I need to switch hairdressers

Here's why:
1) I'm always worried I'll run into the overly familiar woman who used to? might still? work there, who makes no secret that she doesn't like my hair, and wishes I would dye it. How do I know? Because she came up to me at my place of work and told me, helpfully handing me a business card.
2) I rarely get good haircuts there. This doesn't bother me as much as one might think, because I'm pretty low-maintenance.
3) I went there today, and they were playing gospel music. It's a national chain, for heaven's sake. And if it were a giant choir, or even the Statler Brothers, I'd be down with it. But no. it was Elvis, who recorded the dullest, least inspirational gospel I've ever heard. My hairdresser and her co-workers enjoyed it, I think, because sometimes they sang along. And then my hairdresser asked me if I like it, and I had to be polite about it. That's bad because
4) I hate chit-chat with hairdressers. I don't love it with any other total stranger, but at least I'm not usually such a captive audience. When I got married, my only high-maintenance request was to ask the hairdresser not to talk (we did this, by the way, in the most tactful way possible: by bringing my matron of honor along, so she could sit right there and talk to me, thereby avoiding other conversations).

All that said, it's the only hairdresser in easy walking distance - the others are over a mile away.

the fix is in

Seriously, anyone who thinks that the results of Big Brother 8 weren't fixed can come to me. I have a bridge to sell you.
Between the nigh-unbreakable alliance between father and daughter (who had applied for the show before, for heaven's sake), the America's Player twist that kept Dick over Dustin, and the refusal to give Dick a penalty vote when he bragged on the feeds about setting up a code with his son, there's no way this game wasn't fixed.
Please, let the show be investigated.

in a week...

...it will seem funny to me that I've been waiting up to find out who won the first stage of the final HOH competition on Big Brother. But right now, I don't know whether I'll be able to fall asleep, especially since the end should come any time now. I've been thinking that for an hour and a half, though. In my defense, I've been doing other things while I wait, just coming in here periodically to check.

music meme

I wasn't quite tagged with this one - the blog post I read tagged specific people, not the world in general - so I don't have to do it. Sadly, I can't find the blog post I read earlier today - I was at work, and obviously couldn't drop everything to blog about music. But here's one that mentions the meme.
Now that I'm home, I thought I'd try it. It's supposed to be a meme for the music one listened to during one's high school graduation year, but I didn't listen to radio then (by then, I was fully into alternative music, alternating with classic rock). I started listening to alternative music in 1986-1987 (oh, boy, were we naive! Black shirts, 120 Minutes on MTV, copying each other's Echo and the Bunnymen tapes, etc.). In the spring and summer of 1986, I listened to heavy metal - I remember the marathon on the local metal station when Cliff Burton died.
So my last full year of listening to regular radio, not niche stations, was 1985. So here's my 1985 list:

The Year I Graduated HS Top 1oo Meme (or in my case, the Last Year I Listened to Radio Meme):

First, go here, then type the year you graduated from HS into the search bar.
Then, code the entries as follows:

Bold equals “I probably wouldn't change the station if it came on the radio."
Strikethrough means “I might break my finger trying to change the station once I figured out which song it was."
Bolded Italics means “Not only would I turn it up, I own it on CD or on itunes″
Do nothing to entries you don’t remember, or have no response to.

Top 100 Hits of 1985 / Top 100 Songs of 1985
1. Careless Whisper, Wham!
2. Like A Virgin, Madonna
3. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Wham!
4. I Want To Know What Love Is, Foreigner
5. I Feel For You, Chaka Khan Oddly enough, my junior high school cafeteria had a jukebox, and this was on it
6. Out Of Touch, Daryl Hall and John Oates But not for the whole song - I think I'd get tired of it
7. Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Tears For Fears Now I'm hungry for popcorn!
8. Money For Nothing, Dire Straits There are some Dire Straits songs I love (Tunnel of Love, Brothers in Arms, Skateaway), but this isn't one of them.
9. Crazy For You, Madonna
10. Take On Me, A-Ha Morten, Mags and Pal!
11. Everytime You Go Away, Paul Young
12. Easy Lover, Phil Collins and Philip Bailey
13. Can't Fight This Feeling, REO Speedwagon Ah, Champaign's finest! I love the hard "r" in this song: "It's time to bring the ship into the shorrrre, and throw away the oarrrrs forrrrreverrrrr"
14. We Built This City, Starship
15. The Power Of Love, Huey Lewis and The News
16. Don't You (Forget About Me), Simple Minds shhhhh! Despite the collective adulation that my friends have for John Hughes movies, I'm not crazy about them, or about this song
17. Cherish, Kool and The Gang
18. St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion), John Parr
19. The Heat Is On, Glenn Frey
20. We Are The World, U.S.A. For Africa
21. Shout, Tears For Fears
22. Part-Time Lover, Stevie Wonder
23. Saving All My Love For You, Whitney Houston
24. Heaven, Bryan Adams
25. Everything She Wants, Wham!
26. Cool It Now, New Edition "Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike, if I love the girl, who cares who you like?"
27. Miami Vice Theme, Jan Hammer
28. Lover Boy, Billy Ocean
29. Lover Girl, Teena Marie
30. You Belong To The City, Glenn Frey
31. Oh Sheila, Ready For The World
32. Rhythm Of The Night, Debarge "...and it's called the Moulin Rouge". Not as good a reference as the brilliantly placed "here we are now, entertain us", but I was amused when Debarge was referenced in the film
33. One More Night, Phil Collins
34. Sea Of Love, Honeydrippers
35. A View To A Kill, Duran Duran
36. The Wild Boys, Duran Duran
37. You're The Inspiration, Chicago
38. Neutron Dance, Pointer Sisters
39. We Belong, Pat Benatar If I know the words, I'll sing along to anything on the radio. This confuses my friends, who should know better by now; they often leave songs on because I'm singing along, even though I don't like them. I'd happily sing along to this one, but I don't especially like it
40. Nightshift, Commodores Oh, this is one of my favorites! By far, this is my favorite song on the list that I don't own on a CD or ipod
41. Things Can Only Get Better, Howard Jones
42. All I Need, Jack Wagner I don't like this song at all, but it's OTT enough to make me want to sing along mockingly for a minute or two
43. Freeway Of Love, Aretha Franklin I hated this song when it came out! I'd never heard of Aretha, and I couldn't work out all the fuss about this older woman singing a lame song.
44. Never Surrender, Corey Hart
45. Sussudio, Phil Collins
46. Strut, Sheena Easton
47. You Give Good Love, Whitney Houston
48. The Search Is Over, Survivor
49. Missing You, Diana Ross
50. Separate Lives, Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin
51. Raspberry Beret, Prince and The Revolution despite my affection for the Purple Rain soundtrack, I don't like most of Prince's other work. I'd probably keep this song on for less than a minute, not enough to justify bold type
52. Suddenly, Billy Ocean I can't believe I put a Billy Ocean song in bold type - but yeah, I'd keep it on
53. The Boys Of Summer, Don Henley ironically, "don't look back, you can never look back"
54. One Night In Bangkok, Murray Head Yes, I own the Chess soundtrack!
55. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, Sting My older sister used to have a pin that said "set them free". I was envious
56. Obsession, Animotion
57. We Don't Need Another Hero, Tina Turner
58. Material Girl, Madonna
59. Better Be Good To Me, Tina Turner
60. Head Over Heels, Tears For Fears
61. Axel F, Harold Faltermeyer I know I know this, but I can't separate it from all the other instrumental hits of the mid-80s
62. Smooth Operator, Sade This is on my ipod, but my SO put it there (we share an ipod) and I always skip past it. I dislike it less now than when it came out, at any rate
63. In My House, Mary Jane Girls
64. Don't Lose My Number, Phil Collins
65. All Through The Night, Cyndi Lauper
66. Run To You, Bryan Adams
67. Glory Days, Bruce Springsteen
68. Voices Carry, 'Til Tuesday I'm the only one I know who remembers this video, but I still like it
69. Misled, Kool and The Gang
70. Would I Lie To You?, Eurythmics
71. Be Near Me, ABC
72. No More Lonely Nights, Paul McCartney
73. I Can't Hold Back, Survivor
74. Summer Of '69, Bryan Adams
75. Walking On Sunshine, Katrina and The Waves I'd switch it off before the end, but I'd sing a bit of it
76. Freedom, Wham!
77. Too Late For Goodbyes, Julian Lennon
78. Valotte, Julian Lennon I liked Valotte for a while when it came out, especially while watching the video, but I hated 'Too late for goodbyes'
79. Some Like It Hot, Power Station
80. Solid, Ashford and Simpson
81. Angel, Madonna
82. I'm On Fire, Bruce Springsteen
83. Method Of Modern Love, Daryl Hall and John Oates
84. Lay Your Hands On Me, Thompson Twins
85. Who's Holding Donna Now, Debarge
86. Lonely Ol' Night, John Cougar Mellencamp
87. What About Love, Heart Not my favorite Heart song (that's be "Crazy on You"), but this one's fun to belt out
88. California Girls, David Lee Roth not my favorite from Diamond Dave, but it's fun
89. Fresh, Kool and The Gang
90. Do What You Do, Jermaine Jackson I can't believe I like this song!
91. Jungle Of Love, The Time query: do they mean "Jungle Love"? If so, I'm all over it
92. Born In The USA, Bruce Springsteen in fact, I just checked this CD out from the library today!
93. Private Dancer, Tina Turner
94. Who's Zoomin' Who, Aretha Franklin
95. Fortress Around Your Heart, Sting
96. Penny Lover, Lionel Richie
97. All She Wants To Do Is Dance, Don Henley I dislike this for several reasons; I cringe every time he rhymes "dance" and "make romance". In fact, I cringe every time anyone does it, except in "Moondance"
98. Dress You Up, Madonna
99. Sentimental Street, Night Ranger
100. Sugar Walls, Sheena Easton

Tommy Shaw

All these years, I thought I liked Styx. I grew up listening to them (and Simon & Garfunkel, and the Beatles) because my older sister liked them so much. Turns out that on closer examination of the liner notes, I was wrong. With only one or two exceptions, every Styx song I like is a Tommy Shaw song, not a Dennis DeYoung one (and that must've made for strange band dynamics, I would think, with such different styles). I was looking at the cover of Kilroy Was Here yesterday, and was appalled by the casual racism. Apparently the other band members hated the whole Kilroy thing, with the different roles they had to play.
A week or two I was with my sister, and something in the conversation made me belt out, "Righteous thinks it's over. Righteous thinks it's over! But it's not. This is just the beginning. Long live rock and roll!" This is, of course, what Dennis DeYoung very earnestly proclaims at the end of the live Kilroy, but my sister didn't remember this at all. Apparently I was younger, and more impressionable.

hello, hello, hello...

...is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me.
Well, like my other two blogs, this is just a place for me to store my thoughts. One of my favorite blogs was a bit catty about how boring some blogs are; I don't think she realizes that some people use them as an online diary or organizational tool. They're not always supposed to be scintillating.
Anyway, three random thoughts for the day:
1) I'm listening to Kiss's version of "Strutter" for the first time. It's strange how utterly familiar it is, just from playing it on Guitar Hero. It's strange to listen to a familiar song for the first time!
2) I'm still chuffed that Zach won HOH this week on Big Brother. And yes, it's quite likely that he'll go home in the double elimination on Thursday, but at least he'll take someone else with him.
3) Tapestry and Talent was fun today!