Listening to ...
Real Rhapsody tunes that I liked while cleaning up around the
Miser Project on Saturday, 2004-05-30:
- Jimmy Hendrix "Are You Experienced"
- Lynyrd Skynrd "Saturday Night Special"
- Sheryl Crow "Steve McQueen"
- Heart "Barracuda"
- The Allman Brothers Band "Stand Back"
- Pink Floyd "Money"
- Neil Young "Come on Baby, Let's Go Downtown"
- Rush "Finding My Way"
- Kid Rock "Cowboy"
- Argent "God Gave Rock 'N Roll To You"
- Guns 'N Roses "Civil War"
- David Bowie "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" (complete album), first heard while I was staying in the Genesee Holiday Inn while moving to Rochester in September, 1972
Well,
I was saying that it is album rock that I liked, yes? Moving along with more Miser Project cleanup the next morning ...
- Andrea Bocelli "Sentimento" album on Real Rhapsody, waking into US Memorial Day with a craving for some Tuscan soothing, and this is the Bocelli that they have and it still makes my eyes wet.
- Celine Dion "The Collector's Series, vol. 1" a Real Rhapsody affinity link with melodic warmth, but my cheesie headphones are killing me and I need to find another solution.
- Sarah Brightman "Time To Say Goodbye," with Andrea Bocelli on Real Rhapsody (another affinity link) that makes me want to play "A Night in Tuscany" in the nearby DVD player, later, when Vicki and I are into our day.
- Andrea Bocelli "A Night in Tuscany" Polygram Video in Centro's DVD Drive (with the great sound card, mixer board, and Bose speakers). My own little affinity link.
When they show setting up for the live concert in the piazza in Pisa, with the roof lines and il Duomo beyond, I choke up.
Memorial Day Reminiscence. In November 1997 we spent our first night ever in Tuscany, at Hotel Victoria along the Arno in Pisa, before driving to an agriturismo outside of Firenze. We had an introduction to Rosanna in Livorno and we loved the coastal area. When driving around Tuscany we kept gravitating along highways to the Pisa-Livorno area and began thinking of making a life there. Around Memorial Day in 1998 I had the opportunity of volunteering for early retirement and I took it, effective in December. In 1999 we were in full preparation to move to Livorno but we failed to obtain residency thanks to my unwillingness to fully retire. This would be the fulfilment of Vicki's life dream, and we didn't pull it off. Since the South Bay wasn't that affordable for a semi-retired geek, we moved to the Seattle area instead, saying that we were driving to Italy.
While typing this and listening to the music, I realized that Memorial Days are memorial in many ways for me:
- Before Memorial Day in 1992 I had an offer to transfer to Palo Alto as the architect for a new software products team. I sent in my acceptance at once because I couldn't stand to wait through the holiday weekend and I didn't want them to figure out they'd made a mistake. It was memorable in other respects. In making that move I dissolved a 21-year marriage, breaking a huge promise.
- On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in 1995, I met Vicki in a parking lot and asked her to coffee. That began a series of holiday-related events: our first weekend date over July 4th, moving in together over Labor Day weekend, and marriage on New Years Eve.
That's when I realized that I hadn't taken Vicki out for an anniversary coffee this weekend. I ran up the stairs and gave her a big hug, and then
- We had a conversation about how we aren't in Italy and she is afraid to dream again because it hurts too much when it doesn't happen.
- We listened to the radio coverage of Memorial Day and grieved for the fallen everywhere and the lessons that have been left for us to get.
- I snuck over to Barnes & Noble and brought home Piero Bairati's Wonderful Cities of Italy. Hotel Victoria is on p.179. We looked through it together.
I don't know, when I weep to the music, whether it is grief or sorrow for the soundtrack of my own life or compassion for our common humanity. Either way, it is good to stop and listen to the music.
posted by orcmid at 5/30/2004 10:07:11 PM
