Category: Memory

Music…

Always with Me, Always with You

Surfing With The Alien

Joe Satriani

and Words

[Instrumental]

More than once I’ve been accused of remembering details with stunning, even creepy accuracy.  My ability to recall details from conversations years before causes friends and family some distress.  Save for that time in high school where I memorized pi to over 130 digits, I don’t try to remember details; I just do.  I won’t tell you that I remember details with malicious intent, at least not most of the time.

On an otherwise ordinary visit to Costco, I come upon the condiment aisle.  I walk by the cartoonishly large portions of whatever they’ve packaged; I observe them in morbid fascination.  Upon finding a gallon-sized container of plain yellow mustard, I stop.  At that moment, a particular memory surfaces.  My good friend detests yellow mustard.  He won’t consume it as a condiment and only occasionally tolerates it in recipes.

Continue reading “A guitar virtuoso, with a side of yellow mustard” →

Music…

The Boys Of Summer

Building The Perfect Beast

Don Henley

and Words

Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The summer’s out of reach
Empty lake, empty streets
The sun goes down alone
I’m driving by your house
Though I know you’re not home

Lyric excerpts from AZ Lyrics.

I attended the University of Miami as an engineer.  Though, it is a private school, we were not wealthy, far from it.  Upon paying for my first semester’s tuition, we did not know how we would fund my college education.  I worked nearly every day when I didn’t attend classes.  I even worked through Spring Break, often filling my weekdays by picking up shifts waiting on tables.

On my sophomore year in college, I took an atypical day off during the week of Spring Break.  My friends and I took the hours long drive from Miami to Key West.  We baked in the sun in the drive down the long bridges that connected they Florida Keys to the very last one.  As we skimmed the surface of the water, it shimmered simultaneously impossibly blue and clear.

Continue reading “A nostalgic look at simple Florida day” →

Music…

Hopelessly Devoted To You

Grease Soundtrack

Olivia Newton-John

and Words

Guess mine is not the first heart broken
My eyes are not the first to cry
I’m not the first to know
There’s just no getting over you 
I know I’m just a fool who’s willing
To sit around and wait for you
But baby, can’t you see there’s nothing else for me to do?
I’m hopelessly devoted to you

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Guess mine is not the first fond memory of this movie.  Like many people my age, the movie ‘Grease’ became an iconic film which held many fond memories.  It spoke to many in different ways.  For many, the nostalgia and Americana drew them in, the cartoonish stereotypes of high school with fashion and cars.  For others, it was the music that transitioned from one situation to another, though that’s not necessarily new for musicals.  Though I suspect that for most, the storyline held the most appeal.

The interaction between Sandy, the foreign girl of high virtue, and Danny, the prototypical bad boy was delicious.  The entire movie was a dance, both figurative and literal, between the two of them.  As in any good story, we identify with all characters in the film as we follow them for a school year.  Naturally, we follow the story of both Sandy and Danny, but we also watched characters like Kenickie, Rizzo, and even Frenchie grow and develop.

Continue reading “Hopelessly losing a muse” →

Music…

Destiny

Save Yourself

McAuley Schenker Group

and Words

Better run
Run away
No time, to be a hero
You want to live to fight, another day
Don’t look back, look straight ahead
One wrong move you’ll be better off dead

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

There are foods that fit particular moods.  The perfectly baked fish that flakes at the mere touch of the fork fulfills one of those moments.  The softly fired filet mignon that separates at the gentle cut of the knife satisfies a different itch.  However, occasionally we’ll encounter a moment that calls for bluntness instead of finesse.  These times call for a greasy cheeseburger or a slice of pepperoni pizza with reddish-orange grease dripping from it.

In addition to food, there are a wealth of other guilty pleasures.  There are movies and tv shows that lack the finesse of others but nevertheless feed your soul.  Furthermore, we ride rollercoasters and skydive to elicit excitement.  We drive at absurdly fast speeds, simply to feel of the warm wind in our hair and the thrill of that ride.  Sex and the City‘s Carrie Bradshaw once mentioned that sometimes she’d buy Cosmopolitan instead of a meal because she felt that it nourished her more.  Is there an equivalent for music?

Continue reading “Control your destiny” →

Music…

The Way It Is

The Way It Is

Bruce Hornsby and The Range

and Words

Standing in line, marking time
Waiting for the welfare dime
‘Cause they can’t buy a job
The man in the silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old lady’s eyes
Just for fun, he says, “Get a job”

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Having arrived at the University of Miami, I started the ‘when-you-grow-up’ portion of my life.  Everything that led up to this moment was automatic and somewhat scripted.  I’ve now landed firmly on the “Uhm, now what?” portion of the movie.  The first order of business was getting through orientation and registration.

Having gotten through those tasks, I met other incoming freshmen as I traversed my floor.  George lived a few doors down from my room, and through him I met a number of other friends, among them was Ted.

Continue reading “The way friendship is” →

Music…

Don’t You (Forget About Me)

The Breakfast Club Soundtrack

Simple Minds

and Words

Hey, hey, hey, hey!

Hey, hey, hey, hey!

Won’t you come see about me?
I’ll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby
Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving me everything inside and out

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

On a crisp Tuesday morning, I walk the short distance from my building to the nearby building with the cafeteria.  I settle on a familiar table in a section of the large room.  The dining room is sparsely populated; the collections of people resemble islands in an archipelago in a sea of tables.  I walk the short distance to the grill station where I order breakfast on the kiosk, typically an omelet and a side of hashbrowns.  I proceed to the espresso stand, where I order my tall latte and a pastry, often a bacon maple bar.  Now, I play a tranquil waiting game; it’s a race between getting the coffee, the food, or my friends arriving.

Slowly people drift in and sit down.  Some walk directly from their cars to the cafeteria; they place their coats and bags next to the table as they sit down.  Having arrived at work earlier, others wander from their office to the cafeteria.  We may talk about anything and often do.  Topics typically center around technology and news.  Occasionally, we bring up current projects; oftentimes, having a diverse set of geeks as a sounding board for designs or approaches.  Sometimes we chat about deeply personal topics which dominate our attention.

Continue reading “The Breakfast Club” →

Music…

Night in That Land

Shadow of Time

Nightnoise

and Words

[Instrumental]

I spent my early childhood on the sunny island of Puerto Rico.  My dad ran a restaurant which he literally built with his own hands.  It was both our home and our business.  You could walk directly from the street into our dining room, where my mom would seat you in any one of a modest number of tables.  A cigarette vending machine sat to one side, where you could buy packs of cigarettes unsupervised.  Upon entering the coins, you would pull on these long handles as the mechanism loudly dropped the cigarettes onto a bin at the bottom.

A large ice cream machine occupied much of the storefront.  It also served as a counter to greet customers.  It housed large stainless steel cylindrical bins of prepared ice cream and kept them cold and firm.  On the left sat the ice cream maker, with huge oddly shaped metal instruments that looked like medieval torture devices.

Continue reading “A sunny tranquility” →

Music…

Radar Love

Moontan

Golden Earring

and Words

I’ve been driving all night, my hands wet on the wheel
There’s a voice in my head that drives my heel
It’s my baby calling, says “I need you here”
And it’s a half past four and I’m shifting gear

When she is lonely and the longing gets too much
She sends a cable coming in from above
Don’t need no phone at all

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Tom shows up in my team one day, decades ago.  He is funny, and we get along fabulously.  He moved from the Chicago area.  Tom and his family are apart on that first Thanksgiving while they wrap up the year, and I invite him to my home for dinner.  This started an enduring friendship.

Once I met his family, I observed his dedication to his wife and sons.  He adored and admired his wife.  He respected and advocated for his kids.  Tom once asked if I would mentor his son.  I would have happily mentored him but ultimately found him a better mentor.  He was the prototypical family man.

Continue reading “Tom is my copilot” →

Music…

Angel

Surfacing

Sarah McLachlan

and Words

Spend all your time waiting
For that second chance
For a break that would make it okay
There’s always one reason
To feel not good enough
And it’s hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction
Oh beautiful release

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Having attended Catholic school in Puerto Rico, we discussed religion in general and angels in particular.  However, I don’t believe that any of us has a real understanding of what it’s all like, not sufficient enough to truly describe it to someone else.  Those conversations in my youth were more superficial than descriptive.

Years later, I chatted with a friend about trying to describe something common without a frame of reference.  Imagine talking on the phone with someone and needing to distinguish between ‘left’ and ‘right’ without making another reference (like on which side of the street do people drive).  Similarly, how do you describe to a blind person what certain colors look like having never seen them?  I found that talking about religion was often like this.  We had directions to accept certain ideas as truisms, but most discussions were ultimately unfulfilling.

Continue reading “Celestial companion or narcotic?” →