10 for 10 (10th Entry)................Defining Earworm with Michael Bolton

Greetings to our blog readers in Ukraine, Turkey, and Ghana.......

Today, we bring you the 10th and final installment of our 10 for 10 series commemorating the tenth anniversary of this very blog, which went up (in its original form) on Sept. 21, 2005. It was a radically different time then as Ari the beloved family tuxedo cat was still alive. Alas, he died just shy of his 20th birthday on March 2nd, 2007. Ok, otherwise, I guess things haven't really changed that much!

We are using an image of Michael Bolton because when we hear the slang word 'earworm,' the junkbox in our minds starts playing "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?"..........which makes us wonder if Dick Cheney urged that this song be played to terrorist or terrorist suspects while waterboarding them at Gitmo, the American naval base in Cuba.

I suppose we will never know the answer to that, but we have three definitions of urban slang words/terms for you:

1) Earworm: A song that sticks in your mind relentlessly, and will not leave no matter how hard you try (applies to Michael Bolton as well as any song by Air Supply).

2) Gold digger: A person who goes out with you for for your money, or someone who dates Tori Spelling!

3) Gender ninja: A person has an uncertain gender based on their personal appearance, hmm....see also the character Pat that was once part of "Saturday Night Live".....

http://www.urbandictionary.com

Today is Our 9th Birthday....

Greetings to our blog readers in Malaysia, Jordan and Argentina.

It was indeed nine years when we posted our very first entry on here.

We must profess that we had no idea what to blog about when we first started. In fact, one thing we posted was our very own grocery list!

We Are Suffering from Blogger's Block

Yes, this bout with blogger's block reminds me of the days when I taught English as a Second Language at a minimum-security prison in Yanceyville, NC, just across the border from Danville, Va. I should point out that I wasn't an inmate there myself!

But, hopefully, someone in Finland, Croatia or Iran is actually reading this, and hopefully that person realizes that even in America one can become bored and confused and somehow try to function!

Of course, people like Mark Twain, Nazim Hikmet* and F. Scott Fitzgerald never had to worry about blogger's block!

*- A famous Turkish poet who died in Moscow some 50 years ago.

Today is This Blog's 8th Anniversary

It was on this day that we started blogging with this blog eight years ago. Very few of us from the 'Keystone Kops' days of the blogosphere have kept up with our blogs for this long. One person who comes to mind is my good friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC.

I should point that the Chris Knight I know was not on "The Brady Bunch" (it aired before he was born, and when I was an infant), nor is he the singer who is playing Kirk Avenue Music Hall in Roanoke, Va., on Sept. 29th.

http://kirkavenuemusic.com/

Nor is he related to the great cartoonist Keith Knight of "K-Chronicles" and  the "Knight Life" comic strip, which runs in the Sunday "Washington Post." Keef, as he likes to call himself, is actually an African-American. The Chris Knight I know, and the other two Chris Knights are all white guys.

http://www.kchronicles.com/


But, the Chris Knight I know is the guy aired a Star Wars-themed tv ad when he unsuccessfully ran for an open seat for the Rockingham County School Board in 2006. (Interestingly, both Chris Knight the blogger and Keith Knight are huge Star Wars fans).

 http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/

http://www.theforce.net

The most popular blog entry on this particular blog is one that discusses a tweet from Bristol Palin (Sarah Palin's daughter.) It has close to 15,000 hits. We are still amazed by that!

Here's to eight more years.....

Although I'd like to take a day off and go to the Museum of Bad Art in Massachussetts:

http://www.museumofbadart.org/

Our Outline for 2013

With a cheeky teacher's apple in hand, we give a scheduled run-down of what to expect from this blog during the spring semester. We should add that we feel slightly hipper than normal as we are listening to WXDU 88.7-FM (Durham, NC), the student radio station of Duke University, via Internet streaming which is actually working?!, while we are posting this.

A few minutes ago, they were playing a song by Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie Prince Billy, a band with actor Will Oldham, who starred in the indie classic "Old Joy" (2006).  Javier the Intern informs us that we are now listening to "One Million Lovers" by The Growlers. Aren't you impressed?

Here is our slate:


Sunday- (1st and 3rd) Weekend Tweets

Sunday (2nd, 4th and 5th)- Comic Strip Dialogue......hopefully, the creators of "Funky Winkerbean," which is still carried by "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va., won't sue us.

Monday (1st and 3rd starting in Feb.) Sports Update- gymnastics

             (2nd, 4th and 5th)- college basketball

Tuesday- Quote of the Week

Wednesday- Weather from Around the Whole World

Thursday- Silly Photo to Fill Space

Friday- Weekend Extra

Saturday- Weekend Extra

http://www.wxdu.org

http://www.bonnieprincebilly.com

http://www.thegrowlers.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.roanoke.com

Reptile Week Cont'd- The Alligator

Person One: Blogging is a complete waste of time

Person Two: Yeah, it's sooooooooo 2009

Person Three: But, I have a blog

Person One: Really

Person Two: What's it about?

Person Three: This week, it's about reptiles.

Person Three is myself.......

For anyone who is in southern Florida, the Everglades Alligator Farm in Homestead, Fla., has live alligator shows daily at 11:00 a.m, 2:00 p.m. and at 5:00 p.m.

We suspect that you will not get a discount if you mention that you read about them on this blog.

http://www.everglades.com

Of course, the school nickname at the University of Florida in Gainesville is the Florida Gators; we gather they are pretty good at football.

Quote of the Day/Week-Whoopi Goldberg

Thanks to those of you in South Africa, Colombia and France who have stopped by and visited our blog today. We continue to quip famous African-Americans who were subjects of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' exhibit "The Black List" which ran at the National Portraits Gallery in Washington, DC, until April 22nd.

Our quote today comes from Whoopi Goldberg, 56, a comedian/actress/activist/talk show host who won major acclaim with her motion picture debut in "The Color Purple" (1985), which along with "Blue Velvet," has to be the most famous film shot in the Wilmington, NC-area.

Goldberg won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the film "Ghost" (1990), which starred the late Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. Goldberg has the distinction of winning an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy and a Tony.

Earlier this month, Goldberg shocked the blogosphere when she announced on "The View," a talk show she co-hosts that she was a member of the National Rifle Association. Since Goldberg is a progressive activist who vocally opposed the anti-gay Proposition 8 measure in California, this lead one conservative blogger to openly ask if he should leave the NRA.

Here is Goldberg's quote; it regards another Academy Award winner:

"I don't look like Halle Berry. But, chances are, she's going to end up looking like me." http://www.whoopigoldberg.com

Bonus Silly Picture to Fill Space- An Old Lamp

Augghhhh! I am now definitely taking a break from blogging tomorrow as I realized I needed two entries on this blog to even it with the other one.......?!

Has It Really Been Six Years?

The short answer is 'yes.' It has been six years since I've started blogging, and apparently, there is a real Channel 6 in Omaha, Neb., but we have no idea if we are popular in that marketplace or not!

SIDEBAR: According to a short article I read in the current issue of "Film Comment," the sappy film "The Champ" (1979. Dir- Franco Zeffirelli), which starred Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway and a young Rick Schroder (he is the same age as I am) is the most depressing film ever made. Researchers at Cal-Berkeley verified this in a scientific study conducted over many years. But, my vote would go to Ingmar Bergman's downer "Fanny and Alexander" or the Louis Malle tear-jerker "Au Revoir Les Enfants."

Quote of the Week- Martin Scorsese

Wow! I just saw the stats for this blog, and assuredly if we were a cable reality tv show, we would have been cancelled three years ago. But, we do live in a world where more people watch "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" on Bravo than "Frontline" on PBS!

Today's quote of the day comes from Martin Scorsese. I guess one could argue about what is his best film: "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," "Goodfellas" or "Kundun," but we only get into politics when it involves Greeks, Armenians or Republicans (forgive the ethnic humor; I happen to be the only person of Turkish heritage here in Welch, West Virginia*).

Here is our quote from Scorsese:

"Cinema is a matter of what's in frame and what's out."

SIDEBAR: Well, we learned from their web site that The Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo., which is going to be held from Sept. 29th to Oct. 1st is alas sold out!

But, should one be able to attend, there will be vendors from all parts of les etats unis**, including Boulder Beer from (of course!) Boulder, Colo., Fat Head's Brewery from Cleveland, and Cigar City Brewing from Tampa.

Closer to home, there is the third annual Brew Do, which is a beer festival in Blacksburg, Va., on Sept. 24. Hopefully, there will not be a home football game for Virginia Tech for those attending!

*- Not actually where I live, but it is a place that seems fairly similar to that.

**- The French word for The United States

In the Whoops Dept., Part Two

&*%$#@#$%^&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made the same mistake again.

In the Whoops Dept

We just posted an entry with a great quip from the underground comic artist R.Crumb which was meant for this blog by accident on "The Daily Vampire." But, we will post it here as well: "When I come up against the real world, I just vacillate."

In my case, I just blog!

Remembering Sherwood Schwartz

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Sherwood Schwartz (1916-2011) who created two of my favorite tv shows from my childhood in "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch." Schwartz died last week.

And, on that note, we will conclude this very short blog entry and take a day off from blogging tomorrow (yes, I can do it!).

Interestingly enough, the late Bob Denver who was Gilligan lived as a regular Joe in he small town of Princeton, WV, in his later years.

Quote of the Day- Agnes Varda

Today, our quote of the day comes from the great French film director Agnes Varda, who turned 83 earlier this year.

Varda is best known for her films "Cleo from 5 to 7" (1962) and "Vagabond" (1985). She also directed the documentary "The Beaches of Agnes," which was made in 2008.

Here is her quote:

"Hands are the tool of the painter, the artist."

And, we are happy to report that we have finally passed the 100,000 hits mark! Even though, my other blog "The Daily Vampire" (http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com) is seven or eight times as popular, this blog, which will become six years old on Sept. 21st is still my proverbial pride and joy.

Today We Celebrate Five Years of Blogging

As of today, this blog (which originally ran on AOL; they have since ended their blogging features) is five years old!

And, as usual, it has put me slightly behind my schedule as I have pertinent things to do today like read email, go to a comic book store and watch a Criterion version of some obscure early Ingmar Bergman film.

They are actually kicking people off computers here at the Pyongyang Public Library in Pyongyang, North Korea (that is a joke, so don't call Jimmy Carter!).

So, let me go ahead and congratulate the Ragsdale High School football team who won their home game in Jamestown, NC (a suburb of Greensboro and High Point) by a whopping 52-7 margin over Person County High School which had to make what must have been an awful hour and a half trip back to Roxboro last night. Though we feel for the folks from Person County HS, I gather Ragsdale fans follow my blog more closely so we are ultimately happier for the home team!

Finally, anyone looking a new home for a cat or dog (of course, cats are the better pet), in the Triad might want to go to the Forsyth County Animal Shelter in Winston-Salem where a tuxedo kitten named Rebel is looking for a new home.

Well, the North Korean soldiers are pointing towards me, so we better run while we have the chance....!

Autralian Women's Luger Displays Olympic Spirit

The Vancouver Winter Olympics will conclude tomorrow, but the games were marred by tragedy at the outset when Georgian men's luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died during a training run.

But, Australian women's luger Hannah Campbell-Pegg, 27, is stepping up to help his family by auctioning off her Olympic suit to help them pay for the funeral expenses.

I have been profiling 25 Winter Olympic athletes on my blog "The Daily Vampire," www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

It has been quite the time-consuming venture, but it has also been rewarding to share their special stories on my blog.