Tag: summer

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Surprised to find Bad Bunny is the world’s #1 musical superstar. But that’s the world’s state on the first day of summer, Wednesday, June 21, 2023. I know some of Bad Bunny’s music. His sound does not generally titillate The Neurons. That happens, and it’s no big deal. Different tastes, preferences, experiences, and interests dictate what we latch onto. But the overall music picture surprises me. Here’s a startling except, with a piece of another article embedded in it, for a rare triple embedding.

But if you want to really be shocked, read this article:

“No One Even Comes Close to Bad Bunny’s Stardom Right Now“

Here’s the meat of the story:

“Bad Bunny songs appeared in the Spotify top 100 more times over the last 2 months than those of Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake and Kendrick Lamar combined. Three of those four acts also released new albums. Post Malone, one of the most popular performers of the last few years, didn’t even crack the top 10.

Now let’s take it a step further. Bad Bunny beat every single record label in the industry. The only label that even came close is Columbia, which charted songs from more than a dozen artists, including Harry Styles, Lil Nas X, Adele and The Kid Laroi. Bad Bunny songs appeared more than twice as many times as acts from Atlantic, home of Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Lizzo and Jack Harlow.”

That’s right, one single artist eclipsed the ENTIRE OUTPUT of every major label.

Talk about a blockbuster business.

As implied, I’m blown away.

It’s a chilly morning in Ashlandia, where the beer is superior and the wine is fabulous. Was 44 F but we’re making up heat, and now, after sunshine’s effects, we’re up to 52. Don’t despair; we’ll climb to 80 F, the weather sprites tell us. Not bad for summer.

This is the mythological longest day of the year for the northern hem. In Ashlandia, we achieved sunrise at 5:33 AM and will strike sunset at 8:52 PM. Not bad for a span of daylight hours.

The Neurons have plugged “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley (1984) into the morning mental music stream, but I decided to go with The Ataris’ cover from 2003. Nineteen years passed between Henley’s release and The Ataris’ cover; it’s now been twenty since that happened. I think we’re due for another cover.

Stay pos, gang, seriously. The cat just fetched me a cup of coffee. Right. Can anyone imagine that? I can’t, and I have a decently strong imagination. Asked the cat to procure coffee. He just smiled and walked away. Had to get it myself.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Saturday, June 17, 2023, and the temperatures are dropping, preparing for summer in Ashlandia. Now 67 F with a cool breeze sometimes goosebumping us, today’s high will entrench itself in the upper 70s F. Tomorrow’s high will be 65 F and Monday, a rain recipient, has low expectations, just 55 F. Then it’s supposed to start slowly rising.

The morning began slow for me, a leisurely petting of the floofs, followed by a leisurely floof-petting session, capped with leisurely coffee-sipping on the porches to experience the cool air and spy on the floofs. Some interesting dreams to contemplate , including one about building a complex while dealing with a lion.

Today’s song, from 1991, is “Kiss Them for Me” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. The song features lines about being delayed. I was in the coffee shop yesterday when a man stopped by my table, looked back, and called to the person they’d been with, “Tell them I’ll be delayed.” I was writing and thought little of it but The Neurons went into a tizzy. Soon the song melody was drifting through me like smoke from a distant fire. Then I’d hum some lyrics to myself. Then, awakening to a song in the mental music stream, I realized that I’d been ambushed.

Just an aside but when the song came out in 1991, I didn’t think it was Siouxsie and the Banshees. It seemed different to me than their usual fare. like “Spellbound”. This is the first time that I’ve seen the “Kiss Them for Me” video.

Stay pos, drink coffee, unwind, relax, carpe the moment. Let’s do this again next year. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Solstice! The Musical.

Today is the first day of summer and the longest day in the northern lats, while the opposite holds — winter, shortest, etc — in the south. Your experience could be different. Tracking sunrise and sunset shows some interesting info about the lengths of the ‘day’. By day, of course, we’re speaking of the hours between sunrise and sunset.

Watching the weather dude on the news last night, I learned that our average temperature for yesterday is 83 F, that the record, set in 1972, was 104 F, that last year, we’d been mired in a string of triple-digit days and the temperature for last year was 102 F, and this year, it was 78 F. Locally, I only briefly experienced 74, according to my system.

Today, Tuesday, June 21, 2022, is clear and sunny. Highs today will reach around 86 F, which is about our average for the date. Sunset will be at 8:51 PM and sunrise was at 5:35 AM.

I have a song by ELO called “Hold on Tight” stuck in the morning mental music stream. The neurons started playing it for me after I awoke, thought about a dream, and then forgot it later. Snorting and snickering, pointing at me, muttering, “What a doofus,” — they are quite juvenile and not very supportive — they began singing, “Hold on tight to your dreams.” The song came out in 1981, when I was transitioning from living in Texas to living in Japan, on the island of Okinawa, in service to my country. I enjoy the song’s throwback rock and roll vibe.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as the situation warrants, and so on. Time for my first cup of summer coffee.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

June has arrived with the soft sound of muted sunshine. Yes, it’s Day 1 of the thirty that make up June, 2022, different this year; in previous years, June had 31 days.

Just kidding. June hasn’t had thirty-one days since the late sixteenth century when the Calendar Makers convened to settle how many days each month should hold. June had seventy days until that time, and July wasn’t yet a month. Although February was, it had poor representation, and ended up with a short month and an iffy situation. According to the records, this was because February was a very cold month that year at the convention site, and the attendees wanted to keep that cold to a minimum. Such was the thinking that went on back then.

Sunrise was an underwhelming event at 5:37 AM, as clouds were present in force, dictating coverage. One salient aspect to bring out is that today’s sunrise is earlier than yesterday’s sunrise. Changes have already begun. Even though sunset is one minute later than yesterday, we still have the same amount of daylight.

Our temps were top out at about 80 F and hold to 61 now with a mild wind singing through the leaves.

Now, for some reason, the naughty neurons loaded Juice Newton’s cover of “Queen of Hearts” from the early 1980s. “Why?” I asked the neurons. Shrugging with sluggish indifference, they replied, “Why not?”

I think I need to give them some coffee. Let’s be safe out there, and test negative. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends and the nation north of the U.S. I send them wishes for a joyous celebration and greater success and prosperity.

Today is July 1, 2021. A Thursday. Pale gold burnished the upper reaches of hills, trees, and mountains at 5:38 AM. It’ll fade away into night at 8:51 PM. Sunshine will deliver us to some mild heat — the low nineties — today. Smoke comes and goes to the valley from the Lava Fire by Weed, California. If you want to see the fire, head to Mount Ashland, just outside town, which offers a panoramic view of the smoke. Flames are visible at night.

The deepening drought delivered another depressing blow. Water limitations and drought meant the blueberries didn’t come in at our favorite u-pick-em site. We’d been doing this for over a decade. It’s one of our Ashland traditions. The blueberry owners are trying to keep the place alive and hope to see us all next year.

Also canceled for the second year is the July 4th Parade. COVID concerns, yes. Planning needed to start months ago and where we’d be now was too uncertain to plan. The fireworks are canceled. I’ve become ambivalent about fireworks. Loved ’em as a child. Now I understand what they do to the land and animals. Sadly, this year, the drought is too intense to risk fireworks. Locals are still reeling from Ashland’s near miss last September. Yeah, near miss, not quite. Two thousand homes were destroyed on the north edge of town. Talent and Phoenix were reduced to smoky piles of rock and wood in many areas, gutting the towns physically and emotionally. With those emotional scars still vivid, many are relieved that the fireworks won’t take place.

Without too much surprise, I bet, I introduce a song about summer, called “Summer”. By War, it was released in 1976. Some may claim that 1976 was a simpler time. It may’ve been for many. For others, it was a time like the rest, working to feed yourself, working to beat the heat, playing to relieve the stress, doing what you can as you face an uncertain future. Who sang, “The future’s uncertain and the end is always near”? That’s right, Jim and the lads, back in another century. I used to sing, “The future’s uncertain and the end is always clear.” Made me sense to me

Anyway, here’s “Summer”, a mellow reflection on the hot season. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

The slide began on a Tuesday, June 22, 2021. Sunrise at 5:35 AM was one minute later than the previous day. This depressed Michael. He could see the tunnel forming that would lead inexorably to the coldest, shortest day, which meant the longest, darkest night.

Brewing coffee, he shook it off. Summer was here! At 9:00 AM, the local temperature was 78 degrees F. Thunderstorms and clouds offered some refuge from the heat. They’d only be 94 today before the Earth’s turn shifted them from the sun at 8:51 PM. The thunderstorms might bring wildfires, though. Fingers crossed…

He began humming “More Human Than Human”. Humming it until he began singing, soto vocce, “Yeah. Yeah.” The White Zombie song came out decades before. When? Yes, back when he retired from the military in 1995. He’d been amused hearing it. The song title is lifted from one of his favorite movies, “Blade Runner”, based on a favorite book, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” He often thought of that slogan while slogging through corporate meetings in subsequent years. The start ups. Then Tyco. ISS. IBM. “More Human Than Human” encapsulated the misleading slant corporations bring to their marketing.

It was a depressing way to begin the day. Brewing more coffee, he turned to writing. Even if not a successful writing day (which was always iffy), writing was a distraction, his personal drug.

“Be positive,” he told himself. Test negative, his mind answered. Wear a mask when needed. Already got the vax. The state — his adopted state, Oregon — was almost at seventy percent.

Fingers crossed. It was becoming his personal slogan.

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