What's on my iPod?

Time for a little fun...

I just wanted to share my list of songs that I've been listening to for the past few months. Most of my favorite musicians are working on their "own terms"...meaning that they're taking a long break. Aside from the latest Daryl Hall album "Laughing Down Crying" (which is one of his best solo efforts since the 1993 album "Soul Alone"), there really isn't a whole lot going on from some of the veterans of the 1970s or 1980s. Even at my seasoned age of 45, I still listen to a lot of today's music via Top 40/hit radio. Let's face it...a good song is a good song, no matter who sings it or what genre it comes from.

Take a look at the list below...it's the result of missing a lot of my favorite acts of the 1970s and 1980s. It might just surprise you!

Maroon 5/Christina Aguilera - "Moves Like Jagger" (never was a Maroon 5 fan, but this song smelled like a hit the moment it hit the radio airwaves...got a great hook from beginning to end)
Katy Perry - "California Gurls" [No Rap Version]
Guy Sebastian featuring Eve - "Who's That Girl"
Ke$ha - "Take It Off"
JTX - "Love In America"
Selena Gomez & The Scene - "Love You Like A Love Song"
Taio Cruz - "Dynamite"
Jessie J - "Domino"
LMFAO - "Party Rock Anthem"
Britney Spears - "I Wanna Go"
The Black Eyed Peas - "The Time (Dirty Bit)"
Cobra Starship featuring Sabi - "You Make Me Feel..."
Katy Perry - "Teenage Dream"
Enrique Iglesias - "Tonight" (uncensored version)
Afrojack featuring Eva Simons - "Take Over Control"
Ke$ha - "We R Who We R"
Usher featuring Pitbull - "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love"
Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull - "On The Floor"
Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer - "Give Me Everything"
Nicole Scherzinger - "Don't Hold Your Breath" (Kat Crazy Remix)
Ke$ha - "Blow"
LMFAO - "Sexy And I Know It"
Katy Perry - "Firework"
Foster The People - "Pumped Up Kicks"
Jennifer Lopez - "Papi"
Aloe Blacc - "I Need A Dollar" (this seems like the oddball of the bunch, but I just began hearing this on the radio recently and it reminded me of those classic Bill Withers songs like "Ain't No Sunshine")
Rhianna - "We Found Love"
Lady Gaga - "You And I" [Danny Verde Remix]
Katy Perry - "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" [Almighty Club Mix]

Time to complain...but will it work?

So I understand that when you direct your complaints and concerns to Twitter, usually the problems are taken care of rather quickly on the corporate end so that a problem doesn't become "viral" as they say in today's techno-geek language. Well, I had a legitimate criticism of one company that unfortunately is falling on deaf ears and it is my hope that perhaps the "corporate suits" will finally hear about it.

I recently got in touch with Domino's Pizza through their website and had nothing but praise for them. After all, I spent the summers and winters of 1987-1989 delivering those pies in Medford, NJ to offset my college tuition. Through that experience, I became a huge fan of Domino's Pizza.

In May 1988, I decided to return to Domino's Pizza to work for the summer. Two weeks removed from a very bad car accident, I wanted to drive again, listen to the radio, scarf down some pizza, make money, etc. Six days a week during that summer, I worked my ass off, sometimes going overtime, but all in all I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, despite having a rough few months in college prior to the accident. And on my days off, I would head to the Jersey shore, whether it was Seaside Heights, Long Beach Island or Wildwood...I had that luxury to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Moving on, my life took me through different phases and turns throughout the 1990s and 2000s. But I never lost my love for the brand of pizza that helped me through the late 1980s.

That brings me to my point and it pains me to explain it, but here goes.

I always found it a sticking point and yes, I can be a bit critical on my opinion of it, but when I came back to Domino's Pizza in May 1988, I noticed that something had slightly changed from the last time I was there. They replaced the big bulky brick ovens in favor of the conveyor belt ovens. The reasoning behind this was that it produced pizzas much quicker and less chances of being in the oven too long for the pies to burn. Great for the drivers and the store because it reduced the amount of late delivery guarantees the company had to pay out. It was also good for the consumer because they could literally have a couple of pizzas delivered to them within 10 to 15 minutes and not cut close to 30 minutes or beyond. However, the disadvantage of those "conveyor belt" pies was that the texture of each bite you would take had changed. No longer as crispy as they used to be, they were more chewy, almost like biting into cardboard. I was able to look past that for over 23 years and still enjoyed what Domino's Pizza had to offer.

Fast forward to the present day, I saw that Domino's were going back to the people and asking them how to make their pizza better. The TV commercials had you believe that one person's opinion mattered when it came to taste, quality, service, etc. So yes, I went to Domino's website and explained everything here on this blog and how I was impressed that they were willing to listen to what their customers had to say. I even explained to them, respectfully, that in order to improve on their pizza, I told them of the scenario on how brick oven baked pizzas are so much better than conveyor belt baked pies.

This is what Domino's Pizza had to say about my idea:


Mel,

Thank you for taking the time to contact the Domino's Pizza Customer Care Team.

You recently submitted an idea to Domino's Pizza LLC or one of its affiliated companies. While we appreciate your interest in Domino's Pizza, we have a company policy not to accept, consider or review unsolicited ideas or suggestions. As we are sure you can understand we have adopted this policy for legal reasons to avoid confusion or misunderstanding regarding the ownership of an idea or submission. Therefore, your idea has not been forwarded or retained.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us and for understanding the need for our policy. We appreciate your interest and enthusiasm and hope Domino's Pizza can continue to serve you as a loyal customer.


Most sincerely,

Tesia
Domino's Pizza Customer Care


Can you believe that shit? I mean, wow...I never felt so blown off like I was from that e-mail. Any faith I had in Domino's Pizza customer care was shot down the toilet. So you mean to tell me that those TV commercials on how to make a better pizza was all a bunch of bull? Needless to say, I was disappointed with Domino's and their terse response to my suggestion, when their TV commercials had said that if you had anything that could improve on your experience with them, let them know. Well, I did and basically they told me to drop dead.

I hope you can repost this so that others can learn that the corporate suits will turn a deaf ear to the consumer because if it didn't come from them, your idea is no good with them. What a shame...that's almost like being a fan of Bon Jovi only to find out that when meeting the guy, he's really a fucking dick.

Now when I think of Domino's Pizza, my stomach gets that rumbling. However, it isn't from hunger, but from the uneasy feeling I got from the company that I had truly enjoyed for many years and how I ended up being crapped on just to give my honest suggestion. I even took my issue to Domino's account on Twitter, hoping that someone there would listen, and they did for a little bit until I explained the e-mail that I had sent.

Domino's Pizza on Twitter then blew me off...just like the e-mail from their customer care department did.

Has it been 25 years already?

This past weekend, I got a chance to step back in time to 1984. Now before you think I'm writing about some science fiction time travel story, this required no machine nor some scientific anomaly to make this possible. It was the long anticpated reunion for the Cherry Hill High School West Class Of 1984 and one that myself along with other fellow classmates who attended will not soon forget.

Some time ago, I joined Facebook, but it was only last November that my old classmates from high school started to find me. With one friend after another, I was quickly racking them up in my friend count. But I didn't want to just add them on as friends just for the sake of it. Rather, I wanted to get a glimpse of their current lives through pictures, postings, stories, etc. But one thing many of us were discussing was the forthcoming year of 2009...the year that marks our 25th anniversary since graduating high school. And with that being said, myself and my classmates can't hide the fact that we share one thing...we're all over 40 years old and darn proud of it!

For many of us, #25 was a significant number and one that I believe was a no-brainer...we had to get together for one big blowout of a reunion. Suddenly, the anticipation began as soon as the new year hit. We talked about plans to set aside the last weekend in May to accomodate the event. We talked about how it was going to go down, where it should be held and to find the other classmates who may not have heard about it and the personal steps we were taking to better our health and try to look our best!

Of course not everyone would be able to attend. Some lived very far from Cherry Hill, NJ while others had other plans that prevented them from attending. For those who couldn't make it, I'm sure you were there in spirit as many of us were thinking about you. A classmate named Jeff that I knew since elementary school was unable to make the reunion, however he had a great idea and put together a small gathering at Kaminski's on Brace Road for the day prior to the event. For me, I had to scramble around and make sure I got out of work at 5 p.m. that Friday to zip on down the New Jersey Turnpike from Bergen County all the way down to Camden County. After a quick bite, I headed to Kaminski's and wandered around for about 5 minutes. For a brief moment, I thought 2 things...I was either at the right place, wrong time or I got there way too early. As I stared up the flat screen TV's watching the Philadelphia Phillies put an early beating on the Washington Nationals, someone shouted out my name. I approached the table and saw 4 guys...Jeff, Barry, Eric and Jay. Suddenly, the smile on my face was for the moment stuck with me through the weekend. We all talked about old times, things we're doing now, etc. In that brief moment, we all thought a few others would later join us for a total of approximately 10, however much to our surprise, a total of approximately 40 of our classmates showed up for the mini-reunion! The moment for me was surreal...I saw former classmates I hadn't seen in nearly 25 years. For those few hours, we talked and celebrated our 25th year since high school graduation. We truly believed we were in the year 1984!

Saturday finally arrived. I barely even had a chance to sleep due to the excitement surrounding the reunion later that evening. In the past, our class had a 10 year reunion at a country club in 1994 and the 20 year reunion at a hotel in 2004. Both were good events, however many of us thought a nice relaxed casual atmosphere would be best suited for a monumental occasion. Steve and Gillian, who were our class leaders and arranged the previous reunions, did not disappoint this year. It was held at P.J. Whelihan's in Cherry Hill and it was beyond perfect. From the moment I walked in there, it was magical, yet surreal. We had a room all to ourselves for the better part of the evening. There were so many familiar faces that my head was turning left and right for most of the night because I was afraid I would miss someone. Classmates I hadn't seen in so long talked about how it was just an amazing experience to be there reminisce about good times from the days we were growing up from grammar school all the way to our senior year in high school. We talked about the field trips, the practical jokes, the stunts that even our teachers participated in and countless other stories too numerous to mention. In the end, we all celebrated our time together and the memories we all shared that will carry with us for a long time. Again, for that evening, it was 1984 all over again.


Thanks to Facebook, I'm able to remain in touch with many of those classmates I got the privilege to see this past weekend. I'm sure many of them will agree that we really have a great bunch of people in our class that are sure to meet up again, certainly much sooner than waiting for another 25 years!

I've posted some photos online at my photo album page at http://maniacmel.smugmug.com. Hope you get a chance to check some of them out.

May 30, 2009...truly an evening many of us will never forget!

Been a while since I wrote anything, but I got a good story to tell ya!

Sorry for not keeping up with this blog. I've been wrapped up with the Philadelphia Phillies in their quest to what eventually became a World Series championship for them back in October. And then the Philadelphia Eagles almost got into the Super Bowl, but it was not meant to be. In any event, I've gotten pretty lax with posting anything on my blog, but suddenly I have the inspiration to write again. Also, you can see my short regular postings on the radio station's website at www.wsus1023.com/pages/melandrews.html.

Over a year ago, I joined Facebook, but I hadn't been very active with it until recently. That's when all my college and high school friends started to find me and all of a sudden, I'm adding friends left and right. On top of that, it got me to reminisce about some of the good times I had from those days gone by. One story I want to share with you goes back all the way to 1977 when I was in the 5th grade. My old elementary school classmates will appreciate this one, since back in 1994, I went to my 10th year high school reunion and Joann who goes all the way back to my childhood days reminded me of this and then at my 20th year reunion, Matt, also from my elementary school days brought that story up again, yet I was never able to put it in print...until now.

The year was 1977 and I was 10 years old when this crazy story happened. Evel Kinevel was all the rage with his death defying stunts with his motorcycle jumping over multiple buses. My 5th grade teacher was a great and funny guy who did his job well, though when I look back on it, he might have had a few screws loose. One day, he decided to line up the students one by one like "buses" because he was gonna attempt to leap over all the kids like Evel Kinevel. Then he went to pick one last kid to be the one at the end of the lineup. Yep, you guessed it...it was me! Often times, I'll exaggerate when I say there were 13 of us, but you might as well have named me the unlucky 13th kid at this stunt that our crazy 5th grade teacher was gonna attempt to do. So there I am on my hands and knees like the rest of the kids like "buses" and our teacher was "revving" his engines, "VROOM, VROOM" was coming from him and all the kids were encouraging him, "You can do it"! I think the other teachers were holding their breath, thinking there's no way he's gonna do it. Meanwhile, little old me at 10 years old and 65 pounds soaking wet was thinking of the possibility of this 200 pound man crashing down on me. He makes his "VROOM, VROOM" sound again and off he went! In what probably would be viewed in slow motion by those who were there, that crazy 5th grade teacher cleared all of us and all the kids cheered and crowded around him like he won the World Championship. Meanwhile, my eyes were bulging and relieved over the fact that he made it. I think I caught a glimpse of the other teachers breathing sighs of relief. It was the end of the school day and we all went home happy.

Sorry, there is no photographic evidence of this stunt. But my elementary school classmates who were there will vouch for this.

Oddly enough, I don't believe any of the kids ever told their parents of what had transpired on that crazy day. However in 2009, I don't think any teacher would ever try anything as bizarre as that...think of all the lawsuits that school would have had! Ah, the good old days when everyone was allowed to have a little fun!

Daryl Hall live in concert with Mutlu

I had the pleasure of seeing Daryl Hall in concert last night at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, PA with Mutlu as the opening act. What a fantastic show!

This is what I remember from the setlist (not necessarily in order)

You Make My Dreams
Everything Your Heart Desires
When The Morning Comes
Perkiomen (lucky me, a request I shouted out and was granted)
Cab Driver
Can't Stop Dreaming
Stop Loving Me, Stop Loving You
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
I'm In A Philly Mood (undoubtedly the BEST version I've ever heard)
It's A Laugh
Sara Smile (a very laid back, beautiful arrangement)
Maneater (the reggae version)
It's Uncanny
Rich Girl

1st Encore with Mutlu
See What It Brings
Adult Education
Foolish Pride

2nd Encore
Dreamtime


Opening act Mutlu was great too! I purchased his CD at the New York show and got a chance to listen to it when I headed to the Philly area on Friday night. I wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed the CD, but I didn't get a chance to do that because there was a HUGE crowd at both the intermission and after the show looking to meet him and purchase his CD...local Philly boy does well!

All in all, everything comes full circle for yours truly...I got to experience Daryl Hall as a solo performer in 2004 in Philadelphia and New York and now in 2008, I was privileged to experience it all over again. On top of that, watching Mutlu (who I've seen previously on a Live From Daryl's House episode) as the opening act and during the encore made me a fan of his. His CD "Livin' It" comes out on Tuesday, so make sure you get one...I highly recommend it!

The 1980s still sounds good today...

I was watching the news yesterday morning and one bit was featuring a thing that's been sweeping the internet called "Rickroll". You might ask, "what does that mean"? Well, the average person who surfs the internet clicks onto a link for whatever reason and out of the blue, the Rick Astley video "Never Gonna Give You Up" starts playing. Simple as that...you've been "Rickrolled". News organizations here in the U.S. seem to be slow as they only recently have picked up the story on this strange phenomenon; the practice of "Rickrolling" has been going on for over a year and a half!

Why would people do this? Call it what you will, but the song itself is an instant 80s classic. There's a reason why the song gets stuck in your head...it's a good song! But idiots out there keep labeling it as "80s cheese", portraying it as one of those songs you'd rather forget. What a bunch of garbage. In my opinion, a good song is a good song, no matter what era it came from. It's a lot better than the "shoot em up" gangsta rap, much better than the angry "I wanna kill myself" rock of the 90s, and other crap that has been shoved down the mainstream's consciousness over the past 18 years.

Instead of "Rickrolling" you, I thought it would be better to showcase a good song that can hold up after 20 years, so here's a video of Rick Astley performing "Never Gonna Give You Up" on British television back in 2005. It pretty much boils down to the old adage...take the song, strip it down to its basics all the way down to its organic core and in the end, you'll still have a great song. Hope you enjoy!

Things are awfully slow at this time of the year...

Just wanted to drop by and say "hello" and let you know that all is well in my world and I hope you're doing well too!

Not much to report at this time, but I am heading to southern NJ to visit my family for Easter weekend. I promised myself that I would get at least a couple of panzarottis once I arrived. This is the disadvantage of growing up in southern NJ and then moving away from the area...you miss the local flavor and eateries that were part of your youthful days. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the panzarotti, check out the following YouTube video. Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for those who go off their diet...



I am going to be flying the friendly skies again this year. This May, I will head to Texas for my brother's graduation, which will involve a 6 hour road trip to Oklahoma. In June, I head to Las Vegas for some business and a little fun. And then I go to Denver in September for business again. I haven't flown this much since 2004 and I get this weird feeling that there's probably more traveling to come this year. I hope so...I thoroughly enjoy flying to a different city, especially one that I haven't been to before, just to see the varied cultures and taste some of the local cuisines.

Finally, I am posting a couple of photos that were shot off my iPhone just last week. Rather than describe them, I'll just say that they are a "before and after" set.