themusicaddict is back

Hello,

Since the only reason people seem to look at my blog is for pictures of hot babes, there's a couple at the top of this blog. I don't think Scarlett Johansson is the hottest babe in the world, but she's looking pretty good as a redhead in "Iron Man 2". (Thanks to Zap 2 It.) I can't go wrong with Jessica Alba. This is just after she had a baby. Amazing! (Thanks to trendstoday.com) For Rachel McAdams, thanks to dailystab.com.

My excitement is growing for Season 9 of "American Idol" to begin. January 12th we'll begin on another journey, hopefully this one will be more exciting than last season. That had to be the most boring, least interesting Top 3 of all-time. Now there is nowhere to go but up. If you want to get a preview of some of this year's potential candidates go to mjsbigblog.com.

With Christmas just pass it has been a very busy time. I had to work 8 hours on Christmas Day, a very frustrating time at my job. There has been all the other usual things in life that take up time, like housework responsibilities. There are also all the parties and related functions to go to. Yesterday my family went out and ate at Olive Garden and went to the movies. (Thanks Mom and Dad for the gift cards.) Our middle boy and I went and saw the new Robert Dowey Jr. movie "Sherlock Holmes". I honestly had no desire to see this movie, but my boy wanted to see it. I went with him and it was actually pretty cool. Robert Downey Jr. is kind of a weird guy, but he's a great actor. Jude Law also is fantastic in this movie. Rachel McAdams was stunning as usual. The end is obviously set up to have a sequel. When I got home last night I read that this is suppose to be a franchise, the ending made a lot more sense. While this was a good movie, themusicaddict's favorite part was seeing the previews for "Iron Man 2", that movie looks very cool. The rest of my family saw "The Princess and The Frog".

Here's the "Iron Man 2" trailer if you haven't seen it:



My family and I also watched "Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian". That was about as I expected to be, okay. It's always good to see Amy Adams. I usually like the movies she's in.

I stopped at Barnes and Noble on the way home to look at some of the original Sherlock Holmes mysteries. They are only about 200 pages long, so not very substantial. I did pick up Charles Dickens' "The Mystery of Edwin Drood". I thought that book would dovetail nicely with the Dan Simmons book "Drood" I'm currently reading now. "Mystery" is an incomplete novel, as Dickens died about halfway through writing it. I read about the first 20 pages yesterday and frankly so far it's boring. Simmons "Drood" on the other hand is very good. Stephen King called it one of his Top Ten books of 2009.

Speaking of boring, and I hate to write this, but the Pearl Jam show in SLC was semi-boring. I bought the official bootleg for that show. Pearl Jam played great that night, Eddie Vedder was at the top of his game vocally. It wasn't that, it was just a very uninspired setlist. Songs such as "Severed Hand", "Low Light", "Unthought Known", "Blood" and "Bee Girl" shut down any momentum Pearl Jam had going. For those of you wondering, the marriage proposal did not make the cut of the bootleg CD.

Sports: What is going on with BYU basketball player Jimmer Fredette, he went off last night on 6-6 Arizona. BYU improved to 13-1 by throttling the Arizona Wildcats 99-69. Oh by the way this game was at Arizona. This was suppose to be a test for BYU, but didn't turn out that way. Fredette was the spearhead for BYU's attack. He scored 49 points on 16 of 23 shooting and 9 of 13 behind the three point line. He also had 7 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 steals. Maybe BYU can actually get their first first round in the NCAA Men's Tourney in something like 25 years. It has been a great year for BYU sports so far.

For me the most surprising sports development is Dallas winning a couple of games in December. Although they haven't overwhelmed anybody this season and have a terrible head coach they still have a chance to win the NFC East. That's amazing! Still if it was up to me and I was Jerry Jones the only way I would keep Wade Phillips is if the Cowboys at least make it to the NFC Championship game.

themusicaddict

The MWC rules!

Hello,

In case I'm not able to post a blog tomorrow, Merry Christmas! It truly is the best time of the year. Unfortunately I'm working an 8 hour shift tomorrow, I will miss out on most of the happiness of Christmas Day:(

Let's talk about the only conference that is 3-0 in bowl play. That's the MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE. After Wyoming defeated Fresno St. 35-28 in double OT and BYU crushed Oregon State 44-20. That moved the MWC to 2-0 in bowl play. Last night the MWC added another arrow to it's quiver by Utah beating another Pac 10 team California 37-27. Utah now has won 9 straight bowl games, they tie USC for the second most consecutive bowl victories ever. USC accomplished their feat from 1923-1945. The most consecutive bowl victories is by Florida State. Under Bobby Bowden's guidance they won 11 straight bowl games from 1985-1996.

The MWC has two more bowl games, the next one is 7-5 Air Force playing 10-3 Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 31st. Then the biggest MWC game of the season #3 and 12-0 TCU plays #6 and 13-0 Boise State on January 4th in the Fiesta Bowl.

Oh by the way, the MWC also has three men's basketball teams at 12-1. #12 New Mexico lost their first game last night. #20 UNLV beat Hawaii to move to 12-1. The unranked BYU Cougars beat Nebraska in Las Vegas to go to 12-1 on the season. Also San Diego State is off to a pretty good start with a 9-3 record.

Have a great Christmas Eve, themusicaddict

Brittanny Murphy R.I.P., "The Holiday"

Hello,

R.I.P Brittany Murphy, for me this is the most memorable of all her work. This is from hers and Michael Douglas' movie, "Don't Say A Word". It wasn't a very good movie, but I'm still haunted by the scene at the end of this trailer.



Last night my lovely wife and I watched "The Holiday". As you probably knows it stars the amazing Kate Winslett with Jude Law, Cameron Diaz and Jack Black. Black is a romantic lead, that's the most unbelievable piece of casting ever. It's an okay movie. I just found Jack Black and the no chemistry relationship between Law and Diaz to be off putting.

Now on to the book I can't put down Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire" featuring the amazing Lisbeth Salander. She's globe trotting at the start of this book and I'm not sure why. Obviously she's trying to get away from something. This book is just so hard to put down.

Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law I received a good portion of money for Christmas. We are so poor so I used some of it for bills. However I bought 9 Cd's and 1 book so far. The book I bought is "The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson, a very intriguing looking book. A review will be forthcoming once I have a chance to read it.

I bought a whole bunch of digital music, but have lost a lot of it as I've been switching between computers.. It Unless it's a good deal I buy the physical copy now of every CD. Here's the list of the 10 CDs I bought so far:

1) "Solid Gold" The best of the Beastie Boys. This is the only MP3 CD of the 10 CDs that I bought. This was on a limited one day offer for only $2.99. amazon.com also had sent me a promotional $1 gift credit. I bought the CD for only $1.99. However amazon.com hadn't updated their pricing yet so they charged my credit card $4. I emailed them and they took care of me. They gave me a credit of $5 for that, although they only charged me $4. They also sent along a $1.99 credit, they paid me to buy a CD!

2) The official Pearl Jam bootleg from their recent show in Salt Lake City, Utah. It probably includes the marriage proposal that happened that night.

3) "Backspacer"- Pearl Jam
4) "Play On"- Carrie Underwood
5) "The Element of Freedom"- Alicia Keys
6) "The Fame Monster"- Lady Gaga
7,8,9,10) Rihanna's four CDs 1) "Music of The Sun", "A Girl Like Me", Good Girl Gone Bad" and "Rated R" amazon.com sent me out an e-mail bout how I could get her first 3 CD's for $23.99. How could I pass up a deal like that? I couldn't.

themusicaddict

A Christmas miracle

Hello,

The Grinch got his directions wrong yesterday and ended up in New Orleans instead of Whoville. Dallas beat New Orleans 24-17 to get back into the playoff hunt. Although Marion Barber had a mediocre game, superstar in the making Miles Austin had a great game. He caught 7 catches for 139 yards. Tony Romo finally played great in a big game and Wade Phillips didn't get in the way.

I finished reading Kate Atkinson's "Case Histories", that's a great book. Atkinson has created a very enigmatic character named Jackson Brodie. He will be featured in more of Atkinson's work. A very intriguing character. Speaking of intriguing characters, I was able to start reading Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire". This book has the awesome Lisbeth Salander.

Songs rockin' my iPod: 1) "Lady"- Styx 2) "Wrapped Around Your Finger"- The Police 3) "War/No More Trouble"- Bob Marley This is easily one of his best songs. 4) "My Preogerative"- Bobby Brown 5) "Let's Bring It Back"- Lonestar 6) "Love Don't Live Here Anymore"- Madonna 7) "Kickstart My Heart"- Motley Crue 8) "I Feel For You"- Chaka Kahn 9) "Shake You Down"- Gregory Abbott 10) "The Struggle Within"- Metallica 11) "Saints of Los Angeles"- Motley Crue

themusicaddict

#6-#10 Rolling Stone CDs of the Decade

Hello,

#6) "Funeral" The Arcade Fire This is one of the few CDs that actually lives up to the hype. This is just a great, great CD. Of Rolling Stone's Top 10 CDs I would rank this #1.

7) "The Marshall Mathers LP"- Eminem Another candidate that will be on my soon to come Top 20 most overrated list. This generation's Vanilla Ice. His most entertaining work was getting an up close and personal with Bruno's butt at the MTV awards.

8) "Modern Times"- Bob Dylan Rolling Stone can't decide whether its target audience is old farts, like themusicaddict, or targeting to a younger crowd. When its skewing older it sites such dreck as this CD as high quality. Another most likely on my Top 20 most overrated artists ever.

9) "Kala"- M.I.A. I haven't heard this to give an honest opinion of it.

10) "The College Dropout"- Kanye West More like the high school dropout. Can crap music, uh I mean rap music, go away now.

Here's a couple of interesting videos:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_14009147?source=most_viewed

http://video.hollywoodreporter.com/services/player/bcpid6555681001?bctid=57780504001

themusicaddict

RS Top 10 CDs of the decade, Fire Wade Phillips Now!

Hello,

Here's Rolling Stone's Top 5 CDs of the decade. Apparently this is not a joke. This was voted on by several musicians and writers et al. So much for that wisdom of crowds theory.

1) "Kid A"- Radiohead I don't write a lot about Radiohead, but I'll be writing about them as I include them on my most overrated artists ever list. #1 CD of the decade. Please! I had the good sense never to buy this CD, I bought one of their CDs and learned my lesson.

2) "Is This It"- The Strokes To answer their musical question, yes Strokes that was it. This was a serviceable CD but they faded into anonymity after this CD. How cool did you think the Shia LaBeouf character in "Transformers" was when you saw him in a Strokes T-shirt? (I think that was the point.) I owned this CD for a while before turning it in to get a better CD. I'd consider buying this CD again.

3) "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"- Wilco This CD got so much press when it was initially released. I remember one magazine calling it the CD of the year for 2001, even though it was only about the middle of that year. I bought this CD and was so very disappointed by it. I can't even remember one song off this CD, that's how forgettable it is.

4) "The Blueprint"- Jay Z The blueprint for what, boredom? Strangely enough Jay-Z is'nt one of the "experts" who voted on this list. As rap is the most overrated genre of music ever, I did not waste any money on this CD.

5) "Elephant"- The White Stripes Any CD with "Seven Nation Army" has a lot going for it. That's just a fantastic song. I would place this CD and the #6 CD above the first 4 CDs on this list. In fact if themusicaddict had the time to make my Top 50 CDs of the decade, none of the Top 4 would be on my list.

Part 2 coming tomorrow.

Other quick news 'n' notes, hurry to amazon.com and get a free song by Orrin Hatch. If you don't know who Orrin Hatch is, he's a senator for Utah. He says he writes music in hearings and meetings.

Also MTV's "Disaster Date" rules. I watched all 7 episodes on Comcast's On Demand last night. Comcast please add more episodes of this show.

L.A. Dodgers would you please get going in free agency? Trading Jaun Pierre to the the White Sox for two minor leagues is not being active in the offseason. Although I'm glad you got rid of the hitting lightweight. He also is the professional athlete who never learned how to wear a hat right.

Also DeMarcus Ware, please sit out this week. There''s no reason to risk your injury getting worse in a game that the Cowboys are not going to win anyway.

Utah Jazz, what the hell is going on?

Have a swell day, themusicaddict

Natalie Portman, fire Wade Phillips now!

Hello,

The Dead Man Walking countdown is on in Dallas, one of the worst head coaches in Dallas Cowboys history will hopefully be shown the door soon. Dallas continues its December doldrums with yet another choke and again losing at home. Phillips is much like qb Tony Romo. Both win a lot of games except for the games that matter the most. Over the last three Septembers, Octobers and Novembers Phillips' Cowboys teams only have lost 7 combined games. In December those Cowboys teams of Wade Phillips are 3-8. (Thanks to espn.com) They'll be 3-9 after getting killed by New Orleans this week. (Jerry Jones this might be a good time to talk to Sean Payton and see what his price tag is.) The Chargers just wanted this game more than the Cowboys. Wade I don't care what your players are saying, they have quit on you.

Cameras showed Jerry Jones in his box with a look of disgust on his face. He has no one to blame but himself, he was the one who hired Wade Phillips in the first place. He also was the one who decided to keep Phillips this season. Seriously how does Phillips have a job still? (Jerry if you want a head coach that can't win a playoff game I can be had today for 1/10th of the price.)

Jerry Jones here are three real football coaches you could pursue: Mike Shanahan, Tony Sparono and Sean Payton. Jason Garrett isn't the answer either. What the hell is up with his play calling? Four attempts from the two yard line and in and you get stopped each time? How about trying a screen or some play action. With the salary cap being unlimited next season, I think its also time to pursue a big game quarterback. Tony Romo is just not that guy. Seriously $60 million plus should be able to buy at least a few playoff victories, shouldn't it?

Natalie Portman has agreed to star in the movie adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". That's cool and Natalie Portman is turning into a really beautiful woman.



I want to save you some money, don't watch "GI Joe: Rise of Cobra". It's a very boring movie. It's predictable, the story is lame and the acting is weak. All the attempts at "comedy" are stilted and fall apart. The story is just an excuse to have action scenes and those aren't very good. The attempts at a love story aren't very convincing either. Marlon Wayans and the redhead Rachel Nichols absolutely have no chemistry. It's so very obviously set up to have a sequel. Here's the funny thing, this movie is so boring who would have any interest in seeing the sequel? Here's two questions: 1) Where's GI Joe? 2) Why does the script insist on calling the members of the GI Joe group, "the Joes"? Stupid. "GI Joe" producers please send me $5 and I also want that two hours of my life back.

Rolling Stone magazine calls Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" the best song of the decade. Seriously, that wouldn't even make my Top 1000. This decade hasn't been the best decade for music either. Other questionable song choices: 2) Jay-Z's extremely overrated "99 Problems and 3) Beyonce and Jay-Z's "Crazy In Love". Was this list compiled by Jay Z? At #4 they actually pick a song that's pretty good, that's OutKast's "Hey Ya". At #8 is Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" which is a good song, but "You Know I'm No Good" should be the song on this list. (Tomorrow I'll pick apart their Top 50 CD's of the Decade. Radiohead? Wilco? Jay-Z? again?)

I again listened to Allison Iraheta's "Just Like You", what a great CD! I think it's better than anyone should have expected it to be. It gets better each time I listen to it. Garth Brooks is playing a one man show in Las Vegas for up to 5 years. Welcome back Garth. It would even be better if you had a full band behind you.

I also started reading another book, Kate Atkinson's "Case Histories". It's about 3 cold cases that may or may not be linked. The first about 60 pages are being used to set up the story, this book is not off to the most gripping beginning of a book. Hopefully soon I can find another book that will captivate me as much as Stieg Larrson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo".

themusicaddict

"AI" Series begins January 12th

Hello,

Season 9 of "American Idol" begins Jan 12th with a two hour premiere, it will then be on the next night for a hour. Fox, in it's infinite wisdom, has decided that second show will only be a hour so they can hopefully launch a show titled "Little Geniuses". Proving again that's the only geniuses involved in programming at Fox. Why not just have the second show of the season be two hours? It's the most popular show on the air for a reason. "Little Geniuses" will soon be forgotten as "American Idol" continues to dwindle in popularity. Fox you need to strengthen your flagship show and not weaken it.

Last night I started reading "The Case of Abraham Lincoln" by Julie M. Fenster. It looks like a pretty interesting book but it's off to a slow start. I hope it will be hitting it's stride soon.

Interesting factoid of the day, this comes from Spin Magazine: "9 Ranking of "Purple Rain" on list of best-selling soundtracks...of 2007". That's amazing for a CD that was 22 years old at the time. It's easily the best soundtrack ever. Every song on it is a classic.

I also am compiling my list of most overrated bands of all-time. I'm shooting for a Top 20 (or bottom 20 maybe, depending on your perspective). So far I have such artists as Nirvana, the Beatles, Oasis, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Adam Lambert.

Great song of the day: Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U". One of the many great songs written by Prince.

Jerry Jones please fire Wade Phillips whether they win or lose today.

themusicaddict

Stieg Larsson trilogy, fire Wade Phillips now!

Hello,

College Football, like Tiger Woods career, has basically gone into a period of dormancy. How nice would it be, when having a personal issue, to be able to take time off?

I'm continuing slowly but surely reading through John Irving's "The Cider House Rules". It's a good book but the book I really want to read is Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire". It's the second of three books in that series. The first book, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" was amazing. I'm still #7 in line at the local library for "Played With Fire". These books take a long time to work through the holds process. Most books don't.

The third book in the trilogy "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" isn't out until May 25th, 2010 here in America. I hear it's out in Europe though.

amazon.com continues to give away a free Christmas mp3 of the day until Christmas Day. The last couple of days have included songs from Tracy Lawrence and Richie McDonald. McDonald used to be the lead singer of Lone Star until he went out on his own. This is the first I've heard from Richie in awhile, how's that solo gig working out Richie?

themusicaddict

"The Power of Love"

Hello,

As I was driving home last night I was listening to 80's music. Isn't Huey Lewis and the News "Power of Love" a great song? It was also in one of the most classic 80's movies of all-time, "Back To The Future". Another great song that played last night was Frida's "I Know There's Something Going On". The 80's will never be duplicated for the quantity and diversity of great music.

amazon.com again is giving away a Christmas MP3 each day until the 25th. Of the first 10 selections so far, artists include Lady Gaga, Tori Amos and Casting Crowns. Check it out.

Not to be outdone, the iTunes music store also has a free 21 song Christmas Sampler available. It's only available for the next few days though. Also one warning there is a song from David Archuleta.

Rolling Stone's year end issue's cover is just the numbers 00. This issue includes Rolling Stone's best songs and CDs of the decade.

themusicaddict

Please Fire Wade Phillips! Get a real coach this time Jerry!

Hello,

The Dallas Cowboys continue their annual December underachievement. To no one's surprise Dallas lost to New York yesterday. Dallas has not had a winning December/ January since the 1996 season. It looks like more of the same this season. Tony Romo played a pretty good game and the Dallas Cowboys converted on several 3rd downs. However their defense or special teams couldn't stop the Giants when it counted most. Brandon Jacobs turning a little drop off pass for 74 yards to the house. Come on! Dallas, in another crucial big game meltdown, falls to 8-4 on the season. They are tied with Philadelphia for first in the NFC East and both teams only lead the Giants by 1 game.

Jerry, it's time to get rid of Wade Phillips. This season the Cowboys got fat off beating inferior teams. Now that the Cowboys are playing good teams, the Cowboys have no fire. That's directly laid at the door of the head coach. To future Dallas coaching candidates, after 3 years of Wade, there's not much of a legacy to worry about. To apply for the head coaching position with the Dallas Cowboys go to dallascowboys.com (Sean Payton, Tony Sparano and Mike Shanahan you go straight to the head of the line.)

Dallas now welcomes the 9-3 San Diego Chargers then goes on the road to play the team who will probably be 13-0 then, the New Orleans Saints.

The lame BCS strikes again, pairing TCU vs. Boise State against each other in the January 4th Fiesta Bowl. (Yes I know it's the Tostito's Fiesta Bowl, but I refuse to acknowledge the official name of the bowls. That's just one more thing the greedy BCS has sold for more money. At this point they should just be called the $$$ System. They could also take out the C from BCS.) The BCS doesn't want to expose two of it's teams to losing to mid-major teams so they pair them playing against each other. By the way so called mid-major teams in BCS Bowls are 3-0, what does that tell you about the $$$ system? Run and hide, greed abides.

The so-called national championship game will be Texas vs. Alabama on January 7th. This was a shock to absolutely no one. A more interesting game might be The Sugar Bowl. It will be a good game for the first half, but then Florida will destroy Cincinnati. After getting steam rolled by Alabama, the Gators have something to prove. They also can finish the season #2 in the nation and it will be Tim Tebow's final game as a collegian. (Based on my prediction skills though, if I were you I'd bet on Cincinnati.)

In the Las Vegas Bowl BYU will play Oregon State. BYU will be the highest ranked team to ever play in the Las Vegas Bowl. This is the fifth straight season BYU will play in the Las Vegas Bowl. BYU is 2-2 in their previous 4 bowl games there. The 14th ranked Cougars will play OSU. In possibly the nicest location for a bowl game, San Diego, Utah will play California. Last and almost least the relatively woeful Trojans will try and get a victory for pride if nothing else. 8-4 USC will go for it's 9th win of the year against Boston College. Boston College and Utah are the two best bowl teams in recent history.

Music news: Apple has bought lala.com, an online music website. A site where you can listen to any song you want the first time free. This purchase gives us a hint in which direction Apple is going with digital music. There have been rumors they are thinking about having a subscription site like Rhapsody. I'm sure that lala.com will be incorporated in with the iPhone and the iPod Touch as well.

I have blogged about lala.com before. It has both it's pluses and minuses. I'm checking it out again this morning, listening to Owl City's "Fireflies". (Hey Owl City Death Cab for Cutie wants it's sound and song back.) Here's an example of how their pricing model works. I'll be using Allison Iraheta's "Just Like You" as an example. One can listen to each song the first time for free. If you want to listen to a song unlimited you can pay 10c for each song. One then can be able to listen to that song unlimited on lala.com. You can buy the whole web CD at 10% off each individual song. For $1.17 you can listen to every song on Iraheta's CD unlimited from their website. With this option you won't be able to move the CD to your hard drive or iPod.

One can also buy the whole MP3 CD for $9.99 and keep it on your hard drive to listen to when you want to. You could also listen to it on your iPod. (I know there are other music players out there, but why would you want one of those inferior devices. A Zune, are you kidding me?) Or you can buy the actual CD for $11.50 and get the web CD free. I'm not a big fan of playing an album but you have to click on each song individually to play it.

The gorgeous Carrie Underwood is on Fox tonight. She's hosting "An All-Star Holiday Special". She'll be singing Christmas songs along with all her biggest hits. Guest stars include Brad Paisley, Dolly Parton and David Cook. Who needs guest stars when you already have Carrie Underwood? Her new song "Cowboy Casanova" is such a great song, close to being as good as "Before He Cheats".

I continue reading through John Irving's "The Cider House Rules". It's a pretty good book, not as good as "A Prayer For Owen Meany". I was able to read several pages at one shot last night, that always helps make the reading more interesting.

Last but not least for now. Songs rockin' my life. 1) "Shine With Me"- P.O.D. 2) "Sister Golden Hair"- America. The song that reminds me the most of my beautiful wife. although she's now more "Sister Auburn Hair" 3) "Rio"- Duran Duran 4, 5 and 6) "Fire On Babylon", "Nothing Compares 2 U" and "All Kinds of Everything" (Feat. Terry Hall) Sinead O'Connor 6) "The Hustle"- Van McCoy 7) "Super Freak Pt.1"- Rick James (The funky beat is the basis for MC Hammer's "You Can't Touch This".) 8) "S.O.S."- Abba 9) "Ohio"- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 10) "The Greatest Love Of All" the amazing Whitney Houston (This is just one of several of her many better songs than "I'll Always Love You".) 11) "Seasons of Love" from the "Rent" Sound- track 12) "Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold)"- Dan Seals 13) "How Do I Live"- LeAnn Rimes 14) "Chicago"- Sufjan Stevens 15) "Colour of Love"- Billy Ocean. (What a beautiful song!) 16) "Mack The Knife"- Bobby Darin 17) "Uprising"- Muse 18) "Blue Monday"- New Order 19) "We Will Fall Together"- Streetlife Manifesto 20) "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"- Tears for Fears 21) "Leavin Here" (Live)- Pearl Jam 22) "Dance Little Jean" (Live)- The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band 23) "Monkey Buisness"- Skid Row 24) "Tragedy"- Bee Gees 25) "Don't Rock The Jukebox"- Alan Jackson 26) "21 Guns"- Green Day

themusicaddict

Go Dallas, "It's Tricky", the bcs

Hello,

Today is a big day for the Dallas Cowboys as they go into New York to play the Giants. That game kicks off at 2:15 MST. This game will go a long way determining if the Cowboys are a legitimate team. Honestly I don't think they are. Tony Romo still needs to develop as a consistently good quarterback. How much success can you expect with a mediocre head coach? As a Cowboys fan it's hard to know whether to cheer for the Cowboys or against them. If Dallas has a good year then Wade Phillips will probably be back next year. It's in Dallas' long-term interest for him to be gone as soon as possible.

We'll find out who is playing in January 7th's so-called national championship Game tomorrow. (I'm not capitalizing it, until we have a playoff it's not a legitimate national championship.) It looks like it will be Alabama, which is deserving, against Texas. Is Texas deserving? Maybe, maybe not. They didn't look that impressive against a rebuilding Nebraska team yesterday. Nebraska has a great defense anchored by stud defensive player Ndumakong Suh. Of Nebraska's 9 sacks, Suh had 4.5 of them. He looked like a man among boys. Their alleged offense is very offensive and not in a good way.

I'd love to see the MWC's TCU make it into the national championship game. I'd love to see Alabama get beaten by a MWC team in a BCS bowl for the second straight year. It won't happen though, the BCS will never allow that game. How legitimate would the BCS look if a non-BCS team won their national championship? I also wonder what is going to happen to Boise State. With ten BCS bowl spots available how can they not give one to 6th ranked Boise State. BSU has pretty much dominated every team they played. One of their victories is over the now 7th seeded Oregon.

Unfortunately when it comes to the BCS, it's not about what is right, it's about what is best for the BCS. Money will take precedence and we'll see that in tomorrow's selections.

The other day for my drive music, I was listening to Run-DMC's "Raising Hell". Without a doubt this is the greatest rap CD of all-time. It's greatness is highlighted by the classic jam, "It's Tricky". That is just one of those great songs that gets in your head and it's nearly impossible to get out. Other songs like that are the Smashing Pumpkins "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and Katrina and the Waves "Walking on Sunshine".

themusicaddict

Allison Iraheta

Hello,

Allison Iraheta's debut CD "Just Like You" dropped (as all the kids say) this past Tuesday. Thanks to my subscription to Rhapsody, I'm listening to that CD right now. It's pretty good, it's a cross between rock and pop. Iraheta's voice sounds fantastic, I love her whiskey soaked sounding voice. She should really work with Bonnie Raitt. I give "Just Like You" a solid B+ grade.

The following is my first (and probably last) published poem:

Allison Iraheta is a world beata
Who no one can defeta
She also is very sweeta
And some one we very much needa
Keep on rockin' Allison Iraheta!

Of all the CD's from last season's "AI" contestants, this is by far the best. I say that although I haven't listened to Lamebert's CD or Kris Allen's snooze fest. Lady Gaga is a "Fame Monster", Lamebert is the hype monster.

Hidden gem of the day: Rihanna's cover of Madonna's "Vogue" at the Fashion Rocks 2008 show. I love Rihanna! Surprise stat of the day. Out of all the CDs that have been released this year, guess who has sold most in the first week? Give up? It's "Britan's Got Talent's own Susan Boyle. Her debut CD, "I Dreamed A Dream", sold over 700.000 copies. (Over 700,000 copies!) I don't know about you but I'm so over Susan Boyle.

Reading: I continue to battle through John Irving's "Cider House Rules". As I was hoping it's getting better as I continue reading it. It's a struggle for me to read just one book at a time, there are so many great books out there.

Dallas Cowboys head coach, Wade Phillips, is wanting respect. He's wondering why a coach who has won 30 games in less than three seasons is worried about his job security. That's because you had a team that won 13 games and then could not even win their first playoff game. Last season the Cowboys were mediocre and they are again this season. Although their record does not reflect it yet. They are feeding on a league with too many bottom dwellers. Dallas has wins over such inferior teams as Washington, Kansas City and Tampa Bay. Phillips is 13-16 in December as a head coach. Do you have any other questions Wade? If it was up to me, irregardless of what happens this season, Phillips would be gone. There are many reasons Phillips has never won a game as a head coach.

themusicaddict

Hello,

I've been reading two books recently following my thrilling reading of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". The first book is Max Brooks "World War Z". I really like that book so far. It's obviously a piece of fiction about how zombies come alive and bring an assault on the world. They are eventually stopped but not before they leave behind a long trail of destruction. This novel is written in an oral history format, which usually isn't a style of writing I enjoy. After 22 pages into the book that style of writing is working for me in this case.

The other book I'm reading is John Irving's "The Cider House Rules". Unfortunately I'm struggling with this book. I didn't like the movie, having Tobey Maguire in it doesn't help. Maguire has to be one of the wimpiest actors currently going, other than playing the nerd or geek there is no role he's convincing in. The "Cider House" story was just not interesting. However operating on the theory that almost always the book is better than the movie I decided to give it a shot. Also John Irving is one of my favorite authors. I have read the first 45 pages and I'm just not getting into it. I'll give it a bit longer. But so far I'm very disappointed by this book.

Last night my wife and I watched "Four Christmases" which stars Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. (Previous to a couple of days ago I never thought of Reese Witherspoon as a babe. After seeing her in "I Walk The Line" and this movie I have changed my opinion.) I didn't expect to enjoy this movie much, but I actually liked it. I certainly understand wanting to skip some family activities on Christmas Day though.

Jerry Jones told his Dallas Cowboys, after improving to 8-3, not to get over confident. Jerry have you watched this team play? They have run into some really mediocre team to get to that impressive 8-3 record. I think the next 3 games will tell us a lot about this team. They play in order the 6-5 and playing for their playoff lives New York Giants, the high scoring 8-3 San Diego Chargers and the still undefeated New Orleans Saints. The Saints are 10-0 now and play tonight against the New England Patriots. If they emerge from those 3 games with a 9-5 record I'd be very happy. Of course if they win a playoff game finally I would also be very happy. However if the Cowboys don't win a playoff game, Jerry you must fire underachieving coach Wade Phillips. I hear Mike Shanahan is out of work.

Thanks to Oprah Winfrey making a couple of Christmas MP3's free, especially Sugarland's "Silent Night". That is such a beautiful song and Jennifer Nettles voice is so amazing. One of my all-time favorite country bands, Sugarland, appears on Oprah today.

themusicaddict

BYU-Utah

Hello,

Congrats to BYU for their victory over Utah yesterday 26-23. BYU is now 10-2 make their annual trek to play in the not very exciting Las Vegas Bowl. Utah falls to 9-3 and will probably be going and playing in the Poinsettia Bowl. Don't feel too bad for the Utes as that bowl is in San Diego.

Max Hall made a few comments last night that I wish he wouldn't have. Max please put a little more thought into what you say when you have a microphone in your face.

Also congrats to TCU and Boise State for their big wins. With Oklahoma beating Oklahoma St 27-0, that should pave the way for both BSU and TCU going to BCS Bowls. The last BCS Bowl Boise State went to was one of the greatest college football games of all-time.

themusicaddict

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving,

A good day to you all. Thanksgiving is a day known for food, family and football. Of the football there are some intriguing games today. Texas and their Heisman candidate Colt McCoy goes into Texas A&M tonight. I'm pulling for and hoping for a miracle by the Aggies. I'd love for TCU to sneak into the BCS Title game and expose the absurdity of the BCS. (It would be too much to hope for both BSU and TCU to play in the BCS title game.)

The NFL has three games today, including my Dallas Cowboys. That offensive power- house who has exploded for 14 points over the last two games. In that span they went 1-1 vs. two teams with a combined total of 7 wins. To give you perspective of that Dallas has won 7 games by themselves.It's time for Tony Romo to put up or for the Cowboys to start looking for a new quarterback. The other games are a mixed bag. The first game of the day will be Green Bay-Detroit. Other than fans of both teams I don't know who will be watching this game.

The nightcap should be the best game of the day. Both teams have winning and losing streaks this season. After winning their first 6 games, Denver has lost their last four games. They've been exposed as a pretender, as usually happens with Denver this time of the year. Denver is now 6-4 this season. Meanwhile the Giants started out with 5 wins in a row, lost 4 games in a row. They did win their last game to go to 6-4 on the season. Normally I wouldn't care who wins this game, but today I'm cheering for Denver. My boy loves the Broncos and the Giants are a NFC East rival to Dallas. On December 6th Dallas plays New York, that game will go a long ways to determining who wins the NFC East.

There are also basketball games going on today. The Jazz are playing their first Thanksgiving game ever since moving to Utah. They are playing the young and explosive Bulls. With Carlos Boozer leaving the Jazz after this season, the Jazz don't have a whole lot of chemistry. This season is pretty much going to be a wasted season for the Jazz. The other game is the Orlando Magic, who played a great game last night, against the Hawks.

Two more other NBA notes. According to espn.com Dwight Wade may be going to the Orlando Magic. If that does happen, what the hell is Miami thinking? It looks like Allen Iverson is going to retire. Good riddance to the most overrated player in NBA history. I'm sure he will make at least one comeback attempt.

Last night I finished reading "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". If I had the next in the series, "The Girl Who Played With Fire", in my possession I would have immediately started reading it. Alas I'm #14 still on the waiting list for that book at my local library. Instead I read a little more in John Irving's "Trying To Save Piggy Sneed". It's a collection of memoirs, short stories and essays. I was disappointed by the first and second memoir, they were boring and uninteresting. That really surprises me as Irving is one of my all-time favorite authors. "A Prayer for Owen Meany" is one of the greatest books ever.

I also watched "V" the other night, it's the fourth of four episodes that will be shown this fall/winter. If the ratings are good enough "V" will be back in March, 2010. The second episode was sleep inducing but the fourth episode is much better. I haven't been able to see the first or third episodes yet. Please ABC show them again. I want to see those two episodes before I can accurately form an opinion. My initial impression of "V" is that I'm a bit disappointed.

My lovely wife and I watched "Walk The Line", the Johnny Cash story. It was an okay movie. Reese Witherspoon did a great job but Joaquin Phoenix was not as good. Is that where Phoenix got the idea to try and be a pseudo rapper? I read Phoenix sang all the songs himself, I think they should have used Cash's actual voice. Phoenix is a pale imitation of the legendary Cash.

I'm glad Cash rebounded from his personal battles, he is definitely one of the all-time greats.

themusicaddict

Teen Beat strikes again, Ashley Greene

Hello,

Teen Beat (formerly known as Rolling Stone) strikes again with their latest cover subject, Tyler Lautner. He plays the role of Jacob/ wolf in "New Moon". That's good that someone has finally discovered that small independent movie. Please that movie needs hype as much as Adam "I Went Too Far" Lambert does.

For full disclosure I loved Stephenie Meyer's four books in the "Twilight" series. However I was very disappointed by the first "Twilight" movie and I have no desire to see "New Moon".

If we really have to have a "New Moon" cover, which we don't, this is the one I suggest.



There are also promos for Season 9 of "American Idol" already out. See below:



No sign of the guest judges or Kara. I think "AI" is embarrassed having her still on the show. I'm sure glad they featured Randy Jackson and one of his 5-7 phrases that he continuously recycles. The promo showed Randy "110% yes". We didn't get to see any of his other brilliant phrases like yo, yo, yo", "you can sing the phone book", "dawg", "pitchy" etc.

I've read reviews of Kris Allen's new CD and I've heard it described as not very exciting. Really! One of the most boring contestants ever makes boring music! No shock there. It's first week sales were only 80,000 copies, which was only good enough for spot # 11 in the Top 200. Also this is the lowest first week sales for an "American Idol" winner in it's 8 seasons. Why is anyone surprised by this?

I almost finished reading "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" last night. It took superhuman will to not finish it. I will finish it tonight. There was a development that took me by complete surprise. I won't ruin it here but it's a development that I did not see coming at all. I say that as a compliment, if you know what's going to happen it takes away the thrill of discovery. (One of the all-time most predictable movies ever is "The Notebook". I'm not a genius but even I could see that corny ending a mile away.)

Here's a pretty cool story, although there is great sadness behind that happiness. Congrats to Francisco Rodriguez and his family for giving away 8 of his organs and saving 8 other lives. Rodriguez was killed in the boxing ring. What a great family that raised him to have such unselfish ideas. The following is from espn.com. Thanks to them.

"The death of junior featherweight Francisco "Paco" Rodriguez on Sunday night will not have been in vain.

Two days after Rodriguez was knocked out by Teon Kennedy in the 10th round of a ferocious fight for a regional title at Philadelphia's famed Blue Horizon, Rodriguez died from a brain injury he suffered in the bout.

His death, however, will save the lives of at least eight people, including his uncle. Rodriguez's family announced that it was donating multiple organs from the fallen fighter, including a kidney to his uncle.

"We just learned that Paco and our uncle are a match," Alex Rodriguez, Francisco's brother, said in a statement. "Our uncle has been on the waiting list for a kidney transplant for a long, long time. So although we've tragically lost Paco, we're able to give this incredible gift of life to another family member.

"My family is desperately grieving the loss of Paco, but there is some comfort knowing that he will save at least eight lives and benefit so many families."

Rodriguez's organs are being donated through the "Gift of Life" donor program".

I think donating our body parts after death is something we should all consider. Think about it and thanks to Francisco and his amazing family.

themusicaddict

"Dragon Tattoo", AMA's Performance Reviews

Hello,

I had to go to bed some time last night or I would have stayed up later reading "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". What a great book, it's very hard to put down. I just want to find out all the mysteries quickly. WHat does Henrik Vanger have to hide and what is the reason for his true animosity towards Wennerstrom? However I also enjoy in between readings in a book> When I have time to contemplate what's going on and what could happen, that's also a great pleasure of reading.

The author of this book, Stieg Larsson, unfortunately passed away. He has two other books dealing with the same "The Girl etc." theme. I don't know if it's the same girl in every book, but I hope so. Lisbeth Salander is a very interesting character, her name is appropriate for the dirt she finds out about people. She had quite a shock when Mickael Blomquist showed up at her door.

From my reading and 'net surfing I heard a lot about Adam Lambert and Jennifer Lopez's American Music Awards performances. I find it ironic that I grade both of those performance F-. I finally couldn't resist seeing what the buzz was about. Adam Lambert continues to lower the level of taste in America. I know he's some- one's puppet, but this performance was terrible. What is up with the ugly hair and the makeup? Why does he always scream, his patented screech. I don't understand why there's so much hype about him. Of course hype is used a lot of the time to hide crap. That's what is happening here. Adam Lambert please go away, and take that slick, crappy "For Your Entertainment" with you. Grade: F- (I just heard that Good Morning America canceled Adam Lambert's appearance due to his lurid performance.)

Someone I like but was disappointed with was Lady Gaga. The song was meh! and her and the dancer's outfits were hideous. Grade: D.

Another singer I really like but who I was also disappointed with is Rihanna. The song she sang is mediocre and why does she have spikes on her clothes like Adam Lambert? In spite of this performance, Rihanna is currently my favorite female singer. Grade: C.

Continuing the disappointing theme what is up with Shakira and Whitney Houston? Shakira's performance was marginal. Shakira: C+ Whitney Houston why can't you just sing the damn song? Ever since she started her comeback at Clive Davis' after Grammy party she has had that weird phrasing. (Clive it's time to cut your puppet strings on Whitney.) Is the phrasing due to her losing her voice a bit? Whitney just please start singing the songs they are made to sing. Even if you've lost something from your amazing voice, you still have a great voice. She did have one of the best songs of the night. Due to the song, the grade is C+.

Alicia Keys/ lame rapper (I know his name but he seems to be living on reputation now rather than being relevant. Of course in my opinion he was never relevant.) Was it just me or did that song seem to go on forever? Grades: Alicia: B, lame rapper F-

Alicia Keys later sang by herself and that song was much better. The song "Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart" is a much better song than "Empire State Of Mind". "Sleeping" did seem to go on a bit too long also. Grade B+

Nelly Furtado sang with Timbaland and another female singer I never have heard of. Although Timbaland does fall under the "lame rapper" category, I actually liked this song. Although his rapping was a tad bit annoying. Grade: B.

Carrie Underwood, looking gorgeous as always, sang "Casanova Cowboy". This may have been the best song of the night, however it was also close to being the ugliest outfit of the night. Because this was one of the last performances I watched, the pop sheen was especially noticeable on this song. I wonder what country music radio thinks about that song, not that it matters because of course they are playing it. Also that song had some blistering guitars in it as well. Grade: B.

Janet Jackson started off the show with a blistering medley of some of her classic back-in-the-day songs. Her performance started out as hot, but by the end it had developed into a hot mess. Grades: first half: A, second half: C.

Daughtry: the only song of the night that didn't have a pop sheen. Just a straight forward pop/rock song sung by Chris Daughtry. The song was a little boring though. Grade: C.

Jennifer Lopez Yawn! The name of her song is "Louboutins", named after a line of shoes. When I heard her sing the line about a part time lover, I was hoping she was going to bust out the Stevie Wonder classic. No such luck and "Louboutins" is a pretty generic song. (Since the performance is boxing themed of course they have to fly Michael Buffer in to say, "Let's Get Ready To RUMMMMBLE!" Grade F- While researsching this song I discovered a very cool website. Check it out, it's at musicloversgroup.com.)

Quick reviews: Rihanna's "Rated R" her grown up CD. After one listen I give this CD a C. Them Crooked Vultures, this song has some pretty good musical ideas. After one listen it's more of a collection of songs rather than an album though. That will probably come with time.

Also when did Britney Spears start singing like a chipmunk?

Have a great day, I'll be back tomorrow. themusicaddict

Congratulations Real Salt Lake!

Hello,

Congratulations to Real Salt Lake in winning the MLS title in only their fifth season in existence. That's pretty cool!



I'm listening to Rihanna's "Rated R" this morning, the CD was released today. (Thanks Rhapsody!) A review coming soon. I also am listening to her previous CD, "Good Girl Gone Bad". That's a great CD!

Adam Lambert go away!

themusicaddict

"The Girl WIth The Dragon Tattoo"

Hello,

I recently finished reading Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's "The Strain". It is a very clever vampire novel, changing up and freshening the mythology a bit. With the second book of the trilogy not out until next year I started reading Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". So far it's a very good and intriguing book.

Due to issues with a USB port going out on my computer, my computer isn't able to communicate with the external hard drive. I don't know when we'll we be able to replace it, so I've been re-downloading my complete CD library again. It's a very time consuming project. However it gives me an opportunity to do an inventory of all my CDs. I'm missing some of my CD's but also rediscovering some CDs. I had forgotten that I have Rev Run's "Distortion". I also pulled out the R.E.M. import "Aural Pleasure". Most of it is recorded live at Milton Keynes Bowl. It's a great chronicle of R.E.M.'s "Monster" tour. I listened to The Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits and enjoyed "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" several times. That's just a great song.

Sports: First of all congratulations to the Utah Jazz for winning their first game in San Antonio in 10.5 years. My 13 year old was only 2.5 years old at the time. To show you how long ago that was, the Jazz last won in San Antonio in 1999. Remember that was when everyone was nervous about Y2K.

College football: The top 4 teams play cream puffs, in fact #1 Florida and #2 Alabama are already off to big leads. #3 Texas and #4 TCU play their creampuff games later. # 6 Boise State crushed Utah State last night, they imposed their will on the Aggies. Sports Illustrated had a nice article about Boise State in this week's issue. USC has a bye today. Utah and BYU also play later today.

themusicaddict

Songs rockin my iPod

Hello,

1) "Mayor of Simpleton"- XTC 2) "Up The Cuts"- Against Me! 3,4 & 5) "Trust", "U Got The Look" (with Sheena Easton) "1999" and 6) "King Nothing"- Metallica 7) "Black"- Pearl Jam 8) "The Weakness In Me"- Joan Armatrading 9) "Spinning Wheel"- Alexandrea Lushington 10) "Africa Unite"- Bob Marley 11) "View From The After- noon"- The Arctic Monkeys 12, 13, 14 & 15) "One", "Red Hill Mining Town", "Pride (In The Name of Love)" and "Until The End of the World" (I think that, "Bullet The Blue Sky", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "With or Without You" are my four favorite U2 songs 16) "Mainstreet"- Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band 17) "Peg"- Steely Dan 18) "Blister In The Sun"- Violent Femmes 19) "Paint It Black"- The Rolling Stones 20) "Spoonman"- Soundgarden 21) "The Time Is Wrong"- Tickle Me Pink (This song kicks butt.) 22) "Freewill"- Rush 23) "Kiss This"- Aaron Tippin 24) "Seether"- Veruca Salt (Whatever happened to them?) 25) "Mr. Roboto"- Styx 26) "My Dogs Still Walkin'"- Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King (I completely understand this song. This is a great Blues song. 27) "Cotton Eyed Joe" (Dance Version)- Various Artists (I couldn't find the one by the original artists so I got this one.)

I will be back tomorrow with a longer blog, themusicaddict

Hello,

I have been chewing through "The Strain" (it's a book about vampires you see!) It's a pretty good book and I've enjoyed it very much. My only quibble with it is that it is the first book in a trilogy. The second book "The Fall" isn't out until 2010 and the third book "The Night Eternal" isn't out until 2011.

I read Stephen King's "Dark Tower" 7 book series. I didn't start reading that until all 7 books were out. That was much more enjoyable to me. Usually when there's a long break in a book series I lose interest. That's probably why I lost interest in the Harry Potter series.

I didn't watch "V" last night, my DVR messed up. I was sort of wanting to watch it, but sort of not caring. Watching the second episode just left me blah.

themusicaddict

Dearest Pandora! Open Letter

Dearest Pandora,

I love your music service. I have discovered many great bands and songs since listening to Pandora. I'm also glad they struck down the attempt to increase royalties which would have effectively shut you down.

However the music genome song matching system has some to be desired. I'm speaking specifically of when I typed in "Rihanna". There are three ratings of the music you have matched to Rihanna so far: Yes, No and Hell NO! Yes = Matching artists that are appropriate: Rihanna, Cascada, Fergie, Technotronic, C + C Music Factory and the Black Eyed Peas. No = artists that don't really match: Recent JJ, most Madonna, DJ Encore. The Hell NO! artists, these are artists that have nothing in common with Rihanna: Kanye West, Sean Paul and Maroon 5. (Maroon 5? What the heck?)

Also it would be nice if I have a Rihanna radio station, that her songs are played at least every third song or so. I've listened to at least 30 songs since the last Rihanna song was played.

Overall I'd have to give your service a B+ though and the price can't be beat :)

themusicaddict

Rihanna rocks, R.I.P. Ken Ober, Nien Cheng

Hello,

Let's start with the sad news first. Ken Ober, host of the classic MTV game show "Remote Control", has died at the age of 52. (My favorite "Remote Control" question of all-time: Out of the three main characters on "Three's Company", who has the smallest boobs?) Ober became very popular after that show, but he quickly faded away. I hadn't thought about him in several years. Ken Ober was a great host mixing in jokes while keeping the show running efficiently. Here's a taste:



"Remote Control" was a great show back in the day. This is a nice time capsule episode. Most people don't remember Julie Brown. She's probably most famous for the video for "Homecoming Queen Has Got a Gun". LL Cool J was pretty cool in this episode, I love that he had a bodyguard. Weird Al should have brought a pasty white bodyguard with him. Weird Al is obviously a big Beatles fan, whereas LL Cool J isn't. "Remote Control" brought Adam Sandler to fame. Okay that meant that "Remote Control" had it's problems. Whatever happened to Colin Quinn and the gorgeous Kari Wuhrer? For that matter what happened to Ken Ober after this show was over.





The author of the book "Life and Death in Shanghai", Nien Cheng, died at the age of 94 in Washington. This book is Cheng's memoir of life for the elite during China's brutal and disastrous so-called cultural revolution. Chairman Mao was the man behind this movement. Unfortunately many students were sucked into this stupidity. Arrested in 1966, essentially for being rich and a diplomat's wife, she was stuck in solitary confinement for 6 years. According to Time magazine "Among the evidence gathered for the false charge: her London education, collection of classical music records and taste for marmalade". Cheng showed a resilience in a brutal time in China's history. (Thanks to Time magazine.)

I love, love Rihanna. Her new CD "Rated R" is out next week. I love her new song, "Russian Roulette". She's gorgeous and has such a great voice. (Although when I told my wife I wanted Rihanna for Christmas, that didn't go over very well with her.) I've been listening to Rihanna on Pandora. Pandora has played many of her great songs, as well as other similar songs. One song that I had never heard of, but I really like is Kardinal Offishail's "Dangerous". (On youtube.com too many of her videos are "embedded by request" or I would have had more here.)

Rihanna was rated #8 on Maxim's Hot 100 babes on its most recent list. I'd have to agree with that. But how seriously can you took a list when January Jones is not even on here. Jones is one of the most beautiful women in the world.











http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCFpn1jVEYY

Have a great day, themusicaddict

Another short blog

Hello,

I continue reading through Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's excellent vampire novel "The Strain". I wish I could go somewhere and finish reading it one sitting. It's that good of a book and also a quick read.

Unfortunately if you surf a lot or read a lot as I do, you continue to read and hear about new books to read. That happened yesterday to me again. In two places I read about the book "Drood" by Dan Simmons. When I got home last night from work I put it on hold at the library. It's a very intriguing sounding book based around Charles Dickens. I'm sure the people at the library get sick of seeing me. Coming up around Thanksgiving I have about 5 of 7 days off and I hope to squeeze a lot of reading into that time.

Sports: tomorrow is a big, big game for my alma mater, the Utes. #16 Utah travels to play #4 TCU in Texas. I hate to say it but I think the Utes are going to get crushed tomorrow. Just as the Utes were a wrecking ball crew and a team of destiny last season, that's how the TCU Horned Frogs seem to be this year. TCU is at home and they are battling for a longshot chance to play for the National Championship. TCU already has a fantastic team and with this extra motivation they will be even more dominant. I think the Utes will be lucky to keep it within 21 points. To show how big of a game this is, it was on espn.com's front page this morning.

Other games of interest #22 BYU goes into New Mexico to play the 0-9 Lobos. #5 Boise State welcomes 7-3 Idaho. Also #9 USC battles Stanford in LA. This is the same Stanford team who scored 50+ points on the previously Top Ten Oregon.

Have a good day, themusicaddict

Books I'm reading

Hello,

I don't have much time today, just a quick blog. Thanks again to all veterans for all you have done for our country. May your victories be many and your losses few.

The main book I'm reading now is Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's "The Strain". It's the first book in what is scheduled to be a trilogy. I've read about the first 65 pages so far. It is very good and extremely intense. Yes this is yet another vampire novel, but it's a good addition to that genre. If Del Toro's name sounds familiar to you, he's the creator of "Pan's Labryinth".

I also started reading a couple of books just to get a sense of them and whether they would be books I like. Those books are Dean Koontz's "The Good Guy". I just got a small taste of this book so far, but I really liked the taste. I also read the first few pages in John Irving's, one of America's greatest writers, "Trying to Save Piggy Sneed". This book has some short stories, memoirs and appreciations of the authors Charles Dickens and Gunter Grass. I was attracted to read this book because of Irving's memoir "The Imaginary Girlfriend".

I also am reading Arthur Schlesinger's "One Thousand Days", an insiders view of the Kennedy White House. That's one of the most historic Presidencies in US history. Kennedy himself is a veteran and a World War 2 hero.

I also recently finished reading Sena Jeter Naslund's "Four Spirits". She was living in Birmingham during some of their turbulent Civil Rights history. This is an account of that in a historical fiction novel, centered around 4 little girls who were slaughtered at the 16th Street Baptist church. I thought it was a good book overall. My only qualm is I wish Naslund would've put a lot more details of the Civil Rights movement in the book.

themusicaddict

Happy Veteran's Day

Hello,

It's Veteran's Day and all of us owe a big debt of gratitude to all those who have fought and died for this country. I'm not trying to be maudlin with the following clip. I also know a regular civilian like me can never appreciate being in a combat situation. The following is about the closest we can get. It's hard to appreciate what it would be like to be under the threat of being killed at any moment. The D-Day and Iwo Jima invasions are probably the two most bloody World War 2 encounters for the USA in actual combat.



The following story is an indication of the losses that can occur even when our military is not in a war situation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/us/31crash.html

Thank you Marines (Semper Fi!), Navy, Army, Coast Guard and National Guard. Thanks to all those who have fought for the US and us. Thanks to those who fought in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, World War 1, World War 2, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq Afghanistan and all the other wars, battles and clashes America has fought in.

There's other news of course. Aerosmith is not breaking up! Did anyone know that they were still together. A band that has many great songs, but very few are going to be heartbroken when they break up. I saw them in concert back in the day and they were not that good. Aerosmith and Bon Jovi were two of the most disappointing concerts I have seen.

Billboard has finally come to their senses about CD's that should be considered for their Top 200 CD list. Before this soon to be policy change if a CD was older than 18 months, it could not be on the Top 200 list. No matter its sales. The absurdity of this was really highlighted when Michael Jackson died. He had the best selling CD for 6 weeks, yet never reached #1 on the Billboard Top 200. It never reached the #1 spot on the Top 200 due to how old it was. I always thought that was a dumb qualification. The only criteria that should be considered when the top selling CDs are tracked is which CD sells the most. That seems pretty logical to me and why have any other rules than that?

I watched the second part of "V" last night. I was very disappointed. I did not see the first one, however I heard that episode was very good. It was hard to tell by last night's episode. The sound is terrible, many times it was difficult to understand what the actors were saying. Not that they were saying anything very interesting most of the time. I'm not really buying Elizabeth Mitchell as an FBI agent. I'm also not buying Logan Hoffman as a rebel, he looks more like a puppy dog. It's hard to believe the hot alien babe would be attracted to him. He looks like the kid who would play a stoner in a movie. What is with that ugly haircut as well? Besides those two unbelievable main characters the story was kind of slow and yawn inducing.

I don't understand ABC's strategy with this show. They are going to show four episodes and if it has enough viewers there will be nine more episodes starting next March. That makes no sense. It would give the writers time to punch up the story and find more believable characters. I'm going to watch the next two episodes and then I will go from there.

With "Mad Men" off the air until approximately next August, I'm looking for another show to enjoy. "Cold Case" and "Medium" are usually pretty good shows, but I'm looking for something to add a little zing to my TV watching.

themusicaddict

"Mad Men" rules 2

Hello,

As you probably know this past Sunday was the last episode of Season 3 of "Mad Men". I think this was my favorite season of the three. Season 1 we were getting to know the characters, season 2 was a little blah and this season rocked.

It was good to see Joan back with the boys, she's the heart of the show and any firm she is a part of. I'm hoping we won't have to deal with her dreary husband anymore.

I thought the final few scenes were especially poignant. Henry, Betty and baby Gene off to Reno. Carla watching TV with Bobby and Sally. Don walking into his new residence with Christmas decorations all around. That was one of the many bitter sweet moments in the show. The capper of them all of course was in one room Don calling and telling Betty he won't fight the divorce and the look of resignation on his face. He then walked into the next room and their was a feeling of energy in the air at the start of a new firm.


What is going to happen with Kenny Cosgrove, Paul Kinsey and the others left behind at Sterling Cooper? Will be get Sal back next season? (Please yes AMC and Matt Weiner.) Will Don hook up with Miss Farrell again now that he doesn't have marital bonds to hold him? Not that they had held him before. Is Carla taking care of Sally and Bobby all six weeks while Henry Francis, Betty Draper and baby Gene are in Reno. Carla has a family of her own after all. Will Henry and Betty really getting married? I'd put my money on "no". Now with the blinders off, is there any hope of Don and Betty having a reconciliation. How long until Roger and Joan throw off their marital bonds and get back together? With this new firm, does that mean Duck will no longer be in the show. Are you glad like me that Lane Pryce will still be around? He and Joan are probably the two most essential pieces to the new firm.

From the Melinda Doolittle that I receive occasionally. Doolittle is one of my all-time favorite "Idols". I am much more excited about her music and voice than I am about Adam Lambert. I just don't get why he gets so much publicity.

"I'm really excited to be able to announce my 'official' New York debut!

I can't believe I get to say that I will be at Feinstein's for an entire week. Not only is this an amazingly elegant place, but I get to do the kind of show I have always dreamed of doing...a cabaret!

I'll definitely be doing songs from my CD, Coming Back to You, but it won't stop there. I will also be singing some of my all time favorite Jazz and Broadway tunes. So not only do I get to do my dream show, singing songs I've always wanted to sing, but it's in the perfect intimate setting. This means that I can make each night personal and we can just have a great time from start to finish. I love getting the chance to show my silly, fun loving, hopeless romantic side and also sing my heart out!

Please come join me November 17-21 and while you're at it, invite some friends. Can't wait to see you there!"

Love,
Melinda

Speaking of former favorite "Idols", Megan Joy (or whatever she's going by this week) is appearing in commercials in the local Salt Lake area. She's doing commercials for a local clothing store. The commercial is cheesy to say the least. However she sings in the commercial and its good to hear that fantastic voice again.

themusicaddict

Songs rockin' my life

Hello,

Songs rockin' my life: 1) "Take On Me"- a-ha 2) "Cryin'"- Aerosmith 3) "Year of the Cat"- Al Stewart 4) "The Arms of the Orion"- Prince with Sheena Easton 5) "Africa Unite" and "Iron Lion Zion" by the great Bob Marley 6) "To L.A."- Brandi Shearer 7) "Together"- Styx 8) "Sex 'N' Money"- Oakenfold 9) "Stronger"- Meika Pauley (the CD this song comes from is very good.) 10) "Rock The Casbah"- The Clash 11) "Freedom"- Wham! 12) "The Day That Never Comes"- Metallica 13) "Kiss"- Prince 14) "Song of the South"- Alabama 15) "Didn't We Almost Have It All"- Whitney Houston 16) "Just Like Paradise"- David Lee Roth 17) "The Big Empty"- Stone Temple Pilots

Be back tomorrow with a longer blog, themusicaddict

The Droid is pretty cool

Hello,

My condolences to the families of the 13 people killed, 30 people injured and the shooter's family. It looks like the shooter is going to live, which is probably what he didn't want to happen.

Verizon Wireless releases two new Droid phones today. The Droid OS, which is the OS on these two phones, is from Google. The two phones are The Droid by Motorola and the Droid Eris by HTC. I had a chance to play with these and also the Storm 2 yesterday. They are all pretty cool mini computers. (Calling them phones belittles all the many things they can do.) The Droid offers a pretty close to iPhone experience on the nation's best network. For those keeping track at home, VZW's network is 5 times bigger than AT&Ts. The Storm 2 has improved a lot from the original Storm. The original Storm is a mess. One warning, if you don't like touch screens or $30 or $45 a month data packages, these are not the phones for you. A data package is needed as these phones are constantly connected to the internet, without a data package the phone bill would be very expensive.

Congrats to the New York Yankees on winning their 27th championship, it only cost them 400 million. They have one of the greatest legacies in MLB history. Players such as Babe Ruth (The Sultan of Swat), Lou Gehrig (The Iron Horse), Joe Dimaggio (Joltin' Joe), Mickey Mantle, Don Mattingly, Reggie Jackson (Mr. October) and Derek Jeter all have played for the Yankees. They even have cool nicknames. Some of my saddest sports moments were caused by the Yanks.

themusicaddict

World Series Game 6, Them Crooked Vultures

Hello,

Am I the only one excited for tonight's Game 6 of the World Series? I went to espn.com to read about tonight's game. Other than a small box at the top of their main website, there is no other mention of tonight's game.The pitching match up is very good: Pedro Martinez vs. Andy Pettite. This should be a great game. Two playoff tested pitchers in the twilight of their careers going for one more shot of glory. (If the Phillies win, it'll even be a more exciting pitching match up: 2-0 Cliff Lee vs. 2-0 CC Sabathia.) The Yankees are trying for their 27th World Championship on one hand and the Phillies are trying to defend their World Series Championship on the other hand. Other interesting storylines: Andy Pettite is the all-time postseason winning starting pitcher. Yankee's closer, Mariano Riveria, is nearly unhittable in the postseason. Which Brad Lidge will show up? The one who blew 11 saves in the regular season or the Lidge who has nearly been perfect in the postseason.

A band I'm very interested in, Them Crooked Vultures, has released a free song through iTunes. The song is called "Mind Chaser, No Eraser". It's a worthy song of the musicians in the band, including Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones. rhapsody.com also has started releasing free MP3's again. Today's selection is by jazz musician Melody Gardot. The song is called "Baby I'm A Fool". This is also a pretty cool song, it has a really mellow vibe.

This is always a great time of year for new music. Here are some of the most interesting CD's of fall and winter seasons. The following is the CD's release date, album title, artist and themusicaddict's excitement level about it. That's out of 1-10 *'s with 10 being I want to go steal it right now. (Unfortunately I can't afford them.)

September 8th, 2009: "Here Comes Science"- They Might Be Giants *****

September 14th, 2009: "Mi Plan"- Nelly Furtado. This is a Spanish language CD. I'd be more excited if I knew Spanish. (However Shakira's Spanish language CD's are pretty good.) *******

September 15th, 2009: "Get Lucky"- Mark Knopfler The former lead singer for Dire Straits is an under appreciated artist. I don't know how good this CD is, but I highly recommend his 2000 CD "Sailing to Philadelphia". *****

"Resistance"- Muse I downloaded the first single free from rhapsody.com. I really like it. I don't know if the CD is any good but "Uprising" is a great song. ******

September 29th, 2009: "Revolution"- Miranda Lambert The singer who sang about old boyfriends and relationships in "Kerosene" is back. *****

"Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel"- Mariah Carey. "The Emancipation of Mimi" was pretty good so ******

"Brand New Eyes"- Paramore **********

"Celebration"- Madonna (A two CD greatest hits collection.) *********

October 20th, 2009: "Southern Voice"- Tim McGraw (Thank goodness it's not another greatest hits collection.) *******

October 26th, 2009: "This Is It"- Michael Jackson ***

"Full Circle"- Creed ******

"Cosmic Egg"- Wolfmother The Australian wunderkids are back finally. *******

"Believe"- Orianthi I never heard of her before Tuesday, but a song from this CD is the iTunes free song of the week. The name of the song is "According To You" and it's a great song. *****

November 3rd, 2009: "Play On"- Carrie Underwood *********



November 10th, 2009: "Memento Mori"- Flyleaf Another band that has taken too long to have new music. ********

November 17th, 2009: Them Crooked Vultures *********

"Echo"- Leona Lewis *******

Kris Allen 0 *'s

November 23rd, 2009: "Rated R"- Rihanna This is probably the CD I'm looking most forward to. I love Rihanna. She's gorgeous, has a great voice and always has great songs on her CD's. **********



"She Wolf"- Shakira The current Rolling Stone cover girl. ********

"I Dreamed A Dream"- Susan Boyle **

"For Your Entertainment"- Adam Lambert 0 *'s

November 24th, 2009 "New Moon" Soundtrack- Various Artists **

December 1st, 2009 "Just Like You"- Allison Iraheta **********

themusicaddict

As always a shout out to my friends at condron.us, throwbackfootballjerseys.net

The Greatness of "Mad Men"

Hello,

Is there any better show on television now than "Mad Men"? No! Sunday night's episode was devastating both for the United States and Don Draper. The footage of Walter Cronkite fighting back the tears is one of the most genuinely touching moments of TV history.



This was the central event of this past Sunday's "Mad Men". The assassination of JFK casts a dim light on this entire episode. I like how the show works the death into the storyline. It does it very deftly without being exploitive. I only have a couple of events in my life that are even close. I remember when Ronald Reagan was shot. I was at South Davis Jr. High and I think we were sent home early. Two big differences: Reagan survived that and I don't think he was nearly as beloved as JFK.



Look how chaotic that is and how bodies just lay on the sidewalk as they wait for the ambulance. Ronald Reagan was the target of this assassination, but he wasn't the only victim. "Reagan, White House Press Secretary James Brady, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy were also wounded in the crossfire. Delahanty was shot in the neck by one of John Hinckley, Jr.'s six bullets,[and he fell to the ground next to Brady (who had been seriously wounded in the head)." (Thanks to the Thomas Delahanty wikipedia.org webpage.)

The other memorable traumatic event is obviously 9/11. I remember almost nearly every detail of that day. How my mother-in-law called our house, how I dropped my oldest kid off at preschool and how everyone was in a state of disbelief at work. It was very similar to a dream state. Then how I got to B&N right before they closed early. How I went and saw Lonestar that night in concert with my Mom. I called the venue at least three times in surprise that the concert was still going to happen.) I wonder is Matthew Weiner is trying to say what would happen if President Obama was assassinated.

Next week is the Season 3 finale and then we'll be left hanging for about 8.5 months until Season 4. I'm hoping Betty stays with Don. I know he hasn't been very good for her in fidelity, but I still think there's hope for them. I'm hoping Sal is welcomed back to Sterling Cooper. Will Joan come back! Please, her character has really grown on me over the last three seasons. There were hints that he may be making a reappearance. Who are the possible suitors for Sterling Cooper? Does Bert and Roger have enough money to buyback their namesake firm? Can we get rid of Duck and Pete and their loathsome personalities. (Yes, I already know the answer to that question.) Speaking of loathsome, what the hell is Peggy doing with Duck in the first place. That's the most unbelievable hookup in "Mad Men".

If you are not currently watching this show, why not? This season has been so incredibly strong. With JFK's death not saved until the season finale, how explosive is the season finale going to be?

On a much lighter note here's some funny video of Pearl Jam in Philadelphia.

Thanks youtube.com, I love your website :))

themusicaddict

Random news and notes

Hello,

A short blog today, due to time limitations. First of all I would like to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. I would also like to wish my youngest boy a happy birthday. Our Halloween boy was born six years ago today. It's hard to believe our little boy was born in a bathtub six years ago today. Did we plan on having a baby at home? No! He was just ready to be born. Yes it's true, my wife gave birth without pain drugs. It was the most courageous things I have ever seen with my eyes.

Daughtry is going to perform at the halftime show on Thanksgiving in the NFL game between Dallas-Oakland. Daughtry might be the highlight of the day, as the game features two mediocre teams. Of course, the Dallas game will be better than the Detroit game, as the Lions will get beat at home. That game is usually only watched by die hard NFL and Lions fans.

Kelly Clarkson announced her next CD will be out in Fall, 2010. I expect another great CD from her. The four best contestants from "American Idol" have been David Cook, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry and Kelly Clarkson. (Two of the most hyped and least interesting contestants have been David Archuleta and Adam Lambert.) Carrie Underwood and Allison Iraheta's new CDs are the ones I'm waiting for the most now.





Carrie Underwood is trying to capture that 70's vibe. Her new CD "Play On" is out Tuesday. Allison Iraheta's first CD is out December 1st. As you can see above her debut CD is titled "Just Like You".

Have a great day, themusicaddict

Hello,

To paraphrase Edwin Starr:

"Dog catchers (not animal control, that's a misnomer) what are they good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say again
Dog catchers, what are they good for?
Absolutely nothing."

Dog catchers are even more in love with their non-existant power than campus cops. Both are pale imitations of the real thing. Do we really need dog catchers? I hope they don't get paid very much, whatever they are paid they are overpaid.

I'm very anxious to read Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol", but I took it back to the library as I knew I would not be getting to it soon. I've been going through a Sixties kick lately. That was all kicked off by "Mad Men" from a few weeks ago. In two scenes you heard Martin Luther King speaking. One he was giving his "I Have A Dream" speech that was on August 28th, 1963. We then heard comments from him about the four little girls killed at church in Birmingham September 15th of the same year. Then two months and a week later JFK was assassinated.

So I have been reading books about the error. I'm in the middle of "Four Spirits" by Sena Jeter Naslund. She wrote a fictional account centered around the death of these four little girls. Naslund was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. I also have read a bit in "A Thousand Days" by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. This is a book about the Kennedy Presidency, one of the most historic Presidences ever. Many judge him as one of our greatest Presidencies. I'm going to withhold judgement about him until I do some more study. (I do see a lot of similarites between him and Barack Obama.) I also have read several pages in "The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage" by Todd Gitlin. That's a perfect title for that decade. I also have been researching this decade on the internet about the 60's.

themusicaddict

Great 60's music

Hello,

Welcome to the 350th themusicaddict blog. I'm glad that you could make it.

Shakira is the new Rolling Stone cover girl. Do whatever you can to avoid seeing the cover of Adam Lambert's CD, "For Your Entertainment". It's a very ugly picture. Please go away Adam.

I've read the first 35% of Sena Jeter Naslund's "Four Spirits". It's a very good book and I'm ready enjoying it. Both where I am in the book and where "Mad Men" season 3 currently is shares the same time frame. Both are set in the fall/winter of 1963. For instance JFK was just killed in "Four Spirits". I have a feeling the "Mad Men" Season 3 finale will revolve around the assassination of JFK.

Naslund is writing about these characters and is starting to make connections between all these people. The connections intensify as I go further in the book, I wonder if she's setting all these characters to meet in the end of the book.

Tonight is Game 1 of the World Series. At this point I don't really care who wins. I think that the Yankees are going to win in 5 or 6 games. However Phillies player Jimmy Rollins predicts Philadelphia will win in 5 games.

The NBA kicked off it's season last night, the defending world champs the Lakers, dispatched crosstown rival. They are allegedly a rival, they've rarely challenged the Lakers. The Lakers have won the last 9 games played between the two teams. Boston went into Cleveland and beat LeBron James and his new sidekick Shaquille O'Neal. O'Neal is on the downside of what should have been a much better career. The fact that he didn't work on his free throws enough should be an embarrassment. How many more games could have his teams won if he was a 80% free throw shooter rather than a 50% free throw shooter. There never would've been the strategy created called Hack-A-Shaq.

Speaking of NBA players on the downhill of their careers, the player formerly known as the Answer. If he's the Answer, I guess the question is who would be desperate to have him on their team? He's now playing for the Memphis Grizzlies, which tells you something about that team. He may not even play in tonight's first game. Maybe they should just change their name to Grizzly, because that's how they are going to play with him as their point guard.

Meanwhile the local team in SLC is obviously the Utah Jazz. The Jazz are going to be paying the luxury tax for the first time in their history. It's not even worth it even. The Jazz have 12 million invested in a disgruntled Carlos Boozer, who will probably be "injured" half the year. The Jazz are also overpaying Andrei Kirilenko and paying Matt Harpring about 6 million dollars and he might not even play. I expect the Jazz to have the same kind of season as they had last year. They will win 45-50 games and lose in the first round of the playoffs.

Thanks to the magic of DVR, my wife and I were able to watch the most recent episode of the always good "Cold Case". It centered around the beginning of the the Philadelphia sound. Is it my imagination or is she getting better looking as she gets older.


(thanks to kathrynmorrisonline.blogspot.com

They played some of those songs during the show last night. Those are some truly great songs. Thanks to my friends at Pandora, I'm now listening to a selection of 60's and 70's songs. There are so many great songs from that era, here's a list of some of the best. This is in no particular order.

"Ain't Never Loved A Man", "Chain of Fools", "Respect"- Aretha Franklin

Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay"- Otis Redding,

"Three Times A Lady", "Easy", "Brick House"- The Commodores,

"Theme From Shaft"- Isaac Hayes, (Speaking of funk and Prince yesterday. This song is funk squared.)

"This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak For You)"- The Isley Brothers

"She's Gone"- Hall and Oates

"Oh Girl"- The Chi-Lites

"Never Can Say Goodbye" and "I Want You Back"- The Jackson Five,

"I Can't Get Enough of Your Love Babe"- Barry White (It starts slow and builds tempo throughout the song. This is a good song to woo a lady.),

"Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off This Sucker)- Parliament

"Crusin'" and "Second That Emotion"- Smokey Robinson & The Miracles,

"For Once In My Life" and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours"- Stevie Wonder (a certified 100% musical genius)

"Mercy, Mercy Me", "What's Going On", "Sexual Healing" and "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"- Marvin Gaye

"My Guy"- Mary Wells

"Use Ta Be My Girl" and "Love Train"- The O'Jays

"You Can't Hurry Love"- The Supremes

"Reach Out I'll Be There"- The Four Tops

"Get Ready"- The Temptations

"Working My Way Back To You/ Forgive Me Girl" and "I'll Be Around" - The Spinners

"Lady Marmalade"- Labelle

"When A Man Loves A Woman"- Percy Sledge

"Thank You (Falettime Be Myself)"- Sly Stone and and the Family Stone

"Do You Love Me"- The Contours

"I Feel Good" and "Cold Sweat" (Part 2)- James Brown

themusicaddict