Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Onion: News Before It Happens, part 2

About two years ago I spotlighted the ability of The Onion, America's Finest Source for being Number One in News, to publish stories that at the time seem fictional, but later come true. (Old post).

It has happened again. Here are the links:

August 18: The Onion

Almost two weeks later, August 31: Yahoo! News Story

Seriously, The Onion IS the best newspaper to read if you really want to understand what is happening in the world.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Reconstructing Country Proud

So there was this cassette we had when I was a kid. I didn't know there were thousands upon thousands of albums and artists and K-Tel made budget priced compilations and so on. I just knew there was the Beatles and Jesus Christ Superstar on records and there was this tape that we played incessantly in the car on family road trips and I liked it most of the time.

It is available at amazon in its original cassette form, but only used, and only from people who are interested in gouging you for your memories. Minimum price for a 26 year old cassette is currently $24.95. Yeah, ouch. Plus it only has 12 songs where ours had 16. Mysterious.

So anyway, I thought I would reconstruct it from iTunes. As you can see, this plan only really fell at the final hurdle.

Country Proud at the iTunes store:

Gary Morris: Wind Beneath My Wings (Rhino Hi-Five)
Crystal Gayle: The Sound of Goodbye (Crystal Gayle: The Hits)
Alabama: Lady Down On Love (several options)
John Conlee: Common Man (only a live version is available)
Deborah Allen: I've Been Wrong Before (several options)
Lee Greenwood: I.O.U. (several options)

Janie Fricke: It Ain't Easy Bein' Easy (several options)
Gary Morris & Lynn Anderson: You're Welcome To Tonight (Greatest Hits, Vol. 2)
Willie Nelson: Angel Flyin' Too Close To The Ground (live?) (several options)
Ricky Skaggs: Heartbroke (several options)

Sylvia: I Never Quite Got Back (From Loving You) (RCA Country Legends: Sylvia)
Ronnie Milsap: Show Her (The Essential...)
George Strait: You Look So Good In Love (several options)
Don Williams: Stay Young (several options)
Earl Thomas Conley: Don't Make It Easy For Me (several options)
Jim Glaser: If I Could Only Dance With You (not available. Rats!)

Good thing we still have the original tape plus a copy of the tape from when it stopped working quite right. I hope it works.

Oh, and by the way I don't recommend searching for the phrase Country Proud. The contrast between what that meant in 1983 and what it seems to mean in 2010 is disappointing. Naidr find: An album called God & Guns by a ripoff band that has appropriated the once proud name of Lynyrd Skynyrd.