Friday’s Theme Music

6:30 A.M., Friday morning, September 4, 2020.

I did not want to get up. Still sifting dreams, I thought I was due to stay in bed for at least another hour. I’d been up late into the morning, sucking up my latest TV addition, “Mr Inbetween”. An Aussie show, I’m watching it on Hulu. I love his daughter, Britt. Played by Chika Yasumura, she steals whatever scene she’s in.

So it kept me up and awake, and I didn’t want to get up. But the cats, particularly Tucker (my long-hair black and white big bruiser) (he’s a blokey-bloke) and Papi, the young ginger blade, thought the day required my attention. After a bit of failed negotiations and stalling tactics, I yielded, telling them and myself, “Here we go.”

Well, here we go led to the chorus, “Here we go, rocking all over the world,” out of the 1975 John Fogerty song, “Rockin’ All Over the World”. When I thought about it, though, I began remembering Status Quo playing at Live Aid 85.

For Fogerty’s release in ’75, I was a few months out of military tech school, newly married, and stationed at Wright-Pat AFB in Ohio. Ten years later, when Status Quo played the song at Live Aid 85, I was living in a tent city outside Cairo, Egypt, playing war games. Still married, though, but my wife was staying with her family. I believe I dimly recall seeing Status Quo’s Live Aid version while I was heading home, during a fuel stop at Torrejon Air Base in Spain. We had time to kill, so we walked around the exchange to see what was new and get an AAFES burger.

So this simple song is today’s theme music, brought to you by stubborn cats and nostalgia. I decided to go with Status Quo’s Live Aid version because I like the crowd’s energy.

Hope you enjoy it. I know I used it before, if memory serves (but it doesn’t always serve, does it?), but I’m using it again. Remember to wear your mask. Cheers

Thursday’s Theme Music

“It’s that time of month.”

It’s not a monthly thing, but a cyclic thing, this periodic slide into a dark trough. I feel it as it comes on. It feeds my bitterness (or I feed it), despair, and frustration. I think, I’m a terrible writer, person, husband, son, and man, a waste of air, space, and energy, and the world is a shitty place.

I know it’ll pass. While it’s happening, I need to keep a check on myself so I don’t do lash out or burn my world down. It’ll pass, you know? But at least twenty-four to thirty-six hours of it are a deep abyss.

So, mood music is required for this shit. Today’s choice (probably used in the past, but I didn’t check, because — mood) is “On the Dark Side”, by John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band, as heard in the 1983 movie, Eddie and the Cruisers.

Let the merriment begin!

 

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Today’s theme music is a ‘Feline’s Choice’. Each night, my fur boys crowd the door and meow a request to go out. I not infrequently imagine a musical circling around their activities. Often, when they go out and sit down, listening to the darkness and listening, they sing this Pat Benatar song, “We Belong”, from 1984. Only, my boys aren’t singing, “We belong to the light, we belong to the thunder” they’re singing, “We belong to the night, but we run from the thunder.”

They’ve changed other words, too. I only know some of them, as my flooflish is limited. I’m not personally a big fan of this song; too eighties. If you were there, you probably understand.

Tuesday’s Theme Music

It’s a September in Oregon, the first day of September.

Many have made comments on the net that time is dragging. That’s not the case for me. The hours and days have skittered through on spider legs, and you know fast spiders can go, especially if they sense your fear, or you’re trying to get them.

Anyone songs about September bubbled through my morning stream (sounds like I’m pissing them out). Changing the calendar in my office, though, I saw that one, and U2’s song from 1992, “One” vaulted into mind.

Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You got someone to blame

h/t to Metrolyrics.com

Yes, with how 2020 has been going, I think “One” works. Cheers

Monday’s Theme Music

My mind is serenading me wit Red Ryder’s 1981 song, “Lunatic Fringe”, today.

Back when I was commuting and working in an office, I’d often think of this song. I always seemed to encounter people with perspectives and facts that didn’t align with reality. Feels like I’m seeing and hearing more of it on the television, radio, and intertubes. Yet, I always wonder if I’m the lunatic fringe, out of sync with reality. That drives me to verify and vet information, and trace stories, looking for the source.

All this is helpful while writing. I enjoy elements in what I read (or the movies and television shows that I watch), so I plug it into my writing. When I’m writing, I enjoy an imaginary reader wondering, “WTF?” This is especially true if I laugh out loud when I’m writing it.

Here’s a sample of “Lunatic Fringe” lyrics (h/t to Metrolyrics.com), followed by the song.

Lunatic Fringe
I know you’re out there
You’re in hiding, and you hold your meetings
I can hear you coming, and I know what you’re after
We’re wise to you this time we won’t let you kill the laughter
Lunatic Fringe – in the twilight’s last gleaming
This is open season, but you won’t get too far
‘Cause you got to blame someone for your own confusion
We’re all on guard this time against the Final Solution
We can hear you coming

We can hear you coming no, you’re not going to win this time,
your not gonna win

Sunday’s Theme Music

Dreams, news, weather, cats, etc.

Disparate elements of thoughts combine.

New elements form.

Fresh streams of thoughts begin.

With it arrives memories and hopes.

Pieces of song.

And what it all boils down to
Is that no one’s really got it figured out just yet
Well, I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is playin’ a piano
And what it all comes down to my friends, yeah
Is that everything is just fine, fine, fine
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is hailin’ a taxi cab

h/t to Genius.com

The song is “Hand in my Pocket”, the year is 1995, and the performer is Alanis Morissette.

Here is today’s theme music.

Saturday’s Theme Music

“You’ve yet to have your finest hour.”

I was rallying myself to get out of bed when the quote was remembered.

It’s a good quote Churchill, the second World War. (Has war stopped since then?) Queen put it into their 1984 song, “Radio Ga Ga”. After I applied it to myself (and wondering if it’s true), I applied it to humanity.

We — humanity — have been changing the world and our societies. Now the world is biting back, or so it feels. It feels like that because it’s us, and our moment. Review some history, and you’ll see that nature bites back pretty damn regularly.

So here we go with the theme music. Enjoy yourself, if you can, wherever you are, and wear your mask, please.

Friday’s Theme Music

I’m in a mellow groove, brought on by a mellow mood. Thinking about how events shape emotions, and emotions shape logic, and logic shapes thinking, which translate to habits, behavior, and expectations.

This is connected to writing, sure, but to events in the U.S., and to politics, but even to myself, and how the events of my youth formed who I now am.

All of that propelled memories of some song lyrics.

“What? Really? Why, that’s unusual,” you probably thought.

I agree. (Despite my mellow mood, the snark is rising today.)

I saw the sign
And it opened up my eyes
I saw the sign
Life is demanding without understanding

I saw the sign
And it opened up my eyes
I saw the sign
No one’s gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong
But where do you belong

h/t AZLyrics.com

When others’ thinking seems so off to us, we ponder, what’s wrong with them? What will it take to open their eyes? We rarely know what they’ve experienced. We might think we do, but that’s based on our own experiences, and whatever clues we can muster from their lives. That’s often rendered down to their appearance, actions, and circumstances, which is pretty damn shallow evidence. Things — lives — are frequently more convoluted than the surface that we see.

Anyway, here’s “The Sign” by the Ace of Base, 1993, a mellow song for a mellow, reflective, morning.

Thursday’s Theme Music

I’m just offering my coffee* song as today’s theme music. There’s just one line repeated with variations in the song which applies, but it’s so well delivered and apropos.

Oh, can’t get enough
I can’t get enough
I can’t get enough

Here’s the 1978 KISS song, “I Was Made for Lovin’ You”.

* NOTE: Besides coffee, this song has been employed for wine, beer, pie, and sleep. I’ve also sung it to my cats when they’ve been on me purring away. I sang it once to my wife, too, but she said, “Get off me,” so I’m not counting that.

Wednesday’s Theme Music

One of my favorite songs is featured in my music stream today. “Lido Shuffle” by Boz Skaggs was released in 1977. I was immediately enamored. I like that refrain, “One more for the road” that he sings out. Although it sometimes comes out when I’m having a drink, more often it’s about trying again for me. That goes back to another part of the song.

He said one more job ought to get it
One last shot ‘fore we quit it
One more for the road

h/t to Genius.com

“One last shot ‘fore we quit it.” Put that on my death marker. (I plan on cremation, so just mention it when my ashes are spread. Don’t have a preference about where they’re spread; I’m stardust, and I’m already everywhere.)

I don’t like givin’ up, damn it. I’m always for trying one more time, but I don’t do it the same way; I think, what can I change? How can this be done differently?

I will often walk away, to think about it or let my brain work a problem on its own without my interference. I’ve often found success that way. It’s one reason why I enjoy working alone. Others will indulge in endless discussions about how and why. They want all answers given beforehand. I just like jumping in and doing it.

My attitude is a multifaceted plethora of clichés. A good plan now is better than a perfect plan later. Baby steps; make small changes and adjust. Don’t fear failure. If at first you don’t succeed —

Well, you got it. Please give the song a listen. It’s a jazzy, up-tempo ol’ tune.

And please wear a mask.

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