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Still catching up with vinyl record countdown before I die (blog version)

UPDATE 6:22 p.m. 4/21:  Back from record stores. Long walk. I got two records one at each shop at 5 points.  Roy Clark’s ‘ Spectacular Guitar.’ He’s one of the best guitarists  and perhaps underrated by rock fans. Grass Roots, some personal reasons I picked ‘Golden Grass’ which I will  talk about at a later date. Fine day to shop, came in under $15 for two I wanted. Don’t tell Catherine. I’m still trying to find the right time to tell her about my growing stack of albums.

I did confess to getting Neutral Milk Hotel’s Aeroplane  record on newly minted vinyl during a recent road trip to see family.  It’s an album  I had on CD, but I love it and couldn’t resist a purchase at WUXTRY in Athens, Ga., where the band lived and, I believe recorded the album.

Hey all,

I published another Countdown update on AL.com. Click here.

I am going right now to 5 pts. South to Record Store Day at the two stores there, Charlemagne and Renassance.  And Seasick little later.

I’m still taking this week all in as my colleague and friend John Archibald won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

I’m off …….Oh wait a minute!

Coincidence or not department. The Difford and  Tilbrook vinyl record I have as my latest review has a song I singled out “Picking up the Pieces.”

My five snippits I introduce to AL.com readers today contains the Average White Band’s famous hit ‘Pick up the Pieces’ a totally different song from different eras and genre………wow.

OK maybe not so  Wow but it is kind of strange…OK maybe not strange at all (I’m going now).

Listen to the AWB video piece of my post and watch the (totally white) crowd try to dance … funny (OK I’m going now.)

 

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Catch up on my vinyl countdown (blog version)

Below are some links and excerpts from stories I wrote about my new status at AL.com

It’s all good. Really good.

Bottom line: I’m now going to be writing full time as a columnist. Here’s part of what I wrote and published  on AL.com Friday.

A little over a year ago I wrote a column that pulled out the tried and true trope: I have some good news and bad news.

My ‘good’ news was that despite what I had previously announced in a column, I did not have Parkinson’s disease after all.  I did not have that dreadful brain degenerating disease that left Muhammed “The Louisville Lip” Ali speechless, and makes Michael J. Fox shake and tremble like he has just been pulled out of an ice fishing hole.

I didn’t have it. But I had something else.

There was that word ‘but.’

Oliver listening to and writing about one of his 678 vinyl records stored on bottom shelf. Despite a degenerative brain disease, he vows to review them all. (Mike Oliver).

My wife, Catherine, scolds me when I use the word ‘but’ after a declarative clause. “When you say ‘but,'”she says, “You are negating everything you said in the first part of the sentence.”

But, but, but  … I argue. (I always argue semantics).

But it’s true in this case. Not having Parkinson’s was NOT good news. I was misdiagnosed (not uncommon). I didn’t have Parkinson’s; I had Lewy Body dementia, which in general leaves its patients with a shortened lifespan. The average lifespan after diagnosis is five to seven years, usually much shorter than the lifespan expected after an Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diagnosis.

I was diagnosed about 18 months ago at age 56. So, I have a little time, I think.

For more go to this link :

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/04/i_am_a_writer_with_a_brain_dis.html

Today I wrote more specifically (to theAl.com audience ) about my  countdown and record review:.

So I’ve told you earlier I was going to be doing more writings on AL.com, and some of it will relate to the countdown of my vinyl records.

I have vowed in my blog that I will count down my collection of 678 vinyl records before I succumb to a degenerative brain disease called  Lewy Body dementia.

I’m 58 now and it appears I have enough records to last me about two years, although I am feeling deadline pressure.

You can  read that story here:

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/04/catch_up_to_my_vinyl_countdown.html

It gives my blog an exponentially larger audience. And  that’s good.

Keep reading my blog and  be on the watch for other columns at AL.com

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Today is Silent Saturday

In youth sports they have a day when the sideline crowd of Moms and Dads must be quiet. No shouts of encouragement (Kick the ball!). No shouts of disparagement (Joey why didn’t you just kick it already?).

It’s called Silent Saturday. But as I found out, today is another kind of Silent Saturday, and it’s tied to Easter weekend.

I slowly became aware of this  when my wife, Catherine, associate pastor at First Presbyterian Birmingham, didn’t respond to my ‘Good Morning’ as I walked by on the way to the coffee pot.

The reverends Cat Goodrich and Catherine Oliver on Palm Sunday at First Presbyterian Birmingham.

I didn’t think much of it, she must be absorbed in her Easter preparations, I thought.

I got my coffee and my laptop and began my web-hopping, checking out news, AL.com and Greg Garrison’s  Easter coverage, my blog, and music videos.

Wow. No way!

I found  this video that  has more than 350 million page views. What? That’s a page view for everyone in the United States and then some.

The video was by a group called Disturbed and it was a cover of the old Simon and Garfunkel classic, ‘Sound of Silence.’ I watched the video,  very dramatic, even melodramatic. I can see how this is popular.

I went to show Catherine because I knew she loved the song. She used the music in a presentation  at her church in Athens,  Ga., in her youth and always cranked it up when it came on the radio. (Ha, funny, cranked up Sound of Silence.)

By this time I had forgotten that Catherine didn’t say good morning back at me. I came walking in with my laptop and said I wanted her to see a video. She made hand gestures. Eventually she spoke very softly and said she was coming out of her silence, and that this was Silent Saturday.

I Googled and found this from popular Christian writer Max Lucado discussing Easter weekend:

Jesus is silent on Saturday.  The women have anointed his body and placed it in Joseph’s tomb.  The cadaver of Christ is as mute as the stone which guards it.  He spoke much on Friday. He will liberate the slaves of death on Sunday.  But on Saturday, Jesus is silent.

Whoa. My brain gets a kickstart with back-up help from the coffee: I told Catherine the video was ‘Sound of Silence,’ a cover version. Her face conveyed a mixture of confusion and amazement.

How did you know? She thought I had pulled the video because of the day, which I really knew little to nothing about.

Anyway, it’s a heck of a video, and my only hint is that this version is befitting of a band called ‘Disturbed.’  Catherine and most pastors I know after six weeks of Lenten preparation and Holy Week might also be described as disturbed. But that’s another story.

Watch the video  below  (Looks like you may have to click through to play video but it’s well worth it):

Ca

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Dolly Parton — 555, 554, 553

ALBUMS: The Best of Dolly Parton (1970); Best of Dolly Parton (1975); Dolly Greatest Hits (1982)

MVC Rating: Best (’70) 4.5/$$$; Best (’75) 5.O/$$$$; Greatest (82) 4.0/$$$

I’m jealous. My friend and colleague Greg Garrison, AL.com’s religion reporter for decades, drove to Dollywood Thursday night and had an interview Friday with Dolly Parton.

I’m Greg’s editor and he did the smart thing to call me AFTER he was on his way lest I would have ordered him to pick me up. I would have brought my three Dolly albums  with me of course and asked her to sign them. Obnoxious that would be — at the least. So Greg, thanks for waiting on that call.

For my part, I am going to move Dolly Parton up the alphabetical scale of myvinylcountdown.com .

I’m almost up to the D’s anyway, which would make a good fit. You know, D for Dolly.

Dolly Parton is 72 and I  am 58. About 50 years ago I became a fan. As young boy, about 8 or 9 or so, I saw her on TV, on The Porter Wagoner Show. Dolly was kind of a sidekick to Porter, the sequin jacketed country singer with slicked back hair.

As I said, I was about 8 watching B&W TV as Porter introduced Dolly singing her new song. ‘I Will Always Love You.’  That song become a minor hit at the time. And it was embedded in my 8-year-old brain.

Years later Whitney Houston took it to worldwide fame and many people thought it was a new song.

I like Dolly’s version better. Whitney could definitely power through with a voice almost too good to be true. But I blame Whitney, (rest in peace) for all of the vocal gyrations that led to and became overused on vehicles such as ‘American Idol.’

Couple things I learned or my memory was refreshed about: Dolly Parton has an incredible natural voice and sings songs like she means them which is the point of singing, no? Connecting with an audience.She sings with the right emphasis and uses the right inflection.

Her voice is the real deal. But not only that, she played many instruments, guitar, banjo and piano. And maybe more impressive than all; she wrote nearly all of her songs, some of which have become classics.

She had 25 No. 1 Billboard country hits. She did movies, some good, some not so much. But I enjoyed ‘9 to 5.’

The three albums I have are about the perfect snapshot of her career in music. The 1970 best-of covers the early years and has a startling version of ‘Mule Skinner Blues’ complete with yodeling. Dolly makes you love yodeling even if you hate yodeling. This record also may have the definitive version of ‘How Great Thou Art.’

The second best-of  (from 1975) has her signature songs that led her to the big time. ‘Jolene,’ ‘I Will Always Love You’ and ‘Coat of Many Colors’ and ‘Love is Like a Butterfly.’

The third album 1982’s Greatest  Hits chronicles her crossing over from mostly pure country to a more pop sound that garnered bigger audiences but I didn’t like it as well as the earlier two albums.

It has such megahits as ‘Islands in the Stream’ and ‘9 to 5,’ from the movie soundtrack of the same name.

Videos below include a surprising cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ a classic 70s rock tune that few artists ever attempt to cover because the multi-layered original is considered definitive. And the  early introduction of ‘I will Always Love You.’

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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My Vinyl Countdown’s Top 12 posts

So,  I’ve learned how to see how many clicks each of my posts are getting. The results are somewhat surprising.  See my Top 12 lists below.

I’ve been doing this blog now since September but I’ve never really done a lot of exploration of its capabilities. I specifically got the WordPress dot org version with a Blue Host, er, hosting thingy. It was supposed to be much more versatile the way I set it up but I haven’t really been one, yet, to explore its many hidden powers.

Meanwhile, as regular readers know, this is a stealthy, healthy way to raise awareness of a not -so rare brain disease I have.

I have Lewy body dementia, which  is the second leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer.

And my deal here is that I’ve vowed to count down, reviewing sort of (or reminiscing about), the 678 vinyl record albums I’ve been lugging around since the 1970s and 1980s.

Somewhat surprisingly my essays, meanderings and stories are consistently more popular than my music posts — part of that is the sheer number of music posts, it sort  of thins out the flock. But also, maybe you like what I write and not so much what I listen to. No worries fans of the music posts, they are what I call the backbone of this blog. Keeps me and it going.

Okay, here are my Top 12 posts of all time (since September). I  am taking out my top 2 which are my Home Page and About Me page.

  1.  Another hugging, this has got to stop
  2.  Some People are Mean
  3. How the heck am I doing
  4. Porter and Me
  5. Me and My Old Boss
  6. I Have to Laugh (To Keep from Crying)
  7. Yellow Bird sighting. Is it a sign?
  8. My Rx for Dementia
  9. Are You Random Orientation or Straight Playlist
  10. Is there time?
  11. The Best Worst Song Ever (Winner)
  12. Rules of ‘street’ ball

 

Alphabetically speaking, I’m still in the C’s but I’ll be in the D’s soon.  (BTW, I’m adding numbers from 678 to 1 in the headlines so you’ll know where I stand in the countdown, but it is going to take a while for me to catch up on that right now.)

Steadily I’ve been rolling my albums out from the very first one King Sunne Ade’ to my latest posted Wednesday morning on the band Crack the Sky.

Here are my Top 12 music posts/ vinyl countdown. Like the above Top 12, you can click on the title and it will take you there.

  1. The Allman Brothers Band
  2. When Particles Collide
  3. Dickey Betts
  4. T Bone Burnett
  5. Athens, Ga. –Inside/Out Various artists
  6. Peter Case
  7. Joe Cocker
  8. Eric Clapton (Do I have too much?
  9. Paul Anka
  10. Van Cliburn
  11. The B-52’s
  12. Jackson Browne

A few observations. Interesting that the Allman Brothers and  Dickey Betts are among my most popular record posts. Guess, we’re back in the South(where I grew up.) So in that vein, here’s a video that captures Greg Allman and DIckey Betts playing acoustic. That’s Betts in cowboy hat who has a nice interchange with Warren Haynes near the end.

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Yellow Bird sighting. Is it a sign?

AL.com’s Dennis Pillion has a story this morning about the sighting of a one-in-a -million genetic anomaly, a yellow cardinal, seen in the Birmingham area.

Auburn University researchers say this cardinal is yellow due to a rare genetic mutation. It’s been photographed around Alabaster, Alabama in February 2018.(Jeremy Black Photography)

First thing I thought of was the band Bright Eyes led by Conor Oberst  and his references to yellow birds in two songs of the album  ‘I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.’

From the song Poison Oak:

And I never thought this life was possible
You’re the yellow bird that I’ve been waiting for
The end of paralysis I was a statuette

From the song We are  Nowhere and It’s Now

Did you forget that yellow bird?
How could you forget your yellow bird?
She took a small silver wreath and pinned it on to me
She said, “This one will bring you love”
And I don’t know if it’s true
But I keep it for good luck

I don’t have this on vinyl, so this is not a ‘countdown’ record. But I recommend Conor Oberst’s work, both in Bright Eyes and out of Bright eyes.  Check the videos and his references to ‘yellow bird.’

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The Coolest Cover Yet of ‘Angel from Montgomery’–by WPC

In this blog post  is  a song.

Play it.

Christopher M. Viner. and Sasha G. Alcott  PHOTO CREDIT: Cait Bourgault

Push the sideways triangle.

It’s a cover by When Particles Collide  of ‘Angel from Montgomery’ and it may be a challenger for  the best  cover yet of that song or at least puts it  in that conversation.

And believe me that’s saying a lot considering who has covered this John Prine classic:

  • Bonnie Raitt (she has done duets of this song with Prine, Tracy Chapman, Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby and more.)
  • Susan Tedeschi
  • John Denver
  • Cameo
  • John Mayer
  • Dave Matthews
  • Ben Harper
  • These are just a few who have covered it. The list goes on and on.

See what you think.

You, audience, are the first to hear this outside the inner circle. It’s a little different than Raitt’s famous version(s). It hits you with a little more force, urgency. It replaces melancholy and hopelessness with the beginnings of raw pain, and anger. For me the flies take on a  bigger buzz.

There’s flies in the kitchen
I can hear all their buzzin’
And I ain’t done nothing since I woke up today
How the hell can a person
Go to work in the morning
Come home in the evening
And have nothing to say

When Sasha sings the above, she spits out the last four lines and we suddenly wonder what the woman has done. The ambiguity in Prine’s  poetry starts to melt  away.

Give a little listen  w headphones.

Back ground here: Earlier in these bloggies, I wrote about this great  group When Particles Collide. I saw them  several months ago, a husband-wife band, performing on the back porch of my  basketball buddy Eric Stockman’s home here in the Birmingham area.

These 40-somethings from Maine had quit their day jobs and took WPC out on a 14-month U.S. tour. I picked up a record of theirs and loved their hard rocking style.

I wrote that I’d like to also hear some softer stuff, such as “Angel from Montgomery” cover of John Prine, which they had  played in the back porch concert.

I requested the song from this band and  like all good bands they played it. Not only played it, but recorded it and sent it to me. (I can’t swear to these time sequences, they may have already had this song recorded or plans to record it before I made the request about a month or so ago. But I like to think they fulfilled my request in the  rock and roll tradition.  And, as I have announced, they are coming out with an acoustic album , Eric tells me.

Learn more by going to WPC’s website.

www.whenparticlescollide.com/

To comment  or weigh in on the best ‘Angel’ cover, click the blog title and scroll to the end.

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When Particles Collide — 601

When Particles Collide signed album. I saw them play on Eric’s back porch.

ALBUM : Ecotone/This Town (2016)

I am once again interrupting the order of MVC to play a new album by an up and coming band.

The band is called When Particles Collide and it has an unusual story.

This is a wife and husband duo:  Sasha G. Alcott and Christopher M. Viner.

That’s not what is so unusual, though.  Remember Sonny and Cher,  Captain and Tennille? Well, Sonny, this is no Captain and Tennille,  (just thought I’d Cher.)

What’s unusual is that the couple — although playing locally and touring occasionally off and on from their home state of Maine — decided at the ripe young ages of 40-something to quit their day jobs to tour the country for 14 months. Doing that rock‘n roll thing. When I say country, I mean country. Their Unstoppable Tour, after dozens of dates in the great Midwest and beyond,  WPC still has plenty more dates planned, ranging from West Virginia to Florida.

My ‘old man’s league’ basketball buddy Eric Stockman is a friend of the band and I listened to them play live on his porch here in the Birmingham metro area a few months back. I initially plannedto put my autographed record into my pile and do a post when the W’s rolled around on MVC.  But  given the fact that they are currently on tour, I just decided I’d go ahead and do this post.

Photo Credit: David Faynor

They were great in their porch concert. A good friend bought me their album which Sasha and Chris graciously signed.

It’s a scorcher with stinging guitars and strong vocals from  Sasha reminiscent of Heart’s Ann Wilson or Pat Benatar  to reach back a ways for a reference. Way more Joan Jett and not at all Captain and Tennille. There’s also a Talking Heads, Suburbs artsy funky thing about them. (Suburbs, wow, pulled that one from some ninja brain cell that’s fighting  off rogue proteins.)

I  like the album a lot but I did miss one thing from the porch concert and that was a little softer sound such as when they did a gorgeous cover of John Prine’s  ‘Angel From Montgomery.’

Coincidentally, I am also pleased to announce that they will be releasing, according to Stockman, an acoustic album. Can’t wait. And while I still have the mic, I’d request ‘Angel.’ And if the duo would consider a suggestion for  a cool funky song befitting Sasha’s vocal abilities, I’d love to hear her tackle Sly Stone’s ‘If You Want Me  to Stay.’

Meanwhile, listen to this rocker:

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My Top 5 Christmas Albums I’d take to desert island

Cover of Roche’s Christmas album.

 

I have said here before I have a Christmas playlist on my iPod numbering 625 songs. I call it my Christmas list but it also includes songs about Hannukah, Santa Claus, Snow, Grandma’s tragic reindeer story. That kind of thing.

Holiday songs they are, if I must use a phrase that sets off a silly argument.

I was going to give you another random playlist of those songs on the eve of Christmas Day. But I had a better non-original idea. If you were going to be stuck on a deserted island with only Christmas/Holiday music for three months, which five albums would you take?

Here are my 5, most of which I don’t have on vinyl (so this won’t go so far toward my countdown.) I do have them on my iPod and CDs.

No. 1: ‘Blue Yule.’  (1991)

On the island you are going to need the blues to get you to that place of despair where you really don’t care anymore. Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson will get you there. To ease out of that pit of despair and avoid serious withdrawal, you might need to transition with Elvis’ ‘Blue Christmas’ for a foot back into the real world and the fun and schlock of Jingle Bell Rock.

 

No. 2 Sufjan Stevens ‘Songs for Christmas (2006)

Five ep cd’s in one package, from this indie rock genius. On your island this will put the spirit of God back in you. Banjos on hymns sounds like a bad idea but Stevens is the only guy who can make a banjo sound forlorn. And he can raise his Ebenezer with the best. Watch out for his second package of Christmas  songs, it gets even weirder — a little too much so. Get this one first.

No. 3  The Roches “We Three Kings.” (1990)

These three sisters from New Jersey kill it with harmonies. And I love when their Jersey accents kick in or, perhaps, sneak out. Most underrated Christmas album ever. Sustenance on the island.

No. 4  Phil Spector ‘A Christmas Gift for You’ or reissue “Phil Spector’s Christmas Album’ (1963, Original date)

Phil Spector’s records featuring  girl groups and happy/sad songs as deep as the wax on an old hot rod, shallow but deeper than you’d think.  This is on most critics best Christmas album lists. Spector’s ‘wall of sound’ was much emulated and he became one of the most sought after producers in the world. Now, he resides behind a wall of prison.

 

No. 5 George Winston – December (1982)

Hey you have to sleep on this island, ,right? May as well be to the sound of an absolute professional tickling the ivories of  a Steinway. Beautiful music that makes you feel snuggly cold and warm at the same time.

NOTES: I have a Jimi Hendrix CD where he does Little Drummer Boy, among other songs and, of course, he could not restrain himself from using four dimensions of feedback. I also have a red hot CD of a punky group  called the Fleshtones  playing Christmas music. Other discs that deserve honorable mention include Festival of Lights (various), Best of  Cool Yule (various) j Before and After Christmas (Love Tractor), Go Tell it on the Mountain (The Blind Boys of Alabama), The Best of Cool Yule (various), Christmas in Swing Time (Harry Allen, Christmas, Christmas (Bruce Cockburn) and  Caravan (Squirrel Nut Zippers).

Unleashing the Beast: Christmas music

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Are You Random Orientation or Straight Playlist?

About two weeks ago I wrote a post entitled ‘Who Am I.’

It was loosely about a Lewy Body dementia patient, me, getting a little existential.

There’s an anecdote that comes out of writing that blog post that blows me away and I want to share it.

It probably won’t blow you away, dear readers, because it was a kind of you-had-to-be-there moment.

But anyway, the anecdote will allow me to raise the question: Are you a ‘random shuffle’ person? Or a ‘straight playlist’ person?

OK here comes the anecdote: It was a weekend day and I had a chore. Do laundry and clean up my messy room. I brought my 120GB iPod to play to  make the work go easier. I turned it on to Shuffle all songs. That would be a random shuffle of about 7,500 songs.

Midway through this cleaning escapade I got an idea. One of the things I’ve been thinking a lot about since being diagnosed with a fatal degenerative brain disease is my mortality, the meaning of life and, frankly, ‘Who Am I.’

So idea in mind, I went downstairs to write, leaving the music, the iPod playing my 7,500 songs at random.

An hour, maybe two, slips by as I write on my laptop. Eventually I meander upstairs and I was stopped dead in my tracks. I instantly knew this song just now coming out of my iPod, which as you remember I had left on and  had been randomly shuffling for the better course of two hours.

I immediately knew the guitar-organ opening with drum build-up and the group in unison asking a question.

The song: Who Are You?

Who Are You? That well-known song by the Who.

After catching my breath, I looked around to see if someone was pranking me.

What are the odds? I thought (maybe 7,500 to 1?) that that song would be playing.  As I walked in after writing a post called Who Am I? I was actually a little shaken.

I ran and told my daughter and her friend who were in the house. But I don’t think they had the same reaction, nor friends and colleagues of mine. Coincidence they say. Funny, how these coincidences are following me around though.

So that brings me to the question about a facet of who you are? Random shuffle or straight playlist.

I’m definitely a random shuffle guy. When they invented digital music and I could load up my jukebox of CDs (about 100 at least). I put it on shuffle.

My wife complained as soon as she figured out that the nice James Taylor song ‘Fire and Rain,’ now playing, might be followed by a Rancid song (yes, Rancid, those Bay Area punksters). I liked the randomness, the expectation of anything can come next.

Catherine didn’t like so much. I never peeked at my presents on Christmas. Catherine did (and still does).

I like starting on a hike not knowing where we’ll end up.

I like taking multi-day road trips with absolutely no plans on how far I’ll get.

My grandfather, a career Army guy, had the mileage all figured out (pre-GPS) and made reservations to make sure he and grandmother had a place to stay.

I can’t tell you how many times Catherine and I would stop at motels with no vacancy and have to keep going. But that was the fun. Where will we end up?

She tolerated me and still does most of the time.

Now these orientations can be taken to the extreme, so I think we are combinations of the two but lean one way or another, some more than others.

A totally random person would presumably never get anywhere on time. (Although, I haven’t worn a watch in 50 years, and I’m not usually late). I think my random orientation has served me well as a journalist over the years. Everyday is something new at a newspaper or online news operation where I worked and still work at AL.com. <NOTE: Retired in 2019>

Reporters know that the Supreme Being laughs when we make plans. You  might think you are going to spend the day researching and writing this big story, only to get tapped on the shoulder to cover a breaking story like a tornado, or major court ruling or whatever.

In fact ‘whatever’ was coined by random folks.

The nature of this blog, www.myvinylcountdown.com is a mix between random and playlist. I am reviewing on this site my 678 vinyl records in alphabetical order. Now that sounds tidy, right? Well it has the same effect  as random play on the iPod. For example, I open the blog with African music, King Sunni Ade, which is followed by hard rockers Aerosmith.

I have a huge 625-song Christmas playlist in my iPod that, as my family is well aware, I have insisted on playing on shuffle for years and years (but only after Thanksgiving.)

“But Dad, I want to hear the rest of that Christina Aguilera Christmas album, I hate what’s on,’’ a daughter would say.

“Just wait sweetie, this Love Tractor track will be over in a minute and I can’t wait to see what will be next, can you?” I say, blocking their hands from the iPod controls with my arms in a style I learned watching Karate Kid (wax on wax off).

I usually won because I could fend them off just long enough for the next track and it would be the Hanson’s Christmas collection.

Saved once again to fight another day. For random play.

For another shuffled deck click here.