Category: memories

Today’s Theme Music

Today’s song is one of many that suffered from mondegreens. ‘Alive and Kicking’ by Simple Minds came out in 1985. Stationed at Shaw AFB in SC after returning from Okinawa, I was assigned to the 1701 MOBSS.

I lived in Columbia, about twenty-nine miles away, and a straight shot down the highway. The MOB in our unit designation was short for mobility. We went on temporary duty to other locations regularly. Sometimes I drove to those locations, such as Eglin AFB in Florida. Between that and my daily commute between Columbia and Shaw, I listened to a bit of radio.

When the song came out, I swore they were sometimes singing, “I like the chicken.” Naturally, that’s what I walked around singing. Still do when I stream the song in my head.

Here they are. From 1985, Simple Minds with ‘Alive and Kicking’. 

0

Today’s Theme Music

Today’s blast from the past comes via The Americans’. The show is taking place in 1983 and features music, news and events from ’83. It included this song, ‘Major Tom (Coming Home)’, in the episode I watched the other night on Amazon.

‘Major Tom (Coming Home)’ is a continuation of a theme begun with David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ of 1969 about an astronaut, Major Tom, victimized by a malfunction while in space. ‘Space Oddity’ was an early hit for Bowie and drew me into his fold of fans. One of the best concerts of my life was seeing him in Charleston, WV during his glam rock period.

Peter Schilling released his song, ‘Major Tom (Coming Home)’ in 1983. Its techno-beat and clear, overly dramatic but positive lyrics work as background music streaming in my head while walking around Earth.

 

0

The Truth About Beer

It’s been some time since I’ve written about the invention of beer and the truth about why it exists.

Michael Quirk provided me with this theory. Michael was the originator of our weekly beer gathering. The group is composed of retired scientists, engineers and doctors to discuss science and technology. Michael himself, now deceased, was a retired Army light colonel. He’d served in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot, surviving two tours. After that, he’d become an artillery officer and ended up programming specific artillery systems that were being introduced. He eventually ended up as a globally sought subject expert on the matter. After retiring from the Army, he was hired as a consultant by DARPA so he could keep working on and advising about the artillery program. His daughter is an Air Force colonel who is now a deputy base commander.

I met Michael through an art museum fundraiser. His wife and my wife went to the same exercise class at the local Y. Several of these wives enjoyed each other’s company. It was contrived we should all go to this fundraiser and share a table. Naturally, the wives socialized, leaving the men alone.

Michael and I both enjoyed science fiction, so we chatted about that. He then told me about the weekly beer group and invited me to join. Not having much education and not being a scientist, engineer or doctor, I declined, and told him that’s why. “But we drink beer,” he explained. “You drink beer, don’t you?”

“Yes, but — ”

Nothing else mattered to Michael. I drink beer, so I should join. I finally agreed just to shut him up.

I started going, and the time became something I looked forward to, largely because I was very fond of Michael. It was during one of those weekly beer gatherings that he told me about his theory regarding the invention of beer. Noting that beer had been invented about eleven thousand years ago, he claimed that women invented it.

Naturally, I was curious. “Women invented beer?”

“Yes, they invented beer to control men.”

“I see…. Why?”

“Because women are aliens who came to Earth eleven thousand years ago. They invented beer to control men.” Michael went on to cite the chromosome difference as evidence that women are not humans like men. Besides, they think so differently.

His theory had a lot of problems to me, beginning with, if they were aliens and so advanced they could travel to Earth and invent beer eleven thousand years ago, what the hell have they been doing since then? Also, what happened to the original human women? And, why….?

It was all very tongue-in-cheek. Michael passed away at the beginning of 2015. I still go to the beer group once in a while, just to have a beer. We always toast Q at the beginning.

Sometimes, I remind the others how beer was invented.

0

Today’s Theme Music

This song – ‘Right Place Wrong Time’ by Doctor John – strikes me as the perfect theme music for today’s meanderings.

The song came out in 1973, the year before I graduated high school. The album, ‘In the Right Place’, quickly fell into part of the regular rotation of my listening habits as I drove about in my 1965 Mercury Comet sedan. I feel like I’ve been born in the wrong era although the more cynical slice of me comments, “You’d probably feel like that in whatever era you’re in.” True.

I always enjoy this particular song’s funkiness. The Meters back him up, with Art Neville on organ, Leo Nocentelli on guitar, bass performed by George Porter, Jr, and Ziggy Modelisti on drums. Dave Spinozza is that guitar solo in the middle. Doctor John’s lyrics and style convey the essence of just feeling like I’m out of sync and don’t really belong anywhere in this era.

I been in the right place but it must have been the wrong time
I’d have said the right thing but I must have used the wrong line
I been in the right trip but I must have used the wrong car
My head was in a bad place and I’m wondering what it’s good for
I been the right place but it must have been the wrong time
My head was in a bad place but I’m having such a good time

I been running trying to get hung up in my mind
Got to give myself a good talking-to this time
Just need a little brain salad surgery
Got to cure my insecurity

Perfect for today.

h/t to Lyrics Mode.

0

Chow Down

Once again, it’s time to celebrate cereal. Yes, it’s National Cereal Day in America.

We’ve embraced cereal in America. The ready to eat stuff first originated in the 1800s. Pouring it into bowls and adding something to it is standard breakfast fare in many houses.

Back as a kid, my favorite was Wheaties. Yes, I was a Breakfast of Champions guy. The flavor was so-s0 but I believed in the advertising. My little sister was strictly a Cheerios person. It was Cheerios or nuttin’. This was back in the day when all that was available were those basic miniature oat inner tubes. She did like adding banana to it.  On Saturdays, the practice was done to the sounds of the Roadrunner and Bugs Bunny, cool friends to have.

Mom liked it because we could ‘make our own’ breakfast without involving electricity and sharp objects. I liked making a game out of it, racing around the kitchen while multi-tasking, grabbing the ingredients, bowl and utensils in the fewest possible steps and motions.

Unfortunately, the refrigerator wasn’t properly grounded. We were warned never to touch the refrigerator handle and the counter at the same time, but in my quest for speed, that’s what I did.

I can still feel that current coursing through me.

My reaction was apparently to scream and cry with pain. Mom came racing in. “What happened?” I told her I’d been shocked. “Well, keep it down,” she replied. “You’ll wake the baby.”

Blaming the Wheaties for my error while acknowledging that Wheaties essentially tasted like wet cardboard, I switched to Raisin Bran. It was my go-to for about a dozen years. Oh, I tried Kix, Trix, Coco Puffs and Life. I think Lucky Charms, Count Chocula and other disgusting, sugary cereals came out then. I tried them at friends’ houses during sleep-overs and found them repulsive.

I liked Puffed Rice and Shredded Wheat for a long time, but they gave way to my all-time favorite: Grape-Nuts. I put very little milk or sugar on them. It was, my wife noticed when I introduced them to her, like eating a mouthful of gravel. I found chewing rocks personally rewarding. Maybe it’s the Neanderthal in me.

They were once tried with beer, Miller Lite, I believe, just to see how that worked. It provoked a shrug sort of response, meaning, not good, not bad, just different.

But eventually, I drifted into eating oat meal regularly. Organic steel-cut instant oats (now GF and non-GMO) with a little brown sugar and cinnamon, berries, fruit and walnuts have been my breakfast preference for the past dozen years. And today, in honor of National Cereal Day, I had pancakes.

What’s life without whimsy?

Probably Cheerios.

 

1

Today’s Theme Music

This one has been downloaded from the memory cloud formed immediately after retiring from the USAF in 1995 and my new work commute to Progressive Angioplasty Systems.

I lived in Mountain View, in a little cul-de-sac not far from Moffett Boulevard and the Highway 101 ramps. PAS was located in Palo Alto off Univesity. Easy commute, right?

Sure, in the morning. It was eleven miles, if I remember it right. The morning commute required twenty minutes because I enjoyed working early and leaving early. I typically was the first or second to arrive, at 7:00 AM, and then would leave at 4:30 PM.

The 4:30 PM return trip was a completely different story. Those eleven miles consumed forty-five to fifty-five minutes on a good day. Rain and traffic accidents would mar that stellar time, creating a sixty to ninety minute commute. Bleah.

So I listened to music, news and audible books. This is a song from that commute era. Here is Jewel with ‘Who Will Save Your Soul’.

0

Today’s Theme Music

I know I’ve posted this song before. I’m being indulgent. It’s a song I enjoy, a product of talented people who I admire. A couple of them have passed away so the song returns with a patina of bittersweet nostalgia.

‘Under Pressure’, created by David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Queen, came out in 1981. I was stationed on Okinawa, Japan, when it did. Armed Forces Radio and Television Services provided us with our television and radio entertainment while providing time for the Armed Forces Network Okinawa to provide us with news and weather. Air time was divided among multiple needs and demands as the outlet strove to provide everything to everyone.

I didn’t hear much of ‘Under Pressure’ on the radio because of all this, but I liked it. Most of my friends had no idea what song I was talking about whenever I mentioned it. Years later, it was included in the movie, ‘Grosse Pointe Blank’. GPB, starring Minnie Driver, John Cusack and his sister, Joan, Alan Arkin and Dan Ackroyd, only receives 79% on Rotten Tomatoes. But it’s one of those movies that I stay to watch when I encounter it, one of my secret vices.

‘Under Pressure’ has been used in other movies, sports events, commercials and trailers. Others have covered it, so most people know it, even if this isn’t their style of music or if they were born decades after 1981.

I believe the last time I posted this, I may have used the Annie Lennox and David Bowie cover. I’m going with the originals recorded performing live this time.

0

Today’s Theme Music

I often sing the blues. My version is the first world blues. I’m blue about the state of the world, environmental concerns, human rights. I’m also blue ’bout computer issues and awful television shows while simultaneously, hypocritically decrying our consumer society. I’m blue because I love auto racing and hate its economic and environmental impact. I’m blue because while I have plenty to eat, my metabolism has slowed and I can’t eat all the foods I want all the time. I’m blue because my hair is thinning and graying even while I know I’m in a pretty damn good place. I’m blue because I’m a basket of contradictions and because my cats don’t get along better. And the blues strike, too, because I’m pretty healthy while so many friends and loved ones suffer from health issues. I sing the blues because there are too many people who seem evil for the sake of being evil and care about no one but themselves.

That’s why I sing the blues. That’s why I’m thankful for an era where we had folks like B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Etta James, Albert King, Doctor John, Phil Collins, Robert Cray, Paul Butterfield and more to lift me out of the blues via that terrible technology that I love and hate.

Here they are, strong of voice, at the top of their skills, performing ‘Why I Sing the Blues’. 

0

Today’s Theme Music

This was an intense song. My mind immediately began streaming it during my walks and it stayed lodged in my head for several months. Seeing the video reinforced its effect.

‘Too Close’, by Alex Clare, 2011, captures the essence of a long-term romantic relationship to me. The song sounds like a soliloquy, an emotional epiphany. It feels like you’re going separate ways; it feels like you’re just too close. Matters become combative and intense. Words are said, parry, thrust, circle,  en garde, but sometimes the fencing is done in silent expectation of what could have been said. Then there is always the pondering, what was meant, what was meant, what was meant?

0

Today’s Theme Music

This song, from 2011, is quirky. I enjoy the video, especially the female response. It’s a good song for streaming in my head as I’m conducting a catabout.

Here’s Gotye with ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑