The Internet Is Amazing!™

Just starting on the viewing of this playlist of videos from in and around Heath High School in 1988, but I wanted to make sure I went ahead and got it up here at the HP just as quickly as I possibly could.

The first moment I've been genuinely taken aback so far is--in "Between Class," the fifth video in the series--remembering the feel and smell of the brown, grooved-rubber stair treads. Thank you, Brad Kelley (brilliant choice on the Smithereens song for the opener, by the way), YouTube and Internet at large.

35 Years Ago in Music

 In 1988 I pretty much spent every spare dollar I had on albums.  This should be a fun one.  Going through these years it's fun to see what albums came out and what was on the radio.  It's interesting to see how rap is suddenly at the fore.  

According to Best Ever Albums the top albums of 1988 were:

1. Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
2. Surfer Rosa by Pixies
3. Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
4. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy
5. ...And Justice for All by Metallica
6. Isn't Anything by My Bloody Valentine
7. Tracy Chapman by Tracy Chapman (I would have guessed this came out earlier though I wrote about it before here)
8. Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A.
9. Green by R.E.M.
10. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden

Here are the albums that spent at least two weeks at Billboard number 1 in 1988.

1. Faith by George Michael (12 weeks)
2. Dirty Dancing (11 weeks)
3. Rattle and Hum by U2 (6 weeks)
4. Hysteria by Def Leppard (6 weeks)
5. New Jersey by Bon Jovi (4 weeks)
6. Appetite for Destruction (4 weeks)
7. OU812 by Van Halen (2 weeks)
8. Tiffany by Tiffany (2 weeks)
9. Giving You the Best That I Got by Anita Baker (2 weeks)

The top Billboard singles of 1988 were:

1. Faith by George Michael
2. Need You Tonight by INXS
3. Got My Mind Set on You by George Harrison
4. Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley
5. Sweet Child o' Mine by Guns N' Roses
6. So Emotional by Whitney Houston
7. Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle
8. Could've Been by Tiffany
9. Hands to Heaven by Breath
10. Roll With It by Steve Winwood

I'll finish this off with playlist for you all from 1988.  Some of the music I still listen to today. 

Oh, Kentucky

Barren County High School says it's in compliance with state guidelines for its Bible-literacy course and has received no complaints from parents or students in the seven years it has been offered, reports Lisa Simpson Strange in the Glasgow Daily Times. And at Lewis County High, per Kathryn Robinson of West Virginia's WSAZ, "there's no daily devotionals, that's not done. Daily prayer is not done ... it's more of a comparative religion."

The Lake Cumberland region is working toward a memorial to people buried in unmarked graves who were enslaved during their lives, and plans are to be detailed at a breakfast Monday.

The nuns at Saint Walberg Monastery sold 85 acres to an Edgewood developer, but their neighbors in Villa Hills turned out in such large numbers Tuesday to dispute the plan that the Kenton County Planning Commission punted the question to next week, in order to move to a larger facility, in Lakeside Park. Terrific meeting coverage by The River City News.

The KHSAA Board of Control has also been meeting on some lively topics, such as how to recombobulate high-school football for the next several seasons.

The federal bust at the Jumbo Buffet in La Grange is quite a mystery--even to the owners, they say.

"The largest firearms retailer in the state of Kentucky and one of the largest volume single shop locations in the country," Whittaker Guns of Owensboro, appears to have no overnight security guards, dogs, etc. Anyway, some people broke in and stole a bunch of their guns the other night.

Madisonville is hiring for a director of its forthcoming "makerspace."

Oh, Kentucky

The results are in! Fall won by a landslide. pic.twitter.com/04DeXMY3Fc

— Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) June 21, 2016

Stryper is back! (And a man from Paducah drove to Hazard to see them.)

"In 1986 the museum reopened on the campus of Murray State University in western Kentucky. Museum officials had predicted that 120,000 people annually would visit the Kentucky location, in the Land Between the Lakes area, but by the late 1990s, yearly attendance was under 20,000. In October 2002 the museum moved to its present location in Irving, Texas." Kentucky for sale:

'Not One, Not Two, But Three Straight Class A State Titles for Pikeville'

Bravo, WYMT of Hazard, for this terrific report on the 1987, '88 and '89 Class A state-champion Pikeville Panthers football teams. 

Everything about this thing is fantastic. For example, we get some great footage of stadiums, like Pineville High's ("PINE is FINE") ...

Also, it's great seeing all of the helmets in the modern-day "Sports Overtime" studio ...

And, watching this report led me to reading about the great Wikipedia history of 1969-launched WKYH (for "KentuckY Hazard")/1985-renamed WYMT ("We're Your Mountain Television"). 

Hooray for Jay Crawford, Hillard Howard and his champion Panthers, the Pineville sign and press-box painters, the KHSAA championship organizers at U of L, the Wikipedia editors, Lauren Cash and the WYMT-studio helmet arrangers, Walter Camp and Philo Farnsworth and everyone else who in the last 46-plus years had some hand in bringing about this happy past 15 minutes this morning for me. Thank God for all of you.

Oh, Kentucky

Bon Appétit Appalachia!

Good jobs news from Henderson, London and Louisville.

Hiring in downtown Marion.

Ominous Christmas news from Shelbyville.

Starting bid is $1.99: "'The 'Broadway Mall' is the new look of Paducah. It presents a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere for downtown shoppers:"

The state police says traffic fatalities around the state were at their lowest since 1947 last year--and that they're projecting downward again for 2014.

TIME says Hopkins is the 631st most dangerous U.S. county in terms of safety from natural disaster.

CNN celebrates the entrepreneurship surge in Kentucky.

NPR investigates the pie-crust controversy at the state fair.

Estately assesses the commonwealth's love of Dallas, Dirty Dancing and Ronald Reagan.

Best of the 80's: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden

This 1988 release, coming in at number 96 on the Best of the 80's list, is a concept album based on an old legend that if you are the seventh son of a seventh son, you will be born with special abilities. 

Of course coming from Maiden you know this isn't going to be an upbeat story and it's not.  For a concept album it actually tells a pretty good story, a bit abstract, but the story is still there and it works. 

Musically this is classic Maiden stuff mixing heavy metal with progressive rock to create a symphonic sound as backdrop for their doomed hero.

This is not something you would just play for fun.  You have to seek this out for the experience of the album in full.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 2 out of 5 stars for Not Bad.