Month: March 2010

Play me a song big boy…

Posted on by ilookmarvlus

I may finally be able to get a chance to perform my orignal blues song,”Booger Blues“. in public for the first time since 1980!  We’ve even written the first new verse in over twenty years.  Here’s how it goes, (no in your head you need to supply the the music, something bluesey, like dum dummm, dummm dummm, dummm…

One day I’s jes driven’ down an ole lonely road,
a workin’ my finger in a boogie load.
I picked and dug,
boogies snot what I gots.
dam boogies hard as ole bubble gum!

<Chorus> I got the booger blues, dem sweet green boogie blues,
I picked and dug but dat dam old boogies hard as ole bubble gum…

Saw the Doctor, man were’nt no fool
done invented a boogie picken tool!
Doctor tells me, says “you’ll be fine..
jes sabe dem boogies, make ya some boogie wine!”

<Chorus> I got the booger blues, dem sweet green boogie blues,
I picked and dug but dat dam old boogies hard as ole bubble gum…

Fill up dat bottle
wit a batch o’ wine
Slap on a label call it
Chateau de neuf Nez 1989….

BIG WORDS

Posted on by ilookmarvlus

I love words.  Take today, I was  listening to a replay of  Fresh Air on NPR.  The storyline was , “ I Pledge Allegiance To Linguistic Obfuscation“.  Obfuscation just happens to be one of my fav words, I dare not eschew it!  So when Geoff Nunberg used the term “hapas legomenon” I was had.   First, I had to figure out how to spell the dam thing, yes I know that I could have read the transcript, but what’s the fun in that!

Anyway it get’s better.   So then I have to  “Google” “hapas legomenon” and low and behold I find it had a full set of siblings, dis legomenon, tris legomenon, and tetrakis legomenon! A whole Legomenon clan, I almost started singing “Happy Happy Joy Joy!”  Now here comes the fun part, hold on now, this is really bizarre, you can’t actually have a “”hapas legomenon” in a story like this becuase when you use it more than once,  it’s no longer a “”hapas legomenon”!  In this case it’s become, ready, a “tetrakis legomenon”, can you say OMG?

Here’s some more fun with words, mulilingual words.  There is the tried and true Babelfish and more recently I’ve begun using Google’s Translate engine becuase there’s more languages and you can romanize the characters.  I so much fun to start an email thread in English, translate to Greek, Latvian, Kurdish, Chinese, Filipino and back to English and try to see if you can make out the original message.  Finally here’s an old fun spot, the Dialectizer at www. rinkworks.com.  This tool has been on the web for oh geeeee almost decade, but it’s still a blast.  You can translate entries and pages into Elmer Fudd, Redneck, Cockney Jive, Swedish Chef and more.

So untiw we next time stay safe, happy and witewate. As them siwwy watins used to say…Semper Ubi Sub Ubi!

Oh and a special thanks to my third grade teachers back in way back in 1961  in Warrenton, Oregon who taught me phonics, true visionaries!

The Day The Big D Made Me Cry.

Posted on by ilookmarvlus

The Big D is my friend, he’s a young man who came into my family’s lives when he was just an infant.   I’ve known the Big D now for 20 years, initially only in a supporting role, when my Mother retired and took on the job of babysitting first him, and later his sister, we’ll call her Mighty Mite.

Over the years we spent a lot of time together, mostly becuase he brought my Mother such great joy; in return I helped him with his homework, helped his Dad coach his basketball team, even though I can’t dribble the ball than length of the court and back, and blew up the air mattresses when they spent the night at our house after watching the Kid’s Choice Awards.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to spend as much time with The Big D these past 5 years as I once did,  having moved 1500 miles away and starting my own family, and The Big D got big enough where he didn’t need a babysitter anymore, he is serving in the US Air Force now! 

The Big D never forgot my Mother and he had always shown her great love and affection.  My Mother passed this last January, and The Big D made sure to visit her in the Hospital.  She was the first person he visited when he got home from Boot and she was so proud of him in his dress blues, as were we all whe he wore those same dress blues as we said our last good byes to her at the Funeral Mass, where The Big D and Mighty Mite gave the readings.

The point I’ve been struggling to make is that The Big D has done something surprising, essentially he has made a personal dedication to my Mother’s memory in permanent ink.  The words from a song called One Step at a Time by Four Year Strong are:

“One step at a time
One foot in front of the other
I’m gonna get through this one way or another
Cause I know it’s warmer where you are
Cause no matter how far the view
I still always look up to you
I’ll always look up to you”

D, thanks for helping me remember Mom again, even though you made me cry.

Thanks and I really mean thanks, I love  you and so does Marge.