Last Ten Songs on Steve FM (106.1-Roanoke, Va): Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Greetings to our blog readers in Afghanistan, Brazil and the Netherlands.........

Today, we look at ten songs that were played between 5:00-6:00 p.m. (17:00-18:00) eastern United States on the variety mix radio station Steve-FM (106.1-Roanoke, Va).

For the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, just underway, the station is playing an all '80s weekend, which actually started on Thursday at noon. http://www.1061stevefm.com

The two earliest songs that were played were "Back in Black" by AC/DC and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"by Pat Benatar; both songs were released 35 years ago in 1980. Benatar is currently touring on the road, and she will play the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC, on July 8th and the Brown Theatre in Louisville, Ky., on July 16th. http://benatargiraldo.com/ http://www.warnertheatredc.com 

(The image of Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves are in reference to Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Show, Ali is originally from Louisville where Benatar plays later in July).

The most current song was "Need You Tonight" from INXS, released in 1987 http://www.inxsonline.com

The set also featured the mega-hit "West End Girls" (London's West End is the center image) by Pet Shop Boys http://www.petshopboys.co.uk/ as well as "Photograph" from Def Leppard http://www.defleppard.com/ (the image of Marilyn Monroe is because an actress playing her was in the video for "Photograph") and "Some Like It Hot" by the '80s supergroup The Power Station, which featured the late Robert Palmer and members of Duran Duran.

Def Leppard will be performing with Styx and Tesla in Toronto, Canada, on July 14th, and Oshkosh, Wisc., on July 18th.

Here is the list:

1) Come on Eileen. Dexy's Midnight Runners. 1982

2) Let's Hear It for the Boy. Deniece Williams, 1984

3) Photograph. Def Leppard. 1983.

4) West End Girls. Pet Shop Girls. 1984.

5) Hit Me With Your Best Shop. Pat Benatar. 1980.

6) Jam on It. Necleus. 1984.

7) Need You Tonight. INXS. 1987

8) Back in Black.AC/DC. 1980

9) Gloria. Laura Branigan. 1982.

10) Some Like It Hot. The Power Station. 1985.

Sunday Comics Grand-Slam (3 of 4): Pickup Lines for Satan

This week, we have a special surprise as we profile our top ten favorite comic strips from "The Richmond Times-Dispatch," not one of the two regular newspapers we profile in our weekly comic strips survey.

Our favorite comic strip of the week is "Pardon My Planet," a cutting edge single panel comic strip, along the lines of "The Far Side" and "Rhymes with Orange," which had the devil trying to pick up a young blonde woman in a strip which evoked the famous Edward Hopper painting "Nighthawks," with James Dean, Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe.

The break-our comic strip "Dustin," which also runs in "The Washington Post" features the title character having a discussion with his girlfriend over who said a famous quote; the strip is made funnier by the fact that Dustin has an iPhone which can verify his or her argument.

"Mark Trail," an always informative strip, talked about the lifestyles of bears in the wild, and the reader learns that a grizzly bear can get up to 1,100 pounds as an adult! These creatures which are commonly found in Alaska were recently videoed by a very brave photographer and the magazine "Grit" showed the taken footage, which reminded us of the Werner Herzog documentary "Grizzly Man."

Lastly, "Funky Winkerbean" revolved around a family vacation to the beach which included the family dog (yeah, that's the reason for our image of Astro the Dog from "The Jetsons") which seems quite suitable as (to our memory) the comic is also found in "The Myrtle Beach Sun-News," the local paper for Myrtle Beach, SC.

Here is our top ten:

1. Pardon My Planet

2. Dustin

3. Doonesbury

4. Foxtrot

5. Mark Trail

6. Funky Winkerbean

7. Rhymes with Orange

8. Get Fuzzy

9. Dilbert

10. Grin and Bear It

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/

http://www.timesdispatch.com

http://www.gocomics.com/marktrail

http://www.alaskamagazine.com

http://www.grit.com

Little Thinkers Quotes (3 of 16): Marilyn Monroe

Greetings to our blog readers in Dubai, Japan and Argentina.

Our quote today comes from Marilyn Monroe. Wasn't she great in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (we're kidding! It was Audrey Hepburn who starred in that film; Marilyn starred in "Some Like it Hot").

Here is her quip:

"Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered."

http://www.marilynmonroe.com

In the News_ American Postage Stamps Increase

On Monday, domestic postage stamp rates for letters go up here in the United States. So, if you want to send a congratulations card to Newt Gingrich for winning yesterday's South Carolina Republican Primary, you are already too late. Of course, those of you who know us well, realize we will not be among those sending the former House Speaker greeting cards anytime soon.

The Humphrey Bogart stamp (1997) shown here was part of a Legends of Hollywood series, which also included a Marilyn Monroe stamp.

SIDEBAR: Kudos to the nationally ranked men's basketball team from Harvard as they beat Dartmouth yesterday on the road in Hanover, NH, by a 54-38 score. But, interestingly enough, the school's Athlete of the Week is Haley Mendez, who plays women's squash?!

Also our congrats go out to the North Carolina State women's gymnastics team as earlier in the week sophomore Stephanie Ouellette was named EAGL Conference Gymnast of the Week. The Wolfpack also received honors for junior Rachel Fincham who was named EAGL Specialist of the Week, and freshman Lane Jarred who was named EAGL Rookie of the Week.

Over the weekend, the Wolfpack continued their success with a road victory over the University of Illinois-Chicago, which is, of course, located in the Windy City.

Quote of the Week- Andy Warhol

Today we feature a quote from Andy Warhol (1927-1987) who was known for soup cans and for funky painting of folks ranging from Elvis Presley to Che Guevara.

There is currently a special exhibit dedicated to one of Warhol's other favorite subjects, Marilyn Monroe at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Similarly, The Baltimore Museum of Art is featuring Warhol's later works in an exhbit that is named: Andy Warhol, the Last Decade. It runs through Jan. 9, 2011.

Here is the quip, which I can relate to since having a girlfriend these days seems harder than planning a trip to Tashkent, Uzbekistan:

"When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about personal relationships."

One has to wonder what Warhol would have made of Facebook!

We also want to wish another renegade and legend, French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard a belated happy 80th birthday (it was on Friday).

Quote of the Day- Yves Montand

Ironically, our quote today comes from the much-admired late left-wing French actor/singer Yves Montand who was (ironically, again) born in Italy.

Montand appeared in many classic films around the world, including "Z," "Le Cercle Rouge," "Tout va Bien!" (a Jean-Luc Godard film with Jane Fonda), "Let's Make Love" (with Marilyn Monroe) and "The Wages of Fear."

Here is the quote:

"Pacifists are like sheep who believe that wolves are vegetarians."

SIDEBAR: Today is Belgian Independence Day. The Brassiere Beck, a Belgian place in Washington, DC, is celebrating with a $49 all-you-can-eat buffett today. We have jokingly referred to Belgium as Tintinland on this blog since the country is known for the much-adored comic book character Tintin.