Month: August 2022

Bottom of the Top #35

John Winkelman

Welcome to the last few days of August. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

1977: Dorothy Moore, “I Believe You”

“I Believe You” puts me in mind of wood paneling, shag carpet, the smell of pipe smoke and one of those custom logs in the fireplace which turns the flames different colors, which suggests that there may have been some substances in use among the adults at that time. This is a very seventies song, in the best way. This song is beautiful, but while it sounds familiar, I have no specific memory of having heard it before.

1982: Paul Davis, “Love or Let Me Be Lonely”

This is a repeat from last week, but it’s a good song, so please enjoy it again!

1987: Alexander O’Neal, “Fake”

Like “I Believe You” above, “Fake” sounds familiar but I have no specific memory of having heard it before. I really like it, though; in the parlance of our time, “Fake” slaps. At the end of August 1987 if I heard it at all, it would have been while watching MTV in the lounge on third-floor Copeland at GVSC. There was a lot going on at the time; full sensory overload and a combination of relief and anxiety at no longer living on the farm.

1992: Mariah Carey, “I’ll Be There”

My memory of Mariah Carey’s cover of “I’ll Be There” is so mixed up with the original The Jackson 5 version that I don’t remember when or if I heard this version. That being said, this is a beautiful cover, which is to be expected with Carey, and Trey Lorenz just kills it!

1997: Allure Featuring 112, “All Cried Out”

That opening keyboard is so familiar! O is the lyric “Apology not accepted.” Definitely heard “All Cried Out” before, I just don’t remember when or where. Almost certainly on MTV, and yet another sign that I really need to expand my knowledge of R&B groups, because this song is gorgeous!

The Long and the Short of August

John Winkelman

Pepper and the September 2022 issue of Poetry Magazine

Well here we are at the tail end of August, with every day obviously shorter than the previous. I didn’t read or write as much as I had hoped, but I did visit with my family and reconnect with some old(!) friends, so my head is more clear than it has been in some time. I guess I needed that breathing room.

The only new reading material to arrive in the past week was the September 2022 of Poetry, pictured above with Pepper.

In reading news, I am slowly working through Michael Marder’s Political Categories. It is quite good and informative, but also dense in a way that I have not read in a long time, and apparently those intellectual muscles are out of practice.

And of course I am still working my way through the stack of The Paris Review. I have caught up to the beginning of 2019, which means roughly three months until I reach parity with my subscription, at which point said subscription will probably end. So it goes.

Not much to report on the writing front. Doing a lot of journaling, in more detail than I have over the past couple of years, which is practice of a sort for more formal writing projects. I am slowly transcribing the poetry from April, and I just set up all of the daily writing files for NaNoWriMo 2022, which starts in (egads!) just over two months.

Bottom of the Top #34

John Winkelman

Depending on the year, this was either the last week of summer vacation or the first week of school. Even in 1997 this would be the case, as the bookstore would have been slammed with last-minute back-to-school purchases, in that golden time between when Barnes & Noble started killing off independent bookstores, and when Amazon started killing of brick-and-mortar stores of all kinds. Even here in 2022 I feel a frisson when the sun clears the horizon just in time to illuminate the fleets of school busses gathering students for their first weeks of classes. Thus do we demonstrate that sufficient conditioning at a young age produces life-long results.

1977: Donna Summer, “I Feel Love”

Omigod, this song. It has been around for so long, and stayed so popular, that I have no memory of a world before “I Feel Love.” For me it moved from the background to the foreground most recently with the excellent cover by the Blue Man Group and Annette Strean of Venus Hum. But there is nothing like the original with the amazing Georgio Moroder.

1982: Paul Davis, “Love or Let Me Be Lonely”

“Love or Let Me Be Lonely” brought on immediate deja vu associated with car rides and cool morning crammed on an overcrowded bus with all of my academic, band, and sporting equipment festooned upon my scrawny frame like a junk-picker in a movie about the Great Depression. It’s a good song. Not great, but pleasant to listen to and has just enough of a nostalgia-for-the-seventies feel that, it probably got more air times than it would have a couple of years later.

1987: Heart, “Alone”

I heard “Alone” a LOT in the dorm at Grand Valley, into which I would have been moving on this week in 1987, a week earlier than most as marching band practice started a week before the rest of the university, and third-floor Copeland was half-empty, which meant I had all the time I wanted to watch MTV, where Heart was on heavy rotation. And I was still feeling A Certain Way about some girls from high school, so “Alone” had tender flesh into which to sink its emotional hooks.

1992: Babyface Featuring Toni Braxton, “Give U My Heart”

I don’t have any particular memory of this song, likely because it was not on the play list at Jose Babushka’s on Friday and Saturday nights, when I was expediting and assisting at the cash register. And if it was ever played at the restaurant, it was immediately crushed right out of my head by the many-times-a-night repeats of “Achey-Breaky Heart.” Ugh.

1997: 702, “All I Want”

Definitely heard this one before, I just don’t remember when or where. It is catchy and beautifully performed, and now I kind of want to watch Good Burger.

The Weight of Shorter Days

John Winkelman

New reading material for the week of August 14, 2021

Now that I am walking to work again I notice how the length of daylight changes from day to day. This is measured by how long my shadow stretches on the ground ahead of me – and it is always ahead of me, as I walk west to work in the morning, and east back home in the afternoon. Here, almost two months after midsummer, the days are noticeably shorter every week and 17:00 no longer feels like the middle of the afternoon. In another month the nights will be longer than the days, which in theory means more time for sitting around and reading, but since I no longer spend all of my free daylight time on the trails and at the beach, I don’t expect much of anything will change.

First up is Age of Antiquity, a d20 RPG supplement from a Kickstarter I backed in June of 2020. The printing and fulfillment process immediately fell afoul of the COVID-19 lockdowns and supply chain disruption, but the team persevered and finally, almost 18 months after the original fulfillment date, I have the book in my hands, and it is beautiful. This is also something of a relic of the beginning of the lockdown in 2020, when I thought I would have time to indulge in playing some RPGs, or at least reading manuals and designing adventures. That, of course, turned out to NOT be the case, but I do have several beautiful d20 rulebooks which I otherwise would never have considered.

Next is issue 18 of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, which was a pleasant surprise as I thought I had let my subscription lapse. Apparently there are still a couple more issues to go before I am done with this one.

In reading news, my Paris Review project continues apace. I am caught up to Winter 2019, and have about fifteen issues left, which should last me through November. Then on to something else. Maybe Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.

I am also slowly working my way through Michael Marder’s Political Categories. I am taking this one slow, as I want to be able to discuss the concepts therein with my reading group when we eventually meet. This is not to say that I don’t retain what I read generally, but this one in particular I am treating as a class assignment for a teacher with high expectations.

Bottom of the Top #33

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.

August Inertia

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.

Bottom of the Top #32

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.

Already August Again

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.

IWSG, August 2022: Originality or Not?

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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Bottom of the Top #31

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,.