Little Sister
36 years. 36 years can be a life time.
36 years ago last Friday, the man who was my first crush died.
He was my eldest sister’s crush as well.
I loved how he sang Little Sister because (at eight when I first heard the song) it sounded like he was singing it just for me. At eight, I didn’t know I was already a big sister as well as a little sister.
At eight, I was innocent to the ways of love.
At seventeen (when he died), I could appreciate how hot the young Elvis was. See here…
Though, I was still innocent to the ways of love.
36 years.
Long enough ago that his granddaughter (whom he never met) is following in his acting footprints.
36 years and I still feel like I know nothing about love.
Cat Piano
The Cat Piano from PRA on Vimeo.
From now until after the September long weekend, my blog posts are going to be shallow (as in not deep). Though, it’s not like I’ve been writing deep posts so far all summer.
I am in the mood to not think!
Click on the picture above and enjoy the link.
Jodi’s Meme: My Life According to Blue Rodeo…
The line for the ice cream place, on the corner, is stretching out the door. The leaves are changing colour. Thunder storms are imminent. Summer is almost over.
I am in the mood for a meme.
Memes are school assignments for grown-ups.
This time of the year I want to go back to school. Not High School, perhaps Elementary school and most definitely University. If I had money, I would still be in University, taking classes just for fun and enlightenment. Strolling the campus on cool Fall days, watching the Maple Leaves turn crimson and enjoying long, drawn out debates about everything and nothing.
I’ve been staying out of big box stores because the school displays make me yearn for long afternoons spent in class and hours spent browsing the library. It’s very heard to bypass the colourful new binders, rows of pens and crisp, clean file folders. Oh, okay, I did give in to temptation. I bought two new file folders – a bright plastic yellow one and one with a glittery butterfly on it. The butterfly holds blog ideas – I still think best with pen and paper so the file is full of tiny notes written willy nilly here and there.
So, Class, today’s assignment…sorry, I mean meme…is from Sunday Stealing. The instructions are to use only song names from ONE ARTIST, and to cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. Happy learning (playing) everyone. 😉
I choose to use songs from Blue Rodeo because we all are Canadian. Go us!
-Are you a male or female?
“Girl In Green”
-Describe yourself
“Bad Timing”
-How do you feel right now?
“The Seeker”
-If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
“Montreal”
-Your favorite form of transportation
“Moon & Tree” ; “Walk Like You Don’t Mind”
-Describe Your Morning Routine
“Are You Ready”
-Your best friend is
“Rebel”
-What’s the weather like
“Frogs’ Lullaby”
-Pet Peeve?
“Rose-Coloured Glasses”
-If your life was a TV show, what would it be called
“Bulletproof” or “Graveyard”
-Your relationship
“House of Dreams”
-Your Fear
“What Am I Doing Here”
-What is the best advice you have to give?
“Trust Yourself”
-If you could change your name, you would change it to
“Rena”
-What do you say when you are frustrated?
“Try”
-Thought for the day
“So Far Away”
-How you would like to die
“Rain Down On Me”
-Your soul’s present condition
“Fallen From Grace”
-Your motto
“Know Where You Go”
That was fun. Thankfully, Blue Rodeo had lots of songs for me to choose from. I’m going to have to go read everyone else’s now! See you next week.
Urban Fantasy One
I read two interesting books over the last three days. They were both novels with playlists, a concept that I found intriguing. They were both urban fantasy; the new name for modern horror, if you will. One was about werewolves and talk radio and the other was about vampires and Rock and Roll from its beginnings to now.
Kitty and the Midnight Hour is the first book in the werewolf series and I liked it enough that I will be reading the others. It is by Carrie Vaughn, go explore her site to find out more. The playlist she included in this book is the music she listened to while writing about Kitty.
It’s the second book that I want to talk about today. Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready. It is, according to the cover blurb, a novel of sex, blood and rock ‘n’ roll. Which, these days, usually means, vampires are involved. I have a fascination with vampire stories. Now, I’m no naive Chanterelle (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lie to Me: Season 2: Episode 7 etc.), I don’t believe vampires to be blessed or benign or real.
I like urban fantasy. I like history. This novels gives me both. I like learning something new. I don’t listen to a lot of rock music. I like folk, old country, indie stuff and many Canadian bands. I was a teenager in the seventies, rock music was still relatively new then. Rock ‘n’ Roll was everywhere so I know the basics of its history, its legends, if you will.
This story taught me a little bit more about rock ‘n’ roll; what it is, how it evolved, why it matters to so many of my generation. After reading these books, I went to YouTube to search for and listen to the songs. I had heard about half of them before. A new favourite is: Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle by Cake, a band I’ve never heard of. (But will definitely be looking into further.) The playlist in Wicked Game is integral to the story itself.
I ended last week’s post with a quote. It is from a novel about, the blues singer, Robert Johnson. Robert supposedly sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi. To find out what that rock legend has to do with tonight’s novel go to Ms. Smith-Ready’s website and read about Monroe’s turning and then, when you’re done exploring the websites, read Wicked Game and write down when the sequel Bad to the Bone is coming out because you’ll want to read that one too!
So what, in my opinion, would make these books better. Sell me the music CD along with the book. Can’t be done, you say. Has been done, I say. Okay, arguably, it would be expensive to negotiate all the rights to the music but I think it would pay off in the long run. Anyone game to try?
Solitary Spinster 
That Stings?
August 23, 2015 at 10:08 am (Book Commentary) (ageism, book, book review, books, confession, consumerism, Franz Kafka, free, free market, generation gap, How Music Got Free, media, music, music industry, numbness, pain, passive, piracy, postaday, Stephen Witt)
Books don’t sting me anymore (I’ve become too numb to emotional pain) but they do make me think.
I read more fiction than non-fiction. Right now, I’m really not in the mood for thinking. I just want to be passively entertained.
But yesterday I finished a book that was both entertaining and educational. In spite of myself, it made me think.
Perhaps this book bit and stung my mind a little bit. It didn’t hurt but it did make me think. It also annoyed me slightly as well. The author, Stephen Witt, argues that it was his generation that was primarily responsible for music piracy and though I don’t dispute his point it aggrieves me that he dismisses the older generation as being too computer illiterate to have participated in the crime.
(Is this a confession? Don’t we all have questionable MP3 files stored on our various devices. Even some of us so-called old people.)
I liked the book. It made me think in spite of myself. I recommend you read it and decide for yourself how much piracy affected the way we consume music!
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