For The Record- 23. December. 2023

Well round and round she goes. Where she'll stop nobody knows.

---

Welcome to another edition of For The Record, a good old-fashioned link drop and benefit for paid supporters of On Repeat.

As a reminder, On Repeat is 100% reader-funded. And as always, there are 7-day trials for anyone looking to test the waters.

---

This week, we’ve got news on Cher, Madonna, (national treasure) Michael McDonald, and Mike Ness.

All that and a LOT more, including everyone from Alvvays to Kesha to Kula Shaker.

Let’s get to it!

---

Note: I’m keeping it short for the holiday week, but I want to share a quick story about an old friend and a lesson he (unintentionally) taught me years ago.

Cleaning airplanes is-in every sense of the word- a slog. It’s tedious. It’s hot. And it’s usually a quick way to lose your faith in humanity. There are sights & smells you will never forget. That goes double in the summer when airlines generally run at full throttle (heh) and keep planes going almost around the clock. If one is lucky enough to sit for a few hours overnight, it gets worked over by mechanics outside and cleaners in the cabin. This is also the first chapter in a lot of employee’s careers. You work a few miserable bids on overnights until you have enough seniority to start moving closer to something resembling normal hours.

Like many things, the company you keep can mitigate even the worst situation. Emptying seat pockets and vacuuming up Goldfish crackers is a little more bearable when you’re doing it with people who make it interesting.

My friend Dave was one of those people. We came from opposite coasts and opposing generations (he a younger Boomer, me an older GenX’er), but we found common ground in debate. Not the slash-and-burn kind, but the sporting, academic ones that force you to defend your corner and exercise your mind. The sort of repartee that makes hours feel like minutes. He also loved muscle cars and ripping around Virginia backroads, but I digress.