My A to Z Themes in the past have covered a range of topics and for 2025 the theme is a random assemblage of things that are on my mind--or that just pop into my mind. Whatever! Let's just say I'll be "Tossing It Out" for your entertainment or however it is you perceive these things.
"Vacation" is over. Well, my hiatus is done for now as I come back to the blogging scene. Now it's back to work. And I'll kick things off with music...
Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bandsisthe blogging event started byFar Away Seriesand now hosted byStMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. This event happens each month on the 15th and on some there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month. My blog is one of those with a second Battle The premise is simple: Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it. Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.
Work Songs from the Summer of '66
Let's go back to my reflections on the summer of '66 and the hit music I was hearing back then on the Knoxville Tennessee top ten station and through new friends I was meeting as I acclimated to my new environment.
In honor of Labor Day I'm going to honor two songs that I liked pretty well and they always reminded me of specific jobs. Lee Dorsey's song is pretty obviously work inspired. However some of you might find The Capitol's "Cool Jerk" a stretch as far as work goes. But when I first heard it it made me think of a soda jerk (a popular cool job back in the day) so that was the image bopping around in my head. Of course there was the dance crazes back then and the jerk was one. The song makes me want to do the jerk or something and that's cool.
Hey! This ain't work. It's fun. You're supposed to vote on one of these songs. Which one do you prefer? Battles are no fun without you the reader participating. Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind. You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.
Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours. I don't know if anyone else will be doing a Battle this time around, but you can still check out these sites. Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts: StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands 'Curious as a Cathy' Sound of One Hand Typing
September 3 question - What are your thoughts on using AI, such as GPChat, Raptor, and others with your writing? Would you use it for research, storybible, or creating outlines\beats?
Since I haven't had that much experience with using the AI stuff much at all, I'm not much of one to add anything about what I've done. I've played around with those trial song writing generators and it's really creepy how it can come up with some pretty good songs that incorporate all my absurd inputs. It sounds like a lot of the modern music I hear. Not sure I like what's going on, but maybe it's what it is for now. I think a lot of that "writing" will start getting pretty stale. A lot more stale than it is now.
Talk about shirking work on Labor Day. AI offers a lot of potential for shortcuts. But is it worth it in the long run? Time will tell I guess.
Don't you think a lot of fun of writing is in doing the hard stuff like research and such? I know I can end up going down a lot of rabbit hole chases when I do research--what about you?
It's all in the title of this post so I guess you might be able to see where I'm going here. If you know, you know and whatever else. Sit back and enjoy...
Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bandsisthe blogging event started byFar Away Seriesand now hosted byStMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. This event happens each month on the 15th and on some there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month. My blog is one of those with a second Battle excepting over these summer months. The premise is simple: Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it. Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.
It's almost like a cliché I guess. It's the first song I thought of when I figured I'd take a blogging break. I do need one I think. Or what I really need is to figure out where I go next with my blog. Let me think on this awhile and you can tell us which version of this song you like best. Thanks for playing along!
Time to Vote! This is my last Battle for the summer so please help make it a good one. You're supposed to vote on one of these song versions. Which one do you prefer? Battles are no fun without you the reader participating. Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind. You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.
Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours. I don't know if anyone else will be doing a Battle this time around, but you can still check out these sites. Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts: StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands 'Curious as a Cathy' Sound of One Hand Typing
July 2 question - Is there a genre you haven't tried writing in yet that you really want to try? If so, do you plan on trying it?
I've done a lot of writing experiments in younger days. I don't know that I've missed out on much. Maybe mysteries of some sort. I've never been too effective at writing such things, but I've wanted to try someday. Probably won't, but who knows. Perhaps one day if I get really bored and become infused with inspiration. You never do know.
Did you ever hear a haunting song from a distance that seemed dreamlike, but strangely familiar? I've often had that sensation. I think that's one of the things that can make music so special for many of us and filled with so many memories. Here's a couple of songs that wove their ways through my summer of 1966...
Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bandsisthe blogging event started byFar Away Seriesand now hosted byStMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. This event happens each month on the 15th and on some there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month. My blog is one of those with a second Battle excepting over these summer months. The premise is simple: Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it. Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.
Hits from '66
When I moved to Tennessee in the summer of 1966 I had already started immersing myself in popular music of the day. Only vaguely familiar with a few crossover country hits, I was no fan of that twangy sound of country. As I had done in Indiana keeping up with the current songs on Chicago's WLS radio station, I was now listening to music on Knoxville's WNOX to see what the next interesting song would be.
Some songs were monsters that couldn't be ignored because of their dominance on the radio waves, while others lingered enough to become locked in my memory banks. In this Battle I present two different country hits that were remade for the rock and roll audience. At the time the songs seemed new to me though I had undoubtedly heard them many times over the years. It's just that I essentially was rather dismissive of the country genre back then and couldn't tell you much about it other than there were a few good songs that I had liked over the years, but they somehow didn't seem so country to me perhaps. Bottom line is that I was young and still musically uneducated to a great extent.
In my fifteenth summer I was spending many of my idle hours listening to music over my little transistor radio that by audiophile standards was not much at all, but to me was enough to fire up my musical imagination and curiosity. I was anxious to hear the next new thing while hoping to keep hearing favorites being repeated throughout the day into the late night.
Here are two of my favorites of that summer. You likely know both songs well so I won't even mention who were the artists who originally performed the songs or those who had subsequent hits with the songs--both have had several covers done.
These are the covers from 1966 and personally I think both covers are the best ever for either song.
Time to Vote! Get your kicks on route 66 or from the summer of '66. You're supposed to vote on one of these songs. Which one do you prefer? Battles are no fun without you the reader participating. Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind. You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.
Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours. I don't know if anyone else will be doing a Battle this time around, but you can still check out these sites. Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts: StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands 'Curious as a Cathy' Sound of One Hand Typing
