Author: Frank

Music…

Breathe (2 AM)

Wreck of the Day

Anna Nalick

and Words

2 a.m. and she calls me ′cause I’m still awake
“Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?
I don′t love him, winter just wasn’t my season”
Yeah, we walk through the doors, so accusing, their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize
Hypocrites, you’re all here for the very same reason

′Cause you can′t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable
And life′s like an hourglass glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe, just breathe
Oh, breathe, just breathe

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I started this blog over four years ago.  A dear friend who read my impassioned posts on Facebook encouraged me.  While I had never written professionally (and still haven’t), I kept an online journal decades ago.  Furthermore, I do not exaggerate when I claim that my writing led me to find the love of my life, or more accurately, for her to find me.  However, I first put that journal on ice and eventually pulled the plug.  I have told this story several times; for those who have read my writing, you’ll remember.

While WordPress allows the author to scope the visibility of particular posts, I choose not to.  My posts are visible to everyone.  I try to update this blog once every two weeks; it keeps me accountable.  I imagine I’ll run out of songs or memories someday, though until then, the posts continue.  When I first started, I texted the links to the posts to a handful of friends.  One day, I got an unexpected response.

Continue reading “Why I write” →

Music…

Please Mr. Postman

環球萃取升級精選 許冠傑3

Sam Hui

and Words

Wait!
Oh yes, wait just a minute Mr. Postman
Wait!
Wait, Mr. Postman

Please Mr. Postman, look and see
Whoa, yeah
Is there a letter in your bag for me?
Please, please Mr. Postman
It′s been a might long time
Whoa, yeah
Since I heard from that girl of mine

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

We arrive at Wild Ginger early on a weekday evening.  It’s an Asian fusion restaurant and one of our favorites.  The bar runs lengthwise along the front façade of the restaurant, save for the entry.  Small circular tables line the windows that overlook the street, Bellevue Way; they sit opposite the bar.  As we enter, we head directly to the bar area, where they have open seating.  We select two adjoining seats in the bar and place our bags in an adjoining seat.

Two shallow shelves line the entire wall behind the bar, each discreetly lit with LED strips that emit a magical luminescence.  These shelves display the distilled liquors, both flavored and straight.  The subtle light shines through the colored bottles like a kaleidoscope, beckoning you to have a taste at the hands of their mixologists.

Continue reading “A decades old postal delivery” →

Music…

The Howling

The Heart Of Everything

Within Temptation

and Words

We′ve been seeing what you wanted, got us cornered right now
Fallen asleep from our vanity, might cost us our lives
I hear they’re getting closer
Their howls are sending chills down my spine
And time is running out now
They′re coming down the hills from behind

When we start killing
It’s all coming down right now
From the nightmare we’ve created
I want to be awakened somehow (I want to be awakened right now)

When we start killing, it all will be falling down
From the hell that we′re in
All we are is fading away
When we start killing

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I joined Microsoft in 1991.  I started in the Multimedia team.  At the time, computers with sound cards and optical drives were fancy.  However, they were standard equipment on our computers, along with the ‘large’ 200MB hard drives.  Other teams envied our team for the sheer coolness of our work.  I arrived at the tail end of Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions.  I started as an STE (Software Test Engineer); I manually verified that the product worked as expected.  This team brought audio to Windows; it started with Windows 3.1.

Over the years, my role in the audio team changed.  I transitioned to an SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) to Development and back to SDET.  I contributed to every version of Windows, from 3.1 to 7, as an audio engineer.  Even today, I understand many parts of that code.  I spent way too many hours debugging intricate idiosyncrasies about that source code.  To this day, I still tell people, “If you’re listening to any audio on Windows, you’re running code that I wrote.”

Continue reading “The Bunker” →

Music…

Goodbye

7 Wishes

Night Ranger

and Words

As the sun hides its head
Another nights rest
And the wind sings
Its same old song

And you on the edge
Never close, never far
Always there
When I needed a friend

But it′s hard living life
On this memory-go-round
Always up, always down
Spinning ’round and ′round and ’round

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

They moved my work desk to a new location, about 10 feet from John’s. He sat in a quiet corner diagonally from mine. He mostly sat on his desk, on his bone-conduction headset, as he conducted his meetings. Dutifully, he ran his routine. He arrives early in the morning, puts down his bag, and puts his coat on the coat rack. Upon ending his day, he reverses this ritual.

I had the opportunity to consult with him on several issues. He spoke calmly and confidently, though without ego. We teamed up to discuss challenges and pondered them together; we brainstormed. John could’ve easily directed or instructed you to “do it this way,” but instead, he persuaded you.  In a world of ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ people, he is a ‘carrot’ person.

Continue reading “Saying goodbye to a friend” →

Music…

Piano Man

Piano Man

Billy Joel

and Words

It′s nine o’clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
There′s an old man sittin’ next to me
Makin’ love to his tonic and gin

He says, “Son can you play me a memory?
I′m not really sure how it goes
But it′s sad and it’s sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man′s clothes”

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I don’t remember precisely when I first discovered this Billy Joel song, ‘Piano Man’.  I moved from Puerto Rico to Florida in 1978; at that time, I spoke Cantonese and Spanish.  Billy Joel released this single and album in 1973 before I started listening to music in English.  Gradually over the ensuing years, I integrated more with American culture and listened to the radio.  Billy Joel, a talented singer and songwriter, released many songs during that time.  He became an integral part of my American experience.

During college, I picked up The Essential Billy Joel collection.  They filled those discs with many songs I recognized; with great anticipation, I happily bought that collection.  I may have zipped directly to the songs I knew the first few times.  I’m embarrassed to admit that ‘Piano Man’ was not among the songs I recognized, and I thus delayed listening to it.

Continue reading “Don’t sing us a song, Piano Man” →

Music…

Without You (feat. Sandro Cavazza)

Avīci (01)

Avicii

and Words

You said that we would always be
Without you, I feel lost at sea
Through the darkness, you′d hide with me
Like the wind, we’d be wild and free

You said you′d follow me anywhere
But your eyes tell me you won’t be there

I’ve gotta learn how to love without you
I′ve gotta carry my cross without you
Stuck in the middle, and I′m just about to
Figure it out without you

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Weeks ago, we replaced our 24-year-old daily driver.  It had served us faithfully, but I worried about an eventual repair that would cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars.  I narrowed it down to two models and arranged for a test drive.  While I do most of the driving, she also needed to drive occasionally.  Whatever we got needed to be something that we both enjoyed driving.  Neither of my choices fit her needs, but we chatted with a very patient salesperson.  Ultimately, we selected something that resembled our old workhorse with modern touches.

Among those modern touches lies an entirely new array of technology.  We migrated the items from our older car into the new vehicle.  Among those contents were cassette tapes for which we had no means to play anymore.  Of course, there’d be new ways to play music.  We rarely listened to music in our older car.  The few times we did we curiously explored the contents of the tapes that still lingered in the car.  Alternatively, we’d scan the airwaves searching for a radio station that may give us a tune we could tolerate for the drive.

Continue reading “The light that burned twice as bright” →

Music…

Theme from New York, New York

Nothing But the Best

Frank Sinatra

and Words

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I arrive in New York on a mid-September weekend day. I am my wife’s beck and call while she navigates a business trip.  Having stayed mostly put since the pandemic, I welcomed the change of scenery.  Having enough vacation time banked, I happily agreed.  We’d only stay a few days.  It’ll be enough for me to taste the city again.  We booked our flights and off we went.

The flight itself was uneventful.  We arrived early and shuffled through the desks and lines.  TSA wasn’t considerably different today than it was pre-pandemic, which is still slow and inefficient, but a ‘known quantity’.  We arrive at our gate with enough spare time for our flight to JFK airport in New York.  Upon the announcement calling out our group, we boarded.  We arrived in New York, safely and on time; even the process of getting our luggage was surprisingly fast.

Continue reading “I don’t want to be a part of it” →

Music…

The Ballad Of Sleeping Beauty

Whaler

Sophie B. Hawkins

and Words

You don’t know why I’m crazy
I don’t know why your blue
You messed with my head
You messed with the dead
Now I’m gonna mess with you
I don’t know why your lazy
I’m so in love with you
What’s God gonna see
Who’s God gonna know
When’s God gonna help us through

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

In the mid-1990s, I fell in love with Sophie B. Hawkins.  I refer not to the depths of altruistic romantic love, nor did I stalk her or any such nonsense.  I’ll describe it as a deep fascination for her.  She first came to my attention with As I Lay Me Down.  That song prompted me to get this album (Whaler), followed by her preceding album (Tongues and Tails).  I enjoyed both albums, though I won’t tell you that either is the equivalent of Journey’s Escape.

Whaler, in particular, exudes a certain vulnerability and intimacy. Having seen her in concert, I have observed her exert assertiveness and femininity, yet they’re not in contrast; they’re in unison.  Her voice is undeniably feminine; her words unmistakably assertive.  The entire album feels like you’ve come upon her open journal, with words seducing you to read them.  Hearing her music feels almost like an intrusion upon her privacy until she figuratively looks directly at you and winks.

Continue reading “Only love can make a miracle of life” →

Music…

Children

From Hell to Paradise

The Mavericks

and Words

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Last night as I managed my music library, I shuffled files from one computer to the next.  It’s all in how we now manage what spanned hundreds of discs in jewel cases into what fits into a USB flash drive.  I watched as the software meticulously scanned each file and folder spanning tens of gigabytes, quietly fetching metadata from the internet to enhance my listening enjoyment.  Meanwhile, each album cover magically appeared in my online collection.

Normally, these pictures flash, and I think little of them.  While I’ve structured this blog by reminiscing about a memory from music, the trigger is almost always hearing the music, not merely seeing the album cover.  However, one album cover causes me to stop and immediately transports me back to a moment, just like a scene from Somewhere in Time.  That album was The Maverick’s “From Hell to Paradise”.

Continue reading “A distant country serenade” →

Music…

Brown Eyed Girl

Blowin’ Your Mind!

Van Morrison

and Words

Hey, where did we go?
Days when the rains came
Down in the hollow
Playin’ a new game

Laughin’ and a-runnin’, hey, hey
Skippin’ and a-jumpin’
In the misty mornin’ fog with
Our, our hearts a-thumpin’ and you

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I adhere to a particular routine on each Friday morning.  They revolve around two tasks.  First, I focus on publishing any scheduled blog posts, such as this one.  Mechanically, it’s just pushing one button, but then comes the details of cross-posting into Facebook, resolving the preview so that it looks pretty, etc.  I alternate between two blogs, so on average you’ll see an update on a particular blog every other week.

Second, I put on a Hawaiian Shirt and take a selfie; those pictures automatically save onto OneDrive.  After waiting a couple minutes for the image to propagate, I’ll fire up Corel Painter.  I copy two different images: the aforementioned selfie and a picture of a tropical setting from past travels.  Next, I carefully edit my image wearing said Hawaiian Shirt and set it into the tropical scene.  Finally, I save it back onto OneDrive for the moment.

Continue reading “Hawaiian Shirt Fridays” →