Tag: 2011

Monday’s Theme Music

Soft as the air, sunrise’s slow grace came upon our valley at 5:51 AM. Today is Monday, July 19, 2021. Heat is expected, but not too terrible. Seventy now, at nine AM, looking for 95 F before the sunset’s mellow withdrawal at 8:43 PM. More fires are burning in the Pacific Northwest. None too close to us, knock on wood. Bootleg continues burning, 300,000 acres, over a quarter contained. Tamarack down south has exploded. Favorable winds are keeping our air clean. Several small fires started locally but quick responses by people and fire departments contained them.

Walking yesterday, I channeled Flo Rida, “Good Feeling” (2011). I got those good feelings yesterday when I was walking. Often afraid to speak of them or write about them, lest I scare them away. I was high on a hill in the town’s southern end. Great view of some of the valley. Wineries. Brown hills. Mountain peaks. Air dirty yellow on the horizon, wildfire smoke.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, sometimes I get a good feeling, yeah
I get a feeling that I never never never never had before, no no
I get a good feeling, yeah
Oh oh, sometimes I get a good feeling, yeah
I get a feeling that I never never never never had before, no no
I get a good feeling, yeah

h/t AZLyrics.com

And I got that feeling. Wonder, how now? Why? What drives these feelings, a sense of optimism, almost invicibility? A sense that change is coming. Where does it originate? Is it an amygdala gone mad?

Maybe, yeah. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Sunrise/sunset: 7:25 AM/5:24 PM. So close to ten hours of daylight! We almost made it. Oh, well, tomorrow is a new month.

It’s a sleepy Sunday, this last day of January, 2021. Rainy but 44 degrees F here, with sun breaks, a good day for reading a book and napping. The cats are for it.

Homemade minestrone soup is simmering in the slow cooker and filling the air with spices and veggies. Such a lazy-feeling day needs a lazy day song, say, “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars (2011). It’s a silly song but silly songs can be good.

Stay positive, etc. Too lazy to put in more, you know? Maybe I’ll get some coffee, maybe I’ll write. We’ll see.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Good morning, good day, good evening, and goo night.

Today’s free association link arrives from doubt. Writing doubt plagues me. I injoy what I write but is the shite fit for human consumption, or will someone lock it all away in order to save humanity?

There is also doubts about civilization, the onrushing ‘merican elections, the POTUS’ state of mind, and life, generally.

Many songs, groups, and albums featuring doubt flit n and out of the conscious stream. Only Death Cab for Cutie’s 2011 song, “You Are A Tourist”, glommed on.

When there’s a doubt within your mind
Because you’re thinking all the time
Framing rights into wrongs
Move along, move along
When there’s a doubt within your mind

When there’s a burning in your heart
And you think it’ll burst apart
Or there’s nothing to fear
Save the tears, save the tears
When there’s a burning in your heart

h/t to Genius.com.

The song is like progressive alt to me, which I suppose is akin to autobiographical fiction, magical realism, and new adult fiction. It’s a sunnyish, upbeat song, though, and satisfied my psyche’s craving.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Thinking about disasters as I was walking yesterday. Australia is struggling to catch a break this year, going from bushfires to rain to flooding. Indonesia continues having a tough time, quakes in Puerto Rico, and flooding in Chicago.

Then there’s the snow. A winter storm passed through here, giving us a couple inches. Trudging through the aftermath, we’re grateful because it helps the snowbanks, an important source of summer water, even while many mildly rue and curse the snow. Come on, it’s snow, and disrupts our easy ways and pleasantries with its cold intrusion.

It’s impressive how tiny flakes can add up. Our flakes went from normal or average sized to supersized flakes, back to normal before dropping into tiny. All still added up.

These thoughts took me to a Kate Bush 2011 song, “50 Words for Snow”. I enjoy her but I’m mostly aware of this song because Stephen Fry is the one giving the words. Fry delivers them like he’s tasting the expressions. Then Kate goes on with a chorus, “Come on, man,” telling him how many more words he has to go. I don’t hear this song often, originally hearing it by chance on NPR (“Is that Stephen Fry?”) but have since listened to it on the ‘puter, trying to understand all the words for snow. I find it satisfying and contemplative.

Like snow.

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Friday’s Theme Music

Still raining.

Still walking in it.

Still fun — or pleasant — but a little less so than yesterday or the day before.

Smoke was rising from the hillside, leftover from the controlled burns in the watershed the other day. But I thought, yeah, maybe someone set fire to the rain.

So then I was thinking about Adele’s song, “Set Fire to the Rain” (2011), a powerful, powerful song about love, relationships, and re-birth. I (probably like many) enjoy her refrain:

But there’s a side to you that I never knew, never knew
All the things you’d say, they were never true, never true
And the games you’d play, you would always win, always win

h/t to MetroLyrics.com

That’s what you find as you go through relationships, the pieces that aren’t revealed, whose revelations (when found) fundamentally shift your thoughts (and feelings) about the other, leaving you to ask yourself (as you search), what do I do?

Sometimes you walk on, sometimes you stay, but the relationship has been changed.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

There I was, walking along, dealing with the cesspools of worry and anxiety collecting in my head, happy as a friggin’ lark, when in comes Ben Howard’s song, “The Fear” (2011).

Oh I’ve been worrying,
that my time is a little unclear,
I’ve been worrying,
that I’m losing the ones I hold dear,
I’ve been worrying,
that we all,
live our lives,
in the confines of fear.

h/t to Lyricsmania.com

Good walking tune for its beat, and it fits today’s partly cloudy, sometimes sunny, chilly, warm, blustery weather that taunts us with fall and worries us about winter.

Whatever.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Walking yesterday, I felt terrific, one of those times when you smell the air and look around at everything and think, what a wonderful life. It’d been an excellent writing session. That was parlayed into a long, energetic walk. Along the way, I streamed multiple songs.

The song that resonated the most is a Ben Howard song, “Keep Your Head Up” (2011). These particular lyrics charmed me:

Now walking back, down this mountain,
The strength of a turnin’ tide.
Oh the wind so soft, and my skin,
Yeah the sun so hot upon my side.
Oh lookin’ out at this happiness
I searched for between the sheets,
Oh feelin’ blind, I realize,
All I was searchin’ for, was me.
Oh oh-oh, all I was searchin’ for was me.

Oh yeah, keep your head up, keep your heart strong.
No, no, no, no, keep your mind set, keep your hair long.
Oh my, my darlin’, keep your head up, keep your heart strong.
Na, oh, no, no, keep your mind set in your ways.
Keep your heart strong.

h/t to songmeanings.com

Take a listen and see if you get charmed. Cheers

 

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Wednesday’s Theme Song

Sometimes I encounter someone who insist that I explain who I am as though I perused a menu and created myself  à la carte. Sorry, but I didn’t actually have that many choices about how I was born. Although I’ve lived with myself for over sixty-one years, I still mystify myself. There are places and spaces in me that I can’t explain. So I fall back on this helpful song by Lady Gaga: “Born This Way.”

Yes, it’s a bit campy, and has been criticized for some of its words and not being fresh enough, but, damn it, it’s a good song to hear and when you’re tired of fighting with the world and just want to stand up and give it the finger. Sing along, if you feel it.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

When I heard this song in twenty-eleven, I wanted to know more about it. Each time I heard it played, I listened to hear the performer’s name and the song title. That’s not something easily learned in the modern listening era. Many stations like to end one song and start one or two more before giving a song’s details, if they do at all. But thanks to the computer age, I looked up lonely boy. Knowing there were many songs featuring those words, I settled in for a detailed search.

But, ta-da. I found it immediately and checked out the video. I enjoy this video. So here we go, Tuesday’s theme music, “Lonely Boy” by The Black Keys.

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Today’s Theme Music

This was an intense song. My mind immediately began streaming it during my walks and it stayed lodged in my head for several months. Seeing the video reinforced its effect.

‘Too Close’, by Alex Clare, 2011, captures the essence of a long-term romantic relationship to me. The song sounds like a soliloquy, an emotional epiphany. It feels like you’re going separate ways; it feels like you’re just too close. Matters become combative and intense. Words are said, parry, thrust, circle,  en garde, but sometimes the fencing is done in silent expectation of what could have been said. Then there is always the pondering, what was meant, what was meant, what was meant?

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