Keep your feet on the ground...

I have a short list of things that I want but don't actually need. Well, I don't need them in comparison to, you know, groceries and gas.

They're little things, like a tablet for my computer (so I can bore people with drawing as well as writing), a recumbent exercise bike (so I can play some Burnout Revenge while I exercise) and XM Radio.

Fortunately, I can listen to a handful of the stations via Winamp. Especially fortunate now that XM is running old "American Top 40" shows on its 70s and 80s stations. I'm listening to a countdown from 1981 right now, and there was one from 1987 before that, when Club Nouveau's "Lean on Me" was No. 1. I remembered listening to that show, and it was then I realized how much I really listened to AT40.

It's cool hearing old songs in a context when they were current. Somewhere in a cardboard box, I have a few tapes of the Top 100 of 1986 countdown, taped off the radio when I was 12. When I listen to them, I remember sitting at my desk, drawing, or lying on my bed, reading a book.

Or avoiding cleaning my room again.

It's also kinda neat to hear the songs that were on the countdown but vanished from my memory. That's actually what I like about 80s on 8 in general, but especially AT40. There are some songs from the 80s that now don't remind me much of anything because I've heard them so many times. I mean, I love "She Blinded Me With Science," but do I need to see it on yet another 80s "party album"?

At the beginning of the countdown I'm listening to, there was a song called "General Hospi-Tale" by The Afternoon Delights. I have absolutely no recollection of this song. Granted, I was about 6 when this countdown originally aired, but still.

And how can you not love the Long-Distance Dedications? And if you remember those the way I do, you have to hear this outtake. There are some other cool things on the page (I loves me some TV Party), so check those out, too. There's a bit of swearing, so turn your speakers down if you're checking this at work.

Now, on with the countdown...