Worst Week . . . EVER!

Have you ever had one of the days where it seems like everything and everyone is conspiring against you? A day when NOTHING goes right? Well, I had a whole week like that, last week.



Monday: I went into work early to prepare for an important meeting later that day to find that my brand-new work laptop refused to start up. Our IT person works from noon til late, so I wasn't able to get back to work until close to the end of the day. Needless to say I was frustrated, the meeting had to be postponed and regardless of the fact it wasn't my fault, it still reflected poorly on me.

Tuesday: Without going into details, I overdrafted my bank-account. I'm not the kind of person that balances my checkbook or anything, but I'm also not horribly irresponsible with my money. I think the problem had to do with the Tuesday bank holiday. Either way I had the embarrassing experience of being declined when trying to buy my morning bagel at my usual spot around the corner from work.

Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes - Bad Luck








Wednesday: After moving to California, my girlfriend (a CA native) explained to me that drivers in California don't come to complete stops at stop signs. They call it a "rolling stop" or a "California stop". I changed my ways, but on my way to a work conference on Wednesday morning I got pulled over blocks from my house for making (or not making) such a "stop." Clearly, telling the Po-Po that "that's how we do" in California doesn't really work. Here's to a $160 fine and driving school!

Ellen McIlwaine - Born Under A Bad Sign












Thursday: Hallelujah! Nothing horrible happened, but needless to say I was still reeling from the disasters of the previous three days.

Friday: So, after work I went to see the new James Bond movie with Jamie and some work friends of hers. Before the show I went to put my heavy bags into the trunk of the car, parked no less than a block from the theater. It was too good to be true. After the less-than-steller Bond flick we went to a bar and as I went to the trunk to grab something from my bag, I was startled to find that IT WAS NOT THERE! Just my backpack was gone. The backpack with my brand-new, recently fixed work computer. Sunglasses, my current book and few smaller items were also sacrificed to the clever thief who must have watched me place my bags in the trunk. Surprisingly, there was no visible sign of forced entry into the car.


Earth, Wind & Fire - Keep Your Head to the Sky









Friday was the Full Moon, so it stands to reason that somehow my lunar vibrations were out of sync or some such shit, but thankfully my life has returned to normal, more or less, since then. I'm trying my best to focus on the positive. The last two songs are some of my favorites for doing just that.

The Impressions - We're Rolling On (Part One)

Disco Monster #1

So far I've laid low when it's come to my disco predilictions, but I can't hold it in any longer. I firmly believe that disco music is the best music ever made for dancing. Now, I'm no prize-winning dancer (though there was that one time at Marisa Rogoway's bapmitzvah in 8th grade . . .), but I do love dancing to great music and personally I've found that classic disco is my favorite music to dance to. It's got the predictable, yet funky beat, great vocal arrangements, extended percussion breakdowns and the spirit of disco is exactly the spirit that I try to tap into when shaking my thang: a certain devil-may-care debauchery and self-indulgence. The music was meant to be carefree and somewhat disposable, but its sole purpose was to make people dance. It's simple, it's beautiful and it worked and still works.

Brenda & the Tabulations - Let's Go All The Way (Down)
To start off the "Disco Monster" series, we have a recent addition to my crates, a song by Brenda & the Tabulations produced by a handful of classic disco producers: John Davis, Norman Harris & Bobby Eli. Eli wrote the song here, so I'll assume he also produced it. It's our first "Disco Monster" because of its stomping groove, killer vocals (especially the disco-chant hook at the beginning) and sexy subject matter . . . "all the way down" where? Oh yeah!

In the process of making this post, I found another blog I like called "Disco Delivery" where they also posted on this album, so stop by and check them out for all of you out there who aren't allergic to 4/4 beats and dancing . . .