Song Typecasting

Ok, so pop quiz to start off the day.

What's the first thought that pops into your head whenever you hear the Simple Minds song

"Don't You (forget about me)"

If you said "Breakfast Club" you're probably not alone. Here are some easier ones, "Circle of Life" by Elton John, "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, "I'm Alright" by Kenny Loggins.

So I'm driving down the freeway and this Aerosmith song comes on...

I could stay awake just to hear you breathing.
Watch you smile while you are sleeping.
While you're far away dreaming.
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure
Don't want to close my eyes I don't want to fall asleep
Cause I'd miss you baby And I don't want to miss a thing

I can't listen to that bloody song without picturing Liv Tyler kissing Ben Affleck in Armageddon. Don't get me wrong Liv Tyler is hot but not when she's kissing Ben, ughhh.

So it got me to thinking how some songs are forever tied to a specific movie or television show. Of course many of these were written specifically for the movie soundtracks but some were recorded long before. Two examples of this; "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John. I can't hear that without immediately thinking about the incredible scene from Almost Famous and "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison, Julia Roberts shopping scene.

However, it goes even farther than this. Certain songs bring immediate emotional responses and it can be months or years and memories seem to pop to life.

A few examples from my own personal collection in chronological order. Some are entire albums some are just songs that I heard at certain moments.

• "Annie's Song" John Denver -- Anytime I hear any JD I think of my mom, who really loves his music and hooked me on many of his hits. This was also my first ever concert and we had seats way up high. I can still see him sitting on stage playing.
• "I Got A Name" Jim Croce -- My dad had many JC albums and somehow I ended up with them and this song specifically takes me back to many summers at his place.
• "Greased Lightnin" Soundtrack -- I think this was the first Album I actually owned myself. My grandmother's neighbor was a friend of mine and he and I played this album about a hundred times one summer.
• "Games People Play" Alan Parsons Project -- Middle School dance kissing in the corner. I was soooo cool.
  
• "I Love Rock and Roll" Joan Jett -- Local pizza joint had this on the jukebox, number 278. Once we even played it 11 times in a row before the manager made us stop.
• "Synchronicity" The Police -- My buddy Jon loved this album and I think of him every time I hear it.
• "Rock and Soul Part 1" Hall and Oates -- First cassette I had for my killer walkman. I played this whenever I hauled firewood. Don't ask, I'm so ashamed.
• "1984" Van Halen -- I played this cassette until the words rubbed off. My buddy Shawn had a car with a tape deck before anyone else.
• "Like a Virgin" Madonna -- Typing class I specifically remember bringing in this tape to impress a girl, needless to say it didn't work.
• "You Give Love a Bad Name" Bon Jovi -- One of the first concerts I attended without my parents and I can still picture the crowd and Jon singing this on stage.
• "Gypsy Road" Cinderella -- My first girlfriend and I listened to that song about a gazillion times driving around in her blue Chevy Cavalier.
• "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" Red Hot Chili Peppers -- I spent a summer house sitting for a friend and this was one of the only albums he had that wasn't Grateful Dead. Wow we had some fun in that house and sorry if we blew your speakers.
• "Five Days in July" Blue Rodeo -- This whole album is one I love to hate, my first wife loved these guys and this album. For some reason I kept this CD after the divorce and I can't hear these songs without thinking about California.
• "You Oughta Know" Alanis Morrisette -- My first date after the breakup was at a Hollywood club called the Viper Room just days before River Phoenix died outside and I remember dancing to this song at the bar.
• "Alive" Edwin McCain -- I vividly recall watching this video on MTV and immediately going out to buy it. Since then he has released 6 more albums and remains as one of my all time musicians. Check out his site HERE.
• "Mo Money Mo Problems" Notorious BIG I don't remember much about my stint in Sioux Falls except that this song was constantly played at the dance clubs. Ahhh, the many nights at JAMZ.

Last but not least I couldn't forget to mention my wedding song, which I now try to sing on the PS2 Karaoke Revolution, very scary.

"I'll Be" Edwin McCain -- Probably the only song from Edwin that most people immediately know and I'm sure this song is the START of somebody's emotional song list.

Green Eggs and Cubes

Press photo by Eric Braem Cordell Melgaard practices his talent Tuesday evening for the Steele County Fair Talent Show. Melgaard entered the open class of the annual talent show with his talent of solving his Rubik’s Cube while standing on one foot and reciting “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss — all in three minutes.

The Owatonna People's Press interviewed me recently for my apparent "talent". Here is a snippet of the article. A Big THANKS to Becky Moore and everyone at the People's Press.

Finding Talent in a Cube

Story by Becky Moore

By opening day of the Steele County Free Fair, Cordell Melgaard still didn't know what pair of shoes he was going to wear to his debut at the Steele County Free Fair Talent Show.

"I haven't factored in the wind yet either," he said.

Why would any of this matter?

Because Melgaard is putting a new spin on talent this year. For the annual talent show, Melgaard plans to solve the Rubik's Cube in three minutes, while standing on one foot and reciting Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham."

You can read the full story HERE


As Promised, Here is the YouTube video of my performance, ENJOY!

Talent Show Results

The Talent Show is Over

And Sadly I Didn't Win
The Cube Is Now Retired
Time to Take the Yo-Yo for a Spin

A big THANKS to everyone that came out last night to see the show. There were some great performances. Nate and Nick Chesney won first place for their awesome acoustic guitar playing and Micheal J Bolton took the runner up spot for his killer beatbox performance.

So you may be wondering where the YouTube video is?

Well, I need to get the video copied over to the computer and then I will post the link here.

Congratulations to the winners and we will see everyone next year at the fair.

Talent Show Rescheduled--Monday 7pm HS

Rained OUT!

Thanks to everyone trying to brave the rain to see the talent show :(

I would love to see everyone come out on Monday night, 7pm at the High School Auditorium.

The Dream is Still Alive!

Only 38 More Days and We Will Need an Ark

Wow, we seriously got some rain the last 2 days, with no end in sight. Here is the latest radar picture for Southern MN. Looks to be a soggy day at the fair for the talent show :(

Ohh well, the show must go on. Nine hours and counting, tick tock, tick tock.

EDIT: Only two hours to go and the radar doesn't look much better, yuck. The official total was 7 to 8 inches of rain in the Southern Metro in less than 24 hours.

What Do These Events All Have in Common?

So, some television history was made recently which doesn't appear to be getting much press but I think it's more significant than most people realize. But first, let's start with a pop quiz.

What do the following events have in common?

• Cliff and Clair Huxtable share a dance and a final bow to the audience.
• Sam Malone locks up the bar and says "Sorry We're Closed" to the final customer.
• Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer share one last moment together in a jail cell.
• Six friends all leave their apartment keys and head down for one last cup of coffee.
  

Here are a few of the many correct answers.

1. All of them are related to television shows on NBC
2. All of them are related to final episodes
3. All of them were on Thursday nights
4. Jennifer Aniston was hot, ok so that only applies to one of them, who cares it's my blog.

Yes, all of the above are true but there is one other commonality.

5. All of them were filmed before LIVE studio audiences

So what's the connection to the recent television event?

Last Thursday, in a total ratings move, FOX decided to air a meaningless NFL preseason football game instead of the regularly scheduled "So You Think You Can Dance" results show. In an effort to give the participants enough time to practice the new dances they continued to film the show on Thursday night however in front of the LIVE studio audience. FOX then decides to wait until Monday night to actually broadcast the show.

Simply the sheer fact you reading this blog right now proves that any schmuck with a computer and an internet connection can have their opinions, thoughts, humorous anecdotes and even their television reviews spread across the digital highway in a matter of minutes.

So how did FOX respond to this imminent information leak of their precious results show?

The entire studio audience was all kicked out before revealing the votes.

That's right, the host of the show Cat Deeley comes onstage and announces the "bad news" for everyone seated in the theatre.
"In order to preserve the integrity and suspense"...blah blah blah "we are asking for everyone to please leave the theatre"

She should have just said, "The asinine management at FOX have decided to broadcast football instead of our show and in order to protect our ratings on Monday night everyone needs to leave immediately" cuz you know that's what she was thinking. Brits don't watch American football anyway.

This could be the beginning of the end of LIVE studio audience entirely. With more and more personal blogs, forums and MySpace pages out there, it will continue to be impossible for the networks to keep anything locked down.

Sad :( Long live the laugh track.

For All the Band Geeks Out There

So, I thought I would post this video for all the band geeks I hung out with last weekend. You know who you are. :) Enjoy !

It Just Won't Die

So, I recently attended a class reunion and being the tech guy I am, one of the best stories of the weekend came from your average stay at home mom computer user.

First of all I could immediately tell from her tone and passion that she is one of those people that has very little time between pumping her breasts and changing diapers to be messing with trying to "fix the damn computer".

I would bet that Email and maybe an occasional Amazon purchase are the only thing keeping her from just cutting the cord entirely.

Typically once I tell people I work as a software support engineer I get one of four reactions.

1. Huh?
2. Wow, that's cool I work as a _______________ (fill in the blank with random techie job)
3. Hey can I get your email address in case I have some questions?
4. Ohh really, I hate those damn things, you know what happened the other day...

Needless to say it was #4 that prompted the following paraphrased story.


"So Cordell I have this Gateway computer that has been giving me problems recently and I was so mad at the thing I threw it down the stairs hoping to get a new one."

At this point I was wondering how she was going to explain that to the tech on the phone but I didn't want to interrupt.

"and do you know what happened, the damn thing survived. I was so mad I decided to pour Lemonade all over it."

I'm fairly certain I was outwardly laughing at this point at the sure uniqueness of dumping Lemonade all over your computer but it continued.

"so I let it sit on there for two days before finally picking it up and dumping it out and I heard this little POP sound. Do you think it's finally dead?"

I was way too amused to offer any honest answer at this point and just smiled and crossed my fingers hoping I hadn't given her my email address yet. :)


It was this conversation which prompted me to think about having computer hardware reliability ratings but not your typical software/hardware ratings but something like frustrated as hell accident ratings in different categories.

• Drop or Throw test
• Spill or Drown test
• Ax or Hammer test
• etc
  

The closest thing I could find were true reliability ratings where IBM and Apple top the list but I am fairly certain they didn't undergo the "single mom test"

I'M BACK and somehow I made the newspaper.

Wow, what a summer so far. Anyone miss me? I know I have neglected the blog for a while, but after two vacations and a corporate acquisition, I'm finally back. I've saved up lots of topics for your reading enjoyment but I thought some of you might want to stop down and see me at the Steele County Free Fair this weekend.

This article mentioning my name recently appeared in the local paper and yes it's all true :)

Don't worry I will post the whole thing to YouTube so you can share with your friends and co-workers but for now here's the snippet from the article mentioning my act.

The most unique act ever

The Owatonna People's Press Amateur Talent Show is one of the most popular events held on stage at the Steele County Free Fair. Over the years we've had a wide variety of singers, dancers, and instrumentalists.

This year, one of the most unique acts we've ever had has signed up for the show. Cordell Melgaard of Owatonna sent in his entry describing his talent as "in less than three minutes, while standing on one foot, I will completely solve my Rubik's Cube and entirely recite the words to 'Green Eggs and Ham' by Dr. Seuss."

I can't wait to see this one. The show takes place at 3:15 p.m. on Sunday afternoon in Fair Square Park. Entry forms for the show are available at the People's Press office, on the fair Web site and at the fair office