Saturday 9: Get On Your Feet

Saturday 9: GET ON YOUR FEET (1989)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this song, Gloria Estefan encourages us to stand up and make it happen. What's something you want to accomplish this fine Saturday?  I can't say that I really hope to accomplish anything today. We are leaving early this afternoon for a wedding on the far side of Pittsburgh. That will pretty much shoot the day.

2) She sings that we've all been through some nasty weather. How has winter 2021/22 treated you thus far (weather wise)?  Even though I've grumbled about snow and cold, it really hasn't been that bad of a winter as far as winters here go.

3) Best known as a recording artist, Gloria is also a best-selling author of children's books. When you were a kid, were you a big reader?  Oh my, yes! I started reading early on and was reading adult novels by the time I was 12. I read everything I could get my hands on. I'm still the same way.

 
4) In addition to music and writing, she's a linguist. As a college student, she supported herself as an English/French/Spanish translator at Miami International Airport. When were you most recently at an airport? Were you traveling yourself, or picking someone up/dropping them off?  I think I was picking up Tim's sister when she flew in for their brother's funeral. That was about 6 years ago, I think. I don't remember anything since then. I took her for the return, too.

5) Gloria made her acting debut in 1999's Music of the Heart, a Meryl Streep movie about music teachers in Harlem. Did you have music classes in school? Have you ever taken private lessons?  I think I had music classes in school until I was in 8th grade. I considered them pure torture since I can't carry a tune. One teacher even commented on my report card that I was tone deaf. I did want to learn to play the piano at one point, but my parents, probably remembering that comment, refused.

 
6) Today Gloria is one of the celebrity residents of Star Island, a man-made island in Biscayne Bay. Star Island is connected to the mainland by MacArthur Causeway, named for General Douglas MacArthur. Tell us about a street in your neighborhood, and who it's named for.  My Mom lives on Brinker Street which was the name of the family and farm that was here before the land was developed. We live on Penn, which I could speculate is named for William Penn since this is Pennsylvania, but there's no way that I know of to know for sure. Everyone from those days is long gone.

7) 1989, the year "Get on Your Feet" was popular, was the year of the first HDTV broadcast. By 1998, high-def shows and TVs were dominant. How many TVs are in your home? Do you watch shows on your computer or phone?  When the kids were at home and we could pay one price for cable no matter how many TVs were connected, we had one in the living room and one in each bedroom. About the time our youngest was leaving us with an empty nest the cable company started requiring you to have a box-thing for each TV and you had to rent them. We went to just the one TV in the living room. Now that we've been streaming for a couple of years, we finally got a second TV for the bedroom. And no, I don't watch shows on my computer or phone.

8) Also in 1989, The Simpsons premiered. It's now the longest-running prime-time TV show ever. Are you a fan?  We used to be fans and watched it all the time, but I'd say we stopped watching it somewhere between when our son graduated in 2005 and when our daughter did in 2010. I tried to watch it not long ago and found it to be not at all funny...kind of like the current incarnation of Saturday Night Live.

9) Random question: Should husbands wear their wedding rings?  Yes, they should. Unless they have a job where it would be dangerous to wear it. My husband hasn't worn his in years. He works in commercial construction and he used to wear it, but got it caught more than once. I am the one who finally told him to stop wearing it. (On a side note, I am not wearing one these days, either...because my very naughty cat stole mine off the sink and I haven't been able to find it. We have torn everything apart, including the drain, where it would have been stopped in the trap had it gone down.)

Thanks as always goes to Sam @ Saturday 9 for the music and questions!