Roller Coaster Ride (#AtoZChallenge)

Another oft-used metaphor for the life journey is roller coaster.  So many amusement park metaphors lend themselves well to a life.  A merry-go-round can be a bit repetitious, a life going in circles, stuck in a rut.  But a roller coaster!  All the thrills and changes just like a life lived and savored...

     

Virtual re-creation of The Cyclone at Puritas Springs near Cleveland, Ohio

















            In the fifties when I was still a child and living in Cleveland Ohio, my parents would sometimes take us to an old amusement park in nearby Rocky River.  Puritas Springs had been there for decades.  The wooden roller coaster called The Cyclone was a featured attraction.  The ride was an ominous sight to a five year old, with the clanking chain drive sound and the smell of the grease on the track impacting the experience deep into my memory.

          I never rode that particular roller coaster, but I've thought about it often.  As many in recent generations have done, my life has taken on a metaphorical role as the roller coaster that I never stop riding until the day I die.  All the ups and downs and the circuitous changes of the course we all take in life are easily likened to a roller coaster.  It's a metaphor that has become a cliche.

          But it does work, which is why so often we return to that reliable old standard metaphor of the roller coaster of life.

           As I have mentioned in previous posts in 2018, during the April Challenge last year a song came to me that I wrote down and eventually even recorded a few rough versions that I featured in a Battle of the Bands post.  Once again this year I trudged into April with little enthusiasm for A to Z or much else for that matter only to get another rush of inspiration to write another song during this Challenge of 2019.

           Actually, I usually come up with several songs each day that I think on for a little bit before I file it away into the inner recesses of memory.  I don't think those songs are ever forgotten, but just put on hold until ideas and words come to turn that dormant song into a project leading to completion.  Then, sometimes, a song idea will grab me and stay with me for many days until it's part of my mental music library and committed on paper until I can find a use for it.

            So what song have I written this April?  What is the name of this new song that is obsessing me?  It's not a totally unique title or concept, but I think that's okay.  It's my song and I think it could sound pretty good with the right recording.  If you didn't guess already, my new A to Z April inspired song is called "Roller Coaster Ride."   I'm still coming up with additional lyrics, but I've got a melody solidly in my brain.

             I don't know if I'll get another Battle of the Bands post from the song, but this is another lurch forward on that open road leading to my dream.  This is me--the dreamer riding on a crazy roller coaster ride of life.

           Do any particular times or circumstances inspire more creativity with you than others?   What is the best roller coaster you've ridden on or heard of?   Did your parents take you to amusement parks when you were a child? 

         

Open Road ( #AtoZChallenge )

When self-driving cars become a reality, sometimes I'm going to take over the wheel when I'm on the open road...

           If my This Is Me series has consisted of a series of clues leading to what I'm talking about in the posts of said series then this post will be at the center of everything.  To put this another way, I think at the end of this Challenge you will be able to connect all posts with this post.  Not that anyone would likely do such a thing, but I'm just saying that's what would happen.

          Just keep in mind that now I'm winging this Challenge with day to day posts that are basically stream of consciousness   This doesn't mean topic focus is lost in my meandering.  I'm getting there, but just thinking as I go.

          Go where?

          The Open Road:  I've been traveling down this road a long time now, but I'd like to keep on going.  Just give me the gold and I'm on that road.  I've got this thing for touring.

          Stream-of-consciousness right there.  I might keep that.  But my real point is that there is something to this post called "Open Road" that is at the center of my series and maybe even my entire blog.  I'm going to stop this post here.  But the thoughts are living on.  I'm on that metaphorical road.

          How often do you use travel as a metaphor?  Do you ever write your blog posts in stream-of-consciousness style?   Did you get any sense of what I  was saying in this post?

Troubled Times

Enjoy this clip from SITA SINGS THE BLUES which features the music of  popular 20s jazz vocalist Annette Hanshaw.

      Troubled times are here.  Has it ever been otherwise?  Your household may be joyous today, while a neighbor down the street may be experiencing a sad time.   You may be suffering a job loss or bad health while a college kid across town looks forward to a new job waiting for him after his impending graduation or a young family celebrates the successful birth of a healthy new baby.   The world is full of ups and downs.

     As on one side of the world the sun rises on a new day full of hope, another side cringes in fear and dread at the coming of darkness.   Some nations struggle with war, poverty, and hunger while other nations abound with plenitude and security.  There is good and there is bad.

      But is there anyone anywhere who has never experienced a smile?   Don't we all have some moment of hope amidst our times of strife?  Even during the most treacherous storms we can look forward to the break in the clouds, the rainbow, and beautiful blue skies.  We thrive on hope or we would not be alive.

      A song that I wrote many years ago contained the following verse:

Loneliness, sweet well of inspiration,
I'll drink to quench a thirst and hope for sunshine.

      Difficult times of trouble, sadness, and uncertainty have often been the times when I have been at my creative peaks.   Songs and poetry fill my mind and spill onto the paper laid out before me.  My imagination churns out stories and my thoughts become rich with ideas.   I can become complacent with happy times as I settle back and enjoy the ride.   But in the sad times an inner energy swirls and stirs me into a productive mode as I attempt to recharge myself.  Troubled times are not something that I want, but they are times that I can use in a positive way.

       Do you allow troubled times to drag you down?   Have you used your difficulties for inspiration?   Are dark clouds headed your way or do you sense that a rainbow is about to break through to brighten your day?








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The Soundtrack Of My Life

          Yesterday I pondered which television show of my childhood was most representative of my life.  Today I will stay in a similar vein as I return to a musical theme.  A few weeks ago a piece was posted by Jessica, the Modern Day Drifter, on her  Country Girl blog about The Soundtrack To Your Life.  She proposed the following:

What would be the soundtrack to your life? What songs would be included that can sum up past events as well as things in the present?


            This challenge was right there in my train of thought at the time, since I was busy posting favorite albums and music.  I thought briefly about the concept and started this piece to file away for my "blogs to be posted in the future" file.  Well, the future has come and it is now.  I am pleased to accept the Modern Day Drifter's challenge as I present:
 
The Soundtrack of My Life(Click titles to hear the songs)

Sabre Dance -- From Aram Katchaturian's Gayne Ballet Suite, this energetic tune was a standard of juggling and other circus acts.  My parents used this song in their act and it is a piece of music that resonates from my childhood.

The Ballad of Davy Crockett-- Coon skin caps were all the rage in the 50s and every boy loved the legendary Davy Crockett.  I was no exception.
 
Hound Dog --I may have liked Davy Crockett, but even at the age of five I could see that Elvis was where it was at when it came to impressing the girls.  I had my Elvis impersonation that I liked to entertain people with.
 
The Wayward Wind -- My family had already done a good bit of travel and made a few moves when this song caught my attention in the late 50s.  I could identify with the song because traveling had gotten in my blood.  At one point my parents took my sister and I to see Gogi Grant, who had hit the charts with her version of the song, at a showplace in what was then a little town out in the desert called Las Vegas.
 
Sugar Shack -- When my family moved from San Diego to go to Northern Indiana this song was at the top of the charts.  Rock music had not really caught on with me, but this song started breaking my resistance and I started following the pop music trends.
 
Good Vibrations -- By the time this song came out I was living in East Tennessee.  I was a big fan of the Beatles and the Beach Boys and music in general.  The music was continuing to  move in new directions as the artists began experimenting. The psychedelic leanings of Good Vibrations and Sgt Pepper kept me searching for more new, consciousness distorting sounds.
 
Goin' to the Country --Living in Tennessee near the Smoky Mountains brought me closer to outdoor activities such as hiking and camping.  Also, I began to appreciate country music as country rock began to catch on in a big way.
 
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere --Neil Young became my favorite artist.  This song expressed a yearning I was beginning to have to do something with my life.  I was an adult. I wanted to travel and have adventures.
 
Open Road / The Magic of the Open Road --- These are two of my own songs that I wrote about being on the road.   They were part of a musical I started writing in the mid 1970s.  It would be appropriate to have some of my own compositions in my soundtrack.

In a Persian Market-- This is magic music by Albert Ketelbey.  In the late 70s I got my wish to travel and have adventure as I joined a traveling magic show.  This music was used in the show and was a piece commonly used by magicians and in circuses.

California --I'd never heard of this song by Phantom Planet until I started making this list.  I was looking on the Mixpod playlist maker for a version of a song called "California" by Compton and Batteau but could not find it.  Actually I kind of like this song better.   After many years on the road, my wife and I headed to Los Angeles with our three kids to settle down.

Beethoven's 7th Symphony  2nd movement  --- The 90s were are period of ups and downs for me--divorce, raising three daughters as a single father, a lot of work, loneliness, and finally finding someone new and gettting remarried.  This music by Beethoven to me expresses a range of human emotion from melancholy to soaring triumph.  I hope even bigger triumphs are in my future.

Writer in the Sun -- I hope this song will reflect who I am many years in the future. 

In My Life-- What better song to sum up one's life.
 
               There's mine, what about yours?   What kind of soundtrack would you like to have to accompany your life story? 

            Don't forget to sign up on the Linky list if you are interested in the Ten Hot Latin Picks blogfest that will be next Monday July 5.  Check at the end of my post yesterday for more details.