Beautiful Lunar Display

We are in the year of maximum lunar standstill, the culmination of the 18.5 cycle, whereby the Moon swings to the maximum northern and southern paths that it can possibly reach. 

The last four nights, the full Moon has put on a magnificent display. It's so far north now (+27.5 degrees) that it passes almost directly overhead here in Sacramento. It's wonderful! We have about eight more months of this. It'll be 2043/44 before we see the like again!

Favorite Top 10 Pop Song List For 2024

I was thinking it's about time for 2024 end-of-year lists, and I wanted to do a favorite Top 10 pop song list for the year. I ran into two problems: 

1.) It's hard to keep the list to just ten songs; and, 

2.) Most of the songs were released well before 2024. 

Oh well! 

I've been tracking pop tunes since 1969. My head is jammed with various pop tunes and genres. Pop music is evanescent by nature, and should expire fairly quickly (thus, I loathe the Classic Rock format, which keeps zombie songs going for decades and ignores older tunes that never got much air play.) 

Anyway, here are my fave pop tunes from 2024 (or actually 2023, as it may be): 

It was a Chappell Roan year. The Midwest Princess' "Hot To Go" and "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl (both from 2023) are great! 

Other tunes: 

Sam Fender "People Watching" (2024) 

Olivia Rodrigo "Bad Idea Right?" (2023) 

Taylor Swift/Ice Spice "Karma" (2023) 

Taylor Swift "Anti-Hero" (2022) 

Malandra Jr. "Sveva" (2021) 

Sabrina Carpenter "Feather" (2023) 

Young Fathers "I Saw" (2022) 

Doja Cat "Agora Hills" (2023) 

Rema/Selena Gomez "Calm Down" (2023) 

And for honorable mention: 

Rosalia - "Con Altura" (2019) 

I wouldn't even mention Rosalia except George Morales had the uncommon, unbelievable luck of serving her on a transatlantic flight earlier this year. Plus, even though she sings reggaetón, she grew up in flamenco culture, and her songs feature many flamenco references. It's fun to tease them out (De Las Islas).