Observations From The Forefront-January

Beaker Street

It's a long running and perhaps the last album originated rock show hosted by Clyde Clifford. It's best known as that strange show that I came across back in the mid 70s looking for decent music on the AM side, back when AM radio was playing music and not right wing rhetoric. However the show has survived on Arkansas FM rock stations up till the announcement that The Point has canceled the show due to not enough sponsorship. Or ratings. Nevertheless, there has been a Facebook site dedicated to get Clyde Clifford over to another willing station.

A long time ago, I went to junior college to break into the broadcasting field and hopefully some day become a disc jockey and play music along the lines of Beaker Street but since everything is corporate or robot radio I'd be starving in the streets. I have no faith in the new music anymore but I do hope that Clyde Clifford and Beaker Street will survive after his last broadcast on the Point on the first Sunday night of February.

Another reason why I like Clyde Clifford and Beaker Street..Every request that I sent to him he played it. Even Master Of The Universe by Hawkwind.

THE RATING SYSTEM

For a unpromoted blog such as The Thoughts Of R Smith, I seem to do very well with the folks from Denmark and The Netherlands coming in at 2 and 3 on a regular basis. Some day I would love to visit Amsterdam and see the happenings but with music and radio I was born too late. Would have been great to see it in the happening 60's. I thought about changing this to The Thoughts of Crabby, since I'm better known as Crabby in other music chats but since I'm too used to posting here, it will remain the same. Looking at the most popular blogs that I have done, can't complain about The Best CDs of 2010 but 2 and 3, I don't understand the popularity of those.


WHY I HAVEN'T BEEN POSTING ON MULTIPLY

Not much activity going on over there, especially on the last few postings. When MSN Groups shut down the original place I posted, I lost a lotta funny stuff over there and moving to My Space for a couple years was fun but every other month they changed the format and it was harder to access everything. The new My Space sucks, it's cumbersome and can't wait for the day it shuts down but then what I posted will be lost forever too. So I alternated between here and Multiply the last couple years. I still get the 5 or 6 dedicated followers over there so I added a link to over here. Even though I encouraged folk to take over a week to post a top ten or comment on things, I didn't get much back in return so even though it's not shut down over there, I just haven't been over there as much to post.


BARGAIN HUNTING FOR STUFF IN THE WINTER

It's always weather permitting and once the snows hit and stay on the ground I usually hang around Half Priced Books or Goodwill in town. I have tried to go to Dubuque but every time I think I can make it up there, we get a winter storm that makes the roads slippery to get there and The Que City has lots of hills to contend with. And it's snowing once again today so If I get up there it will probably be in February, or March or when my mechanic will get the brakeline fixed on the gray car....

Finally...

The comment posting. I can't believe how much spam we get in Blogspot for even such a unknown site such as mine. I seem to get the same ones for Jock Itch Jam and they got a link to Viagra or something other although I was tempted to post the link for that Russian fashion site.

But I do read and approve the ones not spam. And of course it made my night reading a comment from Brooksie. She had some great top tens posted on her own from the old MSN Groups years as well as My Space. We traded music from time to time and must say that her postings did top some of my own with some of the way out stuff she was into to which i posted one of her old top tens for proof. It's still remains a big event when we hear from her. Maybe some day I'll get her to do a guest top ten for old time's sake.


NEW MUSIC.

Nothing right now worth getting. I got March penciled in for the new New York Dolls and I'm sure there's a couple things that might stand out but in reality I do have enough stuff to listen to.