Tag: rock

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Sunshine came to Wednesday, 5/12/21 in Ashland, Oregon, 5:53 AM. The light quickly exposed the night for what it was, a dark place where many go to rest. Few can resist the night; it rolls in, and they start yawning. Their eyes begin closing as night’s magic sweeps over them. Their heads soon nod. Slumping, their breathing deepens. As people fall into heavy slumber, night’s minions quietly move in, resetting reality. Night’s efforts will begin again at 8:22 PM. Meanwhile, daylight will strain to keep the borders secure.

Channeling Mick Jagger and the Stones today. Began by thinking about time, hurry, and rushing around, leading directly to some “Tumbling Dice” lyrics.

Always in a hurry, I never stop to worry
Don’t see the time flashin’ by
Honey, got no money
I’m all sixes and sevens and nines
Say now, baby, I’m the rank outsider
You can be my partner in crime

Baby, I can’t stay
You got to roll me and call me the tumbling
Roll me and call me the tumbling dice
Baby, oh my

h/t to Genius.com

Although I like the studio (’72) version better for tempo, piano, and familiarity, watching performers play their music in concert fascinates me. The little side winks, grins, and double-takes are extra flavoring, bringing in a sharper human side. So I went with with both a studio version and a 1974 recorded live version so you can hear the difference and decide which you prefer. With either, it’s a good party moment when they come to that chorus, “Baby. I can’t stay.” People enjoy belting that out.

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

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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

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Monday’s Theme Music

Welcome to another May Monday, the tenth day of May, the one hundred thirtieth day of 2021. Sol marched into the sky at 5:55 AM and is staying until 8:20 PM. Our southern Oregon classic spring continues with cool, refreshing blue-sky mornings, clouds coming in later in the day, and a high in the low seventies. A mild wind mixes things up.

On a personal note, my kidney stone passed yesterday afternoon. A small brown pebble, I have named it Gerald. Although it talks and laughs much, it rarely moves.

Outside at midnight last night (actually stepping out after opening the door for two cats to return), I checked out the midnight sky and remembered CCR’s cover of “Midnight Special” from 1969.

Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a everlovin’ light on me.

The original song was traditional folk song, and the light is thought to reference a train light coming into a jail cell. No trains were passing by when I heard the song in my head last night. Only starshine and houselights.

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

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Yes, we’ve made it to Sunday May 9, 2021, and Mother’s Day in America. The sun’s fresh start in Ashland came at 5:56 AM while it will finish its day at 8:19 PM. Fine spring weather has come into the valley for the holiday. Temperatures, as it was yesterday, will creep into the low seventies. The air is clean and fresh.

Learned via correspondence with Mom that she’s going to my sister’s house for the holiday. Sis’s husband, Pat, is going for all the mothers and families. Very sweet of him. They’ve all been vaccinated. I still worry, though. It’s my nature. Locally, COVID-19 cases are declining again after rising throughout April. Two weeks ago, our seven-day average peaked at 49. Yesterday, it was at 33.

Went to ER yesterday. Yeah, wrote and posted about it, to help me process, and I slept in this morning. Anyway, the result left a song about doctors echoing through my mind. Here is Robert Palmer with his 1979 hit cover of, “Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor Doctor)”.

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

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Saturday, in the house, I think it was the eighth of May. Yes, it is May 8, 2021. I sometimes misplace the day and date during this pandemic. It rattles around my head and then sinks out of sight.

The heavenly bright thing’s initial appearance came at 5:58 AM in Ashland, and it’ll twig out at 8:18 in the PM. Spring temperatures are rolling along under a mix of cirrus feathers on an azure field. The high will nudge the upper sixties before returning to the lower thirties when darkness comes.

It’s Saturday and it’s been a while since I’ve indulged myself in a Stevie Ray Vaughn Saturday. I’m breaking that streak today with a performance from “Sunday Night”. Stevie is playing with the house band —   Omar Hakin, Tom Barney, Philippe Saisse, Hiram Bullock, and Don Alias. It’s an energetic, rocking performance by all. Look at Tom Barney move that bass. Nothing like some screaming bent notes, fiery keyboards, thundering beat, and a hot cup of java to stimulate your Saturday morning neurons. Here’s SRV with “Crossfire”, which was his only number one hit, from 1989. He was killed in a helicopter crash in the next year. Meanwhile, that guitarist, Hiram Bullock, died from cancer in 2008, 52 years old.

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

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Hard to believe, but another Thursday is upon us. We’ll name this one Thurston. Thurston Thursday, May 6, 2021. The sun came upon us in Ashland at 6 AM exactly (give or take some seconds) and will do its vanishing act at 8:15 PM. Between those hours, we expect a few clouds (don’t see any right now, but that can change), sunshine, and highs in the seventies, a comedown from yesterday, when we struck 86.

I was checking sunrise and set in Kennebunk, Maine, where it’s 5:38 AM and 7:50 PM, respectively. I prefer our hours, where we experience more evening light. Which would you prefer?

Today’s music is brought to you by Carlos Santana and his musical group. He released “Winning” back in 1981. I thought of the song after thinking about a portion of last night’s dreams.

I had a dream
But it turned to dust
What I thought was love
That must have been lust
I was living in style
When the walls fell in
When I played my hand
I looked like a joker
Turn around
Fate must have woke her
‘Cause lady luck
She was waiting outside the door

h/t to Metrolyrics.com

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

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Season’s greetings from the Pacific Northwest. Today is Wednesday, May 5, 2021. But you knew all that already, didn’t you? Summer is creeping into the region. The sun was creeping over the horizon at 6:01 AM. The outside temperature is already creeping past 71. It’s believed the sun will creep out of sight at 8:14 PM.

The cats are enjoying the weather for sure. Out through the pet door (which I think would be a pretty good album title, or maybe a novel) before sunrise, they find places to flooze all day. Cool. Youngblood (formal name, Papi) likes the cushioned patio chairs. Boo (the big mini-Panther) prefers grass just in the shadow. Tucker stomps around to the front porch (“Ain’t no one getting past me”), curling up just off the porch, behind the pillar, under a bush.

Such warmth has stirred gardening aspirations again. My wife made the call yesterday. “We’ll grow lettuce, squash, and tomatoes. To the Grange!” Masks on, we stormed the nursery. Plants were selected, six-packs and pots purchased, plans were made. Fingers are crossed that we’ll have water. Meanwhile, the garlic is almost ready for harvesting, though my wife worries, “It’s thirty days too early!” Her giant onion is bolting. She’s letting it do so, figuring it deserves it after all it’s been through. The only worry is that we’ll have the water to, well, water the garden for the entire season. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc.

Musically, Ima on wavelength with a 1979 Talking Heads melody. Lyrics crept in like sunshine breaking through the clouds after a heavy afternoon rain.

This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco
This ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey
I ain’t got time for that now

h/t to Genius.com

Yes, it’s time for “Life During Wartime”, which could easily be repurposed as “Life During Pandemic”. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get that vax. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Terrible Tuesday is back. Today is May 4th, 2021, and oh, how the net is crazy with that whole schmeer – “May the fourth be with you.” I think we’ve all been locked up too much.

Sunshine came upon us over the horizon in Ashland at 6:03 AM. We’re on the cusp of breaking through that six A.M. Finally, after all these years, the six A.M. barrier will be broken. Sunshine will vacate the region at 8:13 PM, giving us quite a long spring day. Weather cooperation has been achieved, so highs will touch in the seventies. Ah, lovely. Just give me some ocean views and sounds to go with it.

“Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” is stuck in my head this dawn. The song is by Jason Derulo. Except there’s also Jawsh 685. I’d only known this 2020 song as “Savage Love” until I read a Wikipedia article this morning and then a few others. Glad the two artists worked it out and brought us this tune. It came to be in my head this A.M. because, yes, dream. I woke up thinking about what a dream meant. That morphed into the thought, “I gotta know.” That phrase segued into “Savage Love” because I thought, in a classic mondegreen moment, that when he sang “Savage love” on the radio when the song first came out, that he was singing “I gotta know.” See?

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

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Monday’s Theme Music

Time again for Michael’s May Monday Mocha Madness! Grab your mocha and do-si-do. Except, I have no mocha at hand, alas. Well, I’ll just dance with my coffee, although Michael’s May Monday Coffee Madness lacks the alliteration the mocha provided.

No matter. Today is the third, and it’s the first Monday in May of 2021. The sun’s initial showing came at 6:04 AM, while the sun will take it’s final bow at 8:12 PM. Between those hours, evidence is accumulating that we’ll have a traditional spring day in Ashland, high on sunshine, with moderately warm temperature tempered by some cooling breezes. No clouds have shown themselves today, so far. They may have just forgotten to set their alarm or something.

Musically, are you ready for a little prog rock with flute? I’m channeling a 1969 Jethro Tull, “Living in the Past”. Isn’t that apropos for 2021 in the U.S., when so many are longing for the past, and some idyllic posturing of same?

Happy and I’m smiling
Walk a mile to drink your water
You know I’d love to love you
And above you there’s no other
We’ll go walking out
While others shout of war’s disaster
Oh, we won’t give in
Let’s go living in the past

Once I used to join in
Every boy and girl was my friend
Now there’s revolution, but they don’t know
What they’re fighting
Let us close our eyes
Outside their lives go on much faster
Oh, we won’t give in
We’ll keep living in the past

h/t to AZLyrics.com

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

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Spring has a solid grip on this Sunday, May 2, 2021. Clouds tinker with the sunshine. Mountain breezes manipulate the temperature. Snow remnants haunts mountains on the valley’s other side, above shadowy stretches of green that turn into deep jade.

Sunshine first broke cover at 6:05 AM, and will flee for the night at 8:11 PM. Our highs will seek now familiar ranges in the lower sixties.

We ride the unending roller coaster of COVID-19 news around here, up one day, down the next. Vaccinations have stolen past 28% of Oregon’s population. Jackson County, where I call home, had shown a disturbing trend, with the seven-day averaging climbing. It peaked at 49 a few days ago. Now we’re down to 41. We’ve been through this before. After Christmas and New Year, the cases had been declining. Then they rose to levels not recorded since last November.

We visited Curry County last week. The seven-day average had increased from three to four cases there. A relatively remote location on Oregon’s coast, reached by Highway 101 going north and south, they haven’t suffered many cases, but have experienced the morale of businesses being shut, lockdown, and social distancing. Disappointing to note that some businesses had signs up requiring masks, but weren’t enforcing it. On the whole, though, masks were worn, usually correctly, and distancing practiced.

Today’s song is the 1981 Stray Cats song, “Rock This Town”. The song arrived on neurons’ back, their origins unknown, joyous vagabonds stealing through my brain with their musical message. I like the song, so I went with it. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get that vax. Cheers

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