Wednesday’s Theme Music

Dry but cold and sunny, Wednesday, February 4, 2026, has begun its 24-hour Ashland residency. 50 – 46 – 37 F are Ashland’s temperatures, given by Alexa, online, and home. Sunny, with blue skies and no clouds that Papi and I can see. A high of sixty-something is projected.

I’m thinking about beats today. Give me a beat, we got the beat, we were beat, they beat him down.

Every day — every hour — has its beats. Sometimes they come out sharp and clear. Today, they’re muted background noise for me.

Reading a novel for a bit doesn’t reveal the day’s beats. Nor does reading the news. Yet the beat goes on.

Papi has his beat, moving with private style, a cool and graceful study in orange fur. Bit jealous, watching his steady gaze as he sits, looks, washes.

It’s only February and already the news beat has been manic with news that has me gritting my teeth, bracing for worse. The Neurons have offered up a Foo Fighters tune to blanket the noise. “The Pretender” plays in the morning mental music stream, driving me forward a new, harder beat. The song reminds me, same ol’ story, waiting to see what happens, waiting to hear their defense, waiting for a change back to the nation I knew.

Sample Lyrics

What if I say I’m not like the others?
What if I say I’m not just another one of your plays?
You’re the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender?

The song fits my mood because I often ask of Trump, who are you to issue decrees like a pompous king? And I ask of the MAGAs, who are you that you believe where Trump leads, not just accepting, but supporting and encouraging it?

The morning circle is done. Hope peace and grace find you, me, all of us, and take us tightly through this day and into a better tomorrow.

Cheers

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: coffeetastic

Hey, Terra fans, welcome to another edition of Tuesday. Today, for the first time ever anywhere*, we bring you March 5, 2024. It’s a robust 37 degrees F right now in Ashlandia but we’ll soon be soaring to 43 F before sun pulls its light from our valley.

All the snow is gone (which somehow triggers “all the leaves are brown” from “California Dreamin'” by The Mamas and the Papas in the morning mental music stream).

Michelle Phillips is the only remaining member alive of the classic line-up.

Rain continues its beat (bringing The Neurons to start “We Got the Beat” by the Go-Go’s in the morning mental music stream) (Trademark coming in two weeks, I swear, and it’ll be the most beautiful trademark anyone has ever seen). But then, thinking about the Go-Go’s, I ended up with “Going to a Go-Go” by the Miracles from 1965.

The version done by the Rolling Stones also floated along the meandering morning mental music stream, though. I prefer Smokey and the Miracles version. It’s just tighter to me, but one can’t easily just dismiss the Stones.

However, another song was in the MMMS, freshly peeled from a pass through the guest room. On the bed in there is a pillow which says, “Be Our Guest”, navy script on oatmeal. Goes well with the dark blue duvet cover. As I glanced its way, “Be Our Guest” kicked up in the MMMS. I knew the song but remembered nothing else about it except it was a while back that I learned it. A net search rewarded me with Jerry Orbach and Angela Lansbury singing “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s animated version of Beauty and the Beast from 1991.

Odd underlying connections do bring some of these things together more. Besides the go-go connections between the Go-Go’s and “Going To A Go-Go”, and the guest room pillow and “Be Our Guest”, the Go-Go’s debut album, which featured “We Got the Beat”, was called, Beauty and the Beat. Wild how the mind can work. Those Neurons are sly little tricksters.

As I mused through all of that, I wondered what folks remember about things like go-go’s, which were forerunners of discotheques, which were forerunners of discos, which themselves were born from dance halls (at least as I see it), and which begat things like raves and dance parties. That’s my impression of it all from what I recall at this point, just starting on coffee, from my life.

My housefloof, the black and white cat hailed as Tucker, is doing much better as he prepares for his dental surgery later this month. I cut back on his pain med because he was sleeping all day long. I wanted him to be a little more active and eat more, which he didn’t do while asleep. He seems to like the shift and ate very well today.

Stay positive, be sensible, remain strong, lean forward, and vote. The list is getting lengthy. Coffee helps me remember it all. Here’s the music. Cheers

* We don’t really know if this is the first time that there’s been a March 5, 2024 but as far as we can tell from memories and all the records so far discovered, this is it, kids.

Saturday Theme Music

“We Got the Beat”, by the Go-Go’s (1980), slipped into my stream while I was walking yesterday. An energetic song, reminiscent of sixties surfer music, it’s a good song to stream while walking at a brisk pace. The song’s mindless enough to present a good walking time without distracting me from thinking about writing, politics, cars, people, and the places that I pass.

It’s also a pretty good song for a Saturday, if you’re planning a party. I’m not, but you can use it. It gives a good energy bump.

Thursday’s Theme Music

Continuing a newly established trend of using my walking to inspire my theme music instead of my dreams and pets, this song popped into my head today.

I’m not an amazing walker, but I usually manage to walk seven to ten miles a day, typically in three or four segments. I like walking as part of my writing rituals. But once I’m done writing in my head, my thoughts wander. Sometimes, inspired by the writing or editing process, a song pops in.

So it was today. Finishing with my phantom writing/editing and feeling happy, I told my muses and myself, “That’s it. We got it.” That prompted the drumming intro to the popular hit by The Go-Go’s (a spelling which maddens me, as I think that it should be The Go-Gos, but whatever), “We Got the Beat” (1982).

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