Tag: pop

Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: caring

We’ve come upon a rare beast: Thursday, October 12, 2023. It only happens once.

47 F in Ashlandia, where the air is clear and the people are refined. Never fear, the rain has stopped, and the skies are clear deep blue. With the sun and air working together, we’ll reach 69 F before sunset comes at 6:35 PM. This sunset gives us an swath of daylight just over eleven hours long. The clock is running.

There’s a great deal to care about in the news, as usual. Several wars and politics just edge baseball and football. Best news heard this week is that my little sister looks cancer free after having her rectum removed in September. Hurrah for that. As another friend privately noted, but once you’ve experienced a close encounter of the cancer kind, the fear it’ll return haunts you.

The Neurons have plugged a 1982 Donald Fagen song into the morning mental music stream (Trademark petrified). I heard “I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World)” on the car radio a few days ago. The song is a riff off of an International Geophysical Year – IGY – which Fagen read about. The IGY was in the 1950s. Fagen then contemplates a beautiful future.

Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dream’s in sight
You’ve got to admit it
At this point in time that it’s clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we’ll be A-OK

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

Get your ticket to that wheel in space
While there’s time
The fix is in
You’ll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we’ve got to win
Here at home we’ll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There’ll be spandex jackets one for everyone

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

h/t Genius.com

The words and sentiment kept pestering my thinking. Simplifying, part of the IGY philsophy was to bring scientist together to discuss problems propose solutions.

Hearing this song, though, about how science and technology could advance and help us, I’m dismayed. Science and technology is under attack by many. Witness what’s been going on with the COVID-19 vaccines, along with other vaccines. (Point of order, many have derided vaccines for decades, so that’s not a clearly new development.)

So, let’s point out that people doubt what scientists are saying about global warming. This, despite the rise of sea waters, drought, melting ice caps, and increased extreme weather which scientists warned us about.

Led by hard right conservatives, people doubt the potential benefits of solar and wind power. Most focus on the negatives, ignoring the negatives behind the accepted energy sources like fossil-based fuels and nuclear energy.

Fagen talks about new technology like undersea trains taking us from New York to Paris in 90 minutes. I can’t help but wonder who that might help besides the people who can afford it. We already have space travel for the wealthy developing. Of course, they like to say that if space travel can become common enough, prices will come down.

But how much does space travel help the masses? For my end, I’d prefer to see high speed rail built in the United States so that it doesn’t takes days to cross the country and a small fortune, as it does now. Perhaps electric trains to move people and cargo so we’re not all crowding into commercial aircraft like sardines in a can.

And I’d rather see money and technology spent on solving problems that affect people every day, such as we saw happen with vaccines. Let’s do the same to battle cancer.

While saying all of this, I do remember a television show called “Connections“. James Burke hosted the show. The subject was about unexpected uses and benefits derived from technology, and how these improvements were connected through science and medicine, and the continual quest for improvement. So, while I poo-poo space travel for the wealthy, perhaps unexpected benefits will be derived to solve some of the problems our world faces.

Finally, Fagen mentions, “What a glorious time to be free.” Yet, war is on the rise. So are challenges to people’s basic rights.

Book banning is on the right, as is racism and white supremacy.

Doesn’t feel like a glorious time to be free.

Anyway, “I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World)” is today’s theme music. Please listen to it and contemplate the ideas in it. I’d enjoy hearing what others thing. Perhaps, I’m just emerging as a pessimistic as I lean in toward my geezer years.

Time to saddle up this day and ride on toward the sunset. Be strong, stay safe and optimistic. Here’s the music. I got my coffee and I am a go. Cheers

2

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Mood: restrained

Wednesday, October 11, 2023, has landed in Ashlandia, where the cats are good-looking and the dogs are above average.

Rain showers are in today’s formula. But sunshines is also being ladled in. Despite the sun, our temp. now is 48 F and we’re only anticipating a 53 F high. Leaves are departing trees at this point. Autumn is cranking it into another gear.

We’ve started a new jigsaw puzzle, found in the Library of Things in Ashland yesterday. The puzzle features a lovely little creek tumbling over rocks in a forest. Boulders are on one side, while golden trees are on the other, a scene from our park which we’ve passed numerous times. Scripted words say, ‘Ashland, Oregon’ in two large lines at the top and ‘Upper Falls, Ashland Creek’, in two smaller lines at the bottom. It’s a fall scene, which fits right in.

Opening the piece, we found a note: “Missing piece”. It’s like, oh, curses.

We always begin with the edge and then build from there. It’s my wife’s favorite part. She usually drops out after that until it comes to finishing it.

Knowing a piece is missing, though, is a problem. Like, I’m putting the border together, and — ahem — a piece seems to be missing. But is it missing? I could just be doing the puzzle wrong. Or it can still be undiscovered in the box.

I’ve vowed that I’m going to mark the box’s front with the point that a piece is missing, and put a note inside telling where the missing pieces goes.

Today’s music comes from The Neurons. Weird dreams inspired them. Part of them was a military dream. Though dressed in a uniform, I desired better uniforms. To get them, I had to walk a tightrope, which I was doing well, but the other tightropes extended from the one I was on. With each step, the lights went lower until I was walking in almost full darkness, feeling with my feet.

Out of that came the admonition, “Take it slow.”

That’s a line from a Twenty-one Pilots song. Remembering it, I recalled a “Heathens/Stranger Things” mashup they did live in Romania in 2022, and went looking for it. “Heathens” was released as a single from Suicide Squad, a movie. “Stranger Things” is a popular Netflix streaming show. The mashup between them is terrific. “Take it slow” are lyrics from “Heathens”.

All my friends are heathens, take it slow
Wait for them to ask you who you know
Please don’t make any sudden moves
You don’t know the half of the abuse

All my friends are heathens, take it slow (watch it)
Wait for them to ask you who you know (watch it)
Please all my friends are heathens, take it slow (watch it)
Wait for them to ask you who you know

h/t to musimixmatch.com via Google.

Since “Heathens” was circulating in the morning mental music stream (Trademark ponderous), I though I’d find the mashup and gift it all to you.

Hot, black coffee is being sipped as raindrops tat the pane behind me. Stay positive, be strong, and take it slow. Here I go, launching into another day. Enjoy the music. Cheers

0

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: cheery

Greetings to all Earthbound beings. It’s Tuesday, October 10, 2023 — 10/10 — in Ashlandia, where the rain is welcomed and the temperature is chilly. Autumn has swiped brushes over the window’s vistas. Overnight, plums and burgundies have been delivered to compete with green, amber, lemon, and red. Quite a splash for the eyes.

Rain plays metal notes on the roof’s vents. It’s 53 F now and will advance ten degrees up the thermometer before the sun’s retreat.

With this ambience underway, I’ve not checked the news. I’m saving myself for a few minutes more to just ensure my safe little bubble of existence.

I’m eager to continue writing. On the other hand, chords loaded with guilt on sometimes struck. I feel I should be doing more about the house. Part of this is that my wife has a busy week: Food & Friends deliveries yesterday, exercise classes every other morning, and book club Wednesday night, in which she’s the moderator. She takes moderating very seriously.

Besides those pretty standard things, Empty Bowls is on Friday. This is a fundraising effort to fund the city’s charities to help fed, cloth, and shelter the less fortunate and homeless. Local artists and art classes provide bowls. You basically buy a bowl for $25 and fill it with soup. Local restaurants and politicians provide the soups, along with breads.

An annual event, my wife has been preparing the table centerpieces for a decade. The pursuit has become more involved; Peace House, the hosting organization, has less and less resources for the centerpieces. That moves the burden to my wife’s shoulders, so she’s been scrounging for flowers and vases. The ‘vases’ are pint bottling jars. Thanks to one of my friends, we managed to procure enough of those.

All that puts her on edge. But in addition, the Empty Bowls commit also asked her to make some vegan cookies for the event.

Well, my wife isn’t one to refuse such a request. Agreeing added anxiety, though. She went through recipes and made a decision about what to make. We bought the supplies last Friday. The baking will be done Thursday. I wish I could do more to help her, and that’s why I feel guilty for going off and writing.

The cloud-heavy sky has me thinking about the upcoming ring of fire eclipse. Due on Saturday, we’re right on the path’s edge as the eclipse traverses North America but wonder whether the weather will clear enough for us to enjoy a view. Stores and businesses have been selling eclipse glasses for several weeks, but Scienceworks gives them out free. We’ll get them free and then give them a donation, LOL.

I was listening to Papi singing this morning. Papi is my ginger gentlefloof, a slender blade of a feline who exhibits a standoffish air. I’m the only one permitted to properly visit with him, although my wife is making progress with him. He’s skittish and wary to the extreme, a complete 180 from Tucker (our black and white long-haired fellow), who deeply enjoys human company. Papi avoids people and animals.

So, growing cold weather induced me to close the pet door. Papi loves the night and enjoy popping in and out. Coming in to eat kibble, going back out to witness the world. The pet door’s closure forces him to convince me to let him out. He knows I don’t like breaking out of sleep and slipping out of bed to do this, so he now sings the “I Want Out” blues.

The song starts soft and slow, just one gentle note every other minute. Gently the notes build in volume and then begin to come more frequently. Finally, a wail invested with the power of all unfairly imprisoned entities breaks the dark. I usually get up and do as bid with the first few notes. I thought that I’d let Papi sing a while before letting him out, as he has such a beautiful voice.

Naturally, rain and Papi’s blues inspired Les Neurons to conjure blues about rain in my morning mental music stream (Trademark possible). Well, first there was Tina Turner singing about rain on the windows. Then John Fogerty broke in to ask me if I’ve ever seen the rain.

Slipping into the blues, Stevie Ray Vaughn apprised of flooding in Texas. Finally, though, we had Buddy Guy singing “Feels Like Rain”. Buddy’s song struck the right balance of feeling and being so it won honors as today’s theme music. It’s a song I’ve used before as my theme music, basically for the same reasons.

Stay pos, be strong, and keep chill. Coffee has landed; here’s the music. Cheers

0

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: ennui

Hello, fellow trekkers through life. It’s Monday, October 9, 2023.

Heavy clouds clipped in under night’s cover, announcing autumn was ending our Indian summer flirtation. 65 F now, 66 F is the projected high for Ashlandia, where all ingredients are fresh, locally grown, and organic, except when it isn’t. Showers are expected shortly, the beginning of a local rainfest running this week.

Was tired this morning and didn’t want to leave my bed. Not happy news out in the world, in my mind, right? More war rising and escalating.

But, the cats clarified who has the power and how my desires fit into the morning routines when it comes to decisions about them eating or me sleeping. I also remembered that I’d committed to helping my wife.

Said wife — still the first (I know, it’s a surprise to all of us) — had Food & Friends deliveries scheduled that day. She’d be returning from exercise class, change clothes, swig down his coffee and don some lippy, and then she and I would jump in the car. I’m here driver for this monthly volunteer work.

Our last F&F outing didn’t go great. Three people didn’t answer the door or the food. Typical F&F beneficiaries are elderly, handiapped, or people coping with diseases. So, besides delivering food, F&F’s mission includes ensuring people are okay and don’t need assitance.

We picked up the food at the senior center and perused the list. Three people were off it. We talked about them, hoping they’re okay, wondering about their situation. Two new people had been added. Off we went.

It mostly went well, although there were hitches, such as being short one frozen meal. The biggest issue was that one new man didn’t answer his door. My wife called the number provided; not in service. After knocking more, she wrote a note to him on the official F&F slip and we pressed on.

Afterwards, we went back to his place. Still no answer.

The man lives in an apartment complex. The manager’s office was nearby so my wife went over to speak with the manager about the man. Turns out, the F&F client has a motorized wheelchair. He’s a smoker and likes to go out to smoke. The manager had seen him two hours before, buzzing around the campus.

Calling it a day, we returned to the senior center and my wife documented all that had happened.

The driving and waiting seemed to drain me today. Selfish of me, I reflected, but then again, that’s my writing time. Reactions involving writing doesn’t aways flow down normal culverts of thinking and emotions. Also, I volunteer to help her, and I enjoy it. Just one of those days.

I always wonder, though, what brings people to this point. Thinking about why they might be on a F&F client, I pursue the regular courses of reasons. Genetics, giving disease an unfair advantage. Bad luck, like car accidents and house fires. They might have been victimized by others, or made decisions which seemed to be the thing to do, only to have it all go south.

While sitting in the car, I listened to the radio and waited at one point. “Tailwind” by Kenny Wayne Shepherd came on. I’d only heard the song, which came out in 2019, a few times before. I know controversy about KWS was stirred a few years ago over his ‘General Lee’ replica. The General Lee is an orange ’69 Dodge Charger with a CAS battle flag painted on its roof. The car was featured in a television show called “The Dukes of Hazzard”, which aired from 79 – 85. Overseas most of the time, I didn’t see much of it.

Anyway, KWS had a nomination for Blues Musician of the Year (or some honor like that) rescinded because of his ownership of the car. In his response, KWS acknowledged he had the car but had the CSA flag covered up because he knew it represented racist elements. He apologized for it and stated that he stood against racism and oppression for everyone.

Well, hearing the song, The Neurons kept it going in the morning mental music stream (Trademark confusing) after we’d shifted into the afternoon. So, I’m gifting it to you. The Neurons and I agreed that the lyrics fit my mood.

Sometimes I feel like a man in a can
About to go hurtling through
Space, whiplash fast
Soon as the match hits the fuse
Sometimes it seems like I’m making it up
Crazy and crazier days
When fiction ain’t stranger than the truth
Turn the page
Turn the page

Roll around the world
And around again
Someplace we’ve never been
Blow a kiss and
Fly with the sun
See how lightning fast we can run
With a little luck
We might just catch a tailwind
Hey, fellow travelers
Keep travelin’

Somedays I swear that the game must be rigged
Jokers up every last sleeve
And if crooked is straight
Then what the hell does that make me

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Stay pos and be strong. Here’s the music. Off for coffee and writing. Cheers

0

Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: chill

Good morning, fellow travelers. It’s Sunday, October 8, 2023.

Indian summer continues in Ashlandia, where the people are mostly progressive, and concern about climate change continues to rise. Today’s weather looks just like yesterday’s with sunshine and blue sky continuing its autumn takeover. Temperatures range from 56 F in the morning to 87 F in the afternoon’s final hours. I am very happy about it and hope it doesn’t end soon.

A friend’s seventieth birthday was celebrated at her house yesterday. She has two sons. It was her sons and her son’s husband, along with her other son’s boyfriend, who planned and hosted the bash.

She’s a retired botanish. As such, the taught botany at California and Oregon colleges and universities. She also worked with the forest service extensively. Naturally, that life work and its locations were dominated the guest list. Many Phds attended. Professors, BLM and forest service people were plentiful. Botanists dominated.

Let me tell you, these botanist are engaging, charming people. They love to have a good life. So we all had a good time.

The party defined The Neurons’ music selection today. I have “Get A Haircut” by George Thorogood and the Destroyers circulating in the morning mental music stream. Released in 1992, the song tells the story of a long-haired fellow who keeps receiving the advice to cut his hair and find real employment working nine to five. Thorogood didn’t write the song; that was done by Bill Birch and David Avery. Thorogood heard it while in Australia and liked it because it pretty well defined exactly what he was hearing.

The Neurons began playing it because I asked many people last night about their jobs. I enjoy drawing people on these things. For example, one woman had retired after thirty years as a librarian, even though she’d been educated to be an urban planning. After receiving her degrees, she decided that she didn’t want to be involved with urban planning. But a job was needed to pay bills, so she applied for a job as a part-time librarian. Its order and structure appealed to her. This was back in the days when people, organizations, and businesses would call the library for help on research. She especially enjoyed that. That job is rarely needed these days because corporations bought or developed their own databases, and the Internet emerged. Just fascinating to hear her recount as the slow change in her job took place over the final twenty years.

Stay pos, be strong, and keep reaching for the stars. Here’s the music. Let me go find coffee. Cheers

0

Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: positive

Salutations to my fellow corporeal beings. Saturday, October 7, 2023, has reached has – or we’ve reached it. Indian summer continues its presence in Ashlandia, where the children are hard-working, and the cats often nap.

I believe Indian summer has become my favorite season. It feels as if we’ve been given a reprieve from the wearying matters, like wildfire smoke, drought, excessive heat, politics, and mass murders, and we’re just allowed to be and enjoy the days. Tension and stress slide away under the blue skies and bright sunshine. Night air pulls coolness out of the mountains, dragging temperatures down into a comfortable range of upper fifties to lower sixties. The day’s sunshine and air pushing the temps back up to the upper eighties.

I just need to avoid the net to sustain this feeling. Because we know it’s all out there, and the net will deliver it to you, right or wrong, good or bad. But for now, life is beautiful.

Despite this mood and an armada of dreams, The Neurons had little in the morning mental music stream (Trademark rascally), giving up some Mark Knopfler and David Bowie. I didn’t think those songs were up to the moment, so I turned to the net.

Well, one of the Bowie songs was “Space Oddity”. While checking out a video for it, I discovered the Langley Schools Music Project. This was a series of elementary school children playing and singing rock songs in the 1970s. One recorded song is “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys. The Langley Schools version is imperfect but sweet and innocent, a comfortable accoutrement to the weather and mood.

Hope your morning is as pleasant, relaxing, and peaceful as my own. The cats, black and white (Tucker) and bright ginger (Papi) are soaking up backyard sunshine, contentedly washing after breakfast. I think I’ll take my coffee out there with them, admire them, feel the sunshine, admire the trees — still green back there — and breathe in the clean, sweet air.

Stay pos and be strong. Here’s the music. Cheers

0

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: philosophical

Hello, fellow life travelers. Welcome to another day of the journey.

Today is Friday, October 6, 2023. Buoyed by a balmy zephyr it’s already seventy outside and the sunshine rules. 86 F will be our high, I’m assured.

I’m in a reflective mood today, the product of a night of dreams. Days often seem so closely like the one the day before it and so in, like we’re standing in a hall of mirrors looking backwards and forwards to the same thing being endlessly repeated.

Not true, of course. The seasons change. So does the daily weather. So does how we physically feel and appear, typically in small ways, hour by hour, day by day, month by month through our piece of time. Yeah, many changes are seen but unless there’s a sudden sharp intrusion, most of our visible changes come in slow increments. Sometimes the pace of change can take a lifetime. I’m often surprised looking in the mirror or suddenly unable to do something that I used to do without thought. The change was coming but I didn’t see it.

After reading about the speaker selection process going on, The Neurons are having fun. Politicians who horrify me are being mentioned, like Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan. Neither of them have done anything in my purview which generates respect and admiration; instead, I found myself mildly ill at the thought they might become Speaker. I can’t imagine them being reliably intelligent or skillful enough to pull together the GOP and keep them focused. I’d use the metaphor about the GOP being as unmanageable as a herd of cats, but I like cats and don’t want to insult them.

Back to The Neurons. After reading and thinking, I found myself with “Better Man” by Pearl Jam circling the morning mental music stream (Trademark swirling). Jordan? Scalise? Can’t they find a better man or woman? Like that, Eddie Vedder is singing, “Can’t find a better man,” in my mental stream as The Neurons giggle and guffaw. Silly little immature booger heads.

Stay positive and keep reaching for the stars. Let’s embrace this day and go forward. Here’s the music. Cheers

1

Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: energetic

Hallo, fellow earthlings. Greetings from Ashlandia, where the sun is shining, and the inhabitants are spirited.

Today is Thursday, October 5, 2023.

It’s started out at 52 F this morning. Sunshine lit the bedroom with a golden haze.

Wasn’t so nice in the rest of the house, where it was dark, even a little gloomy. Mountains and trees hid the sun until the Earth and sun moved enough to bring the sunshine over the obstructions.

60 F is now on display on the thermometer. Autumn colors have crept into my windows’ views. Sunshine blazes across the colors, sparking stunning vividness in the scarletts, golds, yellows, and greens. A madcap blue sky lids it with perfection. Today’s high will be 86 F.

I think Indian summer may have arrived.

Our beer group met last night. Under fading sunlight and the mountain’s long shadows, a light breeze carried an air temperature of 69 F. Lovely setting for having a beer and chatting with friends. We had a good turnout of twelve people. One member, Mark, has his younger brother in for a visit. Those two joined forces with two other members to build a pergola in Mark’s backyard. Tales of mistakes made and corrected were shared for some of our time until discussion about the vacated House Speaker position.

From there, we strangely pivoted to cars. “What car that you owned would you like to have back?” one member queried us. 1960s muscle cars were mentioned by many. A pickup truck was thrown in. I would opt for my orange 1974 Porsche 914. My wife and I had much fun in that car, tooling around San Antonio and the local Texas countryside, targa top off, sunshine soaking us. Conversation then shifted to rock concerts people had attended.

Eavesdropping on the conversation, Les Neurons began playing Bob Seger singing “Fire Lake” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark fallacious). This mellow 1980 song has such a throwback feel that brackets a story-telling mode, ending with a philosophical question, “Who wants to go to Fire Lake?” With Bob Seger’s throaty whiskey delivery, it’s a pleasant song to have in the MMMS.

Stay positive, be strong, and keep your head in the clouds and keep reaching for the stars. Coffee is being consumed. Time for the day to be embraced. Here’s the music. Cheers

0

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Mood: rebellious

Mornin’. It’s Wednesday, October 4, 2023. At least that’s what my coffee said.

White marshmallow clouds blanket us from horizon to horizon in Ashlandia, where the tourists are dwindling and the locals are arguing. Blue sky and sunshine are chiseling through the clouds but it’s an uneven venture. 58 degrees F now, they’re seducing us with suggestions that 71 F is possible today. Looking at the clouds and feeling the air’s chilly fingers, my visage is askew with doubt.

As far as plans and activities for today, I’m still an avid spectator of the NY v. Trump civil fraud case. I am progressive and not a Trump. The proceedings are engrossing as Trump tries bullying the judge and intimidating others, and fascinating how Trump’s lawyers are working hard on the appeal angle, as though the trial’s results have already been shown.

Likewise, the ousting of McCarthy as Speaker of the US House of Representatives holds my attention. I was wondering what Rep. Gaetz was trying to do when he initiated these proceedings. It seemed like a petulant child’s demand. Ousting the current speaker without having another in line seems like poor judgment, politics, and organization. Conversely, one of the GOP’s continuing strains is to show the Federal government is ineffective, giving them grounds for more dismantling, so he might be thinking this was a good way to make government more inefficient.

But — it could also be that this is just another hardline GOP tactic to undermine President Biden’s ability to govern and/or tank the economy to make him — and the other Democrats — more vulnerable in the upcoming 2024 elections.

Finally in my mind, this could be a ploy to create an opening to make DJ Trump the Speaker. I was wondering how many Republican representatives would actually support that idea. Something to research later.

Also drawing my attention yesterday and today was Kari Lake’s demand that all Republicans cease their campaigns and throw all their energy and efforts into supporting Donald Trump. In her eyes, the election which he lost and the way he’s now being treated as a citizen facing investigations and trials is cruel and unfair. (Sob, sob, so sad.) She called it a line in the sand.

Between her rhetoric and Trump’s rising sharp calls for different people to be shot (such as retiring general Mark Milley) or attacked, it really makes me wonder where Trump and his supporters really want to go.

BTW, did you see Mr. Trump’s call for shoplifters to be shot? Pretty dramatic for small crimes, isn’t it? Bit of overkill, perhaps? Not more than a little ironic for a man accused of and on trial for multiple much more serious charges. At least he’s able to defend himself in court, whereas he called for police to shoot shoplifters as they leave the store. So much for those Bill of Rights and the presumption of innocence.

It’s interesting, too, that Trump is basically calling for shooting white people. A study I read of shoplifting arrests show that over 70% of shoplifters are white, which is significant because the US population is about 58% white (back then). This info is from a 2014 study in the American Journal of Psychiatry, so it’s a little dated.

Which is weird, isn’t it, his call for shoplifters to be shot? Because white voters make up Trump’s base, right? At least that’s the presumptive assumption.

Although we who watch and read what Trump does and says, and his low awareness of truth and reality are not surprised; I’m certain Trump is assuming that shoplifters are people of color.

BTW, that same study showed that females are more likely to shoplift than males.

All those spectacles somehow inspired The Neurons to play some Talking Heads. Der Neurons are specifically cranking “Road to Nowhere” from 1985 in the morning mental music stream (Trademark embittering). I found a nice video of David Byrne performing it live. Hope you enjoy it.

Listening to the music prompted me to question, are we as a nation on the road to nowhere? Or is it the GOP, tearing themselves apart with political theater because their only policy is to ban, overturn, and throwback policies and ideas to a long ago decade?

Much more coffee is needed on my part to understand these things. Be strong, stay positive, test negative, and carry on. I’ll try doing the same. Here’s the music. Cheers

0

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: retrospective

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, October 3, 2023. 52 F outside, it’s foggy and wet. A light rain falls in Ashlandia, where the water is limited and the optimism is eternal.

A prepondence of Ashlandia trees have embraced autumn and show its effects in their color stylings. This isn’t true in my neighborhood slice. I guess the trees here are late adopters. All immediately outside my window remains verdant with a wet sheen. We’re warm and dry in the house, and the domino effect is that it’s a cozy fall morning. Coffee has brewed, embedding the ambiance with wistful nostalgia.

I’m happy that it’s still shorts weather.

Meanwhile, the cats take opposite approaches to the fall weather shift. Papi, the young ginger blade who likes being outside, came in from the rain and colder temperatures. Right now, he’s posing on the master bed, looking calm and majestic in the soft grey light through the windows. Tucker, a big old cat with thick back and white fur, has headed outside and is curled up and asleep by the front porch cairn, protected from rain by the eaves.

While it’s cool now, we’re going to work our way up to 69 F. People aren’t doing much of the work; the sun, wind, and air do the heavy shifting today.

I tried Amla — Indian Gooseberry — powder today. My wife is always searching for healthy additions to our diet and habits. She’d read about amla and ordered the powder off the net. I added a serving to my oatmeal this morning. The gooseberry powder infused the oatmeal with a sweet berry flavor that I much enjoyed. I’ll be on watch for its impact on my health.

I have “City of New Orleans” as covered by Arlo Guthrie in the morning mental music stream (Trademark screwy). The Neurons selected it because I was reviewing a bill last night from the City of Ashland. This is a utility bill – water, electric, sewer, storm drain, street and street lights. $104 for the month. Half of it is services, fees, and taxes. Part of that is because the electricity charges are offset by our solar panels. 2K, I had them installed back in 2010.

I see clearly how The Neurons were thinking: City of Ashland = “City of New Orleans”.

While I searched for a video version of the song I wanted, I discovered a fascinating video of Mike Campbell explaining how “Boys of Summer” was written. I’ve always enjoyed that song and had wondered who the guitarist was when it was first released. Turned out to be Mike Campbell.

Campbell, who played with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, also backed Don Henley and Stevie Nicks. He’s a guitarist who I’ve long respected for his clean and simple playing style, so hearing this tale was a treat. It was also a fascinating reveal of some modern rock history, and an engrossing explanation in how he and Henley wrote the song, “Boys of Summer”. Many obstacles and near disasters were overcome. Check it out if you have a moment.

Campbell’s closing remarks reverberated with the writer in me. “When you hit a stumbling block, you gotta keep going. Don’t give up. Keep pushing, pushing, pushing, and working till you get it right.”

Stay pos and fresh, strong and optimistic. Coffee has been guzzled on my end. I’m ready to commence the day. With a morning like this, I’m expecting to have a good day.

Here’s the music. Cheers

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑