Punching holes in a metal lid for the glass relish jar that in which I would later imprison several unlucky ones.
Lightning bugs, as I called them, were always a summer highlight. Little did I realize the depth of their striking beauty.
We don’t have fireflies here in Southern California. While I do prefer my SoCal summer weather over the sweltering humidity of my native southeast, I sure do miss my mesmerizing little friends.
Whats one of your favorite summertime childhood memories?
Fearsome Beard …a place for beards to contemplate and to grow their souls.
It’s been a while and it’s due time Fearsome did just that.
Contemplate.
Every human has their own personal right to have, or have not, a relationship with a power, an essence, a universe, an energy or a god of their own choosing. Common human decency, at least my common human decency, allows one to respect all others in their choices surrounding such personal matters.
I call the power of my choosing god. God is a simple word, or acronym if you will, that stands for good orderly direction, or group of drunks, or is simply dog spelled backward. My god is love. Period. Love. (My dogs are love too, what a coincidence.)
How do I treat my brother? Do I show love? Do I respect? Do I even acknowledge?
Is my god dead?
How about you? Is your god, or something like it, dead?
The New York Times article under the highlighted word “HERE” below is worth the read whether you have, or have not, a source energy outside of yourself. The article is about being human. Being a good human.
Click HERE to go to said article and contemplate on a deeper level.
I’m not perfect. I will never be perfect. I can strive to be better. I can strive to remember to love, to remember to respect, to remember to share. I can try, and try to try daily. I can love.
Scissor Sisters & MNDR team up to help the Contigo Fund which emerged out of the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub shootings in Orlando. All proceeds from this single will go to support the Contigo Fund and you can click HERE to donate and get a download of this fabulous dance anthem.
🎶 The best part of breakin’ up, is when we’re makin’ up 🎵
It’s funny how music sparks memories. This tune was pulsing the dance floor one night back in 1982 as I was shakin’ my little tushy dancing with my friend Mike.
I hadn’t heard nor thought of it in like ages. A couple a days ago there it was pulsing outta the speakers of my Ford Fusion Energi Titanium as I was a drivin’ along listening to Sirius XM Studio 54.
Rush!
Memories rush. Suddenly Mike was in front of me on that smokey disco dance floor as we pulsed to the beats. Vivid is the memory. Suddenly there was a body behind me pulsing behind me holding me at the waist. I asked Mike who it was and he said he’d never seen the guy. I then asked Mike if he was cute. Mike said “fuck yeah”. I then pushed my tush back into him and turned my head. I got the first glimpse of my first lover.
Wow. What a vivid memory. Our relationship would last for 6 years and has much to do with the man I am today. I was young. So was he. I wondered often. He was patient, loving and forgiving. I’ll never forget him. I’ll always be grateful for his inspiration. He has his life. I have mine. We don’t talk. I hope that I gave him even a 10th of what he gave me.
Funny how this tune became the theme of our years together. I didn’t realize it was so on target of a theme, until I heard it this week. No worries as there is no “makin’ up” a happening. That was a first lover and a first relationship that started the first time I ever heard this song the very first moment we met.
Rumors are running rampant today that Thursday may bring sweeping orders allowing religions to legally discriminate against me. Yes me personally if they don’t approve of who I love.
I’ve been discriminated against most of my life because of who I love. This is nothing new. Tides rise, tides receded. I’ll be contemplating how I will handle such ignorance.
Today I need not fret, but think. I do have a message for those religious folks who wish to discriminate against me, to discriminate against anyone. That message is perfectly conveyed in the words of a tune made famous in a Gershwin number from Porgy & Bess…
It Ain’t Necessarily So
George Gershwin
It ain’t necessarily so
It ain’t necessarily so
The t’ings dat yo’ li’ble
To read in de Bible
It ain’t necessarily so.
Li’l David was small, but oh my!
Li’l David was small, but oh my!
He fought big Goliath
Who lay down an’ dieth!
Li’l David was small, but oh my!
Wadoo, zim bam boddle-oo
Hoodle ah da wa da
Scatty wah!
Oh yeah!
Oh Jonah, he lived in de whale
Oh Jonah, he lived in de whale
Fo’ he made his home in
Dat fish’s abdomen
Oh Jonah, he lived in de whale
Li’l Moses was found in a stream
Li’l Moses was found in a stream
He floated on water
Till Ol’ Pharaoh’s daughter
She fished him, she said, from dat stream
Wadoo…
Well, it ain’t necessarily so
Well, it ain’t necessarily so
Dey tells all you chillun
De debble’s a villun,
But it ain’t necessarily so!
To get into Hebben
Don’ snap for a sebben!
Live clean! Don’ have no fault!
Oh, I takes dat gospel
Whenever it’s pos’ble
But wid a grain of salt
Methus’lah lived nine hundred years
Methus’lah lived nine hundred years
But who calls dat livin’
When no gal will give in
To no man what’s nine hundred years?
I’m preachin’ dis sermon to show
It ain’t nece-ain’t nece
Ain’t nece-ain’t nece
Ain’t necessarily…so!
420? Light up time. Mary Jane. Cannabis. Marijuana.
Now I ain’t smoke no Mary Jane in well over 5 years. When I got meeself sober, I got sober. I wasn’t really into the gonja later in my years of partaking mind altering substances any way. I preferred the booze. I did smoke pleanty of weed though. First time I smoked was at age 13 at a Doobie Brothers concert. I shit you not. In my twenties I smoked most every day. Only in the evenings though as I had work to get done during the days. Later on in my forties I lost interest in the stuff as it pretty much only made me paranoid by that point, so it lost its lure.
Nowadays it’s being legalized left and right. My home state just legalized it in November. I actually voted to legalize it even though I’m a sober dude. My view is that marijuana being illegal only creates more crime, unnecessary crime. Legalize it, regulate it and tax it.
Now about that first Doobie and those incredible artist who I remember from that very first concert….
Needless to say this is a much tamer crowd than that night of my puberty. However the talent of the artists shines through in this live version of a Doobie Brothers classic.
A new tune has been gettin’ Fearsome a bobbing in the car each and every time it comes on. He asked that I share it here…
Dan Auerbach Shine on Me …Fearsome loves it. I have to admit I do too. We think it may just be one of our summer 2017 tunes. It’s funny how music defines seasons of life. I am glad it does for music is a pleasure.
However although the lyrics are very different, the music and rhythms remind me of one from our past that we loved as well…
There is no mistake that Dolly is one of my many angels.
I’ve known this since that time I first ever remember hearing her voice come from the lone single rear speaker of that AM radio in the back of my mother’s white 1967 Buick as dad drove us through darkness along the back roads of Tennessee. That night we were en-route to visit mom’s family out in cotton country along the mighty Mississippi.
Dolly was singing her ‘Jolene’ that long dark night. I can remember the warmth, care and love in her voice as if it were yesterday. I’ve loved her ever since. I know to my core she loves me too. That’s just Dolly. She is pure love.
Wow! What a game. Back and forth scores, multiple home runs and even an opposing team (SF Giants) grand slam and our Beloved Padres eeked out a 7-6 win over San Fransisco’s Giants. It was a down to the wire fun to watch nail biter! In other words a well matched good game. Baseball, at its best!
Opening day National Anthem
Fearsome and his opening day posse at Petco Park
After our return home we settle into bed to find out that Pentanonix just posted one fucking incredible remake of one of Rock Music’s best classics.
Wow, just wow! …oh yeah if you even slightly enjoyed Queen, this will be so worth your time.
Today marks our beloved San Diego Padres home opener.
Opening day is a day of dreams, hopes, beginnings, the smell of a freshly cut grass and irresistable scents of barbecue, hotdogs, popcorn and those damn garlic fries.
Our Padres aren’t expected to do much this year. The team is very young, inexperienced and some say “experimental”. In baseball this doesn’t really matter. Each game and each at bat is a new beginning.
As is Fearsome’s want, we continue our tradition of posting John Fogerty’s Centerfield to mark the monumentous occiasion and local holiday of Opening Day!
Yes …we will be there. We wouldn’t miss such an occiasion. We love baseball.
