Saturday’s Theme Music

Today’s song is one of those turn-it-up loud touchback beats from waayyy back in 1990.

Fun facts from November 1990:

The U.S.S.R. was the United States’ great enemy and an evil empire, according to our former POTUS, Ronald Reagan. Our new guy, in his first year, was George H.W. Bush. The Berlin Wall had fallen the previous year. The U.S.S.R. would soon end.

A coalition led by the U.S. was building up for the Gulf War, amassing troops to attack Iraq and free Kuwait.

The Internet and web were just catching on as a force. AOL and Yahoo were big players in the U.S. Google hadn’t been started yet. Cell phones were just rolling out as the 2G network took shape. Taking selfies with your phone weren’t due for twenty more years. Facebook was still over a decade away, and Twitter was further out that than.

New England Patriots QB Tom Brady was thirteen years old.

Donald Trump was still with his first wife, Ivana.

Cool beans, right?

Here’s Jane’s Addiction with “Been Caught Stealing”. Crank it, baby.

Friday’s Theme Music

“Don’t push me cuz I’m close to the edge. I’m trying not to lose my head.”

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s classic rap song, “The Message” (1982) started streaming in me after dealing with our cat, Boo. Fair to Boo, a large bedroom panther, he suffers PTSD and is hypersensitive. His back fur has become terribly matted, and he’s too freaked to let us do anything about it. Exasperating. I feel for the cat, who is very smart, but after a bit of trying to do something about his fur and having him hissing, spitting, and swiping at me, only to turn around and come back to get petted again, I had to walk away.

And that’s when that line entered and the song started streaming in me.

Thursday’s Theme Music

Today’s song came about from Facebook. Stuart Berman posted a gorgeous shot of sunset and the Golden Gate Bridge, with darkening purple and indigo waves in the forefront.

Naturally, my mind injected “Lights” by Journey (1978). I lived in the S.F. Bay Area about fourteen years, from the early nineties to the mid-aughts, and I’m nostalgic about the place. It has a magic, powerful energy. Although Steve Perry originally wrote the lyrics about L.A., he changed the lyrics after he moved to S.F. and saw the light on the bay. Having that so simply stated, the bay, allows the song to be applied to wherever light is going down on a city by a bay. It’s a soft, reflective ballad with some nice Neal Schon guitar work.

The Gods of Beer

The gods of beer

won’t hesitate

to take a swig,

and make their play.

They don’t quibble

over a quaff,

nor hesitate to laugh

over another’s gaffe.

They’re there to spread humor

and good cheer,

because everyone knows,

life is better with a beer.

 

Wednesday’s Theme Song

“That’s why you can’t hold me down. You can’t tie me down. I gotta gotta gotta get away.”

I awoke with Jimi Hendix 1967 song, “Stone Free” in my stream. (I think I was missing up choruses, though.) I think it came about from judgement calls on people like Greta Thunberg about everything except what’s she say. People were throwing superficial criticisms at her; some even suggested that she was mentally ill. Most also mocked her as a child because she’s still a teenager.

Never mind that she’s making intelligent points about the environment. Never mind that elsewhere people are quite willing to use teenagers as soldiers or proclaim them able to carry and give birth to a child, or to be married.

Thankfully, Greta is above being shamed for who she is and is proud of what she does. I only wish I had her balls.

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Today’s theme music is well known, and came about from playing with our ginger cat, Papi, aka, Meep. Meep was his original name, given for this sweet, strained version of meow that he had when we first met him.

Happy as he is about ninety percent of the time, he was in a frisky, rambunctious mood. We began one of our favorite games, hide and chase. As the game progressed, I first streamed “Run Through the Jungle” by CCR, sometimes singing parts of it to Papi, but as Papi quit playing to roll around and get some belly rubs, the music switched to “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns n’ Roses (1987).

A powerful, hard rock song with what seems like some serious, mocking lyrics, the song stayed with me, shoving other songs out of my head as I walked to begin my writing session.

Welcome to the jungle
We’ve got fun ‘n’ games
We got everything you want
Honey, we know the names
We are the people that can find
Whatever you may need
If you got the money, honey
We got your disease

h/t to AZLyrics.com

 

Monday’s Theme Music

I like watching people, seeing where their eyes move, their non-verbal language, and how they interact with the world. The phone people — PP, or P2, the ones with attention glued to their phones as they walk along — demonstrate little expression or body language. It’s not a surprise; they’re usually totally invested in that little electronic device. They’re interacting with it. It changes when they’re on video, or actually speaking someone, and — of course! — when a selfie is being orchestrated.

As an aside rant, the P2 annoy me when they’re absorbed by their phone and walking. They expect everyone to move aside and look out for them. Sometimes, I’m an asshole, and I don’t move.

Today’s song was inspired by a woman walking toward me. She was quite the haughty person, swapping all with her eyes but avoiding eye contact with anyone. I do understand it more, now, why many women avoid contact that could be misconstrued with others. Many have horror stories about how their friendliness was misconstrued, leading to ugly encounters with men who thought the women were flirting with them.

This woman’s dark eyes struck a chord with lyrics from a past song, “Here comes the woman with the look in her eye.” Before she’d come within six feet, Michael Hutchence and INXS were streaming “Devil Inside” through me. Although this song came out in 1988, when I was stationed in Germany, I’d heard INXS in the early eighties while on assignment at Kadena AB on Okinawa. That’s because I knew some Australian special forces members there. They knew of INXS’ music and introduced them to me. So INXS is forever associated with Okinawa in my mind.

Sad day when I heard that Hutchence had killed himself, thirty-seven years old. He was younger than me by four years, and it seemed astonishing that such a talented, young, and successful person could kill themselves.

I’ve learned a lot since then.

An Alanis Morissette Moment

Thursday afternoon, under warm sunshine, Handley parked his car and dashed across the street.

Returning from the cafe with his purchases scant minutes later, the man beside him was opening his door. A box was on the ground beside him.

“Excuse me,” the man said.

Door unlocked, being opened, hot food starting to cool, Handley paused, eyebrows up in expectation. “Yes?”

“Do you have jumper cables?”

Handley nodded. “I do. You need a jump?”

Smiling, the man popped his hood and picked up the box. “No, I just bought a charger. I’d been waiting for an hour. Nobody had cables. I figured that the first person I saw in the parking lot after I went out and bought this would have cables.

“And here you are.”

Handley commiserated. “Isn’t it ironic?”

Net Effect

I read it on the net

you know you better bet

that it’s the greatest most outrageous and incredible thing

ever

I saw it on the net

you know I won’t regret

believing everything that I’m seeing

and hearing

It was spread across the net

so you better be set

to know this is the truth and won’t go away

it’s out there for-

ever

So just put it on the net

with a link for them to select

and you know you’ll have them reading writing raging and de-

bating

 

Sunday’s Theme Music

Warren Zevon was always up and down to me. Sometimes, I greatly enjoyed and admired his work, but other times, I was left scratching my head. Most acts do that for me, but it seemed like it was more frequently a response to Zevon’s solo stuff. (It’s probably just me, innit?) “Werewolves of London” (1978) stands out as a strong exception. I love its funkiness, especially that simple, melodic piano, and ended up singing it to my cats last night (although my version was, of course, “Werecats of Ashland”, as they’re cats, and I live in Ashland, Oregon).

They were dubious.

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