Bringing out the Cow Bells for Easter! Stevie Wonder's genius "Another Star" still sends me -and reminds me of cross-country drives at night with the windows down, his music filling every inch of the car

Stevie Wonder - Another Star
http://youtu.be/mGIIegMncWg

"There might be another star, 

But through my eyes the light of you is all I see..."

Simply put, genius personified.

One of THE greatest songs ever for playing while driving across the U.S.A. at night on the Interstate, especially on curving roads that you maneuver like slalom runs, gliding with little effort.

And it's even better when you're by yourself at 2 a.m. and there's no side traffic and you can use your steering wheel as your synthesizer and drum.

When I close my eyes and hear this song (and this iconic album), I almost immediately see myself, circa 1979-1987 on I-24 getting close to Chattanooga, and I-75 in Georgia, north and south of Macon, circa 1979-1987, with stops at the Shoney's Big Boy for a post-midnight slice of Key Lime pie and real Cherry Coke, because another hamburger is not what the doctor ordered. Sugar rush!

This video is 100% accurate about the first two minutes depicted here! The immediate area around Monteagle, TN, whether going up or down the mountain, was always THE scariest part of the drive for me between Miami and Chicago -or Bloomington- because of all the armies of trucks that were just flying by me -doing the speed limit- and the cars driven by locals that were passing THEM!

Even while bits of wet rocks and gravel from the mountain were always just inches from the road.

Runaway truck!!!!!

That was always the case heading north towards IU in Bloomington or up to Chicago/Evanston from North Miami Beach, because it means that I still have a ridiculous amount of driving still ahead of me.

And the thing is, even though we've never met, I know that somewhere up on I-65 north of Nashville, maybe just inside of the Bluegrass State, there's at least a few sleepy truck drivers in Kentucky pulling big rigs I have to be wary of, because while they may've stopped to eat, they're still sleepy.

Why?

Because there are always sleepy truck drivers at night around there.

Always!

Guys who'll drive faster than the posted speed limit while its raining hard, and I know in advance that IF I don't keep a nice safe distance, ahead of them or behind them. their water will just pour onto my windshield like I'm drowning and make my windshield wipers useless.

Trust me, that is damn scary at night on long stretches of roads with trucks forever getting on your bumper while you're trying not to get blown off the road.

View Larger Map

The 1980's route from my past to my then-present

To quote myself, "If only blogs and digital cameras had existed then."

I'd have hundreds and hundreds of amazing photos and shots of the passing American scene of the 1980's I knew -and lots of restaurant reviews!- and dozens of anecdotes about my friends and classmates I visited along the way who lived along the Interstate that connected my past and my then-present in America's heartland. 

Especially like my sweet and adorable friend, Beth George in Louisville, whose friendliness, smile, wit and accent never failed to amaze me, and make me thankful to have someone like her as a friend.

Yes, she wasn't an Indiana Pi Phi for nothing!

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5 p.m. Postscript: YouTube Frustration.

Since I posted this earlier this morning, I realized that I'd forgotten to add something that was nagging me after I hit "Post" and went to sleep.
Maybe those of you who are my age or share my particular musical tastes and come to this blog fairly often thought the same thing I am now, since it has happened before with other videos of musical talents I greatly admire and appreciate and have chosen to post here.

Since rather out-of-the-blue I'd found myself humming and singing this great song for the past few days while stuck in traffic around the area -something that happens multiple times a day around here at this time of the year because of visitors and toursists, esp. given that there are only three main roads to navigate thru the city- I had already decided that I was going to post this version of the song on the blog today, since late Saturday night is usually the easiest time for me to write something pop culture-related, even if I don't post it for a few days.

The song, which came out as a single in the summer of 1977 when I was 16 years-old and soon to be an Junior at North Miami Beach Senior High School, and one that everyone I knew then, male or female, White or Black or Hispanic, petite gymnast or lanky soccer player loved.

And so, that being the case, that everyone actually DOES LOVE Stevie Wonder, esp. his material from that era, I assumed that it would be rather simple to find a long version of the song on YouTube with him singing it that year or within a few years, whether from a concert or TV appearance, as well as find a version there of British singer George Michael singing the song, too, since he loves it too and has sung it in the past on his concert tours, esp. in Europe.
I'd seen the videos of that before, so knew that going in.

But early this morning I discovered that despite all the tens of millions of things on YouTube, there is NOT a single video of Stevie Wonder singing the song in concert or on TV pre-1985, and NOT a single good video of George Michael singing it in concert, whether via a handheld camera or TV broadcast, where both the audio and video were very good, much less amazing.

Instead, for the latter, much to my consternation, there are a lot of bits and pieces of the song being sung in London, Manchester, Amsterdam or Antwerp where the video is very good but the audio sucks, or vice-versa.

This one from a June 2007 concert at the City of Manchester Stadium has a fan's amazing video of George Michael literally circling the crowd as it were, but the fans around him are so loud that some audio is drowned out. 
Man, this video could have been spectacular but for the other fans.

And sometimes, the rare ones that are good at both, like this one also at that week of June 2007 dates in Manchester, end after barely more than two minutes, in the middle of the song, right when ridiculously-talented George Michael is really getting into the swing of things.
Wow that is SO frustrating!


After spending a lot of time looking, for me and my ears and eyes, this video below from a George Michael fan going by the name of unotraitanti, is THE most consistent quality version on YouTube, but if you know of one that is better, both audio and video clarity, please let me know.


unotraitanti's video: George Michael - "Another Star" (cover of Stevie Wonder) LVE, Manchester, England.
http://youtu.be/rg2fExdhgBc

http://www.youtube.com/user/unotraitanti

South Florida Needs to Emulate Pembroke Pines Approach re Roads/Traffic: ACTION!

My comments follow the article.
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www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/pembroke_pines/sfl-flbpines12xxsbdec16,0,1462881.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Pembroke Pines rebuilding I-75 ramps at Pines Boulevard
Lanes to be closed weekends, nights; work to go on 14 months
By Michael Turnbell
December 16, 2008

Pembroke Pines
When the Pines Boulevard interchange at Interstate 75 opened in 1985, the area was considered out in the boondocks.

The Pines interchange, like others along I-75, was built to rural standards with high-speed curves and little space for merging onto the connecting road.

But what worked then doesn't hold up under today's traffic-choking volumes.

That's why the city is replacing the interchange's wide, curving ramps with straight ramps — one exit for both eastbound and westbound traffic — that join Pines Boulevard at right angles similar to exits on Interstate 95 in south Broward County.

"When you come off 75, everybody's moving at a high speed and then they have to quickly merge over to the left onto Pines," said Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis. "It's a huge safety issue."

The new ramps will create two, four-way intersections on each side of the overpass and lead drivers exiting I-75 to a traffic light, instead of directly onto Pines Boulevard.

Four new traffic signals are planned for Pines Boulevard — two at the new exit and entry ramps and two at 145th and 148th avenues, which are the entrances to new shopping centers on the east and west sides of I-75.

On the east side, drivers headed in and out of the new Shops of Pembroke Gardens, built by Duke Realty Corp. of Cincinnati, are using a temporary signal at Pines at 145th.

On the west side, developer KRG/CREC of Indianapolis can't open Cobblestone Plaza shopping center until the traffic signal at Pines Boulevard and 148th is installed.

Ortis said he has asked the state to activate the 148th Avenue signal ahead of the project's January 2010 completion.
Drivers can expect lanes and ramps to be closed at night and on weekends.

"We are asking motorists to be patient while we reconfigure the interchange during the next 14 months," said city engineer Joe McLaughlin said.

Although Pines Boulevard is a state road, the city agreed last year to take over the job from the Florida Department of Transportation to accelerate the road work.

The city is paying for the $11 million project upfront. The state will reimburse the city in 2012, when it originally expected to have funds available to do the work. Developers on both sides of I-75 are contributing $2.6 million plus covering any cost overruns.

Michael Turnbell can be reached at mturnbell@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4155 or 561-243-6550.
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I loved when this first opened up because going north on the new I-75 on my way back up to Chicago/Evanston, after coming back home for the holidays down here (at my mother's then-place near The Falls, at S. Dixie Highway and S.W. 136th Street, once you got up towards then-western Pines, you could really, really FLY!!!

The only place in South Florida where that was true.

It was very similar at the time to parts of I-75 South, south of Tampa-St. Pete going towards Port Charlotte, where I'd always make a pit-stop on my trips south and visit a friend, who had already become a popular high school English teacher in his first job.
That was back when Charlotte County was the fastest-growing county in the whole country, full of Midwestern transplants, can-do enthusiasm and Cubs and Reds ball caps.

Miles and miles of wide roads with no cars on them!
Especially at night!!!

Those roads were so much fun to ride.

Sometimes, you wouldn't see another car for 2-3 miles, and when you did, they were going at least 80 or so.

And naturally, almost without exception, at least once before you got to Palm Beach County, you'd hear the great beginning storm percussion of Christopher Cross' Ride Like the Wind, so you'd have no choice but to turn up the volume and sing along, especially the iconic Michael McDonald back-up vocals. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt9wULOlc6o

I was born the son of a lawless man.
Always spoke my mind with a gun in my hand.
Lived nine lives
gunned down ten.
Gonna ride like the wind.

And I got such a long way to go.
To make it to the border of Mexico.
So I'll ride like the wind.
Ride like the wind.
Ride like the wind.


Our little Broward mini-Autobahn!
How I do miss it!

In the past 20 years, the closest thing I've experienced to that kind of fun driving, especially after being in the cramped Washington, D.C. area, where speed is just an abstract idea, was heading west on I-66 on Fall Sunday afternoons when the Redskins weren't playing, and my friends and I would head out to the bucolic hills and mountains of West Virginia for the day.

We'd get up early Sunday morning and after the prerequisite stop at the IHOP or Denny's and back on the road by 8 a.m., as long as we studiously avoided the areas known for attracting the "brunch crowd" or "horse crowd" going west, we were set for a nice steady speed with music to relax and just unwind.
(That's one of the things that I miss the most about being down here, surrounded by flat land and traffic -that tangible sense of movement with winding hills )

And coming back to Arlington, with the sun going down over the hills and the foliage whizzing past us, and starting to pick up WBZ-Boston or WCBS-New York on our car radio around 7 p.m., well, it was easy to forget for a while what sort of new mini-crisis would greet us the following day, the big Beltway news story which you'd have to have an informed opinion on.

I especially recommend that you consider the comments below of Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo, within the context of his longer comments:

"...Implementing better traffic management solutions citywide continues to be a top priority for all of us at City Hall. I think it's important to note that while other cities talk about traffic, we in Pines are actually doing things to make things better. That's what our residents demand -- action, not talk...."

That guy is 100% right.

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