Tag: 1988

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Hello! Welcome to another edition of ‘Wednesday’s Theme Music’. Today is March 10, 2021. Skyorb rise was at 6:32 AM. Skyorb set will be at 6:12 PM. After dipping to 32 degrees F during the night, the outside temperature has bounced up to 39 under a flat gray sky. Wet surfaces glisten and shine outside as pine and oak trees peer out of fog banks a few hundred yards up the mountain. Rain looks imminent.

Music today comes by way of writing efforts yesterday. After writing, I was out on a walk, thinking through where the story was and the paths it was following, formulating the tactics for picking up the paths and taking them forward. After a time of this, satisfied with my decisions and directions, ready to turn home because sunrise was a few minutes away and I was a mile from home, Van Halen’s “Finish What Ya Started” (1988) arrived in my mental music stream. I enjoy the riff that begins this song, and how the song builds off it.

Stay positive — you know the rest. After a year of the coronavirus pandemic, you should, lessen y’all been hiding under a rock or sumpten. I’ll say it all anyway: stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Of course, once you get the vax, some of the guidance changes for you, so stay up to date, ‘kay? Be smart. Stay safe.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Up and out early, I caught the sun’s first flush spreading over the snowy mountains on the valley’s other side as the sky gained blues and lost its darkness. Every night has its dawn, went through my head, which brought on Bret Michaels of Poison singing, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” (1988). It’s a mellow song for a metal band, but a nice sound for contemplating winter, 2020.

Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Today’s music arrives from yesterday’s doc visit. You’d think, then, it’s a doc-related song like “Dr. Feelgood”, “Doctor Doctor”, or “Doctor My Eyes”. You’d be wrong.

At the doc’s office, everyone politely asked, “How are you doing? How’s your arm?” Valid questions.

Wanting to be both upbeat and original, I sought different ways to answer. One was, “Hey, holding on, getting better.”

That was issued to Jocelyn, the xray tech. As I awaited the next round after her, memory picked up the holding on comment and supplied the 1988 Steve Winwood song with the title of, well, “Holding On”. It’s a typical Winwood hybrid, quasi rock and soul, with a brassy feel, big vocals, and optimism.

It worked well for passing doctor office time yesterday. I think, in this age of pandemic, change, elections. wildfires, and suffering, it’s good theme music for today.

Hold on. And wear your damn mask, please.

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Monday’s Theme Music

The Traveling Wilburys song, “Handle with Care” (1988) sprang to mind last night. Eleven thirty, I went out into the clear, friendly bight and entertained the moon and stars. All were bright and lively, and rona kept the time free of passerbys as all are home shelterin’. My cats joined me, with Boo being the one to break the silence, rub up against me, and lean against my calf.

That brought out the Wilbury chorus:

Everybody’s got somebody to lean on
Put your body next to mine, and dream on

h/t to Genius.com

This song is so special, IMO. Such talents, legends of rock, are brought together as friends, performers and song writers, contributing but remaining as individuals. Look at the video and how each is dressed and how they act and participate. They’re enjoying themselves. That feeling carries over into the song.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Blame Paul Krugman for today’s song.

I was reading his post about zombies. You’d conclude, then, that today’s music features music by or about zombies.

Nope.

Krugman addressed Republicans et al who won’t or can’t change their thinking about unemployment compensation, the social safety net, and the economy despite decades of validated data that the Republicans are wrong. I then widened my scope of thought to include civil rights and equality. Voting rights. Police force and violence. Eventually my aperture narrowed to change.

Raise your hand if you’re convinced change is easy. For most, it isn’t. Change messes with psychology and comfort zones, habits and vices, and the way it’s always been versus the way we’d like it to be. Trump and his followers are already demonstrated that they’re mired in tar pits; they can’t and won’t change.

All this brought me to songs about trying to change. There are numerous musical releases about seasons and change. I went with Tracy Chapman’s 1988 song, “Fast Car”.

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Friday’s Theme Music

Yeah, a free association flow today ended up with this song. It started with writing.

Yesterday morning…stalled on writing a scene. Overthinking it, my home-grown inner writing coach screamed. “Do it!”

Despite that exhortation, I resisted and fiddled. Knowing self, though, finally opened doc, went to scene, started reading and fiddling with words. Then, ah…sweet relief as sentences flowed in and out.

Then, pop: revelation. Surprise. Unseen connections and directions illuminated. Go: write like crazy.

Done with the one-handed writing for the day, the writing continued in my gray space — the brain, yeah, but also those nano vacancies visited while watching TV, petting a cat, searching the sky, scrolling the news — and new nuances proliferated. As it happened (continuing in dream material), it came at last as another piece in the characters’ stained- glass personae: desire.

Who they think they are, claim to be, try to be, fail to be, are seen to be, were before, dream to be, and are said to be punched together.

So, today’s theme music is U2’s “Desire” from 1988.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Today’s song, “Where Is My Mind?” by the Pixies (1988) is an old favorite.

I didn’t learn about the Pixies until I read comments Kurt Cobain made about them, and how they play soft/loud. After hearing that, I went in search of. Listening to “Heart  Shaped Box” reminded me of that.

So they were in my mind’s forefront when my wife wondered last night, “Where is my head?” That was enough for my mental Alexa to play, “Where Is My Mind?”

With your feet on the air and your head on the ground,
Try this trick and spin it, yeah

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Monday’s Theme Music

Walkin’ yesterday, post writing session (which wasn’t an overly great session), my stream introduced a Traveling Wilburys song to my mind.

The writing session had been a lethargic affair, brief spurts of reading bridged by long periods of pensive thinking. Two thirds of the way through it, I noticed that the folks on either side of me had low energy as they pursued their ‘puter biziness, yawning, sighing, stretching. So I think it was a low-key energy tide affecting me and others.

Dream speculations occupied me afterward as I thought about a new recent trend in my dreams. Then came the song, “Heading for the Light” (1988) by The Traveling Wilburys.

I enjoyed the Wilburys album. It was released while I was still stationed and living in Germany. This was before the wall fell. Five talented individuals – Harrison, Petty, Dylan, Lynne, and Orbison — with well-established careers came together to record a song. One song led to an album. One album led to two, but death — Orbison’s — curtailed further activity. Harrison and Petty have since followed him. Only two Wilburys remain.

This song, unlike most Wilburys songs, has a hugely distinctive Harrison/Lynne sound to it. Not surprising, as they were the producers. But the lyrics, a look back at where a person has been, how they changed it around, and where they’re going now, was perfect for the moment, then and now.

The song hung around in the stream, and is there today, where there’s little light permeating the soft rain clouds. That makes it a nominee for today’s theme music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G9AfnwFHeA

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Don’t know why “Love Bites” (Def Leppard, 1988), is circulating through the stream this morning but I’d like it released, so I’m sharing it.

That is all.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Had to give my cat his L-Lysine last night. Like many receiving treatments for something, he dislikes it. The better he feels, the more he dislikes it, and the more aggressively he resists.

Not alone in this, of course. Mary Poppins taught us that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Likewise, many of us treat the situation with a carrot and stick approach – take this medicine, and I’ll reward you.

Talking helps, too. So, I was speaking with T.C., telling him that I know that it tastes bad, but this is medicine that he needs, and I’m only doing it because it makes him feel better, and I want him to feel better because I love him. That all got shortened to, yes, it’s bad medicine, but it’s given with love.

From there, it was an easy switch to Bon Jovi’s 1988 offering, “Bad Medicine”, with T.C. imagined as singing to me.

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