Tag: links

Questions, No. 6


Forgive me for delving into some of these books for posts. I’m doing a lot of writing right now (this is good news), as well as keeping up with my October skeleton posts on Instagram (staging those photos can take a lot of time), plus trying to take care of household stuff. Yesterday, I emptied all my lower kitchen cabinets and cleaned and reorganized them. It’s so funny to remember The Compound and how limited my cabinet space was and wonder where the heck I kept all this stuff that now fills so many more cabinets–plus a pantry! The kitchen at Houndstooth Hall was a definite selling point for this house.

From the 3000 Questions About Me book: 1474. What three songs will always be found at the top of your playlist?

The first two are easy answers, although they often switch positions. But that third one… I mean, there are hundreds of songs that I never get tired of hearing. But for the sake of answering the question:

1. The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel
2. Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen
3. Til I Die – Beach Boys

It’s all about the poetry in those songs’ lyrics (although the music is also fantastic). If you only knew how many Beatles (group and individuals), Randy Newman, Beach Boys, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Byrds, and Bob Dylan songs are eyeballing that number three spot, and I haven’t even mentioned the female artists, who are legion.

It’s funny that I found “Thunder Road” with lyrics that say “Mary’s dress waves.” This is an ongoing battle among fans AND Bruce’s own documents as well as his team’s–whether Mary’s dress waves or sways. I once taught this song with Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress” as fine examples of the carpe diem theme, and Mary’s dress was waving in my version. I visualized it as the breeze making the lower half of a dress undulate like waves. To me, “sways” makes it seem like the dress is moving to the sway of hips, and I kind of feel like the sway’s gone out of poor Mary’s life. Listen to the speaker, Mary! Get your sway back and wave goodbye to the ghosts in the eyes of all those boys forever!

I’m sorry, students, if I led you wrong, but I have plenty of support for “waves.”

1 Page at a Time

I got this book some time back, but maybe I’ve only referred to it on Instagram, where I follow the author, Adam J. Kurtz (that’s the link to his website). He has another book coming out soon, You Are Here For Now which I plan to look for in a local bookstore and if they don’t have it, ask them to order it. Check out his site if you’re interested.

That’s a page from 1 Page AT A TIME that I chose to do today because sometimes, simple decisions are the only ones I have the energy to make. Even then, I ran a dialogue in my head (I like mustard just fine, but I probably eat ketchup on more things, but while I’d put a dash of mustard in potato salad, I would never put a dash of ketchup/ I love red and like wearing it but I live in the subtropics and blue is cooler/ I like my fries hot but my beverages cold/ why am I thinking of these in terms of food and beverages, is it because I forgot to eat lunch blah blah blah).

My choices:

Note that I took the footnote seriously and TOOK CONTROL when I couldn’t choose between two things.

…and we’ll meet again…

Everything that I am or will ever be is in the music. If you want to know me, just listen.

Dennis Wilson, September 1978

September 30 — Favorite quote

©Ed Roach

This is Ed Roach’s daughter Brianne with Dennis. Through all the years, this photo stands firm as my favorite one because this IS Dennis. He loved. He loved without reservation. Whatever he did in his life, whatever his wildness, failings, limitations, madness, or mistakes, he had a purity and tenderness of heart that never went away.

As he said, if you want to know him, it’s in the music.

If you have stayed with me to the end of this month, thank you. This was a labor of love that became quite challenging. I’ve had to emotionally travel through my life to find photos and memories that are deeply meaningful to me and which I’ve always kept private from everyone but very close friends.

No one should ever underestimate the patience, love, and wisdom of Tom. He doesn’t “tolerate” the feelings and fascination connected to my Muse. He understands and has, through the years, shown his support in many ways. Most recently, I found a framed set of favorite Dennis photos in a bin, and he said, “Why are these in there? They should be on the wall.” Where he hung them and they remain today.

The end of the 30 Day Idol Challenge.

Tiny Tuesday! (favorite interview)


Little bracelets.

Limits remain for what I want to revisit on the topic of Dennis Wilson. There are interviews online behind paywalls. I still own magazines with interviews. I’ve got lots of books with quotes or partial/full interviews. Considering the (just over) twenty years of his work as a Beach Boy and a solo artist, Dennis really didn’t give a lot of interviews. From my perspective: He didn’t talk about music, he made it. He didn’t talk about relationships, he had them. He didn’t pontificate about life, he lived it. Everything we need to hear from Dennis is in what he wrote, either lyrically or instrumentally: fun, energy, celebration, sex, soul, passion, tenderness, rowdiness, and love.

The times he came alive the most in interviews were when he talked about his brothers. When I read those, I’m reminded of a hot Houston night when I had the chance to meet and talk to Carl Wilson. At that time, it had been less than a decade since Dennis’s death; my own losses had taught me how raw grief can remain years later. Despite how huge a place Dennis had, still has, in my thoughts (he is my Muse, after all), instead, I asked about Brian, and Carl lit up. He smiled, he was infused with new energy, and he spoke freely and glowingly about his oldest brother. It was moving both because of Carl and because of how it reminded me of Dennis’s love for Brian.

Dennis and Carl are both gone now, but I believe that for Brian, they’re never gone. And the music… always the music. Here’s where I find a favorite “interview.”


September 28 — Favorite interview: My Love Lives On ©Dennis Wilson

ETA: I’ve returned to add a link to this 2008 article, because it has a lot of insight from people who knew and worked with Dennis as well as many quotes from Dennis himself.

I see your face (pretty face)

Another from the classic Pet Sounds album photo shoot.


September 25 — Cute face ©Capitol Archives

It’s not too late
I’ve always known we’d meet again
And then I’ll know
You’ve come to stay
It won’t be long
Please don’t be long
The time has come
When we could wake up and live again
I felt my heart close to you
Waited so long
Please don’t be long
No, no, no, no, no, no, it won’t be long
No, it won’t be long
Oh baby, it won’t be long
Sometimes I stare into space
I see your face (pretty face)
And you say words of love
Deep words inside of me
I cry for more
I cry for more
No, no, no, no, no, no, it won’t be long
No, it won’t be long
Oh baby, it won’t be long…

Lyrics by Carli Muñoz

Mood: Monday


This is a photo from 2007 when people still smoked at The Compound, but damn if I know who smoked Marlboro Lights (ETA: Steve C). I’m using it to show that I’m in a creative mood.

I have a friend Sharon (I know her in real life, not only online) who in addition to being a dog rescuer/foster/adopter and an all-round great human, also collects tiny Blythe dolls. She stages them in engaging photo shoots with clothes and accessories she’s made herself, in dioramas she decorates with all matter of things she makes or buys. She’s one of my most fun Instagram follows at this account, if you’d like to see her creative dolls and animals and objects on such a tiny scale that I’m in awe.

I’ve sewn for dolls at 1:6 scale for years, and right now, I want to sew clothes for the child dolls who are part of my Neverending Saga families. They’re so small that I’m not sure I’m up to the challenge or the amount of time it may take when I have so much writing to do. However, I also do creative things like coloring or painting when I want to think about what I’m writing, so maybe sewing clothes for these little ones will help inspire me to write the lives of their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

I’ve never believed there are people who have no creative urge. Even busy people or people whose circumstances don’t lend themselves to creating have that spark. But they are afraid or think they have no talent or have been conditioned to believe that art is only as worthy as its utility (e.g., do other people like it? does anyone want to read/see/hear/taste/enjoy it? does it make money?).

What if creating is for YOU ONLY? What if it makes you feel happy for a while? What if it nourishes you in any way at all? Is that not enough? Seriously, are you not enough?

I think you are.

This is a conversation I have with myself often, because I can access a lifetime of negative and hurtful comments about my creative endeavors. It’s just something I have to shut down. One way I know I was fortunate is that I was ALWAYS encouraged to be creative, by my parents, a few teachers, some friends, and my wonderful Uncle Gerald. If you were never encouraged that way, IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO CREATE. What is that thing you wish for? That secret yearning to learn an instrument, sketch something you love in nature, write a poem, learn to needlepoint, carve a piece of wood, master a culinary creation… It’s time to start and it’s MORE than okay to do it only for you, only for your own enjoyment, and if anyone else likes/loves/appreciates/praises it, that’s a bonus.

The Beach Boys began because two young brothers liked to sing together and they made their more boisterous brother join in because they wanted his voice for their harmonies. They had a father who was a frustrated songwriter and a mother who came from a musical family. When they formed a band and came up with a sound, success came early. Maybe too early for their own good, considering their losses, challenges, and tragedies. But those three brothers, including the one who had to be dragged along, had creativity that couldn’t be denied. What began so simply became a gift to the world. Even if they aren’t a band to your taste, millions of people still love their music, still follow their careers, still marvel at them, still consider their story with joy and heartache.

It all began with a working class family of five who loved music.


September 20 — With family © unknown
Back row: Brian with parents Audree and Murry
Front row: Carl and Dennis

Do you want to dance?

This commercial from the Sixties:

I share it because today is the anniversary of my father’s birth. My parents were both good dancers, and one time I caught him testing out the “Teaberry Shuffle.” Or at least I thought that’s what I saw. He seemed skeptical.

Back to this:

>

September 16 — Dancing ©Domenic Priore

And I leave you with Dennis getting the lead on an early tune.

Difficult, but I chose only one two

ETA: The videos/gifs I posted disappeared (likely due to copyrights), so I’ll put a YouTube video on here that contains some of the gifs I like. It’ll probably disappear, too, one day. Sorry.

[original post}
It would make me happy to put every gif I can find here. Unfortunately, one that might have been my favorite disappeared from Al Gore’s Internet, no doubt because of copyright infringement. This one is, well… Words fail me.


September 15 — Favorite gif ©Ed Roach

Ed and Dennis were shooting promotional film for his first solo album Pacific Ocean Blue, I believe. Note the movie title on the clapboard (it’s also what he’s saying). 🙂 What you don’t see is Dennis throwing the clapboard off to the side at the end (unless I’m making that up–I’ve seen A LOT of stuff preparing for these thirty days). When the photographer and the talent are best friends, there will be shenanigans. [end of original post]

[edits to original post] Okay, what the heck, one more of young Dennis in the recording studio.

via GIFER

ETA: Coming back long after the fact to add this YouTube video, because within it is the clip that is my favorite but is no longer available as a gif, but also, this shows Dennis throwing away the clapboard which I’d mentioned was missing in the gif I posted. The song playing is Dennis’s “Holy Man,” which later had words written and vocals added by the fantastic Taylor Hawkins.

[end of edits to original post]