March 1, 1987

Welcome to the first of March, and as of right now, it's coming in like a lamb.  Of course, that is for now.  We're in line to get a severe winter storm in the next day or so, so we'll see how ferocious that is.

Damn winter.

Anyway, it's the first Tuesday Timeline of a brand new month, so let us begin with a look back on some of the historical events of March 1.

1565 - The city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is founded

1692 - The Salem Witch Trials begin

1803 - Ohio becomes the seventeenth state to join the United States of America

1867 - Nebraska becomes the thirty-seventh state to join the United States of America where the state capital of Lancaster is renamed after Abraham Lincoln

1872 - Yellowstone National Park is established as the first global national park

1873 - Production begins on the first practical typewriter

1893 - Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri

1896 - Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity

1904 - Bandleader Glenn Miller (d. 1944) is born in Clarinda, Iowa

1912 - The first parachute jump made from a moving airplane is performed by Albert Berry

1932 - Charles Lindbergh's son is kidnapped; his remains would be found May 12

1936 - Construction of the Hoover Dam is completed

1941 - In Nashville, Tennessee, the first American FM radio station begins broadcasting

1954 - The Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb is detonated on Bikini Atoll as part of nuclear weapons tests

1961 - The Peace Corps is established by President John F. Kennedy

1974 - Seven people are indicted for the roles they played in the Watergate Scandal

1992 - Bosnia and Herzegovina declare its independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

1995 - The online search engine Yahoo! is launched

1998 - The 1997 film Titanic becomes the first film in history to gross one billion dollars at the box office

2006 - Wikipedia publishes its one millionth article

2013 - Actress Bonnie Franklin passes away at the age of 69

2014 - A mass stabbing takes place at Kunming Railway Station in China, leaving 29 people dead

And celebrating a birthday today are the following famous faces; Harry Belafonte, Robert Conrad, Jerry Fisher, Danilo Bach, Roger Daltrey, Dirk Benedict, Lana Wood, Alan Thicke, Nevada Barr, Catherine Bach, Ron Howard, Tim Daly, Nik Kershaw, Benedict Allen, Rob Affuso, Thomas Anders, Maurice Benard, Ron Francis, Russell Wong, Booker T, Zack Snyder, George Eads, Javier Bardem, Jack Davenport, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tate Stevens, Esther Canadas, Jensen Ackles, Bruno Langlois, Adam LaVorgna, Naima Mora, and Justin Bieber.

Okay, so what date are we going to take a look at this week?

Hmmm...March 1, 1987.  I think I can go with that.

I even kind of remember that date hazily.  I was in the middle of my kindergarten year, and I remember being very much into watching "Today's Special", "Polka Dot Door" and "The Price Is Right" with Bob Barker.  Of course, I could only watch that show when I was sick from school because we didn't have a VCR to record it.  Actually, come to think of it, I didn't even know what a VCR was in '87.

Ah, but I'm rambling on.  I'll stop now.

Seriously though, there is a reason why I wanted to use this date.  It happens to be the birthdate of someone famous who is going through a lot of crazy stuff right now, and I really sort of wanted to use this blog entry as a sort of social commentary piece while celebrating her career - well, her very short career thus far anyway.

Perhaps you may already know who I am talking about, but if not, here's a clue, courtesy of one of my favourite Simpsons couch gags ever seen on the show.

Okay, so maybe "Tik Tok" on the clock might make your party stop, yo.  I'll admit it's not my favourite song.  If anything, I much prefer this song.

ARTIST:  Kesha
SONG:  Your Love Is My Drug
ALBUM:  Animal
DATE RELEASED:  May 14, 2010
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #4

You know, say what you want about Kesha.  Whether you loved her with or without the dollar sign, she definitely understands the world of pop music and what a killer hook is.  And today she happens to be turning 29 years old. 

However, I don't know if this birthday will necessarily be a happy one for the Los Angeles born singer.  I'm sure that if any of you have been keeping up with the news, Kesha's been experiencing a lot of problems, and while everyone has a different opinion about what she is going through, I'm just going to say it.  I think she got a raw deal, as well as a miscarriage of justice, and I think that the ruling in her court case will have dire repercussions, not just for herself, but for women everywhere.

I suppose I should explain.

Back in 2005, when Kesha was only eighteen, she was signed to Kemosabe Records, a record label under the Sony Music label that was owned by Dr. Luke (real name Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald).  Although it took a few years for Kesha to make her mark on the charts, she found success in 2009 when she became a guest vocalist on Flo Rida's chart-topping single "Right Round" - which I'll have to admit is one of the only songs from 2009 I actually like.  I think 2009 was easily the worst year of the 2000s as far as music goes...but that's just my opinion.

On January 1, 2010, Kesha released her debut album "Animal", which included "Tik Tok", "My Love Is Your Drug", "Take It Off", and a collaboration that she performed with 3OH!3 entitled "Blah Blah Blah".

(Hey, I can't say that they were all winners.)

However, Kesha quickly recorded a second album, "Cannibal", in late 2010, which essentially was a companion piece to "Animal", and contained the hit singles "We R Who We R" and "Blow".  Following that success came a third release, "Warrior", which saw the single "Die Young" become Kesha's seventh Top 10 hit.

In addition to performing her own singles, Kesha began to pen compositions for other artists as well.  You remember the hit that Britney Spears had with "Till The World Ends"?  Kesha wrote that song.  Interestingly enough, it is one of the few hits from Britney's later career that I don't mind listening to.

But sometime around 2013, the hits stopped coming and Kesha's musical career seemingly dried up.  And it wasn't until October 2014 until we had an inkling of what was going on.

That was the time in which Kesha publicly accused Dr. Luke of sexual assault and battery. emotional abuse, sexual harassment, and violation of business practices as laid out in the California courts.

Now, it's a fair statement to say that we don't exactly know what really transpired between her and Dr. Luke.  The allegations from both sides of the conflict are strictly allegations.  However, in this case I am inclined to think that while maybe not all the claims that Kesha has made are factual, I tend to believe that a good portion of her accounts really did happen.  She wanted to sever all ties with Dr. Luke and his record company and she wanted to start over at a new recording studio, which tells me that something serious did happen.  Something so serious that she doesn't even want to be in the same room with him.  Again, we don't know what exactly happened, but I certainly can't see Kesha gaining anything from lying about something so disgusting as sexual assault.

Unfortunately for Kesha, a judge ruled in February 2016 that there wasn't enough evidence presented to warrant terminating Kesha's contract with Kemosabe Records, so as a result, she will have to stay with the company until her contract expires, which means that Kesha cannot record music with any other company until her commitment with Dr. Luke and Kemosabe Records was up.

My opinion?  I think it's wrong.

Regardless of what happened, it is absolutely wrong to keep someone at the same record company as the person who allegedly abused them.  It's almost as if the courts punish the victim for speaking out about being abused, and that is such a step backwards that it makes me so angry.  I worry that because of this decision that people will think that abuse is okay...but even worse, I worry that this decision will stop victims of abuse from speaking out and telling their stories for fear that nothing will be done about it.  And that is just the wrong attitude to have.

Fortunately for Kesha, she seems to have some people standing by her during this time.  With Taylor Swift leading the charge and donating some money to her, several celebs have launched a movement to buy out Kesha's contract so that she can be free to make her own decisions regarding her music.

Here's hoping that as she celebrates turning 29, Kesha will start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.