Lovely day — sun drenched, kind of warm air, patches of snow on mountains a few miles away, no clouds — yesterday. Went for beers with my friends (our weekly meeting, which I don’t always attend). We sat out on the deck under thinning sunshine for a few hours. Medical updates for a few were provided, then politics, books, science, and plays (Oregon Shakespeare Festival is beginning) were discussed. For a while, we put troubles and worries aside.
Afterwards, walking home (just under a mile up a long, steady hill), and feeling mellow as the night swallowed the sunset, Ray LaMontagne’s song, “Trouble” (2006). It’s a mellow, bluesy song and fit the day well.
Seems like everybody’s waiting
For a new change to come around.
[Background:]
Come around, come around, come around.
[Lead Vocal:]
Waiting for the day when the
King, Queen of soul sing around
[Background:]
Sing around, sing around, sing around, sing around.
[Lead Vocal:]
You can understand everything’s to share.
Let your spirit dance brothers everywhere.
Let your head be free, turn the wisdom key
Find it naturally – see you’re lucky to be.
Dig this sound it’s been round and round and round.
You get out your cold feet ba-by
Something on your back lay it down.
[Background:]
Lay it down, lay it down, lay it down.
[Lead Vocal:]
Don’t you know honey maybe your light might shine this whole town
[Background:]
This whole town, this whole town, this whole town, sing around.
[Lead Vocal:]
Time for you to all get down
Yeah do it
Floofdonna(floofinition) – Floof pop icon known for her elaborate stage routines and music videos.
In use: “Floofdonna’s second single, “Material Floof” reached number two on the Hot 100 and was promoted by a music video recreating the performance of a human pop star, Madonna in a video for her song, “Material Girl”, which, in turn, was based on a movie scene.”
This song kicked in yesterday afternoon after I’d finished my writing session. Walking through the day, enjoying the increasing warmth and sunshine, admiring the buds on the trees and the blooming daffs, Donovan began singing “Mellow Yellow” (1966). The song stayed in the stream through the night and dominates it this morning.
And why not? It’s about being laid back. Yes, be vigilant, but stay mellow. Relax. (Well, that’s another song. We’ll save it for another day.)
West coast. We wake up to news of stock market plunges, oil price wars, cancellations, and falling gas prices. They’re talking about $2 a gallon gas in Florida as a real possibility, ignoring that falling demand drives that price.
COVID 19 cases are up in Oregon. As other governors have done in other states, Governor Brown declared a state of emergency this week as they scramble have people tested and monitor the situation.
Amidst all of this (and my dreams) one song popped into the stream and stayed: “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” by George Harrison, 1973. I chose the video from a concert that celebrated George, with Jeff Lynne (ELO) singing.
AC/Floofsie(floofinition) Australian hard floof group founded by bulldog brothers in the early 1970s, known for their hard-rocking sound.
In use: AC/FLoofsie have hit number one several times with songs like “Fur in Black”, “It’s a Long Jump to the Top”, and “Dirty Deeds (Done for Treats)”.
In Costco yesterday. It was a convenience stop for us. It’s down the Interstate, so if we go over there, we generally stop in. Nothing essential was required. We gassed up and bought mixed nuts looked at the books. Their book selection has significantly changed, and it’s disappointing to us.
Costco was busy despite its new ‘no food samples’ policy. Costco was ready for it with every register manned (and do you know that Costco now has self-checkout registers?). I heard at least three mothers tell their children, “Don’t touch anything. Keep to your hands to yourself.” Those are words I used to hear all the time, but had seemed to fade away as parenting styles changed. Was it always being said, and I missed it? Or was it being revived as part of Coronavirus awareness?
Saw perhaps a half dozen people (including employees) wearing gloves, and about five wearing masks. I wondered, thinking about the cancellations of multiple world events, the corporation’s shutdown on travel (airlines are losing money), what was going to be the effect on Costco’s stock? On the one hand, business is booming. On the other, the global supply chain on which it depends and the consumerism that fuels it are going to be slammed. (Costco and other corporations have already said they’re scrambling to find supplies, but where do you turn in a global crisis?)
At the intersection of these observations, R.E.M.’s 1987 release, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” was released into my stream.
It’s the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)
I feel fine (I feel fine)
Planning the day, thinking about doin’ a little drivin’, I thought of Sniff n’ the Tears.
Don’t know much about this band. I could look them up, but I didn’t. I remember listening to the radio somewhere on a Texas Interstate, coming back from Austin (we lived in on Randolph Air Force Base, just outside of San Antonio) and hearing this song, “Drivers’s Seat” on the radio. And the announcer – it was the weekly countdown – said, “That was Sniff n’ the Tears moving up in the countdown.” My friends and I, hearing that band’s name, started laughing, and then we were coming up with other band names.
Anyway, the song mentions being doin’ a little drivin’ on a Saturday, which I’ll be doing. I’m sure many others will be out there. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues, “Let’s be careful out there.”
“The trouble with you is the trouble with me,” I thought. I was dealing with a cat (“You don’t want THAT food? What is it that you want, because I don’t understand”), but it applies to life partners, politics…yeah.
With that line of lyrics, hello, “Casey Jones”. The 1970 Grateful Dead song jumped head first into my thinking stream.
Not a bad song for the day. While it’s a song about a train engineer high on cocaine with a train coming toward him on the wrong track, I always see it as a metaphor, modern warnings to all of us. Watch what you’re doing, give it some thought. Be alert because the potential for trouble remains all around us.
Walking, of course, requires a lot more vigilance than the drives are employing. This seems especially true with weather shifts. Weather shifts change energy; drivers, feeling it, become distracted. Just my theory, but I see it all the time, you know? Lot of anecdotal evidence.
With COVID-19 also traveling person to person, nation to nation and town to town, it’s a good time to be aware of that threat and mitigating steps you can employ.
“This Is Spinal Floof” (floofinition) – Floofumentary about an English floof band and their misadventures during their latest U.S. tour.
In use: “Led by David St. Bernard and Nigel Floofnel, Spinal Floof was a flooftitious band whose minor 1960s pop hit, “Listen to What the Floof People Say” was part of the floof power movement.”
Michael Seidel, writer 