“This Hammock T-shirt was at the Sturgis South Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis Mississippi before riding home (Franklin TN) along the Natchez Trace Parkway. More pictures next month – riding to Texas via Clarksdale Mississippi and God Knows Where…..” Robert Jansen
Last week, I was working out and listening to the IPod, when my guilty pleasure song played. A few years ago, Maggie Flynn collected the guilty pleasure songs of Hammock people, but here is an update from those who are so bold as to bear their souls.
Summer Huggins responded first:
Oh man, that’s a toughy… I recently got satellite radio in my car, and with 160-some-odd stations, I find I don’t move very often from the ’80s station. The first song that came to mind when I saw this question was Culture Club’s “Miss Me Blind.” I heard it recently while in the bathroom at a restaurant and found myself dancing uncontrollably. Please don’t tell anyone!
Sorry, Summer, I just did, and I own that particular Culture Club album.
Ride managing editor Bill Hudgins says:
I have so many, it’s hard to pick a favorite. So I will be utterly fearless and give you several:
Massachusetts and Words – The Bee-Gees
Gloria – Laura Branigan
MacArthur Park – Richard Harris
El Paso – Marty Robbins
Bill, “Massachusetts” is probably the best thing the Bee Gees ever did. Try Jive Talking or If I Cant Have You, I Dont Want Nobody Baby from the disco era.
American Spirit managing editor Jamie Roberts admits to liking:
1. Beat It by pre-1987 Michael Jackson (may he R.I.P.)
2. Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim
3. Bust a Move by Young MC
Laura Creekmore at first was uncommitted.
Hmmm. I really think my entire music collection is a guilty pleasure. I think it would be easier to name you the two songs I listen to which I know to be hip. But let me see if I can think of the guiltiest of my pleasures, musically. And I’ll define this as not only a song that’s campy now, but one that was also considered bubble gum or goofy at the time of its release.
Upon further prodding, Laura commits to I Will Survive.
Allison Lund
Probably a lot of my iTunes could be considered guilty pleasures, but this song is not on my iTunes. “Man on the Silver Mountain” – by Rainbow. (Ronnie James Dio prior to singing for Black Sabbath.) I played this for my husband and he looked at me like I was an alien.
Emily McMacklin
I have two: Love to sing along to “I Will Survive” by Aretha Franklin (I think she sang it?). I also like to get down to “Shake Your Tailfeather” by P.Diddy & Co.
No, Emily, Gloria Gaynor sang I Will Survive. And P. Diddy just changed his name to Diddy.
My Guilty Pleasure song is another 80s classic Come on, Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners. Another favorite of mine from the 60s is Morning Girl by the Neon Philharmonic. This album featured the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, which was the first time that a symphony orchestra played on a rock album.
Barbara Mathieson
Hot of the presses is Hammock Publishing’s new collaboration with Conferon Global Services: The CGS Guide to Room Block Management. The 64-page resource details the best practices of the industrys leading meeting planning firm, drawing on its collective wisdom of 35 years of experience.
Because successful room block management is one of meeting planners’ toughest challenges, the CGS Guide breaks down the process for veterans and novices alike. The publication gives strategies for compiling group history, selecting a site, determining room counts, creating the proper mix of hotelsall while ensuring that meeting attendees are satisfied and associations remain on firm financial footing.
Hilton Hotels, sponsor of the Guide, shares cover billing with CGS. They will unveil the new publication at this weekend’s annual meeting of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) in Nashville.
For over 1,000 days, the server which hosts Hammock Publishing’s website ran continuously. That’s right. Never a crash or interruption. It took a fire in downtown Nashville near the hosting facility we use to stop this baby. And the fire would not have done so if the fire department had not made the hosting facility shut down the auxiliary power (some lame excuse about the fire and the diesel fuel needed to keep those generators humming). Thanks to Patrick Ragsdale (and Blair & Julia for the phone-relays) for spending his Sunday evening getting all our servers back up and running. 12 hours and ticking.