Category: memories

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Ever see a bird soaring, kiting, or flying over the planet on some destination and think, I’d like to to fly like that? I’d like to fly away, sail, soar and wheel. Maybe you just wish for it in a more metaphysical way, dreaming of rising above your days of toil, strife, and trouble, longing for a better life.

I know I’ve had those days. Steve Miller captured the sentiment in musical expression in “Fly Like An Eagle” from 1976.

Feed the babies
Who don’t have enough to eat
Shoe the children
With no shoes on their feet
House the people
Livin’ in the street
Oh, oh, there’s a solution

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

New Year. Don’t know about you, but on a personal quantum level, I feel good about it. Feel like I’m in tune.

Which is a nice segue for today’s music. Here’s Daltry and the Who with the Pete Townsend composition, “Getting In Tune,” from 1971, as fine a year as there is. The song starts soft and then rises and quickens, a perfect metaphor for 2018.

 

 

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New Year’s Theme Song

A reminder from the past.

Forget about the past and all your sorrows,
The future won’t last,
It will soon be over tomorrow.

“It Don’t Come Easy,” by Ringo Starr.

 

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Sue and Me

I haven’t personally known many published, established, successful writers.

There was Maya Angelou, met at a conference in San Francisco one year. Larry Niven, met at a computer conference in Europe while I was in the military. And there’s Ellen Sussman, met at a writing conference in Fort Ord, California, one year.

Then there are Lawrence Block, Orson Scott Card, and Sue Grafton. I met each of them in different years at writing workshops in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I enjoyed conversations with each, but especially Sue Grafton. “F is For Fugitive,” and “G is for Gumshoe,” were out and doing well, along with the earlier books in her series.

Doing well. Hah, what a cliche to portray that the books were on the New York Times bestseller list.

I was living in the dorms for that writing conference. I’d brought a bottle of white wine with me from Germany. Sue and I ended up at the same table in the dining room, and I shared my bottle with her. She’d just signed a big publishing deal. Her happiness and excitement were delightful to behold.

It was like that with Ellen Sussman, years later. She and Sue were fresh from the effort of trying for years to break through when I met them. As each put it at that time, “I’m living the writer’s dream.”

You know how encouraging that is to a writer striving for that dream? Yes, if you’re in any of the arts, you probably know full well the effort of struggling alone on your personal trek, wrestling with your demons and chasing your muse. There’s little encouragement. People often know you as that oddball who comes in with their computer or notebook and sits at a table, drinking coffee and scribbling or typing. Or you toil in secret, not daring to let light shine on your dreams of figuring out what’s in your head and spitting out stories and novels. Few know; fewer encourage.

All of these writers are met understood it, and were gracious and humbled by what they’d achieved, but Sue and Ellen were closer to it. The fire of struggle and the joy of catching fire still burned bright when I met them. I was happy to follow their success as it developed in the subsequent years.

I haven’t seen Sue since meeting her that year decades ago, except in newspapers, magazines, and on television. But her enthusiasm and determination helped me push to keep going and going, to never give up. There will be setbacks and diversions, and demands that can’t be refused, but if your dream is strong, you need to feed it and keep it burning, and keep going. It’s not over until you give up. That’s what I learned from her.

I’ve seen it in other writers, ones who I haven’t met, but whose story I still know. John Scalzi. Andy Weir. Kathryn Stockett. Lisa Genova.

It can happen. Just don’t give up.

 

 

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Saturday’s Theme Music

I’m a Kinks’ fan. Saw them once in concert in Germany. Beautiful venue, which seemed more suited to ballet and opera than rock.

This song,”Come Dancing,” from State of Confusion, is a later release. I didn’t know about the song’s back story for years. Its sound is a throwback with elements of bepop to me in parts, and invites dancing.

State of Confusion was an interesting album. My favorite song on it was “Long Distance,” a wistful, but depressing song. But when I compared album thoughts with others, I discovered the song wasn’t always on every album, a fact that a Brit friend confirmed.

Anyway, “Come Dancing.”

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Friday’s Theme Music

Closing out 2017, I figure it’s a good time to listen to some old music.

Funny to think of this song, “Reeling in the Years,” as old music. This song was released in 1972, when I was just sixteen. It remains fresh sounding to me. Yet, I know how different it sounds, and I know that Steely Dan broke up long ago, then got back together, and then Walter Becker died. The band’s symmetry is a perfect illustration of how life passes for most of us, with triumphs and struggles, but ultimately, somehow becoming finalized with our deaths. That’s life, in all its glory, cruelty, and normalcy.

Ironic to listen to “Reeling in the Years,” though, knowing one of them no longer reels in the years. I always wonder, is death really that much worse than living? Maybe something else goes on with the energy that is us as the body moulders and fades.

Yes, those left behind find it painful. It’s a hard path to follow, because when others die, we’re forced onto new paths. Some of the paths have only a sight variation, depending on how close we were to the deceased. But sometimes, it’s like we’ve fallen off a cliff and have to pick ourselves up and learn to walk again.

Sorry, off-topic. Let’s get more upbeat. Here’s “Reeling in the Years.”

 

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Streaming from Australia, again, and Men at Work, again. This one came out on their second album, in 1983. The streaming in my head was triggered by a cat. I’d been asleep. They wanted out. Guess what happened? Yeah. The cat’s will be done.

Returning to bed, I started writing in my head. Writing in my head is great for my writing, but not especially helpful for sleeping. I managed to throttle back the words and divert myself with lessor matters. But I then sang, “I can’t get to sleep,” and “Overkill” streamed into my thoughts. That prompted memories of hearing the song while living on Okinawa, Japan, and the friends of the time, Mike and Lori, and Jeff, and my command post peers at the 603rd MASS. After spinning the memory Rolodex for fifteen minutes, sleep was achieved.

Here it is, “Overkill.”

 

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Monday’s Theme Music

I was at a meet and greet in Germany in early 1988 when I first heard of this group. The meet and greet was with allied military services who were in a similar business to my unit. Among them were a couple of Australians. We had a beer together, talking music as we drank. They mentioned a group called The Church.

I’d not heard of The Church but said I’d look into them. The Church was supposed to be new wave. A few weeks after this, I hear this song on the radio, “Under the Milky Way.” The DJ says it’s The Church, from Australia. I thought, I must be confusing something, because that song didn’t sound new wave. I figured I must have misunderstood someone, or two groups named The Church existed. Eventually, as the Internet developed and things could be looked up, I checked out The Church, and reconciled myself to understanding this was the group the Australians mentioned.

I like this song, but I honestly have heard little else by The Church. I always enjoy Australian pop music — which is the comment I made that night, which got the conversation rolling.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Today’s song is from the movie, “St. Elmo’s Fire.” The song is, “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)”.

I’ve never seen the entire film. It didn’t grab me. I found it vague, with problems manufactured by unthinking, vapid, self-absorbed characters. Perhaps I should have given it a greater viewing.

I knew the song mostly because of FM Stereo. It came out in nineteen eighty-five. I was doing a lot of traveling, then, putting over forty-thousand miles on my car during the year. So I heard it a lot. I didn’t think much of the song, but it’s stuck in my head, so I present it to you.

Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

I ordered a mocha today (four shots, twelve ounces, thanks), and this song popped into my head.

It came out the week before I traveled to Paris for business with the long-gone company, LuMend. I was a marketing manager. We’d been working on peripheral and coronary products to address chronic total occlusions, and doing trials in Australia and Brazil. Now we wanted to start a marketing study in Europe.

I was in Paris for ten days, staying at the old Hilton by the Eiffel Tower. I often sang this song to myself and my co-workers. I, of course, substituted words. The song is “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” which became “Livin’ la Vida Mocha,” in my version. The switch was made because I was, and remain, fond of mocha coffee drinks.

Here’s the real song, with Ricky Martin, from nineteen ninety-eight.

Cheers

 

 

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