I start to feel old when I hear songs I grew up with in the 80's being played as cover songs by new artists.
Loping Squid recently shared with me this post about Top Ten Cover Songs that Outshine the Original. I started to write this as an individual response to Loping Squid, but then decided to post it here for commentary by a broader audience.
Here are my somewhat random thoughts on the above mentioned Top Ten post...
I don't agree with Gary Jules' rendition of Mad World supposedly being better than Tears for Fears' original. However, I did enjoy the video and the cool moving images the people on the sidewalk made. Definitely watch #9.
Not really related to the Top Ten post itself, but seeing the Pet Shop Boys on the list brought up another teleportation song memory for me. I've been a big fan of the Pet Shop Boys for a LONG time. Whenever I hear songs off their album "Please," my mind is instantly teleported back to 1986 in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. I bought that album on a cassette tape at the mall there before embarking on a Tiger Cruise with my dad. During the next week at sea, I listened to that tape over and over and over again. A couple of the songs gained such popularity on the radio (e.g. West End Girls, Opportunities) that they don't hold special significance from that trip anymore, but I still associate the lesser-known songs with that Tiger Cruise. End of flashback, resuming original topic.
I never realized They Might Be Giants' "Istanbul" was a cover song!
Is it me, or does it seem really odd for Johnny Cash to be doing a cover of a Trent Reznor song?
Cover songs aren't so bad though. What really drives me nuts is when I get in an elevator and hear a soft flute playing the tune to a favorite song of mine from high school. Then I REALLY feel old.
Showing posts with label teleportation songs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teleportation songs. Show all posts
Monday, December 8, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Theme Songs
Another Teleportation Song flashback.
Back when I was a JO, boats got to choose who would stand Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW) during the ORSE (Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination). The result was, naturally, that boats would try to stack-the-deck with their best watch officers. On my use-ta-fish, we called the ORSE EOOWs the "Rock Stars." During the weeks leading up to the ORSE, the three ORSE EOOWs would be running forward and aft like a rock band with a group of roadies in red drill hats following them wherever they went. They would all go to the engine room together - one to stand the watch for simulated casualty drills and the other two to watch. After the drills were over, they would all come to the wardroom together to debrief the drills. This process would be repeated usually twice per day (a morning set of drills and an afternoon set of drills). Then, the rock stars would huddle in the wardroom together again in the evenings for ORSE EOOW training.
Anyway, the reason I tell you all this was because the ORSE EOOWs had a theme song.
Those of you who are bubbleheads already get it. For those of you who aren't, I'll explain.
The room where the EOOW stands watch giving orders to the watchstanders in the engine room is officially called "Maneuvering," but the unofficial slang term for it is, "The Box." Hence, the EOOW on watch for drills was, "The Man in the Box." Get it?
Fast forward 13 years to my new job in DC. Last week, I finally got to say those magic three words, "I relieve you," followed shortly by, "now get the hell outta my chair so I can get to work." My predecessor was still around for the rest of the week working on his transfer package and checking out of the command, so he was still around and I could ask him questions about things that came up to make sure I was doing it right.
Now he's gone.
It's all me.
As I got off the bus Monday morning and started walking to MY office, I suddenly got that old theme song running through my head...
BOMP
BOMP - BOMP
BOMPBOMP
BOMP - BOMP
BOMPBOMP
BOMP - BOMP
BOMPBOMP
BOMP - BOMP
IIIIIIIIIIIIIII'm the maaaaaaaan, in the BOX!
Reminds me of the advice my predecessor as a department head gave me before he left. "YOU ARE the adult supervision. Don't assume anyone else is going to do anything. YOU'RE driving the bus, man."
So what about you? Do you have a theme song? I know at least one of you who does, and it's become a new teleportation song for me. I'll write about that some other time though.
Back when I was a JO, boats got to choose who would stand Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW) during the ORSE (Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination). The result was, naturally, that boats would try to stack-the-deck with their best watch officers. On my use-ta-fish, we called the ORSE EOOWs the "Rock Stars." During the weeks leading up to the ORSE, the three ORSE EOOWs would be running forward and aft like a rock band with a group of roadies in red drill hats following them wherever they went. They would all go to the engine room together - one to stand the watch for simulated casualty drills and the other two to watch. After the drills were over, they would all come to the wardroom together to debrief the drills. This process would be repeated usually twice per day (a morning set of drills and an afternoon set of drills). Then, the rock stars would huddle in the wardroom together again in the evenings for ORSE EOOW training.
Anyway, the reason I tell you all this was because the ORSE EOOWs had a theme song.
"Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains.
Those of you who are bubbleheads already get it. For those of you who aren't, I'll explain.
The room where the EOOW stands watch giving orders to the watchstanders in the engine room is officially called "Maneuvering," but the unofficial slang term for it is, "The Box." Hence, the EOOW on watch for drills was, "The Man in the Box." Get it?
Fast forward 13 years to my new job in DC. Last week, I finally got to say those magic three words, "I relieve you," followed shortly by, "now get the hell outta my chair so I can get to work." My predecessor was still around for the rest of the week working on his transfer package and checking out of the command, so he was still around and I could ask him questions about things that came up to make sure I was doing it right.
Now he's gone.
It's all me.
As I got off the bus Monday morning and started walking to MY office, I suddenly got that old theme song running through my head...
BOMP
BOMP - BOMP
BOMPBOMP
BOMP - BOMP
BOMPBOMP
BOMP - BOMP
BOMPBOMP
BOMP - BOMP
IIIIIIIIIIIIIII'm the maaaaaaaan, in the BOX!
Reminds me of the advice my predecessor as a department head gave me before he left. "YOU ARE the adult supervision. Don't assume anyone else is going to do anything. YOU'RE driving the bus, man."
So what about you? Do you have a theme song? I know at least one of you who does, and it's become a new teleportation song for me. I'll write about that some other time though.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Ahhhh, sweet Georgia...
I had a double-whammy flashback experience at the NEX on Sunday.
First, teleportation song "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado came on the overhead speakers, and suddenly my mind flashed back to January 2007 in Rota, Spain, driving that teeny-tiny little rental car back and forth between the BOQ and the boat. It seemed to me they played that song on the radio there about once an hour at least.
Then, as we finished our shopping excursion through the NEX, we were all feeling parched, so we stopped in the package store on our way back out to the car to get something to drink. LW found a new canned ice coffee drink that was labeled as a Caribou Coffee drink. I read the fine print on the label and saw that it was a Coca-Cola product and started getting excited.
You see, back during my three trips to Westpac (Western Pacific), I developed an addiction to Georgia iced coffee. It's made by the Coca-Cola corporation, but only sold overseas. According to wikipedia, it's the highest grossing coffee beverage in Japan.
Every time we had a port call, I would buy at least a case of the stuff and stash it in my stateroom. Before we left Westpac in 2003, I stocked up with as much as I could bring home in my stateroom. It actually lasted me through the transit and about a month or so after we returned home from deployment, then I started going through withdrawal.
Starbucks had the Double Shot things, which taste pretty good, but would have driven me bankrupt in a week if I had continued my Georgia consumption rate. When I bought Georgia by the case, it came out to something like 30 cents per can, whereas the Starbucks Double Shot was absolutely ridiculous at over $2 bucks per can.
I've missed Georgia ever since. That's why I got so excited when we found this new ice coffee beverage in a can that was made by Coca-Cola. I had to try some.
[Cue Sound Effect: Angelic Choir singing Hallelujah!]
It was really good - pretty much exactly like Georgia. My only complaint was with the weird shaped aluminum can with the screw top, there was a weird metallic taste from the bottle neck. It'd probably be better if I poured it out into a cup.
Price wise, it still wasn't as affordable as Georgia, but it was a heckuva lot better than the Starbucks stuff. Hmmm... I wonder if I can buy the stuff at Costco in bulk???
BT BT
Yes, yes, I know... FIVE blog posts in ONE day??? I started off writing a "Weekend Recap" type of blog post like I have done before. Then I decided to break it up into different blog posts by topic. I find it's easier for me when I link back to previous blog posts to have the blog post be a little bit better confined to one topic. Besides, I was so busy with mortgage applications and filling out the HHG shipment application during the week that I didn't blog for several days.
First, teleportation song "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado came on the overhead speakers, and suddenly my mind flashed back to January 2007 in Rota, Spain, driving that teeny-tiny little rental car back and forth between the BOQ and the boat. It seemed to me they played that song on the radio there about once an hour at least.
Then, as we finished our shopping excursion through the NEX, we were all feeling parched, so we stopped in the package store on our way back out to the car to get something to drink. LW found a new canned ice coffee drink that was labeled as a Caribou Coffee drink. I read the fine print on the label and saw that it was a Coca-Cola product and started getting excited.You see, back during my three trips to Westpac (Western Pacific), I developed an addiction to Georgia iced coffee. It's made by the Coca-Cola corporation, but only sold overseas. According to wikipedia, it's the highest grossing coffee beverage in Japan.
Every time we had a port call, I would buy at least a case of the stuff and stash it in my stateroom. Before we left Westpac in 2003, I stocked up with as much as I could bring home in my stateroom. It actually lasted me through the transit and about a month or so after we returned home from deployment, then I started going through withdrawal.
Starbucks had the Double Shot things, which taste pretty good, but would have driven me bankrupt in a week if I had continued my Georgia consumption rate. When I bought Georgia by the case, it came out to something like 30 cents per can, whereas the Starbucks Double Shot was absolutely ridiculous at over $2 bucks per can.
I've missed Georgia ever since. That's why I got so excited when we found this new ice coffee beverage in a can that was made by Coca-Cola. I had to try some.
[Cue Sound Effect: Angelic Choir singing Hallelujah!]
It was really good - pretty much exactly like Georgia. My only complaint was with the weird shaped aluminum can with the screw top, there was a weird metallic taste from the bottle neck. It'd probably be better if I poured it out into a cup.
Price wise, it still wasn't as affordable as Georgia, but it was a heckuva lot better than the Starbucks stuff. Hmmm... I wonder if I can buy the stuff at Costco in bulk???
BT BT
Yes, yes, I know... FIVE blog posts in ONE day??? I started off writing a "Weekend Recap" type of blog post like I have done before. Then I decided to break it up into different blog posts by topic. I find it's easier for me when I link back to previous blog posts to have the blog post be a little bit better confined to one topic. Besides, I was so busy with mortgage applications and filling out the HHG shipment application during the week that I didn't blog for several days.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Blog round-up odds and ends
Seriously:
Congratulations to Nereus on his retirement after completing 20 years of service in the Navy!
Thanks to fastnav for pointing this Navy SEAL Memorial service out. I got pretty choked up watching it.
Not-so-serious stuff:
DadGoneMad has been on vacation this week, but he invited several guest bloggers to post in his absence. Most have been pretty funny, but this one was my favorite and had me in stitches. Here's an excerpt:
If you're a fan of Dancing Matt, you should check out his blog. Scroll down to his July 5th entry and check out the spoof video someone made of his Dancing Matt videos. WARNING: It's not suitable for children due to sexual content (no nudity) - hence I'm not actually posting the video directly into my blog here.
Another Teleportation Song came to mind recently. I forget where I heard it, but it was just in the past couple of days that Dancing Queen by ABBA broached the threshold of my consciousness. Suddenly, my mind flashed back to the Hard Rock Cafe in Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates. It was during our 1998 deployment before Usama Bin Laden's terrorist threats started severely imposing on our port call liberty. We used to all go to the Hard Rock all the time. Back then it was the closest thing outside the confines of the port facility that didn't require driving all the way to Dubai, but I hear they've really built up the area a lot since I was there over 10 years ago. Anyway, there was this Canadian band that called themselves Cinema and played a lot of cover songs. One of their favorites was Dancing Queen, and the two female vocalists in the band sang it with such a resonance in their voices, it was just mesmerizing.
Speaking of that 1998 deployment, thanks to RM1 for bringing back not-so-fond memories of that halfway night.
Congratulations to Nereus on his retirement after completing 20 years of service in the Navy!
Thanks to fastnav for pointing this Navy SEAL Memorial service out. I got pretty choked up watching it.
Not-so-serious stuff:
DadGoneMad has been on vacation this week, but he invited several guest bloggers to post in his absence. Most have been pretty funny, but this one was my favorite and had me in stitches. Here's an excerpt:
If you thought that was funny, then keep reading because it gets better from there. The little girl's explanation of anatomy to the grocery store cashier is priceless.The first time I tried to teach Emmeline to use the toilet by herself, she insisted on using mine -- not the fancy blue bucket with a shiny white seat but the big standard adult kind that could have swallowed her whole with its gaping porcelain maw. But I figured if she was eventually going to graduate to a real toilet anyway, she might as well start as soon as she can. And this way seemed to involve less cleaning. With my back turned as I arranged her pile of clothes on the floor, I heard her mumble something about "pee like daddy," and I assumed she just excited about using my big toilet. I turned around to see her standing up proudly, hands on her hips, spraying the base with a wild fountain of urine.
She shouted gleefully, "Emme's peeing like daddy!"
"Well, kinda," my wife shrugged later, "But her aim is better."
If you're a fan of Dancing Matt, you should check out his blog. Scroll down to his July 5th entry and check out the spoof video someone made of his Dancing Matt videos. WARNING: It's not suitable for children due to sexual content (no nudity) - hence I'm not actually posting the video directly into my blog here.
Another Teleportation Song came to mind recently. I forget where I heard it, but it was just in the past couple of days that Dancing Queen by ABBA broached the threshold of my consciousness. Suddenly, my mind flashed back to the Hard Rock Cafe in Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates. It was during our 1998 deployment before Usama Bin Laden's terrorist threats started severely imposing on our port call liberty. We used to all go to the Hard Rock all the time. Back then it was the closest thing outside the confines of the port facility that didn't require driving all the way to Dubai, but I hear they've really built up the area a lot since I was there over 10 years ago. Anyway, there was this Canadian band that called themselves Cinema and played a lot of cover songs. One of their favorites was Dancing Queen, and the two female vocalists in the band sang it with such a resonance in their voices, it was just mesmerizing.
Speaking of that 1998 deployment, thanks to RM1 for bringing back not-so-fond memories of that halfway night.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Things we missed on vacation...
Things we missed while we were on vacation... (in no particular order of importance).
- KLOVE. Riding in the car yesterday, it was so refreshing to have KLOVE on the radio again. One of the first songs I heard in the car on the way to go scuba diving was Mercy Me "Here with Me." KLOVE was on a roll yesterday and just kept playing one song after another that made me want to turn the volume up on my radio.
- Spicy toothpaste. Normally, at home, YB uses a training toothpaste and ES uses regular toothpaste. While we were on vacation, we just used ES's tube of regular toothpaste. YB called it the "spicy toothpaste" and took a big slurp of water after each brush past his teeth. Wednesday night getting the boys ready for bed, YB was SO excited to have HIS toothpaste back and not use the "spicy toothpaste" anymore.
- Traffic on H-1 and Kam Highway. Oh wait... no, I didn't miss that. In fact, I totally forgot about it and didn't take it into consideration at all when buying our plane tickets home. In other words, I didn't think about the fact that if our plane landed at 4:30, then it was going to take us like an hour to drive home in the rush hour traffic.
- The Neighborhood Kids. Man... when we drove down our street, it was like a ghost town. I half expected to see a tumble-weed go barreling across our driveway as we pulled up to our house. Human reflexes could not push the buttons on a stopwatch fast enough to measure the time in between me putting the car in park and the doors flying open and the boys' feet hitting the ground. They ran across the street and started ringing the doorbells. It was as if there had been some sort of large-scale game of hide-n-go-seek, and they just announced "olly-olly-oxen-free" on a bull-horn. The kids came out of the woodwork. Within moments our front yards were total chaos with screaming playing children running in and out of our house and the house across the street.
Aside: I've reached a new phase in life. I have un-learned the conditioned response of going to the door when the doorbell rings. I was telling LW the other day that I think it would be interesting to hook up a monitoring device that would measure how often and how many times per day our doorbell rings. I doubt it's anything less than a dozen times a day, and it's never for me or LW. LW chastises me for not even getting out of my chair when the doorbell rings. I just figure why bother? We live in Navy housing with a gate guard controlling access (well... as long as you smile and wave and look like you belong , you're good to go, right?). On those rare occasions it's not for the boys, then they tell us. Then I'll get off my butt and go to the door.
Anyway, returning to my original line of thought...
- DVR. If we ever go on a trip longer than a few days, we definitely need to bring DVD's of the boys' favorite shows off the DVR. They're so used to just picking up the remote control and turning on their favorite shows whenever they want. Every time we walked into our hotel room on vacation, they would turn the TV on and say, "I want to watch ________" and we would have to explain to them that ________ wasn't ON at that particular day and time. They just didn't get that. "Why noooooot? Just use the remote!"
- Now LW and I are catching up on our favorite shows that recorded while we were gone. LW was just watching Dancing with the Stars and I had a total flashback...
Teleportation Song: Kylie Minogue "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Suddenly, I'm back on deployment in Westpac, in a dance club in Brisbane, Australia. Most of the wardroom and chiefs' quarters are there and wearing our summer whites because we were invited out to this welcome to Australia social function. Some gorgeous blond Australian girl got the Eng and I to make fools of ourselves dancing up on one of those raised platforms in the middle of the dance floor. (We were just a novelty to draw attention to her - her boyfriend stayed close by watching us like hawks). I think the rest of the town heard all the U.S. Navy guys were going to THIS dance club and decided to join us. It was PACKED. I don't think any of us could have bought a drink that night. It was like we were celebrities!
- Crocs. Another one bites the dust... We were in one of the souvenir shops in Maui and saw these cute little decorative pins that are designed to poke into the holes of Crocs. The boys thought they were really cool and wanted to get some. Keep in mind at this point only YB had Crocs. So after we got back home, LW now had to take ES to get his very own pair of Crocs so that he could attach his new decorative pins to them. Take a wild guess what color Crocs ES picked out. Those of you who know him know that his favorite colors are yellow and orange.
Here he is in his new outfit (he wasn't cooperating with my requests for him to get dressed until I asked if he wanted to wear his new shirt from Maui).
ES in his new Maui T-shirt and Crocs.
This is the gecko pin ES chose for his Crocs.
(He picked out a yellow gecko of course...)
- KLOVE. Riding in the car yesterday, it was so refreshing to have KLOVE on the radio again. One of the first songs I heard in the car on the way to go scuba diving was Mercy Me "Here with Me." KLOVE was on a roll yesterday and just kept playing one song after another that made me want to turn the volume up on my radio.
- Spicy toothpaste. Normally, at home, YB uses a training toothpaste and ES uses regular toothpaste. While we were on vacation, we just used ES's tube of regular toothpaste. YB called it the "spicy toothpaste" and took a big slurp of water after each brush past his teeth. Wednesday night getting the boys ready for bed, YB was SO excited to have HIS toothpaste back and not use the "spicy toothpaste" anymore.
- Traffic on H-1 and Kam Highway. Oh wait... no, I didn't miss that. In fact, I totally forgot about it and didn't take it into consideration at all when buying our plane tickets home. In other words, I didn't think about the fact that if our plane landed at 4:30, then it was going to take us like an hour to drive home in the rush hour traffic.
- The Neighborhood Kids. Man... when we drove down our street, it was like a ghost town. I half expected to see a tumble-weed go barreling across our driveway as we pulled up to our house. Human reflexes could not push the buttons on a stopwatch fast enough to measure the time in between me putting the car in park and the doors flying open and the boys' feet hitting the ground. They ran across the street and started ringing the doorbells. It was as if there had been some sort of large-scale game of hide-n-go-seek, and they just announced "olly-olly-oxen-free" on a bull-horn. The kids came out of the woodwork. Within moments our front yards were total chaos with screaming playing children running in and out of our house and the house across the street.
Aside: I've reached a new phase in life. I have un-learned the conditioned response of going to the door when the doorbell rings. I was telling LW the other day that I think it would be interesting to hook up a monitoring device that would measure how often and how many times per day our doorbell rings. I doubt it's anything less than a dozen times a day, and it's never for me or LW. LW chastises me for not even getting out of my chair when the doorbell rings. I just figure why bother? We live in Navy housing with a gate guard controlling access (well... as long as you smile and wave and look like you belong , you're good to go, right?). On those rare occasions it's not for the boys, then they tell us. Then I'll get off my butt and go to the door.
Anyway, returning to my original line of thought...
- DVR. If we ever go on a trip longer than a few days, we definitely need to bring DVD's of the boys' favorite shows off the DVR. They're so used to just picking up the remote control and turning on their favorite shows whenever they want. Every time we walked into our hotel room on vacation, they would turn the TV on and say, "I want to watch ________" and we would have to explain to them that ________ wasn't ON at that particular day and time. They just didn't get that. "Why noooooot? Just use the remote!"
- Now LW and I are catching up on our favorite shows that recorded while we were gone. LW was just watching Dancing with the Stars and I had a total flashback...
Teleportation Song: Kylie Minogue "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Suddenly, I'm back on deployment in Westpac, in a dance club in Brisbane, Australia. Most of the wardroom and chiefs' quarters are there and wearing our summer whites because we were invited out to this welcome to Australia social function. Some gorgeous blond Australian girl got the Eng and I to make fools of ourselves dancing up on one of those raised platforms in the middle of the dance floor. (We were just a novelty to draw attention to her - her boyfriend stayed close by watching us like hawks). I think the rest of the town heard all the U.S. Navy guys were going to THIS dance club and decided to join us. It was PACKED. I don't think any of us could have bought a drink that night. It was like we were celebrities!
- Crocs. Another one bites the dust... We were in one of the souvenir shops in Maui and saw these cute little decorative pins that are designed to poke into the holes of Crocs. The boys thought they were really cool and wanted to get some. Keep in mind at this point only YB had Crocs. So after we got back home, LW now had to take ES to get his very own pair of Crocs so that he could attach his new decorative pins to them. Take a wild guess what color Crocs ES picked out. Those of you who know him know that his favorite colors are yellow and orange.
Here he is in his new outfit (he wasn't cooperating with my requests for him to get dressed until I asked if he wanted to wear his new shirt from Maui).
ES in his new Maui T-shirt and Crocs.
This is the gecko pin ES chose for his Crocs.(He picked out a yellow gecko of course...)
p.s. I went back and added a few photos to my last post from one of the other guys that went scuba diving with us yesterday.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Teleportation Songs
What are your teleportation songs? You know... Those songs that when you hear them, your mind instantly jumps to another time and place. It's like hearing that song opens up a wormhole and you travel back through time to a previous episode of your life. You may not even be able to sit and pick them out of your brain. You may not even realize that the link exists in your memory until you hear the song come on the radio.
What made me think of it was the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis, mentioned on Sam's blog. That song instantly takes me to Groton, Connecticut and the beginning of my JO tour. It's autumn. The leaves are beautiful shades of orange and red and yellow, and they swirl up behind my car as I drive the curved roads through Mystic. There's a bite in the air as the chill of winter approaches. After growing up in summertime year round in San Diego, I absolutely loved the changing seasons in New England. That's a feel-good, happy link for me.
The most recent song to burn a permanent teleportation link my memory was "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado. Gosh, I can't believe it hasn't even been a year since the accident yet. It seems like so very long ago because so much has happened since then. But when I hear that song, I'm suddenly in Rota, Spain, and the visions and sensations flood my memory like it was yesterday. We spent three emotional weeks languishing in Rota in January 2007 while the JAGMAN and Safety Investigations were conducted for the accident that claimed the lives of two MSP sailors on December 29th. Yes, I was on board the MSP that day. I had just reported aboard. It was my first underway, so I had no official duties and was just an observer during that maneuvering watch. I felt helplessly terrified to watch it all happen with my own eyes and totally powerless to stop it. (Random aside comment: Isn't it odd how when you wake up on the morning of the worst day of your life, you have NO idea that it's going to be the worst day of your life? You'd think you would feel some sort of premonition that something was about to go terribly wrong and change your life forever). In any case, the AFRS radio station in Rota played that Nelly Furtado song at least once an hour, so every time I got in my little teenie-tiny rental car to go out to dinner or back to my BOQ room, that song was always there.
I hope I'm not opening a can-of-worms by bringing up the MSP accident. I had to stop reading bubblehead's blog for a while after the accident. It took a lot of self-restraint not to lash out at some of the people who posted comments there. Neither lashing out at them nor repressing my urge to lash out at them were going to help bring the episode to closure, so I had to just stop reading the comments and focus my energies elsewhere.
Wow. What a tangent, eh? When I sat down to start writing this blog post, I had no idea where it would take me. So, getting back to my original topic... I know there are other songs out there that have strong memory-links for me - some good, some bad... It's hard to just think of them without the link being activated by actually hearing the song (or reading the name of the song in someone else's blog as the case may be).
What made me think of it was the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis, mentioned on Sam's blog. That song instantly takes me to Groton, Connecticut and the beginning of my JO tour. It's autumn. The leaves are beautiful shades of orange and red and yellow, and they swirl up behind my car as I drive the curved roads through Mystic. There's a bite in the air as the chill of winter approaches. After growing up in summertime year round in San Diego, I absolutely loved the changing seasons in New England. That's a feel-good, happy link for me.
The most recent song to burn a permanent teleportation link my memory was "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado. Gosh, I can't believe it hasn't even been a year since the accident yet. It seems like so very long ago because so much has happened since then. But when I hear that song, I'm suddenly in Rota, Spain, and the visions and sensations flood my memory like it was yesterday. We spent three emotional weeks languishing in Rota in January 2007 while the JAGMAN and Safety Investigations were conducted for the accident that claimed the lives of two MSP sailors on December 29th. Yes, I was on board the MSP that day. I had just reported aboard. It was my first underway, so I had no official duties and was just an observer during that maneuvering watch. I felt helplessly terrified to watch it all happen with my own eyes and totally powerless to stop it. (Random aside comment: Isn't it odd how when you wake up on the morning of the worst day of your life, you have NO idea that it's going to be the worst day of your life? You'd think you would feel some sort of premonition that something was about to go terribly wrong and change your life forever). In any case, the AFRS radio station in Rota played that Nelly Furtado song at least once an hour, so every time I got in my little teenie-tiny rental car to go out to dinner or back to my BOQ room, that song was always there.
I hope I'm not opening a can-of-worms by bringing up the MSP accident. I had to stop reading bubblehead's blog for a while after the accident. It took a lot of self-restraint not to lash out at some of the people who posted comments there. Neither lashing out at them nor repressing my urge to lash out at them were going to help bring the episode to closure, so I had to just stop reading the comments and focus my energies elsewhere.
Wow. What a tangent, eh? When I sat down to start writing this blog post, I had no idea where it would take me. So, getting back to my original topic... I know there are other songs out there that have strong memory-links for me - some good, some bad... It's hard to just think of them without the link being activated by actually hearing the song (or reading the name of the song in someone else's blog as the case may be).
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