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...

Warning: Do not stare directly at your screen...

...not because there's a picture of my face, mind you.

I was rooting through my weird shirt collection the other day. I found the "I Want My MTV" shirt I knew I had, but it's way too small for me so I let my wife wear it to celebrate MTV's 25th anniversary the other day.

I also found the butt-ugliest shirt I own. I found it at a Salvation Army back in my college days, and despite the $2.35 or whatever the price tag read, I knew that I had to have it.

It's hideous. A garish pattern with colors not found in nature. It's a three-button pullover shirt made of, I'm guessing, recycled vinyl picnic bench tablecloths. It's the only thing to make me glad I'm mildly colorblind.

And it's all mine.

If you are planning on eating, you may want to look away. Here's a closeup:

And the best part is that at one point, in some thankfully bygone era, this was actually intended to be worn.

In public.

By people.

On purpose.

The next time some codger (besides me, of course) waxes nostalgic about "the good old days," show them the shirt and pummle them.