Here’s how it goes, people. Captain & Tennille are fantastic. That’s right, I typed it and I meant it. During their run in popular culture, they racked up a total of eight Top 20 songs in a matter of five years. They even had a number one hit while disco was dying and new wave was taking over.

The point is a vast majority of people loved them and then suddenly — as if they had uttered the N-word at a stand-up club — they were no longer cool. Granted, they had just signed to Casablanca Records which was world renowned for their disco and not much else, but, for God’s sake, Toni Tennille sang on some of the hippest and most admired albums in the 70’s including several Beach Boys album, several Elton John albums (you can actually hear her on "Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me") and Pink Floyd’s The Wall. That’s right, Pink Floyd loved her voice so much they had her sing on The Wall. THE WALL! How much hipper do you want her to be?

Recently one of the boys in Monkey’s Uncle picked up my copy of C&T’s Ultimate Collection, showed it to another one and snickered. If they had only known it contained one of my favorite C&T stories. The time Toni showed up at one of Pink Floyd’s Wall tour concerts in Los Angeles:

There was a 15-year-old boy sitting in front of me who recognized me. He turned around and snottily said, "What are YOU doing here?" So I told him I sang on the album. He ran off to find a friend who brought the LP to the show, and looked at the back to see if my name was really on there. A few minutes later, he came back and apologetically said, "Can I have your autograph?"

BOO-YAH! In your faces, posers! Oh, you know who you are. You are the ones that called radio stations begging them to play "Muskrat Love", smuggled the 45 under your coat to the cash register, hid it under your mattress when you weren’t listening to it and stood there mouth agape when your parents walked in on your dancing and singing atonally, "And they whirl and they twirl and they tango/Singin’ and jingin’ a jango/Floatin’ like the heavens above/Looks like muskrat love."

However, the joke is on you. C&T did "Muskrat Love" as a joke to begin with when they added it to their live set when all they were was a club act. They had heard America do the song. Yes, the "Sister Golden Hair" group did the song before C&T. They only threw it on Song Of Joy because they had room for one more song. A&M wasn’t going to release a third single at all until radio stations started to call the record company begging them for a single. It then became their third biggest single after "Love Will Keep Us Together" and "Do That To Me One More Time". Yet, millions of people claim that they hate the song and don’t understand why it was a big hit.

Why be a hypocrite just to ‘look’ cool? Huh? It’s okay to love Captain & Tennille. They put out some fantastic, catchy and enjoyable pop music. In fact, I double-dog-dare-you to listen to the first few seconds of "Love Will Keep Us Together" and NOT be happy. C’mon. I bet you can’t do it. And if you can, I’d suggest seeing your doctor about Paxil. And just try to tell me that the ‘WHOO’ 35 seconds into their remake of "Shop Around" isn’t one of the most pure, unabashedly happy and energetic ‘whoo’s’ in rock history. And don’t deny that the keyboards and keyboard sound effects The Captain uses on "Muskrat Love" opened the door to the 80’s new-wave, electronic pop. That’s right, I’m saying The Captain was responsible for all the synthesizers in the 80’s.

Alright, that last statement may be a little over the top, but I’m positive his extensive use of keyboards in pop music did inspire those who were only playing around with a piece of equipment that at the time wasn’t considered a true musical instrument.

Yet here I sit coming out of the proverbial C&T closet when, truth be told, I actually never hid my membership in their fandom. I was the teenager that made my friends listen to mixes that included Linda Ronstadt, the Carpenters and, of course, Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille — the duo which turned into my first fanatic following, The Captain & Tennille. Now it’s your turn. Come out. There’s no constitutional amendment saying Music Artist = One Man + One Woman, but listening to some of the great songs C&T put together, you almost wish Marilyn Musgrave will slip that clause into one of her hate bills.

I said ‘almost’!

[Reposted from Waking Up With Morning Song]

Listening to: I’m On My Way - Captain & Tennille

I’m not saying I murdered and then ate Cameron’s lemon meringue pie, but if I did eat it, this is how it would have happened. After dinner, naps would have started and during the new "Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends" movie special, Cameron would have taken a knife and…  I can’t go any further.  No my book publisher won’t let me go into any more detail right now; however, I can tell you that I just finished taping a tell-all for LOGO.

Oh, God! Look at all the lemon! It’s lemoning to death! Somebody help it! Get a tourniquet and some wax paper! Why? WHY? What is our world coming to? Think about the children! Oh, someone did. That’s why there is a Spongebob Squarepants DVD in the picture.

Uh, anyone got a straw?

Ironically, there is a lemon turkey in the pie. Do you see it? No, total weirdness. I only noticed it when I was looking at the draft post.

Listening to: No Man’s Land - Sufjan Stevens

The weekly collection of interesting reads from around the blogosphere.

Heather talks about New Zealand war dances.

History Chic makes a wishlist for a holiday partner.

Even wondered what an uncensored comic strip looks like? Scott Adams did just that in this post.

Like puppies? Then run over to Scott-O-Rama’s site to see the cutest one this week.

Want to change the world? Join Global Orgasm Day on Dec 22! Thanks Leland for the link!

A link with pictures went around my circle of friends a while back, so it was good to see it again on John Sadowski’s site.

Ethiopia is poor. One of our clients at work deals with children and giving them a chance to read, so it was very sad to hear that one of their zoos had to resort to this in order to keep operating.

Andy has a harrowing and thoughtful piece on the butterfly effect and how he recently experienced it first hand.

Finally, and to lift the mood at this point, Craig over at Puntabulous had this incredibly funny spoof of Mr. Rodgers. I completely admire his photo stories and must steal pay homage to this idea for my own nefarious ends!

Listening to: Running - No Doubt

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Cameron and I still haven’t eaten, but the waiting is fun.  We just watched my favorite film of all time — Amelie — and are now expecting the little red, turkey, thingy to pop up so he can make mashed ‘taters. I LOVE mashed potatoes and they are garlic, so I’m going to be in heaven soon.

The first thing he made morning was the ultimate in Thanksgiving desserts. At least in my family, it was. My mom made two lemon meringue (according to dictionary.com, meringue is "a delicate, frothy mixture". Nothing funny here, I just like the word ‘ frothy’.) and two chocolate pies each year.  And I loved her for it.

Anyway, Cam found his grandmother’s recipe and viola, a pie!

I can’t wait until after dinner!

And so, ladies and gentlemen…  THE PIE!

Listening to: The Moth - Aimee Mann