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.
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.
I apologize, yet again, for the lateness of 100 word song. While I never close the linky and have never enforced the whole ” 1 week to write rule”, I do need to be a better meme daddy. I think Meme Daddy and/or Meme Daddies would make a really lousy southern rock bar band that would heckle on a Saturday night near my house after six beers.
I just returned from five days in the Washington D.C. area. As a result, I conferred with everyone’s favorite 100 word song robot, Leeroy and we decided to choose the tune this week based on a Washington D.C. artist. Thanks again to my favorite Indie music musician friend, Linda aka @modmomelleroy, bandleader of the Jehova Waitresses, for picking last week. The entries were great. I’m sorry I didn’t get to comment them all but I had creepy wax figures to look at and over-priced Alexandria dress boutiques to stand outside of while the 4 women I went with, shopped. By the way, don’t forget to buy my book, currently on Amazon Kindle, Smashwords, Good Reads and in paperback from Lulu.com – The Ballad of Helene Troy, a rock and roll underdog story; because, trust me, I now REALLY need to the money. Oh, here’s me with Malcolm X, author of one of my favorite books, his Autobiography, keeping it real by any means necessary.
Leeroy and I chose D.C. native, Marvin Gaye, and his landmark hit, What’s Going On? from 1971.
For my 100, we return to Jake and Violet’s porch, my short story, soon to be concluded, Soul To Body. It’s also teamed with my friend Velvet’s 100 word prompt, “dusky”.
Jake waited for the door to close behind him before approaching Mallory. A hour had passed since the sun had set, the front porch light caught Mallory’s dusky shadow ascending the stairs. Her red hair and tear-soaked face looked harried and desperate.
“Mallory, I need for you to leave. Violet and I….”
Jake caught himself giving away too much information. He’d created chaos by letting Mallory too close. Jake thought about Camille. She could be assertive one, mean even, when the situation called.
The door swung open. Violet stepped out.
“Dad, I just found out what’s going on with her.”
As always, you have seven days, until next wednesday morningishlike, to write 100 words inspired by Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On? Don’t forget to use Mr. Linky below then tell everyone about your post. Recruit others. It’s cult-like here, but with better music.
Sometimes, when the words don’t make their way from heart to brain to notebook to computer screen, I’ll take out my electric guitar. It’s a sleek blue and white Fender Stratocaster with loose pickups and cries for more attention. I’m a bad guitar player, but I know enough about power chords to be dangerous. To break the block, I’ll plug the guitar into the amplifier, turn the knobs to five or six, okay, always six, and let “it” rip. Usually my fingers miss a fret, and every once in a while, my pick gets jammed inside my right thumb. But always the strum releases tension, I think of the word, phrase or paragraph I need, and suddenly I feel almost like a real artist.
I imagine this is what some of my artistic heroes were and are, like. Putting your soul out there is scary and you stay fearful someone will call you a freak.
One of the pieces of music I know how to play is also known as the first “power chord”. A man named Link Wray wrote an rock and roll instrumental called “Rumble” in 1958. His manager, his record label boss, and some of his friends hated it. He turned all the knobs up much louder than usual, poked holes in his amplifier, and hit the chords on his guitar harder and faster than anyone else had thought, before. A few years later, an entire way of life happened because of his record. People learned how to play guitar from “Rumble” and the genre of “rock music” was forever changed.
What followed Link Wray’s moment of rebellious brilliance was the kind of music that inspires me, daily. I wrote my first book, The Ballad of Helene Troy, on the style he invented. Here are five other songs, along with Link Wray’s, that show some of my artistic process.
Rumble – Link Wray
Ticket to Ride – The Beatles
Psychotic Reaction – Count Five
Satisfaction – The Rolling Stones
You Really Got Me – The Kinks
Wild Thing – The Troggs
*****blogger’s note*****
I returned today from a five day jaunt to Washington D.C. with my wife and 3 daughters. We had a blast but I’m so behind in writing, reading, commenting, and linking to prompts, I’ll never catch up. I’m combining Trifecta Writing’s 333 word challenge of “freak” with my music freak friend, Jen at http://www.jenkehl.com ‘s Twisted Mixtape Tuesday. Her topic was 1950s and 1960s and the challenge was to deliver a mixtape or playlist to at least five songs. I gave a style and songs that I can kinda sorta play, poorly, on guitar, based on the emotionally reaction I have to the power chord. This may be a stretch and I may not “win” anything from either writing community but, well, it was inspired and honest and only 333 words and from the 1960s so take that, punks.
Now, go find a guitar and hit a G and an A and a C and feel the rebellion.
Looking for an edgy, music-filled page-turner to take to the pool, beach, or backyard deck for the summer? Get Helene, a rock and roll underdog story. It’s available digitally on amazon/kindle http://www.amazon.com/The-Ballad-Of-Helene-Troy/dp/1300800216 , smashwords, and Good reads and in paperback from Lulu.com or a signed copy from Pound Publishing Headquarters, in the Hill of Sugar, Georgia.
If it seems 100 word song is getting later and leter each week, it’s because Leeroy’s been sick sick and I’ve been sick busy. Fifty something bucks later, Leeroy’s batteries were recharged and I think he’s going to be okay. Thank you to Tracy aka @crazyasnormal for the Indie rock last week and the excellent six entries we had. The cool thing about six who played last week is we all seem to share the same tastes in music, for the most part. I would like to spotlight Bridget aka @twinisms from
http://www.twinisms.com . She succumbed to peer pressure from Tracy and I and wrote for the first time. It was terrific. I suspected she might try to pick New Kids On The Block or something so I let her off the hook and asked our actual musician writer friend, Linda, aka @modmomelleroy to pick this week.
Linda is a Tom Petty fanatic. She saw him in concert a few days ago. So she chose his song “Down South”.
For my 100, we go back to Jake and Violet and my soon to be over, short story Soul To Body.
Violet muttered “taking a shower” as they arrived home. Then father and daughter escaped to different rooms.
Camille had encouraged him to keep playing guitar after Boxer Ego broke up and Violet was born.
Jake walked barefoot across the hardwoods and retrieved his acoustic from a closet. The front door was open but the screen was closed. He sat cross-legged inches from the threshold, as he’d done with Camille strumming Tom Petty. As Jake imagined Camille across from him, Mallory’s voice invaded the screen.
“I know Violet’s home but I need to tell you why I moved back down south!”
As always you have 7 days from NOW to write 100 words inspired by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers “Down South”. Don’t forget to use the Mr. Linky below to post your 100 then book o face, the twitterz, google +. smoke signal, pony express, morse code, and email your response to everyone you know. Tell a friend or 50. Let’s get at least 10 this week.
Also, buy the book. The Ballad of Helene Troy is available, digitally, on amazon.kindle, smashwords and good reads and in paperback from Lulu.com or a signed copy from Pound Publishing headquarters- inquire within.
Yesterday we celebrated Memorial Day, a national holiday of reflection on those who served our country and didn’t make it back home. Since I’m not a veteran, I did what civilians should do on Memorial Day, I made fun of ultra-patriotic people on the Twitter and Book o Face, grilled steaks, and got in my car to run some family errands and paid tribute to something I lost when I became a husband and father – the ability to control the car radio/CD player.
I miss it. But it isn’t a deal breaker. My wife and 3 daughters love playing their favorites on radio or CDs in the car; singing, dancing, confusing lyrics, and arguing about who the better singer/musician/DJ/radio commercial, is. All the while, I plan. Actually, I plot and or scheme. Because when I get in the car by myself, I can revert back to yesteryear when the music in the car could be mine, all mine muwahahahaha. Yesterday, I had to help my mother-in-law move something, then pick up a couple of things from the store. I had thirty minutes alone in the car. I picked out five CDs, Counting Crows, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stone Temple Pilots, The Verve, and Rage Against the Machine. Had you been in the car with me, you would have not wanted to be in the car with me, because I sing and dance like I play guitar, poorly but with a lot of enthusiasm.
Today’s Twisted Mixtape Tuesday over at my music freak sister pal Jen’s place http://www.jenkehl.com is Songs You Sing Your Heart Out To In The Car. You know how I know I follow and read the right people, because Jen picked this topic AFTER I was in the car with my tunes. For my top 5 list, I picked the 5 songs I sang along to yesterday. There are many more. I didn’t even touch on Radar Love by Golden Earring, the Paul’s Boutique album from Beastie Boys (always in my car) or anything Pearl Jam-ish.
5) Mr. Jones – Counting Crows. I like anything and everything Crows related but at the end of the day, even after worshiping Come Around (my kids’ favorite Crows tune) and Angels of the Silences, Mr. Jones and it’s “down at the new Amsterdam, staring at this yellow-haired girl”…opening lyric is a classic. If you haven’t listened to August and Everything After, the C Crows debut album, recently, do so. It still works. Mr. Jones at full volume while sitting at a red light next to a convenience store or Wal-Mart is a suburbanite’s right of passage. And the person next to you will not judge you, unless they have crappy musical taste, then it’s their problem. I wanna be Bob Dylan, Mr. Jones wishes he was someone different….
4) American Girl – Tom Petty. Here’s the deal, if you hear American Girl and either don’t think about the Senator’s daughter jamming in her car with the song before Buffalo Bill gets her OR just lose yourself in Tom Petty’s rhythm guitar riff and start tapping on your steering wheel, then we can’t be friends. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. American Girl is the one of the greatest driving songs ever.
3) Lucky Man – The Verve. The entire Urban Hymns CD is as close to a perfect album as you’ll ever find. I’ve used Lucky Man on a couple of posts, here. It’s a personal theme song. “Happiness more or less it’s just a change in me
Something in my liberty”. You can see the awkwardness when I pull up next to someone singing “I stand here naked, with a smile on my face, I feel no disgrace”.
2) Interstate Love Song – Stone Temple Pilots. The best driving song ever? Yeah. It was written and produced in my hometown Atlanta. Scott Weiland, the band’s now former lead singer, has said it was written “doing 85 on 85″, that’s Interstate 85, which runs near my house. With it’s southern rock opening, driving rhythm section, and “leavin’ on a southern train, yesterday, you lied” lyric, it’s the song you have to hear when you’re headed on vacation.
1) Guerrilla Radio – Rage Against the Machine. If you own The Battle of Los Angeles, proud leftist band Rage Against the Machine’s seminal 1999 album, then I don’t care if you’ve killed a guy, we’re probably going to be best friends for ever and ever. I also don’t care what who or your politics are, if you can’t scream along to “lights out, Guerrilla Radio, turn that sh*t up!” Then you’re just not a fun person. Somewhere along the line, you’re singing “all you pen devils know that trial was vile, army of pigs try to silence my style”. If you live in a mostly quiet, conservative, Bible Belt place, like I do, then pulling up next to a police car with Guerrilla Radio blaring is a moment in time you live for. And I did it yesterday, like a boss. Here’s Rage
Go see Jen and pick you 5 Car Songs you blast and sing along to.
Don’t forget to do your post Memorial Day, soon to be Father’s Day gift buying by visiting Amazon.com, smashwords.com, and Good Reads to get a copy of my first book, a rock and roll underdog story, The Ballad of Helene Troy. It’s also available on Lulu.com in paperback version or you can order a signed copy straight from Pound Publishing headquarters, my kitchen table.
