Texas: Band not State

Texas are a pop music band from Glasgow, Scotland. They were founded by Johnny McElhone (formerly of the bands Altered Images and Hipsway) in 1986 and had their performing debut in March 1988 at Scotland's University of Dundee. They took their name from the 1984 Wim Wenders movie Paris, Texas. Their musical sound went from blues rock on their debut album Southside via the blue-eyed soul of White on Blonde to the disco pop of Red Book.

History
Texas scored a UK hit in 1989 with their debut single "I Don't Want a Lover." This was taken from their debut album Southside, which went on to sell two million copies worldwide.

Ellen DeGeneres had approached the band, and Sharleen Spiteri and Ally McErlaine flew to the U.S. to re-record a song from the third album, "So Called Friend," which went on to become the theme song to DeGeneres' US sitcom Ellen.

In 1997 Texas came back with "Say What You Want"; this became their biggest hit single yet, peaking at #3. The album White on Blonde followed, entering at #1, where it would return a year later. Other hit singles from the album were "Halo," "Black Eyed Boy," and "Put Your Arms Around Me"; a reworking of "Say What You Want" with Method Man was released alongside album track "Insane."

The band's fifth album, The Hush, was released in 1999 with the lead-off single "In Our Lifetime" which was a huge hit in the UK reaching number 4 and was included in the "Notting Hill" Soundtrack.

In 2000, a greatest-hits album was released that included three new songs (In Demand, "Inner Smile," and "Guitar Song"). The video for "In Demand" featured actor Alan Rickman, and in the video for the anthemic follow-up single, co-written by Gregg Alexander, Spiteri dressed up as Elvis Presley. "Inner Smile" was a big hit in Europe and was later featured prominently in the 2002 feature film Bend It Like Beckham. The song "Like Lovers (Holding On)" is featured during the ending credits of the animated feature film Titan A.E.

In September 2002, Spiteri gave birth to her daughter Mysty Kyd. However, this did not prevent her from working on another album. In the television show The Office, fictional character David Brent claims that Texas used to open for his band, "Foregone Conclusion," before he gave up music to manage the Slough office of Wernham Hogg, a paper supply firm.

The band returned in mid-2005 with the single "Getaway," which entered the UK Top 10, the video for which was shot by Christopher Doyle and directed by Tim Royes. The single "Can't Resist" and album Red Book followed in the autumn.

Albums
Southside, Heaven, Ricks Road, White On Blonde, The Hush, Greatest Hits, Careful What you Wish For, Red Book

Don’t Miss the Songs:
Inner Smile and Fool for Love

Book Review: Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand

SUMMER READING...don't miss it!
Synopsis:

It's summer on Nantucket, and as the season begins, three women arrive at the local airport, observed by Josh, a local boy, home from college. Burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues, the women--two sisters and one friend--make their way to the sisters' tiny cottage, inherited from an aunt. They're all trying to escape from something: Melanie, after seven failed in-vitro attempts, discovered her husband's infidelity and then her own pregnancy; Brenda embarked on a passionate affair with an older student that got her fired from her prestigious job as a professor in New York; and her sister Vickie, mother to two small boys, has been diagnosed with cancer. Soon Josh is part of the chaotic household, acting as babysitter, confidant, and, eventually, something more, while the women confront their pasts and map out their futures.

This sixth book by the author of The Blue Bistro may not be the best piece of literature ever written, but the cover says it all...showing female legs, standing together, at the beach. It is a quick read with the main divergents. The three female characters each have a chance to tell their story as they struggle to find some peace in their chaotic life. The fourth main character is a young man who is dripping with the possibility of a bright future that only a 20 year college student can demonstrate. Looking for a beach read? Make sure you toss this one into your book bag.

Resume Site

I got an email from someone who is graduating soon with a little note on the bottom.
"I'm graduating in a few months..."
and it listed a URL for emurse.

Emurse is an online resume site. Very easy to use. I'd recommend you check it out!

Lake Superior

Lake Superior Changes Mystify Scientists

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070803/ap_on_sc/
superior_puzzle&printer=1;_ylt=AnRnlahDbmGXRtXNqnN9SJlxieAA

Deep enough to hold the combined water in all the other Great Lakes and with a surface area as large as South Carolina, Lake Superior's size has lent it an aura of invulnerability. But the mighty Superior is losing water and getting warmer, worrying those who live near its shores, scientists and companies that rely on the lake for business.

The changes to the lake could be signs of climate change, although scientists aren't sure.
Superior's level is at its lowest point in eight decades and will set a record this fall if, as expected, it dips three more inches. Meanwhile, the average water temperature has surged 4.5 degrees since 1979, significantly above the 2.7-degree rise in the region's air temperature during the same period.

That's no small deal for a freshwater sea that was created from glacial melt as the Ice Age ended and remains chilly in all seasons.

A weather buoy on the western side recently recorded an "amazing" 75 degrees, "as warm a surface temperature as we've ever seen in this lake," said Jay Austin, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota at Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory.

Water levels also have receded on the other Great Lakes since the late 1990s. But the suddenness and severity of Superior's changes worry many in the region. Shorelines are dozens of yards wider than usual, giving sunbathers wider beaches but also exposing mucky bottomlands and rotting vegetation.

On a recent day, Dan Arsenault, a 32-year-old lifelong resident of Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, watched his two young daughters play in mud on the southeastern coast where water was waist deep only a few years ago. A floatation rope that previously designated the swimming area now rests on moist ground.
"This is the lowest I've ever seen it," said Arsenault.

Superior still has a lot of water. Its average depth is 483 feet and it reaches 1,332 feet at the deepest point. Erie, the shallowest Great Lake, is 210 feet at its deepest and averages only 62 feet. Lake Michigan averages 279 feet and is 925 feet at its deepest.

Yet along Superior's shores, boats can't reach many mooring sites and marina operators are begging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge shallow harbors. Ferry service between Grand Portage, Minn., and Isle Royale National Park was scaled back because one of the company's boats couldn't dock.

Sally Zabelka has turned away boaters wanting to dock at Chippewa Landing marina in the eastern Upper Peninsula, where not long ago 27-foot vessels easily made their way up the channel from the lake's Brimley Bay. "In essence, our dock is useless this year," she said.
Another worry: As the bay heats up, the perch, walleye and smallmouth bass that have lured anglers to her campground and tackle shop are migrating to cooler waters in the open lake.
Low water has cost the shipping industry millions of dollars. Vessels are carrying lighter loads of iron ore and coal to avoid running aground in shallow channels.

Puffing on a pipe in a Grand Marais pub, retiree Ted Sietsema voiced a suspicion not uncommon in the villages along Superior's southern shoreline: The government is diverting the water to places with more people and political influence — along Lakes Huron and Michigan and even the Sun Belt, via the Mississippi River.

"Don't give me that global warming stuff," Sietsema said. "That water is going west. That big aquifer out there is empty but they can still water the desert. It's got to be coming from somewhere."

That theory doesn't hold water, said Scott Thieme, hydraulics and hydrology chief with the Corps of Engineers district office in Detroit. Water does exit Lake Superior through locks, power plants and gates on the St. Marys River, but in amounts strictly regulated under a 1909 pact with Canada.

The actual forces at work, while mysterious, are not the stuff of spy novels, he said.
Precipitation has tapered off across the upper Great Lakes since the 1970s and is nearly 6 inches below normal in the Superior watershed the past year. Water evaporation rates are up sharply because mild winters have shrunk the winter ice cap — just as climate change computer models predict for the next half-century.

Yet those models also envision more precipitation as global warming sets in, said Brent Lofgren, a physical scientist with the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor. Instead there's drought, suggesting other factors.

Cynthia Sellinger, the lab's deputy director, said she suspects a contributing factor could be residual effects of El Nino, the warming of equatorial Pacific waters that produced warmer winters in the late 1990s, just as the lakes began receding.

Austin, the Minnesota-Duluth professor, said he's concerned about the effects the warmer water could have.

"It's just not clear what the ultimate result will be as we turn the knob up," he said. "It could be great for fisheries or fisheries could crash."

Mulder Tribute

I had a total flashback. Today is one of those mornings that reminded me of Chicago Summer. There was this radio show I used to listen to (Eric & Kathy) and they were playing a song called "David Duchovny" sort of a tribute/joke song written by Bree Sharp. I never even watched X files but Gillian Anderson is a hometown girl (Grand Rapids native!) so I thought I'd do a little post here.

I'd to upload the music but since i don't know how right now I'll just guide you to the link at: http://duchovny.net/multimedia/radio.htm. The radio show transcript is after the lyrics. I hear there is a new X files movie coming out sometime so who knows, maybe there's a revival coming our way...

David Duchovny by Bree Sharp

It's Sunday night
I am curled up in my room.
The TV light
Fills my heart like a balloon.
I hold it in as best I can.
I know I'm just another fan.
Still can't help feeling i could
Love a secret agent man...
And I can't Wait any more
for Him to discover me
I got it bad for David Duchovny
David Duchovny
Why won't you love me
Why won't you love me
Why won't you love me
My friends all tell me
Girl, you know it's just a show.
But deep within his eyes
I see me wrapped up like a bow.
Watching the skies for a sign.
The FBI is on my mind.
Waiting for the day
When my lucky stars align
In the form of David Duchovny
Floating above me
In the alien light
Of the spaceship of love
David Duchovny
Hovering above me
American Heathcliff
Brooding and comic
David Duchovny
Why won't you love me
Why won't you love me
Why won't you love me
So smug and so smart
He's abducted my heart
And I'm falling apart
From those looks I receive
From those eyes I can't leave
You could say I'm naive
But he told me to believe (ooooooooh)
My bags are packed,
I am ready for my flight.
To put an end to
Daydream days and sleepless nights
Sitting like a mindless clone.
Wishing he would tap my phone
Just to hear the whisper
- the man, the myth, the monotone...
And I'll say David Duchovny
Why won't you love me
Why won't you love me
David Duchovny
David Duchovny
I want you to love me
To kiss and to hug me
Debrief and debug me
David Duchovny
I know you can love me
I'm sweet and I'm cuddly
I'm gonna kill Scully!
David Duchovny
Why won't you love me,
Why won't you love me,
Why won't you love me....(repeat and fade)



Eric & Kathy Show
Chicago Radio Station Interview
June 1999
On the set of Return to Me
Swanny: Hi Mr. Duchovny, I John Swanson, Swanny, from the Eric and Kathy show, howya doin'?
DD: Good.
Swanny: It's David Duchovny Why Won't You Love Me? on Eric and Kathy.
Eric: David?
DD: Hello.
Eric: Hi David, how are you?
DD: I fine, who is this, Eric or Kathy?
Kathy: It's actually both.
Eric: Wow. How are ya? We've been playing your song all week, "David Duchovny Why Won't You Love Me?" and it's a pleasure to finally speak to you.
DD: Sure, that's what Swanny told me here, that you've been playing that song.
Kathy: You've heard the song, haven't you?
DD: Yeah, a friend of mine brought it to my attention about nine months ago.
Zwecker: This is Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times, David. How are you?
DD: (with his usual wit) How many people you got over there?
Eric: (joking) It's like a studio full of people.
Kathy: We're just having a party.
DD: Sounds like you're doing a good job.
Eric: What do you think of the song?
DD: When I heard it I thought it was a really good tune, and I was embarrassed by the lyrics. But I never thought it would be a public thing, so right now it's just even more embarrassing than when I first heard it.
Kathy: Hey David, what did Téa think of the song?
DD: It was actually a friend of hers that brought it to me and her first reaction was "I wish I had written a song for you."
Eric and Kathy: Awwwwwww. . .
DD: But then, of course she's not musical at all, so. . .
Kathy: That's sweet.
Eric: That's nice. So have you had a chance to meet Bree Sharp, the woman that sings it?
DD: No I haven't.
Eric: Really, uh, would ya?
DD: Would I meet her?
Eric: Yeah.
DD: You mean like, would I be scared to meet her?
Eric: I don't know. Would ya?
Kathy: I would.
DD: I think it's kinda a funny song. I like the tune.
Kathy: And it's got a good beat.
DD: It does. It has a good beat, you can dance to it, I give it an 85.
Eric: There you go. Quite a tribute. How are things going on the movie there? Bonnie Hunt is fantastic.
DD: Bonnie's the best, yeah, a Chicago native.
Eric: Things are going well for ya?
DD: I think they're going really well. You know you can never tell with a movie until it's all done but there's a good feeling here.
Kathy: Hey, we should wish you an early happy Father's Day.
DD: Is that this Sunday?
Kathy: Yeah.
Eric: How's the baby?
DD: The baby's great, thank you. She's doing great. She's spent more time in Chicago than in any other place in the world.
Eric: Oh that's great.
Kathy: Well wasn't she born just before you came to Chicago?
DD: Exactly. That's what I'm saying.
Kathy: Wow.
Eric: Pretty soon she's gonna be a native Chicagoan and demanding pizza left and right.
Kathy: Yeah.
DD: I know. When do you become a native Chicagoan? How long do you have to be here?
Eric: Oh, about three weeks.
Kathy: No, you have to survive a winter, Dave.
DD: Oh, well then she's not going to make it.
DD: Neither am I.
Eric: Well, David, we appreciate you taking a couple moments out of your busy schedule. Best wishes to you and Téa and the family and good luck with the movie and we can't wait to see it.
DD: Thank you very much.
Eric: Thank you. Take care, and goodbye.
Kathy: Thank you.
DD: I'll give you back to Swanny here.
Eric: Thank you. Sorry about that if he's frightening you.
DD: He's a little scary with the White Sox jacket on, he looks like a normal person.
Kathy: Oh, no.
Eric: Thank you, David.
DD: Alright, bye.
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