Two weeks ago in my “Random Friday Thoughts”, I jokingly posted about breaking up with winter because summer is hotter!
It snowed earlier this week here in Central Illinois!!! That’s what I get! 🙂
Oh, if winter looked like this in the real world, I’d be all for it twelve months a year!
Thanks Gus (Kenworthy) for making my day!
And, thank you for taking the time to check out my thoughts this week! (Oh, apologies to the uninitiated to my blog about the pictures above, but my thoughts are really random!)
REMEMBERING WALTER MONDALE
Earlier this week, the world lost a great man when former Vice President Walter Mondale passed away at the age of 93.
Before become President Jimmy Carter’s vice president from 1977-1981 and running as the Democratic nominee for President in 1984, he served as the U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1964-1976.
Here are some interesting facts from Jonathan Alder’s 2020 book, “HIS VERY BEST, JIMMY CARTER, A LIFE”:
President Carter changed the role of Vice President. Before Carter, it was basically a useless role — other than becoming the leader of the free world in the case of the president died or became incapacitated.
But, Carter made Vice President Walter Mondale’s role real. He invited him into meetings, gave him real responsibilities, and valued his opinions.
At a farewell dinner before President Carter left office in 1981, Mondale said, “Never once did you put me down. Never once did you fail to treat me with dignity.” He made a toast and added, “We told the truth. We obeyed the law. We kept the peace.”
AND, ON A MORE INFAMOUS NOTE…
While on a high school trip to Washington D.C., future serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer called the White House and talked his way into a tour and met Vice President Mondale!
AMERICA, GET ON WITH YOUR BAD SELF!
Even though thousands are still being diagnosed with COVID-19 daily in America and the death toll continues to rise, more and more of us are fully vaccinated!
In the U.S., 26.7% of us are fully vaccinated! That’s slightly more than one-in-four!
In Illinois, we’re at 26.9% and up to 43.3% for those with at least one shot.
While this is great news, I personally feel that some are getting a little too comfortable a little too soon. However, I’m happy to see things moving toward the “new normal”.
With that being said, more and more artists are announcing fall 2021 tour dates.
In the past few weeks, Eric Church, Kane Brown, Andrea Bocelli, and Sammy Hagar announced new tour dates and Elton John and James Taylor posted new dates for their previously postponed tours.
Meanwhile, last week, Reba postponed her 2021 road concerts to 2022 and Michael Buble did the same for his 2021 U.K. dates.
I’m still waiting for Kylie Minogue to announce dates for her late 2020 critically acclaimed album, “Disco”. As I said before, she’s at the top of my concert “bucket list” and I want to see her in some foreign city!
Call it wanderlust!
How comfortable are you attending concerts with 100% capacity later this year?
I’m ready for us to safely travel again. However, it may still be a while for international travel.
At this point, only 2.8% of the world is fully vaccinated!
REBA ANNOUNCEMENT
Oh, back to Reba! When she announced the postponement of her summer arena tour, she also dropped something that made me very happy!
Yes, new music!!!!!
“ARMY OF THE DEAD”
My two most highly anticipated movies this year are “Halloween Kills” (October 15, 2021) and Netflix and Zack Snyder’s “Army of The Dead” (May 21, 2021).
I’m excited for two reasons: (1) it’s about zombies and (2) it’s set in Las Vegas!
Let’s just hope the excitement for me when I visit in June is winning big bucks (or breaking even) — no explosions or zombies, please!
The full trailer is now out and if you love Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler”, take a look and listen!
RIP JIM STEINMAN
Earlier this week, the same day that Vice President Mondale died, the rock music world lost a legendary producer.
Jim Steinman produced some of the biggest hits in pop and rock music including Bonnie Tyler’s four week #1 smash “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in 1983 and Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) in 1993, that topped the charts in 28 countries, including five weeks in the U.S., and Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”, which hit #2 in 1996.
He also wrote and produced my favorite Air Supply song from 1983, “Making Love Out of Nothing At All”. It peaked at #2 for three weeks behind Bonnie Tyler’s “Eclipse”!
“ANOTHER ROUND”
Earlier this week, I checked out the 2020 Danish movie “Druk” (which means “binge drinking”) on Hulu.
While most of you haven’t heard of it, it’s actually nominated for two Oscars this year, including Thomas Vinterberg for Best Director.
My interest in the movie is that it stars Mads Mikkelsen (“Hannibal”).
It’s the story of four high school teachers in Denmark going through mid-life crises.
They decide to do an experiment with alcohol, since a leading psychiatrist believes that an alcohol blood content level of 0.05 makes you more creative and relaxed.
They test the theory and push it to the limits.
While a very interesting movie, I probably wouldn’t watch it again. However, the final scene is amazing!
Spoiler Alert: The captured image above is part of that incredible last scene.
GRADE: B
MORE MADS
If you love Mads Mikkelsen and you’re going through “Hannibal” withdrawals like me, check out “Arctic”, my #9 movie of 2019.
Awesome movie!
THEY SAID WHAT???
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace to Texas Governor Greg Abbott: “There were thousands of complaints of sexual abuse at migrant shelters during the Trump years. Not to say what’s going on now is right, but we couldn’t find one instance of you complaining & calling that out when President Trump was president.”
“ME”
I’ve read several book about and from Elton John, but his 2019 autobiography, “Me”, is by far the best!
I absolutely loved this book and I’d highly recommend it.
I was very intrigued about what he had to say about Michael Jackson (“He was genuinely mentally ill, a disturbing person to be around.”) and Tina Turner.
In 1997, he and Tina had planned to tour together but found her very difficult to work with. His band called her a “f**king nightmare” and Elton agreed!
Elton says she called him at home and told him, “She didn’t like my hair, she didn’t like the color of my piano – which for some reason had to be white – and she didn’t like my clothes.” And, then Elton says, she added, “You wear too much Versace, and it makes you look fat – you need to wear Armani.”
I loved that he and Rod Stewart have female nicknames for each other.
And, I was so touched when he told the story of how he and his husband, David Furnish, met in October 1993. (Elton was feeling down, so he called a friend and said bring others over for a dinner party before they went out to celebrate Halloween. David was one of the people his friend brought along to dinner!)
He and David are now the dads of 10-year-old Zachary and 8-year-old Elijah.
Since I haven’t had a date in more than two years, I should try that when the “new normal” post-pandemic world begins!
Also, I was curious about what he’d have to say about Madonna.
If I recall correctly, Elton mentioned her four times and three were positive. The other time he spoke of Madonna was about his anger toward her and he said he apologized to her!
THE NIGHT I SPENT WITH ELTON JOHN
Ha! That’s just tease writing! I never spent the night with Elton John — just the evening! 🙂
For my birthday weekend in 2012, I had tickets to see Madonna’s “MDNA Tour” in Las Vegas.
Earlier that year, Sir Elton John was forced to cancel nine shows due to health reasons and it was announced in the summer that he would make up those dates in October. But, I didn’t have tickets.
As luck would have it, just hours after arriving in Las Vegas, I searched ebay one last time and found fantastic rear orchestra seats for a great price. And, just like that, two hours later I was sitting there waiting for the show to begin!
I’ve always been a fan of Elton’s from the days of my childhood and his poppy ’70s songs, the fun, yet sometimes, moody hits of the ’80s, the more mature themed music of the ’90s when radio began to move away from playing his new songs (except for “The Lion King” and his tribute to Princess Diana), to his recent adult contemporary fare.
Elton closed out his 19-song set with his award-winning “Circle of Life” from “The Lion King”.
It was two hours of pure gold entertainment!!!
LAST CHANCE TO SEE ELTON
In January 2018, Elton announced his final “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour that would play more than 300 shows worldwide.
The North American leg kicked off that September and ran through March 2019 and then moved to Europe for the summer and then back to North America though November. The show moved “down under” to Australia and New Zealand from late 2019 to March 2020 when COVID-19 shut down the tour and the world!
Dates are now rescheduled and the tour is expected to resume in Europe on September 1, 2021, and return to the U.S. and Canada in January 2022 for 43 shows through April!
MY FAVORITE ELTON JOHN SONGS
On the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., Elton has scored 58 Top 40 hits. Of those, 27 reached the Top 10 with 19 making it to the Top Five. Nine reached #1!
And, he’s had even more hits on the American Adult Contemporary charts. He’s scored 74 Top 40 hits with 40 of them making the Top 10 and 33 of those reaching the Top Five! Eighteen topped the charts!
So, it was so hard narrowing the list down….
“I’M STILL STANDING”
“THE LAST SONG”
“SAD SONGS (SAY SO MUCH)”
“EMPTY GARDEN (HEY HEY JOHNNY)”
“I GUESS THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT THE BLUES”
What’s your favorite Elton song?
If you want to see the full blog and my other 15 favorite Elton John songs, here it is! (It should open in a new window!)
https://anthonypeoples.wordpress.com/2021/04/20/finding-my-next-love-with-help-from-elton-john/
THAT’S IT
With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!
Anthony
What's Peeps Thinking About Now? It's Probably Random! 