Greetings From Planet Paula: Singin' in the rain...and the shower...and the sup...

Greetings From Planet Paula: Singin' in the rain...and the shower...and the sup...: 


Last week, one of my neighbors (smiling broadly) said "Boy, you really do love your music, don't you?" When I asked if it was too loud, he replied "No, but I really enjoyed your duet with James Brown." There is NO WAY I can hear James singing "I FEEL GOOD" without dropping everything and losing myself in the song. Right down to the very last ".....HEY!!"   


I should have been embarrassed but I wasn't. It wasn't the first time it happened...


One summer morning in 1957, I was outside playing with my friends when our new (and newlywed) neighbor stopped and said "So you like that new song by the Everly Brothers!" I looked at him questioningly, forgetting that our bathroom windows were side by side. He then said "I hear you singing it in the shower every night!" I turned as red as my little portable radio (forever by my side) as he laughed and walked away.


And I'm still singing, everywhere I go ~ I hear a Motown song and I am gone baby, singing AND dancing, supermarkets, laundromats, you name it. I can't help it, something just leaps in my soul and makes my feet happy. Most people smile in agreement (or think I'm nuts, but who cares?)


I always loved music so to be smack dab in the middle of the birth of rock & roll was really something special. I had a healthy respect for the Big Bands, jazz, and early 50s popular music (a bit treacly but okay for the moment) but the first time I heard "ONE-TWO-THREE O'CLOCK-FOUR O'CLOCK-ROCK..." I stopped in my tracks and said "What is this?? I LOVE it!" 


I credit my father for this love...we always had the kitchen radio tuned into WNEW-AM, so I was exposed to music early and intelligently. He wasn't thrilled when I defected to rock & roll but I took all of it with me and still love hearing any song from the 1930s-40s-50s and beyond. Songs are like memory markers that instantaneously recreate a time and place, they're little time machines!


Music is truly the background of our lives. Without it, and animals, this would be a dreary world indeed.


And now, put on your dancing shoes 'cause we're gonna DANCE!!! 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5TqIdff_DQ

Greetings From Planet Paula: Archaeological Discovery 2512...?

Greetings From Planet Paula: Archaeological Discovery 2512...?: I don't know about you, but ever since the hallowed V-pill came on the market, the sexual product commercials of America's legal drug deal...

Archaeological Discovery 2512...?

I don't know about you, but ever since the hallowed V-pill came on the market, the sexual product commercials of America's legal drug dealers are becoming increasingly stupid and (I'm sure) unintentionally hilarious.

I mean, come ON! Who the hell goes outside to sit in a bathtub and gaze at the sunset after their special moment? I have this vision of something terrible happening...maybe she gets out of the tub and breaks a hip, maybe he has an 'afterglow' heart attack, or maybe a natural disaster leaves them exactly where they are, to be discovered centuries later by delighted archaeologists who can't stop convulsing with laughter at this vision of ridiculousness...

Add to the above the never-ending commercials about erectile dysfunction, low testosterone, penile implants and every other formerly private matter, and I've turned into Archie Bunker:

"AH GEEZ.....can't you tawk about this in your bedroom?"

And now there is a splendid new product of which ONE DROP will transform her "special moment" into psychedelic sex (WOWWWW.....) and that reminds me of a song by the Rolling Stones. Here is the link, listen to the lyrics and figure it out for yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6fQWtojyTE&feature=related

When it comes to the possibility of "four-hour erections," I'll have to agree with Archie. I don't need those visions in my head, thanks anyway!

Greetings From Planet Paula: I'd rather be happy than right!

Greetings From Planet Paula: I'd rather be happy than right!: The title of this piece is taken from a song I fell in love with last summer by the great Michael Franks. The more I listened to it, the mor...

Greetings From Planet Paula: I'd rather be happy than right!

Greetings From Planet Paula: I'd rather be happy than right!

I'd rather be happy than right!

The title of this piece is taken from a song I fell in love with last summer by the great Michael Franks. The more I listened to it, the more I realized how right he was.

It opens with "When you meet someone who inspires your worst angry voice, just retreat ~ happiness is always a much better choice.."

Michael goes on to soothingly sing about how "insisting on the last word is quite overrated" and when people are "contra-bliss" it's best to just see where it's going and leave the conversation. Or the room. Or maybe even the relationship.

I've known people who invariably "inspired my worst angry voice" and consistently made me so unhappy, I was upset for days, weeks, even months at a time. But because I had a (very Italian) deep sense of 'family,' I tolerated it decades longer than I should have, always waiting for that moment of 'famiglia' that would never arrive. That it took me 60+ years for that to sink in speaks volumes about the thickness of my head (phonetically speaking, CAPO TOZZO!!)

And, in a sweet twist of irony, one of those very contra-bliss people gave me the advice I am now utilizing to its fullest extent. She told me that "people HATE to be ignored, it makes them feel invisible and unimportant in your life."

Yes, I would imagine it does, doesn't it...?

So, y'all can have the last word, because being happy is so much nicer than being right!

And here is a link to Michael's beautiful music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6wUrLFOlAc