Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Distractions & Derisions

So far in 2014, I have made 2 blog entries.  Quite a change from the two years prior, when I was writing at least one entry a week.  Granted, things are different -- the biggest difference is that I am no longer living in the Middle East, which means I am no longer traveling to strange new places, meeting interesting people, or falling off of walls I should not have been climbing in the first place.  So the uniqueness of material to write about has declined, but there are still many interesting things going on in my life and mind.  I did take time to write about two of them:  Mary Poppins and Linda Ronstadt (there is probably a graduate level psychology paper about how those two women figured in), but the reason why is a little deeper.  In the end I have determined it is Mark Zuckerberg’s fault.
 
All of my entries are based on something that happened to me and how I felt about it.  In many cases, the bizarre titles of my entries are the actual starting string of thought that led to the blog entry.  When I was in Kuwait, I did not play on Facebook at all, but upon arriving back I started to read it more often to keep up with family and friends.  As a result of that, I starting making Facebook entries out of those starting strings of thought, rather than letting the ideas mull around in my mind for a few days and developing them into a short essay that would end up posted on my blog.  Facebook ate my initial ideas before they could develop into a full-fledged examination of situations.
 
To curb this in the coming year, I will Facebook a lot less and save to savor those ideas that pop into my mind until I have time to develop them into something more.  I will also go back to writing for a few hours every Sunday to give myself time to capture those savored thoughts and their resolution.
 
Happy New Year!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 19, 2014

All I'm Saying Is I'm Not Ready

I have spent over four weeks working on this entry. My last iteration was almost 3000 words; overall I think that I have written 7000+ words trying to create the entry with no success.  This started out as a very simple piece in which I was trying to express gratitude and deep feeling for someone whose talents effected a seriously confused period in my life. However, as I was conducting active research, which I often do while writing, I started to uncover facts that I was unaware of and as I did the entry started to fall apart while I was writing.  This was not because my opinions or facts were wrong but I simply knew only one side of the person I was writing about. The discovery of additional information so drastically changed my opinion about the person that I found myself questioning the rationale and purpose for what I was writing.  In the end, I was so conflicted that I just kept writing but could never draw any conclusion that stood up against the information that I was finding.  I will also say that I have serious qualms about taking some of what I found to be truly attributable to the subject matter because in many respects there is a deep dichotomy between what was being reported and a lifetime of actions that simply did not mesh.  

After reading my last attempt at writing this, I know exactly what the kid felt like who looked up at Shoeless Joe Jackson after the Black Sox scandal broke and told him “Say it ain’t so Joe.”  So with that thought in mind, I am making a final attempt at this and instead of trying to figure out my feelings about the person and surrounding events, I will just stick to the facts I know and leave out what will never be clarified anyway.

The first song of Linda Ronstadt’s that I can remember hearing was Different Drum; the record was released by the Stone Poneys with her singing lead vocals. Here is a bit of musical trivia for you: Michael Nesmith of the Monkees wrote the song with the intention that it be performed as an acoustic ballad. Linda’s version flips the gender and instead of an acoustic ballad it was turned into something more complex by the producer.  To me it is a perfect showcase for the emotion filled voice and the passionate singing style of Ronstadt -- Nesmith acknowledged that her version "infused it with a new level of passion and sensuality".  But I digress.  

Even though the song was originally released in 1967 it did not touch my life until 1974; proof that a good ballad can always stir the heart.  It was one of the first times that the lyrics of a song collided with my own life and even though the song is written for a much older couple, it seemed to perfectly describe a situation between myself and a 9th grade girlfriend – I wonder where Renee is now.  Looking back, it is hard for me to fathom how I made those parallels in my preadolescent mind but somehow they were drawn.

A few years later, when I was taking a guitar class in high school I was greeted by Linda as she peered down at me from a poster on the wall. Even though I am no fan of shorthair, the image of her on roller-skates stirred my heart every week day in third period.  By then it was the 70s, and she had moved far beyond the Stone Poneys and was lending her voice to many groups singing distinctive harmonies, and coming into her own right as a songwriter and solo performer. At the time, Heart Like A Wheel was still getting airplay on the radio, even though it had been released a year or so earlier, and songs like When Will I Be Loved and others became part of my first attempts at constructing cassette tape playlists.  

It was somewhere around this point in my life that music changed for me. It was no longer something that I listened to with friends just for the fun of it or something to dance to.  Lyrics changed from words that might contain pre-adolescent dirty words (think My Ding A Ling) or situations that were not to be spoken about (think Timothy or D.O.A.) -- there was a distinct transition into something new. Music came to be (and remains) something that I could use to express feelings I had but lacked appropriate words to adequately describe.  From my first recollection of hearing Different Drum through my High School years and on into college Ronstadt was my heart’s spokesperson and her voice was what soothed those early life heartbreaks and times of loneliness.

As the albums kept coming, my admiration and appreciation for Linda grew.  She was a beautiful woman, with a wonderfully expressive and passionate voice, who wrote heart touching lyrics, and stared at me my Junior and Senior years in high school from a poster across the room.  Unlike many songs, I still feel the same about every note of music I heard that Ronstadt wrote and sang, she is still the basis for many of the attractions that I have in life, and I will always admire the creative talent she possesses. She will always be special to me.

Now that I have listened to everything she ever recorded (at least what is still publicly available) I can say that I have no single favorite song – I have 18 – and I enjoy a majority of the songs on every album except Dedicated to the One I Love, which are all lullabies.

The Aladdin incident:  I have no problem being friends or having discussions with people of differing opinions. It leads to healthy debate and helps a person to have well rounded opinions.  However, it is hypocritical for an individual to whine about suppression of their own Free Speech while demanding that anyone else who feels differently be stifled because the other person could not possibly be correct.  Celebrities who read one book or watch one movie and assume they are an expert and that the source they chose is the only viewpoint that should be considered are being narrow-minded.  Being an actor or a singer does not make anyone an expert or someone who should be a quotable authority on anything except maybe acting or singing.  Just because Linda may choose to dedicate a performance of Desperado to propagandist Michael Moore, does not mean that it has to be accepted or thought of that way – besides she and I both know that song was about me and Linda sang it to make me feel better during that turbulent phase of my Senior year. 

During the Spring Concert of my Senior year, I accompanied a vocalist on guitar as she sang Long, Long Time.  Beth had a great voice, but she was not Linda.  Later that night, I dreamed I played the song again – on a moonlit beach with Linda Ronstadt supplying vocals.  She was in denim cutoffs with her long hair pulled back on one side, held in place by a red flower.  I reminisce on that dream from time to time.  There was no conversation – no difficult discussions, we both knew our relationship was deserving of a more worthwhile soundtrack.


Different Drum
Michael Nesmith

You and I travel to the beat of a different drum
Oh can't you tell by the way I run
Every time you make eyes at me
Wo-oh

You cry and moan and say it will work out
But honey child I've got my doubts
You can't see the forest for the trees

Oh don't get me wrong
It's not that I knock it
It's just that I am not in the market
For a girl who wants to love only me

Yes, and I ain't saying you ain't pretty
All I'm saying is I'm not ready
For any person place or thing
To try and pull the reins in on me

So good-bye I'll be leaving
I see no sense in this crying and grieving
We'll both live a lot longer
If you live without me

Oh don't get me wrong
It's not that I knock it
It's just that I am not in the market
For a girl who wants to love only me

Yes, and I ain't saying you ain't pretty
All I'm saying is I'm not ready
For any person place or thing
To try and pull the reins in on me

So good-bye I'll be leaving
I see no sense in this crying and grieving
We'll both live a lot longer
If you live without me



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Saturday, January 18, 2014

Tut Tut Looks Like Rain...and Then The Wind Changed Directions

The theatre in Monterey, now used for concerts and such.
It was long, long ago -- sometime in the 1960s – when I went to my very first movie in a real movie theatre.  My Dad was in Korea at the time and I seem to recall going with some family friends who had kids my age.   The theatre was located in downtown Monterey, California.  Looking back I remember downtown as being large, but at the time I was small so it may have been relative.  We stood in line at least two days -- well I had the time perception of a 6 year old – waiting to get a ticket.  The line of mostly kids and some adults wrapped around the block.  Someone had told me the name of the movie, but I had no idea what the name meant – Merry Popping?  What the heck did that mean?

All theatres of that time looked like this.  Classy, huh?
A few realities that may need to be explained:  TV was still black and white so if you wanted to see something in color you had to go to a large dark room and watch it displayed on a screen.  Also, if you really liked the movie, there was no rewind and start again – or restart button.  You either had to pay to see it again or wait a few years for it to come to TV – AND – if you missed it showing on TV you were out of luck there were no recording devices that allowed time shifting.  So, going to a theatre for a movie was a big deal.

After the time in the outside line, and with tickets bought we stood in line again for popcorn.  Up to this point in my life popcorn was either Jiffy Pop or the stuff my Dad made in a little aluminum corn popper on the counter.  The corn popper, when taken apart for cleaning, revealed metal springs on the bottom which somehow magically turned the kernels into puffs.  But today was the day when I found out what popcorn was truly meant to taste like  -- movie popcorn – made with hydrogenated coconut oil and salted with special salt (never been a big fan of buttered corn).  It was and is as unhealthy as you can possibly make corn (unless you also deep fried it) – but it is also the best tasting snack in the world.

Each of us had a small bag of popcorn in hand as we proceeded into the auditorium and found seats together near the front.  Every seat was taken – the only other movie I experienced that with was a 1 AM showing of Jaws at Ft. Eustis, Virginia.   We sat there for a bit and then the lights went down. 

I always say the first movie I ever saw in a theatre was Mary Poppins, but that is not exactly correct. The first feature I saw was actually Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.  Sterling Holloway’s unique voice was familiar, as he was in a lot of movies I had seen on TV, but this was a very different experience.  The images were huge on the full sized movie screen that was only 20 feet or so from my seat.  The sound was full and clear -- the colors bright and vivid.  It was my first experience with that thing called Movie Magic and I jumped in with both feet and swam around in for the 20 or so minutes of the feature.  So memorable that to this day I still recall that you have to be careful because “You never can tell with bees”.

Then came 140 minutes of magic that was more real than animated.  It all came at me in a rush that I devoured and immersed myself in greedily….dancing chimney sweeps, penguins, a wooden leg named Smith, kids with kites, a canon on a rooftop, flying nannies, evil bankers, a talking dog, and my favorite side character Uncle Albert. The story told with dancing and humor and catchy Sherman brother’s songs – the way I play with words when writing is still influenced by their way of twisting words for lyrics.  I was stunned and amazed.

The movie is known the world over as a classic and it made Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke stars. Even today, I would argue that Dick Van Dyke ruled that movie.  He bound it all together and gave it a connected flow that it would have lacked otherwise.

Decades passed and when I had kids Mary again invaded my life.  This time on a small screen via VHS tape.  Technology had changed so when my daughter wanted to “watch it again” all I needed to do was to rewind the tape and hit Play.   Even though years had passed the movie still contained strong magic.  The things I noticed had changed somewhat – anyone not understand what Bert was really talking about when he was on his Jolly Holiday with Mary?   Then consider how much of a dog Bert was to mention all those other women.  Because of repeated viewings, the hidden meanings in the dialog and the lyrics are hard to ignore. 

More years pass and we arrive at today and someone had decided to take on telling the tale of the complicated relationship between P.L. Travers and Walt Disney and how it played into getting the movie made. I wanted to see it after viewing the first trailer for Saving Mr. Banks, but then I like it when the behind the scenes drama is exposed and all of the trivia that plays into getting something massive off the ground is revealed.  Tom Hanks – great as Walt Disney,  I feel he captured the Walt I knew and grew up with.  Emma Thomson – also great but I had no idea who P.L. Travers was prior to the movie.  I loved the snippets of the Sherman brothers working on songs and dialog for Mary Poppins, I can imagine it being just that way.  The movie is well worth seeing if you have not.
After watching that movie, I watched Mary Poppins again for the first time in years.  Considering the fact that the movie is almost 50 years old, it is amazing how well it holds up and is still relevant with family complexities and issues that have changed little in the intervening years. 

As for any haters who can’t find or understand the magic of Mary Poppins, Saving Mr. Banks or even Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, I can only say supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus.  But then they wouldn’t understand that either.




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