Here’s your ticket, pack your bag, it’s time for jumping overboard The transportation is here Close enough but not too far, maybe you know where you are Fighting fire with fire, ah!
After a night of chaotic dreaming (sometimes I was dictating a novel to others, sometimes they were dictating it to me, which sometimes involved an empty white room but then featured a red jukebox where I made selections but they didn’t come up), I awoke with those lines from “Burning Down the House” dominating my mental stream (along with “Summer Breeze” by Seals & Croft and “This Magic Moment”, as covered by Jay and the Americans). Not really hooked on it (for example, fragments of Bon Jovi’s “Runaway” just skittered through), but why shouldn’t it be today’s theme music? I like the song’s nonsensical connections that hint at something deeper.
Today’s music arrives because of interactions with the cats.
Another cat, one I’d never seen, arrived on the backyard fence yesterday. Alarms went off in my cats. Tucker, who rules the house, lifted himself up, slowly sat down, curled his tail around his body, and watched this newcomer, a tabby with a white chest and white front paws. They gave Tucker a long look.
Then Boo, the resident house bagheera, took note of the newby and sat up so he could watch. And Papi, the ginger blade, emerged from the shadows to sit and watch.
Newby had been thinking about jumping down into the yard. These three’s laser gazes gave them pause. But how should they redirect? Nothing appeared trustworthy.
Which is when I said, “Everyone relax.” They immediately ignored me. No one relaxed but Frankie Goes to Hollywood began thumping in my head.
Flock of Seafloofs (floofinition) – Synth floof rock (flock) band formed in Liverfloof in 1979, who achieved significant influence as a floof wave band.
In use: “Flock of Seafloofs was noted for their outlandish fur styles but also created entertaining songs, such as “I Barked (So Far Away)”, which became a top ten song in several major markets.”
Been listening to some blues streaming in my head and decided to share it with you. Here’s Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble with “Pride and Joy” from 1983. Turn it up!
We had a Black Lives Matter/Defund the Police protest and march in Ashland this weekend. My wife and I didn’t attend; her underlying health issues increase her vulnerability.
But we drove down to check it out. Hundreds attended. It was peaceful. Most — probably ninety-plus percent — were masked but social distancing wasn’t observed, so mixed bag. Holding our breath on that as the case count continues rising in Oregon.
Young and old, Black, White, Asian, and Latino marched. Later, as we talked about it during “Sixty Minutes”, my wife asked, “Why do we need to keep doing this? When will it permanently change?”
Good question, one that stayed with me this morning. The question prompted a recall of a 2007 Foo Fighters song and video, “The Pretender”. Dave Grohl said in interviews that 2007’s political unrest influenced him when he wrote it. Watching the video, well, you see the same themes as in 2020: protests, taking a knee, confronting police, violence escalating.
Big difference exist between now and 2007. Videos emerge almost weekly of police killing people, almost always Blacks, for little provocation. Too many times, it was brushed aside, hidden again and again. But as it’s happened, it’s just become, too much. The expression, “Black Lives Matter”, arose to express the gulf we see as Blacks were killed or had the police called by Whites for being black. The expression, “Being Karen”, became the code for privileged White people who called the police for such a list of shocking reasoning about why Black people weren’t supposed to be there, or why they were a threat.
“The Pretender” speaks to these things. All those things done by the police hat were hidden or protected are being exposed, again, again, and again. That’s the momentum that keeps this wheel spinning, and will until, finally, Black Lives Matter.
Today’s stream music arrived in my head because, what if?
The what if game is always a small diversion. The rules are to ask yourself to imagine how your existence would be different if you made a different decision, followed another path, or handled something in some other way than what you did.
What if you had gone to college?
What if you’d taken that job?
What if you’d married that person?
From that, in trickled Rob Thomas singing Matchbox Twenty’s song, “Real World”. It asks those questions about being in charge, or a superhero, among other things.
And it all has a direct link to writing yesterday. A big portion of my writing process is playing what if? It’s intriguing as part of the process because I’ll think that through, applying different ideas, possibilities, and outcomes, but when I sit down and write, it’s something completely different.
It wasn’t raining (at least around our house) but the thunder was relentless. Half the cats did a frenzied thunder-run to hide. The other two yawned.
I listened to the thunder, waited for the lightning, and remembered songs about thunder, lightning, and rain. The mental stream finally selected the Fleetwood Mac song, “Dreams” (1977). Ostensibly a reflective song about ending relationships, the line about the thunder always resonates with me.
The Beach Floofs (floofinition) – American floof and roll band. Formed in Califloofia in the early 1960s, the band became one of the most influential groups in the early floof rock (flock) movement and were inducted into the Flock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In use: “The early Beach Floofs sounds focused on cars, surfing, romance, and the Califloofia flock and roll sound. Some critics declared their album Floof Sounds to be one of the most important albums of the 1960s.”
Cutting the grass and trimming trees last night. As I started, “Your Mama Don’t Dance” (1972) by Loggins & Messina began playing in my head. It continued throughout the evening as I sipped a beer afterwards and coped with a Hulu outage.
The song was playing like a radio alarm clock this morning. Earworm, I sighed.
So, I’m sharing it to dislodge it. It’s a trick that works. Please bear with me. I thought about going with a live version but it lacked the piano playing. I like the piano playing. I considered a Poison version, too, but, sorry, the L&M studio version remains my preference.
Michael Seidel, writer 