The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.
When I Have a 50th Birthday in July, God Willing, I Might Host a Celebration
When I turned 35, I hosted a party in our backyard and haven't hosted a birthday party since then, as my wife Pat never wanted one for any of her big birthdays. It seems appropriate to celebrate this upcoming milestone, which I hope, God willing, to be healthy for.
Right now, I'm having some scary health challenges, where I might have nothing wrong, or I might, God forbid, have cancer in my cervix, my endometrium and my breasts, and I won't know more until mid-December, so I keep trying to distract myself with work and Pat and cultural things like plays, the Rockettes and TV. Note added on December 29th and then again later: Am out of the woods, that is, the polyps in my cervix and endometrium are no longer there and they are benign. And had a breast aspirated in mid-January and that turned out fine, too, thank God.
Yesterday morning, I thought, if I'm healthy, I must host a party for my 50th this summer, and if so, I want it to feature music that would keep me dancing practically the entire time. And I hope that most of the people I'd invite would be willing to do a lot of dancing, too.
If I do host a party, I want to blast these tunes from our back deck and have family and friends spill out beyond the deck into the yard for dancing:
A few songs from my earliest years:
The rest are faves from my older sisters' records and then what I loved from the radio:
Showing posts with label music from college days. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music from college days. Show all posts
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Same As It Ever Was
The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.
...Only More Satisfying
Last week, while Pat & I were vacationing in Alaska, our niece Zoe started her first year of college. In these days of Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry and Fountains of Wayne, may she find life-long friends and suffer minimal turbulence while living apart from her parents and brothers for the first, real time. Zoe's milestone vividly takes me back to the days of Talking Heads, Madonna, Al Jarreau and Laurie Anderson, i.e., my freshman year, especially because Pat & I ended our trip with a couple of days of vacationing in Vancouver with two of the first friends I made in college.
Lisa, Marni and Sarah at the Vancouver Public Library
When I began college 28 years ago, I couldn't imagine affording an Alaskan vacation, nor that I would wed a woman. Still, as extraordinary as both events would have been to my 18-year-old mind, not so much about me has changed since then, other than seeming more relaxed. Lisa and Marni confirmed this for me. They're right. I am more at ease, since revealing a number of secrets.
The review of Wendy Wasserstein's biography that I read in last Sunday's "New York Times" reminded me of openness vs. secrets. As a sophomore, during a Women's Studies course, I read Wendy Wasserstein's play, "Uncommon Women and Others." The play focused on a post-college reunion by a group of female college friends.
As I read it, I found it comforting to see their post-grad development combined with effectively muscle-memory conversations with one another, as though they had never parted company. When I read the NYT review, the critic honed in on how, for all her wide-open writing, Wendy Wasserstein was a pretty secretive person when it came to her own life, e.g., not telling people that she was dying, plus some other earlier family secrets.
Don't many of us try to keep secrets? In college, mine were that I was more attracted to women than men; had an eating disorder, where I binged whenever I could; and also a number of family secrets that were my family's to tell, not mine. It never occurred to me that my friends probably had their respective collections of secrets as well.
Who knows what Zoe's secrets are? Or her friends'. I just pray that she can have the same warm, funny, challenging, healing, fun, earnest, sad, buoyant, hopeful time as Wendy Wasserstein's characters, Marni, Lisa and I had when she reunites with friends post-college.
...Only More Satisfying
Last week, while Pat & I were vacationing in Alaska, our niece Zoe started her first year of college. In these days of Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry and Fountains of Wayne, may she find life-long friends and suffer minimal turbulence while living apart from her parents and brothers for the first, real time. Zoe's milestone vividly takes me back to the days of Talking Heads, Madonna, Al Jarreau and Laurie Anderson, i.e., my freshman year, especially because Pat & I ended our trip with a couple of days of vacationing in Vancouver with two of the first friends I made in college.
When I began college 28 years ago, I couldn't imagine affording an Alaskan vacation, nor that I would wed a woman. Still, as extraordinary as both events would have been to my 18-year-old mind, not so much about me has changed since then, other than seeming more relaxed. Lisa and Marni confirmed this for me. They're right. I am more at ease, since revealing a number of secrets.
The review of Wendy Wasserstein's biography that I read in last Sunday's "New York Times" reminded me of openness vs. secrets. As a sophomore, during a Women's Studies course, I read Wendy Wasserstein's play, "Uncommon Women and Others." The play focused on a post-college reunion by a group of female college friends.
As I read it, I found it comforting to see their post-grad development combined with effectively muscle-memory conversations with one another, as though they had never parted company. When I read the NYT review, the critic honed in on how, for all her wide-open writing, Wendy Wasserstein was a pretty secretive person when it came to her own life, e.g., not telling people that she was dying, plus some other earlier family secrets.
Don't many of us try to keep secrets? In college, mine were that I was more attracted to women than men; had an eating disorder, where I binged whenever I could; and also a number of family secrets that were my family's to tell, not mine. It never occurred to me that my friends probably had their respective collections of secrets as well.
Who knows what Zoe's secrets are? Or her friends'. I just pray that she can have the same warm, funny, challenging, healing, fun, earnest, sad, buoyant, hopeful time as Wendy Wasserstein's characters, Marni, Lisa and I had when she reunites with friends post-college.
Friday, February 4, 2011
College Playlist
The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
Selected Songs that Moved Me When I Lived in Ann Arbor, Jerusalem and Chicago, '83-'87
1983:
Let's Dance
All Night Long
1984:
Owner of a Lonely Heart
Let's Hear It for the Boy
What's Love Got to Do Have to Do with It
1985:
I Want to Know What Love Is
Crazy for You
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Shout
Oh Sheila
Take On Me
We Built This City
Broken Wings
1986:
Kyrie
Rock Me Amadeus
Holding Back the Years
Higher Love
Venus
When I Think of You
Breakout
1987:
Head to Toe
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Who's That Girl
Lost in Emotion
What Have I Done to Deserve This
When Smokey Sings
Don't Disturb This Groove
Selected Songs that Moved Me When I Lived in Ann Arbor, Jerusalem and Chicago, '83-'87
1983:
Let's Dance
All Night Long
1984:
Owner of a Lonely Heart
Let's Hear It for the Boy
What's Love Got to Do Have to Do with It
1985:
I Want to Know What Love Is
Crazy for You
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Shout
Oh Sheila
Take On Me
We Built This City
Broken Wings
1986:
Kyrie
Rock Me Amadeus
Holding Back the Years
Higher Love
Venus
When I Think of You
Breakout
1987:
Head to Toe
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Who's That Girl
Lost in Emotion
What Have I Done to Deserve This
When Smokey Sings
Don't Disturb This Groove
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