2010 July 11 » Hubman's Hangout

I’ve done a LOT of searching up and down the radio dial over the last several days. Rock, Top 40, alternative, country, I’ve listened to it quite a variety in music. Okay, maybe not country, but anyway…

Saturday afternoon somewhere in the vicinity of Montgomery, Alabama I hear Dance Hall Days by Wang Chung. Remember them? Kind of a catchy song, so due to a lack of options, I leave the song on. The song ends and what do I hear?

Casey Kasem.

Casey Kasem, the host of American Top 40? I had no idea that the show was still on the air or that he was still hosting it. But Wang Chung? That was 1984 or something like that, what’s going on here?

Then he introduces the next song on the countdown- “and here she is with her latest hit, it’s Madonna and “Borderline”"

Now this is just weird. The next song? “Infatuation” by Rod Stewart. Mind you, there has been NOTHING from the host station yet, I have no idea what I’m listening to, it’s like I’m in some time warp and I’m a pimply-faced socially awkward 8th grader all over again *shudder*. Anyway, it’s strange enough that I pull over at a rest area and send out a few tweets. The responses to my tweets were pretty amusing:

13Messages- I love that year in pop music. My formative years!

brlatethanneve- that’s horrifying!

queenofpink- I’d be in heaven. There is no music like it. Instantly transports you back to where you were.

VeronicaASM- that is so awesome.

Now I’m getting curious and really want to know when this list is from, until finally I hear a mention of July 7th, 1984. I was right about that year! This list goes on, Deniece Williams, ZZ Top, Huey Lewis and the News, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol…

And then I lose the signal for the station! Dammit, now I care, I want to know what the top 5 songs were for this week in 1984!

oh well, back to surfing the dial for a station I like. But it was fun while it lasted!

I’ve been to New Orleans for various conferences on 3 separate occasions over the last several years. However on each of those trips I saw nothing except the area around the convention center, down Canal St to the French Quarter and the road to and from the airport. Passing through on Saturday, I wanted to see other parts of the city, particularly areas that had been hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. I was just plain curious how much evidence remained of the destruction that hit the 9th Ward.

I”m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty sure that I found my way to the 9th Ward. There’s still a number of homes that look like this one, with the tell-tale spray painting on the outside as a message to others involved in clean-up, etc after the storm. If you can’t make it out, the message reads “all gas off”.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was driving along Lakeshore Drive. But I saw that berm to my left and thought “I bet if I climb up there, Lake Pontchartrain will be right on the other side.”

I think this nicely shows how parts of the city are below sea and/or lake level. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty nervous living across the street from a big lake that’s higher up than my house and is protected by a glorified pile of dirt!

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I had planned on spending some time wandering Bourbon St, camera in hand, but the lack of places where I was comfortable leaving my truck (with lots of my belongings in it) and the approaching thunderstorm that was clearly visible on the horizon dampened my enthusiasm. So no pictures of drunken fools soliciting beads