stardust

Equals parts ragtime-era sap and Neruda-esque imagery, probably the only song I can feel classy enough requesting from an old school piano player. (I've met two in my life, both in New Orleans, each time with an head lift of "oh yes, I know it" and then a nod of "nice choice, young man")

wikipedia entry under Legacy :

'"Stardust" is one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, with over 1,800 recordings, perhaps the last popular version by Spanky and Our Gang in 1968. In 1956, a nationwide Billboard survey of disc jockeys showed that their number one favorite of all time was the Artie Shaw (1941) recording of Stardust. In 1999, Stardust was included in the "NPR 100",[3] in which National Public Radio sought to list the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century. In New Year 2000 the Swedish music reviewers voted it as "the tune of the century", with Kurt Weill's "Mack the Knife" as second. In 2004, Carmichael's original 1927 recording of the song was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.'

Lyrics:

And now the purple dusk of twilight time
Steals across the meadows of my heart
High up in the sky the little stars climb
Always reminding me that were apart
You wander down the lane and far away
Leaving me a song that will not die
Love is now the stardust
Of yesterday
The music
Of the years
Gone by

Chorus:

Sometimes I wonder why I spend
The lonely nights
Dreaming of a song.
The melody haunts my reverie
And I am once again with you.
When our love was new, and each kiss an inspiration.
But that was long ago, and now my consolation
Is in the stardust of a song.
Beside the garden wall, when stars are bright
You are in my arms
The nightingale tells his fairy tale
Of paradise where roses grew.
Though I dream in vain, in my heart you will remain
My stardust melody
The memory of loves refrain.

If Bret can post about his love of The Sound of Music, I can about this... 

:doug @ 8:13 PM

the twenties

72,000 cigarettes
2,000 introductions
100 first kisses
30 women
10 apartments
9 roommates
8 good friends
7 employments
6 vacations
5 funerals
4 weddings
3 careers
2 cars
1 home

one love of my life 

:doug @ 10:48 PM

overdue

In the completely opposite vein of my last post, I forgot to congratulate my older brother and, now, my future sister-in-law on getting engaged.

Diana and Jeff, all my best. 

:doug @ 7:18 PM

d-day

The other day I had a truly new and unique experience, one that reinforced a prevailing feeling I've been having - I played witness at one of my oldest friend's divorce proceedings.

There is some kind of generational stratosphere, different circles mostly determined by age, into which I categorize the people that I've known throughout my life. This friend, belonging to the 5 year span of the oldest I know, has always counted on me to deliver in awkward circumstances such as these.

What I remember from those few minutes I was being questioned is looking across the table at his now former spouse, someone I had known just about as long as my friend, and feeling the underwhelming banality. That these events happen every day, almost completely unnoticed. While the excitement of falling in love is well documented, and rightly so, the science and heartbreak of falling out of it seems reserved to Ryan Adams' lyrics.

Not that I'm complaining, it's good music...

What I came home with that day was a better feeling, the realization that there is no way in heaven or earth, that T and I will ever be sitting across from a long table in abject silence. 

:doug @ 10:32 PM

may i take your trident, sir?



I'd like to hug the casting agent and/or director who thought to put Steve Martin and Michael Caine on the same set. 

:doug @ 12:38 PM

i'll see your busey,...

... and raise you a keanu.

 

:doug @ 8:59 AM

the little things

Many people who know me know of my beverage problem. On my person can always be found something to drink - iced tea, fruit juice, ginger ale, water, etc. I am perpetually parched, the inherent drawback of smoking-induced cottonmouth perhaps or maybe a hypnotic suggestion planted during childhood. A special part of a Sunday afternoon tooling around town with T is when we can stop by a Donna's and I can get a large Italian soda to take onto our next string of errands. Finally that thirst can be slaked at home, thanks to the gift of this :



Beverage problem not "solved", definitely enabled. 

:doug @ 9:47 PM