March 16, 2016

Is This Thing Working??

Today's post will definitely not be peaches and cream but hard cider and rotten tomatoes. Why? Well, mostly because of the following factors taking place.

1} Computer blew its brains out. Since Thursday, been unable to download updates (19 totaling 280+MB), so it's at Staples being fixed. Which leads to...

2} Using daughter's old computer, which was squatted on by mommy dearest. Damn thing has Windows 10, and I had to log out of three different websites that mommy dearest forgot to log out of. And if that wasn't enough, I have an extra long keyboard to battle with 'cause the manufacturer done installed a stupid telephone (you remember those) keyboard on the keyboard, so I gots to type on an angle.

3} Tumblr eating up a blog post that I spent thirty-five minutes writing. If you are thinking about using Tumblr, please keep in mind that unlike Blogger, THEY DO NOT HAVE AN AUTO SAVE FEATURE. I was writing about one of my favorite controversial topics (Sex), and I was going on one of those seriously informative tangents that I like to do from time to time when it comes to my writing, and for some annoying reason, the backspace button decided to not back space a few words but the entire website. Lost every F'n thing I wrote. Yah, I am still upset about this. Wrote a seriously short post about it too.

4} No writing was accomplished this week. 'Nuff said about that.

5} No blog visiting to speak of. See bullet point 1 & 2 as to why.

Which leads us to a blog post that I wanted to write today, which was about songs based on current events.

I got to thinking about this topic the other day when I was listening to the radio. I don't remember what the song in question was that triggered, but it did, so I got to tripping down memory lane about songs based on real events. In no particular order of importance, here are a few songs that sprung to mind. Please note that these are based on my personal preference and not on those that modern artists churn out as a flavor of the month (Bruce Springsteen comes to mind).

1} I Don't Like Mondays by Boomtown Rats. This song is based on a schoolyard shooting in California back in the 70's, where the gunman (a teenage girl) gave as the reason for doing it, "I don't like Mondays." Has gotten some commercial play since this is the only song by the Boomtown Rats that they'll play on commercial radio.

2} I Fought The Law by The Dead Kennedys. This song is a cover of the Bobby Fuller Four classic, and the cover is based on the shootings of Harvey Milk and George Moscone by Dan White who used the ever popular Twinkie defense to get away with murder (got seven, served five, then ate a gun). Oddly enough, this was song that I heard on college radio that got me interested in the Dead Kennedys.

3}Waters Edge by Seven Mary Three. I do not know for a certainty that this song was based on a the tragic murder of 13 year old Maryann Measles here in Connecticut, but if you listen to the song, the lyrics tell a hauntingly familiar (at least to me) story. In fact, the entire c.d. is one long depressingly nasty piece of music. If I was writing a review, I would give this c.d. about a four star rating.

4} Hey Man, Nice Shot by Filter. Contrary to popular opinion, this was not based on the "suicide" of Kurt Cobain, but based on the very public (like live television) suicide of Pennsylvania State Treasurer Budd Dwyer. For those who have a morbid curiousity, you can see the video of the entire incident on quite a few websites (like rotten.com).

And finally, 5} Tears In Heaven by Eric Clapton. I still get the creepy goosebumps whenever I just think about the song, let alone listen to it.

Tune in next week, when I should be a little upbeat and a lot less cynical. Hope to see everyone very very soon on your blogs.


(c) 2016 BOOKS BY G.B. MILLER. All Rights Reserved.

14 comments:

  1. Cool Filter song. Think it was the first one I heard by that group. Did you know the lead singer is actor Robert Patrick's younger brother?
    Sorry about the computer implosion. That sucks.

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    1. Filter didn't have a lot of well known hits beyond that one. Kind of like the flavor of the months for a couple of years and that was about it. Yuppers to your statement about Robert Patrick. And it definitely did suck.

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  2. Wow, I hope next week is better for you, LOL! Tumblr is only good for reposting stuff from other blogs. It sucks as a spot to produce written material, in my opinion. Give me blogger any day!

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    1. It's sure beginning to look like that for me. However, the weather is finally starting to turn nice enough for me to start sitting outside to write out my Tumblr blog posts first before posting them.

      Delete
  3. I have heard horrible things about Windows 10. We were asked not to update our computers at work because of it.

    Hope your week gets better.

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    1. The state didn't get all of their computers upgraded to 7 until five months after support for XP ended, so I'm thinking it will be pretty much the same thing once support for 7 ends in five years.

      The only good thing that 10 has is their new browse called "Edge". Pretty good in my humble opinion.

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  4. Computer issues are the worst. I don't know that type of keyboard you are talking about - I'll have to look it up.

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    1. I think it was a version of a HP bought when Windows 8 was all the rage. It had a somewhat medium sized keyboard for a notebook, and I kept messing up as I would continuously forget to shift my hands to the left.

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  5. sorry for all your hassles. Losing that blog post is a particular pain.

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    1. This was an exceptional pain, if only because I had quite a few pertinent links to my books because of the topic in question. And this was one of my rare thoughtful/insightful posts to boot.

      Delete
  6. No auto-save? GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER, TUMBLR! >:-[

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    1. None whatsoever. I'll have to start writing the posts out either by hand or use one of the stripped down pre-installed pre-word programs like NotePad or WordPad to write it, then copy and paste.

      Delete
  7. Wow! Those songs. So eerie to listen to.
    As per your deletion rant. I have the same problem any time I use my laptop. The dumb thing will at times, auto highlight a whole paragraph or two as I'm typing, which deletes all that I just typed. It's every annoying. Even with the auto save feature of blogger, that doesn't always save what I've just been typing. So I understand your frustration.

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    1. On my old XP, I've had the problem of the cursor just randomly jump to anywhere and everywhere on the screen. Incredibly annoying when it's asking you if you want to save your work when exiting the screen. Really?

      Those songs are exceptionally eerie to listen to. I'm sure I can com up with a few more if I searched deeper into the memory banks.

      Delete

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