Sunday, August 10, 2008

Guilty as charged


Allow me to set the scene. I'm driving back from Tesco's in the company of she who shall be known as ToffeeGirl. We've been to the Garden Centre, we've been to the dump, we've been to get money out for the bigger MissToffee's forthcoming trip to California and now we've done the weekly shopping. It's lunchtime in the cricket so the radio's off and ToffeeGirl chooses a CD - and there we are, a few minutes later, sitting at a set of traffic lights with Billy Don't Be A Bloody Hero blaring out of the open car windows and what's left of my street-cred disappearing through the same windows.

So who's to blame for this atrocity? Well, Paper Lace, obviously but I think we need to look deeper than that. ToffeeGirl herself is clearly guilty - she put the Jackie CD in the player, she chose track 14, she pressed play. But then, who bought the CD for her in the first place? Well actually, it was the MissToffees as a mother's day present last year so, girls, you are also guilty!

But there's one more candidate to consider - yes, frogprincess, it's you. Hide your face in shame, woman. It was you who set this whole thing in motion by recommending that David Cassidy track on RR yesterday and then posting it on the 'Spill - which inspired ToffeeGirl to get out the Jackie CD - partly to have a leering look at the DC poster that came with it - but also, as it turned out, to inflict the damn music on me and the rest of the inhabitants of south west Hertfordshire.

OK - that's enough blame - now it's confession time. I'm actually quite fond of a number of tracks on the Jackie CD - and one in particular, Oh Lori, by Alessi, has always been a favourite of mine so here it is; my guilty pleasure.

Of course, what we all want to know is, what's your guilty pleasure (and, no DsD, I'm not talking about Sinead O'Connor - not that kind of pleasure, thank you). If I've got the tracks you nominate (and knowing ToffeeGirl's tastes as I do, there's a good chance that I will have) I'll add them to the playlist.

You'll see that I'm still on podbean - I have really tried to understand how boxstr works and how you get from uploading a track to your boxstr account to actually seeing it appear on the blog and I just don't get it. I know that the Yahoo media player is involved somehow but how - where does it fit in and how do you get the player? I'm not stupid (no, really, I'm not) and I'm usually very good with IT stuff but this has me utterly defeated. If anyone's willing to take on the task of talking me through it, step by step, I'll give it another go but otherwise, it's podbean all the way for me...

12 comments:

.... said...

[Lower lip trambling] Guilty as charged your honour. How much would I LOVE that Jackie CD???? Street cred be damned! I sac-a-rificed mine on the alter of His Trevness long ago!! And I LOVE Oh Lori although it's not the cheesy guilty pleasure it wants to be. There's a nice little jazz vibe going on in that song. No, if you're going for REALLY cheesy guilty pleasures, you're going for sure values like Ropert Holmes and the Pina Colada song or Andrew Gold and Never Let her Slip Away. Or Christopher Cross and Sailing (Arthur's theme doesn't count as it was written by the very officially cool Burt Bacharach.) Fascinated to hear what the others regard as guilty pleasures. And thanks for the chuckle!!

Shoegazer said...

ToffeeBoy you are so close with Boxtr. Select your file in Boxtr. On the web version, select get linking code from the drop-down "file actions" menu (on the desktop version there is a "get link" box on the right. Boxtr should give you link after a few seconds. We'll come back to this later.

Open the Yahoo Media Player in a new page or tab on your browser. Paste the yahoo media player code (first line of code in box A) into the html tab in your 'Spill post. See where the " " marks are in the line of code? Paste the link code from Boxtr between these quotation marks. You can name your track by overwriting "first link" between the >< marks at the end of the line of code.

Repeat for each additional song you want to post.

Shoegazer said...

Rihanna's "Umbrella"? but, strangely, don't feel at all guilty. Great Manic's cover version too

Shoegazer said...

Here's that Manic's cover as a Boxtr link for you to practice with:

http://boxstr.com/files/3109212_65ipl/01%20Umbrella%20%28Rihanna%20Cover%29.mp3

DarceysDad said...

Well if you don't want me to mention Sinead, there was also that HUGE Judie Tzuke poster over my bed tha ... OH - I see what you mean! [Blushes]. Erm, OK, how about:

Rick Astley - Cry For Help (12")
KC & The Sunshine Band - That's The Way
The Spinners - In My Liverpool Home
T'Pau - Heart And Soul
Wet Wet Wet - Temptation
Rolf Harris - In The Court Of King Caractacus
Nizlopi - JCB Song
... and to cap it off, and a much worse "crime" than any of the above ...
Paul Young's version of Love Will Tear Us Apart.

Must go; still got the last wall to brick myself in behind !

;@{

Abahachi said...

Out of interest, is 'guilty pleasure' always defined in terms of, if you'll excuse the phrase, slightly girly pop music? 'Cos I don't actually feel guilty, or even mildly shifty, about that at all - not even my love for Bonnie Tyler's 'Lost in France'. I do, however, feel extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed about my continuing enjoyment of, ahem, Whitesnake...

DarceysDad said...

... or, as is currently being discussed over on the GU blog, Gary Glitter?

No, Abahachi, I don't think it is always 'girly pop'. I agree with you re Whitesnake; still LOVE the stuff from the Moody/Marsden era, even though they were some of the most outrageously sexist (borderline misogynist) lyrics and sleeves ever released.

I think my definition of 'guilty pleasure' is whether I would seriously think twice about playing it for anyone other than myself. If I would blush/cringe/be ridiculed by my mates, it probably IS a GP.

And I'm already regretting mentioning Paed Gadd ...

ToffeeBoy said...

@ fp - the Jackie CD can be yours: http://tiny.cc/eQgSx.

Andrew Gold may not be everyone's cup of tea but I think he did some good stuff - particularly Never Let Her Slip Her Away.

@ shoey - Thanks for this - I'll have another go at boxstr. Watch this space...

@ DsD - I'd love to add one of your gps but I'm afraid you've defeated me. The only one I have is the JCB song and I just can't accept it as a guilty pleasure - any dad who doesn't appreciate this song doesn't deserve to be a dad. I love it - and the video was wonderful as well. Watch it now - that's an order:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3WhQB7Hq0Q

The other difficulty I have with your list is the inclusion of the song by the group starting with a 'T' - you see I can't even write the name. I always allow people two faults: what with supporting Liv*rp@@l and now Carol bloody Decker - well, I think you've reached your limit, matey! ;-)

@ abahachi - I don't know what the definition of a guilty pleasure is - I like DsD's something you like that you would seriously think twice about playing to someone else but I think it has to be pop rather than rock so I don't think Whitesnake qualify - also, Chez Toffee is a Whitesnake free zone!

Anonymous said...

Wet Wet Wet vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwHG_VezUm8

Whitesnake vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KgObbc5t_Y

Rick Astley vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRfPon9vmU

The Spinners:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgPeZu_Ivho

Paul Young:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCE_eA0vmY8

KC & The Sunshine Band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zu0p7xWLoU&feature=related

Rolf Harris:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Lw1bDdwgs

... and um, another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJK7dMSd31k&feature=related

Anonymous said...

Oh and I don't need the link for the JCB vid - it was the country's best-selling song the week that Darcey was born, so I've got 2 copies of the multimedia version of the CD single; one I play, one's still sealed and in a drawer for Darcey's 18th.

Cheers ToffeeBoy.

nilpferd said...

I can't really get to grips with the idea of guilty pleasure, either.
Stuff I like but wouldn't play to other people is something else: I normally wouldn't play my Dad airy fairy fusion stuff like "In a silent way", because he always complains about the electric instruments and asks when it's going to get started, but I actually managed to run it by him once when we were on holiday after plying him with a glass or two of single malt and he seemed to really like it.. so maybe you just need the right circumstances... or at least the right single malt...

ToffeeBoy said...

@ dsd - "one's still sealed and in a drawer for Darcey's 18th" - that's truly beautiful!