Ohhhh, Mercury has been in retrograde. That explains a fuckton.

I’m glad that increased acceptance and understanding of neurodivergence has resulted in it being more accepted for people to wear their big noise-canceling headsets at work. Like me. Cuz I’m neurodivergent. (Also it’s crazy to realize behaviors I’ve had for yrs/decades have reasons behind them!)

It's horrifying to recall that many of us once lived in a world where Steve Winwood was an A-list pop star. *shudders*

@kateyrich.bsky.social now that your former colleagues inevitably won’t, PLEASE bring @joereid.bsky.social onto your pod to do a 2027 Oscars year-in-advance preview!

I find it maddening how often people on text-based socials — & especially this platform — post responses to things without actually saying to what they’re responding (generally in the news). Some of us avoid mainlining current events for mental health reasons. Just a *little* context even?

The fact this is isn't on streaming services should be considered a hate crime. (#2 R&B/#40 pop in early 1983.) I may have more to say about "Put It in a Magazine" soon.

Sonny Charles-1983-Put it in a Magazine

YouTube video by KOUJI328I

youtube.com

The timpani on Larry Levan’s remix of Inner Life’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is one of the greatest sounds in recorded music.

Oh look one of the 5 or 10 greatest singles ever released, hands down.

WHAT A FUCKING RECORD@whatafuckingrecord.bsky.social · 9mo ago

34

200 fucking percent.

J💀n💀@thejono.bsky.social · 9mo ago

> Curve always deserved all the love *and* success that Garbage later got in full.‪ Not enough people say this

Fuck Gavin Newsom. Fuck him, fuck him, fuck him. I will never, ever vote for him. And the institutional Dems had better fucking not even try it.

Louisa@louisathelast.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Here's the thing I will continue saying every time this came up: Kamala Harris did not mention trans people in her campaign. She went out of her way to avoid it. She dodged every question on trans rights. And then she still lost. So what Newsom wants is *open hostility* to trans rights

Happy 35th anniversary to one of the greatest singles of all time.

WHAT A FUCKING RECORD@whatafuckingrecord.bsky.social · 9mo ago

35

Supporting Gavin Newsom in the primary is announcing that you'll step over the dead bodies of trans people and unhoused people to get what you personally want. It's a character defect. We can't be friends.

The best Springsteen single is "One Step Up." I'll fight over this one.

Bruce Springsteen - One Step Up (Official Video)

YouTube video by BruceSpringsteenVEVO

youtube.com

Obv the Grammys are... let's just say the Grammys and roll our eyes. But that said they may have tipped me off to a couple of new-to-me artists this year in their winners, particularly Durand Bernarr, who referred to "butch queen"s in his acceptance speech and may be... pretty great?

Durand Bernarr - “Overqualified” (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by Durand Bernarr

youtube.com

Such, such a superb book. Highly recommended.

Ian Wade@wadeywade.bsky.social · 9mo ago

It’s LGBTQ+ History Month and allow me to recommend my book that’s basically that

The world is a fucking trash fire but as I age I become increasingly convinced that THE RETURN OF THE DURUTTI COLUMN is one of the best albums ever made. (& the expanded edition is even better.)

The Return of the Durutti Column (Expanded & Remastered)

open.spotify.com

Birthday boy Steve Perry is one of the greatest rock singers ever. Journey's GREATEST HITS, currently closing in on 900 weeks on the BILLBOARD 200, is one of the greatest rock comps ever. I wrote this appreciation almost 19 years ago and still love it.

Journey: Greatest Hits, 1989

One of the sturdiest hits comps ever

ohmanchester.substack.com

It's Steven Adler's birthday, and while Guns N' Roses aren't considered hair metal by many now, they certainly arose from that primordial ooze. An appreciation of the genre.

Pour some sugar: the best of hair metal

The best hair metal rules.

ohmanchester.substack.com

If you'd told me a month ago that my most-played song for January 2026 would be a 20-year-old single by Wolf Parade, I would've scoffed and told you how crazy you are. But then Shane and Ilya and Scott and Kip came into my life, and well, everything changed. #heatedrivalry

How is it that this doesn't seem to get credit as, essentially, the first Afrobeats single to make a big splash in the U.S.?

French Montana - Unforgettable ft. Swae Lee

YouTube video by FrenchMontanaVEVO

youtube.com

I just heard part of “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” for the first time and it sounds like nothing so much as “Stuck in the Middle with You.” Unexpected. 🤔

“I went down to the beach and saw Kiki…” I get earwormed with, and listen to this, a minimum of once a week.

WHAT A FUCKING RECORD@whatafuckingrecord.bsky.social · 12mo ago

23

Enya is pretty goth. & this is one of my favorite cold-season albums. #NowPlaying #CDFriday (it’s Friday where Enya lives)

I know that schmaltzy Cliff 🎄 records are practically a genre unto themselves these days, but I’ll always love this one.

WHAT A FUCKING RECORD@whatafuckingrecord.bsky.social · 12mo ago

37 🎄

You mean there are people who *don’t* frequently get earwormed with Madonna’s Live Aid performance of “Into the Groove”?

Madonna - Into The Groove (Live Aid 1985)

YouTube video by Live Aid

youtu.be

If you'd like to see something that will -- or should -- bring you happy tears today, watch this. I don't care about the Emmys, but I definitely care about Jeff Hiller and SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE, which will eventually be considered a classic.

Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series: 77th Emmy Awards

YouTube video by Television Academy

youtube.com

Oh, my god. THIS is the kind of queer art we need now. My kingdom to see this performed.

FIGARO/FAGGOTS - Baryshnikov Arts

Based on the Novel Faggots and Other Literary Works by Larry Kramer. Inspired by the Opera Le Nozze di Figaro by W.A. Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte

baryshnikovarts.org

I was listening to an old Casey Kasem American Top 40 (I find this soothing these days) from 1985 where he told the story of Wendy Carlos, who scored The Shining and Tron, and her journey to becoming trans. Casey got all the pronouns right and it was presented as a slice of life, feel good story

Alex Zalben@azalben.bsky.social · last yr.

Cool tip: it actually takes MORE effort to deliberately misgender someone AND it marks you as a total asshole! Pretty cool!

#CDFriday thanks to Wall of Sound in Seattle. $1! This was the first place I — and I suspect many Americans — first heard “Unfinished Sympathy.”

Oh no, let's go: the charts of the summer of '84 were a *time*.

Pop Top 40: Hot 100, week ending 9/1/84

The good stuff is great, but the bad stuff...

ohmanchester.substack.com