In the dark times / Will there also be singing?

Harmonic Halloween, sweetie darlings! Wanna play Spot the Classic Horror Homage?

 

Hunting high and low

How's your week been, sweetie darlings? I've been a bit under the weather; there's no shortage of viruses to choose from right now. But. Friday! Frankenstein Friday!! Or so I hear, so why don't we kick off the weekend and say goodbye to this under-the-weather workweek with a topical tune, because I found a catchy one. What's it about? Death-defying love, dearest denizens, a woman inspired by Victor Frankenstein to stop waiting for the right guy to come along and start going about making one.🖤

 

Let love rule

 

Ode to joy

Every spring we have this thing called Eurovision. The Eurovision Song Contest. Around forty countries perform at the semi-finals, and even though only one will stand victorious, it's more a love and fun and inclusiveness and queer energy and positivity fest than a cut-throat competition. That's why it's so widely and well-loved; it's a ray of light even in the darkest of times. Everyone rooting for everyone, absolutely no assholery allowed, mutual support is the name of the game. It's kind of a prerequisite. And it works! Haters and bigots need not apply. How wonderful and rare is that?

Ukraine is last year's winner, and as wonderful as it would have been to see them host everyone in Kyiv this spring, a hater and bigot did his damnedest to ensure that didn't happen. Runner-up United Kingdom has graciously stepped in and will welcome the Eurovision family (if you're a fan, you're family) to Liverpool in May. Which leaves you several weeks to follow national selections and get in the mood and the groove.

The spirit of Eurovision. We need more of that.

See your shoes and your spirits rise

We started the week with a song so why not end it with one, an uplifting classic courtesy of The Cure.

Enjoy your weekend, sweetie darlings, wherever you are. 🤗

Electric blue Monday

This Monday, any Monday really, could use some Giorgio Moroder magic and the sultry warmth and strength of Donna Summer, so why not start the week with some synth-based pop even the young ones will recognize (thank you Stranger Things). Deceptively simple, this song is pure self-suggestion; use it wisely.

(Full disclosure, this whole month is a head fake, as much for me as it is for you, to keep one going in these relentlessly calamitous times.)

Last night I dreamt of some Pedro*

If yesterday was a say what kind of day, today is say again in the form of misheard lyrics, or (I learned a new word today:) mondegreens. Feel free to add your favorite.

Save a whale, save a whale, save a whale
= Sail away, sail away, sail away
Orinoco Flow by Enya

Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, poke her face
= My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my poker face
Poker Face by lady Gaga

She’s so popular
= Jeux sans frontiers
Games Without Frontiers by Peter Gabriel

Annie are you walking, are you walking, are you walking, Annie
= Annie are you ok, are you ok, are you ok, Annie
Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson

Welcome to the land of flaming sex
= Welcome to the land of fame excess
Party In The USA by Miley Cyrus

Here we are now, and we’re heinous
= Here we are now, entertain us
Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

Bin full of Usher on the fortifier
= Brimful of Asha on the 45
Brimful Of Asha by Cornershop

I miss the rains down in Africa
= I bless the rains down in Africa
Africa by Toto

Everybody run, Barbie’s got a gun
= Everybody run, Bobby’s got a gun
Creep by Stone Temple Pilots    

We built this city on the wrong damn road
= We built this city on rock ‘n’ roll
We Built This City by Jefferson Starship

 

*hint: a song by Madonna

Wait a minute

...this sounds familiar. Oh well, you need a dancing break. Oh yes you do. We both do. Vamos nessa, queridos!

There will never be another you

Monday! Again? Stuck in a rut or getting busier where you are? Is it a brand-new day or Groundhog Day? I know, sweetie darlings. Everyone is feeling it in some form. No one is exempt. We are all being held back one way or another. But our spirits can soar. No one can cage them, impose a curfew on them, take them away from us. They can try but we won’t let them. And I know it can be difficult to find inspiration and come up with new ideas if you’re feeling anxious and afraid, but try to step outside yourself in those moments. Try to reach for things that give you joy and solace, because they are out there. Only you can give them away; you simply shouldn’t. For every thing that annoys you, find a thing that delights you. For every person that exasperates you, find a person who soothes you. Counterpoint every moment spent in dark thoughts with thoughts that enlighten and expand you. They are your thoughts, after all; you are in control. Easier said than done? Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Not a wishy-washy-yeah-right attempt. With All Your Might. All right?

I’m brightening my mood and days by celebrating some notable birthdays, today and in the past/next few days. On Saturday and Sunday, I honored the late, great Freddie Mercury by watching Queen: Live at the Rainbow (November 1974), and Queen and Adam Lambert: The Show Must Go On. When Freddie died, I most surely wasn’t the only fan who believed that no one in a million years could replace Freddie. Along came Adam Lambert with his strong, dramatic, melodic voice. He isn’t Freddie. Freddie was a rare beast. But Adam is a rare beast in his own right and I think he is the perfect successor to Freddie in this new Queen. A new generation of fans get to experience the music and the magic, and old fans get to see the magic and hear the music performed. Win-win!

Today, Brazil celebrates its independence from Portugal. The Bicentennial year is up in 2022. That same fall, Brazilians will elect a new president. Or the old one. And the two-term limit is not for life so anything can happen with this current president who treats democracy as a hurdle and not a touchstone. Thinking about Bolsonaro and his cronies makes me turn to all the tips I offered in the first paragraph. How they revel in the rage they incite, these wannabe dictators of our modern democracies. It makes us miserable while hurting them not one bit, so let’s stop giving them that power and start wrenching that power back into hands that aren’t out to grab all they can. Let’s vote like our lives depend on it, because more and more they do.

My counterpoint to Senhor B. is my maternal grandfather. He would have turned 100 today. He died in 2010, two months after his 90th birthday. My maternal grandmother would have turned one hundred tomorrow. (She died in the mid-nineties.) Yes, they were born on consecutive days, a few villages apart. They married at nineteen just before my grandfather set out to fight in WWII. I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately, filled with gratitude for every day we spent together, and they were many. Looking at pictures, talking to my children about them…I’m so happy they got to know him. Even my youngest remembers him. And I will never ever forget, not even when I am a hundred.

So today I wish you well, sweetie darlings, I wish my childhood home of Brazil well, and I celebrate my maternal grandparents with her favorite meal and his favorite cognac. And loads of love and longing.

It was the third of September...

The sound that changed America.

Start your September on a high note

classic (noun)
 : a work of enduring excellence
(as per Merriam-Webster)

 

Dance Me to the End of Love

Tonight I Celebrate My Love

Valentine Love

Can You Feel the Love Tonight

Oh My Love

I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song

A Love Song

A Million Love Songs

Silly Love Songs

When You’re in Love

Everything Sounds Like a Love Song

L-O-V-E

Love

Love Love

Love Love Love

LOVE.

I Believe in Love

Is Anybody Out There in Love

Ever Fallen in Love

Oh to be in love

What Is Love

I Want to Know What Love Is

There’s More to Love Than Boy Meets Girl

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

Love is Strong

Love is Madness

Love is Reason

Love is Noise

Love is Blue

Love is a Battlefield

Love is a Shield

Love is a Rollercoaster

Love is a Stranger

Love is the Drug

Love is Like an Itching in My Heart

Is This Love?

(Love is) Thicker Than Water

Love is in the Air

Love is All Around

Love Changes Everything

Are You Ready For Love

The Book of Love

Words of Love

Sounds of Love

Lessons in Love

The Look of Love

Vision of Love

Love Long Distance

Love at First Sight

Love in the First Degree

Moments in Love

Generations of Love

The Power of Love

Glory of Love

Genius of Love

Hounds of Love

Cradle of Love

The Origin of Love

Satellite of Love

Higher Love

Big Love

Skinny Love

Mother Love

A Father’s Love

Baby Love

Modern Love

Burning Love

Radar Love

Digital Love

International Love

Cosmic Love

Love in a Vacuum

Love in an Elevator

Love in a Store

Love in Stereo

Love Rollercoaster

Love Shack

Love Train

Backseat Love

Lucky Love

Puppy Love

Popcorn Love

Saturday Love

Summer Love

Homemade Love

Forbidden Love

Strangelove

Reckless Love

Crazy Love

Secret Love

Jungle Love

California Love

Young Love

Old Love

Same Old Love

Flames of Love

Embers of Love

Summer of Love

Streets of Love

Tunnel of Love

River of Love

Sea of Love

Mountain of Love

A Little Bit of Love

A Big Hunk O’ Love

Lotta Love

Whole Lotta Love

One Love

My Love

Your Love

My Love Is Your Love

How Deep is Your Love

Now That We Found Love

Love on a Two-Way Street

Love Street

Can’t Get Enough of Your Love

A Woman Needs Love

Show Me Love

I Want Your Love

I Need Your Love

I Need Your Love Tonight

Need Your Love So Bad

Your Love Is King

This Love

Our Love

I Like It I Love It

I Love It

When We Make Love

Kissing My Love

Feel Like Making Love

You Give Good Love

Keep It Coming Love

Lay All Your Love on Me

Let Your Love Flow

Love You Out Loud

Love You Inside Out

Love You Up

Love You Down

I’d Love to Lay You Down

After We Make Love

I’m in the Mood for Love

I’ll Make Love to You

I Was Made to Love Him

I Was Born to Love You

The One I Love

Love of My Life

Do You Love Me?

Love Me Do

Love Me Two Times

Love Me Tender

Because I Love You

Because You Love Me

People Will Say We’re in Love

We Must Be in Love

So in Love

So Much in Love

Crazy in Love

Why Can't This Be Love

It Must Be Love

No Ordinary Love

A Groovy Kind of Love

A Sunday Kind of Love

A Love So Beautiful

Love Will Never Do (Without You)

Love Hurts

Love Really Hurts Without You

Before Your Love

Never Knew Love Like This Before

This Must Be Love

All This Love

All the Love in The World

The Way You Love Me

I Can Love You Like That

Baby, I Love Your Way

How Your Love Makes Me Feel

A Love Unreal

Greatest Love of All

Endless Love

Everlasting Love

Forever Love

Love Never Dies

My Love Will Never Die

Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You

I Will Always Love You

Say You Love Me

Say Hey (I Love You)

As Long as You Love Me

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

This Is Love

What About Love?

Love Will Keep Us Together

Love Will Tear Us Apart

Love and Anger

Love & Pride

Love/Hate

Love in Vain

Limits to Love

Tainted Love

Chains of Love

A Love Bizarre

Bizarre Love Triangle

Love Hangover

Killer Love

Victim of Love

Drunk in Love

Stoned in Love

Hooked on Love

Addicted to Love

Lost in Love

The Game of Love

If It’s Love

If It Isn’t Love

In and Out of Love

You Must Love Me

You Owe Me Some Kind of Love

No More I Love You’s

No Love

Love Don’t Live Here Anymore

A World Without Love

All Out of Love

The End of Love

Too Much Love Will Kill You

This Ain't a Love Song

This is Not a Love Song

Where is the Love?

Bye Bye Love

You Give Love a Bad Name

Can't Buy Me Love

Love Don’t Cost A Thing

Love Takes Time

You Can't Hurry Love

Who Needs Love (Like That)

What’s Love Got to Do with It

The Things We Do for Love

For Love

Love or Something Like It

I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)

Never My Love

Let My Love Open the Door

Let Me Love You

Love Yourself

Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself)

It’s Your Love

All is Love

Get That Love

True Love

Real Love

100% Pure Love

I Believe in A Thing Called Love

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

It’s A Love Thing

And So is Love

Love Makes the World Go Round

Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong

Love Burns

Love Shines

Love Spreads

People Need Love

Everybody Needs Somebody to Love

Love Somebody

Somebody to Love

When You Love Someone

When Somebody Loves You

You’ve Got the Love

Heart to Love

Don’t Let Go (Love)

Hang on To Your Love

Let There Be Love

All You Need Is Love

Love, Truth and Honesty

Time, Love and Tenderness

That’s the Way Love Goes

To Sir with Love

To Know Him is to Love Him

We Love You

I Think I Love You

Fuck It I Love You

I Love You

I Do Love You

I Honestly Love You

All My Love

All My Loving

Best of My Love

Love, Me

Because nosferatus need love too

𝕳𝖊𝖆𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖑𝖞  𝕳𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖊𝖓, 𝖘𝖜𝖊𝖊𝖙𝖎𝖊 𝖉𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘. 𝕰𝖓𝖏𝖔𝖞 𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖞 𝖇𝖎𝖙𝖊. 𝕻.𝕾. 𝕱𝖔𝖗 𝖆 𝖌𝖔𝖔𝖉 𝖑𝖆𝖚𝖌𝖍: 𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖂𝖊 𝕯𝖔 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕾𝖍𝖆𝖉𝖔𝖜𝖘 (𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖔𝖛𝖎𝖊). 𝕱𝖔𝖗 𝖆 𝖌𝖔𝖔𝖉 𝖈𝖗𝖞: 𝕮𝖔𝖈𝖔 (𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖔𝖛𝖎𝖊).

A midsummer night's dream

I dreamed I wrote a rather long and rambling essay on the economy, ecology and equality. Long because of the amounts of cause and effect and problems and solutions I managed to cram into that one piece, rambling because of the myriad associations, the links and bridges I managed to build. Full of pathos, I went from global warming to refugees to immigration, from nationalism to fascism to racism, from global trade to global warming and back to refugees again. My theory of everything.

Too bad I don't remember half of it but I do remember feeling a strange but strong sort of relief getting it all down in writing, as if I hadn't quite known what I thought on the subject before I wrote about it and had now laid down a burden, the anxiety that comes with the feeling you don't understand the world around you, the hows and whys, the implications, the consequences. In my dream I had managed to collect my thoughts, observations and opinions, arrange them in a well-structured manner and lay them out coherently and elegantly. (One can dream, right?)

He built this garden for us, they were called, my nocturnal notes, a slight but quite deliberate misquote of a Lenny Kravitz song, I presume, since I opened with a picture of our garden, a garden I gladly work on but one my husband has had a heavy hand in creating. So he doesn't bring me flowers every day. He built me a garden. I realized this is the longest I've stayed put, and not the least because of the garden that grows around me, a house that's like the tropics in the arctic, the peace and happiness I feel in both.

Who has the right to peace and happiness, or prosperity? On what terms? On whose terms? Who promised life would be easy, fair or happy, a man once asked when the question came up, a man who'd never suffered or struggled, who'd never been and never would be any type of minority, an outcast, disenfranchised, displaced, the underdog. No one had ever denied him, crossed him, belittled him, stomped on him or stood up to him. I understood his question. I just don't think he did. I don't think he gave a second thought to where his wealth came from, to whom or what he owed it to.

Taking a close, critical, honest look at most anything usually makes you focus on the flaws and the problems in something, then promptly sign up for a transcendental meditation class, learn mindfulness, go buy one of those adult coloring books, whatever takes your mind off the fact the world is a pretty fucked up place getting worse by the second, now that you really look at it and think about it, so better not look too closely, better concentrate on things closer to home such as you, yourself and, well, you, Jon Lajoie was right: Fuck Everything. Wait, what?

One of my university professors believed cultures evolved in cycles, all cultures following the same cycle but at a different pace. All clashes between nations, cultures, creeds and even individuals stemmed from our conflicting values and views, our place on the cycle, and our need to impose those values and views, our will, on others. I've seen such forces in action, determinism, relativism and entitlement at its worst. I've seen evidence to the contrary, kindness and compassion and selflessness at its best.

Maybe authors and artists can't change the world but they show us what it's like to live in it, what it feels like to be human, living under the same sun and moon but very different stars.

Haste makes waste

There's a professional classical musician in the family. Someone who has devoted his whole life to studying music and made a career of performing it to us poor folk who enjoy his art but never learned an instrument beyond dabbling. He learned and he plays it and oh how he plays it. Preludes, symphonies and everything in between. No score is too hard, no conductor too demanding.

What sounds so lovely and looks so effortless is the result of decades of hard work and single-minded dedication, endless hours of practice and repetition. And passion, the love of music, the hunger to learn more.

Education takes time. Devoting yourself to a craft means devoting time to learning that craft. The young hopefuls of today don't seem to have time, our house musician said. Ideas and eagerness, sure, maybe even passion, but time, no. They watch talent shows and follow popular YouTubers and what not and think anybody can do it, overnight, just like that.

You don't achieve richness of sound, excellence of execution and maturity of expression overnight, just like that. Those take years of hard work. Sometimes that hard work comes to nothing. You don't get into the best orchestras, you don't become a professional at all. But if you don't dedicate time and yourself to it, you never will.

Breathed upon

"A little less conversation, a little more action, please. All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me."

Where have I been? Each and every one of the two of you must have been beside yourselves with worry, n'est-ce pas? Tsk. Lemme tell ya. 

Playing the waiting game, always the hardest part. 

Acting the part, i.e. doing what writers are supposed to do, i.e. writing. 

Looking the part, studying and practicing the excruciating art of plotting (excruciating for me, not for you probably, you're smart, aren't you sweetie darlings, not creatures of instinct and intuition like...some people I know. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but they, whoever the hell they are, say a lot of other stupid things this bitch has never bought so wuff, dawgs, just see if I don't).

Bushwhacking.

Daydreaming.

Feeding the soul. On the menu: photography, art, illustration, fiction and non-fiction, the music of Gotye and Mirel Wagner.

Enjoying the spring light, a natural high. So energizing it just makes me want to throw my arms around the world. And, the world being what it is, that is nothing short of amazing, but spring light will do that to you. Ooh, I feel another song coming my way. "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. If you're inclined to disagree, sod off and leave me be."

That's my last two weeks in a nutty shell. Believe you me, revamping thoughts and ideas, purging the soul and inviting inspiration works wonders for creativity and productivity. At least it works for me. The tree may look barren after a long harsh winter, but the sprouts look lush and promising.

Photo credit

Thank you for the music

...the hypnotizing and the haunting, the cheesy and queasy, the infinitely memorable and the imminently forgettable (the latter amplifies the effect of the former, the former puts the latter to shame). Then again, taste is a subjective issue; my favorite band sucks, now so does yours.

Say what you want, think what you will, they're the best thing to hit a note (or graze it) while striking a chord within us since that first rhyme you ever beat into the ground and your family over the head with. You may have trouble remembering those all-important memos and messages, the birthdays of the near and dear, the text you'll be tested on tomorrow (and you've gone through that damned thing 27 times over the past 72 hours), but how many 80's (or, fill the blank) songs do you know by heart? Start counting... Uncanny, isn't it? Scary, actually. And only human.

Songs that make you happy to remember, tunes that make you wish you could forget. To dance, to play, to sing, even if only by yourself; think of it as a gift. It is a gift. Everyone on the planet does it different from you. Someone may even do it better than you (yeah, we really love to hate them). But no one in the universe does it exactly like you.

Thank you for the movies; the ones I watched only once and will never be able to watch again because I cried over whose brilliant script was tossed to make this mockery, or because they were so dead-on, true to life, painful and poignant I bawl my eyes out merely thinking about how they made me feel. And they made me Feel. Those I will carry with me always, like little jewels I found. You might look at those pebbles and shrug them off as fool's gold.

Thank you for the books; the disturbing and the inspiring, the uplifting and the mind boggling. So many beautiful languages and voices, some centuries old and indestructible, some young and formative and fragile. False friends, old friends, true blue friends. You wish you would have written them. You only wish no one would have come up with some of them. Where's a language policeman when you need one? But those that flow...they make your spirit sing.

Nature is perfunctory and evolution the ultimate in waste management. They are the final word and judgment on art: we need those chords, those images and words. They nourish us and console us. They bring us together just when we start to think it would be easier to let it all fall apart. They shake us up when we start to believe that maybe we won't get hurt if we sit tight and play dead.

They reach out and transcend all barriers. They remind us that we are not alone, that there is life out there. And that there is life and fight and laughter in us yet.