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Bottom of the Top #33

2022-08-152022-08-15 John Winkelman

Over the past week I went through the lists on top40weekly.com and made a spreadsheet of all the songs which will populate the Bottom of the Top posts for the rest of the year. In doing so I discovered that I had miscounted in the 1977 list, and therefore 1977 was a week off from the other four years. I am not sure where this happened, but the issue has now been corrected thanks to the judicious application of SCIENCE!

Anyway, here are the songs for the 33rd week of the years 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, and 1997.

1977: Heatwave, “Boogie Nights”

I love this one! I don’t have any specific memory of having heard it before now, and the ghost of a fragment of a memory of something like this is probably associated with a movie about the 1970s which included this song, or one very much like it, in the soundtrack. “Boogie Nights” is so very, very ’70s, and it is totally groovy.

1982: Ray Parker, Jr., “Let Me Go”

The summer between 7th and 8th grades is mostly lost to the mists of time, and any Ray Parker, Jr. songs I would have heard around that time were likely completely overwritten by “Ghostbusters,” which was released in 1984. But Mr. Parker has some serious chops and I do like this song.

1987: Natalie Cole, “Jump Start (My Heart)”

I was in the last week of my first summer at the Eaton Rapids pickle factory when “Jump Start” charted. Two weeks later I was at GVSC, enjoying nearly unlimited access to MTV, which is certainly where I would have heard this one, since I definitely didn’t hear it back on the farm. It’s catchy. I dig it.

1992: Rozilla, “Everybody’s Free (to Feel Good)”

This is a repeat from an earlier post, which demonstrates an odd inertia for songs which chart. They can linger.

1997: Rome, “Do You Like This”

This was the first time I heard “Do You Like This.” It’s good, but not particularly memorable. It did much better on the R&B charts than on the Hot 100, where it peaked at #31.

Posted in MusicTagged Bottom of the Top, nostalgia comment on Bottom of the Top #33

August Inertia

2022-08-142022-08-13 John Winkelman

Fake Eyelash Abandoned on the Blue Bridge

As I finish off this post, we are in the middle of the first cool, gloomy day in months. A little thunder, a little lightning, and some of the very few cool, comfortable nights of the summer.

It’s blissful. Comfortable and quiet.

Nothing new arrived at the house this week, so here is a photo of a fake eyelash someone lost on the Blue Bridge. I first saw it on Monday, and it was still there on Friday. I guess nobody wants to claim it.

In reading news, I just finished J.M. McDermott’s Maze, published by Apex Book Company and received here at the Library back in May 2021. And I am still working my way through my stack of The Paris Review, and still quite enjoying it.

I have just started reading Michael Marder‘s Political Categories: Thinking Beyond Concepts. It is too early to offer thoughts or opinions on the text, but it feels good to be reading philosophy, and I am very happy to be reading this book with a group of friends

In writing news, still not a lot to report. My brain is just tired.

Posted in Literary MattersTagged philosophy, politics comment on August Inertia

Bottom of the Top #32

2022-08-082022-08-08 John Winkelman

August kept up the momentum of July and we are fast approaching the end of summer, in intent if not in fact.

1977: Glen Campbell, “Sunflower”

“Sunflower” is a joyful, fun, catchy tune which I have no memory of having heard before. It is also the kind of song which an adult would have ill-advisedly sung to a tired or sulky child in order to break a bad mood, but which would instead have only made things worse.

1982: Marshall Crenshaw, “Someday, Someway”

I have heard this one before, but the muscle-memory of my mind is feeling more nineties than eighties, so I probably heard it on a TV show or as part of a movie soundtrack. “Someday, Someway” is fun and bouncy and feels like a throwback to the sixties. Which, considering that it was recorded as a take on Gene Vincent‘s “Lotta Lovin’” which was released in 1957, I guess that makes sense.

1987: Smokey Robinson, “One Heartbeat”

That combination of keyboard and saxophone is unmistakable. I would have been winding down my first summer at the godawful pickle factory and looking forward to my first break in seven years from milking cows on Sunday mornings. So I would have been emotionally receptive to the beautiful grooves of Smokey Robinson.

1992: U2, “Even Better Than the Real Thing”

This whole album was so damn big that I don’t remember when I first heard any one of the songs therefrom. Probably on MTV, considering MTV was still playing music videos back in 1992. Or while cleaning up the kitchen at Jose Babushka’s at the end of a shift.

1997: Mr. President, “Coco Jamboo”

Lessee…1997 I was still working at the bookstore, playing a lot of Vampire: The Masquerade and Dungeons and Dragons, and practicing martial arts for about 15 hours a week. So where would I have heard this song? Probably in my car, on the way to a Renaissance Faire. Or maybe on MTV, if I was lucky enough to be watching TV during one of the increasingly rare blocks in 1997 which had music videos. It’s a catchy tune and Judith “T-Seven” Hinkelmann has a helluva voice.

Posted in MusicTagged Bottom of the Top, nostalgia comment on Bottom of the Top #32

Already August Again

2022-08-072022-08-07 John Winkelman

New reading material for the week of July 31, 2022

While objective time chugs along at a steady page, subjective time starts and stops and lurches and grinds like an old pizza joint animatronic playing freeform jazz.  The slow months and short days have become fast months and short days,  which is far from the summertime ideal of slow months and slow days. Thus the frantic scramble to complete everything ahead of the end-of-summer deadline, which for me hasn’t been a real deadline for about thirty years.

Several new books and such made their way into the library this past week.

First up is the Kickstarter edition of The Alchemy of Sorrow, an anthology of grief and hope edited by Sarah Chorn & Virginia McClain.

Next is an interesting one; Political Categories: Thinking Beyond Concepts by philosopher Michael Marder. I had not heard of Marder before a friend recommended a few of us from Back In The Day pick up this book and put together a discussion group as we read it.

On the top right is the new issue of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, published by Small Beer Press.

The bottom three are the new anthologies from the 2021 Kickstarter by Zombies Need Brains – Shattering the Giass Slipper, Noir, and Brave New Worlds. ZNB consistently turns out quality anthologies (I now have 12 of them!) so I look forward to diving into the books this autumn.

In reading news, I am about halfway through J.M. McDermott’s Maze, published by Apex Books. So far, I like it! The story is odd and disjointed in a way which I find appealing, and I am eager to discover how McDermott ties everything together.

In writing news, not much to report. I cam out of July even more tired and burned out that I was going in, and that’s saying something. I didn’t have any meaningful down time and every area of my life is beginning to seriously suffer from that state of being. And this is particular frustrating because Zombies Need Brains just announced the themes for their four(!) anthologies which will be published as part of their 2022 Kickstarter campaign, which launches next week.

I want to submit stories for these anthologies. In order to do that, I need to have the mental energy to do some writing.

And that is, right now, in short supply.

Posted in Literary MattersTagged Kickstarter comment on Already August Again

IWSG, August 2022: Originality or Not?

2022-08-032022-08-03 John Winkelman

I don’t know how it’s been for you-all, but this past month was CRAZY busy here at the Library of Winkelman Abbey. With most COVID restrictions lifted, the whole world is trying to make up for two years of lost time, and instead of having nothing to do on a given day it seems we have EVERYTHING to do. And, of course, not enough time in which to do it.

For me, this also this applied to my writing. All of my summer plans have fallen by the wayside, other than the ninety minutes, one Tuesday a month, where I attend an open mic night. And even that feels like something I have to squeeze in. And I am not always successful.

I thought I had mostly outgrown FOMO, but it seems to have metastasized in the zeitgeist.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for August 2022 is: When you set out to write a story, do you try to be more original or do you try to give readers what they want?

This is an odd question to answer. Outside of this blog, I don’t have any readers to speak of. Therefore I don’t have anyone to whom to cater. And I don’t necessarily try to be original, though I don’t think I write quite like anyone I have read, so I suppose that is a form of originality, even if not entirely intentional. None of my manuscripts are similar to each other, either short or long form. Even the 2021 bio-punk sequel to my partially completed 2020 salvage-punk book is distinct enough that I now need to go back and re-write part 1.

So it goes.

 

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Posted in Literary MattersTagged IWSG, writing 5 Comments on IWSG, August 2022: Originality or Not?

Bottom of the Top #31

2022-08-012022-08-01 John Winkelman

And suddenly, August arrives.

1977: The Isley Brothers, “Livin’ in the Life”

“Livin’ in the Life” is funky and groovy and fun, but this is the first time I have heard it.

1982: The Gap Band, “Early in the Morning”

Dang! This is an odd one. I distinctly remember the video, but have no memory at all of the song. Given its popularity I don’t see how I could not have heard it at some point. So along with all of the other odd coincidences and discoveries that this project has brought about, it has reacquainted me with the most excellent Gap Band.

1987: Whitney Houston, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All”

Ah, Whitney. You left us far too soon. In the summer of 1987 Whitney was huge and this song was everywhere. I have no specific temporal associations with “Didn’t We Almost Have it All,” because the song has received steady play for over thirty years. So it’s more a case of dividing my life into “pre-Whitney” and “mid-Whitney.” I say that because, even though Ms Houston died over a decade ago, her songs are still on heavy rotation so we are not yet close to “post-Whitney.” And that is a very good thing.

1992: Shabba Ranks, “Mr. Loverman”

“Mr. Loverman” is smooth and oh! so sexy, but I don’t think I heard it before now. Obviously, this means I wasn’t going to the right parties back in 1992.

1997: 98 Degrees, “Invisible Man”

98° was inescapable for much of the late 1990s and early 2000s, but I was listening to Tom Waits and various mixes of punk, folk,and world beat at the time, so I might have heard this, but it was not something I would have sought out. It is a decent enough song but nothing about it really stands out, beyond it being a decently good example of this style of music,.

Posted in MusicTagged Bottom of the Top, nostalgia comment on Bottom of the Top #31

July 2022 Reading List

2022-08-012022-07-31 John Winkelman

What I read in July 2022

July was another excellent month for reading. I finished half a dozen issues of The Paris Review, as well as the some translated prose and the second and third books of John Scalzi’s Interdependency trilogy. And all that without feeling rushed. So even though July was exceptionally busy there were enough quiet moments to sink my teeth into some really good writing.

Books and Journals

  1. Andrés Neuman (Jeffrey Lawrence, translator), How to Travel Without Seeing [2022.07.06]
  2. The Paris Review #219 [2022.07.06]
  3. The Paris Review #220 [2022.07.08]
  4. The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.15]
  5. The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.19]
  6. Ana Simo, Heartland [2022.07.21]
  7. John Scalzi, The Consuming Fire [2022.07.23]
  8. John Scalzi, The Last Emperox [2022.07.26]
  9. The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.29]
  10. The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.31]

Short Prose

  1. Christine Lincoln, “What’s Necessary to Remember When Telling a Story”, The Paris Review #219 [2022.07.02]
  2. Tom Bissell, “Creative Types”, The Paris Review #219 [2022.07.04]
  3. Alexander Kluge (Isabel Fargo Cole, translator, “In Medieval Angelology, There Are Nine Orders of Snow”, The Paris Review #219 [2022.07.06]
  4. Amparo Dávila (Audrey Harris & Matthew Gleeson, translators), “Moses and Gaspar”, The Paris Review #219 [2022.07.06]
  5. Adam O’Fallon Price, “A Natural Man”, The Paris Review #220 [2022.07.08]
  6. Fleur Jaeggy, “Agnes”, The Paris Review #220 [2022.07.08]
  7. Jean-René Étienne and Lola Raban-Oliva, “Formentera Storyline”, The Paris Review #220 [2022.07.08]
  8. Harry Mathews, “Berenice’s Tale”, The Paris Review #220 [2022.07.08]
  9. J.M. Holmes, “What’s Wrong with You? What’s Wrong with Me?”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.09]
  10. Patrick Modiano (Lorin Stein, translator), “The Hat”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.11]
  11. Chris Knapp, “States of Emergency”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.11]
  12. “Laura Francis” & Alexander Masters, “Love, Death & Trousers: Eight Found Stories”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.11]
  13. Anne Carson, “Eddy”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.14]
  14. Julie Orringer, “Neighbors”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.15]
  15. Caleb Crain, “Envoy”, The Paris Review #221 [2022.07.15]
  16. Ann Beattie, “Ruckersville”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.17]
  17. Isabella Hammad, “Mr. Can’aan”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.17]
  18. Sigrid Nunez, “The Blind”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.17]
  19. Duncan Hannah, “Diaries, 1970-73”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.17]
  20. Antonio Di Benedetto, “Ace”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.19]
  21. David Sedaris, “Letter from Emerald Isle”, The Paris Review #222 [2022.07.19]
  22. Peter Mountford, “Pay Attention”, The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.25]
  23. Katharine Kilalea, “OK, Mr. Field (Part 1) Summer”, The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.26]
  24. J. Jezewska Stevens, “The Party”, The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.28]
  25. Duncan Hannah, “Diaries, 1973-1974”, The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.29]
  26. Karl Ove Knausgaard (Damion Searls, translator), “Fate”, The Paris Review #223 [2022.07.29]
  27. Joy Williams, “Flour”, The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.29]
  28. Chia-Chia Lin, “Practicing”, The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.29]
  29. Rachel Cusk, “Justice”, The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.30]
  30. Joanna Novak, “The Wait”, The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.30]
  31. Katharine Kilalea, “OK, Mr. Field (Part 2) Autumn”, The Paris Review #224 [2022.07.31]
Posted in Book ListTagged Paris Review, Restless Books comment on July 2022 Reading List

Another July In the Bag

2022-07-312022-07-30 John Winkelman

New arrivals for the week of July 24, 2022

The first part of 2022 seemed to drag, the days and weeks plodding by as if time itself were feeling an inescapable ennui. Then Memorial Day arrived and all the things which hadn’t happened since 2019 suddenly happened all at once, three years worth of events packed into a couple of months as everyone did everything everywhere. And suddenly July is over and in fifty days Autumn will arrive, suddenly and, given how hot the world is anymore, unnoticed except for the changing of the leaves. I felt no FOMO for two years because there was nothing to miss out on. Now so many things are happening that missing an event seems a luxury.

Thus I am exhausted in the midst of plenty and in desperate need for some quiet time and solitude.

Two new books arrived at the house this week.

First up is K.S. Villoso‘s The Wolf of Oren-Yaro, which I picked up on a whim, as Villoso has been a speaker on several genre podcasts over the past couple of years.

On the right, from Two Lines Press, is Xu  Zechen‘s Running through Beijing, translated from the Chinese by Eric Abrahamsen.

In reading news I burned my way through The Last Emperox, the eminently satisfying conclusion to John Scalzi‘s Interdependency trilogy. I haven’t binged a series like this since last summer, and it felt pretty good.

I rounded out the month with a steady run of The Paris Review, and am slightly less than halfway through my backlog. I just finished the Spring 2018 issue, and expect to be caught up to present around the end of the year.

I still haven’t written anything, but I do have some ideas on how to expand a short story I wrote last fall into a full novel, including sufficient worldbuilding to possibly turn the novel, once completed, into a series. Time will tell. It always does.

Posted in Literary MattersTagged K.S. Villoso, Paris Review, reading, Two Lines Press, writing comment on Another July In the Bag

Bottom of the Top #30

2022-07-252022-07-25 John Winkelman

As we approach the end of July the end of summer appears on the horizon and if, like me, you looked forward to a new school year starting, you feel a sense of anticipation (possibly leavened with some dread) as well as a sense that, well, summer just isn’t long enough to pack in all the things which make summer summer. Thus the end of July is a time of contrasts.

1977: The Floaters, “Float On”

“Float On” is smooth and groovy and oh, so seventies in both tune and lyrics. I probably heard this at some point in the past, but likely not when it came out, as the only radio stations which were played around our house at the time had taglines like “No punk, no funk, no junk,” which basically meant only (white) rock and country music.  This was the Floaters’ only hit song, which is unfortunate as they sing beautifully.

1982: Herb Alpert, “Route 101”

Ah, Herb Alpert. He and his band the Tijuana Brass were ubiquitous through the early parts of my life. I heard “Route 101” when it hit the charts, which would also have been about the time I started playing the trombone in junior high and listening to other artists like Chuck Mangione. I am a little irritated that I associate wonderful songs like this with distinctly unpleasant parts of my life like milking cows in the early morning, but at least down in the pit, covered in manure and either sweating or freezing, I had music like this to distract me.

1987: Danny Wilson, “Mary’s Prayer”

I definitely heard this song at some point, I just couldn’t say when and where. We couldn’t listen to music on the floor of the pickle factory, and it probably wouldn’t have gone over well with the inmates therein. Boy howdy, that was a terrible job.

1992: Rozalla, “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”

I don’t know how I missed this one, back in the day. If I was more of a club-goer I would probably be more familiar with Rozalla, but then again this was the only one of her songs which made much of a splash in the US. She was much more popular in the UK and in her native Zimbabwe. I admit I am intrigued, and will definitely seek out more of her music.

1997: Warren G. featuring Ron Isley, “Smokin’ Me Out”

One of the best parts of this project is the way it is serving as a crash course/deep dive into R&B and Hiphop, two genres of music where I am woefully uninformed. I have heard of most of the artists in these lists (like Warren G.) but the songs, at the time (like “Smokin’ Me Out”), went right through me without leaving much of an impression. Which is unfortunate, because now that I am better about getting out of my own way, I really like the music.

Posted in MusicTagged Bottom of the Top, nostalgia comment on Bottom of the Top #30

Coincidences and Timing

2022-07-242022-07-24 John Winkelman

New arrival from the week of July 17, 2022, and Pepper

I have two information-dense personal projects going on right now – the “Bottom of the Top” posts, and my deep dive into all the back issues of literary journals which have been slowly accumulating in my house. This means that I am encountering, in a time-shifted way, many musical and literary works for the first time. The Bottom of the Top project starts in 1977 and runs through 1997 in five-year increments. My stack of old lit journals goes back at least five years, and many of the pieces therein were originally written one to a hundred years prior, though the older works tend to be outliers.

Only one new book arrived in the past week – Robin McLean‘s collection of short stories titled Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing, published by And Other Stories.

In reading news I am caught up through the end of 2017 in my stack of back issues of The Paris Review. This led me (with reference to the notes at the top of this post) to encounter New York artist Duncan Hannah, whose memoir 20th Century Boy was excerpted in issue #222 who was a contemporary of Andy Warhol and and active participant in the Scene in New York City from the 1970s on. I had not heard of Hannah before reading this excerpt, and immediately added his book to my list of upcoming purchases.

Then I did some more research and discovered that Duncan Hannah died a few weeks ago, on June 11. He was 69 years old, which doesn’t seem that old to me, from the vantage point of 53.

I also had a lot of fun reading Ana Simo’s Heartland, which I would happily put on the shelf next to Michelle Tea‘s Black Wave and Rita Indiana‘s Tentacle. With that complete, I have shifted gears back to more mainstream genre fiction and burned through John Scalzi‘s The Consuming Fire, the second book in the Interdependency trilogy, in two days. I am now reading the final book in the series, The Last Emperox. As with everything else I have read by Mr. Scalzi, these books are a lot of fun.

In writing news, a whole lotta nothing over the past week. That seems to be the state of things this summer.

Posted in Literary MattersTagged Duncan Hannah, Paris Review comment on Coincidences and Timing

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