The Inaugural Wittie Awards

Welcome to the opening installment of Psychosomatic Wit's 40 years of music. Think of it as the TV Land Awards for music. I will give an award (probably weekly) for one song for each of the past 40 years. To qualify, a song must be on the charts at any time during the year in question. A song cannot win a Wittie for two consecutive years - even if their presence on the charts overlap two years.

The award is the Psychosomatic Wit Award of TMF (Tickle My Fancy) - heretofore known as the Wittie! This award will be given for any piece of art (song, movie, blog, etc.) that just does something for me.

In this particular case, it will be a music Wittie. Be on the look-out for Witties in other categories. Some accomplished bloggers reading this may even get a blogger Wittie of their own someday to display on their blog mantle piece.

Now is time for the first Wittie given for the TMF song of 1968. The Wittie goes to . . .

Elenore by The Turtles

This song was written and performed for the purpose to upset the record label, White Whale Records, who wanted the band to do another sappy love song ala Happy Together from the year before. Irritated, the band strung together some sickening lyrics like, "Gee I think you're swell" and even gave it an obligatory sounding "You're my pride and joy, etcetera."

However, the public went bonkers for the song, anyway, so their little scheme backfired. I guess the tune was just too catchy. For all these reasons, Elenore tickled my fancy and earned a Wittie for Song of 1968. Give it a listen:

Sayre: Psychosomatic Wit is Excellent

I think about this blog a lot - probably too much. I had an idea about what I wanted this blog to be before I started it. It is not that. However, I have more information about blogs and what they are and can be now - knowledge that I didn't have then. I like my blog. I like this community. Still, I am conflicted.

I did NOT want this blog to be a diary. I did NOT want to filter my opinions. I had no clue that a community would develop that I would care about. This causes me to want to be careful to not offend others' opinions. I believed that I would be writing to strangers about my opinions and insights about the world around us. Some would agree; others would disagree. I didn't care as long it was interesting and discussion inspiring. Plus, I thought my blog would be somewhat humorus.

So what is my blog? It is a little diary, a little opinion/insight and really not so funny. For some reason, some people like it and that humbles me. I am sure it will continue to evolve, but I think for the most part, it is what it is. It has its own identity. It lives, breathes, cares, and reacts to you - all of you - even the lurkers. Thanks for being a friend of the psycho!

_________________________________

Sayre from SayreSmiles has given me the honor of having an excellent blog. She should know, she has an excellent one, herself.

I must now pick blogs that qualify as excellent. This is both easy and hard. It is easy because there are many excellent blogs out there. It is hard, because choosing is ALWAYS hard. I also do not want to duplicate other picks. Here we go:

Jod{i} at Looking Beyond the Cracked Window has an excellent blog. She often gets deep and lets her thoughts dictate her posts in an unbridled manner. Somehow it always has a way of making sense and makes me ponder life from her perspective.

Another great blog is Am I Thinking That. Charles has such a sincere blog - kind of like Linus' pumpkin patch. He uses his blog to learn about life from himself and his readers. Its uniqueness like that keeps me coming back.

Stephanie (a.k.a. HollyGl) has a relatively new blog called Meaningful Malarchy. Normally, I wouldn't think to put a new blog up, but only the blog is new. Stephanie has been a masterful blogger for a while. She is sensitive, caring, and quite a find.

Crow's Feet is another blog that is worthy of this award. Michelle uses her uncommon understanding of the spiritual to shape her blog. She is also very caring and that translates to a warmth when reading her blog.

Meg, as far as I know, is not REALLY a liar. However, her blog Confessions of a Compulsive Liar is excellent. Meg captures her present drama surrounding her family, upcoming nuptuals, and of course, the office. If she is a compulsive liar and made the whole thing up, she is darn good at it!

Emily is the one that got me started blogging. She even tweaked this blog for me so it would look better than some lame, blogger-supplied template. Her blog, Two Write Hands is one of the best things out there in blogland. Emily has a way of making her readers sincerely care about her and her life. Remember her name; she will undoubtedly be famous some day!

Chris at Inane Thoughts has a great blog. It covers everything from food recipes to martial arts - but mainly just life itself. It is also good to get a man's perspective since blogging seems to be a primarily female endeavor.

Another male blog of note is Byzantium's Shores. Kelly's blog covers a ton of different topics. He talks of sports (particularly Buffalo sports), literature, movies, and other blogs. Not only that, he posts quite often so there is ALWAYS something fresh. Excellent blog!

Kristarella is a Christian scientist from Australia. Need I say more when it comes to interesting? She blogs about a lot of things and even has a photo blog. Check her out!

And finally something different: Rodger Johnson is Your PR Guy. This blog is more of a business-oriented blog exploring different aspects and strategies for public relations. The reason this blog is interesting is that its content targets US! It is an excellent blog to see how companies approach its marketing and relations with the buying public. Maybe you can pick up some tips for making your blog more popular.

There are other great blogs out there that I read. Many just as deserving as those I listed. It is a great blog world out there! Go read it!

This Blog is "Being the Blog"

According to Shan, anyway. My mate, Shan gave me the "Be the Blog" award. This blog originated here at Me and My Drum, by Mark.

The "Be the Blog Award" is given to blogs that, according to Mark, "really sums up what a successful blogger does. And what I mean by successful is that they make it their own, stay with it, are interactive with their readers, and just plain have fun."

I am humbled and flattered that Shan would look at my blog in this light. I guess I can thank the picture on my halloween post, in slipping me into the "fun" aspect of my blog. Don't worry, I won't subject you to a link of it. If you really must see it (again), you can scroll down a few posts.

Shan also, on his blog, told his readers that my blog, "If you want to learn a thing or two about life, come have a look here" (at this blog). This means a lot to me, too, because my life's lessons are primarily faith-based and I know that Shan does not share my belief system. This illustrates his open-mindedness. Go check out his blog!

Now, to nominate someone for this award. I will have to give it to Random Magus. Every time I read that blog, I usually find something there that makes me think. I haven't really been able to get back into the swing of reading and commenting on blogs lately, but RM was the first thing that popped into my mind. I have noticed that she hasn't written in a while, but her archives are just full of thoughtful nuggets that will keep you busy until she gets back.

Amber, you can pick up your reward here.

COMING SOON: NEWS FLASH #20, and The Great Healthcare Debate

The Sopranos of Blogs

The awards keep coming in for Psychosomatic Wit. Like The Sopranos, which garners Emmy after Emmy, this blog picked up two more. Of course, this announcement is all tongue-in-cheek, because there are so many better blogs out there, but still, it is good to be appreciated.

Loz, from Midlife - A Journey, nominated me for two. It means a lot to me for Loz to do this, because he has a great, honest blog so I know that he values blogs that are also in that light.

The first one he has bestowed to me is called "The Schmooze Award". It was established by Mike at Ordinary Folk and Danielle at Pink Reviews who have defined it as -Schmoozing as defined by Dictonary.com is the ability “to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.” When it comes to blogging, schmoozing is your ticket to making new friends, getting yourself noticed and building a reputation. Some bloggers are gifted with the ability to effectively schmooze and others not so much.

The second award, I am happy to announce is my second "Thinking Blogger Award". Even though it is my second one, it has significant meaning to me because I have been so distracted lately with some setbacks in my life, it is actually harder for me TO think.

___________________________________________________________________
Here are the rules of this award meme:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

That was that! Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all - blogs that really get you thinking!
___________________________________________________________________

Since this is my second one of these, I am going to tag people a little differently. Stay tuned for that. BTW - I am NOT tooting my own horn comparing my blog to "The Sopranos". In the interest of full disclosure, I have never seen even ONE episode of that program.