Tuesday’s Theme Music

Today’s song emerges from the country-rock genre (crock?) and the mists of 1973. 1973 was a good year and a bad year, a memorable year and a forgettable year, a year of tests and trials and learning, and a year of growing, wondering, coping with hormones, and passing days doin’ nothin’. I was seventeen for ’bout half of the year, and sixteen for the other half.

“Amie”, by Pure Prairie League, is a light melody with folkish overtones. The lyrics are easy to hear, learn, and remember. It’s a good song to sing to your floofs, should you feel a need to sing to them.

As always, the lyrics catch me. When hearing the song, you might think, this is about the singer trying to woe Amie. It’s not. This is about the man’s ambivalence about his relationship with Amie, and her decision to move on. Meanwhile, he laments that she’s taking so long to decide. The decision’s been made, dude.

Don’t you think the time is right for us to find
All the things we thought weren’t proper could be right in time?
And can you see which way we should turn, together or alone?
I can never see what’s right or what is wrong
Oh, you take too long

Most telling is at the end, as he sings, “I keep falling in and out of love with you.” Amie knows this, and she’s tired of it. That’s why he’s asking, “Aime, what you wanna do?” He’s in full denial and full of hope.

She is not.

NOTE: This analysis is my own. As with anything I say or write, it could be complete bullshit. Just think of it as Schrödinger’s bullshit.

November 27, 2018 15

Wednesday’s Theme Music

“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” (1981) has me hooked today. I enjoy the middle part where the vocalist (Sting) laments,

I resolve to call her up a thousand times a day
And ask her if she’ll marry me in some old fashioned way
But my silent fears have gripped me
Long before I reach the phone
Long before my tongue has tripped me
Must I always be alone?

h/t AZLyrics.com

I think that passage captures the angst that so many encounter when trying to move their relationship forward through the waves of love, hope, fear, and doubt.

I also think often of this song, and how the magic of a relationship changes through the years. The magic remains but often comes in different guises from the magic that we first experienced. Every now and then, though, that first magic is felt and remembered, one more time.

October 23, 2018 0

The Sneeze

It was an expulsion from his mouth and nose, a rejection of foreign bodies irritating his systems,

And a trigger for the cat to leap up from deep sleep and scurry from the noisy monster (who is usually quiet and friendly, especially when he has food or treats) into another room’s safety,

And a cue for the dog to say, “Hello!” (woof),

And a signal for annoyance to fly through his wife’s expression as she says, “That’s one.”

September 8, 2018 0

The State

He said, “I’m really optimistic. I think I have a chance here.” He frowned. “Or am I in denial?”

She continued to focus on her laptop. He said, “That’s your opening, sweetie.”

She said, “You’re not in denial. You’re in California.”

September 4, 2018 0

She Said

she said, Why did you do that? Don’t you know better?

and she said, No, I don’t feel any warmth for you, so I can’t.

and she said, Call me, and you said, I will.

and she said, You never called, and you said, nothing.

she said, You smell.

and she said, I could never be with someone like you.

and she said, I think you can do anything that you try to do.

and she said, I wish you would have said something.

she said, Stay away from me, I hate you right now.

and she said, Hi, it’s good to see you.

and she said, Let’s get together.

and she said, Good-bye.

July 21, 2018 0

Telling

Your silence tells me

something must be wrong

I can’t tell by your face

It’s blank as stone

It bothers me to hear you

staying so still

No matter what I say

Emptiness is all I feel

My words run dry

trying to dig something out

I don’t know where to turn

so I just walk out

there’s a distance in the feet between us

that can’t be measured or crossed

I feel my efforts are wasted

and our time has been a loss

June 29, 2018 3

Conversing

You ever feel like you’re talking to someone who is having half of the conversation in their head, not saying the words but believing they had?

It can be confusing and exhausting.

June 10, 2018 0

Learning From Writing

I’ve been working on the yard this week. It’s a personal Möbius strip. Cut the front grass, edge, weed, trim. Cut the back grass, edge, weed, trim. Weed, trim, and edge the side yards. Trim back the neighbors’ trees and bushes. Begin again.

I know, it’s my choice to have a lawn and do all of this. I can hire others. I can zeroscape. I’ve considered both. Or I can let the lawn go to hell.

We don’t use weedkillers or anything artificial on our lawn. The weeds multiply. Out come yellow dandelions. We accept them because bees and butterflies love them. I leave the dandelions when I pull the weeds. Well, mostly. I try to keep them at a reasonable number.

I like the yardwork. In a world where projects take so long to accomplish and we rarely see tangible results, the yardwork provides me with satisfaction that I did something. I also like being outside, and sweating, exerting myself, and feeling the sun and wind. It’s great.

Yardwork also frees my writing mind. Not much thought is required for yardwork, and that lets me think about writing and the work in progress.

I had a surprising epiphany about all of that yesterday. I thought, I don’t understand people. I don’t get their thinking. I struggle to understand their motivations.

I know these aren’t simple questions. Adrenalin rushes and endorphin highs contribute to the pursuit of our fixes. Financial gain, self-esteem, respect, and admiration can contribute. The need for revenge provides some stimulus to people, as does immaturity and warped views and skewed memories. Motivations are complex formulas.

I thought, I don’t understand people, and that’s what I like to write. When I write, I can explore the characters’ inner worlds. I can study their thinking and moods, relationships and memories. My future technology lets them have augmented memories and enhanced communications. Technological capabilities blend with organic skills to blur the lines. Personal scanning technology lets measurements of micro-changes in another person’s temperatures, heart rates, pupils and other biological indicators help detect lies. In more sophisticated people, these things can and are masked to trick others through technology. Sometimes, it’s like a technological chess match.

Writing about these characters help me learn. From them, it’s reaffirmed that humans are complicated. Matters such as truth and motivation are rarely black and white subjects. Skills like memories, self-awareness, and interpersonal communication vary immensely among people, but also in ourselves. We’re not always the same person today that we were yesterday. Allegiances waver. Certainty wobbles. Hopes sink and rise.

Now, with that cleared up for me, I have my coffee. Time to write like crazy, at least one more time.

May 22, 2018 3

Observed

Perhaps wrongly, I’m irritated when someone becomes angry with me for not telling them something that I observed about them after someone else tells them about it, because I infer from their accusation that they tell me everything that they observe about me, and I don’t think they do.

May 19, 2018 0

Tuesday’s Theme Music

I know exactly why and when I started streaming today’s music selection.

I went into the MBR and stripped down in front of a ginger floof. He’d been sleeping but lifted his head and watched me with sleepy eyes, to confirm I didn’t have food and wasn’t a threat. I was speaking to him, telling him what I was doing. Taking off my shirt, I inhaled my armpit essence and told my cat, “Definitely stink this evening. Know what I mean?”

Like that, here comes Lee Michaels streaming through my head with his song, “Do You Know What I Mean”. I enjoyed Lee Michaels’ offerings. This song spoke to me. Its lyrics seem real and autobiographical. The way he sings it delivers pain and bewilderment juxtaposed against a heavy beat with brass sounds that remind me of a circus environment. It’s is an excellent vehicle to capture relationship confusion.

Back when the song came out, my friends never took to the song. Many current friends know it vaguely or not at all. Hope I’m reacquainting you with a song that you enjoy. Cheers