Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Today’s theme music is a personal favorite from the seventies. I thought Elton John’s song, “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” (co-written with Bernie Taupin) was a rocking song. Featuring a rocking edge with pleasurable guitar work by Davey Johnstone, I considered it perfect for going out and throwing down some drinks with friends.
Still do, I think. “Saturday! Saturday, Saturday! Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday’s alright for fighting.”
Let’s pop back to 1997.
The scene is San Jose, California. The group is Smash Mouth. They were the summer’s rising flavor. One song that caught on was a little ditty called “Walkin on the Sun”.
It ain’t no joke I’d like to buy the world a toke
And teach the world to sing in perfect harmony
And teach the world to snuff the fires and the liars
Hey I know it’s just a song but it’s spice for the recipe
This is a love attack I know it went out but it’s back.
It’s just like any fad it retracts before impact
And just like fashion it’s a passion for the with it and hip
If you got the goods they’ll come and buy it just to stay in the clique
It’s just a song, but it something to help you think. Cheers
Once is a production being performed at the Oregon Cabaret.
Now, I admit, I’m ambivalent about the Oregon Cabaret venue. It’s very tight quarters and the viewing angles aren’t impressive. It’s so tight, you can imagine that you’re traveling on a train, if you have a vivid imagination. But, it has a charming intimacy and they put on some excellent entertainment.
We heard about Once when we were in Denver. See, our United flight was delayed, and wasn’t expected to take off for three hours. We’d been traveling all day. Now we were hungry and had time to burn, so we found a restaurant and ordered food and drink.
Ha, ha, it was so cheap, it was amazing! Just fifty dollars for a margarita, beer, three tacos, and a quesadilla!
Being nosy people, we overheard the people at the next table tell the server that they were going to Medford. Why, that’s where we were going. Where are they from?
The other couple were revealed to live within half a mile of us in Ashland.
What an amazing, small world. We began chatting and mentioned that we’d seen Million Dollar Quarter at the Oregon Cabaret. Had they seen?
Yes, and it was wonderful, they agreed, but better was the more recent production they’d seen, Once.
Once? Well, we’d better check it out.
We did so last night. The Denver couple from Ashland were right: Once is better than Million Dollar Quartet. That’s not to diminish Million Dollar Quarter. Once was sensational, which shouldn’t be overly surprising, since the beautiful song, “Falling Slowly”, won an Academy Award in 2008. Bonus surprise: Christopher Fordinal played Elvis Presley in Million, and Guy in Once.
Olivia Nice as Girl had people crying with her as she sang her last song. The entire cast of Once was impressive, enthralling us with their skills and talents, leaving us to wonder why we’re aren’t so blessed with such skills, and demanding a do-over to our lives. An engaging production, I recommend it.
I always enjoy the sense of being lost and finding yourself. Maybe I enjoy that sense because I do it often, and I do it often because I like the feeling of reward I get from finding myself after being lost. It can be a pretty damning web.
I was thinking of all that today as I walked, recalling “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” by KT Tunstall. Her song always imparts that sense that, out of all being presented in our minds, there are pieces we must pick out and fit together to solve part of the puzzles that we are. The thing about solving the puzzles that we are is, we’re never finished. As dynamic as southern Oregon weather, we as people change as frequently.
I don’t know what you think about the song, or the search for yourself, but it’s a good tool for furthering exploration of my infinite existence. The song came out just fourteen years ago, though. Before it, I often used Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” for the same purpose. You might realize that “Comfortably Numb” only came out in 1980, and ask (if you’ve read this far), “What song did you use before that?”
Well, that would be “The Real Me” by The Who. And before then?
Hell, who knows?
It was another odd dream. I think I have an odd dream one out of every three nights, at least a memorable odd one.
This particular dream featured the first car that I bought, a nineteen sixty-eight Camaro RS. The engine was the sweet 327 V-8. An automatic, it was a metallic copper color with black rally stripes and a black vinyl roof. It was a fun car to drive, and reliable as sunrise. Nothing fancy or power was on the car. It was simple, and it worked.
Besides the Camaro, my dream featured my father, my late father-in-law, and an older man who, in the dream, was known as a local criminal boss. As for me, I was the age that I was when I owned the Camaro, about nineteen.
The car looked gorgeous, as it did in real life, well-polished and maintained inside and out. With those details established, I was driving the Camaro when I discovered that the floorboards were gone. Rain mixed with snow was falling, and was spraying up into the car interior from the road.
Well, that’s it, my father and father-in-law each told me. They’d been good friends in life. I’d met my wife through Dad and his relationship with the man who would be my father-in-law.
You can’t drive that car like that, each told me. I think you probably need to junk it.
I didn’t. Taking my own route, I found someone to build me new floorboards made out of wood. That’s what happened. They did a beautiful job.
I showed my father-in-law and Dad the solution. They were astonished and amused. The crime boss appeared, because he’d heard about it. Although he laughed, he said, “I’m really impressed. Good job, kid.”
I then took the car on an inspection. Already familiar with the car, they were preparing to declare it salvage when I showed them my new wooden floorboards. All were flabbergasted and disbelieving. I took the car around and showed everyone how I’d had new wooden floorboards made for the car, and how well they worked.
Further, I said, I planned to drive it across country. Snow was falling, as were the temperatures. People shook their head at my apparent insanity, and dismissed me. With alternate periods of snowfall and sunshine, and slush and snows on the roads, I set out, certain in my decision.
That’s basically the dream. When I awoke from it, I found that it felt tremendously affirming. I thought the dream encouraged me, keeping doing your things. As a writer, I work alone. I hear others’ doubt; I worry about others’ doubts about what I’m writing, and how it’ll measure up to expectations. In the dream, I sought approval from the two primary male authority figures from my young life.
They hadn’t approved, but nor did they disapprove. They accepted and said, go on.
That’s why it feels so affirming.
I was streaming this song in my head this morning after having a wild, wild dream during the night.
“Wild, Wild Life” by the Talking Heads isn’t my favorite TH song, but I always enjoyed these lyrics. I thought they observe and mock modern complexities, hypocrisies, and ambiguities. I’ve often encountered Americans dissatisfied with life and their work, people who want to shake things up for themselves, something to give their life a more satisfactory edge as youth’s dreams fossilize into adult reality and the ruts become traps. So people party, have affairs, or do crazy things.
Well, that’s how I interpret life and this song. Your mileage may vary.
It was years before I saw the video for the song. Although the song came out in 1986, I was traveling across America, visiting Africa and Korea for the military, and never saw the video until much, much later. Its pop culture references are good for a laugh, especially the Billy Idol and Madonna imitations.
On the way to the coffee shop, to get some wild, wild life.
When I think of this song, I don’t think, wow, this song has been out for twenty-five years.
But then, I was taken aback that Demi Lovato fulfilled a childhood fantasy by singing with Christina Aguilera. I thought, “What…? Aguilera hasn’t been around that long.”
Yeah, in my mind world, Taylor Swift Twenty-one Pilots, Drake, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Adele and Meghan Trainor are all fresh new voices. Hard to believe they’ve been on the scene for years. Even the Bieb has been around almost ten years.
So forgive me for thinking of this old song as new classic rock song. Time changes, when you get to be my age.
Here is Yes with “Owner of A Lonely Heart,” from way back in 1983, before Drake, Adele, Demi, and the rest of them were even born. At least Christina was born when this song came out.
Crank it up like it’s supposed to be heard.
Streaming 1993 today. Lot of enjoyable music ply the stream. Plucking one at random, here is Melissa Ethridge with “I’m the Only One”. It’s always the challenge to insist and be the only one for another. They try your sanity. Thank god for coffee.
And wine.
I’d forgotten the Indigo Girls until I saw a Tig Notaro comedy special on Netflix last night. When I thought about forgetting IG, I realized that I don’t hear them on any of the many FM and Sirius XM stations and channels that I listen to. I guess I’m not the only one that forget them. Yet I love the energetic, infectious style that they deliver.
“Shame On You” from 1997 is one of my Indigo Girls favorites. I hope you listen and enjoy.
Hot off the stream is Seals & Crofts’ “Diamond Girl” from 1973. I was friends with three girls. They had the Diamond Girl album and played it often. Again, it’s a little mellow for me. I was listening to ZZ Top, The Who, Led Zepp, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and groups and performers of musical style during that period. Still, with exposure from visiting with those three girls, I grew very familiar with Diamond Girl.
I don’t know why it’s streaming in my head today, but there it is, another mystery of the mind’s connectome.
Michael Seidel, writer 