On The Edge Of Seventeen

I've always been an eclectic music fan.  My very favorite band when I was a toddler was Herman's Hermits; my mother's aunts(who were nuns, fer cryin' out loud!) loved to tell the story of my mad dance skills when that particular record was played.   Then I got into the old time-y country music of Hank Williams, George Jones, and Conway Twitty, because that is what my parents liked.

And then my brother and I got our own transitor radios.  And one of those kid-sized portable record players that were around in the seventies.  The only radio station available was the military station, and they played Top 40.  My brother and I loved to hear Casey Kasem count down to the top song in the country every week.  When we could talk my parents into it, we would buy records of the artists we loved.  Elton John and Donny Osmond ended up next to The Rolling Stones and The Who, who made room for AC/DC and Queen when the time came.

I turned 16 in 1981.  Reagan was president, the world was "this" close to nuclear annihilation, and we were all ready to forget about all of it.  The music was mostly annoying to me at that time, what with Elvira by the Oak Ridge Boys playing on the radio every 30 seconds, interspersed with Kenny Rogers, Dottie West and John Schneider of Bo Duke fame.  But Devo showed up to Whip It while The Police were all Don't Stand So Close To Me. We all could sense the change in the air, especially when Diana Ross sang I'm Coming Out.

So it's not surprising that one of my favorite songs at sixteen was While You See A Chance, by Steve Winwood, from the Arc of a Diver album.   I'd heard Steve Winwood before, when he sang for Blind Faith, and here he was, reinventing himself as a solo artist.  The lyrics to the song resonated with me:

"while you see a chance, take it, to find romance". 

That song told me that I didn't need to wait for "The ONE" to show up at my door, like a good little girl in a trashy romance novel.  I could explore the world,  ride all the rides and see what I could see. If an opportunity presented itself, I would take it, I decided.  And that's exactly what I did, all through college. I danced and sang and wore bright colors and tight pants and had a blast.

Within reason, of course.   


Go check out Mamakat and her amazing Writer's Workshop! The prompt I chose was
6. What was your favorite song when you were 16 years old…is it still a favorite?

Don't Mean Nothing

I have what you call an eclectic musical taste.  Generally, if it has a good beat, is catchy, and the lyrics could reasonably pass for poetry, I'll at least listen.  There are songs that have personal meaning for me, songs from my childhood, all that.  I'm also a sucker for a good bass line, not that there's anything wrong with that.   My smartphone has all sorts of random music on it.  Music that drives my husband batty, but he only has to listen to it when I drive the car, so I don't know what he's complaining about.  Occasionally, I'll have one of "his" tunes on the rotation, just to freak him out. 

I pushed the 'shuffle' feature, and Don't Mean Nothing, by Richard Marx went to the top of the list.  Most people remember Richard Marx because of a)his completely 80s hairdo, and b)he had a few ballads that were popular for the teenaged girls.  However, this song got to me, probably because of where I was emotionally. 

I took relationships way too seriously.  If a guy told me I was the only girl for him, I believed him.  He said it, that meant it was true.  Except it usually wasn't.  Then I was devastated when the guy did what young people tend to do--moved on to the next "only" girl.  It wasn't that I expected to get married to that guy, or any guy at the time.  It was just that I expected people to say what they mean and mean what they said.  For someone who had spent most of her life not trusting people very much, someone who had been 'abandoned' by people(because we moved away),  suddenly I had gone wayyyyyy over Trust Hill.  Downright gullible.  I was seriously confused about all of that.  It was weird, and obviously there was something clearly wrong with me.

And then Richard Marx set me straight:

Take a good look around and you'll find, 
People trying to mess with your mind...


The video, with that cute dancer from Dirty Dancing, was played often at the time, back when MTV actually played music, and as the lyrics sank in, my spirits lifted.  These games that people play don't mean nothing at all.  These days, when I find myself taking things more seriously than I should, I play this song, and it helps me get back some balance. 


What's on your shuffle?




3.) Pick up your Ipod or phone or whatever stores your music and press shuffle…what comes up first? Tell us about that song choice.

The A-List: Things That Make Me Smile

It's August, and that means that it is time for Happiness Happens month, sponsored by the Secret Society of Happy People.   Go check them out and join in the fun.

Source: sohp.com via Tina on Pinterest

In the spirit of happiness, I decided to think about what makes me smile.  Smiling usually is a sign of happiness, right?  Well, mostly.  If a shark smiles, that's probably not a sign of happiness.  Unless the shark is happy that he's found lunch.  I am generally very happy when I have lunch in front of me, so why not a shark?  How did I get on the topic of sharks?  Back to the topic, which is happiness. 

Everyone wants to be happy, but a lot of people are confused about what constitutes happiness.  Yes, that feeling that you just won the lottery is happiness, but so is the pleasure you feel when you bite into the perfect peanut butter and jelly sammich.  Part of being happy is being in the moment, whether you are onstage receiving the gold medal at the Olympics or sitting in your favorite chair.  These are some of the things that can make me smile and bring me out of a dark mood. 

1.  Children laughing.   Having become a parent, I will be the first to tell you that children sometimes make you want to pull out all of your hair one strand at a time.  However, there's just something about the unfettered, directly-from-the-belly laughter that all kids exhibit that is just plain infectious.  When anyone laughs like that, there's no guile involved, no strings, no conditions.  That's just what kids do, and it is beautiful to hear.  Their joy in the world at that moment is complete, and that always makes me smile. 

2.  Cat purrs.  I love dogs, but cats are my favorite animal.  When a cat purrs, it is one of the most relaxing sounds in the world.  It seems to reverberate through your bones into that portion of your brain where the command to relax is hidden, and whacks that button with a big cat paw.  Purring is a sign of contentment, but it is also a method cats use to self-soothe.  I would love to be able to self-soothe without resorting to eating every piece of chocolate in sight.   When  cat purrs, all is right with the world, it seems. That makes me smile.

3.  Music.   I have favorite songs that always make me smile, even if some of them are incredibly inane or politically incorrect.  Why not songs that make me smile?   Elton John's "This Song Has No Title", is a short song and seems to have been thrown onto the album to take up space--and yet it is one of my favorites and I smile every time I hear it.  "I'm All Right", otherwise known as the Caddyshack song, is completely silly--and I smile every time I hear it.  Sometimes I even dance, but don't tell! Maybe it's that adorable gopher.  I couldn't tell you why, but does it really matter?


4.  That first taste.  When I get up in the morning, I have to have something with caffeine in it, because I am not a crazy person who wakes up all cheerful and perky.  No, I am one of those incoherent Cave Trolls until I have my caffeine.  That first sip of coffee?  The feel of that bittersweet warmth as it hits my tongue and heads down my throat?  Heavenly.  That makes me smile.  But it's not just the first cup of coffee.  It's the first bite of a juicy hamburger, or the first drink of the wine you just opened.  Eating is pleasurable for me, and I like to savor when I can, because it makes me happy.

5.  Reading.   Not everyone can read, and not everyone wants to read.  I find that very sad, since reading opens up a completely different world to a person.  Escaping into a favorite book reduces stress and lets the mind breathe.  No other species has the brain capacity to learn to read.  Those neural pathways do not exist in other mammals, which means that being able to read is a gift.   When I was a kid, I would sit in my room and read for hours.  I have stayed up all night reading a good book.  I love to read.  It makes me smile.  And while I am reading, I am happy. 

Now it's your turn!  What makes you smile?

The Earworms Scare Me Sometimes

I woke up this morning humming "Tennessee Waltz". Before I was even fully conscious, before I had my coffee, that song was looping on a tape in my brain. I even started singing it to myself in the shower, and with that realization came a niggling fear.

WTF? Because that is really the only thing that you can say to yourself at that point, when you realize that you are doing something that is weirder than normal.

It was an earworm. For those who are not sure what exactly an earworm is, it's a song that gets stuck in your head on a loop, and it won't go away. It's usually a song that you hate with the passion of ten thousand suns(like "Riders On The Storm" or that awful song about Barbie), but it can also be a song from your past. Like the "Tennessee Waltz".

It's probably been more than twenty years since I actually heard that song; my tastes run more toward metal-ish, classic rock-ish type stuff. It wasn't likely that I would hear it on the radio.

Where the heck did that earworm come from?

As the day progressed, another earworm showed up, this time it was the theme from the Batman movies. I knew where this one came from--we've been playing Lego Batman and Robin. Larry and I play, at least. Zane seems to think that the game is a movie, and when we give him the controller he seems to enjoy flinging poor Batman off of buildings or into toxic waste. (He also thinks it is hilarious when I accidentally smack Robin around.)

Since I could trace the origin of that particular earworm, it did not cause me the same sort of concern as the "Tennessee Waltz". In fact, it was almost a relief.

My grandmother has dementia. She's in a nursing home, where she is no longer cognizant of anyone or anything that is going on around her. She just lays in a nursing home bed, wasting away. I doubt that my grandmother knew that her memories were being sucked away from her until it was too late, and most of the time people with dementia are pretty good at hiding their deterioration, so there were probably some early signs that everyone missed. I am terrified of that happening to me, because how would I be able to tell something was wrong?

I already have trouble calling family members by the correct name--is that a sign? How would I know if it is? Am I going to be wandering down the road at three in the morning and not know how I got there? What if random earworms are a symptom?
As if I didn't have enough things to be anxious about, now I have to worry about this too? WTF????

Finally, I just got annoyed, which I do more often than is probably healthy. (Is THAT a symptom?) There are TONS of other things for me to worry about, I told myself. Why am I still thinking about this?

Sometimes, as the saying goes, you just have to take a nap and get over it. So that is what I did. And I woke up feeling much better. Relaxed, even.

Until I found myself humming the theme song from...Green Acres.

Anyone else suffer from earworms?

When You Sing, Sing From Your Soul

Soul-singing is singing from the very depths of your soul, the way that all music should be sung. Soul-singing is the joyous, radiant light of Life flooding through the body so powerfully that it flows into the bodies of your neighbors as well. It is the very Spirit of music taking you over and glorying in the sounds you are making. When you are soul-singing, you are transported, ecstatic, and there is no stifling you. It may not be a religious experience, but it very definitely is spiritual. There are no wrong notes in soul-singing because it comes from the heart, and the heart is never wrong about such things.

I know very little music which automatically pulls such glory directly from the soul. One very definitely is the Hallelujah Chorus. I have never heard that song without feeling goosebumps, and I have never sung that song without feeling as though rays of light emerge from my soul. When an entire choir is singing the Hallelujah Chorus, the entire room is exalted. The very air is electrified, it seems. If you speak to other serious vocalists(aka, not Justin Bieber), they will say similar things. Handel captured soul-singing perfectly as if he had experienced it himself. Even if it's a flash mob singing, you can still feel the energy.



I have been trying to think of individual vocalists who sing with their soul, but I'm not having as much luck, probably because I'm still hopped up on Christmas fudge. It's not about technique or skill, it's about something ethereal, so it's hard to describe. You know it when you hear it. So how about it? Anybody know any individual singers/vocalists who seem to sing their souls out, at least for one performance? Post them in the comments!