№ 796. Pasko 2025

 

№ 717. Typefaces & Fonts

When you read — a book, a traffic sign, a billboard, this article — how much do you really notice the letters? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably not at all.

But even if you don’t really notice them, you might sense it if something has subtly changed. That’s a feeling some people have had in recent weeks when they turn on their Microsoft Word programs.

Glasbergen

№ 642. The Day the Music Died

To deal with its length, McLean’s record company had a clever idea. The first half of the song appeared on the A-side of the single, while the second was consigned to side B. The result turned the A-side into a cliffhanger the listener had to see through to the end. The subsequent demand forced AM radio stations to play both sides. At the same time, FM radio – whose mandate was to go deeper and play longer – was reaching its commercial apex at the time. Issued at the end of 1971, American Pie hit No 1 by January of 72, where it stayed for a full month. For 49 years, it held the record for the longest song to hit No 1 – until Taylor Swift’s 10-minute cut, All Too Well, broke it.

Condenaststore

 

 

№ 523. If I Die Young

If I Die Young
The Band Perry
 

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Oh-oh, oh-oh 

Lord, make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors
Oh, and life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no
Ain't even gray, but she buries her baby
The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time 

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song 

The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time 

And I'll be wearing white when I come into your kingdom
I'm as green as the ring on my little cold finger
I've never known the lovin' of a man
But it sure felt nice when he was holding my hand
There's a boy here in town, says he'll love me forever
Who would have thought forever could be severed by 

The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time 

So put on your best boys, and I'll wear my pearls
What I never did is done
A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I'll sell 'em for a dollar
They're worth so much more after I'm a goner
And maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singin'
Funny when you're dead, how people start listenin'

 If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Oh-oh, oh-oh

The ballad of a dove
Go with peace and love
Gather up your tears, keep 'em in your pocket
Save 'em for a time when you're really gonna need 'em, oh

The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time

So put on your best boys, and I'll wear my pearls

№ 465. California on My Mind

 Here's an unabashed California nostalgia. Old songs never fade. They're just remade into new music videos.




Here's another big city story tinted with the recurrent song California Dreaming --- Chungking Express.

№ 363. My Name is Loki

Saturday nights walking the dogs, then cooking and looking forward to a quiet Sunday are what I live for on weekends.

№ 361. Freedom

№ 338. Summer in November

Tower Records in Japan is alive and thriving. The branch in Osaka beside our hotel closes at 11 PM! Whooppie!

Among the many compact discs (CDs) finds is this:



So 80s and so retro, looking back.

№ 334. LA Envy

In Annie Hall, Alvy Singer hates Los Angeles. He worships New York. LA, he thinks, is the antithesis of NYC. 

Seinfeld and the gang definitely loved New York, its minutiae, and nonsense. 

№ 313. Post Modern Jukebox

It's hard not to fall for this type of cultural imperialism. It's so well made! Bravo!

№ 292. Straying From the Yellow Brick Road

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Yellow

№ 267. Crucify Your Mind

Was it a huntsman or a player
That made you pay the cost
That now assumes relaxed positions

And prostitutes your loss?
Were you tortured by your own thirst
In those pleasures that you seek
That made you Tom the curious
That makes you James the weak?

№ 224. Kinetic Wednesday

№ 209. Throwback Thursday

Stirred life, stilled life, circa 2011.

№ 191. Missing Seinfeld

Missing the nightly fix when I was still in school. Soup Nazi, there has to be a better way to serve comfort than a long line up.

№ 188. Love Loves to Love Love*

Piano
by PATRICK PHILLIPS

Touched by your goodness, I am like
that grand piano we found one night on Willoughby
that someone had smashed and somehow
heaved through an open window.

№ 162. Sunday's Best

Seriously, this is funny. LOL.

№ 132. Instagram 2: Notebooks

Quirky, you and I
In this noonday ritual
Mimes stirring
Lucid conversations

You, nourished by daylight;
I, famished by night vigils.

Our fickle faces pressed
Against our pensive barriers.

teasquared

№ 129. Bookshelves from the Edge of Consciousness

"Call me by my true names" by Thich Nhat Hanh,


Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive.
Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

№ 131. Instagram (1)

We receive; we wait.
It suns. It rains. It passes.
We receive. We wait.

------------------------------------------

The story began with his postpaid unlimited data plan.

It was late summer last year, just before the monsoons came with their tantrums. May, to be precise.