The Devil Made Me Do It

May 16, 2021May 16, 2021 / animar64 / Leave a comment

I’m reading the book Marrying Off Mother by Gerald Durrell- just to let you know right off the bat this isn’t a book review. Besides I’m only half way through it.

What I wanted to share was the reaction I had to one of the stories called ” Retirement ”

“Retirement” is a story about a Ship’s Captain who dies mid journey. Not only does he die mid journey he dies at a party celebrating the ” Crossing of The Line ” in a room full of passengers who have grown very fond of the Captain.

I did not laugh at that, though I did feel this sort of itch between my shoulder blades that I always get when I know I’m about to laugh at an inappropriate moment. That’s been an issue with me since I was a kid. My Nan told me it was the Devil jabbing me with his Pitch Fork to make me misbehave and she is probably right.

Anyway, it gets worse.

Wanting to respectfully care for the Captain ( who I can’t stress enough was a good person in the story and every one really respected and liked him ) he was cleaned up, dressed and left in his cabin.

For a few days. At room temperature.

As nature had begun taking it’s course right after the Captain died, it didn’t take long before a smell began to work it’s way out of his cabin so he was moved to the cargo hold where it was cold.

I’m not sure how it happened, but at some point the Captain’s knees drew up to his chest and as no one had been checking on him he froze that way. Just before they docked his situation was discovered by a crew member and they panicked.

You see, they had to get him into a coffin and in that state it was impossible.

So they broke his legs.

I’m not sure how that was done. I can only imagine how they actually straightened the frozen limbs of a corpse but maybe that was a bridge to far for the person telling the story. A Hammer makes for drama, a saw takes the entire story into another territory.

After I read that story I felt that poke between my shoulder blades.

I didn’t know if I should laugh or gasp in horror.

The jab turned into a poke…poke…poke …jab…jab.

I laughed.

I laughed ut loud on a morning commuter train and when a few of the passengers around me turned around and stared at me with annoyance, that jab turned into a poke and that poke turned into a push and I held my book up and said the first thing that popped into my brain.

” Porn. It’s crazy stuff, am I right? ”

Alligator Music

May 16, 2021May 16, 2021 / animar64 / 3 Comments

Inspired by today’s Song Lyric Sunday Challenge, I researched elevator music to find out which songs were the most used and dare I say popular and I can’t say I was surprised with the results.

As a side note, elevator music went from being space fillers, time killers to a joke and are now even viewed as being macabre. Interesting.

To get back on track it turns out that The Girl From Ipanema turns up on various lists as a go to song in the Elevator Music World ( the instrumental version of course ).

It’s also my Mom’s favorite song and when I became a musician, it was the first song my Mom asked me to play.

You’re probably wondering why I gave this post the title ” Alligator Music. My Granddaughter, who just turned three pronounces ‘elevator’ as ” alligator ” which I think is cute and at the end of this post I have a clip of her about to face ‘ the alligator’

I hope you enjoy today’s song.

amm

The Girl from Ipanema

Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, João Gilberto, Kenny G, Stan Getz, Gary Burton

Olha que coisa mais linda
Mais cheia de graça
É ela menina
Que vem e que passa
Num doce balanço, a caminho do mar

Moça do corpo dourado
Do sol de Ipanema
O seu balançado é mais que um poema
É a coisa mais linda que eu já vi passar

Ah, porque estou tão sozinho
Ah, porque tudo é tão triste
Ah, a beleza que existe
A beleza que não é só minha
Que também passa sozinha

Ah se ela soubesse
Que quando ela passa
O mundo sorrindo
Se enche de graça
E fica mais lindo
Por causa de amor

Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes
Each one she passes goes, “Ah”

When she walks, she’s like a samba
That swings so cool and sways so gently
That when she passes
Each one she passes goes, “Ah”

Oh, but he watches her so sadly
How can he tell her he loves her?
Yes, he would give his heart gladly
But each day, when she walks to the sea
She looks straight ahead, not at he

Tall, and tan, and young, and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, he smiles
But she doesn’t see

Oh, but he sees her so sadly
How can he tell her he loves her?
Yes, he would give his heart gladly
But each day, when she walks to the sea
She looks straight ahead, not at him

Tall, and tan, and young, and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, he smiles
But she doesn’t see

She just doesn’t see
No, she doesn’t see
But she doesn’t see
She doesn’t see
No, she doesn’t see

Songwriters: N. Gimbel, V. De Moreas, A.c. Jobim

Jemma and the Alligator

The Harvest

May 15, 2021May 15, 2021 / animar64 / 2 Comments

Linda G Hill’s Prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “Growth.”

Over the past year I have learned somethings about myself- because when you are in lockdown you can either make it an effort to learn something new everyday or you can hang around in your favorite fleece ( pajamas ) outfits and curse people out on facebook all day long.

I chose to learn, not because I like learning but I hate facebook so there is that.

This is what I learned.

I learned who my friends are. I learned that there are people in my life who care about me and that there are ( were ) people in my life who literally did not care if I died. I mean it. Died as in wrapped in plastic and laying on a shelf in a morgue.

The beauty of it is, they’ve been popping up in my stories here and the people I really found myself thoroughly disgusted with starred my highest traffic stories.

I also learned that my Christmas card list this year is going to be a lot shorter so I will save on postage . Actually I consider that a big effing PLUS because now I can buy fancier ( more expensive ) cards.

I guess I owe them some thanks.

Thank you .

I’ve also learned that going to the Symphony was a bigger deal to me then I realized.

Every season I’d buy my tickets, I’d buy new outfits, I’d go out of dinner and then I would go shopping and expand my CD collection because I’d go to the lectures before the performances and that was a great place to pick up info on composers who influenced the music I was about to hear that night.

It was just something I did because I loved that entire experience.

What I learned was at the heart of it, what I actually enjoyed was that moment the lights went down and the audience and the musicians took a collective breath and with that first note it felt like we were being lifted up and that we flew away- together.

It was magical.

That is what I actually loved and what I actually loved- that one little moment.

I can’t say that over the year I blossomed and found inner peace and that I only eat organic food now ( though I did stop eating beef ). Much like the two faced jerks I let wander around my life like dandelion floating across a well groomed lawn, I learned that beef wasn’t really necessary plus it’s expensive and cost me a lot.

There are seven more months left in this year and it would be a safe guess to say I just want to get it over with.

But what I learned after having 2020 stolen from a lot of us- and the previous three before it for the rest of us is this:

I’m sorry I gritted my teeth and just powered through them. I wish I had lived them more fully.

I won’t make that mistake again, I consider it a lesson learned.

In that, I have grown.