snadblog

Most mornings, I wake up with a completely random song stuck in my head. It can be any category, from modern to old, country to rock, children’s song to commercial jingle. It’s like there’s a little jukebox in my head that spits out a random tune every morning for my enjoyment. Sometimes it’s not even a whole song, but just a snippet that I remember. In those cases, I usually end up singing the few words in the shower over and over, trying to work backwards until I figure out the song, or at least the chorus. Then there are the times when I remember the tune but not the words, and those are even more challenging to work out (like “Galveston” from a few months back… that one took all day).

Well, today I woke up with this little partial diddy running through my head:

“Something something something, something something something, plate comes back, oh Hungry Jack!”

I thought it was from a commercial, but it sounded so silly in my head that I wasn’t sure if I had made it up or not. I couldn’t work it out on my own while getting ready this morning, but of course it was still stuck in my head when I sat at my computer.

Then the power of the Internet saved me and I found out here that it was indeed a commercial, from 1977. The full verse goes like this:

“Hungry! Hungry Jack! They gobble ‘em up and the plate comes back for Hungry Jack!”

I am pretty amazed that I remembered this song from 1977… when I was five… THIRTY ONE YEARS AGO. My brain’s jukebox has some heavy-duty storage capacity!

The only problem is that now I really want some biscuits :)

The first time I saw Guitar Hero in action, it was at a party and it was late and I was tired. I was considering going home, but then I figured I’d take a turn at the axe before I left. For the first song, I had to make myself forget how to play an actual guitar and play this one instead. For the second song, I had to get a feel for the rhythm of the game. By the third song, I was hooked. Three hours later I had to drag myself away to go home.

At another party two Saturdays ago (this time at my house), Brian and Leslie brought their guitars along and I was right there, rocking out with the three-year-olds and adults alike. When Brian left his guitar there for the night, I got up the next morning to play as much as I could before he came to pick it up. The next day, I ordered my own Guitar Hero game.

And I don’t even have a wii to play it on!

My dad does, though. And I figure I can take my game over there whenever I want to play. Plus, with Brian moving away, we needed a second guitar in the crowd, so we’ll be all set.

The bonus is that I called my Dad to tell him I’d be coming over soon to play and he reminded me that his main TV is broken right now, and his wii is sitting unused on a shelf. So I went yesterday and picked up the whole system and brought it home with me. My Guitar Hero should be arriving via UPS today, and then I’ll be jamming tonight.

Here’s hoping the part for Dad’s TV stays backordered for a long time…

When it comes to music, I’ve always been a fan of the Oldies — classic rock and roll from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. I even love that bubble-gum pop, and I’ve often wished that we had a good oldies radio station here in town.

So imagine my delight when I ate dinner at the new The Pub restaurant this week and noticed that all the music playing in the background was the old stuff that I loved. Most of my friends had never even heard of the songs that were playing, but I was singing along to them all. When I realized I was in an “authentic” British pub, I made the connection that this particular collection of music was from the era of the “British Invasion”.

I had heard of the British Invasion before, and knew that it was the result of an influx of rock-and-roll bands from Britain, who found a huge following in America in the 60s (and back home as well). I’ve always been notoriously bad at remembering artists names, though, so I never realized that so many of the songs I loved were from British bands. But that day, it clicked.

I went looking for a way to contact The Pub to see if the music they’d played was an available CD, or if they could point me to wherever they got their music. I sent an e-mail to their general contact address and received a very prompt and thorough reply from the manager himself. He explained to me that they use a music service and I can’t get a copy of their exact playlist. He went above and beyond, though, when he told me about the research he’d done on my behalf, and very nicely pointed me towards various CD collections at Target and Amazon, and assured me that there were many affordable and good options available to me for a nice British Invasion collection.

I looked at Amazon’s choices, and I was blown away. The first hit I found was for a 3-CD set (The British Beat: Best of the ’60s) and I knew and loved almost every song on there. I had no idea that most of those songs were from the British Invasion era, but I was thrilled to see them all in one collection. I quickly added it to my Wishlist and I’ll probably get it the next time I place an order. Unless someone buys it for me first! :)

How did I never put this together before? I could’ve been singing along in my car for ages!!

I’ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music lately. One song in particular has jumped out at me this year. It’s called “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”. I quite like the song in general, but one of the verses strikes me as very odd. Here are the lyrics:

There’ll be parties for hosting,
marshmallows for toasting,
and caroling out in the snow…
There’ll be scary ghost stories
and tales of the glories
of Christmases long, long ago…

Toasting marshmallows? Scary ghost stories? On Christmas??

I’ve never in my whole life heard of doing either of these things on Christmas. They are pretty much 100% camping activities in my book.

I just don’t get it.