The Top 200 Albums of All Time: The Police

Zenyatta Mondatta: The Police (1980)
Zenyatta Mondatta marked the end of the Police’s early period. It demonstrates the influence of reggae and punk and features two instrumental compositions. The Police also investigated current events with “Driven to Tears” (poverty) and “Bombs Away” (Soviet invasion of Afghanistan).

Key Tracks:
Don’t Stand So Close To Me
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
Driven to Tears

Ghost in the Machine: The Police (1981)
The album was inspired by Arthur Koestler’s novel, The Ghost in the Machine. The book deals with the concept that the mind is not independent of the body and humankind’s tendency toward self-destructive behavior. Twelve years after the album’s release, “Demolition Man” became a belated hit.

Key Tracks:
Invisible Sun
Spirits in the Material World
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

Synchronicity: The Police (1983)
The band moved away from reggae and their earlier influences creating one of the seminal albums of the 1980s. Synchronicity made The Police the biggest band in the world. The albums multiple hits made the band an omnipresent force on the radio and MTV for two years. Alas, Synchronicity helped destroy the band as tensions between Sting and Steward Copeland came to a head as the Police reached the peak of their popularity.

Key Tracks:
Synchronicity II
Every Breath You Take
Wrapped Around Your Finger
King of Pain

Greatest TV Episodes of All Time #31-40

31. MASH: Tuttle (1973): Hawkeye and Trapper invent a surgeon and eventually everyone believes the guy is real. Eventually, General Clayton wants to honor Captain Tuttle. Hawkeye solves the problem by killing Tuttle. The imaginary captain jumped out of a helicopter to help wounded soldiers, but forgot his parachute. Seinfeld used the same storyline for an episode 20 years later.

32. The Munsters: Herman the Rookie (1965): Leo Durocher discovers Herman playing ball with Eddie and gives him a tryout with the Dodgers. Herman destroys the baseball field and Leo has to let him go. Despite his amazing talent, repairs to the field would cost too much if Herman played professionally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHBee9DAKYw

33. Star Trek: Balance of Terror (1966): Kirk and crew encounter Romulans and engage in a deadly cat and mouse game based on films such as Run Silent, Run Deep with the Enterprise serving as a surface ship and the Romulans as a submarine.

34. MTV Unplugged: Nirvana (1993): Nirvana appeared on MTV Unplugged in late 1993. They played a lot of covers and lesser known songs. The stage was decorated with lilies and candles as Cobain wanted it to look like a funeral. He died in April, 1994 and the CD was the band’s first release after his death.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eglOHphhpcg

35. Happy Days: They Don’t Shoot Fonzies, Do They? (1976): Fonzie agrees to help Joanie and enter a dance marathon at Arnold's. Joanie wants to beat the captain of the cheerleading squad who had her cut from the team. Fonzie’s bike breaks down and he has to walk it 12 miles and is exhausted. He collapses, but comes to when threatened with a crew cut. Fonzie breaks into a Russian jig and wins the contest. This scene is later used in a Weezer video.

36. Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Inner Light (1992): Picard is zapped by a probe and lives another man’s entire life in a few minutes. He awakes to find that the people built the probe to save their culture as their star was going supernova.

37. Batman: The Purr-Fect Crime & Better Luck Next Time (1966): Catwoman steals priceless art. After the usual cliffhanger, Batman and Robin track her to a cave where Catwoman dies. Luckily, Julie Newmar has 9 lives.

38. X-Files: Jose Chung’s From Outer Space (1996): Mulder and Scully investigate the abduction of two teenagers. Meanwhile, noted sci-fi writer Jose Chung is writing a novel about the incident. Every person involved tells Chung a different story leading to an amusing episode.

39. Married with Children: It’s a Bundyful Life (1989): The bank closes on Al before he can do his Xmas shopping. When he returns home, Al decides to fix the Christmas lights. He is briefly electrocuted and meets his guardian angel, Sam Kinison. Al sees that his family would have lived a wonderful life without him. He wants to spoil it, so he returns.

40. Northern Exposure: The Aurora Borealis- A Fairy Tale for Big People (1991): The Aurora Borealis makes the people of Cicily act strangely. Joel is rescued by Bigfoot and Chris leaves the radio station to work on a sculpture. Bigfoot turned out to be a real man and not a beast.

The Greatest TV Episodes of All Time: #91-100

I thought it might be fun to develop a list of the 100 greatest TV shows ever. Some of these are incidents or events or skits on certain shows while others are full episodes. I wanted to mix it up. So, the top 100 TV Episodes include everything from late night to Geraldo to Monday Night Football to MASH...

91. John Lennon on MNF (1974): Monday Night Football was a major event during the seventies and eighties. One of the major events in the history of MNF occurred when Howard Cosell interviewed John Lennon on air. Below is the video of the interview:

http://tubevube.com/u/u/maccafixx/Ds82Id_GMe8&feature/john-lennon-on-monday-night-football-1974.html

92. Beavis and Butthead: True Crime (1993): The two find an ATM card and get some cash. They end up on America’s Most Wanted and Cops. Butthead recognizes his neighborhood on the TV as the police bust down the door to arrest the two.

93. Geraldo: Satanic Abuse Special (1987): It does not get much better than Geraldo, King Diamond, and Satanists. He even includes warning signs of Satanism for parents. The highlights are below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tpPDsx4Oac

94. Gilligan’s Island: So Sorry, My Island Now (1965): This episode would never be made today. A Japanese sailor does not realize World War II is over. Gilligan must defend the castaways from the confused sailor. The sailor is a pure Japanese stereotype and would send the PC police over the edge today.

95. Late Night with David Letterman: The Madonna interview (1994): For some strange reason, Madonna decided to attack Dave Letterman on air. She picked the wrong person to mess with. She came off poorly and got served. Letterman tore her apart and Madonna’s career suffered for a time because of the way she presented herself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRSP5ZUmxP8

96. Joe Thiesmann breaks a leg (November 18, 1985): Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Thiesmann met Lawrence Taylor on Monday Night Football. Joe’s leg cracked and slung over. Frantically, LT called for the trainers. Thiesmann never played football again. The video is not for the faint of heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ1iVRRu6w0

97. The Six Million Dollar Man: The Secret of Bigfoot (1976): Aliens and Bigfoot unite and encounter the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman.

98. V Mini-Series (1983): To capitalize on Star Wars, NBC produced a two-part miniseries based on the premise of an alien invasion of Earth. In V, the aliens masquerade as friends as opposed to conquerors. The façade is eventually lifted and the visitors turn out to be Nazi reptiles bent on exploiting Earth’s resources and eating people. In the 2010 remake, the visitors are not Nazis from space, but rather friendly visitors bringing hope, change, and national health care.

99. MTV before the change (1981-1990s): Before the Jersey Shore and other assorted trash, MTV played music. MTV began as Music Television. Most of the early videos were cheesy, but fun. By the early 90s, acts spent millions on elaborate mini-movies. People talked about the videos and tried to figure out what some of them meant. Then came all the shows, MTV played fewer and fewer videos and now just stinks. How can they call themselves Music Television and not play music?

100. Keith Olbermann loses his mind (September 5, 2006): Olbermann rarely knows what he is talking about and often goes off the deep end. On September 5, 2006, he completely lost his mind. President Bush read a statement from Osama bin Laden on El Queda’s media strategy and Olbermann believed Bush was tying terrorists to the media. He screamed, “Have you no decency, sir?” Although he was wrong (as usual), the amusing tirade made for good television.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-wJNpWgss8

2008 Year End Awards

Here are the 2008 Year End Awards...

Person of the Year: Barack Obama (Easiest pick of all time)

Story of the Year: Black Man Wins White House

Record of the Year: Black Ice - AC/DC (their best since Back in Black)

Song of the Year: Girls in their Summer Clothes - Bruce Springsteen (A middle aged twist on an old theme)

Worst Record of the Year: Chinese Democracy - Axl Rose (14 years for this??)

Worst Song of the Year: Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis (Get a damned tampon)

Best Movie - Dark Knight (No other film comes close)

Worst Movie - X-Files: I Want To Believe (This movie never really started)

Best TV Show - Life on Mars (Very clever show contrasts 2008 with 1973)

Worst TV Show - Any MTV show...(for the brain dead)

Team of the Year: Detroit Red Wings (I am biased)

Worst Team of the Year: Detroit Lions (No Contest)

Athlete of the Year: Michael Phelps (Another easy call)

Moron of the Year: Casey Anthony

Runner ups: Plaxico Burress, OJ Simpson, the Media, Chicago Politicians, and Keith Olberfuehrer.

#81 Bon Jovi

Bon Jovi


It’s the 1980s and Hard Rock is king. Enter Bon Jovi. The band was more talented than most of the eras hair metal bands and was originally a loud band chicks could love. They pumped out hit after hit and had two mammoth albums. Burn out followed. Then came Nirvana. As 80s metal disappeared in the wake of grunge, Bon Jovi survived. They continued to chart in the mid-90s, and in the 00s, they peaked again. Why did they survive? They cropped the hair extensions and reworked their image. Their music did not change all that much, but they did expand. Recently, they did a country album.


Rock n Roll Moment: At the 1989 VMA's, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora did an acoustic version of "Wanted Dead or Alive." The performance spawned MTV Unplugged.


Essential Bon Jovi: Slippery When Wet (1986), New Jersey (1988), Keep The Faith (1992), Crush (2000), Have A Nice Day (2005)

Bon Jovi’s Top 10:
Living on a Prayer
Keep the Faith
It’s My Life
You Give Love a Bad Name
Blaze of Glory
Wanted Dead or Alive
Runaway
Always
I’ll Be There For You
Who Says You Can’t Go Home