One Track Summer #17: Cliff's Girlfriend

Cheers is probably my all time favourite sitcom, and the annoying, know-it-all postman Cliff Clavin, played by John Ratzenberger, is one of my favourite characters.

If you ever watched Cheers, you may remember that Cliff had a recurring on-again, off-again romance with a fellow postal worker,  Margaret "Maggie" O'Keefe. Well, I just discovered that the actress who played Maggie was actually Annie Golden, lead singer of New York new wave band The Shirts. 

(That's a great album cover.)

Here's Annie / Maggie a few years before she met Cliff...

Snapshots #461: Dance Records

Shall we dance?

15. Pretty Woman Ltd.

Julia (Roberts) and company.

Julia & Company - Breakin' Down (Sugar Samba)

14. I'm guessing it's a Time Out.

Chocolate Watchband - Uncle Morris

13. Cursed by their own trendiness.

The Tragically Hip - Flamenco

12. Carbon Copies.

CCs.

CCS - Tap Turns On The Water

11. Redding hates jazz - what a performance!

Otis Redding, Johnny Hates Jazz.

The Johnny Otis Show - Willie & The Hand Jive

10. Lead, Pot, Under...

Leadbelly, pot belly, underbelly...

Belly - White Belly

9. Building made out of trumpets.

Brass Construction - Ha Cha Cha (Funktion)

8. Mostly conducted via Tinder.

Modern Romance - Everybody Salsa

7. Gone for a Burton over his miniature mountain.

Richard Burton, his small mountain is a hill.

Richard Myhill - It Takes Two To Tango

6. Mark E. Smith wrote most of them, Man.

The Fall sang How I Wrote Elastic Man.

Elastica - Line Up

5. Athletic gear used by fish when working out.

Jim Gilstrap - Swing Your Daddy

4. Signing on.

UB40 - Don't Break My Heart

3. Devours golden skin... then puts a bloodsucker on a male sheep. 

Tan-eater. Ti(c)k - a ram.

Tanita Tikaram - Twist In My Sobriety

2. High, Hay, Hot...

Highwire, haywire, hotwire...

Wire - Three Girl Rhumba

1. Keeping up with the Coroner.

Keeping up with the Jones's... meets Quincy ME.

Quincy Jones - Soul Bossa Nova

Shall we dance again next Saturday?

Saturday Snapshots #461

Here are today's headlines...

Saturday Snapshots returns in a blaze of glory!

BONG!

The race is on to identify the people pictured below!

BONG!

Police try desperately to find a link between their crimes!

BONG!

I thought about holding off today's Snapshots until Nine O'Clock... but I couldn't have handled the uproar.

15. Pretty Woman Ltd.

14. I'm guessing it's a Time Out.

13. Cursed by their own trendiness.

12. Carbon Copies.

11. Redding hates jazz - what a performance!

10. Lead, Pot, Under...

9. Building made out of trumpets.

8. Mostly conducted via Tinder.

7. Gone for a Burton over his miniature mountain.

6. Mark E. Smith wrote most of them, Man.

5. Athletic gear used by fish when working out.

4. Signing on.

3. Devours golden skin... then puts a bloodsucker on a male sheep. 

2. High, Hay, Hot...

1. Keeping up with the Coroner.

Tune in tomorrow morning for all the hits and headlines.

One Track Summer #16: DMC

I'm reading a collection of true stories compiled by The Moth, a non-profit storytelling group from the US. Some of them are very good, some of them are rather annoying, some of them are full of self-aggrandizing bullshit... but I guess that's a pretty accurate representation of the human race.

One of the stand out stories for me came from Darryl McDaniels, aka the DMC of Run DMC. He tells how at the height of his fame, he found himself suffering from chronic depression, and the only thing that made him feel even slightly better was the music of Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan. He met her at a showbiz party and behaved like an embarrassed schoolkid, but she recognised him, knew his music, and that made him like her even more. After a while, he discovered the source of his depression, after learning that he was adopted and he had no idea where he really came from. That's when he had the idea of recording a song about how it feels to find out your parents aren't your birth parents, basing it on the old Harry Chapin tune Cat's In The Cradle... and what he really, really wanted was for Sarah McLachlan to sing the chorus. So he called her up and she agreed, inviting him out to her home to record it. And that's when she told him that she was an adopted child too.

DMC tells the story a lot better than that, obviously, but it was a really sweet tale, and the last thing I expected from one of the godfathers of hip hop.

The United Kingdom Of Song #46: Dudley

For our annual Boys' Only Holiday this year, Sam and I visited the West Midlands, spending a lot of time in Dudley, which had more to offer than just the brush fire that got us kicked out of our hotel.

Dudley Castle & Zoo was much more impressive than I'd expected - to be fair, I thought it would be a castle with a few animals outside, but actually the zoo offered a greater range of wildlife than anywhere this side of Chester - lions, tigers, giraffes, wolverines, monkeys... and Sam's favourite, the snow leopards.

I always visit zoos with a heavy heart. I understand the conservation and protection of endangered species, and I've no doubt that they do good work in that regard... but it always makes me sad to see wild animals caged, or away from their natural home.

Equally, if not more impressive - and without the added layer of guilt - was the Black Country Living Museum next door, a real "step back in time" kind of place...

...well, you get the idea. Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

The Jesus Lizard - Then Comes Dudley

Dave Dudley - Six Days On The Road