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Melanie is back to “normal” this week with her own four questions and nothing on HP.

1. Where do you feel most at home? Please be more specific than “at home, doh” please. It could be a room in your home, a person, a location… 😝 😁 😇

I enjoy being home and feel comfy sitting at my kitchen table with laptop, phone, cuppa tea, and Gatsby nearby.

2. Would you rather ride a bike, ride a horse, or drive a car? 🐎 🚗 🚲

Car, I guess, if I have to. Definitely not a horse because all that bumping would kill my back, and so would a bike these days, probably. Last time I rode a bike, I had massive neck and shoulder pain for a week after.

3. What song would you sing on “Karoke Night” (if you were forced to do so)? 🎤 🎶 🎻🎷🎺🎸🎵🎹

I have sung at karaoke and done a terrible job too. My voice is horrible plus idk when to even start singing! I think I attempted “Bang Bang” by Cher and a few others. Blocked it from my memory mostly…

4. University or life experience, which do you feel best prepares you for life? 🎓

First, I don’t think the “traditional” college experience of living away from home with a bunch of other clueless teenagers, being thrown into social and sexual situations you’re unprepared for, and drinking booze like a maniac is a good thing. Don’t even get me started on the travesty of “Greek life.” Second, I think trade schools have been way undervalued the past several decades while people rack up ridiculous debt to get a 4-year degree. The trades should be much more respected ~ we need plumbers more than marketers! That said, if someone takes a well-rounded slate of college classes and exposes their mind to literature, philosophy, art, psychology, etc., this all can be helpful throughout your life in order to better grasp history, logic, and human behavior. But ultimately, nothing better prepares you for life than living it and transforming your bad choices into learning experiences.

5. What are you grateful for?

This week I’m grateful for delicious pluots. Mmm, so good!

~*~

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

SLS ~ Sister

Thanks once again to our musical host Jim Adams for this week’s prompt. I chose “Hey, Soul Sister” by Train, from their 2009 album Save Me, San Francisco. I’ve posted this song before, along with others from that album cuz it’s one of my favorites.

HSS is Train’s best-selling song, reaching No. 1 in 16 countries and taking the No. 3 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100. Lead singer/writer Pat Monahan wanted to do a song in the style of INXS and collaborated with the Espionage duo (from Norway) to achieve the effect. Lead guitarist Jimmy Stafford says that the lyrics were inspired by Pat’s idea of what Burningman must be like.

Hey, Soul Sister

Hey
Hey
Hey
Your lipstick stains
On the front lobe of my left side brains
I knew I wouldn’t forget you
And so I let you go and blow my mind
Your sweet moonbeam
The smell of you in every single dream I dream
I knew when we collided
You’re the one I have decided who’s one of my kind
Hey, soul sister
Ain’t that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo
The way you move ain’t fair, you know
Hey, soul sister
I don’t want to miss a single thing you do
Tonight
Hey
Hey
Hey
Just in time
I’m so glad you have a one-track mind like me
You gave my life direction
A game show love connection we can’t deny
I’m so obsessed
My heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest
I believe in you, like a virgin, you’re Madonna
And I’m always gonna wanna blow your mind
Hey, soul sister
Ain’t that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo
The way you move ain’t fair, you know
Hey, soul sister
I don’t want to miss a single thing you do
Tonight
The way you can cut a rug
Watching you’s the only drug I need
So gangster, I’m so thug
You’re the only one I’m dreaming of you see
I can be myself now finally
In fact there’s nothing I can’t be
I want the world to see you be with me
Hey, soul sister
Ain’t that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo
The way you move ain’t fair, you know
Hey, soul sister
I don’t want to miss a single thing you do tonight
Hey, soul sister
I don’t want to miss a single thing you do
Tonight
Hey
Hey
Hey
Tonight
Hey
Hey
Hey
Tonight

~*~

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

Thursday Inspo 75

Welcome to Thursday Inspiration! This is my weekly prompt and hopefully it will inspire you to write something creative, perhaps a poem or a piece of flash fiction. I will try to visit everyone who links back to this post. 🙂

This week’s theme is guitar and the picture is below. Here is the song snippet from “Guitar Man,” a 1972 song by Bread.

Night after night
Who treats you right
Baby, it’s the guitar man
Who’s on the radio
You go listen to the guitar man

~*~

©️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

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

Baby Baby Baby [MLM]

Yeah, I got your message in a bottle. And now you followed me all around New York City.

I was hoping to reconcile, sugar pie honey bunch. Baby, I need your loving. Honey, I miss you and I’m being good. Just give me one more chance. Oh babe, what would you say?

I think my silence speaks for itself. Now take your massive ego and walk away.

Don’t do me like that! Oh girl. Don’t be cruel. Baby, I’m a want you…

I hear your frustration. But you and I travel to the beat of a different drum. I told you not to get hooked on me.

Baby I love your way. Every day! Please let me call you sweetheart.

You don’t actually know my name, do you?

~*~

Written for Mindlovemisery’s Challenge.

Photo credit to Ali Pazani (alipzn) via Unsplash.

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

Thursday Inspiration 74

Welcome to Thursday Inspiration! This is my weekly prompt and hopefully it will inspire you to write something creative, perhaps a poem or a piece of flash fiction. I will try to visit everyone who links back to this post. 🙂

This week’s theme is butterfly and the picture is below. Here is the song snippet from “Elusive Butterfly,” a 1966 song by Bob Lind.

Don’t be concerned, it will not harm you
It’s only me pursuing somethin’ I’m not sure of
Across my dreams with nets of wonder
I chase the bright elusive butterfly of love

~*~

©️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

SLS ~ Contrasts

Thanks once again to our musical host Jim Adams for providing another great Song Lyric Sunday prompt. Today’s theme is contrasts and a tune that perfectly illustrates this concept is the funny theme song from Green Acres. This TV show featured a lawyer (played by Eddie Albert) who wanted to give up city life to become a rural farmer, and his glamorous wife (played by Eva Gabor) who missed the city.

Green Acres

Green Acres is the place to be.
Farm livin’ is the life for me.
Land spreadin’ out so far and wide.
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.
New York is where I’d rather stay.
I get allergic smelling hay.
I just adore a penthouse view.
Dah-ling I love you but give me Park Avenue.
…The chores.
…The stores.
…Fresh air.
…Times Square.
You are my wife.
Good bye, city life.
Green Acres we are there.

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/greenacreslyrics.html

This song was written for the show in 1965 by Vic Mizzy. Green Acres ran for 6 seasons when it was dumped in the “rural purge.”

~*~

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

Image credit to Jim Adams

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.

Thursday Inspiration 73

Welcome to Thursday Inspiration! This is my weekly prompt and hopefully it will inspire you to write something creative, perhaps a poem or a piece of flash fiction. I will try to visit everyone who links back to this post. 🙂

This week’s theme is mystery and the picture is below. Here is the song snippet from “Building A Mystery,” a 1997 song by Sarah McLachlan.

‘Cause you’re working
Building a mystery
Holding on and holding it in
Yeah you’re working
Building a mystery
And choosing so carefully

~*~

©️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

SLS ~ Song from a Musical

Thanks once again to our tuneful host Jim Adams for providing this week’s prompt. It’s a good one… perhaps too good. I kept going back and forth about which song to use, since there are so many musicals I love. Chicago, Fiddler, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Grease, Mamma Mia (1 & 2), Walk the Line, Footloose, etc. But I’m gonna go with Hair and one of my favorite songs from that show is “Easy To Be Hard.” The lyrics are evergreen, imo, targeting people who devote themselves to causes and neglect their own families.

This song came out in 1967 with the musical. It was written by Gail MacDermot, James Rado and Gerome Ragni, and it was sung by Lynn Kellogg in the role of Sheila on stage. In the movie version, it was sung by Cheryl Barnes (see vid). Three Dog Night covered it in their 1969 album Suitable for Framing. TDN’s version reached #4 on Billboard Hot 100 and was ranked 33 for that year (1969).

Easy To Be Hard

How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no

Especially people who care about strangers
Who care about evil and social injustice
Do you only care about being proud
How about I need a friend, I need a friend

How can people be so heartless
You know I’m hung up on you
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no […]

~*~

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

Image credit to Jim Adams