SLS ~ Canadian

Our musical host Jim Adams gives us the theme of Canadian this week. So many of the singers I love are Canadian it was hard to choose. I finally went with Jann Arden and her smash hit “Insensitive.” This song was written by Anne Loree and recorded by Jann in 1994 for her album Living Under June. The song did well, reaching No. 12 in the US and No. 1 in Canada and Australia. Anne says she wrote the song in a half hour while feeling broken-hearted from a romance.

Jann was born in Calgary in 1962. She was discovered by a talent agent and worked with him for 13 years. She’s been an actor as well as a singer and has written 4 memoirs, including one about taking care of her mom through Alzheimer’s. In 2018, Jann released an album, These Are The Days, with songs about difficult times. She also has a podcast and a TV show fictionalizing her life. [Wiki]

Insensitive

How do you cool your lips after a summer’s kiss?
How do you rid the sweat after the body bliss?
How do you turn your eyes from the romantic glare?
How do you block the sound
Of a voice you’d know anywhere?
Oh, I really should have known
By the time you drove me home
By the vagueness in your eyes, your casual goodbyes
By the chill in your embrace
The expression on your face, told me
Maybe, you might have some advice to give
On how to be insensitive, insensitive, ooh, insensitive
How do you numb your skin after the warmest touch?
How do you slow your blood after the body rush?
How do you free your soul after you’ve found a friend?
How do you teach your heart
It’s a crime to fall in love again?
Oh, you probably won’t remember me
It’s probably ancient history
I’m one of the chosen few
Who went ahead and fell for you
I’m out of vogue, I’m out of touch
I fell too fast I feel too much
I thought that you might have some advice to give
On how to be insensitive
Oh, I really should have known
By the time you drove me home
By the vagueness in your eyes, your casual goodbyes
By the chill in your embrace
The expression on your face that told me
Maybe, you might have some advice to give
On how to be insensitive (how to be)
Insensitive (how to be)
Insensitive (how to be)

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image Credit ~ Jim Adams

Truthful Tuesday Books

PCGuyIV continues his Truthful Tuesday prompt with some questions about books.

Do you have a favorite author? If so, who and why? If not, why not?

I have several! For romance novels, I love Jennifer Crusie. She creates very multi-dimensional characters. When I’m in the mood for a detective story, I like the late Lawrence Sanders, especially his Delaney and McNally series. When I want to read a short story, Ray Carver is my guy. He packs so much meaning into so few words. I also enjoy novels and short stories by Haruki Murakami… they’re a bit weird in a good way. And Robert Frost is my favorite poet. Hard to explain “why” with poetry!

What was the first book you remember enjoying reading?

Arty the Smarty! It was about a fish. Let me see if I can find it… Yes! Amazon has it for $149. Yipes, wish I’d kept my little books. 💰

What three books best sum up your taste in literature?

Jennifer Crusie’s Faking It (romance). Ray Carver’s Where I’m Calling From (literary fiction/short stories). The Third Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders (murder/drama/police work).

Six Degrees 4 [blogcarnelli]

Welcome to Blog Carnelli! This is a fun, no-pressure, no time limit prompt. The idea is to use the six degrees of separation concept (that everyone is only six or fewer people away from Kevin Bacon) to connect books, movies, and songs.

Today I’m starting with the last item from my Six Degrees 3 post. That was the book Wesley the Owl by Stacey O’Brien. I’m using the author’s name Stacey to connect to the first entry in this post.

Stacey Wiedower wrote 30 First Dates, a fun romance novel about a blogger (yay!) who decides to go on 30 dates with 30 different men before she turns 30. It’s part of the “bucket list” of experiences she wants to check off, and she shares her adventures with her readers. I think we can all relate to this book in some way. This is a romance, so we can expect the HEA, and the book delivers, but not too predictably.

The movie 50 First Dates stars Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. Now, usually I dislike watching the characters that Sandler plays, but Henry is an exception. He’s really sweet in this! Drew as Lucy is funny and adorable as always. The twist in this tale is that Lucy had an accident which robbed her of her short-term memory, so every day Henry must think of a new way to woo her. Lucy also has a very (over)protective family who is watching out for her, and Henry has to get on their good side too. The movie was filmed in gorgeous Oahu and was directed by Peter Segal.

What do you think I’ll chose next? Of course! It’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” written and sung by Paul Simon on his 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years.” Supposedly, this song was motivated by Paul’s divorce and his decision to address the breakup in a lighthearted manner. The song seems pretty cute with all the rhymes of male names, but I take it somewhat seriously as well. It can be hard to leave someone… you can feel paralyzed, like there’s just no way to deal with the logistics of it. A friend may point out the various ways it’s possible for you to end the relationship, but ultimately you need to summon up enough emotional energy to get it done.

In 2001’s Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon’s character Elle Woods uses a breakup to motivate herself to go to law school. She takes her silly blonde self and her cute puppy across the country from sunny SoCal to staid New England. Initially, Elle enrolls in order to be close to the jerk who dumped her, but soon she discovers that Harvard Law is actually the right place for her as she begins to hit the books and impress her professors. This film was directed by Robert Luketic.

Reese played June Carter Cash, Johnny Cash’s second wife, in Walk the Line, a 2005 musical/drama directed by James Mangold. Joaquin Phoenix played Johnny. I love this movie so much! All the music is wonderful and Reese & Johnny knock “Jackson” out of the park. There’s a lot of sadness mixed in with the great music. Wonderful film.

“Draggin’ the Line” is a 1971 song written and sung by Tommy James after he left the Shondells. It’s been speculated that the song refers to drug usage (especially after “Crystal Blue Persuasion”), but Tommy said no… it was simply about having to go to work every day. This view holds up too, since the song also mentions “checking the line,” possibly referring to setting up power lines back then.

Okay then. That wraps up my fourth post on Blog Carnelli. I hope you enjoyed it and will join in with your own.

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Number Jumble [socs]

More than a hundred? That’s a tough one. I guess there are thousands of cat crunchies in the cat food bags altogether. Likewise, I just bought a double pack of ibuprofen, which has a thousand total pills. I’m sure I must have over a hundred vitamin tablets if you add up all the different ones.

I don’t have over a hundred physical books today because I donated so many when I moved, but it’s likely I have a hundred plus DVDs. Same goes for CDs. I have thousands of photos all neatly filed away. I bet there are over a hundred pieces of pasta if you add my three boxes together. Mmm pasta! I bought it in the lockdown but never made any.

I must have a hundred fears and regrets, goals and dreams. A hundred ideas for blog posts, poems, and stories? Of course. Are there 100+ migraines lurking in my future? I would think so. That’s only about 4 years worth, enough to last me through the next presidential election, should there be one.

And I think that’s where this post should end. 😛

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image credit to Shelley Krupa

Echoes in the Rain

[Created this poetry from titles on my read shelf at Goodreads. Added a few transition words and some punctuation.]

Shattered,
Since you’ve been gone…
I realize love is a numbers game.
What was lost
In the romantic English garden?
Only the truth.
Broken glass,
Snow & ash,
My hungry heart:
All are burnt offerings
In the full dark,
No stars.

Bleeding ink
For the wrong man,
I write the book of longing.
The wreckage
Of crooked little lies
Leads me to dark places–
Misery turns to obsession.
It becomes irresistible
To beg… let’s begin again.
Worth the risk?
Whisper me this:
“I will never leave you.”

Until we kissed,
I didn’t know about letting go,
Or devotion,
That dark surrender,
Such bitter sweets,
Becoming a heart of fire–
A jewel, when love rises.
And when you disappeared,
The reflected echo
Of the things we don’t say
Faded to only the rain,
And then there were none.

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image credit ~ Happy Color

Found poetry idea from Libre Paley

Super Jumbo Deluxe Combo Post

Time slid by like reflections smeared by the rain. Each moment seemed compelling until it was replaced by the next one, like a picture inside a kaleidoscope. She felt as if she were a mere park bench in a painting, observing her own life but not participating in it, still having trouble transitioning to this new way of living, working, being. There were smiles, of course, such as last weekend when she saw her friends again. They watched a movie outdoors, and it was L.A. Story with Steve Martin, which she thought she should like, but it was vaguely disappointing. Her instincts protested against all the grabbiness by the various characters, even though it was done in the name of comedy. That’s supposed to excuse a lot of unacceptable behaviors, isn’t it?

Maybe it was her, her habit of craving stability and sameness in a world gone mad. Perhaps it was time to fling off her fears and dive into the chaos, as she had done when younger. But that was a road to nothing ultimately, and while she didn’t have an overwhelming sense of regret for her choices, they hadn’t led to anything great either. But maybe greatness wasn’t the point… maybe a better method would be to appreciate each moment fully before it was washed away in the rains of time bla bla bla. As her favorite quote went: life is short; eat dessert first.

That thought reminded her of one of her favorite books: The Unbearable Lightness of Being. She had read it several times, and it was such a great study in the intricate differences of perspectives. When they cast Daniel Day Lewis as the lead, she’d been pleased. He so perfectly matched the image in her mind of the philandering doctor in the book. The movie itself was good, but it couldn’t live up to the book’s greatness because there was no way to bring in all the crucial nuances of the narrative.

The Glass Castle, on the other hand, had disappointed her with the lead. This was one of her favorite books and yet Brie Larson as Jeannette didn’t feel right at all. There was something off about her voice, tone, and looks. She’d never envisioned J as an adult Manhattan snob the way she was portrayed by Brie. There was a strong undercurrent of angst and loss in the book’s Jeannette, not this smoothly perfect adult. However, Woody Harrelson as the raging alcoholic father was a perfect fit. She decided that casting was an onerous task and she would certainly find it tough. There were so many factors to consider.

In any case, she had a family beach day to look forward to tomorrow, which would probably end up as next week’s smile. But how was it possible that over half a year had passed in this strange limbo? She didn’t want to spout cliches, but she had the eerie sense that the ending was rushing toward her like an out of control semi-truck on a slippery downhill slope. Or perhaps it would be a warm gentle fog of nothingness as the colors all blended into one…

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Written for Trent’s Weekly Smile.

Written for Fandango’s Provocative Question 84.

Written for Fandango’s Dog Days of August 26.

Written for Eugi’s Weekly Prompt ~ Transition.

Image credit ~ lovethispic

Six Degrees 3 [blogcarnelli]

Welcome to Blog Carnelli! This is a fun, no-pressure, no time limit prompt. The idea is to use the six degrees of separation concept (that everyone is only six or fewer people away from Kevin Bacon) to connect books, movies, and songs.

Today I’m starting with the last item from my Six Degrees 2 post. That was the novel My Trashy Romance by Terry Black. I’m using the word black to connect to the first entry in this post.

1. “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones. This 1966 song has darkly themed lyrics about depression and death. It’s one of their greatest hits, maybe because most people can relate to feeling hopeless from time to time.

2. The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro. This is a suspense novel centered upon a Degas painting that the heroine has been commissioned to reproduce. She suspects that the piece is itself a forgery and becomes involved in a tangle of lies and thieves.

3. Faking It by Jennifer Crusie. This romance novel is a fun romp through the world of art fakes and forgeries. Tilda, the heroine, and many other characters are constantly pretending to be people they aren’t.

4. We’re the Millers, a film starring Jennifer Aniston. This comedy centers on a drug dealer who needs to go to Mexico and pick up a shipment or else be killed. To be inconspicuous, he recruits a stripper (Jen) and a couple random teenagers to pose as a family.

5. “Fly Like an Eagle” by Steve Miller Band. This 1976 song talks about revolution and the impoverished. Yet, despite these heavy themes, the narrator would prefer to simply fly away to the sea and be free of it all.

6. Wesley the Owl by Stacey O’Brien. This is a heartfelt story of a little broken bird and the biologist who cares for him his whole life. It’s a love story and it’s wonderful. I highly recommend it.

Okay then. That wraps up my third post on Blog Carnelli. I hope you enjoyed it and will join in with your own. Since I want to keep track of my connections in order not to repeat any, I created this handy little table in Word. In real Carnelli, if you repeat any item in a round, you are out of the game.

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Six Degrees 2 [blogcarnelli]

1. Today I’m taking the last entry from my previous post (“Folsom Prison Blues”) and using the theme of feeling stuck (a word in FBP’s lyrics). One of my favorite songs, “Hotel California,” also has a trapped theme. It’s by the Eagles. Initially the narrator feels welcome at the HC, but eventually realizes there is no escape. The song includes the line this could be heaven or this could be hell.

2. The 2019 movie Vivarium (starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots) also switches from the idea of something that seems great to the realization that it’s horrible. A young couple go to look at their possible dream home with an estate agent. He disappears and the couple is left stranded in a maze of horror. They are forced to raise a baby who may be some kind of demon from hell (or an alien).

3. Speaking of hellish homes, I present We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. What’s going on here? Is this creepy family dead or alive? I enjoyed this psychological horror story very much. I also love a story told by an unreliable narrator. The novel has two sisters as main characters.

4. One of my favorite romcoms, 27 Dresses, features two sisters dealing with their romances. They are first of all in love with the same man (for a while) and second must untangle themselves from various deceptions. It’s a funny and sweet film.

5. “Alice’s Restaurant” repeats the lyric 27 glossy photos with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one to be used as evidence against us. Those were pictures of the heap of trash that the narrator and a friend illegally added to on Thanksgiving. This is a war protest song by Arlo Guthrie about the Vietnam draft, among other things.

6. My Trashy Romance is a fun story about a trash collector who falls for a librarian. Initially, they hit it off, but she discovers something that upsets her, so she breaks up with him. But does he win her back? This witty novel is written by my real-life friend Terry Black.

Okay, that’s it for my second six degrees / blog Carnelli post and I will continue on at some future date…

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Photo credit ~ Kevin Bacon, the original six degrees dude, via Google

New Prompt ~ Six Degrees

I found the 6 Degrees idea at my friend Davida’s blog, but I’m going to tweak it a bit. She links to a prompt that asks us to describe 6 books, each connected to the previous one in some way (a word in the title, the same author, a theme, etc.). That reminded me of a super fun game I’ve played called Carnelli, which uses books and movies. Since I’m pretty flexible with rules, I’m going to allow songs and poems too ~ anything written, basically.

Blog Carnelli is what this is, my friends, and I hope you will join in. Take any one of my 6 items and start your own Six Degrees post (no time limit)… or take one from another player. Can you just begin your own from scratch? Sure, why not! We can use the tag #blogcarnelli to find each other.

If you’re wondering what is the deal with Kevin Bacon, click here. Okay? I’m gonna start! 🤩

1. Hollow Man. This is a 1980 movie starring Kevin Bacon as an arrogant creep of a scientist working on an invisibility serum for the military. There’s also a love triangle involved with Elisabeth Shue. The movie is violent and somewhat predictable, but hey Bacon.

2. Leaving Las Vegas. This is a 1995 movie starring Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue. The story centers on the relationship between an alcoholic man who has lost everything that mattered to him and a prostitute. Sad, but great.

3. The Glass Castle. This is a 2005 memoir by Jeannette Walls, where she chronicles her childhood with an alcoholic father. I found it utterly engrossing. There’s a movie version, but it’s not nearly as good as the book.

4. “Heart of Glass.” This is a 1978 new wave song by Blondie. It was written by group members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. Though the music is upbeat, the lyrics are focused on mistrust and heartbreak.

5. The Heart Goes Last. This is a 2015 novel by the wonderful Margaret Atwood. It’s a dystopian romp where you have to agree to be a part-time prisoner in order to have a modicum of security. Thought provoking!

6. “Folsom Prison Blues.” This is a 1955 song by Johnny Cash told from the point of view of a prisoner. The guy is lamenting his loss of freedom when he hears the train go rolling by. A classic! 🎶💖

So, there you have it. My first Six Degrees #blogcarnelli post. More will come along at random… looking forward to yours!

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Outstanding Q’s

Thanks to Sandmanjazz for nominating me as an Outstanding Blogger! Yay awards! Oh wait, I don’t do blog awards these days, but I will answer SMJ’s interesting questions.

1. What is your position on School Uniform?

– I’m pro uniform. I know, I know, that doesn’t seem to jive with my usual ideas about creativity and free expression. But sometimes one must be practical. Kids are too distracted imo by each other’s clothing (or lack of) and other embellishments to focus on academics. A dress code will help refocus them. Plus, it will also help to erase some of the stratification among haves and have-nots.

2. Do you prefer paper books or a kindle, and why?

– I actually prefer my Kindle now. It took me a long time to adapt, but now I have, and I appreciate the reduction in waste and clutter. I enjoy the bookmark feature to easily return to pages to ponder. And I like the fact that I can go to bed, turn off the light, and read until sleepy via the light from the Kindle.

3. If you were if charge of your Country, what would be your first act in office? (Resignation is not an option)

– Appoint a bunch of smart, competent people to advise me in every area.

4. Who would you get to play you in a film of your life and why?

– Dulla McBoring. Speaks for itself! 🤣

5. Do think it is a good or bad idea for a writer to use a pen name for different genres/styles of book?

– Supposedly it’s a good idea because of our obsession with labeling people and putting them in categories. If a romance writer decides to write a war history, she won’t be taken seriously unless she nyms up. I wish things were different and we didn’t have to worry about labels. But they aren’t and we do.

6. Do you enjoy spicy food?

– I do not. I’m very sensitive to spice and only enjoy mild flavorings in most cases. I used to put wasabi on sushi/sashimi (gave up eating raw fish since), which didn’t bother me like other spices do. But as far as chilies and other mouth blasters, ack no thanks! I even have to be careful with normal black pepper or else I get a tummy ache.

7. What would you want your Epitaph to say?

– “I’ll be back!” 👻

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image credits ~ Bitmoji