(Creative Non-Fiction, Fiction, Poetry, Metaphysical Musings, Occasional Humor and B.S.) featuring Guest Musicians, Poets, and Other Creators because variety is the spice of life.
Is there enough time left For someone to learn how I like my eggs Or what side I sleep on Which towel I prefer Why I like The Wailin Jenny's And Kurt Vonnegut And what black walnuts mean to me
Is there enough time To understand the way I dance And what breaking cookies means Or why I take so many pictures How important running water is And thunder And why I worship the wind
Will anyone ever understand What it means to stroke my hair Or how I love the way I love Or when to hold me when I joke And when to step back when I cry And vice versa
I hope so. God, I do so hope. ~~by Ginger Hamilton [Tomorrow: Sunlight on a Pond] If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can borrow it for free! For the rest of you, it's only 99 cents. What, you ask? My first short story exclusively for Kindle, now available for purchase on Amazon. I hope you will consider writing a review once you've read it. :)
"Monsters Welcome Here" is the tale of Dwayne, who went out of his way to create the scariest Halloween ever. Did he go too far?
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- "God damn it, you've got to be kind." ~~Kurt Vonnegut [Tomorrow: Foggy Mountain Breakdown]
This isn't my actual birthday cake, but I wish it was!
For my birthday, I'm not writing a
column. I'm just listing random images and lyrics I like (emphasis on “random”). Because that's how I roll, baby! It's my day and it's even more about me than usual! Um, did I say that out loud? I provided links (and in some cases, imbedded the videos themselves) to videos for easy reference. You can get my intended effect from this column without listening to the songs themselves. They will, however, enrich your experience if you do choose or are able to listen (specifically, the two videos past the photo of a leopard).~~GHC
Vincent van Gogh's “Starry Night” is my favorite painting. The
rhythm of the elements, the theme of darkness and isolation and
nature, the redemption of Light – yeah, good stuff.
Procol Harem's “A Whiter Shade of
Pale” - Keith Reid
If Music be the food of Life
then Laughter is its Queen
(Keith Reid suggests he wrote “Life” although the lyrics are
almost always transcribed as “Love.” To me, Love is Life,
so it's all the same.) Music and Laughter. Good stuff.
I wonder what influence music had on van Gogh? Music is vital to my
soul. An artful lyric turned just so can affect my mood and change my
outlook for hours, if not days. A rhythm, a tone, a note can resonate
and touch my heart in a way little else can. A good laugh can lift me
for a week.
Alan Parsons Project “The Eye in the
Sky”
The sun in your eyes made some of
the lies worth believing.
Songwriters:
WOOLFSON, ERIC / PARSONS, ALAN / LELEY BERTAZZO, WANDERLEY BERTAZZO
PINTO / LUIZ BATISTA, LUIZ ANTONIO BATISTA MONTAGNA
Did
you ever really pay attention to the full lyrics of
“Scarborough Fair”? The full version has two songs, Scarborough Fair and Canticle sung in a
quasi-round, and the second song is about war. The best I could come
up with as far as a label goes is it is a “canon.” (Forgive my musical ignorance). Trivia: Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme represent comfort, strength, love, and courage.
Simon
and Garfunkel “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” - Traditional/Traditional
Blankets
and bedclothes the child of the mountains
Sleeps
unaware of the clarion call
That's
the first verse of the second song. I won't spoil it for you. Watch
the video and read the lyrics as you listen to the canon. Maybe
you'll understand why this line touches me so: And to fight
for a cause they've long ago forgotten
Yes
- “I've Seen All Good People” - Jon Anderson and Chris Squire
Vicky Bragova-Mitchell is a friend and fellow Zazzle designer (except she is an actual Artist with a capital "A" and I just play a graphic designer on the Internet). We first got to know each other in 2004. Check out her Wikipedia page for info about her fascinating life (and trust me, there is SO much more). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicky_Brago-Mitchell
While
the majority of the song is sailing jargon, the heart of it is, I
think, about recovery.
In
a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you...
What
Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten
Who
knows Love can endure and you know it will
The
truth you might be running from is so small
But
it's as big as the promise of a coming day
And
my love is an anchor tied to you with a silver chain
She
is all that I have left, and Music is her name
So
we cheated and we lied and we tested
And
we never failed to fail – it was the easiest thing to do
You
will survive being bested
Somebody fine
will come along and make me forget about loving you -------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a line from "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" said by the dark-skinned, tattooed Moor in response to a little Anglo girl's question about why he looks different ("Did God paint you?"). Akeem gently answers, "For certain. Because Allah loves wondrous variety."
Julie Fowlis and
Bruce Molsky - “Bothan Airagh Am Braigh Raithneach”
“A shelter on the
slopes of Rannoch (in Scotland)”
**If it is at all possible, I urge you to listen to this song.**
English translation: It was
my love and my treasure
who
went yesterday to Glengarry,
the
man with hair like gold
and
kisses that taste of honey.
You
suit your clothes
better
than any man on earth;
you
look better in your garments
than
any man I've ever seen.
You
look better in stockings
and
comfortable laced shoes,
a
dark blue London coat
that
cost many crowns to buy.
When
you arrive at the fair,
you'll
bring home my gear,
my
small belt and my comb
and
my little narrow fastening
head-band.
My
belt will come from Edinburgh
and
my marriage head-dress from
Dunkeld,
we'll
get cattle from the Mearns
and
sheep from Caithness.
And
we'll rear them in a sheiling
in
Bràigh Raithneach,
in
the brush-wood enclosed hut of
dalliance.
The
cuckoo will sing
its
song to us from the trees,
the
brown stag and its roaring
will
wake us in the morning.
Who
could ask for more than to be sequestered in a shelter on the
slopes of a hill in Scotland with Nature surrounding you and the one you love? Throw in some music and books, good food and an animal or two or three, and you've pretty well defined Heaven for me.
--------------------------------------------------------------- Then there's Dr Pepper, and cheesecake.
Then there's the Shenandoah Valley, my favorite place on earth. Photos do not do it justice.
This time last year, I thought I knew what Life held for me. I was married and expected to remain so for the rest of my days. Now I find myself turning 55 today, unattached, the future a blank slate. I hold my chalk and doodle, wondering how the shapes will firm up. And just when we think we understand, Life giggles behind her hand and shows us what fools we are to think we can ever figure her out. As Robert Frost said so well:
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
Or as my favorite writer put it: So it goes.~~Kurt Vonnegut Which leads me to close with my favorite singer's lyrics to "And So It Goes":
In every heart there is a room a sanctuary safe and strong to heal the wounds from lovers past until a new one comes along
I spoke to you in cautious tones you answered me with no pretense and still I feel I said too much my silence is my self defense
And every time I've held a rose it seems I only felt the thorns and so it goes, and so it goes, and so will you soon I suppose
But if my silence made you leave then that would be my worst mistake so I will share this room with you and you can have this heart to break
And this is why my eyes are closed it's just as well for all I've seen and so it goes, and so it goes, and you're the only one who knows
So I will choose to be with you that's if the choice were mine to make but you can make decisions too and you can have this heart to break
And so it goes, and so it goes, and you're the only one who knows.
Trivia: This song was so intensely personal to Billy Joel that it was not released for seven years after he wrote it. I think it's exquisitely beautiful.
Thank you for reading. I'm looking forward to the best year yet. Thanks for traveling along with me. You're a great companion.~~GHC
I feel like singing. Singing something silly like "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall." Except I want to change the lyrics to go with "25 days without nicotine" to celebrate nearly three weeks smoke free.
I still think about cigarettes, but not too much. Outside waiting for my ride today, everyone around me smoked and I got a heavy dose of second-hand smoke. It still wasn't too bad. I remember wondering if I would smell like cigarettes, and hoped I didn't. The cigarette smoke doesn't smell terrible to me like I figured it would by now.
Been working on my novel most of the day while not in class. It's coming along, s-l-o-w-l-y but surely. Right now, I am doing a lot of write/revising as I go along. Instead of free flow, stream of consciousness writing, I am laboring over word placement, usage, diction, blah blah blah. I'm just trying to accept it (for now) as less work I'll need to do later.
Last night, my novel writing class professor likened what he's read of my novel so far as being written in the styles of Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller. I was touched, moved, tickled and honored. I admire both of them very much. I actually chatted with Joseph Heller online several years back. He was fun to talk to -- dark, sad, depressed but clever and kind. If I could only write half as well as he did, I'd be thrilled.
