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Sunday Question – What Is The Last Great Album In Your Opinion?

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Feb 20, 2011

Man, talk about a tough question for someone like me. Well, it’s not, but when I give my answer you’re going to say “no way”. But I at least have criteria; I wonder if you have the same thing or just go by the last thing you bought that you liked.

by Jem Stone

Ah yes, criteria. Without criteria, you’re just guessing and throwing things out without any meaning. Not having criteria allows you to say “Ooh, I love Lady Gaga because she did a song called Allesandro” without listening to anything else she might have done. Not having criteria allows you to say “Man, I hate Aretha Franklin” while you’re walking around the house singing “Respect.”

I have criteria that disallows things. Let’s take a look:

1. Classical albums of existing music don’t count. Sure, I love Rachmaninoff and Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, but if a monkey had enough talent to play that music and I bought it I would probably love it, and it would be a great album, but it’s not new music. So, that has to be thrown out.

2. Show tunes and movie music doesn’t count. Both are scripted to enhance a movie and to have flow throughout a full performance. I love both Phantom of the Opera and Wicked, but I have to ask if I’d have enjoyed both albums without their being a show to follow along with. I’m thinking that without the show I’d have never even given the music a shot, so they get excluded.

3. A great album doesn’t necessarily have to have a great hit, but whether it does or doesn’t, you have to like at least 75% of the music on it. We don’t have sides of an album anymore, but if you find yourself skipping songs you don’t want to hear, then it’s probably not a great album, just a pretty good album with a few songs you absolutely love. If that’s the best you can come up with for a great album then your criteria has a grading curve to it; don’t settle!

4. If this doesn’t start giving it away, if you folks know me, then nothing will. Your favorite album will most probably correspond with your favorite artist or artists. Man, I have a lot of great albums in my repertoire. There are so many that I loved either every song or almost every song, to the point that I’ll even listen to the not very good songs because if I didn’t I’d feel like I was taking away from the entire experience of the album.

My problem is that all the great albums (and yes, I still call them “albums” instead of CDs) are from when I was younger. Not necessarily my 20′s, but I have to face the fact that when I want to listen to certain things over and over, I go back to older songs. Sure, there are some newer songs I like, and I’ve even bought an album or two over the last bunch of years. But if I tell you that the last thing I bought was Mariah Carey’s Emancipation of Mimi, which came out in 2005… yeah, you know my collection of music is kind of old. lol

So, for me, the last, or newest I guess I’ll say, great album was… Dangerous by Michael Jackson. I almost said HIStory, but the first CD was a collection of old hits I loved and I didn’t make my 75% quota on the second album. Dangerous came out in 1991; isn’t that a shame? But off that album of 14 songs I loved 12 of them, which is 86%. And 9 songs, count ‘em, 9 were released as singles from that album; who else has had that many songs stand on their own from one album except… oh yeah, Michael Jackson & the Beatles?

Heck, let’s end with one of those songs; what album was your last greatest?

Sunday Question | 20 Comments

Sunday Question – Doing Anything Special For Valentine’s Day?

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Feb 13, 2011

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and if you’ve forgotten about it until now, at least you’ve been warned. If not, I hope you’re able to do something with the one you love, whether it’s something special or not.

My wife isn’t really one of those overly romantic people. That actually works in my favor because if I just give her a card she’s a happy person. If she didn’t work with other women she’d probably never even know there was a Valentine’s Day; I tend to be the one that remembers dates in this household.

I’ve gone some of the traditional routes in the past. I bought her jewelry a couple of times. I bought chocolate once; she doesn’t eat chocolate all that often. I once bought her one of those Pepperidge Farms cheese platters, since she doesn’t eat meat, and she ended up saving it for a mini party she had. And I did the flowers thing a couple of times as well; it went over well with her co-workers, but she’s not really a flowers type of person either.

Probably the best gifts I’ve given her were gift baskets. That’s because she makes gift baskets herself, and loves all the little foods and gifts and such that could be contained within it. She thoroughly enjoyed the fruit basket I sent her one year, and another year I sent her a gift basket with lots of smelly stuff. She liked that one so much that she’s still using it as a decoration in her bathroom (we have separate bathrooms; hers is much, much larger than mine).

And we’ve done dinner, though we probably won’t go out to dinner on a Monday night. It works really well if you don’t go out all that often, but we do go out to dinner a lot so to me it’s lost some of its specialness.

Anyway, I’m unsure what I’ll do this year, but at least I have it on my mind. What are you doing? Go ahead, share; your significant other isn’t reading this blog.

Sunday Question | 25 Comments

Sunday Question – The Super Bowl; Who Are You Pulling For?

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Feb 6, 2011

You know, one would think this one would only interest American markets, but the reality is that in 2007 it was broadcast in 232 countries, which is astounding to me because I didn’t even realize there were 232 countries, and of course that’s not all of them because I’m doubting Iran is watching, as much as they hate America.

So, who do we have? This year it pits the Pittsburgh Steelers (that wasn’t supposed to be a pun but I’ll run with it) against the Green Bay Packers. The team that has an opportunity to become the winningest Super Bowl team in history against the team that won the first two Super Bowls ever. This one looks fairly balanced, and thus it could end up being a good game for those football fans like me who normally don’t care who wins unless it’s my favorite team in there.

And yet, my friend Scott and I bet on the game every year. If one of my favorite teams is in then I get them, and if one of his is in then he gets to pick. If we don’t care, coin flip. This year his team, the Green Bay Packers, is in, and thus I have Pittsburgh.

In the end I think my pick would have been Pittsburgh anyway. Pittsburgh comes into this game with a regular season record of 12-4, Green Bay at 10-6. Green Bay was an underdog in 2 of its 3 playoff games; Pittsburgh was expected to win. Both have big quarterbacks that can throw the ball well. Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay can run; Ben Roethlisburger is, well, big, strong, hard to bring down, and is already a 2-time winner of the Super Bowl. Pittsburgh also has the top defense against the rush and in points allowed and was second in total yards defense, along with the defensive player of the year in Troy Polamalu while Green Bay was 24th in rushing out of 30 teams.

Oh yeah, what’s our bet? Pizza or calzones at one of our favorite places, Pizza Villa in Oswego, where we both went to college. I can’t remember if we’re making a run today, as we alternate sometimes and I believe we went up last year, but whatever we get will be delicious.

And of course I’ll be taping the game at home, as we’ll watch at his house, so I can rewatch any commercials I either liked or might have missed. All that and the Black Eyed Peas; I can hardly wait. So, who’s your choice for the big winner? Either way, have fun, and be smart; don’t drink and drive.

Sunday Question | 18 Comments

Sunday Question – Who’s Your Favorite Musical Entertainer Of All Time?

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 30, 2011

This is either one of the easiest or hardest Sunday questions I’ve ever asked. I say that because, for me, there’s no content, and readers of this blog know my response already, and probably why.

Michael Jackson is my favorite entertainer of all time. I wrote the reason why on my business blog the day after he passed away. Throughout my life he just seemed to always be there when I needed a boost, and even now I can always think of a Michael Jackson song whenever I need something to help me think things through.

It’s amazing how music can touch all of our lives. I’m not sure that everyone knows when they started liking a particular musician or what song they might have heard that sparked something in themselves that they’d never ever want to give up. I know that I had heard many other songs beforehand that I liked, but wasn’t really tied into the musician.

For instance, I loved the song Daydream Believer by the Monkees, but I wasn’t a Monkees fan as far as the band was considered, though I watched the TV show. The same goes for Sugar Sugar by the Archies; loved that song, but it was a cartoon band after all. I didn’t learn until 10 years later that an actual band was traveling around in the early 70′s playing the music from that cartoon.

Anyway, that’s the question of the day. It’s not who your first musician entertainer was that you liked; it’s who your favorite is. Let’s see how you answer this one. And by the way, in lieu of an image, I share the “latest” song and video from Michael Jackson called Hold My Hand; I wonder how many of these will come out as the years go by.

Sunday Question | 21 Comments

Sunday Question – What’s Your Most Audacious Wish?

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 23, 2011

You know, most of the time when a question like this is asked of someone, they give one of those politically correct answers that we all know is a lie. Come on now; I mean, you’re going to tell me that if you had the opportunity for anything you ever wanted the one thing you’d wish for is world peace?

Nope, not buying it. Few people are that magnanimous in life. And truthfully, it’s not even number one at the top of many lists for people who want to help others. For instance, world peace doesn’t cure hunger. It doesn’t kill pollution, nor clean waters. It can’t stop disease. These are great goals, and there are some folks who might wish for these things. Yet I’d be hard pressed, if I were honest, if I had one audacious dream, something I really wanted, and I gave it away like that. It’s not a tangible wish; how would any genie or whomever even be able to determine what that was?

Instead, I ask this question because I want you to be selfish. Not necessarily because I want it to totally be about you, but because reality states that when you have what you need to reach your ultimate dream, you actually have enough to help take care of some of those other things that might be on your mind. If you’re wealthy, you can have anything you want, and also give whatever you want to others to help them without hurting yourself. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Back to the question. This one wasn’t really easy for me way back when. I couldn’t really think of anything I wanted other than money; isn’t that a shame? It actually took me about a month to come up with something that, at the moment, is kind of unreachable. I mean, I started out by wanting a soda fountain machine, but those don’t cost much. Then I said I wanted an Aeron chair, and it turns out that in the scope of things that wasn’t all that expensive either (though I just couldn’t bring myself to spend $1,300 on one).

Then it hit me; I want a big, expensive home that I get to help design and that I get to pay off immediately and just have my peace of mind. Oh yeah! Then I ran into a snag that I still have, that being I have no real vision of what I want it to look like on the outside. The best I have is that I want it to be a one-story home; no steps for this guy. I don’t have any steps for my house now except 4 little steps from my deck in the back. I’d eliminate even that in my dream house.

Ah, but what do I want in my dream house? I want space! I want an extra large bedroom. I want an extra large master bathroom, with a separate urinal; come on guys, who wouldn’t want a urinal if you had the space? I want a hot tub or Jacuzzi room with an extra large TV in it so I could possibly see it without my glasses.

I want an extra large kitchen with an island that has the sink in it instead of on the counter, although since I tend to splash a lot I’d probably have to have a panel I could pull up so I’m not always getting water on the floor. I want sound wired through the entire house.

I want solar panels to help conserve my utilities. I want heated coils under the driveway to melt all that snow so that I never have to shovel again, nor pay anyone to clear it, and I want it to look like a brick driveway; heck, it might be a brick driveway. I want the ability to open up my roof and let sunlight in whenever I’m in the mood, although I’d live with skylights.

I want an exercise room and a sewing room for my wife; I know she’d also like a greenhouse. I want a playroom or entertainment room with a large pool table, and I want that room to be able to convert to a media room where, if I’m inclined, I could invite people over to watch special events. I want special lighting where everything can be bright but there are no bulbs shining in anyone’s eyes.

And I want a closed in area that’s actually still outside with comfortable lounge chairs and a fountain where I can go to relax and still enjoy nature in my own way, peacefully and by myself, since I really don’t like being in the backyard.

That’s all I have; I’m sure I could come up with more things later, but truthfully, I’d be happy with just that stuff. So, what are your audacious dreams? Go ahead, share!

Sunday Question | 35 Comments

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