I was watching VH-1 Classic the other night, top 100 songs of the 1980′s.  You just know I was in heaven.  I heard songs I had not even thought about in 20 years.  I also learned some interesting stuff.  Like, who knew Andrew Ridgely of WHAM was straight?  I thought he was gayer than anything – not that there’s anything wrong with that.  But really, he’s married to one of the chicks from Bananarama!  Oh, and Bananarama – remember “Cruel Summer”?  They were all pretty hot back then, still not bad looking, just older.  Which brings me to The Bangles.  Back when they were big, everybody thought Susanna Hoffs was this goddess – and she was goodlooking – but I always thought Vicki Peterson was sexier because she could play a mean guitar.  She was the true rocker in that group.  Michael Steele, she hasn’t changed, still looks that same.  I’ve always had a thing for statuesque redheads, and she was a one-time member of The Runaways, so that counts for something.  The Runaways were just ahead of their time – they’d make a fortune today.  The lineup consisted of Lita Ford (extremely hot in her day), Joan Jett (kick-ass rocker), Cherie Currie (whatever happened to her), drummer Sandy West (died of cancer in 2006) and bassist Vicki Blue (before Michael Steele).  They were all attractive, and their pop-punk sound was certainly better than Avril Lavigne.  The Go-Go’s made the list too, I loved them.  And Styx and Journey. . . . Oh, but what the “f”, the Styx song they chose as one of the top hits of the 80′s was Mr. Roboto.  I HATE that song.  Dennis DeYoung is from another planet, I swear.  And he may be married, but he is obviously in denial, that boy is GAY – how else can you explain his obsession with theatre. He went through this long explanation of Mr. Roboto about how it’s about the U.S. in the future and these robots come over from Japan and take over the country and everybody is enslaved, except for this one guy who gets away, but then he’s captured and put in jail, and then tries to get out, and . . . .  Geez, the explaination is longer than the damn song, and I know that all of that is not in the lyrics to the song. Only the song writer would know the whole story, and that doesn’t matter to the person who just hears the song on the radio.  No wonder Tommy and J.Y. thought he was bonkers. 

Kinda stream of consciousness today.  How about this mine shit in Utah?  You just knew someone was going to try to hang this one on George W.  Some bitch who lost her husband in the Sago mine tragedy in W. Virgina said Bush was responsible for her husband’s death and the accident in Utah because he took out a lot of laws that were designed to ensure safety in the workplace.  Uh, what laws were those.  It wouldn’t have made any sense to ask her, because she wouldn’t have known – she was just parrotting whatever the union told her to say.  Her husband was union, so she’s union, and unions support democrats not repubicans, so Bush is bad.  Sad really how lacking in intelligence certain people are in a country where quality education is readily available.  There’s no excuse for ignorance – it’s just plain laziness on their part.  If those guys are still alive, you just know they have to be bored out of their minds.  From what I understand, they have food and water available for a few days, so if they can get a hole big enough, they can lower food and water.  How about some light and a Judith Krantz novel for God’s sake.  They’ve been in the dark (I assume) for all this time and only their co-workers to talk with.  I also assume that by this point they’ve talked about just about everything and they’re into discussions about the meaning of life.  Even that gets dull after a while.

Meanwhile, Global Warming marches on.  It was 130 degrees in the shade yesterday (well, maybe not quite that hot) and it’s supposed to stay that way for the next couple of weeks.  Okay, so it’s hot for a couple of weeks.  What I want to know is where this flooding of New York and stuff is – yeah, yeah I know that had a big downpour yesterday that flooded a lot of stuff, but I’m talking 3rd floor of the Empire State building flooding like there was in the movie.  Actually, I’d like to see that.  New York flooded like that.  I mean I don’t want anyone to get killed or anything, but it would be fascinating to see the biggest city in the U.S. under several feet of water.  Of course, there are the inevitable consequences.  It would kill the U.S. economy.  Just think how bad it was after 9-11, and that was just a few buildings.  In my scenario, Wall Street would be under water.  It’s crazy how perception can bring down economies.  What did we really lose in 9-11?  Some building and a lot of people, but no one really lost money in the actual event except United and American airlines who lost some assets worth a few million dollars and the property owners of the World Trade Center complex.  And I’m sure those companies were all insured against loss.  Then there were the families who lost loved ones and their incomes, so there was some financial loss to those folks, but in the grand scheme of things, on a purely monetary basis, there was not much loss.  Yet the economic impact was huge – for the airlines, travel industry and financial sector.  Flooding NY would have a similar effect, though real dollar loss, with the exception of property owners would be minimal.  That’s what’s killing New Orleans now.  Real money loss is negligible.  Sure some property owners are taking a hit because insurance companies won’t pay up.  Hey, guys it’s not the property owners’ fault that you decided to underwrite the paper.  The risk was clear, so now you owe these folks their money!  True, you’re not responsible for the flooding, but when a guy’s roof blows off, you can’t blame that on the flood waters.  And hows about the payout for those that purchased federally subsidized flood insurance?  But otherwise this might turn out better than break-even.  As politically incorrect as it is, the facts are the facts.  The poor in New Orleans were a financial drag on the city.  From subsidized housing to extra police protection, the poor were taking out more than they were putting in.   As it currently stands, the damage in the 9th ward and adjacent areas cannot be repaired.  The city needs to go in with bulldozers and completely level the entire area.  It’s infested with vermin of all kinds and the only way to get rid of all that is to scrape it down to bare dirt.  Then rebuilding can start in earnest.  Replace what was there with mixed income housing, so you don’t have the poor all centered in one place.  You want to talk about socio-economic apartheid – that’s what DID exist there before the storm, I’m talking about eliminating that.  And with the prospect of developers being able to actually make some money, they would likely be interested in investing in rebuilding.  But as it stands, tourism is down and now the city is losing real money – not from the storm, but from perception.  Not that I expect the current leadership to be of any use.  Nagin is a craven politician interested in nothing other than maintaining his hold on power and the perks that come with it.  At the state level, Kathleen Blanco is totally incompetent and overmatched.  To see her on TV she always looks like she’s overwhemed and on the verge of losing it.  It would not surprise me to see her break down a cry on TV.  She’s nothing more than a figurehead anyway.  Her husband, Ray, pulls her strings and anyone who knows Ray Blanco, well, if I had to choose between Kim Jong Il and Ray Blanco, I think Kim is a little less dangerous.

It must be just me, because the more I see of Victoria Beckham, the more I’m digging that look.  Everybody else seems to hate the woman, and if I really knew her, I probably would too, because shallow bitches with attitudes really piss me off, but since all I see of her are her T&A – oh and legs, I gotta say . . .  just WOW!  Hee-hee, I’m just thinking about what her son is going to have face in a few years.  He’ll be hanging out with his high-school buddies and one of them – and you know it’ll be the dorkiest one – will say, “Hey Brooklyn (no, seriously that’s his name), you’re Mom’s really pretty.” Ah the trials of having a sex symbol for a mom.  I guess it’s better than what Frances Bean Cobain is having to go through now.  Jesus, is that family screwed up.  Ozzy Osbourne’s family looks almost normal in comparison.

Okay, I hinted at this week’s website.

Website of the week: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7sK3AqFYAWQ