TV Themes (outside the top 10), Statistics #17, and Some Thoughts

I've been saddened and shocked, as I believe all of you were, by the recent mass murder by the terrorist in Nice, France. Before that, there was Orlando, Florida. We are surrounded by senseless killings that more and more fall outside the traditional rules of combat, which at least tried to spare the civilians.

I'm contemplating the sense of the memory of loss: when these people die, the press tries to humanize them and individualize them with photos and bio facts, which is as it should be. But how long do these people linger in our memories? If they're not family or friends, very little, I'm afraid. There's just too many of them - and new atrocities happen every day - while our memory has a limited capacity. This makes me sad. I'm not one to believe in afterlife: I believe that people survive through our memories of them. We keep our dear ones in our hearts, but there should be some place left for those unfortunate enough to have horrible, senseless, violent deaths. For they could be us.

More than thirty years ago, I had read a tiny newspaper article about two gay teenage lovers in a small village in Sicily, who commited suicide together, because they couldn't stand the bullying and the homophobia of the villagers anymore. In the note they left behind, they wrote that they hoped to find happiness and peace in the afterlife. The article had no photos or names of the victims. Yet I have held on to this memory - and in time it has become my own.

There was a name and a photo in the news concerning the murder of Daniel Zamudio: the 24-year old Chilean gay man was beaten and tortured for several hours in the San Borja Park in downtown Santiago, Chile, by four attackers, allegedly linked to a neo-Nazi gang, who attacked him after learning he was gay. It happened four and a half years ago, but Daniel still resides in my memory palace. In a couple of weeks, it would've been his 29th birthday, had he lived.

So, I have decided to celebrate the memory of the recent victims of hateful violence in an unorthodox way: by invoking the memory of past victims. In the hope than in 3 or in 30 years' time, there will be people who will remember the individuals of the Orlando slaughter and of the Nice massacre. Here's Daniel Zamudio:

This week has been an unusual week for our blog, so our statistics are a bit unusual. I will begin with a category that we never discussed before: the popularity of individual entries. For a long time, the most visited entries had been the early ones. At #1, with twice as many visits as the one at #2, was my very first entry: the few lines who welcomed you all in our blog. Then came the very next entry, the one that I explained the blog's purpose and methodology, the first part of David Bowie, the 2nd and 3d parts of Elton John, a couple of TV & Statistics, a Eurovision entry, the Rolling Stones' song presentation and at the lower places of the Top 10, the 1st part of George Michael's story. Then Snicks gracefully plugged the George Michael entry on his Facebook page and suddenly, almost a month after it originally appeared, the entry had as many visits as it originally had and shot up the Top 10 to #4, just below Bowie.

Snicks, for those of you that don't know, is a journalist, the last man standing in NewNowNext from the golden days of AfterElton and of TheBackLot. His knowledge of the Pop Culture is terrific and his sense of humor is amazing. There are comments of his in this blog, but he uses a different name. Those of you who know him well will probably figure it out.

This week, focusing on Greek singers, I just didn't know how many people would turn up. At the start of the week, the total number of visits was on a normal level: the slight decline of non-Greek readers was compensated by the slight increase of Greek readers. Then I had another Facebook plug, by special friend and excellent author Maria Skiadaresi. Suddenly, there was a huge surge of Greek visitors. The entry that especially benefitted was the plugged one, Domna Samiou: in a few short days, it went from being a moderate success to being the most visited entry of all-time, with twice as many visits as the next one. Six out of the last seven entries are in the Top 10 of the last month. Only yesterdays' entry didn't make it, but I posted it really late, so give it time. In short, this week's experiment was successful.

By the way, you should totally get to read Maria Skiadaresi's books. All of them are excellent, but there's one especially that is gay-themed and taking place in Istanbul. It's called With The Moon Behind Him (Με Το Φεγγάρι Στην Πλάτη) and it was published in 2003, in Greece. It was also published in Germany, in 2013, under the title of Das Herz Nach Istanbul Tragen. So all of our Greek-speaking and German-speaking friends who haven't read it, I urge you to do so. You won't be disappointed. Here's the link to the German edition of her book:

http://groessenwahn-verlag.de/shop/belletristik/das-herz-nach-istanbul-tragen/

In case you're wondering of the popularity of our hommage to Black artists, the Top 5 were Johnny Mathis, Rahsaan Patterson, Freddie Jackson, Labi Siffre and Rudy Lewis of the Drifters. The least visited were Tony Washington of the Dynamic Superiors and Billy Strayhorn.

Now to our usual statistics: we've had some impressive changes in this week's Top 10. For the first time, Greece is at #1, with twice as many visits as the US, which also for the first time falls to #2. France had a great week and for the first time occupies #3, moving up 2 places. Germany drops a place to #4, while the UK also drops a place to #5. Cyprus re-enters the Top 10 at #6, while Russia drops a place to #7, in a tie with re-entering Spain. Finally, 2 brand new entries in a tie at #9, China and Austria. We were also visited during the week by people from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Congo-Brazzaville, India, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine. My best wishes to all of you!

Fewer changes took place in the all-time Top 10: the US, Greece and Germany hold firm to positions 1,2 & 3 and apparently it's not easy to challenge them, especially the first two. Russia is still at #4, but the UK at #5 is in a position to challenge that. Then France that's been very dynamic recently, is in a position to challenge both: currently it sits at #6. No change for Canada at #7 and static Ireland is at #8, while Cyprus which has been busy this week is still at #9. For position #10 there has been a struggle all week between neighbors Spain and Portugal. In the end, Spain has prevailed, just one visit ahead of Portugal.

For those of you who have been looking forward to hearing my #1 TV theme, you'll have to wait for one more week. I've decided to sadistically prolong your agony (insert evil laugh). This week we'll listen to TV themes that were seriously considered for the Top 10, but only just missed out. Here is The Persuaders' theme, by John Barry. Barry who has a terrific Oscar record (5 wins out of 7 nominations) and is also responsible for most of the earlier James Bond music, as well as for the theme for Midnight Cowboy.

The Lost In Space theme was written by the man with the most Oscar nominations save for Walt Disney: John Williams (50 (!) nominations and 5 wins). Surely, you know him: Star Wars, ET, etc.

Here's the ‪Hawaii Five-O theme. (This is the second mention of Hawaii in as many days, Record Man, are you listening?)

Here's Doctor Who: I've found a video of a mix of all the themes, as they changed through the decades. The 21st century theme begins around the 8:12 mark.

On a similar vein, here's the Twilight Zone theme:

And here's The X Files' theme, by Mark Snow:

For drama, here's the theme from The Fugitive:

For glamour, here's the theme from Dynasty. Oscar winner Bill Conti (Rocky) wrote it:

For 60's cool style, here's the theme from The Man From U.N.C.L.E, written by Oscar winner Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen):

For the same reasons, here's the theme from The Saint:

For good comedy, here are The Golden Girls: Thank You For Being A Friend was written and made a hit by Andrew Gold. Did you know that he was the son of Oscar winner (Exodus) Ernest Gold and Marni Nixon, the voice behind Deborah Kerr in The King And I, behind Natalie Wood in West Side Story and behind Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady?

And speaking of Beatrice Arthur... then there's Maude:

There was also The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song, Love Is All Around, written and performed by Sonny Curtis:

The Get Smart theme:

And finally, The Muppet Show theme: