My A to Z Themes in the past have covered a range of topics and for 2025 the theme is a random assemblage of things that are on my mind--or that just pop into my mind. Whatever! Let's just say I'll be "Tossing It Out" for your entertainment or however it is you perceive these things.
We're still having moderate summerlike days here in Los Angeles. Not heat spell summer, but near perfect summer. It's the kind of weather to love...
Last weekend we headed on down to Yuma AZ for an overnighter. The power company was doing upgrades in our neighborhood and had to shut off the electricity for a full night. We figured we'd go away so we wouldn't have to be in the dark on an early Sunday evening.
It was a great quick trip. We drove via Palm Springs and down the western shore of the Salton Sea. We spent a relaxing afternoon looking around Yuma--a nice town now, but maybe not so much in the heat of summer. We returned home by way of San Diego where we had lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant. It was a quick trip home with no traffic delays. Smooth sailing on a Monday and no traffic back-ups. Something I've rarely seen here.
Life is good.
Battle of the Bands Results
My previous Battle between Kathleen Edwards and The Bad Plus doing versions of the Flaming Lips song "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" was not a bad one. I love the percussive jazz sound of the piano centric The Bad Plus. What a great group with a fantastic interpretation of this song. That being said, I'm going with the more relaxing version which I think is more illustrative of what the song is about.
Just the other day I celebrated another birthday. Seventy-five years old seems so unreal in many ways. But I can feel the effects: I am disintegrating in one sense and yet I feel fantastic for the most part. Much of the time I feel like I did in my twenties or thirties. However, the reality exists that I am getting old. I am in a process of deterioration. I hope it keeps on feeling as good as it does now...
Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bandsisthe blogging event started byFar Away SeriesandStMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. I do this event each month on the 15th and the 1st of the month. The premise is simple: Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it. Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate
A year ago I used this song in a Battle in which I used the original version by Flaming Lips against another relaxing dreamy song. To me this is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard. And it seems so relevant as I get older.
Here are two versions that I find particularly nice. Take a listen and then tell us which one you like best.
Don't disintegrate yet! Vote now please. Which song interpretation do you prefer? Battles are no fun without you the reader participating. Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind. You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.
Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours. I don't know if anyone else will be doing a Battle this time around, but you can still check out these sites.
February 4 question - Many writers have written about the experience of rereading their work years later. Have you reread any of your early works? What was that experience like for you?
Through the years I have often looked back on old writing that I've done and often I have been somewhat surprised how well my writing seemed at that time. Just the other day I was looking at a comment I had left on someone's blog post about ten years ago and thought to myself, "Did I really write that? It seems so well expressed." Same goes with writing from my college days fifty years ago. I might find an old paper that I had turned in for an assignment or a short story that I had written and be quite surprised at how mature my writing had seemed back then.
Recently I pulled down from my closet a box of some of my old writing that I was planning to go through. The writing goes back to my high school and college days and I think I'm going to find some writing that seems almost unrecognizable now as something I had written in the past. Was I a better writer back then? Am I starting to forget words and concepts as I grow older? Maybe, but I'm not sure that this is the answer. Probably I just haven't been writing enough lately.
I guess I need to start writing more again to hone my skills. Couldn't hurt. And maybe my mind will sharpen as well. More writing would be good. I need to do that.
Did you seem to write better when you were younger? Do you still care about writing as much as you did in another time of your life?
It's raining in Los Angeles again. After a stretch of unseasonably warm summer-like weather, I sense the onset of winter in the air when I step outside. Can Christmas be far behind? Is another year about to end? What's happening!!! Just me I guess. So here's something else...
Battle of the Bands Results
My most recent Battle had a pretty low turn-out as they have been of recent times, but it was a balanced return. Without my vote it's a tie and I'm kind of split on mine. I have The Herd album which I acquired on vinyl back around 1970 or so while scouring a cut-out bin. I enjoyed the album then and liked it enough to keep it when I purged much of my collection.
Zoot on the other hand was totally new to me, but their song is a style that I probably prefer to the British Invasion style of the Herd. I really like them both for different reasons. I think I'll leave this contest as a tie as it is with my own taste.
We've been having cool nights and balmy days after a bit of rain to usher in our new year. It's Los Angeles after all and I guess that's what we should expect at this time of year. For whatever it's worth. And really how much is it worth just to say this? How about we do this....
Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bandsisthe blogging event started byFar Away SeriesandStMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. I do this event each month on the 15th and the 1st of the month. The premise is simple: Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it. Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.
Other lives/lifetimes
In the mid-sixties in opposite parts of the world--Britain and Australia--two mildly successful rock bands were formed that would later give us a couple of big stars in the music world. And that brings us to another Battle of the Bands. Take a listen to each song and tell which you like best...
Not only did Zoot give the music world the beginnings of The Little River Band, but even more famously this band yielded the heartthrob star of the eighties, Rick Springfield who most notably recorded "Jesse's Girl" as well as making a number of appearances on the popular soap opera General Hospital. They released this Beatles song in 1970 and charted in Australia reaching #4.
Peter Frampton became the pretty faced guitarist and vocalist for the band The Herd in 1966 when he was only 16. The band charted with mild success in Britain and then Frampton went on to form the band Humble Pie to an even greater success. Then he went solo and eventually put out his immensely popular live album in 1976. Here is one of his "hits" with The Herd...
Time to Vote!
Before you too become too famous to vote on these Battles, take a moment. Vote now please. Which song interpretation do you prefer? Battles are no fun without you the reader participating. Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind. You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.
Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours. I don't know if anyone else will be doing a Battle this time around, but you can still check out these sites.
Christmas is over and I'm still talking about presents. However, I'm thinking about the most important present of all and that is now, today, the whole where we are in our lives at this moment. Really though, I'm always thinking about past, present, and future. Aren't we all? For the most part. Maybe...
January 7 question - Is there anything in your writing plans for 2026 that you are going to do that you couldn't get done in 2025?
Couldn't get done? I don't know. I can always get something done if I really want to, but I'm a bit lazy I suppose. And maybe conflicted too? Sometimes I feel the importance of things that later I ponder as to why they are important anyway. My writing is important to me I suppose, but how far beyond that does this "importance" go? I guess the best way to find that out is to keep writing and so that is what I plan to do.
In essence, my plans for this year are the same as most years that came before. I want to keep writing songs, but also do something with them. We'll see. I still have a ton of songs started that I'd like to finish some day which means now is a good time to do that. Same with my memoir writing. I'm more focused on that than any fiction aspirations, but apparently I haven't been focused enough to actually produce any significant progress on that front.
Time is not going to stop for me to get on board. I'm already there and whatever I do with my time is up to me. I'd better get busy. The station of my destination is getting closer.
Battle of the Bands Results
Holding Back the Years Battle
My previous Battle was a showdown between two different artists performing the Simply Red hit "Holding Back the Years". I must say that I really liked the Angie Stone version with the percussive backing and all. Love that kind of sound. And the organ! But, like the rest of you I had to give my vote to Dan Mason. Just enjoyed his sound better. And he won.
And just like that 2025 was over! It was a pretty good year for me and my house. We're still going,, maybe not as strong as in past years, but pretty darn good I'd say. And here on this blog the music is still not over. Listen! It's more music I hear...
Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bandsisthe blogging event started byFar Away SeriesandStMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. I do this event each month on the 15th and the 1st of the month. The premise is simple: Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it. Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.
Holding Back the Years
Well, it looks like Déjà vu all over again. I've used this song a couple of other New Years Day Battles, but to me it's a good song and right for the occasion. After all, this is often a time when many of us reflect on the past as well as a hopefully better future. I hope your past year was at least as good as my own and I hope the year to come is better for all of us.
So on with this Battle with two versions, both live performances. Take a listen if you will and tell us which one you prefer...
Don't hold on too long! Vote now please. Which song interpretation do you prefer? Battles are no fun without you the reader participating. Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind. You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.
Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours. I don't know if anyone else will be doing a Battle this time around, but you can still check out these sites.
