About Fred

Random 10 3-21-14

Last week’s rhythms and rhymes. This week’s:

  1. “New York Mining Disaster 1941” by the Bee Gees, guessed by Occupant
    Do you know what it’s like on the outside?
  2. “Fuck Wit Dre Day” by Dr Dre
    Your bark was loud, but your bite wasn’t vicious
  3. “Every Time We Touch” by Cascada
    I still feel your touch in my dream
  4. “The Word” by Betty Lavette (orig. the Beatles), guessed by Occupant
    In the beginning I misunderstood
  5. “Dazz” by Brick, guessed by Occupant
    Everybody go on and dance if you want to
  6. “Gambler’s Prayer” by Jonathan Coulton
    Oh Lord help me take money from my friends
  7. “Christmas in Washington” by Steve Earle
    Rise up, old Joe Hill
  8. “Rip Her to Shreds” by Blondie, guessed by Occupant
    She thinks she’s Brenda Starr
  9. “Gonna Buy Me a Dog” by the Monkees, guessed by Occupant
    She used to bring me my newspaper
  10. “St. Joseph’s” by the Avett Brothers
    We sat at Lake Junaluska

Good luck guessing!

Tuesday

March seems to be going by a lot quicker than I anticipated.

On the one hand that’s good. Now that we’re over the initial hurdle of Daylight Saving Time, and I’m a little more adjusted to it, I am enjoying that extra daylight in the evening. The morning sunrise hasn’t quite caught up yet, so it’s still dark when I wake up, and the weather can’t decide if it wants to be seasonably mild or bitterly cold. But we do seem a lot closer to spring than we ever did in February, when I sometimes felt like the world was never going to thaw. And I’m perfectly happy to put a little distance between then and now.

But on the other hand…how can the month be more than half over already? How is that even possible? It does not seem like it should be possible.

It doesn’t help that I have several big projects at work that probably need to be finished before the end of March…and that might not be. Most of the delays I’m seeing, or anticipating, aren’t of my own making, which is something close to (but not exactly) a relief. Still, it’s a busy time of year, and suddenly realizing that April is only two short weeks away isn’t exactly helping.

But it’s not all bad. (Even the bad parts aren’t all that bad.) I’m writing some, which is nice. My weekly free-writing group took this past Sunday off, but I’ve wandered back into a short story of my own and spent some time yesterday and today at launch trying to navigate those wanderings in my notebook. It’s been a while since I’ve written free-hand (except at work), and I’ve given myself permission to be terrible, which is not permission I give myself easily. A fair amount of what I’ve written is crap, there’s no doubt, but it’s crap pointing in the right direction. If nothing else, it feels better than not writing, which is always something to aim for.

Saturday

Let’s pretend this past week was just so exciting that I couldn’t even bring myself to write about it, and that’s why I haven’t posted much of anything here in a week. That seems better than just admitting that it was a boring one-day-pretty-much-like-the-last kind of week.

Even today, there wasn’t much to report. The weather turned nice again — windy, but not the slap in the face of winter’s return we had on Thursday and Friday. There was snow in the forecast for Monday, last I heard, but I think most of what hobbled us in February has finally melted.

I bought my plane tickets for my trip in September to Canada and the Banff Centre. Still, it’ll be another half a year before I use them.

This evening, I watched a couple of movies. I started with Grave of the Fireflies, a late-’80s anime set near the end of World War II. It’s a beautiful film, although very sad, and after it I needed something of a pick-me-up. So naturally I turned to the downbeat folk music story Inside Llewyn Davis. (The original thought had been 12 Years a Slave, but maybe not this week.) I liked the movie a lot — it’s not really a downer — but I didn’t quite love every bit of it. I’d be tempted to call it “lesser Coen Brothers,” if even their “lesser” movies didn’t have such style and skill. (See The Ladykillers or Intolerable Cruelty, for instance.)

All in all, a pair of very good movies.

And all in all, while not a super exciting day — I did a little editing, went for a walk, listened to a podcast — a pretty good day.

Random 10 3-14-14

Last week. This week:

  1. “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield, guessed by Clayton
    Ain’t that the way love’s supposed to be?
  2. “Magillicuddy’s Reeks” by Warren Zevon, guessed by Occupant
    That’s why most girls go belly-up in this economy
  3. “Handle With Care” by Traveling Wilburys, guessed by Clayton
    Been sent up and I’ve been shot down
  4. “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight” by Richard and Linda Thompson
    There’s crazy people running all over town
  5. “Does Your Mother Know” by ABBA, guessed by Clayton
    But I can’t take a chance on a chick like you
  6. “Freak Out” by Tapes ‘N Tapes
    I see you walking, you’re turning blue
  7. “Whatever You Like” by Weird Al Yankovic, guessed by Occupant
    You could be second runner-up Miss Ohio
  8. “Most Wanted” by Cults
    My mother told me, you’ll reap what you sow
  9. “Those to Come” by the Shins
    Waiting in the ether
  10. “Polly” by Nirvana, guessed by Occupant
    She asks me to untie her

I’m a poet and didn’t even know it. Good luck!