I thought something about dreams would be appropriate for me for theme music today.
There are a lot of offerings available. ‘Dream Weaver’, by Gary Wright, came to mind. How about The Chordettes with ‘Mr Sandman’? Susan Boyle, ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, would fit. There are so many songs about dreaming and issues with dreams out there, but I decided upon Aerosmith, ‘Dream On’.
As I write and think about dreams and dream music today, I think, there’s a novel there, about a man who becomes obsessed with understanding his dreams, and dreaming more and more frequently. It’s not the freshest feed for a story but it could be fun to explore.
The big questions arise. Didn’t we just do this? Didn’t that just happen? Didn’t we learn anything? I feel like we’re going around in circles. Sing it with Billy Preston – ‘Will It Go Round in Circles’.
I’ve seen this song performed by Taj Mahal, one of the co-writers and many others, but this Blues Brothers cover is best known. It’s a good bluesy song to carry your water through the day. Enjoy ‘She Caught the Katy’.
This leaped into my head out of the heavens yesterday morning as I was going about shaving and dressing. It needs to be dislodged so post it here. Don’t hate me if it affects you as it did me through the last twenty-four hours.
I learned the lyrics as a child when the movement was released. They’re easy lyrics to remember.
I was doing things differently on Thursday night. That change in routine delivered me to television channel surfing.
Television channel surfing has changed during my lifetime. We didn’t really have channel surfing in the early days. Our home enjoyed four channels for a number of years. Rotary dials, and later push-buttons, controlled the channel selections and volumes. That met getting up to change the channel or turn the television up or down. Schedules were pretty fixed and everything was well-advertised. Little was controversial because most of it was being buried the way a killer hides a body. Surfing really exploded with development of cable television and the remote control.
Now I have remotes but no cable. My television comes to me via a Roku in the study (a.k.a. ‘The Snug’) and an Internet connected ‘smart’ television in another room. The rest is received over-the-airways.
OTA is growing in popularity. Stations showing old shows are growing with it. I watched the ‘Comet’ television station the other night along with ‘Me TV’. On one of them (I was surfing, remember), I came across ‘Barney Miller’ reruns and watched two episodes. It was cool seeing Hal, Ron, Abe and the others, people who have aged or passed on, and enjoy some of their skills and talents once again, along with the writing, directing and producing talents of all those people behind the scenes. The shows ignited a flood about fashion and bell bottoms, too.
You probably know where this is headed if you’ve read anything of me. The ‘Barney Miller’ theme song has lodged in my head like a deer tick in my calf. I must rid myself of it, and to do that, others must hear it. So, please, I beg you, men and women of the Internet, play this song and relieve me of my suffering.
To be fair, it’s not bad as theme music goes. Reminding me of old jazz, it begins with a slow, low bass line, and then the song builds in tempo as more instruments are layered in, becoming an upbeat tune by the end. Go ahead, take a listen.
Bad news out of the political and economic jars dissipated my early morning dream-induced exuberance. Then Tucker attacked Meep and an epic cat fight erupted. Tucker refuses to be rehabilitated. His aggressiveness stresses us out and forces us to segregate him from the rest.
Bottom line: I’ve got the blues. Numerous ways to cope with the blues exist. I drink beer, wine, vodka, whiskey and scotch but I don’t do it in the morning. I’m not going to do it while in a funk. I did that when I was younger. I’ve learned not to. Mostly. I still trip now and again.
The best way to deal with the blues is some blues music, writing, coffee, and solitude. That’s my method. Your method may differ.
Today’s blues: ‘Ball and Chain’, belted out by the composer, Big Mama Thornton, with Buddy Guy on guitar. This is a recording from 1970. I love finding pieces like this on the net and witness such performances. I consider this one of the finest effects of our burgeoning technology.
Ah, the holidays are rolling faster down the hill toward us as we gape back up at them, pointing and shouting, “Look out!” Let’s retreat to a little Adam Sandler singing the “Chanukah Song”
The holidays are upon us, as we like to solemnly note in America, as though we’re prophets and not ground hogs looking at the shadows of days of the future past.
Time to get real. And what better way to get real than with a terrific theme song that energetically conveys a nostalgic period, one that most people know and can sing.
I don’t know about you, because I actually don’t know you (I barely know myself), but I could use a rebuild every now and then. Take this gut. Please. Rebuild it. Put my twenty-five year old version back in there. Like a lot of things, I like my body as it used to be.
But c’est la vie, my friends. That’s life and we can’t get rebuilt.
Except that’s not how it was for Steve Austin. He was a man barely alive, and they rebuilt him. I wonder, though, you know, if you can rebuild him, did they rebuild all of him? Was this a ground up restoration or did they just pick and chose? I suspect the latter. They’re always talking about one of his eyes and his legs.
That’s what worries me about being rebuilt. I worry that I’ll ask, “Which of my parts should I replace?”
After softly clearing her throat, my consultant tells me, “Well, on your budget, you’re pretty limited.”
Of course I have a vision about how I want to be rebuilt. “What about Brad Pitt? Can I order anything out of the Brad Pitt catalog?”
“Yes.” My consultant clears her throat. Again. “You can afford anything out of his fingernail sections. Here, page through the website. It’s organized by body parts. So, just select limbs, and then click down to arms, hands, and fingers. See? Brad Pitt’s fingernails are quite reasonably priced. We can rebuild you with a couple of those.”
“A couple?”
“Yes, you can afford a thumb and a little finger.”
“From the same hand?”
“No.”
“What about my mid-section?”
Heavy laughter ensues. When it ends, my consultant tells me, “Oh, you can’t afford Brad Pitt’s mid-section.”
“I can take out a mortgage on my home.”
“That won’t be enough, I’m afraid.”
“How ’bout a bun?”
“Excuse me?”
“Can I get rebuilt with one of Brad Pitt’s buns? You know, his rear end? His ass, to be crass, his derriere, if you want posh.”
“Oh my gosh, excuse me. I spewed coffee when you said that! No, you can’t afford Brad Pitt’s buns, and don’t even think about anything off his face.”
“Not even an earlobe?”
“No.”
“Well, what can I get?”
“Here, let me show you our John Goodman collection.”
“John Goodman? From ‘Roseanne’?”
“Yes, I think you can afford his mid-section.”
“I don’t think that’s an improvement.”
“Are you sure? He is a star.”
So, anyway, I won’t be doing any rebuilding on this cyber Monday. I’m still saving for improvements I can afford. Meanwhile, here is the opening from ‘Six Million Dollar Man’. Oh, sure, they can rebuild Lee Majors. What’s he got that I haven’t got?
Actually, I went out yesterday and discovered it wasn’t that bad. We did our usual routine. Went by CostCo because we needed to fuel the car. Ended up with a cart load of other necessities, like tp, soup and wine. Then off to PetSmart where they were severely understocked for kitty litter and food for our (grit teeth) furry beloveds, followed by Trader Joe’s for some items (like my shaving balm), and then to Shop ‘n Kart for our produce, cheeses and essentials.
The routine nestled us with familiarity and grounded us, needed after the interlude of Thanksgiving shopping, prepping and socializing. Each born under the astrological sign of Cancer (I’m a Leo rising), we’re like hermit crabs, preferring solitude, home and routines. My wife wants to be a social queen but it empties her energy tanks and then she crumples for a few days.
Still, it’s nice to visit with others and go where everybody knows your name.
By the way, my wife despises the television show ‘Cheers’ because of their portrayal of women. I see her point but I enjoyed it back when it was on.
