Month: August 2016

Saturday Night Serenade–All You Need Is Love

On By Pandora SpocksIn Date Night, Humor, Inspirations, Love, MusicLeave a comment

Who doesn’t love love?  I love love.  And I love this movie, Love Actually.  I know.  It’s a Christmas movie.  And it’s August now, and hotter than ‘old Miss Hot and she died hot’, as my dad would say.  But the sentiment is here.  All you need is love.

When misunderstandings and disagreements inevitably come along, we need to remember that we come from a starting place of love.  Mr. R. and I were married in our back yard nearly five years ago.  We were married there twice, actually, the first ceremony a very private affair conducted by a friend of ours, a dotty little Wiccan.  There was sage and a feather and water and soil and a tiny bell.  It was deliciously weird and wonderful.

Our formal wedding (well, more formal than that, anyway) was held a few months later, a huge celebration with all our friends.  And when the deed was done, I had someone press ‘play’ on the iPod to play this song.  I wish we could have had the choir and the brass and all, but it was beautiful, nonetheless.

Here’s to all the hopeless romantics out there.  Because all you need is love.  Happy Saturday night!

 

Saturday Night Serenade–Have A Nice Day

On By Pandora SpocksIn Blogging, Date Night, Humor, Music, Random RantsLeave a comment

It’s Saturday again!  Finally.  There were moments this week when I didn’t think it would ever end.  I’m back at work after a way too brief summer break.  And I’m not just whining about having to go back after having nine weeks off, not really.

There have been massive changes in my workplace.  The management has been completely replaced.  And over half of my co-workers are gone.  Many who stayed have been shifted around to other positions.

Mind you, I hated my job before.  Now?  Now, it’s all, “I know you’ve done it one way in the past, we do it MY way from now on.”  And the ‘get while the getting is good’ ship has unfortunately sailed.

So I’m left thinking, how is it that I (and most of us, if I’m not mistaken) spend such a huge percentage of our lives doing something that makes us miserable?  I supposed it comes down to necessity and the choices we’ve made.  But sometimes I just want to stand on a table and scream out profanities.  Which, of course, I can’t do because we have a mortgage and bills and…

So instead, I believe I’ll just calmly say, “Have a nice day.”  Only y’all will know what I really mean.

I believe I’ll pour myself an adult beverage and flesh out my five-year plan for making my escape from hell.  Mr. R. is with me all the way.  Let’s raise a glass for Tommy and Gina, who never backed down.  And may we be more like them.

In other news, Green Day has a brand new song out, which accounts for the bonus track. It’s not really a quiet little date night song.  But it’s pretty awesome, nevertheless.

Happy Saturday night!

Saturday Night Serenade–Don’t Mean Nothing

On By Pandora SpocksIn Blogging, Date Night, Music4 Comments

Waaaaayyyy back in nineteen something-something, lifetimes before Mr. R. and I met, I saw Richard Marx in concert on Daytona Beach during Spring Break.  He was preceded that day by The Squeeze, who, I’m embarrassed to say, I mistook for a really good local band.  Sheesh!

Anyway, Marx was in his heyday and the concert, simulcast on MTV, was terrific.  He even had Dave Koz on sax.  While he had a number of hit songs, Don’t Mean Nothing was always my favorite.  It’s kind of funky and bluesy, reminiscent of the Eagles, and that, it turns out, is not by accident.  On the original recording, Joe Walsh played slide guitar while Randy Meisner and Timothy B. Schmidt sang backing vocals.

Richard Marx still tours a lot, a fact I know because I follow him on Instagram.  Yep, I’m that kind of dork.  This live performance is as good or better than that one so many years ago on the decadent shores of Daytona Beach.  Of course, it’s sans the industrial sized mullet he used to sport.  His audience has changed, if this video is any indicator.  Or maybe we all just got old.  It could be that those folks are the same ones who were in that audience that March day.

But I suppose getting old beats the alternative.  Hope you enjoy this throwback to a kinder, gentler day.  Happy Saturday night!