So let us cut to the chase and view exactly what is going through my head and inspiring me to write.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, just going through the post-Christmas pre-New Year’s part of the year pondering the next.
Traditionally, we’re still going through the 12 days of Christmas.
Jesus’ birthday seemed even less spiritual this year despite repeated viewings of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and reading the nativity passage from the Gospel of Luke.
The holiday seems over and done with as the decorations come down and the gift wrap gets thrown out.
Trying to find ways to keep entertained, I’ve been watching classic movies I’ve missed such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” on my new Kindle Fire.
Also re-reading “Spellsinger” as noted in my last blog entry. I’m sure I’ll write more about that next year.
A big thank you to my thoughtful roommates for the Kindle Fire gift.
Haven’t figured out how to text or write effectively on the Kindle yet, though.
Any movie suggestions welcome.
Will probably watch “The Hustler” next as it is considered a classic.
I’ll go out with a new video that showed up in my Facebook newsfeed thanks to Zooey Deschanel.

Zooey, I’m free but would need a babysitter for my daughter if you’re thinking about Times Square.

That animated feature showed Rock ’n’ Roll short films that were just plain cool.

Rock remains part of my life that helps me feel good.

Now there’s a move toward making one of my favorite fantasy books featuring Rock into a movie – Spellsinger.

The book poses the question “Can an amateur musician draw the magic from the music before evil forces overcome the worlds he knows?”

Spellsinger as a movie will sell tickets and earn dollars because anything featuring Rock ‘n’ Roll, magic, fighting overwhelming odds, human and anthropomorphic characters with subversive humor and even a patriotic theme will attract both Baby Boomers and rebellious teens.

Think Lord of the Rings – both feature quests into hostile territory – except Spellsinger’s content is a bit lighter and features Rock instead of classical music.

http://spellsingerthemovie.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/what-is-spellsinger-about/

Spellsingers’ characters themselves attract the liberal and conservative, the wise greybeard (a turtle this time out), a young peacenik man pulled from a rite of passage into yet deeper rites of good battling evil, a cowardly thief unsure there may be something in life worth fighting for, a strong woman that would give Scarlett O’Hara a run for her money – if not beat Scarlett senseless for her pettiness and weak dependence on men.

Shrek and other animated movies like it show that subversive sells well – especially when mixed with Rock.

Spellsinger features classic rock, classic themes and classic scenes.

The potential exists to turn it into a successful, money-earning franchise due to the original book’s sequels.

I just want to see it again.

I saw it the first time in my mind when I read the series and am seeing it again as I read back through “Spellsinger.”

Long after the movie’s first run, the film will likely be seen as a showcase for Rock and a turning point in film production.

The technology exists to turn a special book into a special film.

And bring the music-made magic back into the movies.

The mission of the filmmakers is to make movies that move people in a positive way. We have all seen films that have impacted us and changed the way we think and live. Films like Hoosiers, Rudy, Schindler’s List and many others that have impacted us and even in some cases changed us for the better. It is our hope that when people leave the theater after seeing The Mighty Macs, they leave inspired and impacted in a positive way. If you would like to help us increase the reach and impact of this film, please click on the share button above and tell your friends and family about the opening on October 21st. Encourage them to tell everyone they know and even if they want to buy out the theater for their local sports team or high school. Thank you for your support.

Tim Chambers
Writer, Director and Producer of The Mighty Macs

I think I’ll just link to one:

http://www.readingreview.com/fantasy/spellsinger.html

Okay, so that out of the way, we know the book contains references to real songs.
I’m waiting on another copy of the book from Amazon.com because mine has been misplaced through the decades since I’ve read it.
The same mistake will hopefully allow for some of my choices here that are meant to be heavy on guitar and magic.
I know there’s a Johnny Cash song in the book but don’t remember it, but here goes my suggestions for the soundtrack:

Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix
Rock of Ages – Def Leppard
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – AC / DC
Tom Sawyer – Rush
Walking in Space – Quincy Jones (Guitar solo at 7.25 minutes)
Three Little Birds – Bob Marley
Strange Universe – Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush
Be Free – Loggins and Messina
Abracadabra – Steve Miller Band
Daydream – Robin Trower
The Lightning’s Hand – Kansas
The Man on the Silver Mountain – Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow
Crazy Train – Ozzy Osbourne
Green Grass and High Tides – The Outlaws
Stranglehold – Ted Nugent
Smoke on the Water – Deep Purple
Agora – Phil Keaggy
Jessica
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed – Allman Brothers Band
Birds of Fire – Mahavishnu Orchestra
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat – Jeff Beck
Season of the Witch – Donovan
Zap – Eric Johnson (1977 version)
I’m Ok – Styx
Rock and Roll Fantasy – Bad Company

But wait, there’s more:

Breaking the Law
Hell Bent for Leather– Judas Priest
Hopelessly Human – Kansas
Flirtin with Disaster – Molly Hatchet
I Will Follow – U2
Rough Boys – Pete Townsend
I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide – ZZ Top
Girl U Want
Satisfaction – Devo

Feel free to add your selections, correct me and quote songs from the book.

For fun, here’s a rendering of Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”

Jonathan Thomas Meriweather is a typical college student, interested in girls, music, and an occasional taste of reefer. But when a journey through an interdimensional portal lands him in a world of talking animals and ominous sorcery, he finds he is on a very different trip indeed. Here, when he plays a strange instrument called a duar, peculiar things happen—powerful magic that may be the only way to stop a dark force that threatens his new world—and his old one. Reluctantly, he finds himself teaming up with a semi-senile turtle wizard; a thieving, backstabbing otter; and a bewildered Marxist dragon to rally an army for the war about to come.

Concept pictures for two main characters appear at a fellow WordPress Blog:

Official Announcement from Alan Dean Foster.

Foster deserves the title author / adventurer thanks to his ongoing world travels and competitive powerlifting mentioned in his October update on his website here:

www.alandeanfoster.com

A realtor's photo captures what the run with Rosie looked like near Hailey.

Maybe Rosie the Rhodesian Ridgeback is in a place where she can appreciate this story of human and animal interaction providing compassionate companionship to all.

In Idaho, we ran together down the road, out past the baseball field up into the foothills filled with sage and short, stubby trees.

We ran up a dusty path through brush toward a small mountain’s top.

She ran joyfully ahead and behind me in a figure eight to keep me safe.

Happy dog passing within reach each time, I’d reach out to brush my hand over her head and back as she ran past.

Peace-filled times long past.

Down in Texas, a long-lost friend died twice on the operating table.

She came back to life and was watched over at home by her guardian, a cat named Rocco.

Instant message excerpts from a few years back testify to Rocco’s character:

ME: And attack cat

HER: well, yeah, Rocco will purr a guy to death!

  actually he would probably just bite

ME: How are you now?

HER: fine.

  yard man is talking to next door guy

and Rocco is meanacingly at the window…lol.

 My boy cat, Rocco, is sensing my attention diversion…not just typing, like his mom does a lot, but true energy pulled away from him….he is acting out…he won’t stop jumping on the desk, patting the keyboard, now he has demanded my lap be his resting spot…funny how the living spirits in our lives are so intuitive. (mmm…”Fooling Yourself” is on now…)

ME: Why must you be such an angry young man?

ME: The cat – angry young man…

HER: HAHAHA

  Good one

  Yes, protective and fierce when he wants to be…

Then, as Rocco’s life neared it’s end a few weeks ago, came this message:

“I just woke up and am about to go back to sleep. Of course it is too late to call…
Saying I would call earlier was a statement I truly meant. And I am sorry to dissappoint you once again. I hope you can find forgiveness in your heart.
Tomorrow, the vet hospital has limited hours, due to Easter weekend, and I’ll only be able to visit Rocco in the morning (Jerry is working; extra overtime will help us with the billing for the baby boy.).
I plan to be home in the afternoon, and I know you have the kids, but maybe we could carve out a bit of time to chat.
It hurts so badly, Sam, knowing he is going to perish soon. My heart is breaking. Sometimes, that sweet spirit was the only reason for me to live; especially early on in my recovery.

Rocco

Rocco’s life has ended.

His companion grieves.

She shared many tales of happiness with her cats and “baby boy” Rocco stands out as the guardian – the giver in a species known more for fickleness.

In my dreams, sometimes Rosie and I still run.

May my friend’s dreams be filled with pleasant adventures with Rocco, her guardian. protector and companion feline, as well.

http://www.myouterspace.com/index.php/Community-Home/Planets/Creatia/609-Martian-Summer-Flash-Fiction-Contest-250-Words-Max-Official-Entries-Here.html

I figured it couldn’t hurt to re-direct some traffic over there.
My hope is that by the time you get there the incorrect entry will have been deleted.
Here’s a challenge and a puzzle to solve.
This version of the story is correct and how I’d like it to appear. The first version posted at the link has one incorrect word that is wrong – so wrong it changes the whole story and throws it off.
The entries were limited to 250 words – almost the exact length of mine.

The “ants” go marching two by two.

He saw them and saw the landing live behind his eyes roughly 15 minutes before those who sent the martian probe knew.

Those explorers cheered the Phoenix landing – a spacecraft sent to find geologic history of water and planetary habitability.

Monitoring from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, their applause greeted the spacecraft’s transmission confirming safe touchdown.

“The Phoenix has landed, welcome to Vastitas Borealis!” said an exultant flight controller.

They saw tan landscape.

A tan man in a swimming pool saw it inside his head.

A flash behind closed eyes.

No lag.

No 15-minute wait.

And life – tiny forms filled with life leaving the landing site well before the spacecraft came. His extended mind viewed past and present before the explorers knew success.

And it would be years before they knew what he saw.

Screams of laughter echoed around the pool as one child yelled “Marco” and others replied “Polo.”

Tan man slid from his float and into the pool. He cringed. His sunburned belly stung.

“Crazy. I’m going crazy,” he thought, pulling his float between two kids yelling “Polo!” again in response to the shout of “Marco!”

He rubbed himself clean with soap and showering water.

He tried recalling the images. He reviewed them but couldn’t go forward – just play a loop in his head of speeded-up events mixed with consciousness of life – but no confirmation.

He quit.

From outside came a noisy splash and shouts again.

“Marco!”

“Polo!”

Here goes.

Poems  by Alyssa

Up on the shelf, a piece of  chocolate awaits me.

I know waits for me to eat it, but it is very high up on the shelf.

I try to get it but my hands get sweaty.

I ask my dad for it.

He gets the chocolate granola bar, with me waiting right next to him.

The end.

At the moment, I’m going through my backlog of National Public Radio’s “Song of the Day.”

Enjoying Etana’s reggae “People Talk” and thinking of forcing my 9-year-old daughter to listen to it.

Such a lovely, positive, empowering anthem.

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/07/135209455/etana-reggae-positivity-classic-and-contemporary

There’s a key phrase in the lyrics, “live your life and be free” that sent me meandering over to Loggins and Messina’s “Be Free.”

It has nothing to do with gossip, but everything to do with the omnipresent yearning inside me to get out into the wilderness experienced in Texas and Idaho and away from D.C.

Here’s a version on youtube with photos from the John Muir Woods and Big Basin in California:

http://youtu.be/itDf4JIZni8

But back to NPR and the playlist.

I’d say Eisley offers a bit of positive cynicism in “The Valley” although NPR’s reviewer classifies it differently as seen in the link below.

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/04/135114995/eisley-a-daze-of-heartbroken-uncertainty

Marcia Ball’s “Everybody’s Looking for the Same Thing” took me back to my days in Austin where I once saw Lou Ann Barton perform.

Ball brings the boogie woogie on here:

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/31/135011047/marcia-ball-a-witty-way-with-an-old-cliche

Turning to positive pop, I wondered if one of NPR’s music critics – Ken Tucker from “Entertainment Weekly” wasn’t a bit harsh on Paul Simon’s “So Beautiful, So What?” when he said the whole album doesn’t provide as much spiritual nourishment as the classic “Bridge over Troubled Water” penned during Simon’s pairing with Art Garfunkel.

Tucker’s review may be heard here:

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/04/135112880/paul-simon-back-in-graceland-with-so-beautiful

The video to a live performance of Simon’s “Rewrite” off of the “So Beautiful” album can be seen here:

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3118177561/

I can identify with the song and enjoy it.

It moves more concrete and with a beat than “Bridge” does to me and is as nourishing in it’s own way when pondering changing life for the better.

And finally, with a positive look at blues that may not exactly uplift yet will definitely unburden, comes the delightful “Threadbare” by Hoots and Hellmouth.

Though it came to me as the NPR “Song of the Day,” I enjoyed listening at the link here:

http://hootsandhellmouth.bandcamp.com/track/threadbare

Music gets me through my day as I frequently put on youtube while answering e-mails where I work.

NPR’s suggestions help me widen my musical knowledge and provide enjoyment as well.