In Our Lighter Moments

Just like Ms Jolly Blogger (my jolly tagger!) I used to enjoy these games — they gave me something to write about! This one was a lot of fun, and I kept two of her questions for others to answer. I decided not to tag anyone, but people can answer if they would like to.

The game of Blog Tag works like this: Once you are tagged, you must follow these simple rules:

1. You must post the rules. (These are THE RULES.)
2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post.
3. Create eight new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
4. Tag eight people with a link to your post.
5. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

**Here are the questions by my tagger:**

1. If you could be any character from a movie, who would it be and why?

Scary things happen to characters, even in happy movies, so I don’t know who I would opt to be. It’s also hard to imagine being someone other than myself… I would bring something completely different to the movie and would probably ruin the plot.

I found myself thinking I would quite like to be the mother in Mamma Mia!… living in bright sunshine with happy, cheerful friends. I have old flames that my movie daughter could invite, including a song-writing guitar player with long hair. And I like Abba!

2. What do you miss most about being a kid?

That one’s easy… all of my family being there. Proper Christmases with six people at the table.

3. What’s the best present you’ve ever received? Given?

Received? A pink mouse.

Given? For the sake of conversation (though I doubt if it’s true), a Mozart bear who plays Eine kleine Nachtmusik.

4. Name your favourite book.

Ah, that would depend on my mood! Light option: the Moomin books by Tove Jansson. Heavier option: Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian.

5. It’s your last meal ever.  What are you eating?

Rich pea and ham soup, followed by hot BBQ chicken with soft white crusty bread, followed by a good quality chocolate sundae with whipped cream. A nice sweet white wine along with the main meal. And then coffee, with a square of good Scottish tablet. Make that the whole packet of tablet, if it has to be my last…

6. What song(s) would you include in the Soundtrack of Your Life?

Eleven songs, placed in approximate chronological order of my life events.

Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight / Mbube) I still love this video!
Isn’t it Amazing (Hothouse Flowers)
Dreaming (OMD)
Same Old Scene (Roxy Music)
Heart on My Sleeve (Gallagher and Lyle)
The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel)
This Land is Mine (Dido)
Dream a Lie (UB40)
New World in the Morning (Roger Whittaker)
Going Home (Runrig)
She’s Leaving (OMD).

Notes on my choices:

(a) My sister and I were brought up on Wimoweh!

(b) People interpret The Sound of Silence in different ways. I believe Paul Simon himself suggested that it was just a bit of teenage angst about the young being ignored by society. That’s what I read into it myself, though I feel it can speak for many others who aren’t teenagers.

7. What last experience did you have that made you a stronger person?

Books are nothing new, but the Kindle itself might count as a recent experience, or discovery? It helps me tap into the world of books without filling our rooms from floor to ceiling. Books of all kinds have gone a long way to making me what I am, good or bad.

8.  Favourite season of the year and why?

Summer… I’m a hot weather chick. I was born in a hot weather country… I don’t like being cold, and I don’t like it when it’s dark and wet. Though sometimes I’m in the mood for the first signs of spring, violent storms, golden leaves and Halloween, Christmas, pine trees, snow… and Moomin dreams.

**Now here are my questions for the Tagees:**

1. If you could be any character from a movie, who would it be and why?
2. What do you like best about your hobbies?
3. Do you feel that reading other blogs changes or shapes your attitude to life?
4. What is your favourite cake?
5. If you ever had to leave your current continent and live in another, where would you go?
6. What was your first ever favourite song?
7. Do you have any bad habits that you don’t regret?
8.  What song(s) would you include in the Soundtrack of Your Life?

Musical Distortions

I’m sorry if I seem vague at the moment — I’m not spending much time in the blogging world these days. But I know I’ll be back, as this is a kind of home.

I was listening to a Neil Diamond CD I imported to iTunes, and really enjoyed it for a couple of days, then suddenly couldn’t make it out. Songs I knew and loved for years sounded of nothing.

I realised that both hearing aids were sounding a little distorted, though still working. Actually one sounds just a little distorted; the other was really bad.

I’ve been trying to dry them out (though I did nothing foolish like leaving them in a steamy bathroom) but have had no joy so far. Switched to an older hearing aid (a spare). Played ‘Castles in the Air’ (Don McLean) and ‘Catch the Wind’ (Donovan), as I know them quite well… but I wouldn’t have known what they were if I couldn’t see their titles.

Then I switched to the other computer (just in case it was the first computer that was distorted, and not my aids!) and could just about hear Mamma Mia… but all of the twiddly bits were gone. You get the crashing piano chords and the voices when they are low (just about), but you can’t make out any of the higher bits.

I immediately switched back to the first computer and played Mamma Mia there (it should be better as it has a small set of speakers with amplifier)… and it did in fact sound better; I could make out a brassy quality where the high bits are meant to be.

But it brings home to me how much of my enjoyment of music these days seems to rely on my remembering how the songs go. If I can’t quite remember / equate it to what’s coming out of the speakers, then it’s just a wall of sound. My chances of getting to know a brand new song are low.

Have turned off iTunes (again)… am annoyed at the thought I have to go back to the clinic and sit in a beastly waiting room just to keep these hearing aids working. You think “what’s the point?” It’s like striving to keep something that was never really mine anyway. I should just give up; lead a quiet life (except for those songs that still play in my head!)

Away with the Fairy Moles

My brain is a radio… it is always on a music station, particularly when I switch off my hearing aids. Without them I hear nothing apart from the odd muffled thump, reverberation or bang. It’s as much ‘feel’ as ‘hear’. But that’s when my brain channels music, more than at any other time.

Mum said it should save me a fortune in CDs.

Today it’s something that sounds like a James Bond theme tune… I can almost see the sinuous dancing figures, flames, and suited spies. If I look a bit faraway, don’t be surprised! I can’t hear your voice, or the TV, or the kettle… this tune is stronger than anything else.

If I hadn’t listened to so much music when younger, I wonder what I would be hearing instead? I can’t imagine anything other than music.

Little Bunnies Have Short Noses

Found a YouTube video: ‘Because Humans Count‘ by Alf Poier… the Austrian entry for Eurovision Song Contest 2003. Back then I thought it should have won.

The English translation (I think):

All animals of the earth
I treat them with great care
But most of all I love
the bunny and the bear.

All birds bound to die out
All bugs forever leave
Only Adam lies in bed
and multiplies with Eve.

Rabbits dwell in forests
Cats play on the lawn
And the cockroaches
They live behind a wall.

Little bunnies have short noses
And little kitties have soft paws
And Mother Carey hoards a big pool
Of a dromedary’s finest wool.

The difference between humans
‘tween monkeys and primates
Is not much more than that
‘tween noodles ‘n’ carb’hydrates.

Those who are further interested
Must study… biology
Or inform themselves
On my homepage full of glee.

Some animals have wings
Others got two fangs
Some may sleep outdoors
The rest lie dead in cans.

Little bunnies have short noses
And little kitties have soft paws
And Mother Carey hoards a big pool
Of a dromedary’s finest wool.

Repeat chorus

Eurovision Song Contest 2011

My favourite five from the Eurovision this year:

1: Germany
2: Switzerland
3: Iceland
4: Azerbaijan
5: Bosnia-Herzegovina or Italy

Mum’s choice (though she was asleep much of the time… and we didn’t discuss the songs while we were hearing them):

1: Iceland
2: Azerbaijan
3: Spain

It confused me that Switzerland came last! But Azerbaijan won.

Beautiful Sealand

Song of the moment for me just now is Sealand, from OMD’s album Architecture and Morality. I had the record years ago and loved it to bits. Recently I bought the CD, and it was mostly for the sake of Sealand. I felt I couldn’t last another week without it. A DVD came in the same CD case, but I’ve not looked at it yet. Instead I listen to Sealand over and over…

Beautiful Sealand, graceful and calm. It says to me that life is what it is… it is sad at times, but all suffering comes to an end.

A review on Amazon said the album has a cold heart, but I listen to this, and see the sun breaking through the clouds.

It sounds better on my old Mac, which still has the Yamaha amplifier and speakers. Try Sealand for yourself on the YouTube clip, then get the CD.

Sealand
She forgets
Her friends

She’ll not
Leave them
Again

Mother
Sister
And home

These arms
Fail you

Singing Today

David Cameron is in, backed up by Nick Clegg.

Singing today — very mellow.

Yellow is the colour of my true love’s hair
In the morning when we rise,
In the morning when we rise,
That’s the time, that’s the time
I love the best.

Blue’s the colour of the sky
In the morning when we rise,
In the morning when we rise,
That’s the time, that’s the time
I love the best.

(First two verses from Donovan’s ‘Colours’. Playing now on my CD player. If you’ve never heard of Donovan, it says on the CD sleeve: “Donovan Leitch was Britain’s answer to Bob Dylan, yet transcended the impossible comparison to become our very own hippie troubadour.” Seems to be a bit controversial, but who cares? So long as you like one, the other, or both. Here’s a video clip to Colours… just look at those eyelashes).

Singing it all over the house — the cats are giving me funny looks.

Indian Banshee

Every so often a song comes to mind that you haven’t listened to for years. Tonight I decided to play a Sheila Chandra tape for one song only… Lament of McCrimmon / Song of the Banshee.

It’s an Indian version of an old Scottish song, it seems… dating from 1746? Sometimes I think the information available on the web gets more and more choppy, and you’re lucky if you can find what you’re looking for. I found a bit more when I searched for MacCrimmon instead of McCrimmon! There’s a bit in the Wikipedia — look down the page for Donald Ban.

Anyway, I’m Scottish… we like our mournful dirges.

No more, no more, no more forever
In war nor in peace shall return MacCrimmon
Till dawns the great day of dule and burning
MacCrimmon is home no more returning

The full lyrics are under the YouTube video — if you’ve never seen an Indian banshee, now’s your chance…

Shadows on the Hills

Thomas was talking here about a poster he used to have (Woody Guthrie), and the first song into my head was Don McLean’s Vincent — the one that begins Starry, Starry Night. I shouldn’t wonder if I was influenced by an earlier post of Thomas’s! But it’s a calming song, full of profound acceptance. It’s not about whether you fit in, and it’s not about the shackles you bind yourself with… it’s about what you see and know.

Here’s a poster I used to have in my bedroom… The High Couch of Silistra by Boris Vallejo. With its leathery wings, it flies in the face of what I’ve said above, but we’re sharing our old posters here.

PS I have no personal experience of the poster site, so I can’t vouch for it myself.

Skylarking

I’m probably not the coolest person in iTunes tonight. I’m going through a pile of CDs to see whether or not I like them… many were charity shop gifts from Mum that I never got around to trying. Two CDs so far came back with the message ‘Couldn’t find the song titles online – do you still want to import them?’

I said “no” (I never fully saw the sense of importing them, except that it means I don’t have to get up and rootle through a mound of CDs when I want to hear Enola Gay by OMD. But what does it mean that they don’t have the song titles… that my CDs are not the hottest ones out there?? Twice in a row!)

I didn’t like the first CD (so let’s forget what it was) but I found myself enjoying the second… something I’ve never listened to in my life before, by a band that didn’t sound familiar… Quern in Concert 2. The other CD was too high-pitched for me, but Quern had good, strong, resonant notes and voices. Good, good. I relaxed. Then I came across something a bit spooky…

I’ve mentioned before how I keep getting ‘musak’ in my ears in default of anything else  (could be the brain filling in where there’s no sound, or not enough to make sense of something). I had no idea where certain bright tunes came from, but I was halfway through Track 11 (Selection of Strathspeys) when my hair stood on end. That sound was definitely one of them. Track 12 was just as familiar (Scandinavian Touch), as was Track 13 (Music of French Canada).

Earlier, Track 10 (The Skylark) was familiar too, but not in the same way as the following tracks. Probably because it’s sweeter and less aggressive.

There must be some explanation… perhaps these are very common tunes, especially on TV and radio? Or in shops and cafes? I don’t know for sure where I’ve heard them before or why they haunt me so determinedly. I don’t think I do any sleep-playing of CDs! I asked Mum and sister if they play this music, and they both said “Quern? Never heard of them.”

To start with, I found myself reluctant to go through this pile of CDs I’d personally never heard of. I had no problem with anything new when I was younger — as far as I was concerned, music was music, and likely to be good. Nowadays I feel sure that CDs will be dull or inaudible — but so far I’m keeping more CDs from that pile than I’m ditching!

(Places Quern on the ‘keep’ pile. Especially love that Skylark…)

PS: It’s obvious what my cat Delilah thinks of the CDs. I was trying out The Stranglers, whose CD was in my ‘ho hum’ pile because the only song I liked on previous playings was Golden Brown… but now there are a couple more, like La Folie, so it’s still a keeper). Delilah listened with horror to the CD and stared at the psychedelic screensaver squirming and twisting… after five minutes of this, she turned round and hid her head under the curtain. I don’t think she will be going to The Stranglers in Concert any time soon…