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Sorry for missing the usual Friday post. Between a class during the day on Friday, and hanging with lucifyr for the past day, it's been pretty busy. Some details about our fun times may follow tomorrow, but for now, here's your better-late-than-never Friday Random 10:
Patty Griffin – Stay on the Ride
Alicia Keys – Heartburn
Will Downing – Sorry I
Mint Condition – So Fine
Suzanne Vega – As You Are Now
Janet Jackson – Truly
Mariah Carey – I Wish You Well
Adele – Right As Rain
Frente! – No Time
Roberta Flack – Killing Me Softly (Soul Solution Club Mix)

And for the LOLcats, we'll take a week away from the humor, because this one was just too darned cute to not use.

more cat pictures

Inspired by jojodo, this history of house group Ten City is brought to you by Wikipedia...

Ten City was a Chicago, Illinois based dance-pop/house music trio who enjoyed a number of club hits and Urban radio hits in the eighties and nineties. Lead by vocalist Byron Stingily, the band also included guitarist Herb Lawson, keyboardist Byron Burke and producer Marshall Jefferson. Ten City's debut album, "Foundation" became their only album to crossover, peaking at #49 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Of their ten entries on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, they are best remembered for Byron Burke's "That's the Way Love Is," which hit #1 in 1989 and is still considered to be a House classic today. Stingily, who left the group and became a successful solo artist, rerecorded the song and brought it back to #1 on the dance chart in 1999.

IMHO, "That's the Way Love Is" is the epitome of house music from the late 80s/early 90s. Check it out below the cut.

( The stuff of legends... )

I'm sitting here at the airport in Grand Rapids, waiting for the first leg of my flight to Denver to board. Since I've got a few minutes here, I might as well kick out my always first-class, never coach Friday Random 10!
Ciara – Get In, Fit In
Kylie Minogue – I Should Be So Lucky
David Gray – Now And Always
Toto – Love Has the Power
Oleta Adams – Window of Hope
Leona Lewis – Yesterday
Regina Spektor – Field Below
Fedde le Grand – Put Your Hands Up for Detroit (Club Mix)
Kinleys – She Ain't The Girl For You
Stevie Nicks – Bombay Sapphires

In LOLCats Land, we find that even LOLCats can have regrets (and also listen to Carrie Underwood).

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Several people have told me to avoid reading the comments attached to online news articles, but I can't help myself. Talk about a buzzkill to read the local coverage of Pride, and then read what your fellow residents think about it. They don't even realize it, but their comments are the reason why we need Pride.

Pride isn't about the radical gay agenda, although our plans for world domination will probably come up at some point. It's about being proud of who we are, and uniting a community as diverse as the world we live in for one day (or week) a year. We may have different views on everything, but we all agree that we are living lives that are just as valid as our straight counterparts, and we should not be ashamed of that.

And, after all of that, we need to be honest. We like to party. We like, we like to party!

*cue Vengaboys*

My friend David in Denver sent me the Mary Chapin Carpenter song at the top of this week's Friday Random 10, and I think it's extremely appropriate. Lyrics behind the cut...

( Mary Chapin Carpener - Why Walk When You Can Fly )

Here's the full Friday Random 10:
Mary Chapin Carpenter – Why Walk When You Can Fly
Rissi Palmer – No Air
Dennis Edwards Feat. Siedah Garrett – Don't Look Any Further
Jason Aldean – I Break Everything I Touch
Ricky Martin – Por Arriba, Por Abajo
Alanis Morissette – Hands Clean (iTunes Originals version)
Alison Krauss – Baby Mine
Stroke 9 – Little Black Backpack
Terror Squad – Lean Back (Remix feat Eminem, Mase & Lil' Jon)
Vesta – All On You

In honor of Gay Pride this weekend, here's your weekly dose of LOLCats. You know what they say about a guy that wears a fez...

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It has been a lazy, but entertaining night. Over a three-hour span, I spoke with my ex-boss for an hour, my brother for an hour (his birthday), and my mom and stepdad for an hour. While that's normally a lot more phone talk than I usually prefer, it was great catching up with everyone. Add to that a couple of Torchwood episodes and some Mitchell and Webb hilarity, and it's been a full night. But no Friday would be complete without a Friday Random 10!

Stevie Wonder – Happy Birthday
Cyndi Lauper – She Bop
Pet Shop Boys – Left to My Own Devices
Mary J. Blige – Family Affair (Almighty Mix)
Danity Kane – Ain't Going
Mary J. Blige – Can't Hide From Luv (Live)
Justin Timberlake With Beyoncé – Until The End Of Time (Jason Nevins Extended Mix)
Faith Evans – I Love You
Jagged Edge – he can't love you
Janet Jackson – Island Life

And please don't eat the LOLCat this week. I know how some of you are.

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Today's Friday Random 10 is decidedly gay (at least in my opinion). With gay pride popping up all over, all I can say is "why not"?

Annie Lennox – Cold
Liquid People vs Talk Talk & Talk Talk – It's My Life (Vocal Mix)
Pet Shop Boys – Left to My Own Devices
Blake Lewis – Break Anotha
House of Pain – Jump Around (Jason Nevins 2000 radio edit)
Lee Ann Womack – I hope you dance (Rawling club mix)
George Strait – Famous Last Words of a Fool
3rd Bass – Pop Goes The Weasel
Nelly Furtado – Glow
Martina McBride – Heartaches by the Number

And this, my friends, is LOLCats perfection:

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Folks, it's been a television jamboree this week, with Torchwood and Doctor Who getting some serious airtime in my downtime. In a way, I'm kind of glad they've been saved up, because it's really helped pass the time this week in a quality kind of way.

( My geekdom...let me show you )

We have lessons in our lives that we are meant to learn, and we will continue to make the same mistakes over and over again until we figure that out.

That is all.

I'm about due to do some more CD reviews, so you may get that tonight. No guarantees, though...my friend Doug is coming over at some point, and we will be catching up on either Doctor Who or Battlestar (I'm hoping he goes for BSG).

The Alanis CD remains in my head a day later, although it's mainly the single "Underneath", and not "Incomplete", which I raved about yesterday. As luck would have it, I also got to see her perform the song on Graham Norton, and while her performance was great, the bit of her chatting with Dame Edna (yeah...who knew she was still around?) was hilarious. Alanis is one of those people that I would love to just hang around with. Can someone hook me up with that? Kthx.

What a novel concept...that our journey is not meant to reach a final resting place, but that's it's constantly incomplete. Courtesy of Alanis Morissette, whose Flavor of Entanglement was released today.

One day I'll find relief
I'll be arrived
And I'll be friend to my friends who know how to be friends
One day I'll be at peace
I'll be enlightened and I'll be married with children and maybe adopt
One day I will be healed
I will gather my wounds forge the end of tragic comedy

I have been running so sweaty my whole life
Urgent for a finish line
And I have been missing the rapture this whole time of being forever incomplete

One day my mind will retreat
And I'll know God
And I'll be constantly one with her night dusk and day
One day I'll be secure
Like the women I see on their thirtieth anniversaries

I have been running so sweaty my whole life
Urgent for a finish line
And I have been missing the rapture this whole time of being forever incomplete

Ever unfolding
Ever expanding
Ever adventurous
And torturous
And never done

One day I will speak freely
I'll be less afraid
And measured outside of my poems and lyrics and art
One day I will be faith-filled
I'll be trusting and spacious authentic and grounded and home

I have been running so sweaty my whole life
Urgent for a finish line
And I have been missing the rapture this whole time of being forever incomplete

( Live performance of Incomplete behind the cut )

I have had season 2 of Torchwood waiting for me for quite a while, but up until last night, I had only watched the opener "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang". Great episode that did a nice job of rebooting the team for the upcoming season, although personally, I found James Marsters's character a bit overdone. (No spoilers, btw) The next two episodes, though, showed the best (episode 3) and worst (episode 2) of the show. That's my one problem with shows that use multiple writers; there are such amazingly wild tone swings that you really lose grasp of what you really enjoy in one episode when someone takes it in a completely different direction.

All in all, though, I'm enjoying the second season. And I think I've found my new crush in Anthony Lewis, who plays Tommy in episode 3. I don't think this pic does him justice (he was even shirtless in the episode...rwar), but here's a sample for ya.

Alright...you know you've been jonesing for it all day. Here's your weekly dose of the always healing, never illin' Friday Random 10!

Justin Timberlake – LoveStoned/I Think She Knows (Kaskade Remix)
Tracey Thorn – Grand Canyon
Steps – One For Sorrow
Culture Club – Victims
Gabrielle – I Wish
Stevie Nicks – Stand Back
Ralph Tresvant – Do What I Gotta Do
The Killers – Somebody Told Me
Keith Urban – Tonight I Wanna Cry
Rihanna – Don't Stop The Music (The Wideboys Club Mix)

And in LOLCats news, this new entry could potentially be the end of the modern comedy era. Watch as history is made...

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I am feeling very transitional today. Impressionable, even. So I am going to take advantage of this mood, and bust out one of my favorite mantras:

"I am a leaf on the wind; watch how I soar."

Seems pretty appropriate for this moment in time.

Shrewd businesswoman Kelly has released a new video for No Booty Calls. It's not her best, but it's a smart move to keep the interest going. There must be some money changing hands, because she's now hooked up with iklips.com, and the video is nowhere to be found on YouTube. Check it out and enjoy.

It's an office-bound Friday, but at least I've got my last.fm tunes to keep me occupied. Here's a never boring, always jumpin' Friday Random 10 for y'all!

Róisín Murphy – Let Me Know
Wayne Wonder – No Letting Go
Scissor Sisters – Mary
Amy Grant – Like I Love You
Chris Cagle – My Heart Move On
OneRepublic – Mercy
Kenny Chesney – Fall in Love
Julie Roberts – The Chance
Reba McEntire – Everything That You Want
The Last Goodnight – Pictures of You

For your weekly LOLCats, I give you the number one reason that, while I love to visit Atlanta, I couldn't live there again.

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So as I mentioned in my last music post, Thriller was a "gateway drug" to other forms of R&B that were coming up at the time. I actually remember my Aunt buying me a Rene and Angela tape ("Street Called Desire") as payment for babysitting, and the only reason I knew who they were was because of VH1. It's a pretty well-acknowledged fact that African-American artists almost never got any play on the video channels prior to Michael Jackson, but by the time MTV launched VH1 in 1985, programmers recognized the power of the music, and mixed a heavy dose of R&B into their regular rotation.

I will confess that, while I knew of some of the older R&B music, I didn't go back to find a lot of it until college or later. At the time, I was submerged in everything current (and even stuff not quite popular yet). My obsession with anything remotely coming into the Top 40 led me to find stuff like Five Star, who remain one of my biggest musical crushes. Largely ignored by pop fans in the US, the quintet of brothers and sisters made some noise on the US R&B charts, but they were megastars in the UK and Europe. Some likened them to the UK version of the Jacksons, and with the family writing, performing, producing, choreographing, and even designing outfits, who would argue with that? One of the greatest injustices in my mind at the time was that "Can't Wait Another Minute" peaked at #41. ROBBED!

In my pursuit of all things Five Star, I started buying English pop music magazines, including "Smash Hits". Through this, I began finding other artists like Mel and Kim. "Showing Out" and "Respectable" rocked my world, and proved to be the seeds of domination for Stock, Aiken and Waterman to control my music-buying habits for many years. The first time I saw this video was on a local access cable video show back in Syracuse. Looking at it now, it seems overly cheap, but I thought it was sophisticated at the time.

And then, the floodgates opened. Someone found a way to bring a slightly watered down R&B to the top of the pop charts, and Whitney Houston's career was born.

To be continued...

As I was cruising around the Internet, I came across an article from the Times Online about how the idea of being a "gentleman" is going away. I'd like to think that I am a gentleman, so this interests me. For those who don't have the time to read the whole article, I've captured the list of attributes at the end of the article. I was really glad to see #4 on the list, and I'm actually a big believer in #8, too.

How to be a (modern) gentleman
1. Some things don't change: say please and thank you and ask questions about other people rather than talk about yourself.
2. Be punctual. Tardiness does not make you look important, it turns you into an arrogant incompetent who thinks that his time is more important than other people's.
3. The modern gentleman cares about the planet. Be environmentally aware (but not obnoxious about it).
4. Open doors for people and stand up when they enter a room, but do this for men as well as women. The modern gentleman doesn't treat women like porcelain.
5. Be modest. Bragging is distinctly ungentlemanly.
6. Be a good father. Nothing is less charming than a man who leaves childcare to women.
7. Be honest about wherever you have come from in life. Pretension is spineless.
8. Flirt - with everyone. Good flirting is a form of politeness. Pay compliments and put your companion at ease.
9. Do not phone/text/check your BlackBerry incessantly.
10. Dress tidily. Whatever style you are going for, scruffiness just isn't in.

What is it with me and flying that I become even more emotional, and have to actually shut off the iPod if the wrong song comes on?

Discuss.