A Funny Thing Happened
Let's Run and We'll Have Some Fun
Mark Rushton’s Abundant Spare Time is a place where I talk about my ongoing work as a recording artist and visual artist. This is being released on Saturday, December 27, 2025.
Topics:
PE-AID
2026 Will Be My Year
Cocteau Twins - “Frosty the Snowman”
PE-AID
What band was this?
Pretty sure it’s one of those “lost” Christmas charity singles in the late 1980s, recorded in Los Angeles - possibly to raise money for private equity relief in Germany after the stock market crash of 1987.
I see the late Chris Rea in front. Billy Ocean on the left. Peter Cetera on the right.
Huey Lewis in the back left and Robbie Nevil possibly next to him.
Not sure who the Asian fella is, maybe Ronnie James Dio?
Everybody else looks like they were in Mike + The Mechanics, perhaps.
2026 Will Be My Year
I hope you enjoy my sense of humor.
I hope you GET my sense of humor.
We live in a world where even this picture below makes me laugh:
I actually took the Copilot photo…
This past week, I downloaded Linux Mint.
And I made a bootable USB stick - with the help of Copilot!
The plan was to put Linux Mint on a $50 laptop I bought recently for the “radio station” project, but I had to scrap that idea as the Linux radio automation software program (“Rivendell”) needed 1TB of space and the laptop only had 256gb.
In the end, I had to remain with Win 10 programs (“Radio DJ and MariaDB”).
Win 10 on wi-fi was grumbling about “compliance” until I shut off the wi-fi. I don’t need any of that internet crap for the radio station project.
What am I going to do with a bootable USB stick of Linux Mint? I have plans for that.
I have a lot of things planned for 2026:
The TimePiece soundtrack (24 pieces of music) - almost done and which I’ll release conventionally. The soundtrack should also be broadcast on FM in the vicinity of the clock / art installation / LED visual art-thing in downtown Des Moines - that part is absolutely crazy, but let’s see if I can do it.
My first book: Mark Rushton’s Abundant Spare Time - available probably in the first week or two of January 2026. This book is really just for me - it’s just an edited compilation of 2025’s Posts. It’ll be on Amazon KDP. I’ll let everybody know when it’s out. To me, writing a book isn’t about “selling books”, but “getting it out the door”.
I have another book I’m working on. It’s related to music, but in a very niche way. I’ll probably put it out under a pseudonym and never mention it again.
Tons of music.
I did participate in the 730th Disquiet Junto this past week. I compiled four tracks over three minutes to show some of what I’ve done in the past year. The instructions used to be “5 seconds per month” to make a 60 second track, but the rules have adjusted.
In the final minute of the below piece at Soundcloud is an edit of “Block is Live”, which will be in the TimePiece soundtrack. That song is meant to play between noon and 1pm.
Cocteau Twins - Frosty the Snowman
In the early days of the internet, I owned this CD.
Then, in the early days of eBay, I sold it for something like $75. That was kinda dumb.
I love the Cocteau Twins. I played them on my radio show in high school. Saw them live at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1993, with my wife. I guess we weren’t married yet, but we might as well have been married.
It’s too bad they couldn’t stay together. Liz having a kid with Robin. Robin continuing to imbibe, although he cleaned up a long time ago. It was never going to last. Musically, the Cocteaus have endured since their breakup around 1997.
They didn’t record any covers other than this and “Winter Wonderland”. And Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren” with This Mortal Coil.
For people who have never heard the Cocteau Twins before, this is their signature sound in a nutshell. Liz’s layered vocals are amazing and I don’t think there’s a better performance of this song. She really owns it here.