It's [My] Birthday Today! (Epic Birthday Songs)

Posting this at 12:01 a.m., August 5, my 66th birthday.  When the f*ck did that happen?!?

Like New Year's Eve, each new trip around the sun is always a time of reflection and introspection for me, "attempting to figure out the circuitous journey I call my life: where I've been, where I am, where I'm going and who will be my traveling companions, continued or new", as I say in my blog profile.  From surrendering the Labyrinth Cafe concert series in May 2019... retiring from my office job in June 2019... and this f*cking pandemic since mid-March 2020, it's been a h*lluva year.  I have retreated, recalibrated, and regrouped.  "First World Problems" is my new mantra.  

I find myself being more direct and honest than I usually am... expressing my true feelings when something is on my mind... reaching out to make amends, repair relationships, and/or bridge distances.  We just don't know where we're headed with all of this.  Maybe part of my thought process is because my mom's passing was 11 years ago last month, and my sister, brother and I prided ourselves on not having any woulda/coulda/shouldas.  Also, as I am fond of saying, I am still 19 until I pass a mirror... ;-)

With nothing important, time-consuming, or deadline-driven to deal with, I am floundering a bit to re-find my place in the world and reclaim my worth.  I used to be so busy (to the point of ridiculousness; dare I say frenzied?) and I am not that anymore.  Whew.  Replacing that with radical self-care is not easy, when I am usually The One Who Organizes and Nurtures.  Struggling to find the balance, and it is necessary that I do. [Yo, Adriene!  Sorry that I quit ya.  Back in the cat/cow/downward-dog/pigeon/eagle/tree/cobra/Happy Baby/corpse saddle tomorrow!]

So... most of you know I deactivated my Facebook account on New Year's Eve 2019, and I haven't really missed it, other than the amazing book discussion group RWA (Readers With Attitude) that provided me with stimulation, inspiration, and hilarity... as well as excellent recommendations.

This will be my first birthday without social media, and I do confess that I will be feeling the void of the day-long deluge of well-wishes, memes, and sweet thoughts from friends and family.  Normally I honestly don't care if anyone comments on my blog, as I've always thought of it as a journal, an exercise in creativity, a way to blow off my monkey-mind steam.

Today, however, I want to ask a favor of all of you.  I am a Leo, and birthdays (all celebrations, actually) are a big deal.  We joke about having a Birth Month! 

At some point, if you are reading this, could you please:

~ wish me a Happy Birthday in the Comments box below (moderated, so it might not show up right away!)

and, if you're up to it, let me know:

~ what you're reading now, OR
~ a favorite book you've recently read, OR
~ a book you look forward to reading, OR
~ none of the above (and that's okay, too... :-)

Given this ongoing COVID Chaos, it would really mean a lot.  Thanks in advance for celebrating with me, and much love always... 💖

NR:  Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (starting at 12:02 a.m., I'm going to read all f*cking day, about as guilty a pleasure as I can imagine!  Maybe I'll even stay in my nightgown... or my bathing suit, if it's a nice day... ☀


SONG:  It's Your Birthday Today, Susan! by Epic Birthday Songs (you really *must* click on the link.  Many viewings later, I am still laughing so hard I am crying!)

BOOK:  Leo: Harness the Power of the Zodiac by Stella Andromeda

POEM:  On the Eve of a Birthday by Timothy Steele

As my Scotch, spared the water, blondly sloshes
About its tumbler, and gay manic flame
Is snapping in the fireplace, I grow youthful:
I realize that calendars aren’t truthful
And that for all of my grand unsuccesses
External causes are to blame.

And if at present somewhat destitute,
I plan to alter, prove myself more able,
And suavely stroll into the coming years
As into rooms with thick rugs, chandeliers,
And colorfully pyramided fruit
On linened lengths of table.

At times I fear the future won’t reward
My failures with sufficient compensation,
But dump me, aging, in a garret room
Appointed with twilit, slant-ceilinged gloom
And a lone bulb depending from a cord
Suggestive of self-strangulation.

Then, too, I have bad dreams, in one of which
A cowled, scythe-bearing figure beckons me.
Dark plains glow at his back: it seems I’ve died,
And my soul, weighed and judged, has qualified
For an extended, hyper-sultry hitch
Down in eternity.

Such fears and dreams, however, always pass.
And gazing from my window at the dark,
My drink in hand, I’m jauntily unbowed.
The sky’s tiered, windy galleries stream with cloud,
And higher still, the dazed stars thickly mass
In their long Ptolemaic arc.

What constellated powers, unkind or kind,
Sway me, what far preposterous ghosts of air?
Whoever they are, whatever our connection,
I toast them (toasting also my reflection),
Not minding that the words which come to mind
Make the toast less toast than prayer:

Here’s to the next year, to the best year yet;
To mixed joys, to my harum-scarum prime;
To auguries reliable and specious;
To times to come, such times being precious,
If only for the reason that they get
Shorter all the time.

QUOTE(S):  "Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!" ~ Dr. Seuss

"Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words." ~ Plautus

"We have to be able to grow up. Our wrinkles are our medals of the passage of life. They are what we have been through and who we want to be." ~ Lauren Hutton

Kiss Me Now (Danny Schmidt)

Another musical PSA!  My history with Danny Schmidt is deep and wide.  Rather than recap, here is the link to multiple blog posts which describe how I was introduced to his music, presented him in two house concerts, showcased him a handful of times at my Labyrinth Cafe concert series, engaged in long and deep conversations, both in-person and via e-mail.  Of course, through Danny I fell in love with Carrie as well, equally talented and dear.  I was honored and grateful to be invited to their wedding in October 2014, and I joked that I "f*cked up their numbers" by actually attending (you know, those out-of-town friends and family who you never expect to really come).  Oh, what a celebration of JOY and LOVE!

Received the following e-newsletter from Danny a few days ago.  I love his, and Carrie's, music so much that I'm thinking seriously of restoring my deactivated Facebook account (well, only for the few hours or so the concert is happening...  :-)  Join me?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Y'all --

I don't need to tell you these are challenging and extraordinary times. I sincerely hope that you are each safe and healthy, and feeling well-supported emotionally. Carrie and I are doing our best to keep Maizy happy and engaged while on house arrest. It's a hard concept for a three year old . . . but good practice for future groundings.

We're also doing our best to reschedule our cancelled tours as quickly as possible, given the uncertain timetable of the return to normalcy. Meanwhile, we're using what free time we have to write new songs and remain productive.

Carrie and I are playing an online concert this Saturday, live from our living room. We're really disappointed that our springtime travels have all been curtailed . . . so this is our way of trying to connect with those of you who we'll miss . . . and our way of trying to stay musicially (and humanly) connected with the rest of our extended and isolated community.

Here's the details:

Saturday, April 4th 2020
Danny Schmidt + Carrie Elkin: The Sequestered Together Concert
Streaming on Facebook Live starting at 2:00pm CDT
(That's 8pm in the UK, and 9pm in Europe.)

You can watch from this link:
https://www.facebook.com/dannyschmidtmusic/live

We really hope to see you all online this Saturday. And we really REALLY hope that you are staying healthy and maintaining your stability through this ordeal. Many of you I know personally. Many of you I only know through our musical connection. But ANY of you, if you're feeling like you need an extra somebody to talk with right now, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'll do whatever I can to lend an ear and a hand to anyone in need.

All the best —
Danny

P.S.  The song I chose is written by Danny Schmidt, and was his onstage proposal to Carrie at South by Southwest.   The video was shot at the GreenHouse concert a couple days after Danny proposed to Carrie at their SXSW showcase in 2013.  It includes a funny telling of the story of how the proposal went down, and then a performance of the sweet song that Danny wrote for Carrie to ask her to marry him.  Enjoy this special moment!


SONG:  Kiss Me Now by Danny Schmidt

BOOK:  Daisy-Head Mayzie by Dr. Seuss

POEM:  To Jane: The Invitation by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Best and brightest, come away!
Fairer far than this fair Day,
Which, like thee to those in sorrow,
Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow
To the rough Year just awake
In its cradle on the brake.
The Brightest hour of unborn Spring,
Through the winter wandering,
Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn
To hoar February born.
Bending from Heaven, in azure mirth,
It kissed the forehead of the Earth,
And smiled upon the silent sea,
And bade the frozen streams be free,
And waked to music all their fountains,
And breathed upon the frozen mountains,
And like a prophetess of May
Strewed flowers upon the barren way,
Making the wintry world appear
Like one on whom thou smilest, dear.
Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs—
To the silent wilderness
Where the soul need not repress
Its music lest it should not find
An echo in another’s mind.
While the touch of Nature’s art
Harmonizes heart to heart.
I leave this notice on my door
For each accustomed visitor:—
“I am gone into the fields
To take what this sweet hour yields;—
Reflection, you may come tomorrow,
Sit by the fireside with Sorrow.—
You with the unpaid bill, Despair,—
You, tiresome verse-reciter, Care,—
I will pay you in the grave,—
Death will listen to your stave.
Expectation too, be off!
Today is for itself enough;
Hope, in pity mock not Woe
With smiles, nor follow where I go;
Long having lived on thy sweet food,
At length I find one moment’s good
After long pain—with all your love,
This you never told me of.”

Radiant Sister of the Day,
Awake! arise! And come away!
To the wild woods and the plains,
And the pools where winter rains
Image all their roof of leaves,
Where the pine its garland weaves
Of sapless green, and ivy dun
Round stems that never kiss the sun:
Where the lawns and pastures be,
And the sandhills of the sea:—
Where the melting hoar-frost wets
The daisy-star that never sets,
And wind-flowers, and violets,
Which yet join not scent to hue,
Crown the pale year weak and new;
When the night is left behind
In the deep east, dun and blind,
And the blue noon is over us,
And the multitudinous
Billows murmur at our feet,
Where the earth and ocean meet,
And all things seem only one
In the universal sun.

QUOTE:  "And what is romance? Usually, a nice little tale where you have everything as you like it, where rain never wets your jacket and gnats never bite your nose, and it's always daisy-time." ~ D. H. Lawrence

Get Together (The Youngbloods)

I pulled up the Google website this morning and, for a moment, worried there was something wrong with my computer - the screen was black, but for a few words. Upon further inspection, I read... and then grinned - the text:

We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn - Earth Hour.

I've been planning for weeks to participate, and it was a lovely (and creative) reminder - my friend MH is coming over about 7-ish for our almost-daily walk (more on that another time) and I figure that, by the time we finish, it should be the "lights-out" hour, at which point we can get in the jacuzzi and appreciate the darkness. Let's see who else in my neighborhood participates - this should be looked upon, not as a sacrifice, but as a genuine effort to show we can focus, gather and make a difference, locally *and* globally...

A global event created to symbolize that each one of us, working together, can make a positive impact on climate change

Earth Hour is a global event created to symbolize that each one of us, working together, can make a positive impact on climate change - no matter who we are or where we live.

Created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour has grown from a single event into a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 35 US cities will participate, including the US flagships--Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco.

Earth Hour brings together communities, local governments, corporate and nongovernmental organizations to heighten awareness about climate change and to inspire our nation to take practical actions to reduce their own carbon footprints.

Earth Hour: March 29, 2008 8 - 9 PM

- Cities around the world will join together in literally turning off the lights for one hour to offer leadership and symbolize their commitment to finding climate change solutions.
- Lights will be turned off at iconic buildings and national landmarks from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
- Local businesses and restaurants will also be asked to turn off their lights.
- People at home can take advantage of the hour by replacing their standard light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.

"This is the perfect opportunity for individuals, governments, businesses and communities around the world to unite for a common purpose, in response to a global issue that affect us all." - Carter S. Roberts, President and CEO WWF

Showcase your commitment to finding climate change solutions by making a personal pledge to reduce your own carbon footprint at www.earthhour.org

SONG: Get Together by The Youngbloods

BOOK: The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

POEM: Unison Benediction by May Sarton

Return to the most human,
nothing less will nourish the torn spirit,
the bewildered heart,
the angry mind:
and from the ultimate duress,
pierced with the breath of anguish,
speak of love.

Return, return to the deep sources,
nothing less will teach the stiff hands a new way to serve,
to carve into our lives the forms of tenderness
and still that ancient necessary pain preserve.

Return to the most human,
nothing less will teach the angry spirit,
the bewildered heart;
the torn mind,
to accept the whole of its duress,
and pierced with anguish.
at last, act for love.

QUOTE(S): "The struggle to save the global environment is in one way much more difficult than the struggle to vanquish Hitler, for this time the war is with ourselves. We are the enemy, just as we have only ourselves as allies." ~ Al Gore

"There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, that heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet." ~ Brooke Medicine Eagle

Green Eggs and Ham (Bob Dylan... or a reasonable facsimile... :-)

From today's Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of the children's book author who wrote under the name Dr. Seuss, (books by this author) born Theodor Geisel, in Springfield, Massachusetts (1904). He was the son of German immigrants. His mother was an accomplished high diver, and his father was a target shooter who held the world record for marksmanship at 200 yards.

He studied literature and planned on becoming an English professor. But a woman in one of his classes noticed the drawings he doodled in the margin of his notebook during a lecture on Milton, and she told him he should become a cartoonist. He took her advice and also decided to marry her.

Seuss made a living selling cartoons to magazines, and he also drew cartoons for advertisements. The Standard Oil Company hired him to create monsters that live in the car, and he created the Moto-raspus, the Moto-munchus, and the Karbo-nockus. He published his first book for children, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1937.

He went on to publish a series of fairly successful books for older children, and then, in 1955, an educational specialist asked him if he would write a book to help children learn how to read. Seuss was given a list of 300 words that most first-graders know, and he had to write the book using only those words. Seuss wasn't sure he could do it, but as he looked over the list, two words jumped out at him: "cat" and "hat."

Seuss spent the next nine months writing what would become The Cat in the Hat (1957). That book is 1,702 words long, but it uses only 220 different words. Parents and teachers immediately began using it to teach children to read, and within the first year of its publication it was selling 12,000 copies a month.

A few years later, Seuss's publisher bet him $50 that he could not write a book using only 50 different words. Seuss won the bet with his book Green Eggs and Ham (1960), which uses exactly 50 different words, and only one of those words has more than one syllable: the word "anywhere." It became the fourth best-selling children's hardcover book of all time.

A bit more googling, following a semi-memory from last year, led me to this article - although the original website is now defunct (i.e., someone pulled the plug), an mp3 of the song seems to still exist...

Tangled up in Seuss
When a musician recorded "Green Eggs and Ham" in the voice of vintage Bob Dylan and posted it online, the Grinch estate promptly replied: One fish, two fish, cease and desist.
by Dan Brekke

Salon
April 13, 2007

Kevin Ryan doesn't want to talk about his recent fling with Web stardom. He's a bit rueful and more than a little nervous about it, in fact, and wishes the whole thing would just go away.
If you missed his star turn, here's what happened: Ryan, a 33-year-old Houston music producer and author, went into his home studio and engineered a sort of retro mash-up of two of his favorite artists, Bob Dylan and Dr. Seuss.

Ryan took the text from seven Seuss classics, including "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham," and set them to original tunes that sounded like they were right off Dylan's mid-'60s releases. He played all the instruments and sang all the songs in Dylan's breathy, nasal twang. He registered a domain name, dylanhearsawho.com, and in February posted his seven tracks online, accompanied by suitably Photoshopped album artwork, under the title "Dylan Hears a Who."

The rest of the article can be found here...

[I used another poem when I first posted this blog earlier today, but decided to replace it with one I wrote over a decade ago, for a friend's Return to Singlehood party six months after her divorce - she asked that each person's gift be an "exercise in creativity" and I tapped into my inner-preschool teacher (my career path at the time) to convey my depiction of the emotional tug-of-war I witnessed... and safety-netted with music, white zinfandel and non-judgmental listening on many an occasion. Life has a way of working itself out - I am lucky to still count her among my friends... ]

[Added 11:15 p.m.: I just finished watching Iron Chef America, an admitted TV addiction - the secret ingredient was, synchronistically, ham... and one of the dishes Cat Cora made was Green Ham and Eggs... :-) ]

SONG: Green Eggs and Ham by Bob Dylan... or a reasonable facsimile... :-)

BOOK: The Seuss, the Whole Seuss and Nothing But the Seuss: A Visual Biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel by Charles D. Cohen

POEM: Fleeing Legs Then Wham! (with sincere apologies to Dr. Seuss) ~ self-penned, 10/27/95

I'm Roxanne.
Roxanne I am.

I am sad, so sad, you see,
because The Grinch walked out on me.
I do not want to be alone,
I talk to friends all day by phone.

What did I do to make him go?
I do not know, I do not know.
I only know I loved him so,
and loved the life I'd come to know.

How will I raise these kids of mine
without a Dad to make it fine?
I am in such great despair.
Who cares about the Cultural Arts Fair?

My world has fallen down on me,
I cannot do this alone, you see.
My nights are spent tossing and turning,
my days go by in endless yearning.

You can, you can, you are so strong,
if not now, it will not be long.
It may seem worry is here to stay,
but you will soon wake up one day
and realize that what seemed lost
has taken on another cost.
Try it, try it, you will see,
that being alone can be very free.

I will not try it in a bar,
I will not try it in a car,
I will not try it with my friends,
I only want this pain to end.

I will not try in here or there,
I will not try it anywhere.
There isn't enough wine in Pembroke Pines
to make me forget this horrible time.

I think that you will realize
and see things through unclouded eyes,
that what you seek to keep isn't worth
the one who took away your mirth.
And you will wake one day to find
that maybe you don't even mind
the time alone, with kids or friends.
Who needs this guy to make amends.

Hey, it has been six months and you were right,
I now can sleep right through the night,
and those who mattered to me before
still ring my phone and bang my door.

I have my school, my family, my work,
although they can make me berserk,
it is a different way I feel,
it is so true, it is so real.
I like the person that I am,
and sometimes I don't give a damn.

Hell, yes, I'll try it on a plane,
and in the dark and in the rain.
I will try it in my room,
just reading a book or listening to tunes.
I will try it here or there,
I will try it everywhere.
I do not mind losing his name
because alone and lonely are not the same.

QUOTE: "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.” ~ Theodor Geisel

Christmas Needs Love to Be Christmas (as sung by Juice Newton)

I s*bscribe to the DailyOM e-newsletter, as does my friend M - she posted the one below on her blog yesterday but it was so appropriate for my theme today I'm using it here now (the cliche of "a day late and a dollar short" had to be written about me... :-)

Okay, rhetorical question but... how much do we love The Grinch... and his little dog Max?!? - it's a holiday staple!

DailyOM
December 11, 2007
What We Are Made Of
Choose Love

Love is often presented as the opposite of fear, but true love is not opposite anything. True love is far more powerful than any negative emotions, as it is the environment in which all things arise. Negative emotions are like sharks swimming in the ocean of love. All things beautiful and fearful, ugly and kind, powerful and small, come into existence, do their thing, and disappear within the context of this great ocean. At the same time, they are made of the very love in which they swim and can never be separated. We are made of this love and live our whole lives at one with it, whether we know it or not.

It is only the illusion that we are separate from this great love that causes us to believe that choosing anything other than love makes sense or is even possible. In the relative, dualistic world of positive and negative, darkness and light, male and female, we make choices and we learn from them. This is exactly what we are meant to be doing here on earth. Underlying these relative choices, though, is the choice to be conscious of what we are, which is love, or to be unconscious of it. When we choose to be conscious of it, we choose love.

We will still exist in the relative world of opposites and choices and cause and effect, and we will need to make our way here, but doing so with an awareness that we are all made of this love will enable us to be more playful, more joyful, more loving and wise, as we make our way. Ultimately, the choices we make will shed light on the love that makes us all one, enabling those who have forgotten to return to the source.

This world makes it easy to forget this great love, which is part of why we are here. We are here to remember and, when we forget to remember again, to choose love.

SONG: Christmas Needs Love to Be Christmas (as sung by Juice Newton)

BOOK: How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Anniversary Edition: A 50th Anniversary Retrospective by Dr. Seuss

POEM: My Daughter at 14: Christmas Dance by Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Panic in your face, you write questions
to ask him. When he arrives,
you are serene, your fear
unbetrayed. How unlike me you are.

After the dance,
I see your happiness; he holds
your hand. Though you barely speak,
your body pulses messages I can read

all too well. He kisses you goodnight,
his body moving toward yours, and yours
responding. I am frightened, guard my
tongue for fear my mother will pop out

of my mouth. "He is not shy." You giggle,
a little girl again, but you tell me he
kissed you on the dance floor. "Once?"
I ask. "No, a lot."

We ride through the rain-shining 1 A.M.
streets. I bite back words which long
to be said, knowing I must not shatter your
moment, fragile as a spun-glass bird,

you, the moment, poised on the edge of
flight, and I, on the ground, afraid.

QUOTE: "It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air." ~ W.T. Ellis