Month: April 2024

Music…

Ojalá Que Llueva Café

Ojalá Que Llueva Café

Juan Luis Guerra 4.40
and Words

Ojalá que llueva café en el campo
Que caiga un aguacero de yuca y té
Del cielo una jarina de queso blanco
Y al sur una montaña de berro y miel, todo el mundo
Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh, ojalá que llueva café

Ojalá que llueva café en el campo
Peinar un alto cerro de trigo y mapuey
Bajar por la colina de arroz graneado
Y continuar el arado con tu querer
Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

As I closed the 1980’s, I spent it neck deep in engineering school.  To maximize my education dollar, I packed my semester as close to eighteen as I possibly could.  The University of Miami charged one flat rate for full-time student tuition, that ranged from twelve to eighteen credits.  I came to a conclusion when I arrived as a freshman.  They charged the same whether you take four classes or six, so I might as well take six.

Packing my semester this way had its own set of consequences.  Even as my local friends joked that Miami was ranked the number two party school, it was far from my experience.  I never attended a frat party, or any party actually on campus.  Only once did I step into a fraternity house, and that was to meet one of my classmates to work on a project.  Having endured bullying in middle and high school, I developed a figurative allergy for conformity, and even popularity.

Continue reading “Forget men, let it rain coffee” →

Music…

In The Dark

Don’t Say No

Billy Squier
and Words

Life isn’t easy from the singular side
Down in the hole some emotions are hard to hide
It’s your decision, it’s a chance that you take
It’s on your head, it’s a habit that’s hard to break

Do you need a friend?
Would you tell no lies?
Would you take me in?
Are you lonely in the dark?

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

In my early childhood, the closest we got to personal music was a boombox.  Generic gray boxes with cassette players, radios, and extending antennae filled the room with tinny sound from reels of magnetic tape.  Back then, the only headphones you could get were bulky over-the-ear units that resembled the Princess Leia hairdo circa A New Hope.  These ‘portable’ units had battery compartments that housed a half-dozen D-cell batteries.

Upon hitting the 1980’s, the Sony Walkman transformed how we consumed music.  Suddenly, we could each listen to music individually even among others.  It was a package small enough that we could reasonably carry with us.  However, my family was poor, and I could not afford the price tag of a Sony Walkman.  As such we often shopped at the Thunderbird Swap Shop, where we found off-brand and irregular items.  The point of compromise was a knock-off cassette player that I found at one of those vendors.  No warranty, of course, that vendor may not be there the following week.

Continue reading “Will you love me in the dark?” →