Song Lyrics Sunday: Hide

Billy Joel’s album The Stranger is one of my all time favorite records. It came out when I was a junior in high school and my friends and I listened to it constantly. We loved all the songs on the album. At the time, the title song didn’t have as much of an impact on me as it did later. In 1977, we loved singing along to “Movin’ Out” and “Only the Good Die Young.”

But over the years, “The Stranger” resonated more and more. How true it is that we have a face we hide from the world, and then we’re shocked when the person we love turns out to be a stranger as well. We can never really fully know another person. And maybe not even ourselves…

The Stranger by Billy Joel, 1977

Well, we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out
And show ourselves when everyone has gone
Some are satin, some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They’re the faces of a stranger
But we’d love to try them on

Well, we all fall in love
But we disregard the danger
Though we share so many secrets
There are some we never tell
Why were you so surprised
That you never saw the stranger
Did you ever let your lover
See the stranger in yourself […]

https://youtu.be/E5ofVsxTPoc

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The Obsession with Sound [ranty rant]

I cop to being unusual, but I really do not understand the internet’s obsession with sound. Here we have the perfect medium for the written word and yet people relentlessly attempt to undermine that, day in and day out, with audio. Whyyy???

I mock all of you who can’t go five minutes without listening to music or babble. Hell, I teased my own children about this, not that it did any good. Apparently they were able to get great grades with their awful tunes blasting as they worked, idk how. BACK IN MY DAY, I studied in silence as the goddess intended.

It drives me bananas when I click on a link, believing I’m going to be reading a nice article, but instead a horrible video starts playing. ICK!!! Of course I have my phone on silent, but that’s not the point. The point is… why do so many of you prefer to be yapped at rather than read something at your leisure?

I almost did a lengthy music poll the otter day from a fellow blogger until I realized, meh, I don’t care enough about music to answer all these questions. I’ll tell you guys a secret too, since you’re my extra special blog readers: sometimes I don’t have any music 🎶 on in the car. I just drive along, accompanied only by MY OWN THOUGHTS. Pretty damn scary, eh? Well, I’m a tough old bird. Ask anyone.

Now before anyone misreads this and concludes I hate music ~ I don’t. I simply am not obsessed with it. I enjoy music some of the time. (Audio clips of news items pretty much never ever.) I have a minimal amount of trivia stored in my mind about some oldies, but not a lot and idc. This makes me a mediocre player at many of the music trivia games. Boo hoo. Last couple years I’ve been enjoying a little bit of country music (when it has amusing lyrics) and a little bit of classical (no lyrics). But again, I have no knowledge of these genres. There is nothing more irritating than mentioning I like something to a rabid fan, and then they dive into an enormous boring lecture on the thing. MUTE BUTTON PLZ!

Oh look, I segued into a secondary rant there. It happens. Actually rather a lot. 😂

The takeaway? Silence is next to godliness, even for an atheist. Especially one who gets migraines.

Blue Sky

No, this isn’t about Breaking Bad or the ELO song. It’s a pile of questions I found here on an open tag game, and I’m just grabbing them without following the rules or using the banner cuz that’s how I roll. If any of the questions annoy me, I’ll delete them and possibly substitute my own. Then it’s your turn to play. Or else. 🔥

~*~

1. What country have you never visited but would love to, and why?

– I want to visit England and see majestic old crumbly things like the Queen and have tea and cucumber snadwiches and browse in bookshops and hear men speak in sexy British accents all day (swoonsies).

2. What person in your life (not including family members) has most shaped who you are today?

– Probably my ex-husband of 21 years.

3. List three things that make you happy?

– Kitties, poetry, tea.

4. What’s your favorite genre to read?

– Romance.

5. What time period in history most intrigues you, and why?

– That time when whales walked on land and then went back into the ocean and lost their feets. I haz questions.

6. If you could add a new talent to your repertoire, what would it be, and why?

– Repertoire, lol. I would like to have a sense of direction, thx.

7. Where is your favorite place in the world, and why?

– Anywhere with both my daughters, all of us having a good time.

8. What animal best describes your personality, and why?

– Hermit crab. I like to be home alone, and I’m crabby.

9. What’s your favorite recipe (and please share it)?

– Tea and c00kies. You make some tea and get some c00kies from the c00kie package. Serve with a napkin. Hope that wasn’t too technical.

10. Hiking boots, sneakers, heels, or flip-flops?

– Eh? Cute boots or loafers. Occasional heels but not high ones. Sneakers for long walks. Long meaning over a mile. 😂

11. Would you rather have tons of love and little wealth, or tons of wealth and little love?

– Wealth, tons of. Then watch the love roll in. I know how it works.

12. What’s your favorite flower? Any special reason?

– Yellow roses edged with pink. Also sunflowers and orchids. I love a super colorful bouquet 💐 most of all. No reason.

13. What word do you find annoying, and you hear it all the time?

– It starts with T.

14. What bends your mind every time you think about it?

– The first person who figured out how to make bread. It’s so freaking complicated with a bunch of steps and not something that would have happened by accident.

15. What is in your fridge right now?

– Bread, whale feets. The usual.

K, I’m done. Deleted the rest. Now you!

Sunday Song Lyrics: Find

Unlike last week, a song immediately popped into my mind for today’s prompt. Maybe that’s because I recently read Jim’s super informative (and sad) poast about Badfinger.

“Day After Day” reminds me of specific times in my life when I’ve been sad, after finding out information about someone, and wanting them to return. Even though it’s a depressing song, I really love it. Not sure why. It was written by Pete Ham and produced by George Harrison for Badfinger in 1971. It went gold.

I remember finding out about you
Every day, my mind is all around you
Looking out from my lonely room, day after day
Bring it home, baby, make it soon
I give my love to you

I remember holding you while you sleep
Every day, I feel the tears that you weep
Looking out of my lonely gloom, day after day
Bring it home, baby, make it soon
I give my love to you […]

https://youtu.be/XonFZjuyc6E

 

Thirty in One

I found this at Sparks and I’m a fan of getting things over with, not dragging them out for 30 days. I’m too lazy for that. So brace yourselves for an onslaught of grats, 30 to be exact, right here, right meow 🐱.

I’m grateful for…

Cinnamon and running water;

Turquoise blue and peanut butter;

The sound of silence and

The majestic ocean; memories of

My children 💕 playing at the beach.

Welcome to Temptation by Jen Crusie

Encouraged my own narrative voice;

A shout out to the OC Animal Shelter,

Where I found my sweet kitty cat boy.

I love the taste of pumpkin spice,

Especially on Halloween night; 🎃

The texture of towels warm from the dryer.

I’m grateful I can read and write;

My cat is always a welcome sight!

My migraines are less annoying in fall;

I’m glad I’m in between short and tall

And that I know not to vote for monsters.

Love Starry Night ✨ and the touch

Of my kitty’s soft nose or paw;

I’m grateful for my daughters every day;

And for the best song ever:

Hotel Californ-i-a. 🎶

I like the story of the blue wave 🌊

And the tradition of anger motivating votes 🙄;

I’m grateful for the challenge of trying to not go stark screaming bonkers every second;

THIS FUCKING WEEK ARE YOU MAD??? I mean um… peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s. Really yummy.

Most thankful for writing to express myself, otherwise I would be in a straitjacket.

Drugs. I mean, Rx meds of course. In the immortal words of Matt Damon: WHAT?

Today my daughter’s dog stuck her face through her toy donut 🍩 and it was really cute.

I’m grateful for my friend Jenny who is taking excellent care of my kitty while I’m gone. ❤️

Well, I would be thankful for my small skill at turning this boring thing into a semi-cute pome, but I got all into the weeds there when I was reminded about GRRRR again, and now everything is fucked. But I’m just leaving it now and not deleting it because we are doing Messy Blogs… yes, it’s a thing. And I’m here for it.

Messy Bloggers Unite! Who can make us a cool graphic? Someone plz get on that. TIA!

A Radical Idea [rant!]

I’m not poasting a song for the Sunday lyrics challenge because the internet is entirely too messy and out of control, especially YouTube. It’s disgusting and disgraceful. If I were in charge, I’d burn the whole thing down and start over, making sure everything got filed away in its proper place. I know that’s a radical idea, but honestly there’s no other answer at this point. YouTube in particular is absolutely horrible, as I’ve noted previously. But even google searches are now cumbersome and inaccurate.

It’s difficult to look for song lyrics unless you know the exact line and can put it into quotes or if the song is relatively new. This didn’t use to be the case, but the internet is full of so much trash now and it’s not algorithmed correctly for sorting out. I shouldn’t get separate hits for the same answer ~ forex, if I search for hotel songs, all instances of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” should be grouped under ONE subheading with further filtering available if I click that. Same with “Hotel California” by the Eagles. Etc. People shouldn’t be allowed to shovel every possible keyword into their coding so their sites come up in irrelevant searches. 😡

Anyway, my search for search (today’s prompt) led nowhere except to people asking how to search their history for songs they previously searched for. 🙄 I almost went with the Chi-Lites “Have You Seen Her,” even though they never say search, because it’s in the concept, and I was gonna discuss how that concept is meaningful to me, except I’d really have to disregard most of the lyrics to make that point, so pffft. Someone already took U2’s “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” which resonates strongly with many issues in my life, and I might have used it too, but when I read the lyrics, they struck me as religious and annoyed me.

Then inspiration hit. I’ll use “Looking For Love (in all the wrong places)!” That’s a good song and totally applies to me. But the videos sucked. I recently bought the DVD (for cheap) and rewatched Urban Cowboy, remembering it as a super sweet romance from way back. But it’s not! It’s awful. I did not want the Urban Cowboy vid here. (LFL is the theme song.) The other selections were terrible. I figured okay I bet someone has made a great parody of this song, so I’ll YouTube search for that instead. Nope. All garbage. Pervy aminals. Dopey karaoke. Cheech & Chong. Wtfff? I give up. 🤯

Burn it down, I say. Begin again.

Boring Boring Things

This week’s challenge is mundane and I’m here for it.

Food: turkey, blaaah

Game: Quiddler, 💤

Music: John Denver

Subject: sports, yawn

TV: most “comedy” yuk yuk

Photo:

Elvis the tortoise slooowly nomming kale…

A Big Scoop of Bloggy Goodness

I like personal blogs ~ and no that’s not a euphemism for pr0n. I don’t need to see any body parts, thanks. In fact, I don’t even need to see your face, as gorgeous as I’m sure it is. Some bloggers prefer to jabber away in a bit of anonymity, and while I wish no one felt a need to do this, I respect the decision. Even I don’t reveal my full legal name, because trolls and stalkers.

What I’m talking about is people blogging about themselves and their lives, for the most part. I like to know how others think, how they feel about issues, what’s going on in their world. I don’t mind if people link to news articles if they give their personal opinion about the article. I used to say this repeatedly on Facebook: why are you simply linking to a piece on FOX or CNN? I know how to read the damn news. Give me your take on the story. But nope. Link after link after link. I hid people because of it. To this day, I don’t understand why they do that. Do they really believe their friends are too stupid to read the news without directions? Thank gawd I’m done with that FB crap.

I lurve the bloggers I follow now. In most cases, y’all give your opinions on whatever you link to, and that’s what I want to read. Your thoughts! Even if you’re discussing a pile of songs from the 1960s, I’d like to know what inspired you to choose those particular songs or that artist. What are your memories or emotions from that era which this music evokes?

The human interest angle is what makes a blog shine, even if it’s ostensibly about recipes or flowers or doggie photos. When you consider your favorite TV chef or vet or home improvement guru or whomever, it’s the host’s personality that grabs you more than the content. The content could be offered by anyone.

The other week I watched a docu about meerkats, of all the ridiculous things. But it was fascinating. Why? Because of the narrator! He had a lovely, sexy British voice (redundant there, I realize). I had to look him up: Bill Nighy. He’s the reason why I watched a whole bunch of eps and may watch more. Savage little beasties really. (Btw, it’s called Meerkat Manor, and you have to watch the UK version to get Bill, otherwise you end up with Stockard Channing. 😝)

Ta!

Bottoms Up [mini-rant]

“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than have a frontal lobotomy!”

I said that to my daughter yesterday and she assumed it was one of my brilliant wordplays, but I had to confess I didn’t come up with it. Who did? I asked google, and ended up tangled in a kerfuffle. Even Stephen King has a Twitter thread about the phrase. What’s clear as mud is that the song we know and lurve from Dr. Demento is not its first occurrence.

Seems like either Dorothy Parker, W.C. Fields, or Fred Allen coined it, according to the internet. And not only that, but the original phrasing is like so: “I’d rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy!” If anyone has the definitive story of this phrase, spill it in comments please.

I dedicate this poast to booze, given that it’s the beginning of fall, the harvest moon, and delicious pumpkin spice goodness. I raise my cup of tea in a toast to the season, fruit of the vine, red red wine, and only wish it could be laced with whiskey (or whisky). We have a strange relationship with alcohol in this country. Well, I don’t ~ I have no relationship with it, so sad. Unlike dating, I actually miss alcohol. Love you, bye forever. 😢 🥀💔

As I understand it, if a woman (or girl) gets drunk and something bad happens to her, everyone will say she only has herself to blame.

But if a man (or boy), gets drunk and does something bad, people will excuse his behavior due to the booze and say well ya know… boys, whaddaya gonna do?

We’ve arbitrarily decided that no one can have a taste of alcohol until they’re 21, not even if they’re with their parents, but then we send kids off to college at 18, call them adults… yet they’re totally unprepared to deal with the booze-soaked reality of college life. Parents aren’t allowed to teach a teenager how to drink a glass or two of wine, or a couple beers, so they over-indulge like maniacs once they get away. If you believe that yours aren’t gonna do this, bwahahaha.

So much of dating and adult socializing in general is tied up with our drinking culture in weird ways too, even though we have super strict laws about drunk driving, as we should. We should imo have more enforcement of our other traffic laws too, especially speeding and red light running, huge issues in SoCal. Anyway, dating after divorce reminded me again what a huge part alcohol plays in our society. During my marriage, we rarely drank ~ maybe we should have, lol. But now it’s moot because of chronic migraines.

I know, I know. You were thinking I was about to careen off into a wild rant about you know what and you know who and omg can you believe those guys and did you read what he said about what she said and then that whole thread holy crap on a canapé amirite?

We’re good then.

Song Lyric Sunday: Sleep

Today’s theme is sleep and there sure are a lot of great songs to choose from! One that came to my mind first was Edward Bear’s “Last Song,” and after considering a few others, I decided to go with Bear. It’s a very pretty and sad old song that most people can relate to, about finally deciding to end whatever ritual you may still be doing in the faint hope that your lost love will return. At a certain point, you just have to move on or go crazy.

While researching this song, I learned that there was no singer/songwriter named Edward Bear, as I had assumed, but it was the name of a Canadian trio. The name came from the “proper” name of Winnie the Pooh. There were several iterations of the group over the years, with the constant being the lead singer and organizer Larry Evoy. The band existed from 1966 to 1974, and “Last Song” was a gold record in the U.S. But they were not a one hit wonder and had other charting songs (that I never heard of). Fascinating, eh?

Larry Evoy wrote “Last Song,” which was released in 1972.

Did you know I go to sleep and
Leave the lights on
Hoping you’d come by and know
That I was home and still awake

But two years go by and still
My light’s on
This is hard for me to say
But this is all that I can take

It’s the last song I’ll ever write for you
It’s the last time that I’ll tell you
Just how much I really care
This is the last song I’ll ever sing for you
You’ll come looking for the light
And it won’t be there
But I love you
Oh yes I do
Yes I do […]