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Design: Samuel Profeta
Ilustração: Clermont Cintra

Plant seeds of Devo, Talking Heads, Nintendo Entertainment System soundtracks, Dire Straights and the Beatles in a cabbage patch at the foot of Mt. Fuji.  Fertilize heavily with synthesized voices and ensure exposure to plenty of electronic sunshine.  Creepy Japanese mannequins will begin sprouting in 4 to 6 weeks. Pick after 8 weeks and apply butter as desired.

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Tracklist

There is something about The Working Hour that hits my back hard as if forcing me to stay up for an all-nighter — making the title apt. It must be the distinct, decisive piano notes, or the staccato-like strum of the guitar woven with the thick, stubborn saxophone riff.

But try traveling at midnight while staring at the stars from outside the window while listening to this song. Somehow, the stars seem so much closer, you could almost feel yourself floating.

Groove Armada recently signed with Om Records and are set to release a brand new album “BlackLight” with them in February 2010. This is the first single from said album -  “I Won’t Kneel.”

I really like this. Simple, very well executed, and feels like the first video to move the whole 80’s/electro thing forwards visually rather than just dredging up tired retro cliches.

Groove Armada – I Wont Kneel (feat. SaintSaviour)

Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE (born 26 September 1948 in Cambridge, United Kingdom) is a British-born, Australian-raised singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles  and two No. 1 Billboard 200 albums. Eleven of her singles (including two platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two platinum and four double platinum) have been certified gold by the RIAA. Many of her singles and albums were successful in multiple formats including Pop, Country and Adult Contemporary. She co-starred with John Travolta in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Grease, which became the highest grossing movie musical and one of the most successful film soundtracks in Hollywood history.

Newton-John has been a long-time activist for environmental and animal rights issues. Since having breast cancer in 1992, from which she recovered, she has been an advocate for health awareness becoming involved with various charities, health products and fundraising efforts to eradicate the disease. Her business interests have included launching several product lines for Koala Blue and co-owning the Gaia Retreat & Spa in Australia.
Newton-John has married twice and currently lives with her second husband, John Easterling, in Florida. She is the mother of one daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, with her first husband, actor Matt Lattanzi.

Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England, to a Welsh-born father, Brinley (“Bryn”) Newton-John, and a German-born mother, Irene Born (who was the eldest child of the Nobel prize winning atomic physicist Max Born). Newton-John is the youngest of three children, following brother Hugh, a doctor, and sister Rona, an actress and cast member of the Benny Hill Show once married to Grease co-star Jeff Conaway. Newton-John’s father was an MI5 officer on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park and was the officer who took Rudolph Hess into custody during World War II. Newton-John’s family emigrated in 1954 to Melbourne, Australia, where her father worked as a Professor of German and became the Master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne.

At 14, Newton-John formed a short-lived all-girl band, Sol Four, with three classmates and often performed in a coffee shop owned by her brother-in-law. She soon became a regular on local Australian radio and television shows including HSV-7’s The Happy Show where she performed as Lovely Livvy. She also appeared on the Go Show where she met her lifelong friends Pat Carroll and John Farrar. (Carroll and Farrar eventually married.) She entered a talent contest on the television program, Sing, Sing, Sing, hosted by 1960s Australian icon Johnny O’Keefe performing the songs “Anyone Who Had A Heart” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” She won the contest and received a trip to England as the prize. Initially, she was reluctant to go, but her mother encouraged her to broaden her horizons.

Newton-John recorded her first single, “Till You Say You’ll Be Mine” b/w “Forever,” for England’s Decca Records in 1966.  Newton-John was homesick in England because she missed Australia and her then-boyfriend, Ian Turpie, with whom she co-starred in an independently produced Australian telefilm, Funny Things Happen Down Under. Her mother cancelled trips back to Australia that Newton-John would repeatedly book. Newton-John’s outlook changed when Pat Carroll also moved to England. The two formed a duo and toured nightclubs in Europe until Carroll’s visa expired forcing her to return to Australia. Newton-John remained in England to pursue solo work.

Newton-John was recruited for the group “Toomorrow” – the brainchild of American producer Don Kirshner, music director of The Monkees. In 1970, the group recorded an eponymous album and starred in a “science fiction musical” film also named after the group. The project failed and the group was quickly disbanded.

Newton-John released her first solo album, If Not For You, in 1971. The title track, written by Bob Dylan, was her first international hit (No. 25 Pop, No. 1 Adult Contemporary). (“If Not For You” was originally recorded by Beatle George Harrison on his album All Things Must Pass in 1970.) Her follow-up, “Banks of the Ohio,” was a Top 10 hit in England and Australia, but faltered in the U.S. (No. 94 Pop, No. 34 AC).

She was voted Best British Female Vocalist two years in a row by the magazine Record Mirror. She made frequent appearances on Cliff Richard’s weekly show It’s Cliff Richard  and starred with him in the telefilm The Case. In the United States, Newton-John’s career foundered after If Not For You until the release of “Let Me Be There” in 1973. The song reached the American Top 10 on the Pop (No. 6), Country (No. 7),  and AC (No. 3) charts and earned her a Grammy for Best Country Female  and an Academy of Country Music award for Most Promising Female Vocalist. The song also propelled the album Let Me Be There to No. 1 on the Country Albums chart for two weeks.

In 1974, Newton-John represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song, “Long Live Love”. The song was chosen for her by the British public. Newton-John placed fourth at the contest in Brighton behind ABBA’s winning “Waterloo”. (Newton-John would later admit that she disliked the song.) All six song candidates for the contest were recorded by Newton-John and included on her Long Live Love album, her first for the EMI Records label. In North America, this album was released by MCA Records as If You Love Me, Let Me Know, with the six Eurovision songs dropped for four different, more-country-oriented tracks to capitalize on the success of “Let Me Be There.”

The title track was the first single, reaching No. 5 Pop, No. 2 Country  (her best country placement ever), and No. 2 AC. The next single, “I Honestly Love You,” became Newton-John’s signature song. Written by Jeff Barry and Peter Allen , the ballad became her first No. 1 Pop (two weeks) and second No. 1 AC (three weeks) hit (also No. 6 Country) and earned Newton-John two more Grammys for Record of the Year  and Best Pop Female. The success of both singles helped the album reach No. 1 on both the Pop (one week)  and Country (eight weeks) Albums charts.

Newton-John’s country success was reviled by purists who believed a foreigner singing country-flavored pop music did not belong in country music. In addition to her Grammy for “Let Me Be There,” Newton-John was also named the Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year in 1974, defeating nominees Loretta Lynn, Canadian Anne Murray, Dolly Parton, and Tanya Tucker , all established country music artists. Newton-John’s win outraged many country artists leading to the formation of the short-lived Association of Country Entertainers (ACE).

Newton-John was eventually supported by most in the country music community. Stella Parton, Dolly’s sister, recorded “Ode To Olivia” and Newton-John recorded her 1976 album Don’t Stop Believin’, in Nashville.  Newton-John and Dolly Parton would eventually form a friendship, and would cover one-another’s songs (Parton performing “Let Me Be There” on her 1976-77 variety show Dolly!, and Newton-John covering Parton’s “Jolene” in 1976).

Encouraged by expatriate Australian singer Helen Reddy, Newton-John left England and moved to the United States. Newton-John topped the Pop (one week) and Country (six weeks) Albums charts with her next album, Have You Never Been Mellow. The album generated two singles – the title track (No. 1 Pop, No. 3 Country,  No. 1 AC)  and “Please Mr. Please” (No. 3 Pop, No. 5 Country, No. 1 AC).

Newton-John’s pop career cooled with the release of her next album, Clearly Love. Her streak of five consecutive gold Top 10 singles ended when the album’s first single, “Something Better To Do,” stopped at No. 13 (also No. 19 Country and No. 1 AC). Although her albums still achieved gold status, she did not return to the Top 10 on the Hot 100 or Pop Albums charts again until 1978.

Newton-John’s singles continued to easily top the AC chart, where she ultimately amassed ten No. 1 singles including a record seven consecutively:

“I Honestly Love You” (1974) – 3 weeks
“Have You Never Been Mellow” (1975) – 1 week
“Please Mr. Please” (1975) – 3 weeks
“Something Better To Do” (1975) – 3 weeks
“Let It Shine/He Ain’t Heavy…He’s My Brother” (1976) – 2 weeks
“Come On Over” (1976) – 1 week
“Don’t Stop Believin’” (1976) – 1 week

She also provided a prominent, but uncredited, vocal on John Denver’s “Fly Away” single, which was succeeded by her own single, “Let It Shine/He Ain’t Heavy…He’s My Brother,” at No. 1 on the AC chart. Newton-John also continued to reach the Country Top 10 where she tallied seven Top 10 singles through 1976’s “Come On Over” (No. 23 Pop, No. 5 Country , No. 1 AC) and six consecutive (of a career nine total) Top 10 albums through 1976’s Don’t Stop Believin’ (No. 30 Pop, No. 7 Country) . She headlined her first U.S. television special, A Special Olivia Newton-John, in November 1976.

By mid-1977, Newton-John’s AC and country success also began to wane. Her Making a Good Thing Better album (No. 34 Pop, No. 13 Country) failed to be certified gold, and its only single, the title track, did not reach even the AC Top 10 or the Country chart. Although the release that same year of Olivia Newton-John’s Greatest Hits (No. 13 Pop, No. 7 Country) became her first platinum album, Newton-John prepared to move her career in new directions.

Newton-John’s career soared after starring in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease in 1978. She was offered the lead role of Sandy after a chance meeting with producer Allan Carr at a dinner party held by Helen Reddy in her Los Angeles home. Burned by her Toomorrow experience and concerned that she was too old to play a high school senior (she turned 29 during the later 1977 filming), Newton-John insisted on a screen test with the film’s co-star, John Travolta. The film accommodated Newton-John’s Australian accent by recasting her character from the play’s original American Sandy Dumbrowski to Sandy Olsson, an Australian who vacations and then moves with her family to the United States.

The release of the film was preceded one month by the telecast of Newton-John’s second television special, Olivia. Grease became the biggest box-office hit of 1978 and remained popular enough that it was re-released in theaters on its 20th anniversary in 1998. The soundtrack spent 12 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 and yielded three Top 5 singles for Newton-John: the No. 1 “You’re The One That I Want” (with John Travolta), the No. 3 “Hopelessly Devoted To You,” and the No. 5 “Summer Nights” (with John Travolta and the film’s cast).

The former two songs were written by Newton-John’s long-time producer, John Farrar, specifically for the film. Newton-John became the second female (after Linda Ronstadt in 1977) to have two singles – “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “Summer Nights” – in the Billboard Top 5 simultaneously. Newton-John’s performance earned her a People’s Choice award for Favorite Motion Picture Actress. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Musical and performed the Oscar-nominated “Hopelessly Devoted To You” at the 1979 Academy Awards. To this day, the soundtrack still sells several thousand copies per week and often appears on Billboard’s Soundtracks chart.

Newton-John’s transformation in the film from goody-goody “Sandy 1″ to spandex-clad “Sandy 2″ emboldened Newton-John to do the same with her music career. In November 1978, she released the pop album Totally Hot, which became her first solo Top 10 (No. 7) album since Have You Never Been Mellow. Dressed on the cover all in leather, the album’s singles “A Little More Love” (No. 3 Pop, No. 94 Country, No. 4 AC), “Deeper Than The Night” (No. 11 Pop, No. 87 Country, No. 4 AC), and the title track (No. 52 Pop) all demonstrated a more aggressive and more uptempo sound for Newton-John.

Although the album clearly de-emphasized country, it still reached No. 4 on the Country Albums chart. Newton-John released the B-side, “Dancin’ ‘Round And ‘Round,” of the “Totally Hot” single to Country radio, where it peaked at No. 29 (as well as No. 82 Pop and No. 25 AC), becoming her last charted solo Country airplay single to date.

Newton-John began 1980 by releasing I Can’t Help It (No. 12 Pop, No. 8 AC), a duet with Andy Gibb from his After Dark album, and by starring in her third television special, Hollywood Nights. Later that year, she appeared in her first film since Grease starring in the musical Xanadu with Gene Kelly and Michael Beck. Although the movie was a critical failure, it was ultimately profitable and its soundtrack was certified double platinum.

The soundtrack (No. 4 Pop) boasted five Top 20 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 , including Newton-John’s Magic (No. 1 Pop, No. 1 AC), Suddenly with Cliff Richard (No. 20 Pop, No. 4 AC), and the title-song with ELO (No. 8 Pop, No. 2 AC). Magic was Newton-John’s biggest Pop hit to that point (four weeks at No. 1) and still ranks as the biggest AC hit of her career (five weeks at No. 1). The film has since become a cult classic and the basis for a well-reviewed, Tony-nominated Broadway show that ran for more than 500 performances in 2007–2008.

In 1981, Newton-John released her most successful studio album, the double platinum Physical. The title track, written by Steve Kipner and Terry Shaddick, spent ten weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, matching the record of most weeks at No. 1 held by Debby Boone’s You Light Up My Life. The single was certified platinum and it ultimately ranked as the biggest song of the decade. (In 2008, Billboard ranked the song No. 6 among all songs that charted in the 50-year history of the Hot 100.) The song even earned Newton-John her only placement ever on the R&B Singles (No. 28) and Albums (No. 32) chart. The Physical album spawned two more singles, Make a Move on Me (No. 5 Pop, No. 6 AC) and Landslide (No. 52 Pop).

To counter the overtly suggestive tone of the title track, Newton-John filmed an exercise-themed video that turned the song into an aerobics anthem (and made headbands a fashion accessory outside the gym). Newton-John became a pioneer in the nascent music video industry by recording a video album for Physical featuring videos of all the album’s tracks and three of her older hits. The video album earned her a fourth Grammy and was aired as an ABC prime time special, Let’s Get Physical , becoming a Top 10 Nielsen hit.

The success of Physical led to an international tour and the release of her second hits collection, the double platinum Olivia’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (No. 16 Pop), which yielded two more Top 40 singles: Heart Attack (No. 3 Pop) and Tied Up (No. 38 Pop). The tour was filmed for her Olivia In Concert television special which premiered on HBO in January 1983. The special was subsequently released to video earning Newton-John another Grammy nomination.

Newton-John re-teamed with Travolta in 1983 for the critically and commercially unsuccessful Two of a Kind, redeemed by its platinum soundtrack (No. 26 Pop) featuring Twist Of Fate (No. 5 Pop) , Livin’ In Desperate Times (No. 31 Pop), and a new duet with Travolta, Take A Chance (No. 3 AC). Newton-John released another video package, the Grammy-nominated Twist Of Fate, featuring videos of her four songs on the Two of a Kind soundtrack and the two new singles from Olivia’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2.

The same year, Newton-John and Pat Farrar founded Koala Blue. The store was originally for Australian imports, but evolved into a chain of women’s clothing boutiques. The chain was initially successful, but eventually declared bankruptcy and closed in 1992.  Newton-John and Farrar would later license the brand name for a line of Australian produced wines, confections, and bed/bath products. Newton-John married long-time boyfriend Matt Lattanzi in December 1984. The couple had met four years earlier while filming Xanadu. (They divorced in 1995.)] Newton-John resumed recording in 1985 with the release of the gold Soul Kiss (No. 29 Pop). The album’s only charted single was the title track (No. 20 Pop, No. 20 AC). Newton-John’s pregnancy with daughter Chloe Rose Lattanzi (b. January 1986)  limited her publicity for the album. The video album for Soul Kiss featured videos of only five of the album’s ten tracks, and the album’s second single, Toughen Up, failed to even chart.

After a three-year hiatus to raise Chloe, Newton-John returned with 1988’s The Rumour. The album was promoted by an HBO special, Olivia Down Under, and its first single, the title track, was written and produced by Elton John. Both the single (No. 62 Pop, No. 33 AC) and the album (No. 67 Pop) fizzled as the nearly 40 year-old Newton-John seemed “old” when compared with the teen queens Debbie Gibson and Tiffany ruling the charts at that time.

The second single, the Sandy Linzer/Irwin Levine–penned Can’t We Talk It Over In Bed, did not chart. (Grayson Hugh, the song’s arranger, subsequently released his version of the song as Talk It Over in 1989 and it became a Top 20 Pop hit.) A year later, Newton-John recorded her “self-indulgent” album, Warm and Tender, featuring lullabies and love songs for parents and their children. This album also did not revive her recording career struggling to No. 124 Pop.

Newton-John was primed for another comeback in 1992 when she compiled her third hits collection, Back To Basics – The Essential Collection 1971–1992 (No. 121 Pop), and planned her first tour since her Physical trek ten years earlier. Shortly after the album’s release, Newton-John was diagnosed with breast cancer, forcing her to cancel all publicity for the album, including the tour. (Newton-John received her diagnosis on the same weekend her father died.) Newton-John recovered and has since become a tireless advocate for breast cancer research and other health issues. She has been a product spokesperson for the Liv-Kit, a breast self-examination product. She is co-owner of the Gaia Retreat and Spa in Byron Bay, Australia, which is advertised as “the ideal place to renew, refresh, and restore your mind, body and soul.”

Newton-John’s cancer diagnosis affected the type of music she recorded. In 1994, she released Gaia: One Woman’s Journey, which chronicled her ordeal. This was the first album on which Newton-John wrote all of the songs, encouraging her to become more active as a songwriter thereafter. In 2005, she released Stronger Than Before, sold exclusively in the United States by Hallmark. Proceeds from the album’s sales benefited breast cancer research. The album featured the song Phenomenal Woman based on the poem by Maya Angelou that featured guest vocals from Diahann Carroll, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Delta Goodrem, Amy Holland, Patti LaBelle, and Mindy Smith who were all cancer survivors or whose lives were affected by the disease.

The following year, Newton-John released a healing CD, Grace And Gratitude. The album was sold exclusively by Walgreens,  also benefitting various charities such as Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, and was the “heart” of their “Body – Heart – Spirit” Wellness Collection. The collection also featured a re-branded Liv-Kit and breast-health dietary supplements.

In 2008, Newton-John raised funds to help build the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia. She led a three-week, 228 km walk along the Great Wall of China during April joined by various celebrities and cancer survivors throughout her trek. The walk  symbolized the steps cancer patients must take on their road to recovery. Newton-John released a companion CD, A Celebration In Song, the following month in Australia and later worldwide  featuring new and previously recorded duets by “Olivia Newton-John & Friends.

Her “Friends” included Jann Arden, Jimmy Barnes, John Farrar, Barry Gibb, Delta Goodrem, Sun Ho, Richard Marx, Cliff Richard, Melinda Schneider, Amy Sky and Keith Urban. In October, Newton-John helped launch the www.liv.com website and teamed with fitness franchise Curves to distribute one million Liv-Aid breast self-examination aids for Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Newton-John’s spirituality also extended to the release of several Christmas albums. In 2000, she teamed with Vince Gill and the London Symphony Orchestra for ‘Tis The Season, sold exclusively through Hallmark. The following year, she released The Christmas Collection, which compiled seasonal music previously recorded for her Hallmark Christmas album, her appearance on Kenny Loggins’ 1999 TNN Christmas special, and her contributions to the Mother And Child and Spirit Of Christmas multi-artist collections. In 2007, she re-teamed with her Grace And Gratitude producer, Amy Sky, for Christmas Wish (No. 187 Pop), which was sold exclusively by Target.

Newton-John’s spiritual, contemplative music was complemented by her pop-oriented releases. In 1998, she returned to Nashville to record Back With A Heart (No. 59 Pop).  The album returned her to the Top 10 (No. 9) on the Country Albums chart. Its only single was a remake of I Honestly Love You produced by David Foster and featuring Babyface on background vocals that charted Pop (No. 67) and AC (No. 18). Country radio dismissed the song, although it did peak at No. 16 on the Country Sales chart. The album track, Love Is A Gift, won Newton-John a 1999 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song after being featured on the daytime serial, As The World Turns.

Newton-John’s subsequent albums were all released primarily in Australia. Newton-John, John Farnham and Anthony Warlow toured Australia as The Main Event. The live album won an ARIA Award for Highest Selling Australian CD and was also nominated for Best Adult Contemporary Album. She and Farnham performed Dare To Dream at the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. In 2002, Newton-John released (2), a duets album featuring mostly Australian artists including Darren Hayes, Tina Arena, Jimmy Little, Billy Thorpe and Johnny O’Keefe as well as a heartfelt “duet” with the deceased Peter Allen. The same year, Newton-John was inducted into Australia’s ARIA Hall of Fame. 2004 brought the release of Indigo: Women of Song, a tribute album covering songs by The Carpenters, Minnie Riperton, Doris Day, Nina Simone, Joan Baez and others. Newton-John dedicated the album to her mother who died the previous year.

Newton-John acted occasionally since Two of a Kind. She appeared in a supporting role in the 1996 AIDS drama, It’s My Party – her first feature film since Two Of A Kind. In 2000, she appeared in a dramatically different role as Bitsy Mae Harling, a lesbian ex-con country singer, in Del Shores’ Sordid Lives. Newton-John reprised her role for Sordid Lives: The Series which aired one season on the LOGO television network . The series featured five original songs written by Newton-John specifically for the show.

Newton-John’s television work included starring in two Christmas movies, A Mom For Christmas (1990) and A Christmas Romance (1994) – both Top 10 Nielsen hits. Her daughter, Chloe, starred as one of her children in both A Christmas Romance and in the 2001 Showtime film The Wilde Girls. Newton-John guest-starred as herself in the sitcoms Ned and Stacey, Murphy Brown and Bette. In Australia, Newton-John hosted Wild Life, a show about animals and nature – two major interests for Newton-John. She also guest starred as Joanna on two episodes of the Australian series The Man From Snowy River.

After her 1995 divorce from Matt Lattanzi, Newton-John met gaffer/cameraman Patrick McDermott the following year. The couple dated on and off for nine years until he went missing following a 2005 fishing trip off the California coast. Various theories abounded regarding his disappearance ranging from his death by accident or foul play to McDermott staging his disappearance to avoid child support payments to his ex-wife, actress Yvette Nipar. Newton-John, who was in Australia at her self-owned Gaia Retreat & Spa at the time of his disappearance, was never a suspect and refused to comment on any speculation. A US Coast Guard investigation released in 2008 “suggest[ed] McDermott was lost at sea.” Newton-John returned to the tabloid headlines again in 2007 when it was revealed that her daughter was recovering from anorexia. Patrick McDermott has since been seen in a photograph with his hair dyed black, in an apparent bid to alter his appearance, living in a fishing village in Mexico.

Newton-John released another concert DVD, Olivia Newton-John and the Sydney Symphony: Live at the Sydney Opera House, and a companion CD, Olivia’s Live Hits, in January 2008. An edited version of the DVD premiered on PBS station, WLIW (Garden City, New York), in October 2007 and subsequently aired nationally during the network’s fund-raising pledge drives. This was Newton-John’s third live album after the 1981 Japanese release, Love Performance, and her 2000 Australian release, One Woman’s Live Journey.

In June 2008, Newton-John secretly wed John (“Amazon John”) Easterling, founder and president of natural remedy firm, Amazon Herb Company. The couple met 15 years earlier, but only became romantically involved in 2007. (Like Newton-John, this was Easterling’s second marriage.) The couple married alone in a private Incan spiritual ceremony in Cuzco, Peru on June 21 followed nine days later by a legal ceremony on the Jupiter Island beachfront in Florida. There were no guests at either service since the couple preferred to marry simply and privately.

Only Newton-John’s daughter, Chloe, was aware of the nuptials. The couple did not announce their marriage until a July 4 barbecue at Newton-John’s Malibu, California home where guests were surprised with the news. The wedding was confirmed thereafter by HELLO! magazine which published exclusive pictures of both weddings.  In June 2009, Newton-John purchased a new $4.1 million home in Jupiter Inlet.

Newton-John joined Judy Brooks and Roy Walkenhorst as co-host of the health and well-being series, Healing Quest, currently airing on PBS.
Newton-John has been promoting Zamu  with her husband, Easterling. Zamu is an organic drink supplement produced by Amazon Herb which was founded by Easterling.
Newton-John will be featured in UniGlobe Entertainment’s breast cancer docu-drama titled 1 a Minute scheduled for release in 2010. The documentary is being made by actress Namrata Singh Gujral and will also feature breast cancer suriviors Diahann Carroll, Melissa Etheridge, Namrata Singh Gujral, Mumtaz (actress) and Jaclyn Smith as well as William Baldwin, Daniel Baldwin and Priya Dutt. The feature is narrated by Kelly McGillis.

wikipedia

Albums

Studio albums:

1971 If Not for You
1972 Olivia
1973 Let Me Be There
1974 Long Live Love
1974If You Love Me, Let Me Know
1975 Have You Never Been Mellow
1975Clearly Love
1976 Come on Over
1976Don’t Stop Believin’
1977 Making a Good Thing Better
1978 Totally Hot
1981 Physical

1985 Soul Kiss
1988 The Rumour
1989 Warm and Tender
1994 Gaia
1998 Back with a Heart
2000 ‘Tis the Season (with Vince Gill)
2002 (2)
2004 Indigo: Women of Song
2005 Stronger Than Before
2006 Grace and Gratitude
2007 Christmas Wish
2008 A Celebration in Song

Compilation albums:

1974 First Impressions
1977 Olivia Newton-John’s Greatest Hits
1982 Olivia’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2
1992 Back to Basics: The Essential Collection 1971–1992
2001 Magic: The Very Best of Olivia Newton-John
2002 The Definitive Collection
2005 Gold

Others compilations:

1974: Crystal Lady
1994: 48 Original Tracks
1995: I Honestly Love You – Her Greatest Hits
1998: The Best of Olivia Newton-John
1998: Country Girl
1999: The Great Olivia Newton-John
1999: Love Songs
2001: The Christmas Collection
2003: Love Songs – A Collection

Live albums:

1981 Love Performance
1999 Highlights from The Main Event
2000 One Woman’s Live Journey
2008 Olivia’s Live Hits

Soundtracks:

1978 Grease
1980 Xanadu
1983 Two of a Kind

Others soundtracks:

1970: Toomorrow
2000: Sordid Lives
2008: Sordid Lives: The Series

Films:

Funny Things Happen Down Under (1965)
Toomorrow (1970)
Grease (1978)
Xanadu (1980)
Two Of A Kind (1983)
She’s Having A Baby (1988)
Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991)
It’s My Party (1996)
Sordid Lives (2000)

Television movies:

A Mom For Christmas (1990)
A Christmas Romance (1994)
The Wilde Girls (2001)

Television series:

The Man from Snowy River (1994) aka Snowy River: The MacGregor Saga
Sordid Lives: The Series (2008)

Television specials:

A Special Olivia Newton-John (US 1976)
Only Olivia (UK 1977)
Olivia (US 1978)
Hollywood Nights (US 1980)
Let’s Get Physical (US 1982)
Olivia In Concert (US 1983)
Olivia Down Under (US 1988)

Olivia Newton-John  - Gold

Special thanks to Udanax 2 : Thank you, Chris !

I’ve officially had enough with all this Twilight crap. I hate it. Why are people obsessed with vampires? [Insert death threats.] Which got me thinking…a lot of the stuff out there kids these days are into is just plain BAD. As a child of half of the 80s and all of the 90s, I wanted to express my disappointment in today’s kids. Don’t get me wrong, they have a lot more advantages with technology, but our lack of technology in those decades only made me that much cooler today. So with that, the top five reasons why kids these days are soft:

#5: Wasting free time
Back in “my day,” we went outside. We went for bike rides, played on dirt piles (it was fun I swear), and played TV tag. Basically, we got dirty and stayed outside ’til our moms dragged us in. Today’s kids sit inside on the computer all day. Granted, I sit inside on the computer all day now, but I have to for work. And when we weren’t outside when we were younger, we were inside doing creative things like playing with Lite Brite and building forts.

#4 Too complex video games
I have to admit, when Grand Theft Auto first came out I was pretty pumped to play it and run people over. It really helps when you have real-life road rage. However, games today are so technical and hard core, that’s too hard for me. Today’s games have nothing on Nintendo – the FIRST Nintendo. Super Mario Brothers, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out…now THOSE were games. Not this World of Warcraft let’s battle each other until all hours of the night in my mom’s basement crap. Oh wait, people that play that are my age…

#3 Not being able to tolerate car trips
When we were younger, we drove – everywhere. I’m talking PA to Florida more than once, a two-day drive in the car one way. The first time, in 1989, I was four years old. Lord only knows how I entertained myself. A few years later, I was old enough to have my own walkman then eventually graduated to a discman. But come on – we didn’t have TVs or DVDs in the car, or a table to play on. Kids today can’t even go across town without some form of car entertainment, let alone the state or multiple states. We listened to music or played games involving license plates. We kept it REAL.

#2 Fugly teen idols
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I hate Miley Cyrus. You know who else I hate? Yep, you guessed it – every dude in Twilight. And don’t even get me started on the Jonas Brothers. I’m sorry but who likes this haircut? –>
You know who was hot? New Kids on the Block. You know who else was hot? Jonathan Taylor Thomas aka JTT and Devon Sawa.

#1 Bad TV shows
Speaking of JTT, how good was Home Improvement? What about Full House, Boy Meets World, Hey Dude, Saved by the Bell, Fresh Prince, Just the Ten of Us, David the Gnome…I could on and on with the goodness of great TV shows I had growing up. When I was little, Nickeleodean was IT. And our shows had awesome theme songs. Today, kids have to suffer through Dora and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Awful. We had real shows like Pete & Pete. My week revolved around TGIF on ABC. And I watched those shows sitting in my fort. I’d like to see Hannah Montana do that.

Here are a few pictures from the fashion spread Marloes Horst did for Marie Claire Italy’s December issue. I’m really  loving the pictures so much the 80s styling along with the colouring of the shots all has this nostalgic feeling which is crazy!. I’m also pretty sure the only reason I posted this is because it reminds me of my mum’s savvy fashion sense. I loves it!

IMG|SOURCE: Marie Claire

Sequins are in right now!

The ever growing trend of vintage apparel and accessories is expanding at a vast rate. The 80’s trend we currently reside in has bought about many retro styles and outfits you probably begged your mother to throw out 10 years ago!

The shoulder pads, sequins, hounds tooth and the colour indigo was massively popular back in the 80’s and now fashionistas and fashion houses are pursuing next seasons must haves. Along with oversized silhouettes, wedge boots and knits all in at the moment, oversized fashion accessories like big fashion watches are also becoming an enviable must-have. Some say less is more but i say Bigger is better.

or: I’ll trade you civil liberties circa 1980, for the right to beat your wife circa 1920

or: If Glenn Beck were a decade, which one would he be?

For almost a year now, and even further back possibly, I have been fascinated with politics and punditry. I have become a self-proclaimed politico and I follow politics and media pretty closely, as closely as my tenuous hold on sanity will allow. In following politics my liberal mind has always been perplexed by the conservative party line of ‘returning to traditional American values’ and trying to recapture the ‘lost spirit of what it is to be an American’. In recent months it as been the loud ram’s horn call of Glenn Beck, and his ever growing audacity matched only by his ever growing audience, that has caused me to pontificate further on this subject. For the past few weeks this idea of lost values and traditional American fundamentals has led me to research where we might have gone wrong. Is there a specific time and place, a particular era that the GOP and other right-leaning hard-liners would want us to return to? If I can put my finger on the ethos that these guiding principles existed in, can we get back there? I delve in to this quagmire of American history to try and find “Glenn’s America”, so that he and others can stop preaching in general broad strokes and say, “we need to get back to what we believed in 19XX (or 18XX as it may be).”

When examining the general party ideas of what I understand to be the GOP’s fundamental idealogical structure I take my understanding from some 25 years on this planet, though you can’t count the first 16. I think that until you turn 17 and start trying to find yourself and begin to shape your views and identity in preparation for voting and contributing to society you are more of a blank slate in terms of personal free thought; up until this point you do not question a source but only try to fit in to the general parameters of ‘normal’ life as to not rock the boat and interfere with the indoctrination that American public schools instill in our youth. My true views have been shaped in my most recent years and as such I have adopted a view of the world quite different from my parents’, a direct result of informing myself for the first time in my life. In my home growing up as a small boy liberal leaders and democratic ideals warranted venom and crass, lewd criticism. The views I set forth will be of my own creation, independent of those I was raised on, either despite or in spite of them, I cannot tell. A crazy person isn’t crazy if he knows he’s crazy. Indeed.

The GOP seems to feel that gays should not marry, and are sinful. This makes no sense to me as sinful is a religious idea, not a political one; though it seems one position is quite often the result of the other. Gun rights should be protected at all costs to personal safety and public responsibility. Abortion is a no-no, ‘nuff said. They want smaller government, tax cuts, reform to let states decide things, though not gay marriage rights or any of the other items I just mentioned. They are for fiscal responsibility. GOP feels that a free market should regulate itself, again smaller government. They claim to fight for the middle class but public programs and universal anything is bad, that’s more government. They hate the environment as far as I can tell. Campaign finance reform (yeah right), education in America (no child left behind has gone so well after all). Prayer in school is ok, capital punishment and the death penalty are pretty much thumbs up, and the Ten Commandments should be at the steps of a courthouse flying the confederate flag. I am pretty close on this, right? So, basically it is a small government that has an abridged copy of the constitution, a cliff’s notes of the Bill of Rights, and a bible as it’s guiding principles. Hmmm, ok.

So, in American history, where can we find this utopia we strive for every day? This shangri-la we lost so long ago would obviously be the one saving grace for this country of godless sodomites. If we could only return to this point in time then everything would be fine. As far as I can tell it is the GOP that can save us if you believe the rhetoric. The liberals and the liberal media have scattered us across the nation and we are divided along partisan lines and are all doomed unless we jump on the Republican band wagon like some lifeboat after the Titanic sank. This is what self proclaimed “libertarian” Glenn Beck would like you to believe. I will give him credit for criticizing the government as a whole, even in the Bush days, though not in such inflammatory terms, but in reality he is like a Liber-publican. So, let’s take a step, Glenn, in to the way back machine and start a search for the time in American history you would like us to return to, as well as all of the Republican nay-sayers.

I want to start by saying that I am skipping the nineties completely being that he wasn’t happy with Clinton either, and it is far too close to the 21st century and the liberal progress this country has made; there is no way anyone wants to get back to how we were in the nineties, not even me and I loved my teen years in the nineties. And I am going to come back to the eighties later, they were too soon as well, but I will look at them briefly. We are sending our way back machine to a time when I think this country went bat-shit crazy and we were in maybe the most turmoil as a nation than anyone today can recall. I want to start out in the era that good old Glenn was born in, and that many of our current figure heads today, that make our decisions, can remember very ‘fondly’…the sixties.

Well I start here, in this decade of utter unrest by trying to illustrate that this can’t possibly be the America Glenn wants back. This cannot be the period in American history we want to recapture. This was a time that the late Strom Thurman must have hated with more zeal than any other period in history. It is hard to decide where to start. The sixties started out innocent enough, Kennedy beat Nixon and became the President, what followed was the Bay of Pigs incident, rumors about Marilyn, the meager beginning of Vietnam, the cuban missile crisis, then the man is assassinated. Further Vietnam BS, Malcolm X is killed, the Compton Cafeteria Riots in San Fran, then Nixon and all his Vietnam BS and his ‘secret plan to end the war’, the massive inflation crisis, MLK Jr. is killed, Bobby Kennedy is killed, the Stonewall riots of ’69, oh and a little thing who was named Manson did some killing. Great decade.

The sixties were a time of massive riots in the black and gay communities. Civil rights on all fronts tore the fabric of this country apart from women liberation, blacks, gays, even the Chicano revolution in this country. Outside of that was the acid wave of the sixties, a complete change in television, film, art, and especially music. The counterculture as it came to be known galvanized this country after the death of JFK, I think. The nice, homely manners of the 50’s were gone in a big way and now came very free thinkers, revolutionaries, protests exploded, demonstrations, inflation choked the middle class as they tried to compete with the changes in the landscape. The sixties were an ugly, hate-filled time, the emerging civil rights movement after the death of JFK was really the catalyst for it all. There is no way we want to return to the sixties as a country. America was in a violent turmoil and unsure of it’s identity and where the road we were on was going to lead us and people were strung out or scared for their lives, or both. I don’t think Glenn wants that back, so let’s move on.

How about we take a step forward and find Glenn in the seventies as a small boy, maybe these are the innocent and moral times he wants back…but I doubt it. Well in the seventies music really got good including the first ‘rap’ song, movies got weird, TV got lewd, and the country just got fucked up worse. This country started watching shows like All In The Family and the Brady bunch, dealing with some of the issues of the day. Vietnam choked the first few years while a little thing called Watergate slipped by the news press during Nixon’s re-election campaign and then killed him by ’74. It was the most embarrassing and shocking scandal in American political history, which in my opinion was the death of politics. I think that Nixon and his escalation of the doomed Vietnam war and his scandal killed the American political system. Outside of the US revolution was abundant across the world. Woodstock was a shining beacon of what drugs and music and mud can do for young people, a complete change from how we started the decade on the campus of Kent State where the National Guard gunned down peaceful protestors of the war on a college campus; unthinkable today, one would hope. The draft was the height of outrage, an unbelievable moment when Ali fought the draft and Elvis went in. Protest and anti-war sentiment was as widespread in this country as pant legs were flared. The Cold War ramped up a bit and this country got really scared, really fast. Our involvement in a few revolutions and military coupes as well as an assassination or two was a continuation of poor foreign affairs decisions. The middle east started down the road to where we are today with Israel, Egypt, Syria, the Soviet Union, and Afghanistan, all starting to kick each others asses.

The seventies brought women’s rights to the forefront as the sixties had civil rights for minorities eclipsing women’s rights to some extent. Vietnam ended finally, well our involvement, leaving the North to just wait for us to leave and drop Saigon to it’s knees and claim the country unified again. A sad end to a war we should have not been in and an end that was mostly our fault. Oh and lest I forget the massive recession we were in mixed with oil crises a couple of times resulting in rationing and further middle class stresses that included a very high unemployment rate. Then of course there was Jonestown, about 900 dead there. Idi Amin started his tyrannical, violent rule of Uganda as well. Is this the era we should return to? Hatred, war, violence, and tragedy pock marked this era. The seventies hold within their years scandal, racism, and fear-mongering, of the most epic scale one can imagine. There is no way we want to return to the moral or political views of this era. The seventies were the time for change for sure, but it came at great expense on the heels of a decade of radical change and upheaval. The 70’s continued the massive crime rate spikes that the sixties brought and the country still sat on the edge of it’s seat every day as nothing seemed to get better. Surely we don’t want the seventies back.

Ok, the eighties might be better, the days of Reagan and Bush, this might be the most likely time we want to return to. The eighties would be the most formidable years of Beck’s life; the decade of excess. The eighties brought the yuppie, and with it, all the coke, parties, and BMW’s we could handle. We saw great multinational growth and wall street was glamorous, they were kings then, still total scum, but they had better PR people then. Of course Reagan declared a War on Drugs, the Cold War raged to a massive scale. Sure, communism fell apart as did the Berlin Wall, but we saw the further mishandling of the middle east that is the source of our problems and involvement there today, can’t argue with that. Reagan put a major black eye on his presidency with the discovery of the Iran-Contra debacle that Oliver North was the mastermind behind. This country saw massive economic growth against the backdrop of very complicated and protracted battles all over the world including Asia, the middle east, central and south america, and ever Ireland with ‘the troubles’ brewing. (Only badass Irish would call a modern, religious civil war ‘the troubles’, an understatement to say the least)

The eighties, I think were a time of thinking that we could not be beaten, being the short attention span of Americans forgetting the seventies. We were coked out of our minds, living beyond our means, and we were kicking Commie ass. But the eighties, world wide, were complicated, painful growth, some democratic, but on the whole we saw massive famine and destruction abroad as the industrialized countries were making head way. The middle class of nations was being evaporated as the gap between rich and poor nations grew drastically. Domestic issues were tough though, as it seemed we were trying to use our power for good as a people with things like LiveAid and becoming more aware of issues in Africa and other countries, the eighties saw the rise of the religious right. They really got fired up on the gay issue and the discovery of AIDS, ‘the gay plague’. This country grew in many way, a decent decade I guess, I don’t really remember much of it but it seemed like a lot of people were having a lot of fun, safer fun.

Glenn probably liked the eighties, he used to be a liberal and an alcoholic, he draws a fine parallel between the two in a Katie Couric interview you should look up on YouTube, and this might have been his favorite time. Old enough to enjoy and understand it, he probably had a great time. Conservatives in power, strides made internationally, excess and money everywhere. The eighties were a wild party time, a decade that seemed to be a release of the past twenty years of hard work, growing pains, and controversial conflict. The 60’s and 70’s were going to lead inevitably to a time when we finally just cut loose and took a deep breath after so much bloodshed, upheaval, and serious talk. It was the decade we all remembered fondly on VH1. Music was weird, movies were great, TV was filled with classics we all watched, and standup comedians were making it big; the country was having a good laugh, a bump, and some beer. Not too bad.

I discount the nineties entirely so let’s jump back to a more general era I don’t think we can reasonably go back to, the 50’s to the 30’s. This was another era of massive wars, depression, civil rights injustice, bigotry, no women’s liberation, industrialization, organized crime, et al. These were times when blacks were openly hung from gallows, women were expected to be barefoot and pregnant in front of the stove, except when they were making tanks for the troops overseas for next to nothing wages. A time where minorities were rightfully scared at night of police or white boys out for a joyride. The prohibition, crime in the streets, Bonnie and Clyde, the Tommy gun, the B.A.R., saloons, speakeasy’s, and rampant bank robberies and crooked cops on the beat. This was a different time for this country and I don’t think we can agree with many of the ideals that were held to in this time and apply it today, the role of women alone is too much inequality to bare, let alone the rest.

OK, let’s take a big jump to my favorite era, the old west. You know the times, I’m talking post manifest destiny, pre-FBI. A time of no gun laws, showdowns in the streets, legal prostitutes, and riding in to town on a horse. Tombstone, San Francisco, Indian and cowboys. A time where gold was rushing and crazy white drunks ran amok and contracted TB and polio. Yes, when there were still a few Indians around, you had ranchers with thousands of acres, cattle drives, train robberies, and the men of storied legend lived and died by Winchester, Colt, and Smith&Wesson. I like to think I lived in the times with a town sheriff, shitty beer, floozies, and general martial law over most of the country. A time where you could shoot a man in the street in broad daylight in front of 50 people, and they might actually clap and then go about their day. The good times.

I think this might not be far enough back though. When I hear Glenn speak, he talks about the founding father’s principles. The true foundation of the country as he sees it with the men who earned America through blood, sweat, and tears. Jefferson’s America. OK, well let’s first examine the fact that we are talking late 1700’s and early 1800’s. These are pre-electric, pre-phone times. We are talking Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere, plantations, etc. If this is the time Glenn thinks we need to get back to I want to highlight a couple of things. First off, slavery was alive and well…need I say more? Secondly, this country treated women like shit, there were no civil rights, and it was unindustrialized. This country was populated and run by rich, white land owners, and then there was everybody else. I don’t want anyone to romanticize this era. This country was created, founded, and declared on the bodies of millions of natives and the death and suffering of minority races of people removed from their homes and treated worse than dogs in the time period.

America has never been truly righteous. We revolted for selfish reasons, nothing simpler than that. We turned against the imperialism of the Queen and her rule and declared our independence; the worst “dear John” letter ever. Up to that point we had slaughtered, tricked, infected, raped, and pillaged our way to the Mississippi and thought very highly of white skin and could kill a black man for any reason at any time, or sell them, whatever struck our fancy. What I am about to say is going to piss off the right, but if I could meet George Washington I think I would take the opportunity to shake his hand and then slap the wooden teeth out of his head. These were racist white bigots with an knack for the written word and hard on for ‘freedom’ by their definition as it applied to them as an emerging nation of first class citizens at the top of the shit pile. All due respect, but their ideas and principles were fundamentally offensive and their beliefs of equality were for themselves and those they agreed with. How many minorities or women were running around enjoying their freedom of speech or right to bare arms…or even read? I rest my case.

So maybe Glenn does have a time in mind. Maybe he wants the scandalous, violent 70’s, or the civil unrest and inequality of the 60’s. The old west certainly had smaller/non-existent national government, and the 40’s sure were good times to be a gangster, Nixon would have done well, that’s for sure. The eighties surely had the best coke, and some unprecedented growth, outside of post-industrialized America (without all of these pesky labor laws we got). Maybe he wants the great depression era, maybe to live amongst the greatest generation, or rub elbows with white men who raped their slaves on their plantation as a matter of principle and patriotism. The history of America is short, embarrassing, and seemingly without a lesson learned throughout. Glenn, I dare you and your constituents to point out that shining beacon in American history that is so much better than now, ‘cause I must have missed it. All those moments have led up to now, and I’ll be damned if where we are isn’t a hell of a lot better than where we were; you can pry this progress from my cold dead hands, pal.

Soda Stereo, Cuando Pase El Temblor (English Version)

myspace.com

In my day we had a weekly holiday called Saturday Morning.  Sure, Saturday mornings still exist in the way that Wednesday mornings exist, but Saturday Mornings, capital M, were something all together different.  On a normal day I would find anyway to get a few extra minutes of sleep.  If this meant sneaking into a closet to nestle in the off season clothing, so be it.  Saturday Mornings were the exception.  It didn’t matter how late I was up the night before, there was a drive to fling my little body out my G.I. Bed Tent.  This often led to injuries given that it was perched on the top bunk.  Still in pajamas, I would walk past the shower and into straight to the kitchen where I would proceed to make a bowl of multi-colored compressed sugar with milk.  It was time to turn on the television and enjoy Saturday Morning.

The tubes warmed into a crecendo of static electricity.  The television lit up with flashing imagery that delighted the young mind into a joyous comfort that few moments could bring.  For the next few hours the world belonged to every kid who rolled themselves out of bed just to enjoy a few hours of cartoons.  For my household, like many others in the 1980’s, cable television was more of a luxury.  There were three basic network stations and PBS.  I personally perfered CBS’s line up.  Show’s like Muppet Babies, Garfield and Friends, Dungeon and Dragons, and CBS Story Break were among my favorites.  Of course a skilled watcher would know when to flip channels to maximize the enjoyment.  The only thing that brought down the elation was seeing Soul Train or ABC’s Wide World of Sports signal the end of the morning.  Thus starts another week of waiting.  The rest of the week belonged to our parents, school, and the other regulators of childhood, but during Saturday Morning, it was our time alone.

One could argue that many of the shows were just long commercials, being that so many were based on toys.  That maybe true, but it does nothing to detract from the moment they created.  We lived in happy times, blissful in our childlike ignorance, completely unaware that there were dark forces who were consipring to end Saturday Mornings forever.  Not only would they put their nefarious plans into action, but they would win.

The first group of people were the worried parents who wanted to over sanitize Saturday Morning.  Cartoons were constantly being bombarded by parent groups who worried that cartoons were not educational enough or or too violent.  Some groups complained that many of the cartoons were just selling toys, which many were.  But hey, still very entertaining.  In 1990, the FCC mandated that a certain amount of hours be set aside primarily for educational or informative purposes, thus the E/I label on many shows today.  Some good things did come out of this push.  The PSA’s we all remember and love were born out of this movement.  Who could forget Woodsy Owl, OG Readmore, and the many others.  Thanks to this one, I still don’t refuse to drown my food.

Indeed, Saturday Mornings could have very well survived these groups and initives, but cable was growing in popularity as well as VHS tapes.  There was less need to wait for Saturdays to see cartoons.  Still, Saturday Morning would have survived.  So what was the final bullet?  Saved By the Bell.  NBC decieded to run the live action show on Saturday Mornings.  The show did well among older kids and inspired NBC to run another show called California Dreaming.  Other networks started following course and the perfect storm was created.  Saturday Mornings were gasping, drowning in the sea of change.

Saturday Mornings are little more than a nostalgia trip today for those of us who lived during the golden age of childhood.  Reality TV has even taken over networks like Cartoon Network. Disney Channel is not much more than a platform to shove teens with an inflated sense of entitlement into the public stream.  And to make matters more tragic, the actual state of childhood is being dimished by Abercrombie parents and networks who find it more profitble to market to the ficitous new class called Tweens.  More on that next week.

Although Saturday Mornings may be dead, I still want my child to experience a small portion of the joy we had.  I’ve started collecting DVD’s of shows from that era.  And when she is old enough, she will have a reason to roll out of bed, load up on cereal and watch cartoons once a week.  A time that is hers alone.

If you wish to take a longer trip down memory lane, check out www.retrojunk.com

Alright, Alright…let’s get this thing rolling.  #63.  I love that number.

Jump (for My Love) – Pointer Sisters

“Jump (for My Love)” was the opening track (and third single) of the Pointer Sisters’ 1983 album, Break Out.

Released prior to the 1984 Summer Olympics games, the song’s video featured footage of athletes competing in track and field events. The song was the second of four Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles in a row for the sisters in 1984; it peaked at #3 in July. It also appeared on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart and reached the Top 10 in the UK, peaking at number six.

The original title given to the song simply was “Jump.” The title was modified to “Jump (for My Love)” prior to its release to avoid confusion with the Van Halen song Jump, which was released earlier the same year.

The song netted the group a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1985.

In 2003, this recording was used in the movie Love Actually.

Do That To Me One More Time – Captain & Tennille

“Do That to Me One More Time” is a song performed by American pop duo Captain & Tennille. It was their second chart-topping hit in the U.S., following “Love Will Keep Us Together” from 1975. The song was included on the duo’s 1979 album, Make Your Move. The song was written by Toni Tennille.

After a decline in popularity from the height of their success in the mid-1970s, the Captain and Tennille signed with Casablanca Records under the guidance of Neil Bogart. “Do That to Me One More Time” was a comeback for the duo, but they failed to achieve further success on Casablanca and their contract was not renewed. Vocalist and songwriter Toni Tennille played the song for Bogart at her house with husband Daryl Dragon in Pacific Palisades, California on an electric piano. Bogart reacted enthusiastically, saying: “That’s a smash! There’s no doubt in my mind that’s going to be your first single.”

“Do That to Me One More Time” became Captain & Tennille’s second and final number-one hit when it reached the pinnacle of the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week ending February 16, 1980. The song had logged four consecutive weeks in the runner-up position on this chart behind Michael Jackson’s hit “Rock with You” before ascending to the top of the chart. The song also achieved some crossover success on the Billboard adult contemporary and R&B charts. It was their highest-charting hit on the UK Singles Chart, where it reached #7 in March 1980. The duo also recorded a version of the song in Spanish.

Harden My Heart – Quarterflash

“Harden My Heart” is the most popular single by the rock group Quarterflash, off their Quarterflash album, released in 1981.

The song was originally released as a single in early 1980 by Seafood Mama, Quarterflash’s predecessor band. It featured more sparse instrumentation but a more dramatic vocal arrangement than the hit version and was a regional success on radio stations in Portland, Oregon.

After changing their name, Quarterflash released their self-titled debut album in 1981 which contained the new version of “Harden My Heart”. This version was released as the album’s first single. In January of 1982, it reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart. The song also reached the Top 20 in Germany and in France, though it stalled below the Top 40 in the United Kingdom. It was the group’s only Top 10 single on the Hot 100, although their follow-up single off the album, “Find Another Fool”, and their 1983 hit “Take Me to Heart” both entered the Top 20. This song is included in the game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, in the radio station Emotion 98.3.

Let’s Hear It For The Boy – Deniece Williams

“Let’s Hear It For The Boy” was the second number-one song for both Deniece Williams and the soundtrack to the feature film Footloose. It climbed to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, as well as number one on the dance and R&B charts, and peaked at number two on the UK singles chart. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.

The Australian group Young Divas covered the song on their debut album in 2006. The 2008 soundtrack of the hit Nickelodeon show iCarly features this version of the song.

It is a pivotal song in the US Queer as Folk continuum. This version is performed by Katty B and is a theme song for the character Justin Taylor.

The Mexican Latin Pop singer Byanka has sung by the 1985 song title “Escucho al Muchacho” and composed by “José T. Martinez”.

Sempre digo nas minhas apresentações sobre tendências de mercado que a moda passa por um revival de 20 em 20 anos.

Costumo dizer também, que nesse processo as empresas fabricantes de tênis são as mais antenadas.

Está aí a comemoração dos 20 anos do Reebok Pump que não me deixa mentir.

Entre no site para assistir o documentário sobre esse modelo clássico criado em 1989.

It’s been a very bluesy winter so far, I’ve noticed, but that doesn’t matter. Today I am going to talk about the last of the Albert Collins albums I have thus far heard:

I notice sometimes, while listening to the Blues, just how much it parallels comedy. I mean, some of it is comedy, like a couple of tracks from this album, but essentially the Blues and comedy are two things that make light of a bad situation, and evoke a real feeling of joy where once there was tension. It’s not a perfect analogy, but let’s take the first song on this set as an example, the song “Cash Talkin’ (The Workingman’s Blues)”:

Well I walked down to my bank, just to see what I could see
I asked the man behind the desk, I say “Ah, is there any money for me?”
Now he didn’t know just what to say
I say, “I need that money in a terrible way!”
Now he didn’t say “yeah” but he didn’t say “no”
He just shook my hand and showed me the door

Oh Lord, the blues is killin’ me

Now, the situation is already funny, at least to me, because he’s just walking into random banks and asking for money. Thing is, being poor does suck, and this song will tell you that, but even if you are poor like Albert Collins’ character here (and I am), the upbeat, funky blues song with Albert’s trademark chilled Telecaster sound is going to make you feel good about it. Good comedy and good Blues should serve the purpose of making you feel better about some very real problems.

The problems, of course, are not something like existential angst or an inability to cope with people (see: most other kinds of music), but the Blues have a very limited agenda. Mainly it’s songs about being poor or low-down in some other way, and of course, relationship problems, like in the somewhat cliché “Lights Are On But Nobody’s Home”:

When I have to go to work
I gotta go to work downtown
If I get home a little late baby
You say I’m out messing around

Now you’re still accusing me baby
Accusing me of doing wrong
I can see your lights on baby
But I can’t see, I can’t see nobody home

Still, the words don’t really matter for about 50% of what this song is trying to convey. Thanks to the organ-heavy slow-jam vibe of the whole thing, it’s the guitars, the horns, even the rhythm section that’s really telling the story. This happens to be one of my favorite songs by Albert, mainly because it’s a more earnest message that’s being put across, that love doesn’t dissolve just because one person is accusing the other of doing wrong, it’s just a thing that has to be dealt with, usually by calling the woman crazy, which I’m all for.

Again, like comedy, the subject of relationships dictated by the chaos that exists behind every woman’s imagination can still be made into something good. Now, the line between joke and song is blurred quite a lot for tracks like “I Ain’t Drunk” (special video note: jeeze that keyboardist is having too much fun).

Basically, it’s a song based on the popular phrase “I ain’t drunk, I’m just drinking”, which I’m pretty sure predates this song somewhat, but I couldn’t find substantial evidence of that on the internet. Either way, the song is kind of great because, within the song’s later part, Collins slurs his singing more and argues with the backup singers, whose sole singing parts are “But you’re so high” (“high” being another term for “drunk” in this instance). It’s an awesome song, and you can probably tell the crowds really dug it.

A really interesting song on this album is the lengthy jam “Too Many Dirty Dishes”, which is constructed exactly like “Snowed In” from the album Frosbite of 6 years previous. It’s another slow, pensive jam wherein Collins questions his wife’s activities while he’s out, observing that, indeed, there are too many dirty dishes for just the two people:

Too many dirty dishes in the sink for just us two
You got me wondering baby… Who’s making dirty dishes with you?

I kind of absolutely love that line.

The interesting thing about the song goes beyond that. He never actually accuses his wife of cheating on him or anything, so it’s not a dramatic song or anything, and in fact there’s a lengthy portion of the 7 minute song that is Albert talking to his guitar:

“Look at all these dirty dishes”
(empathetic guitar notes)

It actually sounds more like she’s having a party while he’s away, because apparently the dishes are stacked “outta sight”, and in fact he starts to “clean” the dishes, making scraping and popping noises with the guitar strings while he complains. Then he sings:

I’ve done your dirty dishes
How much am I supposed to take?
When I left I had corn flakes for breakfasts
Now there’s a bone from a T-bone steak

Which is followed up with a screachy, energetic guitar solo before the song fades out. That’s one thing I love about the greatest Blues guitarists, the guitar becomes a character in the song, almost like a sidekick to the singer’s message. Take note of that if you ever want to be a blues stringer.

Despite the presence of 2 lengthy slow jams on the album, there is a bit of variety to the sound on Cold Snap, “Snatchin’ It Back”, for instance, is more of a funk/soul number, kind of like his later work, perhaps more James Brown than anything. Fortunately, the guitar voice never changes, thus every track has Albert Collins all over, from the funky blues of “Cash Talkin’” to the swingin’ instrumental at the end, mysteriously called “Fake I.D.”. What does a fake ID have to do with swing music? Either way, it’s always a thrill to hear Collins swing, as his solos become so convoluted and odd that it would probably just frustrate guitarists who attempted to replicate it, and that’s why there will never be another guitarist quite like Albert Collins.

When I got married my mom gave me her old kitchenware for our new apartment. They had been sitting in boxes under my grandpa’s garage for a few years. We went through the boxes together cleaning and sorting what survived, plates, bowls, mugs, pots, pans and silverware. I was and am very grateful for this mismatched assortment of housewares, lol because buying all those little things adds up and can become very expensive. It’s also very difficult to cook with limited utensils.

The Yellow Bowl

Among this assortment of dishes was a single yellow tupperware bowl. I didn’t really notice it at first, but it has since become my favorite bowl. We had it as long as I can remember. Oddly enough it brings back warm and fuzzy feelings whenever I use it. lol It’s also in really good condition. Lately I’ve be come a little bit of a vintage tupperware collector. My mom laughed the first time she heard me refer to her old containers as ‘vintage’.  I bought a few items for my collection from ebay, but some had to be thrown out because they smelled like cigarette smoke or something else funky. So now I get most of my tupperware from thrift stores, where I can smell it before I buy it and I don’t have to pay for shipping.  These containers are still very useful. I use mine all the time. They are great for storage because almost all the pieces come with air tight lids. I love the lids. When I was growing up my mom always kept sugar in them, one with white and one with brown. Never once did ants get to them.

My most recent thrift store find was a unique set of cups, or tumblers. These cups are not the normal harvest colors, brown, yellow, orange, or green, the iconic 70’s vintage Tupperware colors, but they are clear with a colorful printed design on them.

Rare Vintage Tupperware

I’ve never seen anything like it before. Have you? If you have anymore info about these cups I’d like to hear about it. I posed it on yahoo answers to get a date range and most people say 80’s.

Desireless, Voyage Voyage

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