Random Ramblings

It's been an interesting 31 days since I began the meme. I managed not to repeat any songs, and only a few artists/bands, with most of those being one negative plus one positive. There is one group which I included in positives twice, and cheated by mentioning two of their songs in one of the posts. There were, however, some songs which I wish I could have included, so I decided to list them here.

• "?" by Nena. No relation to Enya.
  
• "99 Red Balloons" by Nena.
  
• "Alegria", from the Cirque Du Soleil show of the same name. This is often my favorite song.
  
• "As the World Falls Down", written and performed by David Bowie for Jim Henson's Labyrinth.
  
• "Bard Dance", one of my favorite Enya songs.
  
• "Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three" by Leslie Fish.
  
• "Closer to Fine" by the Indigo Girls.
  
• "Do You Know Where You're Going To?" by Diana Ross and the Supremes.
  
• "Galileo" by the Indigo Girls.
  
• "Goodbye, Emil, Goodbye", from the musical Romance/Romance. In my Usenet days, a line from this song was my .sig.
  
• "Guardians" by Leslie Fish.
  
• "Love Don't Need a Reason" by Michael Callen.
  
• "No False Hope" by Romanovsky and Phillips.
  
• "The One" by Elton John.
  
• "Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Pail, and Mary.
  
• "Rodeo Parakeet" by Phranc.
  
• "Romantic Notions", from the musical Romance/Romance. The ending sounds like it's a whole choir, not just the four cast members.
  
• "Uncle Ernie's Used Computers' Babbage's Birthday Bargain Bash" by Steve Savitzky. Say that title three times fast ;).
  
• "We Go On" from Disney's Millennium Celebration.
  
• "Wild Child" by Enya. It was the theme song for our second kitty, Gail.
  

Before elementary school and then over weekends and summers during elementary, I often spent the night at my maternal grandparent's house. They lived a trivial drive away and, when I was older, a fairly trivial bike ride away from our house. One of the rituals at their house, one in which my sister and I participated in for as long as I can remember, is Polkas and coffee with breakfast.

Granted, "coffee: for my little sister and me consisted of a teacup of milk and sugar with a few tablespoons of coffee, but it was exciting for us. And, despite warnings from horrified well-meaning adults that it would stunt our growth, Pamela and I are very glad we took the chance, since we're both tall. I fear what my height might have been if I'd skipped drinking coffee in those formative years ;).

Both Polkas and coffee are now indelibly linked to those days with my Grandma and Grandpa. There was an almost palpable sense of love and another feeling which I wasn't actually aware of as a child, but recognize now -- a feeling of perfect security. When Grandma made the coffee and put on the Polkas and Grandpa made breakfast (especially pancakes), the whole world was wrapped up in a cocoon of love and safety; nothing could possibly get me. It's a feeling I can re-live in memories, but which I'm afraid I'll never be able to experience firsthand again.

I have identified at least two sources for the Polkas; Marion Lush (aka "The Golden Voice of Polkas") and Bobby Vinton. My favorites were from Mr. Lush, however, because to me his voice was just like Grandpa's (or maybe Grandpa's was just like his). I have since discovered that Mr. Lush performed dances other than Polkas, namely Obereks and Waltzes, we still, as a family, refer to everything he performed as "Polkas". Today's song, "Just Say Dzien Dobry", is from my childhood with the best of memories.
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Another singer introduced to me by the GALA adviser, and one whom he managed to bring to Oswego for a concert. Since it was just her she couldn't sing my favorite song by her, which is a sad problem I share. "Full Moonlight Dance" is a simple, haunting, three-part round by Karen Beth. I substituted "sing" for "play" for the purposes of today's entry.
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Yet another group introduced to me by GALA's adviser at Oswego, this one is composed of two men who are often called the "Simon and Garfunkel of the gay community" due to their tight harmonies. As with many/most folk artists, their music runs the gamut from tragic to comic and everything in between. Picking just one of their songs was the hard part.

I finally settled on "What Kind Of Self-Respecting Faggot Am I?" from Romanovsky and Phillips. The song is all about gay stereotypes and how the singer just doesn't seem to reflect them. It also gives me a chance to plug Leah Zicari again, this time for her TTO, "What Kind Of Self Respecting Lezzie Is She?" in which she disowns the whole bull dyke image.
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My first time around at SUNY Oswego, I was in the college choir all four years (last time I was taking a class in the same time period as it met both semesters. Sigh). I fell in love with "Ubi Caritas", which we did at least two of those years. I tried to get a copy for our wedding, but it never arrived (nor did many of our RSVPs, and later that year a local postal service worker was charged with stealing mail). I also tried to get a copy my most recent time back at Oswego, but every time I tried to go to the music archives they were closed. I may yet try to contact the college choir director when I was there; she is now an assistant dean of the music department.
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High school was, for the most part, not a happy time for me. I was ostracized by most students, bullied, and some other stuff I may someday write about. I was active, though, in a few organizations, including Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD). One of my favorite high school memories involved a dance sponsored by SADD. As a member/officer of the SADD chapter, I showed up to all the dances. At the end of the night most of the students had gone home, but there was a small group still lingering. At that point the DJ put on what I consider to be the defining song of today's artist, and those of us left formed a semi-circle, holding hands, and swayed to the song. It was one of the few times I felt a part of most of high school life, and identified with those other students.

Fast forward to after I dropped out of Oswego. I believe the year may have been 1994. I was working for a company in upstate NY, and the radio station my co-workers tuned into was thankfully one of those which does not play the same song twice in a 24-hour period. The radio station also had another stricture -- they would not play a song by the same artist in a given hour. One day, though, the DJ announced that he was making an exception. It was the birthday of one William Martin Joel, and thus he was going to play two of his songs. One of them was "Piano Man", the song which evoked such strong good memories from that SADD dance. The other was one of his newer songs, "River of Dreams", which happens to be today's song, eg one I listen to when I'm happy.
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It's hard to pinpoint when I learned about the musical, although I can narrow it down to high school; I'm guessing my junior year, so the school year from '87-'88. That's when Franklin Habit began attending my high school. He and I rode the same bus to school, but his was one of the last stops, while mine was one of the first. After meeting him via some other friends I began saving my seat for him.

Although I'd had a vague interest in musicals, mostly Annie, from my elementary school days, Franklin was a major Broadway fan. I'm guessing he was the vector; he introduced me to a lot of wonderful musicals that academic year.

Every year at SUNY Oswego, Rosemary Nesbitt sponsored a festival for high school drama types wherein the various high school drama clubs played a scene and were critiqued by a guest judge. We then got to see the full version of whatever Oswego's theatre department was producing at that point. Throughout the day we also got to see/hear various productions by the arts departments, and one of the performances we saw, either in my junior or senior year of high school, was one of the advanced ensembles singing songs from the musical. If it was my junior year, that probably influenced my desire to attend Oswego. If it was my senior year, it just made me happy that I'd decided to attend there.

One year in high school, I believe it was my senior year, we took a field trip to NYC. I can't remember if we saw more than one show, but I do know that we saw Les Miserables. I believe I did not have The Original Symphonic Recording at that point, but I desperately loved part of the show that was not on The Original Broadway Cast Recording, so I was on the lookout for a complete recording. My wish was granted, and The Original Symphonic Cast Recording has been my favorite album since. Indeed, although it spans three discs, I do not skip any of the songs when I listen to it. Perhaps my favorite part is "Epilogue (Finale)", which contains one of my favorite verses of any music: "Take my hand, I'll lead you to salvation / Take my love, for love is everlasting / And remember the truth that once was spoken / To love another person is to see the face of God." It also includes reprise of the song "Do You Hear the People Sing?" Actually, I could go on for quite a long time about this album, but I'll err on the side of "I'm talking too much" and leave it at that.
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After leaving Oswego for the first time I went through a series of temp jobs, some longer-term than others. Then some friends moved to Atlanta, lured by promises of abundant jobs, and I went along. Long story short, we all ended up temping again. One of the places I worked at constantly had the radio playing and, alas, it was not one of those stations which would play a song only once in a given 24 hour period. The result was hearing a rotation of maybe a dozen songs over and over and over and over and etc.

Today's challenge was a song that you hear often on the radio. I don't listen to the radio, so I reached back to those dark Atlanta days and pulled out one of the songs which I don't thoroughly despise these days; "When She Cries" by Restless Heart
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This was a hard one. On the one hand, "Bury My Lovely" from October Project is eerily reminiscent of me when I was younger, and even to an extent now. On the other, I perhaps should move beyond that and stop letting my past own me. My other choice, the song which I consider "my song" when it comes to Andy, is "Eyes of Mercy", also by October Project.

I'm happy to say that I came by my decision by means more deliberate than rolling a die/tossing a coin. "Eyes of Mercy" by October Project is the song more descriptive of me.

• day 01 – your favorite song: "Shades of Gray" as performed by The Monkees.
  
• day 02 – your least favorite song: "(She Was A) Hotel Detective" by TMBG.
  
• day 03 - a song that makes you happy: Beethoven's 6th, 1st movement.
  
• day 04 - a song that makes you sad: "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton.
  
• day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone: "Trouble Me" by 10,000 Maniacs. (Ray Hall)
  
• day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event: "The Throne Room" by John Williams. (Our wedding recessional)
  
• day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere: "Blackstairs" by Clannad. (My uncle's house)
  
• day 08 - a song that you know all the words to: "Irony" by Leah Zicari.
  
• day 09 - a song that you can dance to: "Caribbean Blue" by Enya.
  
• day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep: "Music of the Night" by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
  
• day 11 - a song from your favorite band: "Perfect Time" by Maire (Moya) Brennan.
  
• day 12 - a song from a band you hate: "Tequila" by The Ventures.
  
• day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure: "Trigger Happy" by "Weird Al" Yankovic.
  
• day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love: "The Final Countdown" by Europe.
  
• day 15 - a song that describes you: "Eyes of Mercy" by October Project
  

It's just so happy and cheerful and bouncy.

My guilty pleasure of a song is "Trigger Happy" by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

• day 01 – your favorite song: "Shades of Gray" as performed by The Monkees.
  
• day 02 – your least favorite song: "(She Was A) Hotel Detective" by TMBG.
  
• day 03 - a song that makes you happy: Beethoven's 6th, 1st movement.
  
• day 04 - a song that makes you sad: "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton.
  
• day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone: "Trouble Me" by 10,000 Maniacs. (Ray Hall)
  
• day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event: "The Throne Room" by John Williams. (Our wedding recessional)
  
• day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere: "Blackstairs" by Clannad. (My uncle's house)
  
• day 08 - a song that you know all the words to: "Irony" by Leah Zicari.
  
• day 09 - a song that you can dance to: "Caribbean Blue" by Enya.
  
• day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep: "Music of the Night" by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
  
• day 11 - a song from your favorite band: "Perfect Time" by Maire (Moya) Brennan.
  
• day 12 - a song from a band you hate: "Tequila" by The Ventures.
  
• day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure: "Trigger Happy" by "Weird Al" Yankovic.