Limited outside sections

The new office has five windows, of which 3 are obscured by shutters this morning to prevent glare whenever the sun chooses to poke out for a sec.

No. 4 shows part of an apartment building, built ca. 1920, when they still had a taste for nooks and crannies (this one has many of those). It's pale orange, with the entrance in pale pink and the hinged shutters in pale green. The most conspicuous contemporary feature is a clump of red and zinc satellite dishes on the red tile roof.

No. 5, at an angle of only 8 degrees from no. 4, shows an entirely different period in the back - a recent high-rise apartment building, all boxy impersonal lines. Pale yellow and concrete grey. Another apartment block, straight, 1960s, boring, transverse. Partially covered up by deep-green spruce trees. A beech in front. Still hanging on to last year's brown leaves.

Somehow a dismal morning. Discernable drops of rain coming down out there. Any sound from outside covered up by the humming and occasional ghostly activity of the huge HP printers stationed further back in the room.

The Stainsby Girls

In 1990, I bought Chris Rea's album "Shamrock Diaries," which contains some of the best songs he ever wrote. I particularly loved "Stainsby Girls" and was planning on writing a novella based on the theme suggested - that of two wild, unconventional sisters, who, as Chris Rea says, could not only steal a heart, but break it in two.

I'd even decided on my names for the sisters – Charlotte and Vivian. Charlotte, I was definitely sure, was the proper name for my Rolling Stones loving heroine. She would be the one to break my hero's heart in two.

Alas, I never even wrote a single line of the novella. But the idea has lingered in my head for over 15 years and is revived each time I listen to the song. Which still happens now and then...

The lyrics follow below the video. Watch out for Chris' slide guitar solo!



Stainsby Girls

Some girls used to kiss and run
Never knew what they had done
Some girls always wasted time
Keep you hanging on the line
Some loved horses and always stayed at home
But the Stainsby girls loved the Rolling Stones

Now some had games that you had to play
Making rules along the way
Strange attractions newly found
Pride and passion kicked around
Some girls stole your heart
Like most girls do
But a Stainsby girl could break it in two

And I fell in love, I fell in love
I fell in love with a Stainsby girl

Deepest water Stainsby blue
Running straight, running true
Names and faces fade away
Memories here to stay

And I fell in love, I fell in love
I fell in love with a Stainsby girl

– Chris Rea (from Shamrock Diaries, 1985)

Give my love to Rose - Bruce Springsteen

This post is for my friend Chris from New Jersey, who is married to Rose. The other day he told me about a song he'd written for her, and that reminded me of the Johnny Cash song "Give my love to Rose," of which I recited part of the lyrics to him. He thought it was unbelievably corny. But then he doesn't like country music in general. However, then I discovered that his fellow New Jersean and hero Bruce Springsteen performed the song on some occasion. So here it is - Springsteen-style...

When the horoscope is right on...

Occasionally, the daily horoscope I get by e-mail is right on target, as it was today:

Your usual determination has gone out of town and left no forwarding address. Of course, like any self-respecting Capricorn, you continue to accomplish what's demanded of you. But you sense something missing in relation to your motivations. Those around you notice it as well, so expect to have to justify or explain your occasional lack of pep...

Please get me back my forwarding address! And, preferably, back into town!

Prior to dive-in fib

Oh
the
water
of life looked
so cold today! I
feared for kidneys, liver and heart.
But some vigorous
strokes in its
cold did
warm
me.

– Leonard “The Diver” Blumfeld (© 2008)

Ruminations
Here we are – it’s the 4th morning in 2008, and a fib – in the shape of a diamond no less – served as a warm-up exercise for a day begun with reluctance. If we are to trust Richard Leider and other commonsense gurus, it is essential to have a reason for getting up in the morning. Each and every morning. Let’s just say that some mornings are easier than others.

The best was what hurt most

The
best
of two
thousand and
seven sadly was
what also hurt most: to dissolve
a marriage begun
in May with
longing,
love,
hope.

– L.B.

Note
Written in response to Inspire Me Thursday's suggestion "The Best of 2007". It is unfortunately all true.

Now and then / an Elvis variation

Now and then
there’s a fool such as I

Now and then
there’s a clown such as I

Now and then
there’s a wise man such as I

We do get together
now and then

Some of us fools, clowns, wise men
such as I

To be foolish, clown around
and crack wise

– Len “Not the King” B.

Note
In response to the "Now & Then" prompt at Sunday Scribblings, I chose the lighter "now and then" version to inspire me.

Preparing for breakfast with Frank

It’s all quite hectic,
there must be music on the turntable
(his beloved late French classical stuff)
before he enters the bathroom to shave,
only to come out at irregular intervals
to drop me a witticism in the kitchen or,
later, on the balcony, where I’m sitting
with something to read. To make some
sort of a point, like, “Look, I’m busy
even though you’re here and we both
know that you’re a full-attention kind
of guy.”

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2007)

Note
For some reason I tried to picture what it would be like to have Frank O’Hara over for breakfast.

A look out the window

Change is imminent in the form of an office move. The streets, buildings and sky I see through this window I will most likely never again see from here.

• KFC with its corner towerlet and oversize colonel serving container on top
• The power plant with its gigantic chimneys, not all stark grey and white in a postmodern industrial improvement attempt – yes, there are steel green and pale lilac parts
• The new Penny Market with its aluminum diner design and neatly outlined parking spaces
• Beyond it the pale olive green and drab grey of a car plant, with the giveaway star circling above
• More industrial building layers with pipes, windows, chimneys
• The Kart-o-Mania rink
• Life: flags fluttering, cars driving by, dropping and imbibing people
• Late November: big, slow-moving clouds, white and grey, with fuzzy windows to blue sky

That's it for now.

A green light day

I
love
it when
lights turn green
as I cross and things
go my way. No red lights now, please.

– Leonard Jaywalker Blumfeld (© 2007)

Cautionary note
One green traffic light a day doth not make (as a single swallow a summer doth not make) ...