Friday, May 15, 2009

 

Haiku Friday: Songs and Places


This is where I lived my third year of law school-- 43 Sound View Ave. in Madison, Connecticut. It was probably the most beautiful house I will ever inhabit. We had about an acre of land right on Long Island Sound, with a little beach next door and those big rocks jutting out into the ocean. Every night I fell asleep to the sound of the ocean, and would walk on the beach at dusk.

On Friday nights, we often had big dinner parties, and would invite our friends out from New Haven. We'd dance. But that came long after the food (bluefish from the Sound, or duck, or once, lobster, always with salads and fresh bread) and the wine and the laughter.

The last weekend before graduation, about this time of year, we had the biggest party of all. People brought their thesis papers and we burned them in a bonfire near the beach and sang a thesis-burning song we made up. Everyone stayed very very late, and in those late hours we were listening to this song:


It was just the right song, at just the right time. We danced with our friends, not lovers, people we had shared something wonderful with-- thrown together, everyone feeling like the admission department's mistake, then left to read and to talk about important things and to learn from brilliant, eccentric men and women. We didn't have grades, really, but we worked hard because to not have an answer in class would show that someone did not belong, and might not fulfill their mission of fate in a world hungry for change and passion, a world that needed us (and needs you).

We would change partners every song. At this point, the woman I was dancing with (a willowy philosopher) said, "that's what this is-- this is Avalon." And she was right, of course. That song is marked by that beautiful place, that one perfect moment of celebration, and each time I hear it I go there.

So today, let's haiku about places and the songs that remind us of those places:

I hear that song, it's
Where the samba takes me
Avalon, the coast.

Now, you go...

Comments:
In car. Hear George Strait.
Deep in the heart of Texas.
Long for life what was.
 
Very first CD
In my first car stereo
GONNA MAKE YOU SWEAT!
 
Osler's description,
Yale Law School, life on a beach,
Sounds just like Waco.
 
Osler's friends back then--
The clerks, the commissioners
And The Falconer.

There is always a falconer.
 
Cannot figure out,
Who's going to drive me home,
Tonight or any night.
 
Love The Falconer
As long as it is Will Farr'l
I cry "More cowbell!"
 
Party singalongs.
Wonderwall and Mr. Jones.
Tiny Dancer too.
 
"Hello I Love You"
Summer Camp in Sixty Eight
First Rock Song I knew
 
There are two:

Out through the window,
into the deep Texas night.
Life is a Highway.

As he watched me go,
Don't ya love her madly? But,
not nearly enough.
 
NB: The swedish band Falconer is awesome.

Cool ash pine, wood smoke
"This Will Destroy You" floats on
Snowboarding, my youth
 
Driving t'ward a cliff,
Hundred lawyers in a bus.
Good start, some would say.
 
PS: It's just a joke. Chill, people.

PPS: In fairness, I'll tell another...

"I once met a tenor who was so stupid, the other tenors NOTICED!"
 
I said, what-about
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, She
said I remember . . .

Whenever this song came on, my entire fraternity would go completely nuts. We would jump around, beer would be spilled, and it was glorious.

Less glorious, replacing the D.J.’s speakers.

Also popular were Brown Eyed Girl and Blister in the Sun.
 
Dylan, Mellencamp
and Willie Nelson sing in
Durham this summer
 
The frogs croak loudly
Carolina on my mind
I need earplugs, help!
 
Three Times a Lady
Learning to waltz in high school.
Last time a waltz was

Popular, it was
Nineteen-seventy-nine.

************

Time and place combined:
Girl from Ipanema, or
Getz/Gilberto lure . . .
 
I Will Be Your Beast
of Burden . . . in a car to
DC, freshman year

Our hip professors
Driving, beer in a brown bag
I had no idea

What was so cool
About the Stones . . .
So much life to live.
 
When Van Morrison
sings Tupelo Honey it
always takes me back.


You can take all the tea in china
Put it in a big brown bag for me
Sail it right around the seven oceans
Drop it smack dab in the middle of the deep blue sea
Because shes as sweet as tupelo honey
Shes an angel of the first degree
Shes as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee


Have no idea STILL what the hell that song means but I am instantly transported whenever I hear it. I go to some place that is in a different time, where I did not know so many things, mostly that it was okay to not know them.
 
Also: Blister in
the Sun! Played REPEATEDLY
to annoy my mom.

No clue about that one either but the words are funny:

"big hands I know you're the one..."

?????????????????????????/
 
The best band ever,
Reminds me of how to live:
Singing "Let It Be" ...
 
Mom drove us to camp
blasting Nirvana, and we
kind of stood out then.
 
Metaphors Tyd...

Down here in the SOUTH people keep bees and honey from the blossoms of the Tupelo Tree is quite nice.

I'm not going to explain the song to you - you'll have to use your own imagination for that.
 
REALLLLLLY????

GAWD.

I am 44 going on 12.

Seriously I mean It just reminds me of summer camp... nothing else...

?????????

REALLLY??????

But then a few years ago I was also shocked to learn that the song about "I've got a brand new pair of roller skates" was NOT really just about ROLLER SKATES.

eww.
 
LOL Tyd
 
PS--never told you this, but my best friend Ross...you're pretty much just him in about 20 years.
 
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