To the shore this weekend?

I'll be spending the Labor Day weekend down in Ocean City, Maryland and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Let's hope that the weather will cooperate and Tropical Storm Ernesto won't mess up my beach plans.

This is what Rehoboth Beach looks like when the weather is rough:

She sells synth-pop, the sequel

Three months ago at the beginning of summer, I mentioned about making mix-tapes and mix-CDs featuring early 80s synth-pop and new wave songs and more recent songs that feature that retro-sound for my trips down to the beach, and I ended with a list of 80s new wave songs that make me think of the beach. This time around I thought that I'd do a list of recent songs (from 2000 on) that have that 80s retro sound. Quite a few of the songs here are from the best-known 80s music (and other things) revival scene in the past few years known as Electroclash. Most of the artists of that scene failed to make the crossover onto the mainstream pop charts (at least in the US); maybe their approach was too ironic. Anyhow here's the list:

Kylie Minogue - Can't Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head
Kristine W - Fly Again
Adult. - Hand To Phone (Cordless Mix)
Adult. - Don't Talk (Redux)
Le Tigre - Decaptacon (both album version and DFA remix)
Kelly Osbourne - One Word
Fischerspooner - Emerge (Dave Clark Remix)
Fischerspooner - Never Win
Miss Kitten & The Hacker - Frank Sinatra
Tegan and Sara - Walking With A Ghost
Bloc Party - Banquet (Dance Remix)
Rihanna - SOS
Chicks On Speed - Give Me Back My Man
Chicks On Speed - Fashion Rules! (Alter-Ego Remix)
Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen Shower Scene (Malibu Mix)
Felix Da Housecat - Ready 2 Wear
Dangerous Muse - The Rejection (Eric Kupper Mix)
Scratch Massive - Seeing Is Believing (David Carretta Remix)
Bis - The End Starts Today (Tommie Sunshine's 'Nail Me Down' Glasgow Summer Freestyle Mix)
Bis - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Royksopp - Remind Me (Someone Else's Radio Mix)

And speaking of retro 80s, I'll leave you with the video for Kristine W's "Fly Again." Looks like it ought to be duking it out with the likes of Yaz, Depeche Mode and A Flock Of Seagulls on MTV in 1983, but actually it was filmed in 2003. G*d I miss MTV when they used to play new wave videos...

Ms. and Mr. World Leather

This past weekend the Ms. and Mr. World Leather 2006 contest was held in Philadelphia. It's been the first international leather contest held in the city since it hosted the International Ms. Leather Contest back in 1996. Unfortuneately for me, my allergies were acting up that weekend so I had to miss out on the activities on Friday and Saturday. But I did get myself together on Sunday, drank a couple of Sugar-free Red Bulls (they help perk me up from my allergy haze), and went into town to drop by the Bike Stop where they were holding the Champagne Victory Toast Celebration for the winners. The title for Ms. World has been going for a few years, and this is the first year for the new Mr. World Leather title. The main floor of the bar was crowded for a Sunday evening, with the usual karoke sing-alongs going on that time of evening. I was there for a couple of hours and I had a good time.

Allergies

For just about the past two weeks I've had some really nasty allergies with ragweed season in full blast this month. Headache, runny nose, post-nasal drip, the works. Feeling tired as well. It was pretty bad two weekends ago with high pollen counts in the air. I had a couple of parties to go that weekend, so I went to them allergies be damned and had a good time. Rested a lot otherwise. They weren't as bad last weekend. Had to get some soft tissues since I was blowing my nose so hard with the cheap brand that it was red and raw. Hopefully the worst of it is over now. I hate having allergies. I'm not one who likes being sick. It doesn't fit into my schedule.

Boy does community service

Boy George started his court-ordered community service Monday, sweeping the streets for the NYC Department of Sanitation. He got into a spat with the hordes of surrounding media hounds in less than an hour. "This is supposed to be community service," he argued. "You're just making it a nightmare, which just means it's for the media and not for me." Sanitation department deputy chief Albert Durrell then took the singer off the streets to do sweeping and mopping in a gated Sanitation parking lot, saying he was concerned for everyone's safety.

"Why don't you take a picture it'll last...oh nevermind."

Fighting airpoart security and pushing lip gloss

"When I go to the airport and they try to take my MAC Plushglass away from me, it's going to be World War III!" - comedianne Sandra Bernhard cracks a joke about the new ban on liquids in carry on luggage in airports on Thursday. She uses the occasion to push the latest MAC lip gloss.

A new twist on the John Waters proviso that "crime is beauty?"

In case you're not doing anything this Sunday evening...

The Philadelphians MC Summer Social will be held in the basement of the Bike Stop this Sunday from 6-10pm. I'll be helping out with the 50/50 raffle, so if you're there say hello!

An update on my first blog post

Since today is the first anniversary of my blog, I figured that I'd revisit my first blog post. It was on how drugs have affected certain DJs/producers on the gay circuit scene. This is part of what I wrote:

In the past month a couple of events have shaken the world of dance music. DJ Junior Vasquez said that he had recently recovered from a habit of doing crystal meth for five years. Also DJ Julian Marsh said that he would retire from DJing at the end of this summer. Among the reasons he was doing that was because the dance circuit scene was getting too "dark" and drug-infested (Tina in particular) for him to stomach.

Today Julian Marsh works in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as a real estate agent and a mortgage broker. He also does some web design and computer consulting, which was his job prior to DJing. Even though Julian has retired from DJing, he hasn't completely left the business; he's been doing some producing and remixing for a glam band from New York State called the Atomic Swindlers.

As for Junior, he continues to DJ in NYC and other cities, as well as produce and remix various dance acts. He also spins for XM radio. His latest mix CD, Party Groove: White Party Volume 7, was released on Centaur Records back in Janurary.

One year anniversary

It was one year ago today that I started this blog. So far it's been an interesting journey keeping up with this. Meeting people that I wouldn't have met otherwise if I hadn't been doing this. Getting opprotunities to write elsewhere (and getting paid) because people like what I wrote. Realizing that I can be a good writer around the time I published a long review of Madonna's Confessions on a Dancefloor album back in November. Getting to write about and interview musicians and artists I like and spreading the word on their work.

I have some big plans for this blog in the next couple of months to get a bigger readership. Will let you know when they happen.

I simply want to thank all the people who took the time to read this blog and to leave comments. I appreciate that your taking the time to enjoy what I've written.

Sorry

I want to apologize for not posting for the past week and a half. I got tired of posting pop culture stuff and right now there wasn't a whole lot in my life that wouldn't be worth putting up unless I wanted a blog that had nothing but inane "This is what I had for lunch" posts. Though the family cat had to go to the vet on Tuesday--over the weekend his hind legs were stiff and he was in some pain because of that. His tail wasn't moving; it was like dead weight. He will be turning twelve next month. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong, but he did give the cat a steroid shot. The cat's doing quite better now, back to normal.