The Insanely Busy Friday Random Ten

It was a long, but productive week.

I worked a buttload of hours at my primary job, and a shift at my other. I brought my Blazer into the shop. Since I bought it four years ago, the blower on the heater/air conditioner would occasionally go out. If I gave the dashboard a slap next to the switch it would turn on. On the trip back from Minneapolis, even this fix stopped working. We had air conditioning, but no blower, so it was of limited utility. Since they were once again working on our street-- finally finishing the resurfacing-- I decided to bring it in, so I didn't have to worry about parking it. They replaced the blower, but it turned out there was another problem; it would go out, but if you gave a slap on the dashboard, near the switch, it would go back on. I had a chuckle and said that I knew how that worked. It turned out that there was a relay out too. They fixed that, and I picked up my truck after work and ran over to get Adam. We had dinner at the Wah Sun, a good Chinese restaurant near our home.

Tonight, I studied my Biology in anticipation of two online quizzes I have to take tomorrow, and then got my ass quickly kicked by Adam in chess.

I did manage to do my Friday Random Ten this morning while getting ready for work, while they finally finished resurfacing our street. I pondered the fact that this is the third time in the nine years I've lived here that they've resurfaced the street. There are streets in Chicago that haven't been repaired in decades.


1. Power and the Glory- Phil Ochs
2. The Last Ride- Jason and the Scorchers
3. Lady Godiva- Peter and Gordon
4. Oye Como Va- Santana
5. Going Up the Country- Canned Heat
6. Singing the Blues- Dave Edmunds
7. Angry Eyes- Loggins and Messina
8. The Horse- Cliff Noble and Co.
9. Little By Little- Robert Plant
10. (Don't Go Back To Rockville)- R.E.M.

Notes:
1. An unabashedly patriotic song. Orange Juice peddler/homophobe Anita Bryant covered this one, much to Phil's amusement.
2. A great intstrumental from eighties country-punkers Jason and the Scorchers.
3. A very funny song. Peter Asher was, when his sister Jane was married to Paul McCartney, Paul's brother-in-law.
4. Santana's cover of a Tito Puente classic, from the great Abraxas album.
5. The first hit single to ever have a flute solo.
6. From the great Dave Edmunds box set.
7. The second hit single to have a flute solo.
8. One of the all-time great instrumentals.
9. Plant's post-Zeppelin stuff alternates between mediocre and great. This one is great-- I've always taken it as a rumination on recovering from loss.
10. This was both the best rock and country song of 1984, and one of the greatest songs ever written.