Violet snarled at Mallory. Jake moved around them and walked barefoot through the front yard of thick Bermuda toward his sister-in-law’s car. As the blades tickled his skin, his mind was sent back in time thirteen years earlier.
“Why did you choose me?”
Jake rolled his eyes and sighed in faux disgust. Camille’s mischievous questions always led to sexy conversation and profound revelations. He leaned up on the front yard of the lawn, pondered when he’d buy a mower to cut the thick grass, then said the most outrageous thing he could think.
“Because you put out on the second date, on a beach in Mexico.”
Camille writhed on the ground, allowing her long blonde hair to dance over her white V-neck t-shirted cleavage.
“Jake Hanna, that’s my point. How many rock chicks did you still have in your life when we met; three, four? You had more exciting, trashier options.”
Jake laughed and looked into his wife’s royal blue eyes. She was fishing and he bit the hook to make her happy.
“Because you wanted me and needed me, sweetheart. The other women were one or the other, not both. Once you showed me the error of my rock chick ways, I became the man you wanted me to be.”
Camille’s soft white hands touched his face and she pulled him to her lips. Jake laughed.
“Camille, this is the front yard. Our toddler daughter doesn’t need mommy and daddy going to jail for entertaining the neighbors, this way.”
Camille kissed him again, with remarkable touch. She seemed to float above the tall green blades. Then she let go and he fell on her. They chuckled until they began to cough. Camille continued.
“Jake; Violet, Gus and I are the only club you need to be a part of now, and forever. Get used to it, okay?”
Jake’s bare feet reached the driveway. His sister-in-law Augusta greeted him with a sneer.
“Jake, take a walk. Let me and Violet handle this Mallory.”
*****blogger’s note*****
This is a new episode of my almost completed short story, Soul To Body, about a grieving father of a teenage daughter. This is also being contributed to http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/ Trifecta Writing Challenge’s one word prompt – “Club”. My friend and writing partner, Tar Rah aka @Tara_R from http://www.thinspiralnotebook.com chose today’s song.
My wife aka The Bobina wrote this week for Donetta’s great pick of The Beatles, “Don’t Let Me Down”
http://mythoughtsonthesubjectareasfollows.wordpress.com/ . It was about me, both the good and the bad, so I had to ask her to choose today’s song. I’m on some new pills that I’ll write about at a later date so I lost track of my days and times. Remember, you’re hanging out with a crazy person. I also put out on the Twitter to the rest of you for song suggestions. Tar Rah aka @Tara_R said “And She Was” by Talking Heads. That will be later today’s 333 word piece for Trifecta Writing, also a new Soul To Body story episode. The rest of you that suggested songs will be providing the soundtrack for the next few posts. Thank you. Back to Bobina’s selection and to Jake, Violet and Mallory on the Hannas’ front porch with a new Soul To Body for Bobina’s pick, Tightrope, the quirky pop song from Janelle Monae.
“Dad, Gus texted she’s on her way with the whole story about how Mallory tried to break up some guy’s marriage because he was in an band she liked from the 90s. Sound familiar?”
Jake knew he should correct his insolent daughter but her word spew about behavioral patterns were identical to what his late wife’s lectures.
“Vi, get back in the house! Let Mallory tell me her story! Gossip is a tightrope walk without a net.”
Jake looked past a tearful Mallory and saw his sister-in-law’s black car arrive in the driveway.
You have seven days from now to write 100 words inspired by Janelle Monae’s Tightrope chosen by Deana aka The Bobina. Be sure to text, tweet, book o face, google +, pony express, morse code, smoke signal, carrier pigeon and scream you post to as many people as possible. Let’s get double digit posts this week. Use Mr. Linky to show your write-up.
I spend so much time in my car, that I would rather be homeless than without my ride. Whether I’m traveling for work, fighting vicious Atlanta area traffic during my commutes to home and office, or just running errands and attending events for my family, I think I live in my car as much as my house. That’s where I listen to a lot of the music I love. When my wife and daughters are with me, I tune out their pop and country tunes and have my own favorite songs I’ve heard thousands of times, playing in my head.
My music freak sister-in-arms, Jen from http://www.jenkehl.com requested a 1970s, part 1, playlist for her famed weekly series, Twisted Mixtape Tuesday. Despite growing up in the southern United States, my favorite 70s genres are glam and punk. Almost all rock music that followed in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s was directly influenced by the daring drunks of the bell bottoms era. While they were turned on by 1950s and 1960s rockabilly, garage rock, and psychedelia, their experimentation with feedback, distortion, speed, drugs, costumes, sleaze, and alternative lifestyles created musical templates that weren’t appreciated until much later. Most of what I’m about to play for you, I didn’t discover until I was my oldest daughter’s age, 17. It was 1987 by then, and a lot of these guys were dead, forgotten, or borderline respectable in poppier fields. But in the early 1970s, they were vanguards.
We can fight about who the glam rock King really was, David Bowie or Marc Bolan (they were close pals and friendly rivals who intentionally tried to outdo one another). Bolan struck first, maybe, with his band T.Rex and their epic 1971 album Electric Warrior. I’ve played it so much on this blog, I’m shocked I haven’t heard from the Bolan family (Marc died in 1977 after a car accident) for royalties or attaboys. With its boogie woogie piano opening and landmark riffs, (bang a gong) Get It On is a classic.
Less than a year later, David Bowie created one of rock and roll greatest albums and set the high water mark for glam and proto-punk music. If you don’t own 1972′s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, there’s something seriously wrong with you and we can’t be friends. Also, if you hear or read a top ten list of all-time greatest guitar players and Mick Ronson isn’t on it, then it has no credibility. Listen to what this man did in 3 minutes and 15 seconds. He changed the game as did his boss, Bowie.
The man who meant the world to Bowie, and whom Bowie and Bolan both later helped during a rough period, Lou Reed, made a record, Transformer, in 1972 that future rockers have studied like a Rosetta Stone of music. The lead track, Vicious, introduced feedback heavy guitar and snarling, dark lyrics to a newer, younger audience, and most of them formed bands we know and love, today. Lou’s white face on the album cover tripped people out, especially the ones that didn’t see A Clockwork Orange.
One of my favorite bands ever, was too far ahead of its time to be appreciated. That’s why they’re touring now, despite three of its members being dead. The New York Dolls were too crazy, too weird, too stoned, and too outrageous for 1973. Had they come out three years later, they may have been household names. Then again, I don’t think any of their members could have stayed straight regardless of the year. Their debut record is brilliant. Johnny Thunders’ guitar work is amazing. Every song could have been chosen but Looking For A Kiss is the only one I haven’t played previously on this blog. The Dolls’ manager in 1975 was Malcolm McLaren of Sex Pistols’ fame. You’ll hear more about him next week, for the 1970s part 2. He went back to England and well, you should know what happened next.
Wayne’s World made this next song mainstream famous. It should have been bigger than everything in 1974. From the opening drum fill to lead singer Brian Connolly asking his boys Steve, Andy, and Mick if they were ready, Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz is unforgettable. It’s pure rock and roll with a glam sheen. It’s an earworm that kills other earworms. Inspired by a gig in 1973 where a rowdy Scottish crowd at the Kilmarnock Grand Hall pelted them with beer bottles, Sweet released Blitz a year later and returned to Scotland as rock gods. You can’t here this and not speed down the road clapping and screaming.
I’m supposed to only play 5 songs but you’re getting a sixth because after listening to it, you’ll see why it was so important to part 2 of my 1970s playlist next week. Punk bands used this song to learn how to play. It’s ridiculous, cheesy, and completely awesome. The speedier guitar is telling. Sweet turned this song down from rock and roll songwriting team, Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman, because they thought it was too much like Ballroom Blitz. But when unknown Scottish rockers, Mud, got a hold of it, they turned everything up, got snotty, sped through it, and created a new deal. Here’s Dynamite.
*****blogger’s note****
100 word song returns tomorrow, as does Soul To Body, my fictional short story. I’ve written 2 chapters of the a sequel to my first book, The Ballad of Helene Troy which is is still available, digitally, on amazon/kindle, smashwords.com, and Good Reads. It’s also available in paperback from Lulu.com or signed copies from Pound Publishing headquarters. Prepare for Helene to return around Thanksgiving. Italian Radio, my second book is looking like a mid July release. Helene and Ramona Gallery made cameos in it.
Go see Jen at http://www.jenkehl.com or the other music loving freaks there and check out their 1970s playlist. Next week, here, punk rock.
With the exception of the state of rock music, I neither think the world is going to hell in a hand basket nor the younger generation is ill-equipped to handle the future. This puts me in a minority among folks my age, 42, and I’m okay with it. My viewpoint was bolstered earlier today when I sat with my wife and three daughter, aged 17, 9, and 8 with steaks from the grill, baked potatoes, glasses of sweet tea and the movie Lincoln. I liked to be at least six months behind the rest of the planet when it comes to pop culture. Lincoln came out last November, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in January so I didn’t mind giving up two and a half hours of my Father’s Day to catch up to the rest of society.
My 8-year-old daughter, known here as The Goose, is on an Abraham Lincoln kick. Her second grade class learned about him during the last two months of school, then we went on a family trip to Washington D.C. a week ago. I’ve been inundated with Honest Abe talk, tidbits and trivia for weeks. Despite it’s PG-13 rating, when Goose wanted to buy Lincoln with her money earned from chores, my wife and I said sure. The fact she and her 9-year-old sister sat still for almost 3 hours, and were engrossed and entertained was a borderline miracle. They also washed a car, this weekend. I’m not Catholic, but I’m petitioning the Vatican for a ruling.
My review echoes all the others you’ve read or heard since late 2012. Lincoln is awesome. Daniel Day-Lewis’ nuanced performance was well worth the acting Oscar. Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones tour de force turns as Mary Todd Lincoln and Thaddeus Stevens, respectively, deserved trophies, too. Director Steven Spielberg’s simplified story and lambada dance with facts, politics, and point of view are worthy of academic debate. But like the 16th President’s life, and term as Commander in Chief, the end product justifies the complicated means. As a middle-aged man who grew up in the southern conservative environment of Atlanta, Georgia, I knew what I was watching was not 100 percent accurate, but the acting was so good and allegories of 1865 politics compared to 2013′s was fascinating. What was even more involved was my 3 daughters’ reactions.
When my 8 and 9-year-old daughters are the age of their older sister, 17, they can break down pre-Thirteenth Amendment Lincoln from post. They can learn about how complicated the era’s politics were and why their great-great-great-great whatevers may or may not have owned other human beings and been against making everyone equal under the law. But their wide-eyed wonder at a two and a half hour epic about someone that doesn’t have anything to do with Taylor Swift or Pretty Little Liars made me proud.
The southern United States is going through some serious growing pains, especially among residents my age and older. But those of us who have kids need to be aware of their attitudes. My kids cringed at the racial epithets and political ugliness expressed in Lincoln. Then, they asked questions. Once the questions were answered, to the best of mine and my wife’s abilities, their admiration for Lincoln the man, the myth and the movie was astonishing. And this wasn’t the one where he was a vampire hunter.
This post in so antecdotal it’s super-antecdotal. Maybe down the street a more conservative or possibly bigoted family was watching Lincoln with disgust, turning it off, and watching Duck Dynasty or something on Fox News. But inside my home, the amount of learning, interest in race relations, old school and new school politics, and quality movie-making was impressive. At one point I heard my 8-year-old whisper to her mom, “well, Lincoln’s trying end the Civil War, that’s awesome.” It reminded me what Axl Rose said at the end of a 1991 Use Your Illusion song, “what’s so civil about war, anyway.”
See Lincoln. Try to do so with your kids, The language is a little rough, but the subject matter is terrific. And Danny Day-Lewis is boss. It all made for a good Father’s Day.
As country, America is so much like it was in 1965, it’s scary. If you don’t believe me, I’ll give you my social media passwords and the negative reviews of Lincoln. They’re scary. The beginning of the Guns n Roses songs begins with the Cool Hand Luke movie quote, “what we have heeeyahhhh, is a failyah to communnikate”.
Summer’s map is busy. There’s swallowing the monster, gathering innocents, sunscreen triple-check then opening the door to southern discomfort of morning humidity. You can’t get there from here, but I know another way.
****BLOGGER’S NOTE*****
Got the girls together for a day at their grandmother’s. They may or may not make the pool, but they’ll have fun while their mom and I work. I listened to R.E.M. dropping them off and on my way into the office. Fables Of The Reconstruction was released on June 10, 1985. I remember listening to it on the way to the lake or pool or beach with my friends. I never wore sunscreen.
Don’t forget to include my book in your summer plans. The Ballad of Helene Troy is available, digitally, on amazon/kindle, smashwords.com, Good Reads, and in paperback from Lulu.com or Pound Publishing Headquarters offers a signed copy from me, the author, like this one. Wine is not included.
Can’t Get There From Here was the first single from Fables. That makes this song 28 years old today.
Air in the room is cold enough to spotlight my dancing breath. My choke is desperate and the pool of sweat around me is my only light in a dark tunnel.
A lot of worry and more mistrust show my fear that I’ll never stay ahead of the ghosts. The thoughts are always the same. They’re never clever enough to become nightmares. Will I swim through the evil tide of my deep end?
Judgemental eyes in the shadows always infuriate me. Who do they think are, with their sainted normalcy?
The ghosts have faded away for now. They’ll be back.
Looking for a great Father’s Day gift or a summer sex, drugs & rock & roll read to take to the beach/pool/backdeck/kid’s soccer games? Buy my 1st one, The Ballad of Helene Troy, available digitally from amazon/kindle, smashwords, and Good Reads or in paperback from Lulu.com or Pound Publishing headquarters can send you a signed copy like this one
The words of Men At Work’s Overkill have described my thought processes for so many years. It’s a brilliant song.
Later and later and later. This 100 word song thing is starting to tick me off as well as you. Thanks for the great song last week and the amazing responses. With coming back from vacation in Washington D.C. and then going to a rock show, The Whigs in Atlanta, time has been tight.
Earlier today I addressed the “mental problems” as my wife calls them and the diagnosis was as sobering as I was expecting. This made Wednesday, time-wise, even tighter. Being busy and crazy is hard work. We’re almost at the end of this story. Soul To Body will get double duty this week. I will put all the posts together, update the page, and see what everyone thinks of the serialized tale as a while story.
Donetta Sifford aka @donettasifford on the Twitter, picked today’s song. For a good ole girl from West Virginia, she has excellent taste. Leeroy asked her to pick something and she chose The Beatles’ Don’t Let Me Down.
Violet held her phone in her right hand, checking text messages. Her angry stare through Mallory worried Jake. He tried moving between them to use his 5’11″ frame to block his daughter from Mallory.
“Mallory, now’s not a good time. Vi and I were talking and I don’t want to let you down, but I just can’t……”
Violet ducked under her father’s left arm. Her long blonde ponytail bounced in front of Jake’s face, interrupting him. Violet emerged across the threshold.
“Mallory, my dad’s not available! And that that married guy in Ohio you got in trouble answered my Aunt Augusta’s email!”
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You have seven days from today to write 100 words for Donetta's pick, The Beatles Don't Let Me Down. Then email, tweet, book o face, smoke signal, pony express, carrier pigeon, and standard mail your responses to as many people as possible. Don't forget to use Mr. Linky below.
