Music…

Far Beyond The Sun

The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection

Yngwie J. Malmsteen
and Words

Instrumental


Historically, my musical tastes have always leaned towards hard rock.  My fascination with music started with Def Leppard, and in many ways that’s the way in which this blog started.  That said, my tastes landed consistently on the hard rock side of popular music.  On one bookend, music from the South Florida airways filled my ears, while I zipped between a half-dozen presets in the car.  On the other bookend, hours of our console television glued to MTV bombarded the senses with flashing images.

Of course, that picture was far from perfect.  Though radio stations of different genres lined the entire dial, I picked the music that sounded familiar and resonated in my ears.  As for MTV, they wouldn’t even play Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean until Epic records threatened to pull their other artists from the channel.  Still, the music continued to flow, and I was none the wiser.

Continue reading “Expanding my horizons”

Music…

The Reflex

Seven and the Ragged Tiger

Duran Duran
and Words

You’ve gone too far this time
But I’m dancing on the Valentine
I tell you somebody’s fooling around
With my chances on the danger line

I’ll cross that bridge when I find it
Another day to make my stand, oh woah
High time is no time for deciding
If I should find a helping hand, oh woah

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.


I got horrifically poor grades during my freshman year in high school.  I didn’t try to get poor grades; I simply didn’t care.  At that stage of my life, I simply drifted.  I moved like a car when we lift our foot off the brake.  I moved but barely and with no purpose or destination.  Neither angst nor frustration filled me.  If anything filled me at all was apathy.  I’m surprised that it didn’t end up more horrifically, but even in my apathy, my mind captured facts and some subjects came naturally.

On my second year in high school, I turned things around.  Truthfully, I can’t tell you precisely what changed, though I have some educated guesses.  That return to academics started with an uncharacteristically practical class:  typing.  Each morning, I wondered into the second-floor hallway with the business classes.  Entered a large, brightly lit room with small desks arranged into neat rows.  Each desk held an IBM Selectric typewriter; this was my main tool of the trade for one hour each morning.

Continue reading “One keystroke at a time”