Someone shared this vocals & guitars only video of Queen on FB. I enjoyed it and thought, let’s share it as today’s theme music.
Hope you enjoy this recording of Freddie Mercury and Queen performing “Killer Queen” as much as I do.
Friday’s Theme Music
When I post something, I’ve developed a practice of confirming that I haven’t posted it before. This is new to my blogging, probably started within the last six months.
Today I search for Aerosmith. I laughed when I saw how many times I’ve posted an Aerosmith song, including “Livin’ On the Edge” twice.
(As an shameful aside, seeing the errors in my posts make me blush. My posts are typically off the top of my head and written without much thought. (Obviously, right?) I could really use a second and third review of them before posting, and perhaps an editor.)
Well, I’m not posting an Aerosmith song today. Instead, I’m posting Run-DMC’s cover of “Walk This Way” from 1986, featuring Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. “Walk This Way” is a favorite walking song, and I enjoy the Run-DMC edition a great deal.
Thursday’s Theme Music.
I guess this is a throwback Thursday. Of course, many of my days are throwbacks. Some are throwaways.
I found myself streaming some ZZ Top as I walked this morning.
Jesus just left Chicago and he’s bound for New Orleans.
Well now, Jesus just left Chicago and he’s bound for New Orleans.
Yeah, yeah.
Workin’ from one end to the other and all points in between.
Took a jump through Mississippi, well, muddy water turned to wine.
Took a jump through Mississippi, muddy water turned to wine.
Yeah, yeah.
Then out to California through the forests and the pines.
Ah, take me with you, Jesus.
h/t to Lyricsfreak.com
Why this song, today? I don’t know. Maybe a smell that I didn’t consciously notice triggered a memory, or two neurons ran into each other on an axon and reminisced about the old days. Perhaps I whiffed someone toking up and connected that to ZZ Top. Perhaps, in worrying about the present and future, I subconsciously longed for the past, and dredged up times that were simpler and happier for me. Maybe there’s no logic at all, but just random impulses.
The world may never know.
Tuesday’s Theme Music
I’ve always enjoyed War. Their music speaks to me. Today’s song, “Why Can’t We Be Friends”, is an excellent accompaniment to walking about town. As part of the writing practice, I walk and think about where I’m at with my writing and editing projects. Once freed of that, I drift into other things. This song, though, was heard coming from a Toyota pickup truck as it trundled by. Picking up on it, I sang it and some other War songs, like “Smile Happy”, “Low Rider”, “The World Is A Ghetto”, and “Spill the Wine”. Such classics.
Tuesday’s Bumper Sticker
The new three Rs.
Monday’s Theme Music
“You come and go, you come and go.”
Culture Club released “Karma Chameleon” in 1983. Stationed at Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan, I was hanging out with Jeff. Several years older than me, he was my best bud. While I enjoyed guitar-driven tunes, Jeff was a fan of lyrics and vocals, and he loved harmonies. “Karma Chameleon” was one of Jeff’s favorite songs, so I heard it quite a bit.
Oddly, Jeff associated it with an event that happened to him while he was stationed in Thailand. I think it’s the karma connection. I don’t know. He didn’t realize that he often told this story after having a few beers and hearing “Karma Chameleon”.
Getting off a mid shift, he was heading home in the morning. As he was at the corner waiting for the bus, smoking a cigarette beside a stranger, a car pulled up and stopped. People in the car opened up, shooting and killing the stranger. They then looked at Jeff. Still smoking, Jeff turned around, looked the other way, and waited to be shot. He was hoping to convey, “I saw nothing.” It must have worked, as the car drove off after a few tense seconds. Jeff then hauled ass himself.
Something released Jeff into the memory stream this morning, dragging this song with it. So, for your pleasure….
“This isn’t a post.” “Yes, it is.”
This Tunnel of Silly Walks in the Netherlands (posted on Atlas Obscura) reminded me of Monty Python’s Argument Clinic.
The Argument Clinic is more than such, and features the standard MP goofiness but none of the usual cross-dressing. It’s a laugh, innit?
Sunday’s Theme Music
I heard this song on Sirius XM this morning. It didn’t suit my mood so I switched to FM. For a moment, I thought the radio wasn’t working because the same song was playing, in almost the same point of the song. I switched to another FM station.
Guess what song was playing?
I thought, that song must be destined to be today’s theme music. Not sure why. It’s all about relationships. Of course, it might be heard on three stations at the same time because it’s a popular song, and we end up being saturated with its playing.
Listen to some Post Malone and “Better Now” (2018).
Today’s Theme Music
Today’s song, “Nowhere Man,” by the Beatles, came out in 1965. I vividly remember carrying a small transistor radio (with a nine volt battery) and listening to this song early one summer afternoon, singing along with it as I walked along Laketon Road in Wilkinsburg, Pa. The lyrics were simple but seemed powerful to me.
It must have been in 1966, and I was ten when I was doing that. Fifty-two years later, I’m walking along A Street in Ashland, Or., singing it to myself in an early late summer morning. It still seems like simple but powerful song.
Guidelines for A Relationship with Your Muse(s)
I’ve been coping with my muse(s) for years. I’m not certain how many I have. I may have one muse with shape-shifting skills and multiple personalities, or a horde with very distinct skill sets and ideas. I suspect my muses are both of these ideas.
Muse(s) can be fickle. Having employed some mechanisms that helped me get along with my muse(s), I thought I’d compile some brief, general guidelines. These are recorded to help me in the future, but since I’m typing them up, I thought sharing them might help others when they’re dealing with their muse(s).
- Shelter your muse(s) like kittens, puppies, kits, and fledglings. They’re cute, tender, and impressionable, and need to be fed, protected, and nurtured. They depend on you for everything.
- It helps to act like you’re handling a fourteenth-century Ming dynasty vase when you’re conversing with your muse(s). They’re rare, fragile, and irreplaceable.
- Regard your muse(s) like they’re famous geniuses such as William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Stephen Hawking, Jackson Pollock, Maya Angelou, or Frank Lloyd Wright. They have a lot to offer, and you should pay attention.
- Behave with your muse(s) as you would with family that you enjoy having around, and respect and interact with your muse(s) as you do with family that you must love because they’re family, but you have no idea why they do the things that they do.
- Follow your muse(s) like they’re a famous performer, like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Beyonce, or Kanye West, or a movie star like Jimmy Stewart, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Dwight Johnson, Jerry Lewis, Casey Affleck, or Bruce Campbell.
- Care for your muse(s) like a favorite elderly pet who seems to be fading.
- Obey your muse(s) like you’re a child and they’re your parent(s).
- Nurture, protect, and teach your muse(s) like you’re their parent(s) and they’re your child, perhaps a two-year-old, or a sixteen-year-old. They could be both from moment to moment. Part of the fun is understanding which one they are.
- Interact with your muse(s) like they’ve been convicted of being a serial killer who escaped from prison and is standing in your bedroom.
- React to your muse(s) like they’re the monsters under your bed. You’re not sure if they’re real, but you keep hearing noises, and it’s really, really dark.
- Embrace your muse(s) like a bolt of lightning during a thunderstorm. It can be painful and illuminating, but rewarding, if you survive.
- Finally, have fun with your muse(s). Pretend that you’re all celebrating graduating high-school and becoming an adult by getting drunk.
Employing these simple strategies have rewarded me with the same sort of wonderful relationship that I have with a stranger that I bump into at a parade. With a little observation and effort, you can have the same kind of relationship.
Good luck!
