Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
I love my purple hair. Most would call it eggplant. It’s purple in my mind.
Most people can’t see it, though. It doesn’t exist, except in my mind. I’ve never dyed my hair purple, nor any other color. Although I want to, to demonstrate my rebel nature, having purple hair isn’t me. I don’t like attention; purple hair would draw attention.
I cope with a trifurcated opinion about unusually dyed hair, tattoos, and piercings. One, I don’t like them. Two, I admire them. Three, I don’t understand them.
People getting and doing these things must not mind the attention, but I question how much they’re rebelling. With piercings and tattoos becoming more prevalent, it seems less like they’re rebelling, instead conforming in a new way. Maybe they’re not rebelling; that’s part of what I don’t understand.
The same happened with me and my parents. I wore bell-bottoms. My hair was long. Mom and Dad didn’t like either of these things, because it was different. Was I rebelling? No; I was emulating the Who, the Beatles, and other rock and rollers. As I told my parents to their disgusted observations and comments, “But everyone wears them.” I guess that if someone I admired back then dyed their hair purple, I’d have done it, too.
No one did, and I retained my natural hair-color. Some rebel.
Today’s song is “Runnin’ With the Devil,” by Van Halen.
Why? I was writing a scene in my head as I walked through the town’s growing smoke. New wildfires was generating the smoke, and the winds had shifted…and you know how all that goes.
So, with walking, breathing smoke, and writing in my head, my mind started streaming “Runnin’ With the Devil.” VH-1 named this the ninth greatest rock song in history in two thousand nine. I know that after its release in nineteen seventy-eight, it became a jukebox staple in Airman and NCO Clubs and open messes around the world, and stayed there until at least my retirement, in nineteen ninety-five. Why not? The song has that Van Halen hard rock beat, terrific licks for air-guitars, and lyrics easy to understand and sing, in a style that was most could imitate. You know that when it came on in the clubs, many males immediately shifted their attention to singing along.
Feel free to sing along, too.
Kitnotized (catfinition): a state of human consciousness induced by kittens’ presence. Studies show kitnotized people have a smaller attention span and reduced willpower, and often lose track of time as the kittens draw and hold their focus.
Michael Seidel, writer 