50 Ways to Saturday Midnight Convoy on a S.W.A.T. Rollercoaster while You Shake that Funky Boogie Duck Fever

Taking a page from Smokey’s playbook (although truth be known I had been planning this for years and YEARS so… yeah), YHC wanted to bring a soundtrack to this morning’s beatdown.

Sadly, it turns out 1976 was quite a transitional year.

The world was introduced to the Space Shuttle and the Concorde as people were not longer satisfied with the regular ways of getting from point A to B. Now we needed to do it in style!

And what better way to demonstrate style than by scoring a perfect 10 in the Olympic (Nadia Comaneci) or introducing punk (The Damned) to the world?

And of course politically 1976 upended norms as well: the US elected a peanut farmer, Chairman Mao kicked it, and Cuba’s favor revolutionary named himself President.

All that is reflected in the music. 1976’s Billboard #1s include everything from the unsurprising (some rock, some R&B) to the new (disco and some synths) to the absolutely bizarre (see below).

Warm-up (slow … and sexy?)

SSH, Smurf-jacks, IW
Runner’s lunge (with Merkins on the switch)

Site-Qs are late so 10 burpees. PAX ain’t counting so add 5 more.

Thang 1 (the unsurprising… the 60s visit the 70s)

Mosey down to the bridge. Split the PAX in half. Group 1 lunge walks to the bottom and runs back. Group 2 decline merkins on the steep hill. Freebird, true to his name, improvised some squats to give the PAX a break.

Thang 2 (the new)

Mosey over to the pull-up bars. Split the PAX in half again. Group 1 runs the pond. Group 2 does 5-1 pullups and runs up the hill to the parking lot & back. Flip-flop. Swap and repeato.

Thang 3 (the classics)

Mosey to the shelter. New partners. Group 1 BTTW or people’s chair. Group 2 10 L/R step ups, 10 irkins, 10 derkins, 10 dips. Swap and repeato.

Thang 4 (the weird… who thought any of this was a good idea?)

Mosey over to the amphitheater. The idea was to bear crawl the grassy areas and derkin (10x) off the ledges. Turns out the grass was all stickers and other thorny crud. Apex does NOT know how to take care of the PAX. Audible to whatever you want to do to not tear your hands up.

Mosey back to the flag for…

Mary (slow and long)

Eight minutes of Mary. The PAX was not happy with Q.

LBCs x43, L/R Heel Touches x30, Freddie Merc x30, L/R Heel Touches x10, Freddie Merc x20, Supermans x20, hold Superman for 5-count around the circle

COT

Countarama: 18 including 2 Hates, 1 Superhate, a few respects and one dude who turned 43 today

Announcements: 2ndF at Pharmacy on May 1; Odyssey info is up

Praises & Prayers: Parker’s FIL underwent procedures and is doing much better with pain relief; Crimson’s son had emergency surgery - they are driving up to DC to see what’s going on

NMS

Seriously, 1976 was weird music wise. Lots of up and downs. Sure, there are a lot of classics as well as some new stuff that really worked. But there were stretches where the music was slow and boring or where it seemed like 1976 was living someone else’s year. And then there’s the utterly bizarre. The stuff that just does not work, no matter how much you want it too. But you experiment and that’s how you figure out your voice.
(Spoiler alert… the Billboard #1s from 1977 weren’t much different… but at least there was no Convoy… or Disco Duck)

YHC turned 43 today and although the analogy is quite a stretch, I know my life so far has been quite a bit like the music of 1976. Lots of good, some great, stretches of slow and some completely baffling experiences. But that’s all me. And it’s been great so far.

And don’t forget the slow and sexy stuff. That stuff’s not to bad either.

See also