It’s one thing to have a key memory in life intertwined with a classic song. It can be heartwarming to reflect on your first dance as a married couple when it’s accompanied by “It’s a Wonderful World” or “In the Mood” by the Glen Miller Orchestra. It can be cathartic to remember driving away from the airport in your ‘78 hard top Chevy Blazer with Dire Straights’ “So Far Away” blaring from the radio. And I have some rather fond memories of listening to Jazzhole, The Felling Goes Around on late college nights.
It’s a whole nother story when your high school senior song is “Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane. Luckily this song has been somewhat revived by a much better version released by Rascal Flats and made popular by Disney’s “Cars.”
Early in our marriage, the wife and I lived in a small brick bungalow crammed onto an intimate, little block of houses on the Boise Bench. Never mind the fact that I bought this house and closed on it before the wife ever saw it. Never mind that the first time she laid eyes on it, those eyes quickly filled with tears…and not tears of joy. Never mind that I discovered after closing that the walls were not tan, but were in fact white beneath a quarter inch of grease. Never mind that it smelled of urine. And I’m sure the family of raccoons that had taken up residency were humanely relocated.
Once we were able to clean the place up enough to move in, we were initiated to the neighborhood’s Friday afternoon ritual when our neighbor across the street arrived home from work on his motorcycle, pulled into his garage, opened all his windows, and cranked up his stereo to play, “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell. (Do yourself a favor, and don’t go back to watch the original music video.) It’s a mercifully short song, and everyone in the neighborhood seemed to accept this weekly ritual as the official kickoff to the weekend. If I had a job I was trying to wrap up in the office, the playing of Tainted Love indicated that it was time to hang up the keyboard and get back to it Monday morning.
But for me personally, the winner for the worst song associated with a significant memory has to be “Teach me Tiger!” by April Stevens. (Notice the ! at the end of the song title. Classy.) First off, I’m not even sure how this became a song. Oh wait, fantasy fulfillment for every aging, balding Tom, Dick, and Harry in existence during the 60s. Gotcha. Second off, I can’t not crack up every time I try to sing this song. If any of you can get through the “Whoa, whoa, whoa…whoa, wah” part with a straight face…while someone else is watching you, then I’m genuinely impressed. And, well, you’ll just have to teach me. (You should have seen that one coming.)
As for the memory moment I associate with this terribly hilarious song, well, some memories are best kept close to the heart.
I’m sure each one of you has similar epic/bad song memory moments. Maybe this is the time to pull out an old album (or ask Alexa) in order to relive a tiny bit of history.
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At the Desk This Week
I’m fully engaged in the process of cleaning up Season 3 of The Green Ones. I still have to write the final episode (Ep. 6), but first I’ve gotta go back through and fix all the flubs and incongruencies. By the time I finish this season, it will be brilliant, I’m sure. But wow, the process has been ten times messier than normal. It only took one day of going back over episode one to realize that I needed to punch up the motivation for the protags. But the solution was an obvious one. All I needed to do was add the rumor of a coming global war in their “dystopian-verse” of origin. Knowing that they are about to be deployed as Telekinetic fodder in a massive world war can provide some motivation to unlock your abilities and discover your friends/allies before everything goes down. This means that Season 4 will most likely cover the outbreak of this world war. I have some ideas for a twist ending and shifting allegiances that I’ve been stewing on for a while.
My goal through all of this has been to get back in the serial fiction writing saddle sufficiently enough to return to writing and publishing live-streaming, serial fiction. To do that, I have to be able to anticipate future twists and turns well enough to incorporate them early on and avoid needing to go back and edit stuff once it is published. Serial release takes a certain amount of clairvoyance combined with madness. When I feel something in my gut, I gotta just go with it…even if I don’t fully understand why in the moment. I have to trust that later it will make sense. So far, I’m not totally back into the “writing condition” I need to be. But I’m getting there.
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