Teachers love their Awareness Days' Calendar. Black History
Month. World Environment Day. International Literacy Day. There’s always
something to build a lesson on if you go searching.
Along the way, I’ve come across some truly ridiculous
awareness days… and so… you can guess the rest.
What better day to start than January 16th?
It's National
Nothing Day!
National Nothing Day is an "un-event" created in
1972 by newspaper columnist Harold Pullman Coffin and observed in the United
States annually on January 16 since 1973.
Its aim is “to provide Americans with one National Day when
they can just sit without celebrating, observing or honouring anything”.
We need this day in the UK too!
Here are some sweets nothings to help us celebrate….
In the spirit of getting other people to write my posts for
me, here’s C to help us ponder why we don’t / can’t laugh the way we did when
we were young…
I'm not much of a laugh-out-loud type of person! - but oh I
miss those helpless giggles that make your eyes water and your stomach ache and
definitely seem to have disappeared with age - though very occasionally they do
appear and when they do it feels so SO good. It's always the odd things that do
that, abstract things somehow that tickle me, so humour in songs can fall a bit
short and I do think it's a bit of an acquired taste. Having said that, your
post straight away reminded me of one humour song that I've liked since first
hearing it - sure you know it... From 1993 but (of course) still very much
relevant today…
Ah yes, I had that one on CD single, C. I was a big fan of
Dennis Leary back when he used to do those short, angry MTV videos. It was a
more mainstream version of what Bill Hicks was doing, and it appealed to my
Angry Young Man phase back in the early 90s.
I decided to do a bit of research into why I can’t laugh at
things like I used to, and I found an article in The
New York Post that says we start to lose our sense of humour at age 23! So
I reckon it’s long gone for most of us now.
Childhood is often carefree. Adulthood often isn’t. The
average 4-year-old, the authors write, laughs as many as 300 times a day. The
average 40-year-old will take two and a half months to log that many
chuckles.
Apparently having a job is one of the main reasons we stop
laughing so much. That, and all the added responsibilities of adulthood –
mortgage, bills, children et al.
The good news is, if we live long enough (and live far
enough into our retirement years to overcome the trauma of adulthood), this
chart suggests our ability to laugh will return…
I dunno… I look at my Mum. She doesn’t have a lot to laugh
about these days. Confined to the house, eyesight almost gone, scared to leave
her chair in case she has another fall, carers coming in to get her up in the
morning and put her to bed at night… as she approaches 100, I’m not sure she’s
laughing the way she did when she was 25. That said, my Mum’s always had a good
sense of humour, and the fact that she still has it at 97, despite all she has
to cope with… I think that’s amazing. I doubt I’ll be in such good spirits if
I’m lucky enough to live that long.
As the title of this series reminds us, laughter is great
for our mental health. Can we get it back into our lives? The investigation
continues…
Maybe there's also some mileage in wondering why we find offensive words so amusing. And pondering the difference between asshole and arsehole... is one funnier than the other? Or does it entirely depend on context?
Over at The Vinyl
Villain, JC recently started a series about the legendary C86 cassette, and
very entertaining I’m sure it will be. In response, I thought I’d look at a CD
compilation that has proven very popular here at Top Ten Towers… SAMCD 108.
A little background for those of you who haven’t been paying
attention…
Since he was very small, I have been compiling in-car CD
compilations to be played whenever I’m driving my son to school / football /
holidays / social engagements etc. The idea has always been to expose him to
the widest range of pop music possible – not just my favourites. We started
with all the big, kid-friendly singalong songs (The Monkees, Beach Boys, Sweet
Caroline) but as time as has gone these CDs have become more and more diverse.
As with any good compilation, I like to mix big tunes with forgotten gems, and
crash through the genres like I’m in a mad HMV trolley dash. I’ve been doing
this since Sam was a baby and I’m just putting the finishing touches onto SAMCD
176. When we get fed up of the latest disc, it goes in a folder with all the
old ones, and as well as introducing new CDs every few weeks, we also work our
way through the back catalogue in numerical order.
For months now, Sam has been very excited about hearing CD
108 again. I’ve insisted we work our way towards it – 101, 102, 103, etc – but
he’s kept wanting to jump ahead. CD 108 was the best in his memory. To be
honest, I think he’d built it up so much that when we did finally listen to it
again, it probably wasn’t as good as he remembered… but he claims it lived up
to his expectations, and who am I to call my son a liar. (But he’s 12 going on
16 now… lying to your parents is becoming a daily occurrence, I’m sure.)
To cut a long story ever-so-slightly shorter then, here’s a
new series in which I work my way through the tracks on SAM CD 108 and try to
work out why this particular set of tunes was so memorable. It’s just another
excuse to write about songs.
Track 1: The Cure – Friday I’m In Love
Well, you’ve got to start with a belter, haven’t you? I’m
frankly shocked that I managed to do 107 CDs before this one and not include
Friday I’m In Love. But there’s a randomness to my selection process and it’ll
often depend on what I’ve heard on the radio or seen on TV or featured on the
blog as “What’s the biggest hit by this artist?” The Cure will have featured on
Sam’s CDs prior to this – I have got a spreadsheet somewhere, but it’s not to
hand. Still, it’s hard to believe I got this far without thinking of The Cure’s
poppiest radio hit.
So far then, this CD is shaping up to be a belter.
Track 2: Brad Paisley – Last Time For Everything
And though you might not think it, this one maintains the
high standard… and not just because it features David Hasslehoff in the video.
I find myself shocked again though – because a quick glance
at the streaming service, expecting this to be one of the most-streamed Brad
Paisley tunes, reveals that it’s actually way down the list. What’s wrong with
people? I’m a huge fan of Brad’s brand of cheerful, tongue-in-cheek
Stetson-and-a-smile country, and I reckon this is without doubt his finest
hour. It’s a song that works like a big reassuring hug, a song that says, ‘Hey,
we’re all growing older, and growing older is about saying goodbye to things we
love… and the only consolation that I can offer is that we’re all in it
together’. That might sound cheesy, but this sort of music is inherently
cheesy… it doesn’t mean it can’t bring a tear to your eye (as this song
invariably does) if you put your cynicism up on the shelf for a while.
I didn’t want Sam to grow up with a bias against country
music, and songs like this have helped him appreciate it in a way most of the
kids I went to school with never could. He’s even introduced me to a couple of
cool country-crossover songs in recent years, like Old Town Road by
Lil Nas X (with Billy Ray Cyrus!) and A Bar Song (Tipsy)
by Shaboozey. Job done.
Track 3: Stevie Wonder - Masterblaster (Jammin’)
Stevie in the 70s is, of course, untouchable, and his tribute to Bob Marley is another stone cold classic… but hold up, this is from 1980? When did it all start going downhill? It’s OK, I reckon you can go as far as 1982. And even after that song, you know, the “Is she in a coma?” one, there’s Part-Time Lover, which is a late era belter. After that… I dunno, you tell me? Did Stevie Wonder do anything else worth listening to after 1985? I don’t want to discriminate.
Unless you tell me otherwise, Sam’s knowledge of Stevie Wonder will finish then.
Personally, I don’t think CD108 maintains the standard set
by the first three tracks… but let’s be honest, what compilation does? You
always front-load the juicy stuff, just to get people to give it a shot.
Here are some songs sung by Pilots... but which ones would you fly with?
PILOT #1
We kick off today in the glorious year of 1972 with a Proggy
Pilot, formed in London, though the guitarist and lead singer were American and
the bassist was a Kiwi. The other two members were also in Rod Stewart’s
backing band.
When former Bay City Rollers “substitutes” David Paton &
Billy Lyall got sick of sitting on the bench in 1973, they formed Pilot… flying
high for a couple of years before their plane encountered engine difficulties.
Lyall went solo, with Phil Collins on drums… and I guess he missed again.
Because it’s January, I’m going to have to choose the tune
below – sorry, George. I know it'll be the wrong one.
Took me a while to track this one down. The songwriter here
is one J. Michael Nuccio, later known as Michael James, who also appeared to
have led the bands Omaha Pilot, Pilot and Pilot III. This, from 1971, is the
one that concerns us today…
LA hard rock Pilot from 1980 – I couldn’t find a picture,
but I love the typewritten record sleeve. Reminds me of some of my first zines
back in the mid-80s.
Although the tube of you confuses these guys with the
Russian Pilot above (not the Russian Pilot below), the Og of Discs informs me
that they’re actually from Kazakhstan in 2003. They look and sound very
different to the Russkies.
Next we have a Pilot who takes an E… probably the last thing
you want from your Jet 2 Holiday. Stuart Cullen is from Somerset and spent most
of the 90s and 00s releasing “intelligent dance music” before shifting focus to
folk and bluegrass in the mid 2010s. Obviously I chose one of his latter
efforts.
