Tag: New Year

New Year’s Day Theme Music

Mood: hopeful

Let’s give a warm welcome to 2024. I’ll do anything to make you happy, 2024. Well, anything legal. And it also can’t be against my principles or unethical. Or anything that will embarass me. Or anything too expensive. Other than those stipulations, I’ll do anything to make you happy, 2024. I figure if we can make you happy, you’ll make us happy. Fingers crossed that you’re a happy year. I know, the odds are against you from the stroke of midnight. But I think you can overcome it.

It’s Monday, January 1, 2024. 2024 looks a lot like its predecessor so far. Blue sky with sunshine and a glowing grand fog bank billowing in across the westward view. 38 F now, prophecies are for a high in the mid fifties. In truth, our hopes would be about receiving some snow on our mountains to build up the snowpack. It remains too thin to sustain us.

Hope you all had a new year celebration that fit your desires. Ours was on the low end, staying home, drinking nothing but water and coffee, eating a healthy Old Year’s Day meal, and then telling one another happy new year before going to bed around 12:30. It was a long way from the years where we’d dance and quaffed a few drinks before running around, doing things after midnight, shouting our accomplishments. It was all significant stuff, like, “First to pee in the new year!” “First to finish a drink in the new year! First to turn off a light in the new year. First to turn on a light in the new year.” Silly fun.

I read my friend’s blog this morning as coffee was firing up The Neurons (first to drink coffee in the new year). Jill Dennison is always a terrific read. This morning, she suggested that we start the new year with some Elton John. She provided “Sad Songs (Say So Much)”. My rascally Neurons injected “Crocodile Rock” into the morning mental music stream (Trademark delayed). Released in 1972, the song became Elton John’s first number one single in the US. Hearing it as high schoolers, we assured each other, this cat is going to be around a while.

The song’s history isn’t pure. Wikipedia notes:

The song was inspired by John’s discovery of leading Australian band Daddy Cool and their hit single “Eagle Rock“, which was the most successful Australian single of the early 1970s (with 1,000,000 sold),[5] remaining at No.1 for a record of 10 weeks.[6][7] John heard the song and the group on his 1972 Australian tour and was greatly impressed by it.[5] A photo included in the album packaging features John’s lyricist, Bernie Taupin, wearing a “Daddy Who?” promotional badge. The song also includes a lyrical reference to the 1950s hit record “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and his Comets (“While the other kids were rocking around the clock…”).

In a 1974 lawsuit filed in the US District Court of Los Angeles by attorney Donald Barnett on behalf of “Speedy Gonzales“‘ composer Buddy Kaye, it was alleged that defendants John and Taupin illegally incorporated chords from “Speedy Gonzales” which produced a falsetto tone into the “Crocodile” song co-written by defendants. The parties reached a settlement between them and the case was then dismissed.

Taupin also stated in an Esquire magazine interview that “Crocodile Rock” was a funny song in that he did not mind creating it, but it would not be something he would listen to;[8] it was simply something fun at the time. John has dismissed criticism of the song that it was “derivative”, quoted in the booklet for the 1995 reissue of Don’t Shoot Me … as saying, “I wanted it to be a record about all the things I grew up with. Of course it’s a rip-off, it’s derivative in every sense of the word.”

Such drama for such a quaint song.

Stay pos, be strong, and have an outstanding 2024. I’m just finishing up with the first cup of 2024 coffee. In with the new, right? Here’s the music. Cheers

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The Writing Moment

It may be a new year, but it was the same him. His resolutions weren’t changed. He would slot time each day to read as well as time to put his rear into a chair and sit down to write. His resolutions were still to coax the muses to come and help him, write a novel, and then edit and publish it.

He didn’t think those resolutions would ever change.

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Monday’s Theme Music

It’s a beautiful non-snowy winter day out there. Plants are shimmering and swaying to the wind’s music like it was a 1960s Motown cover band.

It’s a brand-new Monday, Jan 2, 2023. Time to carpe Monday. Sunrise is listed as the same time as yesterday but it felt like it might have been a few wingbeats earlier. The temperature has steadily climbed to 39 F. Clouds filter the sunshine but the sun has a new year’s resolution to be a little brighter and warmer for us in January, so it’s out there trying. The hot part of the day comes later, when we’ll see 44 F. The sun will continue on its journey out of our valley at 4:50 PM, because new year or not, the Earth plans to keep on rotating. Rain is expected.

“Brand New Day” by Sting (1999) seemed like a natural for The Neurons. Looking out at the Monscape, the song rose into the morning mental music stream. Sitting beside me, the cats began singing and swaying to the beat. I may have imagined that part; I really don’t think they could have carried the tune as well as it seemed.

I’m off to carpe some coffee. Stay pos, test neg. Remember, today is the first day after the last day. Here’s Sting with his music. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

“Overture! Hit the lights! This is it, the night of nights.” That’s the Bugs Bunny Show theme music. The show was my favorite Saturday morning show for several years. I have not seen it in decades and I don’t know if it’s still broadcast. I suspect it is.

Yes, it’s 2022’s final day. The song is over. Fog in the morning, issue a warning. Rain and fog are again the day’s ruling roosters. The sun tapped in at 7:39 AM, bringing up the light to see the fog. Temperature then was 41 F; it’s now 42 F, with a 50 degree high projected and rain. Sunset is 4:48 PM. Then into New Year’s Eve. We’ll be dining out with friends and then to a local hotel for dancing until Midnight. A local band, who are also friends, will provide the music. We will be masked although a friend reports health authorities find no COVID in our town’s wastewater. There is the flu surging around here, though. Restlessness and the desire to do something is pushing the evening agenda.

The last time we saw the new year in like this was back in 2019, I think. Our companions then were the same as the ones going out with us tonight. They packed it in about an hour before midnight. If you’ve seen one new year, you’ve seen them all, is this gang’s opinion. Sadly, though, the night marks the final night of the restaurant where we’re eating. They’re going out of business after twenty-five years. It’s Thai food and I’ve only eaten there three times since I’ve lived here. Two of those times was on New Year’s Eve.

A Boz Scaggs song called “Breakdown Dead Ahead” is in the morning mental music stream. Do Der Neurons know something that they’re trying to tell me with this 1980 musical choice? They always give me the feeling that they know more than they’re letting on to me. It sometimes feels like they’re deliberately withholding information to make me look or feel inept. I think I’m going to keep an eye on them. I just don’t feel like I can trust them, you know what I’m saying?

Coffee time. (And now The Neurons have substituted coffee time for hammer time and are playing that melody. They’re loony tunes up there in my head.) Stay pos, test negative, and enjoy the holiday as you can. Do you have big plans?

Till next year. Yes, it’s a law that the joke be put out there as often as humanly possible. At least, that’s what The Neurons are telling me. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Today is Saturday, January 1, 2022. It’s 28 degrees outside, up from 22. The snow remains under blue skies and bright sunshine. Today’s high will be 35 degrees F.

Sunrise was sharp and clear at 7:40 AM, with an assertive sun climbing over the mountains to dazzle the eye, highlighting the snow’s peaks, bluing the shadows. Sunset is due at 4:50 PM.

For reasons not transparent to me, The Killers song “Read My Mind” (2007) is manhandling the morning mental music stream. I think it’s simple word play association. I was thinking about the ‘good ol’ days’. That’s a line featured in the song.

The good old days, the honest man
The restless heart, the Promised Land
A subtle kiss that no one sees
A broken wrist and a big trapeze
Oh, well, I don’t mind if you don’t mind
‘Cause I don’t shine if you don’t shine
Before you go, can you read my mind?

h/t AZLyrics.com

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, get the jabs when you can, and have a safe, healthy, happy, prosperous, mind-blowing, amazing 2022. I’m gonna start with a cuppa coffee. Just like in the old days. Cheers

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The Baggage Dream

I thought this a great dream to experience on New Year’s Eve/Day. I was traveling as a young man. Not sure what the transpo means were. Seemed like a planes, trains, and automobile variation. I’d stopped at a cafe to eat. It seemed like a cafe but it had a huge eating area, lot of floor space, and many tables. It was packed with travelers. Most were happy. Many were children and families.

I found a place and put my baggage on a table, then went up and ordered. Just three people were behind the counter, serving all these people. I ordered a sandwich. I thought it would take a while but the sandwich was quickly prepared and given to me. I took it back to my table to eat.

While I ate, I decided to clean out my baggage, which was a dark burgundy backpack. As I went through, I discovered it was full of stuff from previous travels. I frequently recognized things from visits to other places, and chuckling, tossed most of it into the trash. Then I neatly tidied what I was keeping. When I finished, my baggage was light, clean, and organized. I went on to meet my father. He was there to give me a gift. I told him that I was on my way to a new job. He was pleased for me.

Happy new year.

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Trying

Nursing a coffee

nursing a care

marshalling thoughts running

like cats

here and there

trying to make a semblance of sense

trying to move into the present tense

on the outside I look to be comfortable and free

on the inside I hope no one else is like me

wrestling emotions cause they’re stealing my soul

wrestling hopes and dreams, writing down goals

another day living, another day spent

another day wondering where time and energy went

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Hey, the twenties are almost upon us. This hasn’t gone unnoticed. Almost all of the NYE parties in our town have been inspired to throw a roaring twenties party.

My wife and I are not impressed that they’re paying homage to a decade that ended in the Great Depression. My parents weren’t yet born; her parents, who are deceased, were born in that decade. Nothing about it inspires me to want to party.

No, I’m a child of the rock era. For my theme music for 2019, I’m going with a Prince classic, “1999”, from, um, 1982.

Join my party, or pop up a song that you would like to carry you into a new year and decade. Happy New Year!

I was dreamin’ when I wrote this
So sue me if I go 2 fast
But life is just a party, and parties weren’t meant 2 last
War is all around us, my mind says prepare 2 fight
So if I gotta die I’m gonna listen 2 my body tonight

h/t to Metrolyrics.com, cuz cutting and pasting is easier.

Cheers

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In the Wings

She waited, not moving, listening for her cue as time moved forward. She was still outside, hanging on against the churning energy within her.

“If people saw inside me,” she said to herself, “they would see raging seas with towering, thundering waves and almost continual lightning and thunder. If people saw inside me, they would be awed. Many would be afraid. But those who knew, who were stronger — ”

The countdown shunted her thinking aside. She listened as the ball dropped. Then, as they shouted, “Happy New Year,” she strutted out, the first female year ever, passing the poor old year as he shuffled out, bent and wrinkled, bearded and male, off to the Home of the Old Years. She would be there in one year — the first female there, too — but one year was a lot of time.

Time enough to make some changes, fix some wrongs, and establish some new rights.

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