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I was listening to Weekend Edition Saturday, hosted by my publicly-declared (on this blog) crush Scott Simon, and I heard this funny story about “Friend” Etiquette on the Internets. I held off signing up for Facebook for a few years– I have had MySpace for a while, and HATE IT– all the ads, all the blinkies, all the stuff slowing my already slow computer down. But I finally submitted to Facebook in January– all because I heard there might be pictures of my friend Becky in a pregnant state– and have been obsessed ever since. Scrabulous, Scramble, Pieces of Flair! Fun stuff!

I decided that I wouldn’t “stalk” anyone on Facebook. You know, “stalk” as in like when you find out that someone you know has a MySpace page or a blog, and you read it or and never comment and they have no idea you know they have a MySpace page? I decided that I would come out of the woodwork and “friend” people– but only those I actually know in Real Life (or have known online for a while, so it feels like “real life”!). So, I’m NOT friending Scott Simon. Or asking him to play Scrabulous with me. But if he decides he would like to play Scrabulous, or wants to send me some flair, I’m totally open to that.

Many years ago, I was listening to a Phillies game on 1210 The Big Talker (before they moved to WPEN and back to 1210) but fell asleep.  I woke up to Rollye James, and instead of her libertarian or whatever her views are talk, she was talking about music.  She announced that whomever called in and told her the name of the artist who sang the following song would win a prize.

My Momma she says it’s silly
My Poppa says “you look like a fool”
But, baby, I don’t mind the criticism
Because we’re doing it every day in school

Groggily, I grabbed the phone and called up to say that it was Solomon Burke, the King of Rock N Soul, of course!  They made me go on the air to claim my prize, and a few weeks later, I received a package of 45s– mostly on Lost Nite, and most were 70s doo-wop songs I hadn’t heard.

This afternoon, I put on WKDU as I drove to West Philly to pick up Joe and drop off some stuff at the Second Mile Thrift Shop.  I listened as the DJ told the young ‘uns to check out the Rotunda tonight, and heard her say that she would give a prize to whomever could name the next artist. I was driving, and figured I wouldn’t know anyway, but guess what?  It was good old Solomon Burke, singing Cry To Me. I was so excited that I could have had the chance to win something TWICE due to the King, and glad to hear the young ‘uns giving props to Solomon Burke.  The DJ’s next song was another favorite, Biz Markie’s Just a Friend, and I was hooked. Then the next song had the N word in it, although I at first thought they were saying “Where are my Knickers at?”  I suffered through some more crap, and waited for the DJ to come back on and announce the winner. But she never did! It’s like she forgot there was a contest! She talked some more about the young ‘uns at the Rotunda tonight, and used a whole bunch of verbs I was not acquainted with, such as Crumping. Or is that Krumpin’?

Anyway, I came home and looked up her playlist, and look at this, she says that it was OTIS REDDING singing Cry to Me!  GOOD GRIEF!!!  Did she get the song from the Internet? Did it not say Solomon Burke? My respect for the young ‘uns has faded.

I am so old.

Radio
Saturday mornings mean listening to Saturday Weekend Edition on NPR with Scott Simon. I have harbored a crush on Mr. Simon for several years now, and confessed this to my in-laws at Thanksgiving. It turns out my love for Scott Simon was not shared– and my husband and his father actually dislike… or even hate Scott Simon! How could this be? They don’t like his guffaws– they sound fake. They don’t like when he puts on his regular “I’m a sports fan” voice. But what about his sensitive essays? And now, their dislike has poisoned my opinion of him– today as he guffawed with the Annoying Music Show guy, I understood! How could I have been so wrong? But then, Mr. Simon redeemed himself with another insightful essay, and my crush was validated.

Television

Having no cable really limits our choices. But we still get all the regular networks (albeit with snow), and even some hidden gems. Last week, we spent four hours watching the Temptations docudrama on the Ion network. Oh, poor doomed David Ruffin! Oh, the dramatic Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone scene!

We also watch Jeopardy! almost every evening. The past two weeks were Jeopardy! Teen Challenge, and I was rooting for Zia, who won $50,000 in his first match. But he was no match for sophomore Rachel, who just blew everyone away.

We are watching Lost this season. Wow, things are actually happening! We started watching it during the 2nd season– caught up by watching DVDs of all the episodes within a couple weeks. This made us unprepared for the slowness of the next few seasons! We almost gave up on it. I just keep reminding Joe– there are only 2 more years (is that right, even?). It has an end date. We can watch it, it will be over, and then we can throw our TV away when the country converts to HD, and we can be TV-Free. (Well, this is what Joe wants… I happen to enjoy the dumb box.)

The Internets

I think I’m an Internet addict. In addition to Friendster, and LiveJournal, and MySpace, I have recently joined the Facebook world. Why are there so many ways to waste time? I need to read more.

Books

I’m in the middle of reading forty books for Young Adults. I will share my reviews with you in April, after I turn them in for class. But I do want to recommend Whirligig by Paul Fleischman. It’s about a metamorphosis– “He was lodged in his own chrysalis but had no idea what he was turning into”…

Film

Oscars tomorrow. I used to know all the nominees. I used to try to see all the movies. I would put serious thought into guessing who might win. I’d make popcorn and enjoy the show. Joe has no patience for Hollywood or awards shows. If I watch it, I’ll watch it alone (although Joe is camped out sick on the couch, so he may be an unwilling viewer). In the past two years, I have seen two movies in the movie theater. The first one,Neil Young – Heart of Gold , about a week before Lilia was born. The second was this summer. The film was not nominated for an Academy Award. Can you guess what it was? Out of all the movies in 2007, what did we see?

1. While experiencing a bit of insomnia the other week, I turned the dial a smidge to the right of the blather of the BBC and found Music Fo’ Grown Fo’ks. Classic soul right there on my radio! If you happen to be awake on a Thursday evening/Friday morning, I urge you to check it out.

2. Driving out near Plymouth Meeting, my old Reading station, Y-102, comes in. Dig this segueway: Melt with You by Modern English into Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin.

3. Turning on the radio last night, to hear the State of the Union, and being pleasantly surprised by the sounds of a Hammond B-3 organ. Yeah, it was the wrong station, but it got me thinking that the State of the Union could use an organ just like a baseball game. They already pause after every other sentence for applause… why not throw in a few “da da da Da Da Da”‘s and shout CHARGE?

4. Listening to Madeleine Albright on Radio Times this morning… all of a sudden… static… and quickly, The Beatles. Yes, Miss Lilia knows how to change the station if she doesn’t like what she’s listening to.

I’m very eager and anxious about the impending birth of this baby!!! When will it happen? I hope soon, but not today– we have some stuff to do!

WHYY is having a fund drive. I hate fund drives. My exp. with public radio makes me not want to give them any money at all! And didn’t Mrs. Kroc give them enough? So, I switched over to WRTI. They too are having a fund drive! So I switched to WXPN. Ugh. I haven’t listened to “new” music in a while, and I sometimes feel like maybe I’m missing something… so, they played a Death Cab for Cutie song and let me tell you, it was freaking BORING. Next they played Jefferson Airplane. And then they played Randy Newman– that was the final straw. There’s no more Howard Stern to listen to. And every other station had ads ads ads. So I went back to WHYY.

I sorta watched the Super Bowl the other night. I hear the ads are supposed to be good, but I am not a fan of ads normally. Yeah, sometimes one might make me laugh, but generally I tune them out. I did watch some, and was disgusted. Kermit doing an ad for a Ford Hybrid SUV! Yeah, that’s really green Kermie. The only ad I enjoy on TV is the one where every food item changes into a can of Hormel Chili with Beans. Because everything is better with Hormel Chili with beans. Man, that’s a great commercial.