Hi folks.
I guess you can tell from my profile that I enjoy listening to music.
Let me talk to you about something I did on a website related to one of my favourite music groups.
Currently they are not listed on the music section of my profile but that is likely to change soon enough.
Anyway, let me share with you some short essays that as a part of a recent contest on the Sweet Sensation website, hookedonsweetsensation.com , that earned me an autographed double CD set of their 1988 debut CD, Take it while it's hot, and their 1990 followup, Love child.
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You know what I would love to do in a whole day with Sweet Sensation? Well, some of that depends on what sort of financial situation I am in, what time of year it is, and what I am doing that day.
But here are a few samples of how it could very well go...
Scenario A
9.30a. I wake up to a knock on my door. I figure, Alright, what's going on? Wondering if my landlord is nicking me once again about being late with the rent on my one-bedroom apartment. Or maybeit's my next door neighbour, Liz, asking me to give her a lift to the bank or to the neighbourhood tobacco store, the drug store, or even Walmart, for beer and cigarettes especially for her boyfriend, or even for groceries.
"ONE MOMENT PLEASE!"
I grab a tee shirt from one of the drawers under my waterbed, a pair of golf shorts from another drawer in a storage unit near the light switch and put those on, and slip into my sandals. Then I have to run my hair under the shower for a moment because I have natural set hair, and it can be terribly unmanageable once it gets more than say crew-cut length. (I once got a haircut at a beauty college on a business trip to Nebraska auditing inventories for a Tractor Supply store and a Kmart in Kearney.)
Anyway, after about 10 seconds under a hot shower and about one-and-a-half minutes with an old plastic comb, I'm just about ready. I go to the door.
Sheila, Jenae, and Betty are all at my door...greeting me, and even hugging and kissing me...and of course I have to show them inside. They find pennants of my favourite teams, including the Florida State Seminoles, the Los Angeles Kings, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Oakland Raiders, and the one that draws their ire, the 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series Championship pennant.
"BOO HISS! BOO HISS! We gotta convert you to a Yankees Fan!" yells one.
"No way" yells another, "we gotta make him a Mets fan!"
"Enough, all three of you...there's no need for that", I call out to them, as if I were a psychoanalyst trying to keep order in a group session. They see posters of Abraham Lincoln and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, an autographed portrait of the late boxer Johnny Copeland (he is in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame --- look him up), and even a huge poster of Expose' --- but no Sweet Sensation poster!
"Sorry, ladies, I never found one..."
"Well, we're just going to have to work on that one, eh?" Betty Dee chides me playfully. She, Sheila, and Jenae whip out digicams, snap some photos, then beg me to let me use my scanner/copier/printer to print them out. Then they start texting soemthing on their mobile phones or their IPhones or their Blackberrys or whatever...
Meanwhile, Sheila asks me questions about a very old yellow-and-black STOP sign on another wall, the one
with old-fashioned block letters that used to sit at a railway crossing down in Texas back in the 1930s.
Betty is herself a bit shocked to see another yellow-and-black STOP sign on another wall, this one a 1940s model and one of the first with modern FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) fonts, in this case C-series,very much like the STOP signs you see today, but from years before the MUTCD (the Manual of Uniform Traffic Codes and Devices) proscribed red-and-white STOP signs...and Jenae is asking a few questions herself. (BTW most of the big green signs on the highways are using E-series, and most route markers are using D-series numbers.)
"OK, let me boot up the computer, but I need to check the ink levels first..." I start my computer and then find that there is indeed enough ink to print some photos...so I have to load some paper and let the ladies download the contents of their cameras to my computer then I make a note to grab some blank discs when we go out later.
I see a clock over my bed and say, "Oh SNAP! It's almost 10.00a! I need to get something to eat!"
After printing out photos which Sheila, Jenae, and Betty hurriedly sign for me, I have to take them through the back door and lock up both doors to get to my car, a pewter 1998 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. I stopped parking it kerbside after a horenduous thunderstorm last June that left my car heavily damaged on the right rear quarter panel and moderately damaged elsewhere, the bonnet was replaced, the dents were taken out or even filled in, and the car was left with only minor scratches and dents in the boot and on the
roof...and I may yet get those repaired sooner rather than later anyway...I am explaining about all this to the ladies as I hurriedly clean out the back seat of my car then set a 7UP bottle on the ground. I have to tell them that we have to see who gets to ride shotgun (here in the South that's a term we use for who gets
to ride in the front seat next to the driver).
They howl in shock as I situate Jenae, Betty, and Sheila in a triangle and then spin the bottle. It stops in front of Betty who tells the other two, Get in the back seat...I have to fold the driver's seat forward to let Sheila in, and Jenae gets behind Betty. Somehow I managed to rush the rubbish out of the car and into the Dumpster...then I tell everyone to fasten their seat belts. Then I crank up the stereo...which by some great miracle contains a Sweet Sensation CD...
And then it's down the alleyway, onto a side street, then around the corner, and then onto a four-lane street which I take down to the robot at Florida Avenue, which is a good alternative route some folks use instead of the heavily-travelled Range Line Road. Those of you from Los Angeles know what the conditions on Range Line Road are like...because you regularly get stuck on the 405 at rush hour.
Range Line is even worse. Even Kansas City is worse...especially at the junction of the I-435, the I-470, and US71 which is under construction, especially the roadbed on US71...
It's a quick left on 15th, then down Texas Av. through a residential area, nice ranch houses everywhere, then left on 24th, then on to the hated Range Line in front of a local KFC, a local ice cream shop, and the local Lowes, then right on that street and down past Lowes and Sutherlands Lumber and Name Brand Clothing, past the incessantly-under-construction 32d Street junction (WHY CAN'T MODOT JUST PUT IN A BLOODY ROTARY?!?!?!) and on down to Waffle House just before we reach the I-44.
I have to explain the whole concept. Jenae is immediately approving of the choice. Sheila is interested, and even Betty has no real problem with the diner. So we go inside...
We sit down and I order my usual items, an order of hashbrowns scattered all the way and a waffle, and Betty appears interested in a steak dinner. (OK Betty, at least you can order that ANY TIME OF THE DAY OR NIGHT at Waffle House)...Sheila picks out an omelet and scattered all the way hashbrowns because what I ordered was interesting to her, Jenae goes for a platter with a waffle, sausage, cheese and eggs and cheese in the grits...and there's plenty of sweet tea for everyone...
10.45a. After tipping the employees and paying our tab we get back on Range Line but only long enough to make our way to the Springfield onramp...and then I take the Route 249 exit back into Joplin. We pull off at Newman Road and make a left turn at the all-way stop then explain about the construction going on all over Joplin and even the rest of the Four States area (Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri) as I drive them past the coterie of ranch houses and an occasional apartment complex along Newman Road toward MSSU (Missouri Southern State University). That immediately catches the ladies' attention. So we drive past the campus and I give them a little history lesson.
Oh no. I gotta get some petrol. And how convenient...Betty drank so much tea at breakfast, even though women have an advantage on men in bladder capacity because of a wider pelvis despite all of the other organs, eliminatory and reproductive alike, she still needs to use the lavatory. Fortunately we find the Texaco station and I pull in then hand the cashier two $20s and Betty gets directed to the toilet, emerging a couple of minutes later. (Now you know why some of the new Quik Trips and other corner markets are now being built with TWO women's restrooms. I know the one off the I-270 at Route 180 just outside St Louis has that sort of arrangement.) Jenae and Sheila have to follow in suit.
It's 11.30a. We have just pulled into Northpark Mall, in front of the Sears/Steve & Barry's/TJ MAXX entrance. The ladies squeal with such delight I have to calm them down a bit, but then they go inside and I accompany them on their shopping rounds, through TJ MAXX, Old Navy, Sears, New York & Company, the whole lot.
2.45p. The girls are getting hungry again. Fortunately I am eager to offer them someplace to eat. They take their purchases to my car, and I have to open the boot with the remote. The ladies practically jam my trunk full with their purchases and then we get back in, another round of spin-the-bottle, and this time Sheila gets to ride shotgun. I drive them down the hated Range Line Road just to show them how BLOODY AWFUL the congestion is...and it's terribly slow. Somehow, talking with Sweet Sensation has kept me cool.
We finally pull in to the local Cicis Pizza and at first Betty is a little suspicious. Then we go inside and two employees including a manager greet us, "HI! WELCOME TO CICIS!" I order four adult buffets and four soft drinks. Then Sheila's eyes light up at a pepperoni alfredo pizza. Jenae sees me lift a piece of spinach
alfredo pizza onto my plate, and sweet Betty Dee has to ask me as I take a piece of barbecue beef pizza with cheddar cheese, "What is THAT?"
I laugh and put some on her plate. "Welcome to the South, my dear...where even our PIZZA is barbecued..."
As we eat and talk and even laugh, and I even catch glimpses of Fox News as well and comment on them, from how MoveOn.org are violating the RICO Act again to how Fred Goldman is acting just like Adolf Hitler, we tend to really start bonding.
It's about 4.00p. We just pulled into my mother's driveway. I have to take Sweet Sensation inside to meet my mother. Sheila is instantly attracted to the decor, sort of an Asian thing with lots of photographs of family members living and dead alike, including my late grandmother whom I buried last year following a long battle with Alzheimers and osteoporosis. Betty is captivated by my mother's big orange-and-white Angora/Maine Coon mixed-breed cat Thomas, and surprisingly he doesn't even flinch from her, he lets
Betty hold him, pet him, cuddle him...and then Jenae is drawn to my mother's other cat, a growing female grey-and-black Maine Coon kitten named Nimue', who is a little feisty and also almost as big as full-grown cats of most other breeds.
And Mum is taking the time to tell them about me, about my growing up in California, my years in high school and college, showing them her books, her music collection, her movie collection.
6.00p. I invited Mum along for dinner with Sweet Sensation. Sadly she is too tired to join us. We leave shortly afterward and then I take the ladies for a drive. A LONG drive. And this time Jenae got to ride shotgun.
We are back on Zora this time headed east and then after turning right at the all-way stop we are back on 249...and soon after on US71, cruising toward Fort Smith. I explain how much southwestern Missouri has grown in recent years, as well as particularly northwestern Arkansas, and even explain the expansion of US71 from a two-lane road to a four-lane expressway in recent decades. We even cruise past the McDonald County Walmart just a few hundred metres from the Arkansas line and I explain how that was the last county in Missouri to get a Walmart...
We cross the Arkansas state line and follow an old four-lane road until the freeway starts and soon we reach Rogers. I have to take Jct 85 off of what is now the I-540 and turn left, then another quick left. We are on "Restaurant Row" in Rogers and I bring them onto a driveway that leads into Coltons Steak House and Grill. Trust me, if you are in Arkansas, Louisiana, or Missouri (especially Springfield and Jefferson City), you MUST stop at a Coltons and have a steak, a burger, a chicken sandwich, what have you. If the food doesn't win you over, the service certainly will. And then there is the atmosphere, wooden floors, buckets full of peanuts, a Texas-style interior with lots of wood everywhere, a sculpture of a longhorn steer's head, and country music in the speakers. (Sorry about that, fellow freestyle fans)
Betty and Jenae are quick to order steaks, Betty contemplates the T-bone, Jenae the filet mignon. Sheila considers the St Louis-style ribs. I choose a chicken fried steak myself. We also order some buffalo wings and tumbleweeds, the latter of which is the Coltons version of an onion blossom. And I go for the baked sweet potato, ditto Betty. Jenae prefers the baked potato, ditto Sheila. The ladies even feel confident about ordering drinks with their dinners, but since I'm the designated driver I'm sticking to Mr Pibb. And all three are delighted with the endless rolls. When we get to the desserts the ladies take to the cheesecakes as I choose a root beer float.
Back in Joplin at about 9.00p, I take Sweet Sensation to a nightclub downtown where, what a miracle, there is plenty of freestyle mixed in with the hip hop and techno and we find ourselves dancing the whole night through. I tell the bartenders I'm a designated driver so I'm sticking to Coke. Betty doesn't drink a whole lot, Sheila is a bit more reserved about drinking, and even Jenae doesn't feel the effects too much.
2.00a. It's about time to wrap it up. I ask if the ladies would like to go get some coffee or something. They accept the offer. We have already left the club and driven around town for a while. So now it's back to Waffle House, this time all I want are hashbrowns scattered all the way and sweet tea. The ladies simply order coffee, and Betty is the only singer from Sweet Sensation to order any food --- in her case pecan pie...
3.00a. We just got through with Waffle House and now it's time to say good bye for now...maybe we will see each other again...and the ladies don't want to leave me just yet. I know I don't want to leave them either but this has been a long day...and of course I have to hug and kiss each of them...just don't let's let it become good-bye...I know I enjoyed my day with Sweet Sensation...
Scenario B
It's early afternoon. I am just wrapping up my last area of inventory for the day. My area manager surprises me by bringing Sweet Sensation to an aisle where I am finishing the last area in a home improvement warehouse. They had been passing through and decided to visit me after I had told them about my itinerary for the week. They greet me as I head to a shopping cart where an audit collector has been set up to collect my last transmission of the day. The district manager tells me to transmit and close out then clock
out on the time clock which is on another machine we use for counting inventories. I start talking to them and then the DM asks me how did I like that surprise. I am certainly enjoying this already...and we have just met.
Then Jenae starts by offering me a hug. And I come out of that with a lipstick imprint on my cheek. The same thing with Sheila. Then it's Betty's turn. Hers landed right on my lips! I am almost in shock. Ann couldn't have made me that weak kissing me like that, let alone Jeanette and Gioia. I start to fall but a team leader catches me, asking me, are you all right? I answer, HELL YEAH!, just like Stone Cold Steve Austin, and everyone laughs.
Anyway, I'm glad that this is just a local inventory, so I could just as well drive home. But not with Sweet Sensation around --- first we have to get something to eat, so we drive down the hated Range Line Road, Joplin's answer to the 405 in LA, to Applebees, because I am ready to eat, and then I realise...not only am I eating a meal with Sweet Sensation, but I am FINALLY eating at the Applebees in JOPLIN! I had eaten at several other restaurants in the chain, but NEVER at the one in JOPLIN! I don't even know why...
By 3.30p we had finished eating and were now driving around Joplin and Webb City,and I even stopped at my Auntie Sherley's and Uncle Bob's house, finding both at home, and I introduced Sweet Sensation to my uncle and auntie...Why not dear old mum? That's coming later. They all take time to get to know each other and then my cousin's older daughter comes in after driving in from Springfield where she is attending university. My cousin herself drives in with her husband, her son, and her younger daughter...and certainly we take the time to get acquainted, with my auntie telling Jenae and Betty and Sheila about everyone, including myself...
Uncle Bob has called Mum who drives over in a white Subaru to visit and also joins in the impromptu corroborree erupting at a two-story house along the Kansas City Southern railway tracks. Then she invites me and Sweet Sensation over for dinner...and of course we accept.
During the evening I had to take the ladies shopping, first to Northpark Mall and then to Kohls, before we got to Mum's house.
7.00p. Chicken and dumplings are now being served to everyone, with Betty, Jenae, and Sheila taking their places on the chesterfield, eating from tray tables, as I am doing from another chair across the room.
Mum even puts on a DVD for everyone to watch.
10.00p. Mum is about ready to turn in for the night so we say our goodbyes to her for the night then I take the ladies to the club...and of course we end up dancing the night away...
2.00a. We are wrapping up for the night, saying our goodbyes because of course I have to get up early in the morning for another inventory...
Scenario X
I have just finished moving into my new house...a rather expansive two-story townhouse with a number of bedrooms and bathrooms, a study, a kitchen, a den, a dining hall, and lots of garden space, plus a pool and a four-car garage.
I hear the doorbell ringing a series of Westminster chimes at 9.30p and then I turn down the Mark Levin Show on the mini-stereo in the study. I look out at the front door and find SWEET SENSATION greeting me with a very excited "HELLOOOOO!"
I was pleased that they had made it past the front gate and the water gardens lit up with pastel-coloured lights. I invited them in and showed them to the lounge, where I turned on my stereo. We started talking, reminiscing, even noshing on crudite platters and fried ravioli and mozzarella sticks and egg rolls...and of course I had the sweet tea flowing....(Can't you tell I've been hanging out at FriendsEAT.com?)
We definitely enjoyed listening to a varied assortment of cassettes and CDs, spending all night dancing and snacking and enjoying ourselves...and enjoying the various features of the house, right down to the solar panels shaped like mission-style roofing tiles like you would find in Boca Raton and the solar sheeting sprayed onto the windows used for generating even more energy, the lift that moved from top to bottom and back again, and even the windmills at each corner of the house, using turbine-like cylinders instead of condor-Cuisinart propellers.
Sunrise. I wondered if anyone wanted anything to eat and I surprised the ladies by offering to cook breakfast. I started making biscuits and then gravy using ground beef and condensed mushroom soup (which, when you season it properly, makes a very good gravy for biscuits and Texas toast). I sliced some melons and grabbed some vanilla yoghurt then poured some OJ --- the kind that comes from oranges not the NFL hall of fame running back who has once again become the biggest whipping boy for the liberal media (curse you, Fred Hitler, Nazi Graceless, Jerky Couric, and Scarface VanCistern) since George W Bush after we the people elected him in 2000 when we the people elected a president for the first time in 12 years --- into some large crystal-cut goblets and even poured chocolate milk into more staid-looking glasses. Then it was time to serve everyone.
As we enjoyed our fruit and yoghurt and biscuits and gravy we continued chatting further and further...
Early afternoon. WE started waking up, coming from separate bedrooms, I from the master, Jenae, Sheila, and Betty from their respective guest bedrooms, and then went into the garden. I called my mother, my cousin, my aunties, and my friends, then walked over to see the neighbourhood beautician, and invited them over for a barbecue. We started talking rather animatedly, and Betty even grabbed some spices, Sheila helped me prepare the barbecue sauce by chopping fruits for the blender, and Jenae grabbed some mustard and hot sauce for the sauce.
I fired up the barbecue spit and then the stereo, preparing chickens, turkey breasts, burgers, brats, steaks, ribs, potatoes, and vegetables for the grill. My family and then my friends started arriving. Of course the ladies were starving, so I grabbed a packet of taquitos I had just bought at Walmart and fried them in the deep fryer, then laid out crisps and guacamole before frying up some chips.
And of course everyone wanted to get to know Sweet Sensation --- so I encouraged everyone to get to know as many people as possible...you know there were loads of autographs signed left and right...Lots of family anecdotes were told to Betty, to Sheila, to Jenae...who were somehow not overwhelmed...
Sometime after sunset. Betty, Sheila, and Jenae were fairly exhausted after gorging on barbecue and crisps and salads and tea, 7UP, Dr Pepper, A&W...but they STILL wanted to stick around for one more evening anyway. Yup...ya know we are headed back to the club...
I guess there are many other scenarios we could entertain, but I have other things to do right now and definitely other folks might like to weigh in...For all we know, all three of those scenarios might become true...even if only in our dreams...in some home movie that goes straight to Youtube or Ifilm...or maybe even in the Twilight Zone. (RESPECT TO ROD SERLING)
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I must tell you that freestyle-oriented dance music might not be everyone's cuppa, but I suggest you get ahold of those discs. You can even get those discs from oldies.com.
One thing I noticed is they come in a case with a plastic divider between the two halves, for holding both discs with. I was already familair with that design as it turned up on the 1999 Seb Fontaine double disc, Prototype.
The sheer energy of the beats and distinctive Latin rhythms will hook you and many of you will even appreciate the lyrics...and of course even the impressive beauty of the female vocal rock trio's iconic redhead lead singer Betty Dee will strike one's fancy...
I would say prepare to be impressed...and enjoy the very type of music that dominated the world of dance music in the late 80s and early 90s...and has made a comeback as so many freestyle acts like Sweet Sensation --- as well as contemporaries like The Cover Girls, Exposé, and Seduction --- are currently regrouping and even touring again.
