Sunday, September 18, 2005

Of Music and Magazines

First of all, I must begin today's post with a plea for information and/or assistance. I won't go into quite all the gory details here, but the deal is this: I downloaded (legitimately, as a purchase) some music from the Rock Star: INXS website with a view to creating a personalized compilation CD I could listen to once the show is just a memory. According to msn's website, it's legal to do that, provided I just make a personal-use CD, not mass-produce them. The downloads worked and I can listen to the songs fine on my computer, but when I try to burn a CD with any program I have (I've tried Nero, MusicMatch, and WMP) I get an error saying it can't be done because the files are write-protected. I have an email in to msn tech support, but so far have only gotten totally non-helpful form letters back - no contact with a real person. Anyone have any ideas of a fix for this?? If you want more details about what I have and haven't tried, let me know. If you can tell me something that works, I'll make and send you a fabric postcard as a thank you gift. :-) Speaking of music, Debra came up with this site, where you can enter a year in the search box and it will tell you the top 100 songs for that year. She suggested entering the year you graduated high school, so I did. For me, that was 1979. (Originally should have been 1980, but I got an early release for good behavior. Heh.) Somehow I remembered the music of my high school years as being better than this. Leif Garrett? Barry Manilow? Kenny Rogers? All in the top 100 pop/rock charts?? Oy. And like Debra said about her list, there are some on this list I don't even remember. Still, I'm always game for a good time-waster, so here's my take on the top 100 songs of 1979. Bold = a favorite of mine at the time (or in some cases, still!) Italics = I hated it, and probably still do Normal font = I remember it and felt/feel pretty neutral about it Faded font = no memory of these songs (Although I bet in some cases I'd remember them after all, if I heard them again.) Top 100 songs of 1979 1. My Sharona, The Knack 2. Bad Girls, Donna Summer 3. Le Freak, Chic 4. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy, Rod Stewart 5. Reunited, Peaches and Herb 6. I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor 7. Hot Stuff, Donna Summer 8. Y.M.C.A., Village People 9. Ring My Bell, Anita Ward 10. Sad Eyes, Robert John 11. Too Much Heaven, Bee Gees 12. MacArthur Park, Donna Summer (I wish I had triple-italics for this one...hate it SO much!) 13. When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman, Dr. Hook (ditto!) 14. Makin' It, David Naughton 15. Fire, Pointer Sisters 16. Tragedy, Bee Gees 17. A Little More Love, Olivia Newton-John 18. Heart Of Glass, Blondie 19. What A Fool Believes, Doobie Brothers 20. Good Times, Chic 21. You Don't Bring Me Flowers, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond (another triple-yucko!) 22. Knock On Wood, Amii Stewart 23. Stumblin' In, Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman 24. Lead Me On, Maxine Nightingale 25. Shake Your Body, Jacksons 26. Don't Cry Out Loud, Melissa Manchester 27. The Logical Song, Supertramp 28. My Life, Billy Joel 29. Just When I Needed You Most, Randy Vanwarmer 30. You Can't Change That, Raydio 31. Shake Your Groove Thing, Peaches and Herb 32. I'll Never Love This Way Again, Dionne Warwick 33. Love You Inside Out, Bee Gees 34. I Want You To Want Me, Cheap Trick 35. The Main Event (Fight), Barbra Streisand 36. Mama Can't Buy You Love, Elton John 37. I Was Made For Dancin', Leif Garrett (I'm convinced I must have deliberately blocked this one from my mind.) 38. After The Love Has Gone, Earth, Wind and Fire 39. Heaven Knows, Donna Summer and Brooklyn Dreams 40. The Gambler, Kenny Rogers 41. Lotta Love, Nicolette Larson 42. Lady, Little River Band 43. Heaven Must Have Sent You, Bonnie Pointer 44. Hold The Line, Toto 45. He's The Greatest Dancer, Sister Sledge 46. Sharing The Night Together, Dr. Hook 47. She Believes In Me, Kenny Rogers 48. In The Navy, Village People 49. Music Box Dancer, Frank Mills 50. The Devil Went Down To Georgia, Charlie Daniels Band 51. Gold, John Stewart 52. Goodnight Tonight, Wings 53. We Are Family, Sister Sledge 54. Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy, Bad Company 55. Every 1's A Winner, Hot Chocolate 56. Take Me Home, Cher (I like Cher. I'm surprised I don't remember this, but I'm drawing a blank!) 57. Boogie Wonderland, Earth, Wind and Fire 58. (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away, Andy Gibb 59. What You Won't Do For Love, Bobby Caldwell 60. New York Groove, Ace Frehley 61. Sultans Of Swing, Dire Straits 62. I Want Your Love, Chic 63. Chuck E's In Love, Rickie Lee Jones 64. I Love The Night Life, Alicia Bridges 65. Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now, McFadden and Whitehead 66. Lonesome Loser, Little River Band 67. Renegade, Styx 68. Love Is The Answer, England Dan and John Ford Coley 69. Got To Be Real, Cheryl Lynn 70. Born To Be Alive, Patrick Hernandez 71. Shine A Little Love, Electric Light Orchestra 72. I Just Fall In Love Again, Anne Murray 73. Shake It, Ian Matthews 74. I Was Made For Lovin' You, Kiss 75. I Just Wanna Stop, Gino Vannelli 76. Disco Nights, G.Q. 77. Ooh Baby Baby, Linda Ronstadt 78. September, Earth, Wind and Fire 79. Time Passages, Al Stewart 80. Rise, Herb Alpert 81. Don't Bring Me Down, Electric Light Orchestra 82. Promises, Eric Clapton 83. Get Used To It, Roger Voudouris 84. How Much I Feel, Ambrosia 85. Suspicions, Eddie Rabbitt 86. You Take My Breath Away, Rex Smith 87. How You Gonna See Me Now, Alice Cooper 88. Double Vision, Foreigner 89. Every Time I Think Of You, Babys 90. I Got My Mind Made Up, Instant Funk 91. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, Michael Jackson 92. Bad Case Of Lovin' You, Robert Palmer 93. Somewhere In The Night, Barry Manilow 94. We've Got Tonite, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band 95. Dance The Night Away, Van Halen 96. Dancing Shoes, Nigel Olsson 97. The Boss, Diana Ross 98. Sail On, Commodores 99. I Do Love You, G.Q. 100. Strange Way, Firefall Anyone else wanna try this blast from the past?? And finally, although I know this post is getting long, Diane, leader of the Arftul Quilters Web Ring, asked this question: "What magazines do you subscribe to, and why? (Only count the ones that come to your house, not ones you buy individually to read)." Ok, I'll do this one too, although I think my list will be embarrassingly pedestrian. I'll mention too, that I'm something of a magazine junkie and I'm trying to cut back! So although I currently subscribe to several, the number isn't as large as it has been in the past or as small as I plan for it to be in the future. *Quilting Arts - mostly for the eye candy/inspiration; to a lesser extent for how-to articles and contest information *American Quilter - not sure if this even counts, since it's just part of AQS membership, but I like some of the articles *Quiter's Newsletter Magazine - I've subscribed to this for 15 years, but think I may let it lapse when it's up for renewal again. I've always enjoyed their profiles of quilters, both well-known and less-so; their "show and tell" type photo layouts; and some of their how-to articles. But in their recent format change, they seem to be drifting away from that and toward being just another pattern magazine. I don't do patterns unless I make them up myself, so they're losing my interest. *Cuisine at Home *Taste of Home *Cooking for Two - I subscribe to THREE cooking mags and yet I cook the same damn things for dinner over and over and over and over and..... Sheesh! *More - "lifestyle" magazine aimed at a target audience of women over the age of 40 *Ladies Home Journal - subscribed in a weak moment when it was offered cheap...boring *SHOP - just what it sounds like, a mag about shopping...another impulse subscription, which is about to expire and not be renewed (They have good coupons in there for online shopping though, if I wasn't trying to not DO so much online shopping!)