My Big Gay Playlist

Santa was good to me this year. A Wii (special thanks to the Mrs and my bro who craftily pulled of a very stealthy campaign to acquire not just one Wii, but two -- one for my parents as well), His Dark Materials set and three iTunes gift cards were amongst the booty.

I did my iTunes shopping, which is completely addictive to me, here is what I ended up with. After looking back on it, I thought this is pretty gay... but oh well, it is what it is...

	Xanadu. Bought the entire album. This is one from my child hood, one of the very first albums I ever owned. Olivia Newton-John has one of the best voices of our time and ELO one of the best bands. Whenever You're Away from Me (Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelley) and All Over the World (ELO) are my favorite tracks.
	Viola - Belinda Carlisle. I love Belinda. She has one of the sexiest voices ever and singing in French just makes her sexier. I had read some time back that she was doing an album of French standards and thought that's really cool. It is rare for me to buy an album that I've never heard anything from, I'm anxious to really listen to this one.
	Into the Wild - Eddie Vedder. Another I purchased solely on the strength of this artist. I'm a huge Perl Jam fan and something about Eddie's voice just moves me. I'm confident that this one will make it into my top ten favorites list.
	Parade - Under the Cherry Moon - Prince. One of Prince's best. Stand this one up with Purple Rain and Around the World in a Day and you have, in my opinion, the pinnacle of his work. They create this sort of trilogy like the Cure's Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers. Mountains is probably my favorite track on this one.
	Moulin Rouge! - Motion Picture Soundtrack. What can I say? I loved every song in this movie. I may be wrong, but I don't think that any of it is even original, but I love the new arrangements, and the way things are combined to synthesize something new. Favorite tracks: Elephant Love Medley and Come What May.
	Blue Jean and Heroes - David Bowie. Just two really great songs by Bowie. Blue Jean takes me back to Junior High School. Thinking about it now, I should have bought Let's Dance instead. I just discovered Heroes recently.
	Hands Clean - Alanis Morissette. This is probably her best. I love the contrast between the music, which is upbeat and bright, and the lyric, which is a story about a relationship, which in typical Alanis style, doesn't work out. "What part of our history's reinvented and under rug swept?"
	Rosealia and Desperately Wanting - Better than Ezra. Back in 1995, Desperately Wanting was my favorite song. Whenever it came on the radio I would crank it up. Musically it is pretty simple, but he sings with such a passion, and the story so human, "I remember running through the wet grass, falling a step behind..."
	Waterfalls - TLC. An absolutely beautiful song. I love the music, particularly the muted trumpet, and the way the sing simply in unison, rather than using complex harmonies. The arrangement stays out of the way of the message, which is great. I could live without the rap though.
	No Scrubs and Unpretty - TLC. The acoustic guitar as No Scrubs opens gets me every time. I never get tired of this one. The contrast in the rhythm of the lyric - very, for lack of a better term, bouncy, and the accompaniment, very smooth, creates this polished sound. I love the island feel of Unpretty, with the electric guitar supporting it, it is a nice combo. The harmonies in the chorus make this song soar, despite unhappy nature of the lyric. I guess the story is actually uplifting as she is actually discovering her own self worth.
	New Song - Howard Jones. Again, one of those nostalgic songs for me. This was on a 12" single I had back in Junior High. I think it was the B side to Things Can Only Get Better and I ended up liking this song more. This guy is a synthesizer maestro and it shows in the bridge, which just soars.
	Don't You Want Me? and Some Kind of Lover - Jody Watley. My big 80ies dance entry. I just love the smooth feeling of this song. Some Kind of Lover is just a fun song. Very typically 80ies.
	Constant Craving - K. D. Lang. Probably the gayest entry here, and one of my all time favorite songs. The accordion as the song opens and in the accompaniment is subtle and creates this haunting feeling. This song gives me goose bumps - every time.
	Tell It to my Heart - Taylor Dayne. More big 80ies dance. The intensity of this song is what gets me. The first five notes state the motive for the song, tell it to my heart, and it is restated over and over. The synthesizer kinds of serves as punctuation for the lyric. Great music here.

81 tracks in all, most of which would have me dancing at Parliament House. What can I say, I love all my music. Now I'm wondering what the rest of my library says about me... besides that I have eclectic tastes.

Sorry, you have the wrong number

I was watching the news last night and caught this story about the mishandling of medical information. I was interested because privacy issues really interest me in this digital world, and as the story unfolded, I grew increasingly disgusted. Here is what happened:

A nursing home was trying to fax some medical records to a doctor. The records turned up on the fax machine in some woman's house. This "good Samaritan" calls the news to tell them about what happened and she gets an interview on the eleven o'clock news. It turns out that the only difference between the phone number of the intended recipient and this woman is the last digit.

The news story talks about the increase of theft of medical identity and the consequences for the person handling the  information - like loosing their job.

So someone may loose their job because they misdialed the phone? The woman who received the fax could take the time to find the news hotline but couldn't take the time to get the name of the sender off the header of the fax and let them know they had the wrong number; or, worst case, look at the caller id on the fax machine and send a fax back letting them know. Shame on you lady.

Shame on the news organization too for running this - I'll use the term loosely -- news. People dial the wrong number all the time, and it isn't news.

Lights are on

The headlights on my car were out. Yep, both of them. So I had to stop by the auto parts store to buy more lights. This is one of those chores I dread, that and buying windshield wipers. I really hate this because you have to go and search through that book that they hang there by the shelf for your car to find the cryptic code and then match that code to some label on the shelf -- after I refer back to the book three or four times to make sure I have the right one.

This time was different. When I walked into the store, Cody (I assume his name was Cody because it was embroidered on his shirt) asked if he could help. "I need headlights" I tell him. Much to my surprise, rather than pointing to the big book o' headlights over on isle five, he asks me "year, make, model?"

"2002 Volvo s40 please" I reply.

"You need an H7."

By this time I see where the headlights are and start walking in that direction to find my H7. "Thanks!" I tell him. Before I knew it, Cody was out from behind the counter and had located my parts for me. Then he walked me back to the counter, rang me up and asked if there was anything else. I walked out of there in less than five minutes and felt like if I had asked him to install the damn things for me too, he would have.

Refreshing.