundtrack to my college years, and looking back to those years was easily my favorite part of the book.  Hearing recollections from all of the familiar names from back then, Robert Chase, Samantha James, “Join Me” Steve Fisher, and Wendy & Bill, brings me back to that time.

In 1998, Mancow moved his morning madhouse to Q101 from Rock 103.5 and the feel of the station started to change, which was part of the reason I stopped listening as frequently.  The music became harder, Tori Amos and Jewel gave way to Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, to connect with Mancow’s audience and nuMetal was not something I was into.  I would still tune in occassionally, but not nearly as often.  While this is what pushed me away from the station as a listener, the stories from this time period are fascinating.  The culture clash between the Q101 people and the Mancow people is probably deserving of a book all of its own.

By the time Mancow left in 2006, I had left terrestrial radio behind for Sirius.  Alt Nation and Lithium were now my go-to channels for my alternative music fix, so this era of Q101 I was mostly unfamiliar with.  When the station was sold in June of 2011, it didn’t really register in my world.  I can’t remember if I tuned in on the final night, July 14, 2011, or caught a stream or YouTube of it later, but I heard the end, when a bunch of “current” and former jocks got together to say goodbye, exiting as they entered nearly 20 years earlier with Friday, I’m In Love.

This book came out 2 years ago, and, in the time since, the 101.1 frequency has gone through multiple formats and is once again playing alternative music under the call letters of WKQX, though not the Q101 name.  A few weeks back, I was in a friend’s car where I heard the “new” station for the first time, and heard a Live song from 1994.  In a way, it was like nothing had ever changed.