I am sitting outside in the grass during my lunch hour. The weather is picture perfect as far as I’m concerned: sunny, blue sky with puffy clouds and a pretty good breeze to keep the air fairly dry. Bill Gates once remarked that the default desktop background on Windows XP (called “Bliss”) was inspired by sitting and watching the clouds go by. It was one of his favorite activities as a kid. I have to admit that it was one of my favorite activities as a kid as well and doing it during my lunch hour today is making me feel like a kid again.
I’d show you a picture but I’m too comfortable to get up, go to the car, grab the camera and share a shot. So I’m going to keep this one just for me.
And then I’ll probably change my desktop background to the default “Bliss” when I get back to the office.
I have recently given up talking and texting whilst driving. It wasn’t the speeding ticket that prompted this change in attitude (not that I did it that much anyways), rather, it’s just common sense to pay attention to what you’re doing while you’re driving.
That being said, I couldn’t resist taking this photo this morning because I thought it might come out cool. I did all the camera settings before I left for work and then put the camera on timer and set it on the dash. So aside from the quick fiddling of putting the camera on the dash, I paid attention to my driving the entire time.
As a club DJ of nearly 20 years or so, I was a baby DJ when Black Box hit the dance floors with their first hit “Ride On Time”. The track is recognisable to just about anyone that stepped foot in a dance club back in 1990 and is based on samples from the disco hit “Love Sensation” by Loleatta Holloway. The same disco song is sampled in “Good Vibrations” by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch AND “I Don’t Know Anybody Else”, also by the aforementioned Black Box.
Black Box was big on looking good; even though it’s clearly Loleatta’s vocals in the track, they put this waify looking model named Katrin up on stage and had her lip sync the vocals a la Milli Vanilli. Back then, she was claiming to be the vocalist which made DJs and many of the gays rowdy because we all knew better. (By the way, she couldn’t speak English when interviewed after performing the songs). As an added bonus, permission was never obtained to use Loleatta’s vocals on “Ride On Time” and there were many lawsuits. Martha Wash also went through a whole bunch of stuff with Black Box (and C&C Music Factory come to thing about it), because they didn’t credit her for singing leads on just about the entire “Dreamland” album from Black Box and they claimed the waify woman could sing like Martha Wash too. Quick aside, I have met Loleatta in person and she’s fun and I know people that have met Martha and she’s fun too.
Because “Ride On Time” was such a good track, they re-recorded it with Heather Small (from the group “M-People” and then later her solo hit “Proud”) with just a hint of Loleatta’s sample (after she was properly paid) underneath the vocals to keep it familiar. When all was said and done, Martha Wash was paid and recognized for her work as well.
Anyways, I occasionally enjoy listening to some of these old tracks by watching the videos on YouTube and I still get angry at that fake singer up on stage claiming to be Loleatta/Martha/Heather, depending on the song. So then I write a snarky comment down where you’re allowed to do such things and then I move to a different video and my slight bit of anger subsides. I know it’s been 20 years, but deception doesn’t age well.
Moral of this story? Be real.
Here’s the re-released version with Heather Small on vocals and that waify bitch faking the whole thing. By the way, many claim that the waify bitch was first a man and then became a woman, and while I could see that, a transsexual operation would be too good for her.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
