Music…

Bring Me To Life

Fallen

Evanescence
and Words

How can you see into my eyes like open doors?
Leading you down into my core where I’ve become so numb
Without a soul, my spirit’s sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home

(Wake me up) wake me up inside (I can’t wake up), wake me up inside
(Save me) call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up) bid my blood to run (I can’t wake up) before I come undone
(Save me) save me from the nothing I’ve become

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.


Shortly after the turn of the millennium (yes, I know how that sounds), a song got persistent airplay.  I mean this literally; it was played consistently on the radio.  The radio station pumped that music through the airwaves and into the radio, which I listened to most frequently in my car.  I spent many evenings driving the Western Washington freeways for just the feel of the road.  Naturally, the music added to that bliss.  Mostly, I played my own music.

Occasionally, I tuned the radio.  I darted back and forth among half a dozen preset stations in the car.  The radio DJ’s will normally announce the name of the song and artist either immediately before or shortly after the song plays.  Strangely, for this particular song the DJ’s persistently neglected to mention either one.  One station very maddeningly simply referred to it as ‘the song’.

Continue reading “Finding ‘The Song’”

Music…

Unstoppable

This Is Acting

Sia
and Words

All smiles, I know what it takes to fool this town
I’ll do it ’til the sun goes down
And all through the nighttime
Oh, yeah
Oh, yeah, I’ll tell you what you wanna hear
Leave my sunglasses on while I shed a tear
It’s never the right time
Yeah, yeah

I put my armor on, show you how strong I am
I put my armor on, I’ll show you that I am

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.


Professionally, I’ve always worked as a computer geek.  It started in 1991 when I came to Microsoft.  As such, we had no official dress code; they didn’t impose any restrictions.  Most dressed comfortably.  For me, that mostly meant jeans or shorts and t-shirts.  Occasionally, I wore tank tops.  Other times, I wore long pants (like khakis).  However, the shirts that amused me most were the superhero shirts.  Afterall, who wouldn’t want to be a superhero?

Over the years, I’ve attended my share of meetings.  Naturally, we occasionally chatted about topics other than work.  During one such meeting, we observed as I wore a Superman shirt, and a teammate wore a Batman shirt.  As we packed up our belongings to leave that meeting, I made a suggestion in semi-serious jest.  I said, “We should coordinate a day when we all dress like superheroes”.

Continue reading “We are superheroes”

Music…

Prometimos No Llorar

Colección de Oro

Palito Ortega
and Words

Habíamos prometido no llorar
Perdóname
Quizás esta sea la última vez que nos sentamos a tomar un café juntos
Quizás es la última vez que nos vemos así que tratemos de estar bien por favor
Me quiero llevar como recuerdo una sonrisa
Por favor no llores más

Te acordás aquella tarde que nos conocimos
Fue muy lindo conocerte
Y fue muy lindo todo lo que pasó entre nosotros, pero
Ya pasó

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.


As I lived in the sunny island of Puerto Rico, I first heard of Palito Ortega.  I watched him in a movie in our tiny black and white television.  This aired in the early 1970’s, so there was no means to record it to watch at a later time.  This movie moved me, and I remember vividly to this day.  Besides being an actor in this film, he also sang the title track to the soundtrack.  That said, I’ll reserve writing about that song and that movie for another post.

However, that movie started a trend of our listening to Spanish music in our home.  Subsequently, my older sister became fascinated with different artists and would buy the music for each artist.  This music was often in the form of records.  We collected these large two-dimensional square-foot boxes, filled with music, emotion, and now memories.  We played them through mechanical boxes with needles onto a tinny speaker.  The records, often marred with scratches, rendered the music with similar imperfections.

Continue reading “The profound sadness of one coffee”