Six years and counting. Here’s part three of our 6th year anniversary celebration. As with almost everything in my life, very few things come out the way I expect them to. We did the 5 most downloaded podcasts of this year, then the five most downloaded podcasts going all the way back to the beginning…and I told you we’d have the five most downloaded stories from the Personal Audio cds this time. And we do. Only there are six. And there are seven cds. That’s life.
Life, according to Big Louie, his own bad self, the Chief Mustard Cutter of the Louie Louie Generation, “is that experience which says that all the happiness in the world cannot buy you money.” It asks questions like, “Which is better, horse play, or monkey business.” And why do I have to be so competitive that I feel defeated and dejected all day if I can’t make the last dribble of milk float the last cereal flake in my breakfast bowl…which I do. Actually life doesn’t ask that question. My Lady Wonder Wench does. Then she rolls her eyes…while I’m pretty sure she wonders if I am really the best she could do. She once asked, “Did your IQ test come back negative with that competitive stuff?” I don’t think women understand…even Lady Wonder Wench. Any Louie-Louie Generation guy will tell you that”If winning isn’t everything, why do we keep score ?” Huh ? Answer me that.
If you’re new to this blog, you might wonder, “What is the Louie-Louie Generation.” And that would be an intelligent question. Membership in the Louie-Louie Generation is mostly dependent on your willingness to join our struggle for respect, recognition, and happiness that we must wage every day and every night against the insolent forces of the clueless Pimple People, and the Drab and Dreary Drones, who have gone over to the Dork side. Many, although not all of us, are of an age when we are still going places, but now it’s often just to the supermarket. But we are not nostalgic for the old days. Because how can you be nostalgic when you can’t remember anything.
But I digress.
The number five spot on our list of most downloaded stories from the Personal Audio Cds this year is an unlikely tie between Daddy’s Girl, from Night Connections 2, and Beauty And The Beast, from Love Comes When You least Expect It. Daddy’s Girl is a story that’s based on an incident from the life of a woman I was honored to know. She’s gone now. But her memory will be around for a long time.
We have two daughters. And I can’t imagine the hole in my life if I hadn’t been part of their growing up lives. Daddy’s Girl is from the Night Connections 2 personal audio cd. It’s tied for the fifth most downloaded cuts from the Personal Audio Cds. It’s tied with Beauty And The Beast, from the Love Comes When You Least Expect It Personal Audio Cd. Love Comes When You Least Expect It is different from most of the other CDs. It’s a complete story, about two pilots and a lady. It’s also about guilt, and love, and an amazing, happy ending. But it’s also about a question I’ve never been able to answer to my own satisfaction: When a man is in love with a woman, at what point does he have to back away from a relationship with another woman before it becomes betrayal. I think it can sometimes happen…just in your head. I think it happens a lot in offices.
Beauty And The Beast, is from the Love Comes When You Least Expect It Personal Audio CD. It’s the co-owner of the fifth most downloaded cut from the Personal Audio Cds this year.
The Prince of Fantasy is all alone as the fourth most downloaded cut from the Personal Audio CDs this year. It’s from the Bedtime Stories CD. This one hits close to home for me…because I could very easily have been the guy in the story. It was a very complicated time in my life. And I very nearly let my Lady Wonder Wench slip through my fingers. I woke up just in time as she was slipping away. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I like to make a point of holding her hand…every chance I get. The Prince of Fantasy is from the Bedtime Stories Personal Audio Cd. And it’s the fourth most downloaded cut this year.
The third most downloaded cut this year was written a long time ago. It was a time when we had typewriters, and outdoor telephone booths, hula hoops, lava lamps, and beer can tops that just flipped up instead of coming off. It would probably be wise to update some references like that, but…I’m not going to do it. It’s like watching a Star Trek episode when Capt. Kirk was young, and wearing his pajamas for a uniform, and struggling with non-computer special effects. You wouldn’t change that, would you? Or more accurately, it’s like unwrapping a Christmas tree ornament that once belonged to your grandparents…who gave it to your parents, who gave it to you. It was written when I first fell in love with my Lady Wonder Wench. The third most downloaded story this year is from the lovin touch personal audio CD. It’s called, Christmas Warm.
The world looked different then. Johnson was in the White House. Gas was about 40 cents a gallon. And leisure suits and mini-skirts were in your closet. Which is a good place to hide any surviving leisure suits. The world looked different then. But the warmth still feels…even better now. Christmas Warm is the third most downloaded story from the Personal Audio Cds this year. It’s from the Lovin Touch personal audio CD.
The second most downloaded story isn’t a story at all. It’s from the slightly mysterious, Quiet Hands Cd. I don’t talk about it much, because it sometimes gets a little intense, and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I was a clinical hypnotist for a long time. And I found that if I could get people to concentrate carefully, they could actually feel what I was talking about. Try it. Let me know how well it works for you. The second most downloaded cut this year is from the Quiet Hands Personal Audio Cd. It’s called… the Back Rub.
The test to check if that works for you, is, if it does, you should have kind of a silly smile on your face by the end of the cut. The second most downloaded cut this year, from the Quiet Hands personal audio Cd, is called the Back Rub.
Before I tell you about the most downloaded cut from the Personal Audio CDs, let me remind you that the easiest and fastest way to hear these six most popular Personal Audio CD cuts, is just go to the current podcast at www.dicksummer.com/podcast . It’s free. But if you like doing things the hard way, I want to offer you a sixth anniversary celebration gift. No strings attached. Until June 3rd, I’ll send you a free download of the six, top five cuts from the Personal Audio Cds. Just send your email address to me at www.dickwummer.com The download will come to your email address via a program called, You Send It. It’s safe. I use it all the time. I have to put the June 3rd deadline on the offer for an eye glazing number of reasons. Some of which actually make a certain amount of sense.
This year’s top downloaded story from the Personal Audio CDs is from the Night Connections album. It’s called, A Real Friend. I knew a woman who actually did what the woman in that story did. She was desperately in love with a married man. She was pretty, smart, and happy…happy to be in love…even though she knew he could never be her lover. Or was he? Remember the question in Beauty And The Beast ? Did he have to touch her to be her lover ?
That’s it for the celebration of our sixth anniversary. Thank you…really thank you for giving me some of your very precious time…for being part of the huddle with my Lady Wonder Wench and me. It’s more important to me than most of you could possibly imagine. Next week, we bring in lucky year number seven.
Thank YOU, Dick, for the impact you’ve had on MY life. These past 6 years have just been the frosting on the cupcake! May there be incredibly more.