Category: memories

Saturday’s Theme Music

Hello, world. Saturday, April 3, 2021 is or has arrived, depending on where you are when you read this. It could also already be gone by the time this post crosses your path.

The timestamp shows that Sol showed up in Ashland at 6:50 AM Pacific Time. She’s gonna cut out again at 7:39 PM. Meanwhile, she is warming us a bit, so we’re expecting a high temp in the low seventies F.

Today’s music is “Kodachrome”, brought to you by Paul Simon back in 1973. Over on Facebook, Mom shared a series of photos showing four to six young cousins from, the offspring of three different sisters, cuddling and playing in a chair at her house. These would be grandnieces and grandnephews to me. The oldest was ten and the ages dropped off to two. All are caught smiling and laughing. The photos were taken a few years ago.

It reminded me of going home at times. Home was always where mom or my mother-in-law lived. They always asked, “When are you coming home?” I may have left those homes when I was a teenager, establishing homes for me and my wife around the world, but our mothers always asked, “When are you coming home?”

Part of being back home was discovering the old family photos. As older relatives, boxes and envelopes of old photographs arrived. Time was spent studying these things. Sometime notes, dates, or memories established what we were seeing, but many times, we were left with questions of who, when, where?

Thinking of these digital photographs, caught on phones, transferred to computers, displayed on FB, I wondered what it’ll be like in fifty years for these children. Will FB be there to display the photos and remind them of who put it on the net? Or will they be processing through some machine on some night when their mind is restless, put in the right information and stumble across the photos by themselves? Will they remind that date, that chair, those cousins? Will they all still be tight as friends?

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, get the vax, and build some memories. Here’s the music, released back when I was a kid. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Hi. Today is April 2, 2021, Friday. Sunrise is 6:52 AM in Ashland, and sunset will come at 7:38 PM. Weather-wise, spring is establishing its footprint with sunshine, light breezes, and a high of about 70 degrees F. Right now, it’s 50 degrees F outside, so we have a strong start toward that high. Light, intermittent showers are expected back next Monday.

The blues were on my mind this morning. So many great blues songs have passed through my ears over the years. Great artists were and are out there. Eventually, though, a Buddy Guy – Eric Clapton collaboration, “Every Time I Sing The Blues” (2008),  found its way to my mind front. One line was sharpest: “I’m just trying to tell the truth every time I sing the blues.” Oddly, it’s a line I associate with fiction writing. No matter what story genre, writers are digging out the truth behind the story in their head, trying to convey this to the page, hunting for the details that delivers the essence in a satisfying manner, whether that page is ink on paper or bits on a screen. That struggle to capture that truth and tell the story in all its right facets is what it’s all about.

Here is the music. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Floofsday’s Theme Music

Good Night. Today is Floofsday, March 32, 2021. Sunset is at 7:01 AM in Ashland and sunrise will be at 7:45 PM. This morning’s temperature is 75 degrees F but we expect to cool down some, reaching 51 by late tonight.

Yesterday’s walk was gloriously perfect. Sunshine burst through, heaving the heat into the high seventies while a mild breeze countered the worst effects. Trees and flowers are blooming, spreading colorful shapes, threading the air with sweet scents. Lot of walkers were out in the hilly streets where I was roaming. Most of us weren’t masked but shied away, keeping proper distance plus.

This situation kicked the 1985 Dire Straits song, “So Far Away”, into my conscious music stream. “So Far Away” was on Brothers in Arms, the album that included “Money for Nothing” and “Walk of Life”, two of my favorite Dire Straits tunes. Stationed at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, I played that album a lot that year, driving my Mazda around the southeastern United States on temporary duty assignments in the Air Force or going north — a straight shot up I-77 — to visit family.

I thought the song works as a theme song for this day. Last April seems so far away. Although we’re marking progress toward the pandemic’s end, a return to normalcy also seems so far away.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Another new day has arrive, just twenty-four hours after the last one. I think we’ll call this one…Merlin. If not Merlin, then Wednesday, March 31, 2021.

Sol came creeping over the Ashland hills and mountains at 6:55 AM and is now bathing us with warming sunlight. Watch for Sol to slip away around 7:35 PM. Temps yesterday didn’t get as rosy as promised as we struggled to break 55 degrees F. Claims are out that we’ll strike seventy plus today. We’ll see.

We’ve been watching and enjoying NG’s third season of Genius. This year is all about Aretha Franklin. After finishing the episode about the 1972 two-day recording sessions for her Gospel album, Amazing Grace, we again watched the 2018 documentary about making it, for comparison. Robert Altman was on hand filming it back in the day. Technical difficulties prevented it from being completed. When it was finished, Aretha Franklin would not allow it to be released. It stayed on the shelf until after she passed. Then Spike Lee took it up and brought it the public.

Comparisons between the fictionalized events and the real thing were illuminating. To us, the Genius series attempted to show a larger schism between Aretha and her father, Rev. Franklin, than what existed. Just seems that way but we could be wrong, given the small windows which we use to witness their relationship. It was a treat watching and hearing such a talented person sing. though. What a voice.

That delivers us to today’s theme music. While thinking about Aretha Franklin, I recalled one of her later hits. I realized that her 1985 song, “Who’s Zoomin’ Who” is perfect for this era of Zooming meetings, exercise classes, birthdays, weddings, and the many other gatherings we’ve been stopped from doing in person. I’m not the first to recognize that. The comment section is full of others calling this the Zooming anthem.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, get the vax, and keep on Zoomin’. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Ahoy. Today is Tuesday, March 30, 2021. It’s also national I Am in Control Day in the United States, a holiday to honor Alexander Haig’s famous declaration after President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. The sun broke over the horizon at 6:57 AM in Ashland, and is the world’s rotation is expected to turn us away from it at 7:34 PM. Weather-wise, I’m peering at blue sky as far west as my eyes can see. Sunshine paints everything in view. Although it’s 36 degrees F now, we expect to chip into the seventies today.

Speaking of the seventies, a line from “Mexican Radio” by Wall of Voodoo (1983) was mentioned on another blog that I read yesterday. My brain snapped onto it like a hungry cat stealing a piece of chicken. It (my brain, not the cat, chicken, or blog) has been singing the song to me all yesterday afternoon, continuing the serenade this AM. Let me put an end to this by offering it to others to hear and sing. Not a bad song, although it’s a little repetitious. Most pop/rock songs feature a bit of repetition, though. Give it a listen, see what you think. I’d never seen the video before — was outside of America in 1983 and 1984, and we didn’t receive music channels on our television services — so this is a first for me.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax (if you can figure out if you’re eligible, not so easy to sometimes do as information changes; after forty-five minutes of discussion and study this morning, we concluded we’re still not eligible).

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Monday’s Theme Music

Salutations, and welcome to another Monday, the last of March’s Mondays, making it March 29, 2021. Or is it being March 29, 2021 that makes it Monday?

Sol snuck in around 6:59 AM in Ashland! Woo hoo! Solar exit for our spring-blessed land is anticipated at 7:33 PM Pacific. All kinds of problems are expected if the sun doesn’t do its thing then.

We’re rejoicing in the household. Ever Given, ever stuck — well, six days and nights — in the Suez Canal is finally free. I haven’t read much about it. I’m waiting for the movie. I think Tom Hanks will star in some capacity.

Yesterday was a quintessential spring day. Bold sunshine, warm air, and temperatures that briefly clipped 70 degrees F. I had high hopes for yard work but was sucked into a reading vortex. Nothing that I could do broke the book’s hold. Like I tried (sarcasm). I needed to read it all the way through. Except for eating and some light cleaning and of course, floofwork, reading and writing was all I did. Grand.

Today’s song is a one-hit wonder for Jo Jo Gunne. Called “Run, Run, Run”, the song hit charted number six in the U.K in 1972 but didn’t crack the top ten elsewhere. Haven’t a notion about the Wayback Machine’s machinations in delivering it to my mind’s surface thoughts on this March day. Well, it came about last night while I was gazing out the window, admiring the impending sunset and the illuminating effect on a clot of clouds being lit from behind. See the connection? Neither do I. The records show I selected this as a theme song back in 2019 PC but I was running at the time.

Hope you sample and enjoy it. This video and sound isn’t top quality but I enjoy seeing the era’s hair and clothing. Watching the band play is a kick. Meanwhile, stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

The sun caught the 7:01 AM over the horizon today. The sun plans on spending the day here, visiting with plants, pushing the temperature to 74 degrees F, and showering the area with sunshine. The sun will depart on the 7:32 PM opportunity.

Today, fittingly, is Sunday. It’s also March 28, 2021.

Yesterday was a lovely day. Accompanied by two feline floofervisors, we went out to prep the garden. Soaking up the warmth, I let my mind roam through songs that mention sunshine or the sun. Thinking about it, there are quite a few which are dark songs. After rotating snippets of lyrics and melodies, the Kinks’ 1966 hit, “Sunny Afternoon”, settled into the groove. Its mellow feel was perfect for the process of pulling weeds and mixing in new soil. Give it a listen.

Stay posi, test negy, wear the mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Good coffee! Today is Coffeeday, March 27, 2021.

Sorry, coffee on the head. Haven’t had my AM brew. Should go brew it up. Smell does wonder for focus. The contents do more for energy. And the taste…ah, sublime. Dark, no sugar, no milk, thanks.

Today is really Saturday. Sun climb was 7:02 AM while sun fall will be at 7:31 PM in Ashland. Temperature, currently hovering at 47ish, is expected to reach 72ish. I see yard and garden work coming in the afternoon hours.

Theme music today is — yes — dream-related. I was playing Jeopardy in the dream, so the song is the Greg Kinn 1983 hit, “Jeopardy”, with its 80s techno-disco vibe. I thought that it fun could be injected into the proceedings by including the 1984 Weird Al Yankovic parody, “I Lost on Jeopardy”, with Art Fleming. It’s a Saturday twofer. You’re welcome.

Wear your mask, get the vax, test negative, and stay positive. It’s coffee time. See ya.

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Friday’s Theme Music

It’s another day in Ashland, a Friday, March 26, 2021. Slanted sunshine spilled over the horizon at 0704. The sun will make its sky exit at 1930. Starting at cold — 32 degrees F at 0546 when the cats chatted about leaving the building, it’s now 40 and we expect to crunch up against 60. Not bad.

An old Cream song climbed into the mental music crease yesterday. Trudging up a hill, I turned to admire the valley view. ‘Our’ side, on the south, was deep into afternoon mountain shadows while sun stroked every hill on the opposite side, illuminating patches of snow in higher mountain valleys and the peak known as Grizzly. While I was in a residential neighborhood, the typical sounds were opposite. No crows cawed and other birds didn’t sing. Vehicle sounds were unheard. Just me, the pavement, the view. Into that arrived the 1966 song, “I Feel Free”.

I can walk down the street, there’s no one there
Though the pavements are one huge crowd
I can drive down the road; my eyes don’t see
Though my mind wants to cry out loud

I, I, I, I feel free
I feel free
I feel free

h/t to Genius.com

A pause to consider that phrase: ‘an old Cream song’. Is there any other kind when the group existed for two years in the late 1960s? Yes, they did get together two more times, but that was decades later.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax.

Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

We’ve landed on a Wednesday, which happens to be March 24, 2021. In one week, 2021’s third month will end. It’s flyin’ fast, innit?

Opalescent clouds shaded grey again war with blue sky. The clouds’ thinness and weak numbers allow lazy solshine in, warming us to 42 degrees F. Sol lumbered over the horizon (if you want to think of that way) at 7:08 AM, and will slink away around 7:28 PM in Ashland.

A cat awoke me at about three forty dark AM. After releasing the ginger mini-puma into the wilds (he’d be back in thirty minutes), I settled in bed with a parade of thoughts. With them eventually came song lyrics.

But I kept on looking for a sign
In the middle of the night
But I couldn’t see the light
No, I couldn’t see the light
I kept on looking for a way
To take me through the night
I couldn’t get it right
I couldn’t get it right

h/t to Genius.com

Yes, it’s the Climax Blues Band with their 1977 hit, “Couldn’t Get It Right”. Band member Derek Holt explained that the song was principally about searching for a Holiday Inn sign in hopes of finding rooms and beds for the night as they drove around. I feel like it’s a good metaphor for feeling lost or just wandering, what do you do next?

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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