father thoughts 2

I first posted this in 2013. I'm being a bit lazy and will reuse it this year. My thoughts are still the same and my blog is a fine place to store a few memories.
 
Father's Day really does change when you become an adult orphan. Not as big a change as becoming a father yourself. Each year it feels a little different. No gift to buy just thoughts of past times, good and bad.

The passing of years since they left becomes very evident when I need to do a bit of arithmetic to recall the number of years (my calculations, dad passed 32 yrs ago, mom passed 27 yrs ago.)

More reason to appreciate having sisters and a brother to share growing-up memories. We each bring a different perspective to memory recollection.

a fish catching smile

The Mother and Father Days are all about relationships. One of my favorite relationship songs is "Landslide". I heard Stevie Nicks once tell the audience that her father thought she had written it for him. I found Stevie's words about the song at this site: 

"The story of Landslide... everybody seems to think that I wrote this song about them. Everybody in my family, all my friends, everybody... and my Dad, my Dad did have something to do with it, but he absolutely thinks that he was the whole complete reason it was ever written...."

 

What if I ramble a bit

What if I told you I just made a mixtape. I suspect most of you would know what I meant. Actually what I just finished was a mix CD. Will that activity even be around years from now? Today, many cars are not equipped with CD players and the cassette player was ditched years ago.

ramble too much and lose your head

What if youtube was around back in the 1950’s? Technically, it would not have worked well since the internet along with the necessary peripheral equipment had not been created yet. I should ask, “youtube and the necessary internet technology”. The track my train of thought is on here is using youtube like service starting back in the 1950’s. What would have been the viral videos of the 1950's?

Would the youtube activity warp our events and culture in such a way that now in 2017 viral videos would be so retro that no would care? I don’t think so. A video really becomes viral because of the subject and content not the technology it is delivered over.

Thanks to our library congress we have available many old recordings (pictures, video, sound) in easily available digital format. Here’s a short video taken in July 1897, at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. I don’t understand the clothes. It must have been really hot.



I’m certain that quick sharing of videos would have positively impacted many of the social/cultural problems we have had. The spread of the written word accelerated with the printing press. I watched a science/history show recently that links the printing press to the adoption of reading glasses.

Written words are powerful but images and sound reaches even more people in quicker ways. Recordings of events/music/stories/daily life have become part of living and will only increase in the future. Our grandkids in pre-school are able to take good pictures on a smartphone.


(quick tangent coming at you)
Did you ever wonder why there is only 10 commandments? I think Moses couldn’t chisel the stone quick enough and quit at 10. Moses had to rewrite it after having broken the first set. The terse style of the wording would work well with Twitter limitations today. Too bad he wasn’t able to save it to the cloud like today.

I ramble quietly with little rumble. Ramble on. I enjoy sharing youtube music so here’s Led Zepplin:

Ah, sometimes I grow so tired
But I know I've got one thing I got to do
Ramble on.

Come what May. Now it’s June.

Wow it is June. The arrow of time keeps flying into the future as it always has. This past May, I enjoyed a live musical, a piano recital, and this big performance of Chicago school kids at Millennial Park which included bubble machines. Who doesn't enjoy bubbles?

bubbles add to the fun

"It was twenty years ago today..."

Well you may have noticed it was fifty years ago on June 1 that the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album was released. I was 14. Doing the simple math and you'll calculate that I'm 64 now (another great song from this album). Described by Rolling Stone magazine as “The most important rock & roll album ever made…”. I don't know about that but I do enjoy the album. After watching a the PBS special last night and reading the various analysis on the internet, I'm more appreciative of it's ground breaking studio work.

I dug out our old copy of the album. Here's a pic of the back of the album cover (yeah yeah the front cover was astounding but not as useful). You'll see the lyrics to all the songs. Having the lyrics was a big benefit of albums. I'm using the first lines of the songs on the album as prompts for this post. Thanks John Lennon and Paul McCartney for your great song writing.

a bit of wear

"A little help from my friends..."

We all can use a little help at times.

"Picture yourself in a boat on a river..."

Oh a good float down a river would be great. I have fond memories of tubing on rivers.

"It’s getting better all the time..."

Good to think positive. Yeah it's getting better all the time, I'm just not sure what it is.

"I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in..."

This could be about house repairs but it's not. Today it seems political to me but so does so many things these days.

"Wednesday morning at five o’clock as the day begins..."

I'm not a morning person so if she was leaving home at this time of day I probably would not notice. Actually, we have noticed that she has returned. Now we are wondering when she will be leaving home again. Someone with more talent than me should write a version for the new boomerang kids.

"For the benefit of Mr. Kite..."

Always thought this one was very odd. While watching the PBS special about the album I learned it was based on an old poster John bought in an antique shop.

"We were talking - about the space between us all..."

IMHO - this is the strangest song of the album. The Indian music influence on George Harrison can't be missed here. Great song for yoga.

"When I get older losing my hair..."

Thank goodness not! I'm 64 with a full head of hair. I'm still getting feed at 64 too.

"Lovely Rita meter maid..."

There's a meter maid in our family history and that's all I'm saying about that.

"Nothing to do to save his life call his wife in..."

Ok, I would not recognize this song from it's first line. The repeating "good morning good morning" parts are more memorable. "I've got nothing to say but it's ok..." The lyrics match up with today's social media description.

"We’re Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band..."

The reprise of the first song. IMHO it would have been better to include another new song instead of basically repeating.

"I read the news today oh boy..."

1967 or 2017 - the news of the day is typically not good. No news is good news?




A splendid time is guaranteed for all in the comment section. Hey Jude, Get Back you Day Tripper. Yesterday, Lady Madonna commented about A Hard Day’s Night.