Archive for October, 2010

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Have A Thrilling Halloween


31 Oct

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Friday, a co-worker described Halloween as the holiday that is my “Christmas and New Year’s rolled into one.” I have to agree. Though as I get older my antics get lamer and more lazy and my black polyester witch dress gets tighter and tighter. Regardless I will still try to witch it up a little tonight.

Halloween evolved for us after my sister and I had been to a few houses trick-or-treating that had actually scared us. I mean hearts-pounding scary. These were the homes that my mom thought were “funny” for her to stand at the END of the driveway and watch us to go to. The ones with old witches sitting outside in rocking chairs in the dark. We quickly caught on and would protest going to these houses but in the end we were made to go. We figured out that it would be more fun to be one of the “scary houses” than to actually have to go trick-or-treating at one of them.

We started to brainstorm. What is scary? A re-enacted sacraficial seance with my sister as a “princess” and me as a witch? Check. Long-stem candles lit inside and outside of the house? Check. My mother dressed as a vampire complete with cape and prosthetic mustache and eyebrows? Check. Our CD player pointed out the upstairs window playing Thriller down LeGeros Drive? Check. (That one was tricky though because we had to get good at spotting the cops as they turned down our street so we could turn the volume down.)

Halloween 2009

There were many acts to our performance. After the seance, I would “chase” the princess around in the front yard for the kids. My sister obviously didn’t think she was getting enough face time so she devised an alter-ego “weird guy” act. That involved her slinking around from tree to tree wearing a backpack, baseball hat and Billy Bob teeth. One year a little trick-or-treater dressed as Cinderella tripped and fell as she was running away from the house in fear. I tried to help her but she just scrambled up and kept running.

Say what you want about Michael Jackson, but his genious behind this song and video has yet to be matched. It’s worth the 13 minutes. And if you’re on LeGeros Drive tonight, you just may hear it echoing down the street. Happy Samhain.

Spooky Songs: Strange Brew


30 Oct

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 You may not recognize him under that scuzzy English afro, but yes, this is Eric Clapton during his Cream days with “Strange Brew.”  Looks aside your ears will recognize the guitar.  Classic Clapton.  I had the pleasure of seeing him in concert about 10 years ago.   He certainly is one of the guitar greats. 

This performance is from 1967.  Watch the little host guy in the beginning.  LOL. I guess it was the 60s.  Bad dance moves were relative.

Enjoy “Strange Brew” a.k.a “Strange Brue” as our spooky/creepy week almost comes to an end. One more post Sunday.  As you can guess, it’s going to be a thiller of a tune.

Spooky Songs: Riders On The Storm


29 Oct

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If you really want to scare your trick-or-treaters, may I suggest a little of The Doors?  Nothing says Halloween like a little “Riders On The Storm” for your background music as you open the door to toss Snickers in their buckets.

There’s a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin’ like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If ya give this man a ride
Sweet memory will die
Killer on the road, yeah


I have always loved this song.  It’s creepy and foreboding and actually kind of calming at the same time.  But what does it mean? A Doors expert and blogger Dan put it well:

“The imagery is blunt, and the gentle undercurrent of the song’s music and lyrics now harbours the threatening edge of death. Everyone is a rider on the storm, a journey that continually risks losing security. This journey is vividly dangerous.  Jim’s message was act now, search later. Life is a journey, but any journey will be painful. Life is pain, love is pain, and fear prevents people from experiencing life, from accepting what The Doors ultimately come to realize, that we are all just Riders On The Storm.”

Well put, Dan.  It’s still a creepy song though.  A video someone made with the song is below. It gives it a little extra something.

Creepy Songs: Sisters Of The Moon


28 Oct

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Fleetwood Mac is my favorite band of all time.  Even topping my undying love for Michael Jackson and Barry Manilow.  I think some of it has to do with the inter-band history, the wild drug stories, and the painful end to the romance between Stevie and Lindsey.  But mostly my love of the band has to do with the mysterious Ms. Nicks and the great music she helped them put out.

Stevie herself dodged rumors for years that she herself was a real witch.  You don’t get more spooky than that.  And her mysterious “spirituality” has certainly leaked heavily into Mac’s music.  Stevie has said many times that the song “Rhiannon” was actually written about a Welsh witch.  You could also throw “Gold Dust Woman” into the mix or even “Hypnotized” (early Mac off of Mystery To Me which is my oldest Mac LP.)    But “Sisters Of The Moon” is probably most Halloween appropriate.  Not one of their most popular but it certainly is on the radar of Mac fans like me.

Mac music is just so autumn to me.  So go find a full moon somewhere, grab your Stevie Nicks scarf and light some nag champa. Get your Mac on.

P.S.  Special thanks to Jukebox Hero Fan JJ for today’s post suggestion.

P.P.S.  Check out the roadie pouring beer into Mick’s mouth at the beginning of the song.  Classic.

Spooky Songs: She Wolf


27 Oct

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Who is the biggest Shakira fan that I know you may ask?  Me? No.  The teenagers who continually put raw chicken in the same sack as fresh produce “bag” my groceries at Hugo’s?  No.  My friend Lar in Istanbul, Turkey? Close but no.  My 60+ year-old father?    Yes.

How my dad discovered Shakira through his dusty stacks of Elvis and Everly Brothers tapes is beyond me.  But he found her. She has her own playlist(s) on his ipod, my sister and I are sent his quarterly Shakira newsletter about her appearances on David Letterman, and both of us got her cd She Wolf for Christmas from him last year.  Beside my shock, I was impressed. It’s a pretty good album.

The title track off She Wolf is unique and kind of spooky.  The song title reminds me of a Halloween when I went to the remake of An American Werewolf In Paris. One of the worst movies I have ever seen.  I would rather stand on the corner near Target and hold a sign that says “Help Me Find A Good Movie; Anything Helps” than watch that one again.

I just watched the video for Shakira’s “She Wolf” which I hadn’t seen and let’s just say it needs these disclaimers:

1. She is wearing a nude body suit in a cage.

2. She is Columbian.  I don’t think I need to say more about her dance moves.

3. Watch at your own risk.

4. My Dad will like this one.

Enjoy this new Halloween classic.

Spooky Songs: Black Magic Woman


26 Oct

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There are a couple of things that dying young will do for you besides a fancy funeral.  Immortalization and idolization.  That has worked well for Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Jimi Hendrix.  So the mere fact that he is still alive and now has a women’s shoe line at Macy’s shouldn’t take away from the greatness that is Carlos Santana.

I got to see Santana in Minneapolis about 10+ years ago.  GREAT concert.  It was about the time he was pairing with Rob Thomas and they had that huge hit, “Smooth.”  Another one of those concerts where my eyes are glazed in the presence of a music idol and my mom and sister are “along for the ride.”   We were pretty high up in the arena, so the smell of the wafting hashish from all of the 40-somethings reliving Woodstock was strong.  My sister and I looked at each other and laughed and asked my mom if she “smelled that.”  Her reply? “Smell what? Smells like somebody has B.O.”   Another mom LOL.

Fun Facts about “Black Magic Woman”:

Santana’s version of “Black Magic Woman” is the most popular version of the song, even though it was written by Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green.

First released in 1968 by Mac, then in 1970 by Santana after he blended it with Gabor Szabo’s, “Gypsy Queen” to make it his own.

That’s not Carlos Santana singing. It’s vocalist Gregg Rolie.

Creepy Songs: Rock Lobster


25 Oct

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This week we are going to spin our crazy Halloween kaleidoscope and bring you creepy tunes all week. This does not mean that I will be posting ANY Christmas songs when that season approaches.  Well, maybe Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”   But that’s about it.  You can thank my mother’s unhealthy obsession with The Ray Conniff Singers for that.

I have no idea why “Rock Lobster” is on every Halloween compilation list, but it is.  It’s not really scary except to think about lobsters crawling around all over and the trill “oooh ahhhs” that the girls sing in between lyrics.  The 1978 song was the first single for the B-52′s and they rocked it.  Actually, they Rock Lobster-ed it.  Check it out along with the zany video for the song.  This week is going to be fun.

Schnapps and Toni Braxton


23 Oct

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What is Hobo Day you may ask? I could sum it up like this: “eggs and kegs” starting at the crack of dawn. Drunken college students, high school bands from every mid-sized South Dakota town and senators and state officials all intermingling with each other on a 90-minute parade route.

Hobo Car in Hobo Day Parade

Girls in tube tops waiting in line for 45 minutes to get into bars on Main Street in 30-degree weather. In a nutshell: the yearly gong show that is South Dakota State University’s homecoming.

Because Brookings is my hometown I try to make it back every year. This year I brought fur coats and cream-colored berets for myself, my sister and my mom. We added a little something to the rest of the crazy on the parade route.  It worked well until it started to rain, shortly after this photo was taken.  My aunt Garnet and cousins Rachel and Emily are trying to pretend like they don’t know us.  I don’t blame them.

Lindsey, Mom, Me

In college, the parade and festivities are a requirement. Each year I fondly reminisce about the time I slipped Peppermint Schnapps into my friend John’s hot cocoa pre-parade. By the time the fire trucks were rolling by us on 6th street, he turned to me and said, “why am I buzzed?” I LOL-ed over that one for a while.

I think that was the year John and I had an obsession with Destiny’s Child and Toni Braxton. Well that year and a few years before that too. Our fall theme song was Toni Braxton’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough.”  I could almost taste the Schnapps and hear Toni this morning on the parade route as I thought back to my wilder college days.  It is snowy in Colorado today so I hope this little memory warms up my BFF John’s Saturday.  Toni certainly brings The Heat.

New Music Friday: LIGHTS


22 Oct

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Songs like this are why I love Canadians. They are willing to try anything, and not afraid of the popular pop constraints that American artists adhere to. In America, if your music isn’t about a relationship, cheating in that relationship, having sex, or making mo’ money (…mo’ problems) then it just isn’t a hit.

I stumbled across the Canadian artist LIGHTS this week. Yes, in all-caps and yes, she legally changed her name to LIGHTS. I had never heard of her before I sampled her new song, “My Boots.” At first I had no idea what it was about. I thought…hmmm…she is putting on her ‘boots’ to head out to ‘da club with her friends.

You might know if you’re from around here
What goes on for half of the year
Have you seen the queen of the castle?
Paint this city from ear to fear

If the air was meant to be glitter
It might not take all yours away
When she swings she’s a heavy hitter
When she comes you’ll ask her to stay

Winter left a cover
that I’m gonna end up under
But I’ve got my boots

When I’m in the summer I forget how much I love her
When she’s in the groove

Oh, it’s a love hate romance
Cause I could watch her dance
If I’ve got my boo-ooo-oo-oooots

This song is super-cute clean fun and cheery pop. It’s about winter and snow. It proves that a song doesn’t have to be about scheming to get it on in some dance club bathroom to be a hit. Way to go LIGHTS.

I have a sneaking feeling that one of the celebrity musicians that reads my blog (Nancy of Canadian supergroup The Jimmy Sweets) is going to like this one.

Throwback Thursday: Africa


21 Oct

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I used to pop wheelies around my ‘hood on my purple banana-seat Huffy humming Toto’s “Africa” so it is safe to say I have been a fan for a long time. When I got to high school, I was psyched to find out that our jazz choir (which I was a member of) was going to do a rendition of “Africa” acappella at a concert. Acappella. That means our voices would do everything including the rhythm and percussion. I was skeptical but being a life-long fan I knew my little “do, do, do-do-do-do” part pretty well.

The night of the concert we get out there and my section started the rhythm to get the song going. I shot my soprano friend Kris a nervous glance. This wasn’t going to be good.

You know the powerful “It’s gonna take a lot to keep me a away from you!” line? Yeah. Tenors Dave Wake and Brian Eclov not only missed their cue, but also forgot the words. I was mortified. Not really because we were on stage in front of everyone but more appalled because it was TOTO. Come on guys. I wanted to step forward into the spotlight and belt out the words like I was starring in my own 1995 version of Glee but I didn’t. And we all went home a little humbled.

Toto was formed in 1977 by a bunch of session musicians who were pretty much some of the brains behind albums for Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs and Sonny and Cher among others. They knew how to arrange music and write hits and catchy hooks. Sick of playing backgrounds in the shadows, they decided they wanted a little piece of the limelight. So they went out and got it.

They have so many hits, and there is so little time to list them all here. So here is “Africa.” Probably their most famous.
I know I’ve never forgotten it- or the lyrics.

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