Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

It's also Christmastime, so the subject of this week's FM is holiday favorites. They can be traditional, modern, edgy, funny -- whatever. As always, please post links to all suggestions.

We did a holiday theme last year as well, in case anyone feels like checking out some of those suggestions.

Happy holidays!

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

This week's topic comes to us from Jeff K., my friend and co-worker from Brooklyn. Jeff says: "Here's one I was thinking about this week: favorite back-to-back songs on an album. You know, songs that were born to go together - if you hear one, your brain automatically starts playing the other one when it's over."

So there you have it. Please post links to your suggestions!

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

My friend Rob Zero suggested a cool topic for this week: Songs that were used perfectly in films.

As always, please post links. Happy Friday!

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

My pal Teoh posed a good topic suggestion: Songs NOT to play at a wedding. This one should be fun.

As always, please post links.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

My daughter has a piano recital this weekend at the WVU Creative Arts Center, and I can't wait. She loves playing so much that watching her does my heart good, and to see her in a more formal setting like this is exciting to me (even though she doesn't seem to care too much one way or the other).

So this week's theme is performing -- as always, interpret it however you want. (If you're new here, just post links to songs that you like that somehow fit the category.)

Here's one to get it going....

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

It's been one crazy week, folks. No matter what your political persuasion or who you were supporting to be the next president of the United States, one thing is for absolute certain: this isn't the same US of A that it used to be.

So, while it might seem a bit cliche right now, I also think it's appropriate -- this week's theme is change. (One thing hasn't changed, though -- link it up!)

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

Tonight I'm going out with some friends to see local legends Todd Burge and Owen Davis play at a little watering hole called Gene's Beer Garden. It's a flashback to 15 years ago for me, so I'm pretty excited about it. So this week's theme -- and I think this might be a repeat -- is music from where you're from. I'll start with a little of West Virginia's Todd Burge. As always, please link it up.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

This week's theme: black and white.

As always, please post links. I'll start with this one.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

We're going to the mountains this weekend to celebrate the DM's birthday and (hopefully) have a weekend of relaxation. I'm excited about it, so I'm in the mood for fun music. Let's go with a simple, repeat theme here: '80s music.

Please post links to the songs you're requesting, and feel free to respond to others' suggestions.

I'll get it started with a classic song by The Cure:

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

Because I'm obviously having trouble commenting on all of the fine suggestions from Friday Music each week, I'm going to change up the format for a while. Commenting on posted suggestions is open to everyone.

In the spirit of this free-for-all approach, today's topic will be determined by the first person to pose one. As always, please post links as well.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

Dear Casey,

Ten years ago I was a lonely child living on a small island off the coast of Maine. I didn't have many friends in my life, so I often escaped my dreary existence through the pages of classic novels. My best friends were Tom Sawyer, Holden Caulfield, and a boy named Pip. But that all changed when I made a real friend: Abraham.

Abraham was even smaller than I was, and even quieter, but when he came to the island, I knew I finally had a friend who understood me. I'd never met anyone so willing to listen to my problems, and together we worked through them all, no matter how big. I was happier than I'd ever been in my life.

Unfortunately, my happiness didn't last. Abe had only been around for a little over a year when my mom broke the news to me: He had contracted a disease and died. I was devastated. My only friend, gone in an instant. Suddenly I found myself even lonelier than I'd been before he arrived.

The next year my father took a job inland and I transferred to a much bigger school. We moved to a neighborhood teeming with children and, for the first time in my life, I finally had a circle of friends. But to this day, I've still not forgotten my very first friend.

Casey, could you please play Queen's "You're My Best Friend" for my best friend -- and the best goldfish I ever knew -- Abraham.

--------

This week's theme is long-distance dedications. Links, please.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

I've missed Friday Music these last couple of weeks, but I'm happy to be back -- hopefully I haven't lost all of you.

This week's topic is: Music you would listen to if you were sitting alone on a bench in the park in the pouring rain. I realize that this scenario is perhaps unlikely, but put yourself there anyway and let's see what you come up with. As always, please post links to all suggestions.

Me? I would listed to this.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

You know what I want to listen to today? The kind of music you'd expect to hear when you feel like everything is spinning. The kind of music you'd expect to hear in a state of delirium induced by lack of sleep and excess of caffeine.

The kind of music you would think would emanate from an unexpected parade of fantastical creatures through a dreamlike forest world.

So let's make the topic: bizarre.

I have obviously been slack in my responses to suggestions these last two weeks. I think this week, I'll just open the floor up to everyone. It's a Friday Music guest-hosted by all Friday Music regulars. Hopefully you guys will help me respond to suggestions this week.

As always, please post links to all suggestions.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

This week features a two-part topic.

1. Music by the lesser-known. Try to post up something that'll be new to most people.

2. Music by the well-known, but lesser-known music. Music by established acts, but songs that won't be making it onto Greatest Hits albums.

As always, please post links with all suggestions.

Just because I'm feeling a bit sadistic today, I'm going to lead with a little Atilla, which satisfies both categories, I think. This isn't your grandmother's Piano Man.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

I bought a piano today. My daughter has been taking lessons for a couple of years, thanks in part to a borrowed electric piano, but it's going back to its owner. I found a solid used console piano from a local shop, and I'm pretty excited about it, as I've wanted to learn to play forever. (Oh, and she needs a piano too!) It's being delivered on Monday.

So this week's theme is piano. Make it work however you can, and please include links.

I may have already posted this at some point, but it's worth an encore:



One of these days I might just do Fiona Friday:

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

And so does my friend Wildflower, who is struggling to compile a CD of cool love songs to give out to the guests at her brother's upcoming wedding. So I told her I would be happy to ask the Friday Music set to help out with some ideas. That's this week's topic: the RtN Wedding Mix.

The good thing about her brother is that he has great taste in music, so there's no need to go dropping cheesy, typical stuff. I don't need that on a Friday and neither do you. This mix needs to be cool.

To get it going, I'll mention the two songs Wildflower has already decided to include: Rich and Chris Robinson's "Cold Boy Smile" and Elvis Costello's "The Very Thought of You." (Okay, that's the Billie Holiday version, but I couldn't find Elvis' version.)

So hook a sister up! Even if you don't know how to make links like this, please try to post at least standard links with each of your suggestions.

Three Things

1. I'm exceedingly pleased to show you the cover of our next issue of Racer X. Our cover story is by Craig Schulz -- son of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and longtime Racer X reader -- and through him we obtained the rights to run the gang on our cover and in our cover story. It's by far the most unique, unexpected thing we've ever done on page 1, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it's received by our readers.


2. It appears I have a children's book out. I remember writing it (and getting paid for it), but I've never seen the cover, I've never seen the book itself ... but it's apparently for sale already. Interesting. Perhaps I'll receive a copy of it one day? I wish I could have had one of my guys design the cover.

3. I was quoted in the last issue of Rolling Stone, in a story about my friend Robbie Maddison. Of course it was in the issue with the Jonas Brothers on the cover. The previous issue featured Barrack Obama and the new issue has Robert Downey Jr. on the cover, and I had to make the the Jonas Brothers issue. Still, it was kinda cool.

Enough about me. What's up with you?

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

Here's an interesting topic: songs you think could start movies.

If you link it, they will come.

Joe

As my friend and co-worker Keith and I were flying back from Portland last night, we heard a terrible sound. I immediately knew something was wrong, and I looked up and saw an elderly gentleman a few rows up and on the other side of the plane having what appeared to be an intense seizure. I still remember the exact sound he was making. The airline hostesses reacted quickly, and within moments one of them said over the speakers: "Is there a medical person on board? We have a passenger who is having a stroke." (This on-the-fly diagnosis surprised me, and in retrospect I think she must have meant seizure.)

Soon a doctor from first-class and a couple nurses from coach appeared and went to work. Their presence made me feel a little better. The doctor barked out orders from the start: "Get out of my way" she said to someone who was tending to Joe (that was his name) before she got there. "Get me blood-pressure cuff!" She then started talking to Joe, who was obviously still in a very bad way, and she continued to try to get him to acknowledge her for what seemed like 15 minutes. "Joe? Joe? Can you hear me, Joe? Stay with me, Joe, you're going to be okay!" It didn't seem to me like anything was getting better. Joe wasn't in seizure anymore, but he also wasn't responding. To be honest, I thought he was dying, and I know I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Especially after I heard the doctor say, "He's not going to make it," though we think now she meant he wasn't going to make it all the way to Pittsburgh.

Maybe the worst thing of all was that the only person Joe was traveling with was his young grandson -- he was probably 12 or 13 -- who was seated beside him at the window. He was right there for all of this, trapped in what was probably the scariest experience of his life. I sat in my seat hoping with everything I had. I actually tried to mentally connect with Joe, to talk him into coming back. This was no place to die, and it was certainly no place to watch your grandpa die. Come on back, Joe. You don't want it to happen here.

Then a bit later he started to come around. I could tell he was eking out responses to the doctor's questions. Soon I saw the doctor raise his arms above his head, and he actually held them up for a second. This was the moment when I though he would make it. He started to respond even more, and the doctor's demeanor relaxed, which was another good sign. That's when the decision was made to land in Chicago so Joe could get more help. Keith and I were both surprised that the decision hadn't been made earlier, as this whole scenario seemed to last well over 30 minutes. Maybe my judgment is off there, but if it is, it's not by much.

So the doctor sat in the aisle seat beside Joe and the plane banked hard and descended more rapidly than any large aircraft I've ever been on. It didn't seem reckless, necessarily, but it was pretty intense, especially after the experience everyone had just had. Keith wondered if this is the type of situation a commercial pilot lives for.

We landed and obviously taxied immediately to a gate, and an emergency crew was on board in a flash. That's when the best thing of all happened -- Joe weakly stood and took a step to the waiting wheelchair. If you'd asked me 30 minutes before, I would have guessed he was done for, and here he was getting to the chair on his own. His grandson followed, obviously shaken, and they vanished out the door and I assume to the extended hope of a hospital. A hospital that seemed impossibly far away just minutes before. The airline had some paperwork to process, and relatively soon we were back in the air, on our way to Pittsburgh. We got back to Morgantown around 2 a.m.

So that's all we know about Joe. Keith tried doing a search today to find more information on him, to no avail. I'd like to think he's doing fine now. He's a pretty old guy, and he's not going to live forever, but at least he made it through this one. Attaboy, Joe.

Friday Music

It's Friday. I need music.

But I'll be on a plane to Portland, Oregon, so I've asked my blog buddy Helen Mansfield to fill in for me this week, and she's graciously accepted. Here's a note from Helen:

This Friday, I am asking readers to build their own super group, as I did on this old post.

Doesn't matter if members are living or dead, gather your dream together.

Think Judy Garland should be lead singer for The Buggles? Cool, but give me some links so we can all get an idea of what they would sound like.

Also, give me a short play list of what you think your super group would perform.

Enjoy!

Wow, Helen Mansfield is taking Friday Music to a whole ... nuvva ... level. It'll be interesting to see what everyone comes up with for this.

Link and let link, I always say. Link and let link.