Tag: punk

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: empathetic

Friday is rocking our world in Ashlandia, where the winds are blowing and the trees are dancing.

October 13, 2023 Autumn is stepping it up. Showery and cloudy today, 55 F now, we’re looking for rain and a high of 64 F. Can you dig it?

I’ve started my coffee early. Gotta break out of the house earlier so I can help my wife. She’s part of the Empty Bowls support crew. She baked vegan cookies to contribute yesterday (thin mints, chocolate chip crinkles, and lemon somethings, yes all vegan). Ashlandia is home to a hefty vegan population. Some are so by philosophy while others arrive there for health matters.

Today, my wife and her friend, B, are creating the centerpieces. Yesterday, per pre-arrangements, was spent going around to several friends’ home to collect flowers and greenery.

I’m just doing transport and taxi service. After that, I’ll head for the writing groove. When I offered my services, my wife said, “But that’s your writing time. I don’t want to interrupt that.” She’s thoughtful in that way.

Going back to the date, it IS Friday the Thirteenth. I have no concerns about it, but realizing the date, I thought about luck and superstition. Getting into the spirit, The Neurons poured some songs about luck and superstition into my morning mental music stream (Trademark unlucky). There was “Lucky Man”, “Silly Superstition”, “Bad Luck”, “Luck Be A Lady”, “If I Ever Got Lucky”, and a few more.

Eventually, Daft Punk got lucky and their 2013 song, “Get Lucky”, took up residence. While it’s DP credits, Niles Rodgers is on guitar and Pharrell Williams contributed vocals and lyrics. It’s a jaunty tune and, a real mood-lifter, and a solid antidote to worries.

Stay positive and be strong. Here’s the music. I gotta take my coffee to go. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

It’s Thursday, June 22, 2023, according to most reliable data. We’re still sliding into summer mode in Ashlandia. 64 F now, the weather thinkers claim 84 F will be seen in Ashlandia. Last night at the beer ‘bibing, sitting outside, several men complained that the sun was too hot and changed seats to be in the shade. It was 78 F then. It was a wonderfully sun to me. I had no prob basking in its warmth. Maybe I’m part cat. Or part floof. Call me floofman. Sounds like the first line of a novel.

Our house floofs are certainly pleased that the sun’s heat made a comeback. Popping out the door into the backyard after eating, they sat in sunny pools, licking their lips and washing, pausing to look for a noise source or to eye a passing jay. It’s a sight like a calming tonic, seeing them in those relaxed activities. Sip some coffee and watch the cats while enjoying sunshine and relative quiet — distant machiney sounds — cars, trucks, lawnmowers and leaf blowers — crack the absolute stillness — is a fine way to launch a day.

The Neurons wadded up “Have A Nice Day” by the Ramones (1995) in the morning mental music stream. There’s some argument about when it was first used. In the last century, many people found it so trite and overused that it was empty. That’s exactly the Ramones’ point. The lyrics talk about hearing it after all kinds of bad things happen to him. Each time something happened, someone told the secret, “Have a nice day.”

Stay pos. Coffee help sustains me in that effort. Some days need more than others. Here’s the tune. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

“It’s only Tuesday?” I asked the world. “Why does it feel like anything but Tuesday?”

The world mutely pointed me to the calendars. One on my wearable, one on my phone, one on my wall, one on desk, one on my laptop, one on my refrigerator.

“Why do we have so many calendars?”

Two were sent to us in the mail. Bank and animal shelter. I ordered one (which also came by mail) because it memorializes an era of auto racing prevalent during my childhood. The others are digital and come with the package.

Strange, though. The days of the week and date have little meaning for me. Streaming and routines define me, not the calendar, though I bow to the holidays’ existence and do as I must to observe them, succumbing to peer pressure.

But it’s Tuesday, June 20, 2023. Last day of spring in Ashlandia, with a feel lifted right out of spring’s first day, rainy and cold. Rained throughout the morning and early afternoon yesterday in Ashlandia, where the coffee is hot and the cannabis is legal. Only made it to 52 F as a high. Cats were like, screw this noise, wake me when sunshine returns. I replied with all the reasons why we should be grateful for this rain. They responded, got anything to eat?

Today’s high should top the mid-sixties. Clouds are shouldering out the blue sky. Sunshine, which came up strong earlier, is as faded as my hairline.

Got some Fall Out Boy in my morning mental music stream. The Neurons planted “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” (2005) in there when I responded to someone that even if I fail, I’m going to go down swinging. Pop, The Neurons had it loaded like it was ready and waiting. It was last heard as theme music back in August, 2020.

Okay, let’s stay pos out there, sweethearts. I’m drinking coffee and turning in to where I was when I last stopped writing, ginning up the scene, ready to go in there with keyboard blazing. It’s your move.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

The end is nigh! We’re discussing October of 2022, of course. The next flotilla of days, led by November 1st, are cresting the horizon and coming our way as October’s last days pack up the gear, tidy up, and prepare to send October off.

Yes, it’s Saturday, October 29, 2022. Beautiful fall morning here, sunshine, trees sparkling with wet leaves in hues of merlots and reds, golds and lemons, salads and oranges. Sunset cut down the night at 7:40 this morning. Clouds send a fog squad in, but the sunshine quickly dispatched it. Some clouds now roam the higher reaches, calculating approaches. The temperature has perked up to 51 F and will hit 20 C later today. Sunshine will be cut off at 6:08 PM.

BTW, happy birthday to Mom! As she proudly proclaims, she’s a tough old toboggan. That’s our joke, found when her phone corrected her voice text from ‘tough old broad’ to toboggan. I also refer her to a tough old bird, which she enjoys. She’s roving her upper eighties now, and if she likes being called a tough old bird or a tough old broad, I give it to her, especially in the shadow of her September health crises.

The Neurons uploaded The Offspring and “Coming for You” from 2015 into the morning mental music stream. I haven’t heard the song in a few years but the cats were relentless this morning. They kept coming for me through the night, snuggling up for some head scratches, interrupting dreams, breaking REM, knocking on the cat door to go out and come in. I told them, “Guys, I need some sleep. You keep coming for me.” The Neurons tortured that sentiment into The Offspring lyrics, “Well no, hell no, they keep coming for you.” It’s a solid punk anthem heavy on distorted guitar sounds and in-your-visage with their lyrics and delivery.

Time to move on to coffee island, where the brew is hot, pure, and strong. Stay positive, test negative, and do what’s needed to see the pandemic’s end. Here’s the music. Never seen the video before today, but that was fascinating. I can see the song done with cats, though, eyeing you, walking and stalking the night, you know, coming for you…

Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

4/3/2022, A Sunday, with a lazy, milquetoast sun, and a low energy motor. April’s first Sunday is gonna be mellow, it proclaims. Were this a thriller or murder mystery, or a disaster film, something would happen to shake the calm and enliven the day with screams. So far, nothing — but it’s early.

Not that I want it. I have coffee. Would prefer to just motor on in a quiet way.

Temperature is a chilly 42, and yes, others say, I’ll take that, because they’re freezing their butts off or dealing with snow. I hear you, and I understand. Supposed to reach 62 F here. The sun wandered in at 6:50 AM, scratching itself, mumbling “Whatssup,” through a yawn. It’ll wander back away at 7:39 PM. The clouds, like the sun and me, seem to lack the energy to be more than a white wisp of stretched thought, the kind of thinking when you say, “I’m hungry,” and someone else asks you, “What do you want to eat,” and you answer, “I don’t know.”

The neurons continue messing with my head. I don’t know what I’ve ever done to them but they’re a bit cranky, energetic and lazy at the same time, like sullen teenagers feeling their hormones and wandering what to do with them. First the neurons pushed Olivia Newton John music on me — “Have you never been mellow” — followed by Melanie singing, “Look what they’ve done to my song, ma,” followed by the German version that was a larger hit. I mumbled something about needing change, fast. The neurons responded with impressive speed, playing the Ramones, “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?” from 1980. It’s not speeding around and around the morning mental music stream like race cars at the Indy 500.

Got my coffee, yeah. Stay positive, test negative, and so on. Reading a novel where their future mentions in passing, COVID-19, COVID-23, and COVID-27. It’s a startling thing to do in passing.

Here’s the music. Cheers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQb2EGakLuU
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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Today is 327, by the Julian calendar. Pretty straightforward, innit, ‘stead of all that Tuesday, November 11, 2021 stuff, but not as poetic and evocative. You give a day, say, Tuesday, and you think of things. Birthdays, work, anniversaries, songs. 327, I pretty much think of a Chevy engine, Corvettes and Camaros. I also think, 3+2+7 = 12 = 1 + 2 = 3.

Sunrise split the gauzy cloud layers at 7:11 AM. The sun will conduct business in our realm until 4:43 PM. No appointment necessary. Temperatures will be warmer for the lows (39) and colder for the highs (45) than yesterday. Rain showers are possible with no great accumulation.

I have the Boomtown Rats playing from 1977 in the morning mental music stream. I ascribe its presence to the holiday shopping season bearing down on us. While it’s supposed to be a season of giving, watching people on the television going nuts buying things really causes me to doubt the purpose behind it all. The car commercials and their enormous sales, about people spending gobs of money to buy a car to make this ‘a season to remember’ doesn’t help at all. The song is all about selfishness, and that’s what I see as the final manifestation of much of the buying going on. It’s a gimme gimme gimme time of year.

Well, stay positive — yeah, sure you’re feeling pos after my minor screedette — test negative for COVID-19, get the vax and booster when you can, and wear a mask as needed. Speaking of needed, I have a need for coffee. Catch you on the flip side. Cheers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skk_tzqJRU4
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Saturday’s Theme Music

We interrupt this morning with a special news bulletin. Today is Saturday, October 23, 2021. Sunrise was at 7:33 AM and sunset will be at 6:17 PM. It’s windy and rainy, 50 degrees F, with an expected high of 60 and a low of 42. Clouds splashy with gray and white sprawl across the sky. Every few minutes, sunshine and blue sky bolt through the clouds. Their escape is short as the clouds gang up to shut them down again. From appearances, I’d guess this struggle will be going on for a few hours.

Today’s morning mental music stream inhabitant is “Rebel Girl” by Bikini Kill from 1993. I haven’t heard this song for at least twenty years. Probably more. But it was featured in a television show I streamed. Hearing it, I remembered how much I enjoyed it. It’s a straightforward, rambunctious punk sound, hard on a steady beat, thick with a driving guitar sound, sustained by heavy bass. Always inspires my head to start moving with it. And it’s a great sing-along chorus.

Sorry for the interruption. We’ll now continue with the morning and I’ll return to my coffee. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. Cheers

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Fall Out Floof

Fall Out Floof (floofinition) – Floofmerican hard flock (floof rock) punk band formed in 2001 in Floofcago, Illinois. Named after a character on the television show The Simpsons, the band achieved major success in 2005. Although they went on a four-year break at one point, the band remains active.

In use: “The Fall Out Floof’s major success first came in 2005 with two mainstream hits, “Floof Floof” and “Sugar, We’re Going Floof”.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Sunshine came busting in all ablaze at 5:50 AM this Saturday morning, May 15, 2021. Their twin, Sunset, is likely to sneak away at 8:25 this evening. Between, comes weather. Yesterday’s weather iteration brought us sunshine. 83 degrees F. Clouds. Thunder. Lightning. Cold air. Petrichor. Could today do the same? One never knows with weather. Fickle as a drunk, is weather.

Music today comes out of 1981. “Invisible Sun” by The Police struck a mental chord as I thought about COVID-19 statistics. That connection was made when I thought about government charts.

I don’t want to spend my time in hell
Lookin’ at the walls of a prison cell
I don’t ever want to play the part
Of a statistic on a Government chart

h/t to Metrolyrics.com

As for COVID-19 locally, we jumped back on for another ride up and down. 7-day average continues falling but then you get a day that leaps back into the forties and think, “Damn. Thought we were done with that.” Mask wearing is the topic. Is it safe without masks? Many declare they’ll continue wearing them while a large percentage immediately whisked their masks off. We’ll see what’s what in about ten days, I think. That’ll give time to see if people immediately stripping away their masks sends us a new spike of cases.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask when needed, and get the vax. Please get the vax. Please.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

As inexorable as the sun arriving in the east each AM, we’ve cycled into another Tuesday, labeled May 11, 2021, for official record keeping. The star known as Sol punched in at 5:54 AM and will punch out as regular as Fred Flintstone at 8:21 PM. Spring sunshine is as plentiful as green leaves and temperatures are expected to tiptoe into the upper seventies today. Lovely.

Feeling well today. During my Saturday evening hospital visit for a damn kidney stone, I was given batteries of tests to verify all is well. They keep saying things like, ‘you’re remarkably healthy.’ I always think, you should see the other guy. CT scan showed liver, gall bladder, appendix, intestines, colon, stomach, lungs, kidneys all in great shape. Blood work support those claims. So, yea, me, or more rightly, yea Mom and Dad for giving me genes that set me on the road of having good health.

Mom and Dad are still about. Dad and his siblings are all alive. Now residing in San Antonio, Texas, Dad is the oldest of that lot of five. Mom is less fortunate. Living in Pittsburgh, PA, second to youngest, she’s the sole survivor of her gang of five. Mom is 85 this year and Dad is 89. Mom had health problems over the last five years, dealing with various heart, lung, foot, and cancer issues. Now she consumes twenty meds a day but still moving. Dad had been doing well but suddenly has issues the last three years. Now he’s losing blood, uses a walker or a cane, oxygen at home for his COPD, and several care-givers coming in a few times a week. Despite several hospital stays, cameras inserted into various orifices, and lots of blood and urine work, they don’t know where the blood is going. His spirits are up, though. Dad is pretty indefatigable.

Mom and Dad divorced almost sixty years ago. They’ve arrived at this point in their lives with good partners. Dad is on his third marriage (although he lived with another three women for years) while Mom is on her sixth fellow. Mom and her fellow are not married but they live together. I’m happy they have someone growing old with them, taking care of them. I’ve seen how hard it is when you’re elderly and living alone.

I’m listening to The Clash in my head this morning. They’re singing the 1978 song, “Guns On the Roof”. Reading about the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan brought me to this song. We’re still leaving one thousand troops in there, along with contractors. We’ll also continue pursue our latest military fad, drone warfare. That brought up The Clash line, “I like to be in U.S.A. Pretending that the wars are done.” The United States is never done with war. Peace would wreck too many stock portfolios.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56YW42FMqek
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