Category: memories

Saturday’s Theme Music

The cats, my wife, and I agree, it’s pretty outside today. Take spring greenery and sunshine. Splash some gray and white clouds against the sky. Load up a brush with snowy white and slather across the land. Result: a snowy and sunny late winter day. That’s despite a temperature floating around 37 degrees F.

It happened abruptly. I let Boo the Bedroom Panther out at 10 PM. I let him back in at 10:15. There wasn’t any snow in evidence at that time, your honor. Thirty minutes later, my wife announces she’s going to bed to read, and why is it so bright outside? Ah, snow.

Today is March 6, 2021, a Saturday. Solrise was at 6:38 AM. Soldrop will be at 6:07 PM in southern Oregon. For those of you who collect days, you know that this is a unique one. There will never be a day like this again. For some reason, that prompted the Wayback Machine to spooled up some Talking Heads.

Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…
Look where my hand was
Time isn’t holding up
Time is an asterisk
Same as it ever was…

h/t to DavidByrne.com

Well, Jill D. contributed to this thinking with her post, The Rich Get Richer While The Poor … | Filosofa’s Word (jilldennison.com). “Once In A Lifetime”, circa 1981, will stick to yer ribs.

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

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Friday’s Theme Music

Bonjour! Well, we’ve done it again, survived another rotation as Sol rises above our horizon and dips again. To mark this progress, we refer to the new rotation as Friday, March 5, 2021. Today’s Sol rise was at 6:40 AM in southern Oregon. Sol dip is coming at 6:06 PM. Our outside temperature is 54 degrees F as Sol holds forth with influence. But, the winds of change, caused by two competing systems, have delivered a string of clouds to the horizon and whispers about impending rain.

The Wayback Machine remains fully functional and active, delivering a 1969 song by Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”. Per usual processing for me, a particular lyric set hooked me like a trout, playing me until the song landed me.

Now the years are rolling by me
They are rockin’ evenly
I am older than I once was
And younger than I’ll be;

h/t to Genius.com

The even rock of the week, starting with Sunday, sliding back toward the next Saturday, capturing all the days in between, is what had me. Already Friday again. It’s rocking pretty quickly these days, but evenly.

Enjoy your day, stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Good morning, and welcome to the third rock from the sun. It’s Thursday, March 4, 2021. (I think — or so says my computer, calendar, and Fitbit, but can they be trusted? They could be part of the fake news conspiracy.) Sunrise was 6:42 AM in southern Oregon, and the solar orb will ‘set’ at 6:04 PM. (But it doesn’t really go anywhere, does it?) The temperature is already 53 degrees F (or so science claims, if you can believe it) on its way to a prediction of 64. (But then, what do they know?)

The Wayback Machine was fully engaged this morning. I’m embarrassed to admit the song I was singing was being sung to a cat. I was barely awake. The cat, Tucker, was on the pillow beside me, peering at me as his Mack truck purr rumbled through my bones. He was doing a little kneading. So I sang *ahem* “Boogie on reggae kitty. What is wrong with you? Boogie on reggae kitty. What you tryin’ to do?”

The cat liked it.

The song, of course, is “Boogie On Reggae Woman” by Stevie Wonder (1973), a fusion of funk and jazz that was part of the music happening of the popular music/classic rock era. I love the sound that Stevie brings. It’s sad that we don’t hear boogie mentioned often these days. Used to be, “You want to go boogie?” Or someone would say something and you’d reply, “Boogie on.” Feel me?

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

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends. Today is Wednesday, March the third, 2021. The great ball of fire rose into our sky at 6:43 AM and will do its exit at 6:03 PM here in southern Oregon. Blue dominates the sky. Although the mercury is at 37 degrees F at this moment, yesterday it went to 63. We expect more of the same as we move through Fool’s Spring and creep back toward Late Winter, projected to hustle in next week.

An old David Bowie song needled its way out of the Wayback Machine into my mental stream this morning. “Fame” was a 1975 hit for Bowie. Bowie, Carlos Alomar, and John Lennon wrote it together. It was Bowie’s first number one hit in the U.S. I think “Fame” is an apt song for the current GOP in the U.S. as Trump sucks the life out of it. He doesn’t have a platform, just a crush of hate. If he weren’t wealthy and famous, he’d probably be locked up for his protection.

Fame (fame) makes a man take things over
Fame (fame) lets him lose hard to swallow
Fame (fame) puts you there where things are hollow
Fame (fame)
Fame not your brain it’s just the flame
That puts your change to keep you sane (sane)
Fame (fame)
Fame (fame) what you like is in the limo
Fame (fame) what you get is no tomorrow
Fame (fame) what you need you have to borrow
Fame (fame)
Fame nein it’s mine is just his line
To bind our time it drives you to crime (crime)
Fame (fame)

h/t to Metrolyrics.com

Yeah, with Trump, what you get is no tomorrow. The gods know he’s had to borrow…

Okay, beat that to death. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask and get the vax.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Greetings, earthlings. Take me to your coffee.

Today is Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Sunrise/sunset (which comes with its own song, if you think of it the right way) was/is at 6:45 AM and 6:02 PM here in southern Oregon. The current temperature is 35 degrees F. It’s already gone up five degrees in the hour and a half that I’ve been up. Surprised that it was that cold, TBH. Was forty-seven when I went to bed one-ish AM. But the big blinding eye in the sky is expected to take us to 65 today. Won’t knock that.

Weather and walking brings today’s song. While out yesterday, I contemplated the clouds and wondered if they were colluding to become something more than sun blockers. After that, my mind drifted to other things. I realized that I was humming a song. Dragging the melody out of the memory well put words to it.

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all *

Yeah, “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell. I wasn’t channeling the Joni Mitchell version, though, but the Judy Collins cover from 1968. Some mellow, folksy music, which goes well with my morning caffeine brew.

Stay pos., test neg., wear a mask, and get the vax. See you on the other side, whatever that is.

*h/t to JoniMitchell.com

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Monday’s Theme Music

Greetings fellow humans and all the rest of you. Today is Monday, March 1, 2021. Flip those calendar pages, if you still use them. I still do. Sunrise in Ashland today was at 6:46 AM and sunset is coming at 6:01 PM. It’s warming up outside with a current temperature of 48 degrees F on the way to an expected high in the upper fifties.

Music today is provided by Aerosmith. “The Other Side” was included in the album Pump in 1990. I was singing it yesterday first as part of my walking exercise, you know, just let me go to the other side of this steep hill, then I’ll go down. Next, it gained metaphorical properties as pandemic limitations struck. “Just let me get to the other side of this pandemic and back to a more normal life and also the beach.” Then the phrase, ‘the other side’, rose again as I thought about the novel in progress and the other one being revised. This was more aligned with the sentiment, just let me get through to the other side of this effort, when the initial draft of the one is finished and the editing and revising of the other is completed (at least for this go-around).

So it’s a threefer meaning kind of song on this late winter day. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

This is it! Sunday, February 28, 2021, the last day of February, the last day of the second month of 2021. From my perspective, it raced by like a Formula 1 machine. Lots of noise, here, and now it’s almost past.

What a way to go out. Here in Ashland, sunshine has roared in. Gone is the ice, snow, fog, rain, and mist. It’s only sun, sun, sun. The cats are all, “Mee-hoo!” (Actually, I made that last up. The cats are like, “Sunshine. Whatever. Let me out.”) Sunrise came at 6:48 AM and sunset will be at (fanfare) 6:00 PM, for eleven hours and twelve minutes of glorious sun. Temperature now is 42 degrees F, but we’re looking for highs in the upper fifties. It may be for just one day but I’ll accept this gift and enjoy it.

Today’s music is “This Is It” by Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald (1979). The two share song-writing credits. Loggins is the primary performer and it hit the charts under his name, but McDonald adds vocal support and has played the song many times in concert.

It’s a good song for deciding you or we are making changes or ready for changes.

There’ve been times in my life,
I’ve been wonderin’ why.
still, somehow i believed we’d always survive.
now, i’m not so sure
you’re waiting here, one good reason to try
but, what more can i say? what’s left to provide?
(you think that maybe it’s over,)
(only if you want it to be.)
are you gonna wait for a sign, your miracle?
stand up and fight.
(this is it.)
make no mistake where you are.
(this is it.)
you back’s to the corner.
(this is it.)
don’t be a fool anymore.
(this is it.)
The waiting is over, no, don’t you run.

h/t to Metrolyrics.com

So, there it is, the theme music for the last day of the second month of the new year labeled 2021. Stay postive, test negative, wear a mask, and get vaccinated. That is all.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Hi. Welcome to a new day, the first day of the rest of your life.

Today is Saturday, February 27, 2021. Outside, it was gray with a chance of deeper gray. That’s all broken up since I first squirreled out of bed. Sunshine cracked through. White clouds sail like ice floes on a blue sky. Sunrise was at 6:50 AM in Ashland. Sunset is presumed to be at 5:58 PM.

Went with a little light piece out of 1985 for today’s theme music. Just cropped into the head like star asters breaking out of the soil. Stay positive, test negative, and wear a mask. Get vaccinated, and listen to some music. You could start with The Hooters, “And We Danced”.

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Friday’s Theme Music

Friday, February 26, 2021, doesn’t look like a happy day. A flat pale gray blanket stretching to every corner covers the sky this morning. Temperature is 42 degrees F, so that’s not bad. Sunrise stole in with little ceremony at 6:51 AM. Sunset is due at 5:57 PM.

The Wayback Machine was fully activated, triggered by a Zoom call. I wasn’t on it, but lurking in the other room. The call was my wife’s dance class. One member said that the people on the call looked like the start of “The Brady Bunch”. Another suggested “Hollywood Squares”. A third mentioned “Laugh-In”.

The “Laugh-In” comment popped “sock it to me” into my head. Remember that phrase? Good possibility that you answered a resounding, “No.” Well, “sock it to me” was a popular humorous catchphrase in the late sixties. Seriously. It was like, “can’t touch this”, “where’s the beef”, and “whassup” in another decade, or “who let the dogs out?” The phrase was everywhere, in every context, and this was pre-net, pre-text, pre-video existence. At least three songs with the phrase climbed out of the Wayback Machine for my mental streaming pleasure. One had to the legs to keep my brain engaged.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get vaccinated. Now, please enjoy Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels with their 1967 hit, “Sock It To Me-Baby”.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Today is Thursday, February 25, 2021. Sunrise was at 6:53 AM and sunset comes at 5:56 PM. Sunset will soon be after 6 PM here in Ashland, 2021, which makes me happy. Of course, we’re barreling toward daylight savings time, that terrific day when we spring ahead one hour, losing one hour of sleep and one hour of late afternoon/evening sun. Yes, eventually, it catches up again, but I’d rather not endure it each year.

I was a child, emerging into my teenage years during the 1960s. That meant that the Beatles were the group I heard most. Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones…you know the list. The press was always atwitter over what any musical band was doing. That’s what pop culture is all about, innit? Movie stars had been dominating until then but the landscape was shifting.

Anyway, a song by the Beatles, “Hey Jude”, has captured the mental musical stream this morning, beginning to end. It’s one of those things — yeah, an earworm — where I believe that I must share it in order to save myself. Sorry.

This is a repeat. The song was selected as the day’s theme music back in 2016. At that time, I heard it on the store’s PA system. You know, stores like piping music in to create the right environment, set the shopping pace, distract shoppers, etc. On that day, “Hey Jude” was playing as I shopped. Most shoppers encountered were lipping the words or singing it to themselves. Imagination ran with it, creating a Broadway musical where we all come together in the aisles, singing and dancing. It would be an episode of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist these days.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get vaccinated. Also, listen to this 1968 song. Cheers

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