Category: pop culture

The Meaning

Does forty-two give your life meaning, or is that just the meaning of life?

Fiction writing gives my life meaning. I don’t know if others actively contemplate what gives their life meaning. Surveying an array of friends of family, I can hazard guesses. What gives their life meaning stimulates them. But I can be wrong. Others would have been wrong in the past, guessing what gave my life meaning.

Some, I think, will answer, living gives my life meaning. By that, they mean, being alive and doing the activities of a living human gives their life meaning. The ends and the means are the same. It’s a simple, inviting approach.

I was raised to follow that working, marrying, and raising a family was what life was about. Extending the thinking behind that, it seems that trinity would give our lives meaning. I attempted to follow the precept, and succeeded to some degree. Aging, and becoming more exposed to the world, I grew disenchanted with that trinity as the reasons that gave my life meaning. I questioned what it meant, to have something that has meaning in my life, or to do, or follow something, that gives my life meaning, and perceived many didn’t have one, and substituted activities and goals to give their lives meaning. Some pursue working and making money; others pursue power, politics, social justice, science, or excellence in some area in their lives. For a few, watching and rooting for their sports teams seem, sadly, to five their lives meaning.

I write, “sadly”, with judgmental thoughts, as though I have the answers and absolutely know what’s going on. I don’t. Watching and rooting for sports teams might seem shallow, but if it rewards and satisfies them as much as my fiction writing, are they wrong? Is fiction writing really a greater calling than watching sports?

I know, I’m becoming muddled here. I read the book, “War Is A Force that Gives Us Meaning,” by Chris Hedges, over a decade again. I thought he was on to something there, that war gives many meaning. So do sports, acting, reading…and writing. It’s something to stake as a passion and focus that drives us.

Oddly, I started thinking of Hedges’ book while watching “Foyle’s War” last night. I’ve seen the entire series once, and have viewed many of the episodes twice. I enjoy and admire much in the series, including the acting, writing and production values. Set in England, the backdrop to “Foyle’s War” is World War II. I always enjoyed the sly reference to Foyle’s war as his resolute approach to solving crimes and pursuing justice, no matter where the evidence leads him. This happened in last night’s show; the killer confessed to Foyle after Foyle confronted him with the man’s lies. The man’s response was to ask Foyle to let him go, arguing that his role in the war would save lives.

Foyle was tempted but did not abandon his over-arching principle. He states it at least once in the series, to my memory. I’ll paraphrase as, “If we surrender our basic principles of law and justice to win the war, then haven’t we lost?”

It’s a great part of why I watch. Foyle continually encounters that wall of reasoning that winning the war at all costs is paramount. Foyle doesn’t accept that. When that reasoning falls to sway him, he’s often threatened by the powers of government. He doesn’t allow that to sway him, either, but I always watch to see if he’ll surrender his principles and betray his values.

Which, I supposed, completes the lap of reasoning about meaning. When you find the meaning to your life, it becomes your rock. You stand on it and gain strength. Without it, you’re lost to the currents of madness and fashion.

Time to write like crazy, or edit, one more time.

***

Forty-two, of course, is from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” proving that I’m not the first fiction writer to wonder, what’s it all about? Right, Alfie?

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Today’s Theme Music

To continue with the theme of dancing through the first week of the season change, I’ll continue with Don Henley. “All She Wants to Do Is Dance” is one of my favorite Henley offerings. Coming out in nineteen eighty-four, the song was written by Danny Kortchmar.

I enjoyed its tech sound and cynical lyrics. The song is like a war story being told in a bar about a serviceman’s experience fighting in another country. The impression is, the heavy-handed government is locking everyone up and bugging everywhere, battling “wild-eyed pistol wavers” in a long-going engagement. The rebels are using the weapon of revolutionaries before I.E.D.s, Molotov cocktails, mixed up in their kitchen sink. Meanwhile, the serviceman is coping with a local young women. All she wants to do is dance, make romance, and party. She seems oblivious to everything going on. It becomes clear by song’s end, who was oblivious.

I thought it was an apropos song for the time. It came before the Gulf Wars and after Vietnam, during the cold war era when the United States and U.S.S.R. were trying to align other countries, no matter who led them, with “their side,” propping up governments with money and weapons, enriching the countries’ power elite at the expanse of the poor. The Soviets were battling in Afghanistan against Osama Bin Laden as the U.S. armed and trained the revolutionary. Meanwhile, the U.S. buddied up to Saddam Hussein, arming him.

With its heavy beat, this is an excellent song for streaming and tramping around. It’s a bitter reminder, too, about how weapons and places have changed, but we’re still arming and aiding governments to fight rebels.

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Today’s Theme Music

“Dance Hall Days,” by Wang Chung, was supposed to be new wave.

Coming out in nineteen eighty-four, when I lived on Okinawa, I didn’t get it. What was so special about new wave? This song didn’t sound any different from other music heard on juke boxes and FM radio stations.

The lyrics were definitely weird. “Take your baby by the hair. Pull her close and say, there, there, there.” “Take your baby by the wrist. And in her mouth put amethyst.”

Yeah, strange, if you listen to them. I think they just junked out some rhyming words to a beat. It works as a stream to help dance your way through the first few days of the season’s change.

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Today’s Theme Music

Drop it all, whatever troubles you and weighs down your body, just let it go. Close your eyes and let yourself feel light and alive. It’s summer in the north, and winter’s coming south of the equator, but we can all come together and do a little dance.

Marvin Gaye, Mickey Stevenson, and Ivy Jo Hunter wrote it. It first found popularity in the U.S. with Martha and the Vandellas in nineteen sixty-four. David Bowie covered it with Mick Jaggar, Van Halen covered it with David Lee Roth singing the lead vocals, the Mamas and the Papas, and the Grateful Dead covered it, among others. Those are the ones that I remember. You probably know it from somebody else’s cover. If not, the words are easy and the beat is contagious. As they say, “Summer’s here, and the time is right, for dancing in the streets.”

Get up and sing and dance with Martha Reeves and the Vandellas with the first popular version of “Dancing in the Streets.”

 

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Today’s Theme Music

This is a more recent, mellow song. Its simple, repetitive chorus makes it easy to stream to myself as I walk along: “We don’t talk about it. Shouldn’t talk about it.”

I also enjoy his flat delivery of several stanzas, such as the first: “I want you by my side, so that I never feel alone again.” That delivery imparts a sense that he’s talking to himself while making a confession to another, a secret, internal conversation. The other parts strike me as an effort to bring the other around to his thinking.

After hearing the song a few times, mostly while driving around, I looked up the words. Getting the words to songs right is one of the big technological advantages of this century. We used to need jacket sleeves, which weren’t always included. Don McLean’s “American Pie” caused arguments about what he was singing, and then, what it meant.

Here’s Milky Chance from Germany and two thousand thirteen with, “Stolen Dance.”

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Gems

I love it when I find something that surprises me by exceeding expectations.

It doesn’t happen often enough. Most of the time, when watching a television show, going to movies, reading a book, or trying a new restaurant or drink, my expectations have been set up to expect something pretty damn good. Too often, I’m disappointed. That’s why I’m not watching much on television right now.

Last night, while wandering through the TV wasteland’s Amazon region, I came across a movie called “The Girl With All the Gifts.”

“Oh, is this based on the book?” my wife asked.

I didn’t know. If it was, the movie slipped right past my notice. Slipping past my notice isn’t difficult. The cats do it all the time.

It turned out that “The Girl With All the Gifts” was based on the novel. With Glenn Close and Paddy Considine, we had hopes for the movie.

We weren’t disappointed. This isn’t a movie review, but we enjoyed the movie. Dominique Tipper, who we knew from “The Expanse,” was marvelous as Devani, sweetly delivering the courage, innocence, and intelligence demanded of the role. Featuring zombies, the movie had some damn grisly moments, but it was a fascinating twist on the zombie spin. Seeing Paddy reminded me of how much I enjoyed him in “Hot Fuzz,” and Glenn Close played Doctor Caldwell with focused energy. Like most zombie dystopian movies and television shows we encounter, it was fast-paced, and we were second-guessing decisions and tactics. They gave us a lot to second-guess. It was a lot of fun.

I would recommend the movie to you, but I don’t want to get your hopes up. I did enjoy it, though, but that’s just me.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

Feeling like a rebel today.

At first, I thought, gimme some power chords. Nirvana came to mind, with “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” “Here we are now, entertain us.”

But, then, naw…”Rebel Yell” began streaming, and quickly segued into one of my favorite Billy Idol tunes, “White Wedding.” “It’s a nice day to start again.”

It’s cooler today, with a projected high of just eighty-eight under clear blue skies. Definitely a nice day to start again. Here it is, Billy Idol, from nineteen eighty-two, when I was just a wee man of twenty-six years. Boy, what would need to be sacrificed to be twenty-six again, hey?

 

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Today’s Theme Music

Today’s song came out during a time when I navigated the usual issues with understanding myself, love and life during my teenage years.

The song was written by Toy Caldwell, a founding member of the band, and a person of passions. He passed away in nineteen ninety-three, forty-five years old, from cardio and respiratory problems associated with cocaine use. It’s his lead guitar on the song.

The song is, “Can’t You See,” by the Marshall Tucker Band. It came out in nineteen seventy-three, and it’s one of those songs that captures the despair you can feel over something you’re enduring. The song’s sentiments ends up capable of being applied to many moments of frustration and hopelessness. “Can’t you see what you’re doing to me?” “Can’t you see what this job is doing to me?”

To me, to you, to us, you can run through the gamut and come out on the other side with the same vows the song encapsulates. “Gonna find me a mountain, jump off, and nobody’s going to know.” You’ve been pushed to your end. Then, after the release of all these thoughts, you reach a binary moment: which way you going to go? Are you really going to get on a freight train and run away, or jump off a mountain, or you going to suck it up, endure the pain, and find another way to press on regardless?

Some end up lost somewhere in the middle, unwilling or unable to commit to either direction.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

This is a “recent” song for me. It came out in two thousand one, so that give us a sense of reference about how much I follow music these days.

That’s true with multiple areas. Matters about baseball, football, pop-culture, music, television, and auto-racing are less followed today. Instead, I follow housing starts, unemployment rates, consumer confidence, politics, and news. I think I’m beginning to mature.

This song, “Blurry,” came out in the aftermath of 9/11, but it’s appropriate for today, because this is Father’s Day in America. This song is about a young man trying to be a good father to his son after separating from the child’s mother. It’s a common theme in today’s America.

Here’s Puddle of Mudd.

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Today’s Theme Music

I had a song selected for today. Then I saw episode eight of “The Handmaid’s Tale” last night.

The episode, ambiguous, powerful and emotional, full of shifting insights, was highlighted with a Nina Simone song. Man, I love her music. It was a perfect choice to mark the scene’s denouement.

The other choice, the original song, is “School’s Out,” by Alice Cooper.

There’s a striking dichotomy between the two songs, and the thinking behind them. The Simone song was about choices and the road being taken. The Alice Cooper song is a spiteful, joyous celebration of celebrate children’s ‘freedom from school’. I wanted to play “School’s Out” not because I go to school, but with school out, we don’t need to slow down for the school zone. Almost every major road in this small town goes through a school zone, forcing traffic into a tedious crawl. It’s a small, but annoying price, for safety, right? But hooray, speed! We can go five, sometimes ten miles per hour faster. Woo-hoo!

After some thought about it while brewing coffee this morning, I went with “School’s Out” because I didn’t want to debase the use of the Simone song in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” That powerful and shocking cautionary story shouldn’t be dragged down into the meanderings of a mindless blog like this.

Besides, Alice Cooper was part of my first concert I ever attended. The other two acts that day at Three Rivers Stadium were Uriah Heep and Humble Pie. Excellent concert. Memorable.

Here it is, from nineteen seventy-two, “School’s Out.” Crank it up and sing along, if you know the words. Just fake it, if you don’t. Nobody cares.

 

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