Isolation Friday - Celebration

I feel like I won the lottery. I am feeling happy, relieved, overwhelmed with emotions actually.

Today, I received my first shot the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. I never ever thought that I'd be so happy to get a needle stuck in my arm but these are weird and frightening times. I'm over the moon! I had some pretty dark moments over the past few days because I worried that something would happen and my appointment would be canceled. The process was painless. I went to a small local pharmacy, had a nice chat with the pharmacy assistant (who is a neighbour of mine as it happens). I scored some brownie points for having arrived with my consent form completed and signed (and I entered all of the information on my computer so it was easy to read). While I was waiting the requisite 15 minutes after receiving the vaccination, my certificate arrived in my email inbox. Easy peasy!!

So, for Isolation Friday (because even though I'm joyful - and grateful - we're still under a stay at home order), I'm sharing one of my favourite songs from 8th grade, Kool and the Gang's classic 1980 hit, "Celebration." I encourage you to join me in a little Friday afternoon dance party in your house somewhere!!

Have a great weekend, stay safe, wear a mask, wash your hand, get a jab if you have a chance. We can do this, together!! xo

There's a party going on right here

A celebration to last throughout the years

So bring your good times and your laughter too

We gonna celebrate your party with you, come on

Cancon Thursday - Brunette Summer

How about them thunderstorms huh?? The other night, when the thunder started rumbling, I was deep into a book and thought that my neighbour was dragging wheelie bins up and down his driveway. Eventually I looked up and realized that a crazy storm was happening. Made me think of summer. I love wild storms in the summer, especially when you sit outside and watch them roaring across the sky.

So today is Thursday and that means I'm sharing a Canadian song. It's still spring and summer feels like it's still a long way away (it's not really!) but I'm sharing "Brunette Summer" by Chixdiggit. I love Chixdiggit and this song had summer in the title so it was a no-brainer. No-brainers are good for me right now because my brain is a bit foggy so I need to keep shit simple. If you haven't heard it, you really should pick up a copy of their great 1998 album, "Born on the first of July."

Hope you're staying home and being safe and washing your hands and wearing your masks now, so we can all get outside and run around in the rain this summer. Enjoy xo

I'm searching far and wide

To find a girl who will understand me

It's only been two months

And now I'm sitting here with Oprah Winfrey

Way Back Wednesday - My Heart Skip's A Beat

Happy hump day. I also like to call this mid-week day, "Way Back Wednesday." On Way Back Wednesdays, I share an older song. As I think about it, I don't know if I cut it off at 20 or 25 years old but today's song is a bit more than 25 years old so it's definitely eligible!

When I was a kid, I only knew about Buck Owens from watching Hee Haw with my folks. I loved his red, white and blue guitar and thought he had a great voice (because he did!!). As I got a bit older, I grew more familiar with his pre and post Hee Haw music and became a fan. I recently heard today's song again for the first time in many years. It's a great song and this is a super fun performance of it from back in 1966.

"My Heart Skips A Beat" by Buck Owens and his Buckaroos (and written by Mr Owens!) is a perfectly wonderful country song (and trust me, I know about these things, having grown up in a house where we only listened to 2 kinds of music, country AND western). It was released in 1964 and was Buck's third number one single on the US Country charts. It spent 7 weeks at number one and a total of 26 weeks on the chart - so obviously I'm not the only one who thinks this is a terrific tune!

I hope you enjoy it. It'll make your toe tap, guaranteed. Enjoy kids and remember, stay home, stay safe, stay well and if you have to go out, wear a mask!! xo

Well, I did a double take the day I met you

My heart turned a flip as I stood next to you

And I knew right there I never could forget you

For you are my every dream come true

Because It's Tuesday - week of April 27

Here we are at the end of April. Our second April of this pandemic. 

I had a super craptacular week last week. So far, this one is going a lot better for me. I guess when you can sleep and figure out ways to manage your anxiety, things just seem brighter. Thank goodness.

So, as it's Tuesday again I'm sharing yet another cover song with you. If you're my age (or close to it), you may have had a picture of Shaun Cassidy (carefully removed from the pages of Tiger Beat) somewhere in your house in the mid-1970's. In 1976 he had a big hit when he covered Eric Carmen's "That's Rock 'n' Roll." Pop music fans will note that Eric Carmen was in the superb band, The Raspberries.  Carmen had recorded the song in 1975. Anyway, Shaun Cassidy. That singing Hardy Boy made today's cover tune popular.

Last year, as a pandemic project, Green Day leader Billie Joe Armstrong starting recording and sharing covers of some super fun pop songs. "That's Rock 'n' Roll" was on that list and I'm sharing it today. I've always liked this song and I'm a sucker for hand claps. I actually like this a lot more than I did the Shaun Cassidy version. Let me know what you think. 

Stay home if you can. Stay safe, wear a mask, get a shot in the arm. Just please be well xo

It's when the smokin'

And the heat

Have got your heart pounding right with the beat

Don't try to fight it

Just get excited

That's rock n' roll

Isolation Friday - Bye Bye Baby

Happy Friday folks.

It's been a long, strange week.

Was saddened to learn of the death of Les McKeown this week. When I was a little kid, my cousin Kathy was a massive fan of the Bay City Rollers.  I think she even went to Toronto or Ottawa (from Smith Falls) to see them in concert. She was pretty excited but I wasn't too impressed. At the time, I preferred KC and the Sunshine Band. It was the 1970's... anyway, sometime in the late 1980's or maybe the early 1990's, I had a chance to see the Bay City Rollers here in Kingston. They played at Stages nightclub and it was quite a show. They did all of their hits, the crowd was really into it. My friends and I had been given free tickets and I remember us being brats about it. Lots of snide remarks over cheap beers but actually, they were really good.

I thought I'd share "Bye Bye Baby" with you all today. It's a great song, so much fun and a nice way to sign off for the week.

Stay safe kiddos, wash your hands, wear your mask and don't get too close to each other. We can get through us, we really can. xo

You're the one girl in town I'd marry

Girl, I'd marry you now if I were free

I wish it could be

I could love you, but why begin it

Coz there aint any future in it

(She's got me but I'm not free so)

Cancon Thursday - Tommy

Happy Thursday.

Happy Cancon Thursday!

Going to keep this quick because, well, just because.

Last week, Ralph shared her latest mega awesome pop song with us, "Tommy."  I'm going to share it with you. If you're a regular reader here, you'll know that I'm a big big fan of Ralph. She's incredible and she's Canadian, from just down the highway in Toronto. I love her voice and her whole vibe. 

Ralph is just generally wonderful, in my opinion. I hope you dig this. The song is really catchy and the video is FAB-U-LOUS!!

Enjoy kiddos!! Stay home, stay well, stay safe xo

Now I dream about Tommy

I can't even focus 'cause he's got his hands on me

Never had my number, but I'm mad he didn't call me

Should said it to your face, but you got away

Tommy, do you want me?

Way Back Wednesday - Stumblin' In

As someone who grew up in Ontario, I am completely aware that snow in April isn't a strange occurrence. Snow in April, particularly when there are tiny leaves on my trees and tulips opening up in my garden, sucks. 

In other news, I slept like a dead person last night and am feeling a lot less angry (still angry, just less angry) than I was yesterday and haven't even wanted to cry once today. I'm a cry baby, sad, happy, angry, frustrated, I cry. I hate that about myself but it's something that I've come to accept over the years.

For today's Way Back Wednesday post, I'm sharing a song that I had completely forgotten about until a couple of weeks ago. One evening, I was on YouTube watching random music videos and this popped up. Having just talked about Suzi Quatro a few days earlier with Bill, I was interested to hear "Stumblin' In" again. Wow. Just WOW. It took me back to my childhood instantly. I can vividly remember hearing this song through the AM radio in my dad's 1974 Dodge Dart. This duet with Chris Norman (an Englishman and former lead singer of Smokie) is so much fun. The song, the fashion, the hair (oh yes the hair!), it's all 1970's perfection. 

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Stay well, stay safe, stay home!! xo

You were so young, and I was so free

And I may have been young but, baby, that's not what I wanted to be

(Yeah, that's quite right)

You were the one

Oh, why was it me?

Baby, you've shown me so many thing I'd never see

Whatever you need, baby, you've got it from me

Because it's Tuesday - week of April 20

Happy 420 to those of you who celebrate. I am sure that many of you who do celebrate it, also marked World Bicycle day yesterday - quite a big start to the week.

Today, April 20, is also the birthday of my lovely grandfather, Lawrence Shanks. He passed away in 1985 and I'll be forever grateful that he lived with us during the last few years of his life. Grandpa Shanks was a good man, a solid guy, one worthy of much love and respect and I have some wonderful memories of him. Happy Birthday Grandpa Shanks, we miss you.

Honestly, I'm feeling really fried at the moment. My work is really busy right now so I look forward to being able to recharge my batteries on the weekends. I spent the entire weekend feeling enraged by the Ontario government's announcement on Friday afternoon. It probably shouldn't have been shock to me that the Ford folks have no respect or regard for low income workers, for vulnerable communities across the province, for racialized communities... we can see what they are doing, they see these groups of people as disposable. To Ford and his cronies, somehow, the lives of these people are worth less than the lives of others. It's nauseating and infuriating and I feel frustrated and helpless by the absolutely preventable tragedy which has unfolded across the province.

On that note, I don't have a lot to say about music right now (although listening to it, instead of the CBC is probably the only thing keeping me sane at the moment). It's Tuesday though, so I'll share a cover. I hope you enjoy this great version of Sweet's 1974 hit "Fox On The Run" as performed by the Regrettes.

I - Don't Wanna Know Your Name

'Cause You Don't Look The Same

The Way You Did Before

Isolation Friday - April Skies

It's Friday, yay!! And how do you like that, for the first time in a very long time, I have posted 4 times in a week.  Go me! This is a quickie because I've had a bonkers week and I'm a bit fried to be honest. April is always busy for most folks I know. This year it's felt particularly crazy for me. Add on top of that, all of the anxiety we're all experiencing about being locked down and "variants of concern" and well, I'm not at my best at the moment. I'm not at my worst either, I'm just feeling like a nap would be a very good thing to have right now.

I heard this song on the radio recently and it made me smile. I hadn't listened to it in a long long time. The Jesus and Mary Chain's stuff is truly timeless. Because this made me so happy to hear, I thought I'd share it because it's still April and during this stay at home order, looking up at the sky is still allowed! Also, I should tell you that this was released on their 1987 album Darklands.

Happy weekend kids, stay safe xo

Baby baby I just can't see

Just what you mean to me

I take my aim and I fake my words

I'm just your long time curse

And if you walk away

I can't take it

Cancon Thursday - What A Way To Run A Railroad

I'm starting to get back into the groove of posting here again and it feels kind of nice. I'll not say a lot more about that because in the recent past, whenever I think, "hey, I'm on a roll again!" I get side tracked and the groove disappears.

If you ever look at my instagram, you might have noticed that I've started posting photos from shows on throwback Thursdays. While I have definitely missed my friends and family during the past year and a bit, I have also found not going to shows to be really challenging. Online things have been great and I've felt good about being able to see some of my favourite artists perform and also support them with some cash but it's not the same.

Last night I went through an old photo album. I was looking for some particular pictures I wanted to post on IG. What a trip that was. Down the rabbit hole indeed. Not only did I find the shots I was looking for, I found a bunch of stuff that I had no idea I had. Looking through the album, I realized how lucky we were to have been able to see so many shows, in so many bars, clubs and halls, packed in like sardines sometimes. Shouting at each other (I'm sure sometimes speaking "moistly"), sweating on each other, dancing and generally fucking around together, enjoying the music and each other. Is that ever going to happen again? I mean, I know that live music will return but what will that look like? Even after we're all vaccinated, are we going to have to be in those Flaming Lips bubble things (a wonderful idea I think!)? Hopefully not, maybe one day we'll be able to be all squished together again, like we should be. For now, I'm just grateful for my photo albums and records and all of those memories.

So, because it's Cancon Thursday around here, I'm sharing a song by one of the greatest Canadian bands ever, Huevos Rancheros. Please do yourself a favour and check out "What A Way To Run A Railroad" from their amazing 1996 album, "Get Outta Dodge." 

Stay safe kids xo

Way Back Wednesday - Bad Boy

As today is Way Back Wednesday, I'm going to share a sweet song which was recorded by the Beatles in 1965. It could have been shared on a Tuesday (cover day) but I saved it for today. Written by Larry Williams, he released it in 1958 on Specialty records. It wasn't a hit for Williams but the Beatles had some success with it. 

I love the growly early Beatles songs and this one is such a great John rocker. Whenever I hear it, I smile and think about Mark. He was kind of a bad boy and he loved John Lennon something fierce. Today is Mark's birthday, he would have been 69 today. I'm sharing "Bad Boy" and remembering all of the birthday's we celebrated together. Poor guy, having a birthday on April 14 meant that, growing up, he frequently had to share his birthday with Passover.  Mark hated matzo birthday cake!  I can't really blame him. Legend has it that his mom, Ida, made the best cakes on the planet but even a wonderful baker like her couldn't make that taste as good as a traditional chocolate or lemon layer cake. During the years we were together, I never baked him a matzo cake.

If you're thinking about Mark today on his birthday, put on some Beatles records and have a little dance party in his honour. Pretty sure he'd like that, a lot. We love you Mark and we miss you, always will, I know xo

He jes' a-sits aroun' the house

An' plays that rock 'n' roll music all night

He puts thumbtacks in his teacher's chair

Put chew'n gum in a li'l girl's hair

Because It's Tuesday - week of April 14

The Shang Hi Los are a super fun band from Boston. I was introduced them when I heard their awesome song "Sway Little Player" on Little Steven's Underground Garage. They have a new EP out, "Kick It Like A Wicked Bad Habit." You should definitely check it out, I think it's great. Again, so much fun (and fun stuff is hard to come by these days it seems).

Because it's Tuesday, I'm sharing a cover. This week's cover tune is the Shang Hi Los version of the Chicago 1972 classic, "Saturday in the Park" (originally released on their Chicago V album). I was never a fan of Chicago generally or this song particularly but this cover is terrific.

Stay home, stay safe, be sweet to each other & enjoy xo

Eh Cumpari, ci vo sunari

Can you dig it? (Yes, I can)

And I've been waiting such a long time

For Saturday