Double Meme

Part I: Friday's Feast
Friday's Feast, 15 September 2006.

Appetizer What was the very last song you listened to?
"I Don't Want It All" by Mike + the Mechanics.

Soup What is one company/store/corporation you would recommend that people stay away from?
ANY quick loan/check cashing/payday advance store. They're loan sharks. They're predators who feed on the foolish, the fiscally ignorant, and those who lack self-control. If your credit sucks so bad that you can't get a loan from a bank and you're that desperate to borrow money, borrow it from the Mafia instead. Their repayment terms are much more reasonable.

Salad On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy having your picture made?
Five, maybe. I don't seek out photo ops, but I also don't hide from cameras.

Main Course Besides a bookmark, what is something you've used to keep your place in a book?
A $1 bill signed by Ted Nugent.

Dessert Name a food that you like that most people don't.
Beets. I think pickled red beets are quite tasty. I don't know why a lot of people (including my wife) don't like them.

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Part II: Top 5 On Friday
Top Five on Friday from The Music Memoirs:

Top five songs and/or albums that should have been "hits":

» Isolation by Toto
Toto IV sold millions of copies and won the group a couple of Grammys. Isolation was probably a better album, though it lacked a runaway hit single like "Rosanna" or "Africa". "Stranger In Town" is still one of the group's best songs.

» Between Sunlight and Shadow by Singularity
This 15-part suite is one of the better progressive rock offerings of the past five years. It's not for the masses, but every prog fan should own this CD.

» Wicked Twisted Road by Reckless Kelly
I don't listen to country on the radio because it pretty much all sounds the same: shallow, overproduced, and derivative. Fans of serious country music ought to buy two copies of this CD - one for themselves and one for their local DJ.

» The Catch Me If You Can soundtrack
The unexpectedly hip jazz score from John Williams is worth the cost of admission on its own. The additional pieces by Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, and Frank Sinatra should have sent this disk over the top.

» On Every Street by Dire Straits
Okay, so it would have been almost impossible to match the performance of Brothers in Arms. But this disk should have done better commercially. It's a testament to Mark Knopfler's songwriting that two of the songs on the album ("When It Comes To You" and "The Bug") were Top 40 country hits for other artists.