... Whichever Way the Wind Blows ...

                   But first. Congratulations to a fellow movie buff , a very knowledgeable one with. My friend Virginie Saia Pronovost,

 who celebrates her blogs 10 year anniversary!  Link to her blog below.

The Wonderful World of Cinema

  A quick endorsement. Rivergirl Fishing. Family fun. The South Fork of the New River in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. What a locale 😎. Something tells me by Spring of '25 business will be rocking 😎

  

    

  "Boss, you can't swim..."

            "Bears can. Gotta be authentic and keep it real."

             Onward ...

Some random stuff to kick off the week. 

*The Redskins beating the Bears on a hail mary. Wild finish.

*Ravens. Skip this, royally pissed.

*Falcons. Good win. Solid road win.

*Yankees. FIX IT!!!

*Notre Dame is a National Title threat.

*Alabama still has issues.

*Colorado. Beware of the Buffs.

*Remember to keep some eyes and ears focused on the Western North Carolina corridor that I'm tied to. Ashe and Watauga counties and Trade and Mountain City Tennessee.  I do love those areas and they are home for me.  

    "It's a very eclectic roster"

*Many new links on the sidebar featuring Western N.C. businesses

*GoFundMe links:

Pie on the Mountain

CJ's Market

"No. Boo Berry is the best. Super Sugar Crisp was great back in the day also"

    Music time. Dualing drummers 😎

Later ...

... We've got the time ...

   

  

   Rams certainly did. The conviction in Coach Vermeil's delivery of the message. Not a Rams fan but love that clip.

"This has potential"

                  

  Cue Willie ...

 " Gotta love Willie ..."

   

Later ... 

       

 

... The New York Yankees! ... Music - Music Volume 1 .. .

          First up ...

   

  The level of professionalism in that at-bat is at an elite level. Soto stalked the relief pitcher, Hunter Gaddis, the whole at-bat. And Gaddis is pretty darn good. Good to finally, as a fan, get back to the World Series. I was 39 in 09, the last Series appearance. 15 years, but seems longer.  😂

                               Volume 1 Early 70's - 1988

  Yes, it was a hit. Live version from The Hague(! LOL) is pretty cool. 

              "It's the Strings & Horns man"

  I love music. Probably since birth 😂. Listen to pretty much everything. Well except for Speed Metal.  Grunge is iffy. And I give Rap the stink eye for the most part but there are a few Rap tunes I like. As mentioned a few blog posts back, I was fortunate growing up when it came to music. Mom & Dad liked Country, Bluegrass, Gospel. Older brother was all Country. Older sisters were listening to everything.  An early song I liked, my sister had the album, was this:

  

  Three year old me thought that was the greatest song ever. The Sweet, Jim Croce, Lynn Anderson, Charley Pride, Mac Davis, Three Dog Night and many more artists could be heard in the household. Hee Haw, Lawrence Welk, The Midnight Special, Soul Train, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert were some of the musical shows that were watched. Great era. My love of the Saxophone started at around 4 years old with:

                                   Older sister had the album  😁

  A year later I had an album. Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Album cover stood out  😎. Hey, good stuff:

                                Jukeboxes had a role to play: 

                                      

  To South Carolina. Westview Elementary. On select Friday afternoons we could bring 45's to class:

                         Suzi aka Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days. 

  Disco at the skating rink:

  Westview was quite a bit of fun the two years I spent there. A bummer that we moved out of that school district. So on to Maranatha Christian. No "bring your 45's to school" days there. 😁😂. Started listening to more Country in those days:

But not exclusively Country:

  The Four Tops are brilliant regardless of era. Levi Stubbs with the "yeah that's right" fist pumps and what a voice. So much talent. 

       MTV was finally available to me  in 1983

Sir Elton's music has been part of the life here for a long time.

   Back to Public School for High School to close out the K-12 years. Macedonia High. Admittedly it was a means to an end for me. But what a great school. With a really good faculty. Fellow students, well, it would be hard to find a friendlier bunch. Great school, great people. But I have no roots there. 

  That was my 5th school (one elementary school left off, it was a 2 week stay), so I was shot. Done. Wanted the finish line.  Could have made a better effort on my end socially, but, it is what it is.  Music wise that school was polarizing. Your Rap folks, your Metal folks, your Country folks, your Pop folks. Meanwhile I'm buying this at The Record Bar:

    "Well, didn't see that coming. Stoney, I'm gonna need a hit or 3 off that, don't bogart it"

         MTV Was rolling out greatness regularly by that point:

VH1 Debuted in '85:

  Even George Jones was making promo vids

  

Falco gave us something unique   😁

  ZZ Top entered the orbit and declared "You will like us most of all"

   

  Last couple of years of high school featured some great music. To my ears anyway. 

  

  Def Leppard enters the orbit declaring you will like us almost as much as you like Sir Elton and ZZ Top:

  Eric Carmen delivered two monster hits:

  Sir Elton was back again:

  The Beach Boys dropped in with a big, if polarizing, #1 late in '88

  1988 I leaned heavily towards Rock, Pop, Soul, Adult Contemporary. Country had cooled for me from 86 - 88.  Rod Stewart, Cheap Trick, Van Halen, Chicago, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, Traveling Wilbury's and others were prominent in 1988.

   Musical landscape would change soon.

           To be continued ...