Friday Nite Video (Eazy E)

I had a great time at the beach these last three weeks but tonight it's time to get busy! Let's go back tonight and visit one of my favorite rappers from back in the day, Eazy E. Eazy was born and grew up in Compton, California, a town that's produced some of the most hard core, edgiest rappers to date. The middle school there is called Whaley (that's my last name) Middle School so maybe I have family over that way. I mean hey, I like rap! Hard cutting rap at that! Eazy started off after dropping out of the tenth grade (not a smart thing to do kids at home) and forming Ruthless Records. He quickly signed on local talents Dr. Dre and Ice Cube and the three of them started the group N.W.A. Soon after three more guys joined the band including my namesake MC Ren. They released their first album in 1987. A year later in 1988 they released the album Straight out of Compton and gangsta rap was born. I myself was never a big fan of N.W.A but I did like Eazy. His style of rap was more singing then it was rapping. His sound was smooth and funky. During N.W.A's run Eazy released a solo album titled Eazy-Duz-It which was a big success and went double platinum which isn't to bad considering most stations wouldn't play it. Even the N.W.A crew helped out with several of the songs on the album including the one I'm showing tonight. Me, being the cool guy I was, (haha) of course had it. It was one of my all time crank up the volume, lower the bass to window shaking levels tapes at that time. N.WA broke up in 1991 amid internal disputes and arguing but Eazy went on to record and release two more solo albums and a couple ex N.W.A members, Ren and DJ Yella, even contributed to them. Unfortunely, Eazy E, whose real name was Eric Wright, passed away in 1995 from complications from the AIDS virus. A tragic ending for anyone to go through. One thing about Eazy though, he loved making music and he never engaged in the "Im better then you and let me write some songs to prove it" mentality that was so big back then with the east coast vs west coast. He's songs were fast, hard and fun. So here we go. From 1988 its Eazy E and We want Eazy. Enjoy!

My Book

I had written earlier on my blog that I was writing a book about my divorce. Originally, I had planned for this to be wrote as a Diary but I'm changing that concept and the style that I'm writing it. It's going to be wrote in chapters and it's gonna be humorous AND serious. I've written quite a bit for it and there's going to be some revamping but I do intend to finish it. I think it will be pretty good. This one particular entry is going to be scrapped but I though you all might enjoy reading it.

Dear Diary,

Well, it's over. Finished, Kaput, done with. I received my court papers today. They were in the mail when I got home from work. Signed by the Judge. Dated November 9th, 2009. Twenty years of dreams, hopes and goals gone, destroyed by the signing of one name on a court document. I suddenly think to myself, is this a date I should remember and observe somehow? My wedding anniversary was September 29th, 1989. Should I also remember my divorce date? If so, how should I observe it? Throw a big party and invite my friends and co-workers? Do I observe it as a day of mourning? Take the day off from work and stay inside the whole day with the curtains drawn and reflect on that twenty year time frame that I was married? Recalling milestones of our time together lest I forget one day? I have to at least write the date down and try to figure it out later. I will never remember that date unless I write it down either. Heck, it took me ten years to memorize my wedding date. I wrote it down and kept it in my wallet until I bought a new wallet and foolishly threw it out as I got rid of all the old papers and business cards in it, thinking I could remember it. Wrong. I used to call my Mother up around the beginning of September to ask her when it was. My Mother! I was embarrassed to do it but I knew that my Mother was what I wasn't. Organized and armed with a address book that listed addresses, birthdays AND wedding anniversaries. That must be a woman thing because the ex was the same way. Big calender hanging up. Almost every box containing some one's birthday or wedding anniversary. She had peoples names on there I had never met and she hadn't seen in years. Relatives scattered all over the country. Deceased peoples birthdays. She calling and telling other family members that if Uncle Lenny was still alive he would be 103 today. Next week would have been granddad Ted's and grandma Ruth's wedding anniversary, 84 years if they were both still with us. I was always amazed at her organization skills. She would mail out a hundred Christmas cards every year, starting to write them in September, moaning and complaining about having to do it, while I sat in the recliner, feeling guilty for not helping but at the same time not really knowing what to say to someone I had never met. She would get her big file out that had every one's personal information in it. Addresses, family members, each one's birthday, their phone numbers, their hobbies, pets names, what kind of car they drove, where the kids went to college, who they married and their kids names if they had any. She also saved all the Christmas cards we had received and made sure she sent them a card back, keeping a ever growing list going and expanding. I would tell her to stop sending them to people we hadn't seen in ten years. People we never ran into or much less talked with but she couldn't do it. Dates were never my thing. Organizational skills even less. I knew my birthday, that was about it. It took me a few years to say the date of hers with confidence, knowing that I had the right date. Was I all that much different then other men? I doubt it. I would bet any amount of money that I could call my dad, brothers, brother-in-laws or any of my male friends that are married and say "Real quickly, whats your wedding anniversary!" and there would be a moment of hesitation. Half of them might even get it wrong. Turn that around and ask the woman and not only can she tell you the date instantly but she can also tell you the exact time the minister pronounced you man and wife, spiel off the guest list, describe the weather that day and what the two of you ate as your first meal as husband and wife. I, as a man, just can't remember dates. So, again, I'm gonna have to get me one of those big calendars and start writing dates and other tidbits of information on it. My old wedding date, my new divorce date, my families birthdays and anniversaries. She's not here to remind me anymore so this is something I have to do on my own. Tomorrow I will try to get one of those big calendars.

Emily Whaley

Easter Sunday 4/24/2011











My Gator Girl!









Striking a pose with Miranda

Friday Nite Video (Jimmy Buffett)

Well, the last two weeks I featured songs to do with the beach and I gotta do just one more. Last Saturday night Jimmy Buffett kicked off his Welcome to Fin Land tour in Tampa Bay and sadly, I missed him. I've seen Jimmy in concert a few times and let me tell ya, if you've never seen him or attended one of his shows then you don't know what your missing. People arrive early by the thousands at the stadium where he happens to be playing and the parking lot is one big happy get together. People set up beaches, tiki bars and everything else you could imagine. People are there in boats, trucks, cars, buses and whatever else they can drag there. Jimmy's music appeals to a lot of people and he got famous by living and singing about the beaches of Florida and the Caribbean. He made Key West what it is today! I talked about Jimmy last year on here and was joking about whether he would have the same appeal with his fans if he was from and singing about somewhere out in the Midwest but the truth is I love the guys music. Those Caribbean steel drums playing along with Jimmy's guitar makes a magical sound. Turn on some Jimmy Buffett and instantly be transported to a white, sandy beach somewhere located "Southeast of Disorder". Island Time is slow time. No where to be time. No where you gotta go time. Old Jimmy's released around 27 albums to date with countless other live and speciality albums. His popular song list is about a mile long and he makes sure he performs ALOT of those popular classics. One of my favorite Buffett songs is the one for tonight's video A Pirate Looks At Forty. That song was off his fifth album titled A1A. It dates all the way back to 1974 so it certainly qualifies as Old Skool. I would be willing to bet that Jimmy has probably played this song thousands of times but guess what, it never gets old. It strikes a cord with us "older fans" as we all at sometime have looked back at our life and wondered what if I had done this or that differently. This particular version I'm showing is the video of Jimmy performing the song for his 2007 album release Live from Anguilla. From 1974 its A Pirate Looks At Forty. Enjoy!

Friday Nite Video (Kenny Chesney)

Hey all. Welcome to Friday Nite at Just My Thoughts. Last week I was fresh home from a multi day stay at the beach and I wanna go back!! I miss it sooo much and I'm gonna be going back soon. Last weeks video I did was Ebony Eyes which was shot on a beach and I figured heck, lets keep the beach theme going for awhile. I really do love a good swim in the Atlantic ocean and the feeling of salt on my skin after the water dries. I love the feel of the warm sand under my feet. I love the hot sun and soaking up its rays. I especially love the Florida beaches. Seems the waters just a little clearer, the sands a little whiter and the suns a little brighter. Bonus points are awarded if your on a Florida beach and there's palm trees growing around you. There's nothing quite so therapeutic either as a lazy day spent at the beach. Somehow you can't help but to feel that all is right with the world when you look out at that vast body of water. But oh yeah, tonight's video! While thinking about songs about the beach or ones that featured the beach one of the first one that came to my mind was Anything But Mine by Kenny Chesney. And if you've been watching these videos on a regular basis then you probably remember me saying I would never do a country music song after I did the one video by George Strait. But come on, Kenny's not really country. I would place him in more of a rock category then I would country. Me and the ex saw him perform in 2008 and what a show did he put on! He brought down the house that night. Anything But Mine has always been one of my favorite songs by him and it's basically about a group of friends that has spent the summer together at the beach and they have one more night there before the dude has to be leaving for Cleveland. Hummm, stay to the beach or go to (or back) to Cleveland? Uh, I'm staying at the beach! No brainer! Cleveland means snow and cold. No thanks! Anything But Mine was on Kenny's ninth album called When The Sun Goes Down and it was released all the way back in 2004. Not exactly enough to qualify it as old skool but hey, its a great song and it's shot on the beach. Here's Anything But Mine. Enjoy!

Commuting

Most everyone that knows me knows I work at Disney. Disney's Animal Kingdom to be exact. I'm fortunate enough to be able to work early morning hours and get off around two to three in the afternoon. Ive been doing this for the last several years. Most mornings it's pitch black as I make my way to work. My average start time is around 6 am so as you can imagine it's pretty dark on my way into work in the morning. It definitely has it advantages. There's very little traffic to worry about. I live exactly 8.4 miles to Animal Kingdom and travel through a whopping 12 traffic lights. It usually takes me about 15 minutes to get to work in the morning at that hour. Cruising in in the mornings I usually hit 4 or 5 of those lights red, the rest I sail through. But yesterday I had a different experience. I was working a overtime shift at Down Town Disney which started at 8:30 am. No big deal I thought to myself. I can actually even sleep in a little I had told myself. Wow! What a difference driving to work a couple hours later can make. First off, I was reporting to Down Town Disney so that adds about 7 miles to my trip. Not much right? BUT, the traffic lights count from my place to DTD jumps up to 23! Almost double what I normally do. And oh yeah, I caught just about everyone of them red. Thankfully, I had woke up the same time I normally do (4 am) and got up and showered and had my morning coffee ( yes, master chef for you long time readers) and was ready to go with plenty of time to spare. Thank goodness! It was a truly unique experience driving to work with the sun up. Normally, all I see of the other cars is head and tail lights. With it being light I could actually see the person driving the car. And since I had so many opportunities to be stopped on the road with other cars I began to take note of my fellow commuters. If I had to guess percentages I would guess about 60 percent of the people were using a cell phone. About half of those 60 percent were texting, the other half were talking. Now Ive always wondered who do these people talk to so early in the morning? Can't it wait till noon or even later in the morning? Do these people leave the house and say I'll call you as soon as I get on the road. And what do you talk about? Do you tell the person how you slept? Describe a dream? Talk about some kind of breakfast fantasy your having? I just don't get it. Maybe their really not even talking to someone but just want to LOOK like they have someone to talk to. Then there was around 30 percent of the drivers having those morning cigarettes. I mean really having their morning smokes. Pulling a hard drag in and leaning their head back as the nicotine started coursing its way though the smokers brain and body. Ahhh, I remember those days quite well. I started remembering back to when I myself was a nicotine fiend, a slave to the weed. The smoker usually gets up and has a smoke to "get their head right". Then you get ready for work, hop in the car and have a good old smoke fest the whole way to work. Gotta get that nicotine level back up to where you feel almost able to function. And then there's that stop at the store to get your one or two packs for the day. I pity those people that still use tobacco with the prices as high as they are and the people KNOWING uncle sam is making soooo much tax revenue off of them and they just keep feeding the machine. But that's a whole other story. Probably 50 percent of the people were drinking something, including me. I drink and love coffee and most people that know me know that I LOVE it. Ive told friends and family that Ive quit a lot of things but when I have to give up the coffee then just put me down. Can't do without it. But not all of those 50 percent of people were drinking coffee. Some had sodas. One guy that looked like he probably topped out at about 600 pounds had one of those mega big gulp plastic cups that hold like 70 some ounces of cold, icy soda. GROSS! No wonder the guy looked like he would need the jaws of life to exit his car. Then there were the road racers. Driving like manaics, cutting in and out of the traffic only to get to the next red light. Like if they got up to 70 mph between red lights they would somehow make better time then all the rest of us. Some people looked dazed, like they hadn't had nearly enough sleep. Some were smiling, looking as if they had gotten a full nights rest. Many were frowning, looking stressed out as they thought about their lives. I wanted to say "Smile! All of us out here driving had woke up this morning, some people weren't that fortunate, and the suns up and we all have jobs that we can drive to and indulge in whatever habits we have. Smoking, drinking caffeine in one form or another, sharing a needless phone conversation with someone. Drive with a somewhat fair degree of road rage, whatever!" The important thing was we had awoke and we were lucky to have a job we could commute too!

Friday Night Video (Rick James and Smokey Robinson)

Wow. What a week its been since last Friday night. I met some old friends from Delaware that now live in Ocala. Another good friend from my school days was down. Met some new friends that were friends of the old school friend at Disney for a day of theme parking. It was a busy week to say the least. I spent some time at the beach with the school friend. Treasure Island, on the gulf coast, to be exact. Treasure Island is like stepping back in time to the days when the beach wasn't just hi-rises and condos. TI is all mom and pop places. Mom and pop motels, restaurants and shops. The prices are inexpensive and affordable. The water is clear, the sand on the beach is pure white. It's Paradise really. Which leads me to tonight's video choice. Ebony Eyes, by the late and great Rick James and Smokey Robinson. Like me and my friend, Rick and Smokey are on a beach. Not by their choice, but stranded. Isolated kind of, like we were. Rick and Smokey are thinking of and singing about their girls back home, not really wanting to be there but taken back by the beauty of the island and the beach, like we were. Whats also really neat about this video is it was the beginning of the mini movie video. Many more videos followed this one where there would be some kind of set up before the song. Remember Thriller? I sure you do. Well Rick and Smokey did it first. And better if you were to ask me but hey, Ive always been a big Rick James fan. My favorite part on this video is at the 5:08 mark when Smokey is singing his part and he tells Rick to tell us how he feels and Rick lets loose with his smooth vocals. Now no doubt when Rick and Smokey are singing about brown skin their talking about their girls back home but what if they meant someone tanned brown from that warm, hot Florida sun? My friend and I both were, that's for sure! Ebony Eyes IS one of my all time favorites by another one of my favorite singers. And Smokeys not to bad either. If you wanna skip the mini movie then click on at minute mark 2:35 but if you've never seen it click the beginning and hang in there. Its builds up the song really good. From 1983, Ebony Eyes. Enjoy!

Friday Nite Video (Til Tuesday)

1985 was a great year. I graduated High School that year. Times were good and we were having fun. We also had great music back then. Great music in every musical category. Rap, rock, pop, dance, whatever it was we had the best. When I started this blog back in 2010 I thought it would be fun to show a video from back in the day and talk about it and tell why I liked it. The very first one appeared in September 2010 and Ive done one every Friday night since. The first one I did was Sure Know Something by Kiss. While you might not like all the songs Ive shown Ive tried to mix it up a little so everyone can relate to at least something on here. And again, its songs Ive listened to and loved over the years. There were also some groups where it would be hard to put them into one distinct category like tonight's group Til Tuesday. Would you classify them as rock? Punk? Pop? So people called them New Wave which I would guess means there's no real category to put them in so lets make one up. However you want to classify them I liked them and their sound. They formed in 1982 and released their debut album titled Voices Carry in 1985 (there's that year again). Aimee Mann was the lead singer and I loved her punk look. The blond spiky hair, the tough girl image, she looked the part. Til Tuesday released three more albums after Voices Carry but none of them equaled the success of their first release. Voices Carry is a strange video because here's tough girl Aimee being controlled by this jerk of a guy when she looks like she could at least hold her own if not take him down completely. She gets her revenge in the end though I guess. Soooo, every now and then expect something out of the ordinary from the distinct music categories and remember, it's all about good music. My head runnth over with good tunes and Friday Nites is just getting started! From 1985 its Til Tuesday and Voices Carry. Enjoy!