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Park Avenue leads to Skid Row

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We are the Youth (?) Gone Wild

Once again, it’s been a bit. Not sure if I can still call this a blog if I’m only posting a couple of times a year. But hey, I felt like writing, so here we are.

It’s been a good year so far. Went on my first cruise and loved it, had a nice Vegas trip, made it to a quick family reunion, and also got to see a pretty amazing concert.

One of my longtime favorite bands is Skid Row. Recently their lead singer had to quit the band due to his health. The band had four dates booked that they had to fulfill, so they needed someone to fill in on lead vocals. I don’t think they could have found anyone better for the role than one Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.

It was at a ballroom in a small casino in Riverside, Iowa. I made the trip with a couple of my good friends and got to enjoy one hell of a concert. If you want to see how insane Lzzy is, and how good she sounds as the voice of Skid Row, check out one of my favorite Skid Row songs of all time, Quicksand Jesus.

After the pandemic, I had convinced myself that I didn’t need to see live music. I was wrong.

Speaking of the pandemic, after that Vegas trip, we caught COVID for the second time.  It was worse this time around and it was a pretty miserable couple of weeks isolating.    Hopefully this means I am good for awhile. 

As for here, I have some ideas of things I want to discuss.  I look forward to getting the creative juices flowing again.  For now, I’ll just get back to listening to the new Bring Me The Horizon album non-stop.  You should probably do that too.

Best Music of 2023

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Some uplifting music this year even!

This year wasn’t nearly as depressing and angry on the music front as last Favorite Albums of 2023year, and there was some amazing stuff in rotation.   It was definitely a great music year.  Special emphasis on Beartooth for being a positive force, Sleep Token for pushing genres, Pierce the Veil for being the perfect album when I needed it, Hoodie Allen with one of the best breakup albums of all time, and Bad Omens, who technically came out at the tail end of 2022, but I’ve listened to them nearly nonstop since I found them.  Such a great album.  To hear songs from everyone below (including the honorable mentions) you can check it out on Apple Music here.

  • Sleep Token – Take Me Back to Eden
  • Bad Omens – The Death of Peace of Mind
  • Piece The Veil – The Jaws of Life
  • The Used – Toxic Positivity
  • ILLENIUM – ILLENIUM
  • Waterparks – INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
  • Hoodie Allen – Bub
  • All Time Low – Tell Me I’m Alive
  • Beartooth – The Surface
  • Story of the Year – Tear Me to Pieces
  • Nine Days – Slow Motion Life, Pt. 1
  • The Menzingers – Some of it Was True
  • Taking Back Sunday – 152
  • Thirty Seconds to Mars – It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day
  • Lil Lotus – Nosebleeder

Honorable mentions: NF, Therapy?, Fall Out Boy. Depeche Mode, Skrillex, Paramore, MOD SUN, Extreme, Jason Mraz, grandson, K.Flay, Ren

Hello There Stranger

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Or holy crap, how has it been a whole year?

I’ve sat down to write numerous times this past year, and just never felt like finishing anything.  I just wasn’t mentally into documenting the crap I was going through.   I won’t touch on it too much other than I’m happy 2023 is about done. 

I will mention that nearly two and half years after we went into lockdowns and I started writing my COVID Diaries, my wife, youngest daughter, and I finally caught COVID.  It hit us around the fourth of July holiday so we were stuck at home, and I was hit pretty hard.  I can only imagine how bad it would have been had I not been immunized.  But it was inevitable, and now that’s something else checked off the list.  I just got my most recent booster, so hopefully I can avoid a winter strain.

The world is currently in chaos. We are around two years since Russia invaded Ukraine and there is no end in sight to that conflict. And now, Israel is trying to eradicate Hamas after its terrorist attack over a month ago.  There are hate crimes rising against Jews and Muslims around the world.   It’s like a holiday for racist white people.  It just sucks, because I don’t want innocent people to die on either side. I’m against violence of any kind, especially when attacks have a blatant disregard for innocent life.  There has been a recent pause in fighting while hostages have been traded.  Hopefully that is a sign there can be some negotiation, even though the cease fires just ended.

So the world is a powder keg and there is a possible super volcano ready to erupt in Iceland.  Yes, seriously.  So we have that going for us.

One thing I wanted to touch on is that I lost one of my childhood best friends this past year to a heart attack.  He was two years younger than myself, and in much better shape.  It really hammered home how fragile life is and how quickly things can change.  I hadn’t spoken to him in years, but we were inseparable during the summer months.  Playing baseball, basketball and golf while riding around on our mopeds… It was a shock to my system at a time where I was very low myself.  In fact, a couple week prior I had gone to the hospital thinking I was having a heart attack, only to find out it was anxiety.

To recover from my episode to hear my old friend had died was fairly devastating, but it gave me a renewed sense of wanting to be healthier.

I finally got tests done at the doctor that showed I had been dealing with a stomach bacterial infection for the last couple years that was causing me a lot of issues.   I felt sick a good portion of the last two years and this was probably the culprit.   After finally getting the tests, we were able to attack it with antibiotics. In January I’ll get some additional tests to make sure it was fully eradicated. I’m already feeling a ton better, so I’m hopeful.

I’ve also closed my exercise rings on my Apple Watch every day this year. That is definitely having a positive impact as well.  Even on my sickest days I made sure to at least shuffle along on the treadmill for 30 minutes.  I’m feeling a lot better today than I have in a long time.  And that’s good, because I want to be around a long time.

In other news, we passed a milestone in September.   We marked 20 years of this blog. For the last 20 years, I have documented my life, shared technology, bitched about the state of the world, opined about music, gushed over gadgets and fell in love, and then out of of love, with social media.  This blog was always written for me, to document what was going on in my life and to share it with the world.   At times there were an unfathomable amount of people reading, and nowadays, maybe only a few. I hope I have enlightened, entertained, provoked or helped everyone reading this in some way.  No matter whether we were close, or we never met, I hope this place has given you something.

Thanks for sticking around, and I don’t just mean the blog.  I’m really glad you have.   Keep fucking going.

2019 Music Top 10

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Since people have been sharing their top listened to albums of 2019 I figured I would share mine as well.  It was a damn good year for music that I enjoyed, so here we go.

  1. Bad Religion – Age of Unreason – PUNK.  Bad Religion is my favorite band of all time, and 39 years in, this is one of their best albums ever.  Topical fantastic punk rock.  I can’t wait to see them next year in their 40th Anniversary tour alongside another of my favorites, Alkaline Trio.  Songs like Big Black Dog, Downfall, My Sanity and the title track are all fantastic.  There really isn’t a bad song on the album.
  2. Third Eye Blind – Screamer. ALTERNATIVE  T3B is another one of my favorites and they too put out an album that may be one of their best.  I’ve always loved Stephen Jenkins voice and songwriting and there some really great tracks like Ways, Tropic Scorpio, Screamer and Take A Side.  I love that they are still putting out music.
  3. Bring Me The Horizon – AMO – EMO/METAL/ELECTRONIC  Bring Me The Horizon started as a death core band years ago and as they have aged they have mellowed quite a bit.  So if you like the early sound, you might not like this, but the included electronic elements and more singing/less screaming means I love this album.  Heavy tracks like Heavy Metal, MANTRA, and Wonderful Life are faves, but even more melodic atmospheric stuff like In The Dark, Medicine. Sugar Honey Ice and Tea, and Nihilist Blues are amazing songs.  It also has my favorite lyric of the year “Some people are a lot like clouds like you, ‘cause life’s so much brighter when they go.”  Indeed.
  4. Dermot Kennedy – Without Fear – ADULT ALTERNATIVE.  Dermot Kennedy is an Irish singer/songwriter with a fantastic voice and real emotion in his songs.  You can feel the pain, empathy and more in his vocals.  Songs like Outnumbered, An Evening I Will Not Forget, What Have I Done and Power Over Me really hit home and I love listening to him.
  5. Motionless In White – Disguise – SCREAMO.  I’m not typically into a lot of screamy vocals, but man do I love Motionless In White.  The songs are so well crafted, heavy and melodic and the standard vocals are fantastic, and the screams fit perfectly with the emotions.  Standouts are Disguise, Another Life, Headache, Undead Ahead 2 and the song I love the sentiment of, Thoughts & Prayers.
  6. K. Flay – Solutions – ALTERNATIVE.  I saw K. Flay open up for Third Eye Blind and Dashboard Confessional years ago and she is a really cool alternative artist that blends hip hop elements and catchy songs that are really entertaining.  I love This Baby Don’t Cry, Sister, Nervous and I Like Myself (Most of the time)
  7. Tool – Fear Innoculum – PROG METAL.  After so many years without new music this album was highly anticipated by fans and it did not disappoint.  Another masterpiece of an album from one of the most technical bands out there right now.   Pnuema, Fear Innoculum, 7empest and Descending just flat out rock.
  8. Billie Eilish – When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go – ALTERNATIVE.  My daughters let me know about Billie Eilish for the past couple of years.  She had sort of an underground cult following with her breathy vocals and interesting arrangements that were all written and produced by herself and her brother Finneas.  This debut full length has taken the world by storm and Billie is one of the biggest names in music before turning 18.  Bad Guy, You Should See Me In A Crown, Bury A Friend, All The Good Girls Go To Hell and When The Party’s Over all are amazing.  She’s up for several Grammy’s including Best Album, Song and New Artist.  She deserves it all.
  9. Ed Sheeran – No. 6 Collaborations Project – POP.  After his multi year world tour and tons of accolades for his previous album, he released an album of collabs with tons of today’s artists and artists you should be learning about.  For some, an album like this is a throwaway, but not Ed.  This thing is strong.  Beautiful People, South of the Boarder, Blow, I Don’t Care, and my favorite Best Part of Me featuring YEBBA.  Trust me, you want to listen to YEBBA.
  10. Slipknot – We Are Not Your Kind – METAL.  Slipknot also came back after several years and people were hoping it would live up to the past, and they were not disappointed.  We Are Not Your Kind is classic Knot, very heavy, and possibly their best album since Iowa.  Unsainted, Solway Firth, Birth of The Cruel and my favorite Nero Forte.

I’m going to leave it at 10, but there are a couple of honorable mentions too.  Papa Roach, The Script, Lewis Capaldi and The Chainsmokers all had heavy rotational stints in my year of music.  

REVIEW: Lucky Boys Confusion – Stormchasers

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Back in 2001 Lucky Boys Confusion released their debut major label album on Elektra records.  The band mixed a great rhythm section, melodic pop punk, great vocals and some pretty catchy guitar hooks.  The first single “Fred Astaire” really resonated with me and I instantly became a fan.

They were a local Chicago southwest suburbs band and I had heard some of their songs locally, including Fred Astaire and Dumb Pop Song, since their inception in 1997.  So when they hit a major label it was home-town boys done good story.

Fast forward 20 years since their inception, and after an 11 year absence of new music (save one b-sides album I’ll just not mention) they have returned with their best, most solid album yet, Stormchasers.  This one was done by the band without label support, and it’s the best thing they’ve ever done.  It debuted on the Billboard charts at #16 Heatseeker.  It proves that if you are a good artist, you don’t need a label telling you what to do.

LBC currently consists of Ryan Fergus on drums, bassist Jason Schultejann, guitarist/vocalist Adam Krier and self-proclaimed “brown guy with the microphone” Kaustubh “Stubhy” Pandav.

This album is melodic upbeat pop rock, or as Adam calls it in “Good Luck” – punk rock with the polish.*  I’ve always loved Stubhy’s vocals as they have a unique edge to them that makes them instantly recognizable.  But don’t think that these are all happy-go-lucky tunes, the lyrics are somewhat dark but very relatable.

There are songs about having a record company press you into being something you aren’t “Name in Lights” a couple apart during wartime “Candle in the Window (Please Come Home),” working for the man “White Collar,” being stuck in your hometown and having to keep secrets “Your Friends are Whispering” the very melancholy (for me anyway) “The Sun In My Eyes” which is hopeful but also talks about how we make up the past in our minds as being better and then “Burn a Little Brighter” that’s either about suicide or school violence where they lost a friend where the officer said “that you didn’t come home from school today.”

You’ll find yourself quickly singing along to all the songs on this album and also really contemplating the lyrics and how you can relate.  Especially if you are older fans of the band. Better yet, for someone like me it’s really inspiring me to write lyrics and maybe create music again.  As a 46 year old IT Director, I miss being on stage singing to an audience.  I didn’t do it much in college, but it among my most fond memories.  There’s nothing like sharing your music with other music fans.

So that brings me to the song “White Collar” again.

Aren’t we all
Worried about things that don’t matter
So take a chance
And press against this glass ’til it shatters
Show up, get paid
Hold on to your breath while you plan your escape
Show up, get paid
‘Cause they’re on to you
‘Cause they’re on to you

I actually love my job, but sometimes it does feel like everything is arbitrary, and no matter how confident you are, sometimes you get imposter syndrome where you are worried you’ll be found out as a fraud.  ‘Cause they’re on to you indeed.

In “I Slept With the Devil” the following lyrics are actually pretty inspirational to me.

Our dreams our burning
We breathe the smoke
There’s only so much time before we choke
So stop complaining
Embrace the thrill
There’s only so much time left here to kill

I know it might seem fatalistic, but quite frankly they are right.  If you have dreams, you need to go for them because if you don’t, you’ll run out of time.  So do it, it’s scary but embrace that thrill.  Don’t waste time just sitting around being lazy and complacent. Take up that hobby. Ask that person out. Try out for that play. Write those lyrics. Don’t let your dreams burn out.

So in the end, this is the best thing LBC has ever released.  Not a skippable song on the album, and if you give it a listen you won’t be disappointed.  I can’t wait to see them live, and here’s to another 20 years.

In “Good Luck,” Adam sings:

Burned out, they call us
Screw ‘em, we got endless memories
Punk Rock and nail polish
I hope it gave you something to believe
If we burn out fast
Don’t surrender
Summer songs will last forever
That’s forever
Now and forever, good luck

It did give me something to believe, so thank you.  And the songs will last forever.  Good Luck.

Buy it on iTunes. Stream it on Apple Music. Stream on Spotify.

UPDATE: @Stubhy let me know on Twitter that I had some lyrics wrong, and one of those is “punk rock and nail polish” instead of “punk rock with the polish.”  I’ve updated accordingly 🙂  That said, I do think LBC is punk rock with some polish to it, but okay.  I personally think that “summer songs will last forever” is actually “some our songs will last forever” but I’ll track it down for sure at some point.  Lyrics are supposed to be in the forthcoming vinyl, so I’ll know for sure 🙂

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REVIEW: Ed Sheeran in concert

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A couple of years ago, I heard a song by a new artist out of England named Ed Sheeran.  That song was Lego House, and I was instantly hooked.  I love a good singer/songwriter and after delving into his album I really loved his style.  He plays acoustic guitar, can sing wonderfully and can really flow with his lyrics if he wants to.  So much so that a couple of his songs can even be considered hip/hop in nature.

When I was getting into the album, I brought my wife out onto the deck one late night and made her slow dance with me to the song “Kiss Me.”  That got my wife listening.  A little later I introduced my eldest daughter to some songs and she fell completely in love with Ed.

She has his poster on the wall, can recite every lyric at will, wanted to play guitar because of him, and even learned “I See Fire,” Ed’s song from the Hobbit soundtrack, to play in her band.

Because the other three of us in the house listened so much, the youngest jumped on board as well.  And even though she’s not AS big of a fan as the rest of us, she still really likes what he does.

Anyway, long story short, last April tickets went on sale for Ed to play here in Chicago.  I ponied up the money for the whole family to go.  This was going to be the first arena concert for the girls.  We never told the girls we were going, we simply drove to the venue a couple nights ago and surprised them.  It was awesome to see their reaction.

We were second level but near the front and could see directly down on the stage, so they were good seats.  There wasn’t THAT much to see however, as Ed did the entire show without any stage setup or backing band.

That’s right, it was him, some floor monitors, two microphones, his looping equipment and a steady stream of acoustic guitars.  He had ONE roadie, his guitar tech who would bring him a new guitar pretty much every song.

Okay, so how does one pull this off?  Standing alone to a packed arena, with only an acoustic guitar?  Well simply, the man is pretty much a genius.  He uses looping pedals to record various bits of the song in real time.  So guitar riffs, percussion (by banging on the guitar and strings) and harmony background vocals (sometimes 4 part.)

So what happens, is that for every song, he’s the producer and all of the music as well as the singer and guitarist.  And he does it so deftly that it’s hard to believe how well it comes off.  And in some songs he creates a wall of sound so powerful that he can simply lay down the guitar, stand on monitor and belt out the lead vocals.


He had some large displays behind him that would show artwork, or pictures, or camera angles of him singing, and there were a couple lights, but there wasn’t much else.  No giant laser show, no pyro, no giant stage to run around.  It was just him, and he held the audience in the palm of his hand for an hour and 45 minutes.

Besides that being an amazing feat in and of itself, I started thinking about it.   He didn’t have to pay a band.  He didn’t have to pay a huge bunch of roadies.  He didn’t have to buy all the staging equipment.  At $60 or more a ticket, he is making a TON of money on this tour.  From a business perspective, being able to pull this off, a one man show in sold-out arenas, is just incredible.  It shows just how talented he is.

We bought my eldest a sweatshirt ($65 by the way) from the tour and it had his birthplace and EST. 1991.  Yup, the kid was born in 1991 and is 23 damn years old.  TO be that talented and savvy at that age is incredible.  I think we’ll be hearing from him for a very long time to come.

If you have a chance to see him, do, you won’t regret it.

Farewell Robin Williams

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Three months ago I said farewell to my friend Tim Tripcony.  Tim was a kind gentle genius, who felt that he needed to leave us far too soon.  This past week, I learned that a childhood idol of mine, Robin Williams, felt he had to do the same.

It’s a horrible feeling to write back to back posts about people who felt they had no other option to combat the darkness they carried with them.  Depression is a very real disease, and I’m thankful that I’ve never felt that level of despair.  For my friends that do occasionally fight this disease, please know there are people out there like myself that care, and will be there for you.

Now, onto Robin Williams.  Robin was a stand-up comedian and actor whom I adored growing up.  When I was a young kid, I was introduced to Robin as Mork on the TV show Mork & Mindy.  Then (when I was probably a little too young) I fell in love with his stand-up.  He was such a funny comedian.  I remember laughing so hard I cried during his routines.

When he was on talk shows, there was this manic energy that emanated from him.  He could ad-lib, improvise, and make anything funny.  And he was ALWAYS like that.  That’s why you were drawn to him, he was uplifting and funny.  He had a comeback for everything.  I loved that about him.  I wanted to be him, wanted to always have that comeback, and always try to be funny.

Then there were the funny movies like Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Morning Vietnam, The Birdcage and even Aladdin.  Then you had his serious side, like Good Will Hunting, One Hour Photo, and one of my favorite movies of all time, Dead Poets Society.  Dead Poets Society also made me cry.

For someone who was so funny, to be able to be so uplifting, touching and inspirational in their serious acting was something that was so impressive to me.  I admired that skill, and wanted to emulate it.

In my Junior year of high school I was president of both the Speech and Drama clubs.  For Speech that year, I did two things.  Improvisational Acting, and Dramatic Acting.  On the Drama side, I did a compiled monologue from the Vietnam war play Tracers by John DiFusco.  I took on the personas of soldiers and it was dark and sad and I made myself break down into tears while performing it.

For Improv, we drew two characters and a situation, and 30 minutes later we had to act out a scene we improvised.  I had a formula where the two characters were part of the same person with multiple personality disorder and they were suing each other for whatever the situation was.  I had stock characters of a drugged out Judge Wapner and others, but I always tried to made it the funniest most outlandish scene I could come up with.

So like Robin, I wanted to do it both.  I wanted to do the drama and the comedy.  I did, and made All State in both categories.  In fact, I was one of only 30 high school students in the entire state of Iowa to do so.

When we went to All State, my dramatic was first and it went well.  After all the actors had performed, you had judges who would critique you in person and give you pointers.  I got some great advice on the dramatic side.  Then it was time for improv.

I don’t remember what characters or situation I got, but whatever it was I went for it.  I left everything on that stage and I remember getting an incredible reaction from the crowd and judges and I couldn’t have been happier.  Or so I thought.

After everyone else had gone, it was time for our critiques.  A couple folks went first and got the standard fare.  Then it was time for me to stand up.  When I did so the first judge started laughing.  I hadn’t been on stage for 15 minutes at that point, but he looked at me and laughed.  

After a bit he stopped and said “You remind me of Robin Williams.”  I don’t remember what he said after that, because quite frankly, that was the highest compliment anyone had ever given me.  To laugh and compare me to my idol was something special, and something I’ll always remember.

So this past week, we lost another person who shaped my world view.  I’ll miss his humor, and I’ll miss his tenderness.

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”

Indeed, thank you Oh Captain My Captain.

Da Coach Mike Ditka’s Number Retired

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On Monday night, the Chicago Bears retired the number of legendary tight end and coach for the team, Mike Ditka.  I’ve always liked Ditka, even when I didn’t like the Bears, so it was awesome to see.

After seeing him honored at half time, it reminded me of a time when my good friend and co-worker, Declan Lynch, and I got to meet the coach at one of his Chicago restaurants.

It’s one of my favorite stories of all time: Declan Does Ditkas.  Check it out.

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Bucket List: Visiting the TWiT Podcast

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I’ve been a huge fan of Leo Laporte since his days at MSNBC’s “The Site” and TechTV.  Many years ago he started the TWiT Podcast Network.  TWiT started as This Week in Tech and expanded to tons of different programming options.  It’s all free and much of the tech news and punditry I get on a weekly basis comes from listening to those podcasts on my way into work.

Since I’ve been such a fan, I really wanted to visit the studios where the TWiT podcasts are recorded.  So, during a business trip this last November, I made it a point to drive to Petaluma, California to see everything in person.  It was a great experience, and I got to meet Leo, and panelists Baratunde Thurston and Nick Bilton.  They couldn’t have been more gracious.  It was a great thing to check off the bucket list.

Anyway, for those of you interested, here is my photo album of the experience!

For Jen – Happy Valentine’s Day

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Never Stop by Safety Suit

This is my love song to you
Let every woman know I’m yours
So you can fall asleep each night, babe
And know I’m dreaming of you more

You’re always hoping that we make it
You always want to keep my gaze
Well you’re the only one I see
And that’s the one thing that won’t change

I’ll never stop trying
I’ll never stop watching as you leave
I’ll never stop losing my breath
Every time I see you looking back at me
I’ll never stop holding your hand
I’ll never stop opening your door
I’ll never stop choosing you babe
I’ll never get used to you

And with this love song to you
It’s not a momentary phase
You are my life, I don’t deserve you
But you love me just the same
And as the mirror says we’re older
I will not look the other way
You are my life, my love, my only
And that’s the one thing that won’t change

I’ll never stop trying
I’ll never stop watching as you leave
I’ll never stop losing my breath
Every time I see you looking back at me
I’ll never stop holding your hand
I’ll never stop opening your door
I’ll never stop choosing you babe
I’ll never get used to you

Still get my heart racing (you)
Still get my heart racing (for you)
Still get my heart racing (you)
Still get my heart racing (for you)

I’ll never stop trying
I’ll never stop watching as you leave
I’ll never stop losing my breath
Every time I see you looking back at me
I’ll never stop holding your hand
I’ll never stop opening your door
I’ll never stop choosing you babe
I’ll never get used to you

Still get my heart racing (you)
Still get my heart racing (for you)
Still get my heart racing (you)
Still get my heart racing (for you)

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