my careless contagion

I got in the wayback machine and ended up in 1997 listening to Sixpence None the Richer's Kiss Me. It's a good jam, so I decided to stay a while and explore the concept of the song. It was made popular by the movie She's All That, which was a sort of teen romcom, of which there were about 8 million during the 90s (my favorite of which was probably Can't Hardly Wait, which I wrote about previously).  I know we all probably forgot about such things, but back in the 90s it was okay to kiss a girl. (I cross the street when I see a woman approaching now.) And you knew she was a girl, too. This means, well, let's not get into it. Things are more complicated now. Songs like this are what life is about. These are the moments we live for. The few sparkling moments we trudge through endless years of mundane and downright ugly to experience. Kissing the girl. Dancing with her in the moonlight. Just existing with her in a special moment. Breathing in her essence. I realize I ha...

If you're anything like me, you're lounging around your hallways and living spaces right now in an outfit just like this. It's hot out, but you're even hotter. Way to look, man! You're living, laughing, and loving stylishly, my friend. Come along for the ride. This may be the last retro post, so enjoy while you can.  My all-time favorite styles are art deco and art nouveau. I believe Alphonse Mucha was brilliant and will always be remembered as emblematic of the art nouveau style, though he didn't want to be associated with art nouveau. The above is art deco. I simply love it. The grace. The modernity. The boldness. The shininess. The sensuality. For something stationary and two-dimensional, it has motion and depth. It's absolutely enrapturing for an amateur art nerd like me.  It's nice to think of times when life was supposedly simpler. Not easier, mind you. But, most likely, they were simpler. Like the age during which I grew up. Even the 90s were see...

Thank you, Lord, for these moments with her. Holding her hand in the theater and fighting back tears of happiness because this is what I always wanted. Here she was, and sitting next to me as if it was the easiest thing in the world. Thank you for letting me see her heart and to understand, at least in part, such a beautiful soul — a special soul that knows no equal. I get to hear what's in her heart, her mind, and to see your imprint on her. It's all over her, in, and through her.  Thank you for letting me be something in her life. Just to be here is a miracle for which I am beyond grateful. She makes me incredibly happy, and I can't help but see her as a gift. I get to enjoy her, feel her warmth radiating next to me, revel in the scent of her skin, and bask in her laughter. And what beautiful laughter! I'm in love with the sound of her voice. I don't think there's a single thing about her I haven't fallen in love with. The sum total of her is probably more...

You're forgiven if you wondered aloud why I'm writing about this song. Nightcall (irritatingly one word) was made popular by its inclusion on the Drive soundtrack. The movie was released in 2011. If you go on the internet at all, you've seen screenshots and memes from the film. It's popular among men who have trouble expressing how they feel. "Literally me" is the most common meme related to Drive.  Ryan Gosling's character (who is simply called Driver in the credits because he is never named) is not exactly a good guy, but he does some good things. The movie has brutal moments, which is why I won't recommend watching, but it is a pretty good movie if you can find an edited version. I won't give away the movie, but it really resonated with a lot of men. A lot of guys will probably go to the Barbie movie (also starring Gosling) and yell out, "Literally me!" I hope so. Maybe I will too. See you guys there!  The song is dark, as is much of t...

In my world, this song always existed. Indeed, it was released in 1977, the year I was born. It was covered numerous times, including by NOFX (about two minutes in length, complete with the expected punk-rock irreverence, and with some vocals by Bad Religion's Greg Graffin). It's a good song and robust, having survived several decades. I guess I could say some of the same about myself since we're the same age. It's one of those songs that builds momentum. It starts fairly quiet and slow but eventually takes off like a jet plane. It has a fairly fast tempo for a classic rock song. The song has so much momentum, it simply fades out at the end, which is the easiest way to end a song like this. The cover art is curious, especially if your eyes are drawn to the dangly bits of the man's outfit. I wonder whose idea that was.  The vocals are perfect. I don't even know how he does some parts. The yelping inflection on "go" and "your" gets me every ti...

Ah, Depeche Mode. I used to listen to this band a lot when traveling. The sound was conducive to flying over pavement of various vibrations through the shifting American landscapes, one moment surrounded by concrete and skyscrapers and the next cornfields and pastures. I could chose several songs by this band, but this one saw a resurgence in popularity because it was featured on HBO's The Last of Us, which I tried to watch but realized it was yet another soap opera masquerading as an adventure in zombie land. The action got less and less and the talking got to be too much and after the gay episode, I had enough and quit watching. It seems all entertainment is a vehicle for agenda now. Needless to say, The Last of Us let me down.  And that's what the song is about. People letting us down. Or not letting us down. Whichever your perspective. I recently tried to get in touch with the parents of one of my best friends growing up. We had been talking through Facebook, but my Faceboo...

You may ask yourself what the heck I'm doing writing about this song. We'll get there. But, first, listen to it so as to familiarize yourself. You've probably heard it. I used the lyric video because I want to talk about the lyrics.  The lyrics are vague, to say the least, but they bring up a few things I'd like to dissect. The lyrics are almost like brushstrokes. They are clumsy but give an idea of what the song is about. First, the mention of a star. The Bible mentions stars, and it often refers to angelic beings, usually fallen angels. So that's interesting.  The lyrics also talk about Atlantis, a supposed antediluvian civilization. I'm not going to say Atlantis didn't exist. I believe it or something similar to our modern-day myth of Atlantis certainly did exist. And it was wicked, otherwise God wouldn't have wiped it out. It is always referred to wistfully because mankind lost so much knowledge when it was destroyed, the same way people talk about t...

Thinking about this space where I spent so much time and expended so much mental and emotional energy, I can't help but liken it to something. I wrote an awful lot about a girl here. I was quite taken with her. I fell in love with her, and that love burst forth on these pages, year after year. I am still in love with her, though I know her differently now.  I wrote, not knowing whether she ever saw a word. I believed she did, and that's why I continued to write for so many years. This was my message in a bottle.  With a message in a bottle, we're never sure if it reaches its intended destination, if the one person in the world we want to read it actually does. I never knew. Did she ever feel those things I felt for her? Did she know how much I truly loved her? Did she read once or a hundred times or not at all? Did it make any difference what I said or didn't say? The hours I spent crafting my words, did it change anything? Did it make her bad days more tolerable? Were ...

The song doesn't matter. It's a good song. A catchy pop song. I don't know if it's a love song. It's a when-something-good-is-about-to-end song, maybe. A good radio song. It's actually quite hard to craft a simple song like this. It's much harder to leave it simple than to embellish it and  adulterate the heart of a song with too much music. A lot of people don't realize that a somewhat narrow band of music is appropriate for radio because of the frequencies used to broadcast. Some sounds don't come over the airwaves very well. When I listen to songs for, say, a post like this, I use my Bose headphones because the sound is better than the iMac speakers. But, I also know I'm listening to a digital reproduction of a performance. If you listen to something such a CD, which almost no one does anymore, you have to realize it's compressed. It's a digital copy of a live event. So it's ones and zeroes. All the quirky, spacey sounds are lopped...